http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/ On the craft of storytelling at all levels and in all forms. Copyright 2008 Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:07:41 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss MovableType in favor of WordPress. You'll find the new blog at http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/wordpress/. The old one will stay here for nostalgia purposes.]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/the_end.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/the_end.html News Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:07:41 -0500
Apparently Boosh is planning a visit to some Mayan ruins in Guatemala. The modern Mayas are okay with that, but they are planning a cleansing ceremony to be performed immediately following his departure, in order to cleanse the site of his bad vibes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6440639.stm

Courtesy of Luke.]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/why_i_love_the.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/why_i_love_the.html News Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:38:16 -0500
http://interfictions.blogspot.com

Still waffling on the WordPress issue. I would be jumping right in, believe me, except that there are just so many wonderful little customizations I've made to this blog that I love and am loath to leave behind. But it'll probably happen eventually. When it does, you'll know.]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/interfictions_b_1.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/interfictions_b_1.html News Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:34:48 -0500
Desert Thinking: Religion and Environmental Crisis by Chuck Groom

This is an emotionally precarious subject for me, as you will no doubt be aware if you've read at all into the backlog of this blog. I'm already worried I'll let the ideas run away with the story and turn it into a preachy mess, which will in turn force me to abandon the ideas and turn the story into something else. So please follow the link, and let this guy's persuasive talents accomplish what mine have not.

"Assuredly the creation of the heavens And the earth
Is a greater matter
Than the creation of humankind;
Yet most people understand it not."
--Koran, S.60.57, trans. Abdullah Yusaf Ali.]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/desert_thinking.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/03/desert_thinking.html Writings Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:49:34 -0500
Well, I noticed I had a hole in my day, which I was mostly filling with NPR. Which is fine, but it gets repetitive. Really. Try listening to NPR news for half an hour two days in a row. Try it for 20. There is a certain style of delivery which newscasters follow without variation. It gets numbing. Lulling. I realized I'd much rather be learning to tell a good story.

So today I made my first earnest attempt at partaking of some fiction podcasts. And I liked them so much I thought I'd share what I found.

]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/my_morning_comm.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/my_morning_comm.html Writings Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:49:48 -0500 TypeKey accounts before they can tell me what a crap job I'm doing.

I imagine I will get less comments now.

Growl.

Sending hate vibes at you spammers. Hate.]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/popularity_amon.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/popularity_amon.html News Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:43:08 -0500
Amy: http://www.tuftsmarathonchallenge.com/runners/amydeluca
Diana: http://www.tuftsmarathonchallenge.com/runners/dianadeluca

Danielle is spending a semester abroad in Spain. I made her a blog so she could tell us all about it.
]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/my_talented_and.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/my_talented_and.html News Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:19:54 -0500 WordPress kicks ass.

I installed a copy of it on my site and am fiddling about with it. Here is a link to the test installation, where you can go look and make comments. Please, please make comments. I have pretty much decided to switch over to it, as you can probably guess from the fact that I've already ported all nine million entries from this blog over to that one.

The only drawback, thus far, is that all the templates are kind of bland. So maybe I'll be spending some time hacking out a new custom template after all...

]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/wordpress.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/wordpress.html News Mon, 05 Feb 2007 08:53:48 -0500 People growing up in New England in coming years, as the world gets warmer, won't really notice the change. They'll think the nostalgia of the older generation for snowball fights and sledding to be quaint, but overly emotional, even irrational. It will be warmer, after all. Less fabric will be required for coats. Towns will get by on smaller snow-clearing budgets. Ploughs will rust. Fewer traffic accidents will occur. Nobody will bother to put snow tires on anymore. Gardners will become more daring. http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/on_the_slipping.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/02/on_the_slipping.html Writings Sat, 03 Feb 2007 20:45:20 -0500 Attempt at a little digital art. A very little.... http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/01/moon_with_rocke.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/01/moon_with_rocke.html Visions Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:59:20 -0500 Serendipity, WordPress. Feeling less and less inclined to spend a lot of time fussing with templates trying to break the mold. Never really liked the way I organized this blog anyway.

I want to go back to the single-thread format. Have a blogroll in the sidebar like everybody else. Start a podcast. Etc etc.

Not saying it's going to happen anytime soon. Got enough else to do. Just saying.

]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/01/sorely_tempted.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2007/01/sorely_tempted.html News Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:53:28 -0500 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan 4: Red Handprints]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/12/new_incident.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/12/new_incident.html News Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:18:38 -0500 At the Mayan ruins of Tulum, on the southeastern coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico, my camera battery died. Not in the sense that I had failed to charge it, but in the sense that it had outlived its usefulness; having... http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/12/incidents_of_tr_2.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/12/incidents_of_tr_2.html Writings Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:02:50 -0500 At the needling of Ian, and in the spirit of the generally Maya-obsessed theme of this blog in the past two months, I thought I'd stop the near month-long gap in new posts with some angry ranting about Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/12/apocalypto.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/12/apocalypto.html News Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:36:30 -0500 a blurb about the Interfictions anthology (the one that bought my story). They make it sound quite hip and cutting-edgy. Which I suppose it is.]]> http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/11/interfictions_b.html http://mjd.joskinandlob.com/2006/11/interfictions_b.html News Sun, 19 Nov 2006 21:30:40 -0500