# 01 Jun 2003, 10:42AM: Sumana Homesteading Update:
My time at Salon has only reassured me as to my future there, and it gets tiring to live an hour away from Leonard and forty-five minutes from work. And lots of my friends are moving away from Berkeley, so it's not as much of a saddening thing to be across the bay from the remainder. So I decided to move earlier than I'd thought.
After viewing a few adequate places, I snagged a beautiful three-room apartment just a few blocks from the Balboa Park BART station, with non-outrageous rent and a sensible-seeming landlord. I'm moving in this month, and hope to stay there for at least a year. Heck, any new job I get will probably be in SF, so I don't feel too much anxiety about entering into a long-term commitment. Yeah, the immediate neighborhood lacks excitement, but I work downtown. That's what glamorous Salon parties are for.
# 02 Jun 2003, 05:18PM: Geeks Great and Small:
Adam is staying at my place for a bit, as he's between apartments on his way to New York City. It's barrels of fun. Yesterday we saw the awesome spelling bee documentary Spellbound (Flash site), which we both really liked. So many smart kids! And so many of them were Indians! (IMDB solves a mystery: "...there was a total of 165 hours of material, and that they originally followed 13 kids. Dropping five of them was a very painful decision....")
Then Leonard came over and we all had dinner and they played songs on Adam's guitar for hours. How extremely pleasant it was, I can't convey.
Today I'm at work, grinding through the weekend backlog. However, I am cheered by the fact that I get to call Andrew Leonard "Andrew," and that from the back he really resembles Adam.
# 02 Jun 2003, 10:58PM: The Irony Of It Is, I Need a Haircut:
Tomorrow will be my tenth day at Salon. I'm not completely
over the novelty and glamour, it's just that I've been there long enough to
absorb more pressing concerns, e.g., how do I more efficiently perform a
sometimes tedious job?
Some neat things -- I call all these cool influential people by their
first names, and can go to editorial meetings when I have time, and
I solve mysteries and I write. For hours every day I write. Granted,
ten percent of those words are, "Have you disabled cookies? Enjoy your subscription to Salon
Premium," but it is so lovely to be writing for a living!
# 03 Jun 2003, 03:09PM:
Several people in my office have never played air hockey! My family used to have a table in the basement, so to me that's inconceivable.
# 03 Jun 2003, 07:00PM: Breaking it Down:
Me: "I just wanted to tell you that you're the first cool business person I've ever met. I mean, back at Berkeley I met all these business majors, and they were no one I'd want to associate with -"
Business Guy: "That's because I didn't major in business."
# 04 Jun 2003, 11:52AM: Don't Mess With Texas:
Katharine Mieszkowski chews on tacks. She's hard as nails! Well, tacks.
Maybe now that I've mentioned her here, she'll go to lunch with me.
Update: Mission accomplished!
# 05 Jun 2003, 05:49PM:
My coworkers seem happy with my work. They say I'm learning pretty quick. Unfortunately, my quick learning means I don't have as many ice-breaker questions to bond with my colleagues, so I have to be social on purely social terms. Right now the potential is in lunches. South-of-Market isn't a culinary wasteland the way I've heard, and while workload and BenFranklinistic frugality sometimes compel me to brown-bag it, I'm enjoying the discovery of some cheap, nonbad restaurants with my new friends.
The upshot of all this is that yesterday I gossiped over nopales tacos with Sheerly Avni and Katharine Mieszkowski. I have arrived!
# 05 Jun 2003, 06:14PM GMT+5:30:
Since evidently I'm a 24 Hour Party Person and can't be bothered to actually talk about the books I'm reading, I hereby point you to the Cody's Books summer recommends. I recommended The Apprentice, Crescent, The Bug, Hey Nostradamus!, The Innocents Abroad, and the Salon and Slate anthologies. More seriously, I really do have to talk soon about books. Maybe after I move.
# 07 Jun 2003, 07:37AM:
The Charlie's Angels movie wants to be The Powerpuff Girls.
# 09 Jun 2003, 02:08PM: Je suis mal. Er, j'ai mal:
Over the weekend I got to hang out with Frances and Leonard. I'm relieved that she's feeling better. I heard a best-of compilation of Jonathan Richman -- very enjoyable! -- and quizzed Leonard on French (prepping him for his trip to Belgium) and learned (kinda) how to tune a guitar. I'm going to have to splorg out about a thousand words on the guitar.
Rachel may need your help, and ambiguous presents The Navy's Safety Photo of the Week (example and poor kitty).
# 09 Jun 2003, 03:33PM: Spam Subject Line Inadvertently Reflects Reality:
"Simulate your love life!"
# 09 Jun 2003, 06:57PM:
"Christian Bands, Crossing Over" informs me: "(Emo is a more confessional, expressive and pop-friendly variant of punk rock.)" Also: " P.O.D. (which stands for Payable on Death)..."
# 10 Jun 2003, 04:44PM:
My sister had dental surgery this morning. I signed up to drive her there and back, but only today did we realize that she needed constant supervision for several hours post-op as well. So I just got to work. And I'm tired already. Poor Sumana doesn't get to go to the Segway party.
# 11 Jun 2003, 10:46AM:
I should watch Michael "Savage" Weiner or read a transcript to see if he really foams at the mouth the way he seems to. In the meantime, he shouldn't get to shut down his opponents.
On a lighter note, "Why must you spend thousands of dollars on a bike with flames on it? Why not buy something better, like a set of potholders?" (I was honestly surprised by seeing two consecutive sentences without profanity in a stereolab entry.) Bonus comment: "Dood if you want the feeling of weightlessness then leave Earth."
# 11 Jun 2003, 01:31PM:
From e-mail: a Canadian referred to "north of the boarder."
A spam subject line advertised "Geneaology Helper," which I imagine resembling Hamburger Helper.
A phone question, in three parts: What's my username and password? When will my subscription expire? And where does your mind-blowing last name originate?
The non-mean "please cancel my subscription" e-mails come from people who say, "I don't have time to read all the great stuff you guys do." Those are nice.
# 11 Jun 2003, 07:52PM:
I'm quite a sucker for details of how kidnappees outwit their abductors. Fairy tales can come true!
# 12 Jun 2003, 08:23AM:
Jon Carroll and Danny O'Brien both have Roombas. "If the pathetic fallacy is ascribing human emotions to animals, then ascribing human emotions to disc-shaped machines must be the Truly Pathetic Fallacy."
Cameron is seeking editors for an opinionated multi-author blog covering the 2004 US elections. Sounds like a neat project.
BART Extension Wackiness: There is a Friends of BART Committee. Excursion fare -- $4.00 -- will get you a tour of the new stations, the day before they open -- I suppose the turnstiles start working Sunday. (Update: Seth points out, "In fact, you can do better than that. For example, if you start from the 16th Street BART, go on an excursion, and get off at 24th Street, you'll pay only $1.15 (not $4.00).")
A DeLongish question: the BART extension means that there is more real estate near BART. Indeed, I saw an ad in the Balboa Park BART station for a housing development near the South San Francisco BART station. So prices for housing near BART staions, in general, should go down. But, as Michael pointed out, consider the network effect: as BART goes more places, BART is more useful, and thus the BART-proximity of a house lends it even more value. What phenomenon will affect housing prices more?
Oh, and airport shuttles to SFO will lose business, I'm sure, as people can just BART to SFO. (SFO-bound trains will get so crowded with luggage!) Michael posits that airport shuttle cabals are forcing BART to stay closed at least 4 hours a day.
# 12 Jun 2003, 05:00PM: In Soviet Slassia:
Lenin/Stalin slash fiction. Bonus sequel idea: "Hotsy Trotsky."
# 12 Jun 2003, 05:14PM GMT+5:30: Find Your Grind:
The Salon office environment reminds me, I now realize, of some cross between every media outlet I've ever worked for (e.g., KUOP, "Talking it Through with John Morearty: Dialogues on War and Peace", all my school newspapers from 5th grade on to the Daily Cal) and all the dotcom jobs I've ever had (tech writing, almost exclusively). Elements of the former include frequent deadlines, eccentric writers, loose or nonexistent dress codes, some amount of idealism and fulfillment. Elements of the latter include cubicles, references to "HR", lots of people spending 8 hours a day in front of a screen, more tedium.
But various elements remain the same as they were in my last job, at Cody's Books. Example: publishers send Salon advance copies, hoping we'll review them. So there's lots of free reading material around. But, unlike at Cody's, I find here that the publishers somehow sense the unlikelihood that Salon will review the latest potboiler (M Is For More Murder et al.), so the ratio of interesting stuff to faddle is higher. I just read Hands On!, an interesting collection of 33 essays giving advice to preteen girls. Recommended for all ages and genders for its practical and theoretical advice, the last item of which is "Don't Take Advice."
# 13 Jun 2003, 10:20AM: Fake Me Out To The Ballgame:
I happened across a Sammy Sosa corked-bat roundup and pondered aloud, "Why don't we just let everyone use corked bats?" Then I wondered whether that's the J. Bradford DeLong solution. Answer from Leonard: No. The J. Bradford DeLong solution is to allow the pitcher to negotiate with each batter over whether the batter can use a corked bat, how many strikes the batter will get, and other rule modifications for that batter.
# 13 Jun 2003, 11:03AM GMT+5:30: When You All Of A Sudden Aren't Working In A Bookstore:
You can still read book excerpts, online, at BookBrowse, from Louise Erdrich to Joseph Ellis.
# 14 Jun 2003, 11:43PM: Ranger Roundup:
Upon finding that I'm high on the list in Google searches for "cam green samurai ranger ninja storm" and the like,
I checked out my competitors.
# 15 Jun 2003, 08:54AM: "Wow! Has nobody ever told you how boring that is?":
Leonard gets right to my heart by dissecting the upcoming Transformers movie with reference to John Rawls, X-Men, motivation, and picoleers. It's hilarious and you should read it.
# 15 Jun 2003, 11:45AM: Sumana Teaches You All She Knows About Playing The GEE-tar:
For as long as I've cared that I was female, the sound of an acoustic guitar has enchanted me. I don't remember really tripping out to the sound of Mr. Motenko accompanying himself on "Good Morning" in sixth-grade music class, but he also introduced us to Weird Al, and like I said, guitar only really got to me at the same time as the hormones.
My sophomore year of high school, as in subsequent grades, I listened to a tape over and over again. That tape contained excerpts from the Academic Decathlon music. And I played one piece over and over again: Heitor Villa-Lobos, Etude No. 7 for Guitar. Sure, the Mussorgsky came in handy when in later years I recognized Night on Disco Mountain, but the Villa-Lobos really haunted me.
I had taken piano lessons as a young'un, then dropped off, and then taken up the trumpet in fourth grade or so, only to slack off with that one too. In general, I felt pretty defeated by music. I listened to classical on KUOP to improve my mind (some bizarre conflation of the alleged Mozart Effect and class snobbery), and to Weird Al for laughs. Peter Schickele's Schickele Mix (fan site) made some inroads with its geeky friendliness, but not enough to make me think, "I could do that."
The first time I hung out with Leonard, he played the guitar and sang his songs to me, and then again a week later. I must have mentioned to him that I'm a sucker for that sound. Now we've been dating for two years. And somehow half a year ago I got up the gumption to try plucking on the sacred thing myself. Leonard encouraged me, explaining that the guitar is quite easy to learn and fulfills the function of musical accompaniment for lyricists who are not musical virtuosos. He and I made a little diagram of the chords for Acres of Clams and I tried to learn to play it. Yet it was quite frustrating, as I was timid and extremely self-conscious and all mixed up.
How pretentious I am, trying to learn the guitar! It doesn't sound good, I can't seem to put my fingers at the right places with all the pressure I need, agh! And how do you tune this thing? What a black art! And I can't stand inflicting these awful sounds on others. I'll never be any good!
Last weekend, at a guitar store in Bakersfield with Leonard, I had a breakthrough. First of all, most people use picks, not their bare fingers, to strike the strings. That really helps. (Previously I had tried to imitate Leonard, who uses his bare fingers.) Second, there is an actual method to tuning a guitar aside from just striking all the strings and telepathically sensing that something sounds off. Now I can make things that sound pretty, which means I'm over the very first hump of the learning curve. Here's what I've learned and possibly mislearned from myself, from Adam, from Leonard, from random people, and from inference. Go ahead and correct me!
Sumana on the Guitar, With a Long Introduction For the Complete Novice (e.g. Sumana Seven Months Ago): So there are two parts to the guitar (far-too-complicated diagram). There's the "body," which has the hole in it, and there's the "neck," which extends away from the body. The six strings (taut wires) start at the end of the "neck" and end beyond the hole. One end of each string is just tied on to a little bar on the body, but the other end is hooked onto a "tuning peg" at the end of the neck. You twist the peg to loosen or tighten the string. The tighter the string, the higher the note it will play. In the standard tuning (wait several paragraphs to learn how), each string is set to play a "fourth" (music theory term) away from the string next to it. The six strings traditionally go from "top" to "bottom," where "bottom" refers to the thickest string, the one that plays the lowest note.
("Bottom" will be the string that is actually nearest you if you are playing in the traditional right-handed way, holding the neck in your left hand and the body in your right. Evidently the strength and dexterity in your dominant hand is more useful in strumming and striking and plucking the strings than it is in the complicated things you have to do with the non-dominant hand, but my jury's still out on that.)
The way you get the guitar to make sounds is to strike the strings, traditionally over the hole (so the sound can resonate inside the body). If you just strike a string, then that's called playing it "open." But if you press down on the string on the neck while striking it over the hole with the other hand, then you get a different sound! The length of the string that is vibrating has gotten shorter, so the note is higher.
To facilitate calculation as to exactly how much higher the note will be, the neck is divided into "frets." That is, there are several little raised bars, each of which spans the width of the neck, all the way down the neck. These bars are called "frets" (confusingly, the space between two of those bars is also called a "fret"), and so the neck is often referred to as the "fretboard," or the "fingerboard." If you press down on a string between two of those bars, the string presses into the bar nearer the body. If you then strike the string over the hole, then the note is systematically higher. The fret that is just beyond the tuning pegs, the one that has the strings set into it, I like to think of as the "zeroeth fret." If you strike a string while holding it down on the fretboard at the "first fret" (the space between the zeroeth and first fret bars) and play it again, and then the next fret, and the next, and so on, you'll find that the note gets half a note higher with each fret.
Pretty-Sound Tip: It makes the nice sound when you hold it down in that space and not (as I once mistakenly did) on the bar itself, because when you hold it down in the space between the bars, then you're letting the bar nearer the body actually press against the string more. The bar concentrates its pressure at one point, while your finger's pressure is spread out for an uneven tone.
So you see that by holding down some string at someplace in the fretboard, you can play basically any note you want. But the really cool thing about the guitar is how "easy" (it's not easy for me yet) it is to play pretty groups of notes, or "chords." You strike more than one string in quick succession ("strumming"), even all six, and it sounds nicer than it has any right to be. And if you use one hand to hold down certain strings at certain frets while strumming with the other hand, then you can achieve specific chords.
This is where diagrams and pictures come in handy, to show you where to put your fingers for particular chords. Books are nice, but just to give you a taste of what these diagrams look like, try the diagrams for the C major chord, a chord that people tell me is useful. To be specific, here's the diagram for the easy version. As you can see, this chord only uses the top three frets. Your index finger (1) goes on the second-to-"top" string in the first fret, and your middle and ring fingers go where indicated. When you strum, you'll have a C-major chord!
It's easy enough to memorize one positioning on the fretboard, but real musicians have to learn a lot of them, and switch back and forth really fast, while strumming and plucking strings with the other hand. That's the part that takes a lot of practice, I'm venturing.
Pretty-Sound Tip: Curl your fretboard fingers so they only touch the strings they're supposed to be touching. You may have to have someone else help you with this -- Leonard helped catch this for me.
Now that you know about frets and so on, here's how you tune a guitar (diagram). Thanks to those musical properties of the strings and the fretboard, a string and its neighbor should sound exactly alike if you hold one of them down on the right place on the fretboard. For most of them, you hold the looser one down on the fifth fret and play the other one open, and they should sound the same. (There's one exception, and it's easier to see it in the diagram than to explain it in words. Besides, I don't know why.) Adjust the tuning peg for the higher string until the notes match. If you are really tone-deaf this will not work, but you don't have to have perfect pitch, either. Reapeat the process all the way to the highest string, then repeat.
Random other stuff: a guitar lasts a long time but strings that are played regularly should be replaced every 9-12 months. All acoustic guitars can take nylon strings but some can take metal ones. A bass guitar is "not really" a guitar, Adam says. Tuning and fretting for the acoustic guitar is the same as on an electric guitar. Electric guitars have little dials that you can twist to do stuff to the sound, but usually they aren't labelled, which makes me mad the same way that Unix used to make me mad. Many beginning guitarists set the successful performance of a particular song as a goal. Some guitars have a big dentlike shape near the neck on one side of the upper part of the body; this is called a cutaway, and allows the guitarist to play more easily lower on the fretboard.
That's all I got for you, and I've repeated stuff you can find elsewhere on the Net, I'm sure. I have to get over my self-consciousness and allow myself to noodle on the instrument without guilt, and that will be easier once I live by myself with the old guitar that Leonard gave me. Wheee!
# 16 Jun 2003, 09:25AM:
Shazia Mirza makes me wish I was Muslim so I could be cutting-edge.
She has had several death threats. Recently, on tour in Odense, Denmark, Mirza was told that fundamentalists had let it be known that if she set foot onstage, they would kill her. ''I was given two armed guards,'' she recalls. ''It was the first time I ever saw a gun that big. I thought, Bloody hell, I'm telling jokes, and that is a gun. But I thought the most important time to do the comedy was there and then. If these people think it's a sin to tell jokes, what will they think when Americans take their oil?..."
# 16 Jun 2003, 10:28AM:
Many people gave their fathers Salon Premium gift subscriptions for Father's Day, and many of those fathers accidentally sent their thank-you notes back to Salon instead of to their children. It's quite heartwarming getting to see them. There are a lot of happy families out there.
# 16 Jun 2003, 02:16PM: Color Me Employed:
I'm embarrassed to say that I've never worn my orangeish brown interview suit; it was too formal for the two jobs I've had since I've bought it. But should I have bought it at all?
Do wear pleasant colors – women have a wide choice in beautiful
colors. Most are acceptable on interviews.
The best color choices for an interview outfit:
Grey or navy – An excellent color especially for conservative
organizations.
Blue – A favored color especially if being interviewed by a
male.
Black – Can be perceived as being "too strong" for
an interview. If black is worn, soften the color by using white
or pastel accents.
Accent colors:
White, cream, light grey or blue – Good neutral colors for
blouse or shirt.
Yellow – Gives impression of a productive and creative person.
Red – A powerful color for small accents such as a scarf.
Orange – A good accent color encourages conversation.
# 17 Jun 2003, 12:33PM:
Mel Gibson uses his clout for something I find interesting: "Gibson is the director of The Passion, which stars The Thin Red Line's Jim Caviezel as Christ and Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene. It features Latin and Aramaic dialogue and no English subtitles." Gnarly! (That means "good," right?)
# 17 Jun 2003, 03:19PM:
A line from "Go" by The Apples in Stereo that's been stuck in my head: "She don't like the way you look, so she treats you like a crook." I'm imagining Nixon in there somewhere.
In elementary school -- one of the six elementary schools I attended -- at one point the class headed to the library to choose presidents for some report or other. I dawdled or misunderstood, and arrived last. Nixon was the only one left. So I learned that his hometown was Yorba Linda in faraway California, and the book tried be be both gentle and straightforward in explaining his sin to children.
I wish I'd met Nixon. Bob Greene did a column about how weird it was to meet him years after Watergate, how presidential and forgotten he was. He was the only native-born Californian president, the only one to resign, a Quaker like Hoover, incredibly smart in some ways and delusionally dumb in others. Caffeinated. He and Clinton were both presidents of great intelligence and sometimes awful judgment, and I harbor some affection and lenience towards broken smart people that I withold from dummies.
# 17 Jun 2003, 03:40PM: A PBS Memory:
Square One TV. Mathnet. Detectives Monday and Frankly receive a ransom note for a ridiculously nonround amount, such as $27,854.49.
Monday: This is so strange. Why didn't they ask for more?
Frankly: Or less?
# 17 Jun 2003, 04:43PM:
Kevin Drum on family -- he's lost track of his brother. I believe that will never happen to Nandini and me.
# 18 Jun 2003, 10:55AM: Millbrae Station to Feature Nine and Three Quarters Platforms:
Today "dignitaries" got to ride from Colma to the new BART stations before the proles, which is yet another reason to become a high-level ABAG functionary like Adam. But more importantly, I'm entertaining fantasies of being the first person to read Harry Potter V on the new BART lines.
# 19 Jun 2003, 08:29AM: Moving This Weekend:
I got to borrow my new landlord's van to move furniture between Berkeley and my new place this weekend. If you can help, especially on Saturday (lifting of unwieldy things, mostly), please e-mail me or otherwise contact me.
# 19 Jun 2003, 08:52AM GMT+5:30:
I do hope Brendan wasn't too influenced by my disparaging comment on Microserfs (context).
Microserfs felt epic and seldom annoying. I liked it a lot, and should reread it.
# 19 Jun 2003, 04:01PM: Two-Step Right Up:
Sarah and I today ate lunch at "Clouds," near the Metreon, and enjoyed our false consciousness.
As Sarah attests, today I also DDR'd on the 4th floor of the Metreon and about 20 people were watching me. I was hoping to impress them with my fly moves on "Captain Jack" and "Speed Over Beethoven," but they just stared -- no clapping, no requests. Soon I should try the option where one person dances over both the four-arrow pads. Yes, I'm trying to get better at DDR so I can put on a better show for people I've never met.
# 20 Jun 2003, 11:31AM: "At what temperature do you want the Earl Grey?":
Leonard redesigns replicators. "Captain Picard never orders anything else from the replicator, yet either there's no way for him to get the replicator to know that when he wants tea he wants hot Earl Grey; or there is such a way, he can't figure out how to set it up, and he's too proud to ask anyone for help." It's quite funny.
# 20 Jun 2003, 11:37AM: This One Has Monkeys:
When I finally sleep enough after sleep deprivation I have awesome dreams. Last night: Leonard surprised me by writing and starring in a musical with many elementary-school children. Evidently the software for the musical included a conditional that changed the musical if I found out. Then I was in a hotel and saw a bellhop monkey. All the staff were monkeys who spoke English and were
human in every respect except that they were monkeys (the uncanny valley). I was afraid of them and also I was worried that they were being exploited.
After that I met Daniel Davies during a car ride, only in my dream he was "Professor Trimble." Last, when I was an economics grad student worried about where to do a post-doc, J. Bradford DeLong came and reassured me, suggested I work as a record store clerk in Colorado, and told me that when he'd been looking for a post-doc, right after the Civil War, he'd had a conflict with a grizzled Confederate veteran who had told him, "I authorized [mobilizing] 18,000 men."
When Leonard found out about my dream, he accused me of trolling for links, and suggested that this is why DeLong hasn't been posting much lately -- he's been trapped in my head.
# 21 Jun 2003, 08:37PM GMT+5:30: Can't Talk:
This weekend: my sister and I are moving and I'm reading the new Rowling. And I miss Leonard.
# 21 Jun 2003, 10:58PM GMT+5:30: Verdict:
It's okay. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did Goblet of Fire. Hey Leonard, no need to hurry. Finish Paradise Lost and that Grisham, Painted Christmas or whatever, first.
Update: I feel foolish for having cared so much earlier today, before I started the thing. As though "Even Cody's is hyping it!" were a prophecy of quality, as though this book would stand with The Great Gatsby and The Mahabharata and change my worldview. (Is this one really not as good as #4? Or am I now more demanding?)
On the upside, it was really nice to just escape into a book for hours. I needed the break. Tomorrow, back to packing, moving, and missing Leonard.
# 22 Jun 2003, 11:08PM: S*** I Don't Need:
I packed most of my belongings today. Michael made brownies, remounted my old corrupted disk image from months back so I can copy the important stuff off it, and helped load the van. Zack loaded, twiddled with, started, and drove the huge, clunky old van that my landlord very kindly lent me, and he and I unloaded it at my new place. My new landlord gave me a rice cooker. I drove us back.
I still have a sedan trip or two to make before the end of the month, but at least the hunk of it is over.
I won't have Internet access at my new place for a while, so for weekends and nighttime phone will be the best way to reach me.
The title references a Janeane Garofalo bit. "When you're moving, a month before you start packing. The first few nights your boxes are neat and labeled. 'Books.' 'Clothes.' The night before, you're throwing stuff in boxes, scribbling, 'S*** I DON'T NEED.'"
# 23 Jun 2003, 08:03AM:
Leonard called from Amsterdam early this morning. Evidently he's having a blast, and I'm worried and happy for him.
# 23 Jun 2003, 11:03AM: Starring Sumana as Bruce Schneier:
How long before someone starts using a SpamArrest or ChoiceMail lookalike for evil? Ideas: spam address harvesting, virus, worm, placing spyware on a user's computer, password harvesting...
# 24 Jun 2003, 12:48PM: Withdrawal Withdrawal:
I just got to talk with Leonard, who is safely ensconced in his Charleroi hotel. He's visited Amsterdam and Brussels, and is hanging out with this Jarno fellow and Jarno's gal pal.
# 24 Jun 2003, 07:30PM: The Last Dinosaur:
Well, plans come and go until you have tickets, and then when plans come and go some more you have to figure out something to do regarding said tickets. So as the result of many oddball plan iterations, I'm going to take a train from Northern California to Denver starting on the morning of the Fourth of July and arriving on the night of the fifth, and then fly from Denver to SFO (and take BART home!) the next day. If you'll be in Denver too, or want to tell me things to do there on a holiday weekend's Sunday, please do so.
# 25 Jun 2003, 11:23AM: KQED:
- Premise 1:
- I can't stand most "reality" TV shows, in concept or in execution.
- Premise 2:
- I saw "Last Comic Standing" (an NBC game show/soap opera/stand-up showcase) last night and enjoyed it.
- Conclusion:
- I enjoy only those reality TV shows that dramatize some aspect of my life.
- Potential for Growth:
- The obvious.
- The Bachelorette Who Only Dates White Geeks
- Customer Service Fear Factor
- Survivor 6: The Island Is a Weblog
# 25 Jun 2003, 11:34AM:
While trying to find a good "Last Comic Standing" link, I ran across The Lenny Bruce of Congress.
# 25 Jun 2003, 04:34PM: Snow Crash Characters Spam Our World:
Experience the digital high
# 26 Jun 2003, 10:26AM:
Yesterday I bought dish soap for my new apartment. The label tells me that it's "Non-Ultra."
Yesterday I discovered that one of our customers has a name similar to that of a space-opera character. A coworker asked, "Do you think it's him? From the future?"
# 26 Jun 2003, 11:20AM GMT+5:30:
"In fact, Kia is trans-just about every system of human categorisation, and what she isn't trans- she is post-." -- Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
My mind dwells on my post-ness because only last night did I hear Weird Al's "Your Horoscope For Today." Also, a customer just complimented me as such: "This may be the most postmodern, Gen WXY customer
service letter I have ever received."
# 26 Jun 2003, 02:24PM:
I Googled " 'more relevant than ever' cheese". Result.
# 27 Jun 2003, 11:29AM:
Last night I dreamt about shopping for shower curtains. I really need a shower curtain for my new place, you see. Also I recall telling someone that I was a sixth-year at Hogwarts.
# 27 Jun 2003, 10:18PM:
What kind of workday is it that makes you too tired to go home?
# 28 Jun 2003, 05:45PM:
Graaa. Finishing up the big move. Man, I hate moving cathode-ray tubes. Fortunately I persuaded a man on each end to help me lift and move the TV my sister's giving me. The VCR is lighter than my CD/radio/tape player; huh?
Things I'll miss about Berkeley include: walkable, familiar, nearby downtown; campus memories & resources; friends; lower prices; laid-back atmosphere. And Internet access at home, although I'll remedy that eventually.
# 28 Jun 2003, 09:29PM: Squelch Humor:
A Letter to Now Todd from Future Todd.
As you might expect, your life has not gone according to 'Todd's Life Plan.' Everyone who ever loved you, up to and including Jesus, has either died or redied in the past 30 years. Your Berkeley degree became worthless when the campus was implicated in the kidnapping of three-year-old twins in Encino, California. Your first marriage was a sham, a shamelessly promotional wedding to Safeway's Low Low Prices for much-needed rent money. The kids hate you. The longest you ever held a job was three weeks, until the first Senior Citizen finally got word to the outside world.
# 29 Jun 2003, 06:54PM:
Tonight is the last big load. After a bit more net I'll disconnect the computer and load up the last of my belongings here into my car. Goodbye, internet at home. See you again someday.
# 30 Jun 2003, 02:39PM:
Some people misspell "Salon" as "Solon," which makes me think that we're writing a magazine for Greek lawmakers of antiquity. But the other day my colleague performed an accidental transformation cipher and thanked a reader for subscribing to Sakib Premium. Say, while you're looking at that keyboard, you should consider cleaning it with compressed air, or at least shaking it upside down over a trash can.
[Main] You can hire me through Changeset Consulting.
This work by Sumana Harihareswara is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by emailing the author at sh@changeset.nyc.
