Geekery

Whatever I’m geeking out about at the time.

Difficult Listening Hour 2020.05.02: Birthday Edition

by

A rare pre-planned set; I selected this set of tracks just because tomorrow’s my birthday and these are some long-time favorites that I wanted to play. Back to the usual unplanned randomness next week!

  1. Shakespear’s Sister, Stay
  2. Peter Murphy, I’ll Fall With Your Knife
  3. Soft Cell, Seedy Films
  4. The Normal, Warm Leatherette
  5. Renegade Soundwave, Renegade Soundwave (Leftfield)
  6. Lo-Fidelity Allstars feat. Pigeonhed, Battle Flag (Radio Edit)
  7. The Cardigans, Erase/Rewind
  8. Thompson Twins, You Take Me Up (12)”
  9. The Art of Noise feat. Tom Jones, Kiss (Art of Noise)
  10. Figures on a Beach, Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria) (Remix)
  11. LaTour, Allen’s Got A New Hi-Fi
  12. Eurythmics, Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) (Extended)
  13. DJ Tripp, Express This Way
  14. The Azoic feat. Seabound, Obsession
  15. Sunscreem, Love U More (A Version)
  16. Pet Shop Boys, It’s a Sin
  17. DJ Wüdi, Just Can’t Get Flexible in 1999
  18. Information Society, Going, Going, Gone (Razed in Black)
  19. Psychic TV, I.C. Water
  20. Diane Birch, This Corrosion
  21. Marilyn Monroe, Happy Birthday to JFK

On This Day: May 2

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 27 posts previously published on May 2nd

  • 2024
    • Year 50 Day 366 Oh, you thought this ended with day 365? It's a leap year, so there's an extra day! ➡
    • Reclaiming the Web I miss the 'good old days'. I hope there are enough other people who also do that we can reclaim some of that outside of the walls of Meta and others. ➡
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Silly birthday presents from mom: A knit helmet, and a Lego(-compatible) mug and wizard. ➡
    • Best thing I’ve seen from yesterday’s May Day protests in Seattle: a Proud Boy struggling to destroy a sign while being encouraged and offered helpful tips by bystanders. He tried so hard! ➡
  • 2017
    • Unnecessary quotation marks! ➡
    • Book twenty-seven of 2017: Twilight’s End, by Jerry Olton ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #StarTrek #tos ➡
  • 2016
    • Book seventeen of 2016: Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (123/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Prairie and I out for a birthday weekend date night at the opera. ➡
    • The traditional pre-show froyo! ➡
    • Got to put together one birthday present today. Raaarrrwwwrrrr!!! ➡
    • An exciting morning of homework on my last day of being 41. Whee? ➡
  • 2014
    • Lots of pretty spring flowers and trees around campus these days! ➡
  • 2011
    • bin Laden’s Real Victory This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory -- he has changed America’s psyche from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed. ➡
    • Troubled I just want to take a moment to call out three friends (one of whom I've never even met in person) for making posts more in line with my own feelings on the matter. ➡
  • 2010
    • The Decline of Northern Civilization This is a piece by[Josh Medsker, originally written for and published in the Anchorage Press in October of 2000. When I first found this, it inspired my 'Back When Anchorage Was Cool' post. Unfortunately, at some point since then, a redesign of the Anchorage Press website took Josh's article offline. Recently, he was kind enough to dig the article up, dust it off, and pass it on to me. With his permission, I'm re-posting it here. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2005
    • Then it hit me… THEN IT HIT ME / im not going to be famous / i wont get to be a rock star / im going to be stuck on the payroll / doing work that doesnt interest me / for a very long time ➡
    • Lesbian minister re-frocked A nice update to a story I was following some time back: the Methodist minister who was de-frocked after revealing that she was a lesbian has been reinstated by the Methodist church. ➡
  • 2004
  • 2003
    • Last Day When your lifeclock in the palm of your left hand begins to blink, your time is up in your present body. Upon blinking, proceed to our Headquartes on Nolan Street, 7th Floor, Room 1976. There, you will be given proper ceremonial garb and final instructions for participating in Life-Renewal on Carousel. ➡
    • I am… Michael is… Woody is… Wudi is… (Fun with Google) ➡
  • 2002
    • Not Another Teen Movie A while ago, I started seeing trailers for Not Another Teen Movie, and they actually caught my eye. Surprisingly enough, for the most part, I wasn't let down -- I had a grin on my face for the majority of the film, frequently giggled, and even out-and-out laughed at a few moments. ➡
  • 2001
    • ‘toons and Tunes Happy May Day! Only two more days 'till I turn 28...not that I'm keeping track of this for any real reason or anything. Just thought I'd mention it. ➡

Happy May Day

by

You hear that sound, the rain is coming down
It says there’s a ripeness setting in
The children spin around ’til they crash into the ground
Singing “Welcome Home Forever Once Again”

And when you hear the spirit’s call
There ain’t no use to fight
And if you want to reap tomorrow, you better sow your seed tonight
You better sow your seed tonight

You feel that fire lift your body higher
An old, old dance is growing here
Better kiss me soon while the blossoms are in bloom
Or you might just have to wait another year

And when you hear the spirit’s call
There ain’t no use to fight
And if you want to reap tomorrow, you better sow your seed tonight
You better sow your seed tonight

You feel that beet, come on, move your feet
Old man winter’s dead and gone
There’ll be wiggling of the toes, there’ll be taking off of clothes
There’ll be silly naked dancing on the lawn

And when you hear the spirit’s call
There ain’t no use to fight
And if you want to reap tomorrow, you better sow your seed tonight
You better sow your seed tonight

— Jason Webley, “May Day”

On This Day: May 1

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 30 posts previously published on May 1st

  • 2024
  • 2022
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • You all can have your Jonathan Coulton and your Justin Timberlake. When it comes to May Day songs, I’m partial to Jason Webley. And when you hear the spirit’s call There ain’t no use to fight And if you want to reap tomorrow, you better sow your seed tonight… ➡
    • Well sure, what better time than right on the heels of a privacy scandal to announce that Facebook is getting into the dating game? Of course, people who are already friends won’t be matched (because…people only date strangers?), and poly/open people aren’t welcome. Um…okay. ➡
    • Got my #LordsofAcid #PrettyinKink goodies today; new album should be out soon! ➡
    • Interesting new pseudo-3D/motion panoramic app called Fyuse just hit my radar. This grumpy unicorn is my first experiment. ➡
  • 2017
    • Sporting my @swear_trek blue shirt at the #StarTrek meetup at @norwescon #nwc40. Photo courtesy of Thom Walls. ➡
  • 2016
    • There is no such thing as too many books. (122/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • For #throwbackthursday: me outside The Vogue on 12th in 2006. ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for April 28th through May 1st Sometime between April 28th and May 1st, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • DJ Richie Hawtin ties Twitter into his setlist with Twitter DJ and Traktor • Ferris Bueller is Tyler Durden • How to Be a Successful Evil Overlord • The Skinny on Using NASA Images • Practical Tips for Combatting Swine Flu in Your Home ➡
    • District 9 Holy crap, that's good. ➡
  • 2006
    • Falling Blossoms Fallen cherry blossoms in the rock garden outside our living room window. ➡
    • A Kiss for Mom More photos of Noah, Kevin, and Emily can be found in Saturday's photos, and a few of Prairie and her mom are in Sunday's photos. ➡
    • An Alaskan Adventure When you travel to Alaska, don't forget your bug spray. The mosquitos are something else! ;) ➡
    • Three Bizarro Favorites The previous post reminded me that I had three of my all-time favorite Bizarro comics saved in my old high school quotebook. Here they are (roughly in ascending order, that is, the last one being my top favorite)/// ➡
    • The Importance of Education I've been a fan of Dan Piraro's Bizarro comic for years, but this one gave me a really good laugh this morning. Definitely one of my favorites. ➡
  • 2005
    • Camp Tomato! So yesterday was Jason Webley's Camp Tomato. Prairie and I weren't entirely sure just what the day would have in store, but we figured it would be fun, so after waking her up from a nap, we hopped in the car and headed over to Woodland Park. ➡
  • 2004
    • Jason Webley Birth Day – Only Just Beginning CD release My birthday weekend started off with this year's Birth Day for Jason Webley, his annual 'resurrection' show, this year combined with the CD release party for Only Just Beginning. A full writeup will have to wait for later, but I've posted my photos from the concert (and the after-concert revelry in Freeway Park). ➡
  • 2003
    • 'Recent Tunes' update Utilizing the iTunes Music Store linking hint I found earlier, I've updated the 'Recent Tunes' section of my sidebar. Before each artist, track, and album listing you'll now see icons for Amazon and the iTunes Music Store — clicking on those will perform a search on the respective service for whichever line you clicked on. Nifty! ➡
    • Linking to the iTunes Music Store Excellent tip that I'm saving here for future use: how to create a website link that performs a search on the iTunes Music Store. ➡
    • I'm going to hell! Guarded by the Minotaur, who snarls in fury, and encircled within the river Phlegethon, filled with boiling blood, is the Seventh Level of Hell. ➡
  • 2002
    • May Day! Happy May Day! Or perhaps Beltane would be more to your liking. ➡
    • Neverwhere I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I was expecting. It was an extremely quick read (I read it in two days, with my only reading time being on the bus to and from work and at lunch), and was a lot lighter than I expected. ➡
  • 2001
    • The Emperor’s new Superman I generally enjoy Disney's films, but The Emperor's New Groove seemed to sneak through the theaters. But I heard more and more people talking about how good this one actually was...and eventually just went ahead and got it. End result? Absolutely hilarious! ➡

On This Day: Apr 30

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 11 posts previously published on April 30th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2021
    • How Pfizer Makes Its Covid-19 Vaccine: “Inside this facility in Chesterfield, Missouri, trillions of bacteria are producing tiny loops of DNA containing coronavirus genes — the raw material for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.” ➡
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Linkdump for April 19th through April 30th An automatically generated list of links that caught my eye between April 19th and April 30th. • John Scalzi: Thoughts on Avengers: Infinity War (and Yes, There are Spoilers) • Avengers: Infinity War ending: Incredibly bold — and a little cheap • “When people say ‘spinster’, they are trying to conjure up an image of a little old lady who is lonely and bitter.” • When Toronto Suspect Said ‘Kill Me,’ an Officer Put Away His Gun • What Does Invoking The 25th Amendment Actually Look Like? ➡
  • 2016
    • Some days, there’s enough going on that your head just doesn’t seem to be on quite right. (121/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Halfway through the week. Just two more full days of being 40. ➡
  • 2006
    • Back Home We're back. Family and friends were visited, many photos were taken, fun was had. I'm starting to get photos uploaded to Flickr, though so far I've just taken care of Friday's shots. The rest will have to wait 'til I'm home from school tomorrow. ➡
  • 2003
    • Electoral Map One of the things that really bugs me about our current governmental system is the Electoral College. When I was growing up, democracy (and, thus, the U.S. Government) was always explained to me as one vote per citizen, majority rule. This makes sense to me. ➡
  • 2002
    • I’m back! Okay, so...yeah. It's been over a week since I paid any attention to my website. Sorry for being so lazy...there's been a fair amount of crud going on, and, to be honest, I just wasn't in the mood to bitch and moan about it until some more of it was resolved. ➡

On This Day: Apr 29

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 17 posts previously published on April 29th

  • 2024
  • 2020
    • Fan Spending Quarantine Creating Virtual LEGO Builds For Each Episode Of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’: Two great tastes that taste great together! ➡
    • Wealth, shown to scale: Mindblowing. ➡
    • On This Day: Apr 29 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from April 29 ➡
  • 2017
    • Book twenty-six of 2017: Take Back the Sky, by Greg Bear. ⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • It’s been that kind of week, so it’s dessert time now. (120/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Gorgeous day today, and it’s just supposed to get better. Can’t complain! ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Poem in Your Pocket To commemorate the end of National Poetry Month, blog about your favorite poem and provide at least one link to other poems and/or a bio of the poet. ➡
  • 2003
    • Internet Explorer .pdf files? It's the little things that get to me about Windows most of the time. Things like this — today, for absolutely no reason that I can think of, Windows has decided that Adobe Acrobat .pdf files should have Internet Explorer's icon. ➡
    • Butterfly alphabets, and much more Prepare to get lost for hours in all sorts of linky goodness! ➡
  • 2002
    • Life or Something Like It While it wasn't anything amazing, it was certainly a very cute little romantic comedy, and I think it might be the best role I've seen Jolie in (and a very welcome change from the dreck that was Tomb Raider). An enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes, at the very least. ➡
    • ISSN 1539-4387 Back in March I found out that I could apply for an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for my blog, legitimatizing it as a serial publication in the eyes of the U.S. Government. ➡
  • 2001

On This Day: Apr 28

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 19 posts previously published on April 28th

  • 2024
    • Year 50 Day 362 A nice slow day of shopping, laundry, reading, and spending some time working with my music library. ➡
  • 2022
    • This is my next main browser: a review of Orion: “I can forget about the next Safari entirely and make Orion my primary browser — it looks and feels like the ‘good old’ Safari, and adds more interesting and useful features on top of it.” ➡
  • 2021
    • 📚 17/2021: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer ⭐️⭐️ 1972 Hugo Best Novel What sounded like an interesting premise was actually an incredibly unpleasant journey with unpleasant people that killed any interest in the purported mystery of what’s actually going on. ➡
  • 2020
    • We Can Be Heroes As businesses in Seattle closed their doors, many storefronts nailed plywood over their windows – but it created the feeling of a ghost town. So artists came together to create something beautiful and uplifting, turning these wooden coverings into murals. ➡
    • How are you holding up today? This moment has laid bare the extent to which 'How are you?' is a mere pleasantry and not an honest inquiry in search of an honest answer. ➡
    • On This Day: Apr 28 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from April 28 ➡
  • 2016
    • Aahhh, springtime in Ellensburg! Walking along, hair blowing in the wind…oh. Huh. Nevermind. (119/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Violence Never Solves Anything? Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms. ➡
  • 2014
    • Okay, so I had a bit of a case of the Mondays today. Good thing tomorrow's Tuesday. Time for sleeps now, plzkthks. ➡
  • 2010
    • Links for April 20th through April 28th Sometime between April 20th and April 28th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Elements of Twitter Style • Blag Hag: And the Boobquake Results Are In! • Daring Fireball: Gizmodo and the Prototype iPhone • You Ever Think About How In, Like, a Tom Hanks Movie...? • Henge Docks ➡
  • 2009
    • Birthday Bits So I turn 36 on Sunday. Pretty sure I can still claim 'mid-30's' at this point, though I'm getting perilously close to the 'late-30's.' Upcoming or recent birthday-related bits follow. ➡
  • 2006
    • Meme: Watch These Movies Film critic Jim Emerson recently compiled a list of 102 movies that you should see before you can consider yourself movie literate. ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
    • iTunes/www.applemusic.com Excellent work, all around. As far as I'm concerned, all of the whiners at MeFi and /. can jump off a cliff — Apple's got a good thing going here. The only downside I can see is that to take advantage of AAC's smaller file sizes, I've got about 1500 CD's to rip all over again… ➡
    • Apple turns up the volume Well, today was the day that Apple finally made the announcments that rumor sites had been salivating over for the past few months. Lots of cool goodies… ➡
    • Teach backwards! It's hard for kids to get interested in century old debates without knowing all the context around them, but they might very well be interested in current day events. So why not start now and explain the events that got us here? War on terrorism? Sure, let's teach it, and that leads us backward to a discussion of how the current state of affairs is the successor to the bipolar world that came apart in 1989. And that leads back to the Cold War, and that leads back to World War II, etc. ➡
  • 1996

On This Day: Apr 27

by

Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 27 posts previously published on April 27th

  • 2025
  • 2024
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Nice: Seattle officials file motion to vacate marijuana convictions. Since it’s legal, and as pot convictions disproportionately affect minorities, this is an excellent step. ➡
  • 2016
    • Just me, hanging out off the coast of my private island. …or standing in front of the screensaver on our TV. I don’t know where this place is, but I want to go to there. (I also kind of want a way to get the TV screensavers on my computer. They’re gorgeous.) (118/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Took this earlier today. The reason isn’t valid anymore, but I’m sticking with this shot anyway. Nyeah-nyeah, so there. ➡
  • 2010
    • Imagine if… Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called 'Imagine.' The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for April 23rd through April 27th Sometime between April 23rd and April 27th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Gallery: Flickr Users Make Accidental Maps • Skin Deep Usability • Locks of Love Helps Disadvantaged Children Suffering From Medical Hair Loss • Get Great Gadgets. and Keep Them. - Last Year's Model • I Can Read Movies ➡
    • Introducing my Photoblog As anyone who's been paying any amount of attention to my ramblings for long knows, I occasionally pick up a camera, snap off a few shots, and hope that I've got something worth showing off. I've finally decided to move forward on a project that's been rattling around in the back of my head for a while, and I'm going to see if I might actually be able to sell the occasional print. ➡
  • 2007
    • Edward Scissorhands When I posted about the discount on tickets to tonight's performance of _Edward Scissorhands_, I left out one small detail of the '_very_ kind offer' -- namely, that Prairie and I were offered (and accepted) tickets to see the show last night! ➡
  • 2006
    • Out for the Weekend Prairie has an educators' conference of some sort down in Corvallis this weekend, so we're going to be gone for the next few days. ➡
    • Winnie the Pooh and Syphilis Too 'Some things shouldn't be shared,' she explained. 'The Winnie the Pooh theme is one. It's a lot like syphilis.' ➡
    • A bit of a pickle… ...it was decided that, since these little tasty snacks are not only obviously phallic, but also can apparently be used as currency for the barter of sexual favors, Xebeth was going to start a new anti-pickle group. Parents Against Pickles. PAP. ➡
    • State of the Computer Well, the computer lives -- though we're definitely dealing with a near-total case of amnesia. ➡
  • 2005
    • Serenity Okay, okay, okay already. When no less than four people on my reading list mention the trailer for Serenity and I've barely started going through my feeds for the day, I figure I should probably check it out. ➡
    • There is hope… I refused to read any further than the first two sentences, but towards the end of his latest post, Kevin Smith has this to say about Revenge of the Sith... ➡
    • Rethinking In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. ➡
  • 2004
    • iTunes 4.5: Major iTunes Music Store update! The iTunes website hasn't been updated yet (as of 0:17 4/28/04), so I can't download it yet, but if you open up iTunes and go to the iTunes Music Store, you'll see a badge for iTunes 4.5. Update at 0:29: The iTunes website has been updated with iTunes 4.5. ➡
    • Whoops! Hopefully he gets back in his car without having to pay a cabbie to break in. In the meantime, my pizza has appeared, and it's dinnertime for me. ➡
    • Toyota Volta Italian design. Environmentally sound gas/electric hybrid. 408 horsepower. 0-62mph in 4.03 seconds, top speed of 155mph. Carbon-fibre chassis. Racing suspension. 31.7 miles per gallon. And it's only a show prototype, not likely to be built. Such a shame. ➡
    • Nightline on Friday Now I want to tell you about this Friday’s [Nightline] broadcast. We’re going to do something different, something that we think is important. Friday night, we will show you the pictures, and Ted will read the names, of the men and women from the armed forces who have been killed in combat in Iraq. That’s it. That will be the whole broadcast. ➡
    • Well, that’s one solution I love whatever algorithms Google uses for their AdSense program. Much of the time they're dead-on, but every so often, you get some wonderfully bizarre and hilarious combinations. For instance, upon reloading my page after adding my last post, I got the following set… ➡
    • Watch what you blog! It was bound to happen — and realistically, it probably has been happening, just now we're getting news stories about it — US intelligence agencies are starting to keep an eye out on weblogs. ➡
    • Well, it was convenient… Okay, so on the scale of stupid things Bush has done, this may not be right at the top, but it's still a rather sad look at how little respect the man can have for other people when he'll use someone else's shirt to clean his glasses while their back is turned. ➡
  • 2003
    • Ran away for a bit Had a very pleasant weekend visiting Prairie's friend Beth in Vancouver, WA, and Prairie's mom in Woodland. It rained a lot Saturday, but Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous early summer day, and I got a few decent pictures — one of which is the newest entry to WüdiVisions. ➡
  • 2001

Difficult Listening Hour 2020.04.25

by

Week eleven of my unplanned, unrehearsed, seat-of-the-pants goofing around. As a way of getting back into practice and doing something regularly, I’ve started doing regular Twitch broadcasts, now on Saturday mid-mornings. These are the results. Anything goes.

Read more