http://paulfolson.com A journal of miscellany and disorder Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:16:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Regular readers have probably noticed that I never talk much about my day job as editor of our little weekly newspaper. But I do get asked about it from time to time, and since the gig is often responsible for my absences here, I probably owe at least a little ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/02/22/about-that-day-job/ I almost forgot to mention that today, February 17, marks this blog's first birthday. It was one year ago today that I unveiled this site to the world and put up the first several posts. So, happy birthday to ... me, I guess! And more important, thanks to all of you for ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/02/17/happy-birthday-dear-blog/ Winter continues, long, tough, but beautiful. My wife took these pictures of our house today, in the midst of our latest "snow event," which they say could leave ten or twelve inches of new white stuff before it's finished. http://paulfolson.com/2008/02/17/winter/ I'm no different than you. When I go to the movies, I don't like to sit through thirty minutes of coming attractions before getting to the film I actually came to see. It's the same with DVDs, where one or two trailers are kind of fun but eight or ten ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/02/10/when-books-are-like-the-movies/ I admit it. I was a Facebook skeptic for a long, long time. After my very brief flirtation with MySpace (which made my eyeballs bleed from the ugliness of the pages, deafened me with useless background music, frustrated me with the lack of customization and inundated me with countless friend ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/02/02/facebook-yeah-facebook/ I seem to be overwhelmed with good reading lately. Just for starters, there is Kim Stanley Robinson's amazing alternate history, The Years of Rice and Salt, which I waited far too many years before reading. Then there's Gregory Frost's brand new novel, Shadowbridge, a thing of beauty that also happens to be ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/01/27/overwhelmed/ To counter the notion I've cultivated recently, the idea that I'm a total technonerd or that all of my writing and productivity tools reside on my computer hard drive, I'm proud to present these pictures of my newest babies, which just arrived yesterday: Rotring Core Technor Monteverde Charisma Quite a difference between the ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/01/19/new-babies-in-the-house/ My review of Joe Hill's magnificent short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, is now posted over at Hellnotes. Read the review, if you're so inclined. More important, read the book. http://paulfolson.com/2008/01/14/20th-century-ghosts/ At the risk of turning a "journal of miscellany" into a "journal of technology," I probably shouldn't leave the discussion of using the best tools for the job without a word or two about why I like OpenOffice.org. I mentioned that little tidbit in passing during my last post, so ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/01/12/opening-up-about-openofficeorg/ Continuing with the theme of using the best tool for the job: How many of you remember Wordstar? I not only remember it, I actually used it for many years, starting in the 1980s, when I first made the transition from typewriters to computers. For the first few years, it ... http://paulfolson.com/2008/01/03/remembering-wordstar/