Nov 30 2010

Link ‘o the Day

Posted by PAgent in Blogs and Bloggers, Links

The Bloggess vs. a Clueless Marketer:

Them: We are sorry that you are passing on this valuable opportunity to help your readers. We will keep you in mind for future products which meet your requirements.

me: You will send me four dead cats in a shoebox. I will send you high-quality photos of them as marionettes.

I’ll just let you guess who wins.

Read the post here.

Nov 11 2010

Quote of the Day

Posted by PAgent in Blogs and Bloggers, Prose, Technology

“Back-ups. Oh, my god. Burning your stuff to CD or DVD is not good enough. Trust me on that. Things go wrong. Understand that Storage Will Always Fail. Always. I have a ruggedised, manly and capacious 32GB USB memory stick that can withstand fire, water, gunshots and the hairy arseteeth of Cthulhu itself — but my daughter decided she wanted to liberate one of my bags for her use, took the stick out of it and put it ’somewhere safe.’ It has never been seen again. Storage Will Always Fail.”

– Warren Ellis, on “What I Use”

Jul 29 2010

Lyric for Every Day of the Year Project

Posted by PAgent in Blogs and Bloggers

Rich Marini just left a comment over on flotsam that I think is definitely worth passing on. Rich has a blog called “Favorite Office Time Wasters” that you just might find entertaining, but in particular he’s just started a very ambitious project over there:

Thought you might find my Lyric for Every Day of the Year Project (launched today) interesting and, if so, you might do an item on it.

You can find it here:

Lyric for Every Day of the Year Project

Here’s the description:

The object of the Lyric for Every Day of the Year Project is to come up with songs that mention every single one of the 366 days of the (leap) year. The aim is nothing more than simply coming up with a really cool, really long list of song titles.

So, he has to come up with a song that references a specific day of the year, for every single day of the year. My first thought was the day the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, but someone had already beat me to it.

Want to play? Then head on over and help Rich out.

Dec 30 2009

How I Spent My Evening

Posted by PAgent in Blogs and Bloggers, FYI

If you want to hear all the sordid details about the worst commute of my entire life, zip on over to OurPDX and read my latest post there: Worst. Commute. Ever.

Oct 03 2009

Portland Top Blogs

Posted by PAgent in Blogs and Bloggers, FYI, Links, Portland

If a certain Ms. Angelina Mizaki is to be believed, my readers have voted for PAgent’s Progress to become one of Portland’s Top Blogs at the The Daily Reviewer.

This is a great honor. One for which the only appropriate response can be “WTF WERE YOU THINKING??”

It’s weird enough to get listed on Alltop Portland, but I assumed that was mostly based on outgoing links to various Portland-area websites, and being friends with some movers and shakers in the Portland tech community. But this? I’m left shaking my head.

Let me tell you why this is so odd:

1) I don’t write much Portland-centric stuff anymore. When I do, it’s pretty much earmarked for publication at OurPDX, and frankly I haven’t been all that active over there, either; and

2) I don’t write much of anything that’s truly worth reading these days. The most recent posts are predominantly administrative FYIs and whining. (Okay, most of the posts in the entire BLOG are whining. I’ll grant you that.)

What gives? Hey, if you want to read Portland-area blogs that are actually worth reading, there are quite a few. For example,

BikePortland.org – Jonathan Maus does a tremendous job staying on top of all things bike-related in the Rose City

The Dingleberry Gazette – What working in downtown PDX is REALLY like.

The Miracle in July – This is one of the most ambitious efforts I’ve ever seen, telling a story in full multimedia. Amazing.

Cafe Mama – This is Sarah Gilbert’s blog. Perhaps you’ve heard of her? She recently got the bike-through policy at Burgerville changed. And she can write. With, like, real words.

Almost Fit – This is a blog about getting fit, but more than that, it’s about making the changes in your life, in the way you think, that will allow you to get fit. And besides, Metroknow is a buddy of mine.

And these are just the ones that occur to me off the top of my head. Trust me, there are more.

Frankly, I don’t know if I can handle this kind of pressure.

Aug 03 2009

Caveats and Clarifications

Posted by PAgent in Blogs and Bloggers, FYI, Prose, Verse

Some folks have expressed concern regarding the subject matter of the poem I posted last night. I deeply appreciate the concern, believe me. I can think of no better indication of the kind and quality of the relationships that we can have electronically.

However, the Wife and I are not divorced. We are not even separated. I tend to channel angst and stress into my writing, and sometimes it goes to very dark places. In addition, I’ve seen some close friends go through some harrowing divorce proceedings. So that’s where that came from.

You shouldn’t take anything I write creatively too seriously. In fact, if something were genuinely going on with my spouse, or my kids, I’d be much less likely to post about it.

Sometimes a poem is just a poem.