Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Back row: Chip Rosenthal (EFF-Austin), Eliza Evans (U Texas), Jorge Ortiz (d-volution), Jon Udell (Infoworld), Wendy Seltzer (EFF), Neil Iscoe (U Texas), David Weinberger (World of Ends).

Front Row: David Isenberg (WTF2004), Betsy Devine (Feedster), Jonas Luster (Karma Warrior), Pete Kaminski (Socialtext), Adina Levin (Socialtext, EFF).

Thanks to David Isenberg for the (larger version of this) photo!

Typical funny sxsw conference moment–first morning, waiting for Kevin
Werbach to start his talk, visiting people in #sxsw IRC, wondering when
I’ll meet some of the people I know from Joi Ito’s chat. Sitting in SXSW IRC, and jluster (aka Jonas M. Luster) asks where I’m sitting. It turns out he and I were sitting in
the front row, 3 seats apart, with Sam Ruby (whom I also hadn’t met)
between us. On the other side of me was Jon Lebkowsky, and on the other
side of him was David Isenberg. Awesome.

OK, in our last episode, we left Betsy in typical Betsy-mode, sitting with
my computer in my lap and talking back while typing to a very good talk
on spectrum by Kevin Werbach.

I then ran off to play the annual kickball game, organize by Anil Dash of SixApart.

Opposing pitcher and search ninja Kevin Lawver
rolled 100% strikes while demonstrating a high level of trashtalk–is
there a major league for adult kickball? And Flash-meister Matt Pusateri, who got me out at first–I have forgiven you, and I am sorry I threatened to tell your mom what you did.

The awesome George Kelly of AllAboutGeorge kicked a home run for my team (our clever team name was Two, altho Gnu was also nominated.) 

Others who demonstrated remarkable skill are redheaded Yvonne Adams (WeAreNotSheep),  Nick Bradbury (FeedDemon),
Simon Willison (Incutio), Michael Moncur (Quote of the Day), and Jeremy Dunck.

But my very top props go to Michael Pusateri (aka Argyle), not only for kickball skill but also for
creative writing, as witness this praise of my skill in IRC, for which
I only had to hint the tiniest bit:

Same time next year, Anil–and next year team Two will be number one!

Here I am in the wild wild west (Austin Texas–sxsw, yee ha!) sitting next to famed #joiito Texan adamhill.
Although he lives near South Fork and drives a shiny red convertible,
Adam claims not to own cowboy boots. Another illusion shattered. Four
of us sitting in a row in this corridor–Jonas Luster, Joi Ito, me, and
Adam. We’re all of us talking–in the IRC.

Kevin Werbach talked about freeing up the electronic spectrum this morning, great talk, see his blog and the Feedster search for Werbach.

He envisions a world where the electronic spectrum is no longer
auctioned off piece by tiny piece to rich monopolists–a world where
the spectrum is cleverly shared by all who want to use it–a world
where troublesome folks are dealt with by tort law and common law
rather than a complex new system of criminalizing regulations.

I wasn’t the only one to worry out loud that many powerful
companies have big investments in a scarcity model for the
electronic spectrum.  If you look at what happened to the Clinton
health plan, you have an idea of the way private money translates into
public power, and the way a plan benefiting many people can be blocked
by a determined few.

Looking on the bright side, the “Clinton health plan” example could be
a huge fund-raising issue for groups promoting an open spectrum.

Gosh, I’m tired. And I didn’t even get up to Anil Dash’s kickball game, or the
interesting things Dan Gillmor and Lisa Rein said about small media….
Read somebody else’s blog, I’m sure it’s out there!

I’m inside that tiny, peaceful moment of just-before-a-journey.

I have printed three copies of my itinerary–there’s nothing now I want to re-plan or re-do. The stuff I’ll be packing tomorrow is lying piled up on my suitcase, trying to stay unwrinkled.

The kitchen clock ticks, and the fridge softly hums. I will miss this kitchen, my dear old kitchen computer, my pots of grape hyacinth next to the sink.

Last night, I saw my little winter mouse run across the floor when the kitchen was quiet like this. He is my winter mouse because I have shared the house with him for the cold weather. Now that spring is arriving, his days of eating my ramen and tacos are numbered.

Some lovely spring day, soon, I will lure him with peanut butter into my little havaheart trap, and drive him two miles to some trees near a BurgerKing dumpster.

But that won’t happen tonight, or even tomorrow. My sense of responsibility is already riding a plane headed south to Austin.

Bzzzt–oh, there goes the dryer. Time to fold clothes. So much for my moment to stop and smell the grape hyacinth!

What if…Lord of the Rings had been written by someone else?

“I’m not saying they had an affair,” Elven Prince Legolas said in an exclusive interview. “I mean, I once went out with Arwen — she was kinda chilly, if you know what I mean. But right after I got to Rivendell I saw Frodo coming out of her bower….

Ellis Amburn channeled by SevenONine

I assert that Balrogs do not have wings. For, it is a natural impulse to act to preserve one’s life, and in doing so, to make full use of one’s capabilities. If the Balrog did have wings, it would not allow itself to fall to its death in the mines of Moria, but save itself by the use of its wings…

Thomas Aquinas, channeled by Captain Amazing

Frodo and Sam, having thus disposed of both the ring and Smeagol
Decided that they deserved a nice vacation, and flew off to the Bahamas by eagol.

Ogden Nash, as channeled by jr8

Thanks to Maia Cowan for pinging me about the Teemings extras!

Talk about a geeky event–sxsw Interactive has two different blogs–an unofficial one and now an official one too–and its own Orkut community.

It’s funny, considering how introverted I was as a teen–and how many hours I spend each day alone with my computer–that I’m looking forward to meeting so many new bloggers.

At least I don’t have to learn a new language, except for kickball…..

What’s the difference between a blog and a website? Amy Wohl got me thinking about that this morning:

It’s not fair for me to reprint Amy’s whole post here–much as I am tempted to do so–and I didn’t even get to the three-layer cake…

Light spring snowfall today–special effects snow really, just enough
to make the world look pretty but not so much that you were in danger
of skidding. Car windows have just a tiny, brushable frosting. And on one parked car
I drove by, driving home tonight, someone had hugely printed the word
“PEnis.”

I had to smile, remembering my long ago fascination with the word
“uterus.” I must have looked it up in five dictionaries, and all of
them said about the same thing, “a sacklike organ where the fetus
grows”, and none of them gave me the tiniest little clue about why
conversations including the word “uterus” embarassed my mom so very
much.

At least my snowfall graffiti-ist has probably seen a penis, or has
some idea what one looks like. So he (or she) is way ahead of where I
was with “uterus.”

Congratulations are in order today!

• To Worthwhile for hiring Halley.
• To Enoch and Tania, who are expecting a brand-new baby this coming August.
• To Dervala, for having life just about figured out as she heads toward Meetup.
• To Scott, for a whole year of RSS search at good old Feedster.

• Boston
  Globe just added a list of feeds.

  

• BBC News has a list
  of its feeds and a huge OPML
  file.

 

• Christian Science Monitor
  has a list of
  feeds.

 

• CNet News has a list
  of feeds.

 

• DanGillmor’s column has a feed.

 

• dotJournalism has a feed.

 

• Downing Street
  Says has a feed.

 

• Guardian
  Unlimited has a feed.

• Inter Press Service
  News Agency has a list of
  feeds

 

• National
  GeographicNews
  may have a feed at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/index.rss

 

• New
  Scientist has a feed.

 

• NewYork
  Times
  has many feeds created by Userland.

 

• Philly.com
  (Philadelphia Inquirer) has a list of
  feeds.
   
• The
  Register has a feed.

 

• Salon has a feed.

  

• SeattlePost-Intelligencer
  has a list of
  feeds.

 

• Slashdot has a feed.

 

• Slate just
  got a feed and
  offers a reading list in OPML.

 

• Telegraph has a  list of feeds.
   
• US National Weather Service offers regional weather alerts as RSS feeds.

 

• Wayback Archive
  Collections has feed of
  its most recent acquisitions

 

• Wired
  News has a list of feeds.

 

• World Press
  Review has a list of feeds.

 

• Yahoo News has feeds for non-commercial
  use

• Dave
  Barry has a feed

 

• This is True
  by RandyCassingham has a feed

 

• Tapestry
  has cartoon feeds including Dilbert
   

*  This list of newsfeeds is based on the excellent list at http://www.djh.dk/ejour/arkiv/RSS.html#udland, and on many ongoing updates from Dave Winer. Your corrections and additions are very welcome!