Six Months Gone
Syndicated from Curious Notions on 24 September 2008 at 20:47I tried to get on this blog today only to discover that, in migrating my site to a new server, my hosting company had entirely lost the contents of my blog. Everything, gone.
I was able to locate a working backup from March, and I’ve restored the entries since then by copying them out of Google’s cache. I couldn’t find the patience to sign in and out repeatedly to rescue the comments of the last six months, though, so I’m afraid I’ll just have to live without those.
If anything’s wonky or missing, well, now you know why. There’s a lot of stuff to update about, but, having spent most of my evening copying and pasting old entries, I’m too tired to compose new stuff.
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Newsflash: This Is Not Okay
Syndicated from Curious Notions on 18 August 2008 at 20:39This BBC article about the controversy of an Australian mayor in a small mining town suggesting that “with five blokes to every girl, may I suggest that beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa” is my newest please-tell-me-someone-did-not-really-say-that moment. It could just be a mishap, right? No. There’s more.
“Quite often you will see walking down the street a lass who is not so attractive with a wide smile on her face. Whether it is recollection of something previous or anticipation for the next evening, there is a degree of happiness. [...] Some, in other places in Australia, need to proceed to Mount Isa where happiness awaits. Really, beauty is only skin deep. Isn’t there a fairy tale about an ugly duckling that evolves into a beautiful swan?”
It takes my breath away. I seriously wonder when people will realize that their gender-related comments are offensive. There are some very simple ways to evaluate this. For example, before speaking, replace the word ‘women’ (or ‘girls’ or ‘lasses’ or whatever poorly chosen synonym you have in mind) with ‘Blacks’ or ‘Jews’ or ‘Native Americans’ or ‘Veterans’ or even ‘Republicans’ and ask yourself, “Would this be an appropriate comment?” If the answer is no, or if there is any sort of hesitation whatsoever on your part as to the appropriateness of your comment, then don’t say it! If this method does not work, chances are that you have Severe Issues and need to be removed from society until such a time as you can be taught basic human decency.
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29 July 2008 Gnomicons Update
Syndicated from Curious Notions on 29 July 2008 at 20:37On a whim I added nine new wallpapers to Gnomicons tonight. All of them are based around photographs I’ve taken in the last seven months. Take a look. I hope you enjoy them!
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In Which I Share Photos
Syndicated from Curious Notions on 14 July 2008 at 20:31It’s been a long while since I had any photographic updates, and, over the weekend, I uploaded a hundred or so images from the past few months. Some of my favorites are displayed after the jump.
From the category of obsessive-flower-photo-taking, I bring you an additional 12 flower photos. Well, technically, some of them are flowers and some are leaves and buds. In the rain. I’m quite fond of several of them.
In May, Stephanie and I went to Baltimore for a conference. Our favorite part of that was going to the National Aquarium as part of an evening activity. While there we explored all sorts of fun: dolphins, frogs, turtles, and fish!
In June, Steph and I ran away to New York for a weekend - this time checking out the Museum of Natural History, the Met, and lots of Central Park.
Our purpose in going to NYC, mind you, was to see a Jonathan Coulton concert. It was easily the geekiest concert either of us had ever been to (and Steph went to a Weird Al concert once), and it was completely and unbelievably awesome. I will definitely be going to see him and the openers, Paul and Storm, the next chance I get.
And then, at the beginning of July, I ran away with Joe to New England for several days, including the Fourth of July.
We also spent a day in Boston, but, unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera battery the night before, so my photos are limited. I did have fun at the aquarium, especially watching the penguins!
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Xbox Project
Syndicated from Curious Notions on 26 June 2008 at 20:29Between yesterday evening and this morning, I finally enacted a plan that’s been niggling at me for months and months now - namely I modded my old Xbox to run XBMC. I did so on the cheap, using a refurbished Linksys gaming adapter ($40) to hook the console up to my wireless network, hacking together an Action Replay device from a female USB dongle ($6) and an Xbox breakaway cable ($3), and buying a used copy of a game I needed ($2). I had a few hiccups along the way, but, all in all, things went smoothly and I felt damn geeky when I got it all up and running. Nothing like starting with a razor blade, wire cutters, and a soldering iron and ending up with a powerful media center set-up.
I haven’t had a chance to play very much with XBMC, but my plans include setting up streaming from my external drives upstairs and perhaps even installing a wake-on-LAN script that will turn on the computer attached to the drives without me having to climb upstairs to do so. The upshot of all this is that I should soon be able to watch any of my videos (including digital media and Region 1 and 2 DVDs) or listen to any of my music from the ease and comfort of my couch. Win.
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