DVD Database

Wow, it’s like I put up a new site every day or two. Anyway, I’ve got a DVD database in the toybox. I’ll probably move it somewhere (more) permanent in a few days. I already put in all the DVDs I could remember owning, and I’ll update it again when I get up this afternoon. Feel free to log in with the guest account (guest1/guest1) and look around.

Oh, and it’s designed to be multi-user, so if you have more than 2 DVDs (and are likely to use something like this), please make an account. When I wake up, I’ll activate it.

Notable features: it’s easy to designate a DVD as having been loaned out, and the site automagically makes links to IMDB. They even work most of the time.

Rain

I can understand Texans (me included) not knowing how to drive on (in?) ice; I mean, it’s Texas. Limited experience pretty much calls for a lack of knowledge in the subject. But I was just stuck behind some moron going 30 in a 65 zone. That’s just wrong. It’s only rain; once you’re moving, even in a standard, the hardest part is remembering to turn on your wipers.

On the other hand, I managed to work in 9 holes of disc golf down at Pease park before it was raining too hard to see the baskets. So the day balances out (in my mind).

Crickets in the dark

There’s not much to do when you’re working the graveyard shift at Tech Support, so I just spent 15 minutes walking around outside. I do that a lot, just to escape the sterile, filtered-air atmosphere of the office.

Any way, I round the corner of the building, headed towards the street, and there are about 20 crickets climbing on the curb and the wall of the next building. “That’s interesting,” I think. I watch them for 30 seconds or so, but quickly become bored. That’s natural; crickets aren’t really that interesting. I walk a little further, and get to the corner of the next building, and there are a good hundred or two all over the building and the lamppost next to it.

If you’re from Texas (maybe other places), you’ll recognize immediately my description here. Imagine a giant concrete coffee-can, about 3 feet high, with an industrial-grade lamppost bolted to the top of it. Giant nuclear-white arc light at the top, 20 feet over your head.

They’re like a living carpet covering the concrete, shimmering black like an oil slick, moving just enough to evoke memories of the “snake pit” in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I have to wonder what they’re all doing on that lamp post, and on the corner of the building. Maybe it’s because it’s a fairly cool night, and they’re trying to keep warm, since the elevated concrete probably holds heat better than the ground. Maybe it’s the light that’s drawing them near; the wall about 10 feet down is darkened, and there aren’t any crickets crawling on it (that I can see). As I walk the hundred yards or so down to the next corner, I pass two other lampposts, each with its accompanying black jacket, scintillating in the light (well, scintillating as much as a bunch of crickets can).

And then I’m rounding the last corner, working my way back to the door of the office I work in. The crickets are strangely absent here, even though there are many lights on the walls that I pass. I can still hear their chirping in the distance, though.

And then there’s a raccoon, walking along the parking lot about 20 yards away, just before I go back into the office. It’s strange seeing snippets of nature like that, here in this office complex that is so much like an extension of the concrete jungle of downtown Austin.

Photos

if anyone has good photos of me (preferably in a digital format), please let me know.

Friendster

OK, so I got REALLY bored tonight, and put up a profile on friendster. I should be pretty easy to find, if you know my name.

Alternately, you can search for my by email address. Here’s the strategy I use when I need an email address for a website:

  1. Figure out website’s domain (that’s the easy part).
  2. strip off the hostname, leaving only the domain name (e.g., “devlogic.org”).
  3. take that domain name, and add “@logic.cx” to the end

and voila! If I ever get spam, I look at what email address it was sent to, and

  • turn off that email address
  • boycott that site for all eternity

It’s a pretty good system; if you have your own domain (and run the mail server), I fully encourage you to try it out.

Something new to play with

Put a new site up today here. It’s not going to replace this one, but I encourage everyone who reads the site to go over there, make an account, and post something. It doesn’t matter what. Fiction, non-fiction, a link you thought was neat, or a rant that you’ve been saving up for the jerk who cut you off in traffic the other day. I’m envisioning a “Hitch-Hiker’s Guide”-style site, kinda like Everything2.

And if it fails, no worries.