Neatly Sliced

Quote,

“I’m feeling kinda funky, kinda fine.”

OAR.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Wikipedia no longer allows search engines to follow links on its site. I was reading kottke and he brought up an interesting point: “Links are currency on the web and Wikipedia just stopped paying it forward.”

Links are currency on the web. I never really thought about it like that before. I remember my early days of blogging; my giddiness over receiving a link was positively overwhelming. Even now entire sites are built around the premise of a site’s wealth (see: blogshares) or rank in the blogosphere (see: web ecosystem, technorati, need I go on?).

Sites have “del.icio.us this article” or “digg this” embedded at the bottom of every post. Why? Often, the pursuit of increasing blogosphoric wealth

This fascinates me as it reveals the motivation of many in this world. Often times, people work for monetary gain, fame, or prestige. Conversely, sometimes it is as it ought to be: in the interest of helping one’s fellow man.

The phrasing “links are currency” simply tripped a trigger in my brain. What is the motivation in writing? Am I posting for 1) self-documentation / sharing information with the world or 2) blogosphoric wealth?

In turn, is the web a fair economy? Are those seeking links proving blogosphorically impoverished due to a lack of quality content? If so, those who have more virtuous motives would prove the most affluent by means of an abundance of incoming links praising the excellent resources.

Unremarkably, the thought is irrelevant and highly discriminating depending on individual personalities and their corresponding motivations and aspirations. In any vein, if links are currency, perhaps we should view them with an equal level of care as we would our dollars and cents – cease arbitrarily linking to mediocre resources.

Popularity: 5% [?]

La vie en rose
Originally uploaded by Hugo*.

It was dim, but then it was light. It will be light soon enough.

Popularity: 16% [?]

I’ll tell you where I was at 0615 this morning – running terribly late for work and fueling my car in the freezing cold. I’m in the car, driving, and suddenly (seemingly out of nowhere!) an enlightened low fuel gauge!

“Woe to me,” I exclaim. “I shall never get my car started unless I fill my fuel tank.” So I turn around and head to the nearest, safest petrol station – but three blocks from my home.

Pulling up to the gas pump, I note the screen’s warning: “Pay Clerk Inside”. Groan. I never pay inside. Thus marks the beginning of a dreary day.

I go inside and enter the very short queue. Ahead of me is an incredibly ghetto fabulous customer.

“Sweetheart, get me a pack of Camels. And yea, a Smirnoff. Get me a Smirnoff, sweetheart.”

Yes, at quarter after six in the morning, this individual is purchasing Smirnoff Ice, likely for immediate consumption. Sun not yet risen, yet consuming alcohol. The cashier takes his money and slips his purchases into a brown paper bag.

“Sweetheart, don’t you got a plastic bag?”

“No, sorry. I’m all out.”

“Are you serious? Sweetheart, I gotta walk, and I can’t carry this paper bag,” he whines. “I mean, I could, but I really don’t want to.”

I’m not even kidding.

“No we only have the paper bag.”

He turns to me, “Aw I’m sorry sweetheart, I’m holding you up, go ahead.”

I prepay for my fuel. Exit stage left.

Seriously. Maybe next time he’ll think twice before buying a Smirnoff.

Popularity: 5% [?]

There are two types of people–those who come into a room and say, ‘Well, here I am!’ and those who come in and say, ‘Ah, there you are.’
– Frederick L Collins

From Google quote of the day, x number of days ago.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Russell Davies wrote a fascinating ditty on how to be more interesting. It includes ten easy steps to increase your interestingness. All of these steps are based off of the following two facts:

The way to be interesting is to be interested

. You’ve got to find what’s interesting in everything, you’ve got to be good at noticing things, you’ve got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they’ll find you interesting.

Interesting people are good at sharing

. You can’t be interested in someone who won’t tell you anything. Being good at sharing is not the same as talking and talking and talking. It means you share your ideas, you let people play with them and you’re good at talking about them without having to talk about yourself.

I’ll start with step one, a photo a day posted to flickr. I take more than I post, and many are under private viewing. However, as aforequoted, it is the sharing that increases interestingness. Photos kept to one’s self serves little purpose and decreases the possible joy derived from such photographs. There is greater joy in sharing.

The photo-a-day may be in conjunction with step six, “Collect Something” (which may include photos). I take many photos of the oddities found in the area in which I live, so these would be viable candidates for my posting.

The ten steps to interesting are quite interesting (redundancy?). Although, is it not futile to write a list of interestingness as though one can really acquire that stature by means of mere actions? Are we to speak nothing of the underlying unspoken interestingness of a person or object – an intangible entity that cannot be created or identified other than its sheer existence?

As reminiscent of that notorious senior video, can a hero really attain heroism by means of checking items off of a list? 1) Locate damsel in distress 2) Save her 3) Die the hero’s death in the interim. The question really lay in the heart condition – motivation – of the “hero”, or “interesting” person. A person’s interestingness or heroism ought to be happenstance of life’s natural unfolded events. If such qualities are sought after for the sheer purpose of acquiring heroism or interestingness rather than the self-improvements or goodnesses accomplished, the horizon has been defeated and the shallow shell remains.

To clarify: the ten steps are not bad in amongst themselves. But are we posting to flickr to be more interesting, or are we posting to share the photo-y goodness and to reap the self benefits of viewing the world in a wider spectrum?

The steps are brilliant, but I must ensure that my aim is true. I am upset that this article portrays interestingness as a skill. Improving one’s being engenders interestingness. Bear in mind the two keys of interestingness and the principles behind them. Ignore the view of skilled interestingness; read the article, as it lists good things to help reflect and to widen one’s view on the real situation that this world finds itself.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Jennifer: do you flickr?
Buddy: only when I’m really tired…

Popularity: 9% [?]