Jul
31
2005

Shoot Straight, From The Hip Y'all - Part II

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 31, 2005 - 04:18:03 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
So, to revist my post from May about Same Sad Story...

As it turns out, the lyrics on the acoustic live version of the song that I were talking about are actually from God Is A Bullet by Concrete Blonde.

A bit of a suprise, although the more suprising thing is that Concrete Blonde have another song other than Joey. [wink]

It all becomes clear why those lyrics aren't on the album version version of Ghetto's Same Sad Story!

God is a bullet, have mercy on everyone...

Jul
31
2005

Blog Enhancements

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 31, 2005 - 12:36:49 pm
(Posted Under: Development)
For several weekends I've wanted to make enhancements to my blog, but have been daunted by the task, and it hasn't happened yet. However last night I broke, and started working on it.

Depending on where you're looking at it (I've got copies all over the place now) and whether I've updated the code or not, you'll see a new calendar for navigation, and the sidebar list broken up into expandable/collapsable months.

The impressive part is the whole thing is done in XSLT. Which isn't much fun [wink], but pretty satisfying when you get a calendar working in XSLT. It makes me laugh how much shorter the code would be in any other language. Suprisingly not too difficult, just fiddly.

The real tricky part was getting the months under the calendar to work properly. In particular grouping by month, then by day in month, and then listing the entries per day. It was all easy except for the grouping uniquely by day within month, which swallowed up a whole bunch of time! I finally got it working today though.

All pretty fancy, if I may say so myself. [smile]
Jul
26
2005

The Rum Diary

(Add / View Comments) (0)Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 07:40:13 pm
(Posted Under: Books)
Stuck Outside of Phoenix and The Outsiders down, I'm onto The Rum Diary. A long trip to work is at least good for reading. I've read more in the last 3 months than I have since primary school I think. The last time I'd read a book was Cat's Cradle, I don't even remember when, probably over four years ago, and before that would have been high school.

Reading is typically something "I don't have time for", however I'm quite enjoying having reading time on the way to and from work.

Anyway, a great line today I read in The Rum Diary:

I quickly agreed, feeling that almost anything would be preferable to sitting there and stewing in my own lust.
Jul
26
2005

The More I Work With Redhat...

(Add / View Comments) (0)Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 11:02:59 am
(Posted Under: Linux Linux)
...the more I love Gentoo.

Okay, so I don't really need anything to make me love Gentoo admitadly! It certainly makes me miss working with it (exclusively).

The amount of time yum takes before it does any installing kills me. Portage immediately lets you know whether a package exists or not. I'm so over waiting 30 seconds jusjt for yum to tell me "I don't know about package blah!". Sheesh. Reminds me a little of apt-get back in the Debian days (ha - a year ago I was still using Debian, but it seems so long ago!), though admitadly that was a slow machine. This is Fedora running as a virtual machine on a dual 3.0Ghz Dell box. All that downloading and checking whenever you run yum is such a time consuming pain in the ass.

Let alone the fact that I'm installing dependancies for amaavisd-new manually! How I miss emerge -v amavisd-new, which automatically takes care of dependancies. The sheer fact that amavisd-new can't be installed using yum is such a pain.

And sheesh, choose a package management tool and just make it work! rpm, yum, apt-get,... I'm currently using each one, because each package seems to require a different one to work. God, just choose one and make it work! Give me good old portage any day!

I admit that some of my frustration must stem from unfamilarity of Redhat, though I can say without hesitation that Gentoo is by far the best and less frustrating (well, not initially, but that's another blog for another day) distribution I've worked with. And that I don't really care for Fedora. [wink]
Jul
23
2005

Variable Substitution

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, July 23, 2005 - 02:10:43 pm
(Posted Under: Development)
Damn my markup regex's. I noticed this in Tempe, where the prices I mentioned for guitars didn't show up. I then noticed it again with the blog about the Peacemakers auction.

Kinda a funny read where text is missing (text starting with a $ being replaced with a non existant variable). But I've fixed it now.

I want $$$$$! Give me $$$$! I hate Micro$oft! [wink]
Jul
23
2005

She Comes Today - My Mail Order Bride

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, July 23, 2005 - 12:57:03 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
For my birthday, Katie stocked me up on Ghetto Cowgirl / Marc Norman stuff (in addition to all the stuff I'd left there, including a single sock - the one the theives left behind in the laundry I believe).

I was certainly looking forward to having the Sledville (pre Ghetto Cowgirl outfit) CD Ignious Rock. Awesome hearing True Love (Mail Order Bride) again, that was a Norman acoustic guarentee. The CD is awesome - April in Tempe has made me such a Ghetto whore (which is unintentially clever actually). I just can't get enough. Certainly a lot of variety on this disc. Parts song like Dead Hot Workshop. Parts remind me of Toad The Wet Sprocket. Parts like Ghetto. Parts of absolute pure pop - Dust Mouth and Thomas Randel. And of course, there's having Plymouth Manor on CD - I didn't want a thing until I had it all. Brillant.

The lyrics of Dust Mouth are great, very Phoenix...

Streets lay black, 110 degrees
Burn away my bare feet
Slept til 3, crank the air all day
I want out, cause it's hot in here

Yeah yeah yeah, dry fucking heat
Well, my electric bill swiped me clean
I swore I wouldn't be here one more summer
Also listening to one of the live shows, Push and Pull killed me. Playing both Ten Tonnes and Excuses For Losers like broken records since I got back, it really hit me hearing Push and Pull live, it being just like hearing it for the first time 4 months ago. (Side note, it's bizarre that I haven't yet been back 3 months).

So many Ghetto and Velvet Elvis shows to listen to! Not to mention Better Than Ezra's new one Before The Robots which I need to open.

Just get me back to April. Then comes my birthday, and I'll be reborn. - Plymouth Manor, Sledville
Jul
21
2005

Hops Tops the Pops

Top 50 Local Songs (Phoenix)

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 11:16:21 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
Katie pointed me to Get Out's article on the top 50 valley songs of all time (http://www.getoutaz.com/music/070705schoolrock.shtml) today. Nice break from work. After all, it was my birthday.

Interesting read, some I agreed with, some I thought "what the fuck?". Well a lot. Flathead @ #37. I witnessed them at Yucca on my last night - not something I particularly want remember. Finally by CeCe Peniston @ #16? Totally familar when I read it, it having been a big hit...not something I associate with Phoenix.

Hitting #6, Hey Jealousy, my #1 without a doubt, I noticed the Meat Puppets just piffing it at #5, and how that would probably piss Doug off - who never seemed to care for the Puppets. It was cool less than 30 seconds later reaching #1 - Found Out About You, and had a chuckle that the Hopster kicked the Meat Puppets (and everyone else's) asses. In addition to #13 (Lost Horizons), #9 (My Guardian Angel - love it, but how it rates about Lost Horizons I don't know?!?!) and #6 (Hey Jealousy). It took a while to get down to Hopkin's penned tracks, but that's because they were at the right end.

It made my day to see Hopkins on the top. And that's the way it should be!

Jul
21
2005

$14,000 Acoustic Campfire

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 11:10:38 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
Gold! I just read on the Peacemakers board (http://www.azpeacemakers.com/wholebb/viewtopic.php?t=23359) of a shody eBday auction. A 'rare CD', which is actually a widely distributed set of shows (distributed for free) from way back in the day.

Was it reported to eBay? No, legit traders kept upping the bid til it reached US $14,000 (for a 3 disc CDR) until the action was shut down. Absolute gold. I love it.
Jul
20
2005

It Can't Be Wednesday!

Don't you hate when you loose a day?

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 07:02:56 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Okay, so I was just talking to Katie, and she mentioned my birthday being tomorrow. I started to correct her, and look a took at the date, and saw it was Wednesday! Fucking what? I've totally been working on the presumption that today was Tuesday. Given that it's not, I don't know where Monday went - I totally lost Monday. Bizarre!

It really is my birthday tomorrow. What a rude awakening! [smile]
Jul
13
2005

Danny White Touring Oz

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 08:26:16 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
Just heard the news today, Danny White (ex Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers) is apparently touring Australia next month.

Who would have thunk it? [smile]

http://www.azpeacemakers.com/wholebb/viewtopic.php?t=23172



Wish his website wasn't down, so I could find out the details.
Jul
11
2005

Stuck Outside Of Phoenix

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, July 11, 2005 - 07:32:59 pm
(Posted Under: Books, Arizona Arizona)
If you're stuck outside of Phoenix
I won't stop to kick your crutch
But I'll say that this was nowhere
And that might be saying too much.
I finished reading Stuck Outside Of Phoenix tonight. I'd first started reading the Buddy Edwards (The Refreshments) novel sitting in the plane at Sky Harbour Airport. As ironic as it might be to say, given that I started reading the novel waiting to fly out of Phoenix, leaving Phoenix by choice is crazy - refering to Hote (the character) and Buddy. You wouldn't catch me driving down Broadway Rd to escape Phoenix by choice. Especially given that one of the biggest reasons to stay in Phoenix is on Broadway Rd. [wink] Ahhhh, I miss Broadway.

In anycase, and enjoyable read, especially starting to read it sitting on the tarmac of Skyharbor most of the places in the book I'd spent the previously 30 days becoming acoustomed to. Broadway, Rosevolt, Mill, Papago Park, Richmond (Long Wongs). I definately can't imagine reading the book prior to being in Tempe. Well, I at least know it wouldn't have been half as good. Knowing the location of the story, and places thereof definately made reading it so good.

And obviously the recognisable local musicians in the characters, namely Digs (Doug Hopkins) was also really cool.
Jul
09
2005

City Of Blinding Lights

That damn U2 song.

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, July 9, 2005 - 07:02:46 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
I hate when I get this song stuck in my head!

Originally when I heard it, I kinda dug it, especially the guitar part, but now it grates on me, especially the guitar part. [smile]

"Look ugly in a photograph. Flash bulbs purple irises"?? "Write crap lyrics. For your song."

Ehhh...
Jul
09
2005

Ugly Borders in Firefox

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, July 9, 2005 - 06:30:03 pm
(Posted Under: Development)
Nothing reminds me of being in Tempe like looking at my weblog in Firefox. Okay, so that's a very relative statement.

Neither the less, I refused to use Internet Explorer (or even moreso, AOL's Internet Explorer [wink] ) and very quickly installed Firefox on Katie's machine. One day she'll see the light and thank me! [smile].

First thing I noticed when blogging was the god awful ugly thick black borders around my page, when rendered in Firefox. It was......well, awful. [smile]

Tonight after installing Firefox on my second machine, I decided it was time to fix it. Pretty easy once I realised what was going on in the CSS. CSS is a beautiful thing - a complete pain in the ass when you don't really understand it, but a beautiful thing when you do.

Ahhh, everything is now right with the world. [smile]
Jul
09
2005

Motile Send Off

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, July 9, 2005 - 08:01:29 am
(Posted Under: Friends)
Last night we had my Motile send off get together - a tradition started when Chris and Stewart left in March. Anytime someone leaves or get's the axe, we'd get together. In true Motile form, a week after I'd left. But to be fair, there was no time in my last week, and also Jazz was away for the second half of the week. Regardless, it seemed quite appropriate. [wink]

I was quite buggered from work, and we had an hour and a half until everyone else was going to show up. Perfect opportunity to have a few drinks, though I was worried about passing out if I drank too much, given how tired I already was.

It was really good to see everyone again, everyone being a relative statement. Stewart, Chris, Bonnie and Jazz. Funny how the ex-employees outweighed the existing employees. It's the first time I've seen Chris since he left, so it was great catching up. As his blog entry (Where Are They Now?) states, it hardly felt like we hadn't seen each other in 3 months.

Was a lot of fun, and a lot of laughs. Good times.
Jul
07
2005

Server Side Mail

IMAP, Webmail and the rest...

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, July 7, 2005 - 09:44:45 pm
(Posted Under: Geek, Linux Linux)
Last week, or actually the week before is probably when I started, I took the plunge, and converted from local mail storage, to server side storage, and the step from POP to IMAP. Something I'd been tossing up for a while, but had been to scared to make the transition. I've been really skeptical about IMAP, to the extent that when I did change over, I kept a second copy of my mail via POP, so it'd be basically no work to fall back to my old setup.

Even more shocking is the fact that I've also installed webmail! I'm so bitterly against webmail!

So I've been changed over for about two weeks, and I can say there is no looking back. I can't say how good it is to be able to read mail simply from multiple different mail clients, without being attached to any of them! I've gone with Courier IMAP + Squirrelmail, a combo that I'm quite familar with from work. Or should I see my former work.

An initially sore point was IMAP clients only checking for new mail on the Inbox folder. After a bit of Googling, I found the solution to that for Mozilla (Thunderbird and Netscape) based clients. That was really the only thing that had me still a bit iffy regarding commiting to the setup.

Having my mail accessible via a shell, or webmail, while my workstation isn't on is so invaluable. Which was one of the main selling points, getting frustrated if I wanted to check a mail remotely. Similarly, one Sent folder! Oh my god, that is so good. I've configured mutt to use the sent folder in the maildir, and no longer do I have the problem of some sent mail in Netscape, some on the server and some....well, Netscape and mutt were the only two clients I'd been using. Having mutt, Thunderbird and Squirrelmail (and any other IMAP client I choose) use the same Sent, Trash etc. folders is really nice). As is the ability to read any mail in any mail client. Rather than having to explicitly read some accounts (that I never POPped) on the server in mutt, while my main account in Netscape on my workstation.

Similarly, I've become such a webmail whore. [smile] Well, I certainly like using webmail remotely, at least. Last week I installed a flags plugin for Squirrelmail, which has made it even more handy. With the addition of that, Squirrelmail became good enough to almost replace a standalone mail cliennt. Almost. [smile] It's also pretty nice when I'm remote and have my firewall too tight...er, not configured and I lock myself out.

The one slight annoyance left was address books. However, last week I got an LDAP directory setup, with Thunderbird and Squirrelmail both using it. It's not perfect, most clients (pretty much all except Evolution on linux) don't support writing to LDAP address books. Though, not a huge issue, because I very rarely actually add address book entries. It's largely just for using existing entries that I need it for. The other catch is that Squirrelmail doesn't seem to automatically replace typed address with entries from an LDAP server. I can leave with it, but it did cause a mail or to getting addressed to @example.com this week! [wink]

Finally - procmail, procmail, procmail. [smile] I'd be using procmail server side to filter tagged spam, and quarentine potential spam, and the Netscape client side to filter mail into folders. Particularly because last December I got sick and tired of hearing the 'new mail' sound every five minutes, and set up a filter server side so Netscape would never see the spam I was receiving. Now having everything filtered server side with procmail is way cool. As is being able to view / manipulate spam and quarentined mail through a mail client (other than mutt), but not being alerted audiably everytime there was such a new mail is way cool. Similarly it is also being able to read my other accounts (which I'd previously only stored server side, and now have merged into my Maildir) in any sed mail client.

In summary, I love my new mail setup. I definately don't see any way that I'll go back! I'm even getting close to turning off the POP failback!
Jul
03
2005

Recursion

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 3, 2005 - 11:06:16 am
(Posted Under: Geek)
A signature from a netfilter mailing list post that I like:

[code]Recursion: see recursion
[/code]
:-)
Jul
02
2005

Roger & PH - Colorado

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, July 2, 2005 - 03:08:51 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
Last night and today I listened to Lance Stack's recent recordings of Roger and PH in Colorado. Man, takes me back to the Tempe Music Festival so much!

PH rocks my world!

"All roads lead back to Tuscon"

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