Jul 2007
- Jul 1
- rss promiscuity and why nofollow is cool
I find myself commenting a lot on how stupid Digg is. Not the concept itself, which is basically Slashdot evolved and on steroids. The problem is that the average posters are morons.
· Read more… - Jul 1
- where are they now?
My sister informs me of the fates of a couple of child actresses from the Shelly Long movie ”Troop Beverly Hills“ [IMDb][Wikipedia]
· Read more… - Jul 1
- future megalopolises
Or megalopoleis for the pendantic.
· Read more… - Jul 3
- pivot
I would say that it’s a sense of foreboding, but I don’t want it to all negative like that.
· Read more… - Jul 3
- then maybe not
Not so still, perhaps. But just as hopeless.
· Read more… - Jul 4
- small frustrations
unexpected traffic. Sunlight fading. Visions remote, receding, flashing quickly through my field of vision. Hoping to get lost in familiar territory.
· Read more… - Jul 6
- insensate
I find it interesting that I searched for the word insensate and Google’s adsense popped up the following:
· Read more… - Jul 7
- so sick
Maybe I just need to get into a rhythm. Usually I look forward to the summertime, never mind that I rarely get time off anyway. But I just feel, I dunno, bleh.
· Read more… - Jul 7
- all we need is time
in the fog of indecision
· Read more…
the clarity of the dawn
in the anxious disappointment of missed chances
the cold, hard certainty of inescapable destiny
in the silence of defeat
the distant roar of victory - Jul 7
- the sea, and distant tidings of sorrow
The Internet is a convoluted web, and I still marvel at the deftly woven connections between strangers, and I wonder how one can be touched by someone who you never knew, at least not in “real” life.
· Read more… -
- Jul 8
- what's right vs what works
I seem to revisit this topic from time to time. Usually in the context of trying to struggling through someone else’s code.
· Read more… - Jul 9
- the epitome of pathetic
OK, folks, I think I’ve reached a new low here. I opened a tin can of beans with a hammer and a screwdriver. Supper of champions.
· Read more… - Jul 9
- random epiphanies
Now I’m not one of those sad-sacks who comfort themselves with the idea that “everything happens for a reason.” Lots of things happen for no good reason. Irrationality rules the day most of the time, and if everything in the universe were really premeditated, then God would have to be a psychopath, no question.
· Read more… - Jul 10
- fear of success
Oddly, my horoscope gets it right:
· Read more… - Jul 11
- ok computer: 10 year anniversary
· Read more…
- Jul 13
- Jagged Edge
Jagged Edge
· Read more…
undiscernable
molecular thickness
shimmering with quantum uncertainty - Jul 13
- Quiet
faded memories half a lifetime away
· Read more…
did I dare, did I dream?
Can I pay that price?
Turn the inside of my soul to the fire
let this aching pain tear at my heart
like some rabid dog gone amok
like piranhas shredding through living flesh - Jul 13
- nerd dreams
I swear. Who dreams of particle accelerators?
· Read more… - Jul 21
- archetypes dying in media res
Because of the release of Deathly Hallows today, I had to catch up and read Half-Blood Prince. One of the reasons why I had decided to put off reading it was because everyone had ruined the “big surprise,” which was the death of Albus Dumbledore.
· Read more… - Jul 21
- spoilers
“If she means so much to you,” said Dumbledore, “surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?”
· Read more… - Jul 22
- severus snape: the man, the myth, the legend (massive spoiler!)
“You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?”
· Read more… - Jul 23
- drag-and-drop goodness
Now, granted, I’m no impartial observer. I’ve hated Windows since the 1998 iteration, and haven’t looked back. I used Linux as my primary OS from 1999 to 2002, then finally ended up buying an iBook and switching to Mac OS X (which was at version 10.1 at the time.) So I am confused by the outrage generated by drag-and-drop “installation” that is the method that Apple recommends to all developers. The article itself discusses the rationale for these guidelines, which I won’t regurgitate, but which I will refer to.
· Read more… - Jul 23
- pathetic and yet heartbreakingly brilliant (spoilers!)
I can’t seem to get over Snape’s forlorn and hopeless devotion to Lily. On one hand, it’s really sad and pathetic. On the other hand, it’s heart-wrenchingly awesome.
· Read more… - Jul 23
- oh, and btw, a change
In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve once again changed blogging engines. This change differs from previous migrations in that I actually imported my old posts. Of course, I haven’t sifted through the old posts yet, and I’m pretty sure a lot of them are pretty broken. I can’t believe I wrote 400+ posts in the past year and a half. Can you imagine if I actually dedicated this time to writing a novel or a book of poems instead?
· Read more… - Jul 25
- Burdens
The though was "betrayal"
· Read more…
or maybe it was "onus"
The unpayable debt, the blood price
(And if I paid it, would I be free?)
My memories are of Atlas lifting the world on
his shoulders
Sisyphus rolling up the Stone.
The karyatid crushed beneath the load… - Jul 25
- migrating from wordpress to typo 4.1.1 (trunk) on dreamhost
This is just a quick outline of the steps I took, which I hope to fill in as time goes on.
· Read more… - Jul 25
- returning to earthsea/of wizards and warlocks
I’m still ruminating about the end of the Harry Potter saga. The mainstream media’s reaction has always interested me. They continue to be bemused by the idea of a novel taking the world by storm, and infiltrating popular culture. Never mind the fact that people were writing “Frodo Lives!” on subway walls 40 years ago, or the fact that The Lord of the Rings trilogy was extraordinarily successful, and, as far as wizards go, Gandalf the Grey is as well-known as Merlin, and is arguably the favorite and most-beloved of wizards amongst nerds and geeks world-wide.
· Read more… - Jul 25
- severus and lily
I don't think you can really call it love, but still…
· Read more… - Jul 25
- magic: earthsea, middle-earth, et al.
I think The Earthsea Cycle will always have a place in my heart. The three key fantasy novels/series that I am heavily influenced by are The Lord of the Rings, The Last Unicorn, and The Earthsea Cycle. And because of the accidents of time and space, I think I will never escape the popular culture influences of “Star Wars” or of the Harry Potter series. Not that the latter two don’t have any merits. It’s just that I simply don’t consider them to be in the same class as the first three.
· Read more… - Jul 25
- Like the Sound of the Waves on the Sea
My soul→seethes, burns
· Read more…
roils,
This vanity this self-deceit
stripped of all meaning
The noise of the teeming crowd
as wounding as the dead silence - Jul 26
- scattered thoughts (spoilers!)
It’s ironic, really. While I have thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter series for the past 7 years (I was gifted the first three books in 2000), I never really held it in high regard, especially in terms of literary merit. To me, it was the fantasy equivalent of a romance novel: lots of fun to read, but not something you would read again. As I’ve mentioned before, the only books that I’ve managed to read more than once have been The Lord of the Rings, The Last Unicorn, and The Wizard of Earthsea. (Actually, digging around in my memory, there are a few more: some of Madeline L’Engle’s books, in particular A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters; and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
· Read more…trilogyseries by Douglas Adams.) - Jul 26
- "el regalo" by peter s beagle/why I dig earthsea
Actually, one of my favorite “there are wizards among us” stories is entitled “El Regalo” (The Gift) by Peter S Beagle (of The Last Unicorn fame.) Part of his anthology The Line Between, Beagle chronicles the misadventures of a 15 year old Korean American girl named Angie and her 8½ year old brother named Marvyn, both of whom come to discover that they have magical powers. In this tantalizing tidbit that is just calling to be expanded to a full length novel, they find themselves pitted against an ancient, malevolent sorceror only known as El Viejo, The Old Man.
· Read more… - Jul 26
- if there were no revolution
It occurs to me that July is pretty much over, and August is close at hand. This summer is flying by, and I kind of feel like I’m having to hang on tightly, lest I end up falling on my ass.
· Read more… - Jul 27
- imagining the aftermath of war
While I’m sure that W+Co would love to have the war in the Middle East metastasize and essentially last forever, there is such a thing as finite resources, and either the occupation of Iraq will end soon, or we will find ourselves sending an significant chunk of an entire generation to their needless deaths, and throwing away taxpayer money to the point where our infrastructure will start to suffer. (I imagine that Hurricane Katrina is only a foreshadowing. And keep in mind that we have yet to institute any actualy measures that would keep us safe from terrorist attacks.)
· Read more… - Jul 31
- ch… ch… changes
Just a quick status report: I’ve been struggling mightily with Ruby on Rails, the web application framework du jour, and I finally managed to get a working copy of Mephisto, yet another blog engine. While Typo was OK, I unfortunately discovered that AJAXy-goodness wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be when I couldn’t easily customize my blog. While the idea of drag-and-drop widgets is cool, it’s also slow as hell, and I just didn’t have the patience to wait for the refreshes, particularly when in some cases, I could just write the requisite HTML in the same time.
· Read more…
