General

I added a whole bunch of new categories for posts earlier. Most of them are still invisible, because I haven’t made any posts with them yet. But there’s all the fun ones, like “Classical Music” and “TMBG”, and I sub-categorized the “Technical” category. The trouble is, a lot of my old posts use these new categories, but the categories didn’t exist when I wrote the posts originally. So I am faced with a decision: Do I go through the archives and edit each post (I’m up to over 120 at this point, I think) so they reflect the new categories? Or do I just not care, and use the new categories for new posts and let the old ones bask in their “retro styling”? ...

I know it’s a silly topic to rant about, but I’m bored and it’s been bugging me for a week or so. Jack in the Box has introduced a new product called “Natural Cut Fries.” To go along with the new fries they’ve got a TV and radio spot running; the spot is a faux interview between “Jack” and some guy with a silly fake French accent, with the “interviewer” purporting that Jack must have some problem with the French because he named the product “Natural Cut”, not “French”. ...

I was only vaguely aware of the production of a new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie. But lo and behold, there’s a trailer available. Oh, how I love the wonders that are the Internet. Incidentally, if you haven’t read the amazingly expanded, inaccurately-named “Hitchhiker’s Trilogy,” here is a handy link for you. I thoroughly endorse the idea of your buying all five of them. A funnier series of books hasn’t been written, in my oh-so-humble opinion. I’m really looking forward to the movie. ...

So it turns out that it’s really expensive to make enough cutting boards to cover all of my kitchen counters. I found some nice plans for butcher block cutting boards on Lowe’s web site (via a Google search, of course). So I figure, I’m never comfortable cutting anything on my counters, since they’re too low. Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) has custom-made counters in his house, but I don’t have the luxury of being able to remodel my kitchen. So I whipped out the ol’ tape measure to see what I can find. ...

A friend of mine recently said something to the effect of " Foucault’s Pendulum is The DaVinci Code, only more complicated." Now, I read The DaVinci Code several months ago, and I vaguely remember reading Foucault’s Pendulum back in high school. The only problem is, I can’t remember much of anything about it (the latter). So, since we were at Half-Price Books when he made that comment, I grabbed a copy and have been slowly but surely reading it. I’m up to chapter 20 (I think), and so far it does appear to have some of the same plot elements: a main character researches a secret organization, and stumbles onto a “plan” concerning the Holy Grail. I’m less than 1/5th through the book right now, but I’ll certainly write something when I finish it. ...

The Wikipedia just hit 300,000 (English-language) articles ( slashdot noticed it before I did). Congratulations, and here’s hoping for at least 300,000 more.

I went with a few friends out to Zilker Park yesterday, for to listen to the Austin Symphony and watch fireworks. I think it’s safe to say it was the most fun I’ve had in several days. Of course, they played the 1812 Overture; they even had someone (I think it was the Texas Guard) firing an actual cannon. Great stuff. Then a selection of Sousa marches, two of which I recognized (Semper Fidelis and Hail to the Spirit of Liberty) and one that I didn’t. I guess I should listen to Paul’s recording, and see if I can figure out what it was. ...

It’s always so hard figuring out how to start a post. So I’m sitting here at work, bored out of my mind because I’ve already read all of the webcomics I like (and a few I’m ambivalent about). I feel like I should post something, but I just don’t have anything to say, really. I’m still riding on my week of vacation (last week), so I haven’t built up a hate for users yet; this precludes another “tech support rant”. ...

It’s always weird when I get songs stuck in my head that I know I haven’t heard in weeks. Right now it’s “Human Behavior” by Bjork. I’m guessing it was close enough to “Human Condition” (see the previous post) to pop the song into my subconscious. Not a bad song, all in all. Just not as good as “Museum of Idiots” by TMBG, which was the one before this.

Oh, yeah. Major props to Ian Main, who wrote the beautiful stylesheed I just converted to using. The style’s called “Human Condition,” and took 3rd place in the WordPress Style Competition.