No more combined feeds

While I’d been considering this for a little while, Dave’s ‘Information Aversion’ post prompted me to un-splice my Flickr photos from my RSS feeds. Having done that, I’ve updated my feeds page to list my current available syndication feeds, all broken out to allow readers to subscribe to as much or as little of my drivel as they please.

I now offer six different syndication feeds. The first three are various ways of getting actual weblog posts:

  • Excerpts Only: The lightest feed available, this will only deliver a short excerpt for each post. You’ll have to decide if you want to click through to my page to read the full post or not.

  • Full Posts: This is the default RSS feed for this site. The full front-page text of each post (extended entries are not included).

  • Full Posts with comments: This is the most information-rich feed. The full front-page text of each post is included (extended entries are not included), along with any comments made to that post. Entries will update in your RSS reader as new comments are added, until the post scrolls off the front page of my site.

The second three contain various extra information: comments to current active conversations on the weblog, interesting links I run across, and my photography.

All feeds are run through the Feedburner service in order to assure maximum compatibility and usability. Each feed will automatically optimize itself according to which aggregator requests it, and if anyone actually clicks on any of the feeds in a browser, rather than getting a page full of gobbledygook, they’ll get a nicely formatted page explaining what they’re seeing and providing them with a full complement of buttons to assist in subscribing them to whichever news aggregator they favor (try it out, it’s rather nifty — unless you use Safari, where this doesn’t seem to work…bummer).

(If you already subscribe to my del.icio.us or Flickr feeds directly through the respective services, there’s no real need to switch to using the Feedburner feed link — you’ll get the same information either way. Of course, if you do use the Feedburner feed link for those feeds, I’ll get more accurate statistics as to how many people are reading which RSS feeds, which makes me happy. Whatever works for you, though.)

iTunesLunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum, The” by Collide from the album Vortex (2004, 5:34).

State of the Union 2005

‘Liveblogging’ (though I won’t actually post this until afterwards) the State of the Union. I’m not sure why, all it’s going to do is annoy me. But still…

He’s introduced, standing ovation. Why the standing ovation? He hasn’t even fallen over yet.

He’s been placed in office by half the people he serves…details, details. And I have to wonder just how free and sovereign Iraq really is, we seem to have our fingers in a lot of pies over there.

“Our generation has been blessed…” Unfortunately, my generation is being quite nicely screwed, thankyouverymuch.

We’ve overcome the recession? Good to know, I’ll have to look into that. We’ve added 2.3 million new jobs…which is where compared to where his predictions said we would be?

“We will keep America the economic leader of the world.” As the dollar continues to fall.

He’s going to cut the deficit — which he created — in half by 2009. Okies. First thing, eliminate government programs that aren’t performing up to standard — what standards, and which programs?

From Prairie re: No Child Left Behind, because as a teacher she knows more about that than I do:

standards are lower, minorities aren’t being tested, high school diplomas don’t mean crap
and he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about
sure, you can increase the size of Pell grants if you don’t give them to as many people

(How many times did he have to practice saying “fruitless asbestos” without stumbling? He sure slurred that…)

Why can’t people give speeches without having to pause for applause breaks after every two sentences? Whatever happened to actually listening to what someone has to say, rather than just blindly applauding every talking point? (Of course, it does give me a few more moments to type my random comments here…)

He’s re-vamping the entire tax code? Apparently there weren’t enough loopholes in the current system for his big business friends.

So he’s advocating looser immigration standards for people who will take jobs that Americans “will not take”. Oh, give me a break. In other words, cheap labor for shit jobs. There shouldn’t be jobs that Americans “will not take”. Our sense of ego and pride — “I’m too good for that job” — is a serious modern problem that drives me up the wall.

Social Security has problems that “will grow worse with time.” A long, long, long time. There is no crisis. On a long enough timeline, we’re all dead, too.

Ooh — he’s getting booed on the Social Security bankruptcy claims!

Lots of namedropping — we’re looking at all these guys ideas because we can’t come up with any good ones. Or something like that.

So these Voluntary Personal Retirement Accounts are tied to the stock market. Gee, that’s encouraging.

And now we’re getting into “honor and values”, “;responsible and moral children”, etc. Marriage, of course. He’s still pushing for a constitutional amendment on marriage?

We’re also “building a culture of life”. Ugh. I can hardly listen to this. Anti-abortion (though he doesn’t come out and say it directly), embryos are sacred.

The emphasis on young men in this three-year program to keep kids out of gangs and such feels incredibly patriarchal and sexist to me. Young women aren’t worth saving? Or will saving the young men automatically bring their girlfriends/wives/sisters along with them?

No person should have to face prosecution for crimes they didn’t commit (unless they’re in Gitmo or have dark skin), so we’re focusing on DNA based defenses (and oh, by the way, don’t worry about the national database of everyone’s DNA that we’ll be building in the meantime). Not that DNA based defenses are a bad thing, but I worry about just what kind of privacy issues might be raised, and how they’re going to approach this.

At least now he’s admitting that Al-Quaida still exists.

Most of this section of the speech could be summed up with “DANGER! DANGER! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!” Yes, we’re still in danger, everyone still wants to kill us, and we should be sure to stay under our beds wrapped in tinfoil, we understand.

We know we should be giving the military the tools they need. That’s much of what we keep telling you. That $40M of inauguration money could have bought a lot of armor, weapons, and vehicles for our troops in Iraq.

Oh, crud, my ‘net connection just went down.

Just called Speakeasy and apparently Seattle’s network is having issues — it was described to me as being “up and down like a basketball”. I’ve still got access to my own server so I can post this, but who knows when it will actually be visible to the rest of the world.

At 6:55 pm PST our main Seattle network router went offline briefly. There are still problems with connectivity and routing for all circuits connecting through Seattle. We are working on the issue and hope to have full connectivity restored shortly.

Grrr.

iTunesFlower of Sweet Strabane” by (unknown) from the album Songs of Ireland (1994, 2:20).

Jumping the gun?

Budding leaves, Seattle, WA

It feels so much like spring these days.

We’ve got bright and beautiful sunshine that’s actually warm when you step out of the shadows — warm enough that it’s tempting to ditch my winter coat and go back to my spring/fall jacket.

Green buds are showing on the tips of tree branches.

All this, and it’s just barely into February. That just doesn’t seem right. Okay, so I’m not in Alaska anymore, where February tends to be the coldest and most bitter weeks of winter, but isn’t it just a bit early for weather like this, even here in Seattle?

Whatever’s going on, though, I’m enjoying it.

Stating the obvious

I brought up the Flickr page for photos tagged with ‘alaska‘ tonight to show it to Prairie — lots of gorgeous shots of my home state — and had to laugh at the “related” tags that Flickr automatically generates.

Alaska related tags on Flickr

glacier‘, ‘snow‘, and ‘ice‘.

Seems to me like they’ve got Alaska pegged pretty well!

iTunesAll I Want” by Cure, The from the album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (1987, 5:22).

Toy Story 3 having problems

It’s nice to wake up on a Monday morning to some good news.

Word broke a while ago that Disney was working on moving ahead with creating a third sequel to the popular Disney/Pixar CGI Toy Story films. However, due to the currently strained relationship between the two companies, Disney would be doing this third film entirely on their own and without Pixar’s involvement, as they hold all the rights to the property under the terms of the current agreement between the two studios.

Few, if any, of the people I know thought this was anything remotely close to a good idea, given Disney’s current inability to produce anything of quality and tendency to pump out cheap direct-to-video sequels to their classic films in lieu of any real creativity. The only animated films that have come out of the Disney empire for the past few years that have really been worth seeing have been the Pixar collaborations, and Disney trying to continue a Pixar success sounded like nothing but trouble.

Apparently, though, my friends and I weren’t the only ones to feel that way, as Disney is having problems finding anyone willing to sign on to the Toy Story 3 project.

No one wants to direct ‘Toy Story 3.’

That’s the word in Hollywood’s animation world, where the third installment of the incredibly successful Pixar series has no director, writer or, possibly, stars.

My sources in the animation biz tell me that Disney, which will make ‘Toy Story 3’ without Pixar, cannot find a director to guide the project.

[…]

Disney has the right to make sequels to all the Pixar movies it distributed, including ‘Toy Story,’ ‘The Incredibles,’ ‘Finding Nemo,’ etc. But there’s a hitch — since Pixar developed all the animation materials to create the movies, it also gets to keep them.

In other words: Disney is now trying to hire another team of animators to recreate Buzz Lightyear, Woody and all the other ‘Toy Story’ characters so that they look the same. It will have to start from scratch to reproduce Pixar’s creative work.

The next step, of course, is to find a writer and director for the project. With Lasseter gone, my source says, “Every single animator of note has turned down the director’s job. They don’t want to cross Pixar. They’ve become the only deal in town.”

Good news, indeed!

(via Luxo)

iTunesHeresy” by Rush from the album Roll the Bones (1991, 5:25).

New camera!

The day finally came when I had enough funds available to replace the camera I lost nearly a year ago.

My new toy: a Canon PowerShot A95. I’ve only had it for about a day now — Prairie and I picked it up yesterday — so I’ve still got a lot of leaning to go, but so far, I’m very happy with my new lil’ toy. Small enough to fit in a pocket, so I’ll be able to carry it around with me all the time and have it handy at a moments notice, solidly built, lots of options and buttons to learn, a handy little flip-screen display, and 5 megapixel resolution.

Prairie and me, Seattle, WA

Puke! Puke! Puke!

Plus, this lil’ guy can even take short video clips! This was something I had to play with, so I made a short little one-minute movie taking a look at a silly little M&M dispenser that Prairie got me. iMovie was able to compress it down to about 1.5Mb, so it shouldn’t take too terribly long to download. There’s not much to it — mostly just me being silly — but it was certainly worth a few minutes of playing around.

Hooray for new toys!

Oh, and Rick — you can come pick up your camera now. Many, many thanks for letting me borrow it for nearly a year!

iTunesCentral Reservation (Ibadan Spiritual Life Radio Edit)” by Orton, Beth from the album Plastic Compilation Vol. III (1999, 4:00).

You just can’t sing in the supermarket…

A couple of days ago, I got this somewhat cryptic e-mail…

Hello…

Something is happening in the produce section of your local Supermarket this weekend:

Jan 29 – 12:30 pm – Ballard Safeway – 8340 15th Ave NW
Jan 29 – 7 pm – University Safeway – 4732 Brooklyn Ave NE
Jan 30 – 12:30 pm – Capital Hill QFC – 523 Broadway E
Jan 30 – 7 pm – Everett QFC – 2615 Broadway

Still,
-jason webley

So, today Prairie and I wandered our way up to the Capital Hill QFC to see what would happen.

Broadway QFC, Jason Webley Grocery Invasion, Seattle, WAAs 12:30pm rolled around, there were quite a few people wandering around the produce section. Some made a pretense at shopping, some greeted friends, some just stood off to the side, and some continued on with their normal Sunday shopping. Occasionally a QFC employee would wander through to see if anyone needed any help, but we were all quite content to keep puttering around and investigating the fruits and vegetables.

Eventually, in strolled Jason, guitar case in hand, looking much younger now that he’s clean-shaven and still growing his hair out after his last deathday concert. A few nods, hugs, and friendly hellos passed between Jason and some of the gathered friends and fans, and then he joined us in our purported produce procurement. A few minutes later, Jason raised whatever vegetable he was holding up above his head, as if to get a better look at it in the light from the window. The person next to him raised their veggie in the air. Another went up, then another, then another.

One girl who’d been strolling around listening to a portable CD player started humming to herself, then swaying back and forth, and then singing. First softly, then more and more loudly, she sang along to The Clash‘s ‘Lost in the Supermarket‘: “I’m all lost in the supermarket! I can no longer shop happily!”

Broadway QFC, Jason Webley Grocery Invasion, Seattle, WAMoments later, a guy in white shirt, tie, and a tag reading “MANAGER” strolled over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Miss? Miss? Excuse me, miss, but could you take your headphones off, please? Look, I’m very glad you enjoy shopping here, but you just can’t sing in the grocery store. I’m sure everyone else here would much rather shop in peace. You just can’t sing in the supermarket!”

And then he turned to the people standing around, drew a deep breath — and sang out, “You just can’t sing in the supermarket!”

A girl in a white shirt and white kerchief tied over her hair joined in — “Anyone will tell you so!”

Broadway QFC, Jason Webley Grocery Invasion, Seattle, WAJason started playing his guitar. Another guy pulled a clarinet out of his jacket. Three girls nearby joined the song, complete with chorus-line high kicks. Eventually, about half the people that had been hanging around in the produce section were involved in the lineup, waving their hands in the air for the grand finale: “Because if you sing in the supermarket, you will have to go!”

And with the clash of a small pair of hand cymbals, it was over. Jason’s guitar went back in its case, the clarinet disappeared back into the jacket, and, accompanied by much laugher and scattered applause from other shoppers, everyone quickly made their way back outside to the sidewalk.

Jason Webley Grocery Invasion, Seattle, WA“Off to the next one!” Jason cried, and up we all went to the QFC on 15th Avenue.

All told, we hit five grocery stores before Prairie and I had to break off from the group in order to get her back on the road to Ellensburg before it got too late in the day. When we left, the group was heading up to a Trader Joe’s, and we’d heard mention of the QFC at Pike and Broadway — we’re assuming they made it there as we saw them a bit later walking by Dick’s on Broadway as we were heading back from a detour by Twice Sold Tales on our way down the hill to the apartment.

What a blast. This world needs more random silliness in it from time to time, and we had a lot of fun being part of this particular bit of randomness. Much giggling and many smiles from everyone in the group and from whatever customers happened to be around in each store — just the thing for a grey winter day in Seattle.

More pictures of the event are, as usual, in a Flickr photoset.

Update: M. Whybark witnessed Saturday’s revelries.

Update: Accompanying M. Whybark were the not-entirely-mythical Danelope and Jim, who contributes this photo set (which, as he points out, is smaller but more focused than mine — hey, it was my first day with a new camera…[grin]).

Update: Steve Konscek, the “manager” of the troupe (more commonly known as Brandon) has posted his account of the weekend’s fun.

iTunesQuite Contrary” by Webley, Jason from the album Counterpoint (2002, 3:08).

Goodbye, Grandma

Earlier this week, I got word from dad that mom’s mother had suffered a massive heart attack and was in her nursing home’s hospital, likely with only a few days left to live. Mom flew down to Florida immediately, and was able to visit with her mom and cousins (who had also flown in) while Grandma was awake.

A second, more mild heart attack followed soon afterwards, and today at just a little after 4pm Seattle time, Grandma died.

It’s been almost exactly a month since Grandpa died, so any prayers, kind wishes, or whatever fits into your life for my mom would be appreciated. Dad’s flying down to Florida tonight to help mom out with all the final details, and the memorial service will be on Monday.

As I mentioned when Grandpa died, the distances between Alaska and Florida kept me from knowing mom’s parents as well as I might have otherwise, though we did travel to visit them as often as possible, and they came up to Alaska quite a few times before the trip became too much of a bother. Grandpa loved to travel, so they’d often drive their Winnebago up the Al-Can highway rather than fly up, and their summer visits to Alaska often included a fair amount of family sightseeing around Alaska, all of us piled into the camper and driving around. Invariably, at least once on every trip, someone would leave a loaf of bread on one of the bench seats, or it would fall off the table, and Grandma would end up sitting on it. No trip was complete until Grandma had sat on the bread.

Grandma’s sight started failing many years ago. She functioned as well as she could for a long time, but eventually got to the point where far more magnification than glasses or a magnifying glass was able to produce. She ended up getting a machine similar to an overhead projector that projected whatever she put onto the workspace onto a screen, allowing her to read and write letters. Since she couldn’t read the menus of the restaurants that she and Grandpa liked to go to, she would often borrow a menu, take it home, and use her reader to peruse the menu at her leisure so that she’d know what she wanted next time they went out to eat. We soon found out on her trips that her studies were hardly limited to what she was interested in, though, as once we were all gathered around the table at a restaurant, she’d stand at her spot and recite nearly the entire menu to us from memory.

She was a wonderful, strong-willed woman, and will definitely be missed.

Bye, Grandma.

Gallimaufry 6

Just a quick run-through tonight — I’ve got dinner and movies waiting for me — I’ll come back and babble more about these later on (maybe). Same deal as always, ten songs at random…

And the bonus track…

iTunesAngels” by Amos, Tori from the album A Tori Amos Collection – Tales of a Librarian (2003, 4:26).

Lightbulb Joke 2005

How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. There is no shortage of filament. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

(via BOP)

iTunesSex Bomb (Peppermint Disco Radio)” by Jones, Tom