Wait... Music?

November 29, 2006 by Eric Richardson

A sad thing happened to me over the course of the last six or nine months: somehow I forgot about music. Not any specific music, just music in general. I forgot to go find it. I forgot what I already had. I just forgot to listen to it.

It was a confluence of events that led to that point. I started to write it all out, but it's long and probably boring. Broken headphones, nearby coworkers, etc.

But now it's like I've emerged and everyone I've ever listened to has a new album out.

I need to go camp out at the Hotel Cafe for a month or so and catch up.

Shining up an Old Apple

November 29, 2006 by Eric Richardson

It sounds funny to say, but I think one of the things that's kept me from writing much here lately is that the look had started to make me feel cramped. I needed to update, but just hadn't found the time. This morning I got up early so I put a few minutes into touching that up. The result's now live.

The last look went live on December 8th, 2005. Staying with one look for nearly a year might be some kind of a record for me, though certainly it would be one to put an asterisk next to in the books:

Note: Record achieved through general neglect.

The old look's still up on the heavily cobwebbed rest of the site, so it's not in the look archive yet. But then again neither are the two looks that preceded it...

Soon, Really...

November 28, 2006 by Eric Richardson

February 13th of this year I wrote a list of four things I intended to blog about soon. They were:

• My third (and this time successful) attempt with Ruby on Rails
• Purchasing and Colocating a server for work
• Using javascript to create stylable select boxes
• Version control likes and dislikes

I (sort of) got into the first one here and here. Or at least I touched on Rails in posts. Close enough.

Two through four, not so much. I'd say I suck at blogging, but this year I've done 300+ posts over at blogdowntown, so I can't blame that.

I'll still have to get to two through four. And I'm getting back into one for a different project, so I'll be sure to say more on that as well.

Living Room Before and After

November 27, 2006 by Eric Richardson

Kathy and I finally got a table this weekend, after spending three months or so eating at the coffee table. We'd been looking during our other furniture forays but just hadn't found anything that really caught our eye or fit the space.

Friday we set out specifically to get a table, and this time came away with a bargain. We got a table and four chairs for $299 from a discount furniture store in North Hollywood.

Before table:

After table:

The bikes are now in our second bedroom (intended to be an office), and eventually we'll get a rack so we can hang one over the other.

Light Festival Ok; Bikes Very Good

November 21, 2006 by Eric Richardson

Last night Kathy and I took a bike ride to go check out DWP's Festival of Lights at Griffith Park. As Mack wrote over at LA Voice, it's a bit cheesy as far as lights go, but it was a good destination and a good ride.

DWP does this yearly at the park and it's absurd that it's only open to cyclists for two hours on one night. Seeing as it's open to cars for 38 days, five hours a day, that's a good 1.04% of the time bikes are allowed.

You can check out the route we took via GMap Pedometer. We went up and over the hill via Glendale Blvd, then down the bike path to Zoo Drive. On the way back we went bike path to Riverside to Broadway and down into Downtown.

Crossing the Broadway bridge on the way back we paused and I took a few photos of Downtown, including the one above. I think I'd take Downtown's light show over the DWP one any night.

Recent Bicycle Ride Photos

November 17, 2006 by Eric Richardson

I've been getting out on the bike a bit more lately, which means I've also been taking photos. Some sets I particularly enjoy --

Elysian Park by Bicycle

Elysian Park by Bicycle Redux -- Night

IAAL-MAF: Take Back the Observatory

Beginning of the 3D Web? Hardly.

November 06, 2006 by Eric Richardson

It's a trip to read articles today talking about Microsoft's new Virtual Earth 3D.

"What we're announcing is what we believe is the beginning of the 3D Web," said Bobby Figueroa, product management director for Microsoft's Live Local Search.

The re-beginning, maybe, but I remember back to the days of 1998 or so when VRML was all the rage. Heck, it was 1997 when SGI unveiled "Flook", a 3d cartoon that seems to no longer be findable online. I remember SGI's Cosmo Player (also seemingly disappeared in SGI's mind wipe) on both IRIX and Windows. Black Sun Interactive (the makers of "PointWorld", which I think I used to go onto with the hip name "agrosk8er") has since become Blaxxun, but they're still doing multiplayer 3D worlds.

Heck, my time playing with VRML stuff was before I even started blogging, and that was in November of 1998.

I guess all this stuff was just too old to get remembered when it came time for deciding what constituted a "beginning."

Update (10:30): Check out this video newsclip for Flook from 1996.

Fun with Food

November 04, 2006 by Eric Richardson

One of the things you certainly get out of wedding gifts is a kitchen full of appliances, mixing bowls, utensils, etc. One of our gifts was a waffle maker and we've have put that to work several times lately. This morning I made chocolate waffles using a recipe from Alton Brown and Good Eats. Very good.

At some point I need to break out of my breakfast and meat mold and start making some real meals. First, though, we need to get a table. There's something about cooking a real meal to eat at the coffee table that just doesn't quite feel right.