I really like the relationships of data on the Web. I like seeing categories and classifications shimmer and shift and fall apart and rebuild depending on how I search. And the data is almost quantum in nature: Did this page for “Alphanumeric isotopic duck quandary” exist before I “measured” it by calling for it? Is Schrodinger’s cat dead or alive?
I’ve found a bit of a different look for my blog. If you’re just reading the feed, you should pop over, have a look-see, and lemme know what you think. I obviously have a bit of cleaning to do, but so far, so good.
I’m hot. Damn hot. Hot and sweaty and grumpy with a twingy back and whiny dog and a toddler who’s idea of fun right now is trying to drive his hotwheels on the LCD TV. Arrrgh.
But wait; it gets better:
I figured watching “Cars” (the movie) would be a good diversion from how damn hot we all are. But the movie froze in the middle (at one hour, four minutes, and twenty-six seconds, to be precise). So I figure, no problem; we’ll just switch to watching something streaming on the computer that’s hooked up to the same TV.
But oh, wait, the batteries in the cordless mouse are dead. But since I am a minor computer deity, I can sign into the machine and navigate sans mouse while I charge some batteries. No problem. Then I put the freshly charged batteries in the mouse, try to connect it to the computer and it won’t respond, probably because I need to hit the “connect” button on the wireless transceiver for the mouse, but that’s all…the…stinkin’…way…across…the…room. So that didn’t happen either.
But that’s OK, because there’s an X-Box hooked up to the TV, too. So the boy and I started driving “slow crashy cars” (well, how do *you* spell “Eve of Destruction?”). But then, right in the middle of the demo derby, we get a “Sorry, your disk is f**ked” error.
That wasn’t OK. So we ate chocolate, I let the whiny dog out to pee, and the boy is watching “Blue’s Clues” while I bitch. Yup; it’s another evening in paradise.
So I made a facebook page this morning, just like I said I would. And while I still think Facebook is lame, I don’t think it’s quite as lame, because if you look at it in the right light, it’s kind of like an open mic at a coffeehaus: License to roll with it.
So here are a couple examples of how I rolled with it (My spit was flowin’ [word.]):
Oooooh. OOOOooooooooH! I get to “write” on your “wall” now. The Interweb is so frickin’ pipe-tastic, I can barely control my shivers of girlish delight.
But at any rate, thanks for the note, and as you may have noticed, my facebook page is really nothing more than a shill for the *true* home of all Online A.J. Goodness: blog.ajvanbeest.com. Check it. Out, even.
And re: the but kicking, not suprisingly, I continue to waffle about class. When I see Jonus, I think, “Yes! I loooove class! I am so there! And I’ll bring exclamation points!” But when I read one of Greg’s e-mails, the exclamation points fade and get replaced with more specific but harder-to-understand negative emoticons. Like this one: **<8-WTFP-o ...which basically means "What the f**k was that? I can't believe you just wrote/said that, and oh, by the way, check out my nice tassly hat."
and
Ahhhhhhhh, wall of goodness; of golden thoughts and good intentions, see how I cover you in meaningless, rhythmic, glowing, positronic graffiti. See how you and now mine, wall? How you cower over in the corner? What say you now, wall? Huh? Huh, wall? Now, wall, you reap the rewards of my creative writerlyness and my incomparable digital semi-fluency.
All in the key of F# minor, because I’m a jerk.
love from blog.ajvanbeest.com
and
Oh wallywallmonton, how I feel my net worth increase because of you. I’m in love, nay lust!, with you, oh wall. How I yearn for more comments to fill your blankness; to see you swell and burst with letters from strangers. Let kleig lights shine forth my admiration for you, wall, your still, silent, mysterious ways in which your no-voice carries the echos of others’ songs to the horizon.
oh, and David: thanks for the note. :-)
Maybe I’ll get linked in and kicked out in the same day. Maybe I’m over the top. Perhaps there are other prepositions I can toss around, so as to be more to the log as is the rabbit.
I’ve been looking at some “social” web sites lately; check ‘em out:
A little more information about each is below.
Ah, microblogging, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways… Twitter is a microblogging site which means that Twitter users can post messages up to 140 characters long. Those messages appear in the “public timestream” (a chronologically ordered list of all posts) as well as on individual users accounts. Twitter is fast on the rise because it’s so easy (waaaaaaay easier than a regular blog, which is saying something!) to use. Going over there to get the url, I noticed that the LAFD even has a Twitter stream now. I reckon Twitter is deffinitely worth a minute or two of your time to check out. And if you start a Twitter stream (or already have one), leave a comment here with a link so we can all find you!
Another day, another event or twelve. That’s where Upcoming comes into play. Upcoming’s a relatively new site that is a social calendar. I post an event, and if your search (by geography, time, or kind of event) matches any of the parameters of my event, you get info about it. It’s one of those sites that has the potential to be really cool, but is *completely* dependent on The Crowd to make it go. So go. Make it go!
Photos, photos, photos. I’m sure most of you have by now been past my Flickr account. But have you taken the time to cruise through the rest of Flickr? There’s a photo of everything up there at least once. Why not get an account and post your view of the world up there?
I’ve never used Facebook before. I have no clear idea what it is. So I’m going to go make an account. Right now. I’ll report back.
I’ve made a facebook account, and my initial reaction is that it’s, uh, *LAME*. But then again, I’m probably not the Facebook target market, you know? I mean, I’ve graduated both high school and college, I don’t work for a giant company where I’m totally at sea, and if I did, I’d still wander around and meet people. I guess that’s just how I am. At any rate, I’ll keep Facebook up for now, and see if it gets any better as I use it.
Anyone who wants a Pownce invite should respond with a comment to this post. What, perchance, you may ask, is Pownce? As far as I can tell, it’s a messaging service. You and I and thirty-eight other people sign up, and when there’s big news, or little news, or whatever news, we send it through Pownce which could be a little more flexible and faster than e-mail.
Of course, you understand this is all conjecture since none of you have actually signed up for Pownce yet, so I’m having a hard time testing put my theories about the finer points of the program. Hint, hint…
Yeah, so my back is bothering me. And Hitler went to Poland for tea.
I can barely get up from the couch when I’m sitting down. And once I’m up, getting back down is a collapse into agony. This seems to happen to me about twice a year. And now, after three or four years of it, I’m getting good and fed up. I want to be able to go play hard with The Boy. I want to worry about important things, like just exactly how high a slow-fast-jump-sky-daddy must be to qualify as a bona fide record.
I don’t really want to go to the doc for this because I already have his most important advice: loose some weight. Everything after that is just x-rays (which I don’t need, seeing as how there’s been no trauma to my skeleton) and anti-inflammatories,which I’m already taking. My doc is a good doc. He listens, he does his doc thing, and I’m happy with him.
Sometimes, though, it’s good to get a couple folks with similar but different backgrounds working on the same problem, you know? Like getting a hardware guy and a software guy together to get your serving really popping off. Or a designer and a developer to make your web project sing. I think maybe it’s time for me to take a look at chiropractic.
I’ve always been a little leery of the whole idea. I mean, I know these folks go through their own version of medical school, and really know the physical body inside and out and are just the cat’s pajamas according to a lot of the people I’ve talked to, but there are also rumors of having to keep going to a chiropractor once you start, and of people getting more hurt from overly-enthusiastic bone cracking.
Any of you have any thoughts or advice? And yes, Pete, I know that you’d be happy to crack my back for me. Over and over. Thanks for the thought, man.
Right now, I’m watching eleven items in MyEbay, and yes, they’re (almost) all HF radios (Kenwood TS-440Ss, if you care). Right now, show of hands: How many of you have ever seen me *not* go big when I go? Right. So now, you may all put your hands up, because I’m going to let all these radios pass.
I figure I should finish my VHF install and tweaking, and also get my General license which’ll grant me the privileges I’ll need, before starting in on the HF toys. The good news is that I ran my antenna plans past The Wife and she suggested that it might be safer for the house in the event of a storm, or particularly a lightening strike, if the antennas were on a dedicated tower instead of mounted on the roof. I love the way she thinks!
…where n equals the number of days since July 19. There was one day last week that we had a thunderstorm, so we stayed home. Mostly, we’ve been making the thirty-five minute drive up to Bayview beach because the water is so much more refreshing, there are fewer people, and the drive time is a chance for The Wife and I to catch up after our busy days and for her to gain more ammunition for her theory that hams pretty much incessantly talk about their rigs. I’d say it’s only about 97 percent of the time.
I think the string is about to be broken unless some miracle happens tonight and I can get out of ben tomorrow without wincing, grimacing, and sucking in a great lungful of air to combat the pain in my lower back. I think I tweaked something at the beach yesterday, and going back today didn’t really help. In fact, it’s pretty painful to do anything but lie down right now. Grrrr.