Sunday, May 01, 2005

A sweet story of France from Megnut. "I settled into my seat and watched the families and couples enjoy their dinner while I slurped my last briny oysters of my visit. And the feeling of being alone was forgotten." 

An interesting post from Tim Bray about a club I didn't know I was a member of!  

I've been getting nice email on the thunderstorm podcast. I listened to it a second time, and realized I should let you in on a secret. I got the sense of how long after a lightning bolt the thunder clap would come. Because you couldn't see the lightning, you didn't know when the thunder was coming, but I did, and was able to use it to good effect in the podcast. Another example of godcasting, a collaborative effort, with your humble servant, Uncle Davey.  

Raymond Poort sent me one of those nice emails about the thunderstorm podcast. It's great to hear from him. 

Podbat would like you to log in.  

I just listened to the podcasting panel from SXSW and it was excellent. I loved the idea of an RSS-enabled alarm clock. You know someday you'll have one, maybe pretty soon.  

The New York Geek Dinner tomorrow night is shaping up as an extra-va-ganza. Mary Jo Foley. Joel Spolsky. Scoble. Rubel.  

Laura Bush: "I was a librarian that spent 12 hours a day in the library. Yet somehow I met George." 

Dowbrigade: "...a white limousine, which had apparently exploded just as it was entering Johnson Gate, the main entrance to Harvard Yard off of Massachusetts Avenue, a mere 50 feet from the office of Harvard President Lawrence Summers." 

Britt Blaser has an imporant announcement to make.  

People sometimes ask why the header graphic on Scripting News doesn't usually reflect the place I'm at. As far as I know the only time that it did was when I was at the Democratic National Convention in Boston last summer. Anyway, the reason it's different is that I like the change of scenery. Where ever you are, after a while, seems less exotic than some other place. Nothing more than that. 

Morning coffee notes 

Good morning everybody!

Don't miss the thunderstorm podcast, I think it came out pretty good.

Today's the last day of my forties. I'm ready to make the transition. What does turning 50 mean? Well, if I make it, I lived longer than Douglas Adams. When he died at the tender age of 49 (which happens to be how old I am right now, but you knew that) it made me feel some very mortal feelings. That's how deaths of other people always are. You can try all you want to not make it about you, but that's all you know about.

What's it like to die? Some people believe they know, but that's just a belief. You won't know for sure until it happens to you. And that, my friends, is both the curse and the blessing of humanity. It's the curse because it haunts each of us from the age of seven or eight when it first hits us that we're going to die too. I remember very well lying in bed as a small child totally freaked out about this. It becomes the backdrop of all we do, it's where our sense of urgency comes from, if it weren't for this, why would we ever actually do anything?

It's also a blessing because we get rid of old ideas and old thinking. Every seventy or eighty years we do a complete refresh of the species. No idea gets to continue along without being examined by fresh minds, and this probably has led to a lot of the growth of our species. It's why the sense of "things have always been this way and always will" actually changes so often. If we didn't die, it probably wouldn't.

So one more birthday, one year closer to the end, whenever that will be. Ooops, ten years closer to the end. Maybe it will be a relief. Whew. Don't have to do this for another ten years. That was the feeling at 40, and it surprised me. I looked inside, after the fact, and wondered why I dreaded it so. Turns out it was because I thought at 40 I would turn into my father. I didn't, I was still me. Now as I turn 50, it seems it wouldn't be such a terrible thing to turn into my father. Not a small bit of progress for one man, in just ten years, wouldn't you say?

A birthday request 

If you want to wish me a happy birthday, first, let me say, thank you, mazel tov, a blessing back at ya, namaste and let's have fun. I have one request, which I get to make because it'll be my birthday tomorrow, and I'm getting in practice for one day of pure selfishness. Instead of sending an email, if you have a blog, how about posting your wishes on your blog with a link to mine? I could always use some more flow, and I'd love to climb a few notches on the Technorati list, truth be told.