Trying to get a look and feel

I know, I know...it's been forever. I've been working on other blogs and have woefully neglected my first effort. I've also been trying to figure out exactly what content I want to feature here. For awhile, I was doing technical book reviews more or less exclusively here, but I ran out of bandwidth to do that kind of writing. I've been pining to get back to something like that lately, but maybe not with such an emphasis.

I love reading. I really enjoy it. I also like to write about what I read, but I read all kinds of books. The theological tomes I'm reserving for another blog entirely so if that's not your cup of tea, you don't have to be concerned that such content will appear here. On the other hand, I'm having a lot of fun reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I have been trying to get together with a few other folks for a "book club" of sorts, but the priorities of the various members seem a bit scattered, so it's not as successful as I'd hoped. Even if the "club" doesn't continue, I now have the desire to expand my reading selections into other more "literary areas.

I've changed the theme and imagery of the blog significantly but I still don't know if I really like it. I'll probably keep tinkering with it, but expect new content to appear here pretty soon. I'll still review books on technical subjects I like, but I also want to talk about (even if it's just to myself) my other "biblio" interests.

Please stand-by. There is nothing wrong with your television set.

Building Your Own Learning Path

I pulled a link from twitter for an O'Reilly article called Choose your own adventure... er... learning path. Basically the idea is that, there's at least as much information available on the web for any given topic as you'll find in any classroom or perhaps, any university program. The question is, assuming that university credits or a degree aren't part of your goal, can you tailor your personal educational program using just web resources? The fact that the Brett McLaughlin article mentions the O'Reilly School of Technology means that part of the purpose of the story is to promote O'Reilly's online, for profit, educational center. That said, the write up also discusses what people look for in free online resources, relative to their learning goals. The trick is organization and discipline. If I sign up for a course, whether online or classroom based, and pay my money, I'll be sure to show up and work hard. I don't want my hard earned greenbacks to go down the drain, especially in this economy. If it's true that you get what you pay for, part of the payoff is the boost in self-discipline that being frugal (tightwad?) results in. Both this article and the John W Lewis blog it links to, mentions sequencing of learning as being particularly important. The Internet may be the world's largest library, but Google isn't the world's best librarian. While you can probably find everything you need, you'll have to design the curriculum yourself. Your success or failure in this endeavour depends on your organizational skills as well as your self-drive to achieve a goal. The O'Reilly blog entry has been there for a couple of days now as I write this, so the comments section there has grown lengthy. I suppose I'm just reinventing the wheel at this point by writing about the topic here, but self-education is one of my interests and, when Tim O'Reilly pointed to the blog from twitter, my commentary took on a life of its own.

Why bother to blog?

So why am I here? I've resisted blogging for quite awhile. It seems like, as a culture, we are obsessed with communication and self expression. Anyone can create a blog and post any inane or banal content to the web (and some of you reading this may consider me part of that club). If I'm against producing content for its own sake, why am I blogging? I suppose my hope is that my content isn't for its own sake. I write for a living, so it's not a matter of posting that I've just had a cup of coffee or that I'm taking aspirin for a headache (though I've seen both on twitter). I hope is to use a blog to express something about the creative experience that'll be useful to someone. Doc Searls at the Linux Journal just posted a link to an article on that subject on twitter (speaking of) which is what finally pushed me over the edge to create a blog. I've tended to think of most bloggers as "a million chimpanzees" who have refuted the old saying about a million chimps, some typewriters, and the complete works of Shakespeare. Frankly, most bloggers need to learn how to spell and an elementary English composition class wouldn't hurt them either (at least for those people who speak and write English as their first language). As I continue to configure this blog, anyone reading it will be able to comment if you'd like or register some sense of insult if you feel I've mischaracterized you as a chimpanzee. Of course, I could be just proving that I am too.