Poetry is Code

Fired From the Canon from Second Pass is a list of 10 books that should NOT be included in great reading lists.

I took objection to two of the selections and here is my comment:

Well I agree with all but two of your selections. And here is how I differ:

On the Road, Kerouac. While not his best work, this book set the scene perfectly. After studying Kerouac for a long time, I have come back to On the Road (an awesome version that has reverted back to the original scroll seems to breathe some of the life back into the journey.) and am surprised by the heart and honesty Kerouac revealed. The story is more than Jack and his buddy. It's about Jack and himself, Jack and his Mama, Jack and his depression. While I like Dharma Bums and Desolation Angels better, On the Road is quite a read.

100 Years of Solitude, Marquez. I have to think your bored assessment has more to do with you than the writing in 100 Years. Yes it meanders, but that is the case with many a whimsical tale of enchantment, love, betrayal and excess. Some of the scenes in 100 Years are completely transportive, reading them once, I was never the same after reading this book. Blending "magical realism" and the mundane Marquez takes us to places unknown and dark. As you say, you come to a book with what you yourself are carrying, and if you missed 100 Years the first time, perhaps try again later. The rewards in this book are vast. Having started here, I have read almost all of Marquez's books over time. And this one is still the masterpiece!

@jmacofearth

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General Options:
    -p, --pretend                    Run but do not make any changes.
    -f, --force                      Overwrite files that already exist.
    -s, --skip                       Skip files that already exist.
    -q, --quiet                      Suppress normal output.

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http://www.twitterexpress.com AND http://www.twitterjoker.com

Just a few minutes of self-induced snickering and a quick turn with godaddy and photoshop and my little twitter humor empire is born.

Ain't this social media stuff great!

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A ruby expression by jack tang from his posterous page Software Is Art!

ThreadA: exec_point_a -> exec_point_b -> exec_point_c
ThreadB:                            exec_point_a -> exec_point_b -> ...

In Ruby 1.8
  ObjectSpace.each_object(IO) do |io|
    unless [STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR].include?(io)
      unless(io.closed?)
      begin
        io.fcntl(Fcntl::F_SETFD, Fcntl::FD_CLOEXEC)
      rescue ::Exception => err
      end
      end
    end
  end

In Ruby 1.9
  ObjectSpace.each_object(IO) do |io|
    unless [STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR].include?(io)
      unless(io.closed?)
      begin
        io.close_on_exec= true
      rescue ::Exception => err
      end
      end
    end
  end

[I believe ee cummings would be proud. end end end]

A bit more information if you understand this kind of poetry:

Fork-exec is a commonly used technique in Unix whereby an executing process spawns a new program. fork() is the name of the system call that the parent process uses to "divide" itself ("fork") into two identical processes. After calling fork(), the created child process is actually an exact copy of the parent - which would probably be of limited use - so it replaces itself with another process using the system call exec().

Here is the full post on Software Is Art!

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/fork-exec-poetry

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Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software
sets out to understand why, through the story of one software project -- Mitch Kapor's Chandler, an ambitious, open-source effort to rethink the world of e-mail and scheduling.

This book probably taught me more about managing and working with programmers and developers than any thing I have read. And I believe this posterous site is about this dream.

Code is poetry. (Wordpress says so.) And thus Poetry is Code too.

@jmacofearth

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"So learn to write, learn to express yourself creatively. Then get passionate!"

LinkedIN or LinkedOFF: Question on LinkedIN: What was your major in college and how relevant is it to what you are doing today?

I can't tell you how many folks I have crossed throughout my career in online media who had degrees that had ZERO to do with Advertising, Marketing or Communications. Actually that's a pretty silly way of expressing it, because of course I am going to try and tell you.

About 75% of my colleagues have degrees in History, Government, English, Latin American Studies and more general Liberal Arts degrees. My degree was in English Lit. And I would say Liberal Arts degrees are held by some of the most successful creative/strategy folks I have worked with.

So learn to write, learn to express yourself creatively. Then get passionate!

Passion is not about your degree. Your degree is your expertise or subject matter knowledge, but your degree will not teach you how to write. And the only caution to marketing/communication/advertising degree folks: don't lose sight of the writing and research process. The mechanics of marketing can be learned quickly by smart people.

Writing and creativity are the key skills you can hone in college regardless of what degree you pursue. Buy, by all means, get a degree! And then pursue something you are passionate about. What keeps you up at night and wakes you up early in the morning with a source of energy that is generated from within.

On those mornings, like this morning, I still make coffee but I don't drink but a few sips. Eureka!

@jmacofearth permalink: http://bit.ly/college-degree

See also: Writing Degree Zero from Roland Barthes

"Is there any poetic writing?" Poetry=Prose+a+b+c Prose=Poetry–a–b–c One may effect a different dosage in manner of speech, according to the social occasion: here, prose or rhetoric, there poetry or precosity..."

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How can birds look happy
Having never seen one smile
Marvel at their load

July 22, 2008
@jmacofearth

Link to the Friendfeed Room for Haiku to Twitter.

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Twitter you delight
Fail whale blows his spermy blast
Smiles at my foul curse

July 1, 2008
@jmacofearth

animation of the fail whale drop

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