December 2004

So we’re sitting and vegetating a little bit, watching some TV.

Leah goofily says “we’re getting married”—with a big ol’ grin.

“Everybody says so.”

And I reply: “that’s right.”

We’re a bit giddy right now, it’s true.

I really liked the movie Ray. What an American story!

Thomas P M Barnett is a great thinker about geopolitics.

Bruce Schneier is a great thinker about security.

Mark Cuban is a raucous thinker about business.

Pre-marital aka couples counseling was a great experience for Leah and I.

Want to listen to some great authors talk? Wired For Books has the hookup. [via]

I intend at some point to purchase Tony Pierce’s book, How to Blog.

Want to listen to some Stew for free? KCRW has the hookup.

Speaking of cool stuff to listen to—if you’re into technology, you could do worse than IT Conversations, despite the fact that some of the regulars (I’m looking at you, Gillmor Gang!) are too obsessed with blogging and podcasting and RSS and Dave Winer. But the tech gossip is good. It’s where I first heard Thomas Barnett.

Leah has paintings for sale. We can keep them with us, but maybe they’d like to go to good homes?

Those who chortled at the death of Yassir Arafat make me cringe. The man was a human being.

Kynn has totally changed his life around. Made the transition from homeowner to RV-owner.

Matt Haughey, the fellow who first told me I should be blogging, will be a father. That is so cool.

School is both easier than I remember and harder than I remember. Time management remains the bane of my existence.

Everytime I hear Richard Ben Cramer speak about his book How Israel Lost, it makes me want to read the book more. I think this interview on npr with Cramer highlights what’s funny and sad about the whole conflict. I think that conflict, particularly the history of Lebanon, holds lessons for us about Iraq.

I love the card game Mao—which I’ve rediscovered after years of un-use. I intend to put the rules up on this site at some point.

I’m delighted that if you google for bruce sterling art center I’m the first site. I look forward to some public speeches and maybe seminars I can wiggle my way into.

I still like reading Bruce Sterling and William Gibson, and now they have blogs, both of them: Bruce and Bill.

I think that’s good for now. Have a great day y’all!

Over on San Diego Blog, you can now easily suggest a site via the new, dedicated form.

Leah summarizes our life right now perfectly.

That girl, she makes me laugh.

Where I was baptized a Catholic
Originally uploaded by artlung.
I don’t often think of it, but I am a Catholic.

I am also a Buddhist, an Agnostic, and a Freethinker.

But I am definitely a Catholic.

What does that mean?

Well, that’s part of the ongoing struggle, right? To embrace spirituality without abandoning reason. To embrace religion without succumbing to the tendency to judge others. To be part of a community without walling oneself off from those who think differently than you.

It’s a strange feeling to have lucked into living a mile away from where I was baptized at a time when I was in spiritual turmoil. There’s some meaning there that I can’t quite escape, despite my highly skeptical tendencies. I’m very happy about the happenstance. Kismet, you might say. Karma, perhaps. The Hand of G-d, maybe.

Big wheel keep on turning.

My folks are flying into town Friday night for the 60th (with a SIXTY) Anniversary of my Dad’s parents. It will be great to see them, and to celebrate this great achievement.

Okay, the day needs to start now.

Be well, all.

Lots more site changes happening. Pages removed, some redirects set up. You can still get to older stuff on the excellent web.archive.org, specifically by going to the archive of artlung.com.

There’s been so much stuff I’ve put up here on the site for so long, and it’s time to put this house in order.

The portfolio is still changing and being added to, and I moved pictures of my former cat in the photos area.

Some of the more recent posts are older content that had no home, so boom!, they get sucked into the blog.

It’s raining now, just a little. Appointments and class today. I’m keeping busy.

Thanks for the well-wishes, all. Leah and I are pretty excited!

Okay, onward.

Leah and Sky in 2002×2 Originally uploaded by artlung.

Have I mentioned that we’re gonna get married? No? Well, we are, in Las Vegas, on the 21st.

Partnerships rock.

People often ask me how I learned all these magic tricks. The answer is books, of course. The books that follow are the crucial books in my education in the ways of the World Wide Web. There are more books – but these are the desert island books.

Web development:

1. Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 14 Days : Second Professional Reference Edition by Laura Lemay. I cut my teeth on the HTML 3.2 Professional Reference Edition. It weighs more than a Yugo – but it’s really good.
2. Creating Killer Websites by David Siegel. David Siegel is a controversial figure in the history of the web – but his book is a look at the web by a person who cares about look, about branding, and about narrative experience. As such his work is absolutely crucial to understanding web design from the pov of a designer.
3. HTML Reference Card by James C. Armstrong. Published by SSC, this little reference was so damn handy to me as a beginning HTML codemonkey I can honestly say that I would not know what I do now without it. It only covers to HTML 3.2 – and no 4.0 card seems to be forthcoming (rats!) – but it’s still a great value.
4. Database Backed Web Sites : The Thinking Person’s Guide to Web Publishing by Philip Greenspun is everything a technical book should be. It made me think as it made me laugh. Of course, it’s out of print (spotting a trend here?). However, Mr. Greenspun has written a followup – Philip and Alex’s Guide to Web Publishing. Recommended
5. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville is a more recent entry into the canon – but it’s a book which forces you to think about websites in a more structured manner.
6. The important text for learning to design for the WWW isn’t a book at all. Jakob Nielsen’s UseIt.com is a great resource for thinking of the web as an information space. He does have some books in the pipeline (Designing Websites With Authority : Secrets of an Information Architect) – which I bet will be good. He’s a great thinker—if I can be said to have a philosophy of the web—it’s a melding of the ideas of Jakob Nielsen and David Siegel.

Graphics &amp Visual Communications:

1. MacWorld PhotoShop 3 Bible by Deke McClelland is a winner – it is, of course, out of print. However, there are versions for PhotoShop 4 and PhotoShop 5. McClelland has an easygoing style that’s very friendly to the novice – I suggest browing in a BookStar, Barnes &amp Noble, or your local technical bookstore before buying though. I haven’t kept up with the PhotoShop books.
2. Illustrator 5.5/6.0 Bible by Ted Aspach – also a book which has grown with the times. The first bit of the book teaches the concept of vector graphics better than any other book I’ve seen so far. See also Illustrator 7 Bible and Illustrator 8 Bible.
3. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, by by Scott McCloud is a subtle work of genius. If you consider yourself a visual person, you owe it to yourself to read this book. In the bookstores sometimes you’ll find it in art, sometimes with the comics – and both are correct. Highest ArtLung Recommendation.

Programming:

1. Javascript for the World Wide Web (Visual Quickstart Guide Series) by Ted Gesing. The first version of the book is really good. It’s got this really nice map of the JavaScript object hierarchy – and as such it’s a great reference. Also crucial is the 2nd Edition of the book. JavaScript for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, Second Edition by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith. Very well written "first taste" of JavaScript
2. Javascript : The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan is an O’Reilly book – which pretty much says it all. An excellent reference. A Class act. Always close to my desk.
3. Learning Perl (2nd Edition) by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen, with a foreward by Larry Wall is a great place to start with Perl. After that, you can move to the online resources I like: http://www.perl.org, http://www.cgi-resources.com, and http://www.scriptsearch.com.

Business:

1. Web and New Media Pricing Guide by Jp Frenza and Michelle Szabo is out of print. Pity, because it’s a really good guide to Multimedia and Web Production – from small to large projects. If you click the link you might try clicking on the authors names to see if they have anything else coming out. It would be worth a close look.
2. Despite the cheesy subtitle, the Pricing Guide for Web Services : How to Make Money on the Information Data Highway by Robert C. Brenner is another great book for the freelancer. It’ll help you answer that eternal question: "What do I charge?"

I should have gone to bed. In composing an invite list for a party this month (the 18th) I accidentually sent the list in composition to half the list, with nary an explanation.

Now that is a breach of netiquette.

So for those of you I confused, I apologize.

And if you want to come to a happening pre-marital, pre-moving, pre-post-san-diego shindig on the 18th, drop me a line.

I’m obviously incompetent to draft a guest list at 1:45 in the morning.

Good grief Charlie Brown!

At one time I was quite the night owl. Used to love working nights. Now I’m up at 12:45am and all I want to do is sleep.

Or maybe do some programming. Heh.

Good night y’all!