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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Month: August 2002

  • Weekly Recap VI: Sixth Senseless

    Going to go by the numbers this time, right down the “Blogs of Note” listing:

    • Jessy is back! But only for the weekend. Go leave her a nice comment and catch up on the post-move enjoyment.
    • Captain Rooba’s a straight-B student. Well, at one school anyway. So much for guidance counsellors. He wants to add a special something to his life: A dog. Like any good free-thinking man he hates having to listen to or otherwise endure religious preachery. (I just made that word up. Sorry.) There was some mild golf suckage, but that’s okay. Who cares about golf?
    • At debris.com, a server move was accomplished with a surprisingly small amount of anguish, though as usual the telco guys had no clue. You’d think that in the communications business they’d, well, communicate better. There’s some good ranting about the pervasiveness of advertising, as well as a link to some braindraining IQ tests. (I tried to take one of them, but ended up getting a server error at question 26 out of 35. No way in HELL am I going to take that test over again, thank you.) LPs were sold, though if I’d known in advance I’d have asked for some of those old Genesis platters…
    • Snappy the Clam is back from vacation and once again casting a steely eye on the BigBlogs. Most interesting this week, though, is how much traffic he generated by linking to a Tom Tomorrow bit… and how said traffic has nothing to do with the link and everything to do with the title of the blog entry he chose to use. It’s a weird world, matey.
    • Madame Sinister endured the snootiness of friends, less than lackluster customer service, and a misogynist jerk. On the flipside she’s been pampered a bit, received pleasant comments on her appearance, and has probably dodged a terrible fate… if you believe in that whole “comes in threes” thing. I wonder how the Maize Maze thing will turn out?
    • Emily has left the building. Fear not, however. She will appear in a new building in another day or so. Before she left she chose to grace us with the world’s fastest-growing pizza, some WordDuckArt silliness, and an account of the end of her old foodservice gig. She also feels like makin’ bugs, sometimes.
    • The ever-lovin’ Melpster got herself a brand new… template. I wonder if I should tell her that it looks an awful lot like Phoemeister’s? The Melp’ is a musical person, as well as a MST3K fan and of course a dedicated Vance DeGeneres devotee. We’re treated to more segment reviews and a handful of musical recollections. There was also decent closure on the Fantasy job thing.
    • When Jason of Q Daily News said his output would decline, he was not kidding around!
    • Speaking of which, fluttergirl is still on the road.
    • Argephontes teaches us this week that you can microwave wet cigarettes. I leave deciding the value of this information as an exercise for the reader. There’s a bit of survey that attempts to detail your personality based entirely on your name, and the kitchen sink works again. (She should change her website slogan to, “We really do include the kitchen sink!” Or something cleverer than that.)
    • Not only does Blogatelle provide the usual huge masses of outraged and entertaining bloggage, but also another delightful birthday card. (Note to self, make sure she knows when my birthday is due.) Oh, and her daughter reads Machiavelli. I should try to hook the girl up with my son in about, um, 17 years… give or take a year.
    • Sar of Dragon Ink may not be a world-class Monopoly player, but she does take nice photographs and is gracious enough to share with the websurfing public. She can, if she wants to, literally curse a blue streak. And don’t worry, Sar… I’ve chased after the wrong bus more than once in my life. It happens to us all. At least, “us all” who ride busses.
    • New to the Weekly Recap is someone I’ve corresponded with for a while now but neglected to link to until recently. The Cosmic Babe writes a lot. Almost every day. It is all deeply personal material, the “dear diary” entries of a woman in the midst of a complex and engaging life. As with Blogatelle, those with weak hearts or rigid uptight morals need not apply. This week she endured anxiety (no pun intended) about the start of her job; as a Portland-area parent she grieved along with the families of those dead girls unearthed so recently; there was a priceless parent-children bonding moment; unmentionables are mentioned; candles were purchased but the futon temptation was avoided; a naughty kitten terrorized, was chastized, and got revenge as kitties are wont to do; and the love-type-thing-type-thing sent a bit of neat artwork. All this in between laundry, needlework, email, showers, driving around and other domesticity.
    • Last but not least, Phoemeister is #1 for “kosher-blessed goodness.” That’s what Google says, anyway. There’s hamster-trouble in dorm-room paradise, but that’s to be expected. Grunger Sheep and past-life Philosophers are popular. Oh, and Phoe… just say to yourself during those darker times, “I’m not a complete moron. Some parts are on back-order.” That’s what I do, anyway…

  • Fashion-Forward Friday Five

    • What’s your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own? – My 1992 blue denim KGON jean-jacket. It’s both nostalgic and comfortable. I bought it for $60 during my first year or so of part-time employment and internship with the station.
    • What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire? – I want lots of pieces of clothing. If I had the finances I’d be a goddamned clotheshorse. I’ve always liked “dressing up.” You wouldn’t think it to look at me, of course.
    • What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? Why? – Old vests that are too ratty or too small to wear. I love my old vests. And my old jackets… same condition, same story.
    • What piece of clothing do you look your best in? – Back in the day, my best gear was the ensemble I purchased during one trip to the mall over a decade ago: Black fedora, black and blue paisley vest (see previous question) and a well-made black trenchcoat. The fedora doesn’t fit anymore, the vest can be worn but it IS worn, and the trenchcoat lost its buttons a couple of years ago in a freak backpack-putting-on accident. Leaving the past behind for a moment, what I look best in now would probably be one or the other of my short-sleeve cotton shirts, either the white or the blue. Ye Goddesses, I need more good clothes. And to lose some weight.
    • What has been your biggest fashion accident? – It’s only an accident if it didn’t happen on purpose. During one stretch of time I was deliberately seen out in public wearing those absurd baggy-pants. You know the ones… brightly colored, flimsy material, tacky as all get-out. I had two pair. (Still do, actually. See question before last.) And I wore them outside of the house of my own free will. More than just a few times. (Now they’re strictly for ‘pajama’ duty, as they probably should have been all along.)

    The Friday Five

  • I am not a code! I am a human being!

    -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
    Version: 3.12
    GCM d- s: a C++ UL++++ P+ L++ E--- W++ N+ o-- K- w---
    O- M V-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP+ t 5+ X-- R tv+ b+++ DI+ D++
    G e h---- r+++ y++++
    ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

    Thank you, Cosmic Babe, for bringing up the good old “Geek Codes.” And you’ll note that I got the link right this time. What you see above is my updated Geek Code. (a- became a, and E—- became E—.) I was surprised to find that I still had my old sig file laying around. I never throw ANYthing away, do I?

    Thanks to the Cosmic Babe, however, I now know about the Blogger Code. Far be it from me to miss out on a good blogging meme, so here goes:

    B6 d t+ k s+ u- f i o x e l c--

  • Thank you, greedy corporations.

    In the wake of Thomson Multimedia’s announcement that they’re going to charge fees for MP3 decoding software and equipment, Emmett Plant of Xiph.org posted a cheerful and amusing Open Thank-You Letter. It’s probably too optimistic to think that this event will drive the masses to switch to Ogg Vorbis audio, but it certainly can’t hurt.

    For the record, Thomson MM has for a few years now been charging license royalties on encoding equipment and software, but until now were content to let decoders remain free. And now, like Compuserve before them, they seem intent upon raking in the dough on technology they’ve been giving away for a number of years. Good luck, guys.

  • Apparently we can’t all just get along

    Because I feel rather strongly about this sort of thing, I’m going to be terribly gauche and not only link to a Q Daily News snippet that links to some thought-provoking material, but also post here the comment I made to that snippet because dammit, I’m pithy and interesting and stuff:

    If only I had a solution to the problems of mob mentality, closed-mindedness and how to achieve understanding through deliberate perspective.

    It’s all about the perspective. If you’re willing to take a step away from yourself and truly think about how things must be for a rational thinking being other than yourself, you can learn to understand and appreciate a great deal about your fellow human beings.

    Feh. What am I thinking? It’s much more fun to be in a big crowd of people who like to make fun of other people. We merely graduated from high school, we never really left it behind.
    Q Daily News

  • Random Tidbits, circa late-August 2002

    • The two “Kagato” episodes of TMTT are posted. Huge thanks to Mari and Kylanath for suggestions and some proofreading!
    • Benjamin stopped by the office yesterday. We had a nice long chat about some of my future plans, and how he can be involved in them if things all work out for the best. He’s supposed to stop by the house tonight for some Diablo II gaming… muahahaha!
    • Wendi’s very proud of the fact that she’s finally “on top of” the housekeeping. The secret, it turns out, is to spend an hour every day doing it. It then becomes incredibly simple to maintain. A happy Wendi is a good thing, even better than a neat-looking house.
    • The head-cold lingers, much like the die-hard fans after the lights have come up at the concert venue. I’m okay, but I’m not as okay as I’d like. Such is life.
    • Once I’m done with TMTT, I have a half-formed plan to do another music video. This time I’m bucking for Journeyman status as I create a video with an actual story. At the moment I’m torn between using Genesis or Midnight Oil as the backing music.

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