great commentary on Tolkein from Sci Fi write David Brin. Check out his stuff on Star Wars and Star Trek as well. Romantics versus Pragmatists! Elitest versus Populist! Progress versus Decline! The things that underlie a lot of our culture wars to this day. Yet more things that I feel I am on the fence on. Where else can a truly rational soul be?

But I always did think the elves were snooty bastards, things would've been better if they'd left middle earth for good.

so when I die, i expect i will leave behind a vast amount of paper, journals, notes, drawings and whatnot. I don't expect that after i'm dead i will have much desire or ability to be sad if it is just tossed aside, but my current self, not yet being dead, mourns somewhat the thought of the hours spent in producing them. Surely it was not all a waste.

it struck me one night though, and kept me awake for some time in thought, that there was a solution to this, but more than that a way of telling a story that perhaps is really independent of me. How I got to this is a bit of a longer story though... this troubling though first came to me at this place Urban Ore in Berkeley, a garbage dump, basically that people mine for bits and peices of houses. Liz and I came upon a box of papers. The thing that stood out was a one woman's daily records or every cent spent -- someone who would have been quickly enthralled by Quicken. A dollar here, a dollar there, year after year. And now no more. Is she dead? Did she stop this insane accounting? What was her life really like beyond this minuteia?

And then this American Life had this story. A couple of kids coming across this long abandoned house, break in and find this wealth of paper and letters, and other details of people's lives, abandoned as if they had pciked up and gone in the middle of dinner one night long ago. What a mystery! Who couldn't help but be interested in the fates of those peoples, construct stories and theories to fit the facts.

And so these two things came together? Woudn't it be great to take these artifacts of our lives, whether they be letters, photos, or accounts, and put them together and leave them to be found, on a train, in a cafe, hidden under some floor boards, socked away as a time capsule. What would people make of them in their minds, what stories would they create, or maybe follow up on.

Coming soon to a cafe near you!

had a brilliant birthday weekend. friday night drinks with friends at my old time favorite the orbit room. plenty of friends came out and wished me well. great cake, candied orange peel, awesome hot toddies (I had a cold after all), a chinese scroll, and i got a guitar! it was not a complete suprise, my boss orchestrated it, but kind of spilled the beans. alas. and the deal under which i have the guitar adds a little pressure to actually learn it. huzzah!

saturday was brunch and then the exploratorium. we changed the plan based on the weather reports, but the weather cheated me and stayed nice and dry all day. still had a great time, with a suprise appearance of my friend phillip b and children. the other guest of honor was a woman I knew in Taiwan long ago, from Denmark. just happened to be in town this week.

and then after and evening at Dickens Fair, Ren Faire displaced a few hundred years it seemed. Liz was more into it. Norman and I dressed up in top hats and tuxes basically and strode the grounds. We hit the end of the evening so it was coming to a close, but still it was an amusing evening. Not as much theater as I would have liked to have seen though.