The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

• Life-Long Computer Skills (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
  what people ought to learn about computer use beyond just how to use an interface that’s likely to be reworked in the next version
  (tags: education learning skills mpoj)

• Before You Quit Your Day Job
  the article is about becoming a professional speaker, but the insights are good for anyone wanting to go freelance
  (tags: speaking publicspeaking mpoj work selfemployment)

My shiny new MacBook Pro arrived yesterday, but I didn’t get home until after 10 to get it set up.  So by the time I had all my stuff transferred over, it was after midnight and I didn’t have time to play with it.

I thought about skipping work today.  But I chose to be good instead.

But tonight, I’m trying out my shiny new processor on WoW.  Woot.

• Mr. Noodle - New York Times
  a tribute to the guy who invented ramen, may he rest in peace
  (tags: ramen noodles japanese food tribute obituary)

The first session of my stand-up comedy class met yesterday at the DC Improv.  There are 16 of us, more men than women but still a reasonable number of women.  We range in age from 20-60, though the 25-35 demographic is the majority.  The instructor, Matt Kazam, has been a working comic for years, and we spent a good chunk of the first day on the class overview- the basics of what one needs to know about comedy, Matt’s experience, etc.  Then we introduced ourselves and talked a bit about why we were taking the class… and then it was time to get on stage.

The point of getting on stage that first week with whatever jokes we had brought with us was just to get it over with, to get a feel for the stage, and to see what kind of laughs our raw material might get.  It was a great time!  I discovered that I actually am pretty funny, even if I do have zero decent transitions between my jokes.

Matt had explained in his opening remarks that comedy, the effort to put yourself out there to make people laugh, was a spiritual thing, and that a good comedy club is like church for him.  “You’ll see,” he said, “when I have you get up on this stage, how special and magical it is.”

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical.  Not because I don’t have a healthy respect for the Improv- it’s a venerable name in the world of comedy clubs- but simply because I am skeptical of such things generally. But then I took the stage.

In order to help us immerse ourselves in the experience, we all entered the green room in the rear of the showroom, walked the narrow corridor to the front that’s separated from the rest of the room by a thin layer of plywood and fabric, and walked up the steps to wait behind the curtain for Matt to “introduce” us.

I have seen many of my favorite comedians at the Improv.  I have watched them, wondering how they do it, how I could do it too, and whether it was just a pipe dream, from the seats of the Improv showroom.

So when I got to the top of the stairs to wait, I looked left and noticed that the final panel of the corridor wall had been left bare on the side that faces the wing.  The plain wood had been covered with years of signatures of the comics who have waited there.  Names, dates, little doodles, each asserting that a comic had been there, in an “A-Room” of an industry where so many openers are forgotten by the time the audience leaves after seeing the headliner.  For some of them, the DC Improv may be as close to fame as they ever get, and they want everyone who comes after them to know that they came before.

I was transfixed.  Suddenly I knew what Matt meant when he called the Improv stage “sacred ground.”  I wanted to read each name, to remember them, to see if I had heard of any of them.  But there wasn’t time.  Because before long, I heard our MC say, “Please welcome to the stage… Tiffany Bridge!”

Tom and I have been reading the Harry Dresden novels lately- having ordered all of them from Amazon in paperback and ripping through them in the evenings.  (Imagine if Harry Potter grew up and had to get a job, but his only marketable skill was magic.)

The books are excellent.  The author (Jim Butcher) develops Harry’s character really thoroughly early on in the first couple of books, which are essentially whodunits with a magical twist, so that when he starts twisting around that formula later, and involving Harry’s personal life, magical politics, and all those kinds of external forces, the reader has a really strong understanding of who Harry is, how he’ll behave, and why.  You know what Harry’s going to do almost before he does, not because he’s predictable or formulaic, but because you know him that well, almost like a good friend.

Additionally, the reader gets a very detailed understanding of how magic works in the Dresdenverse.  It’s mechanical- it has rules that are knowable both to the characters and the reader, and Butcher does an excellent job of both explaining them AND remaining internally consistent to them.  In short, he doesn’t do what a lot of lazy sci-fi/fantasy writers do and just sort of wave his hands and say, “ooh, it’s magic that fixed that problem!”

So if you’re into that genre of book but hate lazy writing, I recommend that you check them out. 

I also recommend that you do NOT base your assessment of the Dresdenverse on the new SciFi series based on the books.  Don’t get me wrong- Paul Blackthorne is terrific as Harry.  He seems to have a really solid grip on the character, and he’s been a real pleasure to watch.  And I like how they’ve handled the Bob character- they clearly had to make some changes to him in order to make this pivotal character work for TV, and I think the compromise was a good one.  I could seriously watch Harry and Bob puttering and bantering around the lab for an hour.  But the rest of it?  Meh. 

I want to give it a chance, I really do, because I want the author to succeed.  Hell, I’ll come right out and say it, dumb as it may sound:  I want Harry Dresden to succeed.  But below the jump are some weaknesses I hope the writers correct soon. (more…)

On Valentine’s Day last year, Tom and I were stressing out about the twists and turns in our wedding-planning saga.  Fortunately, that turned out well.

On Valentine’s Day this year, I gleefully jumped out of bed to retrieve Tom’s gift from another room.  Valentine’s Day is more fun when you’re waking up next to your sweetie.

I gave him a case of Red Vines.  (If I could find a case of Mr. Pibb, it would be Crazy Delicious.)  They’re hard to find on the East Coast, much to Tom’s chagrin, but I discovered that Amazon sells them by the case.  Amazon to my rescue again.

Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetie!

• 10 tips for meeting people at industry events
  (tags: mpoj conferences networking)

The graduation showcase for my comedy class has been scheduled.  I sent out an email to my local peeps, but in case I missed you, and for those of you who are non-local and would like to know:

Tuesday, April 10 at the DC Improv.

Be there, yo.

• Q&A With Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products & User Experience
  design, results, ads, relevancy, and how they all relate
  (tags: design interview media webdesign search google information)