October 2004

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Getting Ink!

Yesterday there was a weird dispute. Well, I suppose it continues today. LAist, a group blog with topics about Los Angeles posted that it has more visits to their site than blogging.la.

Okay.

They declared themselves the most popular blog in LA.

Here are a few questions I had:

Does it include people who read by feed? While reading by feed does not get included in hits, I suppose feed hits should be used for determining ad prices either. But some people do both. I do both. I visit the site regularly but I also use an aggregator called Bloglines. Sometimes I’ll read from there, sometimes I’ll browse to the site because I’m at a computer that doesn’t have my bloglines info stored in it.

LAist does not show where the hits come from. Are LAist visitors in LA or somewhere else? For that matter, who reads b.la? I haven’t a clue. In fact, I’m not sure I care.

As for LAist, I consider it like Star. It’s a rag. It’s oppressively negative and meanspirited, focused on things like cult of celebrity and dissing public transportation. They steal photos. It doesn’t reflect the life that I lead as an Angelino. B.la does, but maybe that’s because my friends also write for it. As far as I know LAist pays its writers. B.la does not.

Could b.la be improved? Sure, we could post more often. A photo blog would be cool. Does it need a more consistent editorial voice, so much so that you’d not know who posted without looking at the attribution? Hell, no. There is no way I’d ever write for a blog where I had to use the “editorial we.”

Territorialism has always bothered me. Who cares if there’s someone on top or not. It’s the web. It’s the place for specialization. They’re group blogs about one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world ... if LAist really wants to be on top they’d blog in Spanish. That’s how you win in LA radio.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:24 pm    

New Feature - Smell of the Day

The building I work in also houses the commissary. Or maybe we just share a wall. We definitely share the same air.

When I get to work in the morning, it usually smells like the lunch special.

The smell of the day for October 12th, 2004 is herb roasted chicken.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:14 am    

Monday, October 11, 2004

Weird Words

I was reading an article on CNN a little while ago and I had to look twice at the headline.

Panhandle Children Return to School.

Of course it’s kids returning to school in the Florida panhandle.

What caught my eye is that panhandle also means begging. But why? Did beggars used to use pans? I’ve seen those documentaries about Indian monks that travel around with a little bowl that folks will fill for them while they’re on pilgrimage. Did beggars once go around asking for stuff to fill their frying pans? It’s just an odd confluence that an obscure little, ubiquitous thing like a panhandle would end up meaning a peninsula made by borders as well as begging.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:28 pm    

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Marathon Training - Walk 1

Today Will & Susan came by (yes, by, I met them down the street so they didn’t have to hike up the hill) and we took a walk around the lake.

Four miles.

At a three mile an hour pace. Probably good for me, I don’t think I should get going four or five miles an hour just yet. But hey, when the walk takes 25% longer, you probably burn more calories. It doesn’t hurt that I’m out of shape either. I figure in shape people are more efficient.

So the goal is to do eight miles a week (in whatever combinations) until December where I’ll step it up to 20 and then I’ll figure out what to do next year to prep for the Marathon.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:19 pm    

Friday, October 08, 2004

LA Insight - Week 9

LA Blogs’ topic for this week, in memory of the passing of Rodney Dangerfield, is Rodney Memorial Edition (comedy is hard).

1. OK funny girl, what’s your favorite joke?

Have you heard about the new corduroy pillows?

They’re making headlines.

I read that joke in Bloom County when I was 17 years old and just got off a horrific 22 hour cross country plane trip (that’s another blog entry someday) and was jetlagged and sat up all night reading it. I thought it was hysterical. It’s probably not, but I remember my fits of laughter fondly and this joke is a way to connect with a time in my life when I would feel free to laugh out loud when I’m all alone. Okay, I do that now, but there was an intervening time when I wouldn’t have.

2. Where do you go for comedy in LA?

I don’t think I’ve ever gone anywhere for comedy. I’ve found some things funny, like the lounge singer on Thursday nights at The Red Lion.

3. Have you been to an open mike night? If so, where?

Nope. Well, there was one at our Unitarian Youth Weekends when I was a teen, but I don’t think that counts.

4. Was it good, bad or tolerable?

Um, we were Unitarians.

5. Who is the funniest comedian you have seen in town?

Well, since the Unitarian things were in Baltimore or Philadelphia, I guess they don’t count.

6. Who is the unfunniest?

See above.

7. Beyond the places that you have been to see comedy, are there any places that your friends have recommended?

I’m not one for going and seeing comedians in the flesh. I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t interest me. I really enjoyed Second City though, when I was in Chicago once. So I’d probably say that something like Groundlings would fit me.

8. OK, so you’re not that funny, what’s your worst joke?

It’s really long. It’s called the Green Ping Pong Ball Joke. I didn’t feel like retyping it here (I could have copied and pasted it, but I tell it a little differently).

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:28 am    

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Front Yard Momma

I don’t know if you ever visit my buzznet site, but I’ve been kinda obsessed with a couple of orb weaver spiders I’ve got living on the balcony and in the back yard. This green lynx spider has been living in our front yard for a while. Turns out there’s probably another one out there somewhere, since she’s raising a family.

Green Lynx Spider
Lynx Spider with babies


The green lynx spider in my front yard and her little brood of spiderlettes.

more here

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:26 pm    

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

When the Shortcut is the Longcut

I was watching CSI: Miami (my least favorite show I watch ... I know, that’s a weird sentence, but if you’re married, I think you know what I mean) last week and there was Horatio Caine (my least favorite character) examining an autopsy report.

And there he was, saying, “cause of death, GSW to the chest.”

Now, say the letters aloud. “Gee, ess, double-you.” Four syllables. Then say the words. “Gun shot wound.” Three syllables. Hell, they’re even short words to spell.

I’m not saying that CSI: Miami isn’t accurate, it’s just a pet peeve of mine. Why have abbreviations if they’re longer?

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:07 pm    

Am I Bragging or Complaining?

I posted a kvetch a few months ago about Jayson Blair. You don’t have to go back and read the entry. It was just me complaining about my lousy sales for my play which was published earlier this year.

I’m happy to report that sales are picking up since the new catalogue came out about five weeks ago.

I am disappointed that not one of my theatre friends actually bought my play (hell, I mentioned them in the dedication and acknowledgements), but I’m still oddly more flattered by the fact that perfect strangers are buying it!

I’m hoping sales will also pick up when the two anthologies that I’m in come out (hopefully this year)!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:23 pm    

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Monkey Check!

I just checked in with the typing monkeys again today. (I’ve been rather lax about letting them muck about on my computer lately, but I should start doing that more now.)

Last time I posted they had 16 letters.

They’re now actually up to strings of words! At the moment the record is 20 letters from Coriolanus

After 462,060,000,000 billion billion monkey-years. (Sent in by Jens Ulrik Jacobsen from Denmark on 31 Aug 2004.)

“1. Citizen. Before wZgJ8GPxwFnwvG&iX4tKfo(“2ny!3Pp…”
matched
“1. Citizen. Before we proceed any further, heare me speake   All. Speake, speake   1.Cit. You are all resolu’d rather to dy then to famish?  All. Resolu’d, resolu’d..

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:57 pm    

Small Divergence

For some reason I decided to start doing some volunteer work. No, not the stuff for NaNoWriMo (but I’m still going to be municipal liaison for that).

I’ve applied to become a naturalist for the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium leading whale watching tours for students from December to March.

I’ve always loved going whalewatching and I have an uncanny skill at being able to see spouts no matter what the weather. (The last two times I went to the Channel Islands, I was the first to spot the whales on our boats.) It’d be cool to go out and share that enthusiasm I have for whales and marine life with other people. (Oh, and I’m sure I’d get free trips too!)

This definitely means I should get that telephoto lens for my camera!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:51 am    

Monday, October 04, 2004

More Buzznet Fun

I finally have my camera back and have started taking photos. (Okay, for a while I was taking photos, but just ones of my scar, not stuff that is interesting to the general public.)

Harlequin Bug

Harlequin Bug

photo by: more

If you click on it, you get to see the little bugger in even bigger glory.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:50 pm    

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Required Reading

Yes, it’s a very, very long article. But if you plan to live on this planet, you must read this.

How the White House Embraced Disputed Arms Intelligence
By DAVID BARSTOW, WILLIAM J. BROAD and JEFF GERTH

Need a login/password?

Basically the article goes through much of the case against Iraq and the evidence of their weapons of mass destruction point by point. My favorite part is how the basis of the US’s case against Iraq was the fact that they were trying to get these little aluminum tubes (probably for conventional missiles) but some posited that they could be used for uranium purifcation through centrifuges. The consultants working on the hypothesis that Iraq concluded:

The Energy Department team concluded it was “unlikely that anyone” could build a centrifuge site capable of producing significant amounts of enriched uranium “based on these tubes.” One analyst summed it up this way: the tubes were so poorly suited for centrifuges, he told Senate investigators, that if Iraq truly wanted to use them this way, “we should just give them the tubes.”

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:53 pm    

Saturday, October 02, 2004

It is Done!

I have signed up for another year of NaNoWriMo.

Actually, I think that the default is that I’m signed up, since I was a user of the forums last year. (I’m not quite sure how that works.)

I haven’t decided which participant icon to use for the year.


Is it just my imagination, or have the icons been getting smaller every year? This is the winners icon from 2002:

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:38 pm    

Friday, October 01, 2004

Free Parking!

Yes! This is one of those perks of driving a hybrid car that I plan to take advantage of!

Starting today, drivers of hybrid cars do not have to plug the meters in the City of Los Angeles.

The pilot program will last six months and will then be re-evaluated.

Link via LAist.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:40 pm    

LA Insight - Week 8

LA Blogs’ topic this week is about live music. Not really something I am well versed in (hee!), but I figure they way that I’m not able to answer these questions tells you as much about me it would if I had opinions.

We Will Rock You

1. What’s the best venue in Los Angeles for live music, and why?

I’ve only seen two live music events in Los Angeles, the most recent was at the Hollywood Bowl back in July. I’m not sure I can properly evaluate the LA music scene based on such sketchy experience.

2. What’s the worst?

I have to say, the Hollywood Bowl did not impress me. Well, actually, the venue itself is great, I didn’t care much for the patrons. It was KCRW’s electronica world music show and for some reason folks seemed to think that if there were no lyrics, it wasn’t the music that we paid to hear, and plenty of people were talking. Loudly. Or on the phone.

3. Where do you go most often to catch a gig, and how often?

I don’t.

4. What L.A. band, DJ or performer would you walk over burning hot coals to hear?

I wouldn’t. I would like to see Gomez someday. I hope they come to the Bowl.

5. What’s that playing on your MP3 player/car stereo, home audio system or tinny computer speakers right now?

In the car I have Alan Parsons Project’s Ammonia Avenue. On the playlist on the computer at this very moment I’ve got a mix, which is mostly Gomez.

6. Who’s the most overrated musical act in Los Angeles?

I haven’t a clue.

7. Who’s the most brilliant?

Again, not a clue on this one.

8. Who are the three greatest Los Angeles bands/DJs/musicians of the past 50 years - and why?

I really don’t keep track of where a band is from. For all I know, I listen to lots of local music. Or maybe I don’t even listen to anything from the States.

Eight was enough on that front. I suppose if I’m going to complain about the questions, I should come up with some of my own.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:55 am    

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During November it's all about me writing a novel. Sometimes it's about whalewatching. You know, and then there's other stuff.