Nearly A Nerd.com » Books

Stuff David Foster Wallace circled in his American Heritage Dictionary

Dippold — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:22:26 +0000


David Foster Wallace circled “Osmium” and about 500 other word entries in his American Heritage Dictionary.

My near obsession with David Foster Wallace continues. As I exert concerted effort to finish the last 16th or so of Infinite Jest, I keep happening upon other DFW internet material like the DFW Audio Project (horrible picture of him there, BTW, but that site is for listening, not photos) and this list of words you see here; words David Foster Wallace circled in his dictionary — shamelessly ripped from a Slate article:

$1,000 edition of ‘On the Road’?

Dippold — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:58:22 +0000

In my youth I idolized Jack Kerouac. Ran across this upcoming edition of his “On the Road” on Amazon. It lists for $1,000. I’m sure it is extremely limited with many great unreleased photos but still. I’m almost curious to learn more. I won’t ignore more details about it if they present themselves, but I’m not seeking out anything further either.

Distilling ‘Ten rules for writing fiction’ into one or two words

Dippold — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:11:22 +0000

I’ll now slaughter the multi-authored Guardian.co.uk article “Ten rules for writing fiction” by cutting several of the “rules” down to one or two words which may make more sense after reading the article. Many of the rules could apply to other forms of writing, and possibly, some to life.

Write
Write
Write
Avoid prologues
Excise skippableness
Read aloud
Cut
Rewrite
Safeguard text
Hold attentions
Don’t whine
Show friends
Pray
Read often
Write quickly
Quality later
Title early
Less Internet
Hide thesaurus(es)
Change mind
Create rhythms
Reread, rewrite
Trash it
Memorize poems
Take walks
Forget posterity
Love survives
Write privately
Shun commerciality
Better-ize autocorrection

Journal entries
Regrets fuel
Simultaneous ideation
Beware! Clichés!
Write daily
Give up
Come back
Persevere
Use pens
Use pencils
Type
Fill pages
Take stands
Be accurate
Necessity matters
“Realness” doesn’t
Break rules
Change it
Changes you
Frees you
Have fun
Marry believers
Be childless
Shun reviews
No shit-taking
Autobiographical inventions
Uninteresting verbs
Cut metaphors
Cut similes
Magic aloud
Trust readers
Discipline
Eliminate interferences
Finish it
Put aside
Read anew
Fix it
Keep moving
Assurance
Confidence
Say something
Master jokes
Choose understandability
Increase vocabulary
Read widely
Read discriminately
Study others
Have experiences
Have humility
Push limits
Defend others
Defend writing(s)
Defend yourself
No fear
Love writing
Edit
Write

There’s a Part Two to this article!

87 misrepresentations from Part One is enough. I’m off to read the second part. But first, three rules verbatim:

“Fiction that isn’t an author’s personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn’t worth writing for anything but money.” –Jonathan Franzen

“Only bad writers think that their work is really good.” –Anne Enright

“Never take advice from anyone with no investment in the outcome.” –David Hare

Man-Gifts at ‘What to get Guys.com’

Dippold — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:31:06 +0000

A shout to Rob Stretch and his man gift site What to Get Guys. Rob cherry-picks products for you, so when buying for males, go there first — it saves time and prevents frustration while delighting all involved in the resulting consumption.

He pointed me there to check the Digital Harinezumi Video Camera — a tiny, future-retro type camcorder that instantly applies a 60′s-ish Super 8 effect to everything it records.

The actual camera

Freeze frame from footage shot with the Digital Harinezumi

It’s a fun novelty concept, great for quickly achieving an aged analog feel, but for film heads, a very similar effect could be hand-created with your editing program once, saved as a template, then applied ad infinitum to any footage.

The Absinthe Gift Set slays. Buy it, but don’t wait for the experience. Lucid Absinthe is now available in all 50 states. I quaffed some around the corner at the Heidelberg a while back so check your bar.

I still want to check Thomas Fink’s “The Man’s Book: The Essential Guide for the Modern Man” which allegedly answers many questions including:

Do you know how to tie a bow-tie, mix a martini, or make a potato gun?

Do you know when to get married and how to break up, or the difference between a bock beer and a bitter?

Do you know which urinal to choose or how to start a fire with a Coke can?

It would reside perfectly next to “The Alphabet of Manliness” on your bookshelf.

Mail Me Art (2)

Dippold — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:56:37 +0000

Mail Me Art is a fairly simple concept. Create a piece of art that can be mailed then mail it to:

Mail Me Art
37 Thames Court
Victoria Avenue
West Molesey
Surrey
KT8 1TP
United Kingdom

There are some stipulations, but that’s basically it. The project’s first round is done and a book of several submissions has been bound.

Mail Me Art is now on to round two, called: Mail Me Art 2. Each month an art related prize is given away to the curator’s favorite submitter along with a copy of Mail Me Art: Going Postal with the World’s Best Illustrators and Designers

Win the Sword of Blood by ‘spreading the word’

Dippold — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:49:38 +0000

I recently stumbled upon a somewhat novel Guerrilla marketing effort for a audio novella prequel that involves a broadsword giveaway stamped with a unique and exclusive flash fiction story that will be signed in blood by the author.

The sword is the object/subject of J.C. Hutchens’s free prequel novella podcast Personal Effects: Sword of Blood. This story precedes his new novel Personal Effects: Dark Art. There is a full blown “out of book transmedia experience” going on involving not only the sword but also IDs, business cards, documents, phone numbers and Googling the characters and institutions in the text to reveal real websites.

But what I feel makes this promotion somewhat unique is that you must spread the word person to person not just tweeting or blogging about it. Here’s what you must do, according to the site, to win the sword:

You must have a copy of Personal Effects: Dark Art on hand. (Borrow one from a friend. Order a copy here. If you can’t obtain a copy, play them the videos at my homepage.)
You must conduct a “show and tell” of the novel and its transmedia items (IDs, biz cards, documents, etc.) to several family members or co-workers.
Simply show off the book, and tell your pals about the novel and its “out of book” transmedia experience.
You must pass out copies of the Order Form PDF (found below) to each person you chat with.
You can do this in your home, at a friend’s house, or at your workplace.
You must document this Show And Tell session with at least one photograph.
Email that photo to J.C. at 7thSonNovel.com by July 31.

I won’t be going person to person doing a “show and tell” but I have listened to two episodes of the podcast. So far, it ain’t bad. Lets hope whoever wins the sword will either blog, tweet or post the flash fiction story emblazoned upon it.

Meet Wordnik, your new meta lexicon

Dippold — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:25:25 +0000

Wordnik — a suped-up and glorified word mecca-nexus — has a goal:

. . . to show you as much information as possible, just as fast as we can find it, for every word in English, and to give you a place where you can make your own opinions about words known.

Enter any word and the online lexicon spits out a myriad of information, including:

Examples — sample sentences of how the word is used
Real time tweets — recent search results from Twitter
Related words — including cross reference and synonyms from various thesauruses
Pronunciations — written and a spoken recording with an option to record your own
Images — from Flickr
Etymology — multiple sources
Notes — must be logged in to add them
Tags — I really don’t see much need for this feature. Or it should be auto-tagged with synonyms
Statistics — nice bubble graph on word usage and unusualness

Wordnik’s Bubble Graph

I like the feature of being able to register and contribute, but I don’t like the absence of an auto suggest for misspellings.

I also couldn’t find the parts of speech (ie. whether the word is a verb, noun, adverb, etc.) of the word or how to make the word plural.

And why no Wikipedia integration?

Not content with ‘content’

Dippold — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:59:48 +0000

The term “content” — referring to material that constitutes a publication or document for an audience — is abhorrent. Applying the word “content” essentially cheapens the writing, music, video or whatever other form of media one is taking in and attempting to gain a life enriching experience from it.

The only purpose for casting a blanket term like “content” over every form of consumable media is convenience. It is simply easier to say we need more content on this or that site instead of actually taking the time to discuss what actually needs written or recorded.

Providing content. Content is king. Instead of focusing on gaining knowledge from whatever we are reading, watching or listening to, too many times the Internet community lumps these together and says “content” instead of engaging web communities in conversation by producing things that matter, things of lasting value.

Commodification of information is not at issue here. Many folks make a living off of good art and wanted words. It is simply the sweeping way this livelihood is often referred to.

My argument may come off as purely semantic with a high burden of proof and much chiding, but the point is to urge quality in everything we produce and consume online.

————-

(Updated 5/18/10)

But there’s really no one to blame. Referring to it as “content” seemed to gradually come in to use and now you’re a weirdo if you don’t use the term.

But by referring to various media as “content” it all but jells one’s consumption of it away from style, substance and meaning and towards other intents for media like monetization.

When was the last time you referred to the music, films and written words you love so much — stuff that somehow helps define you and your beliefs — as “content”?

“There’s this awesome content I just consumed that has completely revolutionized my own life and is changing how people view the world.”

No.

H.S.T.

Dippold — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:31:00 +0000

A picture in honor of a forthcoming book of his, I know nothing about called The Mutineer: Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop 1977-2005 due out February 1.

1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die

Dippold — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:49:13 +0000

Author Tom Moon has assembled a book called 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener’s Life List. I first heard about this project on NPR’s All Songs Considered podcast.

The title pretty much explains the book, but the idea behind it and the title itself seem both hugely ambitious and a bit self-important. I mean “A Listener’s Life List“? Doesn’t that somehow imply this list of music ought to be one’s personal soundtrack and one should spend a great deal of time pursuing these recordings? Maybe, maybe not, but coming up with the number 1,000 is an impressive feat.

The entire list, a blog and all sorts of info surrounding the 1,000 recordings may be found at 1000recordings.com.