I've been feeling sick since the day after Christmas. Maj says that when you push your body too hard, it gives you a cold to tell you to sit back and take it easy for a little while, fercryinoutloud. I think that's what happened to me -- almost as soon as I had some free time, I got a sore throat, body aches, stuffy sinuses, fatigue.
It's been OK, though -- I've had a lot of time to sit at my parents' house, fool around on the computer without doing anything serious, and read books. I got a proposal for a new project done, and some API designs, but I also am almost finished with James Fenimore Cooper's The Pathfinder, which has been a real enjoyable book. I picked it up in Lake Placid while we were there at the beginning of the month, and I'm just getting around to finishing it. I guess I'm just getting myself on a Colonial New York kick.
I've also watched about 400 episodes of It's a Big, Big World, a great kids show starring a good-natured stoner sloth and some spazzy monkeys. They deal with lots of interesting issues, but mostly the answer to their problems is, "Get over yourself, chill the hell out, and do some tai chi." Which I think is a pretty good piece of advice for everybody.
tags: lazy pathfinder james fenimore cooper cold tai chi big big world the wisdom of sloths
Edinburgh
So, I just registered for Debconf7, the 7th annual Debian conference, to be held in June 2007 in Edinburgh. I'm excited to go -- I've never been to Scotland, and I'm looking forward to the visit. Nor have I been to a Debconf before!
I also submitted an abstract for a paper on the Debian Creative Commons Workgroup, a kind of extended history from the Debian Creative Commons Workgroup Report?. I want to cover the details of the relationship between Debian and CC, the history of the workgroup, and give some lessons learned from the process. I'd also like to draw some conclusions about using one of Debian's greatest assets -- our moral authority in the Free Software world -- to shape the future of FLOSS and Free Content.
tags: edinburgh free software debian debconf7 cc free content
Mysteries of Web comics
I guess there are just some things I'll never understand about the aesthetics and economics of Web comics. Like, why hasn't Patrick Farley, author of the great e-sheep comics, published anything since 2003? e-sheep is some of the most moving, intelligent, and deep work of any kind on the Internet. I'd really love to see more.
Conversely, why did the lurid, absurd, and obnoxious Leisuretown go off the air entirely for a few years? And why did it come back? And if it's back, why hasn't the enigmatic Tristan A. Farnon added any new comics? Also, I still wonder if that's his given name, or if he's stuck with a BBS handle from back in the day when he thought All Creatures Great and Small was really cool.
Leisuretown is another of the best things on the Web -- crude, angry, existential. I really like it.
tags: webcomics leisuretown e-sheep