Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Unfortunately, there's another controversy with Rogers Cadenhead. He asked to handle this matter privately and using attorneys, both of which I agreed to. Then he apparently changed his mind, and published my attorney's letter to him. 

Grazr is a Javascript-based OPML browser that can be included dynamically in web pages. 

Marc Canter says "aggregate." 

People have pointed out that there's more than one level of irony in yesterday's post about Identity Woman.  

Retirement roundup 

Since I've been at a conference the last two days, I haven't had enough time to follow all the discussion about my decision to stop blogging. This morning I got up very early, ready to fly back to the Bay Area, and had some time to wade through the commentary and had some comments, since I am still blogging.

Several essays stood out as thoughtful, interesting, original, and had elements of truth to them, imho, that were unique.

Nick Carr: Once upon a time in the west.

I've never seen Shane, but I will. I like the imagery. Even now some friends send me emails saying I should fight. I thought I said pretty clearly that I'm not fighting. You want a fight, you do it. I gave at the office.

Some people have characterized my post as a suicide note, and that's correct, it is a suicide note. Let me explain. There's a virtual Dave and a real one. Here, you're reading the virtual one. Some people hate this guy, some people love him. Lots of people invent new features of this guy, that are so different from the real guy that if the real guy met the other people's version of the virtual guy, he would line up to punch him in the nose too.

Over time, this duality has gotten further off track to the point where people come up to the real guy in restaurants and shake the virtual guy's hand. People threaten to hurt the virtual guy, and mistakenly hit the real guy. The real guy has serious health issues and has to take care of himself, and everyone who reads this blog knows this, yet they still create huge battles with the guy, and otherwise considerate people stand by and watch and do nothing.

Eventually the real guy decided enough of this bullshit. I just want to be the real guy.

When I started blogging it was all about creating a platform for people to be real. Well if I have to live up to your fantasies to be able to blog, I quit.

Maybe there's still some life left in the real guy.

This is not meant to make you feel sad, or guilty or miss me or anything else. This isn't about you. It never was about you. When you read other people's blogs, think about that. They're not writing about you, they're writing about them.

The real Dave won't stop writing, btw. The virtual Dave is going to stop. Bye-bye. See y'all later.

So Nick, I'll watch Shane, for sure, but another movie whose plot may be like this story is Heaven Can Wait. If you like reading the real Dave, be prepared to play the role Julie Christie played. If a stranger walks up to you and asks to buy you a cup of coffee, you might want to say yes.