found_drama

• Ten typographic mistakes everyone makes
  @ Receding Hairline :: some of these I knew, some of them I did not; some of them I don’t paricularly care about (after all, some rules become obsolete and become superceded by newer ones)
  (tags: typography printing writing todo)

The outside has grown so large that it has come inside; the inside has expanded to shelter it.  The blending brings on a terrible fear.  Where has everyone gone?  Are they all dead?  There are no bodies but neither are there graves nor tenants.  The Dog warns me that They come and We must prepare.  We cautiously explore the space.  Grand foyer after ballroom after auditorium; there are no small rooms.  Enormous and ornate staircases spring up from random spots in the black-and-white tiles; we dare not go up there unprotected.  The Dog and His Master both warn me not to stray far from the camp they have set up near the fireplace.  I feel like a little kid in some huge patriarch’s house, like I will someday grow into the scale of this place but for now it brings only terror.  We do not speak much, The Dog or I or His Master; but we all share the fear.  They come.

• Offices and The Creativity Zone
  via Hivelogic (via DF)
  (tags: creativity environment productivity essay todo)

Been a while since our last Sampo Method top 10… Been a while since we had a new music injection.

The Sampo Method
(Last Played is in the last 7 days, Date Added is in the last 2 weeks, Genre does not contain “Mix”; Limit to 10 items selected by most often played.)

1. Blonde Redhead “Spring And By Summer Fall”
2. Blonde Redhead “Publisher”
3. Blonde Redhead “23″
4. Helium “Pat’s Trick”
5. Massive Attack “Radiation Ruling the Nation [Protection]“
6. Radiohead “15 Step”
7. Radiohead “Bodysnatchers”
8. Radiohead “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”
9. The Shins “Pink Bullets”
10. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah “THE SKIN OF MY YELLOW COUNTRY TEETH”

About 10 years has elapsed since the last time I saw an X-Files episode. While I would not say that I watched it religiously during high school, it was certainly a favorite. Who but Chris Carter was doing anything interesting on TV during the 1990s? It was somewhat amazing to me that Fox — the same network that had killed Profit and would later kill Firefly — could have such a winner on its hands and not screw it up. A. & I recently grabbed the DVDs of the first season to watch some X-Files — partly out of nostalgia and partly out of a sense of “we seem to have run out of TV series DVDs to watch”. Some comments, notes, remarks, and thoughts about the first season:¹ Read the rest of this entry »

1. The intro and the reviews of the first three episodes first appeared on this site on Feb. 9, 2008; the reviews of episodes four through eight appeared here on Feb. 23, 2008. Midway through this process, I changed my mind and decided to do one big post with all of the reviews instead of breaking them. The courteous thing to do seemed to be to re-publish those reviews here. [↩]

• VoodooPad Bookmarklets
  via Flying Meat: more evidence that G. Mueller deserves the world’s first even Nobel Prize for Software or something….
  (tags: Mac OSX VoodooPad todo)

The attack is coming from the West.  An invasion, a violent mass of men and machinery moving across the land, opposite the sun’s path.  My commander sends me ahead to warn the next installation.  The forts must all be warned.  The invasion force is striking so quickly.  They are knocking out communications before anything else.  Anything to cripple us, to silence us.  The base commander knows that they are doomed but if they can only slow the invaders enough to allow me safe passage.

When I arrive at the base, they don’t believe me.  They treat me with disdain.  An invasion? (they say) That’s preposterous!  I am shuffled to the side, I am asked to wait, I am detained and delayed and dismissed.  Still, there is an undercurrent of nervousness.  They wonder if there isn’t perhaps some kernel of truth to my story.  They cannot raise my home base on the radio.  Or by phone.  Or by any other means.  The base commander doesn’t want to trust me, he doesn’t want to believe me, but there is an unrest among the rank-and-file that is difficult to deny.

When the sky starts to blacken with smoke and when the thunder of explosions in the distant west starts to pound our ears, they finally heed my warning.  Guns are passed out, armor is donned, formations are made around the gate.  That commander still does not want to believe me, his lip still turns over into a sneer when he lays eyes on me.  But just the same he thrusts a weapon into my hands and tells me to bolster the line.  But to do what I’m told.  And as the explosions creep closer, we wait and try to keep the panic at bay.

• Blurt: The Seven Days Staff Blog
  Goodbye 802 Online; hello Blurt.
  (tags: Vermont blog)
• Retrofitting our Skyscrapers For Food and Power
  via TreeHugger: images are a whole lot of “WTF?”; interested in reading this based on those alone…
  (tags: architecture environment energy food todo)
• Quote of the Day: Design and Transport
  via TreeHugger: “Sustainable design is not only about energy efficient buildings: Designers should also think about whether they can change people’s behavior towards the environment.”
  (tags: quote environment energy)
• Does It Suck To Be An Engineering Student?
  via /. :: At what point does an academic pursuit become strictly for its own sake and quit having practical value? And is that by definition “bad”? Is it worth trying to weight these differently?
  (tags: education science)
• Google Spreadsheets: Heat Map Google Hits for a Search Term by Country
  via LifeHacker :: I noticed the “Gadgets” option in the gSpreadsheets this morning and then this popped up — looks neat, need to check it out in more detail.
  (tags: google hack lifehacks stats todo)
• Creative Constraints: Going to Jail to Get Free
  via 43 Folders
  (tags: Twitter writing lifehacks 6words brevity)

• Yahoo! releases new performance best practices
  via Ajaxian
  (tags: ajax CSS html webdev Yahoo todo work)

We have a visitor up from D.C. and so she and I hit up Stowe today.  Probably jammed down Perry Merrill¹ at least three times.  Beautiful weather: sunny, not too much wind, not bitter cold; damn near perfect.

1. A.k.a., “Perry Mason”; a.k.a., “Perry Farrell”. [↩]