Apr

30

A photo from Camden

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During my Friday visit to London (British Library included) I wandered around the surrounding neighbourhoods a little bit and found an intriguing bookshop in the Camden area. I had a nose inside and believe I stumbled on a tiny slice of literary heaven. Outside, I managed a quick photo of some little boys reading book titles just inside the glass. There are times I’m really grateful for my small camera in these candid moments, though I will one day have the digital SLR I really want…
(as always, click for an enlarged view)
Boysandbooks

I’ve a nasty headache this afternoon— the kind that scoffs at the painkillers I’ve been popping— so a more involved post about the British Library is being delayed until later in the day when hopefully someone will have removed the barometrically sensitive spikes from my brow. Perhaps then I can feel human enough to write about the treasures I saw on Friday.

Until sweet relief, I hope you enjoy the photo above.

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Apr

29

The British Library, part 1

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 2 Comments

I spent the day (and evening) in London yesterday, with a large portion of that time inside this building:

Britishlibrary

I took many notes on the archival treasures I saw, but will have to post an update later today as I’ve got loads to do before I can crop photos and organise my thoughts into a real entry here.

Until later…
smooches~
jEN

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Apr

26

more stick figure madness

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I am a typin' mofo today.

.

Me today.
And yes, my left arm has two elbows.
This is an incredibly accurate drawing.

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Apr

26

The old, the new, and the upcoming all at once!

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The days of recent memory have been a swirling mire of the two halves of my geek mind — the prepress/print professional (which serves as the last entry on my outdated résumé), and the code writer (which is where most of my current work comes from). I feel mentally alive and worn out all at the same time! Diving between InDesign and BBEdit for the better part of a week has left me little time to write, although in spurts I still get some reading accomplished. Today, though I’m at the cusp of completion with a couple of code projects, I’m taking the time to hunker down into some writing. I’m even having the groceries delivered to avoid additional distraction.

Friday, whilst in London, I have plans to visit the main British Library. I am so excited to spend the day in there! I have major research to do for a book I hope to write soon (yes, I thought I’d slip that in there…) but I’m sure I’ll find oodles of other things fighting for my often fleeting attention as well! Yay! (They also have a bookshop, restaurant, and café on site — heaven!)

smooches~
jEN

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Apr

24

Adam Curry-Podshow-UK podcasters meetup

Filed Under me so g33ky, regular, tout le fromage | 1 Comment

Neil and I ventured into a rainy London yesterday afternoon on a pilgrimage to meet up with Adam Curry and his business partners, Podshow. An informal gathering held at The Bricklayers Arms pub, attendance easily exceeded the 39 interested folks signed up on the wiki as of noon. Plenty of drinks were had but more importantly copious amounts of conversation took place in a social cacophony that I imagine has left plenty of attendees reaching for throat drops this morning!

I managed to do the proper American thing and cornered Adam for an autograph and chit-chat for a few minutes. I have photographic proof* that his hair is not nearly as big as in the old MTV days, but it is still very well-groomed. ;) He told me Riki Rachtman — the Headbanger’s Ball host that replaced him on MTV — was managing some porn stars now. Funny how that’s not mentioned on the Wikipedia entry for him. In contrast, Adam is doing rather well. A young, retired, and wealthy man, he’s come out of retirement to do this Podshow thing. The formula to his success seems to be business person first and a broadcast professional second — a side to Adam most of my generation never bothered to look beyond the big 80s hair to see.

Adam Curry and Jen Dixon

Several hours of conversations and business card swaps later and the attendees began to thin. Somewhere between 7 and 8 pm probably saw the last of the stragglers leave pub, and indeed Neil and I left around that time as well. We stopped for a bite to eat and then caught the train home.

The highlight of the return trip was a very drunk, bald man from Glasgow on the train passing cans of Carling to the men around him, singing and joking loudly with inebriated enthusiasm. I think perhaps one of the most difficult accents to understand in the UK is that of a drunk Glaswegian, as an unfortunate couple of guys from America were soon realising! They managed to only piss the drunk off once with their responses to his ramblings, and everyone was relieved once the man stumbled out of the train car at his destination. Perhaps the most amusing thing he said during the journey was, “C’est la vie, as they say in Sweden!” Thank you drunk guy, that’s a beauty!

drunk bald guy on the train

smooches~
jEN

*You’ll find a few pics of the Adam Curry meet up on my flickr page.

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Apr

20

A satisfying day and a big weekend coming up

Filed Under me so g33ky, regular, tout le fromage | 5 Comments

I’ve been a code monkey today— possibly creating some of the most tight, gloriously cross-browser/cross-platform, super-swanky-panky CSS & XHTML I’ve ever written*. I feel like today’s tasks broke through some mental blocks (an unfortunate and common hurdle thanks to the ADD wiring of my brain) regarding a few code targeting techniques that just wouldn’t become clear before. (Dabbling in Drupal work has helped to make certain things click too.) No books, no websites for guidance. Just pure, unhindered understanding on my own. Extremely satisfying. Hot damn, I’m not entirely broken!

As for musical satisfaction, I have to thank Sam for pointing me to The Dresden Dolls. I’ve not been this excited about a band’s sound in a long time. I’d heard the name but not any of the music. Quirky, post-punk, semi-caberet, emotional, creative, though-provoking… Perhaps if PJ Harvey and The White Stripes had a baby, fed it eyeliner and poetry, and sent it off to theatre school you’d have something like the sound of The Dresden Dolls. A piano and a drum set never sounded so good. Thanks Sam!

Got a big shindig with some podcasters this weekend. Adam Curry (often referred to as ‘The Podfather’) is meeting up with many of the gang from BritCaster (and any other folks interested in UK podcasting) in London for a casual drink n’ darts thing. Check out the forums and wiki at BritCaster for more info. Although I’m not a podcaster myself, I co-admin the forums and have plenty of pals on the UK podcasting scene, so I’ll be there. And yes, it is that Adam Curry. ;) (I promise to take some pictures.)

Time to end this post and make some dinner!
smooches~
jEN

*I’ll release a link to the finished site after it goes live. (Yes, it’s one of your projects Adrian. ;) )

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Apr

18

On the new blog header

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 13 Comments

“The male Platypus has venomous ankle spurs, used in vicious territorial battles and fights over mates. The venom is not normally lethal to humans but produces excruciating pain and swelling that lasts for several months. The pain is so excruciating that the victim is rendered almost helpless. The venom can be lethal to dingos, dogs and smaller domestic animals.”
—from Wikipedia entry on Platypus

Platypus are bad-ass.

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Apr

17

one for the morbidly curious and psychology buffs

Filed Under regular, tout le fromage | 4 Comments

There’s a nasty crime being detailed in the news lately; the girl was 10 years old and he is 26. She was in a stable, loving home with her father and the upstairs neighbour was quiet and kept to himself. He’s single, employed and web-savvy.

The girl, Jamie Rose Bolin, entered his apartment willingly, on more than one occasion and liked his pet rat. Last week her body was found in a plastic storage tub in his closet. He had tried to remove her head and had sexually assaulted her before and after he killed her. He had also planned to eat her. You’ll find loads more information in a quick scan of the news stories out there. Try Google News.

Fortunately, this was his first and only victim. He admits to plans for more. For the morbidly curious (as I can be) I offer some links for your own investigation. The killer was a blogger. He had been blogging since 2002. It didn’t take long to find his trail on the internet, and like many of us, has a presence in several online communities. The site all the news reports are talking about (and with good reason) is:
http://futureworldruler.blogspot.com/
I also easily found him here and here. Though those pages offer little about the man directly, the “Page O’ Links” certainly gives a feel for his interests.

There is an interesting new phenomenon happening in web society, one where a blog could give important clues in a murder case or the voyeuristic invitation to watch a serial killer evolve. Kevin Ray Underwood (this particular killer) documented his inner demons just as millions of us do everyday on our blogs. I would guess it won’t be long before our online journals are searched for criminal criteria just as email is scanned for potential terrorists. It’s still early to be able to tell patterns, but I’d bet money that there are agencies working on blog profiling technology today.

So do we have any obligation as readers or commenters to alert authorities over the next Kevin Ray Underwood? Could we be sure of what we’re reading? Would any of us feel an urgency to act if we read:

“my fantasies are just getting weirder and weirder. Dangerously weird. If people knew the kinds of things I think about anymore, I’d probably be locked away. No probably about it, I know I would be.”
“Pretty much the only time I believe in God is when I blame him for something,” “Or, when I’m really depressed, to cry and beg him to make me better, to make whatever is wrong in my brain go away, so that I can live like a normal person.”

But then to read the following quote from 29 September 2004, he sounds like any number of bloggers:

“I was off today, and I’m off tomorrow. I’m really glad. That also means I can spend the day playing Prince of Persia, the game I rented when I took back Silent Hill 4.
I’m a loser. Last night I got drunk and watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show. By myself.”

The more I read on his blog, the more normal he sounds. 11 September 2004, he filled out a typical meme that just sounds… normal. There are outbursts of depression and uncomfortable expressions, but this budding serial killer’s blog reads (on the surface) like any one of millions of blogs out there.

I’m not sure what to think about that.

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UPDATE: Sites that have anything to do with Kevin Ray Underwood are disappearing. The “Page O’ Links” that I mentioned earlier in the post is gone. From reading threads and comments on other blogs and sites, it looks like several of his online friends have also deleted their own blog accounts in an effort to stay out of the line of fire. Can’t blame them really.
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UPDATE 2: Looks like his “Page O’ Links” may still be up afterall. I think perhaps it was a case of too many hits that made it unavailable for a spell.
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