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2018/4/15
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watching: the west wing |
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2017/10/26
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/
outside the windows the newly /
installed LED streetlights /
are bright against the /
falling snow, the /
halfnaked trees and /
wet dark pavement /
the hills half-faded into /
clouds and falling light |
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2017/5/14
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it’s a sunday night in the late spring of 2017. i’m in a house on one of the
sparser edges of an exurb of colorado springs. |
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2016/11/14
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Like usual I’m at the bar; I brought a laptop this time. Some football is
happening on TV. Old guys bullshitting, etc. I waited too long to eat and
I’ve been reading the internet all day, so my head hurts and I can’t think
straight enough to program. I guess that leaves writing. |
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2015/8/31
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After work, we drift over from the shop to 3’s and order Bud in
bottles. There’re sports on the TV. We talk shit about football, baseball,
and programming. We are knowledgeable of, perhaps, one of these subjects. I
lament init systems. We sing the endless song of hate for XML. We agree that
CSV isn’t so bad as all that. We have a second beer. |
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2009/6/5
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america |
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2006/4/5
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brennen's general observations on employment, or, why i am going to stop putting this URL
on my résumé |
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2005/9/9
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A hypothesis: Killing time on a computer is a special kind of inactivity
tied to the same state of mind as things like watching television and
listening to ad-heavy radio, only with an added component of illusory
utility. It tends to a kind of mock-creative, artificially productive
state, generating constant low-level noise and heat without any real
movement. |
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2004/7/30
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wherein i swear a lot |
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2004/6/3
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Last night I sat in the couch in the living room while my room mates had a
conversation on one side and an episode of The West Wing for which I
had no context ran on the television. I kept switching my attention to one
stream of information, only to have it quietly repossessed by the other a few
minutes later. On one side, someone was going to censure the President - the
one played by Martin Sheen, the one who makes fiction seem so much saner than
politics circa now. On the other side, someone had still been really drunk at
5 a.m. and had to work at 8, and fried food was the best after a night like
that. I had to agree. When I finally left, Reservoir Dogs was just
getting bloody, but they'd cut out a lot of instances of "fuck". |
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2003/7/4
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Falling asleep in front of the television is a time-honored American
tradition, one that by now is literally generations old - a distinction it is
hard for many things in American life to lay really solid claim to. It is not
a tradition I have ever had much use for. Something in me rebels at losing
consciousness while meaningful signals are still pouring out of some object in
the room; it has not seemed to matter much that the television is seldom
signalling anything meaningful. For a great many people, that particular drone
of insistent sound and flickering light offers something comforting or
lulling. It seems pretty likely that they are more tuned into the nervous
system of modern civilization than I am, but even good television has never
had that effect on me, and most people do not watch good television. |
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2001/7/27
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Ok, so I was mangling that title. FWIW, it's Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team. I think.
At any rate, both it and Outlaw
Star are growing on me. |
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2000/11/29
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Wednesday, November 29, 21:01 CST /
Today's AWAD quote bears repeating: |
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2000/2/28
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Monday, February 28 (posted later) /
I'm sorry, but that was just *bad*. Granted, I haven't followed X-Files much,
and this has been a weak season, but that has to rank as the single worst
episode I've ever seen them attempt. Ill-conceived, poorly executed, and just
generally annoying. Hackers (you know, the movie with the supercomputer
made of giant glass boxes) had more technical accuracy than that. Of course,
technical accuracy is a meaningless concept when you're talking about the
standard "computer game comes to life! And it's evil!" plot... Let's
just keep it simple: That sucked. |
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2000/1/8
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Saturday, January 8 (posted later) /
Got back from a quiz bowl competition earlier this afternoon (quiz bowl: teams
of geeks from local high schools compete to answer trivia questions,
hoping for a chance to embarass themselves on local TV). We cleaned up.
Didn't lose a match. Which means we get a chance to embarass ourselves. Still
a little scary how seriously some people take this stuff. People walking around
in suits or matching t-shirts, rubbing their lucky yard gnome statues... |
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1999/3/20
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Saturday, March 20, 16:45 CST /
I finally saw the first 2 episodes of Red Dwarf VIII last night on a
local PBS station. They seemed decent,
but I'd agree with the theory that the first 3 were intended to be a single
ep. |
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1998/12/10
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Thursday, December 10, 18:50 CST /
Ok, so I lied. It's been more than a couple of days. I should really learn
not to make statements like that. |
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1998/2/5
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Thursday, February 5
I've been watching Babylon 5 since it started running on TNT. It's a great show, and probably the
best thing currently on American TV. I recently followed a link from
Stephen's Home Page, and found
The Lurker's Guide to Babylon
5, which is an excellent site. |