Who can resist 'if operating systems were like airplanes'-type comparison lists? yuki_onna and I certainly can't. Therefore: Programming Languages Are To Literary Schools As... -- We went to an Introvert Party at kythryne 's house this weekend. Those are a profoundly good idea. An introvert party is where people get together, bring some craft or project to work on, and just hang...

This photoessay (pointed out to me by yakavenger ), a memorial of the Siege of Leningrad , is amazing. It is uncaptioned - scroll down and take a look. The way they superimposed fragments of Blockade-era photographs onto current streets is remarkable, and reminds me of locational art in William Gibson's Spook Country .

Being proactive rules. It's kind of the mark of being human, of being sentient. But.. you know. It's fucking hard. It's a quest, a destination, at least for me. So to say that a lot of my life is not a reaction to events would be... wildly inaccurate. I react to external events. And (though this is not quite the post to explain it) I want to have a general parity, an equal correspondence of direness...

The first Monday after being laid off from my full-time job feels.. like a busy Sunday. The heating oil ran out yesterday. This is highly displeasing -- we just put in $200's worth, a quarter of a tank, the day before we left for Cleveland. Two weeks later (with us away for the holidays), the oil is completely gone. The main culprit is the fact that our landlord (who is well-meaning but not exactly...

We've left the demesne of our wonderful hosts, and are heading out back east to Maine. We'll be driving tonight and tomorrow. And of course, there's another snowstorm. I suspect blazepoet is somehow involved. Talk to you soon!

If you happen to be looking for programmers in: Java Python PHP Smalltalk Ruby for remote telecommuting contract work, or know someone who is -- let me know. My previous contracting gig has just had its funding drastically reduced as of this morning, so I'm on the lookout for more coding work. I'm smart, creative, have 8 years of desktop development and web development experience. I specialize in...

As part of a 2008 retrospective -- here is what I remember from the year, unaided by looking at blog or calendar.

Notes and Map Key. Branches - Branches in the timelines are navigated in the usual fashion, with elbow grease. Making choices, working, doing stuff, slacking off. If you find a way to directly jump timelines, without those, PLEASE let me know. Gap A - The width of this gap depends on your insight and imagination. It generally requires godlike intelligence. (This is where future AIs come in...

"D, I have a short story to write, and I can't think of what to write it about," Cat said. "You should write it about.. beef.... .. stew. No! Uh.. um.. you should write it about.. a city that lives on people's skins." Sometimes she asks me for ideas, and sometimes my babble helps me spark them. More frequently, carrots and potatoes and beef in a slow cooker are involved. But she wrote it. Palimpsest...