04.30.00 >> By chance of whom I saw and hung out with today, I ended up going to see MASS Ensemble perform in their studio this evening. If you ever get the chance to see these folks, go. There is nothing cooler than someone playing a 25' long bow as an instrument.

I've never heard any Sisqo, but this is still funny (duh-nuh duh-nuh).

Belated announcement: The mystery guy has stepped forth! It wasn't Wendell, and it wasn't Crazy Uncle Joe, either. I'm wondering if I should keep the mystery man a mystery, or what. Oh, the decisions. [Update: Mystery guy revealed. Check out Luke's page if only for the dueling Antons.]

Super-belated announcement: CHIxLM/May is in the works. [Update: After choosing a tapas restaurant that's closes early on Sunday, Dan found another restaurant, so we have a date, time and place: Arco de Cuchilleros at 3445 N. Halsted, 7-9pm, Sunday the 7th of May.] It's not the big Super Bowl of Bloggers that Dan wants to hold in June, but rabblerouser that I am, I don't see why non-Chicagoans should be excluded if they want to stop by or will be in town anyway. :) Also, this June shindig is evolving into MxMW (Mouth by Midwest? I dunno), and all interested folks should email Dan to let him know so he can keep you posted and can get an idea of how to plan it all out. We've talked about it being a big weekend thing. We are ambitious.

04.29.00 >> Just got back from a Beltane celebration with a bunch of pagan friends, prancing in the woods, drumming, doing a maypole dance, lots of fun. Didn't meet a boy (Beltane is probably the most appropriate holiday for hooking up with someone), but that's fine, as I'm more concerned about getting the rest of my life in order, before I start looking around to find someone to share it with. I did meet a fellow webgeek, though, whose company could be hiring. (If you're reading this, hey Shauna!) Nothing I'm counting on, but dig it if anything comes from it. It'd be nice to work with like-minded folks. I love how the universe works sometimes.

04.28.00 >> My favorite google.netscape search to date that found this weblog: "angry people in the society."

Hee hee:

Mad props to Jason
nullmeansnull and that's a fact
That is always true

The good news: Chicago cops can still be nice guys, even if you accidentally run a red light on Ashland while trying to get everyone home. No ticket for me. The bad news: when they ran a check, my license plate came up as expired, even though I got it renewed last month. Since I had a new sticker, they let it go and told me what was up, but now I have to go visit the DMV and find out what the hell is wrong. Yay, bureaucracy.

04.26.00 >> The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case to determine if the Boy Scouts of America can exclude gay scoutmasters.

The only experience I have to personally relate to this story is from when a friend of mine was made an Eagle Scout a few years ago, and his family asked me to be the videographer. After the ceremony, at the reception in the church's cafeteria, I kept checking out the scoutmaster's thighs. If, by some cruel plot twist, the right-wing, fundamentalist Christian Weltanschauung ends up being the right one, I am going straight to hell for cruising a scoutmaster in a church. (What that has to do with the case, I don't know, but what the hey.)

Back in January, Dan Savage wrote an article for Salon, "Stalking Gary Bauer," wherein he related his attempts to give Bauer the flu in revenge for Bauer's anti-gay campaigning style, and voting in the Iowa primaries. The flu part was exaggerated, it turns out, but Savage did vote in the primaries. For that, he could end up in prison.

Vermont's Senate passes the damn bill; the Governor has promised to sign it into law. Florists all over Vermont prepare for the coming onslaught of orders. (I've been slipping; instead of keeping an eye on this myself, I got a heads up from Vanessa. Slack, Jason, slack. Slack, slack, slack!)

Hell yeah: Fox is going to start showing the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon on Saturday mornings.

04.25.00 >> I've decided. Just about all of the shades of purple in the web-safe color palette suck. Now I just have to figure out how nicely I want to work around that in the future.

So this year, the Easter Bunny brought me some candy, some pasta, an M.C. Escher screensaver program, and... frozen ribs.

...

Not that I'm vegetarian, but the connotations of a mythical fairy-rabbit giving me the flesh of another creature to eat is not something I want to think about any time soon.

Pomegranate, who made the screensaver I got, seems to have a lot of other cool stuff, too: art books, postcards, puzzle books and whatnot.

04.24.00 >> An Apology to Mr. Wendell Wittler. He said that no apology was necessary, but I still needed to apologize. Sure, dripping sarcasm can be fun in a weblog, but you shouldn't attack people that you know don't mean you harm. Just read it. (Wendell also says that the mystery voicemail guy wasn't he, so who could it have been? I only have one more guess.)

Speaking of being proud of all the glbt stuff I post, here I go with catching up from Web Queeries (which is this week's Blogger Blog of the Week! Woo!).

Here we go again. C'mon, Vermont...

Sorry, kids, but she's dead, who cares?

Elsewhere, if they wanted you to be gay, they'd beat it out of you.

Some will argue that pride marches are degenerating into advertising vehicles. Others counter by saying that businesses showing support help to build community and fight intolerance. Here's more grist for the mill...

Zannah shows us how to replace all good and right action with a gun. Now your character, too, can be a zoologist.

Hi. We're back to what passes for normal around here. Big fans of the Sound Files should be glad to see it firmly ensconsed to the left of the log. But not in the corner up right. Too many links and we'll get recursive weblog backlash and then where would I be? Idaho, probably.

04.23.00 >> YES! YES! YES! PHOTOS! YES! It's about fucking time! (courtesy o' Zeldman's Daily Report) [Update: Hmm. They want my phone number. Now I'm skeptical. Ah, well, what the hell. We're moving soon, anyway.]

I guess I'm back. Was I away? I'm not wholly sure. I'll take down the Tally Sound Files down from the index soon enough. Tomorrow, methnks, if not before. In the order they were received, I'd like to thank Matthew, Jay, Nikolai, um... someone in L.A., Amanda, Nik again, Stef, and Mark for participating in the experiment! I may have to do it again in the future, but it'll be slightly different next time.

It's so little. I'm sure Sam will want one for his truck as soon as he finds out about this.

04.22.00 >> Happy Easter!

There. Now I'm satisfied. Coming up with a strong, non-text-based design without an appropriate photo-image or two is a bitch. Props to Nikolai for helping me get the text in the top portion aligned nicely on a PC with IE5, when I'm on a Mac using primarily Netscape 4.7.

Ah hah! I knew all this voicemail wackiness would lead somewhere.

04.20.00 >> Today, I am thankful.

I want to stop and thank all of Weblogdom. Many weblogs reported that Michael Moore had directed the latest Rage Against the Machine video. Knowing this allowed me to call the local college station and answer the question correctly, landing me two tickets to see Upright Citizens Brigade tonight/tomorrow. The 21st. Whatever. Thank you, Weblogdom!

So the reviews from #BlogIRC (which met impromptu last night) on these squares were mixed. Thank you for the feedback, gang. Some folks liked them, some were indifferent, some were just eh. I decided yesterday that I was apparently on design crack and didn't know what I was doing (hence the cheap-ass striped background now). I give up. I don't know if I like them or not now. Poor Paul, I was in his office yesterday and I kept tangenting to those damn squares.

Yes! I must thank Paul. Thank you, Paul! Remember that offer for a job offer I got from the anonymous Tally reader? Well, this reader was Paul, and the offer for a job offer turned into a job offer, and I landed my first freelance gig! Woo!

I am loving this voice mail trend in Weblogdom. I get to do bad impressions of Barry White.

04.19.00 >> This is the happiest y I've ever seen.

04.18.00 >> Was this post too harsh?

I still can't get the background to look right on the files... first there was this, then this and this, now this. It's still not right. I need a break. I have an idea on how to make it better, but I need a break. [Update: Much better.]

At least it's not this. Never, ever, ever do this.

I'm getting a new appreciation for Mark and how he must feel while redesigning if it doesn't work out quite right.

04.17.00 >> Yes, I see.

I have a few more uReach minutes left, kids. Grab those phones! 877.651.9977 x673 ... it's free. Not the kind of free you achieve by running around your house naked, but still free. (I'd consider buying more minutes from uReach, but then they'd see that I'm not a 75-year-old woman named Bedeliah Bauhaus.)