So, to recap one final time, I've cobbled together an AppleScript that copies blogging related links from my Privacy Locked personal Pinboard to the ReadingGeorgeFox account. While I'm not yet back in NYC—now it's Jersey rather than Upstate—I've found a printer and the the time to annotate the script. Some credit: I used Rafael Bugajewski's DEVONthink Pro Pinboard Importer as a starting point; I have modified it a fair amount, though. Anyways, here goes nothing: 1 Lines 9 thru 11 download the bookmarks via simple curl2 commands. When I began working on the script, I was still confused about the url syntax for tags, so I set up three separate downloads. This ended up making some later processing simpler, and, as the downloads were so small,3 I decided to keep it this way. As for downloading to files instead of passing the data directly to the rest of the script, it was easier to troubleshoot and AppleScript seems to be happier pulling data from a file on disk. Lastly, I'm using Pinboard API tokens instead of passwords. While I could have used Keychain scripting to be extra secure, these scripts are run locally on my machine and I figured the…
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Apologies for the day late update. Still trying to catch up from all the traveling. Looks like it will probably be a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday posting schedule this week.
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As I mentioned in my last post, I've enabled Privacy Lock on my personal Pinboard account and written an AppleScript to sync blogging source links to the ReadingGeorgeFox account. The script is available for download.1 I'm still upstate so we'll have to wait until Monday for a full account and description. I've commented the script pretty thoroughly if you'd like to use it in the meantime. No promises or warranties attached to it, of course. ↩
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Sorry for the late post. Turns out a 340 mile round-trip drive from Salem to Poughkeepsie and back is not conducive to writing in-depth the next day. Anyways, onto the preview! Blogging and the Anti-Social Bookmarker — A return to tech for those bored of politics and art. Ever since Maciej enabled Privacy Lock, I've set my personal Pinboard to be completely private. I'm not particularly interested in sharing all my personal interests1. However, after starting Reading George Fox, I figured it would be helpful2 to provide an archive of my sources; hence the pinboard.in link on the side. Now, who wants to manage two different bookmarking accounts? Certainly not lazy old me. I've cobbled together a small AppleScript and bash system to automate transferring links from the personal account to the blog's. This will be the story of that journey.3 One Size Fits All — On the Magnum Edition of Lovecast 356, Dan chats with Dr. Joye Swan about condom use and magical monogamy thinking. While Dr. Swan has done some excellent research on the STI/HIV risks of serial monogamy and partner infidelity, her advice for “the re-education we have to go through” is far too dogmatic and narrow…
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Process Now that I have a week of regular posting under my belt, I figured I’d record what my process is now and what I hope it to be going forward[1]. Right now, I’m rolling it old school—first draft is handwritten using pen and paper[2]. For all the Hoopla over technological methods to force you to focus on writing[3], nothing beats the simplicity of pen and paper. You have to switch to another device entirely to multitask. Moreover, it really does force you to slow down; I can type roughly twice as fast as I can write. Lastly, our consciousness and intelligence is distributed throughout our body[4]: our brains actually work differently using pen and paper than it does with keys and screen. Next step is typing the post into Drafts—a step up in complexity, but still using a single focus device. I revise as I go, also expanding sections left rough in the first draft. Relatively simple links, mostly those already in Pinboard and Pinbook, are also added. Onwards to the truck of computing; Drafts sends the draft post to Dropbox and MultiMarkdown Composer prints it out[5] [6]. I give it a good read aloud, then head back to…
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Post indeed coming later today. -Bruce
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In “Amazon has added Kurt Vonnegut to its 'official' fan fiction program”1, Rob Bricken argues the Kindle Words Program's inclusion of Vonnegut's work is an assault on all that is good and virtuous in the world of literature. That it “cannot end well;” that it will inevitably “…tarnish the works of one of America's greatest authors.” Sadly Bricken does not provide the mechanism by which this desecration will occur. Perhaps Amazon will rip out chapters from Slaughter House Five to replace them with fan written work; or they might publish an “undiscovered” Vonnegut manuscript; or they could even dig up Vonnegut's corpse to tar and feather it with pages of fan fiction. All are about equally likely. Which leads to the question: how does the mere existence of tributes to an author's inspirational power damage the text's that already exist? Does Gnomeo and Juliet diminish the elegance of Shakespeare's original? Or does Cruel Intentions profane Les Liaisons dangereuses? Perhaps Phantom Menace's Coruscant reduces Asimov's Trantor? Maybe the difference is that there is “no goddamn way anyone is going to write a story staring Kurt Vonnegut's characters as well as Vonnegut did.” Bricken is right, Vonnegut is a great author; however…
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Dan Savage’s continuing enthusiasm for Anthony Weiner is well intentioned, but ultimately mistaken and potentially counter-productive[1]. Dan is absolutely correct that we must fight for a world in which our sexual interests and mistakes do not disqualify us from employment or public service. How we behave[2] in the bedroom has little impact on how we work outside of it. Moreover, we have always been a kinky species; the Internet has just made our kinks public knowledge. In the long run, this is a wonderful news—it’s much harder to be judgmental about others’ quirks when your own are well known[3]. Weiner is just the wrong standard bearer for this fight. Dan often makes a distinction between having a kink[4] and how you communicate it. We look for good judgment in potential partners, and introducing yourself as a Furry, Coprophiliac, and Masochist on the first date usually[5] indicates that you aren’t the sharpest knife in the draw. Ol’ Anthony has taken a plethora of opportunities this summer to showcase his horrendous judgment. If you are premising your campaign as a redemptive journey, don’t engage in the behavior that fucked you in the first place. Especially when your wife will have to stand…
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"Light is not the bearer of revelation—it is the revelation."[1] James Turrell’s Aten Reign, currently at the Guggenheim[2], embodies light’s power, such that even the most insensitive observer can’t help but be moved. As a lighting designer, I’ve devoted over half my life to studying light’s ability to connect and separate, to enliven and to deaden, to reveal and to conceal. Like all our senses, sight operates in potent unconscious ways: certain colors provoke specific emotions; bright and changing sources command our attention[3]; without contrast, intense hues fade over time and alter the color of differing hues[4]; we all have two blind spots corresponding to our optic nerves—our brain automatically fills them in so we experience a continuous visual field[5]. My career involves taking these physiological and psychological facts and using them to manipulate audience members. As Jennifer Tipton[6] said, “1% of the audience notices the lighting; 100% are effected by it.” The genius of Turrell’s work is the enabling a lay person to perceive this force. Even if visitors do not know how Turrell accomplishes this, they feel consciously compelled to lie there and experience the event. They are moved and held. In the insanity of New York City,…
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At first there was naught, yet after an age, the sky copulated with the ocean. From the seas’ tumescence, heat, rock, life exploded forth, building, bubbling, boiling—excreting rich earth. Once found, we tended to it, each of us with our own garden, discovering and sharing our abundance. Inspired by the prompts: “my garden,” anyone who grows my food,“ and ”underwater volcanos". Via South Pacific mythology—thanks to the awesome J.Z. Smith, who not only looks like Gandalf and with his gnarled staff, but also taught me all about tuber myths. Oh, how sexual root vegetables can become!
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