Matt and I went skiing today. It was an AWESOME day for skiing, in the 20s and sunny. I skied for the first hour with only a sweater, and only when the sun went down a little and the wind picked up did I put on my jacket. We were both listening to tunes, which made for good skiing and crappy conversation. Two people got taken off the hill and put on ambulances, which wasn't good. Matt wiped out big-time once. It looked great, and he was fine afterwards.

I was going to buy a nice bottle of wine for tonight, but it turns out they don't sell liquor on President's day. Who would have known.

# posted by Dave @ 9:05 PM

So write after I wrote the previous entry, I found the quote I was looking for:

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. Robert A. Heinlein

What is funny about that, of course, is that Robert Heinlein is my favorite author, and certainly the one whose writing has most influenced my attitudes. The "Dum Vivimus, Vivamus" motto on this page, while usually attributed to Epicurus (341–270 B.C.) is the motto on the sword of a hero in Heinlein's "Glory Road".

# posted by Dave @ 6:00 PM

I think I'm a very self-centered blogger.

Nancy's blog is about "cooking, eating and enjoying life with my boyfriend." So far this blog (all two posts) is all about me.

I don't know why that is. Is it a guy thing? Is it because blogging is about taking the random, messy thoughts that are swirling around in your head and committing them (irrevokably*) to the internet?

I think there's a somewhat famous quote about writing best being done alone in a room, like other antisocial behaviours. But I can't find the quote.

(*) Anything that gets published to the internet is likely to end up stored on some computer somewhere till the end of time. Internet information is both ephemeral and enduring; and usually which aspect is dominant is the inverse of what you want.

# posted by Dave @ 5:43 PM

Last night I went out to a Rochester bar that was holding a benefit for a musician whose house burned down. They had four bands playing, but I only caught the last two. The final band of the night was Incognito, who are without a doubt my favorite local band. They play rock and pop, but they have an awesome horn section that adds an increadible amount of depth to the sound. I've know the lead singer, Mary, for a looong time. She has just released a CD (you should buy one.)

The only downside was the cigarette smoke. There are a lot of smoke-free places in Rochester, so when I go to a smokey one I really notice.

It was a fun night, but I drank enough beer that my energy level has not been very high today.

# posted by Dave @ 5:12 PM

I have lots of motivation to blog. For one thing, I like writing. I don't do it much, but I like it. For another thing, I'm surrounded by bloggers. Mostly very good and entertaining bloggers.

• I tend to learn more about my daugher's life by reading her blog than by having dinner with her.
• My girlfriend, who is a very talented designer of web pages, with a much better eye for color than I, just started her own blog and already has cool content (mostly good recipes we have made together.)
• One of my favorite blogs just because it is so raw and revealing of the utter chaos in a mind.

And there are a bunch of others (I love RSS feeds) that I follow on a regular basis.

The big problem for me is follow through. A movie that has a line that has always stuck with me is "Night Shift" with Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, Shelly Long (memo to self...add it to the Netflix queue.) There's a line there where Michael Keaton says "I'm an ideas man, Chuck!" And that's what I feel like a lot. I'm great at ideas, and suck on followthrough.

Perhaps the fact that I'm addicted to following other blogs will motivate me to write stuff in mine.

# posted by Dave @ 10:14 AM