Chawlk

1. Drawar
2. Fenxy
3. Decaflon
4. Two Credits
5. Wriging
6. Loose Suits
7. Chixe
8. Dud3s
9. Wing Colors

 

I've gone pink for what I think is the third year now. Started out doing it back through 9r and didn't want to skip this year - although today is the fifth already.

I haven't been able to do much in the way of design stuff - just not enough time - but it's the first time I've gone pink on what is my new self-hosted domain and blog: Dotcomslashblog.

I still have to put up the announcement post and see if I can get people to send money of course.

No one else joining this? Used to a big thing the previous years.

I was really stumped by this one. Didn't 2.5 just come out with a lot of oompah?

I just set up a site for my girlfriend - yup, still going strong, hence the recent silence ;) - and I'm not looking forward to spending time on this.

Sure, it's not rocket science, but think of Murphy. She needs the site to be live 100% from next week because she's got a booth at some big fashion fair, and all the press, PR and invites are about to go out... I think I'm skipping this, or at least waiting a couple weeks.

Although, I do like that Google Gears feature... and that quick post feature... and...

/*heads to wp.org and begins download*/

;)

No worries. I noticed a bit of that gruffness somehow, but it immediately seemed clear this was due to the frustration of availability and pricing.

But thanks for the compliment on the pics.

You know what, from what I read, I think you should just get the typewriter you want. Get a great model, refurbished and shipped, and pay whatever seems a reasonable enough price - even if it is too much for an old machine. It'll put you at ease, you'll be happy.

Edit: Btw, you seen this?

I can see how electrical doesn't appeal to you indeed. It needs power (obviously), it's more prone to breaking, harder to repair (or, impossible) and it has nothing of the charm of a mechanical machine. Still, it's no computer, not even anywhere near it. The page, the font, the act of typing still is very different.

I'm sorry to hear that they're so hard to come by. And that shipping is such a hassle. Indeed, I could get you one over the weekend but shipping it would make a ten euro purchase ten times as expensive because of it.

That Underwood looks great - it's a classic brand of course - but so does the Royal. Good luck and keep us posted.

I still have one, a 1970s Olympia Splendid 33 that needs a new ribbon however. I used it for writing a diary and love letters up until a few years back, when the digital lifestyle well and truly swamped me. After all, typewriters aren't really easy or functional, but they are lovely.

I definitely would go for a really simple, relatively recent model. The older it is, the worse it works, the harder it will be to find ribbons or indeed parts.

Why haven't you just gone and got one? It isn't a vintage car is it? Maybe they're harder to get by where you are, but over here you could easily find one in any thrift shop or at any flea market. Besides, they cost next to nothing. You could by ten and try them all out to see which works best (but don't tell the wife that).

Also, don't forget, typewriting is hard work, so why not get an electrical one? If it breaks, the above applies: you just get a new one.

Finally, I'd advise you to get a portable model. The office machines of the 1940s aren't something you want to move around because they weigh a ton and the stroke is heavy as hell. Get a small one in a carrying case, preferably one with plastic keys (for weight, noise and, again, because of the force you need to apply with every stroke).

My Olympia is great but you could also look for an icon such as the landmark Olivettis of the 70s and 80s - although those could set you back a couple bucks more.

For completeness, here's mine:

Now get out there, get you some great paper and write your first page. You won't be able to stop looking at it in admiration.

It's like with the economy: if you stop believing, it'll fall apart. Still, I'm not sure what else is there. Twitter going down would see a lot of people migrating to Friendfeed, a couple perhaps back to Pownce or Jaiku.

True about the iPhone though. I don't have one, but I'm not aware of any microblogging platforms that are designed for it. Perhaps if the Google/Android or the Nokia/Symbian/Plazes thing takes off, we'll see a big shift there.

That said, I agree that Twitter was never engineered for generating traffic, and expecting that from it is an unrealistic position.

Of course, Twitter doesn't seem to be engineered for anything at all. It doesn't even seem engineered at times, so perhaps, if it tumbles (which I wouldn't like), what of it?

Yeah, I heard that too. It's on par with favicon phishing.

Wow, Scrivs. Where'd this come from? I wasn't even aware there was an EC on until yesterday.

Never knew you were this uptodate with the rules of footie ;)

A bit late to join this perhaps, but

Final words of warning to everyone: stay away from Joomla.

Kudos and points for that my man. I hate Joomla with a vengeance.

As for the issue at hand, I've always liked WP (both the CMS as the .com service) and set up some sites with it that aren't blogs and, out of the box, it "worked for me" — as Kami says.

Tried Texpattern, looked at MT and heard lotsa good stuff about Drupal — it's Belgian and Dries is from my home town, so there's some pride mixed in that :)

If there's one thing I dislike about WP is that a lot of people seem to rave about it because it's WP and because Mullenweg seems like a cool guy. That reeks of ego worshipping and of "trying to be cool by liking WP because everyone says that's what you should do" more than anything else.

Serioulsy fucked up? Man, this is FUBAR. Makes me think of some episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

But let's look at some facts.

You lose the address — or don't care to make sure you know where it is (-1). You call her to find out (+1) but only the day before (-1). You are ill but intend to go (+1). You oversleep (-1). You don't immediately send cards/flowers/whatever's necessary or appropriate (-1), but you apologize (+1) repeatedly (+1)...

She gives you a vague address (-1), doesn't reply to any of your messages (-a lot), cuts you off with a short note about how angry she is (angry, not hurt, mind you) (-a lot again)...

Heck, not sure where I'm going with this but I'm inclined to agree with Kami: you handled this in the most clumsy of ways, you didn't show — bottom line — and she has every right and reason to be upset, hurt and even angry (for a bit)...

But this sounds over the top. No one deserves to be treated like this over an honest mistake. Somehow it looks like she needed a reason to get you out of her life (or her husband did — how well do you know him?) because no event is that important to ditch a decade-old friendship over it.

But that, of course, makes me wonder: what kind of friendship was this? Do you really "miss" her? Or are you just angry that you lost her; that she rejected you as a friend? Either you were so close that this incident is terrible but not insurmountable, or you were just good friends and it was bad timing, but doesn't necessitate this kind of ongoing drama...

In any case, I do hope you sort it out, get to put this in perspective, and that perhaps things will cool down. Good luck with this man, cos whatever's going on, whatever happened, this sucks. Take care.

I'm always stuck between businesslike titles that read like a headline and tell you exactly what the post is about (boring), and the more clever ones that often no one understands until they've read it (confusing).

For pix I sometimes do as Dave does and pick something that is simply poetic or popped up in my mind when I took the pic or looked at it afterwards.

Arrington does a great job at titles: professional, to the point and witty. That's great — but that's his job of course ;)

Oh, and while we're on the subject of titles, I really like what Cas from Bright Meadow does with her Sunday Roasts so I hope she'll drop in here and elaborate on that :)

Oops, missed that one Eli. Hope you do have RSS for this note and then read it too ;)

Yep, read it, ages ago and I forgot most of it. It's quite gloomy and confusing and gloomy. Did I say it was confusing? And gloomy?

If you do want to start with Gray, there's his short stories, esp. Letters From an Eastern Empire which is hilarious and breathtakingly beautiful. Must-read as far as I'm concerned.

I never expected Adobe not to be serious about anything. They've been on a roll with AIR and while Photoshop Express did take some flak from the critics, they're certainly headed in the right direction.

Still I think this war over the RIA and the online collaboration tools is far, far from over. I especially wonder whether companies are in fact ready to switch to yet another mode of file and document sharing (given that they've even embraced the idea altogether).

I don't see my boss, who's slowly accepting that Live or Google do have their merits, saying: "K folks, quick, all moving over to Acrobat.com now!"

As a web and tech geek, I do love what's going on though. It's a-movin and a-shakin!

Yeah, Tyme, I certainly wasn't calling you anal — I didn't did I? :)

I can imagine if the "climate" is in fact a litigious one, you are better off safe than sorry. I'm sure I would. And it wouldn't surprise me if one day it would/could happen here as well.

There is of course a difference between being sued as the author (cease and desist, a libel case from a company that doesn't like what you've written) and encountering an ugly comment from some beast who wants to spoil things.

In the first case, the law is the law and I don't suppose any policy page you have on your blog would change things for you, in the latter case I remain convinced that simple jurisprudence will protect you from the real nasty stuff — insofar that the law can protect people when others have it in for them.

Never had one, never needed one, never gonna use one.

Seriously, it's the internet, it's a blog. People can say what they like and make themselves look like a fool if they like. If the comment is clearly brutally vulgar, insulting or harassing I'd simply delete it — but like I said, I've never had to do that.

As for legal issues, what's that all about? There are laws (about libel, threats) already in place. If someone calls me a name, that's their right, if they threaten to beat me up, I'll report it. We don't live in such a litigious country over here anyways and I'd love to see the look on any judge's face when he had to deal with someone whimpering over a blog comment. He'd probably say: "Golly, you know this isn't America, right? Now go on and play".

The funny thing is that Twitter's almost become like email or IM. Most of its heavy users have it on all day, rely on it and get Cut-Off Syndrome when it's down.

There really hasn't been a service like that before. Even if Facebook were to disappear tomorrow, it'd be Twitter we'd all be talking about it. Without that, it's like the cable guy disconnected your internet — deep space.

So, while I have no idea how they'll fix these troubles they've been having, I'm sure from a user perspective, people are willing to put up with a lot more before they flock to somewhere else.

Twitter, it's like the new cigarettes...

Recently, Hype Machine. I have it open almost all day, discovering and listening to new music.

Gnorb, have you been overdosing on the Pynchon again?

Awesome, though. You gets points.

Um, Gnorb, take four red capsules. In 10 minutes, take two more. Help is on the way.

(via)

:)

Just two novels that I love:

Solaris, Stanislav Lem
Inter Ice Age IV, Kobo Abe

Some good pointers here to check out guys, thanks.

That last book is Lanark by Alasdair Gray. It's awesome. It has a list of all the plagiarisms the author confesses to have used to various degrees. It's hilarious. The other ones looked pretty cool too. Good find.

I think it's on hold, together with http://chawlk.com/ponies/notes...

I think we all have our own type of creativity and that some people are able to bring that out in the open more easily than others.

Well-put. Creativity isn't all about just the 'art' or design aspect of things. We tend to forget that. Just like intellect isn't about knowing a lot of stuff or being able to do math or whatever. Creativity is also about dealing with problems and solving them well I suppose.

Chess and origami?

Not really big on the sports here, never was, always got picked last in school anyways. And I'm definitely not in for the male bonding, communal showering and smelly locker room thing, neither am I a team player.

I've played some baseball and squash, and did some karate (LOL) as a teen. I like watching F1 and big athletics events like the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games. But I hardly go crazy about sports stuff. I do have a tremendous respect for anyone who excels at something physical. It's truly awesome.

Now, my new GF has made me start to jog. It's okay. I may even take up swimming again (if I can still remember how).

While the magic of fantasy can weave beautiful worlds and stories, good sci-fi weaves possibilities

I love that Alex, good one.

I don't think most authors set out to make sci-fi about ethical/moral complications the future may bring...

and

When planning out the story, usually an ethical/moral complication is at the root of the story

You guys are way more advanced into the "genre" than I am. I mean, I read half the local library's worth of sci-fi, but that was as a kid, so that's 20 years back.

I do think, however, that when it comes to these moral, ethical or plain societal questions raised about a (possible) future or possible other civilizations, we speak of "science" fiction, (the sub-genre perhaps?) in which we start out with a more or less earth-like society and see how it deals with technological advances or manages the confrontation with alien entities (Solaris, Stanislav Lem!).

I don't know if that's hard or soft sci-fi, but it's about science – something Star Wars obviously never was. Maybe, as our surroundings become ever more technological, that is something we regard as philosophical and relevant, more than classic fantasy at least...

Thanks for the splendid responses so far! This is why Chawlk is so effing fab :)

you can't learn to be creative

I certainly agree with that bit. You should see some of the art work people send me which they've done "so I don't have to". Well-intended but no use.

I attended a MS Silverlight event recently, that had two tracks, one aimed specifically at 'developers', the other more broadly at 'designers' and 'creatives' – but the distinction was clearly one between the guys who made it look good, and the guys (or gals) who made it work. One word that kept popping up throughout the day, however, was the term 'devigners' — a contraction, obviously, of developer and designer.

Maybe we started out with the two types of people being the same (like you, coding and photoshopping in the 90s), then things became so complex everyone had to specialize and choose one of the two, whereas now — through better apps and integration — we can get the best out of both worlds again?

Obviously, that still leaves the true artist out of the loop, as before. And perhaps that's for the best, so they can do what they do best: dream up stuff that moves us?

I'd also like a C-3PO-shaped valet/minibar with that. And I'd like to know what it'll cost. Sure is mad though.

Dead parrot, Ministry of Silly Walks, Hitler in the UK.. so many to choose from.

And, of course, the funniest joke in the World:

Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! ... Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.

Hilarious

We've achieved sexual immortality.

What's sexual immortality worth if I'm going to be dead in a couple hundred years (yeah, I have big plans okay)?

Still, it's good to think about that. Biologically, of course, women do have a part to play beyond menopause, "attractiveness" and sexuality, as caretakers and so on.

And scientifically, we men have become almost entirely redundant a while ago. We don't even have to hit someone over the head with a mammoth jaw anymore. :(

But as I turn away from the window, even the endless slomo repeats of some lion pouncing on a gazelle on the new 70" Sony KDL-70X3500 can't distract me from the notion that I may or may not have slept with my mother — so, losing the mansion in the fire that still rages outside doesn't mean all that much to me.

Nils Geylen
NDNL

Great stuff. And,hey, it is one sentence right?

I've had a newspaper clipping on my kitchen message board for ages now:

It's a picture of the Mallory and Irvine Expedition, two mountaineers who tried climbing Mount Everest in 1924 but never came back.

Not sure why I like it so much. I'm not into that bravado of "hey let's risk our lives climbing a mountain no one can or should get to".

But I guess it's the naiveté of these guys who almost look like a bunch of tourists in their fancy dress, walking canes and hats ready for a stroll in the Himalayas.

Powerful image to me nonetheless.

*updated broken img link