This blog has been neglected for the past little bit and for the next two weeks it will be neglected some more. Currently I am without a laptop computer, which has dealt both my writing and my internet surfing a mortal blow. For better or for worse, these are the lifeblood of my blog. Also for better or for worse, I am waiting until post Christmas to try and catch a sale for the purchase of a new little netbook.

I will say this, however. The past two weeks with no personal computer have been among the happiest I have known, final exams notwithstanding.

Peace and happy holidays and I’ll see you both in January.

It turns out some English professors are maybe possibly potentially writing more than they should. Could academics possibly be churning out papers that nobody will ever read? Not even other academics? May it never be!

It turns out there’s a software engineering koan for this (from sheep.art.pl)

A UNIX wizard hears cries of torment from his apprentice’s computer room where the apprentice is studying, and goes to investigate.
He finds the apprentice in obvious distress, nearly on the verge of tears. “What’s the problem?” he asks. “Why did you cry out?”
“It’s terrible using this system. I must use four editors each day to get my studies done, because not one of them does everything.”
The wizard nods sagely, and asks, “And what would you propose that will solve this obvious dilemma?”
The student thinks carefully for several minutes, and his face then lights up in delight. Excitedly, he says, “Well, it’s obvious. I will write the best editor ever. It will do everything that the existing four editors do, but do their jobs better, and faster. And because of my new editor, the world will be a better place.”
The wizard quickly raises his hand and smacks the apprentice on the side of his head. The wizard is old and frail, and the apprentice isn’t physically hurt, but is shocked by what has happened. He turns his head to face the wizard. “What have I done wrong?” he asks.
“Fool!” says the wizard. “Do you think I want to learn yet another editor?”
Immediately, the apprentice is enlightened.

If it is in fact the truth that there is nothing new under the sun, then writing is the new vice. Elegant summation, editorial work, and research are the new virtues.

The Internet is a great aggravating factor in all of this. In a time when archival was expensive and retrieval was a chore, there was a much stronger case for writing new stuff. Sometimes it’s just cheaper and easier to reinvent something then to try and dig up the original

But now?

There are now fewer and fewer excuses for writing new stuff.

Present company excluded, of course.

Andreas Deja was a Disney animator for many years and has a nifty blog.

Quotes from Alan Perlis, worth it for #93 alone

A timewasting site.

Truth in an article title.

But this blog unveils a very small piece of the story. The cold stats of my postings testify to an intense, almost manic level of reflection through Lent. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought so much or churned out so much text in so short a period.

Then Easter came. Since my last posting on Maundy Thursday, I have been bombarded with such a flurry of happenings, incidents, and episodes that blogging has been utterly cast aside. I am seeing the hand of God at work in the real world, in my life and in the lives of others. (It’s terrifying! )

This is, I think, a landmark time for me. It is, I pray, a new spring. A fresh spring and the culmination of many seasons of dormancy.

I’m an intensely proud person. I’d rather give a diatribe than hear one. I’d rather write a post than read one. I’d rather speak than listen. And I never, ever, ever ask for help if I can ever help it. So here I’m asking!

Please pray for me. I feel like this is a crucial time. It’s a time when I may come under spiritual attack. It’s a time when I need to humble myself and ask for the prayers of those who know me and love me.

I don’t know what you should pray – can I ask you to ask God? Just pray and ask him, “What should I pray?” and then pay attention to the thought or picture or idea that comes to mind.

Thank you. I’m grateful for every one of you. The fact that anyone has *ever* visited this blog is a source of joy to me. So to my Mom and my Dad and my sister Janet and my brother Tim and my Aunt Lila and my cousin Carla and all my friends – Aliana, Alyssa, Shaun, Brad, Trish, Chris, Corey, Elly, Mark, Joe, John – and everyone else who I can’t name: I love you very much and I thank God for you.

Disclaimers Because I’m Posting Real Personal Stuff On the Internet

If you’re a random internet stranger who browses your way to this post, well, just know that God loves you, and he wants me to love you too, even if I don’t yet . (Yeah, this is a weird post and if you browse the archives of this blog you’ll see that most other posts are totally unlike this. They tend to be uptight and analytical – generalized and abstract and very very… safe)

And if you’re someone who finds this post 25 years in the future (because nothing on the internet ever really goes away) – if you’re one of my kids that I don’t have yet – if I’m a public figure and you’re trying to dig up dirt on me – if I’m ever accidentally famous and you’re a curious internet surfer- please remember that we are made to live in the here and now.  The author of this post is dead and gone. But – there is a man, of the author’s likeness, bearing his memories and living in your world, your time and place. Seek out the living man and not the dead.

It’s time for a lenten fast and for me that means deactivating the Facebook account. No problem, right?

Well… apparently, friends don’t let friends leave facebook.

I was offended by this, but then that’s not surprising because I’m pretty grumpy and badly in need of a Lenten break.

A computer is guessing at which friends love me. Awww, how cute. Actually, I think it’s kind of creepy that Facebook would pick a few friends at not-quite-random to display while they’re completely unaware of it. Easy to mistake this for a true feature; it might be awkward to actually send them a message.

Me: “I’m so glad you missed me!”

Redacted: “Huh?”

I get leery of something like this, where it *could* be a real thing but in fact it’s some kind of algorithm (and it’s not a very good one, at that!). I don’t want to have to analyze everything on facebook: “Is this my friend, or is it Facebook being opportunistic?”

Addendum: This is, in my opinion, quite a dangerous game to play. I use Facebook (in part) because I trust it to be neutral and to let me be the boss in my interactions with friends. I don’t want it to show bias. I don’t want it to influence who I relate to and why. But it does.

For example, what if Facebook decides it’s going to change (without warning you) whose posts show up in your feed, and that it will exclude vast swathes of your friends, because that’s what it wants to do? No, don’t worry, they’re not going to do that, because they already did that.

Suggestions?

So as an apology for neglect, here’s a cute cat link.

And for those who are interested in such things, here’s an interview with Larry Wall.

Finally, this speaks for itself.

I was planning to write a killer series of posts to be automatically queued – but since only half of them are written I think they will have to wait.

Sometime in early December you may expect a flurry of activity in this space, but until then, I’m afraid there won’t be anything here.

Umm… I mean, “What a fantastic opportunity to browse the archives of the Happy Moron!”

If you will look down and to your right, you will see, conveniently organized by month and year,  all posts ever written on The Happy Moron, from the very first to the most read (#5 on Google!) to the most repetitive.

Read them at your leisure, and sometime before Christmas I’ll be back blogging. Until then… neglect is the order of the day, and no amount of crying will change that.

I’ve known about this one for a while but I was recently reminded what a great site it is.

I’ve got two follow-up posts due and umpteen billion links to comment on. And currently not enough time to go through them.

I guess I could try sponsorship – if people wanted to “adopt an article” I might be persuaded to write them.