Category Archives: Meta

Oct 21 0 comments
Meta, Site Maintenance, Work

I don’t want to go on the cart! I feel happy! I feel happy!

What I’m getting at, I’m suppose, is that I’m not quite dead. I’ve just been…well, busy is something of an understatement. I know, I know – I use that excuse a lot, and it starts to lose all meaning after a while, but ‘struth.

I should explain. I’ve been working an average of 9.5 hours a day lately. And when I say ‘lately’, I mean for the last couple of months, until this weekend. This weekend, I’ve been working an average of 15 hours a day. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say – quite the contrary, in fact – it’s just that by the time I get the opportunity to write, all I really want to do is turn my brain off.

I’m hoping to correct this behavior in short order. While I have quite a bit of travel coming up over the next 60 days (as evidenced by the Dopplr widget in the sidebar), my schedule should be a bit more open, allowing for more creative output. I’m also going to start thinking about giving the site another facelift – Qwilm! works well as a stopgap theme, but I’ve never been 100% happy with it. (I don’t know that I’ll ever be entirely happy with an existing theme, but I don’t have the ‘mad skillz’ to code my own.)

I also have a number of half-started projects to finish, not least of which is the editing and posting of the balance of my SXSW photos. (No, I’m not kidding.) But all in due time.

Jul 26 0 comments
Meta, Travel, Work

Greetings from California!

This post serves multiple purposes. First and foremost, I want to let everyone who actually still reads this that I’m alive and well, and while work has kept me busy, I haven’t been mauled by a bear, eaten by lions, or struck by lightning.

Reason the second is to test the WordPress app for iPhone. More about the iPhone adventure later. But I really think that it’s great that I can sit here in a movie theater and do something productive with my time instead of watching the annoying preshow.

Trailers are starting… More later.

Apr 25 1 comments
Meta, TV

REALLY Random Thought: Pic-a-nic baskets

This is what happens when I let my mind wander.

So, if his theme music is to be believed, Yogi Bear sleeps until noon, but has every picnic basket in Jellystone Park by sunset. Last time I checked, picnics are traditionally a lunchtime affair. And as we all know, Yogi is pretty civilized – sure, he doesn’t wear clothes beyond his shirt collar, green tie, and snappy hat, but you’d have to presume he at least showers and brushes his teeth, which would take at least 15-20 minutes. Assuming the tie’s not a clip-on, by the time he completes his look and ventures out of his cave, it’s at least 12:30 PM. So…

  • Is Jellystone Park starting some kind of happenin’ ‘late-afternoon’ picnicking trend?
  • Are the lunchtime picnickers just really lazy, and allowing their food to spoil? (And, in that instance, is Yogi actually doing them a favor?)
  • Is Jellystone Park frequented by environmental activists, insistent on ignoring Ranger Smith and feeding the animals anyway (intentionally allowing Yogi to steal their baskets)?
  • Is there some strange time/space phenomenon at the entrance to Yogi’s cave, causing it to be noon inside and dawn outside?

William of Ockham tells us that all other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best. Which means, of course, that…

  • Yogi Bear is a ninja.

Think about it. He’d have to be really fast to get all of those baskets. He’s constantly giving Ranger Smith the slip. He speaks in riddles. And bears are the #1 threat to America. It all adds up.

You think about it. Think. About. It.

Mar 12 0 comments
Meta, SXSW

SXSW 2008: Good night, Austin! We love you!

For five days every March, the geeks of the world are the rock stars in Austin.  Those five days are over, and the actual (and wanna-be) rock starts are starting to invade the Texas capital.  As for me, I’m sitting in Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, sipping on a crappy latte, sorting through a few hundred photos and trying to process all of the good stuff from the last few days.  I’ll be posting photos over the next few days (no, I won’t wait 6 months like I did last year).

I just wanted to take an opportunity, while I have a moment, while it’s still fresh in my mind, and while I’m not distracted by work, I just want to say thank you to all of the veterans at SXSW who always make me feel so welcome; to all of the folks I’ve met over the past four years, who make the trip worthwhile (perhaps almost as much as the conference itself); to all of the newbies and the new-to-me-bies, with whom I hope to speak again soon, either over Twitter or IRL; and to everyone who stuck around for the marathon at Fray Cafe on Sunday night and cheered my semi-embarrassing story.

Soon, I’ll be back in New Jersey, trying to figure out how to rawk after SXSW.  And sleeping in my own bed…which is always nice.  And scheming ways of making sure my schedule is clear for SXSW 2009.

Mar 04 0 comments
Life, Meta, SXSW, Travel, Work

It’s been such a long time.

Yeah, you know the drill. This is the part where I apologize for being away for such a long time, and I swear on several dead people that I’m going to make good and post more frequently.

Honesty moment: I’ve had quite a bit to post, I just haven’t really been inspired to post. I know that sounds like a crock of shit, but in all honesty, I just really haven’t been inspired to write lately. I pull up the ‘write post’ template in WordPress, and I sit there looking at a blank field, wondering where all the words went. (Really, I used to be quite good at this. I think. It’s been such a long time.)

Oh, and sorry about all the Boston references – I’ve been playing a lot of Rock Band lately. Finished the solo guitar tour on medium, and I’m almost exclusively playing bass on hard or expert (except for “Green Grass and High Tides” – that song just kicks my ass every damn time).

It goes without saying that work has been keeping me incredibly busy. After much wrangling on my part, my group has finally got the go-ahead to outsource our database and web application work; naturally, I’ve been given a lot of responsibility for this particular project. In addition to everything I’d normally be responsible for. It’s daunting, to say the least; for the better part of the last few months, I feel like I’ve continually been playing catch-up.

There’s been some good stuff in that time, tho – I’ve been down to DC a few times, and even had a chance to see the wily and elusive Becca; made another trek to the Bay Area in December, wherein Erica and I got lost on steep hills, and Esin & Tomek hosted a dinner party (and I finally got to meet Jessa‘s ‘bucket’); and I got a really positive performance review at work, which I’m hoping will materialize into a substantial raise. Oh, and I got some new shoes. So there’s that. But even still, I’ve been feeling generally drained.

Which brings us to the present. South By Southwest Interactive starts at the end of this week. As busy as SXSW can be, I always look forward to those five days in Texas as a chance to recharge the batteries. I’m hoping that I’ll be inspired by those clever, clever friends of mine – inspired to blog, inspired to try new things, and inspired to experiment and grow. Needless to say, there will be at least once-daily posting and photos a-plenty from Austin.

Nov 17 0 comments
Meta, Travel

Things to Ponder: LAX edition

I’m sitting at gate 58 at Los Angeles International Airport, waiting for my flight home (the whys and wherefores will come later in another post, I promise), and I’m left alone to ponder the following:

  • Just after I sat down, I spotted a reality show camera crew doing a ‘pick-up’ shot at the next gate over. (A pick-up shot is there the crew will shoot an event, like boarding a plane, out of sequence, to be edited in later. It technically doesn’t “break” the “reality” of the show, since the pick-up shot is just linking two other events that actually happen – it just provides context.) Even though I have less than a passing interest in reality TV, I couldn’t help but wonder what show this was being shot for. The girl ‘boarding’ the plane was either named Gutierez or Martinez (those were the names the gate staff paged before she ‘went down the jetway’. I tried to look for tell-tale clues or markings on the crew’s equipment, but couldn’t find any.
  • Why do Delta’s short-hop flights, like my Newark to Atlanta connection yesterday, have seat-back TVs, but the long-haul flight (ATL to LAX) only has overhead screens that are prone to malfunction or failure? For that matter, why ARE those overhead screens so prone to malfunction or failure? How hard is it to keep an LCD panel working?
  • Why would touching the side of the magnetometer at the security checkpoint cause it to go off? The one I went through earlier here at LAX terminal 5 was very narrow, and my hand nicked the side wall as I went through. I tried again, hunching over with my arms scrunched in front of me, and was fine (aside from looking like an idiot).
  • Why don’t the airlines have the flexibility to press larger planes into service when a flight fills up? The red-eye I’m going to board in about 2 hours (LAX->ATL) is completely jam-packed – every seat is sold. Since there’s clearly enough interest in this flight to fill a 767, why not press a 777 into service instead, and give those of us in steerage economy a little breathing room?

And finally…

  • I wonder how Cheese Day went… I was invited to attend this year, but this trip came up at the last minute.
May 14 1 comments
Meta

Still kicking.

I hadn’t realized that it had been so long since my last post in this space. I had decided after SXSW to make a concerted effort to post more frequently, but…well, here we are.

If you’re looking for the update post, however, this isn’t it. That post is still forthcoming. But for those of you not reading my musings through The RSS, you’ll have noticed that I’ve selected a new theme for the site. It’s a bit of a change, but I’m quite fond of the look. The theme also has the added benefit of not being nearly as temperamental as the previous one, and isn’t nearly as much of a pain in the arse to customize (which is to say that very little customizing was needed to meet my specifications).

So, with the new look in place, and the busy season at work almost behind me, hopefully I will find blogging inspiration aplenty to keep you entertained. (Also, I need to get off my ass and finish editing my SXSW photos. But that’s another post…)

Apr 09 0 comments
Meta

The latest edition of “How C|Net Made My Brain Hurt”

Not much to be said here. Just read this News.com headline from earlier today. I DARE you to tell me your brain doesn’t hurt afterward.

It HURTS!

Mar 17 0 comments
Meta, SXSW

Photo Update: SXSW goodness starting to appear on Flickr

Just a quick heads-up that I’ve posted the first thirty or so of my SXSW pictures to Flickr (see also the sidebar badge), with many more to come. Although I might need to enlist some help remembering the names of some of the Fray Cafe speakers, and that’s the next group I have to edit…

In any event, go check out the photos, and use the tags to view the photos from the other attendees – my photos aren’t living in a vacuum, you know.

Jan 25 0 comments
Consumerism, Meta

Memo to Circuit City: try proofreading your ads.

So, I’m reading MacWorld.com, checking to see if maybe, just maybe, the mythical widescreen “true video” iPod would be launched today in some super-secret product announcement (nope), and something catches my eye in the sidebar ad. Normally I tune out banners and sidebar ads, but this Circuit City ad demanded my attention.

Why?

Circuit City are morons.

Take a WILD guess.

Hey, Circuit City – you want to convince me to come into your store, deal with your inept staff, and fork over my hard earned money on consumer electronics? Start proofreading your ads, and then we’ll talk.

But I’ll probably still end up at Best Buy.