dtechnology is da BOMB
finally took jason kottke's words to heart and bought a wireless hub today. suffice to say this edition of the Experience comes to you from my recliner whilst listening to my family chortle at ice age.
as overheard by my son: "they have a lot of tragedy there."
open letter to owen
hey owen!
yes, my sitemeter link count is a reasonable representation of the site's traffic. it does not include my personal hits (I filter them by ip address through sitemeter), so it is not a totally raw number. the totally raw user count since 4/19/02 1:42:05 PM is 18228.
numbers are certainly cool; it's really flattering and humbling to know people care enough about what you write to keep coming back -- the "naked.com" google searchers notwithstanding. there is certainly a fine line between attracting and retaining an audience and keeping them coming back for more. witness ernie, who, God love him, struggles with the tail wagging the dog in terms of serving up relevant, funny content on a regular basis. at some point you reach a critical mass and you are slave to the blog. maybe that's why I have not been so consistent of late; I like the traffic, but not enough to really induce myself to think and feel my way through all the stuff in my head that might be worth seeing the light of a cathode ray tube.
like the new site layout! you seem to be enjoying the process of re-creating yourself, whereas I'm content with mine not being broken at the moment. but what with all this newfound creativity in my head, I think I should consider revamping the Experience. we shall see.
keep those cards and letters coming in!
educate this
so you may recall I was in buffalo over the summer. took two courses. aced 'em. loved it.
just got my research paper back from the first course. didn't know how I did on it, but knew I did well, given my course grade. did well, but that wasn't the best part. this was:
Consider contacting the author - you two would make a great educational team!
I encourage you to do more of this kind of thing (using other materials as well). What a gift you have to help people learn.
nothing like having an instructor you respect and admire flatter you ... but even more important than the road less travelled is the path never before considered. this is a new branch of thinking I had never encountered.
what we're really doing when we should be working
taking great delight in reading mango pudding blues's epic tale, soup lab.
seems there was this very serious soup-off, see, and ...
the kicker is, you have to follow a couple weeks' worth of archives, which means scrolling to the bottom of each and working your way upwards. a total joy to unravel, and by the time you are done, you too will be adding him to your permanent link list. thank timothy for me finding him.
on dancing with the one who brung ya
kurt warner is on the mend (say hallelujah, say amen). in his absence, marc bulger dug kurt out of the 0-5 hole he dug, almost single-handedly. all praise and blessings galore be bestowed upon our new favorite ram.
but there is a serious controversy brewing here for the true rams fan: who should rightfully lead the rams back to respectability now that warner is on the mend? on the one hand, he is the man who brought the team to the promised land three seasons ago. he is the most accurate passer to play the game. when he is in his flow, he is incredibly deadly with the long ball. and yet he nearly single-handedly dug the 0-5 hole the rams found themselves in when he went down with a broken finger.
on the other hand is bulger, a no-name, late-round draft pick who just happened to step up at the right time. he has an accuracy not unlike his predecessor, and an unlikely hero story to match. he came out of nowhere, showed poise and enthusiasm, and proved a worthy leader to dig the rams out of their six-game losing streak. now standing a game away from .500, he is only starting against chicago because warner is not yet 100% healthy.
but when warner is healthy . . . should he again be the starter? bill belichik of the new england patriots showed that you don't bet against a hot hand, and he bet the house on tom brady. brady delivered, and the patriots won it all.
but what of loyalty? the leader must decide whether the wins in the short term are compelling enough outweigh supporting the key people who brought you thus far in the long term. clearly head coach mike martz is putting all his chips on warner once again, as he did when they were an eternity out of first place. now that they are but a handful of games away from contending for a playoff bid, he is willing to set aside the newcomer-cum-"sure thing" for the horse that brought him this far to begin with.
part of the fun of rooting for a team is second guessing personnel moves and chance happenings that define the ups and downs of a season. clearly we as fans have the luxury of questioning the head coach, and every right to be disappointed in our team's failures. thinking we know better, we are within our liberty to rage at the television.
much of the joy of gametime is the freedom to be another person -- to live a fantasy, if only for a few brief moments, that we are part of the winning moments. the visceral rush of seeing our player score cannot be easily described in words, and the high the player feels keeps many a player in the game even past his prime.
but when the game is over, the high has subsided, there is still a lesson to be learned. when we are in the same situation at work, who are we loyal to? how much of the hot hand means justifies the long term ends? what of the leader to whom we answer for our livelihood? the pastor who corrects us? the friend who has a very solid reason for telling us things we do not care to hear about ourselves?
what then of our loyalty?
