Posts from — January 2004

Writing style and blogging.

Poor writing style, like bad manners, makes someone appear less intelligent than they are. Writing style, like manners, can be learned in many ways. Reading and writing a lot is the first step. Having people critique your writing is probably the next best thing. There are many basic writing mistakes that people make, which can easily be avoided by being aware of them.

I have never been a great writer and I am self-concious about my writing style. If you are serious about your blogging, I think that time spent polishing your writing style is well worth the investment.

My favorite reference is the Chicago Manual of Style.

Some web pages:

• George Orwell : Politics and the English Language
• Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do)
• The Economist Magazine's Style Guide
• rebecca blood's ten tips for a better weblog

Special thanks to my editors on #joiito.

[Joi Ito's Web]

from my take there, while i used to like kucinich, i see he is underinformed about higher education, and that the best informed seems to be kerry, with edwards up there and dean is well somewhere in the middle of being informed, but far too willing to fill in with campaign-speak. clark seemed better than dean in this article, in my opinion, though kerry was the real leader.

box office poison is a book i picked up over at printers ink in blacksburg. it is essentially about a bunch of twenty somethings leading their lives in nyc. past that, it is an excellent read, much better than other graphic novels of this genre that i've read. it is well worth reading.

Poison Pill. Charles Murtaugh has an interesting take on the politics of the Mission to Mars…. [Matthew Yglesias]

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and the democrats respond with 'it was just another one of George Bush's underfunded mandates, then you voted us back in, and it was dropped in order to pursue more important issues.

but here they are:)
i have garageband and took some time to show you my complete incompetence in crafting music
a warning: they are AIFF and they are pretty large, from 4mb-70mb depending…..

• First Shot, was my first shot with garageband, i think it is ok, if a bit clearly produced by a computer. more or less this was constructed as a two piano dialogue in the form of a spirited argument.
• little voice, big world, this one was my third try, i was much more comfortable crafting some unique sounds in garageband, but it is short, but i think interesting. It is meant to highlight a mix of chaos and order.
• Instrumental1this is my second song, it is a little less rough than first shot, but it really lacks anything not from apple. it is clearly mixed as a fun song, or at least i think it is fun.
• striding
  this is a short song, with two or three self crafted passages, such as the variation, to me it sounds like it should be a commercial with a guy on top of the world walking down the street, 'striding'.

well that as they say is that, blog on dudes and dudettes

Wal-Mart Lockin. Wal-Mart Locks Its Workers In. And not without serious consequences. One worker had a heart attack, another had an asthma attack and an assistant manager wouldn't let him out immediately, another had his ankle smashed by heavy machinery and had no way of getting to a hospital. It's not the first time the world's largest private employer has stiffed its 1.2 million workers out of millions of dollars. What price unfettered industrialization? [MetaFilter]

What's $6.9 trillion between friends?.

Interesting article about the US national debt. Interesting because it explains some of the economics of, and differences between, private and public debt which I did not previously understand.

[Curiouser and curiouser!]

“I Ain't Gonna Study War No More.”. Check out the BushFlash animation in honor of Martin Luther King, who would have celebrated his 75th birthday on Thursday (warning: it may take about two minutes to download on a 56k modem). The animation is sponsored in part by… [the chutry experiment]

Making the Mind. Making the Mind. “The general outlines of how genes build the brain are finally becoming clear, and we are also starting to see how, in forming the brain, genes make room for the environment‰¥ús essential role. While vast amounts of work remain to be done, it is becoming equally clear that understanding the coordination of nature and nurture will require letting go of some long-held beliefs.” [MetaFilter]

Trafficked Cambodian Teen Slaves. NY Times | Kristof | Girls for Sale NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is doing a series on Cambodian teen girls who have been sold into prostitution. This is the first article; on Wed. he will tell us what happened… [Flailing in the Surf]