not falling down

I’ve talked before about my “secret writing project,” which hasn’t been all that secret, since it was easy to find if you explored NewsBruiser’s navigation at all, and anyway I told a bunch of people about it. I’ve never actually described it here, though, and that’s what this is.

Anacrusis. One hundred and one words, five days a week, for almost a year. I posted my two hundredth entry there last Friday, and today–its big debut–is the two hundred and first. I’ve missed a week here and there, and one month during The Great Web Host Debacle of last fall, but overall I’ve been pretty regular and I’m getting better. I hope those continue to be true.

If you’re interested, you can hit that random link a few times to get an idea of what it’s like. I hope you enjoy them. That’s where most of my creative energy has gone while I’ve been not drawing my comic; I’m nervous about this, but it’s been almost a year, and I think I’m about ready for an audience.

After a bit of a scuffle with NewsBruiser 2.4.1, I’ve upgraded this thing and made it work again, and I’m very happy with it. I try to suppress my fervor for certain computer concepts or programs, because I get really annoyed by other evangelists of similar concepts or programs, but sometimes I just have to gush about NewsBruiser.

I’ve ended up using a lot of different web journaling utilities, and NewsBruiser is completely the best, hands down, period. It’s fast and massively customizable. It’s free, not just to download, but to develop and hack. It has every type of syndication feed in existence, and lets you apply custom licensing to everything you write. It can provide links to specific years, months, days, entries, and words within an entry. It can import from anything, including flat HTML–even broken flat HTML. It has an intelligent comment-spam filter, and–in my opinion, most significantly–a powerful, integrated search engine that doesn’t rely on Google crawlers.

Name one other piece of blogging software that does all of that. Come on, I dare you.

I’ve been staying mum about it, because I didn’t want to jinx it like last time, but I have now actually won a round of BlogNomic. I’m quite puffy with pride, although I couldn’t have done it alone.

If you’re at all interested in malleable gaming, I think you should join BlogNomic now–I’m going to put a lot of effort into making this round fun. All you have to do is post a comment on one of the more recent entries, stating your name, your wish and your email address, and we’ll get right to you.

My uncle John provides justification for the backwards locomotion I witnessed yesterday. It’s an interesting site, but I haven’t yet found where they talk about the dangers of, you know, not being able to see where you’re going.

You know what nobody ever says anymore? “It was highway robbery!” I seem to remember people used to say that all the time.

Nobody’s been robbed on a highway in a few hundred years or so, but I’m just saying.

Stephen is awesome.

I went to look out the window in the empty office next to my cube, and in the parking lot below I could make out two women. They were talking to each other, and walking, in unison, backwards. They did this for at least fifty feet.

They continued walking and went behind and under a tree, and out of my field of view. When they re-emerged, they were walking forward again, still talking.

I’d write a story about that, if I could think of any justification for it at all.

It’s been a year since my first day at this job, although it doesn’t say so under Today in History. This is the longest I’ve ever held any job, even if it has mostly been for two days a week.

Guess I should talk to somebody about a raise.

After two years, Sean is about to come back to the US from his time teaching music as a Jesuit volunteer in a Nicaraguan village. I’ve been reading his journal continuously for about three years now; he’s a funny and intimate writer, and I’ve tried to incorporate some of his observational style into my own voice.

I’ve known one (other) Jesuit volunteer teacher in real life, and I feel like I know Sean, in a way. Neither has exactly been entirely gung-ho about the program, but if my own personal sample is any indication, it attracts some pretty incredible people. I wonder if I could do what they did, and if I would. Or will.

I’m going to buy this album. In fact, I’m not going to stop at just buying it. I’m going to burn extra copies of it, and I’m going to give you one, hell, maybe two or three. I’m going to come over to your house, and we’re going to listen to it. Together. To every. Last. Word.