March 25, 2008
My Life, EatFoo
I'm now blogging quite regularly on EatFoo. I may still post links here, or maybe even rants, or life updates from time to time, but don't expect anything much. Cooking is my primary hobby, superseding all others at the moment, and so a lot more of my efforts are going into EatFoo. I spend most of my free time in the kitchen, and I'm extremely passionate about it, so I suggest you add EatFoo to your feed reader if you'd like to follow what I'm doing on a regular basis. If you don't use a feed reader, you're wrong.
But here's an update for now. I have two months left until I graduate and leave for San Francisco. Jeanette and I will be heading out there and living in the same apartment in which we lived last summer (which is amazing), and we'll be starting our bar exam prep classes in late May. The bar exam is at the end of July, and after that, we'll be taking an extended vacation somewhere internationally. At the moment, I'm leaning toward Southeast Asia (Thailand, Bali), Jeanette is leaning toward Mediterranean (Italy, Greece), mostly because she fears the monsoon. Having grown up in Florida, with its summer showers, I think I could manage it. After that, at the beginning of October, we start our new jobs.
I'm working for a upper-middle sized, awesome law firm called Fenwick & West, which reps technology companies. I'm in litigation, so I'll be doing lots of grunt work at first, but at least it'll be for cool innovators like Apple, Google, and many more that I haven't heard of but which are, upon investigation, also cool. I'm looking forward to starting work, even as I am realizing more and more that I really just want to be a chef. Nevertheless, this is the path I've chosen, and I plan to stick it out for long enough to build up some serious savings (five years?). And I really like the people at my firm, so that makes working there a lot more exciting prospect. Jeanette is working in litigation for a different law firm that is much bigger and less cool (in my opinion, at least--we have an ongoing rivalry, but whenever we pitch our firms to other people, mine wins).
I'm going to miss my DC roommates when I leave, as well as my Georgetown friends, and the few Vandy friends that I've somehow stayed physically close to, and close friends. There's a lot to like about DC, but but that still only makes it about one ninetieth as awesome as San Francisco. And besides, white people like San Francisco, so I have to go there (nearly everything on that website applies to me, by the way--goddamn yuppie!).
So, that's what's happening with me. If you and I are friends and haven't spoken in a while, leave a comment or drop me an email letting me know how you're doing. I'm not great at tending friendships, even though I do care about them. So let's chat. But don't expect such chatter to happen on this blog very often for the time being. Read EatFoo. Post bunches of comments. Email me about food or about life. See ya.
Posted by Barzelay at 5:48 PM | Comments (3)
December 2, 2007
Posting On EatFoo Again. Yummy.
I started posting on EatFoo again. Roasted Cornish game hens and some other stuff. Check it out at EatFoo.
Posted by Barzelay at 2:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 19, 2007
Mini-Links Now Allow Commenting
By popular demand? Mini-links now allow commenting. RSS feeds link to the posts on my site, but also have the link provided below the title.
Let me know if you encounter any problems.
Posted by Barzelay at 6:34 PM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2007
Response letter!
This is the kind of letter that makes me wonder whether I ought to start blogging again. It's the kind of letter that really warms a blogger's heart and makes it all worthwhile. There's nothing better than letters from crazy people.
David, I read your coke-zero and I think you are right its bad for you but so is regular coke and Pepsi The brown bubbly stuff that tingles our tongue that we love so much is not really food its a liquid poison I think most of our foods we eat are not food at all even cereal is made in a lab also.. they use sugar lots and lots of refined sugar which is the number 1 chemical of the world and the one we love the most until we get addicted to it and start losing teeth and getting headaches, stomach aches and blowing up like a blow fish !If you really want to lose weight and get healthier give up pop and drink more water , tea, or any 100% juices good luck to you
the fact you were questioning coke zero is good news !!! it was hard for me to believe they would sale poison so I kept buying it until I realized its all about money !!
Dolores
Posted by Barzelay at 2:32 PM | Comments (1)
January 17, 2007
Feedback Loop
How are people liking the Mini-Links? Clearly they are better than the old del.icio.us feed on the side that I'm sure few people looked at. Any complaints about the Mini-Links, either on the blog or in the RSS feed?
Also, would you prefer that I made commenting available on the Mini-Links? Do people have a desire to comment on just links?
Posted by Barzelay at 2:22 PM | Comments (9)
January 11, 2007
Blog Subscription Choices: Quality Vs. Relevance
Have you ever started getting really into some topic in which you're not really very interested, just because there's a good blog on the subject? That used to happen infrequently, but now that I am able to keep up with any blogs I want to thanks to Google Reader, it is happening more frequently.
For instance, I am very well informed about the bleeding edge of marketing. I wouldn't give a damn about marketing, but Seth Godin writes a damn good blog on the subject. I am interested in intellectual property law, but I am not at all interested in its application to counterfeit fashion. Yet, thanks to the blog of a former Professor of mine, I am rather learned on the subject. I also read up on highly intellectual issues tangential to contemporary Islam at 3 Quarks Daily, a million random consumer devices for which I don't have any desire at Engadget, Martin's musings about consumer protection at ConsumerAffairs.com, and pretty much anything Boing Boing sees fit to print.
The same things can also be said about certain DC bloggers. For instance, I don't really have any interest in DC Bachelor's misogynistic advice on how to have sex with random women and avoid being a "beta male," but his blog is written in a compelling and consistent voice, with the occasional controversy thrown in to sweeten the deal. So I read it. Ar-Jew-Tino's posts about how to survive in Buenos Aires are entirely irrelevant to me, but they're always funny. I'd still read Kathryn's defunct blog even whenever she was just posting her opinions on the latest episode of Project Runway, or some other such show.
I wonder the extent to which this habit might carry me away into pointless knowledge that is only a pastime in the reading, and not in the doing. Already I know all about the Dallas Mavericks, when I don't care about basketball at all, let alone the inner workings of that team's management. Eventually I'll find myself poring over the latest woodworking recaps, lawn maintenance blogs, car modders' smack-talking, and subwoofer reviews.
Increasingly, the central problem in our society has become filtering information out, whereas for all of recorded human history it has been acquisition of more information. But now we are inundated, and every niche is well-served if one can only find the right site. The long tail has had its wants met. On any given topic about which we are interested, we could easily add hundreds of blogs. And so the focus of technology shifts to determining relevance and quality. Google is the biggest example of that process. Google's search engine exists to narrow down some topic and give its user the most relevant links. "Web 2.0" is all about metadata. And what's the eventual intention of metadata, if it isn't trying to let us know what's worth consuming? But the result of the increasing amount of metadata is that we sometimes stumble upon gems where we otherwise wouldn't be looking. That's why a site like DC Blogs is so wonderful. It has tipped me off to great sites like Washington Cube, Brunch Bird, and Rock Creek Rambler. Now if only I could tear myself away from reading about DIY projects I never want to do for long enough to read them.
Posted by Barzelay at 2:19 AM | Comments (5)
December 24, 2006
Brief Hiatus
In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not blogging lately. Exams and papers and my family visiting D.C. have converged, to be followed by travel. I'll be emerging on January 1, the Day Of The Holy Circumcision, as from a cocoon, new site design and all. Wave goodbye to the beauteous banners that now adorn the upper reaches of my site, savor the last days of my inverted color scheme, and prepare to welcome cartoony line-art, tesselations, the illusion of simplicity, and judicious use of color.
Posted by Barzelay at 12:15 PM | Comments (5)
December 15, 2006
501st Fighting Blog Post
I just realized that my last post, "There Is No Such Thing As A Hard Exam, And Studying Doesn't Matter Anyway", was my 500th post in the long annals of Barzelay.net! I started in May of 2004, roughly two years and seven months ago.
That means I've averaged just over one post every two days. That's pretty pathetic. The same measure as of the end of last school year would have yielded a much higher average, but my, how my blogging has suffered as my work has increased! And I was just getting going again when exams hit, too. Damn.
Posted by Barzelay at 12:44 AM | Comments (2)
November 22, 2006
Belated Cross-Country Trip Photos (2 of 2)
As promised, this is the remainder of the photos from my giant cross-country National Parks tour extravaganza. These are even cooler than the previous sets. Arches National Park, especially, was just amazing. It was the highlight of the trip, so at least check those out (though Bryce was no slouch). As usual, I took a zillion photos. I can't wait until this summer, when a good chunk of one of my firm checks will go to something like this, and then you'll have to wait even longer for my photos to load. Anyway, check these out.
- Bryce Canyon National Park: The main features of this park are its natural formations of rock called "hoodoos." They look like strange spires, and they rise up out of the canyon with lots of color. Hiking down into the canyon, one sees a very different side. "Wall street" is a very oft-photographed location where two giant rock walls rise up on both sides of a very narrow path. Very cool stuff.
- Photos while driving through Utah: Just some nice views.
- Arches National Park: Insane. Just amazing. This park features a ton of impossibly huge rock formations standing out against a giant sky. There are the eponymous arches, including one that is the subject of Utah's license plate (which was a mile hike to get to, so I contented myself with the view from a distance, hence there are no pictures of the famous Delicate Arch). But besides the actual arches, there are about two thousand other wonderful views, many of which outclass the arches. You should go here before you die.
- Photos while driving through Colorado: Things that caught my eye while driving through Colorado.
- St. Louis Arch: It was my first time seeing the St. Louis Arch, but I didn't feel like stopping, so I took these photos while driving.
Posted by Barzelay at 1:47 AM | Comments (1)
November 20, 2006
New Webhost
If you're seeing this, you're now using my shiny new webhost, Dreamhost. They seem like pretty cool people, so check them out. I cannot yet recommend them, but two of my readers did. So thanks, Jay and Cathy, unless it turns out to be a bad webhost, in which case, screw Jay and Cathy.
In theory, the 500 Server Errors that have been occurring should no longer occur, and everything should be faster. Let me know if you spot anything awry. It'll take a couple days to work out all the kinks.
Posted by Barzelay at 8:29 AM | Comments (3)
November 16, 2006
Plea For A Good Web Host
It's time for me to get a new web host. My current host, HostExcellence.com, has been very responsive to all problems, has excellent rates, features, and bandwidth and storage allocations. Theirs isn't a very fast pipe, but it isn't so bad that it's caused any problems. No, my dissatisfaction arises from a single issue that they've been unable to correct. If you're at all a frequent commenter on this blog, you probably recognize this page
Server Error (500) I'm looking into the problem. For now, go back and save the text from your comment, and then refresh the comments to make sure it did not, in fact, go through. Then, if necessary, try submitting your comment again and it will almost always work.
And after almost a year of "looking into the problem," I'm giving up. Movable Type simply does not work on HostExcellence's setup. I've contacted technical support at least twenty times about it, and have done several complete reinstallations of Movable Type, and the problem is still present. It is much worse at peak times, but 500 SERVER ERRORs occur roughly 1 out of every 5 CGI scripts that are accessed. Since Movable Type works by bouncing to several CGI scripts (or reloading some particular script) to complete each of the various tasks involved in posting, commenting, or any other task, this means that pretty much any possible action on my blog results in a 500 error. That's unacceptable, and HostExcellence has been unable to fix it, insisting that it's a problem with Movable Type (a suite of blogging software used by probably hundreds of thousands of people without duplication of this problem). In addition, with an identical configuration of Movable Type on my previous two web hosts, the problem did not occur.
And so it is that I must end my relationship with HostExcellence. The trouble is, I don't have any other prospects. Seemingly every site that rates web hosts is commercially influenced and gets kickbacks, or is otherwise biased. I have now had two web hosts that were highly rated all around, and each has ultimately resulted in failure. I need anecdotal evidence.
Has anyone ever used a web host that they didn't hate? Here's what I need:
- > 25 GB of storage
- > 5 email accounts (forwards are fine)
- decent bandwidth and server speed
- > 150 GB transfer per month, and reasonable prices for overages
- unlimited FTP access
- PHP, MySQL (a couple databases), Perl
All of this for under $25/month. I'd prefer cheaper (obviously), but at this point, I'm willing to pay for quality.
Posted by Barzelay at 7:31 PM | Comments (3)
October 18, 2006
Belated Cross-Country Trip Photos (1 of 2)
I am finally getting around to posting photos from my giant cross-country National Parks tour extravaganza (and a few from before it). Rather than post them all now, I went ahead and posted about each location in its own post, and backdated each post roughly to the time my visit to the location occurred. Following the links to the individual posts will reward you with pretty pictures, and maybe even a little text, in some cases. This is the first roundup of two. The second one will better because the locations were better, but enjoy these first.
- EFF Bike Ride at Moss Beach, California: EFF's staff bike ride down near Shari's house in Moss Beach. We walked along the coast a bit, too.
- Flat tire before leaving SF: Just as I was leaving the city, it reached out and grabbed me for one last raping; I got a flat tire in a terrible spot. Read more here.
- Yosemite National Park: It is quite majestic, but lacks a lot of the subtler beauty you'll see in the sets from the next update.
- Death Valley National Park: Hot!
- Devil's Postpile National Monument: Striking formation of basaltic rock.
- Kolob Canyon at Zion National Park: Bright red canyon. I wish I'd have had time to see the rest of Zion.
- Cedar Breaks National Monument: Beautiful at sunset.
Still to come: Bryce Canyon, Arches, and various vistas in Utah, Colorado, and more!
Posted by Barzelay at 2:30 AM | Comments (1)
July 18, 2006
Blogging Does Have A Fourth Wall
Because author presence and audience participation defines blogging, the traditional stage metaphor of the "fourth wall" loses its meaning. But blogging has its very own fourth wall--that unspoken barrier that isn't supposed to get breached and throws everything into unknown waters when it does.
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Well, my fourth wall was breached today. This little postmodern internet verfremdungseffekt isn't as dramatic as I made it sound, but it is at least a little surreal. I posted several months back about a couple shows I attended at the Black Cat, including one by Animal Collective. I'd described the band and the show in very favorable terms, not too gushy, but extremely positive. But today one of the band members commented on the post.
The fourth wall of blogging, at least for those blogs that comment on reality, is the barrier between author/reader and the subjects of the posts. In this case, it is the barrier between you and I on one side, and the band whose show I'm writing about on the other. Every blogger writes for a particular audience. The audience for that post was certainly not the band members of the bands I was discussing. So it's a little weird to be reminded that they might be--and are--sometimes reading these things.
It's a little like having one's mother overhear one talking with friends about sex. Everything one was saying to one's friends could be perfectly normal and reasonable in that conversational context, but it is horrifying to imagine one's mother hearing. One thinks back endlessly on exactly what one said, how bad was it, what did she hear, how would I have said things differently if I knew my mother would hear. And it's the same with the bandmember.
If I'd have known a member of a band I love would be reading, maybe I would've spent a little more time on the post. Maybe I would have gushed a little less, sounded a little less fanboyish. Maybe I'd have tried to sound more hip, and displayed my musical pedigree a bit more. I could have used this phrase instead of that one, and been funnier. Do I come across as someone Animal Collective would hang out with? I don't know.
It's the same any time a blogger becomes aware of a new reader, really. If an acquaintance from high school posts a comment, the first thing I think is how they'll perceive what I'm writing. Or when an ex-girlfriend says she read something on my blog, I go back and try to imagine how it came across.
So the whole thing is an interesting reminder that when we blog, we may think we know to whom we're writing, and we may think we know our readers, but once it's out there, it's out there for everyone. One may be comfortable that one's inside jokes, dark humor, and points of view will be understood by the twenty or thirty people who regularly comment, but a look at the stats shows that there are another couple thousand people reading each day. Who the hell are they? Are they getting the jokes? Am I offending them? What are the expressions on their statistical faces?
Posted by Barzelay at 4:52 PM | Comments (5)
June 4, 2006
Days 3 Through 12
Cross-country trips, new cities, and new jobs present quite a problem for a blogger. They give him tons and tons of material about which to write, hijinks and shenanigans occur, crazy people are met, and pictures are taken, but there is never any time left to write about them. And blog material has a way of piling up that discourages one to blog at all if one can't make a significant dent in the backlog. So this is my attempt to do that. Two weeks of living in one post of blogging. I'd love to be more detailed; there is so much more to tell. But then again, it would be quite silly to lament one's life being so full that there isn't time in which to comment on it. If living were to become a lower priority than meta-living, one's real-life adventures would probably not be the sort worth reading about.
Day 3 of the trip saw me traversing Wyoming. The scenery finally got interesting after the long and boring Nebraska void.
I took a few scenic loops on the recommendation of a shaggy old cowboy at the Wyoming welcome center. He didn't let me down. The first was through Medicine Bow National Forest. It was supposed to add an hour to my travel time, but it ended up adding about two and a half because I stopped so often to take pictures, get a closer look at rivers and trees and snow, and admire the views.
A few more hours and I arrived at the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area loop. The sun was going to go down soon, and I thought strongly about skipping it, but I'm glad I didn't. Some of the views were spectacular, and were made all the more so by the stark golden glow of the sunset.
Then I decided to take some long exposure pictures on the road while there was still some light, and just see what happened. Pretty cool, I think.
I drove and drove and drove and finally made it to Salt Lake City. Thinking I could find some place on the Southwestern side of Salt Lake City, I pressed on. But no lodgings were to be had. I ended up having to go another hour and a half or so, across the Great Salt Flats. This pissed me off a bit because it meant I couldn't see them (it was pitch black in the middle of nowhere, Utah. I spent the night in Wendover, Utah, right across from the Nevada border.
The next morning, I left my pillow in the hotel room, and didn't realize it until the next night. But I decided to backtrack for a bit to see a little of the salt flats. They were very flat, white, shimmering, and eerie. I didn't go too far back, so I guess I didn't even get the full salt flats experience.
Nevada was weird. Everyone I saw there at all stops was either a trucker or a biker. I ate lunch at a pizza hut and literally everyone there (maybe fifteen or twenty people in unrelated parties) were wearing some item of Harley Davidson couture. And there I saw the man with the largest head I've ever seen. He was native American, maybe 6'2" and about 300 massive, powerful pounds. And atop his humongous frame was a head like a ponytailed, lumpy basketball, and only slightly less orange. I could not stop staring at him, and I could not shake the thought that he was the inspiration for the goblins in the animated version of The Hobbit. He even had the same humpback.
I resisted stopping for the all-you-can-eat lobster buffet in Boomtown, Nevada, and finally made it into California.
A few more hours, and I reached Berkeley. With bitter longing, I walked a bit around UC-Berkeley's gorgeous campus. I had no idea it was so beautiful and lush. It stirred up some regrets about not ever studying in undergrad and therefore having to "settle" for not-Berkeley-but-still-wonderful-Georgetown. And then that reminded me of how I'm doing the same thing in law school. Will I finally be forced to settle for a not-high-paying-but-still-exhausting firm job? It was a sobering reminder not to waste my summer, and to really put all I can into the EFF job. Oh, and for the record, I love Georgetown. But Berkeley was my first choice.
I drove across the Bay Bridge into the city, and was pretty shocked. San Francisco is a big city. Much of it is not quaint or charming. There is no parking to be had, and any hotels I was likely to find would have been much more than I'd like to pay. So, having been thoroughly intimidated by my dusk entrance into San Francisco, I promptly drove back across the Bay Bridge, and got a motel room in Berkeley for cheap.
The next morning I went to look at an apartment. The guy answered the door shirtless, wearing sweatpants. His name was Avi, and he was a short and skinny Jew who obviously worked out a lot to make up for the fact that he was a short and skinny Jew. After criticizing me for being Jewish and mispronouncing his name, he took me inside the apartment and started frying up some bacon for himself.
After spending a good fifteen minutes telling me about all the other people that wanted to move into the place, and how this was really an interview and I needed to impress him, he finally explained that in truth, he didn't really care who lived there. Why?
"Because I'm hardly ever here, anyway." At this point the bacon was completely burned and smoking like crazy. He continued. "I'm almost always gone. I get a big-bootied bitch, we hop on that sport bike you see out the window, and we just ride somewhere."
And yes, that's an accurate quote.
In my desperately homeless state, I almost decided to take the place. Thank God I had the sense not to put myself in such a ridiculous home, no matter how much blog fodder it would have produced. Instead, I decided to go by my summer workplace and see if anyone would be there on a Saturday morning who might take mercy on me and give me a place to stay. EFF to the rescue! A staff attorney and one of the other interns were there. The staff attorney got Jason on the phone, who said I could stay at his home. The intern, Nick, and I went to lunch and I stored some of my more valuable stuff in his apartment temporarily until I found my own. And I emailed some more people from Craigslist.
Shortly thereafter, I got a call from one of them, who was familiar with EFF and wanted me to come see the place. Such a huge difference from that other shithole. This apartment was in the Mission, was huge, had a backyard, a loft with a really nice little roof area, and best of all, the people living there didn't discuss the big-bootied bitches they drove around on their sport bikes. We got along very well, and an hour or so later, with a little help from Cara, I was handing over my rent check.
That night, I stayed with Jason. That was somewhat surreal. I'd been reading his blog for several years, and was, shall we say, a big fan of his work. So I was geeking out over being around him, while he was barbecuing me steak and otherwise being a gracious host. His roommate, George, was awesome. She (George) is an Australian programmer who was one of the original people who worked on Flickr. She moved to San Francisco when it was bought by Yahoo. We all watched the last twenty minutes or so of Carrie, as she paused every few seconds to take photos of the screen. Then Jason started taking photos of her taking photos of the screen, and it all culminated in us watching a full episode of Star Trek Voyager. Law geeks indeed.
Every night since then, I've been in my apartment. More on that to come. In the between time, I've started my job at EFF. It turns out that a lot of what I do there is confidential, and I can't really talk about it--kind of ironic for an organization so into free speech. But attorney-client privilege is no joke. Ah, well.
Now you're all caught up, and I can get back to real blogging. Also note that I added pictures to the Day 2 post as well. I'll post about San Francisco, work, my apartment, etc. later. For now, suffice to say, I'm in a great apartment with cool roommates, and I have an awesome job.
Posted by Barzelay at 9:10 AM | Comments (3)
April 28, 2006
WaPo Express's inscrutable blog log
"BARZELAY.NET, A Georgetown law student is pumped about scheduling classes for the next term."
Yesterday's post about my ideal schedule for next year was quoted in today's Washington Post Express. They have a recurring feature where they mention a few things being said on local blogs. This was the second time I've been quoted in the WaPo Express. Which is nice and all...
But Jesus, it's like they go to five random blogs and pick the first post they see. Yesterday's post was barely of interest to Georgetown Law kids, let alone DC at large. When a bum imposes on me to accept a free turkey, no mention. When I unravel the mystery and unmask the anonymous GULC blogger, no mention. When a crazy ex-Green party candidate obsessed with slave reparations calls my home to discuss an article I wrote about him years before, nothing. When I offer my expert input as to why stalls are superior to urinals, nary a quote in sight. But post my course requests, and WHAM! I'm a star!
As flattered as I am, and no matter how great I think my own writing, I do not tease myself that my course schedule is a matter of public interest. Sometimes I post for the world, sometimes for myself, and sometimes for a particular circle of friends. But when the intended circle is not whipped up enough even to hold soft peaks, I can hardly expect perfect strangers to be my meringue.
The last time I was mentioned, the post was about bacon. No more, no less. And yeah, they pulled a decent quote, but still, just bacon. The D.C. blogging community puts out a lot of good writing, sometimes principled, sometimes provocative, sometimes pithy, pert, and palatable. But those qualities are not always on display in the posts the Express chooses to highlight. To wit, they are suffering from a lack of serendipity: they need to look harder.
The same thing occasionally happens on DCBlogs. DC Blogs "Noted" is named in more of a "I noted that you were wearing a solid tie rather than a striped today" sense, instead of a "Noted author Kurt Vonnegut guest-blogged on Kathrynon today" sense. DCBlogs isn't so bad about it, I guess, but it's always interesting to find out that what you thought was an utterly mundane post is someone's Ulysses, while no one ends up understanding your Finnegans Wake.
Bettyjoan and I recently discussed this phenomenon, where whichever posts receive the most widespread attention are inevitably the ones a blogger considers to be among his most boring posts. It's great that you're sending us new readers, but it would be helpful if you'd send them to a page that would actually make them want to read us again sometime. Oh, and speaking of sending us readers, at least this time the WaPo gave my blog address correctly. Last time the tiny blurb contained two typos, one of which was in my blog's address (barselay.net, not so helpful).
Posted by Barzelay at 6:30 PM | Comments (4)
April 20, 2006
Snakes On A Link
Brian Finkelstein, my sectionmate at Georgetown Law, is in the press for his website, SnakesOnABlog.com. The website started out as a simple request: Brian wants to attend the Hollywood premiere of the movie, Snakes On A Plane. It has since become the central location for internet-based discussion on the movie. And last week he was on CNN, MSNBC, and in the aforementioned WaPo article.
Interesting revelations from the article: Due to the internet support, the producers realized their audience consisted of those looking for a consciously ridiculous horror-thriller. So, they decided to do some re-shoots, adding scenes in order to bring the rating up from a PG-13 to an R! That's the first time I've ever heard of a company doing that, which is pretty awesome. It means we get to hear Samuel L. Jackson say, "I want these motherfucking snakes off the motherfucking plane." PG-13 only allows one usage of the f-word. They've also added some brief nudity. And an earlier move to change the title of the film was quashed after wide protest on the internet.
And it looks like New Line may even fly Brian out for the premiere.
Posted by Barzelay at 4:07 PM | Comments (3)
April 8, 2006
Oops: Followup to "Thank you for your gift of $0"
Today I received a followup email to the one
Oh, and to make matters even worse, they sent out this email twice. Oh, and why do they need so much HTML for a simple email? Oh, and did we really need Allen Rosso's signature represented to us in image form? Oh, and... no, I'm done.
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Posted by Barzelay at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)
April 5, 2006
The web host is dead! God save the web host!
Sorry, ADDR.COM. This relationship was fun while it lasted--we got along well, and made each other laugh, but face it; there was no passion. Our romps were always slow and boring, though yes, they always eventually did the trick. Given our lack of connection, and the fact that you always make me pay, it just isn't worth it. I've found someone else.
I switched web hosts last night. Previously I was with ADDR.COM, and while they were nice and had 24-hr. English-speaking tech support, their servers and connection were very slow, especially at peak hours.
So I started looking around and found that HostExcellence.com was on pretty much every legitimate top web hosts list, and was PCWorld's #1 web host. So I checked it out. If I was willing to sign up for a full year, HostExcellence had a plan for about half the price I was paying with ADDR.COM, and it gave me immensely more control over my server, and a much faster server and connection. In addition, I now have five times the storage space and four times the monthly transfer max (which is good since I was coming dangerously close to going over my previous allotment of 80GB). And let me repeat that my new web host is HALF THE PRICE of the old one.
So, the site should be loading faster now. Comments shouldn't take as long to be inserted into the database, and images will load faster, too. I think I've gotten pretty much everything working, but it may take a few days to iron out all the kinks. Let me know if anything about the site acts screwy.
Posted by Barzelay at 4:42 AM | Comments (20)
April 4, 2006
New sidebar features: del.icio.us, and the return of the audio feed
Taking a cue from Jacob, I've realized that there are lots of links that I find interesting and want to share, but don't necessarily warrant a post on the blog. In the past, I have resorted to giant, sprawling, epic posts of links in digest form.
As fun as it has been to come up with witty titles for those posts, I think I've found a better way. del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. What that means is that I've installed a Firefox extension that allows me to tag whatever site I'm on as an interesting link. I can either use these for my own purposes, or, as I've chosen to do, I can publish the RSS feed of the links on my blog. See the "Recent Links" section on the sidebar to the right (I've been playing with it since, so if it isn't there, it will be soon). Those are the twelve most recent articles I've tagged.
It's very convenient because there are often articles I enjoy or find interesting and want to save, but that don't merit a bookmark or blog post. This tutorial (top link in my del.icio.us feed at time of posting) explains how to integrate del.icio.us feeds into a blog. It's quite easy and makes use of another wonderfully convenient site, FeedDigest. So, enjoy the links. Check back often to see what I've been reading.
Using FeedDigest, I've also fixed the function that publishes my recently listened-to tracks on the sidebar. Scroll down to view those. That feed uses Last FM's Audioscrobbler. At time of posting, the most recent tracks are from The National's amazing album Alligator, which I recently learned about from Rock Creek Rambler, despite having seen The National live when they opened for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and not realized it. I highly recommend the album.
In addition, my media feed (which I use solely for movies) is still present on the sidebar, and it uses AllConsuming.net.
And that's my sidebar. I will soon post on how to make your life much simpler by using an RSS reader, whereby your computer can check your friends' blogs for you, and let you know which have been updated. So look forward to more geek masturbation.
Posted by Barzelay at 1:52 AM | Comments (2)
March 27, 2006
Beautiful Love Happy Cat Flower Rainbow Wonderful Jesus
A lot of people seemed to think I was being a bit harsh in my last post; a bit too critical. I agree. I shouldn't have been so mean to the middle-aged concertgoers, no matter how funny the guy was, as he bent and unbent his knees to the beat of... a different drummer. I should be nicer. To quote Andrew Banecker in a recent comment on The Slant's staff board, "...perhaps we could all live in a land of candy and love, where unicorns jump over rainbows..."
To neutralize the bilious tone my blog has taken recently, I submit the following picture, after which I can again be hateful with impunity.
Posted by Barzelay at 12:44 AM | Comments (10)
March 19, 2006
Mea culpa
Things I learned this week:
- When pre-partying, remember to leave something for the party.
- Corduroy blazers have finally moved from hipster wear to yuppie gear. Formerly Salvation Army, now J. Crew.
- The fact that everyone close-talks in bars is not an excuse.
- If someone has more readers than you, it is customary to fellate them while speaking to them.
- Even if you won't do that, you have no right to be an asshole to them.
- Sarcasm, like an inside joke, is best kept between friends.
- People can't tell you're only joking if you're too drunk for it actually to be funny.
- Grabbing someone's arm is a form of groping.
- If you're drunk and at a small bar where you don't know anyone, it's still not okay to talk to anyone multiple times, lest they think you're hitting on them.
- When you're really drunk, it is nearly impossible to speak without spitting. Be aware.
- Refusing to go out alone is not merely a defense against insecurity, it's an essential shield against misperceptions.
- Talking about one's girlfriend can be perceived as hitting on someone.
- Acting like a nineteen-year old frat boy makes people think you're as big an asshole as a nineteen-year old frat boy.
- Don't drink so much.
- If you do drink so much, at least do it with the people at the party, instead of before.
- If you nevertheless find yourself way too drunk and arriving at a party with a bunch of people who don't know you, at least have the presence of mind to be really nice since they don't know your sense of humor or mannerisms, and might understandably misinterpret them as the kind of douchebag actions you would roundly condemn in every situation.
- When you realize you've failed even that, leaving without apologizing is not acceptable, no matter how much you're afraid you might throw up.
- Just because you're twenty-three now doesn't mean you don't still possess the capability to act dumber than you did when you were sixteen.
Posted by Barzelay at 7:04 PM | Comments (6)
February 14, 2006
Only Joel Cares, But...
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My RSS feed is fixed. After moving to the new webhost, I forgot to check whether my feeds had any PHP code that wouldn't be executing (since most commercial hosts only pass server-side scripts to the handler if the file has the handler's extension). That is now fixed, so syndicate away.
Posted by Barzelay at 5:12 AM | Comments (6)
February 2, 2006
Random Quotes on the Sidebar
The other day I created a quotes database in order to have an efficient method of storing and searching through the quotes I've compiled. I was tired of adding them on long-ass text files on whatever computer on which I was working at the time, and then later adding them onto a central file, and all of that. I'm sure none of you have ever gone through that, but you can empathize. Being the huge nerd that I am, I solved the problem.
Anyway, once I had this database, it was short work to create a random quote generator. So, you should now see a random quote displayed on the right sidebar of the main page of this blog, each time the page is loaded. Some of them may not even make all that much sense out of the context of a particular topic, but oh well. I'm happy.
Posted by Barzelay at 2:37 PM | Comments (2)
January 19, 2006
Housekeeping
First, I've updated the spring concerts schedule. Some new shows have been announced, some shows sold out, and I bought tickets for some shows. Check it out and let me know if you're interested in going to any of them.
Second, while my blog was down, two memes circulated in which I must participate.
From Joel, a meme where one posts a screenshot of his desktop in the hope that it will "say something about him." So, here are mine, desktop then laptop. What do they say?
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And I was tagged by Sarah Conway to participate in a Meme of fours that Betty also blogged.
»» Continue reading "Housekeeping"
Posted by Barzelay at 5:05 AM | Comments (11)
Welcome Back, Me
So, my old webhost went down in a very serious way. We were hit with a denial of service attack that led to our upstream provider taking our entire server offline, and disallowing it access for over a week. This is not the first time the server has gone down (the perils of semi-pro webhosts without the resources for massive redundancy), and so I switched to a real hosting site, ADDR.com. Unfortunately, I had to wait until the old host was online again in order to retrieve my backups.
So far I am happy with ADDR.com. Their upstream is a bit slow, but they've got great 24/7 tech support of which I've already availed myself many times. This site shouldn't go down again for a very long time. I also took the chance to upgrade to Movable Type 3.2, which pretty much changes nothing.
...Recommencing blogging.
Posted by Barzelay at 3:47 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2005
Scientists To Try Human-Canine Hybrid, Says Spam Comment!
Sometimes spam is just awesome. I got this spam comment to some old post today, and I thought I'd share:
Be it drugs, explosives or even cancers the olfactory capability of the dog needs to be exploited.Surely it would behoove us to try and implant some human genes into a dog to make it easier to communicate with the animal.
Posted by Barzelay at 2:17 PM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2005
By Request, #4: Barzelay on hockey
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Per request by Chris Santoro, I will speak about the sport of hockey.
See, hockey is a funny sport, because it ought to be really quite graceful (ice skating, skilled sticking), but it's actually the opposite. It is made even less graceful by it's pasty and bloodthirsty fans, screaming their fat heads off over a few drops of blood on the ice.
I've been to only two hockey games, one at Expo Hall, one at the Ice Palace. I remember both of them, only because, after being brought up going to baseball games, it shocked a young David to see the craziness of these fans. I still remember the chant that went up at Expo Hall (the big hall at the fairgrounds in Tampa before the Lightning had a proper stadium). "Edmonton... Edmonton... Edmonton... YOU SUCK!" This was before I was old enough to be allowed to say that something "sucked," so to me this was quite an insult our fans were hurling at the Oilers. I was appalled as they tried to provoke the players to get into fights, and cared more about the big hits than the skilled moves.
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And then, shortly after that, I got NHL '94. It had the little button-mashing fights, and the "Dash" button for checking. I guess that the thousandth time I took my brother's top scorer out of the game by brutally checking him into the wall, I started to also see the joy in such vicarious violence. The game also started to teach me some of the basic strategies and plays in the game of hockey (and indeed, I haven't learned anything about it since then).
I guess I support the Lightning, since it's my hometown team. On NHL '94, I usually played with the Red Wings, though I'd sometimes go with the Flyers. The Red Wings had Federov, the fastest player in the game, and I'd do one-timers all day with him and whoever the second guy was (who was also one of the best players in the game).
Only one other thing that I can really say about hockey. Players should never strike. What assholes. Before the first baseball strike (around '94 as well), I watched an average of about 1.4 baseball games every night. After the strike, I hated pro baseball for about ten years and never watched it. People paid millions to play games, and then striking, is one of the highpoints of absurdity available to us in these short lives.
Posted by Barzelay at 4:10 AM | Comments (3)
October 28, 2005
Mystery Blogger Back Online
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The mystery blogger who I thought had very regrettably driven away from the internet entirely is now back online. I'm glad.
He's understandably pretty mad, but his secret is locked away safely in my brain, never to see the light of day. He says he will now be much more cautious about what he posts, and less honest, and less personal. Let's hope that's not the case. He was the most important voice in the very limited Georgetown Law blog scene.
Look how sorry I am ------------->
Posted by Barzelay at 5:45 PM | Comments (3)
October 27, 2005
Mystery Blogger Flees The Country
His blog is gone. All that's left is a list of "People To Kill," with entries, "1. David Barzelay," and "2. Self." Crap. I so sorry. Apparently I just ruined his life, and now no one gets to enjoy the anonymous travails of the GULC Blogger.
Posted by Barzelay at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
Our case takes a turn, Barzelay ashamed
After sleuthing around to uncover the mystery of the the GULC Blogger, I received an anonymous email from him this morning. He pointed out that in no way was he seeking attention, and still is not. I feel sorry for the guy, as he seems pretty unhappy here, claims to have no friends, and declines to even introduce himself to me and make a friend. He asks that I not reveal his identity, and that I remove the "breadcrumbs" from the last post. I have partially complied, by removing anything very specific about him. In deciding whether or not to out him, I came up with the following reasons for not revealing the secret:
- I get to be privy to info others do not know, and therefore get to lord it over them.
- I leave the secret for others to pursue if they will, not that anyone else would be ridiculous enough to attempt such a thing.
- I am generally interested in people being happy, and not keeping the secret would make the GULC Blogger unhappy.
- I am generally interested in people not hating me, and not keeping the secret would probably make him hate me.
- I'd prefer to be Commissioner Gordon to his Batman, rather than Wonkette to his Washingtonienne.
I could not come up with any good reasons to reveal it. So, for the time being, it will not be revealed. I do, however, reserve the right to drop tantalizing clues when asked, if anyone actually gives a damn. And I'd still like to meet the guy and perhaps befriend him.
Posted by Barzelay at 9:01 AM | Comments (1)
The Mystery Of The GULC Blogger
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I have come into possession of certain information about a mysery afoot at Georgetown University Law Center. When he left a comment today on one of my posts, I became aware that there is a person maintaining an anonymous GULC Law Blog, hosted at gulclaw.blogspot.com.
I'm currently a 1L in Georgetown University Law School. Nobody knows that I keep this blog. I'm documenting the mental state of a shy and nervous law student starting on move-in day: Year 1, Day 1. I plan on maintaining this blog until I graduate, I drop out, or I'm expelled. Or maybe, if I work really hard, all three.
This is the sort of thing that tortures me and keeps me awake nights (or would, if I ever slept). Indeed, I just spent a long time reading the entirety of his blog, and then running around Gewirz to collect evidence. I must discover the identity of this person, and then probe their purpose to decide whether or not I shall reveal him to the world. What do we know about this person? Let us review the facts:
[All clues removed at the mystery blogger's idiosyncratic request]
A little further detective work has narrowed my list down to exactly three possible suspects, one in each of the three possible rooms, [info removed]. One of these suspects is unlikely due to [info removed]. That leaves two prime candidates [info removed]. I will not name them yet. Tomorrow I will become certain about which room he is in [info removed].
Come forward, GULC Blogger, for your doom is at hand. Contact me at dmb57@lawmail or IM me at David Barzelay. Tell me why I shouldn't reveal your identity to the world; your fame at GULC would instantly skyrocket, which would likely get you the friends that you claim to lack. If I do not hear from you by midnight Thursday night, I shall unmask you Friday at high noon! If you voluntarily reveal yourself to me, then I shall remain your friend and confidante, as long as it suits my purposes. Defy me and I will be the Wonkette to your Washingtonienne.
UPDATE: I received a (still) anonymous e-mail from the GULC Blogger asking me to remove these breadcrumbs, which I have partially done. I cut out all the identifying info. See a later post for info.
Posted by Barzelay at 4:57 AM | Comments (1)
By request, #2: Zipper, or Button-Fly?
Per a request by my roommate Ryan Lovin (he loves when I link to that post), I am here discussing my thoughts on the case of Button-Fly v. Zippers.
 27 § 10 Barz. Blog. Supp. (Barzelay.net 2005) |
Held, Button-Fly has failed to produce any evidence whatsoever of their case against Zipper. They claimed, correctly, that button-flies are estopped from painfully catching one's penis while fastening, but this claim presumes the negligence of the wearer. This court cannot allow such a presumption, as a reasonable person takes great care in protecting his or her cock and balls.
Button-Fly fails completely in all its other claims against Zipper. Some members of this court have entertained Button-Fly's claim that under the doctrine of laches, Zipper is simply no longer "in," and have concluded that Button-Fly should be awarded judgment as a matter of law. But this argument is incorrect, and would in fact better support Zipper's case, since common law knowledge shows the button-fly to have pre-dated the zipper.
In addition, zippers have the added advantage of coming undone less easily, which is important since shifting the loss of a button to a tailor is a big hassle, and the jeans are otherwise ruined.
Lower courts have held disparate opinions on this matter, and this case should serve to unify the courts, as well as clarify the substantive distinction between things being merely stylish, and things being too annoying for it to matter how stylish they are. Jean companies may now proceed in their manufacturing with only a single standard of law to obey: Use a fucking zipper.
Reversed and remanded for immediate re-trial of all jeans with button-fly.
Posted by Barzelay at 1:45 AM | Comments (4)
October 25, 2005
By Request #1: Communist lesbian transsexual prostitutes and the midgets that love them.
Per a request by Mike Mott, noted connoisseur of deviant porn, this post is about communist lesbian transsexuals (CLT's, ironically) and the midgets that love them.
Unfortunately, my experience is limited with both transsexuals and midgets. I've known some communists, and some lesbians, but as far as I know, none of them have cocks nor are they loved by midgets. I'm not saying midgets wouldn't love them, I just don't think they've really been properly introduced. So instead, I've obtained this artist's rendition of the elements described by Mike The Perv:
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But, as promised, here are some thoughts on the issue. I'm not really sure about transsexuals. I'm very open to alternative lifestyles in general. I've got gobs of homo friends. Gay porn, though not arousing in the least, doesn't gross me out at all. But something about seeing pictures of transsexuals really disgusts me. I don't want to be disgusted by it. I want to be able simply to acknowledge their physical characteristics and then see them as just like anyone else. But my natural impulse (and I do think it's a natural impulse rather than a socialized one, though we'll never know) is to recoil.
The old argument would be that something to do with our evolution makes us inclined to find repulsive that which is different. Homosexuals, perhaps, do not incite this innate reaction because nothing about them physically offends our instincts. It requires some degree of thought to abstract their homosexuality from the image we see of their person. Because we must engage our higher brain to discover their supposed "deviance," we can similarly use that brain to be tolerant of their orientation. Transsexuals, on the other hand, are quite apparently different, and it is a much lower brain function that identifies them as such.
Oh, and on the subject of midgets: I do not find midgets funny. People will laugh at any situation whatsoever as long as it involves a midget, and I don't understand this. Why are trannies scary, and midgets funny?
Posted by Barzelay at 3:59 PM | Comments (5)
Subservient David
Inspired by the Subservient Chicken, I will write a blog post (including at least one picture of my taking) on every topic or thesis, or responding to every query, as requested in a comment to this post. So request away.
Posted by Barzelay at 12:53 AM | Comments (15)
October 3, 2005
Statistics can be fun!
Looking through the stats for this site, I found a few interesting things:
Last month, 47.8% of the visitors to this site used Firefox, compared with 37.6% using Internet Explorer. This shows that I have an extremely savvy readership, since the population at large uses at least 85% IE.
The phrases used on search engines that led to my blog include:
- vaginas with animals photos
- how to make love
- chest hair pictures
- dykes on bikes
- girls sex phots laden
- pornography causes brain damage
- mugshots downward spiral
- nashville putt putt
- stonehenge reloaded
- where to buy keglevich vodka in atlanta
- ned beatty gets raped
- drunken schuang
- property law humor
- gay escort in eilat
- american groceries and antwerp
- nude swimmers abandon loch ness
- hand and arm signals while using an atv
- pimps and hos party
- ucf hookah bars
- brian reed jewelry texas
- distributing company cuban bread
- it s so dark in here john paul
- his feet smell so bad
- patrick meldrim
And most of my friends' names were search phrases as well (presumably because everyone googles himself). Also, I just realized that by posting Patrick Meldrim's name on my blog, I am probably on the first page of search results for his name. This delights me.
Yep, I just checked. In fact, on the first page of search results for "patrick meldrim" is one of my posts, the excerpted text of which is, "Housing-Director-Patrick-Meldrim-who-represents-all-that-is-evil". That's hilarious. I might be apologetic for this if I didn't think Patrick Meldrim, former Director of Residential Education at Vanderbilt, was a heinous, good-for-nothing prick (Yay! Now that will be on there, too!). The internet is powerful, friends. And as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility to impugn your enemies' reputations.
Posted by Barzelay at 11:11 AM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2005
Bloggers' Political Speech Could Be Regulated
A federal court has instructed the Federal Election Commission to draw up regulations that would make the internet a medium subject to regulation of political speech under campaign finance regulations, spending limits, etc. Originally, the FEC had exempted the internet, and rightly so. But last year some $14 million was spent on internet-based campaign advertising.
The intent of the campaign finance regulations is to avoid corruption and encourage fairness. What could possibly be more fair than anyone in the country getting to say whatever they want to say for the price of a $35/yr domain name and $100/yr hosting, or in many cases, much less? It's a medium where the boundaries of access are so small, it can't be construed to have the possibility of unfairness. The more people that support a viewpoint or candidate, the more that will be written about that candidate, and the more she'll be linked to. That's not unfair, that's democracy.
If an ISP started restricting access to a certain political viewpoint, that would be different, and there are existing laws to cover that. Certain candidates getting more exposure than others is all part of the pre-vote democracy. The beauty of the internet is that its structure greatly lessens the possibility that a conglomerate could, through exercise of power or spending, limit the exposure of an opposing candidate who others supported. And isn't that, in the end, exactly what campaign finance regulation is designed to do?
P.S. - I'm so tired of hearing about how speech is being "chilled." Come up with a new fucking metaphor, you boring libertarians. How about just saying "stifled," or "abridged?" If you need something punchier, why not "assaulted," or "fucked in the ass with neither lube nor consent?"
Posted by Barzelay at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)
BoingBoing touched me inappropriately
1) Getting linked to by BoingBoing gives you a lot of hits.
2) Getting linked to by BoingBoing ought to be fun.
3) It's more fun getting linked to by BoingBoing when the post they link to isn't your most boring post ever.
Yeah, so that wasn't intended for a mass audience, and many of the legal ramifications of the suggestions given therein are unbeknownst to be.
Oh well. Even if the legal stuff in there is speculative (though it isn't entirely unfounded), it is probably true in real life, as long as you are nice to the manager.
Still, strange.
Posted by Barzelay at 10:31 AM | Comments (3)
August 24, 2005
Posting from DC, despite technical difficulties.
In DC, been doing lots of stuff. Met lots of people, etc. Something is screwy with Georgetown's internet such that my website is only available on campus. Currently playing phone tag with their ITS (but they call it IST... royale with cheese). Once I get that worked out, I've got pictures of my apartment (which is very nice and much larger than I thought it would be) and school. For now, I just wanted to let everyone know my new phone number in case they wanted to send me random ass text messages or something.
(202)714-7884
And my new mailing address:
David Barzelay
Gewirz Student Center, #11
120 F Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Posted by Barzelay at 3:48 AM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2005
Barzelay.net Up And Running
Okay, so I've got my website www.barzelay.net up and running. It should now be fully operational. LJ kids, check it out if you haven't yet.
For now, I will continue posting all my entries to LJ as well. I'd like to post to both Movable Type (my blogging software) and Livejournal (owned by Movable Type's company). This is annoying to do, however, because the two plugins designed for crossposting really suck.
»» Continue reading "Barzelay.net Up And Running"
Posted by Barzelay at 7:00 AM | Comments (4)
April 14, 2005
On Blogging
I'm really tired of people who post on LJ but NEVER say anyting[sic] about themselves. I can troll the internet for news. That's not why I'm on livejournal. If just wanted to read about pointless shit that is going on all over the country and world, I wouldn't have wasted my time setting up a blog. Really.
Blogs are meant to be all those things. Specifically, they're meant to be whatever their owner wants them to be. Blogs started out primarily as political/news feeds with a little commentary, but have evolved and now many blogs are much more personal. See popular and old blogs like Wonkette for the "original" blog format. See www.ILikeBoysAndMiddleSchool.com for exclusive personal info.
It just so happens that I'm interested in posting links to news and politics, and writing about my thoughts on them, as well as writing a sort of diary and chronicle of what's happening in my life. If you don't like it, join an LJ group for thirteen year-old girls. If someone you want to know about isn't forthcoming about their personal lives in their *public* blogs, then ask them yourself, but don't expect them to cater to you on their blogs. They didn't waste their time setting up a blog just to write what you want them to.
I don't even think I'm one of the people you were talking about, but I think your post is ridiculous.
Posted by Barzelay at 2:18 AM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2004
Gotcha, My Dorm Room
I'm out of GOTCHA!. I got tired of playing, so I enacted an assisted suicide with the help of Arthur. I played well, but if I won, it would be a hollow victory because everyone would say, "Of course he won. He organized it." Even though I wrote a PHP script that randomized the list and sent it to Alex Makowski, who put together the target packets.
But anyway, last night I completely killed a great moment at the picnic table. It was 2:30am or so, and there were maybe six or seven people out at the picnic table. Lucas was playing guitar, Chase was playing bass, and I was playing bongos, and everyone was singing along to a crappy rendition of Brown-Eyed Girl. We were kinda drunk, and everyone was happy, the mood was joyous, and Chase ("Mr. Nice Guy") was just wandering around, playing his bass. And then he wandered off the brick. And I ran out and shot him. And it completely killed the mood. So, I'm tired of Gotcha, and was ready to die. I told Arthur to just tell everyone I tried to shoot him but I had forgotten to fill my gun, so he shot me.
Anyway, I'm having a blast. 23 people went to Las Palmas this Wednesday. Tons of people are hanging out in the lobby and at the picnic table. Things are pretty drama-free. It's great. I have easy classes, too.
If you'd like to, read this "sudden story" (<350 words) that I wrote for fiction class. I'd like comments on it, and more than just "cool" or "meh". I'd like to improve it. But don't feel obligated. A Black Monday On Flight 5672
Last night I went to bed at 3:30am and didn't wake up till 5:30pm. Yay for no class on Thursdays. But, that meant I didn't so much feel like going to sleep tonight. Oh, well. I wrote a script that automatically creates thumbnails and link text for images in a folder, which means it will be much quicker for me to post files on here in the future.
And I am finally posting some pictures of my room this year which, by the way, is awesome. And now that I have this script, it took approximately 20 seconds to create the thumbnails and output the text required to display the thumbs and link to the full pictures!
Posted by Barzelay at 5:30 AM | Comments (1)