Year: 2006

Categories
life uncategorized

Downtime

PC is down. No idea why but i’ve been running AVG for the past three days in safe mode. (It boots up to safe mode just fine, when it boots at all; but half the time it won’t boot up at all, and when it does boot into normal mode, the screen looks like it’s been through a shredder.)

No ETA on a fix. My apologies to everyone to whom I owe some help or technical solutions. I’m working on it.

Personally, I haven’t been feeling very well either, but I won’t go into that here.

BTW, I don’t have access to any contacts right now, so if you need to get hold of me, give me a ring.

Categories
current events uncategorized

Good to See You Leaving, Donald!

Looks like the Army may get its way: Rumsfeld is quitting a disgraceful failure. The man who made Saddam Hussein is finally leaving.

These are good times, indeed!

Former CIA chief Robert Gates may be taking over. I’d like to think that any human being (or chimpanzee, for that matter) could do the job of U.S. Secretary of Defense better than Donald Rumsfeld has, but I’m not counting my chickens until they botch the war in Iraq further. Kind of feels like waiting for the other shoe to drop in a way, doesn’t it?

Categories
current events local uncategorized

And Now, the Real Work Begins

The races are over, and it looks like Democrats won all over the place, including quite a few governorships. That’s great, but let’s not get lazy over it. There is a lot of foulness to undo, and that’s going to take a lot of work.

Democrats, don’t break your arms patting yourselves on the back. And Republicans: think about what your party has done to deserve such remorseless spite.

I propose we start right away, to:

  1. Get out men and women the hell out of Iraq (after quickly tidying up as best we can)
  2. Try to repair damaged relations across the globe
  3. Ban religion from government
  4. Ban religion from public schools (get ID, aka Creationism, out of the classroom!)
  5. Funding science, esp. stem-cell research
  6. Amending the Constitution to clarify and equalize gay rights by law forever
  7. Take down that damn wall across the southern border
  8. Make the United States a place of Free Thought
  9. Ban spying programs focusing on U.S. citizens
  10. Encourage skeptical inquiry
  11. Start welcoming immigrants again

Personally, I’m very relieved to know that the many long years of iron-fisted Republican rule (Governor, Senate, and House) are over for people in my neck of the woods!

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

You can quote me on that

For those designers who want to do the fancy-pants block-quotes thing, here is the CSS. Note that you have to put a DIV element in there to give it padding and close the quotes. That’s because the current specification for CSS do not allow for more than one background image for any single element. This may change in the future, but for now, we must write fairly non-semantic markup in order to achieve the cool effect.

blockquote {
background: transparent url(path/to/quote-left.img) left top no-repeat;
}
blockquote div {
background: transparent url(path/to/quote-right.img) right bottom no-repeat;
padding: 0 50px;
}

… And this is what it looks like:

I used to be really, really humble.

It just made me big-headed.
x jeremy jarratt

I added a :hover behavior to mine. What will you do?

Categories
friends life local uncategorized

The Northwest Ordinance

The Northwest Ordinance is a band from Dayton, OH. The Northwest Ordinance is also, in a roundabout sort of way, how I came to live in the slavery-prohibited state of Ohio.

I work with Chris Karnes, their lead singer and one-half of their guitar regiment. A splendidly nicer and more down-to-earth fellow you could not ever hope to meet. Yet, when he takes the stage, he becomes a possessed man, hell-bent on spreading the fire-and-brimstone Word of Rock to all within a six-mile radius (the approximate blast radius of their amplifiers). Jumping and skittering, leaping and zig-zagging around, he appears to be some kind of messianic epileptic. I’ve never seen more energy put out by a four-cylinder punk-rawk band in all my life.

Check them out at Canal Street Tavern in glorious downtown Dayton (1 Nov 2006):
[googlevideo]-2765128894187042447[/googlevideo] “Trouble”

[googlevideo]-4672745740412193341[/googlevideo] (no idea what this one’s called but it’s hella entertaining, with masterful tambourine stylings by “Ross,” a kooky bearded dude from the audience!)

Categories
life memories uncategorized

Thirty-five (is not alive)

I’m not sure, but I’ve become really disdainful of my own birthday over the past few years. All I want are for people to forget about it. Who cares? I don’t need no stinkin’ holiday! This year, I worked on my birthday, and thankfully had plenty of non-birthday-ness. At any rate, I had a good enough time, and blew far more money on myself than, in hindsight, I should have. Maybe it’s just that I want my birthday all to myself? Maybe I just don’t want to share? Maybe I’m just godless and don’t believe in no magical Jesuses and my increasingly heathen ways* are finally starting to affect more than just my outward worldview, but my inward self-image as well.

Maybe I just resent my childhood? Or is it my adulthood, which i most certainly detest, and with profound conviction? Maybe the mere passage of my increasingly limited time is not cause for celebration or merest remembrance to me.

Or maybe it’s just that much more special when only a couple of really close friends remember?

And maybe I need counseling for my crippling social phobia.

Having said that… your birthday is a special and magical day to me, gentle reader, and I do mean that. And, regardless, thanks to those good people who did remember. Please don’t do it again until further notice.

 

* ironically, less amoral and illicit

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

Big Urgent Tweak Test

Look out for my B.U.T.T.! I’ve just finished uploading some tweaks to make the Big Urgent Wish theme a little nicer. Please, as always, wear your helmets, and let me know if anything falls on your head. I could always use a good laugh.

I hope to have a sanitized version available soon.

Categories
uncategorized

wordpress theme update

if you WordPress, which you probably don’t, and you’re looking to try out a new theme that’s a little bit different (but really, when you get down to it – or even if you don’t, looks like it was designed in 1999 by an inept retard with a brand new AOL account), which you probably aren’t (looking for a new theme, that is), then you might possibly be interested (though you probably still aren’t)…

otherwise, move along. nothing interesting to see here.

latest version of Big Urgent Wish. a little tweaked: post metadata cleaned up (that section where the comments link is, or other data related to the post), related posts moved to sidebar, bizarre phrases moved to header, lots of other small improvements made. index page’s code theoretically validates, at least last i checked (XHTML 1.0 strict + CSS level 3 spec), though other pages certainly need improving, especially with regard to input tags.

please, if you see something unpleasant (i already know about the terrible quality of the content itself), let me know. thanks!

i hope to have a public version soon, when i get time to validate other pages and sterilize it of my terrible stink.

some notes:

  1. no, i’m too tired to link to anything else just now. just take my word for everything that i tell you. i am a liar. < -- (a lie?)

  2. and yes, i realize that i don’t have fans who follow every move i make, or even real-life friends who read my stupid blog. i’m just sayin’ that it’s updated, should anyone want to see it. this is merely an update; the most interesting possible thing i could think of to tell you about how i’ve been spending my rapidly-shrinking free time.

  3. sorry if i seem a little sour, but it’s slowly sinking in that i’ve spent literally countless hours doing something entirely useless, without any value to anyone whatsoever, for no reason at all. if i should go down in history as anything, it will be as the most miserable fool with the most ridiculously unmerited perseverance. my entry will read: “wasted untold hundreds of weeks foolishly believing that his work was ever going to matter to anyone other than himself.” when this is done, i will bow my head finally, and let the soul drain from my body forever, submitting myself to mindless corporate zombie slavedom until the end of my days, which will hopefully come sooner rather than later, should a nonexistent god suddenly decide to deliver mercy upon the rest of humanity.
Categories
CDs internets media uncategorized

Latest Chickenfish CD Reviews

Whee! My latest reviews are up at The Chickenfish Speaks. I feel truly sorry for the lashing I gave one new age composer. The rest I’m pretty proud of.

You should check out The Chickenfish Speaks. It’s a great site with lots of cool stuff!

(I’m jeremy mutant, BTW.)

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

Validation

Whew! So far, Big Urgent Wish passes XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS level 3*!

I have only done the index page, though, so more work is no doubt needed.

 

*although, due to the opacity: .6 in the CSS for the thickbox plugin I’m using, it doesn’t validate as CSS level 2

Categories
current events memories uncategorized

Human Remains @ WTC site

More human remains have been found at the former site of the World Trade Center.

According to the Washington Post article above, ~20,000 pieces of people have thus far been found. ~2,749 died in the attack. This means that, statistically, every person who died at the World Trade Center that day was blown into an average of about 7 pieces.

Really brings it home, huh?

Categories
internets media uncategorized

Spore

Will Wright is an incredible genius! The man behind the “Sim” games, his new game, Spore, is most definitely going to be the most amazing and mind-blowing game ever created. It will be a very, very, very long time before anybody ever tops this one. Watch the entire video to get a sense of the sheer godawful scope of this gargantuan thing. Mere words simply cannot do it justice.

[googlevideo]8372603330420559198[/googlevideo]
Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

Big Urgent Garbage Hunt

The B.U.G. hunt is on! See if you can find all the problems with my new layout… I’ve already identified the ugly 3rd-tier dropdown menu thing on the navbar at the top, but I haven’t had much time yet to test everything out. fixed Later tonight I’ll tweak it and try to get it to behave itself a little better. Please post your comments here (be sure to include your OS/browser). And thanks!

(Things are bound to be a little on the messy side for a few days while I convert this thing over to the new theme.)

EDIT: Yikes! Single posts & pages are also totally unstyled! fixed

Categories
friends internets local uncategorized

Body by Xmas

My friend Mike, who’s a fantastic drummer and gifted in so many ways it’s not even funny, filmed this hilarious video. Check it out:

[youtube]fQzVYVe3JYY[/youtube]
Categories
current events uncategorized

Cloaking Device Invented (sort of)

Scientists Take Step Toward Invisibility

Dr. [David R.] Smith warned against getting ahead of the day’s announcement and envisioning the disappearing Romulan warbirds of “Star Trek” on the horizon. The work “is really a scientific explanation,” he said, adding, “Whether it’s useful is always a question.”

Creating a cloaking device in the visible spectrum would be vastly more complex, he said, since the device would have to warp all of the wavelengths of light. The chance of creating such a device is “dim,” he said, but, “The theory doesn’t prevent it from an electromagnetic point of view.”

A real invisibility cloak? Wizard!

“Our cloak allows a concealed volume, plus the cloak, to appear to have properties similar to free space when viewed externally,” Professor David Smith, of Duke University, said. “The cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a ‘hidden’ object, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all. The waves’ movement is similar to river water flowing around a smooth rock.”
Categories
current events internets media uncategorized

Keith Olbermann vs. George W. Bush

Check out this angrily passionate editorial by the great Keith Olbermann re: the new, absolutely diabolical Military Commissions Act. (Read up on it and know that this is terrible and insane.)

[youtube]uqxmPjB0WSs[/youtube]
Categories
uncategorized

bug hunt

check out jeremyjarratt.com and let me know what you think of the new layout. I’m especially looking for bugs. I’ve found a few already (dropdowns from the top navbar look awful at the moment) and will work on them later tonight.

tip: switch styles on the top of the right sidebar!

Thanks for your help!

Categories
CDs friends internets media uncategorized

Cocker Spaniels’ “Withstand the Whatnot”- free download

You can get The Cocker Spaniels‘ absolutely brilliant (and brilliantly named) album Withstand the Whatnot for free on their website! I urge you to listen and to donate (not only does the artist get 100% of the profits, but it will help him to finance the production of his next CD)! This is one of the greatest albums ever recorded by one of the greatest rock bands ever to come down the pike.

Withstand the Whatnot (lyrics & credits)

Categories
current events internets uncategorized

Get Internet Explorer 7

I highly urge you to get Internet Explorer 7. It is far and above any previous version of IE which you may have found somehow pleasurable. In addition to enhanced security, it features tabbed browsing, support for RSS feeds, and is much more standards-compliant than its predecessor.

And it’s really not all that bad. I’d still recommend Opera or Firefox, though.

Get Internet Explorer 7

Categories
creative friends internets life local media uncategorized web design work

projects

Some projects I am currently involved with/have volunteered for:

I’ve asked not to be paid for any of this, although it’s going to be pretty overwhelming to work all this into a rapidly shrinking allotment of free time. Resume fodder is enough for me for now, and I certainly can’t charge friends for services.