Kid oakland has a nice essay about the amount of energy it takes to produce quality original content.

A healthy blog…one that aspires to be sustainable…should have growing traffic, growing returning readers, a healthy community of comment makers and a sustainable model for delivering content to readers.

Of course, none of that is happening. This blog has a shrinking readership. shrinking returning readers, a reduced community of comment makers (some names have dissappeared entirely), and, personally, k/o has had an unsustainable model for delivering content…especially if the measurement is the daily, “bite-sized” nuggets that most blogs deliver.

I’ve seen kid oakland’s name around town, and honestly I’m not a regular reader. Maybe I checked out the site once and was put off by the generic blogger interface.

Sorry, I’m a snob like that. I like it when people hack up their templates and make something at least quasi-individualized. Even though often the results are much uglier than the original theme. The stripped down no-nonsense aesthetic has merit too. If that’s what you want, just learn a little css and really strip it down Nielson style.

But that’s a different point than I originally set out to make. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve said before that I don’t want to write a political blog. I don’t. I read a lot of political blogs, and I’m sure they do a good enough job without my help.

At the same time, I’m passionate about ideas, and I believe in the concept of a healthy political discourse. I also believe in the power of new publishing tools to empower individual voices to be heard by a large audience.

I selfishly want people to care about the use of human powered vehicles (especially bicycles) as daily transportation. For that reason, I will grant myself the self-indulgent luxury of spouting off on transportation policy making, especially as it relates to the use of bikes.

We need to face up to the fact that riding bikes is fun. It’s not just fun for me. It’s fun for policy wanks too. Hell, it’s fun for every able bodied cyclist. Plus it’s sexy. You can’t even deny that.

America needs more fun, and more sexiness.

And so I promote bicycling.

Dear Friend:

The new year is a traditional time for making resolutions. And, at the beginning of the year, I am calling for America to make a resolution to cut our nation’s dependence on oil. Not only is it possible to cut our reliance on oil, but we will also see significant benefits. Read the rest of this entry »

2006 will be more precise. Out with the complexity. 2006 will be simple. Effective. Concise. Fun for everyone.

This from Josh at Talking Points Memo:

Bad writing is usually imprecise writing — and its badness usually stems from the bad writer not having taken the time to think through just what he or she means to say. The cobwebs and vagaries of their minds are revealed in bad prose.

2005 was a long year, full of big events. It was full to the point of overflowing. It practically burst. Life was complex and I did my best to keep pace with the complexity.

I’m entering 2006 with the intention of narrowing my focus. Certain areas of inquiry will receive a much larger share of my time and attention. Precise thought and action will be the keys for 2006. It won’t feel like less, in fact, I’m convinced it will feel like much more.

That’s like only one of my resolutions.

The other is that I’ve been sitting on a $5 winning Bingo Night scratcher and I’ve got to remember to convert it soon. If you’re like me, the start of a new year is a great time to liquidate those scratcher assets. In case you’ve lost track of the deadlines, here’s a link to the full scratcher portfolio expiration schedule.

Best of luck and happy scratching!

Dear Senator Boxer,

Thank you for contacting me with your message regarding oil independence. I support your efforts and the thought behind your transportation proposals. I strongly agree with your statement that the cost of inaction is too high.

However, I am saddened that your message did not make any reference to the use of bicycles as daily transportation. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: The blog was successfully migrated in January, 2006.

I tried to migrate the blog. It didn’t work.

The big hang up was related to the way my former ftp client (cuteftp 5.0 xp) communicates with the server’s subdomain directory (newimproved.planresonate.com) Read the rest of this entry »