{"id":11,"date":"2006-03-30T04:41:32","date_gmt":"2006-03-29T17:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/?p=11"},"modified":"2008-03-21T08:32:01","modified_gmt":"2008-03-20T21:32:01","slug":"11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/2006\/03\/11\/","title":{"rendered":"General rambling + books + politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How embar\u00adrass\u00ading. I\u2019m sit\u00adting here at 2:30am, lis\u00adten\u00ading to the Thun\u00adder\u00adpuss remix of Mary J. Blige\u2019s <em>No More Dra\u00adma<\/em> on head\u00adphones. Next is Madon\u00adna\u2019s <em>Easy Ride<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>mood: <strong>funky<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>bev\u00ader\u00adage: <strong>Solo<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>head\u00adbops per sec\u00adond (aver\u00adage): <strong>1.3<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Did a bit more work on the log site \u2014 not vis\u00adi\u00adble work, but CSS fix\u00ading the Old Blog page. I still have to turn a few hours into the gallery design.<\/p>\n<p>Got my first com\u00adment (!). Thanks Brad. I\u2019ll fol\u00adlow your advice and turn the text bright\u00adness up a lit\u00adtle with the next CSS revi\u00adsion. Oh, and <em>I\u2019ll call you tomor\u00adrow night<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Michael\u2019s cur\u00adrent job has him get\u00adting up at 7am two days a week, so he hits the sack pret\u00adty ear\u00adly: <strong>at 12:30am<\/strong>. Heh. No mat\u00adter how many times I see him off and home again, I can\u2019t help think\u00ading he could do with more sleep before an hour\u2019s dri\u00adve to Penrith.<\/p>\n<p>Because of those two days a week, I have only my own com\u00adpa\u00adny dur\u00ading most nights. His web-dev con\u00adtract is for anoth\u00ader two and half months, but then we\u2019ll back to all-night World of War\u00adcraft ses\u00adsions and I might have a chance at watch\u00ading an ani\u00adme with him. Iron\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, the work he\u2019s doing is bet\u00adter done at home; half of it requires remote\u00adly using the code envi\u00adron\u00adment on our local serv\u00ader. His con\u00adtrac\u00adtor is pay\u00ading him to trav\u00adel, then work slow\u00ader than nec\u00ades\u00adsary over an unre\u00adli\u00adable con\u00adnec\u00adtion. Some\u00adwhere, some\u00adone has to jus\u00adti\u00adfy this deci\u00adsion. Maybe it\u2019s the same peo\u00adple who gave Kim Bea\u00adz\u00adley this great idea about <a title=\"Slashot discussion on Kim Beazley's Australian Net Censorship Promise\" href=\"http:\/\/yro.slashdot.org\/article.pl?sid=06\/03\/21\/0223200\">manda\u00adto\u00adry net cen\u00adsor\u00adship<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Keep\u00ading true to my off-on-a-wild-tan\u00adgent writ\u00ading style, I think Labor\u2019s moron\u00adic elec\u00adtion promise deserves a bit of froth. I read that sto\u00adry, and, for the first time in my life, <a title=\"Email to Kim Beazley regarding his Australian Internet Filtering Proposal\" href=\"http:\/\/xhva.net\/beazley_email.html\">wrote an email to a politi\u00adcian<\/a>. It was\u00adn\u2019t nasty, it did\u00adn\u2019t involve dirty lan\u00adguage, and it <strong>did\u00adn\u2019t get replied to<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I was\u00adn\u2019t sur\u00adprised when a few days passed with\u00adout com\u00adment \u2014 I mean, he must be get\u00adting an email like this every ten min\u00adutes, even con\u00adcern\u00ading just this top\u00adic, <em>since the pro\u00adpos\u00adal is so moron\u00adic in the first place<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I focused on the polit\u00adi\u00adcal aspects of the deci\u00adsion because he should recog\u00adnise these first. The tech\u00adni\u00adcal prob\u00adlems are only there to be over\u00adcome, and some\u00adwhere down the track they will. But the pri\u00adva\u00adcy impli\u00adca\u00adtions can\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n<p>Onto lighter top\u00adics we float. Last week was a javascript-edit\u00ading fren\u00adzy, get\u00adting drag and drop code for Michael\u2019s project work\u00ading. The last prob\u00adlem left is the dragable \u201cclear:left\u201d qua\u00adsi-ele\u00adment. I\u2019ve yet to look at that, but basi\u00adcal\u00adly all divs float left, and to get line\u00adbreaks we\u2019re using clear:left, and we\u2019ve made a fake \u2018ele\u00adment\u2019 that applies clear:left to nextSi\u00adb\u00adling. There are issues here we haven\u2019t invisti\u00adgat\u00aded yet, like all the bloody divs sud\u00adden\u00adly mov\u00ading when the clear:left is yanked around with the mouse. I don\u2019t know whether that\u2019ll make for a usable WYSIWYG interface.<\/p>\n<p>This week I\u2019ve been read\u00ading Lar\u00adry Niv\u00aden and Jer\u00adry Pour\u00adnelle\u2019s <em>Foot\u00adfall<\/em>. Since I read before bed on the Palm (using the green-screen back\u00adlight) my men\u00adtal accu\u00adity isn\u2019t what it should be, and it took me a few attempts at some para\u00adgraphs to recog\u00adnise peo\u00adple\u2019s names. <em>The Mote in God\u2019s Eye<\/em> fea\u00adtured a char\u00adac\u00adter list at the begin\u00adning, as does this book, but <em>Motie<\/em> did\u00adn\u2019t have <strong>four bil\u00adlion char\u00adac\u00adters<\/strong>. As bad as it sounds, I\u2019m read\u00ading this now for the sto\u00adry arc and explo\u00adration, aspects which drove me away from Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s nov\u00adels. In Clarke\u2019s hands explo\u00adration con\u00adsumes the nov\u00adel to the point where the main char\u00adac\u00adter is sole\u00adly a cam\u00adera for the events. In <em>Foot\u00adfall<\/em> it isn\u2019t as bad, but it\u2019s still hard to keep&nbsp;focus.<\/p>\n<p>Speak\u00ading of great books, those into raw, hilar\u00adi\u00adous, intrigu\u00ading (and \u201cqueer\u201d) nov\u00adels are high\u00adly encour\u00adaged to get Joey Comeau\u2019s <a title=\"Joey Comeau's book Lockpick Pornography\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lockpickbook.net\/\"><em>Lock\u00adpick Pornog\u00adra\u00adphy<\/em><\/a>. I read the first few chap\u00adters online from a link on <a title=\"Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics\" href=\"http:\/\/www.qwantz.com\">Dinosaur Comics<\/a>, and clicked on buy with a speedy inten\u00adsi\u00adty I had\u00adn\u2019t felt in a while. The book arrived today, and as soon as I\u2019m done with <em>Foot\u00adfall<\/em> I\u2019ll start <em>Lock\u00adpick<\/em>. I\u2019m real\u00adly intrigued to see where the book goes, since there\u2019s so many con\u00adtexts just in reach of its the\u00admat\u00adic. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a book with a con\u00adcrete polit\u00adi\u00adcal state\u00adment, and it\u2019s cer\u00adtain\u00adly not a <a title=\"Coming-of-age drama ('poof movie') about hideous euro guys rowing, or something.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.apple.com\/trailers\/independent\/summerstorm\/hd\/\"><em>com\u00ading-of-age dra\u00adma<\/em><\/a> where char\u00adac\u00adters could be sav\u00adaged with a lawn mow\u00ader but still find time to smile beau\u00adtif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly at each oth\u00ader in the final twen\u00adty sec\u00adonds of the trail\u00ader (sor\u00adry, angst got away from&nbsp;me).<\/p>\n<p><strong>&lt;side\u00adnote&gt;<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If you\u2019re mar\u00adket\u00ading a gay film, don\u2019t call it a com\u00ading-of-age sto\u00adry. What kind of pos\u00adi\u00adtive mes\u00adsage are you aim\u00ading for if you can\u2019t state direct\u00adly what it is? You\u2019re dig\u00adging a hole you don\u2019t need. <em>Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Psy\u00adcho <\/em>did\u00adn\u2019t achieve cul\u00adtur\u00adal mind\u00adshare by describ\u00ading itself as \u201c<em>one man\u2019s jour\u00adney to find redemp\u00adtion and self-for\u00adgive\u00adness<\/em>\u201d. You aren\u2019t direct\u00ading a Bryce Court\u00adney nov\u00adel. Use the word \u201cgay\u201d and stop pan\u00adder\u00ading to some\u00adone else\u2019s under\u00adly\u00ading big\u00adgotry, you idiots.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>&lt;\/sidenote&gt;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019m real\u00adly look\u00ading for\u00adward to <em>Lock\u00adpick<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s 4:40am and I should do some\u00adthing else for a while. Bed calls, but I\u2019m too men\u00adtal\u00adly active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How embar\u00adrass\u00ading. I\u2019m sit\u00adting here at 2:30am, lis\u00adten\u00ading to the Thun\u00adder\u00adpuss remix of Mary J. Blige\u2019s No More Dra\u00adma on head\u00adphones. Next is Madon\u00adna\u2019s Easy Ride. mood: funky bev\u00ader\u00adage: Solo head\u00adbops per sec\u00adond (aver\u00adage): 1.3 Did a bit more work on the log site \u2014 not vis\u00adi\u00adble work, but CSS fix\u00ading the Old Blog&nbsp;page.&nbsp;[\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}