BrockLi Soup

Last night, I posted to Twitter that I think I’d like to move to DuPont when my lease here expires, because I’ve always liked the neighborhood. I got this IM later in the night:

I’ve been told Dupont is the ‘gay’ place. like all the gays live there…just lettin ya know!

To the person who sent it: I’m sorry, there’s no way I can NOT share this (but don’t worry, I won’t name names). I appreciate your concern, but I’ve had my shots, so I don’t think I’ll catch The Gay. I’ll watch my back, though, just in case.

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p>Also, I can’t find the the site with DC shirts, like the “DuPont is Gay” one. Anyone have that bookmarked?

Since moving down here a year ago, I’ve barely used my laptop, for two good reasons: my desktop is conveniently located in the living room (where I’ve always used my laptop the most), and I no longer have homework or projects to be working on when I’m away from my desktop.

At the new place, all three of us have our desktops lined up under my desk, and Matt and I have ours connected to Jym’s monitor, which he doesn’t use. Being the environmentally responsible kind of guy I am, I went to turn off the monitor before bed last night, and pushed the power button clear into the monitor casing. Not a big deal, I figured - I’ll take it apart and re-seat the button. Problem is, there doesn’t seem to be a way to open the damn thing.

It’s sort of a long way of saying that I’ve been forced to use my laptop exclusively for the past day, and I kind of like it. This damn thing cost me a fortune (two years ago now, but still), so I should be getting some use out of it. It’s survived two moves, a year and a half of classes, three jobs, and a big cup of water: it deserves a little lovin’ now and then.

In other news, Scrubs season 6 premiers tomorrow at 9 on NBC - don’t miss it!

I’m drinking kittie wine, but it’s OK because I’m using my Turtles mug.

LiveJournal can handle RSS/Atom feeds pretty much the same way it handles any other user or community: if someone creates a syndicated account for a feed, users can “friend” it and comment on posts there. This is convenient for people who already use LJ and want easy access to a couple site feeds (I don’t think it would be usable as a full-fledged newsreader, but I guess it depends on how many and what types of blogs).

As of this writing, 44 people read this blog via it’s syndicated account (wave!). It’s not a lot of people, but my readership is pretty low, so that probably accounts for most of my audience. Since the account acts like any other friend, these people see my posts smack in the middle of their friends page, and thus, can easily comment on posts there.

And people do, a lot more than they comment here. This is great, except for the fact that it’s on LJ. As far as I can tell, they list the most recent 15 posts there, but don’t give you any way to go further back. Unless you bookmark the post itself, there’s no way to see old comments (and that’s assuming that the pages don’t go away, too).

Much earlier this year, JR suggested that I write a script to import comments from LiveJournal into Movable Type. I’ve started looking into it at least three times, but keep getting discouraged. There doesn’t seem to be any easy way to get those comments - no RSS feed or API that I’ve found - so I’m going to have to screen scrape them. I keep putting it off because it’s going to be a pain in the ass and while I really want to pull in those comments, I also really want to not deal with regular expressions.

So, to the LJ and MT hackers out there (if there are any): have you ever seen a plugin that does this, or even an LJ data source that would make it easier? I’ve looked around and come up empty, but since it’s going to be at least another month before I really feel like dealing with it on my own, I figured I’d ask around.

I don’t know about you, but I had a hell of a weekend. We closed up shop around noon on Wednesday, so I went beer-and-food shopping with Jym and Mel, who cooked an incredible feast for six of us on Thanksgiving (when I saw “who,” I mean Mel - Jym had nothing to do with it). Elsie came down Friday for a long weekend, since RIT is in between quarters right now. A bunch of us spent Saturday afternoon at Fort Hunt, wandering around and flying toy airplanes, then went out to meet some people that night. Elsie and I spent Sunday doing “the walk” (Washington Monument to WW2 Memorial to Lincoln Monument to Vietnam Wall to White House) and wandering around other parts of DC. She fell asleep when we got home - at about 8 - so nothing much happened last night.

Over the course of the weekend, we ate at a few new places and some old favorites. I really do need to get out into the city more often - I always have a good time wandering around up there and we keep finding cool new restaurants. It’s easy to say “I’ll see it later” and spend the weekend on the couch, so it’s kind of nice when someone comes to town for a bit and gives me a reason to get out there.

Also, the monuments are beautiful at night, and one of these days (when I’ve got a few hundred bucks laying about) I’m going to get a new camera and show you what I mean (looking for Christmas ideas? Get me a D50).

I’m still not happy about missing my goatee, but the really cute waitress at Bailey’s commented on its disappearance tonight. She claims that my butt chin is a genetic rarity, much like her adorable dimples.

Not such a bad shaving accident after all.

It’s been over two months since my last review, so I’ve got a whole bunch for you today. Let’s split it up a bit, shall we?

Warning: some of the sites I’ve linked to will auto-play music from the band in question. It’s pretty obnoxious, but whatchagonnado? Turn down your speakers before clicking, mmkay?

Albums

The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (Indie Pop)
I have mixed feelings about this one. Mass Romantic and Electric Version are both fantastic - it’s fun, upbeat music, and that’s why I love these guys. Twin Cinema is a lot darker - more minor chords - and just sounds more depressive. That being said, I love Use It and The Bleeding Heart Show. Twin Cinema and Sing Me Spanish Techno are pretty good too, but I’m kind of disappointed in the rest. It’s definitely got the New Pornographers’ sound, and taken on its own, it’s a good album. However, listening to Twin Cinema requires a different state of mind than their first two albums.

Nickel Creek - Reasons Why: The Very Best (Contemporary Folk, Bluegrass)
I had never listened to Nickel Creek much, and they’re going on indefinite hiatus next year, so I’m glad they put out a Best Of. With the exception of two or three songs, it’s a fantastic disc. I especially like Helena, When You Come Back Down, and the biting Somebody More Like You (my favorite line: “I hope you meet someone your height / So you can see eye-to-eye / With someone as small as you”).

Scotch Greens - Professional (Rockabilly Punk)
These guys opened for Flogging Molly when I saw them back in February, and I finally got the album. Good gym music. I don’t have much to say about them, they’re just fun to listen to.

Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers - Pandelirium (Hillbilly Rock)
One of the guys at work introduced me to these guys. They’ve been in DC at least twice since I got this disc and I’ve had to miss them both times, but I’ll get them next time - listen to Ichabod and tell me they won’t put on a ridiculous show (you can hear that and No Such Thing on their website). I can’t even really describe them - psychobilly, maybe? - but it’s definitely not for everybody.

Against Me! - Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!! (Anarcho Punk)
I’ve loved these guys ever since Fonny kept playing Sink, Florida, Sink a few years ago. There’s nothing new on this album, but it’s the second best thing to seeing them live.

Singles

Beck - Nausea
Who hasn’t been listening to this for the past two weeks?

Tenacious D - POD
This has been stuck in my head, on and off, for weeks. I still need to see the movie.

Placebo - Every You, Every Me
I finally saw Cruel Intentions last week. It was awful, but I liked this song.

Blue Man Group - Time to Start, Rods and Cones
I can’t believe I never got into these guys. I love percussion-heavy music, and I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to find stuff like them, but more drum-centric.

Teddybears - Yours to Keep
This was one of the iTunes free singles back in September. It’s just a catchy, fun, mellow tune.

Teddybears - Cobrastyle
I list this one separate from Yours to Keep because they’re so different. Both fun, both catchy, but this one sounds more like an iPod commercial song (probably because it’s been used in a few commercials). It makes me do that stupid-looking chair dance at work.

The Dandy Warhols - The Last High
Bohemian Like You comes up in shuffle every now and again, but somehow, I didn’t hear this song until a couple months ago, and it’s been in near-repeat ever since.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Tamacun
This is currently the iTunes free single - go get it before Tuesday. I bought the rest of the album, which is good, but I haven’t listened to it much yet. The things that these two can do with guitars are obscene. Watch the video - seriously, you need to see these two.

Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
I kind of hate admitting that I like stuff like this, but I love the way the song slowly builds into a crescendo of noise. That makes me happy.

I’m From Barcelona - We’re From Barcelona
There’s really nothing quite like a band of 29 Swedish hipsters calling themselves I’m From Barcelona. Just watch the video.

My chin feels funny. And cold.

I haven’t actually seen it in about two and a half years, but today was one of those days when I just couldn’t get the sides of my goatee even, and it just kept getting smaller and smaller until all I had was this little strip in the middle of my butt-chin, which, incidentally, is damn near impossible to shave.

What a way to start Thanksgiving. We had a good run, and I’ll grow it back as soon as I can. For now, I need to see if I still own a scarf.

Know what’s kinda disappointing? Flipping through celebrity Scientologists and finding that actors I actually like - such as Jason Lee - are crazy.

Incidentally, I’m watching Mallrats for the first time in years, and if I didn’t know he was in My Name is Earl, I wouldn’t believe it. And I definitely can’t imagine him, with construction boots and a moustache, on a skateboard.

Let’s hear it for four-day weekends! Or, in my case, four and a half - my boss came around this morning and told us that if we didn’t have anything important in the works, to leave around lunch time.

I know this is supposed to be the second biggest party night of the year, but I’m going to put on my pajamas, make a drink, and watch a movie. Just like the Pilgrims.