Archive for April 2004

Out of Tune

In Apple, Design, Geek on 28 April 2004 with Comments Off

I’m a randomizer. Back when my music came on small reflective circles, my favorite thing to do was load up the 5-disc changer with CDs from totally disparate genres and hit the shuffle button. Hours of tunes, bouncing between styles.
Now, admittedly, this is not everyone’s cup of tea. I’m sure there are many people [...]

Overheards

In Life on 25 April 2004 with Comments Off

Overheard on Carl Street: Family sitting at a sidewalk table at an Italian restaurant, father to young son: “See, that’s why you get spanked. You just. don’t. listen.”
I was on the kid’s side until he screamed through the rest of his dinner.
Overheard on Ocean Beach: The nice guy with the two tiny Westies walking [...]

It’s an honor to be nominated. Again.

In Fray on 21 April 2004 with Comments Off

Fray has been nominated for a Webby Award. When this happened three years ago, we were nominated in the Community and Personal categories and all hell broke loose. People kvetched that Fray was not personal, not a community, and besides the Webbys are passe.
This time around seems much calmer, which, in a way, just shows [...]

KnowSpam 400k

In Geek on 21 April 2004 with Comments Off

For anyone following the horrible saga, my spam count hit 400,000 today, just a bit past the middle of the month as I predicted. Onward to one million, bastard spammers!

Happy Four-Twenty

In Stories on 20 April 2004 with Comments Off

The calendar reminded me of a story I wrote three years ago. Here’s a bit:
Four-twenty. Supposedly it’s the number of active elements in marijuana. Or the criminal code for possession. I think all that’s all just urban legend material. All I know is that on April 20th, back when I was in college at Santa [...]

Monday!

In Fun on 19 April 2004 with Comments Off

PETER: When you come in on Monday and you’re not feeling real well does anyone ever say to you sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?
LAWRENCE: Shit no man, I believe you’d get your ass kicked saying something like that man.
– Office Space
More Office Space clips.

Plays Well with Others

In Elsewhere on 14 April 2004 with Comments Off

I’ve had the pleasure to contribute to two other sites recently, and it’s really so much more fun than talking to myself here.
I’ve been reading TeeVee for years – it’s the best writing about the idiot box anywhere. So what a pleasure it is to see a little something I wrote published there. It really [...]

Dear Senator

In Politics on 13 April 2004 with Comments Off

To: Senator Liz Figueroa <senator.figueroa@sen.ca.gov>
From: Derek Powazek <[myaccount]@gmail.com>
Subject: You are wrong about Gmail
Senator –
I’ve just read about your hopelessly misinformed attack on Google’s new product, Gmail. And I can’t help wondering, have you even seen the service?
As you can tell from my return address, I am one of Gmail’s beta testers. I bet if [...]

Vampires and Cowboys

In Joss Whedon, TV on 12 April 2004 with Comments Off

I never liked vampires. The whole vampire genre, it seemed to me, was made for sex-starved girls and self-obsessed high school goths. Then I met Buffy.
Buffy the Vampire slayer, by Joss Whedon, was great television, if you haven’t heard. Smart, funny, dramatic, and very very real. Yaknow, as real as a girl dusting vamps can [...]

New in {fray}: Making Leta

In Fray on 11 April 2004 with Comments Off

The best part about running a collaborative site is being able to mix and match all of the talented people I have the privilege of knowing. Like, I wonder what would happen if we mixed the lovely, hysterical words of Heather Armstrong and the emotional, gorgeous art of Claire Robertson?
Well, wonder no more. Enjoy [...]