Author: jbenton

Note to self: No matter how maddening things might get, no matter how questionable decisions might be, do your best not to piss off the person in charge of approving your expense account.

Let’s see: it’s 12:06 a.m. So far tonight, I’ve written three stories and roughly 3,000 words. (This blog entry does not count toward those totals.) I’ve got four stories and about another 3,000 words to go, plus a whole ‘nother story to finish before noon.
The next time someone offers me a big freelance job to do, would someone please remember to tell me to either (a) turn it down or (b) start writing before the night before it’s due? Not that it’s news to me, but I’m discovering Olympian reserves of procrastination in me. I think they’re in my spleen or something.
In unrelated sanity matters, may I recommend soma.fm for your late-night Internet radio needs? I believe I may.

Dropped Molly off at the airport this morning. What a terrific girl. (When they’re 20, is “girl” still appropriate, or is it yet “woman”?) As I mentioned before, I was worried we’d get cabin fever being stuck in the same confined space for 10 days, but we got along great; by day six, we were finishing each other’s sentences. Keep an eye out for her on the pages of America’s finest publications.
I’m sore as hell from lifting weights today, for the first time in months. The reason? Well, the next time I get caught in the frame of a webcam flexing next to Jeremy, I want be able to (visually) kick his ass. Um, fat chance. (Actually, the real reason is much more prosaic: revenge!)

If you’re one of the local bloggers, I’ll probably see you tonight at the inkdeep/chimchim party tonight. There will even apparently be an appearance by Miss Haikooties herself, who I hope is over her bout of tuberculosis earlier this week. Don’t let her cough on the potato salad!
Spent this morning at a high school in suburban Fort Worth. It’s a nice, new campus, with gleaming halls, happy kids, and good administrators. After spending time in central city schools in Dallas, well, it’s a change.

Meryl points out a great idea in meatspace peer-to-peer trading: BookCrossing. Leave your old books out in a random place, and watch them flow through the lives of others.
Saw the collected DFWbloggers last night, many of whom I hadn’t seen in at least a week! Fun as always, and good to see some of the not-quite-as-regulars show up. (Aside: does anybody know where I could find a readymade script for a “What Kind of Blah-Blah-Blah Am I?” quiz?)
Also, many thanks to Max and Chris, the good people behind Burn, Baby Burn! another CD mix-swapping system online. They got mefi’d, and they’re referring some of their excess traffic my way.
If I was starting CDMOM again now, I’d probably do it their way (many people send mixes to one another) rather than my current way (many people send mixes to me, and I send mixes to them). It’s likely to be much more scalable when decentralized — sort of a Gnutella vs. Napster argument. (Perhaps I shouldn’t evoke that, since I’d rather not be sued by Big Music anytime soon.)

Meg — who had earlier had some interesting things to say about my mainstream-media-defending rant a few days ago (check the comments) — has turned the SXSW panel experience into an interesting article on how conferences are less then ideally structured.
Not to drag the indie-media-vs.-mainstream-media debate on, but Meg makes an intriguing observation about the experience of writing up her thoughts for a publication (even an online one) versus simply blogging them:
“So far what’s been cool about writing for O’Reilly is the opportunity to think more deeply on a topic. The observation that lead to this month’s column in the past would have been a simple megnut post, probably no more than a paragraph or two. I doubt I would have taken the time and effort to seriously explore the implications of my observations. But the column forced me to do this, and I really enjoyed the process.”
Go Big-M Media! 🙂

In beauty pageant news: “MADRID, Spain — An undercover journalist bribed a regional beauty pageant judge, revealing alleged corruption in the Miss Spain contest. Gema Garcia Marcos, 31, won the Miss Alicante crown after she offered

Great piece in the Sunday Globe on the secret life of Walter Scott, he of “Walter Scott’s Personality Parade,” the celeb-happy column on page 2 of Parade magazine every Sunday. (And don’t try to deny you read it.)

I’ve been a little delayed in launching it, but March CD Mix of the Month exchange is ready to go. Email me if you want to take part. I burned my mix last night. If you’re outside the DFW area, drop yours in the mail ASAP; when you tell me you’ve mailed it, I’ll mail you mine. If you’re local, feel free to bring your mix to Wednesday’s DFWblogs happy hour, Friday’s inkdeep/chimchim party, or some other time of mutual agreement. Either way, let me know if you’re playing so I know how many CDs to burn.

And here you thought she was just Grandma Winslow.