Stuff from August, 2004
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on August, 2004.
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on August, 2004.
Extreme Skateboarding, XGames Style - via kottke.org
Huge Wallpaper - This will have to wait until I get a huge monitor.
Pleasure Tool Bearings - Buying some soon.
While waiting in traffic, I wrote a song about traffic jams. At this point, I can only remember bits and pieces, but on Highway 61 @ 7am, I was belting it out. Catchy lyrics, clever rythm, upbeat tempo; would that I could write like that when I was in front of a piano. If the song does come back to me, I’ll record it and toss an mp3 up for all of your to cringe at. On second thought, I’ll take a raincheck on anyone hearing me sing for a bit longer. I am sure you have enough to worry about in your own life.
Atari Classics - A joystick w/10 built-in Atari games. I’ll take 2.
I’m just going to go ahead and take responsibility (and blame, if anything goes wrong) for getting an Apple into the family. Katy recently purchased a Twelve Inch Powerbook, which impressed me far more than I thought it would. Apple advertises the machines as having “no sharp edges to catch on clothing.” I thought to myself, “well, I don’t have any sharp edges to catch on clothing … how special is that?” Turns out, it really is something you notice. The entire outside is as smooth as … smooth aluminum alloy. For a details-oriented born-again perfectionist such as myself, the subtle touches on the outside of the case are incredibly appealing. For example, the latch magnetically (magically?) clicks into position as the cover is slowly lowered. The light on the catch release pulses slowly when the computer is closed and asleep, as if it is breathing. The charge adaptor comes with a nifty clear plastic cap, and the input into the computer glows orange on charging, and green upon completion. The keypad and single button make for a very symmetrical layout, accented by the centered, gentle white glow of the Apple behind the LCD display. So it’s a work of art. Great. Useful things are always beautiful in their own way, but beautiful things do not have to be useful. Is the outer appearance backed up with real internal assets?
Let me take a moment and try to explain what it’s like to finish a summer class. Have you ever been having a really good day? One where things are going right, and you’re happy? Then, suddenly you get an injection of caffeine. Like quad-shot espresso or something. But it’s not any ordinary caffeine. No, this stuff doesn’t quit: you’re up all the time, in a great mood, and generally really happy. Even when you are tired, you are so relentlessly positive that everyone thinks something is wrong with you. In reality, you know it’s because your class is over.
The Case Against George W. Bush - via Airbag, from Esquire.
Wi-Fi Record - 55 miles is a long way.
Cinematic Supervillian Showdown - Print it out!
Name Sexiness - I think I’m good. (via Photo Matt)
WordPress 1.3 - I’m using this (WP 1.3) on my latest consulting project.
The newest trend coming into Sophmore year of college seems to be “trash the hometown.” I get the sense that everyone is too eager to move on, head out, climb up, and leave behind. “Yeah, college feels more like home” still rings false to my ears. Not everyone thinks they have outgrown the place in which they grew up, that they are too good for it, but comments with those sentiments seem to burst forth with startling frequency. “I know college is where I really belong.”
Well. I might as well list the media I am consuming/will consume in the future, the recent things I have bought, and things I have given lately. I am currently listening to “Glasgow Love Theme” from the movie Love Actually. It’s making me rather sad, but it is on repeat for a reason I can not really articulate. And by “can’t” I mean I am both unable and unwilling to delve that deeply into my head. I’d rather return to reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Alternatively, I would like to watch a movie and cry over it. Or simply cry. You know? I think you do.
The strangest thing about your only sibling moving out of the house for good is the empty bed. Honestly, there is simply an empty frame standing where her bed used to be. The emptiness in that piece of furniture seems to mirror the one in our home. From the moment I woke up the household seemed emptier. Strange how you can tell when someone is gone and not returning. Strange how you immediately begin to recall the “good ol’ days” when men were men, life was simpler, and Dairy Queen was the logical conclusion to a summer’s day.
In the grand tradition of occassionally recounting the comings and goings here at tumbledry, I present to you the latest list of strange search phrases that have led people here (as supplied by my stats program so kindly installed by Justin):
alex m dry
smapdi age 8
mail friendship
schopenhauer aphorisms
quote for graffiti
smell like woo
napoleon dynamite xgames
male appendage clothing
flying cows
The last time I listened to this John Mayer album was quite a while ago. Even now, I find it unendingly musical, catchy, and clever. The lyrics and melodic lines seem to coalesce so completely, it’s as if one formed the other, neither one coming first. Furthermore, I identify with his subjects, I envy his musical talent, and through my own struggles with writing music, respect what he has done. I can see why people are not as happy with the second album; but I think it is simply because his freshman effort was a bit of a jewel. If he made another just like it, people would get huffy about him not “evolving,” but since he has changed things, people get alienated. Ahh, the tough life of making music.
Violent Communist Vigilante Justice - (via everyone)
Olympic Logo Overload - (via kottke)
Lance Wyman Branded the MN Zoo - It’s the moose/m logo, if you are looking for it.
Tricks of the Trade - Fantastic article outlining tricks from different areas of work.
Successful Writing by Stephen King - (via kottke)
Firefox did something to me it has never done before: crashed. I was not upset about it at the time. Later, I realized I lost an entire post to my bad luck. I’ve been unbelievably happy with that program, and I had left it open for three plus days doing a wide variety of things; no software is perfect. I’m going to write again, but I will not try to recall what I wrote before; the current stream-of-consciousness leanings of this journal have been helpful for me, if boring for you. Those visiting for CSS/XHTML thoughts, feel free to take a look at this past February 11th for more than enough technical jargon.
So many things have been flying through my life that I can not get it all down. I mean, it’s like a traffic jam on the front page of tumbledry. Such a pile of events could be recorded and discussed, but so much is going on right now that I do not have time to write it all. First, there are a few things from the past month that are rather important to record. I broke my bench record by putting up 245. That works out to about 175% of my weight. This makes me happy. My other goal, to walk on my hands, is slowly improving, but I am low on time to practice it. I am close. Also, with a bit of finagling, I got my room key early. I will be hooking up the oxen to the covered wagon to haul my stuff to St. Thomas for sophmore year. Hopefully the hunting will be good, nobody will get malaria, and I can shoot the rapids on my first try. In all honesty, even though I am on fifth floor with no elevator and I have a couple of awkward things weighing upwards of sixty pounds each, moving should go quite smoothly. We have yet to perfect the winch out my window for moving so we will be doing it the hard way using stairs.
Countering Rhetoric with Reason - The best site I have seen for spin-free election information.
We cleaned the piss out of my dorm room carpet. It reality, we removed 20 years of dust and dirt which had been ground into the nap until the formerly red carpet was a dull gray with some sad red peaking through. A steam cleaner, 7 gallons of water, soap, and an hour or so later brought a startling change: the carpet was red again … and clean. “Good lord,” I said, walking down the stairs to the car, “I sure am glad we did that.” It is not that I could not sleep at night thinking about the carpet, or that it was strange smelling when I laid on it (I remember a couple of days when I was so exhausted that I opened the door, put down my bag, and fell asleep on the carpet), but just that I had my key early and wanted to make the most of the situation. If you are going to go, go all out. For example: if you are going to procrastinate, procrastinate the heck out of your situation. If you are going to run, run until you are going to drop. If you are going to eat, eat until … ok so the theory has it’s limitations. But I have found that all-out goingness makes life’s mundane tasks more entertaining.
Best of Still Photojournalism 2004 - (via kottke.org)
Driving While Celling Worse than Driving While Drunk - (via kottke.org)
Road Chuckles - I like the first one.
