Tech

Tech-focused ramblings. Computers, blogs, and whatever else fits.

On This Day: Nov 24

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

There are 24 posts previously published on November 24th

  • 2024
    • Gruber: If I never see it, I don’t care. Despite many people whose opinions he says he respects refusing to support Substack because of their refusal to deplatform Nazis, _he_ hasn't personally seen stuff like this, so he doesn't care. ➡
  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 206 Wrapped a bunch of presents for a family for the annual giving tree program at work. ➡
  • 2022
  • 2021
    • Happy Anniversary, D.B. Cooper! From The Stranger: The 10 Weirdest Revelations from the FBI Files on D.B. Cooper for the 50th Anniversary of His Escape. Personally, I still subscribe to the Don Draper is D.B. Cooper theory, even if it was debunked by the Mad Men series creator. ➡
  • 2020
    • They’d finally managed to convince the supply chief to provision enough supplies to ensure they’d have a reasonable chance of making it across the wastelands. As long as the anti-grav units held out, at least, since replacement parts were more and more scarce every year. ➡
    • Star Trek Technobabble vs. Magic Too much of modern Trek seems to be resorting to prioritizing 'cool' over 'believable extrapolations' in the design aesthetic. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 24 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 24 ➡
  • 2019
    • “I’m sorry,” she said, blinking to hold back tears. “I’ll miss you, but…well, people judge us by the company we keep, and I can’t be seen with you anymore.” She backed slowly away, watching carefully for any tentacles trying to keep her from leaving. Microblogvember: company ➡
  • 2017
    • Cleaned up a bit for the big Thanksgiving dinner get together. ➡
  • 2016
    • Mmmm…Thanksgiving dinner! Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, rolls, cranberry sauce, and jello salad. Plus pumpkin pie for desert (in a bit, when we have room for it). Perfect! ➡
    • Book forty-nine of 2016: Uhura’s Song, by Janet Kagan. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (329/366) #startrek #tos ➡
    • A Thanksgiving Prayer Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams. ➡
  • 2015
    • Our first good snow of the season. Started overnight, still coming down quite nicely! ➡
  • 2014
    • Came home to find feminist inclusive smut in my mailbox! #smutpeddler @iron_spike ➡
    • In the low light at night, the seed pods from the trees look like giant alien slugs. Or maybe it’s the other way ’round? ;) ➡
  • 2013
    • Sounds From the Lost Abbey 01 Back in February, I took up a challenge from one of my friends to create a mix based around songs that I'd have played at the Lost Abbey, during the mid- to late-1990s. Here's the first of quite a few to come! ➡
  • 2007
    • Meme: The ’80’s Movie Scientist Test I'm Jordan Cochran, the adorable fast-talking GIRL scientist of all things. While she may not be up there with the other super-geniuses of the '80s, her awesome mechanical aptitude and geek-girl cuteness have made her the sweetheart of nerds for over 20 years. ➡
  • 2006
    • I sense a trend… Not at all a normal Seattle forecast, but this hasn't exactly been a normal Seattle November, either. Kinda fun to see what might happen as the week goes by! ➡
    • Black Friday Morn So now, here I am at five in the morning, trying to shake off a turkey coma so I can go deal with the craziest of the Black Friday shoppers. ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Four Years While I'd been keeping hand-updated websites since '95 or so, November 25th, 2000 marked my first foray into using a software engine to keep track of the random rambling I occasional put up on my website, starting me stumbling into the world of weblogging. ➡
    • Nomanisan Island I hadn't picked up on this before, but the name of island where Syndrome has his evil lair in The Incredibles is 'Nomanisan.' ➡
  • 2003
    • Three Years Today marks my three-year anniversary of weblogging. I've highlighted a few posts that I find notable or especially worth visiting for one reason or another. ➡
    • Fasten your seatbelts! If you live in the Seattle/Portland/Pacific Northwest -- or Japan -- you might want to think about moving. At least, think about it if you have plans to be in the area in about 200 years. ;) ➡

On This Day: Nov 23

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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 28 posts previously published on November 23rd

  • 2023
  • 2021
    • I’ve been neglecting my blog for a while, and have just added a number of (backdated) posts, but there’s one particularly important item of note: I’m about to start a new job as Program Manager for Accessible Technology at Highline College. Looking forward to this new adventure! ➡
    • 📚 47/2021: Spartacus by Terry Mancour ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🖖🏻 ➡
  • 2020
    • The best part of being a bounty hunter was the chase, pursuing prey across planets and star systems, using every trick she could until she ran them to ground. The worst part was the time after the capture, when there was nothing to fill the days as she waited for a new contract. ➡
    • Of Goth Diversity Let’s bring back the 'creature' in Creature of Darkness. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 23 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 23 ➡
  • 2019
    • The aliens had studied us long enough to be able to use what we perceived as a woebegone appearance to their advantage, preying on our sympathies and our desire to help. It was far too late when we discovered how our better natures had doomed us all. Microblogvember: woebegone ➡
    • 📚 fifty-four of 2019: The Sundered, by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Captain Sulu and the crew of the Excelsior mix it up with Tholians and a mysterious new race with ties to Earth. A good, easy bit of fluff to spend a quiet day reading. 🖖 ➡
    • 📚 fifty-three of 2019: Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Not bad, and I enjoyed the sexual politics, but not my thing. This is definitely (mostly) in the “life in medieval Europe” style of fantasy, which I’m less enamored of than more fantastical fantasy. ➡
  • 2018
    • Book fifty-one of 2018: Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread, by Chuck Palahniuk. 🌟🌟🌟 ➡
    • Book fifty of 2018: The Mask of Cthulhu, by August Derleth. ⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • I don’t have to go to work tomorrow! Or the day after! Or the day after that! Or the day after that! (328/366) ➡
    • We got a two-pack of “grow zombies” (the little toys you put in water so they get bigger) for Halloween, so one went in the water while one stayed dry. After about a month, here’s the end result! ➡
    • And…another Snapchat filter as penance. Good thing we’re approaching the end of the year, and the end of this project! (327/366) ➡
    • Being feminist is not a shield against criticism I’m far from perfect; I can, do, and will make mistakes; and when I do, I need to own up to them and try to avoid doing so in the future. ➡
  • 2007
    • EstroBlaster! Apparently, I'm a 50-something gun-toting impotent Republican. ➡
  • 2005
    • Lost s02e08: Collision Scribbled notes while watching tonight's episode of Lost. Spoilers, obviously, so only read further if you want to... ➡
    • Buying a camera? Oh, by the way...on the off chance that any of my Seattle-area readers are considering or planning on buying a camera this holiday season, I'd love you forever if you came by the Kit's Cameras store in the Northgate Mall while I'm working. ➡
    • Top 20 Geek Novels The Guardian UK ran a survey voting for the top 20 geek novels written since 1932, and in 'net meme tradition, here's the list with those I've read in bold. 13 out of 20...65%. Not bad, but I could do better. Time to add to the ever-growing reading list! ➡
    • Bush targets Al-Jazeera for bombing President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a 'Top Secret' No 10 memo reveals. ➡
  • 2004
  • 2003
    • FBI monitoring antiwar protests The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum. ➡
    • CSS Hints and Tips Dave Shea at Mezzoblue is working on a CSS Crib Sheet/Best Practices/hints and tips post. Lots of good information and suggestions in those posts for writing good, clean CSS. ➡
    • Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Special Extended Edition) First off, and most simply, if you're a fan of the series, there's no question about it. This is a must-buy DVD (as is, incidentally, the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring). Feel free to stop reading this and just go buy it. ➡
    • The biggest cause of failure is success What if Google set up an agreement with hosting sites in which, in order to offset the cost of bandwidth spikes, Google AdSense ads could be (semi-)automatically added to a site when they reached a certain bandwidth point? ➡
  • 2001
    • (Day after) Thanksgiving, Part 2 There are probably many other things and people that I should add to this list, but this will do for now. This Thanksgiving season, those are the things I value the most. It's a day late -- but Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. ➡
    • (Day after) Thanksgiving, Part 1 (I'd mentioned earlier that I had two posts planned for Thanksgiving. I didn't get around to putting them up Thanksgiving day, so they go up today, instead.) A Thanksgiving Prayer, by William S. Burroughs... ➡

On This Day: Nov 22

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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 20 posts previously published on November 22nd

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
    • 📚 forty-six of 2020: The Eyes of the Beholders by A.C. Crispin ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖 Nice to see an encounter with something so alien so to be literally incomprehensible. A bit heavy on references to TNG episodes to prove that the author watched the show; otherwise good. ➡
    • Difficult Listening Hour 2020.11.21 Week thirty-four of my unplanned, unrehearsed, seat-of-the-pants goofing around. ➡
    • After weeks of trudging through the monotony of desolate wilderness, it was startlingly obvious when their journey was nearing its end. Not just a line on a map, the border was actually a glimmering line in the air, beyond which flowering plants and tall trees grew once more. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 22 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 22 ➡
  • 2019
    • Her favorite place on the ship was at the end of a little-traveled corridor one deck above Engineering. There was a notch in the corridor wall she just fit into, where she could close her eyes and feel the hum of the ship’s engines vibrating through her. Microblogvember: hum ➡
  • 2018
    • Thanksgiving 2018 First off, and most importantly: Happy Thanksgiving to you if you celebrate; if you don't, I hope you have a pleasant day doing whatever you do. ➡
    • Book forty-nine of 2018: IKS Gorkon: Honor Bound, by Keith R. A. DeCandido. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
  • 2011
    • Essentially Commentary on reactions to the UC Davis pepper-spray incident, in four parts. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2005
    • Feeds are tagged too It's a good thing I subscribe to my own RSS feeds -- the 'full content' feed and the 'full content with comments' feed have both been updated to include the new tag support. Sorry about the mass-refresh in your RSS readers if you get hit with it. ➡
    • Cookies like Novocaine The _only_ Martha Stewart you'll ever need to watch is the one where her guest star...is Cookie Monster. ➡
  • 2004
    • 23rd Psalm (2004 version) Bush is my shepherd, I shall be in want. ➡
    • Versus It seems that we're living in a world where differences are all anybody sees anymore. Nobody's actually listening to what anyone else has to say -- we're all so sure that we're _right_ and everyone else is _wrong_, too busy banging our shoes on the table to really listen to anyone else. ➡
    • Genefilter Fun toy time: Genefilter. Choose a MeFi user and Genefilter will use that user's posts and comments to randomly generate a comment. Amusing results soon follow… ➡
  • 2003
  • 2002
    • NyQuil yay! NyQuil — the sneezing, sniffling, coughing, aching, 'How the hell did I wake up on the kitchen floor?' medicine! ➡

On This Day: Nov 21

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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 24 posts previously published on November 21st

  • 2023
  • 2022
    • Goodbye Twitter I'd been debating it for a while, but as of tonight, I'm stepping away from Twitter. ➡
  • 2021
    • 📚 46/2021: A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods edited by Jennifer Brozek ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2020
    • All he wanted was to never have to deal with another winter in his life. Living in temperate climates wasn’t enough, because he might have to travel, or be invited somewhere. He wanted to make sure winter simply didn’t exist. Ever. Anywhere. And so he built his machine. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 21 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 21 ➡
  • 2019
    • Five Senators Join the Fight to Learn Just How Bad Ring Really Is: “…if police want to request footage from a person’s front door in reference to a car break-in on that street, there is no need for police to verify that footage would be helpful to solving that incident, or whether the footage would ... Read more ➡
    • Every scan they had run on the canister since they’d unearthed it had shown it to be hollow. It was only after they cracked the seal that they understood that hollow and empty were two very different things. Microblogvember: hollow ➡
  • 2017
    • First time playing with the portrait mode selfie camera. Not too shabby. Might have been better if I wasn’t so scruffy. Really need to shave. #iphonex ➡
    • Oooh…new toy! #iphonex ➡
  • 2016
    • The events immediately preceding the taking of this photo need not be publicly disclosed. (326/366) ➡
    • In Regards to Our Company’s New Phone Plan 'Now, some of you are complaining that you don’t feel safe working with a phone that could randomly explode on any given day.’ ➡
    • Word of the Day: Kakistocracy Kakistocracy: Government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power. ➡
    • Not alt-right, just neo-Nazi I’m far from the only person to be noting this, but I’m continually annoyed by the willingness of people to accept the term ‘alt-right’ rather than just calling these people out for what they are: neo-Nazis. ➡
  • 2015
    • You can tell it’s a theater night, because we’re getting FroYo when it’s 33° outside! ➡
  • 2014
    • Off to find lunch, stopped outside the Moscone Event Center. Probably the closest I’ll ever be to an Apple keynote. ;) ➡
  • 2009
    • No More Mercury for Me As a former smoker, I never wanted to be one of “those” self-righteous ex-smokers. However, sometimes, even the most high-minded of us can give into temptation… ➡
  • 2008
    • To Blu or Not To Blu? With the jump to an HDTV comes the jump to HD programming. Day-to-day entertainment will come courtesy of Comcast -- we're already getting our cable through them, so we'll just upgrade that to the minimum possible digital/HD package. For movies, though, we're doing a bit of back-and-forth. ➡
    • Links for November 20th through November 21st Sometime between November 20th and November 21st, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! ➡
  • 2007
    • Meh Happy Night Before Thanksgiving. I'm sure it's a holiday _somewhere_. ➡
  • 2006
    • Storm Season Wow -- in the past few minutes, there have been three thunderclaps loud enough to rattle the windows, and now we've got hail pelting down like crazy, plus the wind and rain that you can expect for a storm like this. ➡
    • Teen Repellent Here's a site that has a selection of a few different ultrasonic ring tones at various frequencies, from 8 kHz up to 22.4 kHz, so you can test your own hearing abilities and see if you'd be able to hear (or be annoyed by) the tones. ➡
  • 2005
    • Folksonomy tag support added One of the things I've wanted to add to my site for quite a while now has finally been added: tagging, along the lines of del.icio.us or Flickr. Admittedly, I still have a ways to go in getting all my old entries correctly tagged, but that will come with time. For now, they're showing up in a few places. ➡
  • 2004
    • A 10-acre tombstone An amazing and sad story in today's Seattle Times looks at the construction on the Hood Canal bridge, which has run into snags after uncovering what's possibly one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the Seattle area. ➡
  • 2001
    • ‘Twas the night before – Thanksgiving? Most of the past couple days have been distinguished by battles with my PC. Apparently it figured out that I'm about to gut it and give it a full transfusion -- and the fool thing is pissed at me. ➡

On This Day: Nov 20

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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 25 posts previously published on November 20th

  • 2024
    • Wolfs 🎥: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: A thoroughly entertaining blend of Heat and Adventures in Babysitting. ➡
    • Living Memory by Christopher L. Bennett 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Picks up the thread of how Uhura was affected by her loss of memory during the Nomad incident, something never (or very rarely) explored. ➡
  • 2023
  • 2020
    • It had started simply enough: Use music to determine the tuning frequencies fed into the dimensional portal generator. Hooking up a second and connecting them using a mixer was a lark. But when the DJ started to fade from one universe of song into another? Best. Rave. Ever. ➡
    • From Daniel Jalkut: “Thanksgrieving, the holiday on which Americans remember those whose lives were lost in reckless family gatherings, is observed on the second Thursday of December.” ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 20 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 20 ➡
  • 2019
    • She’d heard all the comments: Everyone only remembers the first person to do something. Once it’s done once, it’s not exciting. Who was the second person on the moon, after all? But really—being the second person on Mars was still pretty damn exciting. Microblogvember: second ➡
    • Apple sleuths hunt Northwest for varieties believed extinct: “E.J. Brandt and David Benscoter, who together form the nonprofit Lost Apple Project, log countless hours and hundreds of miles in trucks, on all-terrain vehicles and on foot to find orchards planted by settlers as they pushed west more than a century ago.” ➡
  • 2018
    • Transgender Day of Remembrance I know and count as friends a number of transgender (including genderqueer, genderfluid, etc.) people today, and I'm very glad to know each of them, and to know them as they are. As horrible as this world can be, I hope that through ever-increasing education, visibility, and acceptance, each of them can continue to be true to themselves, and to stay safe and healthy, and are people I know for a long time to come. ➡
  • 2016
    • Our house, all lit up for the holidays. ➡
    • Whole putting together the bouquet for the table, Prairie decided I needed to be pretty too. Lacking a boutonnière, my zipper pull did the trick. (325/366) ➡
    • Criticism is Patriotism To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. ➡
  • 2008
    • The Answer is Probably “Yes” I'm trying to decide if I'm a hypocrite for being unsure about how I feel about Kid Rock's new single 'All Summer Long' -- which, though catchy, is little more than new lyrics on top of the riff from Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London' -- when I'm sitting on a 10.79 GB collection of 1,462 mashups. ➡
    • Links for November 17th through November 20th Sometime between November 17th and November 20th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! ➡
  • 2007
    • Filler Post This post was intentionally left blank. If this were a real post, I'd actually say something with some actual content, rather than simply throwing a few random words up here to continue with the (mostly) one-a-day theme. ➡
  • 2006
    • Header Images I'd like to get further into customizing my site later on down the line, but for the moment, I think most of my tweaks will be pretty simple. I have had fun grabbing a selection of images to use for the randomized header image at the top of the page, however. ➡
    • Pop Culture Disconnect The professor spent a few minutes talking about the Mongol's invasion techniques, which were simple but could be fairly ruthless. After summarizing this, he commented, 'really, they were pretty close to the Borg.' ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Basketbrawl I'm not much of a sports fan --rother's many years of goalkeeping -- but even I am likely to sit up and take notice when reports start hitting the 'net of pro basketball players jumping into the stands and beating the fans. ➡
    • The Typical Briton The typical Briton is polite, witty and phlegmatic, but lacks a certain style and has a dental hygiene issue while having an occasional drinking problem. ➡
    • 2004 Weblog Awards Nominations are now open for the 2004 Weblog Awards. I'm not sayin'. I'm just sayin'. ;) ➡
    • It’s like a violin… Now, okay, admittedly, I have a somewhat stronger grounding in music than many people, but I am having real difficulties trying to envision how someone could make it to their mid-20's and have absolutely no idea what an upright bass is. ➡
  • 2003
    • Miss Digital World Here's a fun idea for a new-millennium beauty contest: Miss Digital World, a beauty contest complete with virtual contestants! ➡
    • Human Stupidity Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. ➡
  • 2001
    • Belinda rocks! Just a quick note to say that Belinda is all sorts of cool, and that I hereby bestow instant celebrity status upon her (at least among the five or so people that read my website). ➡

On This Day: Nov 19

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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 28 posts previously published on November 19th

  • 2023
  • 2022
    • Travel and CO2 I tracked CO2 levels as I traveled from Denver to Seattle. Airlines may say their planes have good ventilation, but my monitor sure wasn’t impressed. ➡
    • 🎥 The Man Who Killed Don Quixote Gilliam's tendency to slip in and out of reality at any given point always engages well with me. ➡
  • 2020
    • 🖖 Discovery S03E06: A rather “meh” A plot (a bit much on Georgiou’s snark; the Running Man homage amused me but was too violent for my wife), but all the B plot bits on the Disco (geeking out over the upgrades, Tilly vs. Grudge, Stamets and Adira) were much more interesting. ➡
    • He looked over the valley in amazement. Instead of wooded slopes on either side of the small river, there was a town that looked as if had been there for decades, with ships docked at a pier, and though it didn’t seem possible, small, winged people flitting between buildings. ➡
    • He had long since lost faith in his ability to reliably predict what was and what wasn’t possible. Mystical creatures surrounded him, magic was not just real but apparently limitless, and most amazing of all, he’d been fed a dish of Brussels sprouts that was actually quite tasty. ➡
    • Most common passwords of 2020: The list details how many times a password has been exposed, used, and how much time it would take to crack it. If you’re using any of these for your passwords, change them. ➡
    • Facing collapse, the famed Arecibo Observatory will be demolished: While teams will try to salvage some parts of the observatory, the decommission will bring an end to the popular 57-year-old telescope, which has been featured in numerous films and television shows. ➡
    • Halfway Between the Truth and the Lie 'If half of us believe the earth is flat, we do not make peace by settling on it being halfway between round and flat.' ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 19 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 19 ➡
  • 2019
    • The ship drifted in space, sensors active, waiting for the radiation surge to abate so the crew could be revived. But the stasis pods weren’t shielded against this type of radiation, and what emerged would be very different from what had gone in. Microblogvember: abate ➡
  • 2018
    • Book forty-eight of 2018: IKS Gorkon Book One: A Good Day to Die, by Keith R. A. DeCandido. 🌟🌟🌟 ➡
    • Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? This is a really clever way to analyze this question. Nice presentation, too! ➡
    • The ERA May Have A Chance of Finally Being Ratified Good luck to Virginia, to the ERA, and to all the women in the country who could benefit from the ERA finally being ratified! ➡
  • 2017
    • Took this last week, forgot to post until now. Streaming video glitches amuse me. I knew #startrekdiscovery was switching things up, but I didn’t expect a #madamesecretary crossover! ;) #startrek #discovery #dis #disco 🖖 ➡
    • Book forty-six of 2017: Silence Fallen, by Patricia Briggs. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is I’ve just set up small recurring monthly donations to Planned Parenthood, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU. Have you added donations to your routine? If so, who are you donating to? ➡
    • It’s a bit earlier than we’d normally do it, but with the daylight savings switch and the election falling in the same week, we decided we needed some Christmas to push back against the literal and metaphorical dark times we’re living in. ➡
    • Book forty-eight of 2016: The Tears of the Singers, by Melinda Snodgrass. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tos ➡
    • Book forty-seven of 2016: Penny Dreadfuls, compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (324/366) ➡
  • 2010
    • Not Really a Surprise It is no accident that women have been complaining...for nearly 10 years now.... What was different? Suddenly an able-bodied white man is the one who was complaining. ➡
  • 2009
  • 2007
    • True Enough My coworker Rachel watched as our poster printer produced three posters, all wintertime shots taken in the late 1800's or early 1900's. 'Y'know,' she said, 'all the people in those shots are probably dead. That's kind of depressing.' ➡
  • 2004
    • New Reads Thanks to tdavid's creation of an easy-to-import OPML file of Wednesday's Meetup attendees, I've just added a good number of local webloggers to my daily reads. ➡
    • Me as a South Park character Just a little mid-morning amusement: me as a South Park character, thanks to the South Park Character Creator. ➡
  • 2003
  • 2001
    • Junet and Caro, ‘shrooms, and small worlds I'd bounce off and online from time to time during the day, and ended up getting in a conversation with Candice, a girl from the Seattle chatroom. Turns out she's also an ex-Alaskan, so we started babbling about things we knew about from Anchorage. ➡

On This Day: Nov 18

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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 November 18th

  • 2023
  • 2022
    • Accessing Higher Ground 2022 On this last day of the 2022 Accessing Higher Ground conference, I put together a thread about the week. This is a lightly edited version for this blog. Be warned, this isn't short. :) ➡
  • 2020
    • “How is it you’ve been able to manage being isolated out here for so long?” “I was born in 2013. My parents were fanatical antivax isolationists, so I didn’t see anyone other than them from 2020 until they died in 2033. I never developed much dependence on other people.” ➡
    • She didn’t know quite when she’d first realized the fluid was seeping from her walls, or why she’d ever been tempted to taste it. But she was increasingly worried that she’d so quickly developed such a strong dependence on the substance to get her through the tedium of her day. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 18 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 18 ➡
  • 2019
    • The parts arrived in the mail, each one with just enough instructions to allow him to attach it to what had come before. Who sent them or what they would build were the mystery that kept him working, but the quantity of needles was starting to worry him. Microblogvember: build ➡
    • Monty Python and Enjoying Problematic Media There are the Monty Python skits everyone knows and remembers fondly. Then…there are the others. ➡
  • 2016
    • Choir fall concert night! (323/366) ➡
    • A Resurrection It won't always be easy, and it may take some time for me to really get into the routine again. But to me, this is important. I will not be silent. ➡
  • 2007
    • Oscar the Adults-Only Grouch According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, 'Sesame Street: Old School' is adults-only: 'These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.' ➡
  • 2005
    • Frack! Hehe -- Prairie and I just finished watching Season One of Battlestar Galactica. I'd seen it before, 'twas the first time for her. She's hooked. ➡
    • Sony’s rootkit In one of the (many) stories that have been flying by my radar without being remarked on over the past few weeks, it recently came to light that Sony has been using some _incredibly_ nasty "copy protection" schemes on many of its audio CDs. Wired News has an excellent rundown of the situation that's worth reading. _This_ is how the major corporations are treating their customers these days. It's not a pretty thing. ➡
    • Could I be a US Citizen? Oh. Oops. Okay, so it’s been a long time since high school, but still…I need to do some studying! ➡
    • Top Artists according to last.fm From Adriaan: last.fm has nice charting tools, mapping out your listening trends. From data collected over the past year, this list appears to show my top artists. ➡
  • 2004
    • Resurrecting the Evil Dead The good news: the previously rumored 'Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash' is probably dead. The bad news: that's because Raimi is remaking The Evil Dead (bad enough) and will be letting someone else direct it (worse). ➡
  • 2003
    • Same sex marriage OK in Massachusetts Massachusetts' highest court ruled Tuesday that the state cannot deny gays and lesbians the right to marry and ordered the state's lawmakers to devise changes in the law within six months. ➡
    • Apple updates iMac, G5 families New goodies from Apple today! The mid-range G5 is now a dual 1.8Ghz machine, and a new iMac was announced with a 20 inch screen. ➡
  • 2002
    • Karen by Night Just a silly little song that I hadn't heard in a while that popped into my headphones during work today, as a way for me to start actually posting here again, after a few busy weeks. ➡
  • 2001
    • Boo-ya! I'm online! It's slow , it's not under my name yet, and it's not on the mac -- but I'm up! It's a start.... ➡

This Means Nothing

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Pet peeve: The little fake level meter animation that Music shows when a track is playing drives me up the wall. It’s just a looped animation that bears no relation to what’s actually playing. Give me real data or a static icon, but this is useless.

Five-second clip of Apple's Music app UI.

On This Day: Nov 17

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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 November 17th

  • 2024
    • Twisters 🎥: ⭐️⭐️: Not that I expected much, but I was hoping for more _enjoyably_ dumb instead of just...meh. ➡
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • Though no train had come through in ages, the ties were kept clear of growth, rails shined as if they’d just been laid down, and the whole town had come out for the ritual tying of the damsel across the tracks to be saved or sacrificed at the will of their diesel powered god. ➡
    • Happy birthday to the COVID-19 coronavirus! A 55-year-old individual from Hubei province in China may have been the first person to have contracted COVID-19…. That case dates back to Nov. 17, 2019, according to the South China Morning Post. ➡
    • It had started about a month ago. He’d been restless in the middle of the night, and had climbed out onto the fire escape when he heard the phantom train approaching. He knew that one of these nights he’d find the tracks. He just hoped it would stop for him when he did. ➡
    • This Means Nothing This is useless. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 17 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 17 ➡
  • 2019
    • “Truly,” thought the commander, overlooking the fleet of ships before their eyes, “this is magnificent. Surely, no fleet as superb as this one had been seen since—“ “Alex!” “What, mom?” “Turn off the holoprojector and get in bed! Now!” They sighed. Microblogvember: superb ➡
  • 2018
    • Book forty-seven of 2018: Elevation, by Stephen King. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • Almost done with the week! (322/366) ➡
    • Silly Snapchat filter because I forgot yesterday’s photo. (321/366) ➡
    • So Amazon had a really good deal earlier this week ($35 for this stack)! The Alien quadrilogy is an upgrade from the DVDs, the AvPs and Prometheus are new to my collection. No regrets. #alien #aliens ➡
  • 2015
    • Sometime soon it’s going to be time for us to have a mega Hobbit-thon! #lotr #lordoftherings #hobbit #thehobbit ➡
  • 2010
    • Fly Commando! I’m almost disappointed I’m not flying soon. I’d wear my kilt. Commando. Grope away, sucker! ➡
  • 2008
  • 2007
    • Missed One… Took a test in the morning before school (it was posted online at 6:30am), went to school, came home, had lunch with the girl, went to work, came home, had dinner with the girl, and went to bed. Somehow managed to completely forget about posting...and there goes the one-a-day streak. ➡
  • 2004
    • Weblogger’s Meetup Just got back a bit ago from this month's Seattle Weblogger's Meetup. Roundabout 20-something people in attendance, of whom I knew three or so beforehand. Now I'm tired, though, and will be heading to bed before too terribly long. ➡
  • 2003
    • Creators admit Unix, C hoax In an announcement that has stunned the computer industry, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan admitted that the Unix operating system and C programming language created by them is an elaborate April Fools prank kept alive for over 20 years. ➡
    • November Weblog Meetup For the first (and quite likely only) time, I'm going to be able to attend one of the local Weblogger's Meetup events, as my training schedule for this Wednesday has me off work at 6pm. ➡
    • Major referrer spam attack Looks like there's a major referrer spam attack going on at the moment. The sites in question look like real weblogs but aren't. ➡
    • The sound of silence Why can't we as a nation honor our four hundred and twenty two dead as touchingly and honestly as the Italians do their nineteen? ➡
    • Blog For Lease Blog for lease (in Bloomington, Indiana). ➡
    • Fight Link Rot! Calpundit has an excellent summary posted on how to link to New York Times articles without having the links succumb to link rot. This should be required reading for all bloggers, IMNSHO — citing sources is important, and it's best if the sources don't later disappear. ➡
    • GeoURL I've just added my GeoURL location identification to my main page — I had it on my old Long Letter blog, but hadn't thought to put it in here on Eclecticism yet. Silly me. ➡
    • Stuff I've Seen Every so often during my time working on the Microsoft campus, I'd see something that really caught my interest. However, I couldn't ever talk about it — NDAs and the like — so I've never mentioned any of them. However, the one that was always at the top of the 'I really wish I had this' list was just announced at Comdex. ➡

On This Day: Nov 16

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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 November 16th

  • 2024
    • Mad Max 2 🎥: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: This is where you can really see the world of the modern Mad Max movies taking shape in Miller's mind. ➡
  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 198 This is my 'getting off campus later than expected for the third day in a row' face. ➡
  • 2020
    • The first experiments in directly accessing and manipulating human memory raised more questions than gave answers. No matter what memories were implanted, after awakening all subjects recalled one event that hadn’t occurred: the appearance of an alien craft over Seattle in 2007. ➡
    • Bookshop over Amazon Most of the books we buy are second-hand, but we do occasionally buy/pre-order new books. We had two on order from Amazon, but I just canceled those orders in favor of ordering them from Bookshop instead. We’ll pay a little more and wait a couple more days for the books, but we can afford both ... Read more ➡
    • Lockdown has affected your memory – here’s why: “Many of us have found ourselves in an isolated routine during the pandemic – and it turns out, that’s not very good for your memories.” ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 16 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 16 ➡
  • 2019
    • One nice thing about the aliens being so selective about who they accepted, even if the reasons were unknown, was that anyone who wasn’t an economically privileged cis straight white male could just get on with their lives. Things improved quickly. Microblogvember: selective ➡
  • 2018
    • Book forty-six* of 2018: Deathday, by William C. Dietz. ⭐️⭐️ * Yes, the last one said 44, but according to Goodreads, this one is 46, so apparently I missed photoposting a book somewhere along the line this year. ➡
  • 2006
    • Back already! Well now, that didn't take long! As you can see, I'm back...mostly. ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Jason Webley Halloween Deathday 2004 Bootleg laurachandae was kind enough to send me a copy of her recording of Jason Webley's Halloween show, so I've converted it to .mp3 and have posted it on my webserver. It's only the first half of the show (apparently a mic cable got unplugged during intermission), but what there is is pretty good quality, and very listenable. ➡
  • 2003
    • World record pillow fight! 766 people showed up at Oregon State on Friday to take part in a jumbo pillow fight in hopes of topping the Guinness Book of Records mark. ➡
    • Bombs? Assassinations? Attacks? Place your bets! Remember the Policy Awareness Market? It was a DARPA-backed plan to establish a 'futures' market wagering on the likelihood of terrorist attacks, assassinations, and the like. Well, guess what? It's back! ➡
    • Bush denied 'license to kill' What's more disturbing? The fact that we have an administration with the unmitigated gall to make such requests in the first place? Or the fact that we have a President who is so mistrusted, disliked, and outright hated by so many people that they feel the need for that level of security? ➡
    • The Democratic parties According to The New Republic, it's looking more and more like we practically have two feuding Democratic parties now: Clinton's version and Dean's version. ➡
  • 2001
    • XP sucks! This is a truely genius piece of work -- someone actually managed to scale up to wherever the sign is and alter it. In other words, this isn't just some joker with Photoshop at work -- this is a real-world hack job. ➡
    • Enterprise: Civilization Random bit of trivia I stumbled across this past week -- Kim Darby, who played Jenny Myer in Better off Dead had, much earlier in her career, played Miri in the Star Trek Original Series episode 'Miri'. ➡