03/29/2011

Revise, repurpose…

I’ve been reading a lot more lately, mostly historical fiction. Immediately after completing the brilliantly layered The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears, I started Ismail Kadare’s The Siege, completed this morning.  With Nighthawk Books closed on Tuesdays, I was left to my own siege dreams, and started hatching an idea which I hope to be my next long-term project; writing an historical novel set among a sect of Coptic Gnostics, some of whom lose their faith, and yet are reluctant to abandon their Gnostic values.

Here’s the hook: I’m writing the whole thing in public.  I’m going to start by building a bibliography, some technical pages about how it’s all going to get done, and then the work itself.  This project will bring together some of the work I’ve done on WiP, Git, Emacs / Muse, etc.

I’m planning a complete first draft by my 45th birthday.

If you pick up on it quick, you can say you were there.

03/24/2011

Revisions, revisions….

Ok, not so you’d notice, but the site’s been revised to focus more narrowly on writing, writing projects, writing tools, etc.  It’s a task I’m setting for myself, and I’m doing it all wrong. I’m not writing the stuff that people want to read, I’m writing the stuff that I want to write.

Crap. There go my dreams of fame and fortune.

01/18/2011

Spring Cleaning in Winter

Ok, so I spend this morning upgrading WordPress for my personal blog, and upgrading Drupal for WiP (my pet project / passion) all in service to a return / relaunch. Stay tuned, everybody.

10/02/2009

Call for Guest Bloggers

Regular readers and Facebook / Twitter friends know that I’m always encouraging you people to start your own blog. It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s therapeutic. I hear plenty of objections. “I don’t have enough to say,” or “I don’t know how,” or, “You’re so witty and insightful, I’ll look stupid next to you.”

Some or all of these may be true, but there’s still no reason to deprive the world of your solipsistic navel-gazing.  You can be a guest-blogger here at the blog @ popjack dot net!

So if you’ve ever wanted to write something that’s more than Twitter’s character limit (140) and even more than Facebook’s (420), but didn’t know where to stick it, maybe I can help.

I say maybe, because I’m still enough of an asshole to reject you, and there are a few guidelines:

  • You get 250 words (+ /-)
  • It has to make me laugh / cry / think / vomit
  • You have to be my friend on Facebook and / or Twitter

If you’re interested, click on Be My Guest.

Ok, I’m waiting…..

09/15/2009

Troubleshooting Google Analytics

When the Google Analytics widget numbers didn’t match the actual visits, I discovered that it was set to track popjack.net, instead of blog.popjack.net. This has been fixed, and analytics should be more accurate from here on out.

Thanks for all the visits; It turns out I’m .00001% less obscure than originally thought.

(As always, percentages are approximate)

09/10/2009

The Triumph of Good Enough

Ok, so I’ve wanted to have my blog up and running since I signed up with my new host, the phenomenal and highly recommended WebFaction. I was determined to roll my own blog engine using the phenomenal and highly recommended Django framework.

Wow, that would have been cool.

Alas, the ever-active cabal of time, work, responsibility and laziness conspired against me, and while I’m still working on Django, I’m tired of waiting for something longer than Twitter, and less frenetic than facebook.

Therefore, welcome to the new incarnation of my blog, built on WordPress 2.8.4, which if you haven’t checked out yet, is really good, although not quite phenomenal or highly recommended. Here you’ll find my thoughts on technology, parenting, the world we live in, and life in general, if for some reason, you’re interested.

Here’s my promise — quick, frequent posts, hopefully thought-provoking and conversation-starting.

I have some brilliant friends, so I’m really looking forward to the comments.