Guy stuff.

Falling In and Out of Love, with E-books | Publishing Perspectives

But what I fear, as things go digital, is that a lot of the visceral love of reading will be lost. Not the romance of paper — although, there is that — but that physical connection one gets with books from an early age. That climbing into the book my daughter is doing, the way she can’t turn the page fast enough when she’s excited, the way she flips it aside when she’s done. Of course, there will always be children’s board books. But the question is, as more and more parents spend more and more time with e-book readers…

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MetsBlog.com » Opinion: Bobby Valentine and the Mets

That said, for the most part, Valentine seems to work best with disciplined, selfless talent, most of whom are primed to buy in to his style of play.  For instance, I think David Wright would do well with Valentine, but I think Jose Reyes would struggle.  So, if the Mets intend to rely on the Gary Sheffields of the world, the Carlos Delgado, Valentine should never return.  However, if the Mets plan to build a team around hit-and-runs, less power and more doubles in the gap, timely stolen bases, bunting, a versatile bullpen, and basically play chess on a baseball field, Valentine is the best…

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A Personal Request: Help a Special Ed Teacher Out

"It is the glory and the burden of public schools that they cater to all of our children, whether delinquent or obedient, drug-damaged or clean, brilliant or handicapped, privileged or scarred." - Benjamin R. Barber Three years ago, my wife (Salomé) was accepted into NYC's Teaching Fellows Program, and left the corporate world to become a special education teacher in Hunts Point, one of the worst neighborhoods in the Bronx. Unlike many who enter the program as an escape from corporate life, with fantasies of early dismissal and summer vacations, she was primarily inspired by the ups and downs we…

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Done with Storytlr; Testing out Posterous

After a couple of weeks on Storytlr, I don't love it. It's much too inconvenient to use (posting via web is the only method that works well) and it doesn't appear to have any active development going on. Also, its primary gimmick of combining sources to tell a "story" is rather limited, and isn't terribly appealing or relevant to me, so I'm not putting any more energy into it. Posterous is intriguing, though, offering simple posting via email and SMS, plus integration with Flickr; exactly what I'm looking for in advance of our Route 66 trip. Plus, it has a…

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Keep it Simple, Stupid

This fervid desire for the Web bespeaks a longing so intense that it can only be understood as spiritual. A longing indicates that something is missing in our lives. What is missing is the sound of the human voice. The spiritual lure of the Web is the promise of the return of voice. "The Longing", by David Weinberger, from The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual My wife and I celebrated our 11th anniversary this past weekend with a little family getaway to Lancaster County, PA, and had the wonderful kind of physically exhausting, mentally stimulating time that…

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Three Rules for the National Poetry Slam

2009 National Poetry Slam
2009 National Poetry Slam

Eleven years ago next month, in Austin, TX, I took one of the most life-changing thrill rides ever when I attended my first National Poetry Slam, as a member of the 1998 team representing the Nuyorican Poets Café that would go on to become their first (and still only) team to win the Championship. The victory itself was amazing, but what really struck me and lasted much, much longer was the diverse community of poets in attendance, and their passion for the event that brought them together every Summer.

The competition was fierce, and there were some who took it way too seriously (myself included!), but late at night, after all of the bouts were done and people gathered in groups of old and new friends to talk, drink and trade poems, the true spirit of the slam always shone through: “It’s not about the points, it’s about the poetry.”

I came back from that first NPS inspired and on a mission, and in September of 1998 added a regular slam series to my fledgling reading series, a little bit louder, and the rest is history.

Literally.

(more…)

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