Category: Uncategorized

Sometimes I publish something that I just know is filler,and it turns out to be some of the most popular content on the site. Look to the right in the sidebar. That piece about the fake IRS email is consistently one of the most read and searched for posts on the site, and the day I published it, I almost didn’t. I thought it was too corny and silly. Shows you what I know.

Earlier this week I wrote a piece on Immortal Muse and Zireaux. It has continued to be a very commented and visited piece through the week. Almost immediately after publishing it, I received a comment which made me look at the “whois” information, which in turn led me to conclude that the artist and the publisher were in cahoots with each other, and that the whole thing was most likely a marketing scam.

Now I am not so sure.

Thanks to a comment by Allan, I revisited the Zireaux.com site, and was redirected to a fresh wordpress blog, where I read the following:

Assumptions and Conclusions

I’m going to assume here that this statemant can be viewed as honest and sincere in its content and presentation. I’m going to further assume, since it is directed at zireaux.com readers, that it is meant also to provide some information to explain the apparent inconsistencies we saw when we looked at the story earlier.

I see one phrase in there that would go far to explain things, and that phrase is “marital life”. It’s presented to us by Zireaux as an alternative interpretation, attributed possibly to legal mumblings. If I assume that this is all wrapped up neatly inside a disintegrating relationship, then some things can become clearer. Of course you know what they say about assuming… so let’s do it some more.

The box of notebooks, which I originally thought were stolen, could’ve been property contained within the “settlement”, and therefore not stolen at all. The publisher’s obvious disdain, which I called attention to in the original article, is easily explained as well as the arrogant publishing of works which may have been awarded by a judge.

The whois information would look that way if the sites in question were purchased before the relationship broke apart. The more I look at it, the more it looks like Zireaux is not the scammer here. The publisher, on the other hand, well, at the very least, I don’t think we would be friends. You may feel differently.

I dunno, but I just wanted to throw this out here since it seems so many people are interested.

I am Jon, and I guess that sometimes, I get a bit hasty. But I’m still not buying the book.

.

I am Jon, and that’s not a chicken.

It’s Monday, and I’ve been steadily feeling better since Sunday morning, so it’s back to work for me. I’ll be running my geeky head off today, trying to catch up to all those people I didn’t get to last week. (To them: I really appreciate your patience while I’ve been laid up. It means alot to me.) I guess today will be about a 200 mile day. That’s a biggie when you consider that no single trip will be more than 30 miles. I hope I am up to it.

So what does that mean to you guys in Los Angeles or London? Well, it means that today I may only have time for this little article on why you aren’t getting more than this little article.

How about this? Since so many of you liked that little puzzle yesterday, here is another one, this time with a Fall season motif. And I promise that sometime this week I’ll deliver “Firefox Setup In Easy Steps” and the review of SnapShots from the reader’s perspective.

I am Jon, and I hope I’m up to this..

Doris Lessing was unable to attend the presentation of her Nobel Prize for Literature. But she was able to deliver a remarkable acceptance speech by way of her editor. I admit, I had never heard of her before today. But after reading her speech, I think I should find one of her books.

The Guardian has presented her entire speech. I highly recommend heading over there and reading the whole thing. Here are just a couple of excerpts to raise your eyebrows.

“What has happened to us is an amazing invention – computers and the internet and TV. It is a revolution. This is not the first revolution the human race has dealt with. The printing revolution, which did not take place in a matter of a few decades, but took much longer, transformed our minds and ways of thinking. A foolhardy lot, we accepted it all, as we always do, never asked: “What is going to happen to us now, with this invention of print?” In the same way, we never thought to ask, “How will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by the internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that, once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging etc?”

She tells a great story of literacy struggling to survive surrounded by incredible poverty in Africa. It’s a strangely sad and uplifting tale, and one I recommend you read (click the link above), but I will not reprint it here because it is so long. It’s a story she wrote to be read aloud to those who would reward her for accomplishments accrued over 88 years. She tells of her own life as a young girl, living in a grass hut of 4 rooms, a house filled with books. She spellbinds us with images of other young people, following in her steps, with a craving for education and books… books of any kind. And she draws a distinct and dark line between that vision and the abject disregard for the printed word we find in many “civilized” cultures today. Finally, she warns aspiring writers, and indeed, all of us, to beware of our successes, to guard that special spark that makes us, us.

“Writers are often asked: “How do you write? With a word processor? an electric typewriter? a quill? longhand?” But the essential question is: “Have you found a space, that empty space, which should surround you when you write? Into that space, which is like a form of listening, of attention, will come the words, the words your characters will speak, ideas – inspiration.” If a writer cannot find this space, then poems and stories may be stillborn. When writers talk to each other, what they discuss is always to do with this imaginative space, this other time. “Have you found it? Are you holding it fast?”

“Let us now jump to an apparently very different scene. We are in London, one of the big cities. There is a new writer. We cynically enquire: “Is she good-looking?” If this is a man: “Charismatic? Handsome?” We joke, but it is not a joke.”

“This new find is acclaimed, possibly given a lot of money. The buzzing of hype begins in their poor ears. They are feted, lauded, whisked about the world. Us old ones, who have seen it all, are sorry for this neophyte, who has no idea of what is really happening. He, she, is flattered, pleased. But ask in a year’s time what he or she is thinking: “This is the worst thing that could have happened to me.”

“Some much-publicised new writers haven’t written again, or haven’t written what they wanted to, meant to. And we, the old ones, want to whisper into those innocent ears: “Have you still got your space? Your soul, your own and necessary place where your own voices may speak to you, you alone, where you may dream. Oh, hold on to it, don’t let it go.”

And I also found this quote attributed to her. I really like this point of view.