February 24, 2003
Caring for Your Introvert
Courtesy of CalPundit, this article hits home a little too easily. Cal makes a few worthy comments on his own as well. I have to disagree with the last two recommendations at the end, though. Having had to sit through more than an average amount of introspection myself in the last month, I think it's one thing to not want to talk about it, but another thing to suggest that we don't care to know that others are concerned enough about us introverts. Then again, perhaps I'm not the average introvert as I'm not above telling others to bug off on occassion. Just goes to show that you can't overgeneralize.
February 17, 2003
Belated Anti-Valentine's Day Recap
I can't claim to have the time and energy to give a newsworthy summation of the ground covered by this event, but it's worth underscoring given that it was a raving success in terms of turnout and temperment.
For the record, seven was the attendance number, with GO commentators Ulysses, Uber, Pete, Alex, occassionaly commentator Wendy, and Alex's friend, whose name I've now had several days to forget. Irony of ironies, the table next to ours was host to not one, but two gaggles of underaged teenaged girl gangs ... as if to tempt (or was it mock?) the male portion of our contingent.
Much earthshattering ground was covered, numerous topics from home decor, politics, architecture, site design, The Simpsons, and a plethora of others were discussed in great enough detail to solve all the world's problems. If you weren't there, you were worse off for it.
Something tells me that this event will be worth repeating and (sadly) will have much of the same contingent back for a repeat. Could be worse ... you could have your name tagged on it as the event organizer.
February 15, 2003
New Site Update ... Sadistic Pleasures
Another morsel I learned of last night ... Sadistic Pleasures has updated their site with a new look. It's moments like this when I hate being a web design snob ... I can think of so many things wrong with this site.
But whatever works ... as long as someone's having fun with it.
February 13, 2003
Uber's Survival Guide
Well hell, with the U.S. rapidly running through the Rainbow of Doom (I think we're up to mauve), I think it's time for me to post something. Plus, I'm waiting for ganache to chill so that I can make truffles. But that's another story. Citizens, particularly those in densely-populated areas (read: TARGETS), have been encouraged to gather together a survival kit in case of chemical, biological or radiological attack. I looked at the survival kit recommended by most experts and found it rather lacking. So, without further adieu, here is Uber's Personal Survival Pack Recommendation:
Two (2) 1-liter bottles of your favorite spirit. I recommend rum or vodka.
Two (2) 2-liter bottles of your favorite mixer for spirits.
Five (5) cans of Pringles
Two (2) large bags M&M candies
Three (3) shot glasses
Two (2) hookers
Four (4) boxes condoms
My pack has just as likely a chance of sustaining life as the federally-recommended one. Only mine includes much much more fun.
Discuss!
February 12, 2003
More Cool Flash Ads
I run across this ad quite a bit in my newpaper reading ... it's damned cool. You can actually write out whatever you want and the program will remember your steps in writing whatever you wrote. It's moments like this when I make myself note that I must step things up a notch to improve my own web design tricks of the trade in order to keep up to date. For now, this is just nothing more than "Nifty/Cool" but I can see a few uses for it on sites that could have a significant impact.
Reminds me ... there's more goodies on this page.
February 11, 2003
Tradition Starts Here ...
For those of you who wish to extend an invite, feel free to use a snazzier graphic located here. I couldn't edit it down to a size that would work for this blog, so I just dropped the big image. RSVP in the comments section.
Blogcleaning
Did a little sprucing up around here. Got Alex's old site off of the list and replaced it with Disagreement, Inc finally. Also added a few more blogs (and reordered them a tad) to try and work into my daily rotation, as well as a few more newspapers. Gone are the Texas newspaper links, the sports links, and NYT feed (oh just hold your applause down will ya!). One took up too much space, the second and third weren't doing me any good since I'm usually on the two big East Coast papers right at 11pm most nights and use my home page of links for all non-bloggy reading links.
I did add some Amazon goodies that I wholeheartedly feel are worth pimping. Speaking of which, I'm in the midst of reading The Values Divide at the moment. Look for a review to come shortly. It's a bit scholarly in style, so its slower reading for me.
I'm debating axing all the links on the individual post links. If anyone cares two cents one way or the other, speak now or forever hold your peace.
February 10, 2003
Thoughts on Stardom
Over the course of a weekend getting increasingly more sick with a sore throat, I decided to kill much of my Saturday night catching a hockey game online. The Aeros were out of town, so nothing was going on there. In fact, the team had shipped a popular goaltended to the ECHL affiliate in Lafayette (that's the equivalent to shipping a AAA player to AA for you baseball fans). The odd part of that was that the goalie, Derek Gustafson, had been named to the All Star team only a few short days ago.
Anyway, the moral here is that I had a rooting interest in it. I've met Derek a few times and he's one of the nicest kids you'll ever meet. Not a trace of ego, never a bad word to say about anyone, you name it ... he's the kind of athlete you hope goes far and never changes.
In any event, I'm listening to the game ... it was rather compelling since a lot of players on both teams had once worn an Aeros uni at some point. They interviewed Derek during the first intermission, and it was pretty good. So I decided to stick out the game and see how it ended for Derek. Later on, they had a trivia contest. Nothing major, just a question and you email in the answer to the announcer. The question pertained to Derek. The answer wasn't on the tip of my tongue, but with one Google search, I had my answer in short time. On top of that, I won. On top of that, I got my name mentioned on Lafayette radio about 5 times.
Upon giving a courtesy check to my friend to see if he had any designs to ditch the Aeros game on Sunday in favor of a roadie, I emailed back to relinquish the tickets I had won. I felt kinda bad since I knew it was a longshot that even I'd want to go. But still, it was cool.
When I gave back my winnings, I added my URL to my Aeros fan site. Just a subtle name drop of my own. If it got clicked, great ... if it didn't no loss. Well, I awoke today and had an email from the radio guy saying he loved the site and offered me a copy of the Derek interview.
There's no grand lesson here, but I had to share the news with a friend and tell him that I'm now convinced any old crankjob with bandwidth can now be a minor celebrity. I'm a little hopeful that I've got a more highly notable 15 minutes of fame, but it was still a pretty cool few days dwelling on that.
On another note, I also roasted Uber rather heartily with a Photoshop job on an AHL trading card. I'm sure there's a burning rage since he knows I like to keep the message board on IA (where the pics were originally posted) relatively clean. So for once and for all, here's Uber in all his glory ... and full swearing privelages in the comments.
Open Post
Light blogging day as our weary writer battles with illness (of the physical kind). Any and all other stray thoughts you may have, now you gotta place to go with em. I've already informed Daniel where the Murderhorn is on the Springfield map, so I feel I've been about as useful as one can be today.
Oh yeah, one other thing ... I'm pondering putting together an Un-Valentines Day Dinner for Friday at Ruchi's on Shephard/Alabama. Since my disdain for Valentine's Day has been renewed, I refuse to sit quietly by while other, more happy people enjoy the day (nevermind that I'm off by a day). Any and all people who are left single, jilted by others, or pretty much just looking for a place to hang out on that day are invited. I'll round up details and put something up on it soon if the interest is there for it.
February 09, 2003
The Issue That Dare Not Speak Its Name
This just makes me want to cry (located on the Chronicle today).
February 08, 2003
Cool
Ran across from a link on Poynter discussing web design and media. Totally cool flash usage. It's not for everything, but its still a cool demo. Congrats Uber ... this is what HP is spending their money on.
February 02, 2003
Photo of the Day
This is one way to get people to slow down ... Its in Richmond, California, though. So hurry and get there. But look out for speed bmups. Hmmm, curious if they did this on a Friday. I've got a theory about that.