Going through old photos is fun.

Years ago I used the Programmer’s Font on a Mac with BBEdit. It wasn’t available for Windows, so when I moved to a Windows box it was back to Courier. A while ago I took another look, but it didn’t work in Vim for some reason. Seems they’ve solved that and I can see my colons again. Get ProFont here

Ballmer says: “…The most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen’.”

Oh I dunno, there are about 3,000 or so songs on my iPod and as far as I know, not a single one of them is stolen. In fact, I’ve purchased more music in the 2 months I’ve had my iPod than I did in the 2 previous years. So there.

UPDATE Jan 2006 I’ve ignored this plugin since moving my blog to Wordpress, then Typo, then ExpressionEngine. I’m at least temporarily back to Textpattern, so I may finish it someday.

UPDATE April 2006 I’m back to Wordpress. Let’s just forget the whole thing, eh?

I’ve finished the first version of the Textpattern plugin for displaying photos from flickr. It’s called Gallry (yep, the missing “e” can get old after a while, but there you have it).

It will only run under PHP 5, and that’s a problem for many, but I started this whole thing as an excuse to play with the SimpleXML extension in PHP 5 and with the Flickr API.

Anyhoo, you’re welcome to try it yourself:

Download jab_gallry.txt

As another test, here are the images tagged with “jess”, which will link directly to the image page on Flickr…

The most fun I’ve had watching a movie this year was during Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’ll admit I was confused when the opening credits (finally) began, but knowing it was a Charlie Kaufman script forced me to shrug that off and stay with it. And what a reward for doing so!

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet both give what I think are their best performances ever. Carrey makes one silly face - just one - throughout the entire film.

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman continues to be almost painfully clever, but stops just short of being a showoff (see Adaptation). The story is part love story, part science fiction and is, in keeping with the latest trends, told in reverse. It’s cleverly shot by director Michel Gondry. There really is a lot to like here.

My work-in-progress gallery using the Flickr API took a bit of turn tonight, as I quickly converted it into a simple Textpattern plugin. The thumbnails below are generated using following tag:

<code>
<txp:jab_gallry set="14145"
linkTarget="window"
columns="3" /></code>

Where the set attribute is the id of a flickr photoset. Currently it can be configured to display any number of columns and the full image can be any size supported by the flickr account. The link target can also be set to “flickr” for opening the image page on flickr, “self” for viewing the large image on the same page as the thumbnails, or “window” for opening the large image in a new window.

It’s just a proof-of-concept at this point, and only runs on PHP 5, as it uses the new SimpleXML extension. I’ll try to clean it up and post the plugin soon.

Thankfully, Dean has imported Textpattern into a Subversion repository. This wll make updates as easy as typing “svn update”.

More info here

One of life’s great things is being near the beginning of a book you just know you’re going to love. This is what’s happening to me right now with Don DeLillo’s White Noise

Some have complained that there are no real characters, only psychological constructs used simply to convey the author’s point of view. Well Duh! Characters schmaracters, there are some clever, interesting and fun things coming out of those constructs, and I love it!

Jim Jarmusch films are something else entirely. I hated Ghost Dog and really hated his Cannes-winning Stranger than Paradise. On the other hand I loved Dead Man, Mystery Train and Night on Earth.

Coffee and Cigarettes falls into the category of successes. Imagine 11 shorts, shot in grainy black and white, starring some of the coolest folks anywhere: Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Meg and Jack White (The White Stripes), Steven Wright, Bill Murray, GZA and RZA and on and on.

No plot, many uneven bits, but overall plenty to enjoy. And of course I’m suddenly wishing I’d never quit smoking.

I’m thinking that my upcoming surf trip will probably look something like this

Or not.