"Now buy that porcelain donkey!" written by Tinypliny on estrip.org

04/03/11 12:56 - ID#53968

Now buy that porcelain donkey!

Hahahaha

From Chromercise!

Permalink: Now_buy_that_porcelain_donkey_.html
Words: 9
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/03/11 12:57

Category: linux

04/03/11 12:38 - ID#53967

Partition Question

Couple questions about partitions in linux.

Question 1:
I have three partitions on my laptop:
/
swap
/home

Let's suppose that I am distro-hopping and want to install some crazy distro on my "experimentation" laptop. Let's further suppose that this new distro is not really similar (in terms of kernel as well as windows manager) to the older distro which was on the laptop.

If I don't format my /home partition, will the older settings (brightness, power management, folder options, screensaver, desktop background etc) be preserved on all old-distro-> new-distro transitions? Why or why not?

Question 2:
Why is it that the installation programs for all linuxes (linuxi?) don't allow me to tick the format checkbox for the swap partition while installing? All the other partitions have "tick-able" format checkboxes.

Thoughts?

Permalink: Partition_Question.html
Words: 128
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/03/11 12:47

Category: music

04/02/11 09:20 - ID#53962

Bizet done the Bartoli way

I absolutely adore this performance. I love how she brings so much of her larger-than-everyone-else personality into a song that was written more than a hundred years ago. Who knew Carmen could be so much fun!

Cecilia Bartoli performs Bizet's PrÃ¨s des ramparts de SÃ©ville or the SÃ©guedille from the opera, "Carmen", accompanied by Jean-Yves Thibaudet on the piano...

Permalink: Bizet_done_the_Bartoli_way.html
Words: 65
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/02/11 09:25

Category: e:strip

04/01/11 11:05 - ID#53959

E:Strip security warning...

What is this about?!

tinypliny writes at 10:06:04 04/02/11 - Comment #61593: I just changed it. It was definitely broken.

metalpeter writes at 10:05:22 04/02/11 - Comment #61592: I logged out and logged back in and it is back to the mouse on rice picture?

tinypliny writes at 10:00:36 04/02/11 - Comment #61590: You know, I thought it was my browser's cache issue, but you are seeing that too, huh? I have no idea why it is different from my other small avatars. I will try changing it and see if it synchronizes. Something broke when I tried SSL for a while yesterday.

metalpeter writes at 09:57:34 04/02/11 - Comment #61589: I have another question why next to your name are you using the sepia avatar?

paul writes at 12:00:47 04/02/11 - Comment #61579: Because your browser needs to encrypt all the traffic before sending it.

tinypliny writes at 11:43:11 04/01/11 - Comment #61570: Now that you mention it, I do remember reading that post of yours and wondering what it was. It didn't make much sense then... it makes a bit more sense now. :-)

Why is the SSL version of estrip much slower than the regular version? What is it doing before sending the pages over?

paul writes at 11:16:52 04/01/11 - Comment #61569: The last paragraph of the warning also explains what is happening. You basically nee to import the estrip root certificate - then certs issued by estrip will be trusted.

paul writes at 11:15:00 04/01/11 - Comment #61568: If you read the instructions at (e:paul,53226) that I wrote when I added it, you will see.

paul writes at 11:13:09 04/01/11 - Comment #61567: Because my server is the authority. First you need to import the cert authority as trusted authority before you can trust certificate issued by it. On firefox you just visit estrip.org/trust. I am not sure how you do it in chrome.

I am not paying for SSL certs. These are issued by my server so that you can connect encrypted when in a cafe, at work, etc. If you don't want to use it or trust it just use the http site - its purely an extra luxury that you do not need.

Permalink: E_Strip_security_warning_.html
Words: 6
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 04/01/11 11:05

Category: the odes

03/29/11 02:29 - ID#53939

Flying...

Loving the nexus...

Permalink: Flying_.html
Words: 5
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/29/11 02:33

Category: dance

03/26/11 06:19 - ID#53915

C.O.S.S.O.M

We danced a nifty sequence of moves to this particular song in my latest hip hop class. The steps were synchronized to a three-stepping boom-boom-boom beat that underlies the song, a kind of hip hoppy version of the waltz rhythm...

More accurately, others in the class danced while I gave up after the first two steps and just had fun goofing around. Turns out I got the true spirit of this song - relaxing at a spelling bee.

Take that, you overachievers-at-dance-class!

R.E.L.A.X

Permalink: C_O_S_S_O_M.html
Words: 91
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/26/11 06:26

Category: dance

03/26/11 01:24 - ID#53912

The day I...

get this routine down

is the day I probably will get a tattoo. ;-)

PS: (e:lauren), I am discovering all kinds of crazy hip hop music from the Verve connection. Not bad at all. :)

Permalink: The_day_I_.html
Words: 39
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/26/11 01:25

Category: buffalo

03/26/11 08:57 - ID#53909

Paint it black

I see a whitish road and I want it painted black
No whiteness anymore I want them to turn black

(BTW, that is NOT Apocalyptica. It's the London Symphony Orchestra. I am amazed how anyone could NOT tell it is a full scale orchestra and not some dinky 3-cello metal band.)

Just when I was getting ready to launder my feather-shedding monster of a coat and dress down to a lighter coat, Buffalo has a whiteout and 10 inches of snow on the ground overnight. I am back to wearing multiple layers and the being covered with silly-looking feathers all the time.

Why can't the hideous Erie remain frozen till June?? It is so necessary to always be running around in freeze-thaw cycles and dumping undue amounts of snow on the city? My annoyance is even more intense because all this snow and ice totally cramps my style and forces me walk slow. There is nothing quite so unbearable to me as being forced to walk slow like a 90y old. Snow is tolerable but I HATE ice on the pavement. Go away. You are not welcome.

Talking of painting, the Buffalo Management Group, which owns the Mayflower building, recently painted the gorgeous wooden facade of the 1930s wood-and-mirrors elevators with tacky white paint. WHAT THE HELL?! Who paints over old beautiful wood!? It just looks so abysmally cheap now. It's time to write a protest email...

EDIT:
I wrote to Jeremy of the BMG and he wrote back:

"I do appreciate your ideas on this. The natural look does look nice but its not wood. Its metal. If we don't paint the doors it will rust. We will find the right colors for the doors. I am sure you will like what we do. Carpet on the floors will be installed soon."

I had no idea they were metal. They looked and sound as if they are wood... Hmmm... So they will change the ghastly white. I am intrigued about what colour they will pick next. I still can't believe those doors are metal. Maybe I need to go downstairs again and tap on them.

Okay, I am apparently clueless about what is metal and what is wood because Jeremy just wrote:

Yeah if you look closely at the door that hasn't been painted you can tell that its metal. The elevator doors and the trim are both metal on every floor.

!!! In any event, I am glad they won't be tacky white for long.

PS: The italic tags don't seem to work...

metalpeter writes at 06:31:01 03/26/11 - Comment #61466: Two Points:
1. I'm not an expert but if you paint on top of wood won't that help protect it say you don't have the time and money to do the upkeep on the wood or you think it may get damp or wet from like what ever causes that like neglect

2. Paint it Black is the Rolling Stones best song ever.... That being said a band that is not together anymore called The Tea Party do a pretty good take on it..... How I first heard the song was on a War show (Dana Delany pretty good actress) called China Beach....

tinypliny writes at 09:39:10 03/26/11 - Comment #61454: The east-side elevators are still the same wood... (dirty because they have been painting all the corridors but still wood and eminently clean-able). I am now thinking of writing to the big cheese, Myron himself. After all, it is his building. Surely, he wouldn't want the beauty of the building ruined by some misplaced frenzy for tacky "renovation".

tinypliny writes at 09:35:43 03/26/11 - Comment #61453: Yeah, and it was a fun movie too... I hope it was a mistake! I have written to Jeremy about how terrible it looks now. It is absolutely incomprehensible. WHITE tacky paint. UGGGGGGGGHHHH. :(

libertad writes at 09:26:21 03/26/11 - Comment #61452: I wish you didn't even share this with us! Didn't they just use the elevator and lobby in a movie? They wouldn't have used it if it were painted for sure. I just don't understand what they could have been thinking. I wonder if it was a mistake somehow by someone they hired.

tinypliny writes at 09:15:05 03/26/11 - Comment #61451: I know! It's not as if the wood was in bad shape. It physically pains me to look at the elevators now. :/ It ruins the character of the lobby - which is so delightfully period and pre-war with all its mirrors and wood and scrollwork on the ceilings.

libertad writes at 09:04:45 03/26/11 - Comment #61450: That is insane that in these days someone would paint over natural woodwork. I know that was a trend years back that people are still cursing, but that is definitely not the style now.

Permalink: Paint_it_black.html
Words: 432
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/26/11 10:41

Category: music

03/25/11 03:34 - ID#53906

El tiempo que te quede libre

Permalink: El_tiempo_que_te_quede_libre.html
Words: 5
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/25/11 03:34

Category: the odes

03/20/11 01:48 - ID#53877

Opera nightmares turn to future classes

I had a particularly unhinged nightmare yesterday. Among a zillion other uniquely boring pieces of randomness, only one crazy consistency stood out. I got out of 99% of the sticky situations by singing opera.

And not just any opera but this particular piece by HÃ¤ndel (that I believe was specifically designed to inflict the maximum damage to the singers' vocal cords. Note the baroque ornamentations, bordering on the insanely cruel, from 3:21 onwards).

Of course, only Cecila Bartoli can ever hope get out of this song alive and smiling. I woke up with a really nasty throat pain. It felt pretty real. I hope I wasn't bawling out in my toneless voice all night. I think its only logical to conclude the I need to take some voice training. If this ever happens again, I want to be prepared and at the very least be able to sing a very low key version of some simpler (waaaaaaaaay more simpler) opera in tune.

The Community Music School of Buffalo on Elmwood will be offering opera classes from April:

It sounds loony now but I am starting to consider enrolling for some diva-training... The thought of being able to burst into opera at the grocery store seems strangely appealing. If I could also take ballet-lessons, then I could be my own musical theatre...

Permalink: Opera_nightmares_turn_to_future_classes.html
Words: 238
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/20/11 10:22