January 2009 Archives

10 years ago today, Alex West, Ben Yau, and I got together at my brother's house in Huntington Beach with several computers and a bunch of scary snacks that Ben brought and we coded & launched Barflies.net to build on the Barflies mailing list that I had been running for the previous year and the SocialD message board that Alex had been running for the 4 years previous.

In the normal way of things, I should have thrown a big party tonight to celebrate 10 BIG YEARS on the internet. I have spent the last two months trying to find where all the early contributors of the Barflies.net have gotten themselves off to (Hey Amber & Erik Jansen, where are you? Email me!), so that Julie Wanda and I could throw a good thank you party and Hey, We are Still Going Strong party.

In typical, Wanda and Jen fashion, we are running fashionably late. Expect a party announcement soon.

Happy 10th Anniversary to Barflies.net!

Tonight at dinner, Erika and I had a long talk about my Facebook post from last night: how each of us use it, why I hate it, and why it is the first social network site that she has really gotten into. We talked at length about synchronous vs. asynchronous communication, public vs. private, the open web vs. the closed web (like MySpace or Facebook), preferred modes of communication, and which worked better when. It was a great conversation over excellent food at Fu Rai Bo in West LA.

All the while we were discussing Facebook and styles of communication an early 20s-something couple next to us was on a date and the whole time the girl kept taking phone calls and texting, all the while she was leaning across the table to smooch the fellow. When they left, I pointed out the extreme difference to Erika.

Not once during dinner did either Erika or I touch our mobile phones, I did not take photos or check my email, she did not take any phone calls. We talked. Then again, we weren't on a date, just having a fun debate over issues. Yet, the youngsters were completely ok with continuous partial attention and smooching in between communicative interruptions.

One of the things that Erika pointed out to me during our discussion, of which she should know as we have been friends for over 18 years now, is that if I strongly don't like something then it is a guarantee that 80% of the rest of the planet will strongly like it. I have a problem with intuitively not being mainstream. Thus, if I don't like Facebook, you should probably go buy stock in it. Well, if they were public that is.

I got home tonight and found this post over at The Spittoon and have concluded that I must not be "Miss Con-GENE-iality":

If Facebook is starting to take over your life, maybe your genes are partly to blame.

While I am good at keeping up with a wide circle of networks, I don't enjoy nor have I gotten sucked into Facebook. As I stated to Erika tonight, it really comes down to the open web vs. the closed web and how services like Facebook & MySpace encourage folks to remain in the closed web and get dumbed down by the confined space. Erika argued that folks like the convenience of the closed web spaces like Facebook & MySpace that allows folks to do everything in one place.

I don't want the internet to become an slightly more interactive version of the brain dead Boob Tube (TV), but a place where folks can grow and become more creative and alive.

I have social networking fatigue and I have had it for years.

I jumped on my first alt.music board/list in 1994 and have been full bore ahead on mailing lists, alt.music, bulletin boards, message boards, groups, friendster, myspace, flickr, twitter, facebook, jaiku, ad finitum, ad nauseum ever since. Fifteen years later, I alternately love the online spaces that allow me to really connect and be fed by others, and I am overwhelmed by the ones that sap my attention and energy.

I hate chat/IM/AIM and text/sms is not far behind in my book, as they both demand that one reply immediately and in a shallow fashion. I really do prefer asynchronous communication in which I can take the time to reply in depth if necessary to instant now chat. I prefer to be able to check in on [insert name of service] when I have the time and post / reply at my leisure. It is for this same reason that I only pick up about half of the phone calls I receive. As a bouncy adult who is easily distracted, I have learned that I need to think before I respond.

As a creative who has had her own consultancy / freelance web design & development business since August of 2000, I have learned that if I want to be a good little citizen and pay my bills on time I really need to focus on the task(s) at hand when I am working.

While continuous partial attention may be a great catch phrase for the current cultural zeitgeist, if I practice it at any length it will toss me out of my house and I will be living in my car. My car, while wonderful, does not have a comfy bed & a hot shower. Thus, I need to focus and concentrate on work and the online leisure activities that feed my life and soul - like blogging, researching, creating, and communicating in a constructive manner.

Ok, so that is my explanation for preferring email & phone calls and avoiding chat & texting. Now let's talk about social networks....

Mon 01.26.09 - Happy New Year, the Year of the Ox - Ji Chou, the year 4706 or 4707 depending on the source.

Happy New Year!

Sun 01.25.09 - Spied a fiddlehead fern unfolding while out on a walk with the dogs. Photo taken with a Nokia N82 camera phone.

After over 9 days on the road visiting such exotic locales as Las Vegas, Bishop, and Mammoth, I finally arrived home tonight around 1:34am (approximately). Now I am too amped up from skiing all day, helping my cousin with her computer(s), and then driving home from 8:30pm to now to actually go to bed. Ever since Punk Rock Bowling, my sleep schedule has been a bit off and instead of going to bed around midnight, I have been staying up past 2am every night.

Tomorrow (Sunday - today - now) will be my day of rest. I plan to sleep in late, have a nice lunch, do laundry, shop for groceries, blog, and work on the Punk Rock Bowling 2009 photo essay.

Night y'all.

Sat 01.24.09 - And now I am driving home.

Thurs 01.22.09 - Enjoying the snow at Rock Creek? Ms. Jen - always. Scruffy - cute dog parka or not, he is dubious about water in any form.

Ever since this past weekend's Punk Rock Bowling adventure, I have had a hard time going to sleep before 2am. Given that I am at my Mom's and am supposed to be up nice and early in the morning to go skiing, my idea for a big blog post has been thwarted by the late hour and Rio the large black lab with a cuddle affliction.

In the meantime, while I continue to ruminate on Tuesday's inauguration, here are a few links:

From 3quarksdaily, From Books, New President Found Voice:

Finally, after eight years, you do not have to apologize for being well read. Smart, in fact, is the new cool. Congratulations to all 3qd readers on this special day.

I say Amen, Amen, Amen! I am so glad to have a President who is not just well read, but is an open intellectual. Relief.

From the BBC, Obama 'set to close Guantanamo'. Further Amens.

I have previously written about how it is completely unethical for us to detain folks without due process in a military base that is on the land of a stated enemy. Given that we have made peace and/or diplomatic connections in recent years with other stated enemies (Libya, Vietnam, China, Russia, etc etc etc), maybe it is time to completely close Guantanamo and give the land back to Cuba. And while we are at it, reinstate relations with Cuba. We have brought more change to the communist countries we trade with then the ones we embargo.

From Politics and Culture, David Schmid nominates Slavoj Žižek! a recommendation for a bit of cultural whimsy.

Mon 01.19.09 - The last few weeks have been odd: sad at times, waiting, and mostly a feeling that I have outgrown my skin, making me think of Eustace desiring his dragon skin removed in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The last eight years have been a steady downward spiral at the hands of a power hungry administration and I am ready for change. On Friday night, I was awoken half way through the night with the most beautiful dream of change, a new day for America where beauty, aesthetics, and compassion triumphs over power, war, and depression. This was an odd dream to have at a punk rock bowling tournament in Las Vegas.

Then last night, Vicki Pepper was so overcome by her excitement for tomorrow's Inauguration and shouted about it in happiness at the bar at the hotel. Today as we drove home from Vegas, I found myself voiceless due to a smoke-full Vegas, unable to really talk to my car mates and fretting. Fretting about tomorrow. Worrying about the safety of the Obama family. Worrying that America won't be able to pull out of the spiritual and cultural pall we have been under for the last eight years. But fretting amounts to a hill of beans and lost miles on the road.

So starting tomorrow, I will be letting the fretting go, looking forward to change, looking forward once again, looking around in my world to see what I can change, and not just hoping for Aslan to come cut us, America, out of our dragon skin. It is not one person or one new Administration but ourselves as a culture who will make the changes and shuck off the old skin for the new one.

Sun 01.18.09 - Punk Rock Bowling

Sat 01.17.09 - Ben B., in a wrestling mask on his way to bowl.

Wed 01.14.09 - Actually, Steve Lawson speaking on social media for musicians at The Olde Ship in Santa Ana.

All photos taken by Ms. Jen from Jan. 9 - 11, 2009, with either a Nokia N82 or a Nokia N85.

Tues 01.13.08 - Last week I emailed the lovely folk at WOM World asking if they would send me a Nokia N85 so that I could do a rigorous photography comparison with the Nokia N82.

Now for the record, after taking the Nokia N82 out to India for the Urbanista Diaries and having one in my possession this fall for the Nokia viNe challenge, I am very partial to the mobile camera phone wonder that is the Nokia N82. Also, let's note that in Sept. when I had the opportunity to fondle the Nokia N85 at the Nokia House lounge in Espoo, Finland, I found it lacking. I did not like the front faceplate keys on the Nokia N85 keys at all, nor was I excited about the fact that it was a slider. For photography, I prefer a candy bar to a slider or other bits to fiddle with. All I want to fiddle with is the camera, not the handset.

The photos above were taken one right after another with me making sure that the state of the subject, lighting, and other conditions did not change. The idea was to make sure that the only differentiating factor was the mobile device used to take the photo and its software, camera, lens, and flash. The N82 is noted to have the better camera, lens, focal range, and zenon flash. The N85, while the new device, is not noted for making a great evolutionary step forward for photography but instead a sideways step from the N82.

The N82 has a better flash and a better focal range than the N85, but the N85 takes the photos as you click, it does not focus and then capture. At times this is much more satisfactory as one is not frustrated as the camera focuses, but as you can see from the photos above the N82 takes much clearer and sharper photos than the N85. I conclude that it is worth it to wait for the N82 to focus rather than have the immediate satisfaction that the N85 is fast.

As for night and difficult lighting situations, I purposely took the camera phones to the badly lit red interior of Alex's Bar in Long Beach, California, which is the bane of rock photographers LA wide for the lack of spotlights and the red walls which eat light right on up before your camera can sense it. The N85 won in this situation when I turned off its flash and just had it shoot. It was fast, captured warm colors and made the most of the dim lighting, but the N85 failed miserably when I turned the flash on as it was dark and dim. The N82 was blurry and a bit darkish with no flash inside of Alex's, but with the lovely Zenon flash really lit the band right on up.

The other difficult situation that I took both camera phones to was the bright sunlight and water reflections of Huntington Beach's Dog Beach that included two white dogs, Scruffy & Belle. Usually the white fur plus the sunlight makes for a photo failure, esp. when it comes to rendering the form of the dog as they usually become just a white blob. Both the Nokia N82 and N85 did valiant jobs with the bright sunlight, white fur, and water reflections but the N82 rendered warmer, clearer colors and the N85 shifted the color slightly to the cold, blue spectrum.

Overall, other than the no flash at Alex's Bar, the N82 wins this round against the N85.

Up next: Round 2 - Punk Rock Bowling. Who will win in the lights of Las Vegas and the yellow shift of the Sam's Town bowling lanes? Check back next Monday for the answer on whether the N82 or the N85 will win...

****
Please note the following specifications on each camera phone:

The Nokia N82: 5 megapixel (2592 x 1944 pixels) camera, CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar™ lens, Focal length 5.6 mm, Focus range 10 cm ~ infinity, Macro focus distance 10-50 cm, Integrated xenon flash
v20.0.062 firmware (RM-313)

The Nokia N85: 5 megapixel camera (2584 x 1938 pixels) camera, CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar™ lens, Focal length 5.45 mm, Focus range 10 cm ~ infinity, Macro focus distance 10-50 cm, Dual LED flash
v10.045.53 firmware (RM-333)

Why do I list the firmware of the camera? Well, a recent update for the N85 is rumored to improve camera function via software and I will update both today so that this weekend's Round 2 will be on the most updated firmware.

Update: 01.14.09 - I made an attempt to update the firmware on the N85 today, as there are rumored improvements for the camera performance, but the ancient borrowed PC I used would kept disconnecting the Nokia Updater and the N85. Since, I don't want to send a bricked N85 back to WOM World, I gave up for today. Everyone I know either has a virus ladlen 2003 or older PC or they have switched to Macs. Over the Air (OTA) firmware updating can't come fast enough to the Nseries line for me.

Mon 01.12.09 - James Craig punning text at CalWAC 2009.

Sun 01.11.09 - Photo taken at Dog Beach with a Nokia N85 camera phone.

During and after college at least once a month, I would work at having a Big Sleep. Basically, I would sleep for as long as possible, at least 10+ hours, and then stay in my nightgown/sleepclothes until at least 5pm on the day of the Big Sleep In. The post-Big Sleep always included reading a good novel whilst hanging out and about with no plan until 5pm.

Over the years as time and stress of adult life has creeped on, the Big Sleep has reduced to sleeping in once a month or once every two months and not getting dressed until noon. In the last few years, I have not really had a good Big Sleep and have gotten much more involved in working at my computer at all hours and all days.

This weekend, after many weeks of sadness, stress, back pain, and holiday family fun, I decided to stay off my computer and enjoy hanging out with friends. I returned home last night from Ryan's exhibition and dinner with Lauren and determined that I would settle in for a Big Sleep.

I took a shower, finished reading a book, and then went to bed around 11pm. I woke up at 7:04am and determined that I needed to turn over and sleep more. I took a drink of water, went to the rest room, put on my sleep eye mask to take away the sunlight streaming in my windows, and turned over to attempt to sleep another hour or so.

The best part is that I woke up again at 11:56am this morning! Yay! I stayed in bed enjoying the relaxed happiness of waking up after a Big Sleep. While I did not stay in bed until 5pm, I did make it until 1pm - and then I went to lunch and took the dogs to Dog Beach.

Now I feel reset. This is very good.

I need to get back in the habit of turning off the computer for the weekend, settling in with a good novel, and have a good Big Sleep at least once a month.

The Mobile Blog-o-sphere is all a-flutter about the *supposedly* evil 'Curse of Silence' vulnerability in some Nokia S60 phones.

If you haven't heard of it, a supposed malicious person or machine could send a bit of code that would stop all SMS/texts and MMSs from ever arriving to your cell phone. The only fix is doing a hard factory reset to the phone.

And this is a bad thing? Frankly, I think Nokia should offer The Curse (or Blessing) of Silence as a toggle on / toggle off feature!

I *hate*hate*hate* texts. Have I mentioned how much I hate texts/SMSs? If any saintly hacker out there would like to pass on the Blessing of Silence to me, I would bake you the cookies or a full dinner of your choice...

Then I could happily say to all the SMS-addicted folks I know, "No, really, I mean, REALLY, I did NOT receive your text message. I am so sorry. Why didn't you call or send me an email?"

My neighbor, Ryan, has been painting away all fall for the big opening at the Taylor de Cordoba gallery in LA this upcoming Saturday night. Consider this your invitation.

Ryan Callis
Are You Ready to Testify

Jan. 10 - Feb 14, 2009
Opening Reception: Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 6-8pm

Taylor de Cordoba
2660 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
310-559-9156
taylordecordoba.com
Google Map

Tues. 01.06.08 - ... my true love gave to me... 12 pee stops, 11 poop bags....

Happy Epiphany!

Mon 01.05.09 - On the way to Kathy's Memorial Service.

An ear worm is a pernicious song / melody / chorus that wiggles into your brain via your ears and stays all the while niggling at your brain and causing you to wake up singing it or worse... The worse is having the ear worm song stuck for days on end.

The best way to get rid of an ear worm is not to ignore or attempt to replace it with a better or more acceptable song, but instead to infect others around you. By some odd law of the universe that science has not yet documented, if you pass on your ear worm to at least 3 or 5 other humans, then it mercifully leaves your brain.

Back in college if the most pernicious of all ear worms infected us, we would start singing it in the cafeteria line. Evil but true. By the time you got your food and checked out, the ear worm would be gone, all the while 5 others behind you in line were shooting you eye daggers and singing along under their breathes.

By this same principal, my college roommate and I once got a large part of the audience at the Troubador, between bands, singing the Worst Ear Worm of All Time. This was a great accomplishment for the late 1980s.

Thankfully, Blip.fm has come up with a great antidote for ear worms. Blip.fm lets you post the song you are thinking of and then write a small note to go along with it, think Twitter plus a song database. Thus, when you think of a song, rather than letting your mind chew on it for hours and tormenting you, you can log into Blip.fm, and post the song and share it not just with your friends but with various other lovely folk on Blip.fm.

Today, when I heard a 70s ear worm gem on the radio and was too appalled to change the channel, as the song started to burrow into my brain, I went home, turned on the computer, when to Blip.fm and blipped it - 1975's Hot Chocolate's "I believe in Miracles". And I wrote:

This song, while an oldie, is a TERRIBLE HORRIBLE Ear Worm. I heard it on the radio today, now I must infect you...

And then Blip.fm set me free. So, I decided to test my karma and post the Worst Ear Worm of All Time to Blip.fm, yes - the ear worm that infected the cafeteria line at Pitzer College, the ear worm that infected a metal show at the Troubadour... Yes... The Green Acres Theme Song... I dare you to listen to it:

But this, if you are an American who watched too many re-runs as a kid, is the ALL TIME MOST infectious Ear Worm...

What is your favorite all time ear worm?

In case you were wondering what yesterday's photo was all about, Erika was kind enough to come over to my 'sickbed' (really, I was on the floor next to the wall heater) and dispense some wonder Chinese medicine that she picked up at a pharmacy in China last year after she walked up 6,000 steps.

For reasons only known to my sciatica nerve and the deep muscles that connect my right hip to femur, the muscles decided to completely seize up and pinch the nerve into intense pelvic & back pain while I was sitting on the floor working on the computer yesterday morning.

For the first few hours, I could not stand up due to numbness in my legs and so I had to either just lie down or crawl over to my bed to use the post to pull myself up. I called a few folks for advice on what to do, Erika suggested that I call around to see if anyone had some of the muscle relaxant Flexeril and my mom suggested that I go to the urgent care. I couldn't get out of the house, let alone drive over to the local urgent care, so I waited on the floor until I could hear some of neighbors moving around. Lucky for me, neighbor Earl and across the way neighbor Tony had just got home. Earl had some Flexeril and Tony gave solid medical advice on what to do with it (Tony is a Respiratory Therapist at a local hospital).

Before you, the reader, get all cranky on me and say, "You shouldn't take prescription pills from people, but only have it prescribed by a doctor." While this may be true, I hate my HMO. Hate them. It would take a lot worse than lying on the floor in pain to get me to call their damned advice nurse again to get the go ahead to go to the emergency/urgent care on a holiday.

But I didn't have to, as I crowdsourced great care and advice from neighbors, Erika, and Twitter friends (thanks v, for the advice on stretches!). The best part of all of this is when Erika showed up with the Wing Long Red Flower Oil that she picked up on her trip to China last year.

Between the Wing Long Red Flower Oil, Flexeril, Advil, Erika's Mom's 1970s heating pad, and two days of bed / floor rest, I am feeling better. I could actually put on pants today and sit in a chair. Rather than intense sharp pain, today's pain is dull. I hope tomorrow that the pain will have further dulled.

If I want to be optimistic about this, I could say that I have had a forced 2 day, do nothing holiday. Thanks everyone for helping out.

Late last December, a year ago, I decided to participate in Blog365 and I am here to tell you 367 days (365 days + leap day + today) from the start of the daily blogging for a year that I did it. I blogged every single darned day for the last 367 days, including leap day of which we were allowed to take off but I didn't.

Due to the fact that I allowed myself the leeway of blogging from my computer and / or moblogging from my phone, I was able to complete the challenge and not feel that it was a struggle. Being able to moblog directly from my Nokia phones (N95 & 2 N82s) to this Movable Type powered blog via Nokia's Lifeblog made all the difference in being able to complete the daily blogging schedule on top of daily life, work, friends/family, travel, and the vicissitudes of life.

Then to make life interesting a more than a bit challenging, I decided to participate in NaBloPoMo in July over at the Happy Tastebud and in November here at Black Phoebe.

In the Blog365 challenge, I decided that which/what content I (mo)blogged didn't matter, it could be text or photo, as long as I had one blog post per day. In the November NaBloPoMo challenge, I decided that I had to blog text every day on top of any photo posts. That was hard, but really good.

After November was over, I had more text / opinion posts that I wanted to write but December got too busy and I didn't have a challenge to goad me on to actually write rather than just mo-pho-blog. I am going to continue daily posting here in 2009 be it text or photos, but I resolve to blog more text, at least 3 times a week.

;o)