[d] enclosed in brackets chaotic perfectionist for hire

For starters, it was really nice last week, but I didn't get a chance to go outside much... Now I'll probably have plenty of time this week, but it's pouring right now. whee.

So I've been trying to figure out how I want to write, and when's the best time for to write. So far it's sporadic in frequency... I just need to get the ideas down and write them out later. The Twitter-esque posting style (140 characters or less) has been useful, and especially with services like hellotxt and ping.fm to get the word out to multiple places. Of the two, I like them both about the same - it depends on what I want to do. If I want to post from mobile-land, the easiest seems to be using my ping.fm super-secret email address (I don't have a data plan).

I think another thing that would help me write here is a place to quickly write up the post, including formatting. I've been trying out Nvu, but not sure if I like the way it puts the code. Maybe a couple more posts and I'll get the hang of it. I'm actually writing this post in it, and it's nice that I can keep working on an offline copy, in case I don't have a connection (although that happens fewer and farther between).

Any suggestions, on either writing or applications to try out?

I could write out the content by hand (as I pretty much have been for the past 12 years), but I'd rather have something else do some of the legwork (offline, I have Drupal and its lovely modules to do the rest).

As I've mentioned before, I'm in quite a few communities and signed up on a lot of sites. This includes Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, and Tumblr - all different, but in some ways much the same. Right now I'm pretty much tracking what happens through Twitter only, through IM (Pidgin). I tried using IMified, but the bot for gtalk died for me or something.

Is anyone using something to post to multiple sites? I know of a couple, but they're not for Windows (I'm on XP Pro, SP2). Would that be like a reverse aggregator?

The ideas that I write about seem to come in waves. It's not like I have something to post every day, but sometimes there will be several things I want to write about in a whosrt period of time, then nothing for a while - just look at my posting dates to get an idea of this.

While writing last week, I thought it would be good if Drupal had the ability to write something up and save it as a draft (saved, but not published). It was brought to my attention again while writing my this post when Firefox (3b3) crashed and I lost what I had written. Blech. There have been discussions on the Drupal site for a while, but nothing that was "in place" for it. Then I found this site, which suggested I use the Views module (which I have and am still learning about). Why didn't I think of that earlier?

The Views module allows you to create different content pages (among other options) with a defined set of nodes on it. In the case of creating Drafts, I set it up to show any nodes (postings) that aren't marked as Published. Now, instead of worrying that I'm not going to be able to recover in case of a Firefox crash (or anything else), I can save an unpublished version of what I'm working on and finish it later. It also works as a kind of "Save as..." in the meantime.

Sure, other CMSs out there already do that, but we'll get there.

I found myself reading my own writing the other day. This might sound like an obvious thing to some people, but it started me thinking.

I've been online since 1997, starting with my account on Geocities and a little space on a site owned by a local graphic designer in Nashua, NH (US). I really had no idea what I was doing, but I started learning and liked writing HTML, and seeing it turn into something on a page. That was back when Yahoo had a gray background and dialup speed was the norm.

In July of 2001 I started writing on Xanga (and still do, as liquid), then in May of 2003 on this site (which was revamped in 2006). While searching for posts to put on a newer site (coming soon), I decided to scroll to the bottom of my Xanga archive, to the oldest entries. I had forgotten about a lot of what I wrote (it was almost seven years ago), but it was like reading someone else's writing. There were thoughts and comments that I remember writing, and others that seem like they belonged to someone else. It was an interesting snapshot into my own life.

Has anyone else had this experience? Things like this also make me wonder about the generations from mine and younger. This is the everyday experience now, to share with an online community or group as much as write down thoughts in a private journal.

It'll be interesting to re-read this entry in five or ten years, with all the changes and everything that's happened in-between.

...and a question.

Been busy around here, but that's no excuse, right?

I have a couple of ideas to write about, and I'm going to try to get them up on here soon. In the meantime, a question...

When do you write?

At home, at work, at a park, in your car? Is it at night or first thing in the morning? Is it in public with crowds, or a room where it's quiet?

A group of familiars...

...and another list of things I would like to get.

I found out about this site a while ago, and I've kept it open in my tabs since. Although I haven't had the chance to go through the site in depth, I've read through the first page (which updates regularly). There's been great items like a tracing paper book, development of handwriting, and even aromatherapy pens.

Now, for example, they have information on NaNoWriMo, which is a great idea, and kind of like an idea I had for marathon writing... write about 50,000 words in a month, and end up with something that's close to a novel. Check out the site for more...

...back to the site though, I like the content. A lot. As much as I'm a techno-geeky-web-guy, I like paper and pens and writing, and this site fulfills something about it.

Getting this pen is going to be a problem... but in a good way.

I saw this on 43 Folders (specifically on the wiki) first, which referred me to a couple of other places, after describing these seemingly wonderful pens. They come in .25mm, .3mm, .4mm and .5mm sizes. With the exception of the .5mm, this is a lot smaller than the pens I normally use, and those that I normally get... but the ink is very permanent, and is good for a lot of things.

The first place mentioned was Jet Pens. I only looked for a little while, but it looks like they have just what I was looking for. You can even order 10-packs of some of the pens (black only, I think).

Site number two came up on a google search for these pens, and is the moleskinerie (the Moleskine is something I'll cover another time - excellent notbooks). The page on the Hi-Tec-C pens actually refers to Jet Pens, and how great these pens are.

If anyone ever wanted to get these for me, I'd be more than willing to accept them as a gift. Ooh, maybe I can put that on my wishlist for the holidays...

Originally from Monday, October 01, 2001

paper prose (ironically enough)

as easy as it is to type something
and see it on a computer screen,
there's still something about
a pen on paper. it's almost a romance
of sorts, the way the pen glides
across the smooth white curve
of a page. as much as we live
in a digital age, paper will never
die, at least not without
a fight. you can't hold on to
the screen in your pocket, you
can't fold it up and pull it out
to read by candlelight, you can't
spray perfume on it and send it
to a lover. you can change
when you say,
what you say,
how you say,
on that screen,
but it is only fleeting. paper is
more than just ones and zeroes,
more than just a few keystrokes.
anyone can type in arial or
times new roman, but no one
can copy a hand in writing. it's
personality and depth, more than
the glow of a monitor and
the click of a keyboard.