Category: Blog

New Blog

Cool. I’ve been playing around with the layout of this site for a while now, and I’m really enjoying it. It is based on the zenburn color scheme, because it is really nice to look at. And I had a lot of fun making the little menu up top, and there will be more like that elsewhere about the site when I get time. I realize that anyone who reads this site reads it through an rss feed, but the site design is still worth noting. On that topic: update your rss feed.

Uh, what else? The main reason I switched domains is so I can make a site that is meant to be outward facing, as opposed to my previous site which was meant to be a bit more private. But I’ve gone back and tagged the archives, and things are a little more discoverable. There were some weird trends that emerged as I went through the posts. I tagged a lot more posts “sleep” than I had figured I would. That is all.

Happy Christmas

I think this is my new Christmas tradition, like playing Alice’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving. David Sedaris’s “6 to 8 Black Men” is simply wonderful. If you have not heard it, please listen to it now. If you would rather read it for some reason, you can do that too.

[audio:http://john.paganetti.com/wp-content/uploads/David%20Sedaris%20-%206%20to%208%20Black%20Men.mp3]

Winter

Snow! I like snow. Nearly a foot all told over the weekend makes me happy. We had several four foot icicles hanging off the pergola over our deck, which I broke off and stuck spike-strip style into the snow. Google says its 3 outside right now, and my dashboard widget says -1. I can never really tell once its this cold – I can never really feel it either. Anything below 20 is all the same to me, and I rarely zip up my jacket for anything other than wind. It isn’t cold enough for spit to bounce, so I don’t really care. I’m looking forward to that though.

I forgot how bright winter nights are. This weekend after the snow storms, I was caught off guard by how bright it was at four in the morning. The snow, reflecting up to the clouds, reflecting back down, and so forth. Even on a cloudless night, like tonight, it is brighter than I expect it to be. Winter nights also always manage to look better. I don’t know if they’re actually clearer or not, but winter nights always seem to do something special to stars. I can’t help but wonder if that’s just us regretting that we can’t look at them for as long as we would like to because of the weather. In the summer, we could stay out all night and comfortably stare at the stars. Winter nights are harder to appreciate, and we might just value them more for that. Or maybe it’s just the contrast between the sky and the snow – what do I know.

Good news, everyone!

I’ve stopped caring about anything. I think it’s best described by how a friend summed up Schopenhaur‘s philosophy: he did a lot of thinking, and eventually decided that we can’t really know anything and should just listen to music. Probably a bit oversimplified, but it’s about where I’m at.

In one of the books I’m reading, I had a sudden flash of insight that I shouldn’t be reading this trying to figure out how to serve my projects, but to make all projects better, easier, whatever. Instead of writing a great piece of music, make a new instrument, or a new theory. Something that other people can take and run with.

It is really the idea behind open source, and the Creative Commons, and even the very internet. Now I just have to remember it.

jQuery

So I’m beginning to mess around with the jQuery javascript library. It has taken me a while, but I finally have free time. This thing can do everything. I have a feeling my blog is going to become a lot prettier. I have a little test on the site right now that you can see – its just a simple stylesheet switcher. It is incredible how easy it was to implement. If you want to play with it, look at the bottom part of the sidebar for the ‘Style’ menu, and you can toggle between the default, and a zenburn-like design I’ve been playing with. It is mostly just a proof of concept for me, and I don’t intend to leave it there forever. I think eventually I’ll have it set up to change automatically depending on the time of day (really white webpages are brutal in a dark room).

My thumb hurts

I wrote so much this weekend. It’s my fault, but still, it sucks. I had to just about fill a marble notebook with little reflections on 60 short stories we read this semester. They were good stories, but we were supposed to be writing these as we read them…and I didn’t. So over the course of this weekend I wrote nearly 10k words. And now my thumb really hurts.

Sidenote, I don’t use either of my thumbs to type. Thank god.

Blogs on the move

I’ve been reading a lot of travel blogs, which were pretty interesting over the summer, and then started to taper off as the weather got colder. Suddenly, a lot of these bloggers are doing things again, and it is very worth reading.

721 Sandwiches is about to head down to Key West (for the second time).

freedomvan and A Year in a Car For No Apparent Reason are both in Hawaii (after being on the mainland living in vehicles for a while).

And I AM NOT AFRAID OF WINTER just hitched her way from NC to Portland.

I dunno why I used blog names over real names, but I’m not changing it.
Anyway, keep an eye on those – good reads abound.

Everybody PANIC!

So, I know the other day I bookmarked the smiley face that appeared in the sky on Monday, but it appears there is more to this story. The three were originally in the shape of a happy face, visible to the Eastern Hemisphere (from “Bangkok to Kenya”). Then, as it moved over Europe, it changed into a star and crescent, and finally, a frowny face over the USA.

It’s a shame more people aren’t freaking out about this. Let’s start it.

Thanks

Over Thanksgiving my extended family set up secret santa for xmas. This leads right to people asking each other what they want for xmas. My parents asked me later. I really don’t want anything for xmas this year – I really have everything I want, even the intangible stuff. I’m incredibly lucky and thankful for all of it, but I wish I could just remove myself from xmas.

Go To Bed

Me? No, not me, everyone else. Go to bed. Or stay in bed.

I just drove across town, and there are people awake and driving, and this is upsetting me. 0400 is supposed to be the witching hour, where people have yet to leave for work, and night owls have usually passed out. 0400 is supposed to be a time reserved for a special few – those who drink coffee at a diner, or wonder aimlessly about the streets. 0300 is too early, I know far too many lightweights still awake around then. 0330 is just stupid. I’m not happy about this.

Maybe its because of Thanksgiving? That doesn’t make any sense. I was pretty sure that in addition to the common sense above I had some evidence to support the existence of the witching hour, but it seems that either I was wrong or times have changed. Either way this is not good. More to come.