Disturbing Auctions
Disturbing Auctions. I laughed till my sides ached. Check out the Dean Martin Hand Puppet (under the category of “Emotionally Scarring Toys”).
E-bay is good for much more than I ever imagined.
People are…
Someone recently said to me “Complete this sentence: People are ___.” Had I just seen this when she asked, I would have used the word “morons.” People willing to bid $100,000 for a scooter. Ok, it’s a Segway, but come on. You can buy a scooter for $50.
Internet radio
I’m a big fan of Internet radio (I’m also a big fan of having a relatively fast full-time Internet connection). While a lot of the channels out there have limited playlists that just loop around, you can still get exposed to a lot of new stuff. Like this Calypso cover of Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime”. I think I’ll need to buy that album.
Black Hawk Down
Saw Black Hawk Down last night. Very intense movie. Very. Although I have one friend who walked out on it, I thought it was very good myself. Hard to watch, but good. I was struck by how, in the heat of combat, the notional reasons for the troops being in Somalia became completely irrelevant. The ways technology would help, and the ways it could be so easily stymied: a field radio rendered useless because its operator was deafened by gunfire, a megabuck helicopter that’s a sitting duck for a rocket-propelled grenade that probably cost $50.
Learning CSS
I’ve been studying up on CSS positioning, a potentially powerful technique for writing web pages that can make the code for a page much simpler, while allowing the author to do all kinds of neat things. Note the weasel-word “potentially.” It seems there are all kinds of things one might want to do (all of which I seem to be the first things I thought of) that either don’t work quite as expected, or aren’t implemented correctly in the most popular browsers. For example, you can have a section of the web page (graphics, text, whatever) stay locked in place in the browser window–very much like with frames, but without all the drawbacks of frames. The problem with this technique is that it renders any links in the fixed section dead. Oops. It’s not a feature, it’s a bug. Oh well. I’ve put up a test page, which at any given moment may be incredibly ugly or attractive. Or both, since you can associate one page with multiple style sheets and toggle the active style sheet as desired. Yeah, that’s one of the cool features.
Sir Finks
Went and saw the Sir Finks at the Carousel Lounge last night with Tracy. The band has been augmented with a chick on keyboards, wearing her Carnaby Street finest (as were some folks in the audience). The smoke and percussive volume (they’re usually not that loud) started getting to us after a while, so not long after her friends Georgia and Cheryl finally showed, we wound up leaving.
Squirrel intruder
Seeing a squirrel indoors provokes an intense cognitive-dissonance moment. Squirrels are supposed to be outside critters. I just realized that today.
There had been a scratching noise in the attic-apparently some kind of critter had gotten in there somehow, and couldn’t get out. I went up to see, but it immediately became quiet as soon as it heard me. I left the attic trapdoor and ladder down, so that it would have a chance to climb down. It did, thus the squirrel. I propped open the door and convinced it to leave, which it was happy to do once it figured out the window was impassable.
Dating in NYC
Apparenty, dating in New York is weirder than I ever imagined. Men from Manhattan cross into Brooklyn to find cool, arty chicks. Women from Manhattan cross into Brooklyn to find cool, arty guys.