GRABBINGSAND

i just upgraded the movable type backend to my site from 2.51 to 2.64. did you notice? no? good. then it worked. carry on with your day as if nothing happen’d. thank you.

there will be an investigative news segment tonight on this local television station about this fellow and something that happen’d after this event. what do i know about it? nothing. i was just eating my breakfast this morning and saw the promo on the television. but i’ll be tuning in at 6pm, so feel free to comment if you see the piece.

and if you’re not local, it is probably not all that interesting in the big scheme of things….

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the trailer for that other holiday movie you’ve been waiting for? it’s right over here. and over here, as well.

i’ve turned off anonymous comments. why? well, it appears that somebody or something is trolling through random weblogs around the globe and leaving advertisements disquised as commentary. advertisements for what? well, the one i found this morning was promoting the availability of cheap weight loss drugs from denmark…

the new theatrical trailer for matrix revolutions was released this morning. you can either watch it, putting your current explanations and persistent suspicions to the test, or you can ignore it and wait patiently until november fifth. the choice is yours.

(i watched. i was right. mostly. but then… this is only a trailer.)

i’ve started contributing to an atlanta-based magazine called jive. my first review is of over the rhine’s latest album, ohio. you can find it over here. as far as reviews go, or at least reviews i’ve done, it’s not bad. i think i could have done better, but i kept finding myself stuck in a pile of writer’s blocks, little legos of delay and slowness. must be the change of seasons or this pseudo-cold that’s been clouding my head or perhaps an increasing amount of work in my work. oh, well… i review, you decide.

other news… in october, we’ll be heading up to charlotte to hear neil gaiman speak at the blumenthal performing arts center. he is a guest of this year’s novello reading festival . now i’ve been a neil fan for over ten years, so getting to hear him talk about his work is pretty damned cool, but do you know what could be much cooler? do you? i’ll tell you.

the kickass editors at jive have made the arrangements to sit me down with the dream king himself for an interview.

it goes without saying that i’m a bit stunned by this turn of fortune, so i need your help. i’ve got a handful or three of questions for neil, but if you’re a fan yourself and you have always wanted to know this or that, then comment with your own questions and i’ll see what i can find out.

this is nothing, really. not even worthy of mentioning, other than to give a minor heads-up to the handful of itunes users out there who hadn’t noticed something. you know how apple is having a field day with their online music store? well, the tracks you buy online don’t come down the pipe as mp3s. instead, they’re mpeg-4 files (also known as aac-encoded). they sound just like an mp3 and take up about as much room. great.

but did you realize that the import (aka cd-ripping) function in itunes defaults your imported tracks to mpeg-4 format? this might not mean much if you’re just going to stick to listening in itunes or on an ipod, but a lot of third party audio editing proggies and cd-burning apps don’t know an mpeg-4 from a mango. sure, you can change it to mp3, but it seems a little sneaky that it assumes you’ll want the newer, less flexible option.

with the introduction of wesley clark into the democratic arena, the task of keeping track of the various candidates has become even more difficult. ten candidates, all of them vying for one nomination and they all want your attention.

so i’m here to make this whole process easier for you. if you want to keep track of the big ten, then i suggest you bookmark this page:
grabbingsand democratic candidate tracker 2003-2004 click on the page, then click on a head and read what’s going on in their campaign while keeping the other nine right at your fingertips at the top of the page.

you can either thank me now, or thank yourself next november.

(hey… just noticed this was my 500th post. cool.)

and a puny human at that. see?

warren ellis (mentioned earlier) wants to see all of us puny humans. even you.

it started in my own backyard. was i ten? maybe i was nine. i’d taken swimming lessons and a little gymnastics — mom and dad were all about the development of my coordination — but i never was one to go out for baseball or football. my lack of athletic evidence is probably what led to me getting into a fight in my own back yard. you see, i was walking home from school as i did everyday — you could see the swings and slide from our kitchen window — and jeff _____ and his friends decided to fill the office of bridge troll. standing between me and home was the smallish creek that bordered the playground, so i took the low road and stepping stoned my way across. not a group to be thwarted, jeff and company decided to spit in my direction. i didn’t look up, i kept going, but somewhere around the creekbank i let slip with an uncharacteristic (at the time) “stupid jackass.”

or maybe i said “jackhole” … my curse-fu was very weak in those days.

“what did you call me?” jeff was mad now.
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