February 2008
46 posts
I think a nice addition to iTunes (or Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc.) would be an option to automatically pause the music when you hit play on an online video.
I Love My Office
Boss: I guess I have to contact ______ Hoar (pronounced "whore")
Me: What? No... that's CAN'T be her last name.
Boss: No no, look: H-O-A-R; how else would you pronounce it?
Me: ..."whore"?
Boss: You know, the name sounds familiar; I think I worked with a Hoar once.
Me: What, back in the days before publishing when you worked on the docks?
Boss:
Me:
Student Assistant:
Bird Advice
Does anyone know how make themselves approachable to birds? I was eating lunch with a pigeon and noticed it was limping — there was a string wrapped around its foot. I wanted to take it off, but none of my standard stray dog/cat techniques worked; it kept flying away. I think bird approachability would be a good skill to have.
January 2008
87 posts
Kitchen Contraptions
hostileholly:
I think this boy is hoping one of his devoted readers will buy these gadgets for him, a la Julia Allison’s subscription to The Economist. It’s not a bad idea. —H2 matthewgruman: I’m a bit of a kitchen gadget whore, so Kitchen Contraptions is one of my favourite blogs. It’s also the cause of major disappointment when I realize that the cutting board I...
Kitchen Contraptions
I’m a bit of a kitchen gadget whore, so Kitchen Contraptions is one of my favourite blogs. It’s also the cause of major disappointment when I realize that the cutting board I HAVE to own is going to cost at least $400, and no amount of “well, if I don’t buy a coffee today…” is going to make that any more likely.
Bomb Threat at UBC
There has been a police incident at the Bio Sciences Building, which is located at the intersection of Main Mall and University Boulevard at the University of British Columbia.
On the advice of the RCMP, the Bio Sciences Building has been locked down. Building occupants have been instructed to stay where they are, to secure the room in which they are located, and to await further instructions...
McGuinness said much of Silicon Valley arose out of “hippy values” that did not include a respect for copyright and established business models. Many of the area’s entrepreneurs don’t consider themselves “makers of burglary kits,” he said.
“There are plenty of private equity fund managers who are Deadheads,” he said, a reference to hippy icons The...
Damn Tumblr's Usability!
Thanks to Tumblr, every time I see a picture on the web that I’d like to be larger, I just click on it and wait for it to resize on-screen. This is usually followed by pouting and muttering under my breath about “how much time I’m wasting clicking the Back button.”
The Table Next to Me
Girl: "I mean, she's not cuter or smarter than me, but she's a musician. Big fucking deal, you play at a bar for a bunch of people to hear; who cares?"
National Geographic Subscriptions
You can subscribe to National Geographic for Only Fifteen Dollars! right now. I honestly can’t think of a valid reason not to.
using vimeo as a creative profile for potential...
andreaallen:
[…]
One ad agency boss wrote back to me saying he is interested in seeing some creative work from me, “Especially after seeing your mad MJ dance skills.”
[…]
I severely doubt that anyone will get a more awesome response from a potential employer. Ever.
Blog Spam
I think blog spam would be more effective if they used more personal-sounding URLs. So instead of “wow, what an interesting site! I love what you’ve done here!” being linked to www.insurancecapitalbank.com, it should go to www.joemcjohnson.com and redirect over to the actual harvester site.
“Afternoon Delight” by the Starland...
Lesson Learned
Why do I always assume that people will behave logically 99% of the time, when 99% of the time they don’t?? — juliaallison
Probably because you’re being illogical.
Panic - Coda - Developer →
This page will expand over time to become a haven for Coda newbies, power-users, and hopefully everyone in-between. — Thanks maique — nice find! — esquareda
Coda is my favourite program for good reason.
Cute Code
I don’t know why, but I think this is a really cute code snippet:
elseif (($dns > 0) || (isset($var) && $var != '') || (isset($mem) && $mem != ''))
WatchI found this on my hard drive (late 2007). This is what I do when I’m alone.
WatchVideo from the summer, some put together by myself, then final editing rights went to Cait. — juliaheffernan HAHA — sarahschneider
I can’t decide between “Let’s do coke and vote for Reagan” and “hey Dinosaur, it’s me. Other Dinosaur.”
Jon Brion, covering Radiohead’s...
So Many Dells...
I had a meeting today with a couple of student teams to get them started on a programming assignment. I walked into the room and was surrounded by about a dozen Dell Inspiron notebooks and one MacBook.
At one point, I was emphasizing how important it would be for them to accommodate Mac users. I caught the start of a groan from a team leader before I mentioned that I developed the system on a Mac...
“Anyone can hire a bunch of monobrows to thrust a free paper at you as you rush...”
– Press Gazette via Canadian Magazines.
Guitar Chords
I decided to reclaim all the guitar/ukulele/banjo chords I’ve put up on the internet today. The weirdest thing is that I can’t find the one I did for Ron Sexsmith’s “These Days”, because all the sites that indexed it have taken it down due to copyright pressure.
I’ve never really understood exactly how tabs run into copyright problems. I have to assume...
“I’m looking for a woman who I can connect with spiritually, and any woman...”
– Bret Michaels
Life Changing Discovery
Ginger Mint tea is both delicious and kicking my cold’s ass.
Veganomicon
My copy of the Veganomicon came in a couple days ago; I just finished eating the Chick Pea Cutlets (p. 133). Verdict: DELICIOUS. If the rest of the recipes are this good, I don’t think I’ll have a reason to buy vegetarian food anymore.
Me: lol, i'm checking my email. there's an "out of office" message from my boss saying "Contact Matthew if there's an emergency, etc.". But I currently have one saying "I'm out of the office, contact Beth if there's an emergency"
it's like a Dilbert cartoon
Dany: haha
that's classic...
Then people will e-mail Beth and it'll say "There is no Beth that works here."
“If aliens are so smart, then why don’t they make their aircrafts look like...”
– One of my favourite local poets, Shane Koyczan, has a new band called Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long. It’s pretty fantastic.
WatchTravis started a conversation in key, so we finished it on film. — matthewgruman This video is hilarious especially the part about Scary Spice. Travis looks like an ex and I think Matthew and my best friend, Hostile Holly, would make a hot couple. — clarawalnuts
I missed this while I was out of town. Internet first: I’ve never been mentioned in the same sentence, by a stranger, as someone...
Neology by way of Tumblr?
…Linking to an mp3 because it’s too big for tumblembedding (embedding on Tumblr? Maybe?)
— matthewgruman
“Tumbedding” would be my word of choice for putting audio/video on a Tumblog. “Tumblembedding” is too much of a mouthful for me. — gooneruk
Etymologically speaking, you’d need to keep the “em” part of embed; that’s the part that implies it’s in something....
Notes from the Trip home
I spent a total of 10 hours in airports or on planes yesterday. Nothing to complain about, but I started getting sick about an hour before I got to the airport so it was very uncomfortable.
Empty middle seat on both flights with row-mates who were friendly yet understood I wasn’t up for conversation = awesome.
Four cups of tea and gargling with alcohol-based mouth wash and salt water...
Black Flowers
I’m home, very jet lagged, and sick. Hooray (for item one, obviously)! This trip’s “song” (i.e. the one that gets played a lot at the airport, on the plane, in the mornings, etc.) was Black Flowers by Yo La Tengo. The horn plays one of the most perfect melodies I’ve ever heard. Linking to an mp3 because it’s too big for tumblembedding (embedding on Tumblr?...
Why you SHOULD be friends with your exes. →
As Moe writes, and I agree 435%, paraphrasing Julie Delpy in 2 Nights in Paris: It’s just so TERRIBLY SOUL CRUSHING to get into a relationship with someone thinking you wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t any sex, that you wouldn’t value the person even as a friend, that the person’s utility to you has a fucking expiration date. Yes. Yes, it is. — juliaallison
Most...
WatchPanic’s Coda is by far my favourite computer application. I’ve actually found myself opening it up when I have NO desire to work because I like looking at it.
Cosmo's
If you ever find yourself on Montréal’s West Island, check out Cosmo’s for breakfast; it’s on St. Jean near Cheers. They recently changed ownership and hands-down have the best eggs Benedict I’ve ever tasted (try the the brie and portobello mushroom).
Voluntary Negativity Isn't Worth It
I have decided to start un-following Tumblrs who offer, what I feel to be, ridiculous and/or irresponsible opinions without giving reasons (be they valid or not) for them. I feel these people are an insult to collective intelligence.
Reason: I get the same feeling of negativity from them that I do from Gawker commenters. I’d rather fill my dashboard with intelligence and/or realistic...
“But a delicate flower.
“I lost my virginity at thirty. And I had to pay...”
– There’s no point looking for a favourite. EVERYTHING this girls’ boyfriends says is HILARIOUS.
Someone just brought my attention to the fact that there are all these “body scrub” soaps that use tiny bits of plastic for the scrubbing factor. So of course those tiny bits of plastic end up in the ocean where they are eaten by tiny sea creatures, which throws a pretty big wrench in this whole FOOD CHAIN thing we have going on. Come on, guys. — dalasverdugo
I just read this in...
Affairs of the State
Holly (not this Holly!): The thing is, I don't blame him. I blame myself.
Saul: We can't help who we love.
Holly: Yeah, but we can help who we are. We can decide to become ourselves. It is time I become a person. I won't be invisible any longer.
It’s 2008 and I actually need a cassette player. — marco
I plan on spending time tomorrow looking for a VCR head cleaner. Technology is cyclical, right?
Vancouver to Montreal con't
I ALWAYS sit behind that asshole who puts his seat back the second the light goes off and leaves it that way for the entire trip. Makes it nearly impossible to use a laptop, even a tiny 13.3”, in any sort of practical way.
No one sitting in the middle seat = makes everything better.
WestJet still doesn’t have a vegetarian meal option. I paid $6 for a “snack box”...
Vancouver to Montreal
The cab driver looked like an emaciated member of ZZ Top. Within a minute, he told a joke about grabbing his wife’s sister’s “tit”. I taught him some French and we talked about the best way to visit Alaska. When I got out, he had already filled in my receipt, lowered his actual fare, and refused my tip.
I over-planned to travel with my new insulin pump: doctor’s...
So long internet. I’ll see you in about a week.