Feb 23, 2009

A Blog to Facebook Experiment

THIS post is basically an experiment on Facebook's ability to suck my blog posts in and display them in my wall. I recently changed a setting in Facebook that I hope will make it display entire posts rather than just a couple of lines from them.

I've always felt that the main area of the Facebook profile, usually occupied by the wall, is an excellent place to post my own thoughts. Unfortunately Facebook etiquette prevents me from writing on my own wall. Although Facebook itself seems to encourage it.

So the new Facebook look, which shows my own activities as well as friends' wall posts all in one big mash-up, is an excellent way to do what I've wanted to for some time. Facebook should suck in the contents of each blog post and display them fully right inside the wall/activity feed. It definitely took me some time to come to this idea, but hopefully it'll work out all right. Fingers crossed.

Feb 22, 2009

For Posterity: How Shit Happens

THIS is something I've been wanting to post here for a while but which completely evaded my puny memory for the past couple of years. It's for anyone who's ever worked for a large company where the most insane and inane ideas routinely get turned into everyday practice (I'm looking at you, Dilbert).

In the beginning was the plan
And then came the assumptions
And the assumptions were without form
And the plan was completely without substance
And darkness was upon the faces of the workers
And they spake unto their marketing managers, saying `it is a pot of manure, and it stinketh'
And the marketing managers went unto the strategists and saith,
`It is a pile of dung, and none may abide the odor thereof'.
And the strategists went unto the business managers and saith
`It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong and such that none may abide by it'.
And the business managers went unto the director and saith,
`It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength'.
And the director went to the vice president and saith,
`It contains that which aids plant growth and it is very strong'.
And the vice president went unto the senior vice president and saith,
`It promoteth growth, and it is powerful'.
And the senior vice president went unto the president and saith,
`This powerful new plan will actively promote growth and efficiency of the company and the business in general'.
And the president looked upon the plan and saw that it was good
And the plan became policy

Feb 18, 2009

The Divine Music

SOMETIMES when I'm about to fall asleep, an amazing melody comes into my head, plays itself out, and goes away. This is something I've never heard before, but sounds absolutely fantastic and mind-blowing. I could even say, divine.

This happened on Sunday. An instrumental melody in the style of Indian classical music started up in my head, picked up tempo and slowly morphed into a fusion violin-piece, and finally a rousing opera-style crescendo. It was just unbelievable how beautiful it was and how smoothly it flowed from genre to genre, blending every kind of music between East and West and yet, as a whole, sounding nothing like any music I'd ever listened to.

While letting this tune carry itself on, I caught myself simultaneously regretting that I didn't know enough about music to record it, write it down somehow so I could actually enjoy it over and over again. But this was such a complex piece, spanning so many styles, somehow I think even a prodigy would have trouble capturing it all. Oh well.