Sunday, August 11, 2002

Over at Kat Donohue's blog, there's been a discussion about a certain very bitter blogger who has publicly announced that he's quitting blogging, and why people like that will burst up, have a lot to say, and then flame out quickly. I couldn't figure out what I was trying to say at first, but I think I've got it now. Blogging is a form of performance. We are exposing something of ourselves to an audience, real or imagined. This isn't like forum-style interaction, which is more along the lines of social conversation. Here, one of us makes a speech and then maybe others comment on it - it's a weird form of performance art. Some people want to be able to do that, to perform and get that rush of satisfaction from knowing that you have an audience - I'm one of them, I admit it. But when you're bitter and negative, it's hard to maintain something  like a blog. The performance is hard to pull off, you feel like there are expectations you have to fit - you can't STOP being bitter, for one. Especially when your blog's title is 'people are stupid'. Actually, that's a character that's difficult to hold up in any medium. Even 'bitter' stand-up comedians (Denis Leary, for example) tend to lighten up eventually. It's hard to perform bitter full-time. Ack - I lost wherever I was going with this. There's something meaningful in looking at blogging as performance, but I didn't sleep enough last night to make anything useful out of it right now. I'll make another run at it sometime tomorrow morning - my car's in the shop, so I get to sit at home and curse my air-conditioning. G'night.

11:16:38 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Reality smacks DOJ uptop the head, TIPS to be toppled. The infamous TIPS program, a President George W Bush idea for transforming the United States into a police spy state has been effectively castrated. In theory it was to provide a national call in number for people to call in "suspicious" activity. Originally designed to turn 1 in 24 Americans as citizen spies for the "war on terror", it would have led to a higher proportion of Americans spying on Americans than even the infamous Stasi had in the former East Germany. [kuro5hin.org] yay! This is one of two things I've ever agreed with Dick Armey on; the other being that it'd be stupid to invade Iraq. Ok, so he might not feel quite that strongly - but I do.   On another note, I just got an email from US Airways explaining their 'restructuring'. aka bankruptcy. It's funny - I signed up for their frequent flier program on a whim, when I realized that I tend to fly US Airways when I fly at all - they're one of two airlines with major focuses out of Providence, which is where I've been flying out of for the last year or two. And now they're sending me email whining about how they 'are disappointed at the outcome of our efforts to obtain the support of our business plan by some of our lessors and other key stakeholders'. But my Dividend Miles will still be good! Honest! On a completely unrelated note, I'll be taking the train to New Jersey this weekend.

9:14:39 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

So the Sporting News named Boston the 'Best Sports City 2002'. I can see that, I guess. We are quite passionate about our sports here. Even those of you who've never encountered a Boston sports fan can figure it out from what they've heard about Red Sox fans. The main reason I'm happy that Boston won this - because it's something we can lord over New York. Boston LOVES to stick it to New York. A LOT. Well, I think I've hit a happy medium on my blog for the next while - I like how I've organized my item template, I've got that nifty population estimate on the left, and my blogroll sitting there, too. There's more to be done, to be sure, but I can't think of anything to do off the top of my head. I'll find something, though. Oh, and I've actually gotten some of that laundry I mentioned earlier done. All told, a reasonably productive Sunday.

3:44:36 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

argh - I've spent most of the morning so far whacking my head against Radio in an attempt to figure out how to track my referer information so that it doesn't vanish every day. I completely understand why Radio doesn't store that data itself - that'd get to be a LOT of data relatively quickly - but I really wish there was a way to grab it from the Radio server before it vanished. Idealy, it'd work along the lines of an option in Radio on my machine to snarf the referer data nightly. It'd try to do that every night, say five minutes before referer logs get nuked. If it failed or the system was offline, etc, I'd be willing to accept the data still going off into nowhere. But it'd be great to be able to automate capturing that information. I have a strange feeling I'll end up writing something like this today, which would be bad. I need to clean the apartment and start the packing process - less than three weeks until I move (!).

9:34:01 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

your muppet of the day: Fozzie Bear I have a big stuffed Fozzie sitting in a big trash bag with the rest of my stuffed animals from childhood. I think his hat fell off, but don't quote me on that. I loved Fozzie as a kid - 'wooka wooka wooka' could floor me laughing for years. Hell, a good Fozzie imitation now will send me into fits of laughter. I love me my Muppets. =) Oh yeah- I remember first seeing Empire Strikes Back, turning to my mom and saying 'Yoda sounds like Fozzie.' It was the way he said 'aaaaaah!' It was EXACTLY like Fozzie...not surprising, since they're both voiced by Frank Oz, but I'm still impressed that I figured that out myself at age 4 or so. (image taken from the wonderful http://www.kermitage.com)

7:19:59 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Suddenly, the world's a better place. Now I sleep.
1:17:51 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

A couple thoughts going through my head at 1am - First of all, why the hell am I still up at 1am? I think this is an unfortunate side effect of accidently sleeping 12 hours last night. The funny thing is that I almost fell asleep at about 9 tonight, but pushed through it. Not that I had any particular reason to stay up later; I just felt like I should. Now I'm awake and nothing seems bound to change that any time soon. Second - Saturday Night Live just isn't as funny as it should be. Parts of it are ok - those featuring Tina Fey, basically. The rest just kind of lags. Maybe it's just that I'm tired and confused, but I'm betting it just isn't funny. Third - three is more than a couple. Bah. Anyway - my mom asked me why my friend Rachel and I aren't a couple today. I have this horrible nightmare that I'll be hearing something to that effect for the next X years. 'But you sound like you're perfect for each other!' ...which is a really good reason NOT to be a couple, you DINGBATS. I patently refuse to sacrifice a good friendship on the altar of romance...which may be a partial explanation of why my relationships have, by and large, been a quick burst of infatuation followed by a long drawn out realization that I don't actually like my girlfriend that much. Still, even taking that into account, it's not worth it. I get almost everything I'd want from a romantic relationship - that is, everything but the sex - without the feeling of obligation. I don't ever call Rachel because I *have* to. I call her because I want to. Again, this might be commentary on the quality of my love life, but still - it's how I feel. This is just SO MUCH EASIER. Fourth - Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch is a good book. If you've got a sports problem, read it. I've got an unhealthy Red Sox obsession that I try to temper with a Celtics obsession. Which means that for every good day where the Sox beat the Yankees and the Celtics clobber the Knicks, both at home, there's the Sox getting beaten up the same day that Jason f'n Kidd eliminates the Celtics from the playoffs. Hornby is obsessed with Arsenal, one of the more prominent soccer teams in England, and this book is him writing about that obsession. Except for the fact that he's been able to see his team win a couple championships, which I've been unable to ever see with the Red Sox, it hits your average Sox fan on the head. Great book to give to significant others of the female persuasion, too - 'It's a book about sports by the guy who wrote High Fidelity! You'll love it!' Fifth - Actually, no. That's about it. I could rant about Bush - I spent a good chunk of the afternoon doing so - but what's the point? I'd rather make a vague attempt to get to bed. 'night, West Coasters...

1:13:22 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []