Previous Allusions
It was, obviously, previous allusions that I needed. I had to re-read what I wrote, June, 2009? What I put in place at that time, and here, years later, what I’m still paying attention to? Observations distilled into simple guidelines for this work.
The sibilant twins of Scale and Sustain. Part of what drives this enterprise. To some? Just an alliterative sibilant shit-show, I guess point of reference depends on where one stands.
The target is a single URL, a single website, a single digital location for everything. Ideally, best parts are baked into a book to go along with that.
Lunch with a cousin the other afternoon, he allowed as to his favorite parts of some of my work is the shorter material, the collection of quips and observations.
See: Pink Cake.
Previous Allusions
There’s a very simple notation, for me, and as a simplified guideline, too, about what to do. Simple is best. I have, as a current example, a bone-stock, simplified site installation at www.KramerWetzel.com. I’m still toying with a more streamlined approach, but so far, I haven’t found the right amount of my personal kitsch, behind-the-scenes machinations, and robust enough software to handle my needs.
While abundantly not obvious in my own work, as a simple ideal, taking away, reducing, and removing extraneous filler is better. Then, the automated updates, keep the part that the world can see, keep it up-to-date, up to current best-practices?
Previous Allusions
In Ancient Rome, a haruspex was a seer, usually a holy person of one order or another, and the way it worked? Sacrificial animals were ritually disemboweled, then the entrails were inspected by the haruspex for symbols, meanings, and messages.
Working in Austin and San Antonio, I know of one coffee-cup reader, and another tea-leaf reader. There’s a direct lineage from the haruspex to the symbols in the coffee grounds or tea leafs.
There are considerations, and I’m sure the ritual sacrifice of an animal is frowned upon, and not an action in which I would willingly partake. By the same measure, coffee and tea cups are easy, yet I suspect sort of a gray area as far as health regulations.
This all speaks to a level of augmentation, upgrades, and in my mind, unnecessary complexity.
Simple. Sleek. Sustainable and scalable.
Previous Allusions
The guiding principles remain, Scaleable and Sustainable.
Looking over what I wrote, I found my biggest mistake, the order. Not an uncommon problem I have, I start with one direction, and wind up someplace else. Not where I was heading, but where I belong? Sure.
The mistake is the order of the two worlds, Sustainable should be first. Then comes Scaleablity. The sustainable part is what is most important.
To be clear, the term “Sustainable,” in this situation, the term means “able to sustain this level of output, keep on doing what I’m doing with no discernible drop in output or quality.”
Clearly, the order is now reversed. Probably was when I first wrote it, fourteen years back, but the idea? The alliterative sounds of two leading letters, Scale and Sustain? Should be Sustain and Scale.
Previous Allusions
What I read? A lot books, probably close to hundred in a year, with my gradual, grudging, acceptance of digital libraries, and then, there are magazines, in print, magazine-style material online, news online, and the blogs. Author blogs are a favorite, but so are fishing blogs, and certain organizations, I will follow their materials online. Occasional forums, but I tend to be extra-suspicious about fishing gear touted too loudly in that setting. Makes me wonder.
I keep a list of the books, but I’ve gotten to the point that I’ll just list a series in an entry rather than each book with its own entry, when I stumble into something like Slow Horses.
The question, and the answers, sustainable — at my current rate? Easy. No promises, but no end in sight. Or no end on site. Scale? Sure the current motor is scaleable, but that’d never really been an issue — just a technical notation for myself.
Pink Cake
- Aperture: ƒ/1.8
- Camera: iPad Pro (11-inch)
- Flash fired: no
- Focal length: 3mm
- ISO: 125
- Shutter speed: 1/60s
