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Pre-October 2006 entries are listed over here.

  • Thing a day

    I'm going to try to get back to the drawing-or-something-a-day habit. I signed up on Thing-a-day, which hopefully will kick my butt back into gear. (If you want to do something creative for the month of February, there's still time to join up there.)

    I know that all the writing that I do is creative, but I still feel the urge to do creative things that are not digital. I spend far more time with my computers than I do any human being, or anything else, and there's something profoundly dissatisfying about that.

    I also want to loosen up and do quick sketches, rather than obsessive multi-hour drawings that I was doing last year.

    posted on 30 Jan 2008 :: Read more

  • Canadian students come to the same conclusion as I did on the Wii

    According to this Reuters story, it seems some Canadian university students did a similar Wii experiment as the one I described previously, and came to the same conclusion:

    posted on 23 Jan 2008 :: 10 comments  :: Read more

  • Random links

    A Happy yet sad web comic, NetNewsWire is free!, and more.

    posted on 19 Jan 2008 :: 2 comments  :: Read more

  • The day I was mistakenly charged $27,500 on my Amex

    Now I can chuckle at it but back then, it wasn't nice. One of the big brouhahas yesterday was that Dreamhost, a popular web site hosting service, made a pretty stupid billing error that caused their customers to be erroneously billed millions of dollars.

    posted on 16 Jan 2008 :: 6 comments  :: Read more

  • Macbook Air and other new toys

    I can remember a time when just the thought of an ultra-thin, light, elegant laptop like the Macbook Air would have had me running for my wallet to pull out my credit card as fast as possible. But since I'm saving up for a Big Lifechanging Event (which I'll write about here when I'm ready to) and have been watching my spending, I only had a mild upwards blip of the heartrate.

    It's sexy, yes. That it supports Touch technology is what made my heart flutter a bit (besides the form factor), though I guess we have to see how well applications will utilize it. It has no Firewire which is a bummer. It would be great if I spent a lot of time hanging out at coffee shops or on grassy campuses. (I can see it doing great amongst students.) I'm going to stick to my plans for a new Macbook Pro soon though.

    posted on 16 Jan 2008 :: Read more

  • Really not as cool as you think

    In the things-that-made-me-chuckle department, from this page:

    Dear person in their 20's who thinks that having a tattoo, listening to Imogen Heap, wearing Converses, and collecting Absolut paraphenalia makes you different:

    You're not. Everyone under 30 has a tattoo. Everyone listens to Imogen Heap. Everyone wears Converses. Everyone loves the Absolut bottle. When I go out at night, I can't spit in the air without hitting a Scene Kid who wears his mama's leggings and flat-irons his hair for the sake of "indiviuality." Imagine a kid in the 1980's who thinks that his moussed hair and loud neon shirts make him stand out in the crowd. That's you--you're the 2008 version of him.

    And as another poster says on the same page, it's not just people in their 20s either.

    posted on 13 Jan 2008 :: 1 comment

  • How to cancel something on the phone in minimal time

    It's the 10th day of the new year, and I'm deep into a satisfying process of decluttering my life. Besides getting rid of two jumbo bags of unwanted clothes (those funny conference giveaway t-shirts must multiply like bunnies in the closet) I've also called up and cancelled a number of subscriptions and services that I don't really want to continue.

    It's quite annoying that so many places want you to call them to cancel, when they let you sign up oh-so-easily online. But of course they do so in the hope that the customer service rep can try to talk you out of cancelling.

    When I make the effort to call a number to cancel, my mind is firmly made up that I am not going to renew or whatever under any circumstances. On the other hand, I don't want to get into a protracted argument with the rep person, who is after all only doing her job.

    posted on 10 Jan 2008 :: 1 comment  :: Read more

  • Getting fit with Wii Sports is a big fat delusion (updated)

    If you're thinking of getting a Wii to get fit, think again, for now anyway.(See updates at the end.)

    For Christmas, I finally got a Wii. Yes I'm quite behind the times, but I'm not really one who likes to jump on new stuff as soon as it comes out. I prefer to get the version 2s.

    This is the first gaming console I've ever gotten. I've never been tempted by other consoles, ever. I do play the occasional PC game, but a dedicated machine for gaming? Nah.

    What lured me to the Wii was the promise that somehow, it would help me to exercise.

    posted on 4 Jan 2008 :: 10 comments  :: Read more

  • The bad thing about it-Bay orrent-Tay

    The ability to download whatever one wants with no restrictions has its disadvantages.

    posted on 4 Jan 2008 :: 4 comments  :: Read more

  • Looking back a little and forward a lot

    posted on 2 Jan 2008 :: 2 comments

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