I am salivating. Severely.

I've wanted to write programs for cellphones for years, but most mobile manufacturers make the process needlessly difficult. I've looked at Windows mobile, but I can't find a single, bare bones "Hello World" visual basic/c# tutorial anywhere on Microsoft's site (lots of pretty promotional crap, though). And the mobile java community has had it's head shoved up its ass for years (how many acroynyms and layers of abstraction does one need, anyways?). And palm? Don't even get me started. Nokia python? Was easy, but couldn't do much with it. The closest thing I ever found to a usable mobile API was Trolltech's Qtopia+python, and that had way too many user interaction issues.

If this phone comes with some sort of Cocoa programming library like the kind I use for the macs as work, this phone will kick some serious ass.

I am posting from my old Sharp Zaurus. It dates from a time when I used to have in a group of technologists that I today no longer have faith in. Still, it's a intriguing curiosity, sort of like a steam-driven car from last century.

I thought that I'd turn the Zaurus into something useful' maybe a recipe guide to keep in the kitchen or something of the sort, maybe some kind of remote for home automation. Who knows. Since my powerbook's LCD got cracked, it's also the only portable web browsing technology in my apartment. I guess this post technically qualifies as a mobile post, though it's not really from a cell phone.

In my first week back from my micro vacation in NC, Ifindthat I come back to a situation where I still don't have my shit together. My house is a mess and the spreadsheets at work that I'm supposed to hook up to the database are full of typos that break things and this weekend was taken up by sleeping constantly to get rid of my sore throat with rest and tons of OJ.

I guess I need to look on the bright side of life. Last weekend I found out that there's still a lot of people back home who love me very much.

Here's the gratuitous Channukah pics I mentioned. While I know that the holiday (and Christmas, for that matter) is over, I'm going to post these pictures anyways because I had meant to post them while the holiday was still in-session.


I try to celebrate the holiday as regularly as I can, as it's the one period in this stretch of time between Halloween and New Year's that I can truly celebrate my being different and not being driven insane by a several hundred-billion dollar bombardment of music, commercials, decorations, food, and other societal artifacts celebrating a holiday I don't participate in

To start with, I uploaded as my music Tsum Balaike performed by the awesome Klezmer R's, a klezmer band from Hungary that is only like the best klezmer band ever. If I were a rich man, I'd have them as my wedding band (if I ever get married). Not exactly Channukah music, but festive enough.

On with the pictures.



First night. Accidently forgot the proper ordering of the candles (place right-to-left, light left-to-right, it's just so confusing).



With the lights off it looks cooler.



The sixth night. This time with aluminium foil under the menorah; wax kept dripping on the heavy silver plate tray I recently bought and resurrected, and I didn't want to make the job of cleaning 8 days worth of bee excretion from it any more difficult than it already was.



The eighth night, all candles blazing at full burn.



I spun the dreidel, just for kicks. I've toyed around with the idea of replacing the chocolate gold coins (aka gelt) usually used in the game with shot glasses--it would make for an excellent drinking game.



Dreidel frozen in mid-spin. The magic of photography and a lucky shot. The Hebrew letter hay being shown wins half the pot, if you land on it.



Another frozen-in-spin picture, this time with the litter gimmel, which wins the entire pot.



I finally made latkes! (potato pancakes). The first batch I made, back when I went to school in Ithaca, was a total disaster. I don't remember whether (e:lizabeth) remembers the horror, but I sure do. I managed to acquire a good recipe that my dad uses, which only adds about a zillion critical ingrediants that my first batch 10 years ago didn't have. This second batch was really good--good enough that my third batch will be next year when my cholesterol has declined to reasonable levels again.

My family sometimes has, er, strange tastes in gifts. We usually get each other weird/utilitarian stuff, but then each one splurges on a single expensive gift as well that we ourselves want and hand it to the family members to "give" to us on one of the eight nights. My splurge gift was a PCI graphics accelerator to make up for the fact I bought an underpowered, non-upgradable emachines computer (no AGP/PCI-E slot--second life is intolerable). I already put it in, so I can't very well take a picture of it.



What better way to say "I love you" than with a level?



The commemorative pins are cool. I don't care what people up here will say.



I got this one night; it's one of several gifts my parents left here when they visited me a month ago. I really didn't know what the hell it was, figuring either it was a sculpture or something that wasn't art but rather served some boring mundane purpose, like hanging ties or propping up ironing boards. I cam to the conclusion "it's art, I should display it prominently", and hoped that my mother wouldn't rib me for making a tie rack or shoe tree into an objet d'art. Turns out I was right and it was a sculpture after all.



What were you expecting, Joy of Sex?

I finally made a donation to WBFO. I can now officially feel less guilty about listening to NPR's All Things Considered as I'm driving down the Skyway on my way to work.

Tomorrow I'll think that I'll post a worthy Channukah post with gratuitous menorah shots and the most recently opened of the 8 bizarre gifts my family left me when they were in Buffalo. I would post it tonight, but I'm not worthy. I spent 30 minutes in Tops getting all these supplies necessary for latkes, and it's like 12:50 and I still haven't made them because I could set aside the time due to other errands. In keeping with Jewish tradition, I feel very guilty about this.

I haven't posted in probably close to a week, so I should record the few events that transpired.

I pretty much blew the weekend and did nothing but sleep. If I hadn't been lacking sleep for the most of the previous workweek, I would have been very upset for how little I did.

Yesterday, I finally did three weeks worth of laundry. Yes, I'm a bachelor. I admit it. I'm better than most, and I don't try to get one more day out of already worn boxers by hanging from the chandelier to aerate. That counts for something, right? Surpisingly, time at the laundromat felt like it went a lot quicker than expected, which is great, but I have this sinking feeling that it went so quick because I left some load of clothes in a washer (even though I did double-check before I left).

And the ex called yesterday, saying that she's finally ready to come up and visit me in Buffalo (in June) and that she wants to get back together. After 9 months of stonewalling and refusing to come to Buffalo and wanting me to always go down to NC to see her. I feel very mixed about this. On one hand I miss her, because we always related on so many of the same levels. On the other, I wonder how much of me missing her is fear that I won't be able be able to find another woman up here (or anywhere). Ever. (The most physically intimate I've gotten with any woman up here is a stripper putting her arm around my neck while she was doing her act for other folks). It's hard to tell which feeling is more predominant, and whether I'm really looking for love or security.