i’m thinking of redesigning my wordpress theme and the top idea would rely on some smart color theme generation.

thinking about this made me think of stuff people have done with the flickr api and color, which reminded me of this awesome toy:

retrievr: http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/

it lets you paint a picture and then looks for images on flickr with similar color distributions.

i don’t think i have linked to it before, and it brings me great joy, so i pass it along.

hopefully if i decide to upgrade my theme, you’ll notice, though the amount of time it takes to notice such things is my key lamentation with feed readers.

sigh.

naptime.

it occurred to me that sunday was april fools day, so google probably did something wacky like google gulp, pigeonrank, or opening an office on the moon to prove that it is indeed made of cheese.

so i typed “april fools 2007 google” (without the quotes, though… that’s funny) into my google searchbar (it’s fun to google google), and that is how i learned about gmail paper.

heehee

i was distracted from the humor, however, by the fact that this chain of events led me to realize how long it has been since i actually looked at the gmail login screen. i’ve been using the google personal home page rather extensively lately, and once i’m logged in to one google service the rest preload with me already logged in, so i don’t get to see any gmail specific messages. my quota could be unlimited like yahoo by now and i wouldn’t notice.

i also miss out on most holiday logos, ftr, and i’m not feeling the love here, goog, i’m just sayin…

anyway, sorry i haven’t written in a bit. i had another post eaten by hitting back on accident so wordpress and i had a cooldown period and i need to upgrade posthaste, but i haven’t had the time to back up yet, and my internet’s been out at home.

whine, whine, whine…

on the docket: the apple rollercoaster, the indoor campsite, what i do at my new job, the online todo, and some thoughts on fundamentalism. if you vote, i might listen!

this is the kind of high-quality sap that youtube was made to deliver to a wider audience.

it’s a cover of coldplay’s “fix you” by the Young@Heart chorus, a group in Northampton, MA that is composed entirely of senior citizens and apparently tours around and gets NEA grants and stuff.

talk about schmaltzy, but i am always interested in things that are good schmaltz, because knowing what pulls our heartstrings can teach us a lot.

let’s just say this song was very well chosen.

for the curious, this link was brought to me via this blog, which, fwiw, is the blog that most makes me wish that feedreaders imported stylesheets. it’s purty.

so a few years ago i made a cover song compilation that has since become somewhat notorious amongst my friends. its notoriety is not because of its contents, but because i totally dropped the ball on delivering it, even though i had hyped the whole thing up quite a bit, so for most people it was a rather vicious tease.

the trouble was that i got sucked into grand plans of liner notes and cover art that made the whole project take much longer than necessary, and then when it was finished the poor thing had to contend with me looking up addresses, finding packaging, and going to the post office, which are all activities that i tend to find difficult in a degree that is far out of proportion with reality.

my resistance was hopefully understandable, therefore, when in the midst of this cover project i conceived of aNother cd project - not of cover songs, but of the songs that happened to stand out for me in a given year, be they new discoveries or old favorites that are somehow heard anew.

it seemed like a fun alternative to a christmas letter, since it would be a similar sort of “year that was”, but it would then also have the bonus of performing a function other than the justification of the existence of the refrigerator magnet.

not that magnet support is not a noble function; it’s just already a pretty full market.

it was a masterstroke of procrastination, really, even though it was trying to sneak by in generosity’s clothing. my brain wanted to prolong the fun of picking and ordering songs indefinitely, so it decided to conceive of a lifelong ambition rather than admit that the first cd was done and prepare it for mailing.

i really am rather insane.

i scolded myself and put the idea aside with the intention of returning to it later, but since the cover story fizzled out and thinking about it makes me tired and guilty, the “year of songs” idea has suffered by association.

this year, however, i started considering it again while i was traveling, and probably because overseas postage made my desire to avoid a massive mailing seem reasonable rather than embarrassing, i kept thinking about it, and decided that i would just make it a blog post, and then maybe there will be enough momentum that i will be motivated to make a cd version next year.

or maybe cds won’t exist next year…

heh heh

as it happens, given the combined impact of lucy’s amazing card sending habits and the fact that i got a christmas card from jeff and shaowen and i didn’t even give them my address, i am considering making the hanging up of my postal hangup into a new year’s resolution, so perhaps those cover cds will be on their way yet.

while me and the resolution board sort that one out, though, the “just put it out there” action committee is proud to offer you kynthia’s year in music, 2006.

despite their longing to be free, a concession to the unresolved nature of the intellectual property debate will lead me to return the songs to the captivity of private ownership after ONE WEEK ONLY - that is through January 9, 2007, after which only the links endorsed by the artists themselves will remain, and you’ll have to ask itunes or napster or some music getting elves if you missed the train.

that means i’m taking the songs down next tuesday, a’ight?

if you made it on time, and you’re using firefox like a good monkey, you might want to check out the flashgot extension if you don’t have it already. it downloads all the links on the page, so you don’t have to.

once it’s installed, i recommend going to tools->flashgot->more options->downloads and putting mp3 in the box, because then it will only get the mp3 files, which saves you the hassle of deleting a bunch of crap that you really don’t want.

if that sounds too complicated, just do whatever makes you happy. :)

happy listening, and happy new year!

Kynthia’s Year in Music, 2006

In January I decided that I wasn’t allowed to ride my bike with my new mp3 player and super-duper headphones. I knew that I was smitten when I then found myself walking to class even when the roads were clear and dry.

1. This Heart is a Stone - Acid House Kings
2. Say - Cat Power
3. Blow - Lincoln

In February, at F&L, David sang scat with his eyes shut tight and his hands in the air, Erik built a dance party out of mad skillz and honeybells, and the Beatles revealed new secrets to me early in the morning. Each of them reminded me in turn of why and how much I love them.

4. Minnie the Moocher - West End Orchestra and Singers (Blues Brothers Soundtrack)
5. Let’s Get Retarded - Black Eyed Peas
6. Carry that Weight/The End - The Beatles

In the spring and early summer I stared the reality of graduation in the face and buckled down to conjure a capstone from the scattered trail of post-it notes, sketches and grandiose visions that had been accumulating in my wake all year. In the midst of the whirlwind, Moby mysteriously became the soundtrack for Dunn Woods at dusk, Josh Ritter centered me as I floundered in the effort to express something so big that I could barely glimpse how it held together, Fiona Apple was a gift from Erik as we made our pact to present something every day even when we sounded like lunatics, and, before it was anywhere and everywhere, Crazy secured its place in my memory as a video in I107 as we procrastinated, a joyous shout from Lucy as we shared 1/2 price wine, and a drunken singalong anthem on moonlit backroads and train tracks leading home from the Vid as spring bled into summer and we struggled valiantly against the weight of what was to come.

7. Stop Whispering - Radiohead
8. Underwear Goes Inside the Pants - Lazyboy TV
9. Freshman Thesis - Thee More Shallows
10. Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad - Moby
11. Thin Blue Flame - Josh Ritter
12. Waltz - Fiona Apple
13. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One) - Pink Floyd
14. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

Summer hit full force, but it took a while for the idea that I had finished a Masters’ Degree to sink in. In the meantime, I went to St. Louis to eat ribs and climb on old airplanes, and drove to Tennessee to go desitively bonnaroo. Then I set off on my solo trek down the eastern seaboard that would lead eventually to Scotland and 6 months across the sea.

15. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
16. Bastard - Ben Folds
17. Masterfade - Andrew Bird
18. Another Mystery - Dar Williams
19. And it Rained All Night - Thom Yorke

In Edinburgh there was a lot of music, but it was such a whirlwind that the only thing that really sticks in my mind is some guys with didgeridoos and bagpipes, and I don’t have a recording of them. The Hollytree, on the other hand, was a dive into the pop charts as we sought ways to fill the hours and connect to the world from which we were otherwise isolated by miles that might as well have been oceans. Tania took this more seriously than the rest of us by singing something ALL of the time, even if words or spoons were thrown in her direction. Some things will never leave our heads as a result. :)

20. Mr. Jones - Counting Crows (”caught up in kentallen… show me some of that ceilidh dancing…”)
21. Hips Don’t Lie - Shakira
22. America - Razorlight
23. Falling Stars - Sunset Strippers

I’m rounding the year off in London, with a lot of alone time. It has given me the chance to catch up on 3hive recommendations from the past few months, and, as always, a few of them are like old friends I am overjoyed to finally meet. In true “one is silver and the other’s gold” fashion, however, Michael Stipe made his way onto the playlist by chance and stayed there, so he gets a nod as well.

24. You are the Everything - R.E.M.
25. You Never Got Me Right - Frida Hyvonen
26. George -First Coat
27. Hey Momma - Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground
28. Words - Evan Duby

In many ways, Andrew Bird is the artist of my year (buy this whole album!), so he deserves another even if it disturbs my roughly chronological ordering, which I am honestly surprised that I followed, but it’s fun and actually flows quite well.

Luckily, this song strikes me as a very fitting theme for the year as a whole, so I can think of no better way to wrap things up.

29. Tables and Chairs - Andrew Bird

Enjoy!

http://www.zefrank.com/thewiki/RunningFool_Trip

there’s a guy trying to make his way from spokane to the east coast and back over christmas break, using only viewers of zefrank’s the show for transport and lodging.

and companionship, of course. :)

anyway, neat idea, and i wish him luck. if you consider yourself a sports racer, and are traveling and/or sitting home with an empty couch over break, give runningfool a holla, eh?

i think this is freakin’ hilarious

being in the uk and all, i didn’t really notice that it was september 10th until about 4:00 this afternoon, when i followed a link from schmutzie to an episode of zefrank’s the show from a few days ago.

when i say “i didn’t really notice that it was september 10th”, what i mean is that i didn’t make the association between 10/9/06 (which is how they write the dates over here) and The Day Before The Fifth Anniversary Of 9/11^TM, and when said association clicked in my head, i felt rather grateful for the current distance between myself and mainstream American media sources.

at the same time, though, i felt the pull of the memory and my own process of coming to terms with it. i wondered if i should take the time that i still haven’t really taken to write my own response. i marveled at the fiveness of the years that have passed, and remembered the unborn blog post that floated through my head as i walked around downtown one day on my recent trip to the city.

i had decided i should make my own little pilgrimage to ground zero, and had done so by spending several hours walking in a rather meandering fashion from prince street down to battery park and back up again to nyu, where i was meeting liza for lunch. i made my way to the construction site in the midst of my walk, with more difficulty than i had anticipated, since i had never before had to actually consider what the cross streets were for the world trade center, seeing as it was always rather obvious where to find it.

i stood there a bit puttering around trying to decide whether i wanted to, like, you know, Do something while i was there, and after a couple minutes i realized i was pissed off at the president and the war and the media for how numb it has made me by making it nearly impossible to disentangle my memories of that morning from the knots and snarls of all the other crap that has come to be connected to it. i felt, for a few minutes at least, like i had been robbed of my ability to mourn. as if the animal of my genuine and sap-free feelings was sleeping next to some really loud, annoying yippy dogs that wake up every time you go near and drown out anything of merit and the whole ordeal just makes you pull your hair and run away and wonder why you ever even bother.

that was irritating, but eventually i was like, fuck it, you don’t have to fight that fight, just give the dogs a milkbone and feel what you feel and think what you think and write what you write and remember what you remember and focus on building the future rather than bickering about the past.

so i didn’t worry about the shmaltzy posters. i read some graffiti instead, and watched the new yorkers go on about their business as the wonderfully adaptable human creatures that they are. i walked across the bridges that span the construction site and thought about the ghosts of the walls and desks and copy machines that i was passing through as easily as if they had never been there at all. i stood there for a few minutes with some of these thoughts whirling in my head, and then i went on about my day.

i met liza for lunch at a place called ‘wichcraft, which is an oh-too-clever name, and had a sandwich with truffle-scented trumpet mushrooms and fontina. i got caught in a crazy downpour in columbus circle when i stopped there on the way home to go to the apple store and get liza a new ipod USB thingy as a thanks-for-having-me gift. the next day we saw three movies for the price of one and hung out with a friend of hers who works at mtv. the day after that we used my car to go get kitty litter so she wouldn’t have to have it delivered, and i left the city after an unplanned driving tour of riverside drive as i puzzled over construction detours and let the fates decide whether i was going to leave manhattan by bridge or tunnel.

which is all to say, i made my peace with new york for the time being, and i’m glad.

i’m also glad that i followed the zefrank link, though, and so i hope that you may do so as well.

i think it will serve as a sort of innoculation against anything else i come across tomorrow; a way of remembering not to get either too numb or too huffy; to take time to feel what i need to feel and then focus on the work i want to get done.

and that’s really all i wanted to say in this post, actually.

all that other stuff, it just fell out, so i hope i didn’t contribute too much to the schlocky onslaught while attempting to arm you against it. :)

dum di dum…

now i go to bed.

tim points out erik’s mentions on slashdot and ars technica for his AbiWord/OLPC work with Summer of Code.
way to go, my friend.

you’re building ladders.

i look forward to talking about the view. ;)

i got a new battery for the camera, but not a new charger. the man at the store told me the new battery would not have a charge, but i tried it anyway, and so far it has taken hundreds of pictures, so…  either i have a magic battery that never dies, or i will be out of luck soon, but either way i am enjoying it for the moment.  :)

you can see some of the shots of edinburgh here: http://flickr.com/photos/kynthia/sets/72157594240539072/

enjoy!

did you know that if you type something into the firefox address bar and just hit return, it will take you to the top google link for whatever you type?

so it’s basically a shortcut to i’m feeling lucky.

i discovered this when i was starting to type in snowedin.net/planetinfo, of which i usually just type the first few letters, and then pick from the dropdown menu.

i guess this time i didn’t get into the dropdown menu, though, and just hit enter after typing “sn”

i was directed to this lovely informational site about the mineral tin, for which sn is the two-letter periodic table abbreviation.

i thought that i had potentially discovered some weird element lookup easter egg, so i typed in “ag” (which is silver), and got The Assemblies of God, and “au” (which is gold), and got the African Union.

those are not minerals.

acting on a hunch, i did the same searches in google, and sure enough, those are the top hits for those searches (after the stock information that it pops up automatically now).

i think that this disagrees slightly with something david told me a couple of weeks ago that i had kind of forgotten, which is that firefox does a google search for you if you type in the address bar, making the separate google search bar somewhat moot.

but maybe i misheard him.

in which case, i apologize. :)

it reminds me, though, of the rest of what i learned in that conversation with david, which is that you can type “wp ____” into the address bar and it will search wikipedia for you, or “az ____” and it will search amazon.

these both do indeed seem to work as well.

a quick old-fashioned google search on “firefox address bar shortcuts” brings us this informative lifehacker article explaining that this is the manifestation of the “quick searches” feature, accessible via your bookmarks menu, and you can make your own by right-clicking in any search box anywhere and entering in a shortcut phrase. they give a list of suggested ones, and even let you download a little bookmarks file of their favorites if you don’t want to do all that typing.

neat

i must say, however, that in some ways this discovery just put a bit more of the fear of google in me (like the fear of god - it’s kind of fear, but it’s also just… awe), because there is a point at which putting in other quicksearches is silly, because the google quicksearch encompasses them all.

just as i currently search wikipedia by googling “wikipedia ____” (because it’s faster than the wikipedia search and involves fewer steps), you could mimic other searches simply by naming them in the google search, which may or may not be easier than going through the trouble of making and remembering a separate quicksearch.

as further evidence to support this claim, i offer this: after learning where the quick searches were stored, i went and looked at them, and it turns out that the amazon quicksearch isn’t actually installed by default. but the “az ____” shortcut that david mentioned, that i gave you above? it still usually works. because if you google “az _____” amazon is often the first hit.

glory be.