san-diego

Still feverish. Nasal congestion ahoy! Cough productive now. I would rather move than be sick right now. That’s pretty bad.

Some miscellaneous items for you:

Hindsight is 20/20: quotes about Iraq from before we started: Voices: The Quotes That Sent Us To War. My favorite:

“Having defeated and then occupied Iraq, democratizing the country should not be too tall an order for the world’s sole superpower.” – William Kristol, Weekly Standard editor, and Lawrence F. Kaplan, New Republic senior editor, 2003-02-24

Around my house we try to avoid the word “should.” Maybe that’s why.

Also, Pinguino moved her blog to DeviantArt, and in my opinion she needed RSS, so I set it up using these instructions. It took all of five minutes.

Jenn moved her blog and today wrote about a new blog type deal in San Diego. It sounds promising!

Something I missed not being in San Diego. Excellent, inspiring, beautiful cover of the one-hit-wonder. The date on the YouTube video is 2006. The band “The Wrong Trousers” is active on their myspace: http://www.thewrongtrousersband.com/. via Waxy, where many good things come from

The language in this is not safe for work, but the sentiments are important: How to Irritate and Annoy People in the Name of Blogging

A lot of people I know or know of are blogging about the fires in San Diego: Sassy, JeSais, MAS, MissEwon, Chuck, and Geoff. Also, people I haven’t met: Raph Koster, Cocky Bastard.

Google is changing their PageRank algorithm? is a question/inference the blogosphere is drawing. The working theory is it’s for selling links. They’re diluting PageRank. I’ve had several offers to buy links here on ArtLung.com—and I’ve turned them all down. Typically the link buyers want the links to be permanent, as in, forever and ever. No. I don’t do forever and ever unless you pay me big big big bigtime.

While we fight fires, China launched a lunar probe. In 2001 I posted a story that they’d have a man on the moon by 2005. They didn’t make that, but a moon probe is pretty good. In 2003 I blogged Bruce Sterling’s Wired op-ed on a China-India Space Race.

High School band covers Zappa. Wow.

GIMP 2.4 is out. I’m going to try it out. The interface is not PhotoShoppish enough though. via Paul Slocum of Tree Wave.

Dorothy (of Cat and Girl)’s computer is broken. Sad.

There are two free songs on http://www.stewsongs.com/ right now: Black Men Ski (previously mentioned here) and Pastry Shop (previously). Also, I moved Stew’s blog to a subdomain a few weeks ago: http://stewsez.artlung.com/.

Jason Scott, who was interviewed by Leah and the BBS Documentary, writes about two subjects which make me wax nostalgic for Amiga: Fred Fish’s death, and The Juggler raytraced animation. That animation was truly magic at the time. It was like looking at an alien spacecraft, and there it was for me to study and think about. I never got to render anything, the programming was too inscrutable for me. I did like to mess with DPaint though. Which makes me think about the fact that I’ve been doing computer graphics for 25 years, since I was 13 years old.

Man, I really do like that Endicott song. Seriously.

Be safe out there people. Onward.

Fires to the northwest, northeast, to the southeast. We get smoke, everything smells of smoke. No school closings tomorrow, says Moorpark Unified School District.

It all reminds me of the fires in San Diego back in 2003.

San Diego Bloggers – Changes July – August!
In the past 2 months we’ve had a bunch more San Diego blogs (which is to say any blog in San Diego County – it could be Oceanside or Vista or El Cajon or Lakeside or Solana Beach) added to SDBloggers. It’s been really cool seeing this site evolve. Blogs come, they go. Lots of interesting reading…
07/02/2002 Chris’s Marathon RunningBlog
07/03/2002 the world according to bill
07/03/2002 penguinspeak
07/10/2002 HybridEmotion
07/10/2002 blue monster
07/10/2002 The Indepundit
07/11/2002 {Hairy Toes & Lemonade Rhino}
07/11/2002 a day in the life of Aegan the Elf
07/15/2002 aucella.net
07/15/2002 The Hsu Box
07/15/2002 AndrewPhelps
07/25/2002 Odd Man Out
07/25/2002 Under My Skin
07/25/2002 drew
07/28/2002 penniepie online
07/29/2002 Horologium
08/05/2002 A Still Verdictless Life
08/07/2002 in my mind’s zen garden
08/07/2002 Ron’s Ramblings
08/19/2002 One-Trick CyberPony
08/20/2002 katerhealy
08/22/2002 Fish-EYE
08/22/2002 romandiaz.com
08/27/2002 jason.evans.online

Blog Notes Dump
I made some cursory notes for myself prior to the radio show. Here are the broad strokes of what I had on my mind. Of course, Only pieces of these were mentioned by me. Ah well, next time.

Blogs:
– age of web?
– age of internet?
– diary of a nobody
– rss, amphetadesk
– daypop
– metafilter
– marc andreeson (1st blog?)
– google
– googlebombs
– rebecca blood’s history
– san diego bloggers
– 9/11
– best blogs
– best sd blogs
– international
– referrers
– kaycee nicole
– hits
– stats
– feedback
– regional
– links
– photos
– personal journal
– topical
– punditry
– camgirls
– tipping and wishlists
– audience
– comments
– warblogging
– right wing?

Radio Followup—Email | Phone | Web
Got a bunch of little notes during and after the radio show last night. Let’s attempt to address them, shall we?

Matt Haughey thought it was pretty cool, a high compliment considering he’s the Philosopher King of Metafilter (and a nice guy too).

And about the question of whether I am the real me in this journal, my friend MissEwon says: i think your online persona is pretty much the real you, maybe a tad more serious and a little less goofy.—which is a nice thing to say, I think.

Someone named Maya asks:
I’m wondering if you’d like to share with us what happened between you and Jenny or if that is one subject you’re not planning on exposing on the web?
Which is a fair question. I will answer this way: I think the specifics are things that I’ve alluded to. We are in joint counseling, and working at understanding how our 6 year relationship got into a space where it took a separation to keep us alive and remind us we are alive. I had always known that relationships are work. I was told this many times. I never felt it until my wife left me. But the question of how much or how little to talk about in this public place is an interesting one. And yes, I do struggle with it.

My sister had very nice things to say, and also made this observation: Life is so surreal, strange, and funny sometimes. I definitely agree 100% with that assessment.

My sister’s boyfriend Daniel also sent me some pictures of my parents listening to me via a little iMac with Windows Media Player. Fun to see them in the midst of listening. I don’t think I’m going to post the pictures. But they are awesome. And my parents are awesome. They drove several hours to hear that on Daniel+Kelly’s broadband connection. And also to see the special edition of Cinema Paradiso.

I received a few other notes, but I’ll be replying via email to them.

When I got home, I had two messages on my answering machine. One was my Grandmother & Grandfather, and the other was my Mom. They were very complimentary. It was very sweet of them to call. I guess I didn’t blow it. Not that the show was mine to blow, really. Hm. I think I often take more responsibilities for things than I should.

Some new inbound links, and web mentions: Joan mentioned me, and my appearance on the radio yesterday. She also added me as a sidebar link on her site. Her permalinks are not working right now, or I would point directly at what she had to say. She seems pretty cool altogether. I’m sure I’ll meet her eventually at a San Diego Blog Meetup. And Mitch has added me as a sidebar link, which is a great compliment. Lester also mentioned me in his blog yesterday.

Impressions of The Radio
All in all it went well. The studio was intimate. The conversation before during, and after the show was good. Smart people talking is always interesting. They gave me a water bottle but I didn’t drink it. I was very focused on being on the blog, and trying to keep track of the conversation. I don’t think it’s possible to be blogging and listening at the same time. Unless you’re transcribing a conversation, I guess. I had met both Mitch and Lester before, so that was not new. All the people at the KPBS studio were really nice. The place is kind of a fortress – the hallways are very much like those in the open credits of the (old) TV show Get Smart. I think I would go on the radio again, it was a nice feeling. Definitely an ego boost, and a chance to plug myself, but also a chance to share what I think I’ve learned. I do that here on this site, on the WebSanDiego.org Mailing List, and in many venues online. And even personally, I’m always trying to share useful information with people. It’s how I’m wired.

Today I’ll be taking a trip. Not sure if there will be updates from the trip. Time will tell.

And as my mantra goes: Onward.

Being referred to now. Scary.

Mitch is talking with erudition. Nice.

Lester now. He’s rad. Being asked about coming ‘out.’ Big questions.

It’s evolving. Doing some updates in emacs.

Dirk looking over my6 shoulder as I update. Cool.

bak from the break.

Lots of personal questions. (squirm). But it was cool. Dirk asks good questions.

Lester discussing Kaycee Nicole. Good topic for blogs. Reality vs. Fiction.

Paying attention to the converstion makes it hard to blog.

Yikes. They keep talking about me blogging.

Short break.

Back.

Lester plugging Electroluxe. Cool. He read a good entry.

Taking calls now. A person talking about her livejournal.

Tara! calling! She’s got two sites that are dead from san diego bloggers.

Wrapping it up. Nice. Went well. Already have gotten several pieces of mail from friends. Very cool.

RADIO RADIO
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don’t give you any choice ‘cause they think that it’s treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio [+]

TONIGHT ONLY. I’ll be on the radio. San Diego NPR station KPBS on the show The Lounge. topic? Blogging. Also being featured is Lester of Yeah, Totally. Time? 6:30pm California Time [Pacific Daylight Time]. If you’re on the East Coast of the USA that’s 9:30pm. And according to this Timezone Converter 18:30:00 Jul 16 2002 in US/Pacific converts to 01:30:00 Jul 17 2002 in GMT

If you want to listen, you’ll need Windows Media Player (yes, available for Mac) Windows Media Streams from KPBS. If you’re in San Diego, just turn on your radio and tune to 89.5 FM.

Bagels & Lox

Today started with an early morning breakfast with my friend Steve E. at local deli D.Z. Akins. We talked of course about my current state of affairs, the separation, work, the web, search engines, the list. D.Z.A. is a great deli. Now, it’s not a Cantor’s or Carnegie Deli, but for San Diego, it rocks. I had something I’ve not had in a long time—a bagels and lox platter. What a sublime invention – this erector set of a breakfast. Assemble fat slices of fresh tomato, red onion, cream cheese, and of course the smoked salmon itself, all piled onto a bagel, and that is some great eating. Now, mind you, my appetite since this all started has been shot to hell. I’m continuing to lose weight too, less eating, more walking and exercise—feels good. But breakfast was inspiring.

Combine good food with good company—wonderful. Steve I met at a local user group some years ago at the Digital Design SIG —and it was he who sent me the Frank Zappa/Mothers ticket stub on my Zappa fan piece. We talked more about migrating the list off of yahoogroups. It’s going to be work, but I think it’s probably necessary. This summer, I keep seeing. When I can focus some attention on it, I need to figure out what features I’m using on yahoogroups and then begin to migrate.

After that, I went to racquetball. The problem is that the joint where I usually play was closed. So instead, my Aunt and I got our cars detailed. Banal, but my car looks great! For a 14 year old car that’s been cross-country twice and all over, it looks rejuvinated.

The next cancellation was the Barbecue I was supposed to go to today. The hostess got sick, so no party. So instead of making macaroni salad, I went to a thrift store and a comic book store.

Jenny called, left a message. She needs to come over and pick up some stray mail and clothes. Sometime in the next few days probably. We’ll see.

Tomorrow I should probably do laundry.

I think I’m through the crushing shock part of separation. Now I’m in the living part of it. I’m just trying to have a life, and be myself. It’s not impossible. I bet if you asked me that one month ago I’d have something entirely different to say. But life goes on.

Onward.