xian

Long time no LJ

2003-06-09T18:37:33Z

I think my paid membership at LiveJournal may have lapsed, taking away some of the RSS features I was using to stay in touch with my old small friends community. I'd still like to port my LJ entries over to X-POLLEN or into some yet undetermined system like textpattern of ftrain. Need to simplify.

Paid LJ users can add my new blog as a friend

2002-10-28T21:06:07Z

markpasc set up a RSS channel at http://livejournal.com/users/xpollen/ that will mirror all my posts to my new blog. Now I just need to add the RSS feed for my friends page (if it exists) to my Radio Userland aggregator and I will continue to have the same circle of friends in my new technological wrapper.

The software shouldn't matter so much. It shouldn't be so political. Migrating should be easy. Data wants to be free (to move).

Lost our lease

2002-10-26T23:44:08Z

I'm afraid LiveJournal friends, that I'll be vacating this little corner bodega sometime soon, having relocated the locus of my personal blogging to a MovableType-powered blog called X-POLLEN.

I will try to do a number of things:

Import all my bodega entries into x-pollen (then i may go back and import still breathing and breathing room some day as well).

Try to get this blog or a new one in LJ land to mirror the x-pollen blog or figure out how my friends can add the the RSS feed for x-pollen to their LJ friends lists. I don't want to lose any friends by doing this—I'm already giving up threaded comments

Make sure there is an easy way to get to x-pollen from this blog for old-time readers who may stop by to visit from time to time.

The move will probably take some time to complete, but I have already begun posting to the new blog, so I can't promise there will be much more here besides probably news about the move and its progress.

In other xian blog news, I have moved Radio Free Blogistan from http://blogs.salon.com/0001111/ to http://radiofreeblogistan.com/ .

Lots of fun stuff going on in my little microcontent universe. Nanocontent?

It's Otis! He looooves us!

2002-10-24T15:36:17Z

White liberal guilt has never been so deliciously skewered.

(via MZ)

veriSign / netsol evil

2002-10-22T17:58:18Z

this new two-tiered password scheme of netsol's, surely it is designed primarily to once again entangle passive Internet domain holders into staying with verisign out of inertia or, short of that, stuck like flypaper to the new authentication scheme until the inevitable renewal deadline passes.

what is the easiest way to get all of my netsol domains transferred en masse to my preferred (or any other) domain-name registration provider?

Question I just overheard me ask myself

2002-10-16T21:35:39Z

"Where is my not-bag not-going?"

Things that won't get done today

2002-10-15T17:26:35Z

review tapers addendum for dead letters magazine
finish installing pmachine
install and test rss monkey
set up godetia and wildflowertrips domains for b
set up virtuser mail forwarding for antiweb.net
send book promised to friend
make household budget
plan/prepare for moving site root to radiofreeblogistan.com
*set up rss monkey*
learn opml
final notes on j-school panel
jump menu for sidelists
http://www.onfocus.com/snap/cats/
http://www.onfocus.com/bookwatch/index-media.asp
http://www.onfocus.com/bookwatch/
rush to judgement mediajunkie.com/rush
don't know if suexec or cgiwrap available <==figure out!
Please Notify in my event log. Does that mean rss feed received? How notify?
possible to do e-mail list, just send summaries?
Also, how about "Mail this entry..."
w.bloggar
kung-log for MT
make blog books page, link from masthead
make colophon
. typography
. software, radio, dreamweaver, fireworks, textedit, palm desktop, eudora, ie, mozilla, opera, omniweb, netscape
. hardware: mac, speakers, camera, handspring visor, pen and paper
xmltree
PEP is my codename for my dream application, the Personal Expression Platform
start blog directory process
include blog reviews
blog books
required reading
by tool
blogger
radio
movabletype
livejournal
other
respond to blog-related e-mail
try out manila
consider bbCMS for ezone/thedeadbeat/mediajunkie/memewatch
Type design, bold vs italics vs quot marks, not having a style sheet or set design, semantic <strong>? it's more like <span class="thoughts"> and defining that to look italic? accessibility and standards sometimes feel like an infinite regress
traction
people have died of exposure
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/nation/crawford/index.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28609
http://mcns10.med.nyu.edu/intro/brain.tumor.primer.html
turing test for spam arrest
q: how to use short listings in rss feed instead of entire post?
abude brazil ins story meme

Dylan @ the Greek 2002.10.11 notes

2002-10-14T02:05:48Z

first impression of the band:

a little more detail:

the moon was going down

the greek without the people

...and some raw notes

scribbled during the show:

if there's interest i'll actually transcribe the scribbles...

Dylan rocked the Greek, yea verily

2002-10-13T01:07:30Z

...and mightily he smote them. the rumored covers (Zevon's "Accidentally Like a Martyr," "Brown Sugar," Neil Young's "Old Man"), the reinterps of classics (just like a woMan, i ain't ME babe), the recent material rousing the audience (Summer Days with its Charlie Christian, Django, old-timey feel with Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell trading eights in their long maroon zoot suits looking reet pleet), the Berkeley crowd cheering that line "Even the president of the United States must sometimes stand naked" in "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding," the everlasting resonance of the lonesome death of Hattie Carroll. Now is the time for your tears. Business they drink my wine... Money doesn't talk, it swears.

Scans of notes and sketches to follow.

The (other) mouse that roared

2002-10-11T17:45:48Z

From Court News and Monster Weirdo come this report by DeVon Nolt of a lawsuit against Pixar and Disney on the part of Stanley "Mouse" Miller:

The lead characters of the movie Monsters, Inc. were illegally copied from characters drawn by cartoonist Stanley Miller in the early 1960's, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Pixar Animation Studios, Inc., the producers of the movie. ... Disney and Pixar allegedly came into contact with Miller's work in 1997, when they reviewed a treatment for an animated movie Miller had proposed.

Soothing the savage breast

2002-10-11T17:01:31Z

Saw New Orleans piano genius Henry Butler last night with Amy DeNaio at the tiny 21 Grand performance space in Oakland (the show was produced by Earthwise, and Butler's appearance is part of a Basin Street Records "invasion" of the bay area also featuring Kermit Ruffins and Jon Cleary at other venues).

Wow!

Butler is so amazing. He draws on blues, jazz, country, classical, and just plain atonal weirdness. He has a muscular pounding style heavy on the syncopation, and an incredibly deep voice. One song was just a long serious of tuneful moans—a good fit for DeNaio who does a lot of vocalese in her work as well (she played an accordion borrowed from the next-door shop and later a sax with an effects pedal she played with her hand for her vocals).

Mixed in with his own material, Butler reinterpreted Georgia on My Mind and, most thrillingly, the Entertainer.

What a night. Turned my bad mood from the daytime entirely around, as tired as I was.

Tonight it's Bob Dylan at the Greek.

(Say, I've noticed that since I upgraded iTunes, iJournal is no longer able to detect the track currently playing....)

50 most loathsome

2002-10-10T20:33:36Z

The Buffalo Beast names the 50 most loathsome people in America, 2002. Pretty over-the-top (fairly vulgar too), but funny and much of it is hard to argue with.

A sampling:

13. SEAN HANNITY

Misdeeds:   Without question one of the most smarmy, vile, hypocritical talking heads on television. Has the uncanny ability to vilify and generalize those who disagree with him, and then state that he's not a partisan person. Exploits his devout Catholicism and patriotism to the point that it makes you think he's selling something—like his book, whose cover features his giant head in front of one of the glossiest, waviest American flags ever. Much of his wrath can probably be traced to his displeasure that Reagan still can't remember his name although he's met him many times.

Aggravating Factor:   Since 9/11, pretends to be genuinely convinced that anyone who disagrees with the Bush administration does not want America to be safe.

Aesthetic:   Repressed kid from Long Island who got to college, was scared of sex, discovered other repressed white kids in conservative student group, joined them, devoted rest of life to blasting people who didn't.

12. EMINEM

Misdeeds:   Expecting people to care about his shitty childhood because he is white. Dissing his mama. Lifting weights after he got famous. Is the official voice of white teenage suburban boys. Has already worn out his shock value to the extent that his next album will have to include slurs against parapalegics and land-mine victims just to raise eyebrows.

Aggravating Factor:   For someone who sells millions of records partly due to making fun of other people, has no sense of humor about himself.

Aesthetic:   Trailer-trash cracker with just a hint of Down's Syndrome.

(I never said it was PC!)

Geez...

2002-10-10T06:42:08Z

Could they possibly cram any more ads into The Onion?

One theory about why I didn't get Beck/Flaming Lips tickets

2002-10-09T17:13:28Z

I blame Ev.

Fog's in

2002-10-09T16:01:02Z

After two three days of blazing heat peaking in the midafternoon, it started to cool off yesterday and this morning the sky is totally socked in cloudy from the window of my breakfast nook. It's a relief. The ultrahot weather has its charms, especially in the evening when its just balmy outside, but I can get a lot more work done in this cooling fog.

Groan from Uncle TJ

2002-10-07T21:39:24Z

Please don't kill the messenger!

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath.

This made him ....what? (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good.)

A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Art of the Mix: Take the 1990s lyrics quiz

2002-10-07T20:00:24Z

from Art of the Mix (via MZ):

Do you remember a band called Blind Melon? Can you still rattle off the words to "Shoop" by Salt-n-Pepa? Visit this site to test your knowledge of pop and rock lyrics from the 1990s. Hint: look out for appearances from a few hip-hop and country crossover artists. From Ace of Base to Alice in Chains, they're all here, along with a few acts you'd probably rather forget. Step back in time. It's harder than you think!

I doubt it.

Tickets impossible

2002-10-07T19:17:16Z

After spending sixteen frustrating minutes on the phone and on the web a few Sundays back, failing to get Elvis Costello tickets. I asked a friend to deal with getting us all tickets to Beck with Flaming Lips at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. No such luck. He got in after a few minutes and everything was already sold out. It smells rigged to me.

He got an offer from Craigslist, good tickets for $100/ea. (they were between $40 and $50 with added "convenience"). I just don't feel rich enough for that.

What was it Augustine said?

2002-10-07T18:10:46Z

Please Lord, slashdot me... but not yet!

Dude, I'm getting a Dell?

2002-10-07T17:58:18Z

I have a temporary need (two, three months) for a PC for a project I'm working on. (There are five Macs in my house and one PC but it's in the basement and runs Windows 98, ugh.) It's an old Pentium Pro, so I don't even know if I should install XP on it (probably not!). I had to buy XP and put it on a borrowed Dell to capture the PC-related screenshots in my Dreamweaver book.

Now once again I need a PC for testing stuff, so I'm stringing a very long ethernet cable down through the laundry chute to the basement, where I have a second hub (amidst the detritus from my old office in downtown Oakland) I can plug into it and put the PC and Mac down there online (I use a Linksys router to share the DSL connection and an Airport base station to put B and my laptops online).

If it all works and the old PC can handle the testing load, I'm cool. If not, I may be looking to borrow someone's spare laptop for a few months.

Keeping in touch with the old gang

2002-10-07T16:39:15Z

If there's one thing the Internet's good for, it's finding your old friend and compadres.

Exterminate all rational thought

2002-10-05T22:03:52Z

Just posted this to RFB but realized it belongs more over here (or maybe in "artsflow" - it's kind of hard to decide sometimes): WebCollage

News for Dead Heads

2002-10-04T00:23:40Z

Three new items (two serious announcements and one forwarded piece of satire) up at Uncle John's Blog. (Archive of today's latest post at Other Ones to Play Oakland 12/5 and 12/6.)

Taking it on the chin

2002-10-03T23:27:22Z

Kitty Bukkake watches a porn flick while listening to NPR and writes a wickedly accurate, down-to-earth blog entry entitles A Bukkake Home Companion

(Contains frank descriptions of pornography, bodily fluids, and Garrison Keiller.)

Writing computer books is slowly driving me crazy.

2002-10-03T20:36:18Z

I overheard myself just now saying "shift-printscreen! shift-printscreen" when actually looking for the Grab application on this Mac. (Shift-printscreen is PC jargon.)

Last night while watching Frasier typing up copy for his "Wine Corner" segment on the restaurant reviewer's show ona strangely small chunky looking off-white laptop, as he leapt from the table to respond to noises from his dad's bedroom, I blurted out "Save your work!"