Category: Random

The first part of a three part interview with Ev about the past, present and future of Blogger [The state of the blog] includes some interesting information about the origins of the web-app. I started my weblog almost immediately after the launch of the new version in November of ’99, when there were only a couple of hundred sites around – originally as a space filler for the front of barbelith.com – a space I didn’t know what to do with. I certainly never expected the site to still be here nearly eighteen months afterwards…

Found via a search for kvetch at haddock.org:

Presenting a blast from the past – a snap-shot of the Barbelith Underground (neé Nexus) from just before Christmas 1999: Snapshot. There are many threads here that I thought were lost for ever.

I’m in a bit of a frenzy when it comes to online surveys at the moment. I can’t seem to stop wanted to categorise or re-categorise myself. I suppose it’s related to my desire to move jobs, and my attempts to refine in my mind exactly what I want from the next few years of my life. According to the Environics test (found via Metafilter) I am a Social Hedonist, which probably isn’t quite what I would have expected – particularly as in the process of undertaking the survey I had a sudden overwhelming sensation of craving a home of my own…

London is gradually waking up. The darkness of winter slows the city’s heartbeat, making our every action or movement an effort. But now things are getting brighter, the trees are on the brink of life, people seem to be slipping easily into their movements … pulsing cells of blood shaking off the lethargy of the months of hibernation.

This speed is worrying me – I leave Time Out in less than two weeks. I’m scared to leave its comfort, but the same thing that let me develop has left me finally trapped and restricted. The sadness of the situation is that it didn’t have to be like this. I could have watched the seasons shift, relaxed and happy. But circumstances and environments change. There’s no longer a place for me here.

Happy Birthday Luke.

So I’ve just finished implementing the random image placement javascript device for plasticbag.org, based upon something I worked on a very long time ago. Unfortunately, while I’ve placed images, not all of them are (let us say) bearable. More to come over the next couple of days.

For everyone who has or is about to see this episode of Buffy (seen by me this evening after everyone (but Riaz) had gone to bed), the word you might want a definition of is: fulgent:

ful·gent (fljnt, fl-)
adj. : Shining brilliantly; radiant: “tower searchlights . . . as fulgent as half a billion candles” (Nicholas Proffitt).

Newsflash: Prol launches Amsterdam Stories, still further extending Derek‘s burgeoning empire.

In order to more easily conceptualise the angst-ridden period in question, I have changed the picture above to reflect the period concerned. Welcome to Tom circa 1995.