Until further notice, my whatnot will be here.

posted by Christopher Bird at 3:28 AM

(continued from previous post - this is the sort of problem I'm talking about with MozBlog, I leave it up as an example)

There's a tool for Mozilla-based blogging on MozDev, but MozBlog is, not to put it bluntly, crap. This is not to slam the people who are working very hard on the tool for no pay - good for you guys, keep it up, et cetera - but it makes posting to the blog a far more tedious process than the old Explorer tool did.

At this point I'm seriously considering switching to (shudder) LiveJournal. I don't know how much I can customize it, although I figure there's stuff that can be done. Possibly. I dunno. I don't want to abandon my blog in this format (I worked ever so hard on my banner don't you know) but it seems untenable for the near future at this point.

Update to follow. At the very least, if I end up switching to LiveJournal, I'll post a pointer here as the last post until such time as a reasonably good tool becomes available for use.

posted by Christopher Bird at 10:46 PM

No, it isn't. Seriously. I want to keep updating this page. Verily, a true swath of cool shit continually finds its way to me, and I wish to share it, and occasionally bitch.

But.

Problem A: I am fucking SICK to DEATH of Internet Explorer. I can't get Java to work with it. I reinstall the plugin twenty times, no dice. "Fuck you" says Internet Explorer 5.5 (I refuse to go to 6). Quicktime is buggy, Shockwave is buggy, Flash works okay but that's about it. This is no way to surf.

Problem two is that other browsers make it much trickier to update this damn page. Opera has no compatibility with Blogger's tools, and I didn't like it as a browser anyway so I uninstalled it.

I'm having a much better experience with Mozilla. Mozilla is a good browser. It does what I want it to do. I heartily recommend it. Except...

It has lousy blogging support.

There's a tool for Mozilla-based blogging on 10:39 PM

The Gay Robot Page

The true joy of the internet is that there is indeed a page for absolutely everything.

posted by Christopher Bird at 7:34 PM

Origami Boulder Company

I go to bank to accept credit card and banker says, "You can't sell wadded paper. That's not a real product or service."

I lose patience and scream at banker and tell him, "You banker, not art critic dumb dumb!!! You don't know nothing about art. Wadded paper art much better than Andy Warhol painting of soup can or that guy who put crucifix in big jar of urine! At least my art not offensive or stupid picture of food product!"

Now I can never accept credit card directly because I get escorted from bank by big man with gun. I use ATM and drivethrough now so banker doesn't see me and call police.

posted by Christopher Bird at 12:03 AM

Another excellent pro-file sharing article. Can you ever get enough of them? I don't think so.

posted by Christopher Bird at 1:30 PM

Robot Street Gang

Finally, an intelligent site dedicated to video games.

posted by Christopher Bird at 12:43 PM

I break more than a few of the rules. I find I can live with this.

In Other News

I didn't get the scholarship.

This is deeply, deeply frustrating. I really wanted it. Fifteen hundred dollars off tuition would have reduced my monthly pay-out to them to a mere pittance.

And yes, I saw the winner's entry. He's in my class, actually. (Personal comments about him withheld - am still bitter, do not wish to write in momentary spite. He's really not that bad a person, despite clearly being the Great Satan who stole my damn scholarship.)

In short: my essay was better; our storyboards were of roughly equal quality, his edging mine out a bit - he had a funnier premise and much better presentation - IE, his was on proper black cardboard and raised whiteboard glued to it, he put a lot of work into it. I put a lot of work into mine as well - I spent ages drawing the stupid fucking thing, an artist I am not, which is a pity because I'd love to be able to glom that $250 of free shit from Once And Future - but I freely admit his was of higher quality.

And I'm not tooting my own horn when I say my essay was better. it was. His didn't really address the technical aspects of the film he was reviewing (he did Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, I did Shaolin Soccer), which was a key part of the assignment. Also, to be frank, I'm a better writer than he is. (He's good.) This isn't ego talking - this is years of reviewing essays and writing them. There are essay writers out there who are my superior, and there are those whose ass I kick.

Which means I have a good idea of how this thing was graded - namely the storyboard was probably more important. File under "wish I'd known" and move on.

Congrats to Jeff for winning the scholarship, of course.

FUCK, I wanted to win it so bad...

posted by Christopher Bird at 11:53 PM