Player, Attack Thyself - Why Japanese gamers love avenging Pearl Harbor. By Clive Thompson: "This leads to a surprising facet of game psychology: Really hard-core gamers often look past the cultural 'content' of a game. They're mostly worried about a more prosaic concern, which is whether the game is fun. The geopolitics of a game melt away as players, like philosophers musing on their favorite platonic solid, ponder gameplay in the abstract.

We're accustomed to thinking that a piece of entertainment is nothing but its cultural content. A movie or TV show is just what you see on the screen. But a game is also about play, and play is invisible. That's why outsiders are often puzzled by the success of games that would appear to be nothing but screamingly offensive content. They can't see the play. Sure, you've got raw guts flying around�but for the player, part of the joy is in messing with physics (even if that happens to be bullets and shoulder-launched grenades) or with strategy (even if that's figuring out how to starve a village)."

Computers & Writing 2001: "First, that 'except special technical commuications support' thing is a HUGE except, and really, it's the only thing I've *ever* really used computer labs for. I would agree, the need to have 25 or so students meet three times a week in a computer lab so they can MOO each other is kinda over, and in my experience, classes that are assigned in computer labs for every meeting (even my own classes) rarely make use of the computers every day. But I also think that a few labs (including laptop labs) can go a long, long way in terms of training students certain skills (my teaching folks to make web pages, plus it's a hell of a lot easier to teach fy comp students how to critically evaluate their web research or how to work the library's computer set-up in a lab than it is over something like WebCT), to collaborate, to do peer review, to provide some higher-end functions (things like PageMaker or hardware things like CD Burners), and so forth. Anyone who says we don't need labs to do these things has never had the discomfort of having no access to a lab.

But I would agree with Fred that the solution of putting in more labs to 'get them on the Internet' is not much of a solution either. I think we still need campus supported labs, but I think we need them for different functions than we did even five years ago. I doubt computer services people do this, but it would be interesting to survey students at a place like EMU or wherever and try to figure out how students use the big university supported labs we have. I'll bet 5 years ago, 50% of the students in there were doing word processing. Now I'll bet that number is like 25% or less, with the rest of the students doing things like browsing the web, checking their email (the campus labs still have a lot quicker connection than home), *printing* papers, etc."

lewin: "Additionally, Lewin strongly emphasised the complementarity of basic and applied research.

Famous for the saying:

'There is Nothing So Practical as a Good Theory'

'If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.'


The power of Lewin's theorizing lay not in a formal propositional kind of theory but in his ability to build 'models' of processes that drew attention to the right kinds of variables that needed to be conceptualized"

Lewin, Kurt (1951): " Such a goal also guides my future as a communication scholar. It is too bad Kurt Lewin died so unexpectedly (of a reported heart attack in 1947), he could have taken the communication discipline even further. His famous quote, 'There is nothing so practical as a good theory,' remains my credo."

Rebecca Howard on Grammar

Chapter 3: Critical Ethnography: Method and Methodology: "This challenged me to ensure that any research methodology and method that I adopted would potentially raise the political consciousness of the participants, including myself. As well as this I hoped that it would also offer the YCW the possibility of developing emancipatory social action. It was also clear that I had to be honest with the YCW about my intentions and to show that my research methodology was consistent with the role of collaborator and the philosophy of the YCW. It was necessary to show the YCW that my research methodology was grounded in the belief that my reflection did 'not begin with a search for answers but with a search for questions' (Freire, 1972, cited in Street 1992:15). The YCW agreed to my research as it offered them the possibility of drawing on the critical report that would result from the project."

Visual Rhetoric Projects: "John Wittman--'Ethnography Project'


What I want to do for this project is look at the details of ethnographic use in composition and education. My specific intentions, however, keep slipping between two points. Initially I wanted to focus primarily on the role objects and the relationships between objects play a part in the construction of ethnographies. The more I read the more I am inclined to focus my attentions on the difficulties of interpretation, i.e. discuss the difficulties of looking at unfamiliar cultural settings rhetorically. At this point I think I will have to include both to some extent. I want to begin with issues of postcolonialism since ethnography's primary purpose in Europe was to learn about cultural groups in order to colonize their land, enslave them, and/or subjugate them in some way. I'm not quite sure what I am looking for here, but I think I need to explore some foundational problems with ethnography's origins. From here I think I need to make some generalizations about how ethnography has developed and been employed over the last few decades. The bulk of the essay will analyze problems with vision. Two things come to mind here. (1) Covino's claim that no vision can see everything and nothing can alter that, and (2) Barry's claims that our vision is premapped for us by our social/cultural environment and even our genetics. Since ethnography is dealing with the unfamiliar, I need to address issues that discuss how our interpretation of cultures different from our own are always 'colored' by our own pasts. How I plan to resolve these issues, ultimately, is using Geertz's idea of thick description, which I am going to try to relate to Barry's point of gestalt theory, and to propose consciousness on the writers part about how they are coloring texts. I hope to extend current theories of triangulation in vision. The goal is to promote ethnography by working through its shortcomings. Despite its shortcomings, it's one of the only ways we have to understand cultural dynamics to the extent that we can incorporate those into real classroom settings. This is of fundamental importance in post open-admission education.

"

The Harbinger. Web-Based Education: Barreling Down the Tracks on the Online Gravy Express.

University Business: Viewpoint

Digital Culture - Paul LeBlanc: "I have watched too many companies with specialists -- good graphics people, good technical people, high-quality content providers -- unable to effectively develop an Internet strategy because there was no one person who knew enough about all those areas and what it means to have such a strategy. We're training those people.

Your program for educators stresses the development of 'pedagogically sound' applications of the Internet and other new media technologies. Given the radical re-evaluation that the new tools demand, how do you know valid pedagogy when you see it?

Good question. It depends a lot on whom you ask. Accrediting agencies say 'Have more and better outcome assessment.' Some school boards rely on tradition: 'Do more of what you used to do when I was a kid!' The testing industry says, 'Use our tests.' My own feeling is that schools need to develop a set of philosophical guidelines that make sense for their context and community. There is no one definition of good learning or good teaching for every school. We too often ignore the road children travel in our incessant worry about where they end up.
"

Digital Culture - Paul LeBlanc: "Let me begin with the similarities of the two worlds: business and K-12. Small- and medium-sized businesses and schools are still early on in their integration of Internet technologies. Only 25 percent of medium-sized businesses (100 to 1000 employees) and 8 percent of small businesses (fewer than 100 employees) have access to the Net. About 65 percent of schools have a connection, but only about 15 percent of classrooms do. In both cases the task of strategizing, implementing, and more often, evangelizing, is left up to individuals. We want to train those individuals, to position them, really, to effectively and successfully lead the efforts of their organizations. More fundamentally, both programs are predicated on the notion that getting connected can dramatically change how and what one does within an organization, whether it's selling, marketing, and customer support in a business environment or curriculum, assessment, and research in a learning environment. Both programs begin with the question: 'What happens when I get connected?' "

My son, who is seven, and has lived most of his life in Kentucky, took an icicle to the bus stop because it was cool. A neighbor told him to drop it or he would "break it over his head." Then he yelled at my wife over the phone for letting our son bring a "weapon to school, and told her she had better take him seriously or he would "take it to the next level."



Sigh.



It's people like this that make tranquilizer guns filled with liquid prozac seem like a really good idea.

datacloud

In class Friday we'll be working on your project #2 redesign assignment. Please come prepared.

In their presentation, "Researching Digital Literacies: The
Methodological Challenges of Life History, Collaboration,
and Autobiography," Hawisher and Selfe will focus upon the
collaborative methodology they have developed and the
ethical issues they have faced during the past six years
spent researching technological literacy in America from
1978-2003.


In her presentation "Qualitative Research on the Internet:
Considerations for the Ethnographic Surfer," Mountford will
focus on the practical and theoretical issues that arise
when conducting qualitative research through the Internet.
She will examine two kinds of special problems:
safeguarding the privacy of participants whom one studies,
and determining when data posted on the Internet is public
or private.


The rest of the workshop will be organized as a research
roundtable in which researchers will present work-in-
progress for feedback. Veteran researchers will be on hand
to facilitate roundtable discussions. The goal of this
annual workshop is to offer mentoring and support to
qualitative researchers at all levels of experience.


Presenters may focus on specific concerns and/or broader
issues related to qualitative research and we encourage
submissions from those at any stage of the research
process. Each presenter will have twenty minutes for both
presentation and feedback, which will necessitate
presenters to have on hand concise and accessible summaries
of their studies.

: "It is the burden of comprehension---the responsibility we have to understand the contexts, values, and methods of those from whom we borrow--that I will address. The purpose of my discussion is four-fold. First, I want to come to some understanding of how technology has been approached--historically, methodologically, and ideologically--by scholars in disciplines that have for some time interrogated technological artifacts, systems, and the people who use them. Second, I bring this research to technical communication for the purpose of situating the arguments of other-disciplinary technology scholars into our own disciplinary framework. Third, I hope to experience some of the promise of interdisciplinary research that in the best of circumstances leads to what Klein calls 'an inductive openendedness' (93).' that interesting space in the world of research where we end up with more--and even more interesting--questions. Finally, I turn to some of these questions back toward the profession of technical communication for the purpose of rethinking our roles and responsibilities.
I will limit my discussion to the methodologies of several disciplines that have for some time been involved with the study of technology from historical, sociological, and philosophical perspectives. I have chosen disciplines that not only have some precedent in the field, but which also cover a fair stretch of methodological ground appropriate for technical communicators. For instance, I have chosen the history of technology because of its comparative longevity in technology studies; sociology because of its innovative techniques, specifically ethnography and case study, and its interest in feminist studies; philosophy due to its concerns with fundamental issues of human action, most importantly ethics and public decision-making. "

: "Bijker, Wiebe E., Trevor P. Hughes, and Trevor J. Pinch. The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1987. "

: "COMPLICATING TECHNOLOGY: INTERDISCIPLINARY METHOD, THE BURDEN OF COMPREHENSION, AND THE ETHICAL SPACE OF THE TECHNICAL COMMUNICATOR "

Currently missing:



Cell phone (again) --but no big deal, because I am letting the service lapse.

Two dissertation books: Cynthia Selfe's, and Literacy and Computers. I just can afford the $100 to replace these right now. Where did they go? Arrrgh.

Cynthia Selfe: "First, I think we need to continue to resist all projects and systems that serve to establish an overly-narrow, official version of literacy practices or skills. Such projects and systems simply serve to reward the literacy practices of dominant groups and punish the practices of others. They serve to reproduce a continuing and oppressive cycle of illiteracy, racism, and poverty in this country and in others.

This means that on every curriculum committee we serve, in every standards document that we contribute to, in every outcomes assessment that we participate in, on every syllabus that we construct-we have to lead the way in insisting on a diverse range of literacy practices and values, rather than one, narrow and official form of literacy. We have made a start at this effort in the standards document of the NCTE, but in the CCCCs we need to go much further in helping both future teachers and those already in classrooms understand why this work is so important and what implications their successes and failures may have."

Cynthia Selfe: "Nowhere are these struggles and debates rendered in more complex terms--and nowhere are they more influential on our own work--than they are in the direct linkage between literacy and computer technology that has been established in increasingly direct ways over the last decade in this country. This potent linkage is sustained and reproduced by a complexly related set of cultural influences: workplaces in which approximately 70% of jobs requiring a bachelors degree or an advanced college degree now require the use computers (Digest of Education Statistics, 1996, p.458); a corporate sector focused on exploiting the 89% of 'teachers and the public' who believe that the Internet adds value to teaching and learning specifically because it 'reduces the costs teachers spend on classroom activities' ('MCI Nationwide Poll,' 1998); schools in which 87% of high school students are now writing on computers by Grade 11 (Coley, Crandler, and Engle, 1997, p. 27); and homes in which 86% of parents are convinced that a computer is the one 'most beneficial and effective product that they can buy to expand their children's opportunities' for education, future success, and economic prosperity (Getting America's Student's Ready, 1996, p. x)."

Cynthia Selfe: "Technological literacy-meaning computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity and performance-has become as fundamental to a person's ability to navigate through society as traditional skills like reading, writing and arithmetic."

The Computer Delusion by Todd Oppenheimer: "There is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve teaching and learning, yet school districts are cutting programs%uFFFD-- music, art, physical education%uFFFD-- that enrich children's lives to make room for this dubious nostrum, and the Clinton Administration has embraced the goal of 'computers in every classroom' with credulous and costly enthusiasm
"

Google Toolbar Installed: "the world's best search"

Cynthia Selfe: "Technological literacy-meaning computer skills and the ability to use computers and other technology to improve learning, productivity and performance-has become as fundamental to a person's ability to navigate through society as traditional skills like reading, writing and arithmetic."

Cynthia Selfe: "Technology and Literacy:
A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention"

The Journal of Electronic Publishing: "CONTENT MANAGEMENT"

moved to another space.

The Global Advisor Newsletter - Designing Technical Documentation for an International Audience.: "Introduction





You've just been assigned the task of producing a large technical manual for a new product, schedule for release in a few months. Oh, and by the way, this same document needs to be translated in five languages and all are scheduled for simultaneous release.



This scenario is being played out everywhere as US companies set their sights on global marketing."

I have a cold. It felt like such a small, wimpy little cold that I ignored my patented cold-busting regimen. Now I am hacking up golf balls of phlegm.

deseretnews.com | Tech toys: Learning curve is a challenge

Tasks that are occupying my buffer:



1. scheduling courses and instructors

2. Resolve complaint issue with Mr. X

3. Get mysql working. Please, oh please, why in the crap won't mysql ever work for me?

4. Check on status of labs. Install scanners.

5. Write review of blog paper

6. Contact CCCs.

7. Apply for travel funds

8. Build bench

9. Explore ramifications of New Year's goal which is: Increase energy levels

10. Find out why my left foot has been numb for months. Or at least the toes

11. Get Moodle working or buy Filemaker pro server.

12. Review lab budget

13. Return stupid Quark package

14. Write application for laptop (mid-semester)

15. Draw map of technical communications

16. Print out course calendar and add to syllabus.

17. Expand syllabus to include new, brutal attendance policy.

From ATTW-L



Related to Roy's query -- and interesting follow-ups -- I heard or read

once that a key difference between technical and business communication

can be seen along vertical or horizontal lines. For technical

communicators, the communication might be horizontal in that there's less

emphasis on hierarchy among readers (you can see where this scheme begins

to crack already -- bear with me for a moment): "users," subject-matter

experts, editors, clients, consumers, other technical communicators, &

etc.





On the other hand -- this is what I heard, not what I'm arguing, mind you

-- business communication is more hierarchical, and thus vertical in its

taxonomy -- committees, boards, executives, shareholders, competition,

corporate oversight ... & etc.





Whether or not these are interesting or helpful distinctions is debatable;

but has anyone else hear or read the vertical-horizontal distinction

somewhere? Can you point to where I might find it?





In Kynell's Writing in a Milieu of Utility, she shows how the disciplines

overlap and how they differ: business comm emerged from the needs of

commercial- and business-related enterprises, whereas technical

communication emerged from the needs of increasing uses of technologies.

In contemporary discipline formations, these boundaries seem to collapse

even more. More recently, Faber and Johnson-Eilola suggest that we're

'hybrid professionals' and that product knowledge, strategic design, and

business knowledge belong in the domain of technical communication, too.

(Their context is globalization, which is the impetus for my

vertical-horizontal distinction query.)





I'm looking at it in disciplinary terms -- rather than programmatic, which

is local -- and collapsed business communication with professional

communication.





Having sufficiently muddled it, then -- best wishes,





Michael

bitter pill: it's like no cheese I've ever tasted?: "'Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.' - Wolfgang von Goethe "

I am grading today. I hate grading. Every semester I tell myself, "This will be the semester that I put all grading online, and refuse to accept late assignments, and fail everyone who misses class more than five times." Sigh.

Date: today

Subject: Miss Chick-fil-A Pickle Picker



Dear Miss Chick-fil-A:



The last three times that I have ordered a Chick-fil-A sandwich without a pickle, you went to the back and removed the pickle from an existing sandwich. How do I know this? Because, upon biting into the sandwich I could discern the distinct taste of what I like to call "pickle urine."



It's people like you that create customers like me.

The Automobile Theft Prevention Authority

50 tips for preventing car theft. Most of them are behavioral.

The Automobile Theft Prevention Authority

WebCT Login Page: "This server has been locked for maintenance by the WebCT administrator.

The server will be available at 10:00 pm on 12/07/03. Thank you for your patience and understanding."



It is now 12/8, 11:45pm. This is not unusual.

style.org > Mapping Votes by County



A fascination look at infographics

List of things increasing the level of my stomach acid:



1. End of semester grading

2. department politics

3. college politics

4. dissertation

5. committee politics

6. a general, low-level of smoldering anger about so many things that can't be fixed.

7. Control plays masked as benign paternalism.

I have found my cell phone (old coat pocket) and bought another grinder attachment to sharpen the shovel, then found the original.





Current favorite form of relaxation: shooting the pellet pistol in the basement at 10m targets. I've been reading pellet gun web pages, and there is a really weird, interesting little subculture out there. I swap match scores with some guy I've never met in England. I find this pellet pistol thing to contain a weird confluence of Southern white guys on fixed incomes discussing zen-like strategies for keeping the pistol still. Followed by spirited defenses of killing squirrels.

I really feel sorry for academics whose identity is so wrapped up in their job that they can't watch a good, stupid video and enjoy it. I feel like I am playing David Lodge's "Shame," but I really liked The Fast and the Furious. It was a great video rental, and connected with about 300 different adolescent fantasies that are still floating about in my psyche. I wanted to go play hot wheels with my kids afterwards.

style.org > Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow

http://complicity.uvsc.edu/~carboosters/group%20Wholedocument.doc



http://complicity.uvsc.edu/~solar/solarfinaldraft.doc



http://complicity.uvsc.edu/~construction/lastest%20drafts/



Climbers? Buehler?

Words4Nerds - online help, manuals, technical writing, documentation development. Specializing in documenting software products for small businesses.

GNOME Documentation Style Guide V1.3



This would be overkill for your projects, but it gives you an idea of what a style guide is and how it is used. Bonus question: what is Gnome?

blogosphere.us > A Course About Weblogs

Classics-L: dissertation and teaching: "But, beyond the personal issue, it seemed to me that Classics is

>misdirecting its talent. The fact that PhD programs don't teach their

>students how to teach is a scandal of long-standing. (Personally I think

>the recentish on-list suggestion that acting should be a graduate

>requirement is an excellent one. Teaching is a performance skill.) It

>would

>be bad enough if programs were also not teaching students how to write.

>But, through the genre of the dissertation, *successful* students in PhD

>programs are actually being taught how *not* to write-- how not to write

>clearly and effectively, how not to make remarks of import on issues that

>matter, how not to distinguish evidence that matters for an argument from

>evidence which does not matter, how not to avoid crafting too-lengthy

>sentences with too many parallel clauses.... (damn it!). How many of these

>bad lessons, once learned in the intense formative experience of writing a

>dissertation, will never be unlearned, affecting the writing and even the

>thinking of the future professoriate?

"

Now missing:



My cell phone, possibly left at the library, and my large bag of rechargeable batteries. No idea where they are. Grrrr. I need a brain implant.

Put yer Ugly Sentences (tm) here

Online Technical Writing: Power-Revision Techniques--Structure-Level Revision

Wired News: A Peek Inside the Secret World: "Washington's decisive victory in the 1775 War of Independence can be attributed as much to his skills as a director of clandestine intelligence activities as his military savvy, according to Eugene Poteat, a retired CIA scientific intelligence officer.

"

I found my missing computer bag. Now I am looking for the desire to write. Pray for me.

: "Disallow: /president/september11/text Disallow: /president/statearrival/iraq Disallow: /president/statearrival/text Disallow: /president/statedinner-mexico-200109/iraq Disallow: /president/statedinner-mexico-200109/text Disallow: /president/statedinnerprep-mexico-200109/iraq Disallow: /president/statedinnerprep-mexico-200109/text Disallow: /president/statevisit/iraq Disallow: /president/statevisit/text Disallow: /president/statevisit/window/iraq Disallow: /president/statevisit/window/text Disallow: /president/statevisit20030522/iraq Disallow: /president/statevisit20030522/text Disallow: /president/statevisitday2-mexico-200109/TEMP/text Disallow: /president/statevisitday2-mexico-200109/iraq Disallow: /president/statevisitday2-mexico-200109/text Disallow: /president/tee-ball-01/iraq Disallow: /president/tee-ball-01/text Disallow: /president/tee-ball-02/iraq Disallow: /president/tee-ball-02/text Disallow: /president/tee-ball-03/iraq Disallow: /president/tee-ball-03/text Disallow: /president/text Disallow: /president/winterwonderland/iraq Disallow: /president/winterwonderland/text Disallow: /president/world-leaders/iraq Disallow: /president/world-leaders/text Disallow: /president/worldunites/iraq Disallow: /president/worldunites/text Disallow: /response/diplomatic/iraq Disallow: /response/diplomatic/text Disallow: /response/iraq Disallow: /response/military/text Disallow: /response/text Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/behindthescenes/iraq Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/behindthescenes/print/iraq Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/behindthescenes/print/text Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/behindthescenes/text Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/iraq Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/photos/iraq Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/photos/print/iraq Disallow: /stateoftheunion/2002/photos/print/text"

Apple - Pro/Film - Joel and Ethan Coen

SR-71 Online - SR-71 Flight Manual

Favorite thing to say before grabbing the swatter: "They-ah is gonna be killin' he-uh today, and I'm gonna do it."

If you put your files in the "Sites" folder, you can view them by going to:



http://complicity.uvsc.edu/~carboosters



Except you need to substitute the name of your group for carboosters.

Hi alabamalady,: "I don't work full-time anymore, but I work 32 hours a week, which is almost the same (I get Thursdays off). My trick is to go for a half-hour walk after work, and then to let myself unwind for an hour before I hit the diss work. Then I post on the daily (I really like to co-pact, especially lately) that I am going to do 2 sessions of 45 minutes (which is all I can usually bring myself to do after a full day's work). Then I make myself quit after 2x45, no matter whether or not I still feel like going. And I read fiction, or chat, or do something mindless before bed. That way I don't burn myself out.



The only exception I make is when I have a deadline within a few days--because I can sleep more after I make the deadline.



I also do at least 5 units of work over the weekend. I try to always take Sundays off, but make some exceptions.



Everyone seems to have different strategies, though, as I'm sure you'll notice when other people start responding to your post.



I hope you'll be as nice to yourself as you can possibly be. Transitions are really hard, even beyond trying to figure out a new workable schedule."

Things I can't find:



1. my cell phone

2. the little grinder drill attachment that I am going to use to sharpen my shovel and dig up weeds

3. the battery charger

Top 10 Software Titles Every Home PC Needs?

ftp settings:



server: complicity.uvsc.edu



url: http://complicity.uvsc.edu



For next class period: read chapter 6. Prepare for a brutal quiz.

http://www.faithfuldesigns.com/tools/guides/ftp/wsftple.zip



Download WSFP_LE

In class today:



1. creation of group accounts and web pages

2. use of ftp

3. blogging requirements

4. Workflow and document management discussion

5. Read chapter 6 (collaboration) for Monday. Keep revising your drafts.

carboosters:boosters

construction:construction

solar:solar

climbers:climbers

The Register: "Perseus' study doesn't see a 'community' as much as a graveyard. The average weblog is only updated once every fourteen days, and Perseus concludes that 'the majority of blogs started are dissolving into static, abandoned web pages.' Well, maybe people have simply got better things to do. This is not a bad thing.

"

CAQDAS Networking Project: "OS X"

I'd love to see a non-profit, uncopyrighted website that

collected free disciplinary readings that could be automagically

combined into downloadable coursepacks. Or just open it to

instructors to prevent crushing bandwidth bills, and let them

worry about distribution to students. I suppose such a site

could also collect lesson plans, etc. although those usually need

to be taken in a particular context to be very helpful. Please

promulgate this idea so someone else will throw this together :)



Think of a Napster for free (legal) textbooks. Bookster (the

domain is only $5000). It's arguable that I'm just describing

Google.





I'm not ready to throw out traditional publishers, however,

because despite the numbing sameness of many composition

handbooks, there is still great stuff out there that probably

wouldn't have ever emerged without a publisher (and tenure

requirements).

Slashdot: Search writer's block

Overcoming Writers Block: "3. Polishing it off

My thesis advisor gave me this advice: 'The sword is mightier than the pen.' Meaning, it's easier to cut stuff out at the end than try and find quality filler.

So I always write more than I think is necessary - and out of all of the extra roughness, a few gems usually appear. "

Overcoming Writers Block: "Write something every single day - I have taken a few writing classes, and one common denominator (and perhaps the only meaningful information from any of them) was so simple as to defy imagination. Simply write something every single day.

I write one article, completely polished and ready for publication, every single day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Sometimes I write two or three articles in a day.

It really doesn't matter what I write, although I usually write about the internet or computers. But occasionally I write other things, including pages for my autobiography or even a love letter to the wife.

Put aside time to write - I have set aside 'writing time', two hours every single night, in which I isolate myself in my office at home and write my heart out. My wife respects my introversion during this time as it allows me to do one of the things that I love the most: communicate ideas in written form.

Fill in any missing blanks - If I find that I am having trouble explaining something in writing or the words just don't flow, I look around and see if there is something about it that I do not fully understand. That often works.

Ignore the idiots of the world - There sure seem to be a lot of jerks sometimes. However, I don't need to allow some babbling idiots ruin my writing. Just because someone does not like something does not mean anything except they didn't like it...

I do not ask for criticism - I never ask anyone to criticize my works, ever. I do not ask for site reviews of my websites, I don't submit my works for review. Why not? I am not interested in other people's silly opinions about my works. I know I am a good writer, a excellent webmaster and a great manager. I don't need anyone to tell me how good I am, and I certainly don't need anyone to point out my faults.

Changi"

Hypnosis for Writers: "Conceiving of the Block as an object or symbol of some kind, and then destroying it while the writer is relaxed in hypnosis, is yet another way to overcome Writer's Block.

Generate Ideas

The well-worn advice to 'sleep on it', when you are confronted with a tough problem, really means 'prime your subconscious.' And so it is with hypnosis. Instead of drifting off to sleep, you drift into hypnosis. You could have asked your subconscious for ideas, or just let yourself flow with whatever it pops into your conscious mind."

[Biathlon] re: hitting low when shooting off hand: "[Biathlon] re: hitting low when shooting off hand "

From now on, clever little links are going to the "linkages" blog thing. And I am just going to write in this space.



On the way home from work my transmission kept slipping into neutral. Fortunately I had just payed $270 to have this problem fixed. And it's not just the money that hurts, it's being without a car for days as their original estimate extends into days and the cost creeps up and I get the sneaking suspicion that I am paying these guys to learn how to fix my car. Instead of the Pell Grant, it's the Crane grant.

Irfanview --a great free graphics program.



Gadwin printscreen



Really useful freeware programs for manipulating images and grabbing screenshots.

The Onion | Idaville Detective 'Encyclopedia' Brown Found Dead In Library Dumpster: "Because of the long-standing mutual enmity between Meany and Brown, Meany was named among the suspects in The Case Of Encyclopedia Brown's Mangled Corpse. Meany denied the allegations.







'It's true that Detective Brown and I didn't see eye to eye, but I would never do something so downright dirty rotten as murder him,' Meany said. 'Besides, it's a matter of public record that, at the time the crime was committed, I was at the North Pole watching the penguins.'







While no solid leads have surfaced, Kimball-Brown said she has a hunch that Brown knew his killer.







'The bitter irony is that Brown would have easily cracked a case like this one,' Kimball-Brown said. 'I just can't help but wonder: WHAT DID ENCYCLOPEDIA KNOW THAT WOULD HAVE HELPED HIM SOLVE HIS OWN MURDER?'"

CNN.com - Poll: Davis in peril, Schwarzenegger shows strength - Sep. 29, 2003: "LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) --Voters in the California recall election might be poised to kick Gov. Gray Davis out and vote Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Sunday.

When asked how they would vote on recalling Davis, 63 percent of probable voters surveyed said they would vote yes, compared with 35 percent who said they would vote no."



Essentially, Ah-nuld is a pro wrestler. Where does this deep longing for pro wrestlers as politicians come from? It frightens me, but it also shows on some level a canny acknowledgement that politics is entirely spectacle.

USATODAY.com - The lighter side of Jack Black: "White had to slightly alter his tale to accommodate specific teen musicians plucked from a nationwide pool of thousands, but Black's character underwent no significant alterations.

'Mike wrote it in my voice,' Black says. 'The script was a Ferrari that pulled into my driveway. I sat in it and said, 'I can't believe I'm going to drive this.' The seats were leather, but I was hoping for crushed velvet, and Mike changed it just for me. Tiny, minuscule tinkering. Then I took it on the road and noticed there was a turbo button that released the nitro. OK, I've taken this metaphor too far.'"

rabbit blog: "I want a peddle that changes the channels on my TV. Maybe one that's connected to my TiVo, so I can fast forward through the dull parts and still type like the wind. I want a robot who'll answer my phone, and also call publicists and make nicey nice with them, and become their friends and take them out to drinks and learn all of the complicated relationships between them, and then exploit those relationships to get advance tapes and interviews with key figures from the entertainment universe. I'm not malevolent enough to do this dirty work; I prefer to spend my time here, in my lair, barely moving at all.



I have a stupid office chair, but the point is, I don't want to have to sit upright at a desk. Sitting upright at a desk makes me feel like I'm working or something. I prefer for my posture to give the illusion of slacking around the house without a care in the world. Otherwise I feel like I'm working, like I have a job or something. I must trick myself, I must never, ever catch wind of the fact that I have a job with responsibilities and obligations. Otherwise, the brain muscle feels weak and won't wrinkle upon demand. If the brain muscle thinks its being forced to exert itself for pay, it sighs deeply and says, 'I can't think of anything. I'm tired. I need chocolate to think.' "

GIRLS ARE PRETTY: "9. I was in love once. And the feelings I held for my lover, if I were to imagine those feelings of love taking the form of a little tiny couple in love themselves, that love-couple would look like those two. Except with different shoes. And, oh wait, is that dude wearing an earring? Oh wait, sorry, never mind.



Happy If You're Both Attractive, Stay Together For The Sake Of The Rest Of Us Day!"

Meteorites, Meteorites and Impacts: "Here is what President of the United States Bill Clinton had to say about the discovery of evidence for life in a meteorite from Mars:



'It is well worth contemplating how we reached this moment of discovery. More than 4 billion years ago this piece of rock was formed as a part of the original crust of Mars. After billions of years it broke from the surface and began a 16 million year journey through space that would end here on Earth. It arrived in a meteor shower 13,000 years ago. And in 1984 an American scientist on an annual U.S. government mission to search for meteors on Antarctica picked it up and took it to be studied. Appropriately, it was the first rock to be picked up that year -- rock number 84001.



Today, rock 84001 speaks to us across all those billions of years and millions of miles. It speaks of the possibility of life. If this discovery is confirmed, it will surely be one of the most stunning insights into our universe that science has ever uncovered. Its implications are as far-reaching and awe-inspiring as can be imagined. Even as it promises answers to some of our oldest questions, it poses still others even more fundamental.



We will continue to listen closely to what it has to say as we continue the search for answers and for knowledge that is as old as humanity itself but essential to our people's future.'"



I can't even imagine Bush reading that paragraph. With help.

stevenberlinjohnson.com: Remembering Edward Said: "Like many people, I'm sure, I was deeply influenced by Said's work -- Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism, of course, but also some of the earlier less political works, like Beginnings. He was largely responsible -- some might say to blame -- for importing French cultural theory into the American intellectual scene, particularly Foucault, who obviously had a huge influence on Orientalism. But he always resisted the inane wordplay and self-absorption that characterized so much of American theory in the eighties and early nineties. He absolutely despised 'radical theorists' like Judith Butler, for instance. I remember him bristling anytime someone used the word 'discourse' in one of our seminars -- and I remember thinking at the time that I had first starting using the word myself after reading Orientalism during my freshman year.

I'm sure there will be a flood of eulogies with more insightful surveys of his work (and no doubt some critics, given his political stances.) But I think it's worth saying something here that I've said about Said for more than ten years now: on his best days, he was the most charismatic man I've ever met in my life -- handsome, stylish, impossibly articulate, and surprisingly willing to take a joke at his own expense. (I used to tease him about his being indirectly responsible for unleashing Butler on the world.) I remember vividly one early spring afternoon, sitting through a seminar he was teaching on public intellectuals, in a room overlooking the Columbia campus and the sun setting over Riverside Park, and thinking to myself: there's literally nowhere else I'd rather be right now. I'm sure there are thousands of his students out there sifting through similar memories today. "



If I ever felt that way about graduate school the memory has long since fled.

Idle Words: "The Cincinnati Airport is full of small adventures. I just saw a very bored flight attendant saunter by holding a cardboard box with a large orange sticker on it reading 'Human Eyes'. Note to Delta Connection passengers: skip in-flight snack.

Also, there are Russians here! More specifically, there is Natalya from Nizhny Novgorod, who mans a forlorn muffin-and-coffee cart near the blaring CNN sector. Nothing whisks away airport anomie like having a short conversation in a foreign language with someone who shares your fondness for potatoes. "

The Observer | UK News | Suncream is 'no protection against cancer': "Sunbathers who smother their bodies in lotions to block out harmful rays are not being protected against skin cancer and premature ageing, a new study has found.



Research published tomorrow will show that sunscreens, even when they are high factor and applied in the proper amounts, do not prevent dangerous changes in the skin's make-up which can promote the growth of cancer.



Although the lotions prevent burning they are less effective at blocking out UVA rays, which are believed to cause melanoma, the most dangerous skin cancer. Scientists are expected to warn this week that people must not be led by a false sense of security into staying longer in the sun because they are covered with high-factor lotions.



Cases of melanoma are now rising faster than any other cancer in Britain, and deaths from the disease are also on the increase. In the UK, 1,600 a year die from melanoma, more than the 1,000 annual deaths in Australia, where people have learnt to cover up in the sun."

The Miami Herald | 09/21/2003 | Roughing it easier with eyes closed: "After our briefing, Ron and I got into our kayaks and pushed out into the river to practice our paddling skills. In a few minutes we found that by stroking our paddles on the left or right side, forward or backward, we were able to have absolutely no effect on what our kayaks were doing. Our kayaks were taking direction only from the Salmon River, which was telling them: Go Downstream Now! So we did. In a few minutes we hit our first rapids, which were officially classified as a Class 3 rapids (``Not Always Fatal'')."

CNN.com - Poll reveals most hated sports include dogfighting, golf - Sep. 27, 2003: "Ten years ago, only 12.5 percent of white Americans had strong feelings against the NBA. In the poll this year, that soared to 21.1 percent of whites who hated or disliked the NBA. The number of black respondents who felt that way stayed virtually unchanged at under 3 percent. "

CNN.com - Poll reveals most hated sports include dogfighting, golf - Sep. 27, 2003: "'In the NBA, there are underlying racial issues and resentment about how the players act, how many get arrested and how much they're paid,' said Sports Marketing Group managing director Nye Lavalle. 'In baseball, the labor disputes, the huge salaries, the perception of players on steroids and their perceived arrogance are factors.' "

Any day now there's going to be a class action lawsuit by all the brunettes who didn't get hired at Checker auto. Unless they bleach them out after hiring.

Today I found:



1. electric screwdriver power supply

2. missing wirecutters

3. bootleg microphone, also missing



also modified the trigger pull on my air pistol and it worked!

Google Search:: "Or you can just take a cardboard box, fill it with old computer magazines, with the spines of the magazines against what will be the far wall of the box, crumple up some old newspapers and stick them in the open space at the front of the box. Tape a target on the front and you are ready to go."

'60s 'Boys' went through hoops not to grow up: "When Larry Brown talks about the clarity he found dropping acid for the first time, the understanding of his connection to the earth, the words may be those of an aging hippie who now builds environment-friendly homes outside of Woodstock, N.Y., but the underlying sentiment is really about the common experience of lost youth. To a man (and one woman), the subjects of 'The Boys of 2nd Street Park' look back at their time shooting hoops in Brighton Beach and find themselves 40 years later asking, 'What happened?' "

Clean-up! Sculpture in aisle nine! | Metafilter: "I recall a legendary guerilla art installation put up in the middle of the night in (I believe) Northampton, Mass: a television playing a video loop of something disturbing to the public decorum ( like a talking head proclaiming the advent of Orwell's 1984, or some such )was bolted 8 or 10 feet up on the side of a building on Main Street. A metal cage over the TV prevented easy removal, especially because the contraption was rigged to throw off showers of sparks if disturbed. It sucked power off a line coming directly from a pole. The fire and police depts. eventually gave up and called the electric company to cut the line. It was quite a public spectacle.



That's good art too."

Continuation of The Matrix Reloaded (kottke.org): "Sajjman says:

Has it been mentioned that the principle of 'The Matrix' is almost identical to Sokrates and Platons 'The Cave' theory ? That if u're used to one reality you're bound to that one until someone releases you and you see the other reality ? It must have been mentioned , and if not i'll try to explain more in detail.

» by Sajjman on September 18, 2003 at 03:50:19 ET

Ken Wais says:

Sajjman, this 'cave' sounds interesting, do expand. Sounds like a version of relativism. "

outline.doc

HarkTheHerald.com: "In fairness to the incompetence at the Provo School District, the issue of paying for personal risk management and health maintenance odds should not be part of business or services. It is counterproductive, outdated tradition. Business and services should concentrate on business and services undistracted by the costs and logistics of workers' personal risk management."

Democratic Underground Forums - Clark in NY last night. My report.: "OK, now the juicy stuff. There was at least one diplomat at my party. Charlie Rangel was at a couple of the parties. I heard that Ben Stiller, Bianca Jagger and a couple other notable people were at the other parties. The high dollar event was 'intense' according to people that volunteered. A famous musician that is supporting one of the candidates from the northeast was at one of the parties. I don't know what that's about, but it was supposedly a big deal. I leave it for you to figure out.



And one last thing; I got to shake his hand (again). I said to him: 'You said in Knoxville that we wouldn't be afraid of guys like Limbaugh. They are coming after you.' He said: 'Limbaugh's full of shit.' I have to agree. He said that he is not going to sink to their level. He said that he needs us to call the radio stations and do what needs to be done.



So that was my experience. Hot, sweaty, powerful, and somewhat intense. I will repeat this one more time. Clark is OK. He has said that he is running for us. General Clark would be a President that we could all be proud of.

"

Lost items that are driving me insane:

1. power screwdriver adapter

2. many rechargeable batteries

3. old laptop case and books

4. motivation

Kelley's new series worth looking at -- unlike its stars: "To Kelley's credit, he has all but scrapped the pilot and reshaped the series. But there are now broader hints of Kelley's fascination with serendipity and whimsy -- Hank and Dottie getting therapy from an internist instead of a shrink, Garrett's daughter painting 'Spongebob Squarepants' on his bald head, Waylon asking his wife to duct tape his butt cheeks together because it will increase his confidence as he searches for a job. "

Lighting and Crime: Summary: "Improving street lighting, when it reduces crime, tends to reduce daylight crime as well as crime during darkness. This certainly means that a simple view of lighting as having its effects through increasing surveillance is not tenable. It probably means that lighting improvements which are accompanied by other measures to consult and inform residents, and otherwise enhance social cohesion, will stimulate the mixture of ‘active ingredients’ underlying lighting effects. Such considerations should be incorporated in local crime reduction strategies under the 1998 Act.



· Crime and disorder is distributed very unequally. For example in 1991, some 60% of assaultive crime occurred in the 10% most crime prone areas. This means that crime prevention measures across wide areas with varying crime problems will generally not be regarded as the most cost-effective use of resources. In the CCTV challenge process, local bids had to justify locations for camera installation. In the Government’s current Crime Reduction Programme, the Local Initiatives element will unquestionably be subject to a similar process of assessment for funding. The criteria of such assessment will include originality and focussed effort. For this reason, schemes which involve lighting small areas or the innovative use of lighting will have an advantage over those which involve lighting of large areas and those in which the mechanism of operation is explored. It is acknowledged that street lighting has economies of scale, and that its installation is only incidentally crime preventive. Thus there will be a tension between the extent and nature of lighting desirable for other purposes and that for crime reduction. "

United Press International: Analysis: 'West Wing's' fresh start

Justin's Links: The Quickening

UNDERWORLD / ** (R): "But 'Underworld' is all surfaces, all costumes and sets and special effects, and so you might as well look at the doors as anything else. This is a movie so paltry in its characters and shallow in its story that the war seems to exist primarily to provide graphic visuals. Two of those visuals are Kate Beckinsale, who plays Selene, a vampire with (apparently) an unlimited line of credit at North Beach Leather, and Scott Speedman as Michael, a young intern who is human, at least until he is bitten by a werewolf -- and maybe even after, since although you become a vampire after one bites you, I am uncertain about the rules regarding werewolves,"

Screenwriting: Script Review: Tarantino's KILL BILL: "Kill Bill is about 'The Bride' (Uma Thurman) who seeks revenge on Bill after he slaughters everyone at her wedding and leaves her for dead. Her apparent dying words to him are that she is pregnant, and it’s his baby. She of course doesn’t die, but lies in a coma for 5 years. Bill is an expert swordsman and deadly assassin, as is The Bride. Why he wants her dead isn’t known at this point. There are other characters as well. The Bride seeks her revenge on all of them. The story is also a little more (and I mean just a little) complicate than that, but I’ll leave you with your imagination. "

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Second sight: "Or, at least, they hope to. Bloggers always hope to rush into the arms of Mammon, despite all the signs that Mammon is not interested in even a small cuddle. Bloggers are convinced that at any moment, the rest of the world - besides the 2% of web users that analysts Jupiter say now look at weblogs - will eagerly pay for the stuff they write. "

Food For Everyone Foundation - FAQ -The Zoo-Doo Man: "However, the most important thing I learned in that two-year experiment was not how to make and sell Zoo-Doo. I learned for myself that I could grow better vegetables more consistently, and with a lot less time, cost, and hassle, with a few pounds of inexpensive natural mineral nutrients than I could with truckloads of 'the world's best compost.'

I therefore continue to use good, clean organic materials when they are available, but I know that highly productive vegetable gardens are not dependent on improving the soil with organic material."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Arctic ice shelf splits: "The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf is located on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory.

The huge mass of floating ice, which has been in place for at least 3,000 years, is now in two major pieces. "

Yahoo! News - How a regular guy gets homeless: "At one state park on the ocean north of Santa Barbara, a mountain lion walked through my campsite at dusk while I was tending a campfire. I slept in my truck that night instead of my tent.

Falling through the cracks

At first I wasn't eligible for food stamps because I had more than $2,000 (the maximum allowed to qualify) to my name and because I thought my truck was worth too much. But eventually, the money ran out and I found out that my truck, with more than 170,000 miles on it now, was worth less than the $4,650 the food stamp program allows. I got anywhere from nothing to $139 a month in food stamps depending on my freelance income for the month. I had several glitches on food stamp amounts due to errors by bureaucrats, but I appealed and won."

Total Population Control: "GWEN works in conjunction with HAARP and the Russian Woodpecker transmitter, which is similar to HAARP. The Russians openly market a small version of their weather-engineering system called Elate, which can fine-tune weather patterns over a 200 mile area and have the same range as the GWEN unit. An Elate system operates at Moscow airport. The GWEN towers shoot enormous bursts of energy into the atmosphere in conjuction with HAARP. The website www.cuttingedge.org wrote an expose of how the major floods of the Mid-West USA occurred in 1993."

Yonkers Police - YonkersPD.com - Carjacking Tips | JMB Web Designs: "Why is Carjacking a Problem?

No one knows for certain, but some explanations include:

It's a crime of opportunity - a thief searching for the most vulnerable prey. Sometimes it's the first step in another crime.

For some young people, carjacking may be a rite of passage, a status symbol, or just a thrill.

Cars, especially luxury ones, provide quick cash for drug users and other criminals.

Sophisticated alarms and improved locking devices make it harder for thieves to steal unoccupied cars.

It's easy to buy, steal, or barter for guns in this country. And a pointed gun makes a powerful threat.

More teens and adults commit crimes of violence than ever before.

Intense media interest may have created 'copycat' carjackers. "

Rock Climbing as Therapy

Class websites:



http://carboosters4310.blogspot.com

http://uvscconstruction.blogspot.com

http://solaradiations.blogspot.com

http://rockclimbers2.blogspot.com

these days [dive into mark]: "and we got the pooh bedding, classic pooh of course because we’re That Sort Of Snob, or at least i am, because i actually grew up with the original pooh stories by a.a. milne, long before the whole pooh estate got bought out by disney and turned into a franchise and some mindless executive drone came along and said 'you know what we really need here? clothes. it’s just completely unbelieveable that all these make-believe animals are frolicking around in a forest with no visible means of economic support, talking and carrying on and writing bad poetry and generally displaying signs of higher-order intelligence, but none of them are wearing any clothes.' and then a bunch of people like me complained, although not me personally, and then disney did a new-coke-classic-coke thing and came out with classic pooh, although these days most of the classic pooh you see in stores isn’t really classic pooh, it’s just in the style of classic pooh, since there really weren’t that many illustrations that e.h. shepherd did in the original pooh, and disney needs more designs than that."

Philip Greenspun's Weblog:: "Java is the SUV of programming tools

Our students this semester in 6.171, Software Engineering for Internet Applications have divided themselves into roughly three groups. One third has chosen to use Microsoft .NET, building pages in C#/ASP.NET connecting to SQL Server. One third has chosen to use scripting languages such as PHP connecting to PostgreSQL and sometimes Oracle. The final third, which seems to be struggling the most, is using Java Server Pages (JSP) with Oracle on Linux. JSP is fantastically simpler than 'J2EE', which is the recommended-by-Sun way of building applications, but still it seems to be too complex for seniors and graduate students in the MIT computer science program, despite the fact that they all had at least one semester of Java experience in 6.170.

After researching how to do bind variables in Java (see the very end of http://philip.greenspun.com/internet-application-workbook/software-structure), which turns out to be much harder and more error-prone than in 20-year-old C interfaces to relational databases, I had an epiphany: Java is the SUV of programming tools.

A project done in Java will cost 5 times as much, take twice as long, and be harder to maintain than a project done in a scripting language such as PHP or Perl. People who are serious about getting the job done on time and under budget will use tools such as Visual Basic (controlled all the machines that decoded the human genome). But the programmers and managers using Java will feel good about themselves because they are using a tool that, in theory, has a lot of power for handling problems of tremendous complexity. Just like the suburbanite who drives his SUV to the 7-11 on a paved road but feels good because in theory he could climb a 45-degree dirt slope. If a programmer is attacking a truly difficul"

CNN.com - Study: Even mid-life diet change can extend life - Sep. 19, 2003: "'If this works in humans, then it means that from the time a person starts on a restricted diet, they'll be like individuals of the same age who were always on that diet,' she said. 'Their prospects of survival are the same.'

Partridge said that although the life-extending effects of short rations have never been proven in humans, it has been shown in monkeys, mice, rats and fruit flies that diet restrictions will lead to longer lives.

'There is no reason to suppose it wouldn't apply equally to humans,' she said. 'There are diet restriction studies now underway with monkeys and all the indications appear the same [as with mice, rats and fruit flies].' "

Air Gun Tips from around the Globe: "To rectify transfer port problems I prefer to use a small ballend steel burr in a Dremel tool at very low speed. The smallest rechargeable Dremel on the market is an indispensable tool when working on guns for me. If I can access the transfer port with the ballend burr I use it to'break' the edge of the transfer port by grinding the sharp edge to a less aggressive profile that won't catch the pellet, but allow it to slide past without damage. It isn't possible to get a ballend burr into the port area on many guns so your only recourse in that case is to create a slotted rod or dowel that you can wrap with fine emory cloth or sandpaper. This should also be a follow-up step to the port clean-up with the Dremel. The bolt will have to be removed to use this method, but it's not too difficult with most guns. "

Air Gun Tips from around the Globe: "Cheap Effective Cleaning



A cheap and effective pull-through for cleaning airguns can be made from a length of .080 weed wacker cord. The plastic cord will not harm the rifling or crown like a cleaning rod will. To make the pull-through you first cut your length and make sure to cut an angle on one end. This angle(point) is used to puncture a patch when cleaning."

Crosman Airgun Forum: "If your 1377 doesn't shoot accurately, its not because the barrel is 'dirty'. Earlier posts discussed lapping, bore paste, etc, all things that should not be done to the very fine rifling in a 1377. If anything, the muzzle end of the barrel needs to be recrowned, and the breech end checked for burrs. This is very common in the Crosman guns, and almost all need at least some barrel work to be really accurate.

As for when you should clean your airgun, well, maybe never. I have guns found in original condition that are going on 70 years old, they've never been cleaned and shoot better than any new gun. I have new guns that have thousands of pellets through them, never been cleaned, and accuracy is better than when new. The only reason to clean an airgun bore is if its a springer thats been dieseling heavily. That causes a carbon and oil sludge buildup in the barrel that needs to be removed. "

Google Search: breech "weed eater": "I use an Otis for larger than .22 and love it. For .177s and .22s I went a little better by heating the weed eater line first and squishing it in a vice. When I had tried just pounding it it had fractures in it. The thickness of the jaws was just about right (around an inch). Following a suggestion I read on an airgun forum I squeezed it again around 1/2' from the first squeeze and at a right angle to it. I also embellished it by poking a hot ice pick through the slits at each end. This relieves any stresses that might fracture and makes holes so you get a wider slit in my later operation. . Then I smoothed and further widened the slits with an emery board. This makes inserting the patches much easier. The double patches make things go twice as fast. Cleaner on the lead patch and a dry one following. As many times as needed, then two dry ones, then an oily lead with a dry following. I agree with the breech to muzzle only."

Google Search: breech "weed eater": "# Hoppy wrote: # Or get a piece of the largest Weed Eater string about six feet # long. Hammer the center flat for about an inch then make a slit with an Exacto # knife and thread a patch through it. Feed the line into either end of the # barrel and pull back and forth."

Crown paintball barrels: "How to crown a paintball gun barrel without a lathe

I crowned the Taso SS Pro barrel on my Tippmann .68 Carbine and got rid of the flyers that the gun was throwing 20% of the time. The barrel had minor visible imperfections on the crown. I have access to a lathe that I have used to crown Firearm barrels, but it is a lot of trouble. I thought I would try something that anyone can do.

This method won't work if you cut off a barrel with a hacksaw. You would have to use a lathe on that. But I think it will suffice on most barrels.

I bought a 1' diameter SS ball Bearing from Small Parts, Inc. and some 120 Grit valve Grinding Compound from a local Auto Parts store. (Small parts has the compound too, if you want to get everything from the same place). I applied liberal amounts of the compound to the bearing, and holding the barrel in a vertical position, rotated the ball on the crown of the barrel. Don't keep the ball in the same position, but roll the ball as you grind. You should use the entire surface of the ball during the grinding session. Since you are doing all of this by hand, rotate the barrel at intervals also. This will minimize uneven wear from the handheld process. After about 5 minutes of sporadic grinding (it makes your hand hurt), I had a nice even gray grind pattern just under 1\16' wide. "

Google Search: lapping group:alt.sport.air-guns group:alt.sport.air-guns: "Mitch wrote

>How bad is the crown now? Do you need to cut the barrel back a bit, or can

>you just lap

>the existing crown?

>You may be able to recrown without pulling the sight, get some fine lapping

>compound such

>as JB Bore Paste, and a brass round-head screw with a head a

>bit bigger than the bore. Chuck the screw in a hand held drill, goop it up

>with Bore Paste, and rock the drill back and forth as it turns, frequently

>stopping to turn the barrel a bit. When you've polished an even margin all

>around, clean the barrel and test-fire. Most of the plastic sights are

>pressed

>on, you can usually heat them and tap them off. The trick with cutting back

>the barrel is

>to get the face square to the bore, not an easy task with hand tools.

>A good machinist can probably file it square after cutting, but I can't."

Crosman Airgun Forum: "It's your gun and wallet but a decked out CR1377 will cost you several hundred dollars by the time your finished and thats money you could have used to buy a better gun in the first place. As you correctly noted the 1377 is a pretty nice gun for the money just the way you got it."

Crosman Airgun Forum: "Locate one end of the spring a remove one half of a turn from it. This will shorten the spring about 1/32-1/16' of an inch.



DON'T cut the spring in half."

Crosman Airgun Forum: "Lapping

September 21 2003 at 5:48 AM Anonymous (Login geron)

from IP address 66.190.164.218





Response to Ok, understand lapping a little. I think.



Use as last resort but before recrowning. Lap from the breech end. Amount of paste -- enough to do the job. Hard to say. I first use JB on a patch with a crown saver from MAC1 pulled breech to muzzle. Then JB on a pellet if necessry. Finally, recrown the thing if nothing else works.



One thing I forgot. Should be No. 1 -- replace the trigger spring. Use a No. 4 or No 6 (almost too light - reinforce with drinking straw or some other type guide) from Ace Hdwe. Or cut one wind off the factory spring -- careful and measure, you can cut too much off. "

: "==============================

BARREL CLEANING

==============================

JB paste is popular among competitive centerfire shooters. The abrasive compound is designed

to be harder than copper but softer than steel. It has NEVER been known to harm barrels.

Copper fouling kills target barrels over time and is difficult to clean out without abrasives.

Abrasives such as Clover brand or lapping compounds are meant to polish (wear) steel. JB

will not do this to your barrel. Never compare JB to lapping compound. Unless you are shooting

copper clad pellets, you don't need it. If you notice any lead buildup that a nylon bore brush

will not remove easily, don't go out and buy a bronze brush. These can wear on your

rifling over time. Here's the ticket, theres a penetrating oil on the market called

Kroil. Its like wd-40 but much better. It 'creeps' under lead and copper and floats it out

of your rifling. It's nonabrasive and has a signature smell like wd-40 does, only different.

It comes in an orange can, either a spray can or in larger bulk cans. Needless to say, NEVER

clean from the muzzle end without a bore guide. Either use a pull through string type jag or

rod and clean from the breech end, always in the direction of the pellet. This will keep your

muzzle crown from wearing and opening up your groups. You can call Midway Supply and order some

if you can't find it locally. Their number is (800)243-3220 or www.midwayusa.com"

Google Toolbar Installed: "Now that you've installed the Google Toolbar, you've got the world's best search at your fingertips.

Getting Started "

78792 - Works: Exporting Works Database Files to Microsoft Excel: "SUMMARY

To export a Microsoft Works for Windows database into Microsoft Excel, do the following:





Open the database file in Works for Windows.

From the View menu, choose List.

From the File menu, choose Save As, enter a new filename, choose Text and Tabs, dBASE III, or dBASE IV as the format, and choose OK.

From the File menu, choose Exit Works.

Start Excel. From the File menu, choose Open.

Enter the full path for the file.

The file will open directly into Excel, and the information will be arranged in columns similar to the List view in Works for Windows."

BLOGGER - Knowledge Base: "There are a number of reasons for including multiple blogs on a single page. Perhaps you'd like to have two or three users posting at once, but don't want the posts combined in a single blog column. Or maybe you'd like to post notes and comments in your sidebar that don't fit in with the rest of the content of your blog. It's even possible (depending on your server's capabilities) to grab blog content from another server and paste it seamlessly into your existing code. The possibilities are endless, really.



Including multiple blogs on a single page can be achieved through the use of includes. Includes are a feature on many different servers and platforms, including Server Side Includes, PHP, ASP, and Cold Fusion. The type of include method you need will depend on what kind of platform your server is running and whether or not your server has the functionality set up to do so. If you're not sure which of the following techniques are right for you, please ask your system administrator.



Say you want to post a list of books you're currently reading in the sidebar of your main blog page. First you'll need to create a new blog. Log into Blogger and click 'Create a new blog' link in the right column. Specify the information requested and then click on Settings to enter additional information needed there. We'll use 'books.html' as the file name for this new blog.



After you've completed your settings, open the template for this new blog by clicking on Template . Remove the , and tags, leaving only the Blogger code. It should look something like this:





<$BlogDateHeaderDate$>





<$BlogItemBody$>

<$BlogItemDateTime$>

BLOGGER - Knowledge Base: "There are a number of reasons for including multiple blogs on a single page. Perhaps you'd like to have two or three users posting at once, but don't want the posts combined in a single blog column. Or maybe you'd like to post notes and comments in your sidebar that don't fit in with the rest of the content of your blog. It's even possible (depending on your server's capabilities) to grab blog content from another server and paste it seamlessly into your existing code. The possibilities are endless, really.



Including multiple blogs on a single page can be achieved through the use of includes. Includes are a feature on many different servers and platforms, including Server Side Includes, PHP, ASP, and Cold Fusion. The type of include method you need will depend on what kind of platform your server is running and whether or not your server has the functionality set up to do so. If you're not sure which of the following techniques are right for you, please ask your system administrator.



Say you want to post a list of books you're currently reading in the sidebar of your main blog page. First you'll need to create a new blog. Log into Blogger and click 'Create a new blog' link in the right column. Specify the information requested and then click on Settings to enter additional information needed there. We'll use 'books.html' as the file name for this new blog.



After you've completed your settings, open the template for this new blog by clicking on Template . Remove the , and tags, leaving only the Blogger code. It should look something like this:





<$BlogDateHeaderDate$>





<$BlogItemBody$>

<$BlogItemDateTime$>

78792 - Works: Exporting Works Database Files to Microsoft Excel: "SUMMARY

To export a Microsoft Works for Windows database into Microsoft Excel, do the following:





Open the database file in Works for Windows.

From the View menu, choose List.

From the File menu, choose Save As, enter a new filename, choose Text and Tabs, dBASE III, or dBASE IV as the format, and choose OK.

From the File menu, choose Exit Works.

Start Excel. From the File menu, choose Open.

Enter the full path for the file.

The file will open directly into Excel, and the information will be arranged in columns similar to the List view in Works for Windows."

78792 - Works: Exporting Works Database Files to Microsoft Excel: "SUMMARY

To export a Microsoft Works for Windows database into Microsoft Excel, do the following:





Open the database file in Works for Windows.

From the View menu, choose List.

From the File menu, choose Save As, enter a new filename, choose Text and Tabs, dBASE III, or dBASE IV as the format, and choose OK.

From the File menu, choose Exit Works.

Start Excel. From the File menu, choose Open.

Enter the full path for the file.

The file will open directly into Excel, and the information will be arranged in columns similar to the List view in Works for Windows."

Police: Baseball fan shot after game: "Mark Antenorcruz, 25, of Covina, was shot once in the upper body Friday night as he headed for his car. The shooting at Dodger Stadium followed an argument over the teams, though it was unclear who the victim and the suspects were rooting for, police said. "

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

Politics of Architecture and voting machines.

Crosman Postal Match: "This class is intended to simulate an ISSF 10 metre match, for those of us with a competition bent!

Any .177 or .22 air or CO2 pistol is allowed, including match pistols. Open sights only in this one!

Course of fire is 60 rounds, at 5 rounds per target, on 12 targets. Distance is 10 metres, and this match is shot ONE handed, unsupported. Match to be completed in 1hr45min.

Perfect score is 600 (Current top shots are shooting 580's!)

Target is standard ISSF 10mtr Air Pistol"

Crosman Postal Match: "Pistol - Novice Challenge

Budget air pistol: any pistol not exceeding $130US or $200Can. This class is shot standing unsupported, two handed from 6m (20ft).

Match air pistol: includes SSP and recoilless weapons. This class is shot standing unsupported, one handed from 6m.

Either open sights or optics allowed - please state which sights you used when you submit your score.

Target is 20 bullseyes, 1inch across. A centre is 5, middle ring is 3, outer ring is 1. Perfect score is 100. "