Kuang Eleven, Shotgun Virus' Journal

3:51pm: yeah, it's been a fsking long time, but this one is enough to bring me out of lj retirement -- if you've seen it already it's worth spending another half hour with, trust me,

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music
flash and sound.

Now, that said. This thing is so chock full of some of the worst samples I've ever heard, but it's an incredible guide to the infinite subgenres of electonic music out there. It reminds me of hypercard stacks in years past.

Oh me? I've been busy coding by brains out between work and several websites. That and raising the cutest little girl ever. From time to time I even manage to squeeze a bit of life in too.

cheers all.

8:13pm: www.shavedneck.com has a pretty cool archive of flyers from punk rock shows. Check out the 'zines and t-shirts too. All of this D.I.Y stuff is really awesome.

(and I know it's been awhile, but the LJ web update interface has changed a bit)

and hey, happy holidays everyone -- don't know if you'll see another post from me b4 the newyear.

11:18am: Enola Gay
This is the real thing, currently housed in the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center of the National Air & Space museum in Dulles, Va. This new museum is so amazing that my words won't do it justice. Visit it if you can.

10:10am: compare
I'm sure this meme is all over the place already:

( Read more... )

3:55pm: net fun.
anyone use audioscrobbler?

I've been having a play with net toys day, I registered at audioscrobbler, del.icio.us and got my url for flickr set up.

and, yes, I voted. That too.

2:13pm: Morrissey for Jon Stewart
Apparently Morrissey wants you to vote for Jon Stewart, but he says Kerry would make a good second choice. The Moz is looking a little aged these days, but dashing as always.

11:16am: Flickr
This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2:08pm: something to read when it's friday afternoon and you don't feel like cranking out documentation any more:

top 100 irc quotes from bash.org

3:12pm: The Greater Wrong of the Right
So, I picked up Skinny Puppy's new album The Greater Wrong of the Right expecting to be underwhelmed, but not wanting to give up completely on my long time fav. I'm 3 tracks in and I'm impressed so far -- at least with track 2+3. It's a far cry from the golden days. Just if ohgr wouldn't sing so much without effects or processing on his voice. I don't think he has a good voice by any stretch of the imagination, unless he's growling like on Track 8. Case in point -- Track 4 is >really< annoying.

Just if I was still in high school -- I'd have something new to learn how to sketch on my notebook. That cover looks vaguely SRG'ish.

10:28am: finally.
Lucas is releasing thx 1138 on dvd. I hope the new stuff he's added lives up to the rest of the movie.

thanks n8_zilla

9:27pm: Three truths
Cheez-Its will be both my salvation and my downfall.

It is staggeringly costly to replace a 3 ton air conditiong unit.

Lewis Black is brilliant and his most recent HBO special should be viewed by all.

9:52am: I walked outside last night and thought I heard rain.

Then I realized that it was cicada nymphs dropping from the trees and crawling about in the grass.

It was all fun and games until one decided to crawl up my neck.

They're great little bugs, quite different from the ones we get every year. I can't quite descibe the sound they make. Its immensely more beautiful than the metallic chatter we get from the other broods. From deep in the surrounding forest I hear a sound somewhere between a billion tiny spirit drums and star trek phasers.

They've been coming up out of the ground bit by bit ofer the last few days. Last night they emerged in full force. The backyard looks like a set from the perfect insect invasion movie; full of little red-eyed monsters. They don't seem to be particularly proficient at flight. They lumber through the air on wings just barely adequate for their bodies.

10:22pm: motorbike rides through Chernobyl
If you haven't seen this already from reading Slashdot, read it now [mirrored]. It's the personal account of someone who goes on Motorbike rides through the area around Chernobyl. The images are amazing. This has to be one poignant, touching, things I have seen on the web in quite awhile.

1:19am: quicksilver + reading.
First, if you don't like, or never have read Neil Stephenson, it's not worth reading this post, I assume alot of familliarity with his stuff here. Well, maybe if you've heard of the guy and you're curious... which that out of the way...

I finished meandering my way through Quicksilver last weekend. Current circumstances prevent me from digesting literature as voraciously as in the past, so meanderang with brief periods of glutting it simply the way I have to do things.

Well, what do I think? I think Mr. Stephenson has diverse interests, tons of ideas and wants to share them with us. Was it too much? Not for me -- considering the scale of the book and the speed at which I read it I wasn't annoyed as some other readers have been. Compared to previous works? Well, after reading "In the beginning of there was the command-line" I realized he wasn't going to allways write books like Snow Crash or Diamond Age. After Cryptonomicon, I suspect it would be painful to have to write books like those again. But maybe that pain is good. Maybe the process that a writer has to go through to boil those big ideas down into shorter, paperback-ready novels is a good thing. It brings about some clarity of plot, focus, conception that makes the work better.

Now I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the amount of work that went into producing this latest work (or indeed the entire cycle). I really got into the book iteself, but it's not going to be one of those that I'll remember because I enjoyed it to no end, or influenced my outlook on life. I enjoyed the history, something I knew nothing about, the ideas of economics, power and influence and how they're all the same.

I can't help but get this feeling that once the whole cycle comes out you might be able to play tear-up with the texts and maybe squeeze a couple decent paperbacks out of it.

I'll read the whole damn thing tho. I'm a sucker for sequels, and despite the florid descriptions of 17th century Europe, there was enough of that plot that I think April 13th, will be upon me too quick based on my current reading rate. I might just be able to squeeze something else in there along side this. We'll get into why I need to read a book like that in another post.

...and Dr. Norton is done, I'm calling it a night.

12:50am: making time in a low-rent high rise..

actually, Dr. Norton's keeping me up. That computer has to be working tomorrow so K. can get her freelance work done. bleargh.

One more freaking B+-Tree -- why I oughtta..

8:23pm: Tonight, my muscle relaxer of choice is Sam Smith's Imperial Stout. I'm sure it's some sort of sacrilidge to be drinking that on St. Patrick's day, but my Irish bride sez it's okay because "you're protestant anyway."

Life in Maryland becomes even more surreal. They're thinking about resurrecting the Salty Snack Tax.

1:14pm: tmj poem.
there's a demon in my head.
when I'm not watching,
he ratchets my jaws.
my teeth grind,
muscles ache,
ears fill up,
and ring,

5:00pm: lessee here.. 5:00 pm, friday, flying to pensacola tomorrow morning early. I think I'm going to take a nap.

9:11am: chemical anchor rock this house to the ground
Happy New Year everyone -- here's some more fun from Nihon.

Japan Break Industries EUROBEAT (English 784)

Diamond Cutter! Da! Da! Da!

11:55am: The Elder Gods are coming and everyone is doomed!
You might as well party and do all the shit you were always afraid to do!

12:07pm: sick as a dog for days and work's been a killer too. hope y'all are doing fine. haven't had the opportunity to read much at all lately.

3:38pm: it happened. In the middle of a conferece call today I was able to interject the statement "I for one welcome our new robot masters" in an entirely relevant manner.

10:56am: The system is going down for reboot NOW!

3:44pm: When I stepped outside to clear my head I looked up through the branches of the leafless trees into the cold greyness and saw a flock of black birds flapping their wings against the sky. they kept coming and coming, an endless progression of isolated beautiful little shapes streching out across the dank autum sky. I wish I could dump vision to disk to share it or watch it all over again.

3:11pm: today's one of those days where my knuckles are aching in the anticipation of putting a fist through a monitor.