There’s a thing that Elke did last year that I thought was really cool - she was going to try and read a book a week (more or less, I think 52 books in 52 weeks was the actual goal.) I thought this was admirable and something I’d like to do, but realized that it’s unlikely I’d do it. Regardless, I decided to make a list of books that I did want to read, and see how many of them I’d get through. Then I started to think about it a bit too much, and did I include books that I already read, but wanted to read again? Finally I decided to just list books that I hadn’t read, and actually wrote down the first few. Then I forgot about it for a month. Then last week I got it out when I was going to the used book store and wrote down a few more, and then afterwards put down some off of my Amazon wish list. Anyways, here’s what I have so far:

1. Going Postal - Terry Pratchett ( I recently read he’s got some horrible disease. How awful.)
2. Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson (I read Cryptonomicon and it was excellent, and heard nothing but good stuff.)
3. Eleanor Rigby - Douglas Coupland (After reading Microserfs I wanted to read lots more of his stuff, then after JPod, I didn’t. My brother left this at my house 2 years ago and It’s been calling to me.)
4. Walden - Thoreau
5. Generation X - Douglas Coupland (heard this was one of his best.)
6. Hey Nostradamus - Douglas Coupland
7. Leaves Of Grass - Walt Whitman (I’ve read bits and pieces of this on and off over the last 2 years and really want to spend some time reading the whole thing.)
8. How to talk so your kids will listen - Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish
9. Managing Humans - Michael Lopp (Jon turned me on to his blog (I think Jon, anyways) and it’s been a staple.)
10. Hackers & Painters - Paul Graham (I’m a student of cyberanthropology.)
11. Joel On Software - Joel Spolsky (Also love his blog, and want to both have this in book form as well as contribute something so that he keeps writing.)
12. Expect the Unexpected - Roger Von Oech (I loved his other two books)
13. The Cult Of Mac - Leander Kahney (I think I mentioned I’m into CyberAnthropology)
14. Cyberia - Douglas Rushkoff (I’ve started this book 3 separate times and something has come up each time. Plus, cyberanthropology.)
15. In The Garden Of Iden - Kage Baker (Jon told me about this and I think it sounds cool.)
16. Labyrinths Of Reason - William Poundstone
17. 21 Dog Years - Doing time @amazon.com - Mike Daisey (Cyberanthropology)
18. The Bug - Ellen Ullman (Cyberanthropology)
19. Smart & Get Things Done - Joel Spolsky
20. Sunshine Sketches Of A Little Town - Steven Leacock (Again, have read bits and pieces, but want to read the whole thing.)

I also did read Anansi Boys by Neal Gaiman, which was awesome, but need to write about it in another post.

To a different blogging system. We’ll see.
My blog was hacked last week, and hopefully this might help.

When I started blogging some years ago, I did it kind of as an exercise in perl.. to see if I could actually write a whole blog. I did. It worked pretty good, and it was my content management system for over a year. Then I decided to move to something more ‘commercial’ - Movable Type. I wrote an exporter that grabbed the stuff out of the storage mechanism I was using and wrote it to XML that the movable type importer could understand. Then when I got my own hosting, b2evolution provided an importer that would read MT exported entries. Now, I have no way of getting my stuff OUT of b2evolution. *sigh*.

I’m better than you and you and you. Because I’ve posted for *3* days in a row! Ahahaha!

I realized that for christmas I got one of the most kick-ass gifts ever: Season one of the A-Team! Let’s hear a big hurrah for children of the 80’s! I can remember living vicariously, through Bo & Luke, Michael Knight, Hannibal & BA, Airwolf and a little girl named ‘Punky’ (Yes, I admit it!) and lots of others. Man, they just don’t make TV like that anymore.

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So last night I was out at dinner at Thea Mediteranean for work (it’s our yearly SE conference), and as I was leaving, I saw Elke eating with an unknown accomplice. I had the sudden urge to sneak up to her table and bow, and speak to her in a thick accent:

“Your Highness! It is wonderful to see you again after the Morocco incident. Please know that I have completed the tasks set to me by General Manzanes before his untimely demise. Know that your people will not rest until you reclaim your former glory! Have a delightful evening!”

But given that I didn’t know who she was with (how would that look to a business acquintance?) I opted not to do that.

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