So I saw my friend Andy (best music buddy[inlink]twisted,59[/inlink]ever) while I was in Boston earlier this week. It reminded me again how guilty I felt - and still feel I guess - about messing up "the balance" by leaving Boston after 20 years. Not just with Andy but with everybody. I guess anybody who leaves a relationship feels that to some degree.

Anyway, it was school vacation week so I met him and his kids at the Children's Museum on Tuesday. As we were getting our hands stamped I noticed he still had a fresh stamp from TT the Bear's Place where it turns out he had gone to see Colin Meloy of The Decemberists the night before. Between mediating the older and younger kid's turns and dodging the hordes of other kids also on school break, we caught up on music.

I asked him who he went to TT's with and he said no one. He just went by himself. He's been going to shows on his own lately. As he put it, everybody goes to sleep, Daddy goes out, Daddy comes home, everybody's still asleep, works great!

Considering we started hanging out because we kept showing up at the same shows alone, it's ironic the night after I got back to SF I ended up going to see Mission of Burma alone. I don't know what this all means, but it seemed worth noting.

I was also reminded that the last time I went to the Children's Museum was when my former company, ATG, had a Halloween party there. That was back in the dotcom heyday. I wish I'd had a place to blog then when life was interesting.

Probably the only other time I've been to the Children's Museum was when my Dad and brother drove up from South Carolina to visit me, also during school break. Somewhere I've got a great photo strip of my brother from one of those photo machines there (in black and white - that's how long ago this was). If I find it maybe I'll add it here later. (*see below.)


Andy, John and James in front of the Boston Children's Museum


Blurry reflection of me taking a picture of them in the fun mirrors


I took the T to South Station to get there. I used to take Amtrack to Baltimore from South Station back when travelling by train was cheaper than flying. God, I am so old.


Oh, this is the tea cozy I made that Mark is so crazy about. I don't get it personally. This would have been a good follow up to the Valentine post I accidentally deleted about how gifting changes throughout a relationship. But you'll just have to forget about that! Whoever you are. Does anybody read my journal on east? Maybe I should just stick to west.

Note to self: in addition to not blogging when wasted[inlink]ajay,276[/inlink], it's probably best not to blog when still semi-delirious from the plague.

Later.

• p.s. - I found it. The photo machine starting taking pictures before he could climb into the booth. That was funny.

omg. I just found out my ex has his ringtone for me set for the theme from the exorcist. Please tell me that's just a play on "ex" and "exorcist." Somehow I don't think so.

Come on, I'm not that bad!

Pix of Mark's toaster collection[inlink]twisted,71[/inlink]from eBay:





I could have sworn he told me had 70 of them. Now he says it's only 40-50. That's still a lot of toasters.

Ok, so I'm back combing the job listings on craigslist, and there are some legitimate (you'd think) categories that just have the most bizarre posting titles. Am I reading too much into these?

Fri Feb 11

Erotic/ Adult Models FEMALE wanted for an internet content provider

FEMALE BLONDES needed for a CONVENTION


Maybe I should think about updating my resume.

Holy Moly,[inlink]ajay,260[/inlink](e:Ajay)! That's a large format output option you don't see every day.

What that guy is doing is basically the front-end of what I'd like to try, except I would use swatches of digital photos (or any digital image) with color values (within a specified tolerance) that match the ascii color map "quilted" together for the digital output. All I need for the back-end is some kind of script to process a directory of images and analyze each block (user-specified size) of contiguous pixels for blocks that match one of the necessary color values (within use-specified tolerance), crop, save and catalog each block then move on. Maybe it could replace color blocks if it finds a closer match later.

Sounds easy, right! A heckuva lot easier than sewing all those little squares together, let me tell you. Maybe (e:Paul) will whip out some code for me in his spare time after he's done taking and teaching classes and writing his thesis and all the other side projects he has going at any give time. Ha! Just kidding.

Speaking of labors of love - the estripwest demo party went VERY well. The mini-BLTs got scarfed up almost as soon as I sat them out. Luckily I had taken the precaution of personally performing a thorough random sampling to make sure they were ok.

Whoa! I hit 4k views. When did that happen?

Whoa momma! I had a bacon-induced orgasm just looking at that[inlink]lilho,235[/inlink]sandwich.

I wish you could come help too. I'll try to do you proud, although I doubt my mini-BLTs could match that trademark (e:lilho) lusciousness. I don't think anybody here will be complaining though. After all, it's bacon!

Thanks for the insider tips. I've found exceptional food or distracting earrings can get me through most social situations. Or a good soundtrack.

As much as I love the name estripwest, I'm finally bowing to the common wisdom that a site about the oh-so-parochial island community of Alameda should probably have Alameda in the name. Call me crazy. Many have.

Given all the other "good" names are taken, I'm left with two contenders. Probably the smartest choice is alamedalink.com. I can shorten that to a:link the way elmwoodstrip is nicknamed (e:strip).

The sentimental choice, however, would be to name the site alamedastrip.com or a:strip for short. Is there any value there? Or is that a purely gratuitous homage?

I know I'm asking the wrong audience here, but I'm totally torn. I may hold a vote at the Alameda open house Saturday to decide. Thoughts? Feel free to cast your vote for a:link or a:strip in chat, if you feel so inclined. Please don't be mad at me if I have to go the other way.

Hey (e:Soyeon), how did you set up that videochat [inlink]soyeon,176[/inlink] you did with your friend Nick? That looks really cool. I want to try something like for an estripwest demo next Saturday. Did you just use iChat?

That montage of screen grabs you put together from it was great.

I admit I could have pounced on this but didn't. I'll be ready next time (I think). It's good to have friends at the Chronicle . It's bad to have friends who hijack your entire day and night for a trip to wine country the day you could have been interviewed for the "Baring their souls for the world to read" article. (Not something I ever would have thought I'd do. But any press is good press for

e:west

, as they say.) That's not really why I missed out on this article, but it makes a good excuse.

I don't think I would have qualified for the other two articles in the series: "Beware if your blog is related to work" and "Web logs come of age as source of news."

---

Original Message

---

From: Lisa
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 1:22 PM
To: Brenda
Subject: Re: Blogging article

yeah! if it's not too late.

I really don't know any blogging celebs personally. sorry!

---

Original Message

---

From: Brenda
To: lisa
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 5:01 PM
Subject: Blogging article

Hey, can I pass your name onto these guys? What's your blog address again? Know of any celebs, too?

---

Original Message

---

From: Jennifer
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 4:11 PM
To: NewsroomDL
Subject: request from Business reporter Verne Kopytoff

Biz reporters Verne Kopytoff and Benny Evangelista are looking examples of famous Bay Area residents who have blogs. Possibilities could include politicians, pro athletes, actors, chefs, artists, business leaders, etc.

Additionally, they're looking for average Bay Area bloggers (ie. non celebrities). Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

Please send your recommendations to Verne at sfchronicle.com

Thanks!

I had to get a copy of this for my brother now that he's past the graduate school application phase.

See what no one was supposed to see again: pictures of hopeful students, accompanied by unflattering behind-doors quotes from their professors and employers. Jesse Reklaw distills the essence of a bygone era from a dumpstered stash of confidential biology applicant files circa 1965-1975

(e:Maureen) - you may want to skip this part until your graduate school interviews [inlink]maureen,37[/inlink] are over.







What does that mean ?

So, have you ever been in the middle of an important phone call and you hear that little "blaDoop!" letting you know you forgot to sign out of AIM? Oh, and then you hear that ear-splitting persistent chirp of the smoke alarm letting you know your freakin' tea kettle forgot to whistle and as fate would have it you uncharacteristically closed the kitchen door for some flukey reason so you didn't hear it boiling dry? No? Well, it's pretty embarrassing.

Anyway, I feel more and more like my life is back in fate's hands (whatever that means) so who knows what will happen. As I told the person on the phone, there seems to be some mysterious synergy between (e:Paul) and the world, and I've decided to trust whatever comes my way because of it. Ok, maybe trust is too strong a word for it, since I still think sometimes he's wildly optimistic regarding some things. I could use me some of that optimism.

Hey! What kind of bread did (e:Lilho) use for those mini-BLTs? I think I need to make those for the estripwest open house. I'm dubbing them the official food of (e:strip) for now.