Polly Potter

"The arrival of Autumn, after a month of October that still smelled as Summer, is finally being felt among us. The landscape begins to change color, bare branches start appearing in trees, and the vine leaves are now painted with fine gold with exquisite touches of red before falling," - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"here is actually a third element within any situation: the relationship between us and the thing in question. The relationship is something that we always have the ability to look at and adjust." - Polly Potter

Cynthia Ozick, ‘The Question of our Speech’, collected in Metaphor and Memory) - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"So, its not to say that there was "no" news, just it was all same old same old - the "official" news curating organs for the "New" media are increasingly trumpeting "mainstream" news that they looked to be so samey that I really couldn't get excited about anything to write about." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Amen and amen. "Of course, there were the standard corporate barrages of [Company A] pimping [Product B] by paying bloggers to PR across the blogosphere, a few sniping [Ludicrous Claim C] aimed at [Well know Target D] to linkbait..." - Polly Potter

"[Eric Hoffer] remains the model of an independent writer and perpetual learner, humble but pugnacious. He was pleased to know that “the world does not owe me anything” – about as alien a notion as one can imagine today in our age of aggrieved entitlement." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

“Seven hours discharging frozen fish at Pier 17. During the day I put together a few more paragraphs on freedom.” - Polly Potter

"Think what a change, unperceived by many, has within a month come over the landscape! Then the general, the universal, hue was green. Now see those brilliant scarlet and glowing yellow trees in the lowlands a mile off! I see them, too, here and there on the sides of hills, standing out distinct," - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"The jargon may have changed now, but a few years ago the concept of "sunsetting" was frequently discussed where I worked. It was about putting a stop to work that was no longer needed, work whose day was over." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

While you are at it, paint a hard frost on the ragweed. Thanks. - Polly Potter

Sunday update: more color today. I cannot seem to see enough of this remarkable transformation of nature in the Fall. - Polly Potter

"But much of that communication could have easily been handled via email, or dare I say it, on the phone, or in text messages, or *gasp, over drinks, or any number of other platforms with which I'm already familiar and easily found." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

For sharing links to articles, it is useful and that is how I use it without having an account but for communication, I agree with him - other platforms are already established that permit/facilitate thoughtful exchanges. - Polly Potter

"72 gears ... scientists think the device was an astronomical calculator: an elaborate, incredibly accurate computer that was built in 150 to 100 BC ..." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"They live in an all-female world and since their discovery, not a single male has ever been found." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

So how slowly will a person's Google Profile load because they are a frequent Sidewiki user? Phil also notes the comments do not list in chronological order. Nutty. - Polly Potter

Andrew Keen: "By inventing “an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries”, Google is sorting comments according to its own artificially intelligent secret sauce. So posting comments on Sidewiki will become an art in determining how to outwit the algorithm and come out on top." http://bit.ly/3hyzKQ - Polly Potter

"Bundling Sidewiki with Google Toolbar is strike one in my book, but I've never liked clunky toolbars and never really understood why I'd want to install Google Toolbar in the first place." Amen - no toolbar. Firefox add-on - maybe. - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

+1 Polly Potter toolbars just take up more space - Kim Landwehr

This has improved GReader a great deal. Helvetreader and Colorful Lists are pleasing to the eye. Helvereader provides lots of whitespace instead of the Google blue clutter while Colorful lists makes separation of individual posts clear even when in full view. Once you start reading a full post, the color fades to white background and the text is black. Nice. - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Colorful Lists does not work in People You Follow but it does in the subscriptions area. - Polly Potter

"I'm only likely to read and engage at the hub. Chasing conversation to the spokes takes me away from the platform where I'm spending time. Each day, I spend a few minutes diving into RSS feeds, a few minutes perusing Facebook, a few minutes scanning Twitter, etc. Sure, I'll follow links out to good content, but like a farmer, I prefer to finish tilling one field before I jump to another." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

I use Friendfeed as the hub. GReader shares and comments have not yet developed into a strong spoke for conversation. Feed subscriptions are still useful for finding information and perspective. - Polly Potter

"Requiring as it does good judgment, good writing cannot be taught, which is why teaching composition is even worse in point of frustration than teaching philosophy. Trying to get a student to appreciate why a certain formulation is awkward is like trying to get a nerd to understand that pocket-protectors are sartorially substandard." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"“Boswell, with some of his troublesome kindness, has informed this family, and reminded me that the eighteenth of September is my birthday. ...a life diversified by misery, spent part in the sluggishness of penury, and part under the violence of pain, in gloomy discontent, or importunate distress. But perhaps I am better than I should have been, if I had been less afflicted. With this I will try to be content.” - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Thank you, winckel. - Polly Potter

"Ambivalence towards reading and other activities in the life of the mind reflect the fact that we are embodied spirits. As spirits, we dream and imagine, think and question, doubt and despair. We ask what is real and what is not. It is no surprise, then, that we question the reality and importance of reading and writing and study when these activities are not geared to what is immediate and utilitarian such as the earning of money." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"The bias against the spirit is reflected in the phrase 'gainful employment.' What is intended is pecuniary gain, as if there is no other kind. " - Polly Potter

Very pertinent. For education, I think we need to view things in the round - character development and all that good stuff - and not just for narrow career goals. - winckel

Found via http://www.amplesanity.com/index... - Polly Potter

"Simon is an English animator who has a great interest in British wildlife, painting, the great outdoors and of course cats." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Found via http://www.amplesanity.com/index... - Polly Potter

Never heard of this until I visited Man vs Debt http://bit.ly/j4k76 Did you know the state you live in (US) controls the fees? - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"“How long, I thought, before some post-modernist composer has a pianist not play the instrument but, in front of the audience, saw off its legs, to the craven applause of critics afraid to be thought stupid or reactionary?” I thought of Duchamp and Cage and a century of imitators trying to spoil the fun of others who just want, as Frost writes, to “get some color and music out of life.” Their adolescent intent is to garner attention with pretentious pranks and deny others the pleasures they deem bourgeois. Allen’s piano routine was at least as old as vaudeville and it still makes me happy. So do Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Glenn Gould. Vandals hate that kind of magic." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

"In the words of Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops to Conquer), “There was a time, indeed, I fretted myself about the mistakes of government, like other people; but finding myself every day grow more angry, and the government growing no better, I left it to mend itself.” - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Found via http://bit.ly/425NBW - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Is water-based computing possible? - Polly Potter

"Fun doesn't require a competition. When I was waiting tables as a college student I spiced up the job by serving each table in a different accent. It took all my focus to remember which accent went with which table. Silly? For sure. Fun? Much more so than simply taking an order." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Now why didn't I think of that? How could I use that idea now? - Polly Potter

"It is one among many reasons for which I purpose to endeavour the entertainment of my countrymen by a short essay on Tuesday and Saturday, that I hope not much to tire those whom I shall not happen to please; and if I am not commended for the beauty of my works, to be at least pardoned for their brevity." - Polly Potter from Bookmarklet

Never thought of Samuel Johnson as a blogger but perhaps he was the first? - Polly Potter

Michael Gilleland disagrees: "But if Samuel Johnson were alive today, I doubt he would blog, in light of his pronouncement that No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Via http://bit.ly/VhPbC - Polly Potter

Today: Cricket, UEFA Champions, Google Reader, and Friendfeed. I have too many interests that want attention at one time :-) - Polly Potter

Jeez, rush rush rush :) - winckel

“There exists a false view to the effect that tradition is like a fortune, a legacy, which you inherit mechanically, without effort, and that’s why those who object to inheritance and unearned privileges are against tradition. But in fact every contact with the past requires an effort, a labor, and a difficult and thankless labor to boot, for our little `I’ whines and balks at it." - Polly Potter