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May 28, 2008
Crimes Against Bibliography
This site repulses me.
Our books are so beautiful on the outside that their interior ceases to be important.
Oh. My. God.
I've nothing against buying books you know you'll never finish, or even books you'll probably never read, but books aren't wall covering, people. Someone wrote those things! Someone spent a lot of time on the interior, usually trying very hard to say something he felt very strongly about. At least treat the result with some respect.
There's something horribly wrong about buying books by the yard.
(via Boing-boing.)
Posted by Drew at 01:45 PM
How Are Those Updates Coming?
As you may have noticed, I've again fallen into blogger delinquency.
I'm headed off tonight to California for a wedding and a trip to Yosemite with Nick, so I anticipate having plenty of blogworthy material upon my return.
Try to get by without me. Again.
Posted by Drew at 01:32 PM
May 12, 2008
Not Exceeding Ten Miles Square
I wish I had something smarter to say about this, but I think I'll hold my tongue and just say that Greater Greater Washington is one of the best blogs out there. I don't know the guy who writes it, but I kind of wish that I did. Oh, what fun we'd have!
He posted recently about the Washington Post editorial pushing to reopen Klingle Road. I don't have much to add besides the fact that the Washington Post editorial board is a constant disappointment on almost every issue worth caring about.
UPDATE: I wrote to my councilman, Tommy Wells, asking him to oppose the reopening of Klingle Road. Letter after the jump.
May 12, 2008Councilman Tommy Wells
John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004Dear Councilman Wells;
When you ran for election in 2006, I was honored to support a candidate who promised to work for “a Livable and Walkable Community.” I hope that you’ll continue to support that mission as the city decides the future of Klingle Valley in Rock Creek Park.
Opening Klingle Road to automobile traffic would only mean more cars, more traffic, and more smog in our city. It’s time that we stopped subsidizing those who choose to drive in the District, and start giving real support to those who choose to use public transportation.
It would be a far better investment to spend the millions of dollars it would cost to reopen Klingle Road on bus shelters, transit police, bike racks, or Metro improvements.
Klingle Valley isn’t in our neighborhood, but our approach to transportation and land usage is a District wide issue. I hope you’ll be a leader for a farsighted transportation policy in the District that includes preserving the integrity of Rock Creek Park.
Sincerely,
Drew Courtney
Posted by Drew at 09:51 AM
May 07, 2008
Google Reader . . . I think . . . I . . . I love you.
As a large part of my job consists of paying attention to what blogs are talking about, I've long been a big fan of Google Reader. Not only does is make it pretty easy to skim a whole bunch of active blogs every day, it also helps me keep an eye on fantastic blogs that aren't updated nearly often enough.
I've also really enjoyed the Share This feature, which allows me to see the articles that my fellow Reader using friends think are worth passing along.
So imagine my joy when Google announced a whole new world of Google Reader goodness. Basically, the system now just slaps your shared pages into a chronological list and allows you to add comments to the top. Behold -- a blog!
Since I already have this blog here, I'm not sure exactly what to do with this nifty new tool -- I'm thinking maybe I can make it into a sideblog on this page.
More importantly, I recently read Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, and one of the points he makes quite elegantly is how lowering the cost of production can radically change the ecosystem of information. And as someone who has been known to blog now and again, I think, well, I just think they're really cool. Sharing ideas is so fascinating and wonderful. It's exciting to see Google lower the cost of entry to almost nothing.
Posted by Drew at 09:30 PM