raleighnet.org

Some fascinating images over on The Aperture - A Photo Blog I can’t tell if they are always centered on India or if these are just the result of a single trip. I suspect the former. Either way, they’re certainly worth a look.

According to ClickZ, AOL version 8 is going to default to a white list for Spam filtering. That’s probably a good move for them. It does present some interesting challenges for people doing legitimate e-mail newsletters and marketing though. Excuse me while I put on my thinking cap for a bit.

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I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others. I will not judge others.

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The play was good though. I don’t get to enough live theater. I need to do more of that.

Update: and then later that night, in an entirely different context, with different people … lots more of the same. It’s like my social interactions have suddenly opened up into a bizarre fractal pattern of desperate proportions. Weird night. Need more root beer. And solitude.

I need the Internet with me where ever I go.

This afternoon I had a song in my head, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember which song. All I could hear over and over again was just the line “Punk Rock Red White and Blue” repeating itself in an endless loop - demanding that I find and play that song.

So, I’m trying to think of what female fronted band sings this song. I can almost hear her, and I’m thinking what it’s Liz Phair right? It has to be on whitechocolatespaceegg because I haven’t been listening to Whip-Smart lately, and I never really liked Exile in Guyville all that much to begin with. So, I fire up the iPod, and track through all of my Liz Phair, but I know almost right away that isn’t it.

So then who? … Who? … Concrete Blonde? It doesn’t sound like Concrete Blonde in my head, but maybe on one of their compilation records like Free. Well, back to the iPod and I realize right away that it can’t possibly be Concrete Blonde. At about this point, I convinced myself that it was The Pretenders. Which sucked because I didn’t have any Pretenders on my iPod, and I was pretty sure I didn’t even own the record I was thinking of anyway.

So, I’m driving along, bummed as all get out, wanting to hear this song so I can exorcise my musical demons. All the while, I’m thinking that I really just need to have the Internet right there always on in the palm of my hand. I knew that the Internet would know what song I was thinking of, and that if I could just access it, I could stop driving myself crazy.

I was almost home when I realized the song was Cake “You Turn the Screws”. No wonder I couldn’t think of the girl that sang the song - it was a guy singer. So, finally I was able to hear the song and get it out of my head, and tragedy was averted. Still, I could have saved myself about 45 minutes of pure driven crazy if I could have just gotten to the Internet.

The end.

So, I thought that Fox’s show, Firefly, started out pretty crappy. Still, I kept watching it because there isn’t much else to watch on Fridays. The past two weeks have been pretty solid. I think it could be a good show — except I’m almost certain it’s going to be canceled.

Isn’t that always the way? Still, if you’re not watching it because of the first two episodes and the ridiculous western/sci fi hybrid style, you might want to give it another shot.

Sex Tips For Geeks: How To Be Sexy

Oversimplifying only a little, we can say that women form an instinctive answer to their primary question based on four traits: kindness, wealth, social status, and talent. How they weight these varies — but men who are gallant, wealthy, powerful, and able have as powerful a sexiness advantage in the mating game as any supermodel (you can just look at who supermodels marry and/or shack up with to confirm this).

Ho Ho Ho! Ha Ha Ha!

So, I haven’t really been keeping up with my reading list. Oh, I’ve been reading them. I just haven’t been reporting them. So, here goes a clearing house type of list.

Currently Reading:
Good Omens - Recommended by a Friend, plus I like Gaiman, so…

Also Started:
Perdido Street Station - Also recommended by a friend. I’ve read maybe 20, 50 pages so far. It’s good, but I keep getting pulled away to read other stuff.

Just Finished:
Sleeping in Flame - This was a fantastic book. I couldn’t put it down and blasted through it in about 24 hours or so. I was tired, but it was certainly worth it. The beginning of the book is better than the end. Particularly the last 20 pages or so were sort of a let down. Still, I would highly recommend it, and I’m sure that I’ll be reading it again at least once or twice more.

White Oleander - Had to read it for a discussion group. Believe me, I wouldn’t normally have chosen an Oprah book club selection on my own. The writing is actually reasonably good. The perspective/message of the book was pretty miserable though at least in my opinion. I don’t know why anybody would want to read it. I can’t believe it sold as well as it did — even with Oprah’s stamp of approval on it. Others who read it didn’t share that perspective, but their focus seemed to be more on the surface elements of the book so… I guess if you’re not a deep reader, and you really like drama, and you’re not a guy.

The Rainy Season - Some of the best descriptions of natural landscape I’ve ever come across. However, the focus on details of scene seemed to get in the way of the plot for me. There were also a crazy number of characters and time lines to keep track of — particularly towards the beginning of the book. They converged a bit as it went along though, and things picked up for me. All and all, it was OK but I don’t think I’d read it again or recommend it.

Wizard of Oz - this was OK. I’d never read it before. The movie is better, or at least more familiar. The ending drags largely because it keeps going on a good deal past where the movie ends, and I feel like all of drama is used up at that point.

Neverwhere - I didn’t like this nearly as much as I liked American Gods. Others have told me they liked this one better, but I found it a little too … I don’t know. A little too something.

Google Viewer creates a slide show out of your Google search results. Just enter your query and watch as the top matches flash across your screen. Interesting concept, but I’m not sure this is the way I want to get my search results. It just “feels” like I can process more results quicker by scanning down the page. I guess this does encourage you to dig deeper than one or two pages though, so there may be something there.

Pretty cool idea in any event.

What is Trodo ?

Trodo is a place to trade stuff. It is a friendly barter system. It is a bazaar. It is place to swap stuff. It is a place to share. It is a place to meet people who have stuff you want. It is a place to find out-of-date and hard to find stuff. It is a place to give people stuff you don’t want, and to get stuff they don’t want.

It is also largely empty of things to trade right now since it just launched. However, it will be interesting to watch to see if it can gain traction.