Personal

The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.

Jason gets his heart back

by

Last November, I went to Jason Webley’s ‘Deathday’ performance. At the end of the performance, he removed the heart from a puppet figure of himself, which was soon attached to balloons and sent flying off over downtown Seattle. That puppet eventually landed in an alleyway downtown, and was rescued by an appreciative fan…

Chris Jr.: Something landed in front of me on the way back to the Ferry terminal…

Well, we saw the balloons land in the alley so we rushed to get them. They were in the alley, so we cut Jason free from the balloons. I have the puppet, along with the heart. I seemed to have lost the flag. I didn’t want someone who wasn’t at the show to take the puppet and wonder what the hell it was.

Jason Webley puppet

I was just going through the guestbook on Jason’s site, and it turns out that on Dec. 30th, Chris received an unusual package in the mail…

I just got a package today (Dec. 30th), and a weird one, at that!  So I opened it to find Webley’s clothing!!!  And instructions which read:

  1. Remove heart from wire web.
  2. Carefully open chest.
  3. Gently place heart in chest.
  4. Light a candle.  Rest.

All of this is to be done on the eve of February 1st.

I’m sure Jason’s happy to have his heart back.

Now we’ve just got to wait until spring to see what else might be in store.

iTunes: “Sleeping Jiva” by Kula Shaker from the album K (1996, 2:02).

Dialogue while watching a movie

by

“You want a cookie?”

“Mmm…naaah.”

“Okies.”

(munch)

…

(munch)

Said with mouth full: “You sure you don’t want any cookie? I’ve got a tasty little bite here, you wouldn’t even have to chew it!”

“Okay — you stay on that side of the bed.”

iTunes: “Pudding Time” by Primus from the album Frizzle Fry (1990, 4:08).

A little shakey

by

Either we just had a small earthquake, or they’re making NyQuil a lot stronger than they used to.

iTunes: “More” by Crystal Method, The from the album Keep Hope Alive (1996, 5:59).

Let’s kill him

by

This has been amusing me all morning — ever since I read it, it’ll pop back into my head and I’ll start laughing again.

At the MoveOn.org awards presentation [for Bush in 30 Seconds], Al Franken made the sign-language interpreter crack up by saying solemnly, “I heard Al Franken make fun of deaf people backstage. Let’s kill him.”

That, my friends, is good comedy.

(via Lane)

iTunes: “Pandora’s Aquarium” by Amos, Tori from the album From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998, 4:45).

Green oblivion awaits

by

Woke up this morning with a head cold, and it’s just gotten worse as the day’s gone by. I’ve been drinking OJ like it was water all day, and just popped two NyQuil tablets, so hopefully I’ll be feeling a little more human by tomorrow.

For now, though, it’s an early bedtime for me.

iTunes: “Crablouse, The (No Visible Symptoms)” by Lords of Acid from the album Crablouse, The (1994, 5:26).

uhrgh

by

My node id stubbed up, my head hurds, my throad id raw…today’s gonna suck.

iTunes: “Erased, Over, Out” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Further Down the Spiral (1995, 5:58).

Changing my habits

by

NetNewsWire grouped

As sloppy as my apartment can get (and believe me, it can get quite sloppy — though it’s usually just “extremely cluttered” as opposed to “disgustingly messy”, a small but important difference), I tend to be extremely organized in many other areas of my life. My occasional rants about metadata and .mp3 tags have probably clued a few people in to this aspect of my personality. I also tend to keep my movies, books, and music alphabetized, files on my computers all in their appropriate places, and so on. Heck, part of my drive to ensure that my web pages validate as clean, standards-compliant code stems from this innate desire for simple categorization and the ability to find things quickly.

To that end, since I started using NetNewsWire to keep up with the various weblogs and news sites that I like to read, I’ve used its grouping function to assign each RSS feed to a specific category — technology, macintosh, personal, and so on.

About a month ago, Rand was asking about RSS reading habits, and after a bit of thought prompted by his post, I’ve been wondering for a bit if this categorization is really the best approach for me to take. As my list of subscribed feeds grows (currently hovering right around 100 or so, give or take a few I’m reading on a trial basis — nowhere near Scoble’s 600+, but still fairly respectable), I’m finding it harder and harder to get through all my feeds on a regular basis. I’ve been doing very well at keeping up with sites that were in the groups at the top of the list (usually Personal and Macintosh), but not so well with groups towards the bottom (usually Links and Political). If I get bored, hungry, or distracted during my reading, the ones at the bottom get fairly regularly neglected.

NetNewsWire ungrouped

So, starting tonight, I’m going to try to vary my reading habits a bit to see what that does. I’ve deleted all the groups I was using before, and instead have all the feeds listed in more-or-less alphabetical order, top to bottom in a single group, ordered by date posted. While the amount of information doesn’t really change, the presentation is different enough that it might make a difference in what I find on any given day. I know I’ve missed a few breaking stories over the past few weeks, especially in the political arena, simply because I wasn’t getting far enough through my reading to see them until they’d already been blogged to death by everyone else on the ‘net.

I’m hoping that this little adjustment will be enough to help me keep up with everything a little bit better. No way to know until I try, of course.

iTunes: “She Cries Your Name” by Orton, Beth from the album Who Will Be Big In ’98? (1997, 4:47).

Kevin and Emily, sitting in a tree…

by

…K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first come love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage!

A few days ago, I got word that my brother and his fianceé had just discovered that they’re going to be having a baby, due to show up in early August. Yesterday parents let me know that the long-awaited wedding has been scheduled — for next month!

This has been an exciting week! Kev & Emily are getting married Feb 15, with the baby due early August.

The wedding will be at a botanical garden in Memphis, outdoors if the weather is good, or indoors if necessary.

That’s about all I know. They didn’t want any fuss, but Emily’s aunt convinced her today that a small family wedding would be ok, so they “booked a place” then came home and told Kevin!

We’ll be there, of course.

I’ll be there too — I fired off an e-mail to my manager last night, and got confirmation this morning that I’ll be able to get a few days off to head down there. Tennessee, here I come: my lil’ brother’s getting married!

Of course, given that the wedding was announced after the baby was announced, and the ceremony is going to be in Tennessee…well, one has to wonder whether I’ll come back with wedding pictures featuring a shotgun-wielding father in the background…;)

Why I’ve missed IRC

by

Pertinent parts of a #joiito conversation just after I walked in…

Tantek: Clinton did pay down the debt with budget surplus.
rojisan: of course he did. during the clinton administration, blowjobs were FREE
michaelh: sounds good to me
michaelh: get that boy back in office
Tantek: term limits
michaelh: details, Tantek — if he can debate the meaning of “is”, I’m sure he can debate “term limits” ;)
adamhill: or surplus or blow job ;)
michaelh: he’s a master debater, he is
adamhill: <rimshot/ >
adamhill: michaelh, he’ll be here all week, try the prime rib
michaelh: don’t forget to tip the waitresses
michaelh pushes a waitress over
rojisan: try the waitresses? tip the prime rib?
rojisan: sorry. clinton flashback

iTunes: “Get Down, Make Love” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Sin (1990, 4:19).

Restaurant vs. Bar

by

Tim’s got a handy list of ways to tell whether you’re at a restaurant or a bar:

If your napkin feels like linen, it’s a restaurant. If your napkin feels like the Yellow Pages, it’s a bar.

If you need reservations, it’s a restaurant. If you have reservations about admitting where you were till 2 a.m., it’s a bar.

Good thing, too, I’m constantly getting confused.

iTunes: “Brain Washers” by Blackalicious feat. Harper, Ben from the album Blazing Arrow (2002, 6:22).