Notebook

My Notebook features over 500 posts across over twenty years, covering everything from movies to ethics to personal stories to random links. Browse recent Notebook entries below, or use the category buttons or search to go deeper. The “Clip File” category contains my favorite writing.

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  • Happy Birthday, Mr. Arthur C. Doyle

    If you visited Google today, you may have noticed the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle logo. Doyle is a personal hero of mine. He would have been 147 today. Besides the obvious- he’s the greatest mystery writer to ever live, and the inventor of the true modern mystery novel (forget Poe)- Doyle also led an amazing…


  • The ‘Code’ movie is not for ‘DaVinci’ book lovers

    Despite (or perhaps, due to) my high hopes, I thought The DaVinci Code movie was a long, boring, overwraught, and entirely lame screen incarnation of the book. I love Audrey Tatou– Ameilie is on my Top 10 All-Time list- and I really like Tom Hanks, Paul Bettany, Jean Reno, and Alfred Molina; but despite that…


  • Greatest Lyrics series: ‘The Boxer’

    It’s time for another recurring series here (see also: beta testing, idea factory, best of). This series is Greatest Lyrics, and it’s pretty straightforward. I’m going to be posting some song lyrics that I think are some of the greatest ever written. I’m not talking overall song quality here- though in most cases, they correlate-…


  • Announcing The JGC Awards

    In light of Thomas Hawk’s recent post about The Webby Awards, I’m starting up a new web awards ceremony myself. As I stated in a comment on Thomas’ site, the rules of The JGC Awards are thus: For $120 (about half the cost of a Webby), I will happily confer upon any one of you…


  • Share your OPML…just not quite yet

    Yesterday, many voices in the blogosphere reported that Dave Winer‘s new service Share Your OPML has launched. It’s a great first step towards tracking attention in the blogosphere, and I hope it leads more innovation in this space. The service is pretty straightforward. You simply export a list of RSS feeds from your RSS reader,…


  • Law of ongoing trends

    Law of Ongoing Trends: Whenever you think a trend is about to expire, it’s safe to assume it will continue on for up to half of its total life to date. Expressed mathmatically: Total life of trend = assumed life + half


  • Maine blogger free of lawsuit; Maine not yet free of corruption

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    As I wrote yesterday, Maine ‘Pay-per-Gate’ blogger Lance Dutson has been relieved of a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought against him, thanks in part to his attorneys, Maine State Rep Stephen Bowen, and the public relations and legal work of the MBA (disclosure: I’m on the board of the MBA). So at least nationally, this sad,…


  • A mobius strip debate: PC vs. Apple, by the specs

    Over the weekend, I picked up our new custom-built home PC system from my brother’s house. That, along with Apple’s new TV spots, got me thinking about the endless debate of PC/MSFT vs Apple. While I feel it’s one of those mobius strips of personal belief- like abortion or Red Sox vs. Yankees, its a…


  • Lance won…this round

    Congratulations to Lance Dutson, who is free from the legal black cloud imposed on him by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising. The agency dropped their lawsuit Friday, though they made no public comment on the matter. Cowards, to the end. In his latest post on the now seven-month-long Pay-Per-Gate saga, Lance thanked his own legal council,…


  • Maine Rep calls for Office of Tourism investigation

    In his ongoing ethical and now legal battle with inept state government officials and contractors, Lance Dutson has finally received meaningful public help from a State of Maine government official, some five months after his original reporting. Today, Maine Representative Stephen Bowen (R – Rockport) announced he has asked Maine’s economic commissioner to suspend the…