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Archives for January 2002
A Modest Proposal
I’ve heard a lot of pseudo-academics complaining about the negative effects of word processors on our collective ability to understand the writing process. They often bemoan the fact that we no longer have records of revisions. A modest proposal:
Writers should use CVS. The log functions would allow explanations of the motivations behind edits. Upon completion of a project, a complete record would exist in the CVS repository of the artistic process, from beginning to end.
Watch Out! It’s a Child Actor!
After a two week sojourn in London, one of my friends at washingtonpost.com returned to work today to find that her new intern is a child actor from a sitcom.
It Should Naturally Follow…
So the other day I was at Fresh Fields, a ridiculous and wonderful yuppie organic supermarket a few blocks from my apartment, when I came upon the new bottled Guinness Draught Stout with the “rocket widget” inside. Immediately the gears in my head began slowly turning:
- Beer in a bottle is always better than beer in a can.
- The only exception to the irresponsible gross generalization in the item above occurs when a widget is present is a can.
It seemed obvious to me (by way of my weak syllogism) that this new bottle/widget combination must possess the best of both worlds. Indeed, thousands of years of beer technology all seemed to lead up to this development and the promise of sweet ambrosia began to stir in my mind as I happily placed the beer in my shopping cart.
It tastes watery. I’ve got to stop setting myself up for these kinds of consumer disappointments.
Down the Drain
Erin and I saw the Tibetan Healing Mandala with Virginia at the Smithsonian over this past weekend. Twenty monks spend over two weeks creating this intricate and beautiful sand painting. Upon completion, they proceed to sweep it up and dump it right into a large body of water.
I’m beginning to wonder if Buddhists worship Sisyphus.
One Cool Cat
My cat Basie’s IQ is 125. I hope it doesn’t go to his head.
Hmm? Maybe I could retire and put him to work developing PHP/MySQL web sites.
Stetson’s
Last night I went to Stetson’s with my wife and several of her friends. For over a year Erin and I were under the mistaken impression that it was a gay cowboy bar. The neon lasso-shaped sign, the complete lack of windows, and the bar’s location all contributed to this collective delusion we held. Several month’s ago, we discovered that Stetson’s is actually a hangout for Capitol Hill staffers.
To be honest, I would have probably preferred gay cowboys.
But the place has dart boards, pool tables, relatively inexpensive drinks, classic rock on the radio, and a patio in back with tables. So you really can’t complain about the politicos. From time to time I mention Stetson’s to someone who has never been there.
Invariably, they will ask, “Isn’t that a gay cowboy bar?”
Next Month
After “January Novel Writing Month” someone should spare us all and sponsor “February Novel Editing Month.”
Shaken or Stirred?
While walking in Arlington today I heard the best panhandling pitch ever:
“Excuse me sir, could you spare some change for a dry martini?”
<
p>William F. Buckley himself couldn’t have done better.
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p>
The Gypsy Soul
I watched Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at Macworld on the web with Quicktime today. It was like a tent-revival meeting. I won’t bore you with details you can find elsewhere, but I did find it strange that there was no mention of faster towers? Doh!
I spent most of yesterday moving Gypsyguitars.com over to a new MySQL backend. Should make updating things much easier in the future but today the forearm connected to my mouse hand is killing me from all the ‘copy-drag-pasting’ I did.
Sweet Dreams Are Made of These
I watched two movies before going to bed last night: Fight Club and South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Man, did I have some messed up dreams.
A Dog-Gone Shame
Buddy, the Clintons’ dog, was hit by a car. Leave it to them to express their sadness through some PR tool:
“We are deeply saddened by Buddy’s death,” the Clintons said in a statement issued by Payne. “He was a loyal companion and brought us much joy. He will truly be missed.
Once again Google has amazed
Once again Google has amazed me. Today they launched Google Catalogs, which allows you to search through print catalogs and see detailed pictures of products. The archive is more extensive than one might imagine, and the most impressive feature is probably the systems ability to show you where on a given page image the search terms appeared. I’m not even going to speculate on how this might work on the backend.
Amelie
Paul Melton and I went to see Amelie today over at a theater in Dupont. It was an absolutely beautiful film, which I highly recommend.
The apartment is almost in a state I can live with. Erin and I just need to find the perfect file cabinet, to contain our paper-mountain.
