Updates – Page 300 – Kevin Smokler

R.I.P My Mattress:

Smokler on October 21, 2001

It’s been six years since I’ve bought a mattress and the sack of newspaper I’m sleeping on now has had its day. If I drift too close to the center, it buckles and I end up like the filling in a taco shell. “When you sleep like guacamole,” my friend Laura said this morning, “it’s no good.”

So off I went to European Sleep Works in Berkeley yesterday. The store underwrites several programs on KQED and in their spots, recite a bunch of scientific who-ha about “coil depth” and “independencing sides.” I planned to gather some expert opinions and then shop around. I left with a rediculously expensive mattress and an elaborate justification: I’m investing in good sleep over the next 15-20 years and avoiding taco rest forever. If it means raman noodles for the next 8 months then, eh, it means raman noodles. With pepper if I can afford it.

They’re very good salespeople.

Attica:

Smokler on October 19, 2001

Last month marked the the 30th anniversary of the Attica Prison Rebellion. On September 9, 1971, the inmates of Attica prison near Buffalo, New York seized the facility with demands for better living conditions and vocational training. At the time, the Attica Correctional Faciltiy gave inmates one bucket of water a week for “showering” and one roll of toilet paper per month.

After a four day standoff, Governor Nelson Rockafeller refused negotiation and sent a strike force of 1,500 state police and national guardsman to the prison yard. In all, 42 people were killed including 10 correctional officers. In the years that followed, the State of New York would send bulldozers into the prison yard to wipe out any evidence of wrongdoing.

At the time, Attica was the worst case of one-day violence between Americans since the civil war. It remains one of the most shameful incidents in the history of American law enforcement.

I think of this now, in this very scray time, in this country I love. I see us giving virtually unchecked powers to law enforcement officials to question, arrest and detain those “suspected” of illegal activity. I see us willing to look at whole swaths of Americans as potential criminals and I’m reminded of Dostoyevsky, a prisoner himself, who said that “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering the prisons.”

I look at how we treat those we suspect of wrongdoing in America, the power we give to those appointed to protect us. And it scares the hell out of me.

What I Think I’m Doing Here…

Smokler on October 18, 2001

Column done. Thank God.

I’m thinking this little site might be outgrowing its Blogspot roots. I’ve got bigger plans and, of course, little ability to do anything about them. But I would at least like to link to another page and give myself room to write longer essay pieces. For example, I just read an essay by Derek Powazek (whose work I respect a lot) who mentioned what he desired of weblogs, “I always wanted to see people make things. Big, beautiful, daring things. Not yet another pointer to yet another Salon article.”

I wondered if I was doing that, merely giving a shallow tour of my existence and where I surf on the web. Maybe because I came to blogging through the paralell yet segregate world of online journaling, I always envisioned a blog of as a challange to myself to live a dynamic life, not a list of cool stuff I’ve dug up on the web. There are other blogs out there that do that better than I ever could. And the truth is, I don’t live online and don’t want to. I communicate here, exchange ideas, create a little, even make friends. But my life happens in the real world. The record of it happens here.

I guess I’m ok with that now. I’m just thinking about it a lot today.

“This Year”

Smokler on October 18, 2001

Finally found “This Year” by Chantal whatever-her-name-is on WinMX. Sarah Hatter was kind enough to email me with advice on how to find it. Thanks Sarah!

Bay Area Webloggers Unite!

Smokler on October 17, 2001

Robert Scobble of Userland put together the first Bay Area Webloggers meeting this evening and blogged the whole thing. It may look like a dry gathering from here but that was about the size of it, really. Everyone was very well intentioned but really wanted to be there to meet and socialize and futz about protocol later. When that got started, so did the fun.

Matt Haughey (who generously gave me a ride home) pointed out that there needs to be strong leaders for any collaborative project to actually, uh, work. Agreed but I’m not volunteering myself (Matt wasn’t asking me to. I’m just sayin’). I’m too new to the world of personal publishing to have anything to add. I’m here to learn.

My friend Kristin did an excellent job of organizing us all for dinner. I had a great train ride down from SF with Evan Williams, Sondra Nelson from C|Net and two very smart fellows down named Jeff and Anthony. At the event, I reconnected with Kevin Fox whom I hadn’t seen in many a moon and met several bloggers I had read but not really met. Since I had few expectations, none were let down. A blast.

RIP Brill’s Content and Inside.com:

Smokler on October 16, 2001

Brill’s Content and Inside.com are finished. You know you’re getting older when you can see a magazine born and then die in your lifetime (via Fud).

Web Traffic School:

Smokler on October 15, 2001

One lesson away from finishing Web Traffic School thank God allmighty. I bailed on a movie with my friend Laura for this stupid thing.

My Friend Jo:

Smokler on October 14, 2001

My friend Jo is moving back to New York next month. Very sad. We’re going to put together a Geocache with all her favorite San Francisco stuff and hide it at one of her favorite spots in the city. I found my first cache with her about a month ago so the “Farewell Jo Cache” is a fitting tribute.

Flame Out:

Smokler on October 14, 2001

Oy God. A flame war has errupted on the Bay Area Webloggers Bay Area Bloggers newsletter. It only took 24 hours. I hope we can quell this one fast and realize that this is supposed to be about community, collaboration and an exchange of ideas, not a bigger-dick match over who knows more about the software industry.

Webbloging By the Bay:

Smokler on October 14, 2001

I’ve just signed up for the Bay Area Webloggers newsletter and receive several postings a day about content syndication, self-hosting, and whether Newsisfree.com is a crock. It’s thrilling to feel part of a community, even with the little ghetto-ass blog I got going here. But I’ll be the first to admit I don’t understand much of the conversation at all. That’s why I’m hoping to get a lot of questions answered this Tuesday down in Mountain View where the group is meeting for coffee and klatch. I’ve spoken to Evan Williams, the man behind Blogger about a convoy of us from San Francisco meeting at the train station and heading down en masse. He liked the idea.