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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Friday, September 5th, 2008 | |
apod
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4:45a |
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| Thursday, September 4th, 2008 | |
wilwheaton
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2:59p |
because 8-bits are all you need, champ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/383530642/because-8-bits.html 
Rich Stevens, the criminal mastermind behind Diesel Sweeties, is a friend of mine.
And you, Governor Sarcastic Liar, are no Rich Stevens!
Um. What? Sorry. Let's try that again.
Ahem.
Rich is the greatest 8-bit character drawing guy man dude in this quadrant. His 8-bit creations hold up the whole log jam, Bucko, because 16-bits are twice as many as he needs, Sport.
Anyway, I asked Rich if he'd be interested in doing an 8-bit version of me, because . . . well, because I really like his work and it's always been my life-long dream to eat the biggest sandwich at the fair.
Rich agreed, and the result is real and spectacular. I think it may replace mister "look at me and my tough-guy face" over there.
Thank you, Rich Stevens. I shall play Keystone Kapers tonight in your honor.
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anarchist_nomad
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12:35p |
It Was A Time I'll Always Remember, Because I Could Never Forget As most know, the Republican National Convention has been going on in Minnesota this week. By coincidence, it is being held at virtually the same time that it was in New York City four years ago[*]. As a result, it was virtually inevitable that the convention and its timing would get me thinking about the previous RNC and my involvement in the demonstrations against it. During the part of my activism that involved street protests[**], I participated in quite a few major activist demonstrations. Besides the Republican National Convention, I have taken to the streets to speak out against the likes of the World Economic Forum, the World Bank / International Monetary Fund, and the G8[***]. The RNC was different, though, for one major reason. It was there that I was unjustly arrested and held as a political prisoner for two days. It was there that I experienced "Guantanamo-on-the Hudson", the violation of my habeas corpus "rights", and the inside of the New York City "criminal justice" system. Overall, I consider the experience to have been a good one. I learned a lot and it made a strong impression on me -- one of the strongest impressions of any experience in my adult life. I learned not only about the workings of political repression -- I also learned about power relationships and I learned about how I respond in such a virtually powerless situation. Of course, most of the experience was unpleasant: Having my wrists cuffed behind me for three and a half hours, spending two days with virtually no sleep, laying down in the oily chemical muck that coated the floor of "Guantanamo-on-the-Hudson", getting threatened (while cuffed again!) by a "corrections" officer, watching a man that I was cuffed to in a "daisy chain" desperately try to get water before he passed out from dehydration, not being able to brush my teeth for two days (yuck!), and more. Probably the worst part of it all came from within, though. After nearly thirty hours in jail -- with nearly no sleep and very little food -- my own spirits, which I had tried to keep high from the beginning, finally cracked. When I realised that I was going to spend a second night in jail, and it seemed like nearly everybody else had already been released[****], I sunk into a bit of a depression for quite a few hours. Interestingly enough, the worst part came from within, not without. One of the lessons learned: Had I been stronger and more resolved, I could have avoided the worst part of the experience. Being a political prisoner was not entirely unpleasant -- no thanks to the NYC Police or Corrections Departments! I actually do have many happy memories from my incarceration: Walking down a long corridor of cells upon my arrival at "Guantanamo-on-the-Hudson" whilst being cheered and applauded by hundreds of my fellow demonstrators, singing Wobbly songs in the transport vehicle whilst being moved from Guantanamo to the Tombs, making a checker set out of toilet paper and paper cups to give us something to do in our cell that involved using our brains (winning all my checker games didn't hurt, either!), calming down high tensions amongst my comrades and being told that I was "the biggest mother-f**king optimist" one of them had ever met. Not surprisingly, the best moments were near the end -- I will never forget the moment when a phone call to the People's Law Collective brought the knowledge that the National Lawyers Guild had gotten New York State Supreme Court Justice Cataldo to issue a release for all prisoners held for more than twenty-four hours. The energy change in our cell was quick and palpable! I shot out of my gloomy depression, called to an officer, and demanded to be released from the cell. It did not work, of course... but suddenly I felt a measure of power because I knew that we had to be released, and soon! Similarly, I will always remember my first moment of "freedom" upon leaving the courthouse. Thousands were gathered outside to welcome [a very tired, grungy, and dehydrated] me back with cheers. My friend Matches was in front of it all and jumped into my arms for an enormous hug! Despite my exhaustion, I stayed for several more hours to do jail support and give my emerging comrades the same fabulous reception that I have received. Definitely a very intense experience[*****]. After five years as an activist, I put that career on hold about two years ago for various reasons. I do expect to return to it someday -- it just does not feel right to let others fight the battle for a better world without me. Right now, though, I do wish that I were in St. Paul and on the streets for the current Republican Convention...
[*] As opposed to the Democratic National Convention, which was held much later this year than it was in the previous election cycle.
[**] Which I consider just one tool in the kit to use in the goal of, as we like to put it, "smashing the State." While I have certainly done my share of street protests, I have also been active in food & clothing re-distribution, boycotts, industrial union organising, political prisoner support, copwatching, books to prisoners programmes, and more.
[***] Sadly, I was in Argentina in 2003 during the demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americans meeting in Miami. To this day, I still harbor a bit of guilt and disappointment that I was not able to stand with my comrades -- particularly the incredible ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) resourceress -- as they faced off against the brutal police oppression there. I realise that just about everyone I have ever spoken to about this thinks that I am nuts for wanting to have been amongst the rubber bullets and tear gas... but it feels like a betrayal to have let my comrades face these things without me.
[****] This was an incorrect conclusion, but there were reasons for believing it at the time from the evidence available to me.
[*****] Ironically enough, this is the first time I have discussed my arrest in any detail within this journal, as it is only recently that the legal aftermath of my case -- first the criminal trial and, after being cleared of all charges, the subsequent suit for wrongful arrest -- has been concluded. Current Mood:  agitatedCurrent Music: David Rovics -- What If You Knew? |
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apod
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4:11a |
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| Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 |
resourceress
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11:55p |
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| Thursday, September 4th, 2008 | |
wilwheaton
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9:56a |
it's the only way to be sure http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/382762744/its-the-only-wa.html So it turns out that I do, in fact, have a sinus infection. Because it's the first one post-sinus surgery, my doctor decided that the best course of action would be to blast off and nuke the site from orbit.
I asked him if maybe we could do something a little less extreme, but he assured me that it was the only way to be sure. Since my sneezes weren't going "achoo!" like they're supposed to, but going "Ftagn!" instead, I've decided to follow his advice, and I'm on Prednisone + Zithromax for the next five days.
I'm already feeling better, if not entirely back to normal, but I'm looking forward to getting my command and control systems back online within the next 24 hours. I have this overwhelming urge to blast my quads and rip out my delts, but I understand that will go away IN JUST A FUCKING MINUTE GODDAMMIT WHAT?!
Oh. Um. Sorry. Meds talking and whatnot.
In place of an actual blog entry, here are a few things that have been on my mind:
I was going to write this myself, but Charlie Stross explains why I won't be using Google Chrome better than I can. He even manages to avoid the phrase EPIC FAIL which I wouldn't have been able to do. Competing with IE = good. Competing with Firefox = profoundly stupid. Having the most abusive EULA I've seen in years? That's just fucking priceles, Google. Nice work on that one. I'd like to amend this paragraph, after hours of consideration and lengthy discussion with other people. Apparently, Google claims the EULA was "boilerplate" and they're going to update it. If they update it, great. But does anyone really believe that a company like Google puts out a new browser, one that is as highly-anticipated as Chrome, and doesn't fully vet the EULA? What did they do, borrow lawyers from John McCain? If Google is going to change their EULA to something less evil, that's fantastic, but I don't believe for a moment that this was a mistake. Google isn't that incompetent. As for my statement: "Competing with IE = good. Competing with Firefox = profoundly stupid." Yeah. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I'd like to blame the sinus meds, but that's a pretty 80s excuse, isn't it? I haven't felt well for several days, and I typed without really thinking things through. Competition, as a commenter said, is very good, even (and maybe especially) for Open Source products. I hope I've earned the right over the years to ask for a little slack. If I haven't, I'd like to point out that this mountain is covered with wolves, and the bar is right over there. Thanks.
Cory Doctorow has a really good idea for publishers.
Today is one of those days where it's 97 outside, 81 inside, and only Miles Davis can keep the inside of my house cool.
Coilhouse has a fascinating article about a Modern Pirate Utopia in Hong Kong that has to be read to be believed. Coilhouse kind of rules. I highly recommend their magazine.
Doctor Horrible @ checked me on Twitter. I don't think this should make me as excited as it does, but OMGOMGOMG! The Doctor Horrible soundtrack is #2 on iTunes US, #1 in the UK and Australia. The number one album in the US is some rap thing that makes me stabby just to look at. Come on, American geeks, let's show the rest of the world what we're made of! (Also, the soundtrack is really awesome and fun to listen to.)
Moe's just isn't the same since he got rid of the dank. Come on, Moe! The dank!
I played a little bit of D&D 4e with Jerry, Mike, The Other Mike, and Scott Kurtz when I was at PAX. I got to play a Tiefling Rogue who was trying out to be the new intern at Acquisitions, Incorporated. It was massively fun, and it made me want to play D&D about as badly as I've ever wanted. I'm taking advantage of my . . . current condition . . . to read all of Keep on the Shadowfell in the hopes that I'll be able to convince Nolan and some of his friends to let me run it for them.
I got an insanely cool D&D thing via John Kovalic, but I'm forbidden to reveal it until he does.
I was mentioned rather favorably, in some very nice company, by one of the executive producers on Criminal Minds! "...we have scary locations and amazing guest stars like Jason Alexander, Luke Perry and Wil Wheaton." OMGOMGOMGOMG.
We're late to the party on this, but Anne and I have been watching Weeds on Netflix via our Roku box. We're into the 3rd season (which we had to get on DVD) and I'm not as crazy about it as I was the first two. The acting and writing is wonderful, but the storylines that dominate the 3rd season are leaving me a little cold. I don't believe a single Nancy does in this season, even though Mary-louise Parker is a phenomenal actor.
Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is online for free from his publisher. This is one of my favorites, and I heartily recommend it, even though I'm pretty sure most of you reading this have already read it. However, Neil says, "For those people who grumbled about reading American Gods online, here's Neverwhere. You can read it online, and it's also downloadable. That's the good news. The bad news is you don't get to keep it forever. It's yours for thirty days from download, and then the pdf file returns to its electrons. But if you've ever wondered about Neverwhere or wanted to read it for free, now is your chance. And free is free..."
"America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this." A-fucking-MEN.
During my panel at PAX, I was asked a great question that I couldn't answer to my satisfaction: What episode of Next Generation best defines the series? The answer depends heavily on how you'd define the series as a whole, and the best I could come up with is "Star Trek is all about possibilities. It's about hope, so when you look around our totally fucked up world, you see that there is a better future for us." Which TNG episode best exemplifies that? Is that even what Star Trek is about? My answer sucked so hard, I can't even remember what I said. I blame the ConSARS.
A bit of blasphemy: I finally saw Dark Knight, and I was not blown away. Heath Ledger was spectacular, but I felt like the movie climaxed in the first 10 minutes, and was 2 reels too long. Maybe I'll refine my feelings on subsequent viewings, but it didn't send me into a Batgasm like Batman Begins did. However, it's the second act of the trilogy, and if it's anything like all the other trilogies I've seen, it'll end up being my favorite when the dust settles.
I first became aware of the Xbox 360 game Braid when Buckman mentioned on his blog that the developer licensed a bunch of Magnatune music (which I've listened to and love) for the game. Monday night, I couldn't sleep, so I downloaded the trial. 30 minutes later, I bought the full game, which is similar to Portal in a lot of ways. It's one of the most visually beautiful games I've ever played. Check it out if you've got XBLA.
You can listen to one of the artists, Jami Sieber, with this nifty little gizmo:
Hidden Sky by Jami Sieber
John Scalzi's Denise Jones, Super Booker, at Subterranean Online, dovetails brilliantly with Soon I Will Be Invincible, which I am still reading and still loving. And every single time I see, think about, or say the title, my brain fires up a chorus from Pat Benatar's timeless classic song, "Invincible," from the, uh, equally-classic film The Legend of Billie Jean .
And now that I've put it in your brain also, I'll sign off for today.
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| Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 |
anarchist_nomad
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11:22p |
Lucky Me! Today has been a fairly productive day. At work, I completely blew off installing the latest proto-detector into the Kelvinox-400 cryostat. Instead, I read through this paper -- which I mentioned last week in this journal. It was really quite fascinating. The paper builds on the data analysis that I did at Super-Kamiokande for my doctoral research, back when I was searching for relic neutrinos from supernovae in the early universe. This new paper was put together by two theorists -- not other experimenters -- so they just use the data that I published in 2002, complete with all my selection criteria, et cetera. However, they test theories that have been developed in the past six years[*], as well as do searches for other neutrino types besides the anti-electron neutrino (which, as the dominant signal, is the only one that I looked for). Interesting reading... In the afternoon, I spent a little time beating Skullcrusher Mountain into shape. Our flat had become quite the disaster area. I am far from finished with reclaiming it from the Mess Monsters... but the work has now begun. Also had a wonderful chat with the ever-adorable squeektoy42 while I cleaned house. We talked about her mangos. She really does have the best mangos! I smile every time I see them! As for the evening, this was a night of double extra-curriculars. First, I went to St. Cross to ring bells. We had a small band -- so I ended up ringing up five out of the six bells myself -- but I got to do a touch of Plain Bob Doubles and a plain course of Plain Bob Minor. I also rang down in peal... and did so quite well, if I do say so myself! The second extra-curricular of the evening was theatre. After leaving St. Cross, I cycled to the Oxford Playhouse to meet cheshcat for a production of a play called Lucky You. It was a very bizarre comedy set in Florida. I have never heard of it before -- or the novel it was based on -- but the plot was cute, the actors were superb, and the music was hysterical. How can you not love a play that has a song called "God's Shit List" in it?? When the show ended, I amused the director when he saw me dancing out of the theatre while the "Lucky You" song was playing. After leaving the Playhouse, cheshcat and I went to get some dinner... and now here I am, back at Skullcrusher Mountain. Having only slept for four hours last night, I will try to turn in relatively soon and make up for lost time tonight.
[*] I am quite pleased to note that the topic of supernova relic neutrinos became a moderately hot topic after my doctoral research was published. Before that, it was quite the esoteric and niche topic that nearly nobody had ever heard of. Current Mood:  cheerfulCurrent Music: God's Shit List (what else?) |
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lawrencelessig
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1:34p |
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anarchist_nomad
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10:02a |
Weights & Measures I would just like to point out that one tawneypup contains more awesomeness than a whole boatload of awesome! That is all. Somebody should inform NIST... Current Mood:  lovedCurrent Music: Billy Joel -- She's Got A Way |
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apod
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4:09a |
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apod
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4:09a |
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| Monday, September 1st, 2008 | |
jwlindenschmidt
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9:46p |
DNC = Does Not Compute? http://jwl.freakwitch.net/2008/09/dnc-does-not-compute.html
"Now is not the time for small plans. Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation."
--Barack Obama, 2008 Democratic Nomination Acceptance Speech
I've been following the Obama story with great interest, and saw most of the big speeches from the Democratic National Convention. This is unusual for me, because I'd stopped listening to politics for the most part. Obama definitely has charisma, and is a spectacular orator.
And the thing that is throwing me off, is that I actually agree with 8 out of 10 things he says. This is unprecedented. Even when I supported Nader in 2000, it was probably 7 out of 10.
However, past experience (namely Clinton in 1992-1997 or so) tells me that politicians like this, even one as obviously skilled as Obama, are all talk. I remember the euphoria from 1992 when Clinton was elected. I remember thinking, "we won." And yet, by 1996 I was thinking that in his 2nd term, Clinton would actually do things to change the world in his 2nd term, when he didn't have to worry about re-election. But by 2000, things were worse and I was really disillusioned about the American political process.
The point I have to remember is one I've articulated many times on this blog: Democrats and Republicans each serve the power structure in different ways. Republicans push the line as far as they can get away with, and the Democrats hold position, offering a little relief (at least in comparison), until the next Republican president takes office.
The point of American politics is not to actually solve problems, but rather to pacify the American people into idle, comfortable submission and apathy. Therefore, no politician in his right mind will say something that isn't immediately agreeable.
So my biggest problem with all this is that it's just a political system that I don't trust, that I believe is broken, and that I don't see how can be fixed. So why participate in it? On the other hand, the pragmatic argument is that suffering is likely to ease somewhat if Obama ends up president. But who knows.
So even if we assume that the system works, a point that I'm very much NOT prepared to grant, there are still many problems with all this.
- One important issue to me is the issue of intellectual property, as readers of this blog doubtlessly know. Joe Biden is on the wrong side of intellectual property debate. This alone makes it difficult to get behind Obama/Biden.
- I find it ironic that Obama said that Bill Clinton made "the case for change as only he can make it" during his speech, given how the issue of change was itself precisely the cornerstone of my disillusionment and disappointment during the Clinton administration.
- Whatever happened to "war is good for the economy"?
- It's extremely interesting that, 8 years after the Nader run in 2000, Obama is using Nader's argument for change. But rather than "there is no difference between Republicrats and Demicans," he's saying "there is no difference between the Bush administration and a possible McCain administration." Perhaps Nader's message has been absorbed more deeply than many realize.
- I have a HUGE issue with the Democrat's repeated insistence on clinging to outmoded ideals that "a job is dignity." One's work is one dignity, whether or not one is waged for it. The fact that people must wageslave for 40 hours per week, and still struggle to meet their economic obligations under the system of wageslavery, is criminal. For all his hope, Barack Obama still believes that making sure MORE people participate in this system is the best way to help the American economy.
All these arguments are true, and plain to my eye. However, I still must concede that the pragmatic argument above carries weight in my soul. If Obama becomes President, it is likely that suffering will be reduced compared to a Bush or McCain presidency. Therefore, vote for Obama.
It is because of this argument, and ONLY because of this argument, that as it stands now I will vote for Obama in November. But I will NOT allow my participation in American politics to end there. The system is broken, and needs a serious upgrade.
Good citizenry goes beyond voting once every leap year. |
| Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 |
anarchist_nomad
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11:46p |
If I Be Waspish, Best Beware My Sting Just returned from Stratford-on-Avon, where cheshcat and I saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform The Taming of the Shrew this evening. This was my seventeenth RSC production, and I have now seen fifteen of the Bard's thirty-seven plays performed by the RSC. However, I have seen this play before, so my total Shakespeare count still stands at twenty-three. The cast was mainly composed of the same actors that we saw in The Merchant of Venice. Which seems appropriate... because I really do not like either play. For Merchant, the inherent antisemitism bothers me greatly; for Shrew, it is the sexism. Yes, Katherine is a monster at the start of the play. But so is Petruccio... and his monstrosity is celebrated, not shunned. I really have no desire to ever watch this play again -- seeing a woman tortured by starvation and sleep deprivation is really not my idea of a good time. The quality of the production was quite good... it is just the text itself that bothers me. Rather than harp on this, however, I am going to return to that popular theme of mixing Muppets and Shakespeare. Instead of The Taming of the Shrew, I present to you now -- courtesy of Alistair Cookie -- The Taming of the Shoe! Current Mood: chipperCurrent Music: The Village People -- Macho Man |
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wilwheaton
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2:38p |
"This just keeps getting better!" http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/381638496/this-just-keeps.html
"If the Penny Arcade Expo has a star, it's not Gabe or Tycho. It's not special guests like MC Frontalot or Wil Wheaton. It's not even veritable champions of nerdery like PAX '08 Omegathon winner Joey Gecko. No, it's geeky culture itself. And when we gather to celebrate our own, wackiness invariably ensues."
- GeekDad Z, Wired's GeekDad blog.
"Best Thing About PAX: Ownership. PAX is everyone's so everyone tends to add their bit, creating something new or innovating. It's just part of the makeup of this demographic that things don't get left alone. I think that's what I like best of all, is how most of the con goers think of it as their convention, not just one they attend."
-Fellow PAX owner Steph.
The night before I left for PAX, I hardly got any sleep at all (thank you, ribacge, for picking Thursday night to hurt like a bitch) so by the time I got there on Friday afternoon, I was already down to single-digit hit points, and taking a -5 on all my rolls.
But an unexpected thing happened as soon as I set foot in the convention center. As explained by the quotes above, this weekend is our time. It's Goonie time, and the moment I walked in, I got +10 to all my stats and was restored to maximum HP.
Sometime on Friday night, though, I failed a critical save vs. ConSARS, and by the middle of the day on Saturday, I was feeling pretty terrible. I think I played though it pretty well, but I missed the concerts on Saturday night, and felt a little "off" for the first 15 minutes of my panel on Sunday, until I picked up another +10 from the ohmygodstandingroomonly crowd. By the time I got on the plane to come home yesterday, though, I was hovering around 2 HP, and I'd picked up a familiar I'll just call Wil's Sinusital Ooze (Level 4 Disgusting Annoyance. Gives owner -8 to all abilities, -15 CHA, and -6 to all reaction rolls. 5 successive Fortitude saves ends.)
I'll have to give a full report when Wil's Sinusital Ooze isn't launching Slimers out of my head every five minutes, but I think I can sum it up in five words I repeated dozens of times during the weekend: "This just keeps getting better!"
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lawrencelessig
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2:03p |
Happy Birthday to GNU http://lessig.org/blog/2008/09/happy_birthday_to_gnu.html 
British humorist Stephen Fry has produced a video to mark the 25th Anniversary of RMS's launch of the GNU operating system. Watch and celebrate here.
This is an extraordinary milestone to mark. I'll keep a list of celebratory videos here (email me with any links). Congratulations to Richard on the success of this movement launched as an idea 25 years ago (September 27 is the date), and more importantly, thank you to Richard for this movement launched as an idea 25 years ago. |
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apod
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5:03a |
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| Monday, September 1st, 2008 |
anarchist_nomad
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3:01p |
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anarchist_nomad
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1:00p |
So That Was BiCon, And What Did I Do?[*] Back in Oxford now, after spending the weekend in Leicester at BiCon.[**] Twas my first BiCon and, overall, I had an absolutely wonderful time! BiCon was... intense. Indeed, to my surprise, the intensity level affected me more than I had expected[***]. Being a regular at sci-fi conventions and Pagan festivals for well over a decade now, I had felt quite prepared for something like BiCon... and I must confess that I was not. It may not be quite as intense as a festival like Starwood, but the flavour of the intensity -- while similar -- was just different enough to catch me off guard. That's okay, though, because I might be just a wee bit of an intensity junkie. Speaking of Starwood, I have to say that my BiCon summary is very similar to this year's Starwood summary: Apart from one snafu, the weekend was utterly fantastic! Adding a touch of irony, it seems that, while I was at BiCon, I managed to undo the Starwood snafu[****]. Go figure! Finally, anyone who knows me personally[*****] is aware that a big goofy grin can often be found on my face. Nonetheless, I want to give a special thanks to one person -- you know who you are -- for making that grin even wider!
[*] To be sung to the tune of John Lennon's Happy Christmas, of course!
[**] Hmmm... I don't think that I have spent a weekend -- or at least not a full one -- in Oxford since the end of May! And the next two are going to be no exceptions, either!
[***] That's where the surprise bit comes in, yes?
[****] This is fun to say, actually! "Undo the Starwood snafu." Go on -- try it! Five times fast, if you can!
[*****] Which is the entirety of my f-list except for that oddball blur01. Current Mood:  intenseCurrent Music: The Pretenders -- Hymn to Her |
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apod
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4:51a |
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| Sunday, August 31st, 2008 | |
apod
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5:03a |
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| Saturday, August 30th, 2008 | |
apod
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4:46a |
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| Friday, August 29th, 2008 | |
apod
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4:38a |
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| Thursday, August 28th, 2008 | |
wilwheaton
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3:43p |
five simple ways to Just Keep Writing http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/377456928/five-simple-way.html I'm reluctant to pass myself off as some kind of authority on writing, because I still have a lot to learn, but from time to time I'm asked a question that I can answer with some degree of confidence.
That happened earlier today, and (as you'll see at the end of this post) I thought it may be worth sharing here.
On Aug 28, 2008, at 12:52 PM, [redacted] wrote:
When you're writing something that's not for a blog, like a book or script, something that has to remain a secret until it's published, do you just go bonkers?
Yes. Yes I do. It's really hard, because as a blogger you're used to instant feedback to keep you going, but when you're working on something that can't be shared or released the same way blog posts are, you can lose your way and lose your confidence.
I've found a couple ways to help overcome this:
1. Blog less. It's incredibly hard to blog and write a book at the same time, because you're using different muscles. Think of it like trying to run the 100 meter dash and do a marathon at the same time.
2. Make a deadline for yourself, then work backwards to have milestones every day or week, whichever works better for you.
3. Give yourself little rewards when you make a big milestone (5K words, 10K words, 20K words, first draft completed, etc.)
4. Don't show your work to anyone until the first draft is done. Don't even excerpt little bits and put them on your blog. I put about 30 words from House of Cards online, and I lost all of my momentum as a result. I'm not sure why this happens, but it really sucks when it does.
5. Find an editor who you trust to work with you. Good editors do more than just edit the draft you give them, and I know this because I have a great editor.
You know, this may be useful to other people. I'm going to anonymize the line I quoted from you, and post this on my blog. I'm sure readers will have other bits of advice and experience to share in comments.
-Wil
This isn't anything more than common sense, I guess, and it's not even that original (the post I linked to day before yesterday about blogging vs. writing a book covers most of this in much greater detail than I did) but I hope it's helpful anyway.
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lawrencelessig
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8:40p |
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lawrencelessig
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7:57p |
CIS needs a Constitutional Law/IP fellow http://lessig.org/blog/2008/08/cis_needs_a_constitutional_law.html On your way to legal academics? Need some time to write, as you do some good? The Stanford CIS (fresh off of a string of incredible victories) needs a new fellow with a particular fondness for the First Amendment and IP. Specs in the extended entry below.
Stanford Law School Announces Center for Internet and Society and
Stanford Constitutional Law Center Joint Fellowship
The Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society (CIS) and The
Stanford Constitutional Law Center (CLC) announce a new joint
fellowship for the study of the intersection of copyright and
constitutional law. We are looking for an inaugural fellow to work
with faculty and staff from both Centers on range of research and
litigation projects addressing the relationship between the
Constitution's Copyright Clause, the First Amendment and the Fair Use
Doctrine.
The primary responsibility for the fellow will be to work on current
CIS Fair Use Project litigation. In addition, the Fellow will also
be an active part of the CIS and CLC communities, attending lectures
and symposia, assisting with Center activities and working with
students on related projects. The Fellowship will provide significant
opportunity for the pursuit of individual research and scholarship in
preparation to enter the academic teaching market. The fellowship
position is offered for one year with the opportunity for renewal.
About the Centers
The CIS is a leading center for the study of the relationship between
the public interest, law and technology. Deploying scholarship,
symposia, advocacy, or litigation as necessary, we focus on areas
where new technologies and old laws intersect and ask whether changes
in either are appropriate. CIS was founded by Professor of Law
Lawrence Lessig and is headed by Executive Director Lauren Gelman.
The Fair Use Project (FUP) is a new CIS initiative launched in 2006
and lead by Executive Director Anthony Falzone. The FUP's mission
is to clarify, define and expand the bounds of fair use primarily
through litigation. The FUP also develops and promotes fair use
education and counsels creators, such as documentary filmmakers on
appropriate uses of copyrighted works.
The Stanford Constitutional Law Center, founded in September 2006 by
former dean Kathleen M. Sullivan and Derek Shaffer '00, grows out of
the long and distinguished tradition of constitutional law
scholarship at Stanford Law School. The Center seeks to carry on that
tradition in a variety of ways-academic conferences, public lectures,
policy research projects, and pro bono litigation-aimed at gathering
consensus and advancing constitutional norms both domestically and
internationally. Stanford law students, particularly those enrolled
in a Constitutional Law Workshop, are intimately involved in all of
the Center's activities.
Applicant Requirements:
2-5 years of post-law school civil litigation experience with
substantial experience in constitutional law (preferred) and
intellectual property (required) matters;
Excellent writing and analytic skills;
Demonstrated ability to direct litigation of impact cases; and
Demonstrated ability to work in a self-directed and entrepreneurial
environment.
The position is for 12 months, with the possibility of renewal for a
second twelve months. The start date is September 2008, although this
may be flexible depending on the right candidates availability.
Salary will be approximately $40,000 per year, with benefits.
Preferred submission deadline is September 8, 2008, however
applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
Applicants MUST apply online via the Stanford Jobs website
Search "Job number 31382"
Applications may also be submitted by email to the following address:
Gelman [at] stanford.edu.
For more information about the CIS and the FUP, please visit here.
For more information about the Stanford Constitutional Law Center,
please visit our website.
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