February 2005 Archives

I spent my weekend in Madison attending my second Bockfest at the Capital Brewery with Carla and Jona and their assorted peeps. Last year I was spoiled by unseasonable warmth. This year, I was in denial and thought I'd be fine all afternoon in a sweater and my new windbreaking jacket which does absolutely nothing but break the wind. No element of warmth whatsoever. But I drank my beer, dammit.

Fly Girl rode down with me and hung out with one of her college friends while I was out dying of hypothermia celebrating Bockfest. Then we all met up for dinner at Chautara. I had goat for the first time. Kinda tasted like lamb, but with the texture of stewed beef. It was good. Too bad I left it in FG's friend's refrigerator.

FG's friend lives on Williamson Street, so after dinner we went back to her neck of the woods and hoofed it over to Weary Traveler (passing Steve's Tattoo on the way, I took a moment). The name "Weary Traveler" turned out to be appropriate because we played Trivial Pursuit until FG and I darn near passed out from exhaustion. Not so much on account of the Trivial Pursuit, although trying to read the cards in the near-darkness was rather strenuous. We had to pause the game when the lone tea light at our table burned out.

We met Carla and Ryan for breakfast this morning at Lazy Jane's Cafe where I believe every lesbian in Madison was also having breakfast. Half of us ordered the scrambled eggs with cream cheese and scallions. I fucking love cheese.

We hit the road right after breakfast and figured to make pretty good time, but we hit a random snow squall about halfway home and I think we counted fifteen cars and two trucks on the side of the road. But we were only in the bad weather for about 20 minutes. It was weird.

Fortunately it didn't slow us down too badly because we were trying to make it back to the Cities in time to see the free Sounds of Blackness concert at 4:00. Which we did. And it was a terrific show. Wow. A lady I used to work with at my Previous Employer sings with them and I've heard her sing but had never seen the group perform. They were spectacular. As part of the show, T. Mychael Rambo read excerpts from some of Dr. Martin Luther King's speeches. Gave me chills.

I feel like that was a lot of activity packed into 36 hours. But it was fun. I've been working so much overtime, this is the first full weekend I've had off in a month and a half.

*fall down go boom*
*zzzzzzzzzzz*

...why someone put this cartoon up in the break room at work. My department is not exactly a hotbed of social awareness and tolerance. Not where gay folks are concerned, anyway. Unless Crusty Old Dyke did it.

...why a barbecued pork sandwich seemed like such a good idea before I ate it.

...why my moblog doesn't show up anymore. I can see all the pictures I've uploaded at the TextAmerica site and at my SprintPCS Picture Mail site.

...why, despite the fact that I don't like chocolate, I cannot stop eating this fudge my roommate made.

...why I cannot get my MT 3.15 installation to initialize. mt-check runs fine, but mt-load gives me a "bad Object Driver config" error. So it has something to do with the database. The location or the permissions or the authentication, maybe. Haven't had time to search the support forum yet.

...why I felt it was absolutely necessary at 2:30 a.m. to try and install MT 3.15.

As someone who a) can't seem to tear themselves away from the computer and b) no longer has the attention span to read a book, this idea seems MARVELOUS.

I just had an idea for a system where you could choose any one of the public domain eBooks out there and have a small chunk delivered daily via RSS. Many of us are too busy to read classic books out there, instead choosing "page turners" or books that are more applicable to our every day lives (like a some new marketing book). But we do have time to zip through our aggregator daily, right? So by taking a 500 page novel and distributing it, a few pages at a time, via RSS, we could read a new book in a month or so without even trying.

Remember the windfall? (Seriously this time.)

I've worked my way into a surplus. Of sorts. I still have things to pay for (like taxes and car maintenance) and pay down (like the devil), but I'm determined to splurge. I already treated myself to an outlet shopping spree.

I definitely think massages are in order for Fly Girl and myself. I also considered Lynx season tickets, an iPod or iPod mini, and an MPR membership. I know I still have to pay for a Caribbean trip in April and there may also be a long weekend trip in March.

This is too much fun.

I just followed this SpamAssassin tutorial*. Conveniently, I found it in the Surpass help forum. I don't know if I did it all right yet since it hasn't been running long enough to learn/catch anything, but the process seemed easy enough.

I mainly decided to flip it on because the email address I use with this webpage gets a ton of spam, and unless I leave my laptop up and running while I'm not home, the junk doesn't get filtered out when I check my webmail.

I just Googled "spamassassin tutorial" and it looks like a lot of the tutorials out there are more about how to work with SA when you have it installed on your own computer/server/whatever. I appreciate that SA is all powerful and configurable like that, but that shit doesn't make any damn sense whatsoever.

What I like about the tutorial I found in the help forum is that it steps through how to configure SA in cPanel. This involves flipping some switches in your Mail settings, creating a new directory and file within your home directory, and then setting a cron job.

So there ya go, if you're interested.

*I'm logged into that forum, but I'm not positive that you can see the thread without being logged in. Somebody let me know if you can't get to it.

So, I had signed up with DreamHost. I knew they didn't support MT, but I didn't think that would be that big a deal. And it wasn't. Or, I didn't get far enough to find out if it was or not.

For no other reason than because I just had to look it up.

centripetal force and centrifugal force, action-reaction force pair associated with circular motion. According to Newton's first law of motion, a moving body travels along a straight path with constant speed (i.e., has constant velocity) unless it is acted on by an outside force. For circular motion to occur there must be a constant force acting on a body, pushing it toward the center of the circular path. This force is the centripetal (“center-seeking”) force. For a planet orbiting the sun, the force is gravitational; for an object twirled on a string, the force is mechanical; for an electron orbiting an atom, it is electrical. The magnitude F of the centripetal force is equal to the mass m of the body times its velocity squared v 2 divided by the radius r of its path: F=mv2/r. According to Newton's third law of motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The centripetal force, the action, is balanced by a reaction force, the centrifugal (“center-fleeing”) force. The two forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. The centrifugal force does not act on the body in motion; the only force acting on the body in motion is the centripetal force. The centrifugal force acts on the source of the centripetal force to displace it radially from the center of the path. Thus, in twirling a mass on a string, the centripetal force transmitted by the string pulls in on the mass to keep it in its circular path, while the centrifugal force transmitted by the string pulls outward on its point of attachment at the center of the path. The centrifugal force is often mistakenly thought to cause a body to fly out of its circular path when it is released; rather, it is the removal of the centripetal force that allows the body to travel in a straight line as required by Newton's first law. If there were in fact a force acting to force the body out of its circular path, its path when released would not be the straight tangential course that is always observed.

When Fly Girl asked me if I wanted to go see the Twin Cities Women's Choir concert, I checked 'em out on the web before I agreed.

I thoroughly enjoyed their performance, and as we walked out of the concert, I declared, "I would totally love to do that!" This came as a surprise to FG. My glory days of high school choir are long past, but I can carry a tune. And I love this kind of stuff.

I'm only considering it because you don't have to audition and participation is open to anyone who can show up and doesn't totally suck. If/when my work schedule changes and I actually have evenings available, I'm totally gonna check them out at their next open rehearsal.

Garrison Keillor did a bit on this week's A Prairie Home Companion about accents. A midwestern accent makes you sound kind of slow and like you'd be a good person to ask if someone needed to push their car somewhere. Or something like that. So you should consider attending the St. Paul College of Accents. Pick up a couple extras.

I don't think learning a Michigan accent is quite what he had in mind, but you could do that if you wanted to.

(via Alfie, via srah)

If you dump the juice of some too-old salsa into your kitchen sink, it will eventually look (and smell) like someone threw up in there.

Minnetonka Moose

I thought good ol' Don would have some kind of explanation up, but no. Apparently he's just a guy who likes to make moose sculptures and display them around town. And drive a truck with the website address emblazoned on it. Which is how Tiffany found out about it.

I have yet to see one of these moose in person. I suspect if I ever do it'll be one of those "Ooh, I heard about that moose!" moments where no one knows what you're talking about and looks at you funny as you try to explain the story of how you came to know about the moose. Kind of like right now.

New host account transferring propagation type stuff going on.

Be vewwy vewwy quiet....

UPDATE: If you can see this, propagation is complete. And more changes are to come.

Since we were downtown getting my hair done, Fly Girl and I decided to go for a walk in the Skyway.

This is something I'm going to add to my list of things to do with visitors. It's neat enough that you can get all over downtown Minneapolis without going outside, but what's really fascinating about it is the people. We took our walk during weekday lunchtime, so it was filled with people who work downtown. Folks out power walking, eating, shopping, people-watching.

I swear, we got clipped a few times because we were either going too slow or had ventured outside the established traffic flow. We weren't heading anywhere in particular, so we got hung up a few times when we had to choose a direction at an intersection and hesitated. The Skyway People don't like it when you slow down.

If you're trying to navigate the skyway, forget the notion of giving left-right directions. The best way is to look at the map, pick a destination, and then pick a few landmark stops along the way. It's easier to follow the signs towards particular buildings and stores than it is to know that you need to take a right at Marshall Fields or cross Marquette Ave.

Anyway, it's a pretty cool experience. I wish I worked downtown. I'd be in the Skyway all the time.

You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the
world to one person.

I needed professional help. The last time anyone cut my hair, my sister did it. The last time I got it did was probably three years ago.

I called up VIP Salon where I used to go in town, only to find out that the chick that used to do my hair there has her own salon now. I would have gone to Lisa, but I couldn't very well ask them to refer me to another establishment. So I asked them to sign me up with the first person available on a weekday morning.

Fly Girl and I hoofed it on over to 12th and Nicollet, only to find that the salon wasn't there anymore, either. Called 'em up and they said they were at 12th and Hennepin. Good thing it was only a few blocks away. It's a great location and a bigger, more glam space.

Anyhoo, I told Todd I needed a touch-up and I sorely needed to reduce my hair's copious volume. The touch-up actually did most of the work, but he layered it a little bit, too. I went with FG last week to get her hair done, so she was accompanying me this time. I told Todd that I had my girlfriend with me and she got the final approval on whatever he did. I was a little nervous to say anything after reading what happened to Anitra, but he took it well. And she loved it. *cheese*

I had him blow it straight. First time I've worn in straight in foreva and a day. I liked it. Too bad I'm too lazy to straighten it all the time. I swear, I don't know whose hair this is on my head.

Anyhoo, picture below.

I have no need for My Yahoo as my browser homepage anymore.

I don't use my Yahoo mail account, but some people keep sending me shit there, so I feel a need to periodically keep checking it. The easiest route to notification was glancing at My Yahoo, because I don't IM with that acct. But I just installed YMail, so that takes care of email notification.

All my news comes via RSS, so I don't need the headlines. Yahoo never been a reliable source of airfares. I go directly to Yahoo Maps* if I need to map something. The only thing I might miss is the sports scores, but I'm sure I won't even miss them and if I really want to know I can find them elsewhere.

I've been telling myself to just make up my own portal with MT, but I'm not even close to getting around to that.

Anybody have a homepage they like?

*I regularly use "mapquest" as a verb, but I rarely actually use Mapquest. I like Yahoo maps. And I haven't played with Google Maps enough to have an opinion on it.

*eyeroll*

So, this if my first ever Valentine's Day not being single. Actually, there may have been one year in grade school where I was going out with Larry or one of the Seans, but that doesn't really count.

I told Fly Girl that I was feeling overly pressured. One, because this is a totally overblown Hallmark Holiday, and two, because I'm completely uncreative when it comes to gift-giving. We spent a nice weekend together. That, for me, was plenty sufficient.

We had dinner at the Edina Grill and went to Diva Riot Dance Party at the Kitty Cat Club on Saturday. Diva Riot was spectacular. The Kitty Cat Club is a great space and DJ Luscious not only could actually DJ (unlike DJ Chamun at Twilight), she was playing all my New Old Skool favorites. Fantastic. FG and I both won door prizes. We came home with a two-foot glow stick and some swizzle sticks.

Sunday we went to church, had breakfast, lazed around FG's apartment in the afternoon, then went to my apartment, made dinner, and watched the Grammys.

So my Valentine's Day feels complete. I think there'll be cards exchanged or something. It so happens our three-month anniversary is Wednesday. I should probably get another card. Or something. Hmmm....

Anyway, an obligatory Valentine's Day bloggy thing:

Tell me how this makes sense.

The WNBA will be expanding to Chicago in 2006. Also, the word from Ted, resident women's hoops expert.

This is my first time ever living somewhere with a fireplace. I haven't gotten to burn logs as often as I'd like so far this winter, but it's very pleasant when I do. So we stocked up on DuraFlame logs, and we tried some real wood. But I think our favorite has been Java Logs.

They're made from coffee grounds, they're environmentally friendly and cleaner burning than wood, they don't have the acrid smell of wood smoke (although, disappointingly, they don't smell like coffee), and when they get down to the very end they give up a great flare when you poke 'em.

My roommate found them on clearance at Target, but I think you can get them at Whole Foods, too.

The co-worker formerly known as Dirty Dancer has a new nickname. I've taken to calling him Juice.

He was in the Bosslady's presence one day and she was visibly nervous. As he was relating the story to me, he made a joke (let's be clear, it was a joke) about her being nervous because she was so attracted to him. And this is probably crucial to the story, but I can't remember if it was him or me that followed that with, "Once you go black you never go back."

You see where this is going?

Because once you make the "once you go black you never go back" comment, it's inevitably followed by, "The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice." He's the one that said that, for sure.

So I took it upon myself to go around telling various other co-workers to start calling him Juice and then ask why, and if he wouldn't tell them to come back to me and I'd tell them. He had the nerve to get all embarrassed. Most folks got an abbreviated version of the story that doesn't include the part about the Bosslady. "You know the phrase, 'The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice'? Yeah...."

Marcia Cross — aka KimberBree, aka Bree on Desperate Housewives and Kimberley from Melrose Place — is gay. Score!

UPDATE: AfterEllen has the scoop.

UPDATE #2: Yeah, not so much. Which is fine, but the whole thing was so well coordinated. Strange.

One of the (few) things I miss about living in Michigan: Paczki Day!

I tried once a few years ago to get some paczki from the one Polish bakery in town that I could find (Kramarczuk's) and it was a pathetic experience. It was hard enough to find out about that place because everyone at work I asked about it had no idea what I was talking about. And then I get there and there are no lines before dawn.

I guess I'll have to celebrate by having Mardi Gras in my pants.

I know I'd be kidding myself to hope that a few days of 50° temperatures in February meant that spring was anywhere near in Minnesota. It was nice while it lasted, though. So I took it upon myself to be outside as much as possible over the weekend.

I recently downloaded obtained the complete Billboard Top 100 Hits from the years 1988 to 1992. This would be my favorite era of music, which I and my former Roomdawg like to call New Old Skool. Anyway, after I tossed out all the hair metal and an appalling number of Michael Bolton songs, I had about 45 songs left from each year. And out of those 225 songs, guess which two I can not get out of my head.
Pretty Poison - Catch Me (I'm Falling)*
Icehouse - Electric Blue*

I know, I know. I don't know.

*Removed.

Slanderous Minneapolis challenges Star Tribune gossip columnist C.J. to a duel!

All Things Considered host Michelle Norris is from Minneapolis and spoke on technology and journalism (among other things) last night in St. Paul. I totally love her now. The speech and Q&A were aired on today's Midday.

[Listen]

Do you know why Jesus died on the cross?

Season 2 of The L Word starts in a couple weeks, and it's already been picked up for a third season.

Showtime President Robert Greenblatt announced... that The L Word has been given a third season.... The third season of The L Word will include another 12 episodes, presumably to air sometime in 2006, although no date has been announced yet.

Hell yeah!

I want to be these people some day.

(via Chaz)