I’m not going to tell you all about my computer woes again. I’ve already done that once in the last incarnation of this blog, back when I reinstalled Windows XP after buying a used computer. Suffice it to say that my website/blog has been hacked twice now, and I’m concerned that it was malware on my Windows XP providing someone with my ftp password. What I’ve done has been rather drastic, but it’s been a long time coming. I’ve abandoned Windows XP and am now running Ubuntu 10.04.1 on my computer.

That’s the nutshell version. You probably don’t want to know the gory details.

Of course, this switch of operating systems is going to come with some growing pains. Some of the tools I’ll have to use now will be different from those to which I’ve become accustomed on Windows XP. For example, I’m typing this text in a program called TextRoom, which is similar in basic functionality to my beloved WriteMonkey, but lacks a metric ton of WriteMonkey’s features. I hope that maybe, someday, if I’m very, very good, Iztok will port WriteMonkey over to Linux and allow me the freedom to jump around my document (like a monkey) and quickly export my Markdown formatting to HTML or RTF.

In the meantime, I’ll use the Perl script provided by the Markdown site to convert my text files to HTML and paste the results into my blog posts. It sounds cumbersome, but it’s really only a few steps. Given all that, however, I’d still prefer WriteMonkey. But I’m done with Windows XP, so I’ll have to make do.

But all that’s just an aside, really. I little bit of “What I’ve Been Doing With My Week”. Other than training in the new job, that is.

I’m here to revisit the idea that I put forth in my last blog post: The Voices of Reason Project.

As I mentioned there, I intend to interview a creative person that I know, and have that person introduce me to another creative person, whom I haven’t met. I’ll then interview that new person, and they will in turn introduce me to yet another creative person, and so on, and so on, the idea being to cover a wide range of creative endeavours and gradually meet people of “greater and greater influence”.

What I’m going to do here is to lay down the ground rules for this project in a bit more detail. I’m going to spell out what I expect of my interviewees and what they can expect of me.

So here goes.

Each interviewee will agree to:

1. Answer a series of questions, via email, about creativity, his/her creative endeavours, and larger societal issues such as peace, respect, and freedom.
2. Return the questions, along with his/her answers, via email, to the interviewer (aka Faltarego, aka myself).
3. Provide, via email, a digital copy of a photograph of himself/herself (i.e. a “headshot”).
4. Grant permission for his/her answers and headshot to be posted on the faltarego.com website in the form of a blog entry.
5. Contact another creative person, whom the interviewer has not met and who is likely to be interested in the project, and provide that person with the internet address of this agreement and the email address of the interviewer.

In exchange for this kindness, the interviewer (that’s me) will agree to:

1. Conduct all correspondence in a courteous, respectful, and professional manner.
2. Keep the questions short, relevant, and to the point.
3. Post the interviewee’s answers in their entirety, editing only for spelling, grammar, and punctuation, provided said answers contain nothing that could be construed as hate speech or endorsement of illegal acts.
4. Provide internet links to any websites, articles, images, or videos the interviewee wishes to promote, provided those sites are relevant to the interview and fall within the general spirit of the project.
5. Send the interviewee a Faltarego.com t-shirt as a token of gratitude for his/her participation in the project.

That’s the first kick at the can, anyway. I’m sure I’ll modify this as I move closer to doing my first interview. And I’m sure my lovely readers will notify me if I’ve made any glaring blunders or omissions.

A new milestone for the blog: This is the first post to contain anything even remotely resembling legal-ese. Not something I aspire to make a regular feature, but a notable first, nonetheless.

So, now to find my first victim. Oh, who will it be? Who will it be?

Now that I’m back on track technologically (I hope), I’ll make some speedier progress with this thing. I’m accountable now. It’s gotta happen.

Thanks for reading.

Keep it real out there.

(And if I ever do get to interview people of note, I promise I will do my research about them before I ask them any questions.)