Random dumb thoughts

This page is to put those little weirdnesses of life that don't really fit anywhere else, or aren't worth a page of their own

Saturday, May 10, 2003

Another entry for today. The stuff you find when you're cleaning out bookmarks.

You are 47% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

.: posted by Lily Saturday, May 10, 2003

Who says literature is dead?

Here's a story for today. I think this is more proof for evolution -- there are many people out there today who, when asked to examine Shakespeare, have the exact same reaction.

.: posted by Lily Saturday, May 10, 2003

Friday, May 09, 2003

There's a special circle in hell for the person who invented and implemented that horrible tape that they put across the top of new CDs. One rung above him or her is the person who came up with the idea for the horrible shrink wrap that goes around the outside of the CDs. No manicure is safe when there's new music to be had. Whatever happened to the (admittedly wasteful, tree-killing) CD long box? Those were adequate replacements for the album jacket. Somewhere in this apartment is a collection of the box covers that I used to use for wall decoration in my college days.....

Here they are. Let's see what's in here. Copper Blue by Sugar. Spilt Milk by Jellyfish. Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend. Two separate albums by Michael Penn. Elvis' Juliet Letters. Tim Finn's self titled album. A couple of XTC albums. Nevermind by Nirvana. And several others. They must have gone out of fashion somewhere around 1993, as that's the latest album box I seem to have.

What started this nail-polish killing spree was my quest to burn an 80's New Wave best of CD that has only the stuff I really liked on it. I've got a zillion compilations, but there are still loads of songs I don't have on CD. I went through what I had and pulled the key songs, and that only adds up to about 45 minutes worth of stuff. (Remember how short many of those New Wave songs were) I have a lot of great stuff from the 80s, but it's mostly on that now antiquated media form, the album. I don't even have my record player in Virginia -- all of my albums and the turntable are in New York. If I ever get a bigger place, I will reclaim the record player and the albums.

Anyhoo, I'm trying to make the CD, and I realize how many things I didn't have on CDs. I was excellent about recreating my Squeeze vinyl collection, and fairly good about recreating the EC collection. After that, it's a bit spotty. So tonight, I'm walking past Tower Records on my way home, and there's a big sign 'Hits of the 80s On Sale $8.99". How can you resist that? So I head in -- the compilations were a bit horrible, but I did pick up The B-52s "Time Capsule" (a greatest hits album), and the remastered "Ghost in the Machine" and "Zenyatta Mondatta". I also picked up some random new album that I heard at the listening station -- it's by a band from New Zealand called The D4. It seems to be very "semi-punk-alternative-band-first-album' -- lots of loud, fast guitars. What the heck -- it was only $7.99.

Here's some things that I don't yet have on CD. Anything by the Eurythmics or Prince. I've rebuilt most of the early Elton John albums, but I still don't have Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I'd really like those A&M samplers -- No Wave and Propaganda.

I'll let y'all vote for the B-52's selection on my compilation CD. I'm wavering between Rock Lobster, Strobe Light, and Song for a Future Generation. I'd definitely put on Monster, but that's Fred Schneider, and I still don't have that on CD. I'm least excited about Song for a Future Generation, to be honest.

And thus goes Friday.

.: posted by Lily Friday, May 09, 2003

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

I have to keep reminding myself that the internet is a pretty permanent place, even though it often seems ephemeral. Blogs even more so.

The other day I get this random e-mail from a very nice chap called James who gives me advice on the best place to get Italian cookies in the DC area. He said that he had read my posting and wanted to recommend the place. Now, I knew that I had been in search of Italian cookies around the New Year, but I don't post to random newsgroups, and honestly couldn't remember ever posting the question anywhere -- I had gotten the sugar monkey off my back by mid-January. So I write back, thank him for the suggestion, and ask him where the heck he had seen a posting. He said that he had been looking for the same thing, and had Googled the terms "Italian Bakery Northern Virginia" and voila -- there was my blog from January. So I tried it, and sure enough, there it was.

Note the new word in the lexicon -- Google: v. "to search out, especially on the internet" -- I wonder if it will last? I wonder if in a thousand years they'll still be using a mutated version of that word without having a clue as to its true origin. I think the word could eventually evolve down to something like "kook", if the "g"s devoice and the -le gets elided away over time.

The answer to the cookie question, for anyone else who may Google on those terms in the future, is Vaccaro's. It has branches at Union Station and in the Shops at 2000 Penn near the GW campus. The cookies are pretty good, and thankfully the GW stand is always closed when I pass it in the evening or else I'd NEVER get the sugar beast under control. The little bastard has been creeping up on me lately.

.: posted by Lily Tuesday, May 06, 2003

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