This is going to be a catch all “rant”, or as close to a blog as I get.
First up, and before I forget it: even though Lance Arthur isn’t quite “back” yet in terms of posting much more frequently, his latest Today, 2002 article is almost entirely about a subject near and dear to my heart – coffee. I wonder if Lance would post the article as a guest column over at CoffeeGeek… 🙂
Which makes me think of other websites I like(d) to visit most days. Seems the thrill is just… gone, for many. For example, Derek has entirely ditched his old blog and diary over at www.powazek.com. Zannah used to update her usr/bin/ thing several times a day, but I think she has two updates in a month now. Lance has abandoned his Life Serial some time ago. MonkeyBoy, aka David has dropped off the radar somewhere around 2001. Some personal sites I used to visit have disapeared entirely. Gone is Benjamin, Kyra and Andrew Chan’s site, which I always enjoyed for his humourous anti-rice-boy rants.
I know many have been discouraged and disgusted by the path the “web” has taken in the past few years – aka, “gone corporate”. But to those who quit updating or making the web a personal experience because they think it has gone too far corporate or they get too many cranks emailing them complaint letters, remember this: by quitting, you’re adding to these problems, not removing them.
Mom News
I’ve gotten a lot of support emails and people asking how my Mom is doing. It’s not very good news. She’s still going through chemo, and is back in the hospital after her last session because she can’t keep anything down. They’ve rescheduled her operation for mid-October, but who knows what will happen then. She’s getting more information on platelets and diets and such, but we don’t know what the result will be. Everyone hopes for the best.
Travel News
I have a ton of travelling ahead of me in the next few weeks. First, I’m driving down to Portland early Friday morning (early as in 4:30am) to attend a trade show (yeah, on Coffee) and also to TRY and have a micro-vacation. Jeanette’s coming, which I’m very happy about. Because she’s decided to make the trip, I went a bit swank with the hotel arrangements, getting one of the most expensive rooms in the new Hotel Lucia in downtown Portland, just a block or so away from Pioneer Square.
We get back next Monday… then I have three days to prep myself for a Thursday flight to Boston. I’m going to Boston as a guest of the SCAA, to discuss a variety of things and get involved in their fall meeting. The SCAA wants to establish a new membership category, and they want my input.
I leave those meetings on Sunday, and flight to… Ottawa, to take some time with my Mom. I’ll be in Ottawa until the following Thursday, then I fly back to Vancouver.
BTW, I really, really hate flying, so this is gonna be, uh, fun. Not.
