subtitles

December 22, 2005

Comedy of Socks

I have pens, and as I told Winston (who I'm indebted to about the pens), I have socks to last me through nuclear winter. I also have Oral-B toothpaste, Simple, the shower gel I like and shoehorns. I should have bought clips - I'll probably angle to get them from the place at Shaw Towers tomorrow. Need to go to B.S Moey.

Apace I tell you.

Props to Golden-Haired Sammy.

Posted by subtitles at 9:16 AM

December 21, 2005

Play Now

I suppose I'm just ignoring the student issue now. It'll be amusing if my peers suddenly bother. ie the ones that don't already. It's surprising to me that all these things are coming back so instinctively. I still haven't sent off the postcards, and I think tomorrow should be my Queensway day. I should also remember about the shower gel and simple.

I suppose it's dawning on me that RSS is for people with a lot of time on their hands (actually, some time ago). But it's nice to have rediscovered VTV and EZTV feeds. If you just search for VTV RSS, you're going to find what you're looking for. And now I can even use the UKNova feed to parse if I really wanted to. Burn baby burn.

I wonder if this is why I actually have some semblance of a play now.

Posted by subtitles at 5:28 PM

Legendary. And You're Too Late

While I'm sitting here thinking about my sexual comedy, I can't get Omaha out of my head - somewhere in middle america. It's a pity that that album is such an acme of mawkish. And that is signals such a particularness. So no, apparently I don't write any differently after months away.

Did you turn the lights off?
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
When, just now?
Yes.
So I should go and turn it off now?
No.
(Goes off, light switch sounds)
So do you want to go out?
Maybe.
Yes or no?
Uh.
So where?
Can we
No.
But
No.
What about?
No.
Have you?
Yes. So should I get ready?
Up to you.

I really do like that episode of Scrubs. (which that dialog had absolutely nothing to do with, except in the most allusive of ways, and proximity)

Posted by subtitles at 4:24 AM

December 20, 2005

Fiction Collective Draft

It's probably past time that I put up a more recent draft. The stated intention being that this will be more or less what is to be sent out. Gah.

Posted by subtitles at 2:47 PM

October 2, 2005

The Poor Ship

The Economist has redesigned their site. Spanky. Content now actually fills the page. I'll sort of miss the old way of laying things out, but probably not too much. Very much along the lines of how Reuters has it's site - probably they decided they didn't need quite so much red.

I watched Serenity. And I bought tires. I'm still waiting to spank the people, but they need to make a bloody appointment. I should freely admit that Opera defaults to working - but big picture, yeah?

At some point I'll get around to posting what is almost complete - but I'm now wondering if I don't need to add on another chapter - "what? a man make a tailor?... ... are you mad old fellow?" - or something like that.

If only Joss didn't choose to be so insistent on his landmarks. The poor ship.

Posted by subtitles at 8:35 AM

July 15, 2005

Gone Fishin'

I'm sure there's been a gaping hole in the place where my messenger icons usually are, but well, there are reasons for so many things. I'm in various minds of a party, but can't think of the bother. I'll probably try not to move things till after I'm gone.

The Singnet 10Mbps plan will be a boon for any number of people. Personally, I think the 25 plan is a waste of money, since they both have the same 1Mbps upload speed - and try as I might, maxing out downstream at that level is always a struggle.

I desperately should write more about the Inside and post the very happy charming picture of Rachel Nichol, but the as much as cancelled nature of it gets me down a bit. For my money, probably a better leading lady than Sarah Michelle was - and on a better show. The feeling is that these episodes got pushed up to end the series.

I should write a book.

Posted by subtitles at 6:06 AM

July 4, 2005

Holding Back The Tides

Some people got it, some people don't. Basically I'm tired of tweaking the number of days on my front page. I'm desperately wondering if MT 3.2 will mean that it can be set according to posts rather than days.

I've been getting a bunch, well a couple, of e-mails that have warranted really very long replies. I don't know if I'm just bleary from the just waking up, and I wonder if they'll go anywhere. Presumptuous to be sure, but not unwarranted by any means. And getting slapped down is different when it's face to face. If there was any doubt that I am a product, though not an uncritical one, of the periodical I read, let that be proof sufficient.

I've been sort of perplexed, though not exactly displeased with the fact that there's plenty now that even I can't remember the context of, and would require quite a bit of digging to dis/re-cover. To that end, I can't bring myself to write, or write too much, yet at least, about the much hoo-ha-ing right now, which you can't help but wonder isn't just self-defeating. The film of the thing, despite the pedigree of (some) of its scriptors, is just blank on so many levels that it just doesn't quite bother me like it should. But the profound chest-thumping arrogance of it I think is ironic. This from people who would so readily eschew ideas of Charity and didactic disbelief, being so flung victims of it.

But Kelly Macdonald is really very lovely, and Bill Nighy is fun but misused in so many ways.

Posted by subtitles at 5:26 AM

July 3, 2005

newfound catalysed regularity

As with so many times I sit and still, the urge is to come and to blank and to fill. I think my newfound catalysed regularity has now led to me being much less out and out unhappy, but rather maintains me at a rather even keel of alleviated ambivalence.

I suppose it just was a bit spooky watching Howard Stern interview Phil Hartman, especially bringing on the wife that would later kill them both. Suzanne Vega, however, was delightful.

Posted by subtitles at 2:07 AM

June 28, 2005

My Cousin Alex (Might Have) Designed the MRI Machines in House

Apparently my Aunt has started a little e-mail campaign to get extended family members to vote for my cousin Alex (who I've not seen in years), who helped design this display. It's all part of this Design Awards thing, where they're having a people's choice award - having actually already given out all the awards that are worth a damn (my cousin's got a gold award). My cousin's team's contribution is the Ambient Experience for Healthcare - the idea of which is actually quite wonderful.

What it is (from what I understand) is an effort to make the experience of an MRI machine less intimidating. As anyone who's watched any medical drama (House in particular), MRIs can be very stressful - leading to a great deal of claustrophobia and stress at the very loud noises and enclosed spaces that accompany it. Ambient environments would then have a genuine medical application, from what I understand, since people who are more relaxed will tend to move less - and the less movement there is, the more accurate the scan will be. Which is good too for the patient, not having to go through the experience again to get a proper scan.

But yes, I always point out (rather silly-ly) that it's a Philips MRI machine in House (well, most of House season 1 anyway). That's the wages. So while it's probably unlikely that my cousin had that much to do with the machine itself (or not, whatever), the display here seems like a worthy enough thing to vote for. Certainly better than Apple Fanboy-ware (who would have thought, eh?) - the Smack-Mini and the iPod-Snuff-Film.

Despite the fact that I really quite like both the idea and the implementation, I can't begin to describe what must the immense amount of vote rigging that must be going on for their display to currently be in the lead - to a comical extent. Once you've voted (for him of course), you'll see that they are currently leading at 57% of the vote in what is really a very crowded field. And I mean I have no particular compunctions on the rigging of votes in this case - if it can be rigged, whose fault is that; just as long as the fuckers from Apple don't get it.

Notice though, that in the Environments category, my cousin's team got Gold to Team America: World Police's Silver.

Posted by subtitles at 10:47 PM

June 24, 2005

I should have been married to Mariah at 12

I can't remember quite what exactly sparked it off in my head, but I suddenly felt the need to listen to a particular Jessica Simpson song. Of course I know it because, unlike the rest of you, I wasn't some silly Newlyweds-come-lately. Of course Louis always seemed to have a particular fascination with the whole female teen pop thing that for so long obsessed so many - epitomised so much by Britney and Christina. So being who I am, I decided to explore the lunatic fringe of blonde female pop singers of the period - and hence, Billie, Hoku, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, M2M, even perhaps that spooky one that did unforgivable sinner.

So yes, I wanted to listen to this song off of Irresistible, but not the one that channeled whoever I thought it channeled at the time (I think it was Michael Jackson), Hot Like Fire, or one of those. I wanted to listen to What's It Gonna Be - which sticks to me because I associate it so readily with Mariah's own unforgettable summer anthem, Always Be My Baby. I sometimes think to myself, and I can't remember if it was Tupac who said it, but someone (ODB?) said that having been in prison really made you understand what you were missing when Mariah came on the radio, and that those who poohed it just in some way didn't quite get it.

But yes, Jessica Simpson's song wasn't the first of that kind, and obviously there was a reason for that, because she was, in Tommy Mottola's mind, the next Mariah, so she was given all the same shapers and mouldings that Mariah was. And she was still married during Fantasy. So previously there had been I Think I'm In Love, which I found out later samples Jack and Diane, a John Mellencamp song that is widely known and popular.

John Mellencamp I bought an album off of the strength of the one single he put out, which sadly was a cover, and which I approached because of the association that song had with Me'Shell NdegéOcello - who I had seen If That's Your Boyfriend off of. Wild Night. And that video, the former, had featured a rather hot blonde woman slipping rather fetchingly into a pair of jeans in her undies at the beginning of the video before she went of to be a cab driver, as you do. The latter had been poor babied by Madonna, who just told her to get on with it and she did.

I should have been married to Mariah at 12.

Posted by subtitles at 9:20 AM

June 13, 2005

even if you tried

Some times I'm not sure what comes over me. It's not like I'm as angry as I used to be, maybe just a couple of weeks ago. But if I'm not angry so much any more, where does all this nonsense come from? Righteous indignation? I can hear Nirvana playing in the background.

Well, whatever the case I find that cutting anger out of the equation doesn't seem to get rid of spite, or unpleasantness, or self-righteousness; much less fear and shame and mortification. I try not to edit things out, since the retention is important, if only to me, as a record of shame and weakness and grovelling crawling back.

Is it really the unresolved? But what to do when you think how things would not be different even if you tried?

Posted by subtitles at 2:53 PM

Pictures of "Artistic Value"

insufferable, sprinkling random references to sex and the city, uses the lingo of blah blah, very much like the fry and laurie sketch.

random sexual encounters I'm sure are fun fun fun, and I think the phrase is "I still would though".

at least writing about prostitution when you can write worth a damn is at least engaging; as opposed to semi-literate, middle-brow, pseudo-intellectual twaddle - not quite as good as pornography.

and I *still* think people should keep it in their pants (to the right) and mind their own fucking business and not be so (hokkien is just so apt sometimes) fucking kay-poh.

Where's the liberal party when you need it? Freedom of enterprise and freedom of the individual, sounds like a good idea huh?

But yes, you can take your "artistic value" and shove it up your ass.

And you can barely see nipple.

Courtesy of Ashley Blue, and unidentified member. I'm hoping Google will forgive what is merely a didactic tool. (Aren't I a funny one?)

I'm suddenly enjoying having to pad out the text, so that the picture doesn't cross ugly-ly over the line seperator at the bottom of the post - I just think making the picture smaller would detract from its effect and intention.

Posted by subtitles at 10:03 AM

June 5, 2005

That Band that Sucks Ass, (or to paraphrase) a Wailing Bag of Wank

It is not in the what of the doing, but rather the who. Things are wrong not necessarily because what is being done is wrong, in some qualitative way – to dissect it that way is to do artistry (or lack of) disservice – more often than not it is simply the ineptitude of the one doing the thing. And so it would be nice to say that so and so has done this thing badly because he did this, and you don’t do this, that’s not the way things (or this) works. And then someone else does it that way (or this), and the working ensues. People of suasion, of power and mastery, of tinkling and till it is, people of ability and talent, apparently, can do as they please. And so perhaps the Beatles could recite the phonebook and sell a million records, but you wouldn’t wonder if they’s also launch a thousand ships in the process.

The best part of the review though, and the one thing they particularly got right, is this: "Coldplay, the most insufferable band of the decade".

Posted by subtitles at 5:46 PM

June 2, 2005

The Aesthetics of Gesture

And so perhaps it is no surprise that moving sentimentality should accompany such thinly veiled jingoism and preservation for fear of the elided and rude third estate - the staving off of progress and the grubbiness of economics. But you wonder if that sentimental feeling in and of itself is unable to move beyond that context, that lexicon of dismissal and feeling. And the talk of Beauty and Desire and Right and Normalcy. I suppose didactic isn't the worst epithet it would choose for itself, but still. But if feeling is the fascist impulse.

And so is a lack of subject in itself sufficient to disperse the focus of nostalgia? A peripheral grazing of movement and sentiment, perhaps.

Cute Mouse though.

A very wrenching kind of socialisation, and all such rude conversion and getting sprayed.

Posted by subtitles at 4:38 AM

May 29, 2005

We're not dealing with Billy Idol

Some things are heart-breaking beyond understanding. As little sympathy as I have with a workers or labour movement, the treatment of individuals is not strained.

I think I experience a deep sense of frustration that democratic principles can so easily and apparently so naturally or necessarily become conflated with a dismissal of economic motive - how economic freedom could so easily be de-coupled from personal freedoms. "Materialism" and the desire for wealth and personal prosperity only in the most skewed of imaginations, would not be the natural coincident to the desire for personal liberty. To me there is no argument that perestroika should come before glasnost - it appears that for whatever reason, that is the natural desire of movement.

There is no doubt that there is a kind rabid intensity at work, and that it is engendered by the mirror it faces, but it seems at times a dishonesty of self - on both sides.

But the representative thing itself seems to be to be an effective thing - and for all its manipulation and the pose of its gestures, there's nothing that suggests to me that it is not worthy in some way.

A policy of personal openness needs to be accompanied by a belief in economic openness, in economic freedom - to cede that, and not to criticise others for not being more free than they already are, betrays conscience. If anything, economic freedoms need to be extended rather than curtailed by the engagement of public sentiment. You would hope that public sentiment as much understands the will towards economic freedom, and not to address that is to cling to a nothing of a thing. The rights and prosperity of those who toil depend on things that spite will infect. If they are looking only at a thing, that that thing has to be where you are. It is in their economic interests to be more free.

There are many reasons for avoidance. Other than this, there is often not the grand thing of shame, but the shrunk of embarassment.

Posted by subtitles at 11:21 AM

May 28, 2005

Quite Spunky

I wonder why so often now, when I'm faced with meeting people again, the prospect sends me into such a funk. Though yes, I suppose it's not entirely new. It's as if I'm about to long haul fly again. The planning and test drilling always seems pleasant and it seems quite contrary when contrary, but this side up is quite spunky.

Posted by subtitles at 10:08 AM

May 25, 2005

Guess What

The readiness is all.

Posted by subtitles at 3:14 AM

May 21, 2005

Their little drama - out of the island

Yeah, I basically can't quite stand my last post being on top, because it's absolutely horrendous writing - hence new post. Normally I do okay when I'm sleeping odd hours and never quite feel rested, but that must have been strange. Most of the time I just get disjointed rather than rubbish. And I felt awfully about having to spank the word into the title.

It's absolutely wonderful that Z-Nix is still getting in the Maxell discs - the quality is excellent, though I'm sure it could be cheaper. Considering how much they cost, I really should get a Benq drive, but the Lite-On's still fine, and the myth of scanning is always convincing. Anyway the bigger issue is with the inability of the spin to catch up, which is annoying in so many ways.

Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself?

I'm quite enjoying Celebrity Love Island, not least because of Abi Titmuss and Liz from Atomic Kitten. Their little drama is entertaining if a little flickery.

Movable Type really needs to take a couple of pages from WordPress, esp things like ticking multiple categories etc. But then I've still not migrated, and neither likely to, so.

I'm still feeling too competitive about Opera Blogs, but ah well. I think I'll try my best to keep at least a post or 2 on the latest page, that seems fair. More dark comedy regarding my phone, and much annoyance with forms.

Starhub has been acting up a bit recently, basically with the bandwidth

out of the island.

Posted by subtitles at 10:37 PM

May 13, 2005

Party For Peishan

It's her birthday tomorrow (14th, this Saturday), so yes Partay. Well, party in the sense of she'll be over and people will come bask in her glory. Or something.

Anyone know what kind of cake she likes? (shh)

Everyone is welcome - and I do mean everyone - do come.

Posted by subtitles at 1:57 PM | TrackBack

May 12, 2005

Very Much Like Aslan

Again with the confluence - but it is the events, rather than my them of the piecing. You'll know when you see me. And the really very very funny bits in Concrete Cow about Lion/Witch/Wardrobe - "Aslan's just going to piss you off". Oh and the reasonably promising trailer for the new Narnia movie. It makes me want to read the ones that I remember more resonantly - Dawn Treader and (Su-lin will soon inform me) the one with the iconic presence of "Under Me", or something to that effect. But I think the Dawn Treader contributes in no small extent to my affection for Golding. And I shall find the opportunity to at least try reading Starter For Ten. One of my very first spell-checked posts, how lovely. Though it's annoying in the sense that it doesn't let you manually edit straight away, and there is more than one step towards putting it all back; so I tend to just check and when it shows nothing wrong, to close it. And it finds all manner of silly things wrong, which is wrong of them and silly. And I really must do a follow up on my writing about embracing chaos - the title is handily supplied: Chaos, Control. Chaos, Control. You Like? You Like? It's probably a kind of wrong that bulimia summarises for me such a assertive sense of the will towards control. There probably really is something wrong with me going Sorkin crazy again, but at least now I'm going to fun things like doing a Mary Louise-Parker splash. And dreams about things, and my grandfather, and his death and his funeral. Very much like Aslan.

I normally like to space paragraph things, but when it's composed the way it is. And apparently Opera has decided to abdicate all responsibility. And I think I'm just a bit worn out from Optool. You really do need to restart after you first launch after updating. Klipfolio 3 will be a treat. Perhaps I should cover their striptease before the money-shot.

Posted by subtitles at 10:31 PM | TrackBack

May 6, 2005

Cloud Nine

Sometimes I don't know why I bother. It might look fun to bash about and complain, but it really is a bit nerve-racking, and you never really know what people are going to do or how they'll react. Is it a mistaken sense of belief? The moment seems important enough, that something should be done, things should be mentioned, but when met with general indifference and the collective shoulder shrugging of the people you thought would care, it's always a bit sobering, and probably humbling in the best(?) way possible.

It's a very cheery way of singing about the wreck of the hesperus. I think I was having very trembly shaky dreams about Kelly Clarkson and a moment like this. Hi, I'm the frequent crackpot.

Posted by subtitles at 2:10 AM | TrackBack

May 4, 2005

Welcome The Fruits of Victory. (Yes, I'm Saying You're a Fruit)

I had been typing another version of this post, but Opera crashed, which pissed me off, but I'll give it another go. It crashed doing the horrendous task of opening the forum's PM page from Outlook, but whatever.

I don't just write about Opera. I started writing to be something of a diarist, in the most literary sense possible, and me being a writer, that's probably a good thing. Obviously I'll keep writing about Opera, but more indirectly, like posting on other boggler's posts etc. now that I've decided I've got nothing to prove.

I used to write most recently about Television, which I watch obsessively. I had most recently been watching Deadwood, which had been sabotaged on Bittorrent, so that it took forever, and then just finished watching Blind Justice, which is getting better and better. I think watching Murder One's pilot recently helps my patience with Steven Bochco.

I also write as much as I can about P2P, which invites the question how much do I want to get sued. I started putting advertising on my site so that the people who keep finding me on google while they're looking for subtitles for TV shows (who basically, are probably idiots) can help pay the bills. If you want to read this without the ads, I recommend Proxomitron.

I'm hoping that Opera take a close look at my suggestions for Opera Blogs, because I think it's in their best interest to let their evangelists (ie: us) do what we do best, and do it prominently.

Posted by subtitles at 6:06 PM | TrackBack

May 3, 2005

And so I woke up and was subscribed with the New Left Review.

It's probably a particular coincidence, me watching of all things Woody Allen while I'm being neurotic and obsessive. I'm tired of it, if I want to mention Opera a will, and someone can wake up, get a clue, and deal with it. I can only think they're on holiday now, so that my phone isn't coming any time soon, or they're conveniently forgetting. The rat bastards. It was rather nice though, the empty crushing satisfaction of tickling someone. You'd think with a pretty orange flower staring at me and the prospect of Madison Monroe, that my night would be looking up, but apparently now. Sort of like a misprint and the inequality of it all.

And so I woke up and was subscribed with the New Left Review.

Posted by subtitles at 3:52 PM | TrackBack

April 28, 2005

Wrap Up of Bits I Never Got Around to Finishing

I've been tending to note-take using the MT interface, and I just never get round to writing about any of these - no doubt due to my hectic schedule - itself due to the thing I can't name because if I do it'll get aggregated.

And What's Up With All These Euphemisms for HLA Anyway?

These must be the most literal bloody minded idiots who put together the series. I hope fuck that they novels were shit, because the series sure are. The bare caricature of construction.

To think that they might actually have in mind the notion of death generating stories. So just as all stories about native americans are tinged with the knowledge of their subjugation, all stories of lesbians in Victorian england end in tragedy and heartbreak.

the much fun that is alternate enterprise - so that's why Linda Park's on the show

L word is really so much better this season.

jesus has come to give us a lecture

big train, sales people hotties pharm reps

incredible zen that is smoking room

thompson hueffer

meeting person then leaving perspective, becoming theirs and so on - me then alyson, the the person that meets her etc.

killing off the only one worth watching on Jack and Bobby.

And why not, have a look at me testing out WordPress. I don't know when I'll move, but when I do, that's where I'm going.

Posted by subtitles at 3:17 PM | TrackBack

April 21, 2005

My Deep Regard for Mariah

There's a kind of wonderful intersection of personal narrative and creative action, whose ambivalence I think Mariah relishes. In caricature these are the puppet figures of our play, but the playing exhorts a different kind of enervation. That and I have a kind of squeal-y delight at the soft caress of her work.

Silly people keep saying such nonsense about the euphemism they assume is my regard for her aesthetic - if I wanted totty, that's what porn is for - though even then the romantic regard is far from absent. Though I suppose people are less than wrong in that I can't quite do better than characterise my attraction to her and my participation in her narrative as being "pretty gay".

I've always loved Mariah, with engulf that comes from having been young once, and thinking, and hoping. We Belong Together is absolutely flawless. Video is here. Though I'm sure if you looked you'd be able to find as nice a copy.

Posted by subtitles at 7:55 AM | TrackBack

April 18, 2005

-

We are not all alone in the world unhappy.

Posted by subtitles at 4:53 PM | TrackBack

April 11, 2005

Then, Drenched in Sweat, Awake - My Grandfather the Dead Pope

I just woke up abruptly, drenched in sweat. I had been dreaming that I had had a dream in which my grandfather was the pope. I had always had a kind of ambivalent relationship with my grandfather, I never really had the time of day to be honest. And this time it seemed that he wanted me to be happy and do the things I want and was bringing me and that other one around to eat and shop and buy things, I think now I knew or felt that I knew he knew he was dying, and yet I was ornery. The restaurant I can only remember now as an urge to leave, but later we were at the CD store, and he kept foisting things on me, like Black Sabbath's new album, which I demurred. I chose bunch, which I was going to wean further, when I was whisked to the cashier, where even as things were being rung up with a fearsome queue, I was saying I wanted to wean some more. At the end the wordless male cashier was just hovering and the female one said very loudly that "all items would have to be paid for eventually" in the most toity bitch voice possible. She would also proceed to mouth off about how my grandfather should be aware that his using his normally disused credit card would incur him Norwegian charges, like he was in nappies suckling. I sort of shouted at her about how she seems intent on getting her rocks off by being mean to grandfathers trying to buy a gift for their grandsons, and that shut her up. At which point it seemed to most coherent and asleep portion of the dream was over. I went back to the car and was saying rather boisterously that he should have a sign round his neck saying POPE. This followed by me inching the car down the winding staircase tunnel spiral, staring at how close the wall was on my right. Which segued into me being Lauren Graham/Lorelei, walking round round that spiral down, following the person or apparition of Susanna Hoffs, who told her to be normal and go back to her room. Then, drenched in sweat, awake. I've never really quite realised till now that my grandfather is dead, and that I saw his corpse, the skin loose and cold and mottled and grey and sagging back. He had been planning his birthday party so there were gifts, and old aunties considerate enough and versed enough to bring bundles of white tee shirts of huge sizes for the absent minded to wear. Very much a family gathering like that wedding. They angled the coffin a bit towards my grandmother, who had clung on till I was born, and smiled when she heard. They had sued for the plot they could get, diagonal to hers, for him, and the tilt was his yearning for her, which I never got to see. My mother says she was always made to feel welcome. I suppose he was a catholic, as my family was always meant to be, except for a newspaper article, and the rational proof of the lack of god to a young boy. And the shrugging acceptance of his parents, perhaps.

Posted by subtitles at 10:37 PM | TrackBack

March 30, 2005

Tree-Hugging Hippie Crap

Well, for starters, you don't live in a country where there is no meaningful sense of civil liberties. At least you have a democratically elected government that won an election that was vigorously contested. You are a Republic, you elect the people who make the laws, if you're not happy with the laws, then there's actually a chance that you can elect people who can change them, or persuade those people, or people who have influence upon them, to change their minds.

Personal disagreement does not abdicate your responsibility in upholding the rule of law, so you can apologise up your own ass. I can't be the only one to find people apologising for things they're enforcing but don't disagree with annoying, can I? In all likelihood, the people who are most likely to get the law changed are not going to be you. You have no vested self-interest in the thing itself. Spunk. There are however, people for whom this means money - it means money because fewer people are applying, fewer qualified applicants are bothering, and fewer outstanding graduates are entering the markets that require them.

It’s a problem for me that satire is effective through being distancing, but that it seems to be evinced by anything but. And also that to be effective, satire necessarily relieves itself of a certain level of sincerity, or inquiry, or intelligence.

The will towards democratic empowerment does not divorce you from the requirements of access - the baseline of which is validation. Flash, and Frames, are a bane upon the Interweb.

Posted by subtitles at 1:40 PM | TrackBack

March 26, 2005

Appears Very Deliberate

I can't quite bring myself to muster up to write anything worth anything about Extraordinary Machine (which I'm listening to again right now) and Psycho Beach Part (which I just finished watching). Fiona's growing on me, though I think I prefer her light touches, her aggressive stuff sounded more convincing in When The Pawn.

Psycho Beach Party I never quite realised isn't quite as trashy as I imagined it to be, apparently it's by a reasonably prominent queer/drag playwright, who's responsible for Die, Mommie Die - not that I know what that is. Amy Adams didn't get much of a role, which is unfortunate - I'm sure that Lauren Ambrose being red-headed like the drag self-image helped her in inhabiting the role. It's a pity the number lost to the pit that's 6 feet. I suspect that the episode I like so much of crazy Buffy owes something to this. It's interesting in any number of ways, not least in the narrative framing, which appears very deliberate.

I'm now satisfying my Go-Gos craving - very very much like early REM. I'm now remembering it was brought on by missing Rich Girls. UKNova is working out rather handsomely. I'm always digging myself holes with not burning things. I hope I'm not getting I Heart Huckabees for the umpteenth time.

Posted by subtitles at 2:20 PM | TrackBack

March 21, 2005

Mahjong Night - Thursday 24th, Day Before Good Friday

It's strange not having no future any more. It makes buying a mahjong set and table seem almost rational. But yes, Mahjong night is on Thursday - Su-lin requests dinner. If air-conditioning is required, as I assume it is, the pasta place or ramen place at Shaw Towers spring to mind - though with the former we might need to make reservations. I'm assuming expensive japanese food is too expensive. No air-con we can just get hawker stuff from the place just at the start of Liang Seah Street proper - the one I keep telling people gives me bad vibes.

Do people want to come with me to buy the stuff? It's always more comforting having moral support - I'm just worried that if I put it off for too long, it'll end up being closed on Thursday or something. Anyway, tell me if $60 is too much to spend on a set, and that same amount on a table. The date of the event puts my holy grail reference in rather sharp perspective I think. I no longer have no future, yay me.

And really, this requires both Delwyn and Dion, if not there won't be sufficient hardcore people to play. Eugene has said he would come, but that'll depend if he flakes like last time. Any and all are welcome - edel? clarissa? (is she even back yet?). I wonder though if Delwyn's day of jubilee has yet arrived from the UK, and how that will affect all this. I don't have great hopes for Under the Sea, but I can now play most of Frank Black's Headache.

I now wondering if I should get another gmail invite from someone so that I can get a shorter username - and one that's not misspelt.

Posted by subtitles at 9:45 AM | TrackBack

March 20, 2005

Not Quite as Bad as Dialectic

It appears that all this time I've been misspelling the word - it's supposed to be weltanschauung, rather than weltenschauung. I wish someone would have told me, not that it would have made a lot of difference. But I could have sworn that that was how it was spelt in the narrative texts I read - misprinting or me being silly? Oh well, not much I can do about the e-mail addresses I have with it. I was considering putting up a button with my gmail address, as seems to be the rage, but it's just free advertising isn't it, for a service that I really don't use - and whose pop service seems to be flaking on me. Bugger, it turns out that I'm just the leader in following instructions - it's not my fault they don't provide screenies for the advanced screen and make sure you turn on SSL - bastards. But yes, the misspelled word above is my gmail address. But apparently the buttons aren't gmail produced, you can find the generator here. I suppose it's useful in that you can use the smtp for fastmail :). I still think IMAP is a more useful protocol, especially if you have as many accounts as I do.

The Frank Black version of Hang on the Your Ego is incredibly apt for him.

Posted by subtitles at 5:18 AM | TrackBack

Let the Mahjong Commence!!

It's like finding the holy grail, only not holy, and with cupholders rather than a chalice. It's a place near to OG on the way to Sim Lim, and it sells a range of tiles properly, as well as a not entirely shabby looking table. Now the downside is that the nicer set of tiles costs $60, which I'd be willing to pay, as long as I knew someone was going to buy it off me at the end of the day when I leave (since I'm pretty much definitely leaving now). The table is $60 as well, which I don't mind, since I'd get a smaller bedside table in the deal. Chips for poker aren't that pretty, and $500 worth is about $7, so I'd get say 2 or 3 packs? Enough for about $15 worth of chips, with plenty of change.

But yes, drawers in the table for chips and extendable cupholders. The only thing holding me back is that the rim might be too high if I want to put my notebook on it. The felt looked pretty nice though. This is the Hong Kong supposedly good stuff, as opposed to the cheap ass China stuff. Get back to me on what you think, and as and when someone shows up to help me carry it to the cab on the way back - we're in business. I'd call people out today, but last minute appeals don't seem as effective as the once were.

Posted by subtitles at 4:26 AM | TrackBack

March 18, 2005

The Factual Thing Itself

And so when I tell a lie I feel the need to make that lie be real - to tell the lie to others who I don't need to tell the lie to, and be convinced of it as I persuade them of the fullness of the factual thing itself. I suppose that that would that mixture of extraordinary and unremarkably natural. Though really I've not had the chance, nor the inclination, nor the circumstances under which, to lie on that scale and need for say 5 years?

Posted by subtitles at 8:47 PM | TrackBack

Tempting Fate

I'd try to find and post the quote from Toby, but it's funnier when you watch it - Election Night, 4th season, directed by Lesli Linka Glatter. So I should be writing 2 speeches, one, yay computer, the other, I'm sorry for your loss. Apparently Eugene was asleep at home, so it wouldn't have been a good idea for me to have just gone over and tried calling him there. I'm bringing popiah, which is happily halal (there's a sticker on the wall), though there's one less than there was because I was hungry.

I'm currently reinstalling Neverwinter Nights, since I've discovered the new campaigns, I hope they don't suck. If only the DVD versions weren't all in Italian or spanish. The side glare of the panel is much better now that they changed the panel, and they'll get back to me about the colour issue. Not all that bad, them coming over, and prepared to do the swopsies on the spot - but still plenty of annoyance to get there. Tech repair people are so meek and unassuming, I wonder what that's about.

The Maxell discs I bought (well, eugene bought) are fantastic, especially with the Benq - exceptional in fact. I'm very tempted to replace the Lite-On, but then I wouldn't have pretty scans anymore. At least not on this box. I'm being stubborn about restarting but I really should, so my mouse gets turned back on and the monitors work properly again.

Posted by subtitles at 10:42 AM | TrackBack

March 14, 2005

And Love Her

I knew there was a reason I keep reading Su-lin's boggling. It's because she's intelligent and clever, and actually knows how to write - which is always nice. It's the kind of thing that it's nice to wake up to, to discover a tiny narrative of happiness or little vignette of a happy occasion, evoking perhaps the shared memory of the future while exercising the will towards nostalgia and the romantic desire for companions. I'm rather ashamed that I ever chastised Su-lin for not making her prose more interweb friendly by using short paragraphs as I do for the sake of plate-spinning attention. I think it has a lovely pith to it that reminds me (not in terms of pith necessarily) of the picnic in Brideshead. The perhaps unfortunate effect of the passage though is to render the character of the author as a vaguely marmish and scoldingly fond woman - one that is held in such regard by those that love her. And love her in an almost dismissive Sports Night manner. Just because this is what I'm doing right now I might as well confess that I've probably thought in the past, and likely think now, that Su-lin and I are probably not the best or most natural of friends, but happen to be people who despite that try very hard at working at it, for whatever reason, to attempt to make it work. The silly romanticism of Louis early in the morning. That requires the shame-laden indecision of a dismissive and vaguely comically rendered and protractedly convoluted retraction and disavowal. With that easy shame of shrugging of shoulders, 'I don't know'. I suppose I do subscribe to the notion of reading with the spine, but every so often, the sentimentality of the gripping of the chest is a rather fine way to judge and experience narrative. You can find the entry here.

Posted by subtitles at 2:29 AM | TrackBack

Pyramid Aliens Selling Time-Share

It's the two of us going for no discernable reason to a farmhouse, in response to a dubious ad to make money, except that there's a twist to why, which is that they are supposedly supposed to be hiding the fact that they are aliens. Actually now that I think of it it's as if they come onto our farm and proposition us as a family to start the production, careful to say things out of place, like bodies when it's supposed to be plants or something. We both sort of know that it's theatre because I'd heard about it before, from hearing about it online, that they pretend to be aliens to hook you in, but it's really just a pyramid scheme. It ends with me after a while having been at their place, and they've finally managed to steal my wallet which they almost seemed obliged to do, and there's my IC in it so I go back to at least try and get it back. Which I think is still a good ending. Obviously throughout there's an amibavalence as to whether they are really aliens or just actor salesmen or the the professional troupe the conspiracy hires - all kinds of incongruities as to how they can afford to run the scam on the scale for small pyramid selling etc. And the children. Just as you leave the house is when they have the hooded people in black carrying a black shrouded body and mistakenly leave it for you to pull back the veil, but we don't bother. Perhaps that's part of what occurs when I go back. Perhaps they're asking us to move to the country and get others to do the same - as if they were asking us to join the troupe. Stilted formality and slips of mentions of violence and harvesting. I could work in the bit from Big Train where he asks people to give him money and they do as long as he promises that it's not for a time-share. I'm sure I could work Pixley in somewhere.

Posted by subtitles at 2:05 AM | TrackBack

March 11, 2005

Strangers When We Meet - Whoever You Want Me To Be

I maintain, as I should, differentiation from the things that nominally enforce themselves as similar. That is not this, and my protestations are not anything other than the desire to point out that that I am better than all of you, that I know more, understand more, am more.

I'm starting to think that the reason Sally was moved was because it was originally planned as the end of the 12/13 episode initial run - something surely intrigues me beyond all understanding.

Alicia Coppola: On both Sports Night and 2.5 Men, not to mention Lisa Edelstein as Bobby Bernstein.

The extreme close-ups of Sports Night's DOP?

I'm in clover, for... That's what the end of more self-reflexive OC will do to you - I'm downloading the Jennifer Connelly/John Hughes thing it refers to as we speak.

Posted by subtitles at 10:53 AM | TrackBack

Laundry Day - It's an Allusion to a Bus

So again, my apartment smells like fabric softener, and I'm trolling about in my one pair of jeans that, honestly, are rather comfy - for jeans. Now if I could only stop waking up at 7 every morning. I forgot to put my towel in, and am wondering if I'm neurotic enough to change my sheets just so I can wash my towel. Of course you'd ask where my other towels are, to which my response would be - have you not *met* Louis? But if it ever happens, shower curtain, bedside table, new shoe rack, and uncontrollable weeping.

I just did the rather silly thing of checking how many episodes there would be in this season of 24. Wait for it. This also means that I can now test out my new firmware.

Apparently there's some computer fair thing on tomorrow at Suntec, and all are welcome to join me and Eugene - I must warn you though, that from my experience, these things are designed for one thing only - to clear old stock before new products are launched or price cuts announced. And I can build you one much cheaper and better - though I'm starting to think I really should charge.

Eugene seems to be wanting to help g/f to get new comp, and I'm just wondering whether it'd just be a better idea to go for a cheap socket 754 processor, and put some ass-indentations in Athlon 64. Though I'm wondering whether it's just not worth it if there's going to be no overclocking - the rated speeds are pretty low for the cheaper chips. And the whole SFF thing is making me wonder if it's a good idea. Well they can have a look at the crap being offered, then they can come crying back to clever Louis.

Posted by subtitles at 2:48 AM | TrackBack

March 10, 2005

Mahjong and Monitors, Suede and dEUS

I think I know what I'll be playing in the background the next time there's a bridge game at my place. And I know that I've not gone out for weeks and many many weeks, but that's because I'm focused on not thinking, is what I'm thinking. Maybe it would do me good, but I think at least at the moment, that would require too much moral support. Mahjong and monitors will have to wait.

The Suede videos I want because of the first disc, the early stuff before they got rid of the good guitarist, apparently the videos are to be mocked, I don't think I'd actually recognise them except for Animal Nitrate anyway. dEUS is more promising in that respect, and I don't think I've even ever seen the videos in question, except maybe the dancing one that came later. What I'd really love is to get that live set of them on MTV - I can't even remember the show now, it featured a bunch of great alternative bands of the period doing rather raw live shows - if someone could illuminate me.

Posted by subtitles at 11:52 AM | TrackBack

March 9, 2005

Apace

I have to admit, the livebookmarks feature in Firefox is pretty cool - it lets you bookmark the automatically detected RSS feed you've found and view the headlines in a bookmark folder. Opera should do that. In case you haven't noticed, Louis has been incredibly bitchcakes for at least a day or so - I've becomes obsessed with traffic - but I've resolved to calm down and deal with it. I think I've tweaked the sidebar quite enough so that I won't fiddle with it for at least a day or so.

My ad clicks seem to have disappeared, so that means it was my fiends being curious - or someone who's lost their poor interweb cherry to the hunger of adsense. At some point I'll stop talking about my obsession with things you do thing with like nipples - and write about something vaguely interesting - as is my wont.

The construction outside my door is progressing - there are now doors to the lift area, and there's a little balcony with a railing to fall off of while you figure out that the chute is there.

Posted by subtitles at 9:24 AM | TrackBack

March 8, 2005

Now he's just screwin' with me

Memories of family dinners, getting dressed up, going to tables with big restaurants, and running around up and hiding under tablecloths, playing with cousins and undoing whatever grooming went in to the past few hours. Watching Charlie dressing up Jake reminded me.

Posted by subtitles at 1:15 AM | TrackBack

March 7, 2005

I'm a Fool to do Your Dirty Work

I don't think I'll ever quite be able to communicate to people the extent to which the knowledge of shame overwhelms my remote negotiation with the world. And by that I mean I wake up, head stuffed with thoughts that have recurred so many times they are like the apparition of jousting that I remember from my most fevered spellings. I think the extent of it feeds into my digression, my evasion, my awkwardness - it makes me lose control over the directness of language - and you can well see demonstrated. It's no surprise that this should come at a time when other big thoughts play in me like a big mansion. There's a reason why I'm avoiding watching Deadwood, and why I'm so tempted to got Sports Night crazy again.

Oh and I'm taking back what I said about discussion and technology - after awhile, what this chattering needs to do is shut up. They're squeezing a bit too tight.

Posted by subtitles at 10:43 PM | TrackBack

Lone Quest for the Grail Wolf - 23

And so waking up and thinking of Lone Wolf. Perhaps there was something cosmic in moving from 1 to 350. I was dreaming that as Lone Wolf, I was telling my army that the only way to spread things round here was by decree and I was enjoining them not to more or less make porn in a particular place. Apparently though it was good for morale, it just wasn't quite right. I wonder if they ever considered making series with Kai Ladies - though that doesn't sound quite as cool as Kai Lords, to be sure. I wonder if it was subject to the same predjudices that JK Rowling described. Perhaps the first draft was Hermione. Am trying muster up to write about the pie place. Am now thinking about Grail Quest, and that one where you kept ending up at 23 or whatever. I should really try and get access to those. Lone Wold always seemed like a particularly visceral occasion of fantasy, more oozy and drippy to be sure. The blondeness of it is probably a bit disturbing now though. And yes, they never really showed you that much of a portrait of yourself - self-actuation then. Am starting to miss Boomtown. I never quite remembered to mention that is was And Jason Gedrick, which was pretty cool. I really need to shower.

Posted by subtitles at 4:20 AM | TrackBack

March 6, 2005

Gah, Trackback

Still can't quite figure the whole auto trackback thing - for some sites it does it automatically, but most of the times not? And editing causing pings? That's just annoying. How would I make it automatic for mine I think is the real problem. So, well, sorry about that, but 2 pings do not spam make yes/no?

Posted by subtitles at 10:22 PM | TrackBack

March 5, 2005

Create New Entry

Obviously I feel a bit self-conscious about posting so many pictures, but I figure it's like having a little holiday from the pressures of endless text. It seems a 450 pixel width thumbnail (loosely called) is the just right dimension so that things at least look okay on 800x600.

Eugene flaked, but so far at least Su-lin, Dion and Zhi-Xian are coming, which is probably about right - though if Delwyn were here it would more justify the platter proposition. Thus the first Curry Night. I'm thinking Muthu's Curry would be the next on the list.

I'm very tempted now to post that picture of Prudence, but I figure that I should do it when there are fewer pictures on the front page. It's a real pity that MI idiot is in so many ways mean to be such a central figure in Boomtown. Oh, another of the CFL lights blew - I think there might just be something wrong with that lamp.

The newer Blogger.com templates aren't too shabby IMO, though my custom MT one is still cleaner and nicer. Very spunky. Oh, and I'm in the midst of reworking my front pages to make them use the style sheets from MT 3 - it's just a matter of pasting content and deciding what I want to keep really. Eventually.

Posted by subtitles at 9:09 AM | TrackBack

All friends shall taste/ The wages of their virtue, and all foes/ The cup of their deservings.

Okay, let's just make this clear - I consider, and have from the beginning, considered myself as a diarist, and was concerned that this endeavour serve that purpose. If I hear another thing about the political significance of whiny partisans, I'm going to stab myself. The reason I don't have an "issue" bog or don't use it to boggle about something in particular like technology or boggling itself, is because that would be, to me, contrary to the purpose of this as I set it out. I'm not hearkening back to some pure idea of what boggling should be, I'm talking about my conception of it. It's about the person and the ideas, and the way that they intersect.

Sure there are many other uses - they collate information - collectively so; but content management systems have been doing that for a while now, esp things like Neowin, or even Slashdot for that matter. Actually one of the channels I do sort of approve of it for is as corporate communication with its customers. Yes, it's always nice to be able to interact with a human face rather than a corporate website, but that makes sense to me, to individualise the notion of the corporation - as long as it is sincere in its desire to communicate and allow discussion. A certain amount of chatter is always good.

But especially because these bogs are about humanising the thing by showing the people, it is imperative that long technical posts that reveal aspects and justifications of things that you work on be accompanied by personal posts - about the things around you and your thoughts and interests. It's not a thing about at thing, it's a thing about a person. The example I found here, it pointed to here. Then scroll up and read the post after.

Journalism blah.

Now people who do this as vanity work - I really do like that episode of Buffy with Michelle Trachtenberg writing into her diary (Real Me) - but mostly because it's a caricature of what that kind of writing is. At a certain age, that seems to transform into pretentious twaddle. Which is fine as long as you move on. But really, some of the face tilting towards the sun is insufferable in the extreme.

Gah.

Posted by subtitles at 3:39 AM | TrackBack

March 4, 2005

That One Thing

Megan Ward. The desire to grasp, to hold, to *create* certainty. How is that kind of testing not morally bankrupt? It boggles me that I haven't written more extensively about this, especially in relation to the Doll's House, and how horrendous I found the insinuation of the test - of the finality of it and the edge of revelation and tipping it seemed to encompass within it. Of all the things I remember about the play, that is the one thing that resonates to me, without question - how the momentous is at best fetishistic.

I'm suddenly thinking about the scene in Royal Tenenbaums, where the tennis player loses it on court.

So 3 down.

Posted by subtitles at 12:20 PM | TrackBack

Who Reads This Crap?

This will be another of those posts that posits the question: who reads this crap? I've been browsing my site stats, and I apparently have up to 217 unique visitors for the first 3 days of this month. Now sure, I obsess and constantly load pages but that would all end up being from my one IP address.

Googlebot and other crawlers fine should generate quite a lot of traffic per IP - but again, all from one IP. Next would be the mufftorrent chatboxed I pretty much spammed (sorry bout that) - some are from my forum posts, no doubt thinking I'm anna paquin. What amazes me is that supposedly about 20% take the action of bookmarking or adding to favorites. Out of 217?

What makes more sense is that the majority end up here for all of 30s or less - these would be the ones who realise I'm not hawking subtitles for Jack and Bobby, Unscripted etc.

I would hope that at least the people who come looking for Broadvoice stuff find what they're looking for. Also I wonder how these stats deal with things like tabbed browsing - would that account the the amount of direct requests - ie with no referrer?

I'm now realising that my long titles aren't perfect for pinning on top, annoying. Well, looks like they didn't turn out too bad. Just in case you can't find pinned posts you saw before, the category (ta-da) is Previously Pinned.

Posted by subtitles at 11:16 AM | TrackBack

March 3, 2005

Shade of Winter

It's probably been haze season again recently, not that I even really remember what it used to be like, but yes, pretty erratic weather and being incredibly hot at times and sort of smoggy in the night and mornings. Not so I'd have really noticed, but some times, a bit not so missable. Went on a convenient quest for pocket tissue. Apparently Watsons has decided to diversify their range, segmenting their market if you will. Also their branding doesn't seem to be quite as important to them with those products. Oh, and rambutan trimming.

Ah, I see - their branding is now reserved for the upper end of their market.

Posted by subtitles at 2:53 AM | TrackBack

March 2, 2005

What Have You Been

Having nothing better to do - by that, obviously meaning that all this is very much writing around - I submitted my blog to a bunch of aggregation services that do Singapore blogs. I think it's funny too.

These seem to be pretty small communities, which will be nice in terms of readership. I'm just saying this to be disclosive to people who have come here to watch the audition. I don't actually read very much of other people's writing - if you don't like it, bite me. If you want to read this, yay for everyone, but there is no quid pro quo unless your superbly illuminating comments don't make me want to stab myself. Welcoming enough?

Who doesn't enjoy a healthy ambivalence?

Posted by subtitles at 12:40 PM | TrackBack

February 27, 2005

Her Boyfriend's a Dick, and He Brings a Gun to School

I just wanted the headline. There have been periods when that line has played over in my head repeatedly, for whatever reason. Reminds me of what I wrote about Elephant. There are a number of things you could search for on this site - pornography for instance, that would be a good one, and you might be amused by what you find. Of course the Tara Reid link is in the elephant post, also pornography related in the end, and not in the way that might be thought - obviously.

1 down 18 to go.

Posted by subtitles at 3:31 AM | TrackBack

February 26, 2005

Headline Challenge

Hey, if any of you can figure out the absolute obliquetry that are some of my headlines, I'll give you a prize. I'm just looking at my front page now and I've found a couple. Really I wonder whether the fuck I'm going to remember what all this crap refers to whenever it is I actually bother to look at it again. These aren't that difficult I wouldn't think, I'm sure there are others that are worse. So a few to start with - I suppose commenting with the post itself would make the most sense.

Bitchfight is probably too easy.
Christina Ricci, Elsie Snuffin, like throwing a stick just requires a little close reading, and at least some attention to my past writing.
*ahem* Project Gutenberg requires specific knowledge, but a bit of trawling might be required.

There really will be prizes. Meals at the least. Nice ones.

Posted by subtitles at 3:14 PM | TrackBack

Hot White Cum

Liz Phair rocks. Really brings out the chick-rock in me. Which made me think of this post for the mention of Wei-chean.

The word rock always seems to remind me of the Pet Shop Boys lyric "cause I dance to disco and don't like rock". I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Neil Tennant makes at least 2 mentions of a lover who ridicules because of not liking rock. Very much like Aaron Sorkin that way, or his writing staff, because I always suspect that it's the same guy (not Aaron) doing those episodes. That's probably one of my favorite post titles, probably because I didn't write it.

Opera's caching is so useful it's not even true - being able to reload form info from the cache is just unbelievable and totally inconcievable with any other browser.

Posted by subtitles at 7:52 AM | TrackBack

The Blonde One Looked Like Buffy

I know at least some people thought I was overcompensating by doing what I did and tacking what I did, but I think it was more about just being less constrained in what I felt I could do and how I should surround myself. It was fun, like smoking, but the sellers really know their market of idiots.

Posted by subtitles at 6:24 AM | TrackBack

February 25, 2005

*ahem* Project Gutenberg

One of the things about me is that things I find stupid I tend to just roll my eyes at and move on. Dismissal seems to be my super-hero power. In this case it cleverly keeps from allowing more people into a stuffy kneed cockmuncher's silly little reign. Why point people to things that are full of bastard covered bastards with a hard bastard centre? But then it's getting slashdotted as we speak, so this is me being Pyrrhic - which actually refers to something (I found out in checking it up before using it) - dictionary.com and wikipedia are doing wonders for me. Though Proxomitron has a large part to do with why I don't use another dictionary altogether. Add them to your search.ini. Ask me how.

Posted by subtitles at 9:08 AM | TrackBack

February 23, 2005

Instead of doing anything else

You think if I find a way to die from RSI, they'll name it after me?

Posted by subtitles at 12:44 PM | TrackBack

February 22, 2005

Gallows Pole

I think people should realise how strange it is that I'm displaying a grand total of 2 days worth of posts on my main index page, when not too long ago I had to set it to display 40 days. I'm trying to swing.

I'm also thinking to myself that I should go round sim lim some time, and have a look at monitors. I'm now tempted to establish a little workstation at my bedside, get a lower surface to mouse on, a keyboard I can put on my lap, or something along those lines. And perhaps eventually move my current monitor there, so I'm not stuck with 800x600. How devilish.

Posted by subtitles at 4:31 PM | TrackBack

Mule

I'm still trying to feel the idea out, not that I've not thought it many times, I'm just thinking how to put it. People who negate incessantly lack a certain imagination, lack a kind of empathy and understanding. I think I just illustrated my own point. I think what I'm trying to suggest is vaguely what I remember from the Chaucer laced introduction I got when I started in York, that humanity encompasses.

Posted by subtitles at 3:27 AM | TrackBack

February 21, 2005

Porto

So *that's* what port is. I'd like to find some, and get some nice cheese. Maybe for after curry.

I get the feeling I need to redo my quickpost link.

Posted by subtitles at 4:44 PM | TrackBack

Down by the Grapevine

It's nice, to just sit here and write, Laura Nyro playing in the blackground. It's nice that my speakers are now properly positioned in the room. I think I glory in my disdain for fastidiousness regarding wires. I really need to sleep timely tonight so I can wake up and buy the bus ticket. I hope I get more shirts I'll actually wear.

How handsome my site's become. The CSS fixing of the text sizes was particularly satisfying.

I wonder if I should go ahead to remove the dashes from the bottom of my blogger posts. I wonder whether export would do well moving images - I suppose you'd just put the files in the directory. The replace function would then be able to fix the absolute paths if necessary. Now that I know how, I'm nagged by the desire to export a backup. And the knowledge that phpBB still isn't upgraded. But apparently lots of people put off upgrading web apps - hence the pwning really. Oh, and there's so much crap on my desktop from tweaking.

I love my connection - it's worth a hug. But I'm done tweaking up speed to increase latency, much less to maximise downstream. Fixing it at 40 seems quite reasonable. When I have to adjust it for calls I wonder what I'll do, but probably just do the long way.

Posted by subtitles at 3:43 PM | TrackBack

Becks Dark

You think it still counts as getting sloshed in the middle of the day if you haven't slept all night?

Posted by subtitles at 4:50 AM | TrackBack

February 20, 2005

Would You Be My Heroine

It popped into my head, walking back, almost 5 in the morning, from the Indian Muslim place, the thought I'd had in my mind for a time a while back. That just like a character in Nella Larson's Passing can say that sex is a cruel joke, I felt that education, at least the education I was afforded, and the promise that was promised, was very much like a cruel joke.

I have a bad habit of taking back statements after I say them - I suppose it's my way of mitigating myself - a personality trait that makes me seem to disavow myself. To be sure statements are not meaning and discourse is not sincerity or feeling, and there is always that portion of existence that quite rightly could do what Jane Campion did in Holy Smoke (BE KIND), but roundness should not be forced like a brick. You really wonder if confrontation isn't.

But maybe a food diary would be less of a *downer* - I even annoy myself when I do that. It's really not about escaping or evading or circumscribing meaning, it's perhaps about conveying extents. Compromise would then be the dirty word.

Posted by subtitles at 8:53 PM | TrackBack

February 19, 2005

Open Thread

This is an open thread to test comments. Post away. Tell me how *pretty* my site is. This is just so I can have some entries that are open to comments - basically this will be few and far between (maybe). I'm trying to think what those entries would be, I suppose those like Curry Night below, where a reply would be nice. But then there's messenger and there's e-mail. Whatever.

You can comment anonymously, which means I have to approve each post (I've changed my mind about this, but I might turn this back on later). Otherwise, you need to have a typekey account, which would be useful in the future if you comment in Typepad, Movable Type and LiveJournal blogs. With typekey, I also get an e-mail whenever there's a new comment.

Posted by subtitles at 10:20 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Rip Angel

Jonny Zero might as well put up flyers saying "we help the helpless". They even have their own "Heroes for Hire" flyer. The goofy sidekick is pretty fun though, probably the best thing about the series, since I havent' seem much of the woman. Fox must really think people can't handle being introduced to too many characters in depth one episode after another, for them to so assiduously pack episodes about each character together.

It's not a bad episode as it goes - Peta Wilson (of La Femme Nikita) is pretty good in it, and doped up Jonny is funny.

Posted by subtitles at 10:14 PM

While Watching

I really like Sully going "crap". Faith is really so cool as a detective now, getting to dress up nicer and wearing her hair down, very fetching. And regular doctor woman and being so coy and struck with Neal McDonough; very lovely girlish fangirl moment. Wyclef Jean is absolutely *awful*.

Posted by subtitles at 5:47 PM

Pin, LCD for sale

It'd really be nice if you could pin particular posts, but whatever, Curry Night is below. I'm really going to contact Eugene's friend and get my bass fixed. Anyone interested in buying my 15" CMV LCD is welcome of make me an offer. I bought it for about $400, but now it retails for about $350 I think, if not less. I'd give it up for a sensible price, and there'd still be time left on the warranty.

I suppose categories are a bit useless. Unless you wanted to make a specialy branch, which never really panned out for me.

I'm getting more impressed with Broadvoice. From my extensive trial with Michel, it seems to have the better voice quality compare to Skype, at least going from phone to broadvoice. I'd have to actually be on the other end to know what it's like, but it's probably not quite as good. But I suppose that's what you get from using a higher quality codec. And I'm at least still able to run eMule at 10kb/s up while the call is going on.

Phoneconnector is still a bit sluggish in responding when I recieve certain calls, it can take up to 3 or 4 rings on X-Lite to make Phoneconnector respond. The problem being that until the phone starts ringing, I can't seem to just pick up and have the call be answered. Changing the setting to "none" for the ringing thing from USB doesn't seem to have changed much. I'd know more, but I haven't yet restarted, and probably don't intend to. I should really under clock my US comp, but that'd be tricky.

I wonder what Karen's been up to.

Have I mentioned how pretty my blog is? :) And I've tidied up the location of my Opera and Klip buttons on the right, the pyramid thing really wasn't doing it for me. If only Broadvoice would learn some subtlety in its button making.

I wonder if anyone would buy Broadvoice kit from me if I peddled it. I'm sure if I could catch the US university-going crowd, or even the UK ones, I'd make a killing. Parents would probably be the easiest marks there... There'd end up being quite a few US local phone numbers here. Like they say there are in India, I suppose. Pity there doesn't seem to be any noticeable VOIP provider in Singapore - it'd make the most sense for people going overseas to want to preserve a Singapore telephone number. Though for students behind fascist networks, that might be a problem. I suppose I could ask Leong if he's interested. I'm sure Pan-Asian VOIP solutions would do really rather well - as long as they were price competitive. I should have a look around again I suppose. Here'd be a place to start looking I suppose, but I don't remember them being terribly promising from what I saw.

Louis also went for more Strudel. Middling at best, really.

Posted by subtitles at 4:14 PM