January 2008

On the Web

• Opening the Windows Vista Box: Because it seriously can’t be done without a fucking tutorial.
• Brown Tape Art: Mark Khaisman creates some stunning images with translucent brown packing tape backlit on plexiglass.
• Bobby Fischer, Chess Master, Dies at 64: He may have been an asshole, but man could he play.
• Lasagna Cat: A wonderfully bizarre collection of videos putting Jim Davis in his place.
• The Amen Break: The history of the world’s… See more →

hoping the Location field in Calendar on the iPhone eventually integrates with Contacts and Google Maps.

It took 3 of us and a Leatherman to open (read: destroy) the Windows Vista packaging, and we still don't know how it's supposed to open.

Any Philly peeps going to see The Supersuckers tonight?

opening Fray Issue 1!

I'll consider registering Twitterrific once Twitter gets its shit together. The ads are no more disruptive than the perpetual error message.

It's comforting to know that Kevin Smith fanboys get what they deserve.

overheard (to a screaming infant): "Shut up, you fucking faggot!" Ah, Girard Ave., paved in dreams.

having a hard time concentrating on how hard it is to concentrate.

People really make far too liberal use of the word "brilliant" these days.

Dragonforce has been on my radar for awhile, but I'm only just now noticing the humorous redundancy of "Through Fire and Flames."

digging @bronwynjones's iPhone wallpaper collection: gallery.mac.com/bronwynjones

remembering the first time I successfully sang the "sha na na na na na na na knees" part of "Welcome to the Jungle." I was 12 and stoked.

Chinese-Americans who operate take-out businesses tend to have a remarkable sense of urgency.

trying to decide if I'll allow myself to be impressed by the latest personal site redesign from a guy who once ripped off my site's design.

Actually, Illustrator, there aren't any changes to save. I'd expect you to know that better than anyone.

daydreaming about sending our loudly rattling HVAC system into orbit.

A new blog post, complete with free mix tape: robweychert.com/editorials/20…

I was recently involved in a music exchange with a handful of friends, in which we each put together a compilation of songs, and everyone involved got a copy of all of the compilations. Aside from giving me a good excuse to put together a fun mix, it allowed me the ever-cherished opportunity to do some unsolicited philosophizing, and I thought both were worth sharing with a larger audience.

Here’s an excerpt of an e-mail… See more →

Jimmy's got it wired, law's for hire. Got it made in the shade.

definitely not needing the play-by-play on @shauninman's iPhone update.

can't believe it took me this long to see Casablanca.

The problem with Netflix is that very few people on the planet are capable of properly handling a DVD.

registering the irony that Steal This Movie is on Google Video, but can't be downloaded.

wondering if ever occurred to Zakk Wylde to regret his choice of name.

remembering that having health insurance pretty much amounts paying for junk mail.

astonished by the modern file compression technology that enabled me to create a zip archive a mere 99% of its original size!

Why would a serious documentary about the rising American obesity epidemic give itself a title as punny as Killer at Large?

Are there emoticons for non-Roman alphabets? Seems like it would be really tricky in something like Kanji.

up a bit earlier than planned due to neighbor's very loud music, but I like 'em too much to complain and I should get up anyway.

overjoyed at the discovery of some Twix Brand Cookie Bars at the bottom of my bag.

Today's Inman Vs. Glass Layer Tennis match is off to a great start. layertennis.com/080125a

determining the most effective, expedient, and violent means of bringing an end to @JennLukas's control of the office speakers.

really digging Khoi's illustration in the latest Brief Message: abriefmessage.com/2008/01/25/gupt…

Typing out escape sequences for apostrophes as you write will make you hyper-aware of how many contractions you use.

just dusted some mighty thick cobwebs off my blog: robweychert.com/editorials/20…

Recently, I started wondering if I could/should get back into writing in cursive, which I haven’t done with any regularity since elementary school. I thought it might be interesting to reconnect with the way I related to language and typography in my formative years, and to see how that meshed with what I’ve learned since. So, I started scribbling out some random stuff in my sketchbook to see what would happen, and was fascinated with… See more →

My signature is the only cursive writing I’ve done in ages, so now anything I write in cursive is instinctively transformed into my name.

Chicken? htz.ru Egg? comhaltas.ie

Music is weird. One day, someone said, "Bill, bang on this thing, and Steve, blow into this thing. I will talk funny on top of it all."

more excited than anyone probably ought to be about the very effective adhesive used on the envelope I just opened.

conflicted about replicating the design sins of a print publication when translating it for the web.

engineered a true feat of parallel parking, and walked around the corner to see someone vacate a massive spot right in front of my house.

just caught wind of last.fm's big announcement. Wow. blog.last.fm/2008/01/23/free-the-…

37signals's glee at having Steve Albini comment on their blog reminds me of the time I got a voicemail from John Zorn. Fanboys unite!

The quality of one's car stereo is typically inversely proportionate to the quality of one's taste in music.

crammin' ten pounds of shit into a five pound bag.

dry, cracked, and statically charged.

seeing both sides of the bombshell ALA dropped today, and thinking browsers supporting version targeting will eventually be quite bloated.

My hands may as well have been made of Crisco today.

noticed how intense the reverb is throughout the new Magnetic Fields album hours before I connected the dots to its title: Distortion.

making my home office/studio a more pleasant place to be.

craving a cheezborger.

Far too many of the people submitting data to CDDB have their heads up their own asses.

El Orfanato is a good, old-fashioned ghost story done right. Very suspenseful and engaging without any cheap scares.

Hey Philly! Who wants to go see Black Dahlia Murder and 3 Inches of Blood... right now?

Willing to bet this lowercase logotype with a single descender was designed by an only child.

Rotten Tomatoes redesigned. It's shinier and denser, but at least the film pages are a bit easier to skim.

preparing for what promises to be a totally awesome ride home in the snow and slush.

bummed that the upcoming X tour (with original lineup) is not coming anywhere near the east coast.

hoping the disposable dining industry is having the laugh they've earned at my expense.

pondering the environments of which I am a product.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles pilot is over and I have returned to my senses. Stupid free iTunes download. "Come with me if you want to suck."

fondly recalling the insane effort and ingenuity required to create the lo-fi, analog animations my cohorts and I made in college.

wanting iPhone's Weather and Clock application icons to be dynamic like Calendar's is.

just saw eXistenZ for the first and last time.

appreciating Amtrak's maternal instinct, but trying to think of a tactful way to tell it I don't require incubation.

off to outfit my bike with tires that aren't made of tissue paper.

My hair is at the length where it becomes like an adolescent child: It's awkward, confused, and wants nothing to do with me or my values.

wondering for the umpteenth time if my persistent difficulty with keeping focus is a neurochemical problem, a discipline problem, or both.

forever in blue jeans.

thinking about the equitable smoker/non-smoker social contract: they get a planet-sized ashtray and we get toxins blown in our faces.

breathing through my mouth.

My whole design process is basically an attempt to mine gold from crippling neuroses. That's kind of fucked up.

thinking about pulling an all-nighter so I can take it easy tomorrow night.

being recommended The Postal Service by last.fm. Did someone put a tight sweater on me when I wasn't looking?

Altoid + Dark Chocolate Hershey's Kiss = Good Idea.

going through the spam folder. Looks like "Re:" is a spammer's favorite subject line. My favorite? "Any bigger and i would be in a circus."

It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.

wishing Photoshop had a throat I could cut.

overheard: "I've got fried chicken in my future."

Conference calls are almost always a waste of time.

If the bland cookie cutter housing springing up all around me is allowed to be influential, I weep for Philadelphia's aesthetic future.

hitting Return before I type the last m in ".com" when typing a URL into a browser address bar. Constantly.

thinking that attending a day of talks about causation at Pitt's Center for Philosophy of Science could be an interesting change of pace.

discovered last minute that my bike had a flat, drove like a madman to get to an 8:00 financial meeting to find I was scheduled for 9:00.

The end of days is upon us: flickr.com/photos/robweychert…

slapping myself on the forehead as I finally stumble upon the purpose of the Grouping field in iTunes. Up next: Hours of ID3 tag editing.

Huckabee jokingly encourages people to prevent other candidates' supporters from voting in the NH primary. I'm not laughing.

Venetian blinds are an elaborate, unfunny joke.

ready to try out The Wire after hearing writer David Simon's standard for verisimilitude: "Fuck the average reader. Fuck him to hell."

Apparently everyone else decided to see There Will Be Blood today, too.

Misinformed of Leah's arrival time, I've spent the last 40 minutes confirming that 30th St. Station is no place to be on a Saturday night.

getting no help from online rhyming dictionaries.

digging @simplebits's old band, which lands somewhere between early Low and and the quieter side of Mogwai. Really good stuff.

wishing my trusted Chicago Manual of Style was handy, and wondering what it has to say about international capitalization standards.

pretty much tired of acronyms in general.

noting that for the next month or so, I'll benefit frequently from the numeral 7's painless transformation into the numeral 8.

Dude, Spanning Sync, there must be a better way to let me know there's an upgrade than to wait for me to notice you've stopped working.

glad that the guy jackhammering just outside my window is fortunate enough to have a radio that he can hear over the din of his work.

PhD thesis
steeped in baffling arcana
and fudge recipes

a comfy sofa
couldn’t sate his faineance
but sleeping pills could

noticing more people overcompensating for the common misuse of "me" as the subject of a verb by misusing "I" as the object of a verb.

My first New Year's Resolution in ages: Open all mail immediately and deal with its contents ASAP.

Car alarms are like guns in the home: much more likely to claim innocent victims than to bring about the just demise of their owners.

The War on Terror
is more than merely zeitgeist
it’s a board game, too

rebuilding a much leaner and better filtered version of my RSS subscription list from scratch. Happy New Year, everyone!