please redirect your attention to
http://krixfort.typepad.com/hells_half_acre/.
Blogger was going to give me an anuerism especially since I'm out at sea right now. My connection times are few and far between. Come and see how my attempt to circumnavigate the globe is faring. . . .
The new HHA needs a little work still but at least I can post and YOU can comment! Hooray!!!
Don't hate me because I'm abandoning a faulty product, hate me because I'm beautiful.
P.S. I've got more vacation pictures up . . .
news from craiggy
Howdy:
What’s new? 130+ radio stations across the United States and Canada playing tracks from the recently released self-titled debut from Craig Chesler.
What’s new? The CD sampler in the March issue of CMJ New Music Monthly Magazine featuring “Nowhere Too Far” from the recently released self-titled debut from Craig Chesler.
What’s new? Music Connection Magazine stating “Chesler manages a collection of tunes that includes “St. Joan,” “My Baby Rose,” and “Nowhere Too Far,” which stands out for its Elvis Costello-like energy.”
What’s new? Solo Craig Chesler show at CB’s 313 Gallery (313 Bowery, New York City), Thursday, April 14, 2005, 8:00 pm.
yaaaaaaaaaaaaay Craig! Sink it!
help! heeeeeeeeeellllllllllppppp!!!!!!!
I am souring by the moment! somebody please tell me something funny! I'm begging you!!
AHhhhhhhhHhhhhH!!!!!!!
I'm dying here. All I can think about is escape!! Please send the life raft. I'm standing on this tiny little island of sanity. All around me are 18 ft. sharks and crocodiles with razor sharp teeth. They are fighting over who will get to feed. I can't tell them that I would be a sour morsel because I can't talk shark talk and can only barely get by with crocodile. They aren't listening anyway. Oh god. . .the sharks are coming up out of the water. They are evolving and growing legs and starting to walk across the beach. They are snapping all seven layers of teeth. Their dead black eyes are rolling into the backs of their heads. They are coming for me.
Goodbye all. I think this is it.
It's been fun.
Position Type: Full-Time Employee
Company Name: Phoenix Partners LLC
Location: Newport, NJ
Salary: up to $110K
Date Posted: March 23, 2005
Experience: 5-10 Years Experience
I am a capitalist sell-out fuck.
FNG and I are actually communicating today. This is new and unprecedented. Today, he is an okay guy. I am thawing.
Minerva says that is my M.O. I usually hate people and then I like them. FNG has earned my respect because he has been able to come in and kick ass. He has also backed off a bit which has enabled us to work on a more collaborative basis and is essential to creating a team of programmers instead of a shark pool.
It makes me less angry.
The first thing I see in my inbox this morning is an email from Jason's parents which makes my heart die a little. It actually turned out to be a nice email recounting the tree planting which Jason's mom, dad, grandma and grandpa participated in. Every email I receive from his mother is so kind and full of love. If my kid had offed himself I would be filled with a blinding fury and little compassion. I'm amazed at his parents's strength to bear this catastrophe.
Jason's friend Brian, who is a landscaper, said that he and Jason had often gone to the park that was selected for the tree planting and that he would have approved of the project. According to the group that organizes the comemorative plantings, the planting of the trees will help cool down the temperature of the creek and bring back wild life.
Anyway, this whole thing makes me sad. Unlike Jesus, we don't get to roll back a rock and bring our friend back. We just have to live with the void.
was closed today. I was trying to become a pod person but those wares could not be procured from the place that would accept my gift certificate. I was unable to be a patriot and participate in this great nation's number one activity. Instead I ended up at a Cole Hahn store picking up a $500.00 pair of shoes and exclaiming, "These sandals take me back to that summer in the Hamptons. Remember? When I sucked cock for a living?"
That kind of talk is not welcomed at the Cole Hahn store or in any church of consumerism for that matter. I ended up wandering the streets of soho, getting accosted by street vendors with tiny eyes, selling ugly hats. I did not tithe.
I came home and finished my skank through mordor. I have had enough of trolls and orcs for awhile.
I am tired. zzzzzzzzzz.
Happy Easter, I think. If I have to listen to one more thing about Jesus, I will go back in time and re-crucify him myself.
It sure would be great if we could make a modern day sacrifice to get us off the hook for our transgressions. I say maybe one of the Bush daughters would be a good choice. But instead, we've got Terry Schiavo.
I am not feeling generous today. The previous day's goodness has been slowly stripped away, leaving only the mean meaty parts of me which are systematically rotting.
it was chick power night last night at the local. I personally powered through until the bitter end. I just want to say that it is getting lighter a lot earlier these days. I may burn up and turn to ash if I don't start getting my vampire ass home at a reasonable hour.
Today's coma couch laying movies are:
Rushmore
Lord of the Rings (all three)
I'm not planning on moving much.
Newsworthy Note: I got invited to go to the Katherine Family Drum Circle family gathering reunion gathering thing in Sunny Southern CA!!! Actually Katherine has the most interesting sounding family and we were laughing hysterically at the prospect of me joining in the fun. Cole and his friend Ted are going to go and the anticipation of listening to Cole and Ted talk politics with some of Katherine's family members is too much to resist. I may really have to take this invitation seriously. Katherine also told me I could feel free to blog the event. I may need to get a laptop.
I don't know if I'm up for the drumming part but I figure I'll grab her brother Paul and we can go to the nearest pub. YEAH!
I need to skank into Mordor now.
Assmonkey UniverseThese are words to remember:
There are no tickets givin for driving like an assmoney from another universe.
Hi. My name is gothra. I like black fingernail polish and I listen to 20 year old music from obscure bands that moan. I wear a cape. Sometimes I remove my head and carry it under my arm for safekeeping. I have a coke habit and extreme makeup. If you want to meet me, I will be at the batcave on 32nd street Saturday around 2am.
Thanks for listening.
I am feeling so generous today! I bequeath teeny tiny jewel encrusted fezzes to all my friends. Then you can all do like I am doing, which is to wear this minature sparkling fez and march around singing "turkey in the straw!"
The magic is all around. It is truly a good day!
on this special holiday weekend I pray that you will protect me from scalpel wielding undead children who wait under my bed to slice my achilles tendons. I pray that you protect me from the mean sleestack that stroll through the subway platforms looking to harm. I pray for all the little children who don't know who dirty sanchez or lucky pierre are. I pray that you keep the goblins from ransacking my billfold and replacing my hard won cash with empty ATM receipts. And lastly, oh ZOD, please strike down my enemies with your powerful lazers and teach them to
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD.
Thank you zod.
For everything.
I miss this dude.
once again, keyword analysis shows that Snuffaluffagus is still sending people to my site and probably will continue to do so as long as I keep typing it.
Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus Snuffaluffagus
Like I said before, it's all about the kids here at Hell's Half Acre.
Hey kids! Do you know who Dirty Sanchez is?
Today I've decided to let my adult onset hypochondria thrive!
My cuticles are becoming unwieldy.
My foot leprosy is blooming.
My grey hair is threatening a coup.
My tonsils are choking me.
My toenails are stubborn.
My personality is lacking.
I am boring myself to death.
is what Michelle said when she sent this link.
http://pazeme.lv/hilarious/Oh.
My.
God.
there are disturbing things on the internets today. Very disturbing. I may have to go back to bed now.
Other than that. . .I LOVE HOME DETENTION!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
yes. score.
I don't have a laptop and it's a good thing that I don't because then this blog would be ree-donk-ulous!
I am transcribing this from a bar napkin. I wrote it last night when I was bored. You would think that beer would be enough to entertain me but sometimes it is not. Thanks to Scott who came in late and regaled me with stories from his playwriting class at Hunter. I get to live the master's program there vicariously through him.
Oh god shoot me now. Take the fucking feeding tube out please. I'm writing on a bar napkin and if that wasn't retarded enough, I'm sitting next to the most obnoxious people. There's a woman who looks like Halle Berry. Beautiful BUT RUDE! She's treated all my friends here like shit. Then comes the name dropping. "Do you KNOW G--- C-----!?!?! I used to DATE G--- C----!!!! That's back when I was at I.N.G.. . .blah blah blah. . .BARTENDER!!!!I need a glass of water NO ICE THIS TIME!! I swear. You'd think I asked him for liquid gold. blah blah blah. . ."
WHo the FUCK is Greg Calvino? And who the fuck cares anyway. I don't know who this Calvino person is but I DO know that writing on this napkin and listening to the White Stripes is starting to soothe my nerves. Back to Stella. I love her.
I use blogs for everything nowadays.
One thing I'm using a blog for is my Senior Research project. Right now, I've got a really simple survey that I've created where I'm trying to capture some basic information about corporate attitude toward internet chatter (weblogs, newsgroups, etc) and attitudes about internal communication within the corporation.
Anyone who stumbles across this is free to fill out the survey. The more the merrier! Even if you're not working, base your answers on your previous work experience.
You'd be helping me out quite a bit. Also, you can email me and let me know if the questions don't make sense or whatever.
Click Here to take the survey!The more data I can gather before 4/13 the better off I am when I have to talk about my preliminary results.
If you're REALLY bored, you can look at my project blog. It probably won't make sense to anyone but me but you're welcome to look anyway. You can see what a lame ass NYU student with a full-time day job has time to throw together in order to graduate.
Senior Project: Internet BacktalkThanks again everybody!
xoxoxo,
krixfort
Did you ever have that dream where you walk into a high school class and everyone is taking a test only you didn't know it was test day and not only that but you don't have a pen and not only that but you don't have any underwear?
well, real life is so much better than the dream world when that really happens. Okay, I had underwear. And I had a pen. And it was college, not high school. But I didn't know we were having an exam BECAUSE IT WASN'T ON THE FUCKING SYLLABUS!!!!!
I hate this jackoff. He said he didn't have a project from me. I sent my project to him 2 weeks ago. He hasn't checked his fucking email. Thank god I cc'd myself on it.
I know I'm an adult and it's my responsibility to come to class and all but most profs use the communication tools that the university provides them with to send out announcements to the class and whatnot. They also clearly state what will be covered on the syllabus and print out a schedule for exams. If the schedule needs to be changed then they announce it to the class. I emailed this jackoff because I was stuck at work and couldn't make it to class (the same day I emailed him my project.) That was the day he suddenly decided he would give an exam. Apparently, after speaking with other pissed off classmates, the guy couldn't accurately describe what he was going to test on. What a tool.
I'm pissed!
Thank Zod for making this day a school day. I get to leave this place in T minus 38 minutes. I need to sleep and feed and dissolve my brain.
who wants to see me get hazed into Delta Upsilon, the special ed honor society?
I am wary of anything greek. Especially bad feta.
help me please I am so overwhelmed right now I think I'm going to implode.
I am fending it off on all sides, inside outside backwards forwards. Today is truly one of the un-greatest days ever.
No yelling though. Just demands. too many to count.
Lion King, I think I need your help. Are you available? I will explain your tasks later.
still on the subject of clothes. . .The whole pants thing reminded me of this time I was walking down 9th street and was mesmerized by this woman's ass. It wasn't because she had a great ass or anything. let me back up a bit and tell you why. . .
It was the middle of summer and it was a typical hot sweaty New York day. I think I was unemployed at the time because I can't imagine what I was doing walking around NYC in the middle of the day. Whatever. So there I was minding my own business when I notice this glare coming from in front of me. Ahead of me was a woman of average build, wearing the summer time uniform of a female administrative assistant on casual attire day; flip flops, a cute demure top, and a skirt. The skirt was made from that stretchy rayon material that is generous to women of all body types. It's a popular fabric at H & M. She had a black stretchy rayon skirt. The problem with this stretchy rayon material however, is that it may stretch, but it gets more transparent as it does so. Anyone who's had a SHIRT made in this material knows they better have the right bra underneath and in the same color. For an example of this look gone bad,
look here.
Chica is strutting her stuff along 9th street, in her stretchy rayon skirt, the rayon stretched thinly across her ass. Not only is she not wearing a slip (I get it, it's hot and humid, keep the layers minimal) but I can tell she's also wearing a thong because there is a reflection coming off the cheeks of her WHITE ass like sunlight on chrome. Her cheeks look like two white volleyballs bouncing up and down under the stretchy rayon skirt. bounce bounce bounce bounce all in stride. I stepped in right behind her. I couldn't take my eyes off the bouncing ass. It was hypnotizing.
Anyway, I broke the spell somewhere around Broadway and wrenched myself away. I'm not sure if I would feel comfortable adopting this look for myself and I'm not sure if she was going for that look intentionally but HI HOOOOO!
Talk about a backyard party!
a little while ago I had to get new jeans. I say HAD to because I'm not a shopper and I hate trying on clothes. I find it excrutiating.
Minerva finally convinced me to get some new jeans and stop looking raggedy. I went to this place on 14th street to get a basic pair of levis and there was this crazy short spanish lady working there who was determinied to sell EVERYONE in there a pair of jeans. She was a retail pitbull. She wouldn't let up! I went into the dressing room with my 3 pair limit and she was knocking on the door before I could get my shoes off.
"MAMI You let me know if you need anything OKAY? Another size or anything OKAY? You just wave your hand OKAY MAMI?"
It turns out I did need a LARGER size in the style I was trying on. I discreetly wave the pitbull fashionista over and murmur my size to her in low tones. I didn't want the size 0 french chick overhearing my concession to the gods of unrealistic expectations.
Pitbull then YELLS to her runner, "JUAN, I NEED A 515 BOOT CUT SIZE X! SHORT!! IT'S FOR LA CHICA RIGHT HERE!!!"
I immediately turn crimson and break out in a sweat. I may as well have been at the grocery store checkout and had the clerk announce over the intercom "I need a price check on the PREPARATION H and the MASENGILL DOUCHE!"
To her credit La Pitbull knew what she was doing. She was whipping me in and out of pants better and faster than any boyfirend could ever have. She finally brought over a pair, smaller than I would have chosen. "OKAY MAMI TRY THESE ONES. THEY GONNA LOOK GOOOOOD! AND THEY STRETCH! YOU GOTTA GET 'EM A SIZE SMALLER!"
I squeezed myself into the tight ass bastards and got them zipped. HOLY GOD. Mi Pitbull Loca coaxed me out of the dressing room to check the mirror. "AY MAMI! I THINK THAT'S IT! YOUR BUTT LOOK FINE!!!"
I was pretty sure you could read the writing on my underwear tag through the levi denim but I wanted to trust the expert. I walked around in them. They did stretch. They were comfortable. The junk in the trunk didn't look too bad. AND HELL, I went down a size. *eye roll*
All I can say is that someone knew what they were doing when they hired La Pitbull Loca. Mami knows her stuff.
I got invited to join the honor society at NYU.
who the fuck knew?
I did not know such things existed. Thanks to the
Fairy Butler for pointing this out!
It's EL Chupacabra!!! My WORD!
OH WAIT!! IT GETS BETTER!!
MUSKRAT FEET EARRINGS!!! I must get some today.
I had chix strips for lunch. I made a little buffet of dipping sauces arranged neatly on my desk in which to dip the cold tasteless unhealthy fingers into. My favorite is ranch, followed by secret sauce (Ketchup + Mayonaise), then last is Honey-Mustard. The fries that came with the fingers were so cold and hard that they kind of tore the roof of my mouth up a little bit. That hurt. But once you dip the knife-like fries into some secret sauce, your frown will turn upside down and you will feel a little giddy. Just try it sometime! It's soooo fun!!!! :-)
I just wrote code to parse an XML document in VB.net. You don't have to know what that means but you do have to know that I just touched VB.NEt a couple of days ago and I have been struggling with learning how to use it and accomplish this task for DAYS. There may be programmers out there who say "Big Whoop. That's easy peasy. Tell me when you do something really hard." But I'll tell you what. FNG couldn't do it.
I did it.
Fuck Yeah.
Smoke it.
my shoes are too tight today. They are very distracting.
On the flipside, Mountain Man and I are discussing spy tactics and spy gear on his blog,
Artistic Thoughts. If anyone has good ideas for spying, please let us know.
If spying is a viable career option then I may be switching professions. I would like to spy on deli owners because I think they are disreputable. I will out their disreputable practices. I will also narc on dumb people who act like they know it all. In fact, I have my first subject right in my sights. . .
let's hear it for the public transportation system. Something must have blown up at NY Penn Station this morning because I sat at Penn Station's bastard stepchild, NEWARK PENN STATION for an hour and a half.
Ever been to Newark? It's everything you could ever dream it would be.
Inevitably I was late for my meeting this morning. A MEETING ON TRANSPORTATION HAHAHAHAAHAHAAA!!!! How we're going to make it MORE EFFICIENT!!! BWAHAHAAHAHA!!!!
I forgot I had wrote a blog entry when I got home last night. I'm surprised I could type. Yes, my stories of my trip to Jamaica and Avenue X in the sleeper car of the E and F trains respectively, have now made the rounds of infamy in Hell's Chicken. I did correct everyone and inform them that these sleepy time stories did NOT take place this weekend.
AND for the record, I take cabs now on account of I don't want to get robbed, raped, or killt. Or stumble drunkly off the platform. Doesn't sound appealing. I like writing in my blog too much.
I actually went to *gasp* Sephora tonight *ugh* to buy this crazy bartender chick I know some Stila lip gloss for her b-day. I just felt compelled. She's a very nice girl and she left Godiva Choclate at the restaurant where I had my b-day dinner. How could I NOT? You tell me? I hope she likes it. If she doen't, I'm keeping it.
somebody read this stooopid blog and got all the dates mixed up. I went into my local and I got to hear about how I ended up at Ave. X--Coney Island and I was like "oh that was sooooo September. Not this weekend." HellllOOOOOOOO!!!! I haven't fallen asleep on the train since JAUNUARY!!
Anyway,I take cabs these days. They're okay as long as the drivers aren't pervs.
cabs. better than crabs.
I need a haircut. I am looking shaggy like this guy.
I also need waxing and binding but I'll just get the haircut first.
Imports System.Xml
Module xmlReadTest
Sub Main()
Dim textReader As XmlTextReader = New XmlTextReader("c://xml/fack.xml")
textReader.Read()
If textReader.HasValue Then
textReader.MoveToElement()
Console.WriteLine("XmlTextReader Properties Test")
Console.WriteLine("=============================")
Console.WriteLine("Name:" + textReader.Name)
Console.WriteLine("Base URI:" + textReader.BaseURI)
Console.WriteLine("Local Name:" + textReader.LocalName)
Console.WriteLine("Attribute Count:" + textReader.AttributeCount.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Depth:" + textReader.Depth.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Line Number:" + textReader.LineNumber.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Node Type:" + textReader.NodeType.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Attribute Count:" + textReader.Value.ToString())
End If
End Sub
End Module
fuck me.
another show notice for Tom Clark and the High Action Boys
The last show was good but sidewalk was a little crowded. I'll put a good word in anyway.
Tom Clark & the High Action Boys
Thursday, March 31st, 2005
10:00 PM
Sidewalk
94 Avenue A
If you want more info go to
Craig's site and click on "show."
I was really going to focus on the things that are supposed to be focused on today.
But I cannot.
so here are the things I am focusing on:
Here's the website for the chick that did my tatoo, Tina Bafaro. She's in Seattle. Actually the tatoo was designed by
Vyvyn lazonga. Tina was working in her studio at the time. I went back to Tina in November 2003 for a ten year touch up. The design is stylized Northwest Coast Indian art but I suppose if you had to pick a tribe whose are it most closely resembled, I'd say Haida. It's more like a Vyvyn interpretation of Haida art. Anyway, I'm Tlingit and I just wanted something that resembled the art of my tribe. My grandmother was less than thrilled, even though I told her I got it to celebrate her side of the heritage pool. Her exact words were, "Oh my god. What if you marry an executive and have to wear a strapless gown??!!"
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!!!
My reply? "It's okay grandma, I already missed the debutante ball."
I have to go to the doctor. I think I have foot leprosy. And a brain tumor. Please do not rescusitate.
That is all.
Happy Monday.
I have to go to the gym this week because I will be downsizing. I'm trying to shed some pounds so I can be a cockrocker. That's right. you heard what I said.
I'm feeling feisty.
Pow pow.
soon they will put a packet sniffer on our network. Get your mind out of the gutter because a packet sniffer is not what it sounds like. . .it is software that monitors what is taking place on our network, like what internet sites people visit and the amount of email being sent and all that.
Anyways, packet sniffer = me no blog so much anymore in the daytime.
Just a warning.
IF I EVER have to be sustained by some external apparatus and there is no chance in hell that I will recover or that I will only recover in a vegetative state, I want all my friends to note that I am going to sign a DNR and/or some other kind of paperwork stating that I will only submit to life sustaining measures for a limited amount of time. This woman has been on a feeding tube for FIFTEEN YEARS. Are you crazy???? Her parents are fighting along with the federal court to keep her alive on the tube when she has sustained permanent brain damage 15 years ago??!! What are they thinking?? That Jesus is going to come down and lay his hands on her and she'll just rise from the living dead like Lazuraus? Come ON. Please. If it were me I'd be wearing a t-shirt that said "Shoot me now." I guess this is just another testament to my blantant disregard for the sanctity of human life.
Congress Passes and Bush Signs Legislation on Schiavo Case
By CARL HULSE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
The approval and signing of the measure allows a federal
court to intervene in the case of a brain-damaged woman in
Florida.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/21/politics/21debate.html?th
I wrote this to a friend of mine. He was asking me about places I had lived and if I ever missed any of them. With all the places I've lived, I've always found something remarkable about them. There is always one thing that can trigger a fond memory for a place.
San Francisco: I love that area. I also loved the headlands. I lived in SF twice. The first time I had a car and I would drive up and down the coast by myself. . .up through the russian river wine country. . .down through Big Sur to Morrow Bay. When I go there now I like to stay away from the urban areas and just breathe in the ocean and the cypress and eucalyptus. Those are the things I miss about California. I miss the brown rolling hills that rolled all the way down to the Pacific. It really was Land's End. The end of all possibility and the end of westward expansion.
I'm trying to think about the things I miss about
Seattle . . .if my family wasn't there. . .then perhaps I would be nostalgic for it. I miss the view when you drive down Admiral toward Alki beach at sunset. I miss the smell of over-ripe blackberries wafting into my car as I'd drive past vacant, overgrown lots. I miss the smell of puget sound that would occasionally make its way to my grandmother's back yard. I miss things about it that I can't describe. . .
Well, let me change the subject and tell you what I miss about
Colorado. I miss the sky that never ends, an open expanse of blue that filled me with hope and dreams of endless opportunities. It was the place I escaped to when I first fled the northwest. I miss the colors of the southwest. . .so intense, so brilliant. And the light. The afternoon light; warm, orange, gold, firey. It made everything beautiful the way a candle can. And the storms. They could be so violent and exciting. I'd never seen anything like it before. It was so different from what I was accustomed to.
and
New York. . .hmmm. I'll have to think about that one. . .I haven't written my ode to NYC yet and I'm sure that I can come up with one, as many have. Maybe that's tedious. . .people always gush about New York. . .maybe I should resist following suit. I could really gush about New York through photographs. I'm not sure my words could do it justice. When I first started roaming around Manhattan I used to compare it to the Grand Canyon, only manmade and in reverse. I've never been to the bottom of the grand canyon but sometimes, looking up sixth avenue or park avenue, I get the feeling that the manmade canyon has similar physical depth. New York lacks the natural beauty of a place like Colorado or Big Sur but it has something different.
My transplanted friends and I sometimes discuss the allure of New York. I know now I would probably not be satisfied living anywhere else. Ten years ago I had a conversation with a kid from New York that I met while traveling in Mexico. I told him I could never move to NYC because I would be eaten alive. He told me I might be surprised. Over the following years I felt like I had grown too aggressive for the West Coast with its polite mellow vibe. I had to be able to speak my mind. Maybe that is what is appealing to me about this place. I can say what I think and no one bats an eye. Soon, I'll have been here for four years which feel like four months. Prior to that, I bounced back and forth like a ping pong between all the places I mentioned before. Does this mean that I've found my home? Time will tell I guess.
I can't sleep now. I ruined myself today by all the sleeping. This is one of those nights that I'm thnakful I don't live in Hell's Kitchen because I would probably be venturing out right now, restless and listless. Instead, I'm just padding around my apartment at 12:30 am with a brain that's churning. I had to get up because I was just laying there in my bed, thinking about relationships, casual and otherwise, and what went bad and what was good and trying to define the criteria for the next round. I didn't come up with any answers. I did come up with a "where are they now" list.
Tristan: the last time I saw this kid he was on his way to Antartica, if you can believe that. I knew this guy when I lived in Colorado. He was about 19 and I was 28 or 29. While I knew him, he managed to travel to Europe on $1000 bucks and stretch his stay out for almost a year. Through family friends he acquired a housesitting gig in Paris. The house was actually a houseboat on the Seine where he was able to stay for a month, gratis, in exchange for feeding the bird or something. He went from there to some gig in the south of France, working as an assistant to a french non-fiction author who was writing some crazy book about American classic cars and teen pregnancies. Don't ask, I can't remember the details. He also worked in a vineyard, camped, and stayed with family in Amsterdam. At the time I was envious of the freedom he must've felt that he was entitled to.
(Speaking of the Dutch, they were really banging away at something today. I think they are rebuilding our apartment building from the inside out.)
There was this woman I knew in Colorado also, Cory. She was an art history professor who's husband had left her because he figured out he was gay. After that devastation, she wanted to figure out if she was gay, and I suppose I did too. It was short lived but I was very fond of her and still think about her from time to time, wondering how her life turned out.
Kelly, the rocket scientist. He left Seattle for some job in Southern CA. I googled him once and saw his name attached to some crazy Mars project. When I met him he was producing Dan Savage's local radio show and managing an apartment building. He refused to take a job that didn't have anything to do with his degree in Aerospace Engineering. At one point, he chucked everything he had going on in Seattle got in his car and drove to El Salvador. I think he liked hanging around me because I was the only person he knew who didn't think that was a crazy idea. His ultimate goal was to drive from Tierra del Fuego to Nome, Alaska. When he was through with his adventures south of the border, he signed up for semi-truck driving school. He went on the road for three weeks, criss-crossing the U.S. twice, then suddenly and surprisingly got the call from Boeing that he had been waiting for for 4 years. He ultimately got to be what he wanted to be when he grew up, a rocket scientist.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I have lists and lists of people I've met through the years that I often wonder about.
It's 10:50 Sunday night.
Today, Minerva and I have slept through the following movies:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Mystery Men
Office Space
Yesterday, we were put into a food coma by our sommelier friend at Becco, our de facto destination for birthday celebrations and all that. I orignally invited a small group of people but Horst took over the management of the dinner plans and extended the invite to more of my friends, which was awesome. We closed down Becco, then proceeded to close down the local, for the second night in a row.
The weekend totals in hours:
Schoolwork = 0
work work = 0
sleeping = 24(daytime hours only)
eating = 6(4 at becco)
drinking = I have lost count
Birthday cheer and general hilarity = too many gut busting hours to count
Special thanks to all participants. I was feeling especially ambivalent about the whole birthday concept this year. Dinner made it memorable. Gracias.
so last night it was 11:00 PM then suddenly it was 4AM. Then it turned light out and I was getting a sausage egg and cheese at the deli by my house.
What was I talking about for five hours. I hear this voice rattling around my head that is an echo of me last night "blah blah blah blah, I'm thirty nine, blah blah blah, it's my birthday, blah blah blah, sure, I'll do a shot. Jamesons please."
Good christ.
Today I am in for a full day of couch laying. I've already watched Napoleon Dynamite. Next on the agenda is Shaun of the Dead. Then maybe Paris Texas or The Black Stallion. OR JAWS.
I was telling Esther about my shark neurosis. I told her if she thought land sharks were a made up joke that she was sorely mistaken. I told her I would never move to Australia, home of the land-sea, one-two, punch: great white sharks and 18 foot crocs. They are really the same animal; all teeth and fastness. Their primary goal is to eat you. That's not cool. I don't like either of them and I'm not even going to pretend to.
Owww GARY!!! why are you scratching me.
Must go. Zombies are calling.
I am making the move to typepad. there are still things that need to be done. Plans must be hatched. Schemes must be made. wait a minute. schemes hatched, plans laid. that's what I meant.
it is here. . .
http://krixfort.typepad.com/hells_half_acre/.
It almost looks like the real Hell's Half Acre.
This typepad. . .well, it's got a lot of fancy bell's and whistles but in order to get what I really wanted out of it, I took the super deluxe Pro option for 12 bones a month. Is that silly? It might be silly.
I'm silly.
super elastic bubble plastic
silly putty
slinky
bazooka
stretch armstrong
daredevil debbie
slime
I wish I was 10.
my brain is spent today. it is almost time to return to my cave. I'm going home and popping in a movie. I predict I will fall asleep sometime during the second act.
I sent another letter to typepad support:
I have an account on typepad but no weblog associated with the account. I am unable to create a weblog. I don't mind starting the process over, however, I want to use the login name that I'm using right now (krixfort.)
I believe this bug is something that I created during registration. I got about halfway through the registration process and then stopped at the point where I needed to enter my credit card information. I believe that I only created a user record and no associated records in the database. (I'm guessing here but if that is the case, that's probably why everything bombs when I log in. Don't you love it when a smart ass web programmer comes in and acts like they know it all. I don't.) Hopefully this info can help you troubleshoot. I want to create a weblog using your service. I want to give you my money. I want to create other people's weblogs using your service and give you their money. I can't do this until I know if your service will work for me, which right now it is not. I want to love you guys unconditionally. help me get my silly blog up and running. I promise not to be a pain in the ass.
Thank you. Good night.
Sincerely,
Krixfort
They seemed responsive the last time I talked with them but we never got anything resolved. Better than blogger.com support who said:
Errors like this are generally due to temporary problems with our servers, and if you wait a little while before trying again, Blogger should work
normally. If you continue to have trouble with it, please try clearing
your browser's cache and cookies before logging in again. We apologize for
the inconvenience, and we are constantly working on making our servers
more reliable.
For the last week Blogger has been consistently unresponsive, with hangs, timeouts, errors. Comments seem to have failed. whatever. Cleaning my browser's cache has absolutely no bearing on whether or not I can connect to your server.
Irritation. I want to bite something.
he doesn't know what FTP is. He doesn't know how it works. He types with his two index fingers. I've realized why he tries to make himself look like he knows more than anyone. It's because he DOESN'T.
it's killing my soul.
tomorrow I turn 39. which is almost 40. I am starting to get grey hairs. I am still in school. I am underemployed.
Maybe I need to climb up on a thistle and hum a jaunty tune, like
the fairy butler.
I don't FEEL tardy. Class Dismissed.
blogger is a lost cause and I managed to screw up my registration at Typepad. argh.
I have home detention today and I am working on some super secret XML parsing while traversing the XML DOM. This is like spy work. I am gaining knowledge at frightening rate. The amount of knowledge escalates until it looks like the simulated war frenzy at the end of War Games, starring Matthew Broderick and that chick. I fear my head will explode soon.
that is all.
I've got a new nephew. He arrived a month early but is still a whopping 6lbs 6oz. If he would have stayed in the oven a little longer he probably would have walked out on his own.
I don't know what everyone is calling the little bugger but hopefully my sister will be a little more dilligent and new baby will not have to wait three years for a name like the cat, Gary.
Another congrats goes out to Mr. Mustard, who battled death by pick-up truck and WON!!! That's right people. Mr. Mustard is a tough puppy who needs more than a truck to take him down. He is home from the doggy emergency room and is pretty beat up but recovering nicely, according to his mom!
YAY for everyone!
sometimes I get called on the carpet for my negativity. My negativity, bitterness, and sarcasm is part of my charm. I've been honing it for years.
However, someone jostled some memories of my youth to counteract the doozy from this morning. The new memory also deals with cars, albeit less painfully so.
In 1979 I got my first boombox. It wasn't really a boombox like the super 80's style boomboxes. It was a one speaker wonder that played cassette tapes and had a handle. I dragged that sucker everywhere. This was in the time before the walkman had been released onto an unsuspecting public. Oh yeah, you could also record on it. It fucking ruled! My cousins and I had a new medium beyond the skit. We made audio skits where we interviewed Jimmy Carter:
Me: "President Carter. What's your policy on the Middle East?"
My cousin Mike: "Ah-ah-ah I talked to Ayatollah Khomeni. I got so scared, I-ran!"
(hey man. . .I was 13 and Mike 9, that's the best we could do.)
We also incorporated a lot of toilet flushing sounds. We recorded ourselves singing along to Journey.
My friend Shawn and I decided that year to walk in a walk-a-thon. I can't remember the cause, MS, Jerry's Kids, somebody. This was in the years before AIDS so it wasn't an AIDS walk (weird to think of that not being a concern.) Of course the radio had to come along for the ride. We only had two tapes and it was something like a 30 km walk. I pretty much burned the tread off my Nikes.
The two bodies of musical achievement that are permanently melded in my mind with that event are:
Van Halen's first album
and
The Cars first album.
To this day, everytime I hear anything from that Cars album it sends me back to a blistering day of traipsing all up and down Seattle, through the U district, to points north then back again through Ballard and to Memorial Stadium (is that still standing?) I remember being dog ass tired and sure that I couldn't walk another step but Shawn and I managed to pull each other along to the bitter end.
I don't even know if we collected all our pledge money. It was more of a personal challenge. Okay I'm sure we didn't gyp anybody out of anything.
Somehow we managed to gather up enough energy to go back to the Seattle Center and ride the freakishly death defying ride, the Zipper. Shawn and I could make that thing spin like no one's business. If I had kids today, they would not be allowed near that death trap. But she and I lived to make that thing spin in the most nauseating fashion.
Things that I also remember from 1979:
Brittania scrollpocket wide legged jeans.
Hot Rocks--we just listened to it a lot.
Snookie--my dog.
The Torchlight Parade.
It WAS one of the best summers.
THANK YOU COOKIE!!!
does this mean I have secured a spot in heaven?
This confirms it. I just got a fortune from a cookie that said my path in life is going upwards!!
Thanks cookie!!
Fej is scanning it in right now for me so I can prove to all y'all.
Tip for the drunk: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is very funnay at 2am. That is what I've heard.
There is a spider slinking above my desk. It's a creepy looking albino spider and it has to die. This is one case where I DO BELIEVE IN MANIFEST DESTINY.
as in the case of the mouse, if this one was meant to live, it wouldn't have crossed the line into my space. I don't ask for much space and I'm pretty easy to get along with.
Just call me Darwin's little helper.
I'm already wrestling with Typepad and I don't even have a test blog up yet. I've sent them three support questions because, hey, they're a subscription service. If I'm going to lay out money for something I want to make sure its not a lemon. We'll see how they respond.
Blogger is being somewhat friendly today. (I don't know about comments, though.) Blogger must know something is up. I'm planning a defection.
A car came really close to slamming into my taxi this morning on the way to work. I immediately flash-backed to a car accident I was in when I was 16. Suddenly, something I hadn't thought about in years was flashing through my mind in vivid detail. The oncoming car's headlights. Regaining consciousness in the smashed back of a honda civic, wondering why no one else was in the car, struggling to catch my breath, wondering why both sides of the car were touching me. Looking out the window and seeing Robin lying on the pavement with a gash in the top of her head that looked like a huge red meaty smile. Sitting on a milk crate in a 7-11, picking glass out of my hair. Seeing Corinne in the back of the ambulance with no shirt as the paramedics performed CPR to keep her alive on the way to the trauma center.
Corinne didn't make it.
When I was a depressed teen, I used to wish often, that she and I had swapped seats. That I hadn't been so pushy, that I had been more polite and let her get in first. Then she would've been behind the driver and I would have been in the hot seat.
Well. So. This is not the way I want to start my morning. I'm sorry that the event occurred. I'm sorry that I was pushy, Corinne. But I'm not sorry that I survived. I'm just not sorry about that at all.
OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!OhPlease!
Come soon spring.
I want you all to take a serious look at this and decide for yourself.
ManBabyI'm serious.
No I'm not. I cannot stop laughing. There are tears. Perhaps I am not one who can truly appreciate art anymore.
blogger.com is the real battlefield.
blogger won't let me talk to
Mountain Man. He is stuck in an evil beige cube somewhere in the wilds of society. The cublings mistreat him and he has panic attacks. The Mountain Man is wack but charming. That is what it is to be a Mountain Man.
Dark forces are at work today. AGAIN.
I must get back to my wizardry and make that SQL more efficient. I have no time to battle with dark forces. Besides, my boss is going to be pissed if I don't get my robot ass in gear.
The power of ZOD is ever reaching. Since I've been such a devoted follower, I have been rewarded. With ZOD as my silent partner, I have WON the programmer war. My methods will be the ones used for the new project.
This is because I rock.
I am doing a dance of joy. Internally.
Thank you. Good night.
In the next six weeks I will be picking up some serious robot skillz which will increase my robot market value. And to quote a Troll, "since I don't know anything, I'll be better off." I'm gonna smoke this shiz-nit for breakfast. Then I'm blasting out of this place in hyperdrive.
one of my allies in robot land is a sought after commodity. I may have to drag on his robot shirt-tails as a lifeline out of here. We are very compatible robots, not unlike R2-D2 and C-3PO. I don't know if he feels the same way or not since I have had a bad robot attitude. But he and I have had some collaborative robot efforts that have done a lot for the common good.
is this thinly disguised enough?
I got a response to my robot documents on DICE.com that was for a new robot assignment. But the assignment was still in the wrong galaxy. I am looking for an assignment in the galaxy of NYC, not BFE, NJ.
that is all.
today's NYTimes article of interest:
THE MESSAGE MACHINE
Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News
By DAVID BARSTOW and ROBIN STEIN
Government-made news segments have been broadcast on local
television stations without acknowledgement of their origin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/politics/13covert.html?th
-----
an additional comment on the Ari Fleischer junk from yesterday.
After I read the transcript of the press conference to Minerva, she brought up the question, "Well, is the government supposed to enact laws governing how people conserve?"
In reading the transcript, this is how Ari Fleischer spun his answers to the reporter's questions about American lifestyle being one of the root causes of the petroleum/energy problems. I agree with Minerva in that I don't want the government in any more of my shit than it already is. I don't believe that Fleischer's answer spoke to the question that was being posed. The real question is how would this administration promote a more globally, environmentally, conservationally conscious country. What I would like to see is an administration who at least gives more lip service to conservation over consumerism. I don't believe in manifest destiny. The most economically vital country does not win all the gloabal resources. That's what I take issue with in that press conference excerpt.
Anyway, liek I said before, this is old news. I'm harping about something that was said 4 years ago. The attitude hasn't changed in four years. It's still God, Guns & Guts. To hell with the Kyoto treaty. Why should we work to cut down on greenhouse gasses if it impacts our ability to buy cheap gasoline?
Whatever. I can't talk about this anymore.
This is old but too hilarious to resist. It's a 2001 press briefing by Ari Fleischer, where he was answering questions about gas prices and US energy policy. He isn't still employed by any chance is he?
Q Is one of the problems with this, and the entire energy field, American lifestyles? Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's a big no. The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one. And we have a bounty of resources in this country. What we need to do is make certain that we're able to get those resources in an efficient way, in a way that also emphasizes protecting the environment and conservation, into the hands of consumers so they can make the choices that they want to make as they live their lives day to day.
Q So Americans should go on consuming as much more energy than any other citizens in any other countries of the world, as long as they want?
MR. FLEISCHER: Terry, the President believes that the American people are very wise and that, given the right incentives, they will know how and they will make their own right determinations about how much they can conserve, just as the President announced last week that the federal government, as part of its consumership in California will reduce energy needs -- for example, the Department of Defense facilities in California, by 10 percent. He believes the American people, too, will make the right decisions about conservation and the program he will announce shortly will also include a series of conservation items.
But the President also believes that the American people's use of energy is a reflection of the strength of our economy, of the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy. And he wants to make certain that a national energy policy is comprehensive, that includes conservation, includes a way of allowing the American people to continue to enjoy the way of life that has made the United States such a leading nation in the world.
so fuck all y'all. bring on the fossil fuels. YEEEEEEEEE HAW!
Read it in context, if you want.
next saturday I will be 273 in dog years.
Minerva's cat is 3 years old and has finally been granted a name.
His name is Gary.
Just so none of you think that I am an uber-cyber-nerd-geek, I wanted to assure everyone that I DID get some human contact in this week. Wednesday AND Friday. I interacted with other Homo Sapiens, and possibly a Homo Erectus. Homo Erectus was really a throwback. Talk about retro.
I just wanted to calm your fears that I have not become merely a
ghost in the shell.
It's grandma's birthday today so everyone wish her a happy birthday would ya?
I decided not to anything on the list of things I might possibly do this weekend. So far, all I've done is watch The Incredibles and eat some shrimp. Now I'm going to step away from the computer and not touch anything electronic until Monday.
bye.
Today I waited for a taxi with a sophmore from West Point who breathlessly explained to everyone at the cab stand how excited he was to go to Iraq. He lectured us on what was wrong with the irrigation infrastructure and the petroleum infrastructure and how excited he was to be able to go there and get the chance to help out. He said he would go into the infantry when he graduated because he was training to be an interpreter.
The other night at Grays Papaya I saw a young kid, around 20 or so, military haircut, dressed in fatigues, with what looked like a newly amputated leg. I say that because of the seeping bandages. I don't know if he was a soldier or not. Something tells me there is a possibility that he was. That's how I interpreted it anyway.
well, since I didn't check out Christos carwarsh, maybe I'll do some other overblown art type thing like go see the
Diane Arbus retrospective at the met.
Or maybe I'll get my haircut by the
Korean Rock stars.
Or maybe I'll go to the chili cook off at
my friend's bar.
Users are currently getting "Blog not found" errors when accessing comment pages. We are working on getting this resolved ASAP.
xoxox
blogger.com
whatever blogger. I hate you. We used to be friends. You have ruined my day. I was going to tell Mountian Man he should
not eat the cookie and just go get a bottle of Maker's Mark instead. But now I fear, he will eat the cookie and I will have failed to warn him.
This is BAD Blogger. Very very bad.
Oh yeah, and Mountain Man, if you're co-workers are suspicious of your drinking habits switch to robutussin. It's cherry-liscious!
my problems are fixed but alas, I fear that Fairy Butler and Mountain Man may have disappeared into the void.
I am mourning quietly. I was so looking forward to seeing pictures of
Beth in her Scope dress.
Sign me up!It's for real!
talking to Meattooth this morning reminded me of the High Art that we used to enjoy together. This work always holds special memories for me. Memories of a youthful, more innocent time.
And this work reminds of my youth, when I was a carefree child, running with the wind and truckin.
So I heard on the lofty public radio station that I listen to in the morning that the Brooklyn Art Mausoleum is having a Basquiat retrospective. I didn't see that movie but I know where his friend J. Schnabel lives. I shagged J.S.'s house sitter once, while J.S. was away, being important. The art was more impressive out of a gallery context but I could still care less about his work.
Schnabel, Basquiat, Christo.
Branding is the key to recognition and ka-ching ka-ching, sales.
I forgot one other important brand.
Krixfort. The Lone Voice of Reason.
I am experiencing the same problem as Mountain Man and Fairy Butler. It is obvious that someone is working extreme dark magic at Blogger.com. There is definitely an evil presence in our midst. The time of manifestation is at hand. I am sorry Blogger.com but your inability to weed out the evilness and to collaborate with the forces of light are forcing me to leave you. My constitution is fragile. I lose my temper easily and rage like impotent lightning, causing everyone around me to laugh. You are detrimental to my self-actualization. I cannot take this. First you fuck with me, then my virtual friends. . .what next? My first born? My bank account? My hard earned reputation?
If I am truly fading into the world of zeros and ones, I have to have better allies than you, Blogger.
BTW- Meattooth said I was entering the world of TRON. He said if HE had to go up against the Master Control Program, he'd want me on his side. Very complimentary.
tried to comment on
Mountain Man's blog, Artistic Thoughts. I was touched by Tang's compelling life story and I wanted to share some insights about the brothel systems in southeast Asia. But when I clicked on the little linky-link to talk to Mountain Man and Tang, the most disturbing message came up.
"The blog you were looking for was not found."
oooof. Please ZOD. Tell me you have not used your lasers to destroy what has become my most precious refuge. ZOD you are evil and heartless. Mountain Man, Tang. . .move AWAY from the light.
All is not quite right today. This is a disturbing development.
this one gets me into the top ten search results on Yahoo search.
"
Sesame Street characters Snuffalufagus."
Because that's what Hell's Half Acre is all about man. It's about the kids!
So let's talk about shrimp fisting and a guy named Lucky Pierre.
here is a grainy picture of me, looking like a nerd, althought not quite as nerdy as the other night when you couldn't see ANY face. Alas, the picture features the evil elf hat which I lost somewhere as I stumbled around in a fog in the wee hours of some morning after.
Meattooth called me at 7:45am today in order to catch-up. I love catching up with Meattooth but our schedules collide. It is rare that I speak to hime in person. He told me to check out jazz fest and consider a visit to the fair city of New Orleans.
New Orleans is a weird place. I have had many krixfort adventures there, mostly involving decatur street but some invlving a hit of acid and a Phish concert. I don't like Phish one iota but the psychedelics made the show tolerable, maybe even enjoyable.
New Orleans is the only place where I've ever fallen off a bar stool. I haven't been down there since I went down to see Southern Culture on the Skids in 2002. Could be time for a visit.
from 10 am to 4:47 pm blogger.com systems were working at about 2% of capacity.
Unacceptable.
And I was going to use them as the engine for Cole's site. Forget that.
Note to Katherine: HALT on the uploading of Cole's content. I think we should go with typepad. Besides, then we will have the category categorization ability.
So anyways, I will be publishing all the krixfort files over to krixfort.com and freezing the code, then switching over to Typepad. Maybe this can happen this weekend. we'll see.
I keep trying
I don't even know if this post will go through. I can't get to my website. I can't publish anything. I can't comment on anything. I can't address the comments that I want to address.
I said it before,
I WILL ditch your ass for Typepad, bloggerhea maximus. I am ditching your ass blogger. Good bye. Hello nice people at
SIX APART, the makers of Typepad and MoveableType.
Although, I think I'm just going to download MovableType and install it on my own web server rather than have another hosted service like Typepad. Hmmmmm. Have to ponder this.
The FNG practically knocked me over as he rushed to my rescue to "help" me with a stuck drawer.
Please.
I bit his head off.
sorry I haven't been able to respond to comments the way I would've liked
Ms. Christine, long time NO SEE! I would definitely come out to Chicago to visit. . .but the weather must be warmer. I am not a penguin. Nor a polar bear. I do not like the cold.
And for those of you who experienced the hurricane force icy cold wind on Tuesday, that my friends, is what will drive me out of the greater NYC metropolitan area faster than either ridiculously high rents and heinous overcrowding ever would.
Not to florida though. That place is the c***hair of the united states. hate IT.
I lost my entire post and haven't been ablt to publish or respond to comments all day. who knows if this will go through.
I'm getting paid to surf the web today. Researching XML parsers and/or VB.NET + XML.
Sound interesting? Probably not.
Yesterday, I walked around like the biggest nerd. I have a coat that has a zipper collar so that the whole collar can zip up like a big turtleneck. and the coat is puffy. So I zipped the whole thing up, with the turtleneck coming just up to my eyeballs, and I put on my hat, which comes down to just my eyeballs and that's how I walked around on the streets of Manahattan. All I had was this little slit of krixfort revealed. The rest was hidden beneath my protected armor. Amongst the crowds of hipster, ultra-chic, fashion forward women, there I was in my puffy nerd get up complete with my
stinkfoot boots.
And I loved every minute of it because I am a nerd like that.
I don't know what was up with blogger this morning but I started to have some serious withdrawal symptoms. And no, I'm not confusing the withdrawal symptoms with hangover symptoms.
They are very different symptoms.
46th and 8th, here I come.
what time is my meeting tomorrow.
Note to self: keep it real.
Note to self: don't say keep it real
Note to other self: don't say 'note to self'
Note to. . .whoever: for shizzle
I sure do. Whew!!!
You all know where I'll be. The beer is on me. Until I wash myself, that is.
Cheers!
somebody searched for images of "ladies flashing" and ended up at Hell's Half Acre.
United airlines is offering a 165.00 RT flight from NY to SF?
Am I going to purchase a ticket only to walk up to a ticket counter a week later and find out that I have to fuel and fly the plane myself?
What gives?
the KRT writes:
The symptoms are being exacerbated by the futilitarian blogger interface. The physical symptoms of the malady are not unlike turrets, only with more scowling and some muttering. Sometimes there is the blank stare and the drowning, smothered feeling. This is usually cured by some fresh air and nicotine consumption.
Krixfort has reported to us that she is on the mend and will be back to her old bitter rantings momentarily.
Regards,
The Krixfort Response Team
the Krixfort Response team writes:
Krixfort is temporarily unavailable as she is in deep all the way up to her nervous system. She is being treated for a malady that is yet undiagnosed. The treatment is harsh and uncompromising and is causing even greater emotional distress. The practitioners think it has something to do with her ability to interpret jokes. They believe that her joking mechanism is malfunctioning. Hopefully there is a cure.
We are happy to report, however, that the trolls are behaving nicely today and causing her no grief.
Regards,
The Krixfort Response Team
I have found the key to happiness and concentration and perhaps even the road to Nirvana.
The key is a little device called HEADPHONES!!!!
Joe Strummer is rocking my world today.
recently played:
Johnny Appleseed - Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
John Cage Bubblegum - Stereolab
Chocolate - Snow Patrol
Pictures of Matchstick Men - Camper Van Beethoven
Ooh La La - Faces
I Missed the Point - Neko Case
Across the Universe - Rufus Wainright
Pressure Drop - The Specials
NOT PLAYED:
Ben Folds
AND LATER:
Nirvana. . .told you I found the road.
webmaster spam for today:
Such Specific --- gnomish costs
Request narcotics straight from
Food and Drug Administration accepted factory
I want some gnomish FDA accepted factory narcotics. How can I get some?
hooray for spring! hey, it's right around the corner, RIGHT NEW YORKERS!!!
woo hoo, let's hear it for spring!
I think I sprained myself skating home from class tonight.
Conversation overheard in Gray's Papaya on 9th:
"Was the movie any good?"
"I dunno. It wasn't Alien. It wasn't Predator. It was just. It was Alien VERSUS Predator. You know."
I wish I knew. God how I wish I knew.
I admitted a weakness to the FNG alpha male programmer.
Krix 0
FNG 1
It has always been hard to compete. . .no wait a minute, not compete. what I mean is HOLD MY OWN ground. Being one of the only females in the engineering department can, at times, be a little tough. There is the condescension. The deference. The expectation that you know less. Plus, I'm a west coast girl. Combatting the east coast boy's club is exhausting.
God forbid you should ever admit you don't know something. I made the mistake yesterday and FNG POUNCED on it.
"ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Well it's almost better that you don't know it. really. But hey. If you need me to show you how to do it, I'm here. I know how it is. "
What's with the paternalistic attitude? been here not even a week! This is the guy who couldn't remember how to set up a connection string last week until I emailed him an example of the syntax. I also gave him a book but maybe he don't read too good.
Okay, he's trying to be helpful. He doesn't even realize he's doing it I'm sure. I just refuse to play the dumb, helpless, technologically inept female role. I refuse. ANd he's the kind of guy that if I busted his chops on it once, it would be because "I don't like men."
I guess I'll have to take the label because I sure as shit am not going to take a backseat to anyone.
Note to self: Strive to be smarter in all ways.
let me tell y'all how much I love my pillow.
It's really lumpy. It's malleable, just the way I like everything in life.
I love my pillow more than ZOD!!!! (pleasedon'tstrikemedownZODpleasenolasers)
My pillow is better than the best pillow in the world.
It kinda smells like hair and sleep.
I gotta go make out with my pillow now.
gooooooooood night.
I feel like fucking cyberella chained to this computer. argh.
Is everybody at the ball? How is it?
Well at least I have a beer and a cigarette to keep me and my code company.
It's America's healthy alternative.
Two sundays ago I watched the McLaughlin Group go at it and they said the funniest thing!
Democracy Defense
At his joint conference with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, President George Bush responded to a critique of democracy in the United States from a Russian journalist. Said Bush, "I live in a transparent country. I live in a country where decisions made by government are wide open. Every decision we have made is within the Constitution of the United States. So I'm perfectly comfortable in telling you our country is one that safeguards human rights and human dignity, and we resolve our disputes in a peaceful way."
and the McLaughlin group said:
The press has no difficulty getting information out of Don Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney or George Bush. They're all very forthcoming, aren't they?
You can weigh in here. . .
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Thank you for coming. Please be seated. Thanks for coming. Thank you for the warm welcome. It is great to be here with leaders from around our country who are leading our nation's faith-based and community groups.
I am here to talk about my continued commitment to faith-based and community groups because I'm firmly committed to making sure every American can realize the promise of our country. It is said that faith can move mountains. Here in Washington, D.C., those helping the poor and needy often run up against a big mountain called bureaucracy. And I'm here to talk about how to move that mountain so that we can reach out and partner with programs which reach out to people who hurt.
President Highlights Faith-Based Initiative at Leadership Conference March 1st, 2005
Yeah, about that. . .
I was riding on the short bus from Newark to my job and I was with K-----, one of my co-workers who lives in Newark. She said, "I don't know why he don't come here and take a look at all of this. The unemployment line down the block. Women trying to work two jobs just so they can pay rent and keep a roof over their kids heads. He talk about god. What does he know about god? All he knows about is helping his friends. He don't do nobody any good around here. I go to church. I go to church every Sunday. Sometimes more. My church is already helping the community. We've already got God."
Newark doesn't need God. Newark needs a solid economic revitalization package. Newark needs funding for after school programs. Newark needs funding for youth gang prevention programs. Newark needs to be able to pay its police force better.
Meanwhile, back at the Prudential building, the site of the pre-election terrorism uber-threat, the barricades still stand, however the lone man with the semi-automatic weapon is gone. That lone man guarded that entire 30 something story building all through the election. Someone from Homeland Security ought to give him a medal.
okay it breaks down like this. It's legal to buy it. It's legal to sell it. . .
no actually it breaks down like this. Can't write. I mean I can't write what I'm supposed to be writing. So. Hmmmm. I've had this prof before. I may lose a couple of points for not having all my ducks in a row at their appointed rowspot place on time in person or whatever. BUT. I also know that I can email him what I have accomplished so far because I know his main concern is making sure everyone is on the right track. And holy hell's half acre if I'm not. Jesus Christo I hadn't stopped to consider that one. I'm pretty adamant that I am most often right. That is part of my charm. So. Tomorrow. I don't bring in the seventeen copies of draft for everyone to critique. BUT I do GO to class and participate in the critique of other projects, thereby receiving partial credit for participation.
Next project on the agenda. Knock out website for Wednesday's project.
Piece. Of. Cake.
I'll put up a link later on this evening and you can all participate in my sister's Virtual Baby Shower. Believe me, if I didn't love my sister so much my project would be a dark gruesome dirge-y homage to goth bands of yore.
Goth bands. Maybe that explains the not getting the Ben Folds thing.
Okay. Gotta run and salvage my expensive effing education.
Question: did I have this blog when I was mulling over the fork in the road that I reached when I decided to go back to finish this cursed degree? Yeah, well if I didn't, here's a recap of the internal struggle:
Me: I should just leverage what I've been doing career wise and get an Information Systems Management Degree. You know, backfill all that formal education stuff that I thought I needed when I was lost in a forest of bleeding edge acronyms during all those "biz-dev" meetings.
Me: Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice to return to proposed degree numero uno? Remember back in the day, 20 freakin' years ago? When You used to want to write? And make art? And write? And remember how you were surprised that it was the first thing you did that wasn't a struggle? And how much you ENJOYED it?
Me: Are you NUTS??? What are you? Some kind of hippie who just thinks you can write? For a living? Get real. Think about your future.
Me: Yeah. That. I've thought about that. Looks kind of boring. And a little stressful.
Me: Nah. C'mon. Your tech experience? Combined with a tech degree? It's a lay-up. It's an RBI. It's a touchback.
so. . .the mediocre sports metaphors won out and I now I'm just into bloggery.
what is it with Ben Folds? Am I missing something? HA. Those of you who read my boring ass desert island disc post--yeah I said desert-- know my musical taste is less than. . .well, just less than.
Hey, I like my musical tastes. Tastes like chicken.
Anyways, I was NOT writing my prelim research outline paper and reading OPBs. Because I'm down with OPBs. Yeah. You know me, alright? And all these crazy bloggers are having multiple gushing orgasms over Ben Fucking Folds.
Never liked Ben Folds Five. Why would I like the solo schtick? Not trying to be harsh. I don't hate it. I am, how do you say, so, so, so indifferent.
Minerva used to have a friend from France. He used to say, "I love Amerhicans. They are, how you say, so fucking crazy." And "Ooo la la. You know. Ooo la la ees like Wow Wow Wow."
Can I have some Freedom Fries with that?
And about Ben Folds. Can somebody hip me to that, dude? Honestly. I'm willing to listen. Everybody deserves a second chance.
I have not been able to delete my friend Jason's phone number from my cell phone, nor have I been able to delete any of his email addresses from my contact lists.
He's been gone almost three months. What is the statute of limitations for grief?
beware of the soul stealers as they come in many forms. some electromagnetic, some in flesh and bone, some as neuro-transmitters, etc. You get my point.
No matter what the form is however, you can pretty much tell them apart from the other parasites because they're fairly single-minded of purpose. All they can talk about over cocktails is how they're going to steal your soul and that gets pretty tiresome and grating. They are inept at engaging in polite conversation. It's just "your soul this" and "your soul that." Please. Try to engage me intellectually, okay soul stealer?
My advice about getting involved with the soul stealers: just say no. Walk away. Keep it in your pants.
my birthday is coming up in two weeks so I'm going to treat myself to an extreme makeover.
First I'm going to have the doctor take this instrument that looks like a giant carrot peeler, which I invented. Then he will peel off my skin in one fluid motion, just like my mom used to be able to do with a red delicious apple. Then he will put my skin in a vat full of conditioner and dye. What color dye? I haven't decided on that yet. Somebody send me swatches. I might look good as a crimson.
Then while my skin is being conditioned, the doctor will take my other invention, the thing that looks like a giant cheese slicer, and deftly contour my body into that of a svelte woodland faerie, complete with wings.
When my skin is done conditioning, I'll have the doctor stretch it back on like the most comfortably fitted glove. Not too tight though.
Don't want to end up here. I'll have the extra skin lined with fur and tailored into a beautiful wrap for cold nights.
Then I'll have my eyes done. Well done. I'm going to replace them with blown glass eyes. They're all the rage. I hear
Dale Chihuly is making a killing.
And last bu not least, I'll have my hair surgically removed and replaced with a tatoo of hair.
Listen, I've been working hard. And I've been waiting for this moment all my life. I just want to look beautiful and have someone love me, is that so wrong?
WHO? WHO? WHO HAS MOVERS COME AT 10PM????
The BRAND NEW NEIGHBORS THAT'S WHO.
I'm so grouchy about it I can't even talk. Maybe I'll just have to think of something cool like llamas.
Oh for crying out loud!. What kind of llama porn is on this internet thing. Where's the V-chip on this thing?
My goodness.
This is long. Be forewarned. If you are my sister, also be forewarned.
Recollections of my grandfather.
I don't know how long this post will be up. It might have to come down. We'll see.
We found your resume during a recent scan of Internet employment sites. Based on your skills and previous experiences, you may be interested in learning about a career as an American Express financial advisor. Make a difference in others' lives while transforming your own.
A New You
People from a wide variety of professional backgrounds have found that their past experience has helped them build exciting and rewarding careers with American Express Financial Advisors. Backed by a strong brand and comprehensive training, you will have the opportunity to take advantage of your strong interpersonal skills to build a financial planning practice with significant income potential.
say what? Where's the RSS feed in that?
shla-doing????? zzzt. robot short circuit underway.
so my grandmother. . .
wait a second. let me say a little something about grandma. I love this woman. She is hilarious! She is originally from a small town in Alaska but now lives in Seattle. She's been out to New York twice now, the first time in May of 2002. She LOVES NEW YORK! Loves Loves Loves. Can't get enough of it. She told me yesterday that she can walk a mile on the treadmill without breaking a sweat. The last time she came out to visit, we had a couple of issues with the walking portion of a typical NYC visit. She still had fun and I actually had the excuse to ride one of those silly double decker tourist busses.
Okay, grandma sent me this thing at christmas time from QVC, as a grandma is wont to do. It was this soap from philosophy called
Hot cocoa. I used it a couple of times and would forget. Later on in the day, I'd look around and say, "What smells like cake? It smells like food around here."
I figured out that I was the chocolate ding dong.
I just opened Word. Word is so intimidating. I don't think I like Word. Word doesn't care either way, it just sits there.
Word is not as friendly as you, Blogger. Blogger and I get along good. Maybe a little too good.
I must now be disciplined and write the outline to my research project that was due two days ago. Well, it's ultimately due Tuesday but I was supposed to send it to the prof for review. I have pages of notes on paper that I need to make some coherent sense from.
Segue: How do you write naturally without ending your sentence in a preposition. I write the way I speak. It's natural. If I write "I have pages of notes from which I need to make coherent sense" it sounds stilted and pedantic. I suppose if I were writing professionally then that would be a more pressing consideration. Once agan, my apologies to all the prescriptive grammarians out there, whose nerves my writing style grates.
Anywho. Must make headway on the outline and research model. I think I've got a handle on it now. I will be putting up an online survey in about two weeks to try to get a measure of the attitudes concerning the surge in the volume of internet conversation and how corporations are responding. I will be inviting any and all to take part in this anonymous survey. Actually I will be begging any and all to take part in my online survey. Stay tuned.
Am I a bad neighbor?
We have repeatedly asked the downstairs people (the dutchies) to PLEASE turn up the thermostat to no avail. For any of you over here on ye' old east coast, you all know we are still held tightly in
winter's icy grip no matter how close
spring's loving warm embrace may seem. What am I saying? This is not the
Pacific Northwest. This is not
Seattle. This is not the quad at the
University of Washington, with it's cherry blossoms spilling out on to the ground already.
Spring is not around the corner in the greater NYC metropolitan area. It won't come until May. So until then, I think the downstairs neighbors need to keep the thermostat high enough that I don't have to run around in a North Face jacket and a fleece hat in order to stay warm.
I called the landlord.
I said "Maybe you can explain to them the effects of turning the thermostat down and how the heat doesn't make it up here when they do that."
MY landlord is the BEST LANDLORD!!! He did call them. They complained that they were already too hot. He told them to open a window. And then he told me that if they kept turning it down he would move the thermostat to our apartment.
YAAAAAA HAHAHAHAHA!! I win.
And I'm thawing out. Honestly, it's been hard to blog with stiff cold fingers.
I did get a response from Mr. Yardley which somewhat echos what I am inclined to believe, that shopping search engines could make use of incorporating RSS.
It seems like a no brainer, really. But I think there is hesitation by some because of all the time spent on taxonomy building and aggregating meta-data. The moderator, I forget her name, said RSS lacks the kind of structure that the shopping search engines currently possess. One of the panelists plainly stated that until they could figure out a way to monetize it then it just wouldn't be profitable to consider.
The model for the convergence of RSS into shopping search engines may not be clear at this point but I really can see price watching functionality as a major component. RSS seems like a better delivery mechanism for that type of content.
The other major RSS component that I can see for retailers themselves is similar to traditional email marketing. The great thing about RSS subscription feeds rather than email marketing material is the "frequency perception". Frequent RSS feeds = good. Frequent email = SPAM.
Hi. I am a VP of marketing. You're telling me you want MORE information? Well that's great! Coming right up!
From a retail customer perspective, the only way you would get me to care about your marketing on a frequent basis is to offer me a clear benefit, like advance notification of sales or special discounts for subscribing. In this respect, I'm speaking about the traditional e-commerce site where your site exists for one purpose: to sell products to people, not to educate, or inform. I'm talking about a down and dirty site with no frills or added value. It's products, shopping cart, checkout. I contrast this type of site with a site like Apple.com, a more high concept site whose beautiful design and in depth product information entice you to buy in a different manner. Apple has additional content about its products. It's like the difference between going to CDW and to Microsoft in order to purchase a licensed copy of SQL server. Anyway, for Apple, their marketing department has a little more flexibility and creativity in the content they could provide in a feed, like spotlight on product x, or some crazy human interest story about what steve jobs said or did. Their customers, those Mac-Heads, would eat that touchy-feely stuff right up.
There may not be a clear way to see the monetary gains from the RSS/commerce scenario right away. But as I said before, the people who get out in front of this will reap the benefits of gaining another vehicle to drive traffic to their websites with virtually ZERO marketing costs. At least for now.
This RSS/commerce profitability concept is the elephant on the internet. Let's face it, you get a good idea and here comes commerce. After the early adopter geeks (and I mean that in the most loving way, fellow geeks) work all the bugs out of these new content delivery methods and eschew and evangelize on the virtues of X product, what is the next thought process in greedy capitalist societies?
HOW WILL I PROFIT FROM THIS?
So until that question is answered, I'm sure e-commerce companies won't be rushing out to hire folks to work on their revolutionary RSS initiatives.
Calling all cars! calling all cars!
This guy was last seen traipsing through my web logs and bookmarking my SES Conference post in
http://del.icio.us/. I sleuthily tracked him down. It wasn't that hard, if I indeed have the right person which, judging from his about page and the content of my post, I probably do. So I tried to email him because I HAVE QUESTIONS!!!!!
He had a bogus email address on his site. There is only so much transparency one can have. . .OH WAIT!!!! I GET IT!!! GAH! he had an extra word in his email address as an anti-spam device. How silly of me. Anyway, I just emailed him directly to get his thoughts on my big idea. (Really, it's not that big. Plus, does size really matter anyway?)
Maybe the email won't reach him but maybe he will do another search and find this site. So I'll post my question here:
my name is krixfort and I tracked you down via some of the
log files on my blog (krixfort.blogspot.com). It looks like you
bookmarked a post I had written about the SES conference and RSS feeds
in del.icio.us. And judging from the about page on your blog, I'm
guessing you're the person from shopping search engine company who was on my site.
Anyway, I was the person who posed the question to the panel in the
"Meet the Shopping Search Engines Seminar" about how they were looking
at addressing the growing RSS trend.
I'm curiously exploring the convergence of RSS and Shopping Search
Engines and wondered if you had any thoughts that you'd like to share.
My disclaimer is that I produce traditional data feeds for an
e-commerce company but I am asking you this on my own time and my own
dime. The research I am doing is my own. My employer doesn't really
see the relevance yet.
It would be nice to start a conversation about this. I have a lot of catching up to do. Or maybe not.
P.S. I never did hear back from the MSN Shopping guy on this issue. He's the one that brought it up.
here's the stuff that gets me jazzed. . .
I'm working on a website for a film critic friend of mine. I wanted to not only create a website for him, but since he is in essence a publisher of his own content, I wanted to set him up with a way to publish and manage his content. At first I was going to create a content management system for him, write all the backend, architect the database, etc. etc. . .
then of course I had the big moment of "DUH! Hellooooooo!
Blogger!!!! DOY!"
I've been blogging now for almost two years and it took me way too long to make the connection of blogger as a content management system. sometimes my brain has to smack itself around a little bit.
I'm in the process now of developing his blogger template and I've set up a system of multiple blogs for him to handle the different content areas of his site. We plan on ultimately switching him over to
movableType because of the feature robustness like classification of posts so that he can group reviews by genre and/or director or whatever.
I've just given his partner in crime the login and password so that hopefully she can start plugging away, loading in his content. As soon as this thing looks good, we load in his archived reviews, and move him to his own webserver space (instead of mine. . .hello, branding, duh) we'll throw in the feed syndication elements, and start pinging weblogs and start spreading the word. Zing zing. Technorati tags, Feedster all that cool junk.
This is a good project to work on. It's keeping me sane. Makes me remember why I like doing this kind of neat junk.
our free cable is gone today. It may return. The bright side of its disappearance is the hours we gained by not having that time sucking portal into danger planet transmitting golden nuggets of junk into our living room. a much needed respite.
I still fell asleep on the couch, albeit without a remote in my hand.
Time to crawl into the cave and hibernate.
Minerva is in high cleaning frenzied mode. She has just found an old wooden recorder, procured from some little stand in Chinatown. She is now attempting to play Poison by Bell Biv Devoe.
All I have to say is:
Never trust a big butt and a smile.
well, robots have sent out at least six or seven resumes for decent positions in NYC. Robots are crossing their digits that they get more than an auto-responder email back to their robot gmail account.
Robots have also posted their resumes on DICE.com and HotJobs and robots are hoping that their current employer is too busy micromanaging their current alleged shortcomings to be searching through the HJ or DICE databases.
It may not seem like a lot of work has been done but robots are a littl wiped out from having to think up clever personalized cover letters to send to a technical recruiter. Why cannot robots just send them a steady stream of artificial intelligensia type energy? Why cannot the robot just be like R2-D2 and tap into the Death Star's database and immediately know where to find the princess.
I think robots are short circuiting a little bit and maybe robots need to power down for a little bit.
that is all.
took a look online to see what the prospects are for robots these days, especially robots that know XML and whatnot.
Robots could double their salary if they get the right job. And the robots don't even have to stretch their resume to be qualified for that kind of remuneration.
Robots wouldn't have to commute four hours a day.
Robots could get to their night classes on time and have more time to study.
Most importantly, Robots may even get some respect for the work that they do.
Robots know that money isn't everything and money isn't their primary reason for wanting to look for new robot jobs. Mostly robots just want to work for someone that they respect and that respects their robot knowledge and allows them to grow professionally.
I'm surprised that RSS hasn't caught on for commerce. I was on a discussion board where some geeks were trying to figure out how to implement rss for commerce back in april of 2004.
It looks like most email clients will be rolling RSS readers into their design.
Opera is already doing it and so is
Thunderbird, an email client by the creators of the
Firefox browser.
(PS wouldn't it be great if Gmail rolled out support for RSS?) My big idea is not really new or revolutionary it seems because E-Bay rolled this stuff out
back in June of 2004.
Simple fact: RSS reader adoption is on the rise. We are moving out of the early adopter phase.
Commerce needs to get on the stick.
I am already getting hits from the feed I made the other day, through feedster and newsgator. Immediate impact.
Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to kill my feed because it makes some recent posts way to visible. It makes it much easier for my enemies to find me.
note to self: stealthy is best.
The Crisis in Darfur
A preventable humanitarian crisis, affecting more than two million people, is raging in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Not since the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement. Government-backed militias, known collectively as the Janjaweed, are systematically eliminating entire communities of African tribal farmers. Villages are being razed, women and girls raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed. Victims report that government air strikes frequently precede militia raids.
http://www.savedarfur.org/Take Action. Send a message to President Bush.
Unleash the power of the internet. Let's not wait for the movie to come out before we take a look at this situation.
the job market for robots seems to be picking up.
Let's see. . .what kind of jobs are good for robots?
Well here is the list of things a robot doesn't want to do:
a.) do any type of customer service
b.) answer any type of phone
c.) work for a large corporation
d.) work in a highrise (too scary)
e.) work for a small business
f.) be in charge of other people
g.) have someone in charge of me
h.) commute
hmmmm. That list might throw up some barriers for a robot. The robot will have to meditate on that for awhile.
I am working from home again today. hip hip hooray!
It is time to make the coffee! and do the dishes! And write an XML file and validate it against its DTD.
hee
ho
hay!
Martha gets sprung from the slamWith all the media attention that she's received, I'm surprised no one came up with the
Martha Stewart Slam Cam.
You know, it seems like the trial and speculation about Martha GOING to jail lasted longer than her sentence.
Well, bully for her anyway. She made it through. . .I mean c'mon, M.S. is no spring chicken. Couldn't have been easy.
alpha male programmers are a great bunch of folk. Especially when it is their second day on the job and they are trying to assert their dominance.
Please don't ask me how I do something and then argue with me about how I am doing it. If you don't like my methodology, you don't have to use it. If you have a smarter way of doing something go for it. I'm always open to suggestion but please let's collaborate and discuss. I don't need you to tell me how to do my job, okay FNG?
That is all.
New blog alert!
Okay,
Bad Craziness: The Baron Scag Files has been around for a bit but I just found this dude today. He has a
great article recounting his attendance at the Oscar party. If you're skimming through, read the part where he runs into Rene Zellweger. Hysterical.
I'm looking forward to reading more.
New Poll Finds Bush Priorities Are Out of Step With AmericansBy ADAM NAGOURNEY and JANET ELDER
NYTimes OnlinePublished: March 3, 2005
Americans say President Bush does not share the priorities of most of the country on either domestic or foreign issues, are increasingly resistant to his proposal to revamp Social Security and say they are uneasy with Mr. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the retirement program, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The poll underscores just how little headway Mr. Bush has made in his effort to build popular support as his proposal for overhauling Social Security struggles to gain footing in Congress. At the same time, there has been an increase in respondents who say that efforts to restore order in Iraq are going well, even as an overwhelming number of Americans say Mr. Bush has no clear plan for getting out of Iraq.
No shit?
I love polls. Don't you?
so a distinct lack of quality sleep, combined with Coldplay on the walkman has put me in the appropriate melancholy mood. I am ready to start my day as a lobotomized robot.
Employers must love anti-depressants. I didn't take any mind you, but the whole lobotomized robot thing makes me remember the good old days of my 100mg zoloft perscription.
Maybe that's why I was so productive then.
I am keeping a good attitude today and trying to just focus on the multitude of tasks in front of me. I have several checklists of things to do and it is useful to just go down the list and check them off one by one like a robot. Keeps me out of trouble.
my alarm is going off. time to gett up I suppose. Wha? It's 5:00 am. What dummay set the alarm for 5am?
Certainly not this one.
okay before I go back to bed must write this out before I lose it.
My research project is going to be an exploration of how the internet is impacting corporate communication. The Cluetrain Manifesto was published in 1999 and it was basically a wake up call to companies saying "Hey. Listen up. People have a new way of talking to each other. There is a new word of mouth vehicle and it's called the internet. People are having conversations all over the world. They are talking about your business. Are you going to join in on the conversation or are you going to turn your back on it?"
With the recent surge in blogs and individual publication, this is true now way more than it ever was. What is the percentage of companies that are changing their communications paradigm to address the conversation? Is corporate management willing to change it's mindset? How transparent will a company allow itself to become? In an time where secrets can no longer be locked down, how will companies respond? I sat in a seminar where this was the primary topic of discussion because the impact of conversations are having visible and noticeable effects.
The basic tenets of change were laid out five years ago. That's given the ideas some time to gestate and sink in for those that are listening. Let's face it, this is where things are going. Look at the effect of the blogoshere on mainstream media.
In my research, I am going to set up a survey to try to get a feel for how business is reacting to the phenomena of internet conversation. And from the data that I gather, and the external research that I complete, try to forecast whether or not we will be seeing a major shift in the way corporations are going to be dealing with their markets or if they are still trying to dismiss them and go on their merry "business as usual" way. It will be interesting to see what the attitudes are.
side note: I have to turn in a paper on Friday with more information on this. . .a little more formal. Had to get this out since I was having trouble pinning down exactly the idea I was trying to get at. Have done quite a bit of preliminary research but haven't really written anything but ambiguous notes. Hopefully this will kick start things a little.
Thanks for listening.
networking networking networking.
I collected quite a few business cards. MonsterCommerce is looking for developers. They were openly recruiting at their trade booth. I chatted with a nice HR lady for a bit. I actually felt somewhat valuable.
I went to my first internet industry shindig in years last night, well two nights ago seeing how it is now 4:20 am on freakin' Thursday.
Said shindig was a birthday party for Yahoo, who turned 10 yesterday. It was at the Hammerstein ballroom. I networked my ass off and for any of you people that I ran into, just remember me as "RSS girl."
HAHAHAA I just realized how ludicrous it is that I don't have an RSS feed. It's coming, it's coming. Hell's Half Acre isn't really the message I want to send to prime time syndication. I would actually need to blog about something worth syndicating other than the details of my inconsequence.
It was a fun party. All the crash survivors were there. And they were ready to get down.
so I was told the goal of having me attend the conference was to get me jazzed about trying to outsmart the competition. To look around for our next competitive edge from an engineering standpoint. To see what technologies exist around the corner that we could take advantage of to drive sales.
I think I did that. But according to some I wasted my time. I think that is funny, in a weird, twisted, self-deprecating way.
I think there is a disconnect somewhere. Need to rectify.
And on that note, I will say no more about this situation. I may however, go on and on about the power of publishing and syndication and how e-commerce will participate in that arena.
But mostly I'd rather write about gnomes and flights to outer space and shit.
I'm glad to see that
Chris Pirillo's opinion somewhat echos my own. I just don't think that "some people" grasp what is happening, how the internet paridigm is shifting. Microcontent, subscription services. . .this is what "web portals" were trying to accomplish back in the late nineties. They technology has progressed and brought the ease of use factor down to a sane level. The technical barriers of entry to publication, syndication, and content aggregation are being swept away.
FYI--I'm linking to Chris Pirillo because
a.) I saw him at the conference. I was in some of the same sessions with him. I was interested in his opinion.
b.) Talk about Internet rock star. He was one of the speakers at Blog Business Summit so there's someone out there (many, many, many people actually) who know that this guys knows what he's talking about.
anyway, enough name dropping. You should get my point by now. I am not going to let a lack of support keep me from working on and pursuing what I think is a new AND EXCITING track. If I can't do it where I'm at right now, I'll find someone receptive to my ideas. I poked around and researched my idea today. Amazon is just starting to play around with this. That should tell somebody something.
Trolls exist in many forms. You have to be on the lookout for them because they are sneaky. Well, some are sneaky. Some are just plain mean.
my self esteem is shot.
I strive to somehow, someway, make myself an asset here. It is always fruitless. I tried to be innovative and creative -- I still think my idea freaking rocks and I guarantee you that's where things will go. But I basically got to sit for two hours and listen to how I don't do enough.
I don't know what my options are.
I know I don't suck THAT badly. I KNOW I don't.
This is the first place I've been where I've had to struggle so hard for so very, very little.
my idea was summarily dismissed.
as usual.
my idea by the way, could be way off target.
But I don't think it is.
I don't actually want to be the jackass that ruins the medium by being the sellout capitalist.
But I don't think it will ruin the medium. It's not like SPAM. People subscribe to it. They would choose to get the feed.
We have a lot of subscribers to our email Newsletters, how would this be any different? It's time to start thinking about this now, while this syndication stuff is in the early adoption phase. If you wait until everyone has downloaded a newsreader and you try to jump on the train then, you're already too late. Someone will have beaten you to the punch and probably punched harder and better.
so I was at the Search Engine Strategies conference yesterday and came away with some interesting info.
I mainly attended seminars having to do with datafeeds, specifically RSS and Newsfeed searches. A lot of Bloggers create RSS feeds so that an end reader, who watches a ton of blogs, can pick up the feed and read it in a newsreader. I actually just signed up for
NewsGator. Right now the business model for this is primarily geared toward content and it's like a subscription service.
Then I went to a shopping search engine seminar. During my day job, one of my responsibilities is to create traditional data feeds for shopping search engines like Yahoo Shopping, NexTag, Shopping.com, MySimon. . .all those places you can go to do comparison shopping. My company made a name for itself by figuring out early on how to really leverage the power search and putting itself where people who were ready to buy the products on our site would see us. The items on are site are expensive, considered purchases and people who were searching for these items, often had already done their homework and were just looking for the best price.
Is this long winded enough for everyone? Hang in there, I'm getting to the good part.
So after sitting in these seminars about seemingly disparate topics, my thinker started thunkin'. There has to be a way to use RSS technology for commerce. Why couldn't you create a subscription feed for people who are say, tracking a price on a high ticket item. Or better than that, and more easily do-able, create a featured/new products feed. A feed that offers savings (Subscribe and save.)
In the news and webfeed search, everybody talked about the explosion of these content aggregators (newsreaders.) It makes sense. The surge in blogs and microcontent makes it so that you have to have some tool to keep track. But when people shop for specialty items, that's microcontent too, really. AND imagine the delight a marketing exec could have pushing marketing info through an ecommerce feed subscription . . .it's hardly any work at all. You have people who WANT YOU TO TALK TO THEM.
In the shopping search engine seminar, I asked the VPs for Froogle, Bizrate, NexTag, Yahoo Shopping and Pricegrabber how they are responding to this new way of matching people and content.
I stumped them.
The moderator said, "That's a very forward thinking question."
Only NexTag said that they were looking at that.
After the seminar two people came up to me and said that it was a good question. One guy was from MSN Shopping. They apprently are trying this out. I'm going to check out what they're doing today. I have the guy's email so I will probably ask him some questions about all of this so that I can clarify it for myself. Oh yeah, and a fellow geek on the escalator passed me and yelled out, "That was a really good question about the RSS feeds, by the way."
I felt like an Internet rock star for a brief shining moment.
I'm going to try an experiment with a "Featured Products" feed, if I can get buy off from our CEO. What I really think will fly however is a "Subscribe and Save" feed.
the drama team from Ithaca invaded my watering hole. it was a gruesome sight. carnage everywhere.
