I’m now officially living my web 2.0 life to the fullest, hereby inviting unsuspecting readers to get a glimpse of some of my personal problems by posting them on my blog. I think I know all of my readers by name, so it should be OK. It probably won’t be a habit, I’m merely presenting this as a backdrop for my new plan to get back in shape — at least I think so.

You see, I’ve been sick. I am sick. I’m having a virtual writer’s block and I’m not at work at the moment. I’m trying desperately to force myself back to work and into shape, but it’s not going very well. I have written a series on Popdose.com over the past several months, but I don’t know whether I will be able to continue to do so in the months to come. Pressure and deadlines don’t bode well with me at the moment.

It’s a small part of the puzzle, but I will try to force myself to post more regularly here on schiing, in an attempt to get back into some kind of writing flow at the very least. I’m not going to put much pressure on myself right now — the diagnosis is fatigue, and not being able to write blog posts is the least of my troubles. If on the other hand this may help me to recover… well, I just don’t know. I’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out, if it helps at all. Maybe it’s a bad idea, after all.

I still think it’s worth a try. Writing has always been therapeutic for me. Like this post; I’m primarily writing it for my own part — as a kind of diary entry, setting goals for myself, clarifying my situation — but writing in public makes me feel more… accountable for my words, I guess.

Anyhow, I mustn’t overdo it, so with these vague prospects and foggy thoughts I bid you farewell for now. See you soon.

I agree with this writer, I really don’t understand why the use of single exclamation marks are considered to be such an abhorrence. Of course, she’s from Britain, where I suspect even general danger signs are symbolised by a punctuation mark.

I don’t endorse the extensive use often seen around the web (f****** brilliant!!!!!!!!!!), but used sensibly, I think exclamation marks do serve a purpose.

Exclamation marks have suddenly become everyone’s favorite grammatical pet peeve, and it’s all just silly snobbery, really: “Look at me, I’m expressing surprise with my bare words (!)”

Ariane Sherine on what makes acceptable punctuation | Comment is free | The Guardian

I like exclamation marks!!! Not to that extent, but I do. I use them sparingly, to liven up dialogue, signify volume and incredulity, and inject punch. But this, according to certain other writers, is a gross literary misjudgment on a par with ending a sentence with a comma,

I loved this one. It’s from a very funny web show, featuring Lisa Kudrow as Fiona Wallice, a rather self-centered psychotherapist offering three minute sessions via webcam. Here she is, meeting a new patient, Ted Mitchell, portrayed by the brilliant Bob Balaban. More stuff like this on the web, please.

So, it’s time to revisit some of my old Newman movies. I sort of realized he was near to the end judging by various news stories in the last couple of months - I even came across an obituary draft somewhere on the web a few weeks ago. But it’s sad nonetheless. I enjoyed a lot of his movies growing up - The Color of Money, Absence of Malice, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Exodus are some of my favorites among his performances… oh, and I really enjoyed him in The Verdict. I even have quite fond memories of him in The Towering Inferno.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Movie legend Paul Newman dies, 83

Hollywood legend Paul Newman has died at the age of 83, his spokeswoman has confirmed.

I love the “Rothko Room” at Tate Modern. Here are 15 of his Seagram murals reunited in London until February 2009. Maybe I’ll skip New York and just go to London instead. A lot cheaper, to be sure.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Rothko’s murals reunited at Tate

Some of artist Mark Rothko’s most famous paintings have been reunited for an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern.

Looks like I’m going to New York in November. I must remember to bring my wallet this time:

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Munch’s Vampire to be auctioned

Edvard Munch’s 1894 masterpiece Vampire is to be sold after more than 70 years in the hands of a private collector.

My music player has been connected on and off to last.fm for a couple of years now, and I recently discovered this cool feature on the site. It’s my personal radio station, only playing tracks that I have previously played on my computer. I’ve played almost 20,000 tracks while being connected to last.fm, so it’s a pretty extensive library.

It’s a great way for me to listen to my favorite music if I’m travelling - and a great way for you to get an impression of my listening habits. Ha. So if you dare, pay a visit to my music library - prepare to be… softened:

mainsection’s Library – Last.fm

My, my. What has the world come to? I love liner notes and life just wouldn’t be the same without them.

Music - For Shoutouts to Mom and God, Check Online - NYTimes.com

MUSIC geeks flipping through the CD booklet for Teddy Thompson’s “A Piece of What You Need,” released last month by Verve Forecast, may be in for a shock. Instead of the names of the musicians and technicians who worked on the album, or any thank-you’s to friends, they’ll find a photo of a beach, followed by a blank panel. A sentence in small type directs listeners to Mr. Thompson’s Web site for “full album credits and more details.”

Oh, yes! If you’re using Firefox and like to use keyboard shortcuts, this is a great add-on:

Mouseless Browsing :: Firefox Add-ons

Mouseless Browsing (MLB) enables you to browse the web entirely with the keyboard. The basic principle is to add small boxes with unique ids behind every link and/or form element. You just have to type in the id and press enter (there is also an automatice mode available) to trigger the corresponding action i.e. following a link, pressing a button or selecting a textfield…

Update: Turns out it wasn´t so great after all. It completely messed up my Google Reader page, and I spend the better part of my day on it, so I had to disable this add-on pretty quickly.

I downloaded Al Kooper’s live album “Soul of a Man” (1995) from eMusic today. Listening to it right now for the first time, I’m blown away - what a great live album. Sitting here reading old posts on Kooper’s site. This is an interesting segment from 2004 about music publishers. Greedy bastards.

AL’S UPDATES

Second off, the 5.1 SACD Surround Sound versions of SUPER SESSION and CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN are completed and ready for release. There are many difficulties in the world of Surround nowadays. The latest is thus:

SONY wants to release a hybrid disc with a:
1) two track remastered stereo version plus a
2) two track remastered SACD stereo version plus
3) a 5.1 SACD Surround Sound version.

Music publishers are balking about this and demanding to be paid three times the normal royalties because of the three “versions” This has put our babies on hold until all this greediness gets sorted out. Its COMPLETELY out of my hands when these masters will be released. When I know for sure, I will post that info up here ASAP. Soooo, no need to ask about that anymore, okay ?