|now candy|

Breaking from the books, went to Weblogs.Com to see how the freshly updated blogs matched up with their blognames. About 9 out of 10 blogs with titles that contain "blog," "diary," "musings," or "thoughts" suck ass.

However, this is a nice time sink. Music, books, video, &etc.

Apple, over at .Mac, released their iBlog software to .Mac members for free and .Mac will host the space.

Am I a mac fan? Yes.

Will I be switching to iBlog soon? Not likely.

It's hard to describe, but I don't like *any* of the formats I've seen so far. It's either (a) folks haven't played around with it yet, (b) they all have poor taste, (c) .Mac won't let you rip the template apart, (d) gay-ass title format ("Jonny Doe's Weblog"), or (e) the even gayer little pictures next to every effing post.

The photos for this site are over on a .Mac page. It is a bit fustrating since there are only a few templates to choose from and you don't have much say in modifications to the layout. However, I can upload pics right from iPhoto to the page. Handy dandy. And, at least I can change the title.

Books. I need to get back to the books.

Its raining. It's only sort of piddly raining, but it's enough to not go out and take pictures in the wet air. This is unfortunate since I wanted to head downtown with the camera today.

It's not just piddly rain, though. It's the ever accurate PGH forecast that is discouraging me more than anything. Nothing like a little "damaging winds" with "large hail and heavy rainfall" to prevent you from getting & about with camera in tow.

This is probably better for now. I'm in PGH for work reasons and my sole responsibility here is to attend a school of sorts and cram my thin-shelled cranium with engineering miscellany. Being how as the first exam is Tuesday and second is on Thursday, I should sit here and get some more studying underway.

Tonight. Tonight should be less prohibitive on the weather's side. Downtown at night should be good. I need a tripod. Unlikely I'll have one by tonight, though. Parking meters. I'll be the strange one hunched over my camera as it sits on parking meters. Great way to be inconspicuous. "Blend right in."

Monte Wolverton has Basil Wolverton's amazing apocalypse scenes online. Basil Wolverton? He did work for Mad Magazine and apparently had amazing sci-fi comic books...

Holly fucking ass-bombs– go get some milk. Do you anthropomorphize your food? These poppin' fresh muffins'll make make you blow it out 'cho nose.

(The world is ending. I just spelled anthropomorphize up there. Correctly, the first time through. Without hitting backspace.)

The stuff above was on the roadside just a few stops from Miss Underpant's Land o' Happy. Super leaded good looking site.

So much funny, so little sleep.

OK. Here are some interesting number patters I noticed in the phone book of my cell phone a few weeks ago (none of these were planned). The following are the speed dial numbers of some key friends:

#rcaplan: 10

#Leatha Weapan: 28

#The Heebro: 73

#me: 11

#Leezard: 33

#A.P. in Iowa: 2

Significance:

Leatha & rcaplan: I met Leatha Weapon through rcaplan. rcaplan struck up conversations with us, independently, on different nights, in different drinking establishments. (Read: he picked us up in bars.) rcaplan came to a show I told him about and he brought Leatha and Leah. (fast forward through drama of them scalping two tickets) Leatha and I have been unstoppable ever since. And we both adore rcaplan. :: rcaplan's # is 10. Leatha's # is 28; 2 + 8 = 10.

The Heebro: I met The Heebro through our DC neighborhood listserv. He had just moved in. (fast forward through spring and a lot of invites to do stuff together) Leatha Weapon and I and rcaplan go a nutso house party the week after getting invited to it at *my* nutso house party, The Heebro was already there on the front porch. We show up, "Leatha, let me introduce you to my friend and neighbor..." as it turns out, they had already met months ago while out and about in DC. :: The Heebro's # is 73; 7 + 3 = 10. The Leatha Weapon and the Heebro are significant partners now. (This is excellent since I enjoy the hell out of them both.)

Me: It just so happens that my birthday is on the 11th. By stroke of luck, my #: 11. (I can never remember my work number or house number, hence, the phone book entry.)

Enter: Leezard. I met Leezard, indirectly, though rcaplan. I got to hang out with her, a lot, directly via rcaplan. We became each other's dance buddies at a particular club in DC. Dance dance dance. Leatha, Leezard, & I are the dancinest damn fools anywhere we go. It just so happens that I first met rcaplan (in the bar) minutes into my brirthday, 11 May (really, it was about 12:02 am). :: Leezard's #: 33; 3 x 11 = 33.

A.P. in Iowa: OK, this was planned. I intentionally entered her 2nd into the phone. It's friends like us that make "unlimited" nights and weekends almost not enough airtime. A.P. deserves the top row. A.P.'s #: 2; the only even prime number.

If this has bored you to cracker-eating, this should distract you for a while.

Ah, a fantastic short movie from the delightfully poignant folks at Adbusters. If you prefer RealPlayer, go to the Adbusters homepage and look along the left sidebar for the RP version.

OK. You have about two months to get ready for Buy Nothing Day. Save up your creativity for post-turkey unconsumerismic bliss.

Song lyric of the night: more software hands in the hardware store

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Oh how I love reading horoscopes just after the fact. It's almost the end of the month so, clearly, I checked out my September horoscope.

A few things from the stars:

# "Odd as it sounds, postponements and delays will benefit you." Sweet. I still have about 20% of my stuff in half unpacked boxes. I moved a month ago. Benefit? When I finally unpack it all, it'll be like moving into a larger apartment from all the freed floorspace.

# "Slow and steady is best right now, dear Taurus." I have reveled in the slow and steady this month. See above comment.

# Apparently, this Saturday, "finally, life will start clicking — quite rapidly, as a matter of fact." Well, isn't this interesting. I thought a few things clicked this summer, I can't wait for Saturday's revelations. Now, if I was still in DC, I wouldn't leave the house Saturday; life clicking quite rapidly reads "gunned down" to me.

# "In September you will be at the height of your creative powers." Excellent! Wait, does this mean I will only slide deep into uncreative chasms from here? I'll bring the camera.

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Instead of just reading his page and stealing his links, let me direct you to the fine raging man-steak's Thursday, Sep 25 post to get to the latest _Get Your War On_. (Did you know? Purchasing Get Your War On merchandise supports mine removal in Afghanistan.)

This link I *am* stealing (same source as above): Do you laugh at inappropriate things? Do you like your little slice of humanity served with a bib & helmet? Cozy up with the Tard Blog.

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Unbelievably, a few have e-mailed me asking html questions. I'm as qualified to answer html questions as a peg-legged sea pirate is to answer 2nd trimester pregnancy questions. Please see the ass-ton of links just added to the sidebar. Be sure to save your functioning template *before* you start dorking with it. Worst case you abandon your failed changes and paste your old saved template back in there.

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Why do so many U2 songs sound alike? They have some great songs plus a lot of others that sound like the good ones but aren't good.

Until something more clever comes along, photos &etc. related to |now candy| are in the sidebar under "now::|now candy|."

Thanks. This weekend should bring more photos.

There was a song just on the radio that I wasn't really listening to but wished I had been. The words I caught just before it ended: "Your hair is everywhere." How right. The boy I love still lives two moves away (Colorado) and just this morning I pulled one of his lovely long red hairs off the first sweater of the season. It was on my right forearm. They are little I Love You notes planted in your jackets, blankets, and sweaters that work their way to your eye just when you need them.

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I am in a funk. Have been for a little while.

My new realization isn't helping: blogs will be the demise of the internet.

I will be hard to articulate this right here, mostly because I haven't articulated it yet. It's just a feeling. However, I will post anyway. Some bullets are listed below:

a) I was searching for a tool to add to |now candy| and came across this article on how Google is trying to deal with blog noise. Blog noise: when your search return is filled with blog results that have little to do with what you were looking for. You can read the article yourself but I looked at a few additional articles/posts going back to May. I have mixed views on Google, but this is dividing some in the posting world. It's either "useful and needed" or "Google is vile devil-spawn and should have to sit next to AOL on the everlasting plane trip to eternal burning Hell." As mentioned, I'm not taking a side on this yet.

b) I was road-tripping through the Land of the Blogging tonight. It started with checking out where people are getting to my site from. I put the roof back, put my driving scarf on, and let the font faces breeze through my screen as I went link to link, opening new browser tabs and bookmarking others. There are some great blogs out there. Of course, there are many others of varying merit, but that's in the eyes of the visitor. The interesting part comes in with my internal reactions/actions to each one. Aside from the usual first impressions (layout, feel, images), if I'm on a site for more than a few minutes, the same question is always there: why am I still on this site? What makes me want to read it and read other sites they've linked to? I've thought about this before |now candy|, but obviously I think about it more now. The question is not in order to copy others, but to try and be conscious when I'm posting so that I don't create just another blog collection of empty thoughts, self-centered epidrama, bad pictures of drunk friends, and links to yet more un-original sites. I'm not shooting for 100% good postings, but |now candy| should at least be interesting. And good pictures of drunk friends are perfectly fine.

c) Any monkey with a computer can blog. This is a duality: on one side, (1) everyone can have a voice but on the other side, (2) everyoweb ne can have a voice.

d) Blogs are already held by many monkeys with computers. As mentioned in (b), many of these monkeys are fantastically good. But, how long will it take before web logging is the next Friendster? Is it already? When a friend a few months ago told me about Friendster, I figured I would check it out when I moved to Pittsburgh (the final weeks in DC were not conducive to internet recreation, and it was good). I'm leery now. A few weeks ago I saw on my DC neighborhood listserv that someone signed up our neighborhood to Friendster. What the fucking hell? A tract of land that was subdivided into rowhouses in the 1880s is not even an animate object! It would make more sense if I signed my two overweight cats up to match.com. Are blogs going here? Are they already? Will couches have web logs? (Actually, my Puerto Rico souvenir plate would make a good log adventurer... "Today she ate Nutella and potato bread off of me! She so nicely put me such that I could see the computer screen and –OH– she left the choclaty hazelnut smudges on me until morning!!! mmmm num num num! " &etc.)

e) I am a monkey with a mac. See (d).

f) If Google devotes a separate search function to blogs, will that (i) legitimize the content or (ii) decrease our random readership? If Google does a press release about the separate button...

g) Looking at such blog directories as blogdex, Daypop, blogwise, and Globe of Blogs , I realized what I already knew: there are a glut of blogs in the "personal" category. What is this? I guess mine falls under this (yes, I was on these sites looking at who I wanted to put my information with so that random people can have some |now candy|). I don't like the sound of "personal," it sounds lame and uninventive. Why not "Interesting But Not Life Threatening," "Daily Posts From Unlikely-Experts," or "Under-Certified Thinkers."

g.a.) Why is there a glut of "personal" blogs? Do we, as a society (i) think we have to go to school for something or get paid for something in order to think we are qualified to comment on said something. (ii) just prefer to ramble, (iii) not realize we are rambling, (iv) just want to post on daily life without consequence, (v) remain undecided and don't want to disappoint a googler who searched for "photography" and landed on "photogra-ography: posting in b&w" (don't steal that!), (vi) take the easiest path?

That's enough. As noted, this is not an articulate thought. But I have a heavy feeling that blogging will out popularize itself. I hope not. Look what happened with "alternative music." It's OK, something else will sneak in under the monolithic gates of popularity.

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So, clipping my toenails, I began to marvel at the significance of fingernail clippers.

How in the hell did the folks of pre-modern-day trim their nails? Toenails, in particular. You can't really bite them. And the big toenail can be tricky, especially with those old banger shoes and poor hygiene. Ingrown toenails? What, did they bloodlet for that? How many people had to die before the clipper managed to get invented? Horses had it better off than people in the shodding/footcare management department.

Google: nothing. "History of fingernail clippers" came up with a bunch of non-history bullocks.

I only did one search tonight and refuse to do anymore in leu of going to bed, but let me just state that I am very disappointed. The internet has failed me. Well, google did, at least.

Death by toenail funk no more! Mankind must have rejoiced.

More to come...

Alright.

There is something human and satisfying about breaking something and *then* figuring out *how* you managed to completely ruin the perfectly good and smooth running thing you were working on and thus are able to fix it.

Case in point: the Commenter.

I upgraded my Commenter (provided by these folks) and so was tooling around trying to change something that didn't really need changing. (Yes, I had a backup, but it would have taken another day bringing the backup up to what I had just burnt.)

Previewed it: looked fixed. Great.

Uploaded it: it showed up on the page.

Tested it (i.e. posted a daring and witty comment to myself)–

Crap-o-whamm-o! My one comment for the one post showed up in *all* the posts. grrrr...

Etc. etc., The details of how I fixed it will be omitted, but let me say a half-trained monkey wouldn't have made the oversight I did. However, I caught it, and now it works like a champ. Maybe better than before I broke it, we'll see.

The big OOPS: I think I lost the comments that were already posted. Yep. All both of them. In honor of those who have braved the Commenter, let me link to them here:

This appreciative Anne Sextonite and this fine raging man-steak deserve better than a comment deleter.

Alright.

Up up & comment!

Junk e-mail quote of the night:

"Current Elite Status: Non-Elite"

Thanks, Continental Airlines, for keeping me in check.

grrr: Effing Indi-Has-Beens. You can replace "indi" (or "indie," if you prefer) with with almost any genre of sub-culture music that sublimates a zelous fan base.

It usually goes something like this:

You: "Hey, did you hear?! Holy shit! Band X is playing tomorrow at the Y Theatre! Do you wanna go? Holy crap this is fantastic! That cd they put out two months ago is nuts! I've been trying to catch one of their shows for three years now, but either I keep missing them or their drummer keeps getting food poisoning when they cruise through Philly on their way down here. Well, actually, that last time their van blew a head gasket in Baltimore so the keyboard guy's brother had to come tow the van back to Ohio."

Indi-Has-Been: "Oh yeah, Band X. [raises eyebrow] I was a big fan of their older stuff. Track Z off of the A Album is fucking mind blowing, but their recent stuff has been less exciting."

You (after deep breath and trying to hide deep breath but not really) : "It's $10. And, I hear they are breaking up."

Indi-Has-Been: "Hmmm. Well, it has been five years since I've seen them. Will they have drink specials?"

LISTEN TO SOME NEW DAMN MUSIC. Indi-Has-Been isn't even 30 yet and has already vaulted herself/himself into a audio tomb from within which he/she can listen to the same comforting songs over and over that got her/him through the most devastating relationship that never made it beyond "can I borrow a dryer sheet?" in the dormitory basement laundry room.

I mean, really, there is so much good music out there. Clear Channel can't seem to find it, support it, fund it, promote it, or play it, but the rest of us seem to be doing alright at it.

The above is also a front for Indi-Know-It-All-But-Five-Years-Ago. These types are emotionally stable and well adjusted, they are just no longer in the know because they fell off the scene-wagon. Still, though, branch out.

On that note, I'm not sure I'm even on the scene-wagon, but a few of my friends are always hard at work pulling me behind it. (Thanks.)

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I say the above as more of a general irk. Yes, it was spurred by something I read tonight but the person who spurred it isn't that bad. She is actually nice and a good person and she does have a nice broad music taste, and does like some current stuff (not that everyone *has* to). It's just a comment I hear often enough to have a true irk from it. In general.

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mmm: Nutella.

mmm num num num: Nutella on potato bread.

ATTENTION ALL FRUIT FLIES:

WON'T YOU PLEASE LEAVE MY HOUSE.

THE ROTTING FRUIT IS GONE.

I HAVE FRESH FRUIT NOW, AND YOU ARE NO LONGER WELCOME.

NOT THAT YOU EVER WERE, YOU LITTLE FLYING FUCKS.

The toilet magically was fixed by the time I got back from the grocery store.

Thanks for being concerned.

Oh yeah, when I woke up this morning, my freaking *toilet* would not flush.

This was noticed because I did the thing most people do on the toilet in the morning and I really needed it to flush.

Did the standard: took of the lid. Tugged the stuff that usually makes it flush.

No flush.

Troubleshot some more (I am an engineer now, you know).

Still no flush.

This is where mom comes in. Mom taught me, as a young child, that the toilet actually has a back-up flushing mechanism: a bucket of water.

Mom knew this because we lived in the woods with a well. When the electricity goes out (as often it did), the pump for the well doesn't work (no, we weren't hillbillies, we did not have a hand pump for the well) and thus you have no lights *and* no water. Well, no water after you run the water thats already in the pipes out. You will, however, have enough water to fill at least one bucket (maybe more) with water, albeit at a lower water pressure.

It goes like this:
1. Toilet won't flush and there's more than just pee in it.

2. Get bucket.

3. Fill up bucket with water.

4. Take said bucket of water to the toilet bowl and dump water in toilet bowl.

Presto-whammo- the toilet will magically flush.

Yes, you can try this at home.

Thanks, mom.

Hurray!!! Photos are now available here.

I am so cool.

Note that there are *multiple* photo pages (ok, only two as of tonight, but more to come), they link to each other along the ^top^ of the photos page.

Also note there is a "slideshow" button in upper right corner. If your pc doesn't like it, try again; the imortal battle between Mr. Gates and Mac is larger than you and I.

For future reference, there is a |now candy|photos link in the sidebar under "www::blogs&etc."

Enjoy.

HTML and I are getting along better. I conquered a few issues-

HOLY CRAP: this little pgh radio station rocks!!! They are playing Badly Drawn Boy. I don't remember where I came across Badly Drawn Boy, but this is the first time I've actually heard him/them. I remember checking out all his album art and bio, etc. Mostly I'm infatuated with the name. This particular song here sounds like a cross between The Shins and Elliot Smith. I actually think I can hear a clarinet behind the piano...

Wow, and this next song also rocks. Some girl band, don't know who, Erin somebody.

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For the Stanly Kubrick fans out there, check out the August 28 post for a fun defence to a common comment (if you need to steal opinions from the web).

For the fans of cynical realism, this is super.

Thanks to these fine folks for playing the musical work of art that opens with the quote:

"We're not trying to rewrite history. They say that spacement came and built the pyramids. Well, if spacemen built the pyramids, they came from the Starship Blacktica."

It's been a good night.

How I love Burt Bacharach. When "What the World Needs Now" comes on the jazz station at 2:00 in the morning, it makes you feel good. Even when it's the jazz station and it's an instrumental.

I don't even know all the lyrics.

Just sing some stuff about love, candelight, sweet love, sunny days, spring showers in the park, kittens on lambskin rugs, wine at sunset, love, cheese, wandering moonlight, twinkling stars, feeding each other popcicles on the curb- it all works.

And the world does still need those things.