Time to get a life -- pioneer blogger Justin Hall bows out at 31

For 11 years, Justin Hall was dedicated to documenting his life online. Composing more than 4,800 pages from nearly a decade of constant writing, which he posted on his site, www.links.net, Hall became a pioneer among online diarists and Web loggers.

For Hall, nothing seemed to be too embarrassing or too personal to write about -- with photos and links. From romantic relationships to his father's suicide to a bad case of shingles, he shared himself with a fairly substantial audience. Thousands of people read his site every day.

Then, in mid-January, he made a short film called "Dark Night'' and released it on the Internet. He replaced his ever-changing home page with a fixed red heart filled with question marks.

And like that, his Web site moved from the present to the past tense. He left a search bar next to the questioning hearts, letting readers sift through the archives.

and of course, my alternate universe -





I thought this was going to be a better time of day for lighting, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Any photo tips for reducing screen glare would be greatly appreciated. Although, maybe that's part of the charm.



Escher-esque shot of Elmwoodstrip.com displayed on Elmwoodstrip.com on my screen



And a long-shot for good measure

Really, I'm not obsessed or anything. I swear!

omg. I either just had my first hot flash, a post-fever aftershock, or a seriously unfamiliar flush of abashes (I would have said abashedness, but dictionary.com says abashes and who am I to argue). Who would have thought I could be stricken down to my cynical core by a single post? Not me.

Thanks (e:Terry).

Ok, back to business. This is what I was going to post. Music band fonts Beware some of these fonts only contain the characters needed to make the band's name (Slayer, for instance). But others contain the full character set, or at least a usable one.



p.s. - I think posting under multiple aliases on

e:west

, then citing my various selves on the homepage, may be getting to me. Also doesn't help that Brenda & Kathy are still in New Zealand. Their dog is good company, but not much of a conversationalist. Too many one-sided contemplations.

I gotta get me some (e:peeps).

Twist-out

You just know you're in for some fun when the help document for your problem starts like this:

Solution:
"How you fix the problem depends on your situation. Read "Decide what to do" for a description of the possible situations and what to do."

I think some hardware and software manufacturers must have majored in psychology:

ATHERTON J S (2003) Learning and Teaching: Cognitive dissonance [On-line] UK: Available: :

"Ordeal is therefore an effective -- if spurious -- way of conferring value on an educational (or any other) experience. "No pain, no gain", as they say.

• the more difficult it is to get on a course, the more participants are likely to value it and view it favourably regardless of its real quality.

• ditto, the more expensive it is.

• the more obscure and convoluted the subject, the more profound it must be.

Mark and I seem to have fallen into our old patterns (well, most of them anyway). Which means we're both sitting in front of our own or each other's computer.


p.s. - congratulations to Basra!

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.