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I get to be as self-indulgent as I want without wasting anyone's time. Guilt-free solipsism -- excellent!
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Monday, June 30, 2003
Howard Dean has stunned pundits by raising (as of 5:20pm CST) almost $7 million this quarter, half of that coming in the last week -- despite an appearance on Meet The Press that had me and many others wincing in embarassment. Dean's fundraising success adds weight to the argument that he is now a first-tier candidate, rather than an insurgent. The New Republic articulates what is so exhilarating about this phenomenon, whether or not one is a Dean supporter: "But whether this ultimately helps Dean's candidacy or hurts it, any fan of democracy has to feel good about what Dean has done. Raising money is typically an exercise in political prostitution, with politicians promising (some reluctantly, some enthusiastically) to please fat-cat financiers in exchange for their donations. Dean, by contrast, has raised his money by collecting smaller donations from thousands of individuals whom he has inspired. (Among the major candidates, Dean had the lowest average donation during the first quarter--and is all but certain to enjoy the same distinction this time around.) That means Dean's fundraising is a far closer approximation of his actual support--measured either in intensity, or sheer numbers of backers, or both--than we're accustomed to seeing in American politics. And at a time when money all too frequently skews public policy away from public opinion, that's worth cheering. " | Incredibly Hot Girl With a Cane. I remember an incredibly hot girl with a cane walking around Park Slope two summers ago -- is it possible this Craigslist item is a re-post? Heh heh. | Thursday, June 26, 2003
For y'all IE users, the new version of the indispensable Google toolbar blocks pop-up ads and integrates a little "Blog This" button to facilitate posting to Blogger. | I've been messing around with RSS aggregators for the last few days. For those who aren't aware, RSS stands for -- depending on whom you talk to -- either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. Essentially it's software that goes out and pulls the latest posts from your favorite weblogs and news sites, and consolidates them in one place. The idea (admittedly akin to the ill-fated "push" technologies of A.D 1997) is that you don't have to surf around from site to site to read the latest -- your RSS software pulls the latest at pre-determined intervals and presents it to you, saving you time and hassle. Plus aggregators tend to strip out ads, etc. so there are some usability benefits as well. RSS aggregators can also pull mailing list postings -- for instance every Yahoo group you belong to also has an RSS feed. A lot of weblogs offer RSS feeds -- you might see links in people's sidebars saying "Syndicate this site" or just a little button saying "XML". All of those mean that the site has an RSS feed you can use, and that you can copy the link into your aggregator to start receiving it. I'm still unsure about the long-term utility of an RSS aggregator and whether I'll stick with it, but I'm already getting irritated that some weblogs don't have RSS feeds -- I want to see all the sites I read in one place. For those sites that don't have RSS feeds (like most blogspot blogs) there are services that can create one. Blogstreet lets you input any blog's URL and create an RSS feed for it, but it appears to be down lately...don't know if it's dead or what. Blogger Pro supposedly supports RSS but apparently it don't work so good. I've settled on the free version of NewsMonster, which integrates into your Netscape or Mozilla (Netscape without the bells and whistles) browser. You can sort your feeds into folders -- I have Web, Culture, Politics, Football, Music, Friends, etc, and it's easy to pick and choose what you'd like to read. There are some still some issues, but overall it's been worthwhile. I'd also tried Amphetadesk, which is probably slightly easier to get started with. However, I prefered the NewsMonster interface, plus I could never get automatic aggregation to work properly with Amphetadesk. These are still early days for aggregators, but I think RSS has some interesting online marketing applications if it takes off...it obviates concerns about "opt-in" for a start. Anyway, all of this is to say that if any of you would like to read this blog via RSS, you can now do so -- my RSS feed is here, thanks to BlogMatrix. | Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Muppets NWA. I can't remember the last time I laughed this hard -- so juvenile and so deeply, deeply enjoyable. | The Onion's republished an interview they did with Tom Waits. An excerpt: O: What are you driving these days? TW: Oh, I got a beautiful 1959 Cadillac Coupe DeVille four-door. No one will ride in it with me. O: Why's that? TW: It's unsafe. But it looks good. I take it to the dump. We spend a lot of time in our cars. You know what I really love? The CD players in a car. How when you put the CD right up by the slot, it actually takes it out of your hand, like it's hungry. It pulls it in, and you feel like it wants more silver discs. "More silver discs. Please." I enjoy that. O: Do you have one in the Cadillac? TW: No, I have a little band in there. It's an old car, so I have a little old string band in the glove compartment. It's grumpy. You know the average person spends two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change? O: Really? I would actually guess a little more. TW: I would guess more, too. I'm thinking, two weeks, you know... O: That sounds like a bargain. TW: During your whole lifetime, though. You know mosquito repellents don't actually repel anything? They actually hide you because they block the mosquito's sensors. They don't know that you're there. It's like blinding them. | Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Howard Dean is hoping to raise $3.5 million this quarter. George W. Bush just raised $4 million in one night. This link could come in handy over the next 18 months: Opensecrets.org | Any of y'all know of any vacancies or soon-to-be vacancies in Brooklyn? pinky & matty, y'all got peeps lined up to move in when you wash your hands of the city? I've got a friend who's Brooklyn-bound and looking for a place...please post to comments or email the proprietor.... | Monday, June 23, 2003
Catch Beckham's Real Madrid medical on pay-per-view. Everyone will be tuning in for "Turn your head and cough". [via large hearted boy] | Friday, June 20, 2003
"StrangeBanana is a program that creates a random webpage design. The page design you are looking at has never been seen before - it was created programmatically just now. If you want, you can use this design for your own website (in that case you should save it immediately, because when you leave the page, you will never be able to get the same design again)." [via b3ta] | Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Clouds and moon move to block the sun. Yesterday I got a call from my grandmother. She rang to thank me again for giving her a CD of Lehar's Die lustige Witwe, an operetta she used to listen to as a girl in Vienna. All the words have come back to her, she said, and she enjoys singing along with it. She said listening to it reminds her of her mother (whom she last saw in 1939). | Tuesday, June 17, 2003
MoveOn.org -- a left-leaning online activism group with 1.5 million American members -- is holding a primary soon to see which Democratic presidential candidate the group will endorse and raise money for. MoveOn has both influence -- they mobilized the public outcry that is forcing Congress to consider rolling back the FCC's decision on media ownership -- and moneyraising clout, so their backing is of no small importance to the candidates. There's still time to register to vote in this primary by going here -- if you're a Democrat, you should do so no matter whom your preferred candidate is. Update: a Washington Post story cites an analyst claiming MoveOn could raise $10 million for their chosen candidate. | Monday, June 16, 2003
The dog now sleeps in the other room, because his crate rustling keeps punkrockgirl up. It's working out just fine -- Dexter's been cool about it -- but I've started waking up in the mornings afraid that he's died during the night. So I have to go and check on him...which wakes him up and prompts vigorous crate rustling as he runs through his repertoire of hilariously soulful hound howls. Lately I've been feeling...unusual. | Various well-meaning message board posters turn their attentions to the monumental task of coming up with nice things to say about Journey's "Don't Stop Believin". The thread charts their miserable -- and sadly inevitable -- failure, but does lead one to the amusing Flash video someone concocted. Heaven is defined a moose? | Friday, June 13, 2003
For all y'all Cat People out there (especially those who name theirs after rotund closeted film British film directors. And for Nastassja Kinski): the denizens of b3ta take up the challenge of If Cats Ruled The World. | Thursday, June 12, 2003
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
punkrockgirl and I attended the Howard Dean rally in East Austin last night, and it was a rousing success. Others have posted accounts of the night -- I'll restrict my comments to the following: To me those facts indicate political courage above and beyond what one would expect. 3000-odd people coming out for a rally 18 months before an election is a testament to the pent-up disgust for Bush among Democrats, the inspirational quality of Dean's campaign to date, and the unprecedented grass-roots infrastructure that the Internet has facilitated. It's this last point that's got me worked up today. Item: 3200 people attended the Austin rally -- unheard of for this stage of the campaign, but even more amazing when you realize that the thing was set up with 10 days notice entirely by local volunteers. Dean raised almost $20,000 at the rally, got a bunch of people to sign the petition ensuring he's on the ballot in Texas, and undoubtedly signed up a truckload of new volunteers as well. Apparently, when Clinton hit Austin at the same stage of the campaign in '91, 75 people showed up. Item: 33,176 people enrolled in Dean Meetup. Item: the DNC has set up ePatriots, a test campaign to raise money online via prominent bloggers. It's being tested on one blog. First day's total: $20,000. Item: another prominent blogger is mulling over a plan to identify one key Congressional race where a late injection of funds could make the difference, quickly raise the money from his audience, and then donate it in an effort to tip the scales. Call it just-in-time fundraising. It's a more nimble approach that is only possible online. Clearly we're just getting started here. Online political fundraising/campaigning is going to grow up before our very eyes, and it will become very sophisticated very quickly. | Monday, June 09, 2003
Friday, June 06, 2003
Sistra v is back! Replete with psychedelic visuals and sobering reports from the NYC public school system.... Welcome back, V. | A few weeks ago, when my cousins from the UK were in town, I went to a karaoke bar for the first time. We turned up five minutes before the bloke was due to shut up shop, but my cousins convinced him to let them have one song. They opted for a Carpenters tune -- Top Of The World, if you must know -- and did a creditable job (I didn't sing -- sorry ladies). However, I have to admit, our family's Carpenters covers can't hold a candle to those lovingly waxed (a-ha! puntastic!) by Kiwi songstress Wing. [via B3ta] | Congrats to Scott, Matt, Brendan, and the Meetup team for being NY1's New Yorkers of the Week this week. You can see the NY1 piece here (requires RealPlayer). Very cool. | Thursday, June 05, 2003
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Monday, June 02, 2003
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