Name Changes

I’ve been toying with the idea of changing the name of this blog for some time now.  “Life of Robert” is a not-so-subtle reference to Life of Brian from the masters of Monty Python, but I don’t think anyone gets that.  At least not before a whole host of other things.

What’s more is that I don’t even get it any more (and that’s the important part).  I mean, I get it.  I came up with it, after all.  My mind now jumps to narcissism before comedy, though, when I tell people the name of my blog.  The looks on their faces are secondary at that point, but supportive of my own misgivings.

The easy solution, come up with a new name.  I’ve got an idea of two that I like, but want to see if anyone is reading this that would care to offer a suggestion or try to inspire some thoughts along lines I may not be going down (which you won’t know just to make it more fun for me).

Make a suggestion of a title or something to reference in the comments.  Enjoy!

Long Week

It’s been a very long week.  It’s also been a very good week and a strange week.

Long from the standpoint that a lot happened.  It was also my first five-day work week in about a month thanks to extended weekends, holidays, and a funeral.  That was a shock to the system.

But it was a good week.  I got a lot done, did well by a lot of people (I think), made some new friends, exercised a lot, am eating better (yup, I’m eating salad more often and less carbs, but haven’t cut out carbs 100%).

It was also a strange week, at least for this blog.  I’ve had about 60 hits per day on average, according to my stats.  Most of those for older posts regarding two elephants doing as nature intended during a Presidential motorcade in Africa a couple of years back.  The search terms leading to these posts are not fit for public consumption by any stretch, but my knowledge of what some people find “exciting” has definitely expanded.

The question now, though, is if I pull those posts down or not.  I don’t like them being my number one item, at least not for the reason people seem to be clicking here for.  Then again, they are getting “in the door” as it were, so maybe they’ll look around and find something more interesting and, hopefully, healthier.

Any ideas?

A Sense of Style

If you actually visit my site rather than read the RSS feed, you may notice things changing a bit. I’m going to be cycling through some new styles that I procured from the good people at The Style Contest.

This was/is a contest for folks to design a style based on the templates found in MovableType, Typepad, and some other SixApart products. There were well over 100 entries, so I downloaded about 20 that I thought looked nice and would work well for my blog.

It’s interesting, though, what some considered and others didn’t. A variable height sub-header, for instance (see my blog page for an example). Or, like my quotes page, bulleted lists in the main content area. I hope that these styles are graded on their flexibility and room for creative use without breaking the style apart. All in all, I like the creativity and outside-the-box thinking that is apparent from many of the different styles submitted. Good job!

What to Read at Microsoft Now?

My question to Robert Scoble upon his exit at Microsoft: I enjoy reading your blog and plan to continue doing so, but I’d also like to read another good Microsoft blog. The problem is that there are hundreds to choose from. How should I go about finding the one or two that may actually interest me with their content, quality, and frequent updates? Search hasn’t come along far enough that I’ve seen that will look at what I read now and find blogs likely to interest me in the stack of blogs at Microsoft (or any other company, for that matter).

Anyone have ideas?

A Household Kate

I realized that I hadn’t posted a link to a new blog I’ve been keeping an eye on. A Household Kate comes from a good friend of mine in Redlands with a pretty design to boot.

Have fun, Kate! Welcome to the blogosphere.
Technorati Tags: blog, redlands, friends

Tag Cloud

I have a new thing on my site that I think is interesting enough to share. It’s a tag cloud and you can find it at the main site underneath the latest posts.

These are topics that have been discussed in posts starting back a couple of weeks ago. The words are weighted by how often they are brought up. The larger the font, the more they are discussed. It’s interesting to see what pops up at you when you look at a blog like this. Clicking on a word will take you off the site to ZoomCloud, who provide the code for this, showing posts that relate to the word you clicked on.

I’m not sure how long this will last or if I’ll find better ways to present this (that search my own site, for instance, rather than taking you off site when you click), but I think it’s pretty neat.

Technorati Tags: tag cloud, zoomcloud, meme

Blogathon 2006

Mark your calendars: Blogathon 2006 will be on July 29th this year. 24 hours straight, a post to a blog every 30 minutes, raising money for various charities, and having a good time (hopefully).

Technorati Tags: blogathon, fundraising, cool stuff, fun

Brrreeeport

Scoble is trying to break down the whole A-list-blogger-gatekeeper thing. Or something like that. The plan: use the word brrreeeport in a blog post and see how quickly folks are indexed. This received zero hits when entered at google blog search a couple of days ago, so it’s a good way to see who is paying attention.
Why am I doing this? I like the word. It’s nice a funky.

Technorati Tags: brrreeeport

Fair Use and Free Speech?

This got me thinking about free speech. Read it first before reading on.

I love being able to take nearly any thing broadcast in the world and share it with friends. I don’t have all of the technology to do so, but I could. But what if I took a speech given by an influential politician and edited it every so slightly in a fashion where the edit itself isn’t noticed, but the meaning is changed? Does this fall under my freedom of speech? What about the original speaker’s right to speech? I’ve edited his or her words to fit my desires, probably without their permission, and there is nothing to stop me from passing it off as original. Does their right to free speech protect their message from being altered?

I agree that we should be able “to send video clips to their friends, post them on their websites, etc.” But where is the line on how much I can edit that before I’m not respecting another person’s right to express themselves as well?

You could argue this is already done. The evening news shows us clips from important speeches to shape a story, for instance. Is the rebroadcast of an edited clip in violation of fair use even if they paid for it?

I don’t know much about the fair use topic, to be forthright. But it seems that there are murky waters to tread in this debate.

Technorati Tags: fair use, media

Globalist

Shel has some great comments about an individual existing (and conversing) with a global community.

While I don’t directly converse with people like he does, I really geek out on the idea of it. Too bad about the evangelists, too. Both on the side of his perception and their delivery of a cliché.

Technorati Tags: global, blogging, conversation