I really liked reading about Jake Berendes’s neo-discovery of headphones and what it’s like to have a soundtrack all the time. I wear headphones pretty constantly when I’m outside my apartment, and his description of that experience is one with which I identify well.
Category: Connections
Colin Goggin! I have seen your egosurf referral and I know you saw this site! Now write me or I’ll make a veiled threat I can’t back up!
Maria and I were discussing the increasingly esoteric and convoluted nature of spam, just now, including the fact that much of bulk email no longer serves a discernible purpose. I frequently receive spam from nonsense names, advertising nothing, free of hyperlinks or parsible sentences.
I pointed out that one reason it’s gotten so complicated is the constant, high-speed arms race between spammer and anti-spam software vendor; as new regular expressions are devised and new efforts made to beat them, whole fields of technique can be created and discarded in a week. And then Maria said something that chilled me to my very bones.
“What if,” she said, “the vendors are putting spam out there just to keep selling their software?”
I’m terrified, now, that she might be right.
Anyway, read Spam As Folk Art.
I’ve been meaning to post both of these things forever. First, even though Jon and Amanda abandoned their blogs, they do have a homey little site now. It’s even got Lucy’s cell number on it! Watch out for those “for a good time” calls, Lucy.
Second, Mister Munson found my posts about him and wrote me! He seems like he’s having a great time, especially in his new science fiction class; as part of that, he says he finally taught Ender’s Game, which I badgered him to do for about half of my junior year of high school. I’m pretty sure that means I win. Or really, that they win.
This makes two people I know (Sumana being the other) who have taught a sci-fi literature class. I’ve never even had the opportunity to take one! Injustice!
Whoa! Sigurdur Petursson apparently has a kid!
Oh my. Does anybody know how to turn off some escalators so we can go wok boarding?
For some reason, I was siezed this morning by an urge to google Colin Goggin, the only elementary-era Best Friend with whom I haven’t been in contact this year. Apparently he’s been busy building solar cars and balloon-launched gliders, or was a couple of years ago. Colin Goggin! Do you still exist? And egosurf?
Das Lisenstein came over yesterday to be Warioed and Starfoxed and watch a bunch of Captain Power episodes that she left in Rodes 2. Captain Power made a pretty strong impression on me at age 6, largely because I was fascinated by the fact that you could use the (expensive) toys to shoot at the screen, and the screen would shoot back.
I never had the toys, of course, and in fact didn’t watch many of the episodes; I’m not sure I would have liked it that much, since some of what we watched would probably have been a little over my 6-year-old head. The episodes dealt with themes of brainwashing, dead children and torture, among other things, and apparently this is part of the reason it was only on for one year.
Also, I got a sneaking suspicion after one character (“Tank”) mentioned offhand that he was a product of genetic engineering from Babylon 5 (and yet was also, somehow, “from the streets”). And as it turns out, J. Michael Straczynski wrote several episodes. Checking his IMDB entry reveals that he also wrote a bunch for the He-Man, She-Ra, Wheeled Warriors and Ghostbusters cartoons.
It’s like the entire trend in toy-driven 80s cartoons can be traced back to one guy! Not to mention half of what probably makes up my subconscious value system. For instance, the deep belief that Brian Hynek sucked, because he had the Captain Power toys, and I didn’t.
I’ve been reading Doonesbury daily for about ten years, but it feels like a lot longer–except for a gap in the 80s, I’ve read almost every strip at some point.
I saw the “important” part today’s last panel coming a couple days ago, but that wasn’t what would have surprised me anyway. I may be wrong, but I believe it’s the first time Trudeau’s ever drawn B.D. without his helmet.
Did you know that there’s a town called Seven Corners in Virginia? That’s perfect!