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13 Nov, 2001
This is an older model, probably done a couple of years ago. It's been sitting on top of a bookshelf for some time now. The design was drawn directly onto the back of the paper with pencil and ruler, and the paper itself is plain old cheap inkjet/photocopier paper. (Notice how everything sags.)
Tomorrowland
9 Nov, 2001
I'm sure there's a name for this rocket ship ride whatsis at the entrance to Disneyland's Tomorrowland, but it escapes me.
Former C64 Owners Rejoice!
6 Nov, 2001
Every once in a while I'll get misty eyed as I view those 16 colors and listen to those three SID voices.Every once in a while I'll get all nostalgic for my old Commodore 64 computer, head out to the internet, download an emulator and some disk images, and get misty eyed as I view those 16 colors and listen to those three SID voices. Then I get frustrated because I don't have a joystick, and forget about my small C64 emulation setup until the next time... it either gets lost in a sub-sub-directory on a current partition, or lost altogether when I reformat a drive.
On a tip from a friend I checked out www.c64.com, which led me to an emulator I'd never tried before, CCS64. Support for Cartridges, multiple virtual 1541 drives, all kinds of goodies.
One game that I was never able to find in emulator form was Gateway To Apshai, but happily I found it tonight - the version I found seems to be from a floppy disk, but I had it as a cartridge - the first game (of many) my parents ever bought me for the Commodore.
Beach Head soon followed, as did Fort Apocalypse and other favorites suddenly remembered as I scrolled through the listings... and I haven't even looked at 1/4 of them yet.
Only problem is, I really need a joystick to get back into this stuff. Fortunately, it looks like joysticks are cheap on e-bay. Of course, if the kids selling their old joysticks on Ebay treated them anything like my brother and I treated ours (Decathalon, anyone?) I would probably be better off buying a new one.
A Trip Down Amnesia Lane
2 Nov, 2001
I've been in Los Angeles longer than I was in Rochester, and my memories of my time spent out here are much more kaliedescopic.Well, today has certainly been a day for nostalgia. This morning I posted a message mentioning nice places in and around Rochester, New York, and at the top of my list was Mount Hope Cemetery, a beautiful victorian cemetery that was planned in part by Frederick Law Olmsted. As I said in the post, it sounds strange but some of my fondest memories of the four years I spent in Rochester are of walks through Mount Hope. Unlike many newer cemeteries with their flat gridwork of burial plots, Mount Hope is a rolling, hilly park that enfolds you as you walk into its middle from the outside streets. It's a beautiful and contemplative place. Frederick Douglas and Susan B. Anthony are among the more famous residents.
Then I got to reminiscing about the Corn Hill preservation district, and the E.E. Boynton house, the furthest east of Frank Lloyd Wright ™'s prairie-style homes.
If that wasn't enough, I got a call tonight from my good friend Bryan, who was in my freshman class at college, and ultimately responsible for introducting me to Kim. He ran into another former classmate of ours at a club tonight, and was calling to tell me about the sighting, which took place in Boston of all places. This led me to check back in on my old friend and previous bandmate Dyami Bryant, now lead singer for NYC Hardcore band Locked in a Vacancy. They are considerably more accomplished than Thermous ever was. And I do wish I had Tony's e-mail address... I haven't heard from him since he was here in L.A. for SIGGRAPH a couple of years ago. It's been a while since I communicated with Mofo, likewise with Michael (the drummer formerly known as Chip.) Ah, thems was the days. I was amazed to find a photo from a Thermous show at "The Claw", which was supposed to be a nightclub down in the dorm basement tunnels. Alyssa took a lot of photos of us and The Beat Offs, but I haven't seen most of them. I'd give almost anything for some photos of the one performance of the post-Thermous extravaganza, The Gavel. It was a battle of the bands competition, and we took third place - I'm convinced it was the suits we were all wearing that did it, and not our musical acuity. And the suits didn't even match!
I've been in Los Angeles longer than I was in Rochester, and my memories of my time spent out here are much more kaliedescopic. I think that is partly because of the rapid succession of jobs I went through before and after my time at Edmunds for a while, and the fact the the seasons never really change. I know that last theme has been coming up a lot in these posts lately, but it comes with the (lack of) the autumn season here.
Frank Lloyd Wright is a trademark of the Frank Lloyd Wright foundation
This Just In: Los Angelenos Don't Melt in the Rain
31 Oct, 2001
Yesterday, the second to last day of October, saw the first truly fall like day we've had in Los Angeles this year; windy and cloudy, and with intermittent showers to boot.
Faces were glum everywhere, and people eyed the sky fearfully before going outside. As usual, drivers seemed to speed up on the slick streets, a behavior I will never understand as long as I live. My friend Chris, who lived here briefly, theorized that they drive faster in a futile attempt to get away from the rain.
It is as though the world is about to end when it rains in Los Angeles. I understand that most of the people who live here relish the usually sunny, usually warm (if not hot) weather, but my god, is a little break in the monotony of baking in the sun under a greenish-brown sky such a terrible thing?
The first "winter" we lived here there was an amusing thing on the news. It was probably Fox. They had a remote reporter someplace relatively close, but much higher up... like Big Bear. It had snapped unexpectedly cold and actually snowed a little bit there, and a sprinkler that had been left on in the freezing temperatures caused icicles to form on the chainlink fence the reporter was standing in front of. The carefully coiffed reporter actually stood live in front of the camera and explained how the icicles got there. I got the feeling I was supposed to discuss this around the watercooler the next day.
"Hey, did you hear that some icicles formed up in Big Bear last night? Yeah, the reporter looked like he was really cold! Boy, you sure wouldn't catch me up there!"
Such behavior would almost be amusing if it weren't usually accompanied by a smug attitude of superiority about living in a place where the weather almost never, ever changes. It's not just a matter of preferring this climate, it's as though people here think less of those who live in places where it snows.
So when it rains here, I like to think that maybe my suddenly improved mood serves to further darken the moods of others distraught by the mere fact that water is falling from the sky.
Addendum: 11/26/2001 - If you don't believe me, read this!
Shh! My Next Computer's Going To Be A Mac.
24 Oct, 2001
Apple has made a fine computer with the Ti Powerbook, and it's the one that's going to get me to jump the Wintel ship just as soon as I can justify the cost.I've spent quite a bit of money on tech stuff (computer & related components like hard drives, network equipment, etc) and gadgets (PDA's and related accessories) over the last couple of years, thanks to a booming economy and good salaries at my last several jobs. I'll be the first person to admit that I probably should have put most of that money away for a rainy day (or couple of months, which was how long this spring's unemployment spell wound up lasting.)
The problem is that technolust was just too strong for this early-to-mid-twenties geek. The real gadget orgy started with my purchase of a Handspring Visor Deluxe, which I bought back in January of 2000 back when you could only order them directly from Handspring. The folding keyboard upon which this is being written came next, followed by a couple of Springboard modules, my Visor Prism (I actually received one as a Christmas gift, but I had already decided to buy one for myself), and culminating early this year with the purchase of a new Cell phone and a cable for connecting it to my Visor.
I've been a pretty good boy since getting laid off in February; my current salary requires it, but I'd also like to think those two months of unemployment were a little bit sobering. I did buy a Wacom Graphire tablet back in September when I got the creative itch that turned into this site, but that's about it.
Handspring hasn't released any new updates to the Visor line that I absolutely must have, which has been a blessing... for the most part, I haven't had any burning material wants since that cell phone / cable wireless rig. (Well, that's not entirely accurate - I badly want to purchase an Etherwave kit from Big Briar, but that's worthy of a whole other blog.)
Even Apple's rollout yesterday of the new iPod MP3 player didn't give me that pining feeling. Yes, it's a very cool unit and I'd love to have one, but I don't feel like I neeeeed one.
I shouldn't have gone to the Apple web site to read about the iPod, though; while I was there I thought I would take another peek at the Ti Powerbook, a computer that grabbed my interest when it was released earlier this year.
It wasn't lust at first sight because after all, it's a Macintosh, and I got really burned out on the whole one button mouse thing in 1997 when I worked on a PowerMac 9600 with OS 7 for the better part of a year.
But 1" thick...
and DVD-ROM...
and that wide, wide screen that's bigger than my damn CRT monitor at home...
The Ti Powerbook has been slowly but patiently working its mojo on me, and I visit it every time I find myself at Fry's Electronics much the same way I try to slow down as I pass the Audi dealership on Van Nuys boulevard to catch a glimpse of the TT coupes. I had heard about Apple's price cuts on the Powerbook about a month ago, but I didn't realize that in addition to dropping the price by $400 they had increased the processor speed and hard drive space on the low-end model. 550Mhz PowerPC plus a 20 gigabyte hard drive. (Hell, I could put OS 9, OS X, and Mandrake Linux 8 on that thing!) Anda free extra 128 megs of RAM through the end of the year.
:::sigh:::
I've got that pining feeling, and it's not going away.
The other thing that's hurrying me down the path to Camp Macintosh is Microsoft's Windows XP shenanigans; aside from their invasive and cumbersome product registration process, their .NET and hailstorm initiatives scare the hell out of me. Linux is fun, but not quite stable enough as a 24/7 desktop OS for my liking.
OS Wars aside, I also like the fact that Apple (love them or hate them) seems to understand the fact that Microsoft has won the shoving match for desktop market share; Apple's goal instead seems to be making quality computers that appeal to people on certain key levels; aesthetic (I really don't care what my desktop tower looks like; a beige computer works just as well as a shiny translucent grey and white one, but Apple does make some damn fine looking machines), philosophic (people bought into the whole iMac simplicity thing in a big way), and of course the fanatical (I promise, I won't become one of those people.) Just yesterday somebody made the analogy on Slashdot that Apple is trying to position itself as a sort of Harman-Kardon of computers... a higher end, niche market, but a very loyal one. I don't know if I would actually rate Apple as Harman-Kardon to E-Machines' Yorx, but you get the idea.
Microsoft gives me the impression that it will settle for nothing short of world domination over all aspects of computing from the desktop to the internet to the anti-terrorism ID chip they'll be putting in the backs of our necks soon - quality, usability, privacy, and security be damned. I'm really tired of it, and ready for a change. Apple has made a fine computer with the Ti Powerbook, and it's the one that's going to get me to jump the Wintel ship just as soon as I can justify the cost. Anyone need twenty two hundred bucks' worth of web development?
One More Reason I'm Glad Not to be in Elementary School Any More
21 Oct, 2001
As I sit here with these glasses on, I'm amused to recall what a looming threat it was in elementary school for a kid to need glasses... I remember it being like a social kiss of death, and being glad that I was spared having glasses on top of all my otheSince I had never had a full eye exam that I could recall in my life, I decided to take advantage of my vision benefits and made an appointment for an eye exam at the local Lens Crafters yesterday morning. Prior to yesterday, the only testing my eyes have had was looking at the red 'apple' on the picnic table in the nurse's office in elementary school, that sort of thing; just checks to see if you can focus on whatever it is they show you.
I didn't have any reason to believe I would need glasses; aside from occasional eyestrain after over-long days (and nights) on the computer, my vision has always been pretty good both near and far.
Well, here I am looking at the monitor through my new glasses; as it turns out I'm pretty far-sighted. Thanks to being young and having fairly strong eye muscles, I've never had trouble focusing on things up close, like computer screens and books. My eye muscles were working pretty hard at the close-up stuff, but without the benefit of comparison I never felt it.
With the glasses I can definitely feel my eyes relaxing when focusing on anything within 5 or 6 feet. Beyond that, though, I get the sensation I always did whenever I would try on somebody else's glasses; that swimmy, distorted vision that will give you a headache if you look for more than a few seconds.
This will take some getting used to. I expect I will have a mild headache for the next couple of days while my hand-eye coordination adjusts to the magnification of close-up objects and the mild distortion of objects in my peripheral vision.
As I sit here with these glasses on, I'm amused to recall what a looming threat it was in elementary school for a kid to need glasses... I remember it being like a social kiss of death, and being glad that I was spared having glasses on top of all my other social shortcomings.
I don't remember exactly why it was such a big deal, though. I guess a big part of it was the athletic aspect; if you have to wear glasses all the time, it impedes on your ability to run around doing the stupid stuff kids do, and is therefore exclusionary in that regard. And of course, anything from the norm in elementary school is a strike against you.
It is nice not to need to worry about stupid bullshit like that any more. Even in Los Angeles, which I'd be willing to wager is the stupid bullshit capital of the world, the issue wouldn't be so much whether or not you have glasses as much as whether your frames are Armani or the LensCrafters $50 special.
Lulu
21 Oct, 2001
We met Lulu at the Sherman Oaks street fair.
Sherman Oaks Street Fair
21 Oct, 2001
Sherman Oaks, California. Ventura Boulevard at Cedros, looking east.
More Trouble Brewing
18 Oct, 2001
Last fall I wrote some fairly acerbic things about the general lack of quality of coffee in the workplace and posted them on Intercrap… I’d link to it but Intercrap has been experiencing technical difficulties for some months now.
Anyway, the gist of the thing was that I’m tired, so very tired of bad coffee maker maintenance at the office… just the basic stuff, like actually washing the carafe and filter basket before making a new pot. Quality coffee helps too, but it is gracious of companies to provide free coffee at all, and they can’t be faulted for going with the cheap stuff like Yuban.
But ye gods, our department’s designated coffee maker is in a room without a sink! I think somebody rinses and wipes out the carafe somewhere at the end of the day, but that’s about it.
Soon after I started here I went the bring-your-own-Thermos route for a while, but that got old quickly. A month or so ago I brought in a jar of instant coffee, reasoning that at least instant coffee is consistent, even if it’s not really coffee.
Every once in a while I will still go for the gusto and pour myself a mug of black coffee from the office carafe, and every time I am unprepared for how awful it is; bitter, overextracted, and burnt.
This week I have taken to adding non-dairy creamer and sugar to the stuff, which makes it tolerable… and it finally occurs to me (duh) that this is probably why a lot of people add copious milk/cream/creamer and sugar to their coffee.
I’ve been accused of being a coffee snob, but what I really am is spoiled by a small place in Sherman Oaks, CA called The Coffee Roaster - they roast their own beans in the store, and brew it to perfect strength.
I know a lot of people drink coffee for the caffeine as opposed to the taste, but to me that’s buying some Oscar Meyer sliced turkey for Thanksgiving because all you’re after is the Tryptophan. Or drinking Budweiser/Coors.
It’s like anything else… if your mom/aunt/grandmother makes the best apple pie in the world, all other apple pies will prove disappointing
Then there are those who will actively avoid good coffee. The experience that truly blew my mind happened a couple of years ago, when I worked across the street from Mani’s Bakery on Fairfax. They’re an organic ingredients only type of place, right down to their coffee. One day somebody from another office of my then employer came by our office to pick up some paperwork or some such. Somebody was going to make a run across the street for coffee, and asked her if she wanted a cup and she said, “Sure!” Then, clearly as an afterthought (After all, it’s not an exaggeration to say there’s a Starbucks on every corner in Los Angeles) she asked “Is it Starbucks?”
When we told her it wasn’t Starbucks but maybe even a little bit better, without that omnipresent burnt taste, she rolled her eyes and proudly proclaimed, “Well, I only drink Starbucks coffee.”
It was as though we had suggested that she drink some bottled toilet water instead of Evian. Were we supposed to be impressed? Or feel inferior? I don’t know. I just want a decent cup of coffee.
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