Year: 2000

I was looking around beebo.org’s metalog about half an hour ago, and came across a really cool site (an onfocus component) all about that conversation that you have with friends or significant others about where to go out and eat. I was so taken with it that I blogged it for accidental riothero (which is what I decided to call Mark’s site in his absence). And then I get a phone call from Peter, a “friend or significant other”, who wants to go out for dinner this evening. I almost ran back to onfocus, and when I had finished, I had generated this:

Tom: So, what do you want to eat?
Peter: I don’t know what do you want to eat?
Tom: I guess I’m not really that hungry.
Peter: Yeah, me neither.
Tom: How does Italian sound?
Peter: Hmm, we have that a lot.
Tom: yeah.
Peter: So you’re really not hungry?
Tom: Well, I could probably eat something.
Peter: Like what?
Tom: Just about anything, really.
Peter: How about Curry?
Tom: Yeah, I guess that’s ok.
Peter: I don’t know now.
Tom: You don’t know? Come on.
Peter: We could order Chinese.
Tom: You’re too lazy to go out and get food?
Peter: No, I guess not. Where do you want to go?
Tom: I was thinking that new Italian place.
Peter: That’s all the way downtown!
Tom: It’s supposed to be good.
Peter: I guess I’m just not in the mood.
Tom: Well, what are you in the mood for?
Peter: You said just about anything.
Tom: Anything but Italian.
Peter: You suggested that earlier.
Tom: I did? hmmm.
Peter: I always feel like Curry, but we never go.
Tom: That’s fine..
Peter: I guess I’m just not in the mood.
Tom: Well, I could probably eat something.
Peter: We could order Chinese.
Tom: yeah.
Peter: You said just about anything.
Tom: I was thinking that new Italian place.
Peter: You suggested that earlier.
Tom: We could flip for it.
Peter: What are we arguing over?
Tom: Italian or hamburgers.
Peter: heads.
Tom: I don’t have a quarter.
Peter: Curry.
Tom: Yeah, I guess that’s ok.
Peter: Let’s get a pizza.
Tom: Yeah, ok.
Peter: What’s your favorite number?
Tom: 7.

Now I’m terrified that it might actually happen…

So I have moved over to pair.com with relatively little difficulty (although I lost half a days worth of e-mail so resend it if it was important). The only thing that I am really slightly concerned about is the lack of already set-up stats package. I need something that I can use to track referrers (and the like). Anyone got any ideas?

Apologies about failures of service over the last 24 hours. The move to barbelith’s new hosts is going pretty smoothly, but is still relatively time consuming. The Bomb and Microlith will be up and running shortly (an hour?). The Nexus might take a couple of days more.

Mark said I could do it. Honest he did. He said I could redesign in his absence, and by christ, have I…

I’m going to see Final Destination tonight with a group of friends. I went to a press preview of it about a week ago, but it is no fun going to see scary movies by yourself. At least half of the fun is seeing what other people’s reaction is. My co-conspirator in the takeover of riothero (Katy) is coming along too. I can’t help wonder what she is going to think of it. I hope good things.

Everyone else is getting drunk afterwards, but not me. This weekend is hectic beyond measure, with at least two parties, a major web maintenance session, a hot date and a man coming around to install a phone line. And I have to do my washing. And ideally go to the gym.

A couple of days ago I was taken by the young gentleman I am dating at the moment to the bar on the 24th floor of what was the NatWest Tower in the heart of the City. After chatting for a while I dropped into the conversation that he was one of the hot topics of conversation at my place of work, as he had managed to cancel on me three nights in a row. He found this endlessly amusing and asked if there was anyone in the world who didn’t know about what we were up to. He then smiled broadly and said – “you’re probably publishing it on a website”. I changed the subject very quickly.

As moves are made in the UK to sort out the mess of the sex laws (many of which are ignored, some of which implemented savagely – at least until relatively recently), the Guardian presents a quiz that may surprise the Americans amongst us. Particularly as one of the questions is: Is it legal for two gay men to nail each others testicles to a table?

Speak Out Loud is a new blog that is just getting itself started. He admits that he has been mercilessly refreshing my page (à la prol), in order to get the pretty pictures all in a row. He’s even got a page up that proves he’s succeeded. Did I inspire him to this lunacy?

Oh. My. God. Barbelith is Blogger of the Week over at blogger.com. I’d like to thank my mother, God and the Coca-Cola company for making this day possible. I’m actually quite floored by the whole thing. Wow. There is a minor problem in that because I am changing hosts, the site will probably disappear for whole long stretches of time, and nothing will work properly. Which won’t make me look as cool. Um.

Two pieces of barbelith news:

• Barbelith Brownouts: At any moment the whole site might collapse under its weight. The site is currently being moved over to new hosts at pair.com and so I am afraid power outages, non-existing sections and the like will probably generate more than the odd error message over the next couple of days. Hopefully these will be resolved by the beginning of next week.
• Barbelith and KitschBitch eat Riothero: Katy and Tom guest star on the hottest teen soap since the Buffmeister went to college. Who will live, who will die, and will anyone take their clothes off. THIS WEEKEND ONLY…

Anyone want to be a web designer at timeout.com in London? Talent and passion a must! Check here for more details: timeout.com vacacies.