Ultranormal

Author: Kevin Lawver

  • The Buck Doesn’t Stop, It Gets Swept Away

    Mike says it best\
    I had a whole long post I was working on, but Mike’s post says everything I’m feeling, and does it better than I can. Go read it. Think about what’s happened to our country, to our institutions. Governing is a job for grownups, not for strutting, insensitive frat boys who make jokes about rich white men’s houses while poor people are dying in filth.

  • Kevin is super!

    On Friday, Kevin sent me roses to thank me for all of my work and support during his broken ankle angst and to say sorry for all of the hassle it has caused. Isn’t that sweet? He is the one with the broken foot so he is the one that should be getting flowers. But he was thinking of me instead. He is so thoughtful. Swoon. We had some mushy kissy time after that. We are such the perfect couple. I don’t mean we are perfect people, just that we are perfect for each other.

  • AOL Does Something Cool For OS X

    It’s been a rough ride for Mac AOL users (and employees). Ever since the corrupted online database bug in AOL 2.7, we’ve been stuck in the back seat of the AOL van. No longer! We now have a better Radio client than our Windows brethren!! It’s in beta now, but doesn’t feel beta. And this isn’t because I work for ’em. I only pimp the good stuff. It’s got XM Radio stations, lots of cool independent radio, and other AOL programmed stuff (that’s not bad at all).\
    It’s fun for me to see my company pay attention to Mac stuff, and produce something that I’ll not only use, but is truly cool.

  • I’m A Movable Beta Tester

    I love Movable Type, which I think you all know. I love the templating system, the plug-ins, the language-agnostic-ness of it all. So, when they announced the beta for 3.2, I was all over it. If you use MT, go upgrade right now. If you don’t use it, I’m sure you have a good reason. The upgrade was extremely painless, and the install was a lot easier than previous versions. No more mt-upgradeVERSION.cgi’s. No more mt-load’s.\
    Movable Type 3.2 Beta Tester\
    And I was happy to do it. Although this blog probably isn’t “typical” since I don’t think I have any default templates left. Everything is custom, and probably a little out of date at this point (which is what happens when I can do a redesign without changing the markup – I never redo it and get it up-to-date, because I don’t have to).

  • The Sun Breaks Through

    Ireland: Athassel Priory

    I had a rough night last night. Sleeping with a ten pound ski boot wrapped in a pillowcase on your foot is not easy, even with vicodin. This morning isn’t much easier. I’m trying to concentrate, and listen to music, but I keep thinking about Ireland for some stupid reason, and Athassel Priory in particular (where this picture was taken). I’m not sure why.

  • Instiki Stylesheet Tweaks

    As you all know, I love Instiki. I saw a page on the site this morning for Stylesheet Tweaks and just had to share mine. I don’t like how narrow Instiki is by default, and I didn’t really like the font. So, I changed it. I’ve hacked a lot of the templates (to make the textarea larger, for example), but my stylesheet is still mostly default with some significant changes.\
    Your mileage may vary, especially on the edit page (where I did a good deal of hacking).\
    Go get it.

  • It Will Never End

    That’s probably true of a lot of things. In this case, I’m talking about the sad, sad, saga of my ankle (first post, second post). I went to the doctor this morning, and the news isn’t good. It’s not as bad as it could have been, but it’s bad enough that I’m not happy.\
    There’s nothing wrong with my foot (that the MRI showed) other than the nickel sized piece of bone. But, since the boot hasn’t been helping, Doctor Sam isn’t confident that surgery is going to help. So, my options boil down to the following:

    1. Do nothing, ever, and just live with the pain.
    2. Wear the boot 24 hours a day for four weeks and see if the pain’s better. If it is, then we can be reasonably confident that the surgery will work.
    3. Have a “more serious” surgery that involves fusing the bones in my foot. This means nothing more physical than walking for the rest of my life.\
      We’re going with number 2. Four more weeks in the boot, and now I have to sleep in it. Walking around in it is bad enough. I need ice cream, and right now. Oh wait, I have to lose weight too (as if I didn’t know).\
      It’s been a really shitty summer… that looks like it’s going to carry over into a blustery crappy fall. Sorry, everybody!

  • Earth To Wolf

    From this week’s Newsweek‘s quotes page, from the bearded one himself, Wolf Blitzer:\
    bq. That’s my job. I’m a newsman. That’s what I try to do, is make news. And you try to avoid news. That’s your job.\
    Wolf, you’re a newsman. Your job is not to make the news. Your job is to report the news. Where did you get the idea that you’re making the new? From Woodward and Bernstein, Rupert Murdoch, Lois Lane? No wonder no one in this country knows what’s going on, or what’s really important. You’re too busy making the news instead of telling us what the hell is really going on!\
    Oh yeah, and no wonder I don’t watch CNN anymore. It’s become one step removed from LA local news following car chases and calling it the news. CNN used to be something important. It used to be good. Now, it’s a bad imitation of Fox, which is a bad imitation of a news organization.\
    And people wonder why we get all our news online now. We don’t like the made up news, Wolf, with the exception of The Daily Show. At least Jon Stewart’s honest about it.

  • Whoops

    I need to write myself a to-do list when I do an upgrade of Movable Type. Since MT 3.2’s been in beta, I think this is the second time I’ve forgotten to rename the comments script. If you’ve tried to post comments the past couple days, I’m sorry!! It should be fixed now…\
    In other news, pain killers are good.

  • My Weekend Plans

    • Someone: What are you going to do this weekend?
    • Me: Go home, take some painkillers and watch nature documentaries. It’s gonna be a hell of a weekend\
      Oh yeah, and get a massage, and I might eat some ice cream too. My ankle’s good for all kinds of excuses to sit around with my foot up (and look at my extra ankle!). Vicodin’s an evil, evil drug, kids. Don’t take it unless someone gives it to you.\
      Have a good weekend, everybody!