![[An image of the painting "L'art de
vivre"]](rm206.jpg)
René François-Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter. Many of his paintings can be seen in the Magritte Museum.
No web page could tell the whole tale—I wouldn't let it. Perhaps it couldn't even if I wanted it to, though, since my updates here are rather infrequent. I won't say this site is under construction, but it is more a pastiche of haphazard thoughts collected over many months than the brilliant and engaging work of which I dream.
Perhaps you're looking for a technical writer or editor? See my resume or some of the technical things I've written that can be found on-line. I've had various positions on the editorial staff of Linux Journal since 1994. In 1997, I left and wound up at Microsoft, editing developer documentation for Windows CE. Seeking a change of scenery and subject after a year and a half, I recently left Windows CE User Education.
After a forced 31-day break in December last year, I've spent 1999 back at the world's largest software company, working on the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit, Windows 2000 Professional Resource Kit, and related documentation projects.
Whenever I visit someone's home for the first time, I like to look at their CD collection. The music I like is quite a broad and conflicting collection of thrills.
Early in 1999, I volunteered at Theater Schmeater. I helped build the set for Buried Child, and I operated the lights for the entire run of the play. Was that six weeks? It was much too long to be a happy thing. At least I got to read The Stranger and sip espresso from Bauhaus; I don't know how the actors could get into doing the whole play every night (but they were terrific). I found myself referencing lines from the play in my daily conversations, and almost no one knew what I was talking about.
This summer I started taking dance classes. First, a hip hop class for which I was amusingly unready, but it was still fun, because it was new, I met some new people, and the teacher, Rob Kitsos, is very cool. When Rob went back to his full-time gig at the University of Washington, I chose something slower, Slow Intermediate Modern with the fantastic Shane Szabo at Velocity.
I dislike politics, but it's a topic that just won't go away. My political views are subject to change. This year I decided that as much as I think the Libertarian (with a capital "L") ideal is a good idea—maybe the best idea—it just isn't practical as far as welfare issues are concerned. If there was enough thoughtful benevolence among the general population, then it would be a beautiful thing to allow everyone the freedom to give their resources as they saw fit to help their neighbors and benefit the community as a whole. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. (I should elaborate...)
So, I'm now a man without a political party, and I think I like it that way.
Still, there are plenty of good ideas in libertarianism. A start in thinking differently from the way the democrats and republicans have the public going is to take the "World's Smallest Political Quiz".
The big news for 1999 is that I've lost 122 pounds while putting on some more nice, lean muscle! I expect to have lost 120 pounds by the end of the year. I did this almost entirely through a low-calorie, low-carb diet and resistance training. There is plenty of controversy regarding "high-protein" diets, but I can easily see the difference on the scale when I've had much rice, bread, potatoes, or pasta in preceding days. I'll have more of those things when I get to the maintenance phase—the life-long habit phase—of the diet. For right now, I stay away from starch. And ice cream. And chocolate. And cocktails.
Actually, a little indulgence now and then makes good behavior easier to maintain.
I do all of my resistance training at Ideal Exercise in Seattle using the Super Slow® exercise method. I've meant for some time to graph my progress for presentation here. I might even still get around to it some day. Nevertheless, the slow, high-intensity methods employed in this exercise protocol are very effective, and after 31 months, I'm still making good progress without spending much time in the gym.
About the same time that I started dance class, I started working out at the Pilates Studio. Pilates seems to fine-tune my body in ways that resistance training cannot. I move easily, and I'm very flexible. I think I look and feel better than I would with resistance training alone.
If it all becomes too much, there is relief: Principia Discordia.
Last update 3 December 1999