Happy anniversary to us!
Seven years ago today, we were married in front of our family and friends. It was a wonderful day, and it's been a great seven years, too. Happy anniversary, sweetie.
Tom and Dori, Here and There, Audio and Video
If you're a regular visitor here, you've noticed that we haven't been posting much. That isn't because we haven't been busy, and here's a few links to what we've been up to that I don't think I've previously mentioned:
Last January at Macworld Expo, we were asked to sit in on a MacNotables podcast recording. We're always happy to punditize, and we weren't going to miss a chance to hang out with smart people like Tonya Engst, Andy Ihnatko, Ted Landau and Chuck Joiner. We can be heard on MacNotables #802. And if you're wondering, yes, there is a picture of us at that link all crammed into the one small recording booth on the show floor.
In March at SxSW, Charles Wyke-Smith, a best-selling author and a heck of a nice guy, interviewed us for PeachpitTV. Yes, it's us, and not just out disembodied voices! I only watched enough of Peachpit: Live from SXSW with Dori Smith & Tom Negrino to check to see if I was wearing the same shirt that I'd been wearing in the January picture, but I'm told that later in the video, I do let Tom get a word in edgewise.
Because we had a great time doing MacNotables in January, Chuck asked me to help him launch his new podcast series, MacJury. I was happy to, and last week I recorded my first episode: MacJury #805: The Death of Adobe GoLive, The Clones Won't Go Away, and All Those Macs Sold along with Jean MacDonald, Dave Hamilton, and Dan Pourhadi.
As I'm not the only pundit in the family, Chuck tapped Tom to appear in the very next episode, MacJury #806: iTunes Same-Day-As-New DVD Purchases, Movie Selection, the Apple TV and More along with Jeff Gamet, Steve Sande, and Matt Neuburg. A good time was had by all.
Check 'em out! And if you ever want a guest speaker on your podcast, let us know.
Something I've noticed
My life as a freelancer
From John Scalzi, this is so true:
In the royalty package, a note, on bright yellow paper, warning me and presumably all authors receiving checks from Macmillan, that the check is only good for 90 days, so to be sure to cash it before then.
Which leads me to wonder if the Macmillan accountants need to remember they are talking to authors, the motto of whom, as a general class, is and always shall be cash the check before they change their mind.
When I see that warning on a royalty check, I always snicker. Then I wave goodbye as the check gets sucked into the ATM. My goal in life is to cash checks as quickly as the IRS cashes my tax payments.
You find the damnedest things in used bookstores
I was skimming Kottke, and I saw a bit that said:
Photos of a Masonic handbook from 1920 called King Solomon and His Followers -- A Valuable Aid to the Memory. The text is written in shorthand.
That sounds interesting, I thought, and went to check it out. As the Flickr page loaded, I wondered to myself, "What if… nah, not a chance. That would be waaay too coincidental."
When the page loaded, though, it turned out that it was not too coincidental— the cool Masonic book from 1920, written all in code, that he has? I've got one, also. I remember getting it at a used bookstore in Laguna Beach, which means that it must have been sometime between 1980-1985. It's somewhere around the house, I'm sure, in a box somewhere.
Now that he's got some info about how to translate it, I'll have to see if I can dig up my copy.
A rejoinder…
Regarding Dori's post below, my answer to her question is "Because most of this social networking stuff is a fucking huge waste of time, even when wrapped in a veneer of productivity." The funny thing is that Dori and I agree that I'm more social than she is in real life. But in the virtual world, she belongs to a zillion of these things, while I'm poking along with Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook, and I hardly ever check the latter two. I just don't have time.
I found that the only way I could handle Twitter was to ruthlessly police and prune the list of people I follow, so that I kept interruptions to a minimum. And even then, when I'm working, I turn off Twitteriffic, switch my chat message to "Working, IM with care," and sometimes even quit Entourage. My problem with social networking is that it wants to be, well, social, and clamors for my time and attention. That's already in short supply.
Enough Social Networks...
For some reason, it appears that every "Web 2.0" company now has to be a social network, which means that you have to have an invitation to join, and then you have to "friend" all your friends and acquaintances. Whee.
So, why should I be any different?
I've now joined Evernote, socialthing!, and brightkite.com. I may or may not still have invites for any of these, so if you want one, ask away.
And feel free to friend me if you want on any service that has the capability; I'm almost always "dori".
The follies of youth
I went to the gym this morning to do some cardio, and I brought an iPod for company. I've got a smart playlist called "Hardly Played at All," which is set to only include songs that haven't been played in the last 12 months. I figure that it's an opportunity to get reacquainted with some old friends.
But it also points up some of the mistakes of the past, and how much my tastes have changed over the years. At around the 15 minute mark on the bike, Emerson Lake and Palmer's Karn Evil 9 suite came on. Haven't listened to it in years; didn't even know that I'd ever ripped it. So I thought, "I think I'll listen to it all, just to see if I can figure out why I used to like it so much back in high school." I remembered it's about a half hour long, which was the right length for the remaining workout.
I failed. Miserably. I got through about a third of it, then the Hammond organ noodling and Minimoog "strings" just did me in. Not to mention the pretentious lyrics. Didn't even get to the "Welcome back my friends..." part.
I'm not a progressive rock guy anymore, I guess. Though I still like some mid-period Genesis...
All entries © 1999-2008 Tom Negrino and Dori Smith