Blah Blah Blog
Just a thought from 26 March 2004 about SXSW.

Last year at SXSW, Heather and I had a conversation we'd had a few times before, about race and gender and geeks and conferences and representation. Et cetera. Except this time, we did it with a camera present.

Chuck Olsen was there working on a documentary about weblogs and caught it on tape (we were aware of his taping, of course). Today he posted a clip.

In case you can't tell, I'm the shifty-eyed, sighing, vaguely inappropriate one. It's things like this that remind me that I'm much happier communicating from a keyboard. It also reminds me that this issue, like most, is too complicated for a quick hallway conversation.

Poster Child
Just a thought from 20 March 2004 about Clips, Powazek.

In the SF Chronicle today: THE BATTLE OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: Straights working to win legal rights for gay couples: "They're straight - but they don't consider themselves narrow. And now they're mad.... Among the new activists is Derek Powazek of San Francisco, who headed to Civic Center three days after the weddings began with his fiancee and a homemade 'congratulations' sign. The 30-year-old Web site designer and producer brought along a camera and began snapping photos."

The last few times I talked to reporters, my quotes seemed to come out saying something I didn't mean. So it's nice to finally deal with a reporter who got it right. My thanks to Rona Marech for covering this story with sensitivity and smarts.

The New New Thing
Just a thought from 18 March 2004 about .

For the past few years, I've redesigned powazek.com when the calendar flipped to a new year. Looking at it that way, I'm only three months and eighteen days late. Yay for me!

Welcome to the new Powazek dot com, same as the old Powazek dot com. The idea was just to break out of the bloggy thing a bit, try my best to do the standards CSS mambo, and incorporate the photo work I'm doing over at Ephemera these days (which, really, is so much more fun than anything I've done here lately).

I also wanted a site that explained a little better just who this Powazek guy is to newcomers. But mostly I just couldn't stand looking at my own smirking face on this page anymore. So launch we must. I do hope you like it.

KnowSpam 300k
Just a thought from 17 March 2004 about Geek.

As you might know from all my previous babblings, I use a service called KnowSpam to filter the spam out of my email. It keeps a tally of how many spam messages it's saved me from seeing. On Monday, it crossed the threshold into 300,000.

What's notable about this, besides the sheer volume of it, is the ever-increasing speed of the rising tide of spam. It took four months for me to hit 100k, three to hit 200k, and just two to hit 300k. At this rate I'll hit 400k spam messages in April, 600k in May. I bet that by 27 June 2004, my one year anniversary of using the service, I'll have hit the 1 million spam mark.

What a dubious achievement.

Dogblogging
Just a thought from 16 March 2004 about .

Things the new guy likes:

• Walks
• The bed
• The couch
• Us

Things the new guy doesn't like:

• Stairs
• Being alone
• The camera

Names we almost gave him:

• Nemo
• Ein
• Leo
• Whisky Bar
• Inky Babinky Butter
• Motherfucker

The name we settled on: Bugsley Dante Champ Powazek. But you can call him Bug.

You have been warned
Just a thought from 15 March 2004 about .

Stewart Butterfield is a bad, bad man.

The New Guy
Just a thought from 14 March 2004 about .

Meet the new guy. »

I've only been to the SPCA twice. Both times just to look. The first time I came home with a cat.

Heather and I went to the SPCA today. Just to look. And, of course, we can home with a new friend. He's a 1 year old Chihuahua mix. He's gentle and sweet and we have yet to hear him bark. And I so totally love him.

It's hard to feel the joy of this new friend without grieving all over again for Tigger. The trainer woman at the SPCA even knew what happened.

"We're a tight community, us dog folks," she said.

It felt right to get a dog from someone who knew the story.

No matter what happens, Heather and I will always have a Tigger-sized hole in our hearts. But this new guy, whatever we decide his name is, isn't here as a replacement. He's here because we saw him and, as Heather said, he put the whammy on us.

So far, reactions in the household have been mixed. Chieka is mostly indifferent, Spoo is curious about the new guy that growls at her when she gets too close (we'll have to work on that), and I swear I heard the house rumble "nooooo!" the first time he looked confused for a moment and peed on the carpet (yeah, we'll work on that, too).

Me? I'm ecstatic. I think he's just the best. He has a real gentle quality that I love. And he's scruffy and spotted and kinda unkempt like me. The only bummer is, I've lost my favorite joke. Used to be, when someone made a sideways comment about my little dogs, I could say: "They came with the girl." Which they did. And it wasn't just a fair trade, it was a giant fucking bonus.

But this guy? This guy I wanted. I picked him out with my sweetheart and we signed on the bottom line and took him home. On purpose. Together.

It's time to face facts. I likes me a Chihuahua. And I'm not making any jokes about it anymore. They rock. If you don't get it, well, that's your loss.

Like Heather always said, it takes a big man to walk a small dog.

Recent Ephemera
Just a thought from 13 March 2004 about Photos.

A few favorites from recent ephemera:

Complete Archive ...

And it still hurts
Just a thought from 3 March 2004 about .

Always in threes...

Edwards is Out
Just a thought from 2 March 2004 about .

Well that seals it: Kerry will be the Democratic nominee. He will be will be our Obi Wan to Darth Bush. It'll be Botox Frankenstein vs. Smirking Chimp. I can feel my brain numbing over already.

Wake me when it's time to vote again.

Super Tuesday
Just a thought from 2 March 2004 about .

Today's the day! Make it count.