Category: Plugs

May 17, 2004 /

Ken, Maria and I rolled down to l’Centre on Saturday to coo over Lisa’s senior show, which was all very massive color-gradient glass pieces, and awesome. I can’t really describe them to you–she has a couple pics up, but seeing them in three dimensions and with more light was much better.

The next day, Maria and I argued over whether or not I am indie–something for which I vaguely hope, but never considered myself cool enough to achieve. She pointed out that in addition to my mild but distinguished collection of obscure t-shirts, I do know two glassblowers, and that’s some solid cred there. I should have known that in the indie world, friends are primarily status symbols and tools to an end. (And for the record, Maria used to date a rock star, so I’m pretty much never going to be indier than she is.)

Zing!

May 11, 2004 /

“Walking through the turn-of-the-century expositions devoted to ‘small press’ comics, visitors were greeted on one side of the aisle by roughly drawn ‘zines’ about disaffected white youths with bad jobs, failed relationships and genital warts; and on the other by strange, multidirectional experiments and oddly-shaped cardboard constructions with day-glow silkscreen covers.”

I don’t feel about Scott McCloud the way most comics people feel about Scott McCloud, but his pre-emptive introduction to the Flight anthology is clever and even biting, as quoted above. Self-indulgent, too, but what do you expect? It’s comics people.

“Zines About Disaffected White Youths with Bad Jobs, Failed Relationships and Genital Warts” is really too long to be a band name, but it might work for a horse.

May 9, 2004 /

Maria and I were discussing the increasingly esoteric and convoluted nature of spam, just now, including the fact that much of bulk email no longer serves a discernible purpose. I frequently receive spam from nonsense names, advertising nothing, free of hyperlinks or parsible sentences.

I pointed out that one reason it’s gotten so complicated is the constant, high-speed arms race between spammer and anti-spam software vendor; as new regular expressions are devised and new efforts made to beat them, whole fields of technique can be created and discarded in a week. And then Maria said something that chilled me to my very bones.

“What if,” she said, “the vendors are putting spam out there just to keep selling their software?”

I’m terrified, now, that she might be right.

Anyway, read Spam As Folk Art.

April 21, 2004 /

I’ve been reading Doonesbury daily for about ten years, but it feels like a lot longer–except for a gap in the 80s, I’ve read almost every strip at some point.

I saw the “important” part today’s last panel coming a couple days ago, but that wasn’t what would have surprised me anyway. I may be wrong, but I believe it’s the first time Trudeau’s ever drawn B.D. without his helmet.

April 1, 2004 /

Whoa. Why just work at Google when you could work for Google on the moon?

Actually, they are hiring for real, which is intriguing. I hope they’ll still be doing it when I finally graduate. Seeing job opp pages at my dream companies always sets my heart a-thunderin’–until I remind myself that oh yeah, I’m still in school, and even if I were that good a programmer they’re not going to let me in the door without a couple years of pro experience first.

It’s nice to think about, though. I mean, the moon.

April 1, 2004 /

Lately, with the absence of Captain Rodchester, Tuesday Night Basketball has transitioned to a kind of Weekly Illuminati Night, Where Maria Always Wins. That’s right. Maria has won every single one of our (three) games, including the first one, when she’d never laid hands on it before. I hate Maria.

Expect a spate of posts about Illuminati now, in the fashion of many geeks when just getting into Illuminati. Also, I’ll probably complain about the Society of Assassins, whom I apparently draw 75% of the time, and whom I am growing to hate. Assassins suck. Give me the Bermuda Triangle.

Secret Conspiracy Update: If you google for “steve jackson” illuminati, this ISP in Austin comes up as like the second result, despite the fact that they in no way mention either a) “steve jackson” or b) Illuminati. Dun dun DUNNN!

Okay, I’m not sure what that proves.

March 25, 2004 /

For some reason (most likely NewsBruiser’s ping of weblogs.com), NFD got listed at Blogweb.org. Sensing an opportunity for aggrandizement, I helpfully updated the listing, placing myself correctly in the elite category of XBOX/YANNI. Now I’ll just sit back and watch the hits pour in!