Random Wibblings

Some time ago, I blogged about how my blog was less of place for thought out editorials, and how it was more a collection of snippets that I was gathering from around the World-Wide-Web. Since then, many more sites support XML or RSS feeds for syndication of interaction, and their integration into software like Flock, has created a more social World-Wide-Web.

So I’m left wondering if Wordpress is the correct platform for this web-site. Because ultimately, I’m occasionally posting scraps here, and occasionally actually writing stuff. Then I look at how I use Facebook as a feed aggregator for my friends that glass over at the mention of syndication. Perhaps Facebook is the wrong place for that, and perhaps just by using social sites that have XML/RSS feeds, I’m effortlessly creating content, where posts like this are just occasional seasoning.

This brings us to Lifestreaming, and Sweetcron. Lifestreaming is pretty much automated tumblelogging. By posting a public photograph to Flickr, an entry is created, or by digging an article, or bookmarking a web-site, new entries are also created. If you want to see what I’m waffling about, head over to http://yibble.org/, where I have set up a Lifestream page. I’ve disabled commenting on the items, and changed the item links, so that they take you to source sites, but by default commenting and viewing items is done through the Lifestream site, producing a more blog like environment.

At the moment, I’m only experimenting with Sweetcron and Lifestreaming, but would certainly consider it as a potential replacement for Wordpress, if I could import all the posts, and all of my readers comments. What do you think?

One great thing about being a dad, is that you get to indulge in media for kids. Many folks will know that we have a little collection of old fairy tales, because I have a near physical revulsion for many modern saccharine induced renditions of them. Take note Disney: A fairy tale that has had its moral surgically removed via key-hole knobbery, has no value at all.

That said, new tales are always welcome and Two Frogs has oodles of charisma and charm, especially amongst the mums and dads who have an appreciation for security.

Two frogs are sitting on a lily pad and one of them has a stick. The stick, he says, is to beat off the dog. But there is no dog. Yet. So begin the trials and adventures of this hapless pair.

… of this reading that I chose for our wedding, so I thought I’d share it here:

“There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world — its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That’s all there is to it. Everything else is fun and games. If an activity is not grounded in ‘to love’ or ‘to learn,’ it does not have value.” — Anne Rice (Servant of the Bones.)

I’ve recently been reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I’ve not yet finished the book (just a few pages short) and already it’s one of my favourites, easy to determine why it’s considered a modern classic. Although a platform for Objectivism, in a rather extremist fashion, it still addresses important social ideas with recurring themes that hold just as much relevance today, as it did when first published.

Anyhow, the book has got me thinking on various matters, both personal and professional… I thought I’d add a bit of pre-amble to the following conjecture…

It is possible to view relationships in a non-linear manner. For example, friendships can be viewed to begin and end upon two distinct thresholds. However, this doesn’t have to be so. Even if a friendship is ended, that person can simply become a friend that is no longer in contact.

Some would view this as a form self-denial. But for me, it’s a form of disillusionment, a statement of immediate indifference, with underlying understanding and perhaps enshrinement of what the friendship held at its peak. This path, which treats all relationships as circles, means that any friendship can be re-visited, without any explanation or false apology.

In many senses, it’s claiming ownership of your portion of a friendship. Because, even though the friendship involved multiple actors, none could possibly have experienced it from your perspective, you own that perspective. Acknowledging and agreeing to your perspective, is ownership, and responsibility.

I’m probably very late to the party on this one. During a random session in GTAIV, I happened to stumble upon this little gem on one of the in-game TV stations. Kinda reminded me of Adult Swim material.