Tech

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

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'. ➡

On This Day: Nov 15

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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 18 posts previously published on November 15th

  • 2023
  • 2020
    • We had come so far in the years since we had left Earth. Not just in distance, but in guided evolution as well. After many generations of genetic manipulation to adapt to the low gravity environment, we had started to question whether we could still define ourselves as human. ➡
    • 📚 forty-five of 2020: Doomsday World by Carmen Carter, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, and Robert Greenberger ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖 Almost two stars because of the really painfully obvious “twist” that none of the characters managed to see, but otherwise acceptable. ➡
    • Lockdown Again Yes, this sucks. But death is worse. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 15 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 15 ➡
  • 2019
    • Only after she let her fingers slip over the side of the boat to drift through the water did she realize that the lake was more clear than she thought. Or at least, the murky substance wasn’t part of the water, as it flowed over her hand and up her arm. Microblogvember: murky ➡
  • 2016
    • Okay, it’s been a week. Anytime now we should get the reveal that this has all been one big, cruel hoax. Right? (320/366) ➡
  • 2008
    • Are We On? Tim Conway and Ernie Anderson A couple weeks ago, author, actor, and humorist John Hodgman was the guest on NPR's 'Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!' As I listened to John and host Peter Sagal, John's simple, polite, and deadpan delivery of often ludicrous responses to Peter's questions reminded me _very_ strongly of an old comedy album of my dad's that I listened to time and time again growing up, where ABC television announcer Ernie Anderson plays straight man to comedian Tim Conway in a series of interviews. ➡
  • 2007
    • Turtle Butt In lieu of actually posting anything truly interesting, I give you one of my favorite shots from our trip to Hawaii this summer. ➡
  • 2006
    • Lockdown Seeing as I haven't been writing a whole lot lately, this seems as good a time as any to declare this site on temporary hiatus while I transfer over to the new webhost. ➡
    • Vogue No More 1) The Vogue is closing at the end of the year. 2) The new club will be called Blacklight and will be in the upper level of the Capitol Hill Arts Center (CHAC) and opening in the second half of January. ➡
  • 2004
    • Exterminate all rational thought. Mike posted about joining up with NetFlix, and his list of upcoming movies included Brazil and Time Bandits, both wonderfully bizarre films directed by Terry Gilliam. I dropped him a quick note to recommend a few other flicks, which touched off a discovery of something that I've been waiting years for. ➡
    • So punny Last night, as I was standing in front of the Vogue getting some air, there was a guy walking across the street carrying a couple of floor lamps. It was all I could do to resist walking up to him and saying, 'Hey man…' ➡
    • Nov. Weblogger Meetup This month's Seattle Weblogger Meetup is this Wednesday, 7pm at Ralph's Grocery and Deli, kitty-corner from the Cinerama. I'm really hoping to make it to this one, since I missed last month's. ➡
  • 2003
    • Because I suck at remembering names Vogue regulars I met tonight that I should remember the names of: ➡
    • iPod Rocks! Looks like Apple's gearing up for the holiday season with a new teen-focused website at ipodrocks. ➡
    • Justice isn't always black and white Local weekly newspaper The Stranger has an excellent summary of Gary Ridgeway's day in court confessing to 48 counts of murder as the Green River Killer — and plea bargaining to avoid the death sentence in the process — in the form of a 24-panel black and white comic strip. ➡
  • 2001

On This Day: Nov 14

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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 14th

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021
    • 📚 45/2021: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1975 Hugo Best Novel ➡
  • 2020
    • He knew the children had asked for “an old-fashioned Halloween”, and he’d done his best, but even he was surprised by just how spooky the ships corridors were with the lighting low and the spare EVA suits like bodies, tethered near air vents to slowly drift in the low gravity. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 14 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 14 ➡
  • 2019
    • “Ready for your upgrade?” “You know it! Even made sure to shave the back of my neck this morning for the port installation.” “Seriously? Do you have any idea what hacking into your spine like that would do to you? You’ve seen The Matrix too many times.” Microblogvember: neck ➡
    • Short Treks E07: “Ask Not”: A bit predictable — I figured out what was going on long before the reveal — but still enjoyable, and better than the last two. About those views of Engineering, though…how is there room for all that with all the empty space around the turbolifts? 🖖 ➡
  • 2018
  • 2016
    • Part of tonight’s #NotInOurKittCo peace march from #CWU to the #Ellensburg downtown. (#NiOKC is an offshoot of #NiOT/#NotInOurTown, an anti-hate/discrimination movement; the local initiative was formed after KKK flyers appeared around town.) (319/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Prairie found me an early Thanksgiving turkey! #Lego ➡
    • My thanks to whomever put out the table full of books at today’s #nwc39 meeting. Got some great additions to my collection. Particularly fond of the #StarTrek #TOS “choose your own adventure” (“Which Way Books”) book! ➡
  • 2014
    • The neighborhood kitty was quite determined that it was going to come inside with us. It kept coming into the garage and sitting by the inside door, and each time I picked it up, it would settle into my arms and purr quite contentedly. I felt really guilty putting it back out in the cold. ... Read more ➡
  • 2007
    • Ask Your Doctor For A Reason to Take It Apparently (and thankfully), Prairie and I aren't the only ones watching these ads with more than a little distaste. Consumer Reports is starting what's intended to be a series of video/weblog posts analyzing these DTC (direct-to-consumer) ads. ➡
  • 2004
    • The Incredibles Took Prairie out to see The Incredibles today — my second time, her first. As I said before, Pixar can do no wrong, and the movie was just as good the second time. Possibly better, as I caught a couple lines and gags that I'd missed the first time through. ➡
    • Coriolis Force Do goths swirl the other way below the equator? ➡
    • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory teaser poster There was a bit of discussion here a few months back about the upcoming Tim Burton/Johnny Depp/Danny Elfman version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As a quick followup to that, the first poster for the film has just hit the 'net. ➡
  • 2003
    • Random encounters In some ways, I'm going to miss being able to wander up and down Broadway on my breaks. Some of the random encounters that go on can be fun. ➡
  • 2001
    • Please? Pretty please? With Muppets on top? I know it's a bit pricey. That's why I'm grovelling. Really grovelling. I'm actually on my knees right now. It's a little hard to type, but it's worth it. ➡
    • Pro-America Pro-America does not mean pro-war. Or pro-Bush. Or anti-Afghanistan. Or pro-little-flags-on-SUV-antennas. ➡

On This Day: Nov 13

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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 23 posts previously published on November 13th

  • 2024
    • Deadpool & Wolverine 🎥: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: This is not a _good_ film. Basically, it's a Marvel Cinematic Universe porno. It's also rather entertaining. ➡
  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 195 We continue to work our way through treats we brought back from London. ➡
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • “It’s up to you. We gave you the clues. Now choose.” “But the clues don’t make any sense!” He strained against the bindings holding him in place. “If you cannot choose, then guess. But guess now.” Trembling, he reached into one of the holes in the wall before him, and waited. ➡
    • The ‘djwudi’ at shapeWright.com: Enter a text string, get a generated spaceship. I tried my standard username and Norwescon. Both look pretty nifty. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 13 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 13 ➡
  • 2019
    • “You know damn well it’s not a question of whether I’m able to do the job,” she snapped. “I have twice his experience, not to mention at least twice the number of limbs, depending on how you count the cybernetics. He still has to do his own damn work.” Microblogvember: able ➡
    • Editing Chapter Markers in .mkv files A brief rundown of how to edit chapter markers in .mkv files, using the just-released Monty Python's Flying Circus Norwegian Blu-Ray Edition box set as an example. ➡
  • 2016
    • Left my phone on the floor with the camera on. Saw it, laughed at the angle, and made a monster pose. Prairie decided that needed to be an actual picture…and who am I to argue? (318/366) ➡
  • 2010
    • Skyline Review by @hogbiker Last night, a friend of mine in Anchorage was getting together with some friends. The plan was to watch the new sci-fi movie Skyline, then have a boys' night out. When I got up this morning, I thought the results needed to be saved for posterity. ➡
  • 2008
  • 2007
    • Best AP Retraction Ever In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India. ➡
    • As brevity is the soul of wit… Competing with last May's 'Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo' for best headline of 2007: 'Hamlet Shaken by Murder Then Suicide'. ➡
    • I’m a Winner! My unlucky streak has ended! I'm now the (proud?) amused owner of a Canon Rebel ('Official Camera of the NFL') folding chair! ➡
  • 2005
    • Make it stop! The downstairs neighbor -- on the other side of the building -- has had "All I Want For Christmas is You" from the Love Actually soundtrack playing on repeat... For. Six. Hours. ➡
  • 2003
    • Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex One should not think of Superman as a Peeping Tom. A biological ability must be used. As a child Superman may never have known that things had surfaces, until he learned to suppress his X-ray vision. If millions of people tend shamelessly to wear clothing with no lead in the weave, that is hardly Superman's fault. ➡
    • I'm such a geek… Jason needs to close his <p> tags and drop the archaic <font> tags in favor of CSS. ➡
    • Top 10 scientific hoaxes A very interesting list, some of which I'd heard of, some of which I hadn't, and one that I'd never heard was a hoax. ➡
    • Gore Vidal interview The LA Weekly currently has an interview with Gore Vidal which is well worth reading, touching on everything from what our founding fathers might think of Bush and his cronies to electronic voting. ➡
    • 10.28 teraflops Virginia Tech's Power Mac G5-based supercomputer has reached 10.28 teraflops. ➡
    • Trailers: Harry Potter, Peter Pan Quick notice of a couple trailers worth checking out (at least, in my world they're worth checking out): Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Peter Pan. ➡
  • 2001
    • What’s with the black bars? While most of my friends have been around me long enough to understand my preference for watching films in widescreen or letterboxed format, occasionally I get questions about the 'black bars' at the top and bottom of the screen. ➡

On This Day: Nov 12

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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 21 posts previously published on November 12th

  • 2023
  • 2020
    • 🖖 Discovery S03E05: Home is never quite the same when coming back after a long absence. Particularly after a 930 year absence. Loved the crew geeking out over the ships and structures they were seeing. Not too surprised the Federation’s a bit prickly. Still going strong! ➡
    • The conquest was complete. They were free to do as they wished with this planet and its insipid inhabitants. All that was left was to decide which skin suit to wear when revealing their true nature to the world. The potential donors eyed them in fear as they waited to be chosen. ➡
    • Beached Whale Blow-Up: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Florence Exploding Whale: The original 16mm footage of Oregon’s infamous exploding whale has been scanned at full 4K resolution and posted online! Plus, OR station KATU has used the new scan to re-edit their original report at 4K resolution. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 12 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 12 ➡
  • 2019
    • “No, really,” he said. “We’d love to stay. In any other circumstance, we would. But….” He glanced over at his husband and took his hand, then turned back to their host, forcing himself to look into the wet, empty sockets where its eyes should have been. Microblogvember: stay ➡
  • 2018
    • While I enjoy the #Marvel Cinematic Universe, comics were never a huge thing for me growing up, so I don’t have the same connection to #StanLee that many of my friends do. But Lee’s influence was felt even in the #StarTrek universe. #LLAP, he most definitely did. ➡
  • 2017
    • Book forty-five of 2017: Femme Magnifique, edited by Shelly Bond. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • Undersea critters! ➡
    • An enjoyably windy morning at the Keystone ferry terminal before heading back across the water. (317/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • CWU Pres. Gaudino being confronted by #blacklivesmatter student protesters gathering in support of BLM and #mizzou students. ➡
  • 2010
    • More on Pulp’s ‘Common People’ I think it's the slide from amusement to condescension to all-out-rage as the song goes by that really does it for me. This is one song that I just will never get tired of. ➡
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
    • Dollhouse Question: What do you think of Joss Whedon’s new upcoming TV show “Dollhouse”? I know you’ve watched Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Serenity, liked all of them (as far I as can remember) and I thought it was “weird” that you didn’t mention the news. ➡
  • 2004
    • Googlebomb Spam Attack Looks like someone's come up with a new, not-really-all-that-clever use for comment spam: using it to attempt to Googlebomb someone that they're ticked off at. ➡
  • 2003
    • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines I didn't think that there was any way that the Terminator series could continue without the key people behind the success of the first two and still be even remotely interesting. ➡
    • Bad headline award Those poor activists! Someone really needs to cheer them up — but first, get them away from that Girl Scout! ➡
  • 2001
    • How ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ really ended A furious lightsaber duel is under way. DARTH VADER is backing LUKE SKYWALKER towards the end of the gantry. A quick move by Vader chops off Luke's hand! It goes spinning off into the ventilation shaft. ➡
    • Gee, I’m real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky. Despite a less-than stellar presentation (including three false starts as the staff tried to figure out how to work a movie projector), the movie was as funny as ever, and having a chance to see it with a theater full of people was wonderful. After the movie, homeward bound for all of us. ➡
  • 1991
    • [From the IRN: 11.12.91 1735] A single rose / Shoved up your nose / You lick my toes / While in repose / My mother knows / Where Einstein goes / I'm in the throes / Of melanoma ➡

On This Day: Nov 11

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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 23 posts previously published on November 11th

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • He’d spent hours staring at the paper on his desk. The longer this took, the more clear it was: the most difficult part wasn’t the tubes in his arms that pumped blood into the quill in his hand, but figuring out just what to say. The former was far less painful than the latter. ➡
    • On This Day: Nov 11 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from November 11 ➡
  • 2019
    • Floating above the planet, tethered to the shuttle as he worked, was one of his favorite places to be. At least it was until he felt the first tentative touch of something on his arm,  pulling him away from his station—and knew it was inside his suit. Microblogvember: touch ➡
  • 2017
  • 2016
    • We had a weekend in Spokane planned…but then the election happened, and we just couldn’t countenance spending pleasure time on the red side of the state. So here we are in Port Townsend, surrounded by green (trees) and literal (water) and metaphorical (voters) blue. Much more comfortable. (316/366) ➡
  • 2010
    • On Normality Being normal is probably the lamest thing you can try to be. ➡
    • Unpopular Questions So, folks, which is it? Do we decry the censorship of ideas that are unpopular, or do we celebrate the censorship of ideas that are unpopular? ➡
  • 2008
  • 2007
    • The Nerd Handbook While as with any broad overview of a particular genus or species, there is plenty of room for small or even large variations at the individual level, this field guide to understanding the common nerd should be required reading for many, many people, especially those involved with, living with, dating, or parenting nerds (also most varieties of dork or geek). ➡
  • 2005
    • Reconnecting Touched off by a couple of random Google searches, over the past couple of weeks, a post of mine has become an impromptu meeting point and simple message board for quite a few of the Anchorage scenesters of the '80's. ➡
  • 2004
    • Voltaire at the Vogue Just a few quick impressions, because it's way past my bedtime on a weeknight (and having to say that before it's even 1am is so depressing…). ➡
    • The United Cities of America Do not despair. You don't have to leave. You don't have to move to Canada. You may feel out of place in the United States today. You may feel like you're surrounded by fundamentalist-church-going, gun-hugging, gay-bashing, anti-choice Bush voters. But you're not. ➡
    • The Cannon I'd never heard of Sarah Vowell, the voice of Violet Parr in The Incredibles, before I started to read the various reviews of the film once it opened. Turns out she's a writer and radio personality, which is how her voice caught director Brad Bird's ear when he heard her story about her father's cannon on This American Life. ➡
  • 2003
    • The other night I…oh, hi mom! I already know that Mom reads my weblog, and by now, she should be quite aware that I occasionally imbibe alcohol, I experimented with drugs for a few years, and that I take every single one of my multitudes of daily sexual encounters with random strangers very seriously, and not casually at all. ➡
    • Two out of three ain't bad! In Singapore, prostitution is legal, the age of consent is 16 — but oral sex is illegal. ➡
    • Supreme Court looks at Guantánamo Setting the stage for a historic clash between presidential and judicial authority in a time of military conflict, the Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether prisoners at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are entitled to access to civilian courts to challenge their open-ended detention. ➡
    • Theodicy survey Well, just think about it this way. All power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. ➡