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11.30.03 weird website behavior: new york times website wont come up on my powerbook. the rest of the web loads, and nyt pulls up other boxes on my network (jessie's ibook and his pc). it worked less than an hour ago, but now everything times out. this is, of course, only happening in safari. that other browser (the software that dare not speak it's name) works fine. # just got back from fresno, where j and i spent the holiday with my family. another classic over-eater's thanksgiving. (why does my mom make 3 pies for 6 people? that's 0.5 pies to every person!) except that this time i was too sick to enjoy it. i started to come down with something on tuesday morning. i woke up and i knew something was amiss. by the middle of the day, my head was in a fog and i was having chills. should have been my clue, but instead i took some cold pills and went out 1.) ice skating (fun!) and 2.) drinking (fun!!). the next morning, i was paying the price. i don't imagine i was much fun to be around wednesday or thursday, but it's a little hazy for me to be sure. but by today i'm back in action, and i'm thankful for, among other things, jessie and i having the foreknowledge to come back home saturday night instead of sunday. it's always better to take a day unscheduled between travel and work. to unpack, to rest, to # 11.22.03 i've finally gotten around to that redesign i was always talking about. so there. # 11.21.03 fresh off some nightmare hardware problems with jessie's pc, it's been pretty easy to feel stringently pro-mac. so it's nice to be reminded that, regardless of the ease-of-use they enjoy, mac users can still be freaks. # just when you thought file trading was dead. finally there is a mac-worthy (i.e. it elegantly combines the functions of a number of different pc programs in a totally simple, pretty way) p2p client. and it's quite geek. the poisoned project uses a plug-in architecture (based on giFT) to access multiple file trading networks (yes, you can search fasttrack/kazaa on the mac now) at the same time. and it's much nicer to look at than kazaa et al. add to that the fact that it's open source and spyware free, integrates into the mac finder and itunes and provides an itunes music-store link when searching mp3s and it starts to make up for the fact that you couldn't trade files on os x for the past two years. (thanks to brian for pointing this out to jessie, and hence me) # 11.20.03 i've been so caught up in data recovery (more to come on that soon) that i had almost forgotten to mention that i saw death cab for cutie on Monday. and, like, wow! they're cool. good stage presence, great live sound. vocals were a little off, but the energy more than made up for it. that and the fact that they broke into a bjork cover (all is full of love) during the encore. totally great. # do you remember johnathan brandis? you know, the kid from that sci-fi submarine show on tv? he was a teen heartthrob for about 3 days when i was growing up. apparently, he's dead. sad. # 11.15.03 according to the fine, fine people at at&t (who i know can count), i spent almost 15 hours on my mobile phone last month. i think i need to make more friends in this zip code. # 11.14.03 i know, i'm an easy mark, but this is just so terribly clever. # yay! it's friday! aren't we happy now? # 11.13.03 ameer wanted to hear earlimart, rather than just listen to me tell you how great they are, so i'm going to do just that. i've posted my favorite track on their new album, lost at sea, and since that song's pretty short, i'm also throwing up the movies which is longer, slower, a bit more stately. together they give a really good impression of the album. so if you like either track, consider buying it (itunes or amazon). their latest ep (The Avenues EP) is excellent as well. # 11.11.03 earlimart: a.) impoverished migrant labor cesspool, death-trapped halfway between fresno and bakersfield in california's socio-psycho-cultural midwestern backwash known as the Central Valley. b.) that one elementary school that always, always, always got the best fog delays during the winter months. little shits. c.) a really rocking band that's got a totally fab low-fi indie dissonance-twang thing going, a la grandaddy or sparklehorse. d.) all of the above. post script: digging for links brought me back to this little tidbit that my mother pointed out to me a while back; it's the local morning-news-sponsored wedding of two of my classmates. rating somewhere inbetween funny, weird and a little gross. # 11.10.03 i loved elephant. i mean, there's a lot to say about it; only there's not. it's pretty inarguable, pretty air-tight. it's a really really disturbingly accurate window on being in high-school. the what happens is...more open to debate. if there is anything that could remotely be considered a flaw, it would lie in that part of the story. but the people, the color, the shape of the story, it's very natural, very beautiful and very shocking. for me, the most astounding element of the film was the sound. each character owns the movie's perspective for a brief while. the eerie, slow tracking camera follows them around and we are exposed to a brief few moments glimpse inside their own life. during these segments, we not only see what they see, but we hear the world as they hear it. some are haunted, the ambient sounds running together into a disharmonious drone, the mess of that world's superficiality and ignorance roaring like an ocean against our ears. others are quiet, suspicious; everything we hear is just out of ear-shot, peaks of words, the sound of other voices only loud enough to make us suspect that we are the topic of conversation. and on they go, each character sharing not only their eyes but their ears, and with both, the fundamental way that they are beginning to perceive the world around them. i wont share details, though certainly you can find out everything about this movie before seeing it. but those details aren't important. somehow, the film's slow mental creep becomes it's most important and successful element. i left the theater wanting it to have done more, wanting to feel some kind of resolve, and yet here i am, two days later, and it's almost all i can think about. and that then, is what it does. because there is no clear way to feel about the subject matter. there's only confusion, fascination and deep, deep sorrow. # 11.09.03 i've been living with os x 10.3 for a few weeks now, with no real problems to speak of. so it's time to wonder how long i need to keep my 2GB archive&install "previous system" folder. there's nothing to fear now, is there? # i finally posted a new entry to my other website last week. normally i don't bother whoring the two sites between each other, but it's been so long since i've updated, i figured it was worth a mention. in related news, i have three small story fragments that i've been mulling over for a while now. they were seeds i came up with during the run-up to the now-failed writing group i was briefly involved with. they're pretty short overall, but i like them all quite a bit. i'm just a little lost as to where i should take them next. i'm uncertain which to concentrate on, and i feel pretty solidly that i've taken each as far as my little story-telling legs can carry them. i'm no good with dialog and the sort of reality of people communicating, and one can only tell so much with narrative and lavish description. so i'd like to post them on my writing blog, where 1.) they would be seen by some kind of audience 2.) i would be forced to take a critical and more objective stance against them and 3.) someone might offer inspiring advice. of course, these potential benefits are counterbalanced by the realization that once i post something, i tend to let go of it. so if i put these mother's up there, there's a good and arguable chance that i'll turn around and walk away from them. which is or is not a problem, when you consider that i haven't touched them since the beginning of september. # 11.08.03 life imitates art: the classic simpson's episode inspires a man to graft a tomato plant with a tobacco roots. he got tomacco. # yes, yes, exactly what we need. more Big Music. call it Bigger Music; sony + bmg and dreamworks + universal. whatever, who needs big labels anyway? # 11.07.03 in my dream last night, i left my bag on a muni train and watched as the train scuttled off down the tunnel still in possession of my cell phone, my ipod, my book, my umbrella, my hat, my notepad, my chewing gum. why can't i have regular, non-stress nightmares, about scary things or something? update: ok, much stranger dream last night, about killer moms, gang-land gunfights, lost children, illicit television commercials and the la dodgers. kind of like the new live-action looney tunes movie, but not as terrible. # only 2 days left on my ibook auction. go ebay! # i've had a sour stomach all week. off and on though; nothing so defined as to warrant a trip to the doctor. i feel better tonight, enough that i was able to go see a show, have dinner, drinks with some friends. i only hope it's passed now; i'd hate to be laid up for my first free weekend at home. # 11.04.03 My Life Without Me is a great, really beautiful film. although my judgment may have been clouded somewhat by the haze of my non-stop tears. don't see it alone... # 11.03.03 if anyone's interested, there's a really great, well-loved and fully upgraded tangerine ibook for sale on ebay right now. only 6 days left. # 11.01.03 the tv here at the airport is playing cnn-all-the-time. which just told me that i may suffer (just like millions of others) from an undiagnosed case of Adult ADHD. personally, i think it's just a hangover. spent my halloween hanging out with ricky and his new minneapolis friends, including fun-andy and his adorable friend nick. moreover, i was reminded (rather, the thought slammed around the walls of my skull, rafted by booze and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds) that i'm really not in college anymore. have you had one of those moments before? when you realize that you're just not as close to some part of your life as you thought you were? it's kind of depressing, until i remember that i wouldn't be sitting in the airport in minneapolis typing on a new powerbook, headed to my warm, comfortable home to see my warm, beautiful boyfriend, if i was still in college. but i digress. wait, what was i saying? # « October 2003 | archive index | December 2003 » built with movabletype |
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