Kawaski, Sucking Up, and Buddhism

Since I have been back from my travels to the West Coast, I've been quite busy working on client work, preparing documentation, and, most horribly, packing up to finally move out of Newark. The move is bittersweet, but I guess all periods of your life eventually come to life.

I have a huge apartment.. something on the order of 2,000 square feet. I've been working/living here for about 4 years now and I've accumulated lots of things - though not more than the usual. If I have too much of anything, it's bloody computer parts.

Yesterday, Pappoe came buy to take 2 raids, a 4-port KVM, and a box of network cables off my hands. He also did me an immense favor and offered to hold my collection of books (from the technical to the business to the philosophical). As we packed up the car, there were only 2 books that I held on to for myself:

• The Art of the Start - I don't know which copy this is actually. I've given the book away 3 times already. I think, but I am not sure, that this might be the autographed one I got from Guy at the conference - but I might have given that to my partner.
• Blink - This was the pre-print copy of the book that I received for review purposes. See, blogging does have its benefits.

Yesterday, or so, there was a dust storm over a post that Guy wrote, "How to Suck Up To Bloggers". Stowe seemed quite perturbed, as did a number of other folks that he's linked off to. Despite the uproar, I'm not bothered much at all by what Guy has said.

I don't know Guy Kawasaki personally, I've just met him a couple of times. He doesn't call me up to play hockey or to see how things are going. However, I've read his work for years on end, and more recently, his blog. Going on that, and I will have to call any blogger out that doesn't feel that they come to know someone from reading their writing, that I can relate to what he's saying.

To close out the day, though, I'll share a personal story. As we were loading the car yesterday with books, a street vendor (you know, one of those guys with a hot dog cart) rolls up and wonders if we're having a book sale. We joked that we could make him a deal if there was something he wanted. The top of the pile had mostly tech books, but I pulled out my copy of "The Concise History of Buddhism". I handed it over to the guy and he flipped through it, said "Wow. How much you want for this?"

I responded, "Take it. It's yours. I can't charge for Buddhism."