Oct 9

When I moved off the dotMac space, all the images I’d stored there went away. Of course, I still have copies of them on my hard drive, but there are plenty of links to them scattered around the web here and there, none of which I can update. The result: dead links. Broken URLs. It’s all very sad, really.

OK, nobody’s really going to miss my past visual contributions to the web, but once in a while I may post the occasional image here just to have ’em back online. Most of the dead links involve posts at the Straight Dope Message Boards or Fark Photoshop contests.

I’ll start with my first Fark Photoshop entry, which was very very late because I got in near the end of the contest, had to register and then wait 24 hours before posting. Hence nobody saw it. The source material was pretty low quality, but it’s still one of my favorites.

The theme, inspired by a news story: Terrorists use Google. Photoshop other unlikely groups to use Google.

My entry:

Aside from a better source image, the only other thing I would have done would be to rename the search engine to “Q-gle”.


Sep 27

So here’s the story.

It’s about time for my dotMac subscription to renew, and I’ve been thinking for some time that it’s not really worth the 99 bucks a year. And this is from me, your favorite Mac freak.

But really, I don’t have my very own music to share, I don’t have photo albums to share, or movies, or calendars. And if I did, I’m sure I could find much cheaper options.

Meanwhile, I’d like to play with some CGI and some AJAX tech, neither of which I can do with either dotMac or a blog hosted on blogger.com. And for practically the same amount of money, I could have my own web domain and web hosting service, with all sorts of neato toys to play with. Even if I never get around to making this site any less dull, it’s a better deal all around.

And so we come to this unfortunate URL I’ve chosen.

Although the name of this site will probably remain the same, I’m not feeling like ‘extending the brand presence’ of my old ‘drewbert’ moniker. A quick google search for drewbert turns up me, along with all sorts of other people I don’t feel like sharing with. And a drewbert domain name? Drewbert.com and drewbert.net are already taken and the best I could hope for would be drewbert.info. Not interested.

So what else could I choose for my new home on the web? PoorExcuse.net is available at the moment. It’s memorable, if overly self-deprecating.

I spent a good portion of last night trying out random phrases and seeing if anything good was available. Nothing good was available. On a late-night whim of desperation, I actually tried randomphrase.com and found a site that generates, well, random phrases. Not only that, it checks to see if that phrase is registered anywhere as a dot-com.

TouristMuffler.com? Still available.
TrafficMartini.com? Still available.
KingOfTheLosers.com? Taken.
PissyCups.com? Still available.
ObliviousSombreros.com? Still available.
SexBombsEtc.com? Still available.
DentureBoyRacer.com? It’s yours for the taking.
PurpleHouses.com? Sorry. Not available.
EndlessErection.com? Astoundingly, still available.

None of these being at all intersting, I settled on a randomly-generated phrase which has been rolling around in my head ever since I got it as the subject line of a spam a year or two ago: Circumspect Fiesta. I can’t exactly explain why, but it has an arcane oxymoronic quality that appeals to me. It’s utterly meaningless. Kinda like this blog! And with my dotMac subscription about to expire, time was of the essence.

Anyway, if none of this makes sense, don’t worry. I don’t get it all myself. And I’m sure I’ll come to regret this move soon enough. It’ll be right after dotMac inevitably lowers its price and adds way cool new features. Which with my luck will occur in about three weeks.


Sep 27

On the move…

It’s finally happened. I’ve got my own .com domain, and this here blog is moving to it. If I understand correctly, the drewbert.blogspot.com site will retain everything up until this post for at least some time. Therefore, I must direct you to the new site which is, regrettably, known as:

www.circumspectfiesta.com

A rational-sounding explanation will be forthcoming as soon as I’m sure the new site is all working properly. (And by the way, if you click on that link within a day or so of my posting this, the link probably won’t work. Patience, my friends.)

Anyway, the migration is about to begin. Cross your fingers, and I’ll see you on the other side.


Aug 24

So today I encountered a Chick Tract in the wild, for the very first time. I’d seen online rants about them, parodies of them, and plenty of threads on Straight Dope about them, but hadn’t ever seen one in person until I sat down on the bus this morning… and there it was, right next to me.

Normally it’s one of my missions in life to grab the nutcase propoganda that people leave around and take it to the nearest trash receptacle post haste, but since this was a genuine publication of Jack Chick, I had to grab it and peruse it later, presumably in order to see how long it would take for my head to explode.

As I was stuffing it into my bag (and I didn’t have to be very discreet about it since I was the only one on the bus besides the driver), I noticed another one about two seats ahead of me. This one had a cartoon picture of the Twin Towers on the cover next to the legend “So What?” I figured I’d try to pick that one up on the way off the bus. But at the next stop, the driver got up and retrieved it. I hoped that she was just going to stuff the trash in the little bin next to her seat, but as I got off the bus I saw she was reading it.

I hope she laughed derisively at it, as I plan to mine, shortly before I throw it out.


Aug 24

Get Out Of My Brain!

I wanted to state for the record, not that it matters, that this was my idea first. Who needs lights on the airplane to tell you when it’s OK to smoke when it never is? Why not replace them with lights that tell you when you can use electronic devices? Actually, this article is just about cell phone use, so my idea is better, anyway.

And just while I’m on the topic, Professor Frink stole my idea for mood pants, which I came up with years earlier.

I’m still quite bitter about that one.


Aug 20

So last Saturday there was a star party at Warner Park to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Unfortunately, the site is a little light polluted these days and the weather was a bit hazy, so not many meteors were seen. Lots of people got looks at Jupiter, and I turned my scope on to Albireo just to have something different for people to look at. About 10:00 the fog started to roll in, and by 11 it was getting really bad. But as some people were walking back down the hill, a car with headlights on drove up – and it looked exactly like a scene out of the X-Files – people silhouetted against a mysterious bright light shining through dense fog. One of the astronomy club members had a cell phone camera on hand. It’s tiny, but here it is:


Aug 16

I need something fun to blog about instead.

Suggestions happily accepted.


Jul 30

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060727-12.html

Sigh.


Jul 13

It’s true! It’s not always all about the erlenmeyer flasks and the lab coats! And even when it is, scientists don’t usually have purple fill lights coming from unusual directions as stunning discoveries are made.


Jun 16

So first thing this morning, my RSS reader picks up an aricle from Boing Boing which leads to here, which leads to here. Might as well skip the first two links, and go to the end, which tells you all about how to turn a $10 security peephole from Home Depot into an inexpensive fisheye lens. Real ones go for hundreds of dollars.

So I just had to go to Home Depot after work and try it out. Best picture I have so far:

Hopefully, more to come soon.