05.30.00 >> Before today, I was a step-uncle. This morning, I became an uncle: Daniel Riley Schupp is 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and 20" long, born at 10:36am. My sister-in-law's mom thinks he looks kinda like me. :)

From Web Queeries:

Staging funeral protests,
Spreading hate on the web.
Scaring even the religious right...
Give it a boot to the Fred!

Boot to the Fred! (Na na!)
Boot to the Fred! (Na na!)
Boot to the Fred! (Na na!)
Boot to the Fred!

(with apologies to The Frantics and "Ti Kwan Leap")

I guess I'm not gay enough, as I've never even heard of most of these designers, much less can tell them apart. Or something. Are you gay enough?

Like the Bloodhound Gang did back in February, rapper Eminem is coming under attack by GLAAD. Of course, it would be nice to know what he said that was so bloody offensive.

05.27.00 >> Still busy, but curious as to why http://boytoy.web1000.com/shemale/ showed up in my referrer log. (Referer. Referrer. Ref.. dammit! *browse browse* Referrer.)

And, in case you were concerned, I didn't actually faint the other day. I came damn close, but I was able to procure an emergency pack of Chewy Chips Ahoy and raise my blood sugar level back up past the red line before I lost consciousness. My roommate's chicken, rice, and strawberry smoothies helped, too. Sorry if I raised an alarm.

05.25.00 >> Note to self: don't go through the whole day without eating. You will faint. That's not so great.

05.22.00 >> Butch Camp rocked. Go rent it. It's cheesy, but in all the best of ways. (And it was shot in Chicago, an added bonus. My friends and I giggled when they panned past Roscoe's.)

Metromix seems to be pretty good for finding stuff to do in Chicago, and I'll probably find myself using it more and more when I move downtown. Currently, they have a review of Betty's Blue Star Lounge, which was just a couple blocks from my friend's old apartment. The review is spot on; depending on when you go, it's either utterly dead or it's filled wall-to-wall with folks and loud (and fortunately, good) music.

Visibone has a collection of references on color blindness and an example of how the web-safe palette might look to someone with deuteranopia. BT Labs has a page on safe web colors for color-deficient vision. Apparently, one in 12 men (8%) suffer from some sort of color blindness (less so for women -- only 0.4%); something to consider if you're getting the itch to redesign something.

05.20.00 >> The radio segment on weblogging is now a RealAudio file for your listening enjoyment.

More CSS font weirdness. IE5/Mac won't recognize the line-height attribute. Bastard. Are my Windows using readers getting spaced-slightly-more lines? (I have it set to 130%.) Again, let me know, danke.

05.19.00 >> I changed the font specifications for this page from 11pt and 10pt to 11px and 10px. Netscape/Mac users shouldn't notice a difference. I'd imagine most everyone else will. Let me know if it sucks for you or if it... eh, doesn't suck for you.

I should've been more specific. I meant the book, Magister Ludi, by Hesse. I know what it means in Latin. Thanks to those who wrote in, though... I think you volunteered. :)

Tonight starts a three day Tromathon of really bad films from Troma Studios at the Village Theater (1548 N. Clark) here in Chicago. The important thing, though, is that they're showing Butch Camp Sunday evening at 5pm. Who can pass up Judy Tenuta?

Okay, now I'm busy. Honest.

05.18.00 >> Today is the 20th anniversary of Ian Curtis' death. The lead singer of Joy Division hung himself in the house he grew up in. It was said that he suffered from depression and the pressures of being a musician coming under the spotlight. An epileptic, he wondered how much of the audience at Joy Division shows were there for the music, and how much were there just to see how bad his seizures would get on stage.

He was only 23. It might be true: the flame that burns brighter, extinguishes sooner.

Anyone who knows what I mean when I say "Magister Ludi," please contact me. I'm working on something and I need to test its viability.

What are you doing with that needle? Ow! Watch it! What's with you? Hmm. I think I'll get a Pepsi. (Danke, Genna.)

(Mostly) Self Referential Day (even moreso than normal):

My line lengths were not an accident. This is exactly what I designed for. That, and 800x600 displays.

Joe graciously points out via email that browsers that show ALT information when you mouse over a graphic are in the wrong. Or at least, that's not spec. Strangely, Windows IE, Windows Netscape, and I believe Linux Netscape all do this, so I thought that was normal. It isn't. I feel better.

Unless God was Bill Cosby and he had pudding snacks waiting at the front gate for everyone. But last I saw, God was George Burns. For many sequels. And... oh, wait. Damn. I think I just scored a point against myself, or... yeah.

Yes, there is a lot of cross-blog posting about the same stuff, but that's not a bad thing. Yes, some of us read each other's weblogs, but I know I have a lot of readers -- friends in realspace, mostly -- that only read me and are unlikely to read other weblogs that I point out. If I don't say something about the current buzz/drone, how else will they find out about it?

Fliegerbrille. And I appear to be gone. For those who hadn't seen, someone put my tongue pic there with comments about how they wanted to do that to their boss. And other people. And yes, that's my real tongue. And.

This morning, The Connection devoted an hour of airtime to weblogging, with Brad, Rebecca and Ev as panelists. It was very good, and surprisingly, Windows Media Player didn't crash my Mac even once as I listened to it online. I'll post a link to the RealAudio archive when they make it available.

How the hell do people lose shoes and boots along the highway? What were those people doing? Did it seem like a good idea to them at the time?

05.17.00 >> I suck. I should have linked to web(b)log and blorg a long time ago, but alas, forgot to. So long ago that web(b)log has had time to metamorphosize into GorickJones.blog. But blorg is still blorg. Marnie and Rebekah rock. Go rock with them.

Long-time readers will know that I usually send you elsewhere when I'm getting busy. I'm getting busy. I've been "busy" for the last month or so, it seems, neh? This is good, though, trust me. (While I'm at it, I'm also sending you to leather egg, who I've been reading a lot lately, and really need to mention now that Ron's talking about nipples, and I am only too human. There are other weblogs that I should probably mention but am forgetting again...)

I want a Boblbe·e. I want the Ginko. But I can't find how much one costs anywhere on the site. Can I afford this? [I called one of the stores on Boblbe·e's list; they're between $225 and $250. Egads...] (courtesy o' /usr/bin/girl)

05.15.00 >> Killing a meme: I'm no longer popular. This is good, though, as now I can say "fuck" again. For instance:

Now I'm really fucking famous. Swell. (heads up from ever-vigilant Ron... danke!)

Yes, I'm being facetious.

Ron also has a new article up regarding "straight acting" that's definitely worth a read. (Ron's partner Marlin got a 69 too. We are the secret meme!) It is worth noting that even though I scored a "4," I can't flame to save my life. You know, that lispy, queeny, stereotypically-hellish "gay" voice? I can't do it. Many of my straight male friends can. I can't. I sound like some godforsaken cartoon character when I try. What does that tell you? On top of that, I find this "4" score to be curiously suspect, as many of my gay friends have told me that if they hadn't met me through gay-themed groups, they would never have sussed me out. Hmm. Oy, I'm overanalyzing.

Why do I say "oy" so much? I'm Irish, not Jewish. It's such a great word. So much meaning but tricky to define. Once, I was visiting some friends for Chanakuh, and we were playing the dreidel game. One of my friends and I were saying "oy" constantly throughout the night, and finally my friends' little sister asked, "What does 'oy' mean?" I blurted out, "It means, 'dude!'" I guess that's as good an explanation as anything.

05.13.00 >> When uReach upon a phone: 877.651.9977 ext.673. I have free recording time again. Leave angry messages.

Sometimes the details are in the pudding. Er... um, yeah. You know what I mean.

Wacky! It's the MetaCam Page! Dig that camera action. (heads up from prolific.org and Fairvue Central)

05.12.00 >> Okay, fine. I took the straight acting quiz and scored a 69 (go ahead, laugh), giving me the status of level 4: somewhat straight acting. Happy? (courtesy o' hit or miss, log of mutability, leather egg, psionic.nu, and boylog)

Got back from running errands. Food has helped the sore throat, the headache has been killed, and I'm feeling much more myself. (Well wishes are always appreciated, though. :)) I've come home with a copy of Mac OS9 and another goodie. I'm going to try to install 9 on my laptop, to fix this recurring problem it's still having (errors when trying to boot up which can only be fixed by replacing the disk image). Wish me luck. [Update: the install went off without a hitch, but now when I try to open some programs -- like, oh, a browser or SSH -- it gives me an error 3 message. Arse.] [Update 2: I'm not sure what I did (other than turn off unnecessary extensions), but I fixed it. Glad I don't have to reinstall everything.] [Update 3: Fixing it was temporary, as I did nothing and it started giving me error 3s again. The troubleshooting guide gives the helpful advice of reinstalling my programs. Thanks. Wow.]

The other goodie I've got is now working. And I've been testing it. And now I get to share. Heya. For those who were on #blogirc a week or two ago, no, I wasn't kidding, I can do it (take that, Stef! Ha! :P ). I also should try out for the next Addams Family movie... but not the re-enactments on a rockumentary. Rob Zombie I'm not.

So I find that Mr. Wilder is compiling a list of other green blogs. That's pretty cool, as it seems Prol wants to start a sports league. It looks like the green team is a fine set of folks, all of whom I'm proud to call teammates, and we will kick all your asses in the field hockey tourney, you just watch, suckas.

Speaking of Mr. Wilder: he says the design sucks. I dunno, I thing it's pretty cool, especially for lo-fi (meaning no supergraphics or dhtml tricks or whatnot). I'm a big fan of lo-fi.

Speaking of Prol: you have a lovely voice, dear. You need to sing back-up for Gavin. I'll ask him if you won't. >:) Me, on the other hand... we'll see. I may, as my contribution, do an a capella rendition of "The Ballad of Ezra Messenger" by the Gravel Pit.

Blah blah blah Webbies blah. I can't rouse myself to care. Congrats to the winners, though.

If a white weblog is a trend, then Brad was way ahead of the times. You trendsetter, you, Brad. You. Er... okay, sometimes sentences go on too long. Sorry.

Today, I woke up with a sore throat and a neckache. The neckache ended up exploding into a full blown headache, and I started having sinus problems to boot. Since uploading my mind into the Computer and leaving my body behind seems like a really good idea right about now, I should mention the Extropy Institue. They're kind of scary, but in a good, challenging-my-preconceptions of what-life-is-defined-as-and-its-boundaries kind of way. But anyway, being sickish meant no Anime Central for me today. But tomorrow. Oh yes, tomorrow.

05.11.00 >> Apparently, I'll be spending part of tomorrow and most of Saturday watching anime and being silly. I can handle that.

In getting my laptop back up to speed, I'm using MacIE5 more than Netscape, which means I can see title="foo" info when I mouse over something. I still can't see the alt="foo" info, though. Erf.

Poor Matt... Matt, I'd send you the lawyer I knew, but he's a fuckwit, which is why I stopped dating him and don't talk to him anymore. Hang in there. (To those even more in a cave than I am: Matt L.'s being threatened with legal action by Mattel because his site's domain, mattl.com, is similar in spelling and a perceived trademark infringement. Blah.)

Ich bin grün. (courtesy o' everybody)

Fun recent search that lead to this page: "story sex robot girl." I'm sorry, but you cannot sexx0r your robot girls here. Thanks for stopping by, though.

05.10.00 >> I know not everyone gets along with their mom. I do. Such letters remind me of part of why I love her. (courtesy o' log of mutability)

The last few days spent offline have been good. They've been very good. As Douglas likes to say, "lala. teehee! teehee!"

I got my laptop fixed, finally. My bubalah Lhaksmi! Now I have to catch up with installing software.

Well, alright then. Let us know when you're reincarnated.

05.08.00 >> I love it! Elise solves the question of "what color scheme should I use for my weblog?" by just using all of them. It's like there's a party on my browser, and everyone's invited.

This is probably the most compelling thing I've seen to promote our space program, for it is indeed a glorious day in our Space Age when our pups can live productively with the help of space-developed technology (pdf file format). (Kinda sounds like a B movie for kids, doesn't it?)

05.07.00 >> Now that it's all ushered in, here's DataLounge's readers' digest version of the civil unions struggle in Vermont. So, you know those white, oval stickers they use for automobiles in Europe to designate the country in which they're registered, and the kitschy variants you see in the states? How long do you think it'll be before we see one saying VT, with the letters in rainbow-striped hues?

It will be a smaller affair, but it will be memorable. I'll make sure of that. How, I don't know yet.

Dammit, Neale, I thought you weren't going to show anyone. That was just for me, you said. Our special secret, you said. I'm shocked.

05.03.00 >> Okay, for having one of the sexiest voices on the air and one of the coolest radio programs in syndication, Forest doesn't look like he sounds (not that he isn't cute).

Why do gay men feel compelled to tell everyone who they think is cute? Is it a cultural thing? Do we find it reaffirming of our sexuality, somehow? Or is it that all guys talk about who they think is cute, and I haven't noticed because I'm too busy telling my friends whom I find cute?

05.02.00 >> The web is boring today. I'm sorry. Not that this is my fault, but neither am I helping things.

Anyone have any comments on Red Gorilla? It's a time-tracking utility on the web for freelancers and consultants. If you have any experience with it, or can suggest a better alternative, I want to hear about it.

I'm going to be really selfish for a moment and berate you all for not plotting my destiny... hell, why wouldn't you want to do that?! Who else gives you this chance? Anyone? I didn't think so!

One of the folks from my old company, whom I worked with on a project that involved me writing some Perl and a web interface, has been calling me constantly today to ask me how to use bits of one of the scripts to do something else. I am answering his questions and helping him troubleshoot it for free. Why am I not charging the company for my time? I am a dumbass.

05.01.00 >> I can half-read this Dutch article on homowebloggers; three years of high school German classes come in handy at times. It figures... even the Dutch love Zannah. :) (courtesy o' hit or miss, which I forgot to credit this morning. It's been so long, I guess, that I've taken a link from another weblog that I've fallen out of the habit of crediting finds. Good for me, bad of me.)

Last night I slept with my window open. It rained. Though it didn't rain into my bedroom, it now smells like wet mulch, courtesy of the breeze that's been blowing in all night and into the morning. How nice.