Grades for Spring 2004 will be available on 6/7/2004

Good to know.

I am putting years and years of My Comics for Sale. Check them out, purchase away!

…and I could not figure out the name of the source.

“Setting all the captives free.”

…is the line. The great thing about the world today is that a simple google search finds it. I remember it from church growing up. At mass on Sunday I could not find it in the hymm book. But google takes care of business.

Peace is flowing like a river

Love is flowing like a river
Flowing out through you and me–
Spreading out into the de-sert
Setting all the captives free
Setting all the captives free

The latest Header for ArtLung.com.

ProForm: FAQ is a great example of why the internet is so great. Thanks to my big ‘ol truck and $50. Leah bought a new treadmill from a lady up in Temecula last week. She’s firing it up now, and was able to adjust it thanks to that FAQ. Not a bad purchase for $50. It’s plenty old, but it looks useful. Now to try it out.

New paper letter I received…

May 24, 2004

Dear JOSEPH,

Congratulations on completing a successful semester at City College! Professor FORMAN has recognized your outstanding academic performance and has recommended you for the Honors Program at City College. While there are a number of honors classes to choose from each semester, and the additional option to create an honors contract with individual professors for classes not currently classified as “honors,” participating in the Honors General Education Core Curriculum is an exciting and very practical option for the serious student, especially for those intending to transfer as juniors to a four year university.

The Honors Program offers special benefits for talented and motivated students like you. It provides an efficient way to complete several courses required by the university that you select for transfer. (Universities just love that “Honors” designation on your transcript!) Also, the core motif, “A World of Ideas,” transforms the usual jumbled, unconnected GE experience into a coherent and personally meaningful set of courses that you will always treasure no matter what your ultimate major. Although Honors courses are more rigorous and innovative in their approach, and require more critical thinking, writing and independent research they provide indispensable skills for you as a serious transfer student.

Perhaps the most important reason for completing the Honors GE Core Curriculum is the possibility of earning priority admissions consideration at a number of prestigious universities, including UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, UC Irvine, Pomona College, and Chapman University. City has also negotiated transfer concessions with UC Berkeley and UC Davis to complement its Transfer Agreement Guarantee (TAG) with UCSD.

Intrigued? Want to know more? Please call <REDACTED> and we will be happy to explain the program to you and help you weigh your options for enrollment and transfer preparation. In the meantime, congratulations on your fine performance at City College!

Sincerely, <REDACTED>
City College Honors Coordinators

Note there’s no priority admission possibility from UCSD, my school of choice. I want to talk to more Honorsfolken in the Fall to see how worthwhile more work would be for me.

For 2004 city college language day I made a poster, and now I’ve finally gotten around to putting it online.

I’m listening to James Taylor’s song Fire And Rain and I’m kind of liking it. I’m usually not a fan. Jackson Browne and James Taylor are just too earnest for their own good.

You may not realize that there are myths about this song, debunked by Snopes.

Q: How did you learn all about web design?

A: I set out to work in the movie business, but I missed and hit the web.

(unrelated: this is the 1776th post on artlung blog)

See: contrariwise

1. From a contrasting point of view.
2. In the opposite way or reverse order.
3. In a perverse manner.

source: dictionary.reference.com

“The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

from The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain

Truth is messy, it’s paradoxical.

Reagan was a great leader, he didn’t pay attention, he was all flash, he made bold proclamations, he cheated on his wife, he made for great television, he reached out to Gorbachev, he financed Islamists, he brought us out of malaise, he raised taxes, he was against big government, he promoted the untenable and impossible Star Wars, he won reelection, he liked jellybeans, he fell asleep at cabinet meetings, he joked about bombing Russia, by all accounts he was a genial man.

Let’s quote a song featuring Reagan that they don’t play on the 80s hits stations. The Beatnig’s “Television”…

TELEVISION One nation, under one God
has turned into one nation
under the influence
of one drug.
Television
And one man
who is the master of this medium,
our president, Ronald Reagan
Television,
the drug of the nation,
breeding ignorance,
feeding radiation
TV! Is the reason
why less than
ten percent of our nation
reads books daily
Why most people think
Central America means Kansas,
Communism means unamerican,
and apartheid is
a new headache remedy.
Where the Cosby show is watched
by rich whites
and Dynasty is watched by everybody
TV! Is the stomping ground
for political candidates,
where bears in
the woods are chased
by Grecian formula’d
bald eagles.
Where all you need
to do to get elected
is make monkey movies
(Just ask Clint and Ronnle)
and where straight teeth
in your mouth are more important
than the words
that come out of it,
TV! Is the place where
self-cancelling phrases
like Pop-Art
Fresh-Frozen,
and Military-intelligence
have become standard.
TV! Is the place where
words are redefined
like “Contra”
to “Freedom Fighter”,
and Sandinista
to Repressive Regime,
TV! Is where the pursuit
of happiness has become
the pursuit of trivia
where toothpaste and cars
have becomc sex objects
and where Sesame Street
is more real than Hill Street!

Have a great weekend y’all!

I’ve been having a bit of a rough time lately. I have some habits in my interpersonal relationships that are not very good. I have some passive-aggressive tendencies that take real skill to work on. I also have a tendency to self-criticism that verges on the toxic. I’m working this out in therapy, which I’m in again after a long (many months) absence.

I also have a cold right now — nasal drip and backache. Ugh.

Lessee. What else. Working on San Diego Blog has been a blast. If I could, I’d make that my fulltime job.

The other day I was offered $75 to put an ad on artlung.com for six months. I almost did it. There’s revenue in them thar hills. But linking for the sake of garnering pagerank is nothing I want to get involved in. And Artlung.com is not for ads to other sites. That’s what I’m doing with my other sites, or at least trying to to. Care to advertise on San Diego Blog? Contact me.

Leah is well, looking for work. Interviewing like a madwoman. We have her kids this week; that should be fun. I’m appreciating lately that I’m cultivating some parenting skills. I have a ways to go. Hmm. It feels like I’ve written that before.

Strangely, nobody has inquired about my comics except my ex-wife. I really would like to sell the things.

It’s Saturday night. Today hung out in Simi Valley with Leah and the kids. Strange to be so close to the Reagan stuff — the 118 freeway is even called “Ronald Reagan Freeway.”

Am I even making any sense? I think I should probably get to bed. Hit the hay.

Oh, I’m reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom right now. It’s pretty good.

And that, dear reader, is all the news that fits for tonight. I hope to write with a more chipper air when this cold is through. But for now, yellow-tinged mucous!

Onward y’all.

• Joe crawford is a freelance web developer and designer who lives in San Diego.
• Joe crawford is a forcefully OS-agnostic web developer and designer.
• Joe crawford is mellowing.
• Joe crawford is down to Michigan.
• Joe crawford is visiting Cincinnati Oct.
• Joe crawford is a Web developer.
• Joe crawford is 18th.
• Joe crawford is like Keith Bogans… “Very similar – in his ability level to defend.
• Joe crawford is running for Congress.
• Joe crawford is hurt again.
• Joe crawford is a Detroit kid who originally committed to Michigan.
• Joe crawford is an experienced teacher.
• Joe crawford is a respiratory-therapist-turned-web-journeyman in San Diego.
• Joe crawford is reported to make a decision on Monday between Kentucky and Michigan.
• Joe crawford is a confirmed bachelor.
• Joe crawford is going to Kentucky.
• Joe crawford is a Shire resident and started his Real Estate career at Bundeena initally in Sales.
• Joe crawford is an explosive.
• Joe crawford is a web designer and developer.
• Joe crawford is a web designer and developer.
• Joe crawford is expected to return as the pitching coach and Terry McGriff is expected to be back as bench coach.
• Joe crawford is the man behind San Diego Bloggers.
• Joe crawford is still down to Michigan and Kentucky.
• Joe crawford is regarded as one.
• Joe crawford is another exceptional player.
• Joe crawford is assistant vice-president of engineering at Digex Inc.
• Joe crawford is a roleplayer of scant talent but prodigious output.
• Joe crawford is still very much alive and looking forward to his retirement in June of this year.
• Joe crawford is a great example.
• Joe crawford is taking his time with the recruiting process the second time around.
• Joe crawford is not currently listed on any rankings by Rivals100.
• Joe crawford is way past his adolescent years.
• Joe crawford is still punching the time clock.
• Joe crawford is in receipt of a birthday card weighing one pound.
• Joe crawford is the “new face of evil” in the Exorcist prequel right.
• Joe crawford is GONNA BE OUR FIRST EVER JOE ON THE UK BASKETBAW TEAM.
• Joe crawford is a Cat.

see: What is… online tool.

A new header, me in a cowboy hat, making some sort of funny face. I like that it makes me look like a smart alec.

I just realized, after liking the song for a decade, that the lovely song L.A. County by Lyle Lovett is about a guy driving to L.A. to murder his ex — on her wedding day.

Shades of Kill Bill, I think.

Coughing less, mucous no longer yellow. Feeling better!

Minor changes to lab.artlung.com have been made. Still somewhat chaotic, but less so. Also, my Gallery script had been dead, but was rescued with help from http://www.archive.org/web/web.php.

Still feeling a bit snotty and sick. Backachey in particular.

More mundanities later.

(My friend Erin put together this listing, I just made it into HTML)

Alright … off the cuff … in no particular order …

• Stalag 17
• Star Wars <Trilogy>*
• Lawrence of Arabia *
• Blade Runner *
• Treasure of Sierra Madre
• Citizen Kane
• Pulp Fiction
• Jaws
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Taxi Driver

I’m sure these change day to day for me.

Permanent parts of the group are given an asterisk (*)

San Diego Earthquake!, featuring instant coverage from numerous San Diego Bloggers.

So today was a big quake. I live outside downtown, and this circa 1892 house shook pretty violently. I was surprised that nothing fell down – no pictures or books fell, and Leah and I have plenty of both on shelves and on the walls.

It was fun watching the news roll out. NPR had very little coverage, and the best news was provided to me via RSS and Atom feeds of the various bloggers on San Diego Bloggers — also some pals of mine on AIM were very useful – tossing around links. Also got news via web405 and websandiego — both are really mailing lists (aka ‘listservs’) ostensibly about web development — but when there’s a quake or a disaster — that’s the topic du jour.

There’s very little rationale for regional blogging, really. I mean, my whole interest in the internet is the ability to collapse space so that a person across the world and I can talk like we’re in the next room. But when something is happening in a particular region, you really want to hear from people who are in the thick of it. I certainly learned that when the fires hit last year and I talked about regionalism in blogs.

Since the blog has recently upgraded from b2 to wordpress, I was also able to use trackback to communcate with some of the blogs via san diego blog.

Lasting impact, zero. But it did give me an excuse to post to San Diego Blog. And it was neat to get instant man-in-the-street takes on it from all over San Diego.

Several of my classmakes from Respiratory Therapy school worked at Rocky Mount’s hospital – Franklin Memorial. A bear walked through wednesday… Scare highlights growing problem.

I had no idea they even had bears in that part of Virginia (Southwestern Virginia — near Roanoke).

San Diego Blog: San Diego indy weekly Fahrenheit RIP

Long day, good day. Too tired to blog. Good night!

Yesterday I moved ask leahpeah from b2 to WordPress. I’m really loving that software.

And yes, she’s hosted on LAMP Host.

Hoo boy. San Diego Blog has had a whole lotsa work on it done recently. I’m blogging up a storm over there. Some posts:

• Snopes Covers San Diego
• SanDog: For Surfers in San Diego
• Fahrenheit Final Word
• La Migra Sweeping Up Civil Liberties Again?
• So long, and thanks for all the mines
• DUI Hat Trick in Pacific Beach
• Neil Morgan finds a home at KPBS

are a few.

The site was upgraded to WordPress a few weeks ago. And the design has been significantly upgraded. The new logo is actually a remembrance of the old “Citizen’s Western Bank” logo. I worked there when I was in my teens. My Mom did too. (How do you think I got the job?) I can’t find much in the way of references to the logo, and I’m not sure who holds the copyright to it, but it’s a great graphic – with concentric lines of sun, and outlines of sailboats. It’s iconic. I like it.

I’ve agonized about the sidebar for a while – working and reworking it with different looks and feels. Watermark, no watermark. Grey, blue, purple. I think I’m done futzing with it.

I’m also working on an Ad rotation system for selling ads on the site. Interested in advertising? Contact me. So, that’s coming soon. I’ve also added a badge to the site to track hits with SiteMeter. The stats are not bad so far. Average visitors: 160 per day. Average page views: 306.

In the header to the site, you’ll note the word “daily” – how do I maintain that? Well, with WordPress, I can post in advance. As a matter of fact I have posts queued up for the weekend and Monday. It’s kind of cool to keep to a schedule. And the bonus is there are other authors who post when it suits their fancy.

Yeah, I’ve not posted on a personal basis in a while. Stay tuned, thanks!

And, onward!

tony p style

2 weeks ago i made enchiladas for leah and the kids which was fun

got an amazing gift the other week from my folks for which i thank them

my little sister turned 27 last week yowza

leah may be moving north far

i am considering my options and was angsty about it

clarity comes with knowing and having faith

leah and have been double barrelling the religion on sundays

mass and sacrament meeting

today it was about change and sticking to the plow even when things are hard

today it was about listening to the spirit

today i had bagels and lox at dz akins and leah had pancakes

we got a black and white cookie for later

we have fun together

we talk together

we drive around in a truck together

i don’t always have a white shirt for sacrament meeting

i am bouyed up by the feeling of being part of a faith

its a surprise to me

i know people in los angeles

i know people all around

the movie running on empty can make me cry

quite a bit

black and white cookies and tomato sandwiches are good

when leah and i are angsty the cat is angsty

when leah and i are serene the cat is mellow

the cat is sort of a temperature gauge

we saw napoleon dynamite tonight

no not the cat

but leah and i and two good friends too

it had a kanab cowboys tshirt in it

the movie was funny in a dopey way

i moved around as a kid

i am an interesting person

last week leah and i almost saw bourne supremacy sneak preview

not all the effects were done

but leah couldnt hang with the rudeness and tension of a sneak preview screening

but it worked out cause good friends were there too and matt came with me, and leah hung with margot

things work out that way for leah and me and our friends

the midway aircraft carrier is in town and is a big museum

my grandfather served on carriers and has no desire whatsoever to go on a carrier

there may be no nostalgia in him

meanwhile i was thinking how cool it would be to see the school i attended in gretna louisiana

when i was running on empty

leah and i had the kids for a week

that was wild and cool

i went on the giant dipper coaster with the kids

well 3 out of 4

my legs are still big

but i fit and i loved it

that belmont park is looking a little sad

but its still fun to ride the coaster

the coaster of life as they have it in that steve martin movie parenthood

the ride is fun and unexpected and its important to try and enjoy it

and be sad when its sad

and be happy when its happy

because thats the way of things

sometimes we resist change so much

we cant even see that change is inevitable

and when you have skills to move anywhere

family is a state of mind

i am bouyed up by my family

i am bouyed up by my partner

its scary as all get out this life thing

its unpredictable and wonderful and full of laughter and tears

and i am living authentically

and cease expecting and all things are possible

i am happy and i try to enjoy every sandwich

onward

hmm is there more?

uh oh, that was punctuation

there it was again. avast!

i thought bourne supremacy was good

i am glad of my decision to go back to school

i am selling books on amazon

i am less attached to material things than i used to be

i feel as though my self is being refined

i am seeing myself tested and tempered into an improving version of myself

sometimes in the changing new rough edges are revealed

but the process of tempering continues

i enjoy this process

this process pains me

this process is necessary

no pain no gain

did i just type that?

when i was in school 12 years ago i argued that learning was possible without pain

i was convinced

but now i know that all learning that is valuable comes with some pain

pain of embarrassment or physical pain or longing or lonliness or loss

but learning comes

and the lifes in the learning i think

definitely

i love to learn

i learn to love

okay

ready?

onward

“RHINO OFFERS HEADS ON PLATTERS

THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS And BEST OF TALKING HEADS Available August 17

LOS ANGELES – Rhino Records is pleased to offer two kinds of overviews of the career of one of the best-loved bands of the 1980s with the release of THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS and THE BEST OF TALKING HEADS on August 17. Both packages, assembled with the members’ full involvement, are firsts for the band–THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS has never been available on CD before and THE BEST OF TALKING HEADS is the first single-disc collection of the band’s most popular songs.

THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS offers an unusual take on the concert album–rather than a “souvenir of a single night’s show,” it captures the band’s live evolution from 1977 to 1981. Originally released in 1982 as a double album, fans have waited nearly two decades for the CD release of THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS. This two-disc version doubles the original’s contents by offering 13 previously unreleased tracks and a trio of rarities from a 1979 promotional only disc (“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls,” an early version of “Drugs” called “Electricity,” and “Found A Job”). In its expanded version, THE NAME OF THIS BAND provides a comprehensive portrait of Talking Heads as a live band, since it now includes a substantial number of songs from each of the band’s first four studio albums.

THE BEST OF TALKING HEADS collects 18 of the group’s most popular songs on a single disc for the first time ever. Compiled by the band, THE BEST OF TALKING HEADS includes all the favorites (“Psycho Killer,” “Once In A Lifetime,” “Burning Down The House,” “And She Was), as well as some unexpected selections like “Heaven” and “Memories Can’t Wait.” This collection provides new listeners with a perfect introduction to this ground-breaking band’s work.

David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth formed Talking Heads (note: no “The”) after meeting at Rhode Island School Of Design in the early 1970s. Jerry Harrison, formerly of The Modern Lovers, joined in 1976 and Talking Heads quickly became one of the most important bands to emerge from the New York punk scene. Over the course of their 11-year recording career they released ten albums (including five gold records, one platinum, and two double-platinum), earned critical raves, and racked up more than a few hits.

via talking-heads.net, one of the best fansites on the web

possibility.

This is worth a read: The rules of thumb

• Don’t know what you don’t know.
• Get to a known state and stay there.
• Remember the triangle.
• Don’t go dark.
• Use zero defect (ZD) milestones.
• Beware of a guy in a room.
• Never trade a bad date for an equally bad date
• When slipping, don’t fall.
• Low tech is good.
• Design time at design time.
• If you build it, it will ship.
• Portability is for canoes.
• Enrapture the customers.
• Remember one thing: Unity.
• State your theme.
• Vary it.
• Balance it.
• Evolve it.
• Your product should be a hierarchy.
• Establish a shared vision.
• Get the team into ship mode.