(Updated 8/8/06)
My writing on Gather thus far falls into roughly four categories, I think. You might think of a few more, such as, "writing I want to print out and wallpaper my bathroom with."
Writing too serious to be taken seriously by anyone:
Peter Tork: I'm Not an Idiot. I only play one on TV. is about a concert I went to by a guy whose work throughout the years has helped me forget my troubles, laugh, and have a good time. As a middle-aged teenager, I simply can't help making semi-lewd comments when confronted by any of the Monkees, who are just all way too cute. I had to flag this one as containing potentially inappropriate language, so you can only see it if your guarded viewing is off. (It's not that bad. It just happened to be my first article here and I didn't want to get in trouble right off the bat.) Just so the kids can read about it, I wrote Peter Tork article: The G-Rated Version , which is less truthful, but more insane.
Why Am I Here? answers the ultimate Gather question of why I write on this site.
Dear AstroGirl: Why Are Liberals So Stupid? My attempt to answer a question without an answer. A Zen koan, sort of like "what is the sound of two conservatives thinking?"
The Political Debate in America
An Over-Achiever's Response to the First OHC Contest
Over-and-under-and-over-again Achiever's OHC Poems
Hedgehog Song Not Sung by Nanny Ogg (Too Clean)
Traveling to a Place Called Home is my reminiscence on traveling Highway 1 in California for what I hope is not the last time.
Music, concert, or movie reviews:
Gather Members Review: John Fogerty The Long Road Home
Peter Tork: I'm Not an Idiot. I only play one on TV.
Peter Tork article: The G-Rated Version
Terrible poetry:
An Over-Achiever's Response to the First OHC Contest
Over-and-under-and-over-again Achiever's OHC Poems
Hedgehog Song Not Sung by Nanny Ogg (Too Clean)
For Mariana T.: Function vs. Purpose
Eschew Obfuscation was a response to a two word challenge. I almost said something political here. It would've been something about Orwellian obfuscation of language. Somehow I managed to avoid it.
Persephone (My poor cat deserves much better than this.)
Ways to boss other people around without them noticing (also called technical writing in some circles):
The Top 1/0 is my series of articles on how to digitize your record (or tape) collection. Here is Part 1 . You can follow the links at the end of each section for the rest of the series.
Politics:
I try hard not to write about politics. It's depressing and upsetting to me and probably most other sane people at this point.
I almost never succeed in avoiding the dreaded topic. American politics makes me feel like a rubbernecker at a particularly horrific train wreck. I'm fascinated by the utter ghastliness of it all. Some part of me wants to help the accident victims, knows I am one of them, but mostly I just gape at the horror.
In politics, it's amazing how much trouble you can get in just for publicly agreeing with the prevailing scientific research on something:
One day I started trying to deal with my emotions about politics by the short and sweet haiku method:
I apologize for these, especially since some of them turned into (gasp!) political discussions.
I've also tried to deal with the heinous subject humorously. This is my take on one of those right-wing talk shows where the right-wing host tries to "balance" his conversation with his right-wing Republican guest by inviting a right-of-mainstream Democrat guest:
The Political Debate in America
That too turned into a political discussion. I must be doing something wrong. Perhaps this will explain it…
Dear AstroGirl: Why Are Liberals So Stupid?
Funny how every time I try not to say conservatives are stupid, they come around to prove the point I wasn't trying to make. Really, I wasn't…much.
One day, an off-topic conversation about archaeology on an unrelated article by someone else got me thinking about what we are building today that would last more than 6,000 years, if anything. Then a two word challenge was issued: Eternity's Mansions .
I'm also the group owner for a Gather group called Publishing Outside of Gather. This group is for discussion of how to get published or self-publish elsewhere. Mostly it sticks to this topic. If it doesn't, I sentence offenders to watch back to back repeated episodes of "Good Morning, America." Word to the wise.
Welcome to the Publishing Outside of Gather Group
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And James: How did you do that thing? It's cool!