Zero Theme Link-o-rama

Being a post on the many things I’ve read, half-read, meant to read.

But first, here’s Joe with a San Diego weather follow-up: The Jan. 22 Floods Displaced More Than 1,000 San Diegans from Their Homes. The Bruce Sterling prediction for the future from back when he was doing Viridian remains as true as ever: “the future is old people, in cities, afraid of the sky.” I have personally escaped much impact beyond wet roads and not being able to go to the beach but I know this will pass.

BBedit 15 came out recently. It’s never been my favorite editor but I’ve had a license since the 1990s. The more you explore what it does the more you realize it can do most anything. The document I’m pulling the links in this post from is sitting in BBEdit right now. My favorite thing back in the day was columnar editing and multi-document regular expression search-and-replace. Terrific for taking content sent in spreadsheets and wrangling it into HTML tables.

During the 1920 U.S. Census–The Fourteenth Census of the United States–my great grandfather was 13 years old and lived in Pasadena. There’s a document with the neighborhood census data and it reminds me how much I love the polyglot multicultural aspect of Los Angeles as I look at surnames like Mendibles, Hidashi, Grosberg, and Miller.

This also reminds me that on my todo list is to visit the gravesite of his father, Elmer Trujillo Mendibles, in Altadena. What can I say, I love a cemetery and I love Los Angeles.

And did you know that about 1 in 10 restaurants in the U.S. serve Mexican food but Los Angeles tops the list.

I find San Diego’s Mexican food best but it is my home.

I’m not quite ready to join RSS Club but I appreciate it.

Speaking of which, Anil Dash’s latest “Wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement is right on.

More bottom-up surveillance-free formats please world!

Recently I added Mastodon comment import to my site. If I post a link to Mastodon using my @artlung@xoxo.zone account, and it gets a reply, then it will be pulled in here. I use hacks: mastodon-to-wp-comments.php and mastodon-upload.pl. It required minor editing to work properly with my own permalink structure and of course customizing the default account for myself but it’s great. And as noted: This is unidirectional and not realtime: it is not an ActivityPub implementation.

And speaking of jwz, he pointed out that all the issues of the magazine Boardwatch was put online at the Internet Archive: Boardwatch Magazine:

Boardwatch Magazine, informally known as Boardwatch, was initially published and edited by Jack Rickard. Founded in 1987, it began as a publication for the online Bulletin Board Systems of the 1980s and 1990s and ultimately evolved into a trade magazine for the Internet service provider (ISP) industry in the late 1990s. The magazine was based in Lakewood, Colorado, and was published monthly.

Also on my mind recently was Ted Nelson. And jwz relates the fact that he once visited the team at Netscape to tell them they were messing up the internet (just as they were being lauded as the darlings of the www). Hypertext emerges from his well to shame the tech industry:

He came to Netscape to, basically, yell at us for fucking up his dream, with our unidirectional hyperlinks, our documents that were not editable by all readers, our complete lack of version control and transclusion. This halfassed abomination we had built, this was no MEMEX. This garbage had set back the dream at least 50 years.

We just sat there and took it, no lie detected.

I am overdue to watch serial experiments lain [wiki], which sounded cool when I first heard of it a very long time ago but I’ve never made the effort. Perhaps I will.

What’s next today? More rain I think. Ugh.

It’ll be a few more days before I can get in the ocean again. Not great for my mood.

I’m making due.

Onward.

Quote of the Day

From United States Court of Appeals for The District of Columbia Circuit: No. 1:23-cr-00257-1:

We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power — the recognition and implementation of election results. Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the Executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and to have their votes count.

* * *

At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches. Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the President, the Congress could not legislate, the Executive could not prosecute and the Judiciary could not review. We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.

Happy Tuesdays and Dead Headers

Wait, that’s not the name of the band. I am thinking of Happy Mondays. You’re twistin’ my melon man. Likely because 24 Hour Party People is on Criterion. It’s quite a lot. It’s drama and dirt and myth making. It hits me along the axes of creativity and memory and fandom. Of the things depicted I remain a fan of all things New Order and Joy Division.

This morning I designed and created a new HTML + CSS header:

Creative Problem Solver. Programmer. Bodysurfing. Sometime Comics.
Blogger since 2001.

own yr www rn! #IndieWeb

And I created a new WordPress shortcode to include it. I already have a private PHP class (including unit tests) which handles managing the headers. It allows me to get the correct headers by year, by year and month, and for whatever day I want.

I also updated the archived headers page so that it’s a bit cleaner. I was reading some old posts and I once called that the “dead headers” page.

But…

Deadheading is the practice of carrying, free of charge, a transport company’s own staff on a normal passenger trip so that they can be in the right place to begin their duties.

And of course…

A Deadhead is a fan and follower of the rock group the Grateful Dead.

I also made some user interface changes for the page which allows viewing these old headers. A few weeks ago I mentioned updating the headers themselves to use modern CSS techniques rather than old spacer GIFs and tables. The changes I made today to the layout and JavaScript improves the page. They allow you and me to survey these little graphic design nuggets I’ve made over the years.

I improved the “autoplay” mode. I added a little graphic along the circumference of the button showing the time count down.

I’m not a graphic designer. I did take classes long ago at UCLA Extension in Photoshop and the vector tools of the day (Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand), plus QuarkXPress. And working in web production on websites I’m comfortable with just about any graphics software you can think of: from MS Paint to GIFBuilder to Flash to DeBabelizer and many other archaic tools. When I got an iPad I was excited to draw with it. Initially with Brushes.app (RIP) and later with Pencil and eventually Procreate.

I’ve been paid more for my work in programming than for graphic design. And I’m paid more for programming than I could make as a respiratory therapist too. Which always seemed very strange but the culture values HTML more than running the mechanical ventilators that provide life support.

I enjoy combining my art skills with technology. My earliest experiences with the TI-99/4a compelled me to learn hexadecimal code to create graphics. And the combination of art and science and interest in filmmaking technology–what we all now refer to as CGI–compelled me to move from Virginia to Los Angeles way back when before I was ever aware of the web.

Once I discovered the web, I started using it to make graphics and I’ve not looked back, and that’s for the better. I love seeing folks use their skill at drawing. I love it no matter what the skill level. Drawing and communicating graphically is a skill all human beings ought to try. It’s incredibly useful.

I think about my grandfather. Jesus “Artie” Silva. It’s his birthday today. He was a truck driver. As a kid he purportedly sold tamales on the street. His final career was as a produce department manager. The word was that when they needed a produce department to be set right, they called upon him. I remember very well him in a green apron at the grocery store Big Bear (and later Food Basket–or was Big Bear first?). Spraying those tomatoes and cucumbers. Assuring that the potatoes and were displayed properly.

And yet, he drew. Many years ago my mother sent me this (I blogged about it at the time):

[Your grandfather] was always drawing this dog. He drew them on everything, he even made little boxes with pictures of dogs. Love you both, Mom

Everybody can draw, everybody can create.

Go make something graphical. Even if it’s a squiggle. It’s so fun.

And please do visit my headers page. Dead or not.

Happy Tuesday!

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We were in the neighborhood and so we visited Glen Abbey Cemetery where my cousin Eddie rests and not 10 yards away this turtle is running the joint. RIP Ed.

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Sometimes the stoke is so intense ya giggle after a wave. A beautiful morning ahead of the next round of stormy weather.

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I woke up to find out a 4th great-granduncle was murdered in San Juan Capistrano

A very weird email to start the day with. FamilySearch has the capability to attach news events to biographies in their genealogy data. Usually it’s about attaching US or British census data or Catholic Church baptismal or marriage data. Stuff like that.

Today it was a news report about a murder.

Today it was this story from the San Francisco Call: (San Francisco Call, Volume 82, Number 18, 18 June 1897).

SHOT AT NIGHT FROM AMBUSH

Murder in the Quiet Village of San Juan Capistrano.

Outcome of a Long-Standing Enmity Between Two Mexicans.

The Victim a Peaceable Saloon-Keeper

His Assassin a Bad Character.

SANTA ANA, Cal., June 17.— A coldblooded murder was perpetrated at the old mission town of San Juan Capistrano last night, when Dolores Garcia, a saloonkeeper, who has resided there for many years, fell from a bullet of an ambushed assassin. Manuel Fellos, a determined enemy of the murdered man, was arrested a few minutes after the crime by Constable R. O. Pryor and brought to Santa Ana this afternoon by Sheriff Nichols and Deputy Sheriff Landell. Garcia was a Castilian, 60 years of age, and the father of seven or eight children. He married his second wife, Refugio Serrano, two years ago, had lived in Capistrano over twenty years and had the reputation of being an honest, peaceable citizen. Fellos is a tall, sinister-looking half-Indian, with a bushy black beard and general repulsive appearance. He is familiarly known at Capistrano as Mestiza, is one of the best shots in the county and once killed a vaquero, being iviih the Wild West show at the Midwinter Fair. There has been bad blood between the two lor a long time, Fellos having frequently threatened Garcia, and about ten months ago he struck Garcia over the head with a revolver, for which he was fined $200 by Superior Judge Towner. Since that time Garcia has never allowed him to enter his house. Last night about 9 o’clock as Garcia was closing his saloon a snot was fired from directly across the street and a rifle ball entered the unfortunate man’s mouth, passing out through the back of the head, killing turn instantly. He fell backward into the room, where his body was found a few minutes later by the crowd attracted by the shot. Shortly after the shooting Fellos appeared at the house of Constancion de Cruz, across a ravine from town, and said: “Well, I have killed Garcia–have lifted him off the earth.” He had his rifle with him and was advised by De Cruz to throw it into a ravine, where it was found this morning with an empty shell in the barrel. News of the murder spread through the small hamlet like wildfire, and the major portion of the population soon gathered about the body of the dead man discussing the startling affair. A few minutes after leaving De Cruz’s place Fellos suddenly rode into this throng and asked what the trouble was. He bad evidently circled the town and had been drawn back to the scene of his crime through nervousness or fascination. The general sentiment of the crowd had been that Fellos was the murderer, and Constable Pryor immediately placed him under arrest. On his saddle was found a box or cartridges purchased about 8 o’clock at one of the village stores. The bullet which killed Garcia passed through the rear window of his store and through the roof of an old adobe building beyond, where it was found on the floor. It corresponded with the cartridges carried by Fellos, and his rifle was found in the ravine and fully identified as of the same caliber. Fellos protested his innocence after being arrested and at the Coroner’s inquest held this afternoon, but ample evidence was produced to justify holding him, and there is little doubt of his guilt. He is well-behaved when sober, but has always been considered dangerous when under the influence of liquor. He was fined $250 in Los Angeles two years ago for assault.

A lurid tale.

The news story also goes to the trouble to describe the victim as “Castilian”–Spanish.

And the assailant as “half-Indian.”

But the subhead notes both were “Mexicans.”

Never mind of course that the incident took place 47 years since California statehood. Both men were Americans. They were born in Alta California in independent Mexico. And as Los Tigres del Norte sing, Yo no crucé la frontera / La frontera me cruzó — “I didn’t cross the border, the border crossed me.”

Here’s the shape of Mexico in 1832 (according to a US map from 1846)

The specific details of the crime are simple enough.

It’s the details and adjectives that stand out. How the men are characterized. It makes for vivid writing. But oh how those 19th Century biases are showing. Spanish: innocent. Indian: dangerous. That racialized rhetoric shines out at me. Rhetoric that is not far from how we write about crime, still.

Such a tragedy, particularly the part about “He is well-behaved when sober, but has always been considered dangerous when under the influence of liquor.” And the fines? US$200 of 1897 money would be US$7,400 today. That fine for assault in Los Angeles $250 would be US$9,200. Those are big numbers.

And that’s what I learned this morning about my 4th great-granduncle Jose Dolores Eligio Uribes Garcia.

He was born 191 years ago in San Diego, Alta California, Mexico–walking distance from me here in San Diego, California, United States of America.

And he was killed 126 years ago, 70 miles away.

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Not the worst way to wake up at 5am. Not the best. But there was a mysterious smoke smell the firefighters addressed. Safety first.

February 3 2024 IFTTT swim2024 via-instagram Make a comment

Kudos to you for hitting publish.

I love this quote. It’s a great thing to see first as I start my day reading the internet.

Also, At its most basic, making art is about following what’s luminous to you and putting it in a jar, to share with others.

—Ben Folds, A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons

Also, heck yes 500 posts is a milestone. Go Cam Go!

Yesterday I saw an ad inside Instagram for a first person shooter for Starship Troopers. Given the nature of that work, and given the nature of its most significant adaptation–one being a pretty earnest militarist work and one being a sly satire of militarism. How the heck are you going to adapt that into a videogame that attempts either of those things? It seems rather impossible.

I suppose it’s nothing new that videogames poorly adapt their source material.

It’s fortuitous I re-added Mark Evanier to my sidebar. He’s got a post with “Heinlein’s Rules for Writing” and with which it takes mild exception. Here are the rules:

You must write.
You must finish what you write.
You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
You must put the work on the market.
You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

Mr. Evanier has been a paid writer in comics (and elsewhere) for many decades. His short comments are great. This one stands out quite a bit, on reviewing portfolios:

When I’m stuck inspecting samples, one sign of outright amateurism I encounter is this. A kid will come up to show me his artwork and before I’ve even formulated a snap opinion — sometimes, before I’ve even opened the folio — they start with the excuses: “I did this a few years ago”…”Oh, I did that one when I had the flu”…”I had a lot of trouble with my pen on this one…” An oft-heard one is, “I know this looks bad there but the editor insisted I do it that way.”

As I’ve learned from others who do these critiques more often and willingly, the proper response is to close the portfolio, hand it back to them and say, “Come back when you can show me only work you’re proud of.” It’s usually the most valuable advice you can give these folks and I can’t square that with Heinlein’s #3-5.

I know a lot of folks gunshy about sharing their work. About putting it on the public web. It’s scary to put it out there.

Kudos to you for hitting publish.

This week I went to lunch with Al and gRegor. It’s good to be able to get lunch and chat with folks who make web pages. Al took a tremendous photo the other day: Lunch At Five Guys. Kudos to Al for hitting publish on the day he had decided to hit publish on!

Me, I don’t like a deadline. Why is death involved in that word anyway? Goals are nice. I prefer the word “milestone.” Framing matters. Whatever way you need to frame it to make it less intimidating and less terrifying.

When I had delivery dates for the comics I submitted to Burn All Books’ anthology I would add calendar events for myself. “4 weeks to comic, “3 weeks to comic,” “10 days to comic,” “7 days to comic” and then, escalating, countdowns for each day. It helped me far better than seeing a single date. And more than that, I would schedule time for myself to “work on comic” ad hoc. Putting that on my calendar was great for actually putting in the work.

Here’s the quote about deadlines I remember best, from Douglas Adams:

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

An aside: Larry King interviews Douglas Adams, a recording that younger me made from the radio and kept for 30 years and then put on the web.

Douglas Adams’ experience with his Hitchhiker’s series feels instructive to me. It was a shambling, erratic path that got those books out. A radio show. Novels. A TV series. A videogame adaptation. Each one reworked. Each one slightly different from the others. But all somehow recognizably Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The man succeeded against those whooshing deadlines but not in a linear fashion. He died at age 49. A profound injustice.

On Monday the local surf assessment from Surfline’s Schaler Perry included the sentence:

Beautiful afternoon and quality surf continues across the region on the dropping tide – go surf.

I did! And I had a great time in the water. But today the outlook includes the rather dispiriting line:

Overall its (sic) a victory at sea type of day plus the water quality is nasty.

It’s a good day to work on milestones at a keyboard.

Might even hit publish again.

Onward, indeed.

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Scripps in the rain ahead of more days of bad conditions

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I’m quoted in San Diego Magazine

The Trouble with Trash Lamb Rising rents and a stagnating collector market spell trouble for small San Diego galleries and the art scenes they support—but hope remains:

“I gave to Trash Lamb Gallery [because] it is talented independent local living artists sharing their art and vision of where we live, and I want to see more of that,” says local software developer Joe Crawford, a contributor to Trash Lamb’s campaign. “Working people are struggling and that means artists are struggling. San Diego has a history of similar spaces. But then the rent goes up or a landlord cancels a lease. I want to see Trash Lamb beat those odds. We’re a rich city, rich state, and rich country, but often it’s left to small donations from individuals to support the arts.”

Check out Trash Lamb Gallery

We were in the neighborhood and so we visited Glen Abbey Cemetery where my cousin Eddie rests and not 10 yards away this turtle is running the joint. RIP Ed.

Sometimes the stoke is so intense ya giggle after a wave. A beautiful morning ahead of the next round of stormy weather.

Not the worst way to wake up at 5am. Not the best. But there was a mysterious smoke smell the firefighters addressed. Safety first.

Scripps in the rain ahead of more days of bad conditions

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