Tech

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

On This Day: Jul 11

by

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

There are 29 posts previously published on July 11th

  • 2023
  • 2021
    • 📚 25/2021: Jaws by Peter Benchley ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is one instance where the movie is definitely better than the book. Not that the book is particularly bad, but it has subplots that haven’t aged at all well, all of which were omitted from the film. ➡
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book thirty-eight of 2019: White Trash Zombie Gone Wild, by Diana Rowland. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ More zombie conspiracy fun, this time in the midst of Mardi Gras and a zombie festival. Started off a little tougher than the rest, but got on track again fairly quickly. ➡
    • Book thirty-seven of 2019: Fall, or Dodge in Hell, by Neal Stephenson. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Still top of my favorite current authors list, Stephenson once again keeps my mind churning with a huge, complex, fascinating SF/F mishmash of VR worlds and religion. ➡
  • 2018
    • Test post. micro.blog cross posting to Facebook stopped working. Seeing if turning it off and on again does the trick. If this shows up on Facebook in a few minutes, I’m good. ➡
    • Guidelines for Brutalist Web Design. I’m entirely on board with this (and, actually, my current personal website’s design isn’t all that far away from this aesthetic). ➡
    • Linkdump for May 26th through July 11th An automatically generated list of links that caught my eye between May 26th and July 11th. • ALL POSSIBLE RESPONSES TO "THEY SHOULD GET IN LINE AND DO IT THE RIGHT WAY, THE WAY MY FAMILY DID,” WITH CITATIONS (ALSO JOKES) • Civility. Some thoughts. • What To Do When ― Not If ― Roe Vanishes • Really neat answer to this question about early Star Trek fandom • Why ‘Solo’ Works ➡
    • The audio from Trump’s bizarre and incoherent “I have no organ, the only musical is the mouth, the brain is much more important” ramble is just begging to be sampled into any number of songs. Just sayin’. ➡
  • 2016
    • Book thirty-one of 2016: Fight Club 2, by Chuck Palahniuk and Cameron Stewart. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
    • Book thirty of 2016: Books of Blood Vol. 3, by Clive Barker. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (193/366) ➡
    • Chucks of the day (41/?): white high tops with black “paint splatter” design, red and blue sidewall stripes. #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2014
    • I was trying to take my picture for today, when suddenly I was photobombed by a mischievous little monkey! ➡
    • It’s hot enough here that the suet we put out for the birds is melting through the bottom of the cage! ➡
  • 2007
    • Club Blacklight’s Last Hurrah A few shots from the Blacklight's final weekend. Most are from Friday night, which featured a few performances by a local fetish group...and as such, range from mildly NSFW (near-nudity with pasties) to _extremely_ NSFW (bondage, domination, and simulated lesbian strap-on sex). ➡
    • Heat Wave 75 degrees already, and it's only 8:30 in the morning. An expected record-setting high of 96 degrees. Y'know, I _thought_ I moved to Seattle...who snuck up on me and shipped me to southern California? ➡
  • 2006
    • The M&M Army I've been meaning to document my growing M-and-M's figurine collection for some time now, and finally got around to it today, after spending a few minutes and fifty cents assembling a DIY lightbox. ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • So then — off I fucked. Slate has a wonderful look at the history and vernacular of our Vice President's most notorious favorite four-letter word in A Very, Very Dirty Word. ➡
  • 2003
    • Debate time! There's a wonderful clip from Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' online right now — a debate betwen President George W. Bush and Presidential candidate Governor George W. Bush — that is flat-out hilarious. ➡
    • [N]echo aggregators What surprised me while going through my newsfeeds tonight is that Dave, while he may come across as an ass at times, is certainly not one to sit on his ass while some new technological goodie comes across his screen (even if it's one he's not entirely thrilled with). ➡
    • Haiku Another thing I like about the Dean campaign — they're not afraid to have a sense of humor. ➡
    • Drink the Kool-Aid Robert Scoble switches Kool-Aid brands, if only for a moment. ➡
    • Jet-propelled sheep I can't help but think that this is one sheep that I wouldn't want to be standing behind when it passed gas… ➡
    • Just a suggestion… Re-Elect Pass the Buck and Wag the Dog for President in 2004! ➡
    • Politician-to-English translation But to think that somehow we went out of our way to insert this single sentence into the State of the Union address for the purpose of deceiving and misleading the American people is an overdrawn, overblown, overwrought conclusion. ➡
  • 2002
    • Creepy, and very interesting I guess the event that really opened my eyes took place only a few days after my arrival. A terrorist bomb destroyed a shuttlebus...sixty school children. There were no survivors. That day I vowed to put an end to terrorism.... And I will. ➡
  • 2001
    • In the shoebox, off the ‘net I'm currently without a way to get my computers up and running (my monitors are still in Alaska, coming down with Rick in a month or two, I can't get DSL until I get my first phone bill, and I don't have a modem built into any of my machines). ➡
  • 1998
    • [From Usenet: 7.11.98 2300] It's a fine day, people open windows, they leave their houses, just for a short while....it's going to be a fine night tonight, it's going to be a fine day tomorrow...etc. ➡

On This Day: Jul 10

by

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

There are 23 posts previously published on July 10th

  • 2023
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Book twenty-seven of 2016: So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
    • “The website RateMyProfessors.com killed the ‘chili pepper’ rating that allowed students to rate a professor’s ‘hotness.’” Excellent — what a ridiculous and sexist ‘feature’ that was. ➡
  • 2016
    • Some days it’s the little things that keep you amused. Like the sidelong glances that make it clear that even in a college town, this isn’t standard Sunday morning attire for most people around here. #kilt #utilikilt #skeletons #imagomortis (192/366) ➡
    • Chucks of the day (40/?): black leather high tops with thick fuzzy inner lining. These are better for cool weather than summer, so they’re not being worn very long today. :) #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2014
    • For #throwbackthursday: 2006 was the last time I shaved off all my face fuzz. ➡
  • 2012
    • Political Compass (the third) This is the third time I've taken this test, though it's been a few years -- the first time was in 2002, the second in 2003, and now, nine years later, comes the third time. It seems I'm moving ever further towards that bottom left corner... ➡
  • 2008
    • Struck by Lightning From what i understand, it went through my left hand holding the camera, crossed my back and exited out of my right hand holding onto the metal railing. No entry or exit wounds, just a really good zap! ➡
  • 2006
  • 2004
    • Toilets of Doom While much was made about the fancy-shmancy automated self-cleaning public toilets that popped up here in Seattle a few months ago, I've yet to actually give one of them a shot myself. ➡
    • De-Lovely Quite aptly titled, this one. De-Lovely, the Cole Porter biopic is wonderful — good music (of course), wonderful to look at, and I wouldn't be surprised at an Oscar nod for Ashley Judd. ➡
    • Happy Birthday Jacqueline Prairie and I spent a very pleasant evening last night at Jacqueline Passey's birthday party. There was a wonderfully odd mix of people there, as she'd invited people from all the various disparate areas of her life: webloggers, economists, libertarians, sci-fi conventionists, and school friends. Needless to say, this made for quite a few very interesting conversations over the course of the night, and we both enjoyed ourselves. ➡
  • 2003
    • Howard Dean: Demand the truth What is now clear is that there are those in this administration that misled the President, misled the nation, and misled the world in making the case for the war in Iraq. They know who they are. And they should resign today. ➡
    • Is 'explosive' the best word to use? A long-awaited final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will be released in the next two weeks, containing new information about U.S. government mistakes and Saudi financing of terrorists. ➡
    • Dark Fairytales All of the work revolves around the title's theme, 'Dark Fairytales.' The artists were asked to work with existing fairytales — either the 'classics' (such as the Grimm Brothers, or Hans Christian Andersen's stories) — or stories from myths and legends around the world. They could even make up a fairytale of their own. ➡
    • Always On I've got a definite heirarchy to my interactions, and online interactions are definitely at the bottom of the list. ➡
    • Howler! Ha! Woohoo — my Harry Potter Uno cards showed up this morning! :) Anyone up for a game? ➡
  • 2002
    • All they wanted was a ride Three women buy a beer for a guy they meet in exchange for a ride where they need to go, and end up trapped in the car during a wild police chase. ➡
    • Blogchalking Google! DayPop! This is my blogchalk: English, United States, Seattle, Downtown, Woody, Male, 26-30! ➡
  • 2001
    • A shoebox, a dragon’s kiss, and Kate I've got pics up here to share of the apartment and the building. It's pretty sparse at the moment, but hopefully I'll be able to rectify that fairly quickly. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get everything over there just yet...but I'll find a way. ➡
    • Buses are fun There are various repairs still being done around town from the earthquake last February, and they're currently closing down the Ballard bridge each night, forcing the bus to take a longer route. ➡

On This Day: Jul 9

by

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

There are 35 posts previously published on July 9th

  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 68 Out at a park for a picnic and evening performance of _Romeo and Juliet_. ➡
  • 2020
  • 2016
    • The circus is in town! We discovered the Wenatchee Youth Circus a couple years ago and enjoyed the show, so since we saw they were back, here we are! (191/366) #circus #wenatcheeyouthcircus ➡
    • Chucks of the day (39/?): bright green high tops. #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2015
    • Hiding in the shade before the parents show up. 102 degrees out here! Sure, I happily left Alaskka for warmer weather, but I may have overdone it a bit. ➡
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2010
    • In Memoriam, Don Brown Prairie's grandfather passed away this morning. He'd gone into the hospice last week (necessitating our trip down to Vancouver last weekend), and held on long enough to let all of the immediate family come by to say goodbye. ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for July 8th through July 9th Sometime between July 8th and July 9th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Mythbusters to Test Star Trek’s Gorn Cannon • "Harry Potter" Stars Felt Pressure to "Ace" Kiss • Ritz Camera, Parent of Wolf and Waxman, Plans to Sell Remaining Stores • Paste Without Formatting by Default • Marvel Wants to Help You Look Stylish! ➡
  • 2008
    • Encroachment Taken near the Old Fishing Hole in Kent, WA. It was a gorgeous day, and the construction equipment looked really out of place against the blue sky and greenery. ➡
    • Links for July 8th through July 9th Sometime between July 8th and July 9th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Octopuses given Rubik's Cubes to find out if they have a favourite tentacle • New Nikon D700 • Getting your point across • Ayluro → Corkboard. ⌘C and ⌘V are so 1984. • Exposure ➡
  • 2007
    • Boy in the Pool Since today's heading up into the 80's, we're thinking heading back to the pool sounds like a _really_ good idea.... ➡
    • Live Free or Die Hard In short: as far as summer blockbuster entertainment goes, _Live Free or Die Hard_ was everything that _Transformers_ should have been. Big, loud, funny, and -- and this is a key point -- _believable_ in its implausibility. ➡
  • 2006
  • 2005
    • Bring the camera, momo! After getting a call from my optometrist letting me know that my new sunglasses were ready to be picked up (I lost my old pair a few weeks ago), I got ready to go. On my way out the door, I looked at my camera sitting on my desk. Should I take it? ➡
    • Snack time! Today's headline of the day award (even though the headline's a couple days old, thanks to me being a bit behind in my newsreader, as always...) comes from CNet. ➡
    • Poor little rock crab… Photos taken a couple weeks ago at Golden Gardens Park. Layout done with Comic Life -- neat little program! ➡
  • 2004
    • Gay Marriage bumper stickers Two pro-gay marriage bumper stickers, in response to the 'Marriage = (Man) + (Woman)' bumper stickers apparently being given away by the 700 club. ➡
    • Two from This Modern World This Modern World kicks today off with two equally incindiary articles. Item one: According to The New Republic, Bush requests Bin Laden's capture in time for elections. Item Two: Children held and possibly tortured or abused in Abu Gahraib? ➡
    • It’s illegal to photograph the Ballard Locks That is, it's illegal if you look like a terrorist. ➡
  • 2003
    • Ari’s losing it I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are. ➡
    • Haunted Mansion Trailer I was a lot more interested in this before I saw Eddie Murphy in the trailer. Has he made anything even remotely funny since The Golden Child? ➡
    • So who was the speech to? After touring the island site that was a launching ground for slave traders, Bush gave an anti-slavery speech. Unfortunately, all the residents of the island had been herded up and penned in a football stadium. So much for anti-slavery. ➡
    • Game on! Next some other idiot is going to try to play Quidditch with a Dirt Devil, two bowling balls, a basketball, and a badminton birdie. Sha! ➡
    • Transsexual clownfish! Scientists could have written an R-rated, gender-bending plot twist to Disney's 'Finding Nemo': Clownfish have a natural ability to change their sex. ➡
    • S-11 Redux Culled from over 20 hours of television footage recorded over a one month period and across 13 networks, S-11 Redux is a sound-bite blitzkrieg that challenges the messages we have been fed from our mainstream media and the government it serves. Be warned - this video moves quickly and will require at least two viewings to digest its full impact. ➡
    • Pre-Natal Massage I know what it really means…but what it could mean had my co-worker and I alternating between really amused and really disgusted. ➡
    • Oh, by the way… For the record, though, I've decided to put The Long Letter on hold for the duration of the TypePad beta, to give me the most possible opportunities to participate in the collective tire-kicking here. ➡
    • Are friends electric? In any case, the point is that, at least for me, it's rare that I hesitate on posting something because of anyone who might read my site. Not unknown, but rare. ➡
    • Playing with Zempt Looks like UserSpace might have some competition down the line! As it stands right now, Zempt looks good for the Windows side of things, and UserSpace has my vote for the Mac side of the equation. ➡
    • The great bit bucket in the sky It seems to me there's a very simple solution to this, that, for me, outweighs any risk of my web-based life disappearing into the great bit bucket in the sky, and that's simply this: back up your files. ➡
    • Stonehenge again Cold, hard, and immobile — apparently the designer didn't have a very good sex life! ;) ➡
  • 2002
    • New element discovered Research at other laboratories indicates that administratium occurs naturally in the atmosphere. It tends to concentrate at certain points such as government agencies, large corporations, and universities. It can usually be found in the newest, best appointed, and best maintained buildings. ➡
  • 2001
    • My stuff, Hank, and my apartment I ended up with one pallette to be shipped — a grand total of 1,075 lbs. — and when I stood next to it, it looked like it was about 7 ft. high. Lots of crap, basically, but it's my crap, and it's the crap I wanted to keep. ➡

Time for a Black Light Resurgence

by

So—possibly goofy idea, proposed by someone with absolutely no medical background whatsoever:

One of the things I keep seeing about the coronavirus is that one of the reasons outdoor environments may be less transmissive (in addition to the natural ventilation) is that the ultraviolet wavelengths of sunlight break down the virus. (This doesn’t mean the virus can’t be transmitted outdoors, only that it breaks down faster—wear your masks!)

So what if we required that all indoor public spaces had to use lighting that consisted of at least, oh, 25% high-UV output sources like black light bulbs? It wouldn’t be anything like a guaranteed knockout punch for the virus, but might at least help to speed the breakdown of any airborne infectious particulates.

As a bonus—whether or not this would be a good bonus is an exercise left up to the individual—everything would get a bit of a cyberpunk glow to it, especially into the evening hours, and we might see a resurgence of ‘70s/‘90s-style UV-reactive neons, colors, and fabrics in fashion and pop art. 😉

Plus, who knew that LED black lights were so plentiful and relatively inexpensive? I’m tempted to find some way to work these into the home decor, whether or not there’s any medical benefit! (I don’t think Prairie would be as excited about the idea, though….)

Update: It’s been pointed out on Facebook that cancer might be a concern of notably increased UV levels. This, obviously, is why I started this post by noting that I’m not a medical professional (or even amateur). ;)

On This Day: Jul 8

by

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

There are 35 posts previously published on July 8th

  • 2024
    • Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold 📚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Less action and more introspection, mystery solving, and Barrayaran politics, always with Bujold’s signature wit and incredibly well-rounded, imperfect, and very real characters. ➡
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • Book twenty-eight of 2020: Ghost Ship by Diane Carey ⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖 Painfully obviously early in the TNG novels (it is the first not adapted from an episode). Characterizations are wildly off base (Riker’s distrust of Data is basically overt racism). Just…oof. ➡
    • On This Day: Jul 8 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from July 8 ➡
  • 2018
    • Book twenty-six of 2018: Tim’rous Beastie, edited by Amanda Lafrenais. 🌟🌟🌟 ➡
  • 2016
    • Pretty sure there’s now a tiny little Lego ’90s-era Tom Cruise in our collection. (190/366) ➡
    • Chucks of the day (38/?): blue and black dual-layer high tops with blue laces. An odd style that I picked up mostly out of curiosity and amusement (I’m not sure of the appeal of looking like I’m trying to wear two pair at once), but don’t wear often. #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2014
    • These crosswalk lines just got painted outside the building I work in. One of them — the one on the right in the foreground — is offset by about six inches (to the right, from this vantage point) away from consistency with the other three. This is going to drive my #ocd tendencies bonkers every ... Read more ➡
    • Early lunch today so I can go see a friend defend her master’s thesis this afternoon. ➡
  • 2009
    • 12:34:56 7/8/9 Just a fun little numerical oddity: at the time of this posting (more or less, as Wordpress doesn't let me schedule a post time down to the second), the combined date and time (if you drop the leading zero from the two-digit abbreviation for the year) becomes 123456789. ➡
    • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Yesterday, nearly two years to the day after going to see Michael Bay's first 'Transformers' film, Rick and I once again channelled our inner 12-year olds, did our best to turn off our brains, and headed off to see 'Transformers: Rise of the Fallen'. ➡
    • Links for July 5th through July 8th Sometime between July 5th and July 8th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Monsignor’s Confessional: Darkness That Exists Just for You • Introducing the Google Chrome OS • Sarah Palin's 10 Most Awkward Media Moments • Fiction World Rocked as Woman Claims No Sexual Attraction to Neil Gaiman • Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2009 Results ➡
  • 2006
  • 2004
    • Spamalot Coming to Broadway in early 2005: Monty Python's 'Spamalot', 'the musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture, 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail.'' ➡
    • Meme fun This was originally a LiveJournal meme, but it was so goofy and intricate that I had to join in the fun. So. Bear with me. ➡
    • Reading protected LiveJournal entries via RSS How to read protected 'friends only' LiveJournal posts in your RSS aggregator. ➡
    • Kill Bill – Part Three I actually heard a rumor about this a couple of weeks ago, but I just now got around to a quick Google to see if there was any truth to what I'd heard. Apparently there is — Tarrantino is planning on a third part to the Kill Bill saga. In fifteen years. ➡
    • Another excuse called into question Now, there were enough records of human rights violations in Iraq under Hussein's rule that I in no way doubt that he is a bad, bad man who needs to be soundly spanked. However, from everything I've read to date, it very strongly appears that he told the truth when he said that Iraq had no WMDs, and he told the truth when he said that he heard of the Halabja massacre through the media, and did not order the gas attack. ➡
    • West Coast Bloggers Hellz yeah, biznatch — West Coast Bloggers, REPREZENT! ➡
    • Spidey vs. Doc Ock Worth watching — an absolutely incredible stop-motion animation short film of Spider Man battling Doc Ock…done entirely in Lego. ➡
    • Demand Space D just pointed me to Demand Space, just started by a friend of hers, and they've got a really good limited-time-only Grand Opening special (at least, it looks like it to me, though I haven't looked into these things in a while). ➡
  • 2003
    • Information overload I'm sure there's a lot of nifty stuff out there on the 'net right now. Guess y'all will just have to go find it yourselves. Sorry! ➡
    • Electronic voting problems Unfortunately, as is often the case, the reality looks to be falling far short of what is actually needed. New Zealand's Scoop magazine has a very disturbing article examining Diebold's electronic voting machines, and investigating just how secure they really are. ➡
    • Discovering TypePad It's definitely interesting being in a beta test period with weblogs that are public, and yet being bound by a (limited) NDA that prevents me from saying much of anything about the service itself. ➡
    • Putting The Long Letter on hold for a bit… NOTICE: This weblog (The Long Letter) will be going on hold for a bit. I'm not disappearing, though -- I'm just going to be using Eclecticism as my primary weblog for the duration of the TypePad beta testing project. ➡
    • Not Britney! Britney Spears admitted today that she isn't a virgin. ➡
    • iTMS Exclusive: LXG Soundtrack Looks like Apple's iTunes Music Store is catching on (or, at the very least, getting enough interest to warrant an interesting experiment): in the US market, the soundtrack for the movie The Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen will only be available through the iTMS — no CD's will be pressed. ➡
    • How to proceed from here I'm working on figuring out the pros and cons to various ways of approaching the fact that I've now got a secondary weblog that I need to keep active as well as having this weblog that's been active for a good few years now at its current address. ➡
    • How do I do this? Okay, so I've got this new toy to play with, and I do need to make sure to play with it. I just need to figure out how to play with it. ➡
    • Mena's here too Mena's moved her weblog over to TypePad too. ➡
  • 2001
    • It works! You'll notice the new(est) look to the site -- finally found a layout I liked, and was flexible enough to work sitewide. Spent most of the day in front of the computer working on it, and now the majority of the pages are converted over to the new design. ➡
    • Headaches I think that I've got things so that they should be visible at the moment, but with IE crapping out every time I make a change, I'm not entirely sure. Keeping my fingers crossed, that's for damn sure.... ➡

On This Day: Jul 7

by

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

There are 22 posts previously published on July 7th

  • 2023
  • 2020
  • 2017
    • Made it out to the Merc! ➡
  • 2016
    • Taken this morning. We let the dropped seeds under the bird feeder do what they want during the spring, and we’ve got a nice little sunflower patch going right now. The birds seem to like the extra perching spots as well. ➡
    • “This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.” — Arthur Dent, in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (189/366) ➡
    • Chucks of the day (37/?): white high tops with blue lining and sidewall. #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2014
    • Another day of chatting about Law and Justice with incoming students’ parents. #cwu #cwupride ➡
  • 2010
    • DJ Wüdi Mashup: Give It A Crablouse Sources: The Lords of Acid's The Crablouse (In Its Native Environment (Album) and Whatever You Do, Remain Calm (Instrumental)) mixes, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Give It Away. ➡
  • 2008
    • Links for July 4th through July 7th Sometime between July 4th and July 7th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Brendan Fraser lays out the 12 steps to an action movie's success • How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand • Michael Bay's Rejected 'The Dark Knight' Script • No Matter How It Is Sliced, It Is Still Bologna • A bike for the final frontier ➡
    • 12,000 Free Hugs Buried in the midst of my Pride photos: my 12,000th photo uploaded to Flickr. Yeesh! Another 8,000-some shots and I'll have as many pictures on Flickr as I have tracks in iTunes. Photowhore _and_ musicwhore, that's me! ➡
  • 2006
    • Meez A cute little avatar, plus brief bits on my job, fourth of July fireworks, and an upcoming vacation. ➡
  • 2005
    • July First Thursday A few shots from tonight's 'Electric' Seattle Photobloggers exhibition at Art Rage Studios, as part of this month's First Thursday Art Walk in Pioneer Square. ➡
    • London Terror Attack Witnesses saw the top ripped off a double-decker bus near Russell Square close to King's Cross train terminal, and three more apparently coordinated explosions caused carnage on packed subway trains as Londoners made their way to work. ➡
  • 2004
    • Adsense down? Google's Adsense appears to be down at the moment, which is causing loading problems for my weblog. Apologies to all if it's hitting you, but there's not a thing I can do about it except wait for them to get things together. ➡
    • Step right up! Get yer tickets here! The automated systems that create the Google News pages occasionally make some rather odd decisions when combining headlines with summaries… ➡
  • 2003
    • First post! Yeah, it's cheesy. ➡
    • Greetings, Earthlings Just something cool: a weblog from space, written by NASA Science Officer Ed Lu from on board the International Space Station. ➡
    • TypePad beta testing! I got a surprisingly cool e-mail when I got home today -- I'm a TypePad beta tester! ➡
    • Marc, Laura, and a 12-egg omelette Oh, and one last thing — just in case you were curious, this is what happens to Alaskans who spend an entire day in the summer sun of the Gorge without bothering to use sunscreen. I don't recommend it. ;) ➡
  • 2002
    • NASA better get cracking Anybody think we'll be in a position to start colonizing planets other than Earth within the next 50 years? ➡
    • Rocky Horror what??? Here's a fairly disturbing idea -- celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Rocky Horror Picture Show by remaking it as a made-for-TV movie, keeping the original music and lyrics, but updating it to a more modern setting. ➡
  • 2001
    • Site design: why CSS? I'm redesigning the site to comply with current Cascading Style Sheet standards. While I'd been using CSS for a while now to standardize and simplify the formatting across the site, this is my first foray into using CSS for the actual site layout. ➡

On This Day: Jul 6

by

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

There are 28 posts previously published on July 6th

  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 65 A few 80° days will really make you appreciate having a job that doesn't require pants. ➡
    • Threadless Threads does not get my recommendation. If you choose to explore, good luck and stay safe. ➡
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • I saw a link or two to this yesterday and scrolled past, which I’m now regretting. Take a few moments to read this brilliant short piece about (now-former) EPA head Scott Pruitt: Keep Scott Pruitt moist. It’s wonderful. ➡
    • Book twenty-five of 2018: Bored of the Rings, by Henry N. Beard and Douglas C. Kenney of the Harvard Lampoon. ⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2016
    • Been a long day. Glad the week is almost over already. (188/366) ➡
    • Chucks of the day (36/?): dark grey mid-tops with black laces. #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2015
    • I’m okay with schmoozing with incoming students’ parents, it’s just the standing around in hundred degree heat I’m less than enthused with. ➡
  • 2014
    • Me and my folks outside the Yellow Church Cafe…where they happened to run into someone from our old church in Alaska. As they do. ➡
  • 2011
    • Mechanical Life and Intelligent Design '...this is proof that Autobots were not assembled on Cybertron by hurricanes or any other means envisioned by Darwin, and were Intelligently Designed. That makes the Transformers series a compelling parable for ID, and I expect several of this year's Republican presidential candidates to recommend the movies on that basis alone.' ➡
  • 2010
    • Adventures in Holiday Weekend Driving Because it was the front of the pipe that had come loose, the rear of the pipe was still tied to the bed, so the pipe was being pushed forward against the asphalt, throwing up sparks, and it was immediately obvious that it could go swinging to the side at any moment, very likely snapping free of the remaining ties and flying loose into traffic. ➡
  • 2007
    • Transformers Mini-review number one: It was glorious, incredible, over-the-top, in-your-face, enjoyably _**bad**_. Mini-review number two: Moments of 'holy shit, that was cool,' buried in a whole mess of, 'what the fuck?' ➡
  • 2005
    • She struggled to what? Kottke seems to be resurrecting an old meme. I got curious how many other people had participated in the meme, and did a Google Search for one sentence in the post. Google suggested a change...it's amazing how different the results are when you change one little letter. ➡
    • Technical Difficulties It's entirely possible that some of you may have tried to leave a comment here in the past few days and gotten an error message instead. Turns out that there's currently a nasty little conflict between Movable Type and CPanel (a webserver administration package) that's hitting me. ➡
    • Podcast 04: Mission Accomplished I'm posting a series of mix sessions I did a few years back. This is Mission Accomplished (27m 41s, 31.69Mb). Download, drop into your .mp3 player, and -- hopefully -- enjoy! ➡
  • 2004
    • Sample-liscious! Feel like having some sampling fun with George W. Bush? Head on over to the George W. Bush Public Domain Audio Archive. ➡
    • A porn that needs to be made We currently offer a set of original short erotic movies to customers. These movies cover a wide range of interests and tastes. Whether you'd like to see our suggestive historical recreation of Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity when his lover, Apple, shows him what goes up must go down, down... ➡
    • Exploring Georgetown Georgetown's an interesting little area of Seattle, though apparently relatively unknown to a good part of the city, as I've gotten more puzzled looks than anything else when I mention that I work in the area. But start wandering the streets, and you'll find a lot of life hidden in the nooks and crannies of this seemingly barren area. ➡
  • 2003
    • They Might Be Monitors Looks like TMBM is going to be keeping an eye out on all the various Blogathon participants, compiling a live-as-we-go 'best of' list. Should be interesting to see what pops up as things progress! ➡
    • NASA: G5 kicks butt :) There's been a fair amount of brouhaha recently in the Mac/PC circles over the benchmarks for Apple's new G5 computers — Apple's benchmarks show the G5 trouncing equivalent PC chips, and the results have been called into question. Apple just got a nice vote of support, though, as NASA has released independent benchmarks that seem to support Apple's claims. ➡
    • Presidential Candidate Selector There's an interesting online quiz that, for once, is actually a bit more serious than the standard 'What [fill in the blank] are you?' quizes that float around fairly often. This one is the Presidential Candidate Selector, which uses a series of questions about how you feel on various issues to determine which candidate's views are most in line with your own. ➡
    • About Howard Dean There's an excellent overview of Howard Dean in today's Washington Post. It's been getting linked to on quite a few sites, with quite a few different pull quotes used, but here's part that made me laugh: ➡
  • 2002
    • Check out my (messy) apartment! QtVR files allow you to click and drag around a photograph as if you were standing at the point where the photo was taken -- they can be pretty cool to play with. So, on that note, check the rest of this post for a QtVR file I just made of my apartment! ➡
    • Mulholland Drive After watching Mulholland Drive, I give up on David Lynch. Now I need four hours of my life back from him, instead of just two. ➡
    • Scooby-Doo It was a mildly entertaining way to waste a couple hours when I had nothing to do, but I can't really say much more than that about it. ➡
    • I’m alive! I do exist! Really, I do... ➡
  • 2001
    • Back again! Things for me are still in something of a holding pattern at the moment. I've been playing a lot with my digital camera since I got it. I took some time recently to stitch together some panoramas I'd taken. ➡

On This Day: Jul 5

by

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

There are 16 posts previously published on July 5th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
  • 2016
    • Three shelves of Star Trek books, and that doesn’t include another full shelf of Trek books I haven’t read yet (let alone those that I haven’t bought yet). Mostly #TOS, though with at least a few from #TNG, #DS9, #VOY, and some “extended universe” entries, to borrow a term from the Star Wars side of ... Read more ➡
    • Chucks of the day (35/?): magenta low tops. #chucks #converse ➡
  • 2014
    • Mom and Dad enjoying our front porch. ➡
  • 2010
    • Vancouver, WA Fireworks It turns out that Vancouver is one of those weird places where fireworks are actually legal to set off within the city limits on July Fourth, and nearly every house in Prairie's mom's neighborhood was getting in on the action. Since this was something I'd never experienced, Prairie and I took a short walk around the neighborhood to see some of the local explosive entertainment. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2004
    • Memo to me Trying to read 700+ weblog posts from the last few days, import CDs, and delete upwards of 100 spam comments one by one all at the same time results in getting less done, not more. ➡
    • Disney sued over ‘Wimoweh’ Now comes word that Disney is being sued by the heirs of the author of 'Wimoweh' over its use in The Lion King. ➡
    • Seattle Metroblogging What do you know — there's a familiar name in the contributing authors list. Mine, in fact. ➡
    • 4th of July at Gas Works Park, Seattle All in all, a very good day. Hopefully all of you had an equally enjoyable Fourth (for those of you that celebrate it — otherwise, I hope you at least had a good day). And for those of you who get today off of work — I'm jealous! ➡
  • 2003
    • Speaking in parentheses I don't think I used enough parenthetical remarks (like these [which I tend to use a lot when writing {or even speaking (see?)}]) in that last post, so this one should fill my quota for the week. ➡
    • Linky love Never being one to let a good deed go unpunished, I wanted to promote sending a little traffic Iki's way, too. So, here you go Iki — with my readership, you might get, oh, three or four more hits from this! ;) ➡
    • Harry Potter Uno There are two new cards, the Howler which is wild and will let you see all of another player's hand (Ok, technically they're supposed to shout out their entire hand, but with the sizes of the hands we were accumulating last night, not really practical) and the Invisibility Cloak card, also wild, which lets you cancel the action of any card played on you like Draw 3s, Draw 4 Wilds, Reverses, Skips, what have you. ➡
    • 4th of July, Gas Works Park, Seattle Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day, so after enjoying being able to sleep in on a day off of work, I caught a bus over to Gas Works Park to go play in the sun and watch the fireworks. Lots of pictures in my photo gallery! ➡

On This Day: Jul 4

by

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

There are 31 posts previously published on July 4th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • In memory of Mad magazine and Alfred E. Neuman, 1952-2019. What, me worry? The one issue I keep is part of my Star Trek collection; the bust I inherited from my dad, and dates from around 1960. ➡
  • 2018
    • Book twenty-four of 2018: Independence Day, by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, and Stephen Molstad. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
    • Whether you recognize today as a celebration of where the country is now (…really, though?), optimism for where it could be (my choice), simply a day off, or if you don’t have the privilege of taking a day off and are working, I hope today is enjoyable and safe for you. 🎆🇺🇸🎇 ➡
  • 2017
    • Fourth of July fireworks in Renton! ➡
    • Thirteen and a half hours down! Just another hour and a half to go to fireworks! (And then an unknown number navigating our way out of here and back home….) ➡
    • Monopoly deal is much more fun (faster and more cutthroat) than the board game. Recommended by us! ➡
    • Listening to the city band playing John Philip Sousa. Seems very appropriate. ➡
    • Great view of…a house fire? Did someone get that stupid this early? Something ungood over the hill. ➡
    • Doing something we haven’t tried in around a decade: a full day at a park for the 4th. Got here early enough to find good parking, have claimed a prime fireworks viewing spot, and have food, books, card games, and people watching to last us through the day. Should be a good one! Have a ... Read more ➡
  • 2016
    • Time for a July 4th tradition carried over from Prairie’s childhood: The Music Man! (186/366) ➡
    • Chucks of the day (34/?): Black high tops with multicolored stylized Statue of Liberty design and black laces. Happy 4th, all! #chucks #converse #4thofjuly #fourthofjuly #independenceday #statueofliberty ➡
  • 2015
    • Grilling steak and sausages for a July 4th dinner with a friend on another gorgeous (if hot) summer evening. ➡
  • 2014
    • Kicked back in bed, listening to people all over town work on blowing themselves up. ➡
    • Red, white, and blue dessert; the mint, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries are all fresh picked from Prairie’s garden. ➡
    • Mom looking at one of my über-geeky Star Trek books. While wearing patriotic socks. :) ➡
  • 2013
    • Fight for the Fourth The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated… ➡
  • 2010
    • Links for June 28th through July 4th Sometime between June 28th and July 4th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Troopers issue nearly 700 citations for using cell, texting while driving • Architecture's Modern Marvels • Why Some Countries Drive on the Right and Some Countries Drive on the Left • Scientists Invent First Male Contraceptive Pill • Surely It’s 30 (Don’t Call Me Shirley!) ➡
  • 2009
    • Jason Webley Elevanniversary ast night, Prairie and I went out to see Jason Webley's Elevanniversary show, our first Webley show in a few years. We'd been skipping them lately, but with this being his eleventh anniversary show we decided this was one we wanted to see. In the end, while it wasn't our all-time favorite Webley show, it was still good, (mostly) a lot of fun, and we're glad we went. ➡
    • Links for July 1st through July 4th Sometime between July 1st and July 4th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Giant Squid Caught in West Seattle • Keep Khan Out of Star Trek 12 • Water Seeping Through Howard Hanson Dam Is Picking Up Speed • The Blue and the Green • The Puppet Show ➡
  • 2008
    • Links for July 1st through July 4th Sometime between July 1st and July 4th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • VW's ~230 MPG car • iTunes K-12 launches with resources for students, parents • The importance of focus and quick tips on how to get it right • Ignore reply tweets and SEO URLs with Twitter Tools WordPress Plug-in • Seattle Gothic Pageant Presents - More Goth Pride Photos ➡
  • 2007
  • 2005
    • You dirty pedophile… I was having a good day wandering around Myrtle Edwards Park for the Fourth of Jul-Ivar's festivities until someone sicced the security goons on me. Apparently a parent had decided that since I was taking pictures of kids playing in the surf at one of the small beach areas, I was some creepy scumbag who had to be brought to heel. ➡
  • 2003
    • I'm not listening! I think that the St. Claire, Inc. Industrial Sign Builder has just become one of my favorite online toys. ➡
    • Homeland Security Chokers Now you, too, can alert everyone in your vicinity to your own personal level of security (or insecurity), with the Homeland Security Choker Set! ➡
    • Government Information Awareness Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness , or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and numerous online sources. Currently the database contains information on more than 3,000 public figures. ➡
    • America starts to wake up The signs of discomfort seem to be growing beyond the military bases. According to a Gallup poll published on Tuesday, the percentage of the public who think the war is going badly has risen to 42 percent, from 13 percent in May. Likewise, the number of respondents who think the war is going well has dropped, from 86 percent in May to 70 percent a month ago to 56 percent. ➡

On This Day: Jul 3

by

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

There are 24 posts previously published on July 3rd

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
    • 🎥 Sing 2 Actually only made it halfway through before tapping out. ➡
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Who is reading your Gmail? Gmail users, be aware: “Gmail has 1.4 billion email users. Every one of those users has agreed to terms of service that give third parties permission to read their email. And, of course that’s just what they do.” Admittedly, this summary is slightly alarmist (but only slightly), as you do need to have given permission ... Read more ➡
  • 2016
    • Chucks of the day (33/?): dark brown low tops with tan sidewall stripes, black sidewall and toe, and matching dark brown laces. #chucks #converse ➡
    • Posting from our car’s WiFi hotspot…because this car has a freaking WiFi hotspot! o.O (Don’t worry, Prairie’s driving.) (185/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • From 1999, just before I cut my hair short. I like to call this one my “Metallica wannabe” shot. #throwbackthursday ➡
  • 2013
    • Personal Privileges A list that rumbled its way through my head today at lunch: I am a 40 year old middle-class employed cisgendered straight white male married homeowner in good physical and mental health. That's a whole lot of privilege all piled up. And I'm sure that doesn't cover all of it. ➡
  • 2012
    • Things I Will Not Do I'm sure this list will grow over time. These just popped into my head this morning based on things I've seen posted recently. ➡
  • 2008
    • Scalzi on Obama I'll freely admit that I'm not terribly happy about Obama's announcement that he's planning on continuing and expanding Bush's 'Faith Based' programs. However, I think that John Scalzi has a very interesting take on what this might mean for the Presidential race. ➡
    • More on Pixar (Or, Why I Suck at Soundbites) A couple weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Jaime Weinman, who writes for Macleans, asking for a quote for an article she was working on about Pixar's future. I agreed, and in my usual style, sent her a small book. Proving yet again that I just _cannot_ write for soundbites, my quote was boiled down to one simple line. ➡
    • All About Electricity So last night, about 5:30pm, as I'm working in Aperture, the power dies. Odd. Just us? Nope, the hallway lights were out too, so it was at least our whole building. ➡
  • 2004
    • Independence Day Have a happy and safe 4th of July, everyone. ➡
    • Fahrenheit 9/11 At this point, writing up much of a review is more or less pointless. If you're of a mind to see this film, you're quite likely to already, and if you're not planning on seeing it — well, you should. ➡
  • 2003
    • Happy 4th of July Happy 4th of July, everyone. This post was going to be a lot longer, and a lot more bitter, but then I erased it all. Just go out, have fun, celebrate the fact that we're all still around, and spare a moment for those who aren't. ➡
    • BlogShares (what's the point?) I just got an e-mail telling me that I'd been given 50 shares of The Book of FSCK as Jonas empties his portfolio. This gives me a cash balance of $1,106.43, and my total portfolio totals $152,415.64 with shares in four blogs (two of which are mine). The funny thing is, I really haven't got the faintest clue what all that means. ➡
    • Bush – the dominator President Bush, like many dominant personality types, uses dependency-creating language. He employs language of contempt and intimidation to shame others into submission and desperate admiration. While we tend to think of the dominator as using physical force, in fact most dominators use verbal abuse to control others. ➡
    • Where's Boba Fett when you need him? Well, there are now $25 million bounties out for both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. I'm sure that'll help. ➡
    • Blogathon 2003 After being prompted by D, I've signed up for Blogathon 2003. 24 hours of weblogging, raising money for charity (in my case, Amnesty International)! Of course, I won't raise any money if I'm not sponsored…so won't you be so kind as to sponsor me? ➡
    • A dozen URL's Can you name more than a dozen URLs by heart? ➡
    • The Rocky and Bullwinkle Horror Picture Show I'm torn between being impressed and frightened, but I have to admit, it's quite a piece of work: the script for The Rocky and Bullwinkle Horror Picture Show! ➡