So I feel much better about things.

Thursday night I let my temper get the best of me. As it turns out, I’m not a placid, perfect, serene and sublime person all the time. Thing is though, I immediately recognized my jerkiness as such. The folks affected steered clear, and I went through pain figuring out what to do about it.

So.

I took some time. I collected myself. I apologized. I got a good night’s sleep.

And I felt better.

Anyway, it was a valuable lesson.

On the job front, I start work on Wednesday instead of Monday. The new gig is getting me a spanking new PC to work on, so that’s quite nice. I’m looking forward to it. The job is in downtown San Diego, in a high-rise. Parking would be prohibitively expensive, so I’m going to opt for taking the bus. I’ll get a bus pass next week and voila!

In yet other professional news, I had a bit of unhappiness on a freelance project, but it’s all sorted out. I think I need to start being smarter about how I bill for things. Fixed bid or Hourly sums up the problem well: “Would someone ask a construction firm to bid on a building with no floor plans?” — and I think I’m too generous when the floor plans are not exactly fully drafted.

I suppose that’s really it for now. I woke early for some reason, but will head back to bed now.

In a few hours, racquetball. Speaking of which, there will be some Racquetball on ESPN – the Choice US Open – on Friday, February 14, 2003, and actually it’s on ESPN2. Racquetball is a niche sport, and rarely on TV. I’ll be taping that puppy.

It’s kind of sad that Racquetball is so marginal. Check this article: Where’s My Racquetball Channel

This post sure is meandering.

In other news, Ross Mayfield sends a new version of the Blogmaps using January data

Oh, and two great uses of Macromedia Flash – a faux sim called Gulf War 2 and the Linux/Supervillain Switch Ad. The first actually sort of teaches you things, and the second is funny.

Alright, back to bed.

Another Shuttle Loss. Terrible day.

Space Shuttle Lost:

The space shuttle Columbia has broken up in the skies over Texas. Its crew of seven astronauts had no chance of survival. Mission control lost contact with the shuttle around 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), about 16 minutes before its planned touchdown in Florida. Emergency proceedures are in effect and search and rescue teams have been alerted in the north and east areas of Texas, where any debris might have fallen.

So my roommate is a packrat. Today she took out some copies of the LA Free Press and we were perusing the stories, ads, and classifieds. One of the papers, dated June 16-22, 1967, included the following ad:

Tall rugged young man needs money. Anything Legal. Danger OK. Occupant. Box 371 Pasadena, Calif, 91102

“Anything Legal. Danger OK.” is my new motto.

A Completist’s Guide to Regular Frank Zappa Records is astonishingly detailed. I’m a fan, but that level of detail is scary. Still, I enjoyed it.

Madhu Menon’s Fly UI is an interesting article on urinals and user interface design. It’s a great example of an “affordance” — described in Affordances and Design by Don Norman. Both are worth a read if you do design, any kind of design, for a living.

• Why Don’t They Make Stuff that Won’t Break? – design stinks
• The Music Business and the Big Flip – Clay Shirky gets it
• When the Wall Street Journal starts asking why are we invading Iraq, Bush is really in trouble.
• Master Key Copying Revealed
• Rush to Judgement: Jackass and Kids’ Life Lessons – thoughtful analysis by Teller
• There is a Racquetball Video Game
• Mouth Wide Shut – about vaporware and secrecy
• Desert Caution: Once ‘Stormin’ Norman,’ Gen. Schwarzkopf Is Skeptical About U.S. Action in Iraq
• Is Open Source More Secure? – Network security expert Gene ‘Spaf’ Spafford offers some surprising opinions on the vulnerability of Linux
• Feminism and Depilation opinion piece
• Protecting Mickey Mouse at Art’s Expense – on copyright
• Top 10 Shameful Video Games – alarmingly bad!
• There is going to be a follow up to the original Twilight Zone’s It’s a Good Life on the new Twilight Zone

Hm. I keep not blogging personal stuff. But I will I promise – things are positive and good. In the meantime… here are San Diego Bloggers page, in order of addition more or less.

Links with + have badges
Links with – have sidelinks or link pages

San Diego Bloggers is now a year old.

Check this out — A penny for your blogs — which mentions prominently my hand-maintained site San Diego Bloggers, as well as several local sites:

Matt Pitcher is quoted, though his url is not, and there are mentions of: Photogeek.org, Horologium.net, The Fishing Caper, CrazySaddam.com, USS Clueless, and Scott Koenig.

Sure wish I’d gotten mentioned. But I must say, it’s nice to have my site used so prominently as a resource for a U-T story.

I start the new gig today. Wish me luck.

Jenny (yes that Jennifer) sent me a great link: THE ROCK FAMILY AFFAIR: Frank Zappa.

Thanks Jenny!

New gig rocked. Cold Fusion. Stored Procedures. Application.cfm. Dreamweaver MX. SQL Server Enterprise Manager. Windows 2000 Professional. Nice people. Downtown San Diego. Walking distance of the Bay. Bought a Bus Pass. Got a hot dog at Horton Plaza. CFAdministrator. Development > Staging > Production. Windows Permissions Errors (always fun!). It’s a good gig. I’m honestly not sure I really want to say the name of the company here at this point. Google reads this blog too much, and a search for their domain wil probably turn me up in a search for the company if I mention it here. So for now I’ll not say. You can email me if you really want to hear where it is, but in the meantime I’m keeping it in stealth mode for now. So. Cool.

Upshot, I can now pay some bills which are hideously in arrears and probably killing my credit report as we speak. I’m still in debt, but this is going to be cashflow I really need to survive.

Onward.

Scientist invents Harry Potter invisibility cloak got posted to a mailing list I’m on. My response was:

Harry Potter my ass. That’s a Panther Moderns Chameleon Suit!

<tidbit src=”Neuromancer” author=”William Gibson” pubdate=”1984″>

“Go,” he said. The Hosaka had accessed its array of libraries, journals, and news services. The precis began with a long hold on a color still that Case at first assumed was a collage of some kind, a boy’s face snipped from another image and glued to a photograph of a paint-scrawled wall. Dark eyes, epicanthic folds obviously the result of surgery, an angry dusting of acne across pale narrow cheeks. The Hosaka released the freeze; the boy moved, flowing with the sinister grace of a mime pretending to be a jungle predator. His body was nearly invisible, an abstract pattern approximating the scribbled brickwork sliding smoothly across his tight one piece. Mimetic polycarbon.

</tidbit>

And here and now it is slowly coming to pass.

Welcome to the future.

And yes, it’s time to go to work now! Or at least time for a shower and time to get my act together. Tonight I’m going to the SDMMUG meeting — Click here for more information. If you’re there, say hi!

I’ve had a delightful time watching WebSanDiego.org San Diego User-Provided Web Links evolve over the last few days. Great technical links from lots of technical people.

But feelin’ good. G’morning!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM VOICEACTING.COM:

The cast of “The Simpsons” on “Inside the Actor’s Studio”

Sunday, February 9, 2003 – Bravo TV (cable) – 8/7pm

In anticipation of the 200th episode of “The Simpsons”, James Lipton of Bravo’s “Inside The Actor’s Studio” sits down with the ensemble of actors behind the voices: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer.

This program will be a “must-see” for anyone interested in voice-acting.

For more information, visit the Bravo TV website at http://www.bravotv.com/.

(from my pal and roommate, Ewon, Thanks E!)

• Bruce Sterling, Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next – a review
• Wonderful Bruce Sterling Rant
• Mitnick Surfs The Web, finally — “When I went away, there was no such thing. I had rigged a special modem to keep me ahead of the feds during the years I was a fugitive. Most of the time I was connecting at 300 baud”
• William Gibson Interview

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.

– Benjamin Franklin

• Legion Interviews Mike Chapman of HomeStarRunner.Com
• Interview with Mike and Matt Chapman, creators of Homestarrunner.com on RunDevilRun
• The Creators of Homestar Runner, The Brothers Chapman by Michael Coyle
• Ultimate HomeStarRunner E-Commerce!
• fhqwhgads, a Homestar Runner Community!
• The definition of fhqwhgads
• HomeStarRunner Store!
• Homestar Runner Breaks from the Pack by James Norton
• Homestar Runner, we love you from Columbia Chronicle
• … and of course HomeStarRunner.com!!!

Here’s a brief update:

• My new job is going well.
• My car is more on the fritz, this is bad.
• But luckily, in my new job I’ve been taking the bus to work!
• Over the weekend L. and I snuck Rubio’s into a movie.
• That movie was Shanghai Knights.
• Shanghai Knights could not possibly be more historically inaccurate.
• Shanghai Knights is a whole lot of fun.
• I’m getting immersion in new features in ColdFusion MX.
• Friday when I faxed my timesheet to the contracting company, it didn’t go through.
• Monday when it got faxed, it worked. And the company has a nice automated service line I can check my hours and paycheck information with. Nice!
• I enjoy walking around downtown on my lunch hour!
• I rode The Coaster the other day, but I did it wrong and got hassled by the man. Luckily, I know the rules now. They’re silly and complicated and their vending machine is no help.
• I’ve been enjoying Cherry Coke lately.
• I like playing UNO with Leah.
• The WebSanDiego.org Links page is doing great with some help from Anita.
• I’m about to get my last unemployment check for a long while (hopefully forever?)
• I am sporting a soul patch these days.
• Current project I’m helping with: SoLongLandLord.us
• My hair is getting long, and Leah’s roommate assures me I can use his Flow-Bee. I am not sure whether to be gratified or fearful. Perhaps “both” is the best answer.

Thank You! And Good Night!

I have so much to say. And say it I must. Wow. It’s late too. Will our hero say all he can? Who knows. Stay tuned.

• I really like my new job. I am learning and teaching and DOING.
• I am enjoying revisiting something from my teens: riding mass transit. I like being able to read and chill on the way to work.
• I’m appreciating working standard office hours again, I start early in the morning. It keeps me occupied and happy. It reminds me of when I worked at ARCO in downtown L.A., but in a good way.
• My car died this week. It’s a 14 year-old Toyota Corolla. It didn’t so much die as much as it is has gone lame. It rumbles in a bad way. Tonight I took it to the shop. I hope all it needs is some TLC and a tune-up.
• Cashflow is a wonderful thing. I’m still in arrears but it’s all improving. Slowly. Surely. Slow. Steady. Wins. The. Clichés.
• San Diego has become Los Angeles. It’s got a vibrant array of immigrants. It’s got better mass-transit. It’s got bohemian snotty kids. It’s got storied characters. It’s got hellacious traffic. It’s got wonderful stores featuring exotic materials from all over the world.
• We are living in the future. There are tv screens on the gas pumps. There are tv screens inside cars. There are wireless networks all over the place. I use an encrypted connection to view my personal electronic message box from work. I am able to find directions to anywhere in the city by using a hypertext system. I am able to pay bills without ever writing a check or licking a stamp. I am able to ignore events around the world and focus on the intense media celebrityhood of my nation. I can get news from anywhere I want. I converse regularly with people I have never met and only know from their online electronical personas. This is the future.
• I see Leah regularly. She remains a wonderful person to see and have adventures with.
• I missed the racquetball on ESPN today. I forgot to tape it. This disappoints me. Of course I could buy it on DVD.
• I am a terrible correspondent with many people. My Mom for one. Several other people for another. Time is so short though. But I need to get consistent about it. I want those who read this, but with whom I don’t speak regularly… to know I feel bad about it. I’m working on it. I feel people are more important than these diversions. But these diversions also sustain me. People are core. But passions are core too. How to reconcile these two? I have no idea.
• I was taken to lunch by my staffing agency this week. I had a halibut steak. It was very tasty. I also had part of a rainbow roll (a sushi roll).
• I am still badly in need of a haircut, but I will be fine I think.
• It is an amazing life.
• I am content though, even in this half-chaos.
• Tomorrow I’m going to Los Angeles, to this thing called Live From The Blogosphere!. I think I’ll be able to sponge a place to stay with some electronic pals. Did you know that The Amtrak San Diegans are no longer called that? They’re now called Pacific Surfliners. That’s important.
• I’m also going to play some racquetball. That should be good.
• I’m also going to hang out with Leah and her kids and Leah’s pal Mickele. Adventures!
• It’s a whirlwind life.
• It’s a good life.
• It’s a unique and it’s an American life. I sort of wish I was going to one of the protests this weekend.
• I was moved this week by Senator Byrds’s comments in the Senate. Read his words here.

Onward to sleep!

Blogging from the train station again. Gotta get home. I’ve a ton of stuff I’m going to post later. Some pictures too. Stay tuned or drop me a note if you want to know when I post it.

Go read the whole giant thing now: Part 1

MacOS X Machine Generated Summary: Theoretically, because I have a unix box here (this goofy, lima bean shaped computer holds 30 years of unix history in its heart of hearts) I could set a cron job to run every second or half second to try and complete a mission.

…I can’t tell if they have an AP. But many months back I went to a presentation there given by the folks who took over Ricochet, local company NetHere .

…But we (my mother and I) would take train to come visit my Grandparents (at the time, all were still alive) in San Diego.

…There is a restaurant scene and a bomb goes off, and the people who are not actually bombed, that is, dismembered and injured by the bomb, keep dining.

…Maybe the whole of the world has been living with the reality of terror for a long time.

…I start to feel very emasculated when I think about not having a car. But really I can do without for a while. I’ve gone without before, and I suppose it works out perfectly that I have a job I can get to only using mass-transit.

…The cute (well, I assume they’re cute, I’ve not seen them from the front) Japanese girls drop out of Japanese and into English to commiserate with her.

…But I think I mean something different about this “cute couple” than I meant before about “cute Japanese girls.”

…Maybe they’re not mercantilists in Florence a few hundred years ago, but there are always patrons.

Go read the whole giant thing now: Part 1

• Google Buys Pyra/Blogger.com
  http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/…
• Mothership site for the Blogosphere event:
  http://boingboing.net/blogosphere.html
• Reverse Cowgirl’s Photos:
  http://blogs.salon.com/0001437/stories/2003/02/17/liveFrom…
• Pyra’s CEO Ev, on his personal blog, on the story:
  http://evhead.com/archives/2003_02_01_archive_default.asp
• Smart Thoughts on Trackbacks, referers, and other interesting stuff Google can look at when evaluating breaking news. This is the smartest take yet. Google can sift through new blog entries for hot news in really *interesting* ways now. The theory is that Google is building the Memex. All collected human knowledge, instantaneously, and in some way they get access to this in blogger.
  http://interconnected.org/notes/2003/02/Google_buy_Pyra_2.txt
• It’s a little like DejaNews getting bought, but mostly not, and also, does this relegate non-blogger blogs to 2nd Class citizenship:
  http://www.dashes.com/anil/index.php?archives/005129.php
• The inevitable MetaFilter thread:
  http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/23612
• Doc, on the whole thing – good links and links to pages with links:
  http://doc.weblogs.com/discuss/msgReader$3141
• The New York Times story:
  http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/17/technology/17GOOG.html
• Informal Corporate Motto for Google: Don’t be evil (from November)
  http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/google.html
• Audio Blog, now slashdotted/blogdotted…
  http://www.audblog.com/
• You know, pyRads and AdWords are very similar:
  http://pyrads.com/
  https://adwords.google.com/select/
• Kottke calls it “Blogging’s Netscape IPO”
  (which is actually a compliment, I think)
  http://www.kottke.org/03/02/030216bloggings_ne.html
• The story in brief on Internet News:
  http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/1585371
• Tony Pierce on how cool as a cuke Ev is:
  http://www.tonypierce.com/blog/2003_02_16_blogarc.htm#90331511
• Still no news here:
  http://www.blogger.com/
  Or here:
  http://www.google.com/press/pressreleases.html
  Or here:
  http://www.pyra.com/
  (Noted Megnut)
  http://www.megnut.com/weblogs/002602.asp
• Tony Pierce, on who really broke the story anyway?
  http://www.tonypierce.com/blog/2003_02_16_blogarc.htm#90336284
• Kottke has a cute visual take:
  http://www.kottke.org/03/02/030217you_put_blog.html
• And my own brief thoughts embedded here:
  https://artlung.com/blog/special_2003_02_16.php

When last we saw our hero on a train, he was returning from his trip to Los Angeles. This was a most excellent trip. It included high adventure and much bemusement.

The tales of these exploits and the attendant pictures, as well as the links he culled from them have generated a nice amount of interest, and links. You can see some of the folks currently linking to me in the Referrers section. My thanks to those who have been interested in linking to my thoughts. I’m writing more, and enjoying it very much.

I’m on a train again, though this time without MacStumbler on and without a source of AC power. I’m on The Coaster, having stayed with my good friend last night in San Marcos. I got on at the Carlsbad Station. Leah got me there with a few minutes to spare. She’s a wonderful person.

My Car, a faithful companion for 14 years, is giving up the ghost. It will cost $1743 to fix it. Valve job, whatnot. I can’t afford it, and I don’t think it’s a smart investment. Further, the counsel of elders, an Aunt, my Grandfather, my girlfriend, my roommate also don’t feel it’s a hot idea. They think I should get a new car.

Mind you, I can’t afford a new car.

I can’t afford much.

Like many Americans, I’m heavily and irretrievably in debt. I need either much better cash flow, or to declare bankruptcy, or I’ll never get out from under it. As my father said last night “it’s like you’re buying a house,” which a followed up with “but I don’t get a house at the end of it.”

So I need money. And I lack a car. Luckily, my current contract, with an indefinite duration but with a verbal assurance that it will last “2 to 3 months” provides the money end. It also is in synchrony with the fact that I have no car. I am able to take mass-transit to work and can navigate the city of San Diego and outlying areas using this and this alone.

In this way I’m blessed.

Lessons.

On another topic, there is a relationship whose terms are changing. I have no idea how it will change. It is another adventure though. It hurts when things change, and yet change is really most inevitable.

But as I think of it all. It could be light-years different. It could be profoundly worse. I consider myself lucky to have friends and family who love me and support me. I have a vibrant community of online relationships who observe my life from a distance and wish me well. Does this group of loose relationships constitute a kind of church for me? A community? I have no idea, but it’s possible, because I don’t presently have a need for a formal religious community. As in all things, that may change.

The train moves past Encinitas now. The bungalows and beach condos are charming. There are surfers on Dawn Patrol. There. We just passed the North County office of Jenny’s and my Marriage and Family Counselor. There, we just passed where I house-sat late last year. And now we move into Solana Beach. It is foggy over the lagoon before the stop.

Why on earth do I blog? Why do I do this in public?

I am at a loss, but it’s not for public condemnation or praise. I would like this blog to be a conduit for finding work and for sharing my thoughts on the technical things which jazz up my life. I also want it, now I realize, as a means to share my experience. I think of the diaries of Civil War soldiers: literate men, enduring hardship, and prevailing.

Maybe that’s what this journal is, and it’s a word with explicit religious overtones: TESTIMONY. Herein I provide my testimony about my life and my work, and my experiences as a person going through this turn of the century period.

It is but one person’s testimony.

It is one on a planet of many BILLIONS.

That’s worth pondering.

As much as perhaps my story immerses and moves or bores you, there are dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions, BILLIONS more. Ponder that and try and think your problems “amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

Billions.

My seatmates are chatting. On The Coaster every set of seats is a set of four. They are pointed inward at each other. One of my seatmates points West and exclaims “Dolphins!” Sure enough, there are dorsal fins of at least three dolphins making their arcs through the water. Perhaps 300 yards offshore.

Billions of people, all with stories.

Some people think that dolphins are intelligent and in some of the same ways human beings are. And add to those billions of people dolphins. Add other mammals and how many amazing tales does this planet foster just right now. And throughout its history? So many stories on this small blue planet.

We’re in Sorrento Valley now. A third of the people exit the train (is “detrain” a word?). They are off to their jobs in San Diego’s “Tech Center.” I’ve not worked any jobs in this area. Perhaps I should. Perhaps I should find a part-time job to supplement my income. It would be more work. Well, duh. Of course it would be more work. But it would be more stress, and less diversions. I think I need to work like a dog. I want to erase what I just wrote. But perhaps there’s something. I wonder if the San Diego Union-Tribune needs a blogging correspondent. I got some stray hits to SD Bloggers from what looked like an alpha U-T blog. It was a blogspot blog. It could only help them. Despite their recent coverage of the blog world, none of their writers blog. Maybe I could consult with them. Blogger emeritus?

I want to be valued. I want to help people. I am worth being paid well for this. I have smarts and experiences and an ability to solve problems that others lack. I know this well, and hope I will truly get a “salary commensurate with experience” in my next job.

I wonder if I should beg for money here. Apparently online begging is hot. But that’s not my style. I am happy to receive books and tidbits from my various readers. Thank you, Janece and Lemur for the recent gifts you sent. But I feel there will be a way for me to make ends meet, or get afloat without resorting to the equivalent of panhandling.

Billions of people.

All these stories, all of these lives, where are they now?

My roommate’s father died early yesterday morning. He had been ill for a long while. I did not know him, and never met him. He was a San Diego Policeman for many years. By all accounts a good man. I feel bad that this happened. It was not unexpected though. He took ill a few years ago and has had a rough time. It was natural in the fullness of the time, for him to die.

Another of billions.

I pause to consider my own life. I start work very soon. We are nearly to our destination. Today I will do more ColdFusion programming. Using tools to make tools for people. Doing the work of commerce, and perhaps for the greater good.

Onward, billions.

See: http://www.barebones.com/products/bblite/index.shtml:

Thank you for your interest in BBEdit Lite. As of February 25, 2003, BBEdit Lite has been discontinued and is no longer available.

Sad. Sad. Sad.

That title is meaningless. Today was good. Work was interesting. I get a sense that the job security where I am will be good for the near term. It had been indicated to me that the gig would be 2-3 months, but I’m reading tea leaves that indicate job security through October. This is a lovely thing altogether.

Had lunch with some excellent friends slash colleagues slash men (and one woman) about town in the web sphere. Great ideas and rants exchanged.

I’m thinking of starting a tech news blog for San Diego. It’ll be an alternative take. I may need contributors. Maybe make it slashdot style? No. I don’t want a giant forum. But it would be nice to have some interaction. Perhaps it would be good as a MovableType blog with comments? It can cover news and gossip in web dev (my favorite), biotech, wireless, and the like. Could be a fun diversion. If it sucks, we kill it. Simple enough!

No progress on the car. But soon.

I opened a bank account today. A local one for when I have to get into a bank. This is a good move. Practical.

Also, I think I’m gonna kill my land-line and get a mobile phone. It too would be a helpful thing. It’s time to join the 21st Century maybe.

Incidentally, I’m writing this from the Claire de Lune Coffeehouse. It’s a public net terminal. Gotta catch the bus soon. Or maybe get a ride.

Enough for now.

Here’s a neat trick, for those of you using Safari. If you want to see the debug menu (which includes goodies like a DOM tree viewer and a “snippet viewer”, which lets you take a snippet of HTML and view it as Safari will render it, sort of like a split-screen WYSIWYG editor) just shut down Safari, open up Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

And start Safari again. To turn it off again, run the same command with a 0 instead of a 1.

via Steve Champeon on webdesign-l

Workings of the Mind redesigned/changed out their flaky backend.

See: this post to IP. Here is a (requires RealPlayer) Direct Link. Fast forward to about 28 minutes. I sensed a little smirk on Ari’s face, but how on earth can he say there’s no quid pro quo in diplomacy? The whole game is “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” And that applies whether the topic is trade or war!