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guess it is working… with some fiddling around in the html… must be an easier, more correct way, but we’ll just have to save that for later…

i’m excited about blogger’s blogger images which was announced just two days ago [ i think ] because it means that i can now blog from my mac!!! hopefully… let’s try it.

well… some formatting issues [like the ability to wrap text around an image or not to do that] have to be figured out… and i had three or four tries that failed to upload an image here… once i had two images here, but in trying to post it they disappeared… let’s try to post this one first.

…but a couple links about detroit.

sadly, a couple days ago, the original Studebaker plant burned to the ground in detroit. as i sat in the in the dorm lounge with andy and erin upgrading my laptop os to tiger and generally being slightly bored we decided to drive downtown and see what was visible from the freeway. as it happened we were able to get quite close and decided to park and walk closer… surprisingly we were allowed [with a multitude of other onlookers] to walk to within a half block of the blaze on more than one side… it was a five alarm fire and apparently there was no hope of saving the building, only of protecting the surrounding structures… if you browse back on my camera phone pictures, you will see some pretty dramatic shots of the fire… [around here]

also while i was looking at old pictures of the building at the link above, i came across some pictures of jeff’s project which i participated in… not much there, but i was surprised to stumble onto it…

last note: i came across this article on detroit in one of my mailing lists… sounds interesting. maybe one of these days i’ll get through the second half…

that’s all for now…

this morning i found this little prequel to a hack for the iPod Photo Connector… anyways, it has some neat pictures and also some hints for transferring other types of files across the connector. thought it might be useful to someone with those fun toys!

i got a package from digikey with one of the key components to my next project. it’s a magnetic stripe reader… i’m going to rewire it so that i can discover what info is on my credit cards and so forth…

last night i watched part of the shaye saint john dvd “shaye saint john: the triggers compilation” … it is insane… i just linked to the dvd order page, so if you get back to the main page of the site do so at your own risk… it’s not for everyone… it deals with a lot of strange social taboos and borrows from some greats in cinematic history but with a completely new and disturbing twist…

today there was something big going on at the high school… it might have been the graduation or the graduation brunch or part of the reunion thing or something other, but the town is full of people and the campus has been overrun with people and events… it’s kind of a nice change from the utter lack of people that have been here for the past week… it also kind of sucked when someone blocked in my truck and andy’s van… luckily i have the keys to dharmesh’s truck so i was able to get out and do what i needed off campus. i hate when people are so inconsiderate… i was this close to having it towed…

oh well… my frustration disappeared later in the evening when i ventured into dearborn for the third dorkbot:detroit event… it was held in the upstairs meeting room of green brain comics and consisted of three performances [ one individual and two collaborative ] by three electronic musicians. it was very intimate [ perhaps 9 people in attendance including the musicians ] but they were all very cool and i look forward to maybe participating in the future… anyways, like i said very low key, but inspiring and definitely something new…

i’m long overdue for some updates here i know… i’m sorry for that, but that’s just how it goes when you have a really loose schedule.

i’m sitting around campus here waiting to start work on the ‘remodel the studio project’ but i’ve been [we’ve been] asked to hold off on work until the paperwork goes through… ugh… i suppose if it means i will be covered by the school’s insurance i should and can wait. it’s actually kind of a nice break too as i may have mentioned before… lots of time to catch up on some me time and just enough free time to become addicted to another digital distraction. yes, i am now completely addicted to webcasts and podcast [even without the ipod, which is looking all too attractive considering]… i was so happy to find This Week In Tech [quickly renamed from Return of the ScreenSavers for legal reasons] a resurfacing, of sorts, of my favorite deceased tv show, The ScreenSavers. i think i actually found this thru kevin rose’s blog while learning about the release of his new web tv show Systm, a different and perhaps sanitized version of his older, still active, thebroken which is a little on the silly side of things, but still better than anything i can find on the new G4TechTV… [sigh]

anyways, there are more and i have been listening to them constantly for the past two or three days between placing orders for electronic parts, that i can’t find at radioshack, for my next project [to be unveiled later…] and taking walks around the campus [when it isn’t thunderstorming!] in fact, i am so excited about this media and its ease of distribution that i am considering putting one together myself. maybe that’s wishful thinking, but over dinner the other night we [the ubiquitous ‘we’ - actually me, andy, ginger (this was her farewell dinner - off to a teaching fellowship in north carolina - bye ginger!), ryan, cy and kelly - not all of whom were involved in this conversation, but whatever] decided that it would be called ‘Widger… and the MunkeyBoy’ hehe… well, enough of that…

today i went to install my first piece of artwork… well, the first piece of my artwork that someone bought… actually it’s a piece that ben and i completed, but only i went to install it… it was cool. it’s in a lawyer’s office and while i was there i noticed, among the large quantity of art in the building, two pieces of work by classmates of mine. anyways, i don’t have a good digital camera, but i do have a nifty camera phone [that takes some fairly blurry pictures sometimes] and so i snapped a few pictures of it after i installed it. they are on my moblog [which i have been trying harder to update lately] i think there are four pictures there and those may be the last photos i get of that piece :-( but it looks pretty good in the small conference room… even if it’s a little hard to tell in the photos.

well… andy is watching dog day afternoon in the other room, so maybe i’ll go join him… oh! wait!… almost finished downloading the new Systm episode!!! have to watch that… ;-) it’s good to be on the mailing list… advance copies!

here i am… back in muggy michigan… it’s really good to be here, even if [or maybe in part because] almost no one is here… i’ve had some time to walk around the campus, try to keep up my sketch-a-day habit which is difficult from lack of practice, decompress, unpack some things, get ready for some projects of my own [which may be forthcoming in some web based representation]… just sort of be a little lazy too i guess.

anyways, i’ve been remiss in one matter… i received this very cool postcard [complete with instructions in four languages and a diagram showing how to remove the sticker] from basel of all places! and i keep forgetting to say thank you for that. i guess i am not always very good about thanking people when they mail me things, but i really do appreciate it!

so here’s a little picture of it… sorry it’s a bit strange and you can’t see the diagram, but my cheap little webcam didn’t want to take a picture of it… so this is the best i could get… maybe i’ll post another one from my phone…

[1

so, i stole this link from another blog… [ sarahlane ] but it’s just so funny it’s worth reposting so that you all [ my faithful readers ] can enjoy it too… and yes, i will be posting again. i’ve just been vacationing, like so many others and… well, truthfully, i’ve been a bit lazy as well.

enjoy the sweet sounds [ and even sweeter visuals ] of Gem Sweater [ click me ]

it’s funny to miss someone that you rarely see… this was pointed out to me a few days ago and it makes sense, but it still happens… i could elaborate, but i’m not feeling real wordy tonight. a little talked out and tired.

on a similar note, it seems those pesky conversations that previously i did not know how to end have solved themselves; just have the cel phone drop your call… hehe. well, it’s wonderful to hear a voice from halfway around the world even for a brief moment. some people are so thoughtful. :-)

just thought i would make a note of it.

bfn

well… here i am on vacation… actually sitting in my friend’s living room at some unwholesome hour of the morning thinking about… a lot of things i suppose. i’ve left the desktop pc in michigan and since blogger doesn’t permit the uploading of images via a mac you will have to live without any picture updates for awhile. maybe you’ve already given up on my updates… it has been a while already. if i wasn’t so lazy, i would upload some images from my brand spankin’ new camera phone to that textamerica thingy i have set up… i’ll do that soon, promise… maybe tomorrow. got some new pics from the bbq today and my short reunion/excursion to santa monica friday night. you will enjoy those… still have to work out the mms issue with my phone. i hope i don’t have to take it back to the point of purchase for an exchange… that would take me a little out of the way.

anyhow, i was thinking about all the things that occupy my little mind when i have a free moment and one of those things is how little i feel like i have to say… i’ve been getting a fair amount of attention lately; questions about my future plans [both short and long term] and about my first year in grad school and in michigan… questions about my new friends [maybe one in particular] and although i am happy to consider these things and happy that others are interested in my life, i realize that i don’t have as much to say [nor do i have as much figured out] as i expected i would when talking about it… i’m not so much worried about that, but i do feel a little behind the curve sometimes. i think i have always felt that way… but maybe i just overthink things… i remember reading in some summary of my personality type that, and i’ll just paraphrase, i feel that life is a very important thing and the decisions to be made regarding it are not to be taken lightly. now, i’ve considered that to be a cumbersome trait at times, but things have been working out fairly well…

i had a conversation earlier in the day that reminded me that speaking to someone is not always the easiest way to communicate. maybe, as hard harry put it, ‘i can’t talk’… and it’s that simple… i can talk thru my fingers and thru my eyes and thru my presense and my work… but the spoken word has always been difficult. an uncontrolled source that makes me slightly uneasy. and like this post [which is quite lengthy for someone who ‘didn’t have much to say’] i didn’t know how to end that conversation… and it made me smile because it was mutual, but it made me uneasy because i found myself looking at the situation with irony and a smirk… which wasn’t how i wanted to look at it and i think that is one of the things that happens with telephone conversations and those who ‘can’t talk’… or maybe i’m just tired and my mind is fluttering around poking into areas that should just be left alone for now.

in spite of the mind games i play with myself at night and in those free moments, i really am enjoying my short journey back to the golden state…