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12.23.03 don't look for much here for a few days. we're leaving for the holiday first thing in the morning and i don't expect to have internet access for the duration. so everyone have a nice week, eat too much and enjoy yourselves. # 12.22.03 a pretty nasty sized earthquake shakes up my much beloved and recently departed college town. despite cnn's froth-mouthed fervor over the event, it appears that everything (including the nuke plant, natch) is still in good working order. and on a different note, retail clerks in the czech republic have finally done what all of us here keep wishing someone would do and killed the christmas music. or at least they're trying to. retail worker's unions are filing complaints and requesting compensation for "emotional damage" caused by clerks being forced to listen to the same stupid christmas songs over and over again. you hear that, KOIT? # 12.21.03 the more music i buy on itunes, the harder it is going to be to post an mp3 up here. this track, by a band called seachange is a freebie i got on a label website. it's good enough to make me curious about their forthcoming album. let me know what you think. # the lights went out all over tonight. not us, safe in our pocket of electrical power, but most of the rest of the city was plunged into darkness (because one can only be plunged into darkness or liquid or despair) and a steady, pounding rain. we trudged through the storm towards our favorite tenderloin classic, visitor in tow, only to discover a new, sudden edge of civilization. i'm not typically bothered by the tenderloin; recently, i've even begun to appreciate it's more subtle charms. but there's just something a little scary, to me, about a block of urban decay, looming in total darkness, slumped over shadows moving around the blackened sidewalks. standing there tonight, i felt the quick pierce of fear. we turned around, headed back up the hill and grabbed a cab. our cabbie drove on through the still-pounding rain, through darkened streets, our potential destinations ("north beach?" no "opera plaza?" no) resulting in a quick shake of the head, nope, dark there too, until we finally elected to come home to our reliably lit home. of course, once there, dumb luck strikes again. the lock on our door is more uncooperative than usual and we're unable to enter our apartment. too hungry and disappointed to wait around for the locksmith, we leave in search of light and food. by night's end, i want nothing more than to sit in the company of my friends and enjoy a drink. but once there, the lights go out, the speakers pop and the bar descends into silence. lithe waiters swoop out from behind the bar, depositing tiny votive candles around the room, the gentle hum of conversation sliding out from under the silence. the drink tastes a little better in the dark, and i'm finally dry and warm. # 12.18.03 these are the best shoes ever! i need to find them now so i can buy them all! (thanks dwell magazine!) i'm so excited, i'm cumming exclamation marks!!! # now that's telling. a freeware group has released an open source patch to a IE vulnerability that microsoft has yet to fix. if you want something done right... update: the register notes that the patch produces another vulnerability of it's own. hrm. # 12.16.03 please, a moment of silence while i bask in my gadget lust. and look, it's beloved by all. sadly, this gem isn't available from any US carriers yet, but as a GSM-world-phone, it can be purchased unlocked (or ebay'ed a bit cheaper) and used with a standard SIM card. not that i'm in need of a new phone. just, you know, gadget lust. # 12.15.03 wow, canada! first gay marriage and now downloading music — what will they think of next? medicinal marijuana? # 12.12.03 ok, see, i was wrong about melissa (see below). her site just looks kinda the same as mine. but then you run into something that is the same. that's just weird. [spotted by matt] # 12.11.03 "i always get nightmares when i eat too much chocolate," jessie said to me, as i broke off my third big piece of dark, dark candy. at the time, i laughed at him. and so it went, two days, three sad movies, maddening work-projects, holiday crowds and countless chocolate bars later, i had that nightmare. i was staying with someone, a friend's family, and was forced to shower in what had to be the most foul shower ever. the whole shower was scummy and nasty, the curtain was gross and old and torn, and the bar of soap was soft and squishy. later, bombs were going off and someone's head fell off, but the shower was the grossest part by far. # 12.09.03 oh look, melissa's new(ish) design looks like mine, only like, a whole lot better. she's so the prettiest girl in school, while i'm the one with the too-heavy eye-liner, the 2-pack habit and a nasty case of the i hate her/i want her's. damn smooth style; the girl's good. # buried at the back of a pretty uninspired supply chain/overseas manufacturing/product update rumor report is the news that apple is reconsidering it's shipping contract with airborne express. which is a totally good thing, because airborne express should be driven out of business for total incompetence. it's just a shame apple has played dumb for this long on the subject. # 12.08.03 the major points of inspiration for my current new music shopping? tim's best-of-2003 validates some recent buys and inspired others. also, pitchfork's constantly churning best new music helps, as does their oh-so-clever revamp of the top 100 albums of the 90's list. that one though, was just letting me in on what i missed. # 12.07.03 i don't think many of you care about printing industry news, but i absolutely had to post about RR Donnelly's aquisition of Moore Wallace. the deal's almost a month old now, but i have only just heard about it. it was less than a year ago that Moore and Wallace merged, bumping each corporation a few pegs closer to the list of the largest printers. now, with Donnelly's purchase of the new company, the RRD moves ahead of quebecor world to become the largest printer in north america. of course, that means nothing to the rest of you. # happy birthday boy! # 12.06.03 on my walk down to the gym (and back; no socks, oops) i realized that our street, and more specifically our block, smells of an unholy combination of pizza, hot dogs and sushi. mmm, urban dining. # 12.05.03 i didn't realize it when i left this morning, but today is actually cute-boy-day here in san francisco. on my way to work this morning, they're everywhere! all up and down the street, with their umbrellas, even two of them on my bus — very rare for the 2 Clement — and best of all, they're all wet. but there was also a supply of cute, young indie girls out as well. which makes me wonder if there's not some kind of early warning system for hipsters, an alert of some kind to rouse them from their beautiful hangovers and get them out before 10am and on the street to mingle with the likes of us commuting mortals. what could be the cause of such a call? # if you read gizmodo as much as i do, you've no doubt seen the banner ads pitching a tequila mixed beverage called mexi-cola. let me just tell you right now, from my own personal experience, that no amount of desperate, drunken hope will ever make tequila and coke a good idea. please, drink responsibly. # 12.04.03 sometimes, since moving here, i have this sense of absence, of being alone. it's as if i'm surrounded by a hundred people, all around me, but they're just out of arm's reach, impossible to see because they're surrounded by a thick, wet fog. it's frightening and terrible, and it strikes totally at random. but it's a blissfully short feeling, and it passes before long. which is all, in the end, nothing more than a protracted introduction to the new mp3 i posted. a better son/daughter is really sort of an anthem to that feeling. i don't like anthems much, but this one really sticks to me. it always picks me up in those moments. there are better songs on that album (insound/amazon), but this is the one that's good for this moment, right now. # 12.02.03 a little under 2 months later, i got the first low-battery warning of my wireless life. i guess 2 months is pretty good for near-constant use, especially since i leave the mouse on all the time, but i was a kind of disappointed when i saw that warning flashing this morning. i can report that the indicator is quite accurate, my batteries dying within a few minutes of the warning. the bluetooth menulet icon in os x flashes an annoying little battery symbol until you replace them, making it impossible not to miss the warning. also, it should be noted that the keyboard seems to be outlasting the mouse. # « November 2003 | archive index | January 2004 » built with movabletype |
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