19 Oct 2001 (updated 19 Oct 2001 at 07:53 UTC)
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out of context snatches of conversation
Steph: I thought you were going out to buy chicken.
Me: I was. But I decided to get pizza and cigarrettes
instead.
Nick: Is that the pizza?
Steph: No, it's a guitar cable.
Me: I'm going to step out and get cancer now.
life
Last night I went to an indie rock (the phrase begs
to
not
be capitalized) show at the Gream American Music Hall with
Nick and Schnitz. Acts playing were Magic Magicians, Ted Leo
and the Pharmacists, and Quasi. The first act was lame two
person drums and guitar only noodling, with scream-whined
vocals. I never got the impression that this was a band,
just two guys fucking around. Ted Leo & Co. rocked out
on a
few of the songs, which I approve of, but on others there
was an overwhelming sense of preciousness and
self-importance, and I can't stand the way Ted Leo sings.
Quasi were quite good. What is it with these
ex-husband/ex-wife two-person acts these days? That's some
fucked up shit. Anyway, the drumming was phenomenal, and the
keyboard playing was pretty rad. The singing was pretty
nondescript to me, though, and when the keyboard player guy
picked up his guitar, he apparently lost all ability to
create cool funky and melodic soundscapes, and reverted to
shapeless indie-generic noodling. Some of those songs were
saved by the drumming though.
Oh yeah, there were a lot of cute girls there.
All in all it wasn't bad for a night of three bands
I'd
never heard of before.
the culinary arts
Recent dishes I've made include orchiette with a
sauce
of
forest-picked porcini, shallots and port wine, and tuna
casserole (spiral noodles, tuna, mayonnaise and peas). Mood
swingy eating habits.
I also watched the Iron Chef mango battle just now
(Iron
Chef Italian vs. a Mexican chef) and it rocked. Amazing
dishes on both sides.
personal hacking
I've been working hard on reviewing the upcoming
GNOME
Human
Interface Guidelines. Along the way I read many other HIGs
including the classic Macintosh HiG and the new Aqua HIG.
Quite a learning experience. I am getting more and more
interested in interface design, and I hope someday I can
have a job that mixes in more of that with programming.
work hacking
There were plans afoot for me to work on an
interesting
new
open source technology at work. But it looks like we may
manage to convince Apple to adopt the best existing open
source product for this purpose instead, and help with it's
development. I probably shouldn't say more until things are
more firmly decided. Apple is definitely getting less
dfearful of the LGPL and to some extent even the GPL.
The proprietary bits bug me, but Apple is doing way
more
to
bring a great UI to Un*x, and to bring Un*x and free
software to the masses, than many pure free software
companies.
Still, it disturbs me how many people are just utter
Apple
fanboys, including people who work here. I'm pretty
indifferent to the whole thing.