Just on Dave’s Scripting News site, which is probably the only site I read as a tech journalist that I still read as a prole.

It just seems amazing to me that he is a polarizing figure to some (many?). I mean, sure he’s opinionated, thinks there is a right way and a wrong way to do something, but that’s because he’s run his own companies. Who wants a CEO that gets mired in nuance and grey areas?

I was writing about blogging, XML, RSS and such right when he was doing things, so to me, he was definitely on the scene and leading the pack.

It reminds me of Christoher Columbus and, most especially an essay about him written by Teller (of Penn & Teller fame). In it he talks about all of the things that Columbus did, and the times in which, he did them. But most important to me, and where I see the Dave Winer connection is in the end:

Today “enlightened” history teachers pooh-pooh Columbus’s role because he was a European. They point out that Incas and Aztecs and Cherokees and Cheyennes had lived in America for centuries before 1492; they credit the Viking oaf Leif Erikson, for stumbling upon a piece of North America, running away, and doing nothing with his “discovery.”

Such teachers misunderstand what the word “discover” means. There is a difference between blundering onto something, and discovering its nature, grasping its order and significance. Farmers in ancient fields had experienced mass and momentum. But we don’t say they discovered Newtonian physics. To discover is not merely to encounter, but to comprehend and reveal, to apprehend something new and true and deliver it to the world.

I’m not saying Dave is the Columbus of the Web or anything, but as far as being a champion of technology and comprehending it, that part I can definitely see. But so much of the blogosphere wants to give the spotlight to the Leif Ericksons.

I spent a lot of time yesterday evening trying to figure out the world of structured documents. I’m not sure if there is something obvious I’m missing here.

As started previously, my novel is a 700+ unstructured Word document. Right now, I just manually insert a page break before every new chapter and that’s about it.

But it seems all of the programs for structured documents are more about technical documents and presentations. I don’t need FrameMaker (which is good, because they stopped making it for Mac OS X), I don’t need the ability to move every paragraph/sentence like it is a single unit.

Ideally, I want to be able to see an outline view of the novel, broken into chapters. Almost like a PDF with the preview pane, but instead of individual pages, I want it to say Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.

Does it need to happen for this novel? Not necessarily. But that would seem to help me mentally break the novel up. If I knew I’m working on chapter 5 today, just open it up, click on the Chapter 5 thumbnail and go.

Plus, and this is the real important part, while Chapter 5 is selected, if I hit home, I want it to go to the beginning of Chapter 5. If I hit end, I want the end of Chapter 5.

Anyone? Thoughts?

I haven’t written about the novel in a long time here. That isn’t going to change dramatically.

But I’ve been working on it lately and having a lot of fun doing it, so that I do want to talk about.

For those of you playing at home, my novel is a (switching apps) 763 page behemoth of a Word document that I am editing down to its fighting weight.

Most of the time I wasn’t writing about it, I wasn’t working on it. I have always insisted that the mood of the writer as they write their book is present in the subtext of the book, so whenever I didn’t like what “subtext” I would be putting out there, I didn’t work on it.

But lately, it has been fun again. I see a lot of my previous stumbling blocks as procrastination in disguise. The framing device that I believe I went on and on about in previous entries? I don’t think it matters. In “Reading Like A Writer,” Francine Prose eviscerated my notion that the narrator had to be rooted at some fixed point in time and have a reason to be telling the story, by showing example after example of amazing works of fiction that break this rule blatantly. Even my own reading of Mansfield Park found the device to be naked and useless. So, if Jane Austen can break the rules…

Of course, a framing device that helps ratchet up the tension actually just indicates a narrative that needs more action.

But, honestly, the writing isn’t as academic as all of that, either. Most of this stuff is all happening under the hood; when I’m working on a chapter, it is just about two things, making that chapter the best it can be and making sure it is funny. Funny books don’t just have a joke here and there, they make people smile for the duration of the read, between laughs, as well. That is the goal.

I have mentioned to a few people how much the structure of my novel would lend itself to being a Broadway musical, and I can say that nothing would fascinate me more than seeing such a thing. But, for today, I need to process words and finish the book.

I found a great quote the other day, or did it find me (well, it was on the cap of the iced tea I ordered at herbivore. Damn, just writing herbivore means I have to have a shwarma there in the next few days now, oh well). Anyway, the quote was from Josh Billings: “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.”

Not really pithy, but oh well…

Oasis has been a lot of fun, now that the launch is really on. I’m still coming up with ways to make it seem like one unified site and not a weird hybrid of a celebrity/pop culture site fused onto a youth community site, but that will sort itself out. Plus, the distinction will be less important when both URLs are up and running, as teens who want a community site with celebrity stuff more in the background can enter the second URL instead.

Might be some odd jobs floating my way soon, so that will smooth rent over a bit longer. Worst case scenario, I may have to dip into my retirement stuff a bit to get me through the novel and the possible move to NYC. We’ll see what happens.

In other news, I screwed up my ankle somehow (probably just had it awkwardly positioned for a session of aggressive cardio), so haven’t been to the gym lately. But I got a nice little ankle thing that has an insert you can put in the freezer, so that’s good. Easy to toss some frozen corn on it on the couch, but this hooks onto my foot nicely, allowing for it to heal while I sit at the computer, too. Should be resolved by this week, and I can go kick-start that again.

Ok, if I’m talking about putting frozen corn on my foot, i think that’s an indication I’m running out of material and should instead go work on the novel some more for today.

So, I post the thing about moving to NYC and now, no matter what I say or do, everyone hooks it together. I mention going on a date, and it’s “what if it works out? you’re moving…”

Yikes.

As any reader of this blog should know, when I write stuff here, it is true in the exact moment it is written (hello?! How many times has the book almost been ready to be finished up?)

Will I move to NYC? I’d like to. It’s something I’m seriously thinking about.

But if I meet a boy, find a great apartment, stand to make millions at a great startup, have Stanford green light me for the writing fellowship for which I applied, and on and on and on, then I’ll be here a while.

Right now, I’m single, unemployed, and working on my novel. If that continues on for a while, I can move that situation anywhere I want, and NYC is the place I would choose. But, that’s a long way off, and to quote famous New Yorker John Lennon: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

So, any shy boys looking for a date, getting all worried I’ve got a plane ticket all lined up… give me a reason to stay.

Finally getting back into the groove (did I have one before I left?!) here, after being back east for nearly a month.

And, once again, visiting New York City made me want to live there, as it always does. I keep waiting for some sort of signal, anything, that will make me drop everything, pack up my stuff, and move across the country again.

Saw a bunch of shows, and ran into a friend/acquaintance there. Been a while since we chatted, and was good catching up. I mentioned always wanting to move to NYC and for a second, I saw some sort of hesitation cross his face, but didn’t think anything of it. Two days later, he posted a bulletin on MySpace announcing that he and his roommate had an opening and were looking for a third roommate.

The rent was pretty much what I pay in San Francisco. The apartment was right in the heart of the Village. So, I replied and said that it was good to see the rent would be affordable if I ever did decide to move, etc., etc. But the wheels started spinning…

Within 24 hours, I sent a second reply. A long one. One that basically said I was up for the roommate slot, if he was cool with that. Like I said, we aren’t close friends at this point, and this was definitely a big deal in that regard as well as my moving to NYC for a February 1 deadline.

In my head, certain items were being sold. Others packed. Questions arose, like, how do you sell art you paid way too much money for, back when you had way too much money? But mentally, I was energized, and started to feel the pulse of NYC flowing through me. The city has always had a powerful energy to it, a creative force. Why I ended up in SF and not the closer option is a good question.

Within a day of being home, I found the roommate situation had already resolved, and I’d be in SF for a while longer. But it is hard to deny how excited I was about moving, even if it was going to be so last minute and crazy.

But, I figured, it’s the same amount of rent; I’m unemployed and doing odd contract stuff without meeting people in person here, so that’s portable; and I’m definitely up for a chance and being closer to family.

So, my new plan… I want to move to NYC by this summer. My goal is to start looking right before NYU lets out for the spring term, as a lot of things should open up around that time.

Between now and then, I plan to do everything that was going through my head when I thought I might be moving this month. Any CDs that were transported from PA to SF, and have not been played of imported into iTunes? Dump them. Any book that did a similar journey? Read it, sell it, toss it, or burn it, because it isn’t getting repacked. Never made a single recipe from a book? Bye bye.

As I will be going from living solo to a roommate situation, simplicity and portability is a major concern. So, every month, my apartment should get more spartan. Less CDs, less books, less everything.

As I see NYC as a fresh start, I also want to go there with a finished book, either sold or ready to peddle. Along those same lines, I plan to go to the gym and get in shape for the move, as well. Those are the only two things that I need to focus on between now and then, aside from getting Oasis up and running in a big way (but I already have a lot of that figured out).

So that’s the news.

My new year’s resolution this year was to “sleep on the floor,” a reference to my lack of love for my loft bed. I will just be fulfilling that resolution on a different coast.

(this site is so ugly, that will change this month)

Happy New Year!

I meant to send Christmas cards this year, since I was going chintzy on the gifts for budgetary reasons. My normal thing is to send cards and include a newsletter of sorts, which has always been well received.

But the more I tried to write the newsletter, the more I sounded like a Buddhisty Zen airhead. It is hard to capture how empowering it is to retool your life to come from a place of inspiration instead of motivation, and the nuances that encapsulates.

So, I bailed on it. I figured it was better to come across as too poor or busy to send a card than to send one that didn’t paint a detailed-enough portrait of my life.

Plus, a lot of the metrics people use to catch up with me (books, body, boy, etc.) are all in a very healthy place, and I feel like all three are going to pop in 2007, but to say they’ve made no progress (as far as hitting measurable goals) or delivering heavily-caveated progress seemed, again, to be broad-stroking things too swiftly.

A lot of the things I hear over the holidays are interesting in that they are positive, but make you think deeper about them. “You seem much happier” is nice to hear, but does raise flags of my vibe before.

I’m also the token vegan/rice queen back in Pennsylvania, but that’s because here almost no one is the former, and it would be dating suicide to attempt the latter. But since both are a bit of a novelty here, it is OK, unlike in SF where I find many references to veganism to be childish (which I will address this year; some people may be staying home more often if they don’t adapt).

When I return to SF, my focus will be on writing the novel and building Oasis into a daily-updated site. I’ve always been such a planner, it is interesting not knowing exactly what will be happening on Oasis, but it seems like it needs to be something that grows and develops organically rather than me just running with it without community input. Will probably start an Oasis podcast in February or so, which will be a new avenue for me.

So, nothing in the way of resolutions, since I’ve already got my trajectory pretty fixed already. Besides, resolutions are just motivation…

Happy New Year!