Thursday, August 09, 2001

A couple bits of Web-enabled naval-gazing dominate today's post, folks. If you're not interested in such things, you may want to skip down to the bottom where I gently rib a friend of mine.

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I've started to surf the sites of my compatriots in the Blogger community, using the various channels enabling such exploration available on the Blogger homepage. I'm looking forward to the time when the "More Fresh Blogs" page will be updating again, but I digress...

Today's meanderings turned up an insightful rumination on the stylistic mechanics of hyperlinking. The coyly-titled Thlinking Deeply post to Doc Searls Weblog (and, specifically, John Waterson's well-reasoned letter) got me thlinking about my Web writing habits. Do I use hyperlinks in the best, most effective way I can?

I turned the question over in my mind for most of the day, then came to this conclusion: half unconsciously and half by design, I've endeavored to embed links into text in a meaningful way from the get-go, just as Mr. Waterson's letter recommends. The theory behind this wasn't something I considered: it just felt right.

So, as often happens, I've taken a bit of a mental journey just to end up where I started. While this might seem futile, I find it highly useful and informative. First, it confirms that I'm on the right path as a writer of Web content. Second, I've now got an answer at the ready in case anyone questions why I put all those links in my pieces.

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I'm still struggling with the whole 'blog/blog thing. Blogger doesn't use the apostrophe. Godfather Tim does. I go back and forth on which I prefer.

I'm sure this looks like a very minor, indeed trivial, difference, but it's exactly the kind of thing that drives me nuts.

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A tip of the hat to my friend Jen, the artist formerly known as Susan Lawrence. She is a genuine, charming and funny individual, but I sense a kernel of healthy egomania in her that I aim to nurture and see blossom. Hopefully, this mention on my little cowtown Web site will get the ball rolling on that process.
5:25 PM  < To return to this entry, save this link

Tuesday, August 07, 2001

Happy birthday and a quick recovery to HoC guiding light Garrison Keillor, who turns 59 today. He hasn't shirked from talking about his recent open-heart surgery, and he'll have an essay on the subject in this week's Time which doubtless will be poignant and elicit a few hearty chuckles. Godspeed, Garrison.

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The title of the latest George Lucas space opera has been announced: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.

At first blush, I find this title too corny, just as I did with The Phantom Menace. I expect that my acceptance of the name will follow the same path as its immediate predecessor. Slowly, it will grow on me. Then, I'll love it, convinced that it couldn't have been called anything else. Finally, as the movie's premiere approaches, it will echo through my brain, shouted unceasingly by the seven-year-old inside me who still remembers the thrill of seeing that first, massive Star Destroyer engulf the screen.

I just hope the pattern stops there. I don't want to walk out of the theater again wishing Lucas had remembered, in the midst of all the CGI and woefully ill-conceived amphibian "comic relief", to do some basic storytelling.
9:36 AM  < To return to this entry, save this link

Sunday, August 05, 2001

I'm at a total loss here: under what possible pretext could the Sci-Fi Channel... I'm sorry, SCIFI! be showing So I Married an Axe Murderer?
4:43 PM  < To return to this entry, save this link