A Whole Lotta Nothing

I can't recall the last

I can't recall the last real vacation I took, so I'm looking forward to spending the next six days near Sun Valley, Idaho. Commence relaxation....now.

Philip Morris cares... about selling

Philip Morris cares... about selling cigarettes any way they can.

Congratulations Michael!

Congratulations Michael!

Crouching Tiger review: magnificent. The

Crouching Tiger review: magnificent. The most beautifully choreographed fight scenes ever shown on film. It's kung fu-as-artform that rivals ballet in terms of elegance and beauty.

.

It's also destined to be the greatest DVD movie of all time. There's so much fast action that my eyes watered due to my not closing them enough. Scenes beg for a pause button, and a frame-by-frame toggle to catch it all. It must have taken months of preparation and practice for the actors to do many of the stunts, so I can't wait to see a 'making of' mini-movie. I hope it becomes a two-disc set.

.

I'm going to have to see that again. Perhaps several times.

Tonight: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Tonight: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Tomorrow: off to San Diego for a few days

Thanks to Andre, Nikolai, Neale, Greg and Brad for the great gifts!

Jazz is an expensive habit.

Jazz is an expensive habit.

I've been out of college for a little over three years, working at "real" jobs most of that time, but I don't have too many long-range things to show for it. I'm 28, but I don't have a Roth IRA. I don't have a penny in any mutual funds. I currently do not own any stock. When I retire at 65, I doubt I'll be a millionaire.

But I have seen Sonny Rollins play for two hours straight, making sounds with a saxophone I've never heard anywhere else, I've seen Milt Jackson play vibes in front of the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (with Ray Brown on bass) at the Hollywood Bowl just weeks before he died. I've heard Joe Williams belt out "Flamingo" days before his passing. I've enjoyed Mose Allison's set on a couple occasions, I've been lucky enough to see Jimmy Smith play a small club, and Brother Jack McDuff kick ass in a big venue. I've loved hearing Oscar Brown Jr. three or four times, Kenny Burrell on numerous occasions, and Horace Silver, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dave Pike, and The Phil Norman Tentet in the past.

I have a stack of CDs and mp3s from all these artists and many others including Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Cliff Brown, Cannonball Adderly, David "Fathead" Newman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, and Charlie Parker.

Earlier tonight, Kay and I caught Dr. John at Yoshi's in the east bay and it was an all-around great time.

So, while I may never be a rich man, I know my life is richer having indulged and enjoyed all these artists, and I don't regret any of the choices for a second.

Oh, and if you haven't

Oh, and if you haven't noticed, still no MetaFilter. The ISP says it is working as hard as it can on this, but it's been out for two days of internet time, which is like a business being closed for two weeks in normal time. I really hope they get everything back online tomorrow.

If you're looking for ways to cheer me up, there's always my wishlist. :)

Folks, I can't write

Folks, I can't write better comedy than this. My poll is suffering from election-itus. 50% to 50%. Bird in the hand is up by one single vote, and you know bush is going to want a recount.

I forgot how utterly useless

I forgot how utterly useless a computer is when it doesn't have a network connection. Five years ago, people laughed at the slogan "the network is the computer" but it's true today. Without a connection to other machines, a computer is nothing but a thousand-dollar doorstop. In beige.

Not a good sign. Apparently,

Not a good sign. Apparently, there are backbone problems in the bay area, so our entire office (includes MetaFilter, Blog*Spot, evhead, megnut, onfocus, etc.) is without a connection. I wish I could say it will be back promptly, but it's been out for over four hours, and I have no idea when things will be fixed.

It seems like a particularly big wave hit our digital sandcastles.

I need some data to

I need some data to help make a decision. Do you take the easy route, if it's a sure thing, or do you always go for the big payoff, even if a great deal of risk is involved? Let me know by answering this very simple poll question:

(outdated and removed)

Are squiggles going to become

Are squiggles going to become the new swoosh?

After seeing the concession and

After seeing the concession and acceptance speeches the other night by Bush and Gore, I couldn't help but laugh at how those short, simple remarks were so thoroughly examined under the microscope. News anchors were going on and on about each sentence, political experts talked about this phrase here, this other sentence said there, and how it all would relate to the new presidency. It went on for almost an hour, for each speech.

But this story takes the cake. Apparently, the tone of the speech was a good one, according to GBLT organizers. Even though Bush doesn't think gay-bashing should be a hate crime and even though he adamantly doesn't support "special" rights for gays (special? uh hello, they're asking for basic rights everyone else gets), these organizers think that 5 minute speech is their ticket to acceptance in his administration. Yeah right.

Earlier this evening, I started

Earlier this evening, I started watching something on TiVo, and after a minute or so, I paused it to check my email. Then I checked on a few sites. 30 minutes passed. I took a phone call. I got up and got something to eat, played with the cats for a while, and then realized the show I started watching was still sitting on pause. So I walked over and watched it.

Then it hit me. Remember VCRs? You hit pause, walk away, and after five minutes they begin a series of actions including un-pausing themselves, hitting stop automatically, and jumping back to live TV. Usually, this becomes obvious because the TV starts blaring and kills the silence of a paused tape. Why in hell did VCRs do that?* As far back as I can remember, my family's first VCR did that. They kept that "feature" in for 20 years without ever changing it.

I realized TiVo is a new device, and it's different in a very simple way: it's a machine that does exactly what you tell it to do. Isn't it funny that a device doing what you want is a new thing for consumers to expect? We're so used to expecting the limitations engineers give us, that TiVo seems downright revolutionary.

I could credit heightened consumer expectation with the now widespread use of the web, but that's a story for another day.

(* 12:29am update: Nick tells me "the tape expanded due to stress around the reading head and heat from the mechanics of the VCR, etc... typically, if the tape isn't released it will snap.... sorry, I am certified in videography... couldn't resist." Even after considering Nick's comment, I'm still surprised no one came up with a VCR that didn't stress or heat tapes so a pause button could stay down forever. It's a fairly popular user complaint.)

I am no longer web-safe.

I am no longer web-safe. If you don't like this new design, don't worry, I'll probably be tossing it in a month or so. Sometimes I forget how much fun playing in photoshop can be, especially when I usually spend my time staring at code all day. I forget like that a muscle, my design sense atrophies when not used, so I'm promising myself that I'll put some effort into redesigning more often. The old design is still here anyhoo.

Cheated. Either way this election

Cheated.

Either way this election went, everyone was going to feel cheated. It was clear after the election night coverage couldn't declare a winner, I knew it, you knew it, we all knew it.

Close elections usually point out the fact that "every vote matters" but this election pointed out (not just in Florida, but in all states) that there are measurable failure rates (3% nationally?), ballot interfaces may never work for everyone, and that minorities may be discouraged from voting. So rather than this close election teaching the importance of voting, it made clear the fact that not every vote gets counted, and may never be.

Not a good day for american democracy.

Another pt reyes photo-inspired book

Another pt reyes photo-inspired book cover. I'd say this one is less successful than the other, but both give the american classic an updated look. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you, I suppose.

This photo from my pt.

This photo from my pt. reyes shots reminded me of old art class assignments. Designing a book cover was always a popular assignment. So I came up with this. If this were for an art class, it'd be followed by twenty minutes of the class criticizing my choice of images and typefaces, which I'd defend with "hey, it was my gut feeling to use those together."

Then someone would notice that there is in fact no actual road in the shot, and I'd realize why I don't design book covers for a living.

I finally cropped and optimized

I finally cropped and optimized my photos from a hike at Pt. Reyes last weekend. Many of the shots are similar to pb's photos, since we took photos at the same rest stops.

I just saw this Shop

I just saw this Shop With Me Barbie Cash Register on a commercial. It's an electronic toy cash register with toy credit cards. It's pretend shopping and getting kids used to credit cards disguised as "learning all about numbers and enhancing their social skills."

It's wrong on so many levels.

Blogger review in Wired

Blogger review in Wired Magazine (Jan 2001 issue).

"Poetry is the language of

"Poetry is the language of a state of crisis."
-Stephane Mallarme

The best things in life

The best things in life are not free. It's just that they have no monetary value. There's a difference.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

I rode right by this

I rode right by this last night, about twenty minutes after it happened. I gotta cut down on my brushes with death.

Tonight, we drink. Tomorrow, who

Tonight, we drink. Tomorrow, who knows?

But tonight, we're drinking.

Frontline is the best goddamned

Frontline is the best goddamned television series being broadcast. Seriously.

TiVo owners, set a season pass and trust me on this one.

I used to catch an episode maybe once every six months, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Now I catch two a week. I can't believe I've been missing these for so long.

The clouds are gathering and

The clouds are gathering and the sky is darkening. I have a feeling it's going to get very cold soon.