My Archives: January 2005

Saturday, January 29, 2005

No, it's not a new political movement -- Andrew MacDonald threw a gathering tonight. A bunch of webloggers that I don't know, so of course I had to go. (How can there be local webloggers that I don't know? The notion is shocking!) I am not a political blogger as regular readers know, but I talked with lots of folks and tried to talk up Seattle and East Side Weblog Meetups. I brought my red-bordered nametags and I'm glad I did. Otherwise I'd have had no chance of figuring out who was who!

I'm blogging live from the party, natch. I'll try to add links to those I talked to later.

Posted by Anita @ 08:11 PM PST [Link]

Local reporter Paul Andrews has resumed blogging (plus, he's joined the weblog meetup, yay!). "Yawn...Stretch...Shake the head of cobwebs. Wassup dude? Well that's not exactly accurate. I haven't been asleep. There were things like road trips and elections and new software and...hey I'm a blogger! I have no end of excuses! [...] For now, it's great to be back among the blogging. I almost feel like saying Four More Years! but I dread the thought that blogging could function as a mere parallelism to Bushite politics."

Posted by Anita @ 08:33 AM PST [Link]

Friday, January 28, 2005

We aren't planning any family trips to Las Vegas right now, but someone on the NWR list recommended Las Vegas Kids as a good source of ideas if we do ever go with grandchild in tow. Top things to do if you're under 21:

  1. Watch the knights joust at Excalibur's Tournament of Kings while eating dinner with your hands.
  2. Experience G-Forces at the Stratosphere Tower and ride the Big Shot at the Stratosphere Hotel.
  3. Visit the AdventureDome Theme Park at Circus-Circus.
  4. Blast away at GameWorks on the Strip.
  5. Scare yourself in the CinemaRide at Caesars Palace.
  6. Watch the The Sirens of TI at Treasure Island.
  7. Tap the window at the Lion Habitat at MGM Grand. (ed: What?! Sounds like a rude way to treat zoo animals to me.)
  8. See dolphins at the Mirage.
  9. Take a dip at Wet n' Wild.
  10. Kick it in gear at NASCAR Cafe at Sahara.
  11. Take a ride on the Manhattan Express at New York-New York.
  12. Kink your neck as you watch the world's tallest and biggest lightshow at Fremont Street Experience.

Posted by Anita @ 01:38 PM PST [Link]

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Michael at Cruftbox found a truly repellent product at his local 7-11: Budweiser Extra! This is beer with added caffeine, ginseng, guarana extract, and natural flavor. Yikes! He does his duty and taste-tests it. There's a picture, too.

Posted by Anita @ 04:45 AM PST [Link]

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Next Tuesday, February 1st at 7 pm, it's the East Side Weblog Meetup! Location is the food court at Crossroads Mall (map); look for our sign near where the Compleat Cook used to be. You don't have to be a meetup.com member to attend, but if you join (it's free) I'll be able to keep you posted about any last-minute changes (these are rare). RSVPing encourages other folks to come along too!

Posted by Anita @ 01:28 PM PST [Link]

At Fry's yesterday we bought a Wireless Media Player, and Jack was able to get it going last night, relatively quickly. It's a cool device that can stream photos, videos, and music from any computer on our network (that has some server software installed) to our TV. We found out that it uses the Universal Plug and Play Standard. Jack's been doing some research on that (his delicious links) because he'd like to be able to write his own UPnP MediaServer.

Posted by Anita @ 08:03 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

My grandson's favorite thing to watch on TV now: videos of trains! These aren't intended for toddlers but for railfans, so I guess he is a railfan now. We knew he liked trucks, heavy equipment, and the like, so when we found a big set of DVDs about trains at Half Price Books we picked it up. He's been riveted! Steam trains arriving at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, two-foot gauge trains in Maine, he loves them all. Woo-woo! Mark I Video made these and we can tell the difference between DVDs like these and the ones intended for toddlers -- it's trains and nothing else that R---- really likes. The more detail the better! Plus Mark I beefs up the audio on archival footage. I wouldn't pay full retail for these, but at the price we found we are getting a great value!

Posted by Anita @ 08:48 AM PST [Link]

Monday, January 24, 2005

I feel a natural regret when I read the writeups on Robert Scoble's birthday party -- I chose not to go which was the right decision (we'd have needed babysitting, plus Jack and I both felt crappy with colds) but there were a lot of great folks there! John Porcaro writes: "I understand now that Robert's ulterior motive to including me on the invite list was to get me drunk so I'd spill secrets of Xbox plans, but since I limit my drinking to sodas and juice, their plot was foiled. Mwah ha ha ha.""

Posted by Anita @ 09:43 AM PST [Link]

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Julie Leung wrote a couple of very good entries inspired by her daughter undergoing a minor (!) surgical procedure: If your child is having surgery: 12 tips for families, and Surgery surprises: what a difference a day can make. I put a bang after "minor" because even if the operation is technically minor, I'm sure the experience isn't! Some of her tips:

  1. Talk about it
  2. Do the math
  3. Prepare well in advance
Ted Leung was with Michaela in the operating room until the anesthesia took effect.

Posted by Anita @ 11:33 AM PST [Link]

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

I was feeling off-color tonight, so I asked Jack to host the Weblog Meetup and I stayed home, darn it! Jack said there was a big enough turnout that people were discussing where we could meet when we outgrow Ralph's! Here's the list of folks who attended:

Posted by Anita @ 07:47 PM PST [Link]

Dan Lyke of Flutterby writes about how gender discrepancies in the weblog world were driven home for him when Dave Winer and Adam Curry found out that podcaster Madge Weinstein *gasp* wasn't a woman. Mark Vanderwetting has the details.

Posted by Anita @ 04:11 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

This is a fun group project! Print out signs with the words to "The People in Your Neighborhood" (lyrics by Jeffrey Moss who wrote many great Sesame Street songs) and take pictures of actual people in your neighborhood holding them. Submit, and enjoy the pictures from other people. Via Mighty Girl.

Posted by Anita @ 04:48 AM PST [Link]

Monday, January 17, 2005

Alison Scott at Macadamia reviews a new dance mat game, Dancing Stage Fusion. I'm not sure if this is available in the US under the same name or a different monicker, but the Euro version is PAL so no good for me. This new one is integrated with EyeToy so your hands and arms can get involved in the dancing. "But as well as all the stuff for serious dancers, there's plenty for beginners too. There are beginner steps for all the music, 21 'real songs' with their original videos (as well as 33 songs just for DDR), and lessons to get you going. I think my favourite of the licensed songs this time is 'Mickey' by Toni Basil; the steps are great and it's a song that's just the right sort of speed and style for dance mat. For families it's possible for the first time to play 2-player with one player on beginner and the other on higher levels, and on the beginner setting there's no 'game over' -- great for the four-year-old who thinks it's just a new version of whack-a-rat."

Posted by Anita @ 04:26 AM PST [Link]

Saturday, January 15, 2005

My computer situation has been tough lately. First there was a hardware problem several weeks ago, when the machine I was using died. I was able to use another machine on our network for web stuff, but mail had to be done through my shell account with no spam filtering, and I'd neglected to export my SharpReader subscriptions. This last became especially significant when Weblogs.com stopped updating on January 9, so I couldn't tell which of the blogs I like to read had updated. I was recreating my RSS subscriptions on the laptop (Jack's old one) that I'll get to use now but it's a slow process.

Then the good stuff started! We bought a new box via woot (woot is cool -- one bargain a day, posted at 10 pm) and my old hard drive was able to be transferred yesterday. Thanks, Jack! A new machine at a low price, much faster than what I was using before.

And Weblogs.com seems to be back, updating a large portion of the day if not 24/7. Things are looking up!

Posted by Anita @ 05:02 AM PST [Link]

Friday, January 14, 2005

This weekend we'll be spending some time at Rustycon 22. This is a local science fiction convention that I've never attended. Jack's been before, but stopped going when he felt that the programming wasn't being aimed at people who like to actually read science fiction. That was about ten years ago and people have been telling him that it's improved. The tipping-point factor is that this year's special Guest of Honor is C. J. Cherryh, one of my favorite authors. She's living in Washington state now, but in eastern Washington and she doesn't get over to Seattle very often. So Jack will be at the con this evening (I'll stay home with our grandson) and we'll both (err, all) be there tomorrow and maybe Sunday. See you there!

Posted by Anita @ 02:25 PM PST [Link]

Next Wednesday, January 19, it's the Seattle Weblog Meetup! Location is Ralph's Grocery and Deli, 2035 4th Ave in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. Time is 7 pm. There's food and drink available; in fact, you can buy anything from the grocery and consume it in the deli area besides the things that are sold in the deli. You don't have to be a Meetup.com member to attend, but if you join (it's free) I can keep you apprised of any last-minute changes (these are rare). There's a regular crowd, along with new folks joining every month.

Posted by Anita @ 04:01 AM PST [Link]

Thursday, January 13, 2005

My grandson's new favorite book is The Wheels on the Bus, the movable version by Paul O. Zelinsky. We found a remaindered copy of the 10-year edition at Half Price Books, so I was willing to let him sleep with the book as he wanted to last night. It's delightful! Great illustrations with clever gadgets, and lots of details and sub-plots that repay careful study. I think my grandson will be singing the song on his own very soon!

Posted by Anita @ 07:06 AM PST [Link]

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

I wonder why this gaming clan lists this site as their homepage?

Posted by Anita @ 07:12 AM PST [Link]

Monday, January 10, 2005

There are a ton of weblogs devoted to knitting. One that inspires me a lot is by Kim Salazar, called String or Nothing. A great sampler of what she does is in her year-end review post, Lessons Learned. (Note, includes some non-knitted projects.) During 2004 she worked on:

and much more!

Kim has also created WiseNeedle.com, home of yarn reviews and a wealth of other info. If you've used some yarn lately, add a review! If you are curious about some yarn you are thinking about buying, check it out first!

Posted by Anita @ 05:55 AM PST [Link]

Friday, January 7, 2005

How could I have been so into the Lord of the Rings movies and not known about Figwit? Figwit is a tasty-looking elf first seen in the Council of Elrond scene in Fellowship of the Ring. His name? From the site's FAQ:

Q: Why is he called “Figwit”? Is that his real name?
A: “Figwit” stands for "Frodo is grea...who is THAT?!?" We don't know his real name. If you're desperate you can call him Figgy, Melpomaen (very loose Elvish translation of 'fig' and 'wit'), The Silent One, Feathers (don't ask), and, of course, gorgeous.

Q: So why do you say "Frodo is grea.. who is THAT??!"?
A: When Frodo says "I will take it!", we are so impressed we start to think “Frodo is great!" But before we finish, the camera pans and we see Figwit, smoldering enigmatically in the background. All other thoughts are whisked away by that elf - who is THAT?! He's gorgeous!

Peter Jackson was so tickled by fan interest in this elf and actor that Figwit was brought back in Return of the King (extended edition) -- he's the elf who speaks to Arwen when she breaks off her journey to the Grey Havens. The actor who played him, Bret McKenzie, got a kick out of all the fuss. Via Garrett Fitzgerald.

Posted by Anita @ 04:36 AM PST [Link]

Wednesday, January 5, 2005

Yesterday afternoon I bought some craft supplies to make a sign for the East Side Weblog Meetup -- I wanted to make sure no one missed us this time. It seemed to do the job! (I'll be making a similar one for the Seattle Meetup but I don't think we've had trouble with being inconspicuous there.) I saw Ben Klausner on my way to the table in front of the Compleat Cook, which is having a closing sale. I was reminded of when the Seattle Cacophony Society was meeting; we closed down four venues in a few years! Ben and I chatted until John aka Hamburger Lad arrived on his "lunch" break. Dave Geller was new to the meetup. He demo'd the blog tool his company is adding to their corporate email product, and asked how Trackback works and what is it good for. TB confused me for quite a while, also! The meetup ended before eight thirty. I hope no one turned up afterwards!

Posted by Anita @ 05:38 AM PST [Link]

Tuesday, January 4, 2005

Adam Barr of Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters (great blog name) has posted a list of some of his favorite spots on the Microsoft campus that don't need a cardkey to visit. I like these places, too! (I worked as a contractor on the main campus and redwest for six years during the nineties.) He's done a follow-up post on some other locations that didn't make the initial cut. I think it's cool that these places weren't designed as focal points or features. It's a chance alignment of elevation, plants, light and space that make them pleasing to the discerning eye (one likes to think of oneself as discerning). I think my favorite of the pictures from the original post is this walkway between buildings One and Two.

Posted by Anita @ 07:23 AM PST [Link]

Sunday, January 2, 2005

I was playing Jerry Kindall's game of seeing where one's name comes up on Google Suggests (I'm 8.1) and was rather startled to see in the Product Search results area that Anita'S (sic) Book of Days Issue 1 January 1998 is listed for sale, price $12.50, on TomFolio.com! An extremely limited edition (I think I printed 100, then reprinted another 100) but I didn't ever imagine someone selling my zine. I still do have some copies (not folded or stapled) but they are somewhere in my Capitol Hill apartment and not readily available so there's a case to be made that it's a rarity.

Posted by Anita @ 08:44 PM PST [Link]

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