From Movable Type to movable type
On the flight to St. Petersburg I listened to the podcast of a session I missed at SXSW called From Blog to Book (audio). It was, duh, about turning one’s blog into a book. Now, don’t panic, I’m not naïve enough to assume that the content of this blog is worthy of bookdom. Seriously, I know. Nor do I assume that the number of readers of this blog constitutes enough of a market to make a print-run viable. But still. One can dream.
The upcoming trip to Barile just seems to me so apt for linear exposition, either as a series of articles or as a book. Why would it make a good story, you ask? Well, consider that I am hauling myself and my not-so-worldly parents across the ocean to a remote corner of Italy merely on the invitation of a municipal council whose only e-mail to me reads:
Dear Sir John Tolve, we’re the “Pro-Loco” of Barile in the province Potenza, Italy. We wold like to invite you to a conference and we want establish it (date) with your business. This event will be held next summer and we wish to award you for your activities developed in USA. As we are very prond of your “Barilese” origins and we would like to spend a celebration day with you. We are looking forevard to receive your news
My reply and subsequent re-replies have all bounced back because of a too-full mailbox in Barile.
Now, of course I’ve been in contact with others — a representative of the regional government, a family friend who is a travel agent in the area, a work colleague outside of Naples, and an Italian cousin whose coming in from Holland — but none of them really know what’s going on or what’s going to happen in Barile. This in itself I find interesting. As in, what the hell am I doing leaving my wife and children in Chicago to go to Italy for “a celebration day”? Might make a good start to a book, no? A mystery-travelogue of sorts.
So back to the podcast From Blog to Book. My expectations were fairly low since, let’s face it, not that many great bloggers have become great print writers. What esteemed example do they have on the panel? That’d be Tucker Max, author of tuckermax.com, one of the most offensively, hilariously puerile sites on the ‘tubes. Basically Tucker is a decent writer with an insatiable libido, a love of reckless inebriation, and zero moral qualms. As you might imagine, the session wasn’t exactly loaded with tips for aspiring writers because, well, humanity being what it is, anyone who can write well about drunken sex is bound to do pretty well for himself. As I do not plan on drunken sex in Italy (“day of celebration”, eh?) I am lacking a critical component of this sure-fire formula for success.
But I’d still like to try. Not sure where to begin (other than this blog, of course). Suggestions welcome. I know some of you out there have been published!
Of course, we’ll have to see what happens in Italy. My money is on the unexpected.
T-minus 3 weeks, 1 day.
Hi, I’m John Tolva!
Mission Elapsed Time: 20:00:21:06:42:40
Recently this blog (and my Flickr account) turned 20 years old, forever in Internet years. I went back through it all, retracing digital footprints made on what feels like a different planet. Here are some highlights.
The Terror Tourist
A roughly monthly exploration of places in horror fiction — real or imagined, geographical or psychological — culled from The Heavy Leather Horror Show.
Subscribe to the podcast or the email newsletter or just read through the archives posted here.
The Ampcamper
How I hauled myself, two teens, an 80 lb dog, and a whole load of crap 4000+ miles across six states in twenty days using an electric vehicle. And survived to tell the tale.
Latest Photos
Marginalia
Stuff I’ve found interesting from around the web lately.
Baby Steps | 2024 | PlayStation 5 and PC
Coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2024! https://babystepsgame.com Play as Nate, an unemployed failson with nothing going for him, until one day he discovers a power he never knew he had… putting one foot in front of the other. Explore a world shrouded in mist, one step at a time. Hike the serene
Title:Phase behavior of Cacio and Pepe sauce
Full-text links: Access Paper:
Bringing Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities to life with AI
If you’ve ever read Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, it is not your typical book about urban landscapes.
Bonus Post: The McMansionization of the White House, or: Regional Car Dealership Rococo, a treatise
The McMansionization of the White House, or: Regional Car Dealership Rococo: a treatise | McMansion Hell Get more from McMansion Hell on Patreon Patreon
Shell Recyclers in Connecticut Are Helping Oysters Find Homes
Summer in New England means lobster rolls, fried seafood and, of course, freshly shucked oysters. But there’s a problem. Those empty shells usually end up in a dumpster instead of back in the water, where they play a key role in the oyster life cycle.
The Public Domain Cinematic Universe Edition
Rex Sorgatz (RS) wrote the very popular Key Art Edition. We are happy to have him back. Rex here. The year was 1998, and people on the internet were mad at Disney. But it wasn’t wokeism or bloated cinematic universes or theme park prices that had them riled up.
The Hallucinating ChatGPT Presidency
We generally understand how LLM hallucinations work. An AI model tries to generate what seems like a plausible response to whatever you ask it, drawing on its training data to construct something that sounds right. The actual truth of the response is, at best, a secondary consideration.
Dance Music Is Booming Again. What’s Different This Time? A Lot
Fans emerged from pandemic lockdowns primed to hit the floor. Now online platforms are bringing fresh sounds and budding stars to bigger audiences worldwide.
Bus Stops Here: Shanghai Lets Riders Design Their Own Routes
From early-morning school drop-offs to seniors booking rides to the hospital, from suburban commuters seeking a faster link to the metro to families visiting ancestral graves, Shanghai is rolling out a new kind of public bus — one that’s designed by commuters, and launched only when enough rider
Remarks on AI from NZ
Last week I participated in a panel discussion on AI as part of a private event in New Zealand. The organizers asked me to kick it off by talking for ten minutes, so I pulled together a few ideas on the topic, which I’m going to present in lightly edited form here.