I don’t intend to blog much here for the foreseeable future. I’m lucky enough to have several exciting projects to work on right now, and that just doesn’t leave me much time for personal blogging. I may occasionally post a little tidbit here from time to time, but most of my attention is currently focussed elsewhere: To wit:

• I’m currently blogging at the Seattle Podcasting Network. I’ve like the stuff this group is doing. Our monthly meetings are fun and lively, and I think we’re building a great resource at SeattlePodcasting.net.


• I’m also on the planning committee for Seattle Mind Camp, a twice-yearly gathering of geeks. I’m going to be blogging at SeattleMind.com, as well as helping to get our ducks in a row in time for our April 29th event.


• My wife and I have also been working to get Seattle Real Estate Talk going again after a few-month hiatus. There’s not much on there now, but we’re working with some new folks to get a regular roster of content to post, both podcasts and text posts. One bit of learning from that venture has been about the energy commitment in the early part of a project. It’s like having a full time job, which would be easy if we didn’t already have full time jobs.


• I spend whatever spare minutes I have maintaining The Louverture Project. The wiki has really grown by leaps and bounds lately, thanks to some energetic contributors.


• I’ve also got another project in the works that I hope to be able to announce soon.

I’m busy.

This blog has served me well, but I can no longer serve it well. I might occasionally write a post or two at The Sufferable Ass. I started that blog in order to learn Wordpress, and to experiment with a replacement to Stumax.com. Unfortunately, having a different blog doesn’t make time magically appear, so posting there has been and will probably remain light.

Thanks to everyone who has dropped by over the years that this blog has been up and running. This has been an incredibly educational and rewarding experience, and I hope to see you all elsewhere in the blogosphere.

Until next time…

My friend Bob DeRosa is having is first movie filmed in January! Right on!

You know, people always say, “It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” but in this case it’s really true. Bob’s been working and chasing this dream for a long time, and he’s the kind of guy you just want to be successful, because if he isn’t, what hope is there for you?

The movie is called “The Air I Breathe.” Read the Variety article about the film here. And, for criminy’s sake, tattoo the title on the back of your hand and go see it the minute it hits the theatres.

Ego alert: Dave Taylor was kind enough to include my comments as part of a blog post on del.icio.us, the hella cool social bookmarking service. I think the article turned out to be a good intro to the service. There are also some insightful comments about the difficulties with del.icio.us, so be sure to read down a ways.

“Interview With Experts: What’s so cool about del.icio.us?” from The Intuitive Life Business Blog:

UPDATE: Del.icio.us has been bought by Yahoo! This is great news for site creator Joshua Schachter, and even better news for me, because the article I mentioned above has now been linked on both the Yahoo! Search Blog and Slashdot. I even got a name mention on Slashdot. How cool is that?

This blog is dying. This is as apparent to me as it is to anyone who may be reading it. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if anyone reads this. In fact, why are you still looking here? Don’t you have better blogs to be paying your valuable attention to?

Frankly, I haven’t been able to figure out what to do with Stumax.com. Del.icio.us has taken over the burden of keeping all the random links I come across, so I don’t feel the need to track them here so much. I’m spending energy on Seattle Real Estate Talk, The Louverture Project, and a new venture with Lloyd. On top of a full-time job and the recently completed efforts for Seattle Mind Camp (which was a lot of fun, and, I think, something of a success), I’m just not finding a lot of spare time to write.

Nor am I really sure what to write about here. This blog has been an interesting learning experience, but it became something that didn’t quite look like me. I vented a lot about politics and society and stuff—which is certainly part of what I think about—but I never really felt that I matched in this blog the voice I feel I really have—the sardonic, silly, irreverent sense of humor that I prefer to display in my best hours. Plus, my attention and interests wax and wane often enough that this place never really looked cohesive to me.

So, huh. What to do?

Well, I think the blog will stay around for a while, but it needs a re-invention, and that’s something I just don’t have time or energy to contemplate right now. In the meantime, I’ve discovered this cool new site called SuprGlu. SuprGlu attempts to combine a user’s efforts from a variety of sources on a single page. So, my del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr photos, 43 Things things, and my various blogs’ posts all show up in a single feed. So until and unless I get motivated to reconstruct Stumax.com in my image and likeness, the best way to keep up with me is on this page at SuprGlu. (And here’s the RSS feed, if you’re so inclined.)

(By the by, this SuprGlu thing manages to take a step towards an idea I’ve been thinking a lot about recently: the idea of “inventory.” There are lots of places on the web and elsewhere where one can put one’s data (if one wishes), but it can be hard to remember where it all is, or to keep others apprised of its whereabouts. Not all of my friends are very technically inclined, so telling them to check out my Flickr feed or Del.icio.us bookmarks—on top of all the other URLs I’ve given them—is kind of pointless. They simply won’t track them.

(Much in the way the Attention Trust is trying to raise awareness about the notion of gestures of attention, I think we need a better way to inventory all the data we have online. In fact, if we solved the three essential issues of the modern web—identity, attention, and inventory—we’d be some happy campers.)

Well, okay, so that’s it from here for now. I’ll probably add a post here on occasion. Or more often. Or less. Who knows? But I’m still active online, and I wanted you to know where to find me.

Don Adams, TV’s Maxwell Smart, is still alive and planning a new series starring the dim-witted secret agent.

Would you believe… that Don has a slight cough, but still plans to appear at a fan event on Friday?

How about a wave from his hospital window?

No? Sigh.

RIP Don Adams.

Lloyd has flattered me beyond words by making me the subject of his fourth podcast. Thanks, Lloyd. I enjoyed the hell out of our conversation.

I am lucky enough to have met Robert A. Moog, the engineer who changed the world with his eponymous synthesizers. I was 12 years old, or thereabouts, attending a kind of science and technology camp at Western Carolina University. Bob Moog lived in nearby Asheville, and invited our class to his house for a tour of his workshop. I was too young to appreciate who I was meeting at the time, but Moog’s enthusiasm and love for technology and music won me over, and I certainly have never forgot—nor ever will forget—the time spent in his presence.

I had spent most of my first week at camp playing with a sound generator. The thing was a monster and looked and worked like an old telephone switch board. To get the sound, you would use patch cables to hook up different tone generators, and then tweak the switches and dials to get the desired effect. The process was crude and cumbersome, and the output wasn’t impressive by any means, but to a curious young geek it was an absorbing pursuit. Little did I know that I would soon meet the man who had consigned beasts like this to the scrap heap, and had enabled a generation of musicians to explore and extend music in ways no one had dreamed possible.

I remember Moog as kind, gracious, funny, and charming, We toured his workspace, oohing and aahing over vintage synthesizers and getting a sneak peek at a Fairlight CMI, a powerful new type of computerized synth with dual 8-bit processors and a green monochrome screen. I think that he and I talked about my adventures with the beast back at the college, but I can’t be sure that I wasn’t merely tongue-tied and shy.

I do remember that Moog was gregarious and garrulous, conducting the tour himself with an unmistakable enthusiasm for his work. We ended up sitting on his porch eating cookies and drinking lemonade while his wife showed off some treasured memorabilia, including some early albums recorded with Moog synthesizers.

Bob Moog died Sunday of a brain tumor at his home in Asheville. He was 71. His inventions paved the way for the kind of creative tools that I take for granted today. His work enabled and inspired the musicians that wrote the soundtrack to my youth. And, personally, he was a really cool guy. May he rest in peace and be ever remembered.

Technorati Tags: Moog, Music, Remembrance

...wherever you are.

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I’ve posted. For the last six weeks or so I’ve been consumed with a job search. I spent almost every waking hour writing emails, revising my resume, writing cover letters, investigating networking opportunities, conducting informational interviews, soliciting freelance clients… anything and everything I could think of to generate an income.

I wanted to do more, of course, than just finding a job. One of my requirements for making a living was that I would make it doing something creative. Over the past year of developing The Louverture Project and working on this blog, and getting more in touch with the areas of gadgetry and technology that I really enjoy, I got a much greater sense of what I want to be doing with my life for the next 30 or 40 years. I left a very creative career a few years ago, and now, having addressed security and safety and personal growth issues for long enough, I’m hungry to re-connect with my expressive self.

I am lucky to been offered a short-term position with the company I left a year and a half ago. The job puts me back in touch with an incredibly generous and professional group of people, and gives me the support, freedom, and flexibility to continue the long-term search for a job in creative services. It also means I can return some of my attention to my personal projects, like this blog. I’ve missed it.

Thanks to my lovely wife, Louise, for being so generous and supportive over the last couple of months. And thanks to all the people who have given me feedback, encouragement, contacts, and work. I’m not through leaning on you yet, but I’m a bit more upright.

Now, let’s get back to work…

My good friend Cliff McCloe has swept into Seattle and taken the local improv theatre scene by storm. Through sheer hustle and talent, he’s landed job after job as an interactive actor. Yesterday, he got his picture in the Seattle Times...twice!

Rock on, mah brothah!

JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES

JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES