Tech

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

On This Day: Jul 31

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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 July 31st

  • 2023
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book forty-two of 2019: Maus, Vol. I, by Art Spiegelman. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The first part of a graphic novel memoir of one man’s relationship with his father, and his father’s experiences as a Polish Jew during WWII. So many of the early events are sadly topical right now. ➡
  • 2018
    • Seattle judge blocks release of blueprints for ‘computer generated’ 3D printed guns: Good. Hopefully this temporary block becomes permanent. ➡
  • 2016
    • Apparently I needed a nap this afternoon. There are definitely worse places to snooze than on a comfy couch surrounded by books. (213/366) ➡
    • Chucks of the day (48/48): grey low tops with matching laces and red and black trim around the ankle. #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2015
    • Paid to use the closer lot this morning. This is what happens to thermal paper in a car on a day that’s 106° outside. ➡
  • 2014
    • For #throwbackthursday: Out for a bike ride with mom, probably around 1974 or 75. ➡
  • 2010
  • 2008
    • The New Apartment In happier news: first photos of the new apartment! ➡
    • We’re Back! _Finally_ -- after far too much sturm und drang -- we're back up and running! Well, mostly. The most important parts, at least. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2004
    • What’s the profit margin on this troll hunt? Okay, yes, diff'rent streaks for diff'rent freaks and all that, but -- without meaning any offense -- I've got to admit that an all-economists Dungeons and Dragons game just might rank fairly high in my personal descriptions of hell. ;) ➡
  • 2003
    • Flyers from Gig's Music Theatre, 1997-1998 I've just uploaded a new gallery here — a collection of old flyers from when I was DJ'ing at Gig's Music Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm no graphic designer, as will be made painfully obvious if you go through them, but some are decent. Besides, it's a fun little bit of nostalgia for me. :) ➡
    • Beautiful design I really, really like the design of sunset dawning. Minimalist and gorgeous. ➡
    • Help wanted: Apache/PHP I'm planning on sticking with TypePad as my weblog host, however, this poses a bit of a problem with broken links. Can any Apache/PHP gurus help me? ➡
    • Revisionist Historians I just noticed that Lane has titled his political blogroll 'Revisionist Historians.' That's wonderful! ➡
    • BlogStop It's really simple — each new comment must form an acronym of the last word of the previous comment. Care to see what we can come up with? Anyone? ➡
  • 2002
    • Strait or Gay? This is an e-mail that Karl just sent me...for me, voting in the Republican primary election for my district (Turnagin District 26 in Anchorage), l have to choose between Strait and Gay. This is ABSOLUTELY TRUE...no kidding! ➡

On This Day: Jul 30

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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 July 30th

  • 2024
    • Lost to Eternity by Greg Cox 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Almost four stars…but not quite. There are three connected storylines, only one of which really worked for me, but it worked really well. Also, this reaches my goal of 52 books read this year, nice and early! ➡
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book forty-one of 2019: White Trash Zombie Unchained, by Diana Rowland. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Finished off the WTZ series in fine form, wrapping up various plot threads, dealing with villains, and even introducing psychic zombie alligators into the mix. All in all, a very fun series. ➡
  • 2018
    • The Maps That Show That City vs. Country Is Not Our Political Fault Line: “The key difference is among regional cultures tracing back to the nation’s colonization.” Interesting look at how historical regions may have affected recent (and, potentially, upcoming) elections. ➡
    • Linkdump for July 16th through July 30th An automatically generated list of links that caught my eye between July 16th and July 30th. ➡
    • Another move away from Facebook Rethinking my posting strategies in the wake of Facebook cutting off API access to post to personal profits. ➡
  • 2016
    • Had a very pleasant summer dinner out on the back patio this evening. ➡
    • More proof that I am actually somewhere around 12, rather than 43. After gathering up all the loose change from around the house, we decided that I could use whatever it added up to for #Lego sets. The result? Almost $163, and that’s after Coinstar’s 10% fee. Not bad! So, yeah, more #Legos to build ... Read more ➡
    • Fresh picked goodies from our garden! Cucumbers, apricots, tomatoes, Italian prunes, and a green pepper – rosemary and dill also came from the garden, but aren’t pictured. ➡
    • Chucks of the day (47/48): green camouflage low tops. My feet are invisible! ;) #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2014
    • Saw the @trekmovie #trekselfie tag today. Here’s a gem I found this weekend at an antique store! ➡
    • Continuing to get scruffier after going clean shaven last week. Almost at the point where I’ll need to start shaping the beard. Considering trying an actual beard (kept short and trimmed, though, not hipster mountain man bushy) rather than the goatee. Amused by the amount of grey coming in, though! ➡
    • The German-settled colony planet of Leavenworth. #RollWorld Image @RollWorldApp, #TinyPlanet #PhotoSphere #StereoGraphic ➡
  • 2010
  • 2007
    • Dance Off Photoshoot I'm in the rather interesting position of being the _only_ person in Seattle who's gotten at least a hint as to what each of the different teams are doing, and let me tell you...this year's Dance Off is going to be _awesome_. ➡
  • 2006
    • Visitor at Work We noticed this (not so) lil' guy crawling along the counter at work today. Having a mild case of arachnophobia and being a camera buff, my reaction was pretty predictable: 'Ugh! Eww! (cringe) ... Where's the macro lens?' ➡
  • 2004
    • Batman Begins While I knew that Waner Brothers was working on bringing the Batman franchise back from the neon grave that Joel Schumacher buried it in, I had no idea that the project was this far along: the teaser trailer has just been posted. ➡
  • 2003
    • 50 ways to leave your lover… Newt Gingrich, former speaker of US House of Representatives, big on family values, who visited his wife in hospital the day after she underwent surgery for cancer, to discuss the terms of their divorce. ➡
    • Help search engines index your site Tips and tricks to help search engines index your site more intelligently. Written for, but not specific to, TypePad Advanced accounts. ➡
    • Our friend, the humble 'title' attribute Earlier this evening, I got an e-mail from Pops asking me how I created the little tooltip-style comment text that appears when you hover over links in my posts. I figured that it was information worth posting here, on the off chance it might help someone else out. ➡
    • BuyMusic ripping off artists BuyMusic.com (which I will refer to as BM) got their "vast" music library of 300,000 plus songs from a company called the Orchard. So, without the express consent of what is likely lots of the Orchards catalog, BM has put it up for sale at the bargain price of $.79 a song. ➡
    • Pet Peeves Can we please please please stop using the target='new' attribute in links? I don't want a new window. If I do want a new window, then I'll right-click and use the 'Open link in new window' command. But I don't want you deciding that I must want a new window, just because you don't want me taking the oh-so-horrid step of actually (gasp) leaving your site! ➡
  • 2001
    • I’m employed! Rock on -- when I started typing this update out, I was under the impression that I'd have another round of interviews to go through on the job I've been trying to get...but I just got a call, and I'm hired! ➡

On This Day: Jul 29

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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 July 29th

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • “There is a phrase in vulcan for ‘the particular moment you understand what the word ‘fuck’ is for’.” This thread about the ridiculousness of humans in the Star Trek universe (“…to everyone else in the galaxy, all humans are basically Doc Brown.”) always makes me laugh. 🖖 ➡
  • 2016
    • Jumping on the #prisma bandwagon. This app has some gorgeous filter options. #getturban (211/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Got my Mercury t-shirt today! Looks great, @rtritthardt — thanks! ➡
  • 2014
    • Fun with lens flare. Apparently I’m in a J. J. Abrams movie tonight. ➡
  • 2009
  • 2005
    • Podcast 07: Where Time Becomes A Loop I'm posting a series of mix sessions I did a few years back. This is Where Time Becomes A Loop (58m 41s, 80.61Mb). Download, drop into your .mp3 player, and -- hopefully -- enjoy! ➡
    • July Seattle Flickrites Meetup Had a very pleasant time at the inaugural Seattle Flickr Meetup tonight. I showed up just a bit after 7pm and hung out until the last of us left just a bit before 10pm. Not a bad turnout for a first gig, either. ➡
  • 2004
    • Kerry’s DNC speech Thanks to C-Span's video archive, I just sat back and watched Kerry's speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I must say, I'm more impressed than I thought I was going to be, not having been overly impressed by what little I've seen of Kerry in the past. A good, well-written speech, and he delivered it quite well. ➡
  • 2003
    • The constitutionality of fuck, 'fucker' and 'fucking fag' Faced with what he thought was a speech crime, Eric Vanatta, the teen's public defender, drafted the below motion to dismiss the misdemeanor charge. The District Court document is an amusing and profane look at the world's favorite four-letter word, from its origins in 1500 to today's frequent use of the term by Eminem, Chris Rock, and Lenny Kravitz. ➡
    • 911survivor: Game? Art? This morning, Kirsten left a comment letting me know that while at Siggraph, she had met one of the creators of the 911survivor mod. ➡
    • Snacktime Nothing like a little health food to get you through the day. ➡
    • Construction is fun! I just can't seem to escape construction these days. If it's not my apartment building, it's my job. What fun! ➡
    • Lazy I don't wanna go to work today. Just whining a little bit. ;) ➡
  • 2001
    • Books and movies I did hit Blockbuster video and picked up three movies I hadn't seen before. I went with Scary Movie , Cherry Falls, and The Contender. Of the three, the only one really worth watching was The Contender. ➡

On This Day: Jul 28

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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 July 28th

  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 87 Started off the day with a nice four-mile walk along the Green River. ➡
  • 2022
  • 2020
  • 2017
    • Book thirty-four of 2017: Agent to the Stars, by John Scalzi. 🌟🌟🌟 ➡
  • 2016
    • Book thirty-five of 2016: Ghosts From Our Past, by Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates with Andrew Shaffer. 🌟🌟🌟 #ghostbusters #ghostbusters2016 ➡
    • Book thirty-four of 2016: The Black Hole, by Alan Dean Foster. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (210/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Two of the neighborhood kitties seem to be having a stare down in our yard. ➡
  • 2014
    • Found this guy hanging out outside our garage. Creepy and cool! ➡
    • Lunchtime picnics are good. ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for July 23rd through July 28th Sometime between July 23rd and July 28th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Sarah Palin's Farewell Address -- Full Transcript • UW Probability Forecast • #EAFail Link Roundup • EA Puts Sexual Bounty on the Heads of Its Own Booth Babes • ReasonableAgreement.org | the Small Print Project ➡
  • 2005
    • Newest Recruit I guess I'll need to expand my wardrobe a bit now...supplement my primarily black color scheme with a browncoat... ➡
  • 2004
    • Tattoo number two: Ouroboros For some time now, I've been pondering what to get as a second tattoo. I didn't want to get something merely because it 'looked cool' or struck my fancy for a passing moment. Rather, I wanted to get something to both complement and balance the tattoo I already had. ➡
    • Ash to Ash, Dust to Dust August 18, 1992. I was living in Anchorage in an apartment off of Muldoon Road, and working slinging popcorn at the Fireweed Theaters. It was a rather muggy, hot day, and I was quite happy to be getting off of work at 6pm that evening. One of the girls I worked with offered me a ride home, and on our way across town, we turned on the radio, anxious to hear about the day's news — the sudden eruption of Mt. Spurr, a volcano just across Cook Inlet from Anchorage. ➡
    • Pay attention to the road, you idiots Years ago, while driving around Anchorage, I glanced to my right and saw a couple guys driving around with a portable DVD player sitting on the dashboard of their car, quite happily watching a movie as they motored around town. Well, the inevitable has finally happened: two people in Alaska were killed by a driver watching a movie on a dash-mounted DVD player. ➡
  • 2003
    • Hostages We're now taking hostages, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, Protocol 1, Section III, Chapter 1, Article 75, Paragraph 2. ➡
    • The curtain is lifting… The moment you've all been waiting for is almost upon us! Starting sometime later today, details about TypePad will be made public, and you'll finally get to see what I've been playing with these past few weeks. ➡
  • 2002
    • Parable of the Talents The story of Lauren Olamina, a woman with a mission to spread the word of Earthseed, a religion with the destiny of bringing mankind to the stars in a post-apocalyptic (though not nuclear) near-future America. ➡
    • Tongue tied Grrrrr...at 29 years of age, I really should be able to deal with talking to someone of the opposite sex without getting entirely tongue tied, shouldn't I? ➡

On This Day: Jul 27

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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 July 27th

  • 2023
  • 2021
    • TextSniper – Capture and extract any text from your Mac’s screen: Instantly capture non-selectable text from YouTube videos, PDFs, images, online courses, screencasts, presentations, webpages, video tutorials, photos, etc. It’s so simple and easy as taking a screenshot with a built-in snipping tool for Mac. ➡
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • My niece, after seeing my new tattoo on my calf: “People with arm tattoos are bad!” Me: “You mean, like this?” As I pull up my sleeve to show her my first tattoo. Niece, eyes wide: “…unless they’re family. Then they’re okay.” ➡
    • YATP (Yet Another Test Post): Facebook has apparently changed their API, so direct micro.blog > Facebook cross-posting isn’t working. This is to see if an IFTTT > Facebook applet still works (after the micro.blog > WordPress step). ➡
  • 2016
    • The A/C is back! There will actually be a perceivable difference between inside and out! (209/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Mmmm…home grown cucumber fresh off the vine. Sweet and tasty! Plus fresh picked tomato for Prairie. ➡
  • 2014
    • A few days of not shaving, and I’m showing definite signs of scruff. Everyone is happy about this. ➡
    • Found at an antique store this morning: The Gentleman’s Companion, Vol. I (Being an Exotic Cookery Book) and Vol. II (Being an Exotic Drinking Book), first published in 1939, updated in 1946. ➡
  • 2007
    • Deacon John Hanscom Many congratulations to my dad, who was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church this last Wednesday evening! ➡
  • 2006
    • One man’s porn… 'Are these _real_?' I asked myself as I scrolled down the row of pictures on the webpage. Prairie started giggling. 'That's the kind of thing most guys would say while they're looking at porn.' I laughed. 'I _am_!' ➡
  • 2005
    • LiveJournal Syndication Update Allrighty then...it wasn't the solution that I was hoping for, but I think I've managed to fumble my way through _a_ solution for my issues with the woody_eclectic LiveJournal feed. ➡
    • We Are the Web There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants first wire up its innumerable parts to make one large Machine. Later that Machine may run faster, but there is only one time when it is born. You and I are alive at this moment. ➡
    • Phobic I've mentioned my fear of flying in the past. Earlier today, Steven Frank wrote about his battle with the same phobia -- and from the sound of it, he was hit by it far harder than I was. If you're phobic or know someone who is, this is well worth reading. ➡
    • LiveJournal readers: help! Okay, here's the situation. Right now, there's 29 of you reading my stuff (or at least skimming it occasionally) through the LJ syndication account woody_eclectic, which I think is great. There's just one little issue, though...and it's one that I can't (easily) fix on my own. ➡
    • A long, long time ago… ...no far away galaxy, though. Last night I got an e-mail from Kathleen, who'd stumbled across my Gigs photoset while looking for an old friend of hers. She was kind enough to send me an old photo from Gigs and said I could go ahead and post it along with the rest of my pictures from the club. ➡
  • 2003
    • Bush/Cheney vs. Dean This is what it's all about. Not $2000 a head dinners so the fat cats can buy their "special interests" by keeping the status quo, but by people all across the country giving what they can, because they believe in a candidate, and because they want to make a change for the better. ➡
    • Siggraph fun Did I mention that I'm jealous? What fun shiny toys they must have there! ➡
    • Koosay, Eebay, and Ooday You’ve probably noticed that there are many different spellings of Arabic names depending on which news source you are reading. The truth is that there is no consensus how to write Arabic words in English. If we are going to investigate Arabic names we must therefore use phonetic spellings. ➡
    • Metabetablog I mention this because my last post got incorporated into the latest creation. Made me laugh. ➡
    • I'm such a music whore Newest additions to the ever-growing collection, thanks to The Vogue, Jonas, John, and the fine folks at musicwerks: ➡
    • Importing MT archives: month by month I'm starting work on importing my archives from The Long Letter into Eclecticism. I wanted to see if I could figure out how to import one month's worth of posts at a time, instead of the whole kit and kaboodle. Here's what I ended up with. ➡
  • 2002
    • Eight Legged Freaks A silly premise, scientific accuracy thrown out the window, sterotypical characters, and cheezy lines, all add up (in my world, at least) to a very enjoyable couple hours at the movies. ➡
  • 2001
    • Job details, more books, and monkeys Anyway...went out to see Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, one of the big films I'd been waiting to see this summer. So how was it? Horrid -- the end result was it's a matinee at best...quite possibly only a rental. ➡

On This Day: Jul 26

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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 33 posts previously published on July 26th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
    • 📚 thirty of 2020: Die Standing by John Jackson Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #dis A thoroughly entertaining romp with Emperor Georgiou between seasons one and two of DIS, as she adjusts to her new universe and gets recruited by Section 31. Plus ties to TOS and DS9. Fun! 🖖 ➡
    • Difficult Listening Hour 2020.07.25 Week twenty-two of my unplanned, unrehearsed, seat-of-the-pants goofing around. ➡
    • On This Day: Jul 26 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from July 26 ➡
  • 2018
    • Lost my keys today. The worst part isn’t even losing the keys—that was an annoyance, but took less than two hours to fix—but, silly as it sounds, losing the key ring. I’d had that same key ring for around 25 years, and it was dad’s for years before I got it. Sad to have lost ... Read more ➡
  • 2017
    • It’s Wednesday; must be time to go have a picnic! I think tonight’s musical accompaniment will be country. ➡
  • 2016
    • The A/C is still out at work — it’s 85° in here right now — so Prairie surprised me with an ice cream cone earlier! :D (208/366) ➡
    • A rare (these days) long political rant I’ve been very pleased to have seen the great strides forward in tolerance and acceptance over the course of my lifetime, and I fear that we’re on the precipice of losing much of that progress. ➡
    • Chucks of the day (46/48): black and pink double-layer low tops. I’m still not entirely sold on the double layer style, but liked the black/pink color combo. #converse #chucks ➡
  • 2014
    • Picked up a Batman t-shirt today. When paired with the pajama pants I already had, I look like I dress like a four-year-old. I’m Batman! ➡
    • Me, Prairie, and a goatherd. We decided to visit Leavenworth on a whim. ➡
  • 2011
    • Architectural Psychology in The Shining If you're at all interested in movies, Stanley Kubrick, Kubrick's version of Stephen King's _The Shining_, set design, psychology, or any combination of the above, you really should take twenty minutes to watch both of the following videos. ➡
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2007
    • End of an Era: No more Weekly World News American Media has decided to suspend publication of Weekly World News, both the print publication and the web site. No reason was given at press time, although reliable sources do tell us that management turned down at least one offer to buy the publication. ➡
  • 2006
  • 2005
    • Dissonance in Liability Got that? If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally copy a movie, that company is liable. If a company makes a product that is inappropriately used to illegally kill a human, that company is not liable. ➡
    • Profile Pages Tribe has apparently undergone some rather major updates since I was there last, and Yahoo recently introduced their Yahoo 360 service. Amusingly, the two services now offer enough similar features that I've been able to nearly duplicate my profile on each one. ➡
  • 2004
    • 9/11 commission: Everything we knew was wrong But 19 months later, the commission has released a final, unanimous book-length report that, in calling for a overhaul of the way the government collects and shares intelligence, showed that much of what had been common wisdom about the Sept. 11 attacks at the start of the panel's investigation was wrong. ➡
    • Gagging and swallowing Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant. ➡
    • Alan Moore interview There's a stunningly good interview on Salon with Alan Moore, creator of the extremely well-regarded graphic novels 'From Hell' and 'The Watchmen' (unfortunately, I've yet to read any of his work, though I've heard many good things about them). A definite must-read. ➡
    • Power corrupts… There's one particular short conversation in the book that's stuck with me since I read it the first time. At this stage in the book, seventeen year old Julie Katz — only begotten daughter of God, born of the virgin Murray Katz — is having a discussion with Andrew Wyvern — the Devil. ➡
    • And the DNC 2004 begins Due to my current work schedule and lack of television, the majority of my exposure to the 2004 Democratic National Convention is going to be through the news sites and weblogs that I frequent. I did happen to catch the first couple minutes of Gore's speech today during lunch, though, and liked his start. Well written, and he delivered it well, getting laughs from his audience in the right places. ➡
    • Switzerland This rant from Mickey reminded me of something that's been a hallmark of my relationships with many of my friends for years — I'm Switzerland. Neutral, and very happily so, steadfastly refusing to be dragged to one side or another in a debate between two friends. ➡
    • I can function again! Oh my lord — this last weekend was just far too hot for me. Okay, okay, so I moved out of Alaska to get away from the cold weather, and I know I've got some readers of this page who will put me squarely in the 'whine' category for this, but when things push up to 96°, I just stop functioning as well as I should. ➡
  • 2003
    • When You're Evil I found this song by Voltaire on a sampler from Projekt Records. It's a good sampler, but this is easily the best of the bunch. ➡
    • Neverland Neverland is [Damion Dietz] updated take exploring that thesis, with the Lost Boys a group of urban punks, Tinkerbell a single parent, Tiger Lilly a drag queen and Hook a sadomasochistic fury out to destroy all the beauty he envies. ➡
  • 2002
    • …and her head pops off… Indelicately, I reach between her legs and yank out my condom. And her head pops off and confetti flies out. ➡
    • Like watching a car crash We have a new vistor to the porn section. He's been in twice now. Actually, he's been in at least three times, as he is a registered member, but he's only stood out twice. He comes in, goes down to the straight porn section, and whips out a hand mirror. Then he applies makeup for about an hour. ➡
    • No more TIPS House Majority Leader Dick Armey, in his markup of legislation to create a Homeland Security Department, yesterday rejected a national identification card and scrapped a program that would use volunteers in domestic surveillance. ➡
  • 2001
    • New talkback feature I'm experimenting with more 'toys' to play with on my website, and have found a talkback system that seems to fit quite nicely between the limited interactivity of the polls I toss up occasionally and the full messageboard I have running. ➡
    • Cool people and new books Much as I try not to let things get to me, and keep a healthy and happy outlook on whatever's going on in my life, sometimes it's neccesary to let my frustrations fly -- and when I do, it's wonderful to get the occasional 'buck up, kiddo' from people out there. ➡

On This Day: Jul 25

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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 July 25th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book forty of 2019: Frozen Hell, by John W. Campbell, Jr. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ A recently discovered longer version of Campbell’s classic novella “Who Goes There” (the source for John Carpenter’s SF/horror film The Thing). Holds up well for a late-30s story; still creepy and fun. ➡
  • 2017
    • Book thirty-three of 2017: Species, by Yvonne Navarro. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • At 96°, you really start to question whether your usual afternoon walk around the block is worth it. (207/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • I got curious what this spherical distortion effect would do to a selfie. This was either a really good or horrifyingly bad idea. The result is both disturbing and hilarious; I can’t stop laughing at this. #RollWorld Image @RollWorldApp, #TinyPlanet #PhotoSphere #StereoGraphic ➡
    • The CWU central lawn as a tiny planet. #RollWorld Image @RollWorldApp, #TinyPlanet #PhotoSphere #StereoGraphic ➡
  • 2006
    • Need a Hand? Apparently there's enough to spare these days.... Bizarre news from New Jersey and Virginia. ➡
    • Trekommendations? As much as I enjoy Trek, I've never really explored the literary Trek work terribly much over the years. Any recommendations from others out there who might have explored more of the printed Trek universe? ➡
    • Retkhan Yesterday while on lunch and browsing the bookstore shelves, I noticed that Greg Cox had a new Khan book out, To Reign in Hell: The Exile of Khan Noonien Singh, in which he explores the eighteen years between 'Space Seed' and _The Wrath of Khan_. ➡
    • Hot Tunes A plugin for iTunes that polls the weather services on the 'net for the current temperature and then randomly selects a song from the year that matches the current temperature. ➡
  • 2005
    • Choices The Leaky Cauldron has been running an interview with J.K. Rowling over the past week with questions posed by Emerson Spartz of Mugglenet and Melissa Anelli of The Leaky Cauldron. The whole interview is very worth reading, but one section stood out to me when I read it. ➡
    • Bad Timing There's a guy who works in the mailroom just down the hall from me who greets me every time he sees me by calling my name out in kind of a sing-song fashion -- "_Mi_-chael...!" It's a little odd, but not really a big deal. Unless he does it when he enters the restroom... ➡
    • What’s your funny? Another online quiz -- though this one (unlike many others), actually gave me a result that seemed pretty accurate: the three-variable funny test. ➡
  • 2003
    • Impulse buying is evil Ack. I just bought six different versions of "Wimoweh" from the iTunes Music Store. Evil, I tell you. Eeeeeeevil! ➡
    • Darwinian Poetry First off, a disclaimer: in general, poetry is just not my thing. The only poet I've ever really enjoyed reading is e. e. cummings, very rarely has any other poetry caught my eye. ➡
    • The Blogger Voter List Mike Walsh is starting to track the Blogger Voter List. He's looking to keep a list of bloggers who, in essence, put their money where their mouth is, and vote as well as rant. ➡
    • Flag Desecration The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature. ➡
    • I'm rich! To be specific, I've earned $1.40. But hey, it's something! ➡
    • Wimoweh This is great - a fascinating article about the origins and history of 'Wimoweh' (more popularly known as 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'). ➡
    • Custom MT skins? First impression? Ugh, that's horrid. ➡
  • 2001
    • I’ve got an interview! Turns out that when the lady reviewing the online apps saw my resume she realized that I was somewhat over-qualified for a simple data-entry spot, but also knew that there were positions opening in the reprographics industry that I'm eminently qualified for. ➡
    • I want a Klein Bottle kitty People never fail to amuse and amaze me. I got an e-mail today that was (yet another) internet-based petition. This particular one was railing about cruelty to animals, cats in particular. ➡

On This Day: Jul 24

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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 July 24th

  • 2023
  • 2021
    • 📚 26/2021: That Which Divides by Dayton Ward ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book thirty-nine of 2019: A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr._ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1961 Hugo Best Novel Not terribly optimistic in its outlook towards humanity’s ability to learn from our mistakes, but an excellent and far-reaching post-apocalyptic tale. ➡
  • 2018
    • Book thirty of 2018: The Collapsing Empire, by John Scalzi. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 ➡
  • 2016
    • A full and fun weekend of gothclubbing at the Merc, Star Trekking at the Cinerama, being a dinosaur at the @norwescon picnic, hoteling, and shopping. Now back home in the ‘Burg and feeling a little zonkered. (206/366) ➡
    • Something seems off here… ➡
  • 2015
    • Footwear for the day: Superman Chucks. ➡
  • 2014
    • For #throwbackthursday: T-ball as a kid. It quickly became clear that sports weren’t my thing; I invariably spent my time examining weeds in right field, as that was where I’d do the least damage during games. ➡
  • 2008
    • Speakeasy can Kiss Off At this point, I can _strongly_ recommend against using Speakeasy for personal broadband service. Perhaps they're still doing well at the business level, but from a customer point of view, they're really not worth it. ➡
  • 2006
    • Cannonball A seven-shot action photo of a swimmer doing a cannonball into Greenlake here in Seattle. ➡
  • 2005
    • Bite of Seattle 2005 A small photoset of shots from wandering around Saturday at the Bite of Seattle. Not my usual onslaught of pics this time...I just wasn't as into it on Saturday as I am sometimes. Still managed a few decent shots, though. ➡
  • 2003
    • BuyTunes blows Earlier this week BuyTunes popped up attempting to capitalize on the success of the iTunes Music Store by moving the same general idea to the Windows platform. So far, the word is that they suck. ➡
    • Bumper stickers! Bush needs to order new bumperstickers, but needs help with the slogan. Can anyone help? ➡
    • 9/11 report online The full congressional inquiry into the events surrounding Sept. 11th, 2001 (well, minus the sections pulled by the White House) is available online. ➡
    • The 'I don't vote' party Mike Walsh's plans to register to vote for the first time in 54 years got me wondering how many other people might finally be moved to register during this election cycle. ➡
    • I never knew she was so icky While I've heard a lot about über-conservative Ann Coulter, I'd never bothered to read anything she wrote. From everything I'd read about her, I didn't figure it was worth the time. Now I know I was right, and have no need nor desire to ever read anything from her again. ➡
    • Enterprise designer dies Walter 'Matt' Jefferies, the designer of the original Enterprise NCC-1701, has died. ➡
    • About 'Noises' I'm tossing albums up there at more or less random intervals (often determined by what I'm listening to at any given point in the day). When I do, though, I'm highlighting three key tracks from the album and adding streaming audio 'PLAY' links to them, in addition to one for the full album. ➡
    • Leadership A leader is best when people barely know he exists; …when his work is done, his aim fulfilled; they will say, 'We did it ourselves.' ➡
    • I wanna push da button! Rock on — there's a couple workmen poking around at the elevator right now. ➡
    • Darwin Awards Man, some people scare me with their stupidity. ➡
  • 2002
    • Church vs. State Personally, I find it easier to believe in God than to believe that George W. Bush has the best interests of anyone other than himself in mind. ➡
    • As long as it’s depressing One of Depeche Mode's greatest strengths is also their greatest weakness. The band comes up with some of pop music's most inventive lyrics, and at the same time, they always give the impression that they'll arbitrarily sing about anything, as long as it's depressing. ➡
    • I was on TV – in Alaska! It seems that Fox 4's nightly news was doing a story on teen dance clubs, and used some old footage from Gig's. We're guessing it was from the closing night's TchKung! show, as apparently I had mud smeared across my face -- something TchKung! is known for. ➡
  • 2001
    • Is this going to work? I'm starting to get really worried as to whether this whole thing is going to work out for me. It seems I may have made a bit of a mistake in moving my departure date up to when I did -- I arrived in Seattle at a time when the job market is pretty nasty, and I'm getting really tired of being unemployed. ➡

On This Day: Jul 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 25 posts previously published on July 23rd

  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021
    • Unclack for macOS: Unclack is the small but mighty Mac utility that mutes your microphone while you type. No more getting called out for clacking your way through a Zoom meeting on your clicky keyboard! ➡
  • 2020
  • 2017
    • Standing in line to introduce Prairie to the wonder of Spam! ➡
    • Happened across a @badassteachersa event at Westlake as we work our way to the Seattle Center today. Good speaker on the mic right now. ➡
  • 2016
    • While I went in with low expectations, #StarTrekBeyond handily and quite enjoyably exceeded them. Far and away the best nuTrek film. (205/366) ➡
    • Well…now we know how animal crackers are made! ➡
  • 2014
    • Well…this was an interesting experiment. It’s been years since I tried going clean shaven, so I gave it a shot. I’m thinking this will last just as long as it takes to grow back (Prairie is quite happy about that). For fun, though, I got shots of the stages: goatee (normal, to return soon), trucker ... Read more ➡
    • Sucked into the vortex! Oh no! Where will I end up? ➡
    • Into the wormhole…. #RollWorld Image @RollWorldApp, #TinyPlanet #PhotoSphere #StereoGraphic ➡
    • Downtown Seattle as a tiny planet. #RollWorld Image @RollWorldApp, #TinyPlanet #PhotoSphere #StereoGraphic ➡
  • 2009
  • 2006
    • Just a little warm… Okay, so it's not the 100-plus that other parts of the country have been getting, but still. Ugh. Yesterday was a record-setting 97, apparently, and it _felt_ like it. Every fan in the apartment is going strong, and we still don't really want to move any more than we have to. ➡
  • 2004
    • Terror in whose eyes? Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, 'overreacted,' to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS. ➡
    • Goodbye Georgetown I got a new job within The Company! It doesn't start for a couple weeks yet, but it's a good'un: Monday to Friday 8am - 5pm, three blocks away from my apartment. Lots of rambling about the position and potential future plans. ➡
  • 2003
    • Remembering Binky Can anyone find me the famous picture from around 1994 of Binky the polar bear prancing around his cage in the Alaska Zoo with the Australian tourist's sneaker hanging out of his mouth? ➡
    • Bush family values Lie, lie, and lie again. And if that doesn't work, then lie some more. ➡
    • About those Hussein brothers… Some major questions are popping up about the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein. ➡
    • No Iraq/al-Qaida link The report of the joint congressional inquiry into the suicide hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, to be published Thursday, reveals U.S. intelligence had no evidence that the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks, or that it had supported al-Qaida, United Press International has learned. ➡
    • Wish you were here… Wish you were here ➡
    • TypePad Beta Yahoo Group Looks like there's a TypePad Beta Yahoo Group getting started. Just another way for all of us TP'ers to keep in touch. ➡
    • KMFDM Kylie Minogue Fans Don't Masturbate ➡
  • 2001
    • A Talitribe party So Friday evening I got a call from Holly seeing if I was up to heading out for another party with her group of friends. Not very hard to answer -- I'm still unemployed, so have no set schedule, and I had a lot of fun at the her birthday party...so it was a go, as far as I was concerned. ➡

On This Day: Jul 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 40 posts previously published on July 22nd

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • Captioning Key: Guidelines and Best Practices for Captioning Educational Video ➡
    • On This Day: Jul 22 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from July 22 ➡
  • 2018
    • Prairie brought me a gift from my nieces (whom she was visiting while I was at the Norwescon retreat)! It’s a glow-in-the-dark slime ball. Named Jerry. ➡
    • Morning of the final day of the @norwescon #nwc42 exec retreat. Found a good mug left behind on a prior year. ➡
  • 2017
    • Book thirty-two of 2017: The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Actually finished a couple days ago, just remembered to take my post-book photo.) ➡
    • Book thirty-one of 2017: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Actually finished a couple weeks ago, but was caught up in moving and forgot my post-book photo.) ➡
    • Watched the Renton River Days parade, now exploring the local historical museum until we’re ready to go out in the sun again. ➡
  • 2016
    • Out for a night gothclubbing at the Merc! (204/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Training session on the other end of campus today. Nice to see our fountains going! (Pretty sure they usually are, I’m just not usually down this way.) ➡
  • 2014
    • Prairie needed the car today, so I was a (responsible, of course) bike commuter. ➡
    • Confrontation on a #tinyplanet. #RollWorld Image @RollWorldApp, #TinyPlanet #PhotoSphere #StereoGraphic ➡
  • 2010
    • I love my Roku Readers Digest condensed Cliff's Notes executive summary version: Do you have a Netflix account and a reasonable (1.5 MB/s or better) broadband connection? Then you should have a Roku player. That's it. ➡
    • Thoughts on Inception As good as it is, I don't find _Inception_ to be a perfect film. Some of the things that bothered Prairie bothered me as well as I was watching it. Interestingly, some of these very things end up making more sense -- or, at the very least, become less troubling -- when viewed in the light of one of the more interesting interpretations of the film. ➡
    • Links for July 19th through July 22nd Sometime between July 19th and July 22nd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! ➡
  • 2009
  • 2007
    • Finite Incantatem We're done -- Prairie finished her copy mere minutes before I finished mine. In brief -- we approve. Highly. ➡
  • 2006
    • Best Phone Call Ever Xebeth just called. She's a little hoarse from the tube they had down her throat, and feeling a bit beat up and bruised, but she's definitely pulled through. ➡
    • Trampoline Taken at Gas Works Park on the fourth of July. Completely randomly, someone brought out and set up a trampoline, then started letting kids play, three at a time. ➡
  • 2005
    • Housekeeping I've finally gone in and made a few slight tweaks to my about page, adding a short list of other sites that I participate in and a few other bits and pieces here and there. ➡
    • Okay…who washed their car? For the past week, we've had gorgeous high-70's to low-80's sunshine throughout Seattle, with more predicted through the weekend and on into next week. So how come I woke up to grey skies, rain, and 'possible thunderstorms,' according to Weather Underground? ➡
  • 2004
    • The 9-11 Commission Final Report Here's a little light reading for your summer doldrums: The 9-11 Commission Final Report. ➡
    • Good reason As far as me and the vice presidency is concerned ... I spent a number of years in a North Vietnamese prison camp in the dark and (was) fed scraps, and I don't know why I would want to do that all over again. ➡
  • 2003
    • Man-U 4, Celtic 0 That. So. Rocked. ➡
    • BOO-YAH! My manager just came up to me and handed me a ticket to the Man-U/Celtic game tonight! Turns out his girlfriend has to cancel, and since we were talking about the game earlier...I'm in. ➡
    • My MovableType/TypePad History The point to all this? No point at all, really. Just kind of cool knowing that I've been doing my small part to help the Trotts take over the world almost since the beginning. Not quite from the very beginning, but pretty durn close. ➡
    • Manchester U vs. Celtic Tonight's the Man-U vs. Celtic game here in Seattle. One of the few times I wish I could go to see a major sporting event. ➡
    • Is this right? Somehow, I find it hard to believe that Qusay and Uday would have been in a villa with nothing but a teenage boy and a single bodyguard for company. Wouldn't they have been far better protected than that? If it was just the four of them, how could three men and a boy hold off two hundred plus American soldiers for six hours? ➡
    • Democracy in Action I'm not diving into it full-bore right now (gotta get ready to go to work), but the GWU Democracy in Action site looks to have a ton of good information on all aspects of the upcoming election cycle. Definitely worth browsing through. ➡
    • Ah, the memories… I miss the days when computers weren't as powerful as they are now. Not because I'd like to go back to the days of 286's and Motorola 68000 processors (ick), but because the limited resources forced programmers to weigh features against bloat, to code for small sizes as well as functionality, and so on. ➡
    • Welcome back, John Robb John Robb, whose site disappeared a couple weeks ago, has reappeared at a new address. ➡
    • English English is the preacher's language, because it allows you to talk until you think of what to say. ➡
    • Dean leads in California A major step forward for Howard Dean today — he's currently leading the polls in California! ➡
  • 2002
    • Another one bites the dust So that's two of my friends within the past month that have gotten married…any more I should know about? ➡
    • Sunburnt, but it was worth it Well, okay -- girl watching. Summertime in Seattle is such a nice time for finding eye candy, and yesterday was gorgeous -- cloudless with a projected high of 88 degrees. Lots of eye candy! ➡