Morning Ritual

[poliphilo]

I get up, creak downstairs, pour myself an orange juice, light a scented candle and check out the Guardian online- first the headlines, next the political comment, sometimes the arts news;  then I do the same for the Times. Only when I've assured myself that all's wrong with the world and our leaders are being as boneheaded and venal as ever, do I move onto the next phase- which consists of breakfast, email and LJ.

I don't enjoy the papers any more. I know what the commentators are going to say before I turn to their columns. It's just habit. This is what middle-aged men do, right?  They read the newspapers.

Ailz gets up a lot later than me. She also goes straight online- but instead of reading the news she clocks onto the Rabbits United forum.  I hear her chuckling to herself.  Sometimes she calls me over to look at something particularly cute. "Oh look, this rabbit has mal-aligned incisors."

I believe she's got the right idea; her early morning reading certainly seems a lot more entertaining than mine.  To hell with the gossip of the Westminster village! But what should I read instead?  You guys know what my interests are: can any of you suggest a non-newsy but everchanging website I could use as my home page?

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Maybe LJ's feed function would be a good way of gathering a selection of interesting regular output into one place for you, without the need to find one single website that can offer as much content for you as two daily newspapers? Some feeds I know of that you might like include pepysdiary, apod, fryblog and maybe a_dons_life - but there are loads more to explore.

[serennos.livejournal.com]

Thanks Pen - I hadn't spotted the fryblog before!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

It's kind of irregular, but very good when he posts!

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Good idea. :-)

I use LJ as an RSS Feed a lot. Ones I particularly enjoy that you might include

freakonomics - the blog of the book
postsecret
waiterrant - a New York waiter tells us of his daily life - well written and very entertaining.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've added all of those.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. You've given me a lot to explore there. I've added them all.

[elegysostenuto.livejournal.com]

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/ ?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's gone on my list of favourites.

[margaretarts.livejournal.com]

I don't know about this as a home page, but I find myself drawn to this one because of the entertaining photos and the sweetly ironic comments:

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've put it on my favourites list

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Arts and Letters Daily (http://aldaily.com)? It's a round-up of links from news sources and all sorts of review, commentary, and other periodicals.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hey, I think this is the one! I've put in in place as my home page and we'll see how it goes. Thanks!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I thought about that Arts & Letters one for you, too. In another vein, check out this site, follow some links, etc. I worship this guy.

http://sb.longnow.org/Home.html

[sculptruth.livejournal.com]

I have a collection of blogs I read daily through google reader (I have a gmail account but there are plenty of blog aggregators out there). You could scour the internets for blogs which discuss your interests and then collect them through the reader. Most of what I read discusses the art world, but I'm starting to really trim them down. Here's one home page that sort of covers everything in the arts, which I enjoy a lot:

Arts Journal Daily Art News (http://www.artsjournal.com/)


Do you like modern architecture? Here are a few blogs which discuss architecture around the world, but mostly contemporary (sometimes old):

BLDGBLG (http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/)

This is my favourite architecture blog. I particularly loved the post about abandoned hotel constructions in Egypt. (http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/hotels-in-afterlife.html)

Life without Buildings (http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/)

A Daily Dose of Architecture (http://archidose.blogspot.com/)

Now you have a small window into my morning, which I am enjoying right now as I type this! :)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes. I love looking at pictures of buildings. These have all gone on my list of favourites. Thanks.

What I really want to do is fly a crew out to one of those abandoned hotels and improvise a movie- something along the lines of Last Year at Marienbad, perhaps.

See if you get inspired by anything at...

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

www.greatwriting.co.uk

Almost completely news-free. I'll be there.

Re: See if you get inspired by anything at...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've added it to my favourites list.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, I start my morning by checking my LJ. Y'all fascinate me. I can't wait to see what has happened whilst I was asleep.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not at my best first thing. I like to down a couple of cups of tea before I start engaging with LJ.

[mokie]

Flickr! One could get lost in the Explore option so, so easily, and there are so many beautiful ways to start the day.

I also feel I should add a caveat for the earlier recommendation of PostSecret. If you're looking to start the day without the frustration, gloom and depression of the news, then you might want to leave PostSecret off, at least until later. I know the project is too much of a tragedy confessional for me to visit regularly. :/

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

PostSecret showed up on my FL- and it just seemed to go on forever- image after image after image- and none of them all that clever or poignant or witty.

Maybe I'll strike it through.

Flickr? Yes. Good idea! Thanks.

[mokie]

When PostSecret first started as some guy's art project, it was a great idea. He handed out cards to his artist friends and some strangers, and what came back was some beautiful stuff, and the secrets really felt like something meaningful, all aided by the fact that the concept was new and shiny.

Then the 15-year-old girls of the Internet* got ahold of the notion, and now it's become all old photographs with a bit of text on it instead of artistic exploration, and emo whining instead of revelations, or worse, a cavalcade of sexual trauma because the attention-mongers in the crowd think those are the only secrets traumatic enough to get them noticed anymore.

The whole thing just gives me the wiggins now. It's like watching girls starve themselves for popularity and awarding them points for it.

It has all the variety of ICanHasCheezburger.com , but at least LOLcats are funny.

No more ranting, I promise!

* The 15-year-old girls of the Internet are not necessarily all 15-years-old, or girls, but gads, do they all sound like they are...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember visiting the project when it was new- a year or two back- and it was great. And now- like you say- it's gone stale.

The same thing will happen with LOLcats- in fact I believe it's already happening. The smart people kick something off and then the dullards take over- by which time the smarties have already moved on to something else.