First complaint
from Skippy about the new blog format- “your new blog page looks uber slick, do miss the star wars effects tho…”
Fixed.
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All Atticus, all the time.
In honour of getting our little black dog back from his holidays there’s a new item in the menu on the top right. Presenting “Cusify”. Click it to have all the images on the page replaced with random ones of Atticus. And then see if you can tell the difference…
Here are some sample images which start off not being of the dog.
You can also drag that link to your bookmarks and click it when you’re on any page at all. An image search for squirrels f’rexample.
(nicked and adapted from the Kittenifier)
There are many schools of thought on blogging
The vast majority state if you’ve nothing interesting to post, don’t post anything. But that’s only advice for professionals, I reckon. Amateur, personal blogs are exempt from golden rules like providing consistent, interesting content. And with that in mind…
It started off bright today and well nippy, Atticus’s water bowl had a thin layer of ice around the edges. I got a picture of the sunrise, but that’s nothing too impressive because it happens at about 7.15am these days…
I played about 10 games of scrabble in an hour with a 60% win rate, posted that I was going to post and nipped off round the ‘hood with my camera and brownie-starflex-pringles-tin contraption. Only joggers, dog walkers and the Starbucks crowd were about but I was afforded very nice views looking over the Willamette wetlands towards the town centre. For the record, those looking for American etiquette tips might want to take note that joggers ignore you. Dog walkers wish you Happy Thanksgiving. Starbucks only wants to know if you’d like room for cream.
We’ve got a friend coming over at 3ish which’ll give me ample time to fulfil my homework for the day. Make potatoes. DrSita asked me how many to buy and I said, get loads, and when you’re looking at them thinking did I get enough? Double the amount. So I’ve got a lot of spuds. Half are destined to be mashed and the other half will be perfectly par-boiled, rolled around the pan to encourage an absorbant outer layer, drizzled in olive oil, be-sprigged with rosemary and roasted to perfection. Probably. You can’t go far wrong with our tuberous friends. We started on the CostCo ham on Sunday and have been eating it every day, frankly I’m sick of the stuff now, though I’m looking forward to making a (split) pea soup with whatever’s left by the weekend. Still reading?
Erm… what else? Work’s been going grand. I’ve been adding intrusive javascript to several pages to make them fancier. Though an overhaul of the entire site is due in a few months to a tablefree CSS so it’s all pretty academic. law.lclark.edu is the site I spend .60 of my week on now. TV? Colbert’s Christmas Special was fun, but we’re discovering (8+ years later than most) Freaks and Geeks. I think we were in Spain when it was on telly the first time round, and it’s great stuff. Music? Looking forward to getting hold of Guns’n’Roses’s 13-year-in-the-making album. I heard a track on the radio and it sounded great. The beginning riff is the same as The Darkness’s I believe in a thing called love, you know the one…
Forgot how much I liked that one… Also I’ve found I now fully fit the demographic for Chris Hawkins’ show on Radio 2. He plays a nice mix of music from when I were a lad peppered with the occasional new offering. Thanks to that programme I got into Elbow properly.
Books? Just finished Nick Hornby’s latest, Slam. It’s about a teenage boy who gets his girlfriend pregnant. And I get the impression it was also aimed at teenaged readers but was harmless entertainment. I’ll be nipping out and getting Making Money by Terry Pratchett tomorrow so I have something similarly lightweight to replace it.
Photos? I’m still obsessed with Through the Viewfinder shots and checking on camera prices and hoping the whole worldwide-economy-going-down-the-toilet has some kind of fringe benefit regarding the price of a Pentax KD20.
Films? Quantum of Solace were grand, I thought it was a leaner, better film that the last one. Hellboy II was also a treat and Guadalajara native, Guillermo Del Toro’s trademarks were all over the film. I watched From Russia with Love too and it holds up very well. I especially liked his miniature tape recorder housed in a camera not unlike my Kodak Duaflex.
Plans for the weekend? A drive to the country somewhere, it’s meant to be nice weather.
Alrighty, that’s it for now. Thanks for bearing with me as I find my blogging feet again. I’ve got competition from my dad now so I’ll try to post more regularly… hasta pronto 😀
Waqf WTF?
It’s been an off week for the Scrabble, the nadir being this game where I was outclassed by a far superior player who nonchalantly placed WAQF on the board. I managed to pluralise it with a bingo (daisies, I’m in red), but still… It came out of nowhere and put me right off. I hope I can similarly demoralise my opposition with the same word one day.
Sita’s in SCruz again today teaching the younglings the basics of sociology. I’ve no right to complain about my commute to Santa Clara when she’s going the extra mile to Santa Cruz. Hopefully in September all this will be nothing but a distant memory and everything’ll be walkable or MAXable. Talking of SC, they just got donated a load of Grateful Dead memorabilia and stuff. “This is the first step toward having a library that is a destination for scholars interested in studying an important aspect of America’s vernacular” spluttered UCSC music professor Fred Lieberman. People will be studying tequila next… All a couple of days after another important Santa Cruz event. No relation I’m sure.
Last Sunday I went on a Flickr tour to the local abandoned Naval Base, and here’s the photos I took. They’re a bit abstract cos it’s not the most exciting of areas, but there was a nice light which I think I captured in one or two. My favourite is the interior shot of a warehouse and since it’s in portrait orientation, I’ll post it here because I’ve yet to configure my photoblog to display them right.
[flickr]photo:2429553001[/flickr]
Sita’s folks have just made a big purchase in North Downey… email if you’d like more info on that teaser. And CONGRATULATIONS if you’re Martin or Sally.
And that’s the news. File the rest of this post under geekery.
New features on this blog:
Due to public repridemand you don’t have to risk losing your comment and swearing at your computer any more when the “enter these squiggly letters” spam detector is playing silly buggers. However, if you want to write a comment and have your own icon appear rather than Atticus staring lovingly back at you, you can sign up for a gravatar. Then any comment you left in the past should display the picture too. And not just in this blog neither.
Apparently video comments are going to be the next big thing, but I don’t think any of us are ready for that just yet. Meanwhile, as a stepping stone or gateway drug, if you prefer, upload yer avatars and make the comments look even nicer than they already are.
The top emailed articles list on the left is probably going to be replaced with a “Most Polemic” list, ie. posts with the most comments, as, understandably, people are not rushing to email posts to each other. I think it’ll stay on the photoblog though, which I’m starting to really like. I might get round to making themed e-cards for birthdays, weddings, bah-mitzvahs, quinceañeras…. and maybe branch out later into printed cards. Just ideas, just writing them down. May not happen.
Alrighty, thanks for stopping by again, now go off gravitarise yourself. Cheers!
Will this do?
The problem with not posting for a while is that it builds a certain level of expectation that the next post will be somehow life-affirming and brilliant. But there comes a time when you just have to bite the bullet and shove something up so that rumours of the blog’s demise don’t get too out of hand. Consider this preamble a gentle invitation to lower your expectations, dear reader.
Two items jostle for the title “News of the Fortnight” round our way:
Sita is handing in her first draft of her dissertation today. It’s sociomological dynamite. No, it’s more alliterative than that. It’s Social Science Semtex. It’s going to change the way people enjoy Mexican beverages both nationally and internationally. And then some. It has something for everyone and shall be available from all good university libraries very soon. Seriously, in my capacity as someone with a 2:1 from the University of Wales’ Hispanic Studies dept., let me assure you it’s an entertaining and academically thorough addition to the canon and would make the perfect late Spring gift. If you’re reading, Sita, you can use that on the cover. Pepper it with any of the following too: “five + years in the making” “tour-de-force” “you’ll never look at tequila the same way again” “Contains the unedited ¡Mary Poppins! ¡Mary Poppins! ¡Mary Poppins! anecdote…” “A sociological treasure you’ll keep coming back to…” & “I even read the foot-notes”
Can’t believe we’re this close to finishing… and I couldn’t be prouder of young Sita.
Big news #2: Return to Guanatos… This time it’s personal.
I’ve spent enough hours working in front of LCD screens to warrant a trip back to Guadalajara to catch up with my good friends who refuse to buy land line phones so I can ring them… I’ll be there from the 20th to 26th of this month and, frankly, can’t wait. I’ve had requests for “smuggled goods” and “weapons” in reponse to the question, “does anyone want me to bring anything down for them from gringolandia”. As of yet no one has asked for gringas, which is the traditional reply. But it’s probably only a question of time. So get your orders in now to save a few bucks and playing the Mexican postal lottery. Soonish I’ll post some kind of itinerary, but I think it’s safe to say Tuesday: La Fuente. 6pm to closing…
And now once again, back to matters more prosaic.
If you have a blog, I’ve found out you are contractually obliged to mention Vampire Weekend. Turns out I’m not the first person to notice the Vampire Weekend / Ski Sunday similarity, but I might just be the first to post videos of both songs for you to draw your own conclusions. Left: Vampire Weekend M79, Right: Ski Sunday (Bach goes Pop)
Can’t get enough of it. Thanks to another ongoing, but separate investigation I’ve got the theme to 80s/90s nonsense-fest, LoveJoy ringing round my synapses too. That glissando electronic bit gets me every time…
Newquay Steam Cider
Bert sent me a picture of our tipple of choice that he saved from 1993. It was one of the few vegan/vegetarian ciders out there and lethal at 8+% alcohol. I wish they still made it. Another thing that brought back memories of student life is a repository of Fruit Machine games you can download & play on your PC. Snakes and Ladders/ Andy Capp / Road Hog are the best. Anyone know if trivia games are available somewhere too?
Doc the big dog is with us for another 24 hours since Jerrod’s stuck wherever it was he went. Doc’s been pretty good on the whole though he’s a bit possessive of his food, but generally is a calming influence on our hyperactive little mutt. They certainly love their play dates at the dog park, and the other day it was actually nice to watch the sunset while they did their canine stuff. Here’s a picture…
[flickr]photo:2462934265[/flickr]
Mexico 501’s published another excerpt from my Moving to Mexico post along with other ex-pats, and is a nice read if you’re into that kind of thing. Still not sure why it’s called Mexico 501… Either it’s a directory enquiries reference or an invitation to a long darts game.
And that’ll be all for now. Though I’ve slacked off on this blog, I’ve managed a photo every day or so at me photoblog. So you can always check over there if this page offers slim pickings. Cheers!
And Jesse, let us know if you do ever get to place WAFQ or QFQQ or whatever it was in Scrabble. With a picture or screen grab please. And a photo of your opponent’s face as all hope drains from it. Ta 😀
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ahhh, that’s the stuff…