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ex machina


a few days ago mark pilgrim created a bit of a hullabaloo by taking kevin burton to task for a variety of issues. i'm not really interested in the specifics of the argument or to who was "right" or "wrong", but i do think a few of mark's comments regarding kellan's take on the issues highlight an important aspect of the "conversational" nature of blogging [ or lack thereof, depending on your perspective ]:

"Another problem is that I think we each end up constructing our own private dialect after a while. I was going to say "I need to write more about lighthouses", until I realized that that probably wouldn't make the slightest bit of sense to you or your readers. (It's explained in that previous link.) After writing publicly for a while, you begin to develop these catchphrases or abbreviations for concepts you've already worked out, positions you've previously taken, things you've previously written. You write new stuff and refer to these catchphrases, forgetting that the audience of any given post is mostly new and doesn't get the reference.

This bugs the hell out of me all the time whenever I read Winer. He's been writing publicly, continuously, for like 8 years; he's become his own little Darmok (which is itself an obscure Star Trek reference), full of references so familiar to him that he doesn't bother to explain them anymore, relying on a shared context that doesn't exist."
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2/09/2003 07:16:00 PM 0 comments

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[ rhetoric ]

"it is hard to be brave," said piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal." rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "it is because you are a very small animal that you will be Useful in the adventure before us."

the complete tales & poems of winnie the pooh

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this site chronicles the continuing adventures of my son, odin, who was unexpectedly born on the fourth of july at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1 pound 7 ounces.

he's quite a fighter and you can always send him a postcard to the most current address listed here if you're inspired by his adventures. see the postcard project/google maps mashup to see a map of the postcards.

if you're new, you can browse the archives to catch up. and don't forget to watch a few movies that i made while we were in the neonatal intensive care unit. or if you want the abridged version and you can find a copy, you can read about his adventures in the november 2005 issue of parents magazine.



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