2010: 121 posts.
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Snow and Trees #1
It sure has been a remarkable few months. I’ve made some folks real happy, and some folks confused, and some folks confused and happy, and some folks confused and happy, and some folks unhappy, and some folks… well, you can work it out. It’s cold where I am in Roanoke, Virginia. I’ve shoveled more snow…
- 06-Jan-2010Quote of the Day
From March, 2002: You have to have the ganas to work on web stuff. All you need is desire. The technology changes frequently, and you have to keep up. The tools we use are always playing catch-up ball with best practices in accessibility, standards compliance, usability, design, browsers. If you keep your eye on the…
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Yes, I did shovel snow.
The visual proof:
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Omar & Brother Mouzone
Two of the more vivid characters from The Wire, Omar and Brother Mouzone, which Leah, my father and I have watched over the past month with great zeal. It’s worth re-watching start-to-finish.
- 08-Jan-2010Surplus … freaks people out (QOTD)
Quote of the Day from Clay Shirky: Unfortunately for us, though, the intellectual fate of our historical generation is unlikely to matter much in the long haul. It is our misfortune to live through the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race, a misfortune because surplus always breaks more things…
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Oklahoma City Memorial
In November, as part of our cross-country trip, I visited the Oklahoma City Memorial. It was early in the morning, Leah was exhausted and sick. I took some time and wandered the grounds for a while. I took a few photos. Visiting the memorial was like visiting a church. In the film No Maps for…
- 11-Jan-2010“The Grand Canyon is a little of each”
From Paul Ford‘s Just Like Heaven in The Morning News There is tourism for the body—a trip to the Jersey Shore or Ibiza, waterparks and nightclubs. Return relaxed, brain scooped. There is tourism for the mind—a walk through the Louvre, a visit to the Liberty Bell. The Grand Canyon is a little of each.
- 12-Jan-2010Bloomberg on the Economy with Tom Keene Podcast: Paid Subscription
Bloomberg On the Economy with Tom Keene went to paid subscription only on their podcast. Suddenly in my iTunes all their podcasts are all under 10 minutes in length and exhort the listener to subscribe to get the whole show. I’ve been listening for what seems like 2 years and enjoyed many of their guests….
- 12-Jan-2010“This is free genius tv advice.”
David Letterman comments on TV shenanigans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN6Q2YFFteQ
- 12-Jan-2010Google reviewing business operations in China
Official Google Blog: A new approach to China: These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing…
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Enterprise
There’s something wonderful about looking up at a Space Shuttle. Even if the whole project was sort of a half-step and not really in keeping with getting us out there. It was okay for getting us into orbit, but we really need to get, gone, daddy-o. I went to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, part…
- 15-Jan-2010Clay Shirky’s rant about women
Terrifc rant from my favorite internet pundit, Clay Shirky: And it looks to me like women in general, and the women whose educations I am responsible for in particular, are often lousy at those kinds of behaviors, even when the situation calls for it. They aren’t just bad at behaving like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks. They…
- 16-Jan-2010Roanoke Users Groups
I’ve spent some time yesterday compiling a list of users groups here in Roanoke, Virginia. I’ve placed that at https://artlung.com/techroanoke/. When we first arrived here in late November I was quite happy to have found the Roanoke .NET Users Group, though the fact that I’m not particularly a Microsoft developer is a hindrance to my…
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Rainy Sunday morning
It’s a rainy Sunday morning. One could do worse than to spend it with Bas. He’s one of the more affectionate cats I’ve ever met.
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A jumpsuit and shoes
Quote of the day, from a children’s book about the year 2010 written in 1972: 2010: Living in the Future (via waxy.org): In the year 2010 everyone wears a jumpsuit and shoes. The clothes may look odd, but they are sensible. The jumpsuits and shoes are made in thousands of colors, from a material so…
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Jacob Lake Campground
At Christmastime, which Leah and I spent in Kanab, Utah with family, I drove south towards the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I took a few photos on the drive. Kanab’s elevation is 4,970 feet — there was a very slight amount of snow on the cliffs near Kanab and lingering in the town…
- 18-Jan-2010Mark Cuban’s counterintuitive take on NBC’s talk show moves
Mark Cuban has a counterintuitive take on the changes NBC tried with regards to late night tv in his latest post: Why are we condemning Jeff Zucker & NBC over Leno? In today’s corporate world, if you don’t take the risks, you don’t get skewered on blogs, on cable news, in the newspaper. Public condemnation…
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Downed big rig (from December 2009)
Back in December there was some pretty impressive weather around here. I had never seen a big rig truck downed by weather before. The traffic after it was scary. We’re glad we weren’t out in the weather when the snow came down so hard.
- 23-Jan-2010“Information Architecture” explained
Making the rounds: explaining information architecture from Dan Klyn on Vimeo.
- 24-Jan-2010People ages 1 to 100
Wonderful. People In Order: 1. Age from James Price on Vimeo.
- 24-Jan-2010Brian Eno, always interesting
You can read selected quotes below or simply click through to: On gospel, Abba and the death of the record: an audience with Brian Eno: On the intensity of ideas: “If you grow up in a very strong religion like Catholicism you certainly cultivate in yourself a certain taste for the intensity of ideas. You…
- 24-Jan-2010A trapped moment from July, 2009
Part of running WordPress is that when you start a post, your draft will get saved. It looks like on 21 July 2009 I cut and pasted this — I think from a quick email I sent with my cell phone to Leah while I was visiting my Grandparents for a while. Thanks for the…
- 25-Jan-2010Prop 8 Trial Coverage
If you were interested in Proposition 8 court coverage from those working against Prop 8, you might check out: http://firedoglake.com/prop8trial/ and http://prop8trialtracker.com/.
- 25-Jan-2010The Comics Journal: Online & Off
For some cultural things I much prefer the journalism about a thing more than the thing itself. Sports is one area, for example, I really enjoy the reporting of Bob Costas and HBO’s Real Sports show. Another area where the reportage gets more attention than the thing itself is in comics. You may or may…
- 25-Jan-2010Why can’t American airport security be run more like Israeli?
While North America’s airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification. That is, how can we make our airports more like Israel’s, which deal with far greater terror threats with far less inconvenience. “It is mind boggling for us Israelis to…
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Apple to retcon the PADD
PADD = “PADD” is an acronym for Personal Access Display Device, a hand-held computer interface, used as early as the 22nd century and well into the 24th century. Supposedly Apple Computer of Cupertino, California will be retconning the PADD in about an hour. I will defer to Jason Kottke on what the best sources of…
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I finished Red Remover
Altogether, Red Remover was pretty hard. If I finish a silly Flash game I don’t necessarily take a screenshot, but this one was pretty darn hard.
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Snowed yesterday
A lot. It caused the event I was going to go to: NC jQuery Camp, to get postponed till later in February. I’m still looking forward to a North Carolina adventure in coding. So we were snowed in Saturday, except for some preliminary snow shoveling I did. Today, Sunday started at 5am and I went…
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creativity is… (according to google)
This is a reply to @leahpeah‘s tweet: Could you please fill in the last part of the sentence? Creativity is…..?: Here’s what other people are thinking as of today, says google:
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30 Rock Appreciation
I have now looked at everything on the (not-safe-for-work named) blank yeah liz lemon. I was laughing maniacally at this site. Why? I don’t know, it’s not like I’ve not seen the images and heard the lines spoken, still, I laughed. Two selections, they may not make you laugh if you don’t watch the show,…
- 02-Feb-2010“That’s trouble of some kind George.”
“That’s trouble of some kind George.” Challenger Explosion amateur video footage. Still breaks my heart.
- 07-Feb-2010TED TALK: Tom Shannon
Leah, I think you will like this one.
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jQuery Southwest Virginia
I have no presumptions about how many folks in Southwest Virginia are JavaScript programmers and jQuery fans, but given the nice interface jQuery has given for meetups (they are using ning under the hood), I thought I’d set up a meetup for Roanoke / Blacksburg / New River Valley folks who program in JavaScript. If…
- 11-Feb-2010Quote of the Day, E-Government, Snow Shoveling
My quote of the day, for February 3, 2010, was from Rob McNealy: Why I Am Running as a Libertarian for Colorado’s CD 6: We hear every time the Republicans or Democrats lose the White House, that they need to “rebuild” the party, or that they “need to take the party back.” If the parties…
- 12-Feb-2010Elna Baker on The Sound of Young America
I’m married into a family of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, so when a person has that background comes into my other cultural interests I take note. Elna Baker is a comedian and writer who was pretty fun. Worth a listen. I’ve embedded this audio interview below: The Sound of Young America
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Stack Overflow Reputation
It’s been about a year since I have been on Stack Overflow. Stack Overflow is a site for computer programmers of all skill levels to ask and answer questions. It works pretty great, and I have gotten some good answers there. Stack Overflow uses a point system to measure reputation as a number. It also…
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Happy Valentine’s Day!
For Leah: image via thisisnthappiness
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WordPress Graphical Post Count Visualization
I’m playing with a new theme for my blog, and wanted a better way to let people quickly scan for how many posts I had. So I used a background image of black, offset with background-position in css to let a graph “show through” to show the count. I’ve also posted the PHP and CSS…
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Pardon my dust. Plus, ancient “under construction” GIFs.
As I mentioned, I’m playing with the blog theme, including the archive footer. Things may look a little odd, or error, in the interim. I hope not much. Pardon my dust. Clearly, it’s time for an animated under construction sign (warning, your eyes may be repulsed by that page full of old animated GIFs): And…
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Revisiting my workspace from 2002.
So I mentioned working on my blog theme today, and rejiggering my archive pages, for example December 2002. I’m liking looking at each month and year’s posts sequentially. It has given me a chance to revisit some old posts, for example: Back in the saddle again. In it, I talk about a bunch of things,…
- 15-Feb-2010Audioblogger.com posts recovered.
Last night I was giddy with happiness to find my missing audioblogger.com posts (all 8 of them) on web.archive.org. I had all but given up on ever finding these old files. If I recall, the features of Audioblogger were provided free to users of Blogger. I am quite sentimental about the posts from December 2004,…
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Liz Prince
Today’s comic from Liz Prince is adorable. No, really, ADORABLE. Have you clicked through yet? Because it’s really adorable. Seriously, click.
- 15-Feb-2010On Foursquare, nobody knows if you’re in the North Pole.
(title of this post modeled on “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”) Puzzle & Processing maven Jim Bumgardner had quite a week! In his post Mayor of the North Pole today he detailed the shenanigans he got into playing with Foursquare, The Foursquare API, and curl. I saw him speak at BarCampLA 7…
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Playing around with deformed images
The other day the super-cool Pinguino was asking about the effect you get when an image does not download properly. I had wondered about it before, so I opened some images, tore out a big chunk of the underlying data, and looked at them. The first is what it looks like when a GIF is…
- 20-Feb-2010NC JavaScript & jQuery Camp
I had a lot of fun at Durham’s “NC JavaScript & jQuery Camp” today. Lots of driving, but even more learning and connection-making. I was particularly happy to create my first <canvas> drawing from watching @miketaylr‘s slides on HTML5. Here’s the source: <html> <head> <script> window.onload = function() { var ctx = document.querySelector('#c').getContext('2d'); ctx.lineWidth =…
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Leahpeah Photo by Chookooloonks
Excellent photo of Leah by chookooloonks the beautiful faces of mom 2.0. It sounds like Leah had a good time at Mom 2.0 Summit
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San Francisco, BlogHer, and Me
Sometimes, drafts of posts sit in “draft” mode for a long time. I drafted this in August of 2008, a year and a half ago. I’m updating it as best I can and pushing it out into the world. For the past two years, my wife Leah has attended the main BlogHer Conference. The first…
- 22-Feb-2010Capricorn One
Capricorn One is a favorite movie of mine. If it’s on TV, particularly if it’s on widescreen, I can scarcely avoid it. It came out in 1978. I saw it the year it came out. It left a big impression on me. Part of my fascination was that there can be things that are stated…
- 22-Feb-2010Larry King: Carvelle Story, Moppo Story
Back in 2002 I ripped some audiotapes I had of two stories told by Larry King. I said: …some Larry King stories I had taped from his old Mutual radio show back in 1986 — The famed “Carvelle Story” and “Moppo Story” — very funny stuff I had been reluctant to post them out of…
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Enact Partners Website Refurbish
I did a bit of website work for Enact Partners, and these changes are now live. I did a basic refurbishment of their site with an emphasis on making it more visible in search engines. The technical problem was that all of the text of the site was hidden as images. Without “alt” attributes an…
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Pinguino made a duct tape dress
Designer, cartoonist, cool person Pinguino made a dress out of duct tape. That is awesome. More photos.
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Zappa Plays Zappa
On Saturday, December 13, 2008, I had the pleasure to see Zappa Plays Zappa. I failed to write extensively about it, I only mentioned it. I had a wonderful time. You can see other writings where I mention Mr. Zappa by viewing blog posts tagged “frank-zappa”. And of course there is my old short piece…
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Stupid Relentless Cancer
I have written about my Mom and her struggle with cancer before, starting in 2007: here and here and here and here and here and here. Here we are, in 2010, two and a half years later and my Mom keeps moving forward. All the energy on display in those prior blog posts is there…
- 23-Feb-2010Jesse Schell: Beyond Facebook
Making the rounds today is a talk by Jesse Schell, of Schell Games who is an instructor at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He also has a blog called Things I Finished. His talk is full of insights that are very vivid. Here is the video of his talk from DICE, and…
- 25-Feb-2010Lyrics of the Day; Dialogue of the Day
Don’t Forget Your Old Shipmates: Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack. Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack. Long we’ve tossed on the rolling main, now we’re safe ashore, Jack. Don’t forget yer old shipmates, faldee raldee raldee raldee rye-eye-doe! We have worked the self-same gun,…
- 26-Feb-2010A Movie About Chatroulette
I have not used it. This movie encapsulates why Chatroulette is cool, and also why I probably won’t ever use it. Waxy pointed to this video first, I think. Danah Boyd writes about what is extraordinary about the Chatroulette. There are a few curse words in the video.
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Paul M Bowers
In this post from 8 years ago, I mention Paul M Bowers, a photographer that was around the corner from us at AVENCOM in San Diego. He took many of our photos. I thought I’d check out his site, http://www.paulmbowers.com/, and see how it had changed. I’m actually sort of delighted that it is the…
- 26-Feb-2010TPM Barnett on social networking technology
It’s about the people and relationships first, technology second: I think one of the reasons why such connecting technologies get underappreciated or underused is that we manage to cast the whole process as some revolutionary new mode of behavior, when it’s not. The same interpersonal skills apply, it’s merely the scope and speed that changes….
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Measuring weight loss with a belt
I don’t have a scale handy that is capable of giving my weight, but I’m skeptical about whether that number is meaningful anyway. What is meaningful is the amount of belt I could be using. It looks like about 6 inches (a little more than 15 cm) of loss on my waist in the past…
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The Sky Above The Port
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. (image via suddenly and crossposted to Nueva Ciudad)
- 02-Mar-2010Demonically Energized, by Stew
Demonically Energized L.A.’s ruled by gurus, and New York’s ruled by shrinks: at least that’s what my uncle, in Kansas thinks. He’s got all my records; they’ve been thoroughly analyzed. He’s come to the conclusion I’m demonically energized. He said “If you choose to engage, in experimental sex, or write freakish novels that are willfully…
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Migrating an old Blogger blog to WordPress
I’m an expert now at migrating old Blogger Blogs. Google, the owner of Blogger, has decided to shut off FTP posting, which has left many people stranded. They could have improved their algorithms, instead, things are shut off. I am now a reluctant expert at migrating Blogger blogs to WordPress. If you have a more…
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Blog Migration, Lura.net
Speaking of blog migrations from Blogger to WordPress, here’s a successful one: Initially Lura was hosted under Windows and IIS. PHP was installed on her former server, but it did not really respond appropriately and the various IIS/WordPress/”mod_rewrite” hacks did not seem to work. So I advised her to move to PHP/Apache. Things went pretty…
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Fussy.org To WordPress
The inestimable, very funny Eden Kennedy was also stuck with Blogger. So she and her over 1200 posts and 15000 comments (!) were stuck on Blogger without FTP. I’m proud to announce that in the main, things are moved over and working anew. I’ve done the redirects for old archives, though there are some custom…
- 04-Mar-2010Blogger FTP Migration Tool: Does not account for your images
Blogger has done work to create a migration tool for Blogger FTP users and is doing great communication. You can move to a blogspot blog, (which you could do before) or change from self-hosting to being hosted by Blogger/Google by changing the DNS to point at Google’s servers. This is similar to how tumblr handles…
- 05-Mar-2010Cloud computing described by Larry Ellison
Apparently this “cloud” thing is made of computers, it’s not just water vapor. Funny video featuring Larry Ellison. via Daring Fireball
- 06-Mar-2010Ze Frank seeking experiences with death in the digital age
He says: if you have had someone close to you pass away in the last few years, i would really like to hear about your experiences related to the web. This can be anything from trying to find a funeral home or caskets, to trying to create a memorial site, or dealing with a remnant…
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Leahpeah: All WordPress now
Leah asked me to implement a simple redesign she had cooked up. She was tired of the heavy and dense site she had, and I am responsible for turning her new design into a clean, purely WordPress driven site. It seems to work well so far. See Leahpeah: flawed but authentic. I moved a fair…
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New site for Tyler
A new site launch, for Tyler Peterson, my stepson who I am extremely proud of. Here’s a screenshot: Once again, Balsamiq Mockups has proved awesome for quickly getting to agreement about basic layout and design. Check it out, particularly if you’re a college who wants to give a talented running back, great student, and very…
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Sweet actress, or The Sweetest actress?
Amy Adams recently confessed that she sometimes finds herself acting like her Gisele character from the movie “Enchanted” to please her young fans. She tells, “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to explain to little girls, ‘Shhh, I’m in disguise!’ One time I was at an airport and I was spotted by…
- 12-Mar-2010Misc about SXSW
I am not at South by Southwest. Leah is. I went, myself, back in 2001. That’s 9 years ago. Austin was a great town and I had fun. These many years later what stands out is meeting the folks from evolt at Evoltageddon 2. That was fun–really fun actually — The Ginger Man was a…
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nuevaciudad.tumblr.com
Since September 2009 I, and my friend CPG have been posting photos and videos to New City: nuevaciudad.tumblr.com. It’s been a great chance for me to try out Tumblr. I think it’s a great, focused tool. It’s blogging for people who are not interested in the blogosphere. It’s great for sharing images, and it can…
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“Fun” with Gallery 1.5.3, 1.5.10, 2, 3RC1; Leahpeah photos
I mentioned moving Leah over to WordPress a few days ago, and that went well. I’ve been migrating over her prior content and deleting unused content a bit since then. In rooting through the site, I came across this: … which we put in place when there were folks deeplinking some larger images on her…
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I bet you didn’t know Leahpeah had a podcast
Started in 2007, two episodes so far. Here’s the raw RSS podcast feed, and here’s the iTunes Preview Page, and here’s the equivalent Zune page. I think the Leahpeah Podcast is due for a new episode. Tech background: I used mp3feed.php as the core of this podcast script. The Making a Podcast documentation from Apple…
- 18-Mar-2010Most Commented Page and Shortcode
Gary Come Home (18) I am 36. (17) Listening, Thinking, and Gestating. (14) San Francisco Suggestions? (14) Ché the Cat 1997-2006 (12) Migrating an old Blogger blog to WordPress (12) Today: The Day (11) Posts That Might Be (11) I’m 37. (11) Mom and the Cancer (11) My Name in Japanese, 1987 (10) Are you…
- 19-Mar-2010
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I am 40.
40 I’m not sure why exactly they call it “The Big Four Oh.” It is startlingly common to hear it called that. My mom, my mother-in-law. Maybe everyone calls it that. I don’t remember 30 being called “The Big Three Oh” though. I’m not sure what I think about turning 40 yet. I feel pretty…
- 22-Mar-2010Chatroulette: Merton, Ben Folds
The wonder serendipity that was part of the net I remember now gets YouTubed and shared back with the world. I wrote about Chatroulette last month, here’s some wonderful video that is internet + piano + video + flash-enabled randomized connected chat. It’s a wonderful selection. Note: there are swear words. I still like Ben…
- 22-Mar-2010Very frank talk on Conservative Media from a conservative
Frank talk about the interests of governance vs. conservative media in David Frum: Waterloo: I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives…
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Which American Accent Do You Have?
“Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing up.” That sounds right. In Islands in the Net I think Sterling refers to the homogenization of American accents as the result of the flattening aspects of “the net.” Net English, I think it how he describes it. Consuming a lot of media–television–I’m sure has had…
- 23-Mar-2010Awesome blog post about Stew fanhood.
color me passing strange on the BOX blog is worth a read for Stew, Negro Problem and Passing Strange fans. It aligns with many of my own experiences, particularly the Adams Avenue Music festival and Java Joe’s in Ocean Beach. It also links to some of the lyrics I have posted over the years. Stew,…
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The day my twitter icon showed up on local TV
Okay, maybe not that exciting. See it on a local tv station WSLS: Jay Learns How To Tweet. A screenshot:
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Collaboration
Back in January, Leah posted a scan of a thank you card we made together. That was really fun to make.
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Using tags: “Drawings”; How I use WordPress get_the_image()
If you’re like me, maybe you have a pile of posts in your WordPress database. I have 3426 posts in here. It’s a giant database of stuff. Good stuff, bad stuff, short stuff, long stuff. Slicing and dicing that content in a way that makes sense, or that allows you to find what you have…
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“I have been and always shall be your friend.”
“This is your thirty-fifth attempt to elicit an emotional response from me.” “Is there a problem officer?”
- 01-Apr-2010April Fool’s Day
For me, I think April Fool’s Day will always be about April Fool’s, 1988. It’s a day to reflect on how far I’ve progressed, and not progressed as a communicator. It’s a mixed bag, and I’m taking it one day at a time. As for April Fool’s Day itself: every year websites do more and…
- 04-Apr-2010Cowpunk, by Scott Goddard: Lyrics
And I look over yonder tell me what do I see? can it be a see a special angel built specially for me? with that long black hair yeah her eyes are so bright yeah she looks real good underneath the bar lights She drives a new Thunderbird owns a stack of credit cards yeah…
- 04-Apr-2010Just Got Lucky, by the JoBoxers: Lyrics
Your technique it leaves me weak my heart knows it’s the beat I seek and I found it (just got lucky) oh yes I found it (just got lucky) I never worry that your love is fake I’m free and easy and I’m feeling jake ’cause I found it (just got lucky) oh boy I…
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More thumbnailin’: photos
Check it out at posts tagged “photos”. This follows up this post where I talk about posts tagged “drawings.”
- 06-Apr-2010Pre-Gaga Gaga.
The first time I heard of Lady Gaga it was from Krisztianna. At the time I thought her fandom of Miss Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was delusional or maybe even ironic. As it turns out, Lady Gaga actually has quite a lot going on for her. She’s worked hard, and for many years to create…
- 09-Apr-2010Pixels, by Patrick Jean
A visual treat for Friday. via jwz.
- 10-Apr-2010“Lucky” – an iTunes playlist
The Luckiest – Ben Folds Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye – The Black Crowes The Poignant & Epic Saga Of Featherhead And Lucky Lack – Blues Traveler Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin Lucky Bag – Electronic Lucky Bag (Miami Edit) – Electronic Luck Be A Lady – Frank Sinatra Hard Luck Woman – Garth…
- 10-Apr-2010Malcolm McLaren is dead.
Most famous for being a rock empresario. For the Sex Pistols. For Punk theory. For Bow Wow Wow. Dead at age 64. He could be a lot of fun. Here’s Buffalo Gals, 1983: I don’t remember this video, or the nudity, but the song sounds like the 1980s to me. I always liked the song….
- 11-Apr-2010Apple 3.3.1 iPhone changes cause uproar
I have been watching iPhone development for a while. I’ve played in it and with it and been fascinated by it. The latest changes, where Apple is proposing to disallow alternate languages and runtimes to make iPhone apps. What it says is: 3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by…
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Massive Sqwertz
Psst… just between you and me, can I tell you about a new webcomic I think you should look forward to? I’ve known Brett Jackson since sometime in the 20th Century. At the time I believe he was the prime mover in the San Diego Macromedia Users Group. He is soft-launching a webcomic, and I…
- 21-Apr-2010Progeny Film Festival; Blacksburg
This past weekend Leah and I went down to Blacksburg and attended (most of) the Progeny Film Festival. These were student and community-made films and they showed real promise. I have a soft spot for student film. The Festival was held at The Lyric Theater, which has an interesting history. The film I liked best…
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Random Affirmation
Small project that, on click, loads new affirmations. A photo from Leah, some jQuery with AJAX, and voila. I like it. If anyone has suggestions for a “random thing of the day” type thing, please let me know. The JavaScript I code to attach the behavior is: $.ajax( {type: "POST" , url: "generate-affirmation.php" , beforeSend:…
- 01-May-2010I did not post in May 2010.
This is just a placeholder.
- 01-Jun-2010I did not post in June 2010
This is just a placeholder.
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Flawed But Authentic
Several years ago my amazing wife Leah put together a blog called Flawed But Authentic and populated it with wonderful writers. It had a very nice heyday, but then, it stopped. It was a really cool idea though, and it made me sad to see a cool idea grow moribund and die. So, I’ve fixed…
- 01-Aug-2010I did not post in August 2010
This is just a placeholder.
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Brass in Pocket
’cause I gon’ make you see nobody else here no one like me I’m special (Special) so special (Special)
- 15-Oct-2010Phyllis Crawford, Roanoke, Virginia
Update, October 27, 2010 In the early morning, October 27, 2010, Phyllis Crawford died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family. Details about services will be posted at a later date. She died as she lived, defying and exceeding expectations. We pray we can honor her memory, and we thank everyone for the outpouring of…
- 23-Oct-2010Phyllis Singing Karaoke
She did not want to sing karaoke, she was pretty clear about that. So the crowd (which is to say her sisters and cousins and family) let her be. Then, after a while, she got up and sang a wee bit of Sinatra. That’s part of the spirit that has everyone remembering her and saying…
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On the Eve of Jim & Phyllis’ Wedding
This is a time capsule from the night before my parents were married in June of 1968. It’s an audiotape made by my uncle Jerry at my Parent’s rehearsal dinner. It’s quite remarkable. Who will you hear? Who? Age James Crawford 21 Groom Phyllis Silva 22 Bride Art Silva Father of the Bride…
- 24-Oct-2010Phyllis Silva Crawford’s Life Lessons
In 2010, Phyllis Crawford’s daughter-in-law Leah Peterson asked her to contribute to a book about the lessons learned in life. These are what she shared. I believe we were created by God and when we get to the end of our life he won’t be concerned with our job title or financial status. I think…
- 27-Oct-2010Update On My Mom’s Condition
See: Phyllis Crawford, Roanoke, Virginia
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Phyllis Crawford, Obituary
Phyllis (Silva) Crawford, 64, of Roanoke, Virginia, daughter of Jesus and Phyllis Silva of San Diego, California, died on October 27, 2010 after a three year and four month battle with Stage IV renal cell carcinoma. Phyllis was a devoted wife, mother and friend. She was an active parishioner of Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic…
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Mom playing Words With Friends on her iPod Touch on the front porch
My Mom played this game with my Sister on a little iPod touch here at the house. When Leah and I arrived here in November of 2009 we introduced more and more technology. Leah taught her to use her cellphone to send text messages. It was a blast to get messages from my Mom with…
- 09-Nov-2010Grief
Grief is lightning swift. Appearing at intervals that seem random. Overpowering. Agonizing. Then gone as swiftly as it comes. Irritating.
- 19-Nov-2010Phyllis Crawford: Memorial Mass DVD, Donations
Two Mom related items for today: For those of you who are friends and family of Phyllis, we have made a DVD of the Memorial Mass for her held at Our Lady of Nazareth Church on November 6, 2010. Just send me your address and we’ll get it out to you. Also, We have been…
- 20-Nov-2010Ave Maria, a favorite of my Mom
Ave Maria was a favorite song of my Mom’s. It was played at her Wedding on June 15, 1968 at St. Rita’s Catholic Church in San Diego, California. And it was also played at her beautiful Memorial Mass on November 6, 2010 at Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia. Below are both…
- 22-Nov-2010Painful Rebirth
In some ways, I feel as though I’m reborn. Not precisely in the sense that some Christian sects refer to being “born again”–but not entirely dissimilar. I find myself really missing the fact that my Mom is reading this blog and can send me an email in reply. I miss the fact that occasionally she…
- 29-Nov-2010Thanksgiving Trip Redux
Leah and I went back to California for Thanksgiving. Highlights included Thanksgiving with a turkey roasted in a Hotel room, quality time with the kids, who are now ages 16 to 21 and we are so proud of them; a playoff game for the boys that they unfortunately lost; seeing Tangled, which was good, going…
- 02-Dec-2010K-R Grief Observation
In Wikipedia, about the Kübler-Ross model, it’s said of the “5 stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance)” this (the emphasis is mine): Kübler-Ross claimed these steps do not necessarily come in the order noted above, nor are all steps experienced by all patients, though she stated a person will always experience at least…
- 06-Dec-2010QOTD: Clay Shirky on Wikileaks and the US Government
Quote of the Day, from Clay Shirky’s Wikileaks and the Long Haul: The key, though, is that democracies have a process for creating such restrictions, and as a citizen it sickens me to see the US trying to take shortcuts. The leaders of Myanmar and Belarus, or Thailand and Russia, can now rightly say to…
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Batman
(this week: was sick, and my dad was sick, and leah was sick, and our van got worked on, and it snowed like crazy, and my laptop pretty much died without good backups, and i fixed the laptop and got a backup system in place, and i shoveled snow, and my dad got better, and…
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6 Years Married
Today marks Leah’s and my six year anniversary. I am so thankful she is in my life. No marriage is “easy,” but some are rewarding partnerships filled with love and adventure. Thank you, Leah, for sharing our lives together.
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Merry Christmas!
Sure miss my Mom today, but the spirit of joy is alive and well. And it’s snowing like crazy today. Very Christmas-y. Also, footnote for this poster.
- 25-Dec-2010Fairytale of New York, selectively annotated.
(bold items sung by Kirsty MacColl) (otherwise sung by Shane McGowan) (bold and red by both) (lyrics from pogues.com) On YouTube, a live version, and an incomplete version. It was Christmas Eve babe In the drunk tank An old man said to me “Won’t see another one” And then he sang a song The Rare…
- 29-Dec-2010Danny Trejo’s Prayer
Lord, if you’re there, it’ll be okay, if not, I’m screwed. And a bonus quote from Danny Trejo: “Everything good that has happened in my life, has been a direct result of helping someone else.” from Champion