Welcome back home from SXSW:

Wherein we discuss where I've been...


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Then Again, Maybe Not:

So I've got what's being referred to around the way as SXSaRS, I've got the flu. Which means my writing on the experiences of the last few weeks will have to wait one more day.

Please, no gasping from the galleries. It's best this way for all of us.

Scary Email News:

So guess what? We hold our breath when reading email.

That's downright scary. I tried to hold my going past a cemetery last week and made it about 25% of the way. I suck at holding my breath. And I've been known to suffer from sleep apnea.

So what's the latest horrifying thing we do while plotting through our ordinary lives? Fainting while rolling over? Paralysis while organizing the refrigerator? A series of strokes while tying our shoes?

I'm going back to bed (via Caterina.net).

Stand in the place where you are...

ABC News: The answer to excess weight may be not more exercise but more standing up. Researchers are noting that our key fat burning muscles are in our legs and back and that "standing up and puttering" may be just as important as hitting a 5 PM kick boxing class.

I'm seeing a series of standing seminars, each of us in thick shoes which phone books balanced on our heads.

There's gold here. Eh? Who's with me (via Cody Fielding)?

Why is there an Elephant Standing on my Face?

And why I sound this way...


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Felled by Snot:

I am not proud of this but I have been brought low by allergies. For most my adult life, I've been No Allergy Person (NAP) who would zoom on where others weezed and complained about the coming of spring. Now I am the guy watching hour 4 of Friday Night Lights, home on a Friday Night while my nose mimicks Mount Kilauea. Except with snot.

My college buddy Dave used to spend 3 days in bed at the beginning of every allergy season. He was also the guy who would beg out of social engagements to fold napkins or back up his Palm Pilot so I figured him for the introverted type. Now I get it. My nose feels like a giant, bleeding tumor welded to my face. I have the energy of a wet mop.

Have fun without me, you, you crazy kids at the horse races. You, you lushies out getting lushed. Save yourselves. Even all ya'll doing something with robots that I don't understand. Get wired. I need to get well

The Kitchen is Closed...

After two straight weeks of out of town guests and a surprise trip to Los Angeles, I've never been so tired in my life. Apologies to those I had social obligations with this evening. I'm going to bed.

The Fine Art of Napping:

As a believer in the fine art of napping, it hurt to learn that the modern world killed off the nap and that some people still believe in this endangered pleasure. To wit...

We are a culture that celebrates action, doing, achieving, an attitude that leads to a disdain for sleep in general. We stay up late and get up early. We pull all-nighters. We'll sleep when we're dead, and in the meantime there's always a Starbucks on the corner.

It's a misguided attitude. A good nap is one of life's great pleasures, and the ability to nap is the sign of a well-balanced life. When we nap we snatch back control of our day from a mechanized, clock-driven society. We set aside the urgency imposed on us by the external world and get in touch with an internal rhythm that is millions of years old.

Amen brother. (via AL Daily)

On Why You Won't See Me Naked Here...

This from my friend Min Jung....

My personal relationships are not for public consumption or broadcast. There’s no PR in my romances. I find it horrifically offensive when people put broadcast spin of a web 2.0 nature on their personal relationships. That, I find really gross.

For instance, I received a sms msg via Dodgeball from someone I know stating “@ a very romantic place! having a brilliant conversation with my amazing boyfriend” To which I thought the following:

a) But not saying where you’re at, you kinda defeat the purpose of using dodgeball for its intended purpose

b) if the conversation is so brilliant, why are you dodgeballing in hoping someone will track you down to join you?

c) how amazing is it that this social utility, dodgeball, has been tweaked for such anti-social behavior

d) ok. you guys are squishy. we get it. now can we move on with our lives because the rest of the world really really isn’t that interested in your love life. i mean, it’s not like you’re tom cruise and katy holmes. and even them - i don’t really care much about. Not even in that (and don’t draw parallels here) train-wreck kinda way.

Yes, yes, yes and one second, yes. I do not use new media to broadcast who I'm dating or involved with because

A) It's no one's business.

B) I have a little dignity and thinking that the world needs to know everything I'm up to says more about my insecurity than it does about The Power of Technology or anything mythic and imaginary like that.

C) I still believe I exist even if no one flickrs/tags/dodgeballs/blogs/podcasts my wheelings and dealings.

D) If I don't or if you don't, I'm yanking the plug on (y)our hyperconnected lives right now and forcing you/us to communicate through a tin can telephone.

Ugh...

I have a yucky flu that makes me want to crawl under a boulder and die. But not writing makes me feel limbless. So I'll do what I can...