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Concept Loss and how to fight it
Jan. 18th, 2003 11:08 amI used to do this bombastic journal-esque mass email I called Pot Sherd. I haven't sent a missive in a while. It's time to reload.
I started Pot Sherd in 1998 or so. It was always a sporadic mailing, although I tried for once a month. The mailing list grew to about 70 people. I learned how blind carbon copies work.
Then my computer had a megafit in December of 2001. I was still running Windows 95 (since then I'd bought a Windows 98 license) and Internet Explorer loved having conflicts with my trackball. I'd lose mouse capabilities so often that I started using the number pad as a mouse. One day, that conflict when ultra -- I lost one program after another in rapid succession. Eventually, I had to install Windows 98 (which ruined my boot loader for Linux but I fixed that later).
I decided after that event that I would ween myself of Windows products, especially the other culprit of my crash, Outlook Express (its motto: "The Tar Baby of Mail Readers"). So I copied my years of email files and had a severe problem converting my address book.
I then started using Pine a lot. Pine does not like the idea that you want to do more than one thing at once. For example, creating a mailing list is trickier than electing a pope. So I got into the LiveJournal thing instead, hoping it would take care of my desire for a blog. Instead, it's left me feeling inadequate as a write because I never get replies.
I also realize that I'd been seeking an intellectual banter from LJ that will not be arriving. As smart as all of us are, I don't think I'm smart enough to get the responses I want from this forum. I am better at evoking responses through email. Email allows the writer to hijack a little more time from the mind of the reader because it doesn't have strings of other written pieces bunched up against it. That extra touch of time is what I need.
This doesn't mean I'm going to stop making journal entries here. It's just that I need to do both the Sherds and the Journal, more the former than the latter, to get the satisfaction I seek in writing. The time has come to discipline myself again: if I truly wish to write, I must write whether I am in the mood or not. I'd become lax -- LiveJournal looked like another outlet, but it has instead deflated my ego. I don't quite understand what makes people want to reply to a journal entry. Perhaps I'll be able to have more fun with LJ when the Sherds are taking care of my more verbose output.
I've begun to use Ximian Evolution, the Linux answer to "I like Outlook but I don't like Bill Gates". It's a touch bloated in its acquisition of RAM, but it gives me spell-checking, mailing lists and overall shine. This means I now have the tools and clientele.
While I still have some data to cull, I am very close to starting the Sherds again. I had this piece I wanted to write about my experience at the Apple Sotre in Cambridge, for example, but the thoughts are far too long for LiveJournal. I have a hard time keeping my ideas down to a couple paragraphs, which seems to be the trick of LJ.
If you're interested in subscribing to Pot Sherd, send a quick email to me (dblando at dreamscape dot com) or post an email address in reply to this.
It's also about time I called Tufts and asked them what I need to do to start taking classes this summer. I'd like to get their "post-bac minor in computer science" before this recession ends.
-phase two a jazz odyssey, Dante
I started Pot Sherd in 1998 or so. It was always a sporadic mailing, although I tried for once a month. The mailing list grew to about 70 people. I learned how blind carbon copies work.
Then my computer had a megafit in December of 2001. I was still running Windows 95 (since then I'd bought a Windows 98 license) and Internet Explorer loved having conflicts with my trackball. I'd lose mouse capabilities so often that I started using the number pad as a mouse. One day, that conflict when ultra -- I lost one program after another in rapid succession. Eventually, I had to install Windows 98 (which ruined my boot loader for Linux but I fixed that later).
I decided after that event that I would ween myself of Windows products, especially the other culprit of my crash, Outlook Express (its motto: "The Tar Baby of Mail Readers"). So I copied my years of email files and had a severe problem converting my address book.
I then started using Pine a lot. Pine does not like the idea that you want to do more than one thing at once. For example, creating a mailing list is trickier than electing a pope. So I got into the LiveJournal thing instead, hoping it would take care of my desire for a blog. Instead, it's left me feeling inadequate as a write because I never get replies.
I also realize that I'd been seeking an intellectual banter from LJ that will not be arriving. As smart as all of us are, I don't think I'm smart enough to get the responses I want from this forum. I am better at evoking responses through email. Email allows the writer to hijack a little more time from the mind of the reader because it doesn't have strings of other written pieces bunched up against it. That extra touch of time is what I need.
This doesn't mean I'm going to stop making journal entries here. It's just that I need to do both the Sherds and the Journal, more the former than the latter, to get the satisfaction I seek in writing. The time has come to discipline myself again: if I truly wish to write, I must write whether I am in the mood or not. I'd become lax -- LiveJournal looked like another outlet, but it has instead deflated my ego. I don't quite understand what makes people want to reply to a journal entry. Perhaps I'll be able to have more fun with LJ when the Sherds are taking care of my more verbose output.
I've begun to use Ximian Evolution, the Linux answer to "I like Outlook but I don't like Bill Gates". It's a touch bloated in its acquisition of RAM, but it gives me spell-checking, mailing lists and overall shine. This means I now have the tools and clientele.
While I still have some data to cull, I am very close to starting the Sherds again. I had this piece I wanted to write about my experience at the Apple Sotre in Cambridge, for example, but the thoughts are far too long for LiveJournal. I have a hard time keeping my ideas down to a couple paragraphs, which seems to be the trick of LJ.
If you're interested in subscribing to Pot Sherd, send a quick email to me (dblando at dreamscape dot com) or post an email address in reply to this.
It's also about time I called Tufts and asked them what I need to do to start taking classes this summer. I'd like to get their "post-bac minor in computer science" before this recession ends.
-phase two a jazz odyssey, Dante
