Love the one you're with! For free.

Love the one you're with? Yes, it seems like a trite old love song. But is about trying to find the gold you have access to. Rather than dreaming of the Moon, you need to live on Earth a while longer.

Mitch did a short piece on motivation and work with a video talk by Dan Ariely included as extra bonus.

Mapping with lists

Cleaning out the gmail box as well, since all the old drafts and direct ideas are gone.

And what is more suitable then htan a post on getting ideas. The tools and the structures we can play with.

Randomness in a world of abundant filters

Intelligent Life - Serendipity

Way back when I would love picking up Intelligent Life at the newsagent. As the time for a new issue neared I'd peak more frequently at the shelves.

tsundoku, not just sudoku

Wow, the Japanese have a word for "the act of buying books and not reading them, leaving them to pile up": tsundoku 

Wondering if it applies to dvd and games as well?

Or if they have separate terms for the assorted forms of lacking consumption despite the desire.

The backlog is pretty stuck, at least not buying any new stuff. Mostly. Physically.

Got close to half a shelf full of fun stuff from Amazon, mainly photo and drawing or animation related. The stuff that isn't just about reading, but needs some doing as well. Aspirational, more than pratical plans.

Regular books are only Terry Pratchett. And with his health I've been holding off a bit on reading the latest books. Just in case. And despite some splurge shopping the Kindle reading list is in pretty good shape.

Then there are the iBooks shelves - running up a technical backlog, mainly things that are somewhat tangential to "business as usual", since 50% deals at O'reilly are to frequent and to much fun. Daily deals and then some.

Then there was that batch of games during the GOG drm free weekend sale. ONly 15-20 titles depending on how you count expansions. Does that count? Actually considered buying some games on dvd rather than there, since summer sales are in effect other places as well.

...and then there is that 2 month free trial of Comoyo video I've been meaning to get started with. Free. No strings attached.

...and also really should get on Netflix soon, rewatch House of Cards, and some series - but they don't have Sopranos or Wire, so getting a binge on for those will need another solution, like testing out HBO.

How many #backlogs do you have taking up space or mental effort?

Is it a problem, or a pure luxury?



wondering a bit about Google - midway through writing I was "logged out somewhere else", and asked if I wanted to log in again... no, no, just in the middle of typing a sentence, no need to do anything else. 

Story sketch - the forking election

Saw this tweet way way back, and RT'ed with the comment; there is a short story in that. 

@mwiik Thinking: In the future, candidates for president will advertise "fork me on github" #hacksociety

Not going to write out a full story, most likely, but wanted to get some ideas and hooks down here in case it feels right or triggers something else. Maybe something to pick up in time for NaNoWriMo, or just a fun fragment to look back at a while down the line.

title ideas

the forking election

one man, one fork

don't just vote, push

chars

bob - candidate 1, running for the incumbent party, wants to change it up, but unsure of how far his mandate will hold. Wants to use politico.code [PC] to explore the fringes.

harper - the upstart in the challenger party, pushing for a broader agenda. has a long stint as founder and tech lead behind him, before converting to politics. still dabbles in open source, to keep connected and credible. One of the first ten politicians to structure his platform on politico.code [PC] , and a strong supporter of the vote-platform auto integration

emma - current tech lead for voter engagement at the incumbents, has been an intern in one of harpers start ups, and also at [PC] before getting the current posting. Loves the tech chances the job offers, but unsure about the nuances in the politics of the party.

NN - political hacktivist, loves to challenge politicians on their lack of track record for voting along their stated platform.

scenes

bob office, emma and bob discuss areas suitable for wider testing on [PC] 

coffee shop - harper surfing blogs for ideas, new ad campaign, finds discussion with prominent political thinker X and NN, decides to "challenge" NN and his ilk in the campaign - "keep me honest"

(soundtrack; Count Basie, the kid from red bank, opening track on Complete Atomic Basie)

bob launches his [PC] effort just hours before harpers campaign kicks off, making it a feeding frenzy for talkshows, blogs and corridors

(soundtrack; Christina Aguillera, Fighter)

talk show - bob and harper face off, hangout style on boingboing - [PC] goes mainstream, signups skyrockets

challenger party first tier nominee hopefulls finds themselves sidelined, all the debates are about bob vs harper - with [PC]  taking center stage

the election sees record particiaption - both of "old school" voters who want their voice heard directly, and by the "new gen" of the [PC] involved activist coder voters

closing scenes, bob and harper watching the buzz as voting closes, blogs, feeds, dashboard from last minute [PC] suggestions

THE END 

Test like there is no tomorrow

Why have a series of meetings, when you can set up a test in minutes or seconds?

Why is it so scary to let go, and test your way forward?

Robots and calculators all around

Mitch is asking marketers to let their ego go;

What if everything you have been bringing to the table could be debunked with a simple multivariate testing regiment?

Twisted tales of Buffy meets Donnie

This is not a review, but some musings that I wrote down after watching Southland tales - definetly on my top ten mental movies list. But still a must see. In a way. 

IMDB says people who liked it also liked Brazil and Bladerunner. Which makes a twisted kind of sense. My summary is simple;

No fear no launch?

Hence the opportunity. If you do things that are safe but feel risky, you gain a significant advantage in the marketplace. [seth]

Since everybody else is shying away from those things that feel risky, but in fact are probably not - just new and strange, actively pursuing those "blind spots" can be a worthwhile endeavour.

This of course is based on a few assumptions running as a red thread through seth godin's later works;

Fear is a natural thing, but not a rational one - meaning it doesn't really make sense to fear the things that were scary 10 000 years ago (change, loud noise, uncertainty) when we have culturally evolved our settings to such a degree.

Secondly, you have to be able to differentiate risky from risk - some things and efforts are still liable to burn through a lot of money. Fast. And depending on your position that could hurt. But doing an online start up, using cloud services and open source baseline, you can scale both up and down a lot more effortlessly than during the 2000 bubble.

Third, it has to be something that is sustainable, and not something everybody will just copy when you have proved it viable

And that last part is probably the hardest, with so many people doing start ups, apps, re-nnoavtiong or pivots - finding a good spot to take a business might be harder than going ultra niche and global.

So, let fear be an indication that you are moving into a zone of opportunity rather than a danger zone, but keep the scope sane

42, 46, 98?

Oh the irony that is my tagline.

Initially i figured that writing would make more sense in the winter, since less time is spent outside then than in the summer months of lazy long sunny evenings. There by leaving more time to read articles, magazines and non fic books.

And by extension; more time to write and reflect, triggering more writing and musings.

Well, the last two years have shown a slight change in that idea. It seems almost like I'm mentally in a coma during the winter - I read, I get the job done and I play some games, watch some tv. But adding more value than 140 characters including a URL has not been a top priority.

Come summer and sun, the energy soars, the ideas floursih, the tv is all but banished (due to reruns of reruns from mid/early May), the games forgotten or unplayable with the sun going until late. And so the blogging picks up.

Hence it has been early summer that has triggered a resurgence of posts, and come fall this 10th year of blogging on and off I'll try to keep it going at a more measured pace.

Aiming for two post each week, possibly scheduled four at a time, seems like doing about five in a sitting works pretty well, as long as the drafts are there with links, quotes or snippets.

With 46 in the bank from May and June, another half year of twice weekly works out to around 98 for the year overall. a stretch but doable. First two full years clocked in at 107 and 98, so putting that out there as a ballpark seems right.


Update @15.7; despite a full stop the first part of the month, there are now ten posts published or scheduled 



- ...and the sun shines in the distance as I write this, who knows how it will be when I polish it up, or when it hits the blog proper...