On hold, waiting to tweak my cell phone service account. The music is cutting in and out to the beat, like some dynamic easy-listening dance remix.

The girl is watching our online wedding registries like a hawk. I get minute-to-minute updates on the acquisition of domestic conveniences. It's pretty cute to see her so excited, and we've got some pretty nice stuff queued up for the kitchen and around the apartment and future house. It's like we're grown-ups or something.

Hey, look, it's an OPML blog with a header image that just totally warms my heart.

Why did they insert periods into R.S.S., but not A.O.L.? That's a.w.k.w.a.r.d.

Of bliss and heroes and bigots

• Man, sometimes you hear something that just rocks you a bit. For years now, I've been carrying an invisible banner which reads "Follow your bliss!" I picked it up from Joseph Campbell, to whose works I was introduced in college courses on mythology and folklore. I read a handful more of his books after graduation, and subsequently adopted more of what he had to say as parts of my own personal creed and world model.

• Then, this morning, I read Christopher Locke's piece on Joseph Campbell's anti-semitism and racism, and it struck me a bit out of left field and like a thunderclap.

• I personally don't understand anti-semitism - does not compute. I'm very ignorant in this area - there's a lot of history I'm missing and no grudges I've inherited. I'd like to understand more about it, to the extent I can recognize it and keep it out of my head. Ideas like these have seductive powers that tug at base fears. But, what little I know of Jewish culture itself strikes me as one of the most mature, sensible, and humor-enabled arrangements of human civilization I've ever encountered. Not that I've travelled the world or anything or have lived for a hundred years, but I try to pay attention to what I see.

• What surprises me is that what I've adopted of Joseph Campbell's writings seems compatible with this. So, hearing that the man himself expressed anti-semitic beliefs makes me feel dirty and worried that I've accepted some dirty memetics into my own paradigm of self.

• I guess the lesson here is that you can find valuable pieces from which to build yourself from many sources, but you've got to be very careful of what you accept. Never assume that just because you've found an apparent hero that everything he says is worth the same. I mean, this is an obvious lesson, but it's easy to be lazy and just worship a hero. But you need to be responsible and conscious, and pay attention to how every new piece of the life puzzle you find fits in with everything else. Watch for contradictions, evaluate everything carefully.

• I've written about this to myself, privately, in my journals - but I'm never spared amazement when it hits home yet again.

• So, I still believe in following my bliss - in the manner in which I've come to understand it. And, though I found the idea first through Joseph Campbell, that doesn't mean that I automatically agree with everything else the man has said. He's uncovered some good things, but past results can't necessarily predict future performance.

Here's yet another example of why I have a lot of angst for IntelliTXT advertising. Can you tell me which of these links are the real links to the relevant content about which this news story is written? It's about a new SDK from AOL for AIM. The AOL link goes to AOL, at least, but the rest are all either to competitors or nonsequitors - "SDK" links to something about barcodes?! Oh, but when I look closer, I can tell that the actual site's links are in a non-underlined light blue style. This is pathetic: There are more contextual ad links - which aren't actually well-contextualized - than there are real links. Oh, and have I mentioned the agency behind IntelliTXT has attempted to contact me through email and IM to discuss opportunities for decafbad.com? Do you know how much it pains me to simply ignore it and not turn around and spew pure bile at them? No thanks guys - I don't really want to offend you, but this service offends my sensibilities.

Got up just a tad late this morning - I knew that sleep felt a little more luxuriant than it should have for a Monday morning. But anyway, good morning all.