Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.

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Friday, December 11th, 2009
compguru_1	8:14a	another week Hi all. well its almost another week, in an otherwise blaa existance. This week has been as the same as all weeks go. except this has adifference. on wednesday shockwave and windows updates came round. I had heaps of non fun trying to get shockwave flash downloaded in firefox and ie no thanks to adobe visual installers and having to hunt for manual files. Ofcause I had to manually try to do this and mangled my entire flash setup. Oh well. other things have included testing mota beta 10. Thats all really on tech side. Playin piano which I don't have today I had it yesterday. next week will end the piano lesson year then its all off for me. going to go out soon and party with people gona last most of the day. today I got up at 7 and listened to casts and sorted mail and other things. This is now thankfully done which is good since its going to be hot again and the computer is no good when that happens. Saturday may involve a walk and sonday another party. Then its 2 weeks to christmas. Christmas eve will be strange though I must admit. we have alternits with our family I have 2 sides to my family. dad's and mum's so this year its christmas day and boxing day. Both days are sad days. Christmas day is the death of my nanna. Why she died on a day where you party is unknown but it means we can selebrate her death. boxing day was and still is when the tsunami hit india, shrilanka and I think indonesia I think. Loads of people died that day and such. Still trying to get another system for grandpa, thats the current project. later all Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com Current Mood: something (Comment on this)
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
kestrell	12:25p	Father Cthulhu has eyes everywhere http://theanticraft.com/archive/samhain08/heseesyou.htm (Comment on this)
nick6489	7:23a	I would just like to say... That I fail at this particular meme, epically. See you around Christmas, I guess... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
kestrell	10:50a	Kindle to have talking menus, larger fonts, more accessibility Posted to the Daisy Talking Books mailing list Amazon's Kindle to get audible menus, bigger font By Jessica Mintz Associated Press Posted: 12/07/2009 01:55:11 PM PST Updated: 12/07/2009 03:47:24 PM PST SEATTLE ­ <http://amazon.com>Amazon.com will add two features to the Kindle e-book reader to make the gadget more accessible to blind and vision-impaired users. Monday's announcement comes a month after Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., and the University of Wisconsin-Madison said they would not consider widely deploying the device as an alternative to paper textbooks until Amazon makes it easier for blind students to use. Both universities bought some Kindles to test this fall. The Kindle has a read-aloud feature that could be a boon to blind students and those with other disabilities including dyslexia, but turning it on requires navigating through screens of text menus. Amazon said Monday it is working on audible menus, which would let the Kindle speak menu options out loud. It's also working on an extra-large font for people with impaired vision. The additions should reach the Kindle next summer, Amazon said. Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, said Monday that the organization doesn't know enough about the new features to say whether they adequately address concerns of the blind community. But, he said, it's a good sign Amazon is expressing commitment to improve the Kindle. ( continued below cut ) (Comment on this)
Monday, December 7th, 2009
kestrell	10:42a	New dual screen ereader device offers both e-paper and LCD plus a bunch of other whizbang features which make me think of a science fiction film http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/business/06novel.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss (Comment on this)
nick6489	7:41a	31 Entrys for 31 Days Episode 5 It was strange to have a Saturday without any form of show by choice, but that was the situation I found myself in. We set up the trains around that piece of plastic we decided to use this year that the rest of the family calls a tree, and watched of all things, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation by a roring fire that Dad set up in the den, rather late at night, which is why I was a bit screwed up from my normal schedule. I also averted a potential catastrophy regarding HKC Radio's funding. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
borrisinabox	6:10a	Things and Stuff for December 5, 2009 My Phonic board is broken. Did that stop me from doing what I do best, I.E. wasting time, energy, and resources for not very much other than my own enjoyment, and hopefully that of at least two other people? Of course not! As a result, this week's show is now downloadable. In this show: We learn the day's true date, November 35, 1990-19. The current issues with Phonic, TriTech Electronics (who are, according to Phonic, supposedly authorized to fix my board under the manufacturer's warranty, although they claim otherwise), is discussed, as well as a description of this show's very convoluted broadcasting setup. Just for the info, this is probably the weirdest one I've used to date, and includes a keyboard being used as a master compressor. Wo, where'd that come from? A totally unexpected phone call from a long-time family friend, Josh Owens, which lead to an interesting discussion about radio, greyhound buses, West Virginia, Christmas, and many other things. This is a longer phone call than usual, as it was so unexpected, given that Josh had no regular computer access the last time we spoke, and, in fact, didn't really know how to use one that well. A standard fallback, going through production libraries at random, leads to a few interesting things, including showcasing some very nasty scratchy pots on the current broadcast board. Let's have a Sennheiser MKE2002+dummy head demo from 1973. Why wasn't the popular Beatles song 'Let It Be' called 'Let It Generally Exist' instead? What Things and Stuff episode would be complete without playing with an effects processor or two, even on a scaled-down streaming setup? If you don't have a phone booth, you can put a phone call in a box... Well, I can, so I did. And there you have it, another show thingy has passed us by. As a reminder, Things and Stuff won't be on next week, since I'll be at Randy's place, for which I am leaving in about 10 hours. Maybe I should start packing? Yeah... Maybe. If possible, I will try to stream at least one of Randy's live gigs, but there isn't a lot of 3g coverage in West Virginia, unless you're in Charleston, Huntington, Parkersburg, or Wheeling. Maybe we'll get lucky, and have some available wifi somewhere. Who knows? Stay tuned and find out, because, after all, it's something to do. (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
nick6489	6:30a	31 Entrys for 31 Days, episode 4 This entry consists of a Show that you should go and download. From the website... People can you feel it? Love is everywhere! Between Beth paying off a bet handsomely, talk of threesomes, and the “gun to the head problem” in relation to girls the hosts would “do”, this show is not for the emotionally invested. On the other hand, we had a bit of a South Park invasion, as Kenny showed up during the show for the first time since Circa 2004, though Beth is wanted for criminal charges in relation to that. Kenny was joined by, of all people, Timmy, who was rather chatty as the show went on. Phil Collins also had things to say in relation to Beth’s bet, and proved himself an egomaniac. However, HKC Radio takes no responsibility for any heart attack’s caused by this show. Listen at your own risk! (Comment on this)
Friday, December 4th, 2009
kestrell	3:38p	Not getting a new prosthetic for Christmas For the past couple of weeks I've caught myself occasionally singing "All I want for Christmas is my right eyeball" (yes, I *know* it doesn't scan, get over it) but, after spending yesterday at the Lahey Clinic, it seems that is not going to happen. The surgeon did not do that little procedure (squicky details in this post http://kestrell.livejournal.com/541426.html ) but I am on antibiotics and the steroid Prednisone Prednisone has some of these side effects (I was already experiencing the side effects before I looked them up and confirmed them): • sleep problems (insomnia) • dizziness or lightheadedness • flushing of face or cheeks • increased sweating • sensation of spinning The silver lining here is that I am not overly worried about • problems with your vision . I do feel like thinking is kind of hard though, so I'm really glad I finished most of my holiday shopping earlier this week so I won't be stressing about that (and perhaps Father Cthulhu will bring me some cool eyepatches for Christmas). Also, LJ user issendai was kind enough to give us a ride to the clinic, which made the day a lot less gloomy, and the weather! I spent most of the time outside just repeating, "Wow!" and I really felt like it was a small mercy considering the monsoon that was going on yesterday morning. After the appointment, issendai and Alexx took me to Trader Joe's, my first time, and yes, I believe that baked goods are the world's best pick-me-up, along with people who will spend an hour describing all the goodies at Trader Joe's (thank you to the incredibly nice employee who works at Trader Joe's and seemed dedicated to trying to find me all sorts of delicacies to tempt me). Let me just say, prahlines are kestrell crack (but, although the Trader Joe variety is really good, I think real pralines still need to be made by someone who has lived in the South). The non-silver lining aspect of yesterday's visit is that the eye issues are not going to be resolved before Arisia, and at my next appointment I will, at the very least, be having another in-office procedure, and possibly have to discuss more drastic measures, like whether my immune system is rejecting the sklera transplant http://kestrell.livejournal.com/515040.html . Also, I'm less certain that I will be up for attending Arisia and won't have a clear idea until my appt. on Jan. 7. Now I need to go eat something so I can take another pill. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
kestrell	9:19a	Make your own scarey snow globes Via the Art of Darkness blog, this how to on making your own horror-theme snow globes http://naughtysecretaryclub.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-love-to-create-halloween-snow-globes.html --I can definitely see a creepy arctic wasteland with giant (to scale) albino penguines, a la Lovecraft, or even a creepy snowman with a shiny knife and a Freddy Kruger pattern scarf, sort of "Calvin & Hobbes" meets "A Nightmare on Elm Street." (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
nick6489	11:59p	31 Entrys for 31 Days, Episode 3 Today...Well...I found out that I had a bus reservation at 11:30, which shouldn't've been the case. Turns out I was so out of it last Friday, that when I booked it, I said 11:30 instead of 1:00. Oh well. Also, I had to eal with Cablevision, reserving an appointment to get my modem looked at. I then went to school, had a boring Islam class, and then went to Unix, where I completed my first Arch Linux install. Arch, let me tell ya, is...strange... But since I've come home, it's been nothing but Thursday, except for the Islander game. All I have to say is three words that will close the entry. Mighty, Matt, Moulson... (Comment on this)
kestrell	9:27a	Arisia '10 Access: Physical assistants + accessible art show 1. People with disabilities attending Arisia who wish to bring a physical assistant may request a ribbon which will allow the assistant to go anywhere the attendee goes. If the physical assistant never leaves the side of the person with the paid membership that they're assisting, they can get a free "adult-in-tow" membership, otherwise if they wish to occasionally explore the convention on their own, they should get a paid membership Note: An "adult-in-tow" option has been added to the online reg form. 2. The accessible art tour is scheduled for Saturday from 4-5 p.m. Arisia will be providing cotton gloves for anyone wishing to touch artwork which has been specifically designated by the artists. Artists are also welcome to be present to describe their work. We'll try to keep descriptions short so we can get to as much of the art show as possible. Both of these announcements have also been posted to the Arisia '10 Access Services Web page http://2010.arisia.org/Access . (2 Comments |Comment on this)
kestrell	8:42a	Colonial Gothic I had to read quite a bit before it became clear that this is an RPG and not some mad history professor's interpretatioin of the American Revolution; I would definitely have bought it if it was the second one, but I thought perhaps one of my friends would find this cool. http://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Gothic-Rulebook-Richard-Iorio/dp/0979636108/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259847413&sr=1-17 (Comment on this)
nick6489	7:04a	31 Entrys for 31 Days, episode 2 I didn't update in good enough time. But maybe that's because yesterday was a big waste. I went into school. That really was not such a great idea. I thought I felt well enough to go in for the long day, but ti seems my mobility was totally fucked up, and I felt worse when I ended up coming back home. But even more foolishly, I talked to people, which I probably shouldn't've done. The medication really knocked me out, which is why I didn't update yesterday. Today, I should have something a bit more substantive. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
kestrell	1:48p	Tactile books and an ebook reader for kids First, this announcement from National Braille Press about a couple of holiday specials on tactile board books for little kids http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/BB-MONKEY.html which has me wondering why there aren't any such books for the gothling child, perhaps _10 Cranky Crows_? It could start something like "Ten cranky crows (that's sixty scratchy toes) took a walk on a cloudy day..." Already I like it better than cutesy chicks and monkeys. Second, ScrollMotion is going to be releasing the Iceberg Reader for kids: this Publishers Weekly article http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6708308.html?industryid=47139 . says a lot more about the new format for the iPhone, but what I thought was notable was the ability for people to create audio recordings of readings. That and some of the other features could make this a nice format for readers with print disabilities, although the true accessibility of this format and other apps on the iPhone is still somewhat dubious. (Comment on this)
reverendbigdawg	8:12a	The First Snow of The Season While waiting for a ride yesterday, it began to sleet with the temperature still at forty-six degrees. For the not so weatherly inclined, such an event is quite rare, and it indicates that there is a great deal of cold air aloft, far more so than usual. That said, I was a bit surprised when I awoke this morning to find snow falling outside and the following EMail in my inbox. Special Weather Statement Statement as of 7:11 AM CST on December 02, 2009 ...Significant weather advisory... Moderate snow is occurring across the region and will continue through the mid morning hours. Accumulation of 1 to 2 inches on elevated or grassy surfaces will be possible. Some snow accumulations on roadways is possible...which may impact travel this morning. Although Road surfaces are still warm and much of the snow is melting...motorists should exercise caution when traveling this morning. Conditions will improve during the mid morning hours as temperatures warm. 349 am CST Wed Dec 2 2009 ...Snow expected Friday for much of North Texas... A strong upper level storm system will move across North Texas on Friday. With a cold airmass established over the region...the potent upper level disturbance will trigger areas of snow on Friday. Flurries will be possible late Thursday night and early Friday morning over far western sections of North Texas...generally along and west of a Bowie to Weatherford to Lampasas line. Little to no accumulation is expected with this activity. Heavier snow will likely develop by the mid morning hours Friday and continue through the evening...mainly south of Interstate 20. Periods of flurries and some light snow showers will also be possible Friday in the immediate Dallas Fort Worth Metro area. Locations along and south of a line from Cisco to Hillsboro to Palestine will have the best chance at witnessing accumulating snowfall...with around one inch possible. Isolated locations may receive up to 2 inches of snow. This event continues to develop. The timing and location of the snowfall...as well as expected accumulations may change over the coming days. Please keep updated with the latest forecasts and any possible winter weather advisories from your National Weather Service in Fort Worth. I'm mildly amused that Texas received snow before other parts of the country that lie to the north and east, but again, it's rare when something like this happens. And when it does, it usually means I'll post an entry about it. Yes. My name is John Clower, and I am a meteorologoholic. I now return you to your regularly scheduled daily doings. Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
nick6489	1:21a	31 Entrys for 31 days, episode 1 This entry is composed under the influence of some medication, thus in shorthand. I woke up, tried to work on linux things for trek_west, ate, went to school and saw a debate, british-style, for Islam, then went to unix class. The Arch Linux instalation procedure is rather nice, as I'm using Arch for this excercise rather than FreeBSD. But...Yeah, a command is throwing up an error. Alsa, install yourself. With that, I have to...*collapses* (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
compguru_1	9:30p	another semi half week Hi all. well this is a semi half week post. Today its humid and muggy. Today I have managed to do the following, actually lets cover monday. played piano for myself. cycled. walked. listened to podcasts. caught up with friends on email. and caught up on various streams. Also listened to sympsons eps. whats left to do. finnish reading a book or so includes listening to things. the only interesting thing to day was an update of teamtalk to 9.01 which is ofcause a beta, 4.0.934 is out, but on cutting edge beta its 9.01.447 there is a 439 beta of 4.0 if you care to. nothing in the cutting edge temp folder so nothing has come off the presses lately. later Post from mobile portal m.livejournal.com (Comment on this)
nick6489	12:27a	31 entries for 31 days: prelude This is a meme begun by borrisinabox and freakyfwoof in December 2005, which has been the best December in several years for me. No December has yet aproached the excelence as a month that 2005 has, so this is my homage to that particular time in my life, but it's also an interesting exercise. I have not yet succeeded in making this work fully, but here's the premice. Not counting this prelude, I have to write 31 entries for 31 days of December. I do not have to post it within day limits, but it helps if I do. The entries are not subject limited, and they do not have to be any given length. Normally I do not tag people for this meme, as it's a very difficult one, and tagging is totally optional. However...Why not, this time? solyndra, innocent_youth, jdx_random, you're up. The first two I feel can do this, the third has already done, but his Live Journal, which used to contain some of the most quality writing found in such a medium, needs to be kicked back into gear. Let's see how you and I all fair. What's the over/under on when I finally fail? Next entry begins the meme. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 30th, 2009
kestrell	6:32p	Neil Gaiman on audiobooks from this morning's NPR morning show http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120769925&ps=cprs At a little over seven minutes, there is only so much discussion that can happen in a segment, but Gaiman makes some nice points, such as reading on audio is not a new thing and that some critics's definitions of reading composed explicitly to rule out audiobooks as a legitimate form of reading are not always very robust. I myself would often prefer the text version of a book because I find listening to someone else's voice reading to me changes the experience, but I will listen to books read by particular readers--Neil Gaiman for one, Doug Bradley for another--and I also love audiobooks that play with the form, either intentionally or accidnetally. The first audiobook I fell in love with was, okay, Tim Curry reading Anne Rice's _Cry to Heaven_, a magnificent audio recording with bits of Italian opera included. But there was also Neal Stephenson's _The Diamond Age_, because I thought having my computer read me a book about a book which read itself aloud to a little girl was the stuff of pure fantasy. Another great audiobook: _Soon I Will Be Invincible_, which alternates chapters between a comics-style supervillain and a new female superhero, and the voice actors were so incredible that I can't even imagine the print book being better. Do other people have audiobooks with which they have fallen in love? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
kestrell	3:53p	Random book-related fact of the day The Hotel Denouement from the Lemony Snicket books is based on this hotel in NYC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Hotel which uses the Dewey Decimal System to organize it's rooms. I now know the location of my personal Disneyland. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
kestrell	2:20p	Re sweaters: I'm allergic to cute and fuzzy Someone on my Dreamwidth journal asked about materials and it occurred to me that I should mention that I am allergic to the fuzzy kinds of wool, like those from rabbits and goats. I think I am just allergic to cute. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
kestrell	11:06a	Sweaters I don't know what happened--maybe my room intersects with an alternate dimension--but I used to have a pile of sweaters suitable for wearing indoors, and now I have three, and one of them recently got eaten by the aerye, and neither of the other two are black. So if anyone is wondering what I would like for a holiday gift: black sweaters or hoodies suitable for wearing indoors would be sincerely appreciated. And if any of the alien beings from that alternate dimension who are wearing my sweaters intend on sending them back: please wash them first. (Comment on this)
seether12	5:01a	Time for another from me ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) Current Mood: Waking up Current Music: Staind - Fade (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
borrisinabox	6:36p	Several stream archives for your face Today, we have several stream archives available for you, the strange, bored person who likes that sort of thing. PDAudio Realtime 2009.5 On Friday, November 27, 2009, P&D Audio Productions Realtime 2009.5 took place in the beautiful bedroom studio of one Derek Lane. Quite a number of bad, abnormal, and generally dumb things happened during the course of the stream, which, of course, is only to be expected at this point. Here are just a few such examples: Autotune the blues, a prime example of why Derek and myself should never be given access to studio equipment slide whistles through autotune are fun. So are 1-a-cans with guitar slides. TBRN.AM, a good idea or not? Uncle Hanson's redneck poetry... enough said? Swedish disney songs... Sure, why not? How about a wire tape machine playing back a recording of an atomic bomb test? All this and more can be found in this clickable link. I Think this may have been the shortest realtime stream to date, although this made it no less enjoyable for me. PDAudio Cartime 2009.5 Adding to the shortest ever series, we bring you CarTime 2009.5, which only lasted 26 minutes due to being late, thanks to a few technical issues. For those who don't know, CarTime is so named because the streams are done live from the car on the way back from Derek's place. Every one we've tried to do while taking Derek back from mine has completely and totally failed, and this one came close to not existing at all. Fortunately, it did manage to work, and was apparently more stable than any other stream we've done from the car, although it started later than we would have liked. Unfortunately, we couldn't take phone calls (again), but the messengers worked. Although the original stream was done at 24 kbps mono to improve the bandwidth to sound ratio, the archive is in stereo. So, even if you heard it live, you may have missed something interesting. Congratulations to you! Now you can hear just what you missed, and then say "Wow, was that really worth it?" Things and Stuff for November 28, 2009? Well... um... I haven't sent my board off to be fixed yet, though I plan on doing so this week. It's gotten even worse than the last time you all heard it in action. TO prove it, instead of a real show, have this fake one as I demonstrate why I didn't actually do a show this week. I think you'll understand, and I hope you'll forgive me. Hey, you can't say I didn't actually do a show, now can you? What now? Derek and myself are going to visit Randy Gilkey up there in West Virginia where it's all relative, so our respective shows won't be on for a couple of weeks. Naturally, we'll make up for it by doing strange, possibly random things while there. Of course, I encourage you to stay tuned to the website and TBRN's Twitter for all the latest news, and stuff. No, before you ask, I will not start a news show, and call it News and Stuff, amusing though the concept is to me, for a few seconds, anyway. Current Mood: Sunday Current Music: permanently tired (Comment on this)

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