Blog: Ramblings and Rants

If you’ve e-mailed me lately, this is why you haven’t received a response.

I once had a Mac error out so hard that it called me by name. It was a Quadra 840 AV (back in the days when PowerPCs were just debuting). It was my production system—PageMaker, Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, PhotoStyler, etc—I had crashed the system a few times without any real explanation as to why. Even today Macs rarely communicate anything useful when they crash. Usually the most you get is “Error Type 2″ or “Error Type 10″, which translates to something very generic and broad like “memory error”. The user is then left to figure out what the hell could have caused the error.

Foreword: To those anxiously watching over this blog to see if I discuss one topic in particular: This post isn’t about that topic.

Now, on with the blog…

Photo by Davis Lactor, courtesy of www.Mia-Kirshner.com

I saw Mia Kirshner on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” this evening. She was quite cute—one might even say precious—in a flakey kind of way. I recall the first time I saw her on Leno. It was after the release of the second Crow movie, The Crow: City of Angels, in which Kirshner reprises the role of Sarah, the young girl from the first film, now all grown up. In that talk show appearance—perhaps her first—she was exuberant to the point of questioning her sobriety and so shy as to make one wonder how she could possibly get up on stage and fulfill her career.

This weekend Strawberry Blonde is visiting her parents in Eastern Oregon. She and the girls left this afternoon and expect to return Sunday night or Monday afternoon. I had to attend to some business this weekend, so I couldn’t accompany them.

I began missing them the moment they left.

This is the first night Strawberry Blonde and I have spent apart since I moved in two months ago. From the first night I lived here, we slept well together. We had comfortably settled into our respective sides of the bed, into our respective positions. We knew how to cuddle up to each other, whether awake or asleep. It was as if we had spent years sharing the same bed. Tonight that bed will hold only me.

I know: It’s sappy. Still… It’s 3:30am. I’m avoiding sleep, I know, because I’ll be alone when I do lie down.

I can’t wait to embrace her again and breathe deep of her scent. I miss Strawberry Blonde.

I discovered today that my site wasn’t among any of the five finalists for any category in the Fourth Annual Weblog Awards (”Bloggies”). My immediate reaction was: Oh, well. Better luck next year. Then, in preparation to cast my votes for the finalists, I began looking at the finalists in a few categories.

In the Best Designed Weblog category, for example, are the following nominees, in this order:
•  Brookelyn.org
•  SixFoot6
•  Kitta.net
•  What Do I Know
•  SimpleBits

But then again, you don’t see critically-aclaimed and brilliant performances in independent films nominated for Oscars either.

Halle Berry’s her slutty Catwoman costume.

SuperHeroHype.com has tons of hype and news on a slew of super hero movies in production or pre-production. Along with the obvious X-Men 3, Spider-Man 2, DareDevil 2, and Hulk 2, there are more than two dozen others. From the pages of Marvel comics are films in various stages of production for: Fantastic Four, the third and (allegedly) final Blade film, Blade: Trinity, which will spin off into Nightstalkers, Iron Man, Deathlok, Man Thing: The Nature of Fear, The Incredibles, Werewolf By Night, Ghost Rider, Iron Fist, The Punisher, Namor, Black Panther, and Elektra, a solo story for Jennifer Garner’s 2003 DareDevil character, which will be released prior to, and set up the story for, DareDevil 2.

DC Comics, who had great success with the Superman franchise in the Eighties, the Nineties’ Batman films (until they hired a fucking moron director who screwed up the franchise), and their successful television series, “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”, “Superboy”, “Smallville”, and the animated “Justice League”, “Batman”, “Superman”, and “Teen Titans”, will, of course, be projecting its properties onto the big screen. Specifically DC has already begun principal photography on Catwoman, starring Halle Berry in the title role, and Constantine, a Blade-esque psuedo super hero horror franchise starring Keanu Reeves. Set to begin production over the next two years are: A new Superman (they’ve been writing and rejecting dozens of scripts for nearly ten years now), Batman: Intimidation, and the long-awaited live-action return of every girl’s idol, the ultimate girl-power icon, Wonder Woman.

I added About: Me: 9 Layers, which I found somewhere on someone’s site months ago. If you’re interested in quicky little things about me (I honestly can’t fathom why, but some people do), check out 15 Bullets, Me: Vitals, and Me: Timeline.

After a while of trying to figure out how I wanted it, I finally did something useful with categories today.

As you can see in the secondary and terciary navigation links at left (between this column and the photo), I’ve expanded the single “Categories” link, which links to a category index, to include links to the individual categories. More importantly, each post now displays its category (or categories) in all indexes as well as prominently within the individual post page. Click the title of this post to see the latter.

I’ve also tweaked a number navigational and UI elements site-wide. For a full listing see About: Site: Timeline.

I’m pretty excited about the addition of user-viewable categories to the blog. I get frequent requests for easier access to more of my fiction, and my posts about Quark v. InDesign are incredibly popular and often referenced around the world. Now they’re easier to find.

I want to add category Trackback capabilities and listings somewhere, somehow, but I’m not entirely sure how to go about it. It isn’t the code that has me stopped—I can grok through that pretty easily. It’s more of the user interface and placement. I mean, where would be a good place for a list of category Trackback pings? Should I put a “see also” in each post in a given category? Should I create a popup? Should I add it to the category archive page? I don’t know. Part of it is that I’m not really sure what I’d be looking at once the list did start to populate.

It would be a big help if I could see others’ implementation of Trackback lists, especially at the category level. If you know of any sites displaying Trackback lists, again, especially category Trackback lists, please let me know. I’d really like to see what they’ve done. You can also respond to my post on the Movable Type forum.

Well, whattayaknow?

Aw, shucks! You can’t scan $20 USD bills into Photoshop any more. Interesting.

Wired News: Copy No-No: Adobe and Uncle Sam

Adobe acknowledged last week that its Photoshop CS digital editing package includes a “counterfeit deterrence system” designed to prevent users from accessing images of currency.

When the counterfeit deterrence system detects an attempt to access a currency image, it aborts the operation, displays a warning message and directs the user to a website with information on international counterfeiting laws.

See also: Wired News: Currency Detector Easy to Defeat

My company’s Sales team has always produced female admirers. I’m in the leadership team of Production, but everyone knows me. The large Sales team maintains a daily team chat room. I’ve been told on several occassions that I—especially my hair and my ass—am frequently among their main topics of discussion. This has been the case my entire two and a half years with this group.

The last couple of days I’ve worn to work tasteful, clean bandanas and my oft-worn biker’s leather. Apparently those wardrobe elements were enough to add to the list of admirers the bad-boy-lovers. A couple of the twenty-something women in Sales—one in particular—who had previously acknowledged me in the hallways merely perfunctorally suddenly have for me bright smiles and twinkling eyes. All of a sudden I’m an oft-consulted resource. The one woman I mentioned is quite flirtatious.

I have to admit, it’s rather flattering. Hell! I find it flattering when men express an attraction to me. It’s nice to be thought of as attractive, n’est pas?

My head won’t swell, but to discover that someone finds you attractive is flattering. It’s a nice litle pickmeup (pardon the pun) once in a while. It can be little ego boost when needed.

Now, before the one-sided—and thus far harmless—flirtation goes any further, perhaps leading to an embarrassing moment for the one woman, I need to make sure I mention off-handedly within her (or her friends’) hearing Strawberry Blonde and/or the fact that I live with my girlfriend.

Alert: Shameless plug

If you like the popular Saturday Slant meme or the highly aclaimed Memes List or the lauded free stuff I’ve created for bloggers, please vote for me in the Fourth Annual Weblog Awards, the 2004 Bloggies.

If you like how easy it is to find topical daily, weekly, or monthly memes all in one list where none existed before, then vote for the Memes List in the Best Web Application for Weblogs, Best Meme, and/or Best Weblog Directory or Update Monitor categories.

If you like the cool tools I’ve created for bloggers—BlogRoll Multi-Browser SideBar Script, BlogRoll SideBar Your Way, or others—vote for the tool in the Best Web Application for Weblogs category.

If the Saturday Slant is among your favorite memes, please vote for it in the Best Meme category.

Heck! Vote for me in other categories if you like—Most Humorous Weblog? Best-Kept-Secret Weblog? Best New Weblog (I’m new since the last Bloggies)?

I get compliments all the time on my site’s design and function, so if you like it too, vote for me in one or more of the Best-Designed Weblog, Best Non-Weblog Content of a Weblog Site, and/or Best Programming of a Weblog Site.

Don’t forget to vote for your other favorite blogs and blog-related sites. The Bloggies are the biggest annual event in the Blogosphere.

Glenn McGaha Miller - You know, they say… has some truly moving photography.

I’m particularly intrigued and drawn to the stark visual and thematic contrast of Genna. The cover shot is provocative and enticing while shot 6 has a great expression of defiant sensuality coupled with a harsh light and equally rigid shadow from the single light source. Shot 8 is a captivating opposition of visual themes. Genna’s vulnerable pose—her locked elbow, bent back, child-like leg position, and guarded left arm reveal the frightened girl beneath the portrait of the confident, dangerous woman painted by the black lingerie and severely spiked leather and steele anklet.

We’re still snowbound.

Though my experience in New England’s snow told me that driving was not advisable, I was so desperate to get to work that I tried driving yesterday. The first attempt, early in the morning, was futile; I couldn’t get out of the neighborhood. The second was even less successful. My car immediately became stuck just below my driveway, perpendicular to the direction of the street, completely blocking the road. Attempts to rock the car forward and back in any gear resulted in the car slewing sideways. We shoveled clear a narrow track of pavement before the wheels—including the dangerous task of digging out several inches of ice from beneath the elevated wheels—and coated the track with boiled water and table salt (the only traction device available to us). Then we tore apart the pedestal to an entertainment center and used the boards as ramps. After more than an hour of trying, with the assistance of Strawberry Blonde, our girls, and a neighbor we were finally able to drive (with a lot of pushing) the car barely past the point of blocking the street. It now sits (mostly) in the driveway at an odd angle.

I posted a new SysMetrix skin to WinCustomize. The skin is part of a suite of skins I’m building for DesktopX, WindowBlinds, Quintessential CD Player (”QCD”), CursorXP, Bootskin, and probably IconPackager. The entire suite, like the SysMetrix skin shown here, is based on natural media creative tools (i.e. crayons, paints, technical pens, colored pencils).

If you have the freeware SysMetrix, or just want to take a look, visit my skin: WinCustomize Skins & Visual Styles: SysMetrix Library: ImaginationBox

Snow!

Mind • Thought