Archives for September 2002
When the crime scene investigators arrived... (September 30, 2002) When the crime-scene investigors arrived, it was like a real-life TV show. Just like on the show there was a man and a woman. They had a certain banter going between them. They had boxes within boxes of powders, tapes,...
Forty-eight hours later (September 30, 2002) I left for Simon and Adele's wedding on Saturday morning, and had a quite extraordinary time. I'm not going to go into too many details, except to say that it was the first part-goth wedding I'd been to, and I...
I was in bed when they broke in... (September 28, 2002) [This post was written on Saturday 28th September 2002 in a notepad on a train to Huntingdon, following the break-in at my flat in London, and transcribed onto plasticbag.org the following afternoon.] It's not been an easy week. I suppose...
Trawling through the archives... (September 27, 2002) I spent a little time trawling through plasticbag.org's archive this morning, and came upon this post, which I think has to be one of the best things I've ever written: Time and need are connected in some strange extravagant way...
In which Tom's subconscious reveals him to be going insane... (September 27, 2002) I was woken by a tiny trollish man this morning, regailing me with stories of how his 'cubby hole' was flooded by something emerging from my flat. I stood there dressed in nothing but a towel on with my head...
101 interesting facts about bruises... (September 26, 2002) I've got a huge black bruise on my leg. It's the size and colour of an over-ripe plum. I don't know where it came from. In fact all I do know is that I didn't get it through doing anything...
The Guardian's Best British Blog award is announced... (September 26, 2002) ...and the winner is ScaryDuck. For those of you who came in late, the Guardian have finally announced the winners of the Best British Blog competition. Congratulations to everyone who was shortlisted - particularly the winner Scary Duck and my...
And a full eight hours after I started the coding, plasticbag.org's redesign is... incomplete (September 26, 2002) As those of you who aren't reading this site through the medium of NetNewsWire have probably already noticed, plasticbag.org has gone through a bit of a redesign. This one, for perhaps obvious reasons, is called kottkesque and is pure CSS...
Buffy returns to television. Americans don't realise how lucky they are... (September 25, 2002) So Buffy returns with its seventh, and potentially last, series. And as usual Americans will see it now, people with cable or satellite in the UK will see it in January, and the rest of us will have to wait...
On reading the British Government Dossier on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction... (September 24, 2002) I hereby declare my intention to read through the British Government's much promised dossier on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, which is freely available from a number of different governmental and non-governmental sites. [Download the PDF (428kb)] This document is...
Paralysed by choice... (September 23, 2002) Today the new Beck album was released. It had multiple covers. But which one to buy? Which is the right one? Which is the authentic cover and which are knock-offs? Which one expresses my desire for authenticiy most effectively? Which...
If this truly is the future of Google news, then the project I've been trying to persuade people to undertake for the last six - eight months is dead. (September 22, 2002) According to Google Blog there's potentially a new front-page emerging for Google News. The current page can be viewed at news.google.com, and its apparent replacement is here. To be honest, this news doesn't fill me with the love and happiness...
There are three asides to every story... Being the worst post ever on plasticbag.org... (September 21, 2002) Matt Webb never links to weblogs. Ever. Except when they're talking about some ludicrously complicated piece of where-RSS-will-be-in-20-years-ery, or something ludicrous-mac-rumour-with-a-utopian-edge-ish. He certainly never links to any funny weblogs. That, it seems, would miss the point. Aside (1) on the...
My favourite search request in a very long time is... (September 21, 2002) Today's top classy search that led to the door of plasticbag.org: What to do in London when you have a bored girlfriend that doesn't know what she wants to do......
Speedtouch USB release driver 2.0 for OSX.x (September 20, 2002) Apparently I turn up quite high in the search results for grumpy users of Alcatel's Speedtouch USB ADSL modem. That would probably explain why, when they released a new version (2.0) of the driver for MacOSX (where previous drivers have...
ONE: A very short Space Odyssey... (September 19, 2002) "What's the problem, HAL?" "I think you know the problem, Dave. I've gone nuts." Micro-linkage saves lives. Remember that. And this mighty micro-linkage comes from the massive mouth of the Minor 9th. From monkey bone to lunatic space computer, you...
I'm the only gay eskimo in my tribe... (September 19, 2002) You'll laugh, I know. You'll think it's funny. You won't understand the true pain behind such a song. The longing, the pain. I may die. Hang on a minute, I need a lie-down. Oh that's better. So sing along with...
Skies, sites, time and boredom... (September 19, 2002) I wonder - if weeks pass when you can't think of anything to write on your site, if you have months where the most pleasant thing you can imagine is looking at the sky, if you're vaguely content, but time...
Nokia brands warchalkers "Thieves"... (September 19, 2002) So Nokia have declared the practice of warchalking to be a "simply stealing" according to an article at the BBC: Wireless hitchhikers branded as thieves. I'm beginning to feel quite a lot of sympathy for Matt Jones on this one...
False alarm! Weblog competition winners announced this time next week... (September 19, 2002) A brief thanks to the crew at onlineblog for letting me know that the Guardian Best British Blog Award is to be announced this time next week......
NetNewsWire Pro Features Announced... (September 19, 2002) Mac-users and weblog enthusiasts have generally been pretty stunned by how neat and useful NetNewsWire Lite is at keeping them up to date with what's going on around the web. It's like a combined update list and weblog reader that...
Oh god - not more books on bloody weblogging... (September 18, 2002) First we had The Weblog Handbook , then We've Got Blog , then We Blog (all of which I've read or am reading). Then there's the O'Reilly Essential Blogging, which I haven't read yet - and now Blogging by Biz...
It's showbiz wedding time at weblog central... (September 18, 2002) "And it's finally official: Meg and Paul are getting married! This is of course genius news about two friends of mine that I think are wonderful and totally adore. It's enough to inspire you with hope and cheery feelings way...
Is iCal a forward-thinking blogtool for meatspace? (September 18, 2002) So last night, while as glued to Forever Young as you legitimately can be, I had a long involved AIM-conversation with Ian Betteridge about whether or not iCal is a meatspace blogging tool. His argument was that the sharing of...
Are weblogs and webloggers sexist and homophobic? I say, no! (September 17, 2002) So the question of the moment is Are Weblogs Sexist? It's a stunningly weird thing to argue for such a medium - where anyone can have their say and link to whatever and whomever they wish. But I suppose it's...
Do you want to know what it's like coming out? (September 16, 2002) I don't know if this is going to have the same impact for people who haven't gone through it, or worried about going through it, as it has for those of us who have. But if you want a fairly...
Daypop remains down, culture-whores and link-vultures everywhere turn to Blogdex for solace... (September 16, 2002) Odd link of the day - Daypop is out of action at the moment - it turns out it was out of disk space. But while it's being fixed, it turns out you can visit the archives to find out...
Google doesn't jump to the pertinent anchor on a page... I wonder why not... (September 16, 2002) Less than a rant, more than a query - today I'm interested in the way Google handles links to pages which contain internal anchors. For example, if you do a search for 'Greg Dyke' on my Atomz powered search facility,...
Meanwhile, it looks like everything didn't go as well for Bart as he'd hoped... (September 15, 2002) And while people tell me that there's still some battles on B3ta's mailing list about my post the other day, across the Atlantic a young gay man who's had enough trouble in his life already is now having to deal...
Best British Weblog... An update... (September 15, 2002) So it's four days until the winner of the Guardian's Best British Weblog is to be announced and interesting new facts are emerging about how it's being conducted and the attitude of (at least one of) the judges. Via Quinquireme...
My brush with a Pop Idol... (September 15, 2002) This couldn't happen in America. Not where they have proper pop-stars who live the lifestyle - wandering between parties and premieres with coke, drink and sexual fluids oozing from their noses. Americans know how to do things properly when it...
Blo.gs (September 14, 2002) It's been around for a while, but I've never really commented upon it. Blo.gs sems to take over where weblogs.com left off a while ago. You can visit random sites, browse blogs and most importantly track your favourites. The site...
Barty Trabaca comes out to his parents... And I was there when the letter arrived... (September 14, 2002) And just to show that good things happen as well, and that being an unruly poof isn't entirely about stropping around the place causing fights - Bart from Trabaca has had the best news. He decided to come out to...
One final additional comment about B3ta... (September 14, 2002) Following on from yesterday's rant about B3ta, I just want to add that I didn't make this post to the b3ta board (they managed to spell Barbelith wrong for a start) but that the responses from some of the board's...
On B3ta, homophobia and teen suicide (September 13, 2002) The post below may be edited through the day. I have written it in a blaze of fury and irritation, and the language, grammar and spelling has suffered as a consequence. What the fuck is going on with B3ta? Each...
Steve Jobs IS Agent Triple (OS) X... (September 12, 2002) Steve Jobs stars as Xander "Triple (OS) X" Cage, the notorious underground thrill seeker and computer visionary who until now has been deemed grumpy by the press... Download the full wallpaper today!...
Meme Overload... (September 12, 2002) No! I am Spartacus... Addendum: Don't buy this album. I have no idea whether or not it is good or not. But the challenge went out and I had to rise to it....
Over a year after the web goes wild, popbitch catches up... (September 12, 2002) I feel absolutely unbearably bitchy for doing this, but really... A full year after the web goes wild for it, popbitch's latest newsletter catches up with the faked moonlanding site......
Here's something wonderful for September 12th... (September 12, 2002) Dorian, the guy I work next to at an UnnamedMediaService is having a baby! He didn't tell anyone for ages, and then he kind of mentioned it surreptitiously over AIM. When I turned over to look at him, he had...
Hello Kitty 40,000 (September 12, 2002) While working (playing) with a new template for a site that I work on - designing, in fact, a complete "Hello Kitty" skin for it if I'm forced to be honest - I stumbled upon one of the most glorious...
It's difficult to know what to say today... (September 11, 2002) Half a world away from Ground Zero, London is on alert today - worried about whether we might be the targets of some kind of commemorative attack. But these are exaggerated fears. Alerted security forces probably make this the safest...
Rejoice, ye users of OSX.2! For the great iCal cometh! (September 10, 2002) While it's downloading, I have a few scant moments to say to the world - rejoice! For the iCal cometh...!...
In the Navy! (September 9, 2002) So anyway the story is short and lacking in pith. So you're just going to have to go along with it, relish the pictures and move on with your lives. My co-worker Mr Gyford went to Burning Man. He and...
On the strange timeliness of Matt Webb's posts... (September 9, 2002) Anyone looking closely at Haddock Blogs might have noticed an interesting trend in Matt Webb's recent posting to his site. He seems to post precisely twice a day - at ten in the morning and at three in the afternoon....
"Iraq is mine!", howls insane glove puppet... (September 9, 2002) So at work today someone said that they didn't want the dictator of Iraq replaced with some American glove puppet. But I say it all depends on which particular glove puppet is set to rule in his place. I vote...
Is your site inaccessible to people in China? If not, why not? (September 9, 2002) China has recently been blocking access to a whole variety of sites across the world, including BBC News and Google. Now you can test to see if your site has been blocked. Plasticbag.org remains non-threatening to the culture of China....
So I'm watching the Lost Boys and thinking to myself, "Is it just me or did people look properly hot back then?" (September 8, 2002) It might just be the sexual equivalent of geese imprinting on badgers they're brought up with, but I'm watching the Lost Boys and thinking to myself, "Is it just me or did people look properly hot back then?". Young people...
Is it wrong for a homosexualist to heavily identify with Bruce Springsteen? I think it must be. (September 8, 2002) It's difficult for me to justify my current enthusiasm for Bruce Springsteen. He's hardly the firmest young boyband dominated Gayland, nor is he the current hipster dance music sensation that the digiterati are wolfing down. And he's so entirely unrepresentative...
Not the Best British Blog (part er... thousand) (September 8, 2002) Because the deadline for entries has now passed, I've temporarily dropped the 'Not the Best' box down to the bottom of the page. When the winner is announced, I'll bounce it back up to the top for a few more...
Unable to comment on our own revolution? (September 8, 2002) In which - taking as an example a recent article from Internet Magazine - I make a claim that despite their protestations to the contrary, most mainstream media outlets still don't credit webloggers with the intelligence, integrity or ability to even comment on their own revolution...
On putting on an old suit... (September 7, 2002) There's nothing that reminds you more about the evolving (expanding) nature of your own body like an old suit. I only have one suit - it's a lovely brown/grey number that I got when I first moved to London five...
How gay is Captain Nice? (September 7, 2002) How gay is Captain Nice? He's my hero... (courtesy of TVParty.com)...
Trivia about Bryan Adams (September 7, 2002) Interesting fact: In the summer of 1969, Bryan Adams was precisely nine years old....
Buffy: Once More With Feeling (available on Amazon.com not .co.uk) (September 6, 2002) Very little to say about about this except that you can't get it in the UK yet... Buffy, The Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling....
Guardian "Best British Weblog" closes today (September 6, 2002) Whatever my personal opinions of the prize - the Guardian's "Best British Weblog" prize closes today. Good luck to everyone who entered! I secretly want Matt to win (nobody knows that though - don't spread it around) because I think...
A fascinating piece on the relationship between orality and literacy and journal-writing... (September 6, 2002) "Even in a personal diary addressed to myself I must fictionalize the addressee. Indeed, the diary demands, in a way, the maximum fictionalizing of the utterer and the addressee. Writing is always a kind of imitation talking, and in a...
"That link again, it's Mr Kottke..." (September 6, 2002) Thanks to Neal, Nico, Steve and Grant (among others) for pointing out how useless and inexpert a wannabe web savant I am. The post in which Jason prostitutes himself for a few hundred dollars worth of fine fine Apple product...
Aimee Mann returns (and no one saw fit to tell me about it)... (September 6, 2002) I don't know what's worse - that Aimee Mann should have just released a new album or that no one saw fit to mention it to me. If I wasn't such a crumbling wreck of proto-senility of course, then I'd...
Utterly mercenary Tom wants some fucking cash for all his hard goddam work... (September 5, 2002) I can't find the link or I'd post it. If Jason had a search box it would have been easier to find. But I know that it's true. I know it. I remember it clearly - Jason asking someone to...
No more songs about letters... (September 5, 2002) I bought an album by the Bangles when I as about fifteen in the late eighties, and it had a song on it called "Return Post". And I listened to it again the other day for the first time in...
Five search requests from the last five hours... (September 5, 2002) There are many ways to find a site. These are some of the ways that people found mine in the last few hours... Seeping Sperm football slash How do I stop someone from making my life a living hell and...
Subjective Best British Weblog (after kevan.org) (September 4, 2002) Inspired by kevan.org's comment about the Guardian award: "The whole thing seems dangerously adjacent to a World's Greatest X mug - pointless when presented by a panel of strangers, but quite meaningful and interesting if someone I know is explaining...
On the pronunciation of Ancient Greek... (September 4, 2002) I spent years learning Ancient Greek at University. If challenged I can spout off the first few lines of Euripides' Bacchae (my favourite tragedy) in a deep and rolling voice - a suitable voice for the god Dionysus who speaks...
This is 'not the best' blog in Britain (September 4, 2002) Did you decide not to enter the Guardian's weblog competition? If you didn't, then why not participate in the Not the best project - a small pod list of people who decided not to take part for whatever reason. You...
The "Not the Best Weblog" Project (September 4, 2002) On one side it gives you a chance to say publically and to the most number of people: 'Best British Blog - not for me'. But more positively it also means that everyone gets to meet other people who feel the same way as them. And it might introduce new people to your weblog...
On not entering the Guardian's Weblog Competition... (September 4, 2002) With a little under three days to go until the Guardian's Weblog Competition closes, I'm now looking for British webloggers who didn't enter and aren't planning to do so. If that describes you (for whatever reason), then e-mail me and...
It's September, godammit! Where the hell is my iSync!? Where the arse is my iCal!? (September 3, 2002) Apple have been teasing us too long. I bought OSX.2 and frankly it's lovely (took me a while to adjust, but now I'm in heaven). But what about iCal? What about iSync?! They say they'll be released in September. But...
On the bankrupcy of music (September 3, 2002) In the spirit of the Royksopp video for "Remind Me" comes a new infographically inspired video for a song by Legowelt. As videos become more and more spectacular and sophisticated (Michel Gondry's work being particularly astonishing), I increasingly begin to...
BBC newsfeeds for all! (September 3, 2002) Newsreaders like NetNewsWire - like web browsers - get more and more useful as more resources come online that they can read. Which is why it's such tremendously good news that BBC News has now released a public beta of...
Rip the heads off the puppies, you puppy-hating bastard you... (September 2, 2002) They're pink and they're asking for it and frankly you'll be all too willing to oblige. It doesn't seem to hurt the little bitches either... Pink exploding-head doggies courtesy of Anno....
A murderer's web confessional? (September 2, 2002) A boy who bullies other kids at school gets hit by a car. Under the pretence of helping him, one of his previous victims drags him roughly to the curb, and while 'trying' to get him into the recovery position...
On Nationalism and Masculinity... (September 2, 2002) I started a thread on Barbelith yesterday called Crises of Modern Western Life in which I suggested that the two fundamental crises attacking Western identity at the moment were crises of nationality and crises of mascunlinity: "Both are fundamentally linked...
Notting Hill fucked up my fucking life again... (September 1, 2002) You don't want to watch Notting Hill. You really don't. But it's on television and it's so bloody sticky and although you know it's kind of going to make you want to kill everyone if you catch more than a...
On getting a fake tattoo (September 1, 2002) I went out last night to G.A.Y. ostensibly to see have a dance around and get drunk and watch the Sugababes, except I got a bit depressed and cynical quite early on in the evening and spent a couple of...
I wonder if I have Candida (September 1, 2002) A while ago I went on a low-carbohydrate diet to try and lose some weight. And although the diet itself was borderline impossible to maintain, I did find that my skin cleared up, I stopped farting all the time, my...
On being a 'workshy fop' (September 1, 2002) I'm not one for the constant tracking of page impressions, but I do check my stats every couple of days to find out if anyone's crouched behind an Ice Rink whispering about me behind my back. Once you reach my...
