Monday Morning Musings [VI]

broderic on December 27, 2010

It's been awhile since the last post under this heading, but what better way to kick off a quiet week at the office. No one's around. Just me in the lab. No one to see that you're slacking off. Let's write a blog post about something!I figure that this one should be about the year that passed, 2010. While nothing spectacular happened, there are some highlights and lowlights to assess. Overall, another mediocre year in the life of BrowserMetrics.The best things to happen where the vacations with cousin Bob. It's a good time whenever he's around, but an ever better time when that time is spent in magical places: Disneyland and Hawaii. O, those were vacations to remember. Fun and sun. Surf, sand, and more. Lots of good things, good times, and good eats.Terrible things that happened this year. I never rode my bike. A good friend went back home. We had a couple of blizzards and I never made it to the slopes. My inaction on a lot of these issues was disturbing. Maybe I should get out more?Movies? Didn't watch too many. My Netflix queue is not getting serviced too much. Nothing is playing on TCM. I'm just waiting for something good.Books? Manga! Manga! Manga! From Uresawa to Uresawa: Pluto to 20th Century Boys. Lots of scifi in there: Saturn Apartments, Twin Spica, 7 Billion Needles. It's seems that I've run full circle to my reading habits although it's now manga. As for traditional books, not too much read.Anime! Too much torrenting, and not enough buying. K-ON! ended which makes me sad. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and Summer Wars anime movie were both released which makes me happy. Other anime to have watched: Oreimo, Amigami SS.There were lots of things I did this year. Just nothing spectacular. Have you done your year end retrospective as well?

Link of the Day [12.10.10]

broderic on December 10, 2010

I occasionally link to Jason Thompson's manga work at Anime News Network, because he writes articles that go over the history of manga, which I love reading. Today's link is Thompson's article on Battle Angel Alita.Alita was one of the first manga I read. I still have the early print editions of the VIZ comics, which I collected in the 90s. Along with Shirow Masamune's Appleseed, Alita was my early introduction to manga and it's weird to think that I have been reading manga for this long. Back then, manga were 30 page issues of a comic book bought at the comic store and not a hundred page volume of a soft cover graphic novel bought at Barnes and Noble. A comic is a comic, and manga is a comic. I still read lots of comics, but I buy them at Barnes and Noble.Looking over my early manga reading I find that I was into sci-fi worlds. Now, I'm into shojo, moe girls, but still find myself reading sci-fi manga. Pluto, Saturn Apartments, 7 Billion Needles are all on my reading list and they are sci-fi. I can't get enough moe girls, but it seems I can't get enough sci-fi. Thanks, manga!Battle Angel Alita is still ongoing! I hear that it isn't that great and Thompson says so to an extent. I still have my long boxes of comics from the 90s. I should dig up those VIZ comics issues from back then. I can't remember where I stopped reading. Maybe, I should dig up the volumes of the books on Amazon….http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/house-of-1000-manga/2010-12-09

“I am. I am. I am Superman. And I can do anything.”

broderic on October 8, 2010

25 And Living Large: I'm an alcholic!

If there was flickr in the 90s, I would’ve favorited this photo.

The funny thing about this photo is that it was taken on September 18, 1996. It’s my birthday! Happy birthday, BrowserMetrics! You’re 25!

Now take a look at who’s helping me to celebrate. They are co-workers from Ruby’s, fellow servers. For my last birthday, it was just my family. I can’t believe that I had celebrated a birthday not with family. It’s been a long time.

The other aspect of this photo is that the girl I was crushing hard on at the time is also there to celebrate it as well. That’s why I’m ducking out of the picture. This can’t be real. Someone pinch me. The problem though is that I was a drunk at the time. So it was hard to figure out what happened on this night.

When I pulled this photo off the floppy, I didn’t know any of these facts. I had to search my memory for it. I had to look at the date on the files just to be sure that I had the right year. This time of my life is a drunken blur. I must’ve been having too good of a time to chronicle it. And yet I wish I had.

Currently, I like to chronicle my life with social media. Blogs, flickr, twitter are all contributing to making my memories indexable by google. Yet, these formative years of my twenties weren’t and they make it a big, black hole. So I look at this photo, and smile as it’ll help me recover them.

Here’s how I think the night happened. Drinks at the Harryman House. More drinks at one of these guys’ house. Passed out drunk. What a birthday! As I look back on it, I wish I wasn’t a drunk and I had put the moves on that girl. Some things are still the same with me.

So what I have here is an artifact of funness, something which I’ve been missing these last few months. I’ve been in a funk. I just need to get my drunk on and just have a good time. Like that bastard in the photo.

“Who are we? What we see? Whoa, I can’t comprehend.”

broderic on October 5, 2010

25 And Living Large: I'm an alcholic! 25 And Living Large 25 And Living Large

Remember this? I had promised a few posts related to these pictures in which I look back to who I was back then. Before doing so I want to get into the technology of these pictures, because it struck me as funny as to how far computing has progressed. And it was in thinking of how old these photos were that made me realize that even though I am in these pictures that person is not anything like the me of today and neither is the technology.

You already know I pulled these pictures from a 3/4″ floppy disk, but you don’t know that they were formatted as a gif file. That’s funny because the best way to store pictures onto storage media would be jpg. Why are they gifs? Who in their right mind would scan photos into gif files. What year is it again?! I remember when and where I got these photos scanned. It was a camera store in Hunt Valley by the Giant, and according to the time stamps of the files, they were created on Saturday, October 12, 1996. That’s just about 14 years ago, when the Internet was barely walking, the floppy drive was the favorite removable storage media, Windows 95 was within its year of release, and you didn’t own a scanner. Plus, cameras were still using film.

Look at it today, October 4, 2010. Our storage media contain 1000 times more floppy disks. The Internet is in its unruly teens. I don’t care anymore about Windows 95, because OS X kicks its ass, and Apple still rulez. I have a scanner and could scan those analog film pictures on my own into jpg files if I wanted. And my camera is pure digital.

We change. So does technology. What happens when we try to go back? It becomes somewhat of a hassle because things may not be compatible anymore. All the trouble to update outdated things, is it worth it?

“Wake up, Manhattan! Wake up, Brooklyn! Wake up… the other three boroughs!”

broderic on September 30, 2010

25 And Living Large: I'm an alcholic! 25 And Living Large 25 And Living Large

This summer I had purchased a 3/4″ floppy drive. My motivation to go backwards in time was to find these photos. Little did I know was that I could’ve just brought the Win95 machine back to life and used it’s floppy drive or barring that I could’ve resurrected the Powerbook 190 for the job. All I’m saying is that I went through plenty of hurdles to put these on my flickr photostream.

These pictures are inspiring me to write a couple of posts about them, about that time, about that person who I was. When I pulled them from the floppy, lots of thoughts and memories came flooding to my mind. I wanted to identify who was who, when was when, and what happened. Needless to say this reminiscing leeds me to think I may have a few tall tales to tell from these photos.

I think I may have a few posts coming…

Doo Doo Doo

broderic on June 21, 2010

A Life Less Ordinary was on FMC last night.

The first few bars of this song instantly transported me to 1998.

Man. I was sad. So long ago and another lifetime. Was that really me? I don’t think I can ever get back there to that person.

Wrapped in a bag

broderic on April 28, 2010

Memories in a garbage bag

And your life and good memories fit into a small garbage bag. Tossed away. Thrown out for new ones.

I need to get some people together to help me make new ones.

You ready?

Embraced

broderic on April 16, 2010

Good and tasty dream last night starring the ur-girl, I.

We were having our 20th class reunion.

We meet up before.

She is much more friendly reminding me of our good times together. We’re touching each other, embracing, kissing, flirting. We make plans to go to the beach.

The reunion is a success. Lots of 80s. Out and away from the city. Long drive.

I disappear from the party for several hours all the time worried that I will miss her. I do. I keep waiting and hoping to get back to the reunion. I need to get back to hugging and the holding. I keep thinking of her.

She’s still as young, fresh and innocent as I remember. She hasn’t changed one bit from my memories.

I get back to the reunion which is winding down. We’re talking chatting with classmates. We’re really friendly with each other.

The morning after we’re having breakfast at a big table. I’m holding her. She’s smiling and laughing. We’re at a big table across from a classmate. The table is still a mess from the party before. You’re so far away. I think this table can move out a bit so we can slide to the middle. We move closer to our classmate all the while in an embrace, my arm around her waist and her head gently resting on my shoulder.

We’re a couple in my dream flushed with that early rush of love.

Things Thrown Away vol 1

broderic on April 16, 2010

Don’t remember the date. Must be sometime in 1995. Look at those pars! And how I closed out strong. I remember the last hole. Flopped the approach right up close to the pin, but the yips kicked in.