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February 28, 2005

TV Tome ConQuery

I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way. ~ Franklin P. Adams

I am hopelessly addicted to Firefox ConQuery (Note: if you are not using Firefox, you need to start using it. If you know about it and opt not to use it then you need clinical help).

Anyway the ConQuery extension's Mozdev index provides for most popular search engine-like sites, but TV Tome isn't one of their official listings. I like TV Tome. It's a nice complement to IMDB. Plus the episode-by-episode summaries come in handy.

So, a pal of mine kindly made me a TV Tome src.

Get the SRC file HERE
Get the PNG file HERE

Both of these files should go into your Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins folder.

Props to Molehill just in case he ever decides to blog again.

Inner Geek by Doxy at 02:15 PM | permalink | talkback (0)

February 27, 2005

Join The Fuckin' Club Of Most Of Us

In life, you have to do a lot of things you don't fucking want to do. Many times that's what the fuck life is -- one vile, fucking task after another. ~ Ian McShane as Al Swearengen (via George Putnam)

The new season of Deadwood is going to start soon. There are approximately ten million good reasons to watch this show. I will explain a few of them:

1. The writing and dialog is, hands down, some of the finest that has ever been. I hesitate saying “the best that has ever been in television” because it’s not just that it’s good for TV. It’s amazing writing without the qualifier. And, although a great deal of bru-ha-ha has been made over the constant use of profane expression, it isn’t foulness for foulness’ sake. The profanity is necessary and damn near poetic. It’s a character of the show – much like the mud and dust that constantly cakes and coats the players over the course of their charade.

2. The acting is unmatched. Some of these actors are newcomers, some of them not, but each person delivers their performance with layered complexity. Ian McShane is a brutal villain/not-quite-villain full of woe and vice, and Timothy Olyphant is the sublimely conflicted I-don’t-want-to-be-a-hero who was fucking BORN to wear old west costuming. Powers Boothe portrays an evil cocksucker I would not have thought him capable of from his previous roles, and Brad Dourif and Molly Parker deliver stand-out supporting roles that are quirky, disquieting, deliciously morose and just frickin' flawless.

3. Ricky Jay has a recurring support role and you know any show that has Ricky has GOT to be cool. Ricky even wrote an outstanding episode and you get to see a little slight of hand here and there. Ricky rocks.

4. Luscious, scantily clad women and damn fine men. Two whorehouses are key locations in the show and we get to see a lovely selection of their privy parts. Alongside the ladies are some displays of masculinity that make the Marlboro Man look like a pussy.

5. You don’t need a number five. I could go on and on. Just watch the fucking show already. The first season is out on DVD and the second season starts March 6th. You’ll thank me later.

Note:
1. The Soundtrack is also a-fucking-mazing.

2. There is a Wild West Tech episode that focuses on the real-life Deadwood. It's a nice compliment to the show to contrast the history with the drama.

Blather d'Art by Doxy at 02:11 PM | permalink | talkback (0)

Now, I Don't Want To Get Off On A Rant Here...

The wildness of squirrels is an awesome wildness. ~ Douglas Fairbairn

Meet Foamy and bow down unto his glory.

Mirth by Doxy at 12:43 PM | permalink | talkback (0)

February 26, 2005

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Diary

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double. ~ Toni Morrison

Of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer. ~ Louise Glück

I have issues with people who blog about blogging. Which is a trifle silly, being as blogging is about your life and the activities within that human subset. Naturally, given that blogging is one of those actions, you may, from time to time want to rant/talk/rhapsodize about it. But it gets all space-time-continuum on me. Like standing between two mirrors and looking to the side to glimpse the infinite reincarnations of yourself. A little narcissistic and dizzying.

But it occurs to me that while I'm still tinkering with the style sheet and trying out colors (yes, I picked these colors ON PURPOSE -- some colors were rejected and went away bitter) and agonizing over layout quirks I might want to explain why I am going to maintain both a Diary and a Blog. At least in theory.

Short answer: I'm too stubborn to give up Diary. Long answer isn't that simple (thus, it is the long answer).

Yes, I have an affection for Diary. In fact, when I started out Diary was php and used dynamic software (its software was intended for use with news sites, but that's neither here nor there). It just didn't work for me. From a business standpoint, straight HTML reads better in search engines. From a me standpoint, I could control every aspect of the html: I understood it and could manipulate it as I wished. I didn't ever have to rely on someone else for aid. But now, updating Diary is a hassle in comparison to dynamic blog software. And so, I've carved out this space -- for my day to day silliness. I can post pics or rant about politics, or flitter about the weather and it is nearly effortless. Besides, it will keep me off message boards were trouble breeds.

But I can't just do the same thing to Diary. First of all, many people have linked to individual entries and it feels disingenuous to change it all now. Second, well, the search engine benefits still apply business-wise. And, lastly, I just *want* it there. I want it to be hard work to update it. To be a deliberate act; my personal little ritual. To be there when I have something more to say than just the banter that pops into my head. Something I needed to stew over and delve into more deeply. And I'd like to keep the industry stuff over there instead of here. Sort of like separating my work space from my personal space. Though, let's face it, we all know I'm going to overlap. The tracks of my various trains of thought criss-cross diabolically, which is why there are so many collisions.

Who knows. Maybe I'll fall in love with straight-up blogging and retire the Diary. Or maybe it'll just be one more duality in a life already flush with dualities.

Anyway, I thought if I'm going to give this space its due, I needed to explain to it what made it different from its older sibling. Hopefully, it'll cut down on the hair-pulling.

Idle Prattle | Internal Combustion by Doxy at 04:49 PM | permalink | talkback (1)

February 24, 2005

Robin Williams, Revisited

A picture is worth a thousand words. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

You know who you are ;-)

Mirth by Doxy at 07:45 PM | permalink | talkback (0)

One Tough Gazookus Who Hates All Palookas...

Sea Hag don't never tempt me ~ Coolio

I use a lot of olive oil in my cooking. This is largely because the majority of my nourishment is based on Italian recipes. It’s not that I don’t like this new trendy national obsession with Asian food (or fusions of Asian/whatever), it’s just that I’m limited in my capacity. With Italian ingredients, I know what will taste good with what. When I have to throw something together that isn’t exactly following a recipe, I know what compliments what. And I’m constantly winging meals because, well, I’m impatient and forgetful and often key ingredients for one meal or another will not be represented by my pantry.

However, the various olive oil scandals have made me very picky about what olive oil I use these days. Which sounds food snobby. I mean, most people are content to trot down to the local Supermart and grab a bottle of Bertolli and be done with it. Except that there is a somewhat hush-hush scandal regarding Bertolli and other olive oil importers that claims they are diluting their olive oil with Turkish hazelnut oil. So of course I started looking into it and found an FDA study from the 90’s which found that the majority (read: over 90%) of olive oils are diluted with other oils. Bummer. Domestic olive oils (mostly out of California) are also suspect because there are even fewer regulations in place to police US olive oil, and because it’s hard not to notice when you look at the numbers that far more olive oil is produced out of the US than there are olives grown annually. Ooops.

So, I figure the olive oils that have been politic enough to make it to my local grocery store shelf have compromised far too much to be of any actual value. Plus they’re mostly in clear plastic bottles which just won’t do. So, I'm going to try my hand at Bariani (their story here).

Opaque bottle, good background, small company. I figure it's worth dipping my bread into once or twice.

Victuals by Doxy at 02:09 PM | permalink | talkback (0)

February 23, 2005

I haven't fought a windmill in a fortnight

A little gossip, a little chat A little idle talk of this and that... ~ Joe Darion

Finally! A place to spew my daily insanity and dust out the bric-a-brac of my noggin.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Idle Prattle | Internal Combustion by Doxy at 06:44 PM | permalink | talkback (1)