Author: jae

jae lethe (he/she/they) is a blogger, musician, artist, poet, web developer/designer, armchair philosophizer, teller of tales, and gadabout. Also, something he calls a "behavioral artist." (Not sure.) She has plans. BIG plans.

Among the things that he has done for a laugh are minor fractures, cuts, scrapes, and various scabs. Though she's quick to point out that they're no imbecile, we're fairly certain that he thinks the word means some kind of medieval pharmacist.

This is her latest home on teh internets - where jae stores their swear words, when they're not hurling them at the sun in vain.

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.

Categories
current events internets uncategorized

Shrimp on a Treadmill video

video: Shrimp on a Treadmill

I have nothing to add to this.

Categories
current events uncategorized

Foley’s follies

Foley’s Alleged Priest Molester Named

Mark Foley, Pointing the Finger in HellSo… I suppose this makes it… okay now?

Just like a Republican to turn around when he’s being accused of some heinous act and suddenly point the finger at somebody else. Poor priest probably never even touched the bastard. Maybe.

I can hear his voice, lo, across the great digital expanse:

“Well, yeah, I guess I did sort of do the wrong thing, kind of. But he’s the one who really did it! He made me! If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have done anything wrong at all, ever! It’s all his fault! I didn’t really do anything, really!”

Categories
current events memories uncategorized

Marijuana vs. Alzheimer’s: FIGHT!!

Marijuana May Slow Alzheimer’s

THC, the key compound in marijuana… blocks the formation of brain-clogging Alzheimer‘s plaques better than current Alzheimer’s drugs.

Janda’s team found that THC blocks an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase, which speeds the formation of amyloid plaque in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Alzheimer’s drugs Aricept and Cognex work by blocking acetylcholinesterase. When tested at double the concentration of THC, Aricept blocked plaque formation only 22% as well as THC, and Cognex blocked plaque formation only 7% as well as THC.

I’m not a marijuana smoker, but I do believe that it is just plain stupid to maintain its currently illegal status. We smoke cigarettes, which do nothing for us but kill us in the end, or at least reduce our life span; we drink alcohol, which makes us stupid and often violent, impairs our reflexes, and causes cirrhosis of the liver. Cannabis has shown time and time again that it is a valuable plant which should absolutely be legalized. Having had a great grandfather who had Alzheimer’s, I’ve seen first-hand what a truly horrifying thing that disease is (note: not “can be,” it simply “is”). If there’s a better-than-with-current-drugs chance that I may be able to stave off the potential onslaught of a slow, mind-reducing, soul-killing, life-crushing disease like that, I may just start toking myself. Better yet, I may start eating the stuff. Trust me, there are very few things worse than dying over a period of several years from a disease which eventually completely eradicates all memory and personality from a human being’s life.

Screw glaucoma (which I may one day develop as well), I want to see more research on this!

Categories
creative internets uncategorized web design

color layout chart

color layout for BUWThis is the color chart I made for orchestrating and managing the background images/colors when using both a style switcher and a browser sniffer to determine which background, exactly, to display for each area of the page. You might even find it useful for your own layouts. The key is below.

Note that the header isn’t really used, and that the content and sidebars (sometimes), and the drop-downs, post meta-data, and my-own-comments boxes (always) use the same background CSS (once for each subtheme).

In all there are 6 × 3 = 18 different CSS inserts for what ended up being one of 4 types of user agents (1. browsers that cannot handle PNG transparency, 2. browsers that can and receive special message A, 3. browsers that can and receive special message B, and 4) all other user agents).

So, yeah, you can tell that this is becoming a bit of a logistical nightmare for me! Nevertheless, I’m pretty confident that once I’ve got the thing done, it’ll be easy to extend.

I’m trying to make the learning curve for anyone else as shallow as I can. Here’s how it breaks down for anyone wishing to add their own subtheme:

  1. Create CSS for layout and color
  2. Add style to styles.inc
  3. Add any needed sniffer-generated CSS to sniffer.inc
    1. This is really for generating either translucent PNG or GIF, depending on browser
    2. Obviously, this also entails creating both a PNG and GIF version for each translucent background
  4. Edit header.php so that cookies don’t retain old style names (there must be an easier way to do this; maybe someone will come along and improve this step so it’s automated; nevertheless, it currently only requires inserting the style names into two lines of existing code, towards the top of the page)
  5. Upload and enjoy!

Not too terribly bad, I think, all things considered.

Key:

(A) header
E navbar
B (+C+D) content
(C+D) sidebar
F+G+H+I contrast
J comment1
K comment2 (alternating)
Categories
current events uncategorized

Your history.

May I just take a moment of your time to point out that:

Every white (and non-American Indian) person living in the United States today is a descendant of debatably illegal immigrants? And that, while we’re on the topic, the non-white immigrants to this country were nearly exclusively brought here in chains by whites?

So just exactly what god damn right does anyone have to say that any human being is illegal or that they are trespassers?

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
-Emma Lazarus