expectation leads to disappointment

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

tonight i saw the transient rainbow project, by cai guo-qiang.

click the link. go there. see the picture, read the description.

it was not like that at all.

what i had built up in my mind was this: a futuristic fireworks display. state of the art, man! a copious amount of luminescence streaking across the night sky, setting it on fire. once formed, the rainbow would hang there, emanating warm, bright colors as new age music floated down from the heavens.

ok, maybe the music was a bit much to expect.

what did i get? fireworks that spelled out MoMA (with an S showing up for no apparent reason) and then POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-BANG-fizzle.

and then a whole bunch of pissed-off onlookers.

as they left you'd hear people say: they dragged me out to Queens for this? and: guess I won't be going to the MoMA-QNS anytime soon.

of course, what you DIDN'T hear was: guess i'll pull my funding for the MoMA, or: i can't believe i paid for this...

anyway, i taped it with my camcorder to show some friends (and my mom) who'd be interested. when i got back to the apartment (took forever, argh) i watched the tape and... and... and... the fireworks lasted exactly 10 seconds.

whoopdy.

i hate microsoft

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

playing civ3 out in the living room, donnie darko on in the background. i'm on the sofa, wireless laptop. chatting through trillian behind civ3.

i lose track of time, without warning the laptop goes into standby mode. i rush back into my room and give it the AC, but it's too late. it's gone to sleep.

rather, microsoft put it to sleep, along with my wireless settings.

that's right. after waking my laptop up, no more internet connection. the little wireless NIC is flashing green. ipconfig tells me: media disconnected.

no big deal, tcp stack crashed. i'll log out, log back in. this is windows xp, i shouldn't even have to reboot.

three reboots later...

i still hate microsoft. thinking of the moment in the south park movie where they shoot bill gates in the head. wondering if i'll ever be able to save enough money for one of those gorgeous apple powerbooks.

this problem solved itself. i don't know why. the NIC configuration GUI (using MS API's btw) showed me that my preferred network was still configured properly... while the available AP had wrong settings. no sweat, i can fix that.

or can i? apparently, i couldn't. MS wouldn't let me. so what CAN i do? i can remove the preferred network entry and hit refresh on the available network list and see what happens. ah. it brings back my preferred network entry. lovely.

so... i remove my preferred network entry again. this time i don't hit refresh, i try to configure the available network entry. will it let me? YES! it let me! rock! does it connect? nope. hit apply, hit ok, go back in... and the wrong settings are back, as is my removed preferred network entry.

so i give up. i say fuck it, hit ok, ok, i'll just shut it down and worry about it later. staci can find someone else to play scrabble with tonight... and just when i'm ready to shut down...

it connects.

for absolutely no reason.

i wonder how long i would have to whore myself out in order to afford a powerbook.

embarassment

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

today i worked up the courage to call one of my favorite authors - howard bloom - to let him know of an upcoming conference that i thought he might be interested in.

the conference is HOPE - hackers on planet earth... which is more cultural than technical in nature.

being both brooklyn dwellers, i thought i'd invite him to tag along with me. unbeknownst to me, howard hasn't left his brooklyn apartment in over 14 years.

needless to say, i was embarassed. but he took it rather well - being called on the phone by some random fan, that is. he's an overall nice guy and i look forward to future communication with him.

commemoration

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

i'd just like to publicly acknowledge my appreciation for the Lehman Brothers building on 50th and 7th.

every day it's there, greeting me on my way to and from work.  every day the electronic billboards on its 7th-avenue face refrain from selling anything to me.  they just greet me with scenes from nature or cg-art or the faces of strangers.

not once has it ever hawked a crappy product or given a blinding flash simply to get my attention.

you're a class act, billboard.

without explanation

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

i dreamt the queen of england and i were in my living room amidst a crowd of people and the two of us were dancing a jig to "i've got a golden ticket" from willy wonka & the chocolate factory.

what could it possibly mean?

last night and today

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

last night's words were...

telenebriation - the act of being drunk on the phone with your long-distance significant other.

and...

encephalupagus - your imaginary friend with a head disease.

today i went biking for the first time since i was little.  braving the brooklyn streets.  if i can walk tomorrow, i might go biking again in the near future.

oh, also...

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

note to self: look into The Redundant Male - Is Sex Irrelevant in the Modern World?

natural cloning?

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

"Then again, alternatives to sex do exist.  Female greenflies can bear live, female offspring, each one containing all the genes of its mother."

- Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene

Exactly how is this not cloning?

Furthermore, are female greenflies who happen to live in the United  States breaking the law? :)

ingredients for a fabulous solitary brunch

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

1/2 wedge of brie

1/2 day-old baguette

1/2 dozen delallo-imported calamata olives

1 bottle of lime perrier

sunshine in your dining area is preferable.

thinking robot escapes from lab

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

fresh from dkp's desk, this choice link.  it's always great when real life events coincide with the finishing of a book.

here's the link

i had just finished reading kurzweil's the age of spiritual machines, so this is particularly timely and relevant.

on to dawkin's selfish gene, which i can't believe i haven't read yet.  first chapter isn't as dry as i would've thought.  no new ground has been broken though, which only makes sense considering how many of my favorite authors have been influenced by his work.

now i want to read more on zoology.

potential art projects

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

talking to laurie today got me thinking about potential art projects.

she hates jello.  so naturally, she hates bill cosby.  which gave me the idea to videotape little children saying ridiculously obscene things - things they wouldn't even understand - and splice in cosby's reactions from "kids say the darndest things."

and that brought back the memory of an art project i thought up at one of the mogwai shows.  there's a song that they play over what sounds like football (that is, soccer) announcers commenting on a match.  which gave me the idea to sift through the countless hours of john madden play-by-plays and splice it all together into really deep and meaningful poetry.

there's something attractive about the notion of taking something that's physically and intellectually repulsive to me and turning it into something beautiful.

it's hip to be crazy.

life updates

(originally posted at pixeljuice.livejournal.com)

i neglect this poor livejournal.

but tonight i build a new webserver.  clockworkdreams.com, as you may already know, is down.  i have a development page up somewhere secret, if you want to know where - bug me.

but this new webserver will be fun.  primary use is to build and learn.  i'm planning on building a MySQL/PHP book catalog/curriculum.  and i'm also eager to play with movable type - which i first saw on gus' website.

hopefully installing and configuring it on my own will make me more eager to actually keep a journal.

so what's happened since i last checked in?

jenelle came for a wonderful, action-packed visit.  she brought her friend laura with her.  laura is from germany, but she just returned from a solitary trip abroad... to india.  jenelle's a wonderful, kind and thoughtful person.  having her around calmed me, allowed me to enjoy life a bit more.  if one can catch up on lost time, lost life... i felt that the week we spent together accomplished just that.

my yuppie ikea stuff came.  i like my bedside-table.  my building superintendent is avouding me because he doesn't want to hang my shelves.

last weekend dave found out about a picnic through nycbloggers.com.  we went and met people.  it was pretty fun.  it was hosted by banshee with appearances by cantwork and towards the end, kochanie.

oh, i've finally finished How to Overthrow the Government, and am contemplating sending an email to arianna to tell her all about R.U. Sirius and the Revolution Party.

I'm still waiting for an email back from someone, as I promised her I'd keep out of her logs.  On the other hand, maybe her life is full right now.  Should've applied for friendship sooner when there were vacancies. :)