On The Move: Update
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1257 hrs
Well, I hit my first major speed bump regarding the server switch. When I set everything up on the old server, I set alifelessordinary.com as the "master" domain on the account. On the same server as ALLO, I host another site. I realised that if ALLO is no longer on this server, I won't be able to administer the other site (I confirmed this with the hosting company). So I'm going to have to move the other site along with this one.
I can almost certainly guarantee that the move won't happen until next week (although there is still a chance, I suppose).
See, this is why it's important to check and double check everything before you make any big commitments.
New entries and comments will be saved right before the switch, so if you have something to say, say it now.
On The Move
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0903 hrs
It's time to switch to the new server. I've been putting this off for months because of the wedding, but now that it's over, I really need to get this done before I put it off again.
The update will happen in two parts. Part one entails moving to a new server. That means updating DNS entries and re-installing MovableType, which means downtime. It sucks, but the new server will be both less expensive and more accommodating, so it's definitely worth the trouble.
Part two involves updating the look of the site. While I don't actually have a template ready to go, I have a pretty good idea of how I want it to look. It won't be too terribly different, but it will have some fun changes that I've been wanting to add for quite some time. The plan is to launch the new look in January 2007.
As soon as I write this, I'm going to perform a backup of all of the files. As soon as that's done, I will sort through the files to determine what needs to make the move (there are probably a handful of obsolete files that I don't need cluttering up the new server). After I upload all of the new files, I will backup the blog database for the last time prior to the move.
After I backup the database, I'll upload a placeholder index file so that you know the site is down. Before the DNS propagates, permalinks will still work, but comments will not be saved. After the DNS propagates, permalinks will not work until I can get MovableType up and running and import the old database. Once everything is back up to speed, I'll replace the placeholder index file with the regular index file and everything will once again be back to normal.
In theory, you won't notice anything different except that the site will be down for a couple of days (assuming everything goes smoothly, it should only be a couple of days).
So when will this downtime begin? It could be in a few hours, it could be a few days. It all depends on how long it takes me to get ready to make the switch. I want to have all of the pieces in place before I take the site down so that it's down for the least amount of time possible (unfortunately, a lot of the downtime is out of my control. When I update the DNS numbers, I'll have to wait for them to propagate. The process can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days and there's nothing I can do to speed it up). Ideally I'll have the site back up before Friday. If not, I'll post a special interim Friday Funday (that's how much I love you guys).
See you on the other server!
Friday Funday CXXII
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 2102 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet.
Greg Williams [del.icio.us]
Artist Greg Williams visits various Wikipedia entries, then creates funny comics that illustrate them.
Embarassing Moments on TV News [del.icio.us]
Live television isn't always this funny, so it's a good thing someone rounded up a bunch of great clips.
Light to Unite [del.icio.us]
For every virtual candle lit on this site, Bristol-Myers Squibb pledges to donote $1 up to $100,000 to the National AIDS fund. There's no registration and it's totally free. At the time of this post, almost 52,000 people have lit candles.
AXIS Network Cameras [del.icio.us]
Not all of these links will work, but many of them will. They're AXIS networked webcams that haven't been password protected. Some of them even have controls! For example, this webcam in Russia (at least, I think it's in Russia). Or this webcam at a construction site. This traffic cam seems to be doing something pretty cool. If only I could figure out what that something is.
Speed Talking [del.icio.us]
Whoa, that's fast.
Registration Required
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0800 hrs
Yesterday, I was reading a bunch of random blogs that I had linked to from various places. Out of the bunch, I wanted to comment on only two of them, but I didn't leave my comments. Why? Because both of the blogs required that I register in order to comment.
Why do that? I mean, yes, it cuts down on spam. Yes, it allows you to moderate comments and only allow approved comments on the site, but even asking for the least amount of info possible (my e-mail address and a password) was enough to put me off altogether.
Regular readers will know that I get a truckload of comment spam (every time I write about comment spam, I seem to get more of it, so prepare for an influx). Lately, I've been getting between two and eight comments a day that are spam. But I don't whine about it (much) and I don't require my readers to register. I simply (and diligently) delete the spam as it comes in. Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I want to point out that I'm not complaining. I could write a little PHP script that would detect most of the spam and simply refuse it, but I'm going to be upgrading to the newest version of MovableType soon (the plan is to do it next month) and I'm interested to see how well the built-in spam filter works (the version I'm using doesn't have one).
The point of all of this was just to wonder aloud what the point of forcing users to register is. I'm much more willing to register if it's a site like Blogger or LiveJournal, because chances are that I'll leave comments on several blogs hosted at those sites (and I do). But why in the world would I bother to register for a site where the registration doesn't apply anywhere else? Especially since I'm not likely to return to the site after I've left my one comment. I could require registration on my site, and it's probable that my regular readers would sign up. But the casual reader wouldn't, and the internet is composed primarily of casual users.
In my mind, it just doesn't make sense, but I'd like to hear what you guys think. Have you run into a situation where a site required registration? Did you bother to register, or did you just leave without commenting?
By the way, happy Thanksgiving!
RIP: Robert Altman
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0956 hrs
Robert Altman died two days ago.
New Windows and Custom Cursors
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0807 hrs
As of late, I have been looking for an elegant solution to warn visitors that a link they're about to click on will open in a new window. It's a constant battle for web designers and there are many schools of thought ranging from changing the colour of the link, to including a little graphic after the link, to not opening new windows at all.
In searching for a good solution, I thought, "it would be nice to have the pointer be slightly different when the user hovered over a link that will open a new window. This way, they'll have some warning." I already knew that CSS has an option to change the cursor, but I was disappointed to learn that the different cursors available are pretty dull (most of them are the resizing cursors). All was not lost, however, as I noticed that it's possible to point to a .cur file and use your own custom cursor. Great, right?
Well, maybe not. After doing more research into the matter, every single web page I happened upon pointed out that this only works in IE. Just as I was about to give up, I stumbled across a page that had a custom cursor and it worked in Firefox! Joy of joys! This morning I tested to make that it wasn't a fluke, and sure enough, it works. So what's the difference?
I think the other articles are just old. That or the authors didn't actually try to replace the cursors, they just re-wrote the work of others, because as of Firefox v1.5, graphical cursors have been available (FF v1.5 went live about a year and a week ago).
I know you're all itching to know how it's done, so here's the code:
.custom_cursor { cursor:url(custom.cur), auto; }
Okay, so what's going on there? Well, the class name can be whatever you want. You could apply this unilaterally to all links by changing ".custom_cursor" to simply, "a". The URL specified is a relative path, but it doesn't have to be (in fact, if you keep your CSS file in its own folder like I do, you'll need to specify the full path). The "auto" at the end is there to ensure that a cursor is displayed at all. This is important because despite the fact that this fantastic little trick works in IE and FF for Windows, it doesn't in Opera and it doesn't work at all for Mac users (at least, not that I've found). Netscape 8.1 for Windows was interesting. When using Firefox page rendering, it didn't work, but when using IE page rendering, it did.
Another cool trick I ran across was this W3C valid trick for using CSS to denote which windows are popups and which aren't. The same cursor restrictions apply.
I should point out that the browsers which failed only failed for custom cursors; that is to say, cursors for which a URL was specified. The default cursors work just fine in Windows and Mac (thanks for testing, Kris! I really need to get my own Mac).
But what about the argument that you shouldn't use popups at all?
Well, it's right. It's a usability/accessibility argument that I've been avoiding addressing for a long time. The argument in favor of using either JavaScript popups or, as I do, target="_blank" popups is typically one of two things: Either to give users a handy way to return to your site (none of that pesky clicking back a bunch of times) or to create a clear line between internal links and external links. On this site, I have been using both excuses (although of late, I've been telling myself it's mostly for the latter reason).
The argument against it is... Well, I won't be able to express it better than was done in an article I read this morning. I will, however, sum up the article (in case you're too lazy to go read it):
1) Users ignore your carefully crafted navigation and use the back button instead. Sorry, but it's true.
2) When you open a new window, the back button "breaks" and that confuses the hell out of 99% of users (even the internet savvy).
3) When users get confused because the back button doesn't work, they often just close all open browser windows and start over from the beginning (which, as Steve Krug would tell you, reduces their reservoir of goodwill). Some users will become frustrated enough that they leave (and may not return).
4) There is no elegant solution.
5) Don't open new windows.
So there you have it. It's something that I've known for a long time and continued to do. I'm a little ashamed of it (but not as ashamed of the fact that my site's font of choice is Times New Roman). As of this post, I will stop opening external links in new windows (except for on Friday Funday entries, as I believe opening new windows is well suited to the nature of those posts). I'm not going to go back into the archives and remove the targets from links. Well, not yet, anyway.
I'd like to hear feedback from users about this. Have you had any particularly good or bad experiences with new windows (and I don't mean advertising popups, I know you hate those)? Are you in favor of my decision to stop opening external links in new windows?
Friday Funday CXXI
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0901 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet.
Shopping Penguin [del.icio.us]
This would be such a cool pet to have. I love how it just walks down to the market on its own.
Amplitude [del.icio.us]
Oh sure, this game seems easy at first, but then you get to some pretty tricky levels...
Borat: The Back Story [del.icio.us]
Everyone seems to think that Borat is the funniest movie evar. I haven't seen it yet, so I can't comment. One thing I have wondered is how they get people to agree to being filmed. The simple answer is that they lie to people. Here's a first-hand account from "Vanilla Face", who is none-too-pleased with the filmmakers.
Stanford Prison Experiment [del.icio.us]
You've most likely heard about the Stanford Prison Experiment, now you can find out exactly what happened. The into it pretty cheesy, but the rest of the video is fascinating.
Bagger 288 [del.icio.us]
After the Large Hadron Collider, this is (apparently) the biggest machine in the world. And it looks freakin' awesome! Can't you just imagine a steampunk battlefield with this thing on it?
Entertainment News
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1303 hrs
Following up on yesterday's post about Britney divorcing Fed-Ex, when did entertainment news become legitimate news?
Actually, I guess the question should be when did television news stations start focusing on infotainment?
Perhaps Hearst's particular brand of yellow journalism never really disappeared, although journalism has been accused of sensationalism since the 1790s. Heck, even Pulitzer himself was slipping "infotainment" into the New York World back in the 1880s (although after the Spanish-American war, he turned his paper around and by 1911, the New York World was widely respected).
Another nasty habit is what's known as corporate media. Some particularly sneaky tactics are used, such as video press releases. These are videos that are shot in a journalistic style that makes them look like just like news stories and which are meant for use by news stations. Do you think a fair image of the company is being presented? How one-sided do you think that "news story" will be?
Most unfortunate, though, is the general apathy that news stations seem to have for hard news! On Monday, the local news stations spent the whole today reporting on WIND STORM '06! Okay, okay, they didn't actually call it Wind Storm '06 (at least, not that I'm aware of), but they do like to name storm seasons. I've heard of both Ice Storm (usually in reference to the 1996 ice storm where Phoenix was almost killed by his roommate) and the seemingly-annual Fire Storm.
There is =TEAM COVERAGE= of the weather. THE WEATHER! They send three people out on remotes all over town to find out what? That it's snowing where they are? Can't the weather guy figure that out from his desk?
Ten feet of snow overnight? That's newsworthy. A fifty car pile-up because of the weather? Report away! But honestly, wind?
To be fair, twelve thousand homes were without power and several trees crushed people's cars and homes. The power outage seems like something worthy of reporting, except that the people who need to know about the most can't turn on their TVs. Trees falling on stuff seems like the kind of thing that's more of a mention than an all-day breaking news event.
Have you ever watched the BBC World News? They don't report on Britney and Fed-Ex, they report on things that happen in other parts of the world. Why is a fallen tree more news worthy than Sudan invading Chad? How is wind more important than the U.S. soldier who admitted raping a 14 year old girl? That's not to say that BBC World News is perfect, but, in my opinion, they're on the right track.
And if any anchors or weather people are reading this, please stop trying to make jokes and be clever. We're aren't laughing with you, we're laughing at you.
Britney and K-Fed (Now Fed-Ex)
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1433 hrs
It was bound to happen.
Britney Spears divorcing Kevin Federline, I mean, not a Britney sex tape (although that was bound to happen as well, wasn't it?).
Has Britney finally come to her senses? It would seem so, although the inciting incident for the divorce is allegedly that she caught him cheating on her. There has been much speculation in the past that Federline was less than faithful, and now it would appear as though he's been caught red-handed.
Naturally, Britney called the marriage quits (by text-message, no less), but Federline isn't going down without a fight. He wants custody of their two kids and reportedly over $30 million, otherwise he'll
sell a sex tape that the two of them made back when, "they did nothing all day but have sex—and play the odd game of chess."
Now doesn't this seem like... Wait, what? Play chess? WTF?
I hope by the odd game of chess, the mean the odd game of chess.
Anyway, doesn't this seem like blackmail? Isn't blackmail illegal? I'm kind of confused about all of this. Federline has been offered £26 million for the four-hour tape, but is demanding £16 million and sole custody of their kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James. This is public information and everyone is reporting it. So why hasn't Federline gotten in trouble for it?
It seems like mostly because there's a fair bit of speculation that the tape doesn't exist. But considering previous Britney-related sex tape scares, I'm inclined to believe that at least one tape exists. Plus, you'd think she would have known if they made the tape, so if it didn't exist, why hasn't she made a statement to that effect?
At any rate, it's doubtful that a judge would grant Federline sole custody. Not only does he not want his other two kids, but accusations of prostitutes and drugs aside, his recent behavior isn't helping his case as father of the year.
You know what? I think Justin Timberlake has the right idea about this whole saga. As he put it, "There's a war going on in Iraq."
First Amendment Right, or Libel?
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1107 hrs
I just received an e-mail stating some concern that what I said about Shannon Sullivan could earn me a lawsuit. The sender of the e-mail (I'll keep their identity to myself) said, "Its [sic] great to express your opinion but I dont [sic] think it is worth getting in trouble over."
I disagree. I think the right to state one's opinion is worth any fight.
Except for fighting words (which are difficult to define) and statements that are libelous or slanderous, pretty much anything you say is protected under the First Amendment.
Libel and slander are similar, but not exactly the same. Libel is defined as, "defamation of a person by written or representational means," whereas slander is, "a false and defamatory oral statement about a person." An umbrella term for both is "defamation."
As per New York Times vs. Sullivan (lol), "the court held that where a public figure was defamed, the plaintiff had to prove not just that an untruthful statement was made, but also that it was made with actual malice - that is, that it was made knowing it to be false or with reckless disregard for the truth." [SOURCE]
Is my statement false? How do you prove an opinion to be true or false? The short answer is that you can't. In fact, if a "person makes a statement of opinion rather than a statement of fact, defamation claims usually cannot be brought because opinions are inherently not falsifiable." [SOURCE]
If she did try to sue me, she wouldn't have much of a case.
1) It's an opinion, not a fact. I'll concede that, in the context of the rest of the post, it could appear as though I'm stating a fact. I am not. I am stating my opinion and I refuse to shy away from what I said.
2) In order to actually sue me, she would have to prove both malicious intent as well as actual damages. Considering very few people read my blog (let's call a spade a spade, right?) and most of the people who do read my blog don't live in Spokane, will never meet Sullivan, or already agree with me, she'd be hard-pressed to prove any damages.
I also want to point out that when I originally wrote the statement, I deleted it, then chose to add it back in. I decided to do this because, and I cannot stress this enough, it is my opinion of her and I felt it helped to express my frustration with her actions and the actions of the citizens of Spokane. So the statement is not a careless assault on her character, but one that I carefully considered before I posted it.
At best, she could argue that "white-trash bitch" are fighting words, and beat me up, but she'd have to do it herself, and when I sue her for assault, she'd have to prove that they really are fighting words.
Mayor West on FRONTLINE
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0804 hrs
Tomorrow (14 November), FRONTLINE will air a report on the Mayor West scandal.
In the past, I did poke fun at the incident, but the simple fact of the matter is that Mayor West got screwed by the local newspaper (read: Cowles family), by the people of Spokane, and in particular, by a white-trash bitch named Shannon Sullivan.
What pissed me off about the entire thing is that West wasn't ousted for breaking the law (the FBI didn't find any evidence that would warrant criminal charges). The people of Spokane got rid of him for being gay. What the hell happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Anyway, I just wanted to mention the FRONTLINE piece.
Friday Funday CXX
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0828 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet.
Wow, I totally spaced this on Friday. Sorry for the delay!
Totem [del.icio.us]
This game is weird. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on and what I was supposed to do. I'll let you enjoy that as well.
Katamari Damacy [del.icio.us]
This game, like Totem, is hard to play without a proper mouse. I played both of them on my laptop, which has a touchpad. Kinda tricky.
"Hello World" Programs [del.icio.us]
A funny look at how programmers of different skill levels would (hypothetically) write "Hello, World" programs. On a related note, the popular name "Hello World" is grammatically incorrect, and should actually be written, "Hello, World".
Kiwi! [del.icio.us]
A funny, if somewhat sad, video about a kiwi who yearns for flight.
Knitemare: Cats [del.icio.us]
A gallery (sort of) of photos of cats that incorporate various internet memes, including one that I just learned existed. Why didn't I know about this meme until just now?
Nazis Democrats Seize Day
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0831 hrs
Of all the things I have in my head about which to blog, I chose this one because it's fairly topical and it made me laugh. It also shows how skewed the local newspaper is.
This is the cover of yesterday's Spokesman Review. The headline proudly proclaims, "Democrats Seize Day", which explains why they have a giant picture of a Republican and a tiny picture of a Democrat looking like she's hailing Hitler.
WTF?
A Cynophobic Nightmare
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 0734 hrs
Holy shit.
I just got to work and I'm all shaken up from the walk.
As I've mentioned in the past, I'm cynophobic (afraid of dogs). When I walk to work, I walk on the wrong side of the road because one house. At this house live two dogs. I don't mean a couple of cute little Pomeranians. These are those mean-looking dogs, and they scare the shit out of me. Whenever I walk by, they bark, even if they're indoors. Usually they're both on leashes, but from time to time, when the owner is outside with them, one of them will be off of its leash. As a side note, the dog house has about half a dozen cars in the front yard. Most of the cars have tall weeds growing around them, and I've only ever seen the owner drive two of the cars. Make of that what you will.
Across from the dog house is an ugly log cabin (they painted all of the logs, so it lost a lot of the classic log cabin charm). The people who live there have at least one cat and possibly a dog (I honestly can't tell. Sometimes there's a dog tied up around back that barks at me when I walk by, but I usually don't see it). Why are these people important?
This morning, one of the mean-looking dogs trotted out from behind the log cabin! It wasn't on a leash and I didn't see the owner around anywhere. It headed for me, so I tried not to make eye-contact with it (I've heard that can signal a challenge, which can make mean dogs even more aggressive). My heart leaped up into my throat and my chest tightened up. I could feel a wave of anxiety and fear flow through my body. I quickened my pace and hoped that the dog would just leave me alone if I kept ignoring it.
When it started to get really close, I turned and looked at it, which made it stop in its tracks. I quickly turned and walked away, but I could hear it following me. I tried to remain calm, lest I show the beast my fear.
It barked.
It let out one, single bark. It wasn't terribly loud or, to be honest, much of a surprise, but I jumped out of my skin (I don't know if I actually jumped or not, but I'm sure I probably did). I was nearly paralyzed with fear.
The barked; not just once, this time, but again and again. I kept trying to turn my head and see where it was. It sounded like it was getting closer, but I couldn't tell. Paranoid fantasies of the dog attacking me began to run through my mind. Self defense tactics quickly followed and I resolved to attack the dog if it got much closer.
In my cynophobic mind, the best way to defend yourself from an attacking dog is to kill it. I don't care if it's someone's pet, I'm not going to let it harm me.
My salvation came in the form of the owner, who must have heard the barking. He came outside and called to the dog (whose name is "Sarge"; a name that doesn't make me feel any better about it). The dog reluctantly obeyed (thank goodness!) and I was free.
I wanted to turn around and give the guy a piece of my mind. I wanted to call the police and complain about him letting his dog wander around on other peoples' property and terrorize innocent civilians. But most of all, I just wanted to get the hell away from there.
Even now, over thirty minutes later, I'm still upset. There's a lump in my throat and my chest still feels tight (not heart attack tight, just... Tight).
I really need to get a car.
Cultural Learnings
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1738 hrs
Alright. I'm sick of people pronouncing the name Borat incorrectly. At first it didn't bother me much, but now that the Borat movie is, well, kicking so much ass, everyone is talking about it and everyone is pronouncing the name incorrectly. It's irritating, because it's so easy to pronounce properly. Let's take a look:
The common (and incorrect) pronunciation is "bo" as in Bo Derrick and "rat" as in sewer rat. Bo-rat. Considering that's how the name is spelled, it's not a real surprise that people are screwing it up.
However, if you listen to how Sascha Baron Cohen (the guy who plays Borat) pronounces the name, it's "bo" as in Bo Derrick and "rot" as in link rot. Bo-rot.
It's not hard, so get it right, media!
My Hawaiian Wedding - Part 1
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1249 hrs
I finally finished the outline of our trip to Hawaii, wedding, and honeymoon. I could write it all as one entry, but then you'd have to wait even longer to read the story, and it would be longer post ever in the history of blogging. As they stand, all of the posts will be fairly long.
This first part is all about everything leading up to our arrival in Hawaii (yes, enough happened before we even got to Hawaii that it warrants its own post). Our story begins in Seattle.
What? I know, I know, we live in Spokane.
Fine, our story begins in Spokane. We drove over to Seattle. Happy?
Okay, so now that we're in Seattle, we met up with Kris, Lindy, and Morah's sister, Brynna. Aaron (a friend from film school) now works at the Mac Store with Kris, so he came with us. We all went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant in a really dodgy part of town. I think Kris said we were in the U-District. All I know is, there were a lot of scary people walking around. There was one shifty guy who was walking around with his dog. The dog wasn't on a leash, which was making me nervous (I'm moderately cynophobic). However, the dog was extremely well trained and obeyed every garbled command the owner barked.
Once we got into the restaurant, we enjoyed a fantastic meal, complete with mango lassis. While we were eating, this weird guy kept walking back and forth in front of the building. He would walk one way, then, a few minutes later, he'd walk the other way. At one point, Brynna made eye contact with him. The guy got a huge smile on his face, and every time he passed after that, he would look in at us. When it came time to leave, the guy was still hanging around. He was still making passes at regular intervals, so a few seconds after he walked by, we all filed out, hoping to miss him. Unfortunately, his timing wasn't as reliable as Old Faithful's, and he was already headed back in our direction. We grouped around Brynna and quickly, but calmly, made our way down the street. The guy was behind us and he was saying something unintelligible. Brynna kept trying to look at him (why, Brynna, why?), so I kept telling her not to. Eventually, the guy crossed the street, but continued to follow us. Finally, we rounded a corner and he went the opposite direction.
Part of what made our time in Seattle extra interesting was that Kris and Lindy were trying to fool us, but Morah and I were also trying to fool them. Back when we first invited Kris and Lindy to our wedding, they thought they wouldn't be able to come. Shortly before we were supposed to leave, their situation changed for the better, and they were suddenly able to come. They wanted to surprise us by just showing up in Hawaii, and it would have worked if they hadn't booked with Hawaiian Airlines. They used our Wedding Wings code to get a discount on their tickets, but when they did that, Hawaiian Airlines e-mailed us to let us know. The reason being that if enough people booked using our Wedding Wings code, Morah and I would get bumped up to first class on one of our flights. What really makes it tragic for Kris and Lindy is that we already had already received our upgrade before they booked, so there was no reason for Hawaiian Airlines to let us know about it (although I'm sure it's an automated process).
When Morah and I got the e-mail, we were totally stunned. Kris and Lindy hadn't said anything about coming to the wedding, but here was their flight info. We decided not to mention it, just to wait and see what was going on. Mike and Emily knew about it, and when we told them we knew, Emily was secretly relieved (although they didn't confirm it right away). The four of us stopped by my parents' house where the whole secret came out.
When I mentioned to my mum that we suspected Kris and Lindy were coming, her jaw hit the ground. "How did you find out?" she asked. We explained what had happened, and she confirmed that it was true. Then she came up with the idea of tricking Kris and Lindy into thinking that we had no idea. So when we were in Seattle, it was hard not to tell them how excited we were, but it was kind of fun, knowing that there would be a big surprise and a lot of laughs later on.
Saying good-bye to them after dinner at the Indian restaurant (remember how we're in Seattle?) was difficult. I wanted to ham it up a little, but I didn't want to be suspicious. I had previously thought about how I would react had I not known and attempted to act that out. It seemed to work, but just as I had to wait to find out, so will you (don't worry, the reveal comes later in this post).
So it was off to bed for Morah, Brynna, and I. The three of us shared a hotel room at the SOMEPLACE FUNKY in SeaTac. It wasn't the dodgiest place I had ever slept, but it certainly was shifty. It seemed like there was stuff happening outside all night. In fact, I think there was a party going on at the hotel. The next morning I woke up and felt a little funky. I don't know if it was just that I hadn't slept very well, or if it was because I had eaten Indian food, or both, but my stomach was kind of upset. No matter what it was, eating Indian food the night before a flight is probably not a good idea.
Getting to the airport, through check-in, and through security went smoothly, even with Morah's gigantic wedding dress (seriously, this thing is huge). My family met us at the gate a short while later (they had just flown in from Spokane), and Brynna and I went to find her mum and brother, who had flown in from Lewiston. While we were walking to meet them, we passed a store called Fireworks. It's a cool store (we had shopped in one just the day before in the University Village shopping centre). The store sells all sort of weird art pieces, and the store in the Sea-Tac Airport was no different. One of the things they had for sale there were these metal dog sculptures that were about the size of a large Pomeranian. Metal! With jagged edges and stuff. What the hell? There's no way that the TSA would ever allow those on the plane (although, at this point, we were past security), so what's the point of having them there?
The in-flight movie was The Devil Wears Prada. It's boring and predictable. I guess it could be slightly more interesting if you were really superficial and you cared about designer clothes, but it pretty well bored me. Despite the lousy movie, it was the best flight ever. As part of our fulfillment of the Wedding Wings program, we received four coupons that were good for either free headsets or free liquor. At the beginning of the flight, everyone was given headsets for free (not that it mattered, since Morah and I had adapters that allowed us to use our own headsets), so we opted for free booze. We chose to use all four coupons on this flight because on our next flight, we would be in first class where headsets and liquor are free anyway.
Morah and Brynna each used one coupon and I used the other two (before you accuse me of being unfair, read the rest of the story). Brynna got a beer, Morah got an Irish cream, and I got an Irish cream and a rum. We were handed our tiny liquor, which was pretty cool (and good). It was weird drinking on the plane, as I had never had alcohol on a plane before (then again, I haven't done much flying since I turned twenty-one). For some reason, the flight attending thought it would a good idea to use a can of apple juice to open Brynna's beer (I guess he couldn't find the bottle opener). In attempting to open the beer, he accidentally pierced the can of apple juice, causing it to squirt all over Morah's face (not a bath, but not just a few drops, either). He apologised, but a while later, he came back with a second beer (already opened) and a cup full of more Irish cream. He apologised again and told them the free booze was to make up for it. I was pretty impressed, because one of the tiny Irish creams only fills about half of the cup, so Morah actually ended up getting three drinks! All I can say is, it truly was a good flight. It even felt really short, which is nice, because flying to Hawaii is boring (hell, traveling anywhere for five hours with nothing to do but sit is boring. For example, driving between Spokane and Seattle on our way to the airport was boring).
I guess I should leave it there for now; this post is already pretty long. In the next post I'll tell you about how our first hour in Honolulu almost spelled tragedy for the wedding (and for everyone who already knows, please don't spoil the surprise!). I'll also tell you about the kick-ass beach house that we stayed in, as well as some of our pre-wedding antics.
Friday Funday CXIX
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1053 hrs
Friday Funday brings you some fun and interesting links from my travels around the internet.
Turbocharged Penguins [del.icio.us]
They're penguins. They're turbocharged. What more do you need to know? This one's for you, Emily.
Miracles You'll See In The Next Fifty Years [del.icio.us]
Back in Friday Funday CXV, I posted a song called 1999, which expounded some of the changes we would see in science, technology, and society by the year 1999. This Popular Mechanics article from 1950 does a pretty lousy job of predicting the future, but it sure is good for a laugh. Did people actually believe this stuff?
Kings of MySpace [del.icio.us]
I hate MySpace and I'm not too keen on crappy amateur video productions (especially bad music videos for crappy, home-brewed rap songs), but this one made me laugh.
The Year 2038 Bug [del.icio.us]
For fuck's sake. You'd think we would have learned from the Y2K bug! I was actually wondering about this back when I first started learning PHP.
How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot in Any Programming Language [del.icio.us]
Speaking of programming languages, this made me laugh.
NaNoWriMo Begins Again
Posted by Thomas J. Brown at 1958 hrs
Today marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month, and with it comes the first day of NaNoWriMo 2006. I have decided to participate again this year, despite having much less time available than in previous years. You'd think I could get some writing done on the first day, but that's sadly not the case.
I'll try to keep you updated on my NaNo progress. This is my third year and I almost decided not to participate, but I really enjoy writing, so despite my tight schedule, I'll be writing. A lot.
I'll not let my blog suffer, however. Competing for writing time are the four =HUGE= posts I'm writing about my time in Hawaii. The outline is finished and I'm working on the first entry right now. There's so much to write about that it's going to take me a while. I may have to break the entries up even further just to get them posted in a timely manner.
I guess I had better go write something.
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