no wind

drive by night

sleeping giant

San Francisco, CA

up close

green and red

clear autumn day

red

tag, i'm it

Sid Smith of Postcards from the Yellow Room has tagged me. Does this mean that I have a numbered collar around my ankle and my migrating habits will be electronically tracked? Or that Sid has spraypainted an urban hieroglyphic on my back? Neither, dear readers. Here is the tagging 411:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So let's embrace the personal random:

1. I learned how to read when I was four years old, thanks to constantly watching Sesame Street. I have vivid memories of sitting by the heating vent in my room reading Dr. Seuss books. My grandparents told me that I spelled out and read aloud the EXIT sign at an International House of Pancakes when I was three, but I don't remember that. I've been a wordnerd ever since.

2. I started collecting records seriously around the age of thirteen. Before that, it was comic-book collecting, but that hobby was beginning to lose its allure. I bought many of my early records at the local K-Mart--I would ride my bike there and pick up another Rush or Black Sabbath album for my small-but-rapidly-growing collection. I currently have over 1,400 albums and CDs. Once a collector, always a collector. [2013 edit: now up to 2,700 albums/CDs--good grief]

3. My favorite season is autumn, as you can probably tell from my recent pics. I love the slight chill in the air and the sound and smell of falling leaves. I wish that autumn lasted longer, but maybe its fleetingness is part of its charm: it's gone so fast that you really have to pay attention every day to appreciate it fully.

4. I hate beets and peas. I have given them many opportunities to enlighten my palate, but the result is always the same: blech. I can tolerate pineapples but would prefer to avoid them. I love lima beans and recently began to appreciate asparagus.

5. The house where I grew up is currently sitting vacant, and that makes me sad. I last stepped foot in it back in 1986. I hope that someone puts it on the market soon so I can go to an "open house" event there and wander through many childhood memories.

6. I'm not color-blind but have a very poor sense of what colors go together. I could never be an interior decorator.

hotel noir ii

words

blue and yellow

fall in focus

quote of the day

Requests are welcome, but responses are unlikely. --
Peter Hammill, at The Winchester in Lakewood Ohio, 10/10/08.

power lines

done with mirrors

hurray for autumn

what is truly important

Hint: it's not your job.

on bad luck

If it were raining soup, we'd be standing outside with forks.
-- my grandma

imaginary album cover iv

on a crisp and clear day

hazy shade of autumn

road shot

the salesman

San Francisco, California

157

untitled

reflections

i left this heart in san francisco

a musing

I would like to rip my own spine out and beat people with it. But that would be a spineless thing to do, so I won't.

embrace the random xxix

Mandelbrot Fractal Explorer

embrace the random xxviii

Abstract images that blend and fade like fuzzy memories--dig it.

yikes stripes

thought for the day

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Depending on how gracious one may be feeling, this maxim could mean that good ideas can come from unlikely sources, or that even idiots get lucky now and then.

hit the lights iii

still lives

the wizard

reach for the sun

overheard...

...while at a record store:

"I've told you the story about how ketchup drove me over the edge."

How does one reply to that?

five maxims to live by v

Life is one big joke. Laugh along, or else the joke is on you.

No one deserves to go to heaven, and very few deserve to go to hell.

Misheard lyrics often make more sense than the actual ones.

It's good to fall down--it reminds you why you're standing up.

If life hands you a lemon, squeeze it 'til the juice runs down your leg.

embrace the random xxvii

Musician Peter Chilvers has created a generative music website using multiple Flash players. The players run random loops of varying lengths so that the melodies and soundscapes shift constantly.

There are four pieces on the site currently. Alpha drifts along with dobro, cello, marimba, female voice, and a healthy dose of silence. Claude incorporates flute, piano, clarinet, and cello to establish moods that flow from peaceful to suspenseful to mysterious. Droplets combines a sparse collection of electric piano notes with a mutating Flash animation to accompany the music. Pentatonic sounds a bit thicker, using electronic drones and a shifting bass line.

My favorite piece so far is Alpha--very meditative and calming without fading into new-agey wallpaper pasting. I find myself engaging with it both consciously and subconsciously, depending on what else I am doing at a given time. The music is rewarding whether I actively pay attention to it or not.

For uber-randomness, try opening the same piece in two separate tabs, or do the same with different pieces. Alpha and Droplets merge quite nicely.

quote of the day

Welcome Back, Kotter jumped the shark when Gabe Kaplan told his first joke. -- my older brother

arc of the curve ii

billboards in outer space

A while back I posted a decent photo of a billboard from a worm's-eye perspective. Check this site out--these photos look like spaceships docking with orbiting satellites. Very nice.

howard street, san francisco

arc of the curve

son of digital chalk guy

hit the lights ii

digital chalk guy

cleared for landing

Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco

dork night

Be very grateful that the new Batman movie was not produced and directed by my subconscious. In last night's dream, Christian Bale was wearing Adam West's old costume, and Alfred was played by Arthur English.

hotel noir

loss vague us