for every thing (turn, turn, turn)

I've been reading blogs again lately.

When the term first became widespread, the people with blogs were the early adopters, the tech people, the nerds. And, in general, they (we) can't write for shit. I looked at some blogs, thought "ah, it's nice that it's getting so easy to publish stuff," and promptly realized that I didn't give a damn.

The fact that something is possible is boring. The early blogs were intensely boring. Boring like the hamster dance (thank you, Internet, for teaching me what "banality of evil" means). It was like, here's your chance to share all your cool shit with everyone, and you're telling me what you ate for lunch?

Things only got interesting once people started really doing stuff with those possibilities. And no, mind-numbing debates between RSS and Atom advocates do not count. Which suprises me, really, because I'm usually totally engaged in the tech stuff. REST vs. WS-*? I'm there. Software Transactional Memory? I'll actually read the damn paper. Putting Curry-Howard to work? Amazing stuff, seriously.

But now... Now! We have actual writer-type people actually writing actual interesting things. All over the place. And by "writer-type people" I don't mean people who write for a living, necessarily, I just mean people who can actually write. So yes, now, in 2006, I am finally reading personal blogs on a regular basis. There's a fair amount of good stuff out there. And this is a relatively new thing.

Sure, sure, if you're actually reading this then you probably found all this out before I did. Also, you have no life. The great thing about all of these readable personal blogs is, now it's clear that most everyone else has no life either. Even a jet-setting model with a rock star boyfriend is clearly bored and lonely, always in a strange town far from home and friends. This reassures me like you wouldn't believe.

It's just like the Internet as a whole. There was a big hype wave, then people found out that their lives weren't going to change overnight. Then it got passe to be excited about the Internet. But now is just when things are starting to get seriously cool. People just don't notice as much.

I think this is because the current change is social rather than technical. When each technical change happened, it was quick and easily identifiable; one day all of a sudden there was this concrete new thing. But the change that's happening now is when everyone actually starts to move into the building that's been waiting for them. And I'm giddy like a schoolgirl over how great the neighbors are.

Speaking of which, the blog that inspired this post.

Like ice, only I live on it

I have hardwood floors.

The fact that my apartment is so tiny means that the most convenient way to clean the floor is actually by hand. The first time I cleaned the floor here I had Pledge and paper towels handy, so I went with it (going with the flow is one of the secrets to bachelor housekeeping). It works okay--the fixed costs of mopping (filling the bucket, getting rid of the dirty water afterward) don't have enough floor to be amortized away. With a swiffer-like device, on the other hand, there's enough junk on my floors by the time I clean that I have to change the cloth several times, so it's not much of a win given that it's so much harder to navigate small corners. Which I have in abundance.

Anyway, I don't think Pledge is really meant for floors. For one thing, the floor is slippery for a while after you use it. Especially if you're wearing socks. Today my floor is clean but treacherous.

Clearly, someday someone is going to get blood all over my nice clean floor. And what am I going to clean that up with?