New Twitter, First Tweet

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I’m not a big fan of #newtwitter, partly because I don’t like client-side-scripting-heavy content delivery interfaces with hashbang URLs, and partly because the redesign still fails to address a long-standing problem with archiving.

Old tweets are still not organized in any kind of list or dated format; there aren’t even next/previous buttons on individual tweets. As a result, Twitter entries tend to fade into forgotten unsearchability after a few days, weeks, or months — depending on the user’s post frequency. Previous promises to offer native archiving have fallen by the wayside, and the Google Realtime deal expired in July 2011, transforming into open hostility between Twitter and Google. Nor have we heard much about the Library of Congress Twitter archive project since it was announced.

Had I known my tweets would continue to be so ephemeral years later, I would have implemented a third-party backup solution much earlier. As it is, years of my Twitter use are in limbo and for now effectively wasted. That said, I’m thankful for an XML file provided to me by Russell from an archiving script, containing my tweets up till 14 Feb 2009 — back when it was easier to crawl Twitter for full posting histories. From that I can glean my first tweet in 2006, and use one of the features I do like about #newtwitter, easy tweet embedding:

Despite my protestations regarding archival impernanence, I know there are people who’ve switched to Twitter as a feed reader replacement, so in the fashion of @kottke and @gawker I shall indulge these “tweedreader” types by auto-feeding RSS from How Now Brownpau through Twitterfeed to @hnbp. (I’ll also be using @hnbp to follow preferred RSS-auto-fed Twitter streams to test viability as a feed reader versus my current RSS-reading web app, Google Reader.)

Through all this, I’ll be tweeting as usual at @brownpau but always with the full knowledge that all things there are tenuous at best, and what I wish to preserve should go to my site rather than be lost to an eternal scrollback mist.

Overheard at HKG

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Filipino family at Hong Kong Airport airline transfer desk, answering some questions due to some missing paperwork.

Gate agent: “Country of origin for this trip, ma’am?”

Saucy Pinay lady: “United States of America, which is our home.”

“And what city?”

“Texas.”

Sick Days

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Been a trying time health-wise; a sore throat from last week blossomed into a full-blown bronchial infection with fever, sinus congestion, and painful coughing. I took sick days off from work to recover but my condition worsened, and with an unavoidable travel deadline looming a trip to the doctor was needed.

Two days of clogged eustachian tubes and sinus congestion got me interested in this chart.

Sinuses

I was prescribed azithromycin, an antibiotic, on the chance that the infection was bacterial, and a bottle of antitussive syrup to soothe coughing through the course of the trip. By lunchtime I was feeling well enough just from general placebo effect to have lunch at Maneki Neko, a Japanese eatery in Falls Church. I sampled a couple of Kumamoto oysters and finished a bowl of Okinawa Soba noodle soup with roast pork, quite therapeutic for my tortured throat.

Kumamoto Oyster at Maneki Neko Okinawa Soba at Maneki Neko

I write this the next day aboard a trans-Pacific flight to Manila, still a bit sniffly and phlegmy, but feeling otherwise comforted by a mild codeine-and-analgesic haze. The symptoms are subsiding more quickly with the antibiotics, which might mean that the bronchial infection was indeed bacterial — or if it was viral, has simply run its course. It’s the sickest I’ve been since my shingles experience: another illness that hit me on a trip to the Philippines, interestingly enough. Pre-travel stress does that, I guess.

Wing, 747-400 (N180UA)

Costco Safari

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I suppose membership with Costco is an inevitable step in my ongoing Transition to Suburbia, and despite having lived in the USA for almost a decade now, trips to big box warehouse-type stores still hold an almost anthropological fascination for me, a cultural exploration of the types of consumables — and crafts-turned-consumables — that retailers sell in bulk.

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Brownpau Show #1

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I was in an IRC channel talking about 5by5.tv and the nature of internet fame, and nostrich said something along the lines of “WELL DO YOUR OWN SHOW” — so I did, with The Brownpau Show #1:

Mostly I was just testing out the iPad 2 camera, and how well iMovie did on-the-fly video capture, editing, and upload. I’ve done boring personal vlogs like this before — badly, on a mobile phone — but even a collection of the most ordinary observational talking heads from an iPad camera can be improved with a few snappy cut-to-cut edits. Expect more of this homemade excitement!

Last of the Litter

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Sad news: Jasper the Cat has died, at the venerable old age of 20. You may remember Jasper from my time living in Baltimore — he was my old housemate’s cat, and Pandora’s brother. An active and affectionate gray tabby with a roguish penchant for the outdoors, Jasper was excitable opposite to his quieter, more reserved indoor sister. With both cats born from a litter of four, of whom the other two had died previously, Jasper’s passing leaves Pandora as last survivor of the litter.

jasp 0014.tiff Jasper at the Window

As for Pandora, 20 years old is impressive for a cat, but the age is not without attendant health and behavior issues, among them feline hyperthyroidism, renal dysfunction, litterbox aversion, and frequent regurgitation. Regular vet checkups are a must, and with regular medication she’s doing fairly well for such an advanced age. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it; hopefully she lives for years longer still.

Happy Cat in Sunbeam

On the Passing of Computer Luminaries

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Steve Jobs seat

Steve Jobs died on October 5th, shortly after the iPhone 4S was announced. Jobs’ reserved seat sat empty at the event, and as new Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered the keynote he almost certainly knew the time was near. I half-expected that he would demo the new iPhone’s FaceTime app with a call to to Jobs in his sickbed, but that would probably have been a bit crass, with Jobs in no condition to deal with a video call.

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Chip

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Last Sunday First Baptist DC held a memorial service for Chip Hailey, long-time church member and A/V engineer, and a fixture in the Falls Church public access TV community. I briefly trained under Chip while the church was searching for new talent to manage the sanctuary A/V system. (Though I never became A/V tech, as my church time is mostly taken by choir duties — and it’s logistically difficult to juggle singing with sound room.)

During the memorial I was especially struck by this story from Chip’s childhood:

Chip was born with cerebral palsy. As one of the first poster children for the ailment, Chip attended a special event at the White House where he sat on Margaret Truman’s lap. His newly polished shoes left stains on Miss Truman’s dress; Chip made his “mark on the Truman Administration,” as he later joked with friends.

It was a very DC story. (The Trumans attended at First Baptist DC through the course of Harry Truman’s presidency, and Rev. Dr. Edward Pruden delivered the invocation at the Truman inauguration.)

More obituaries for Chip from Falls Church City TV, Falls Church News press, and Falls Church Times; and a memorial page on Facebook.

Pallbearing

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Amy’s grandma passed away. We went up to New Jersey for the funeral.

Never been a pallbearer before. First time for everything. Most of the pallbearer duty consists of just placing a hand atop the casket as it rolls on a wheeled stand from funeral home to church, but some lifting is needed needed when it comes to the curb. As I struggle with the handle and wrestle the casket those few vertical inches, my mind tries to form some metaphor about the weight of mortality, but it’s just a heavy casket.

Praying Mantis in Funeral Home Casket Selections

Back in the funeral home, a praying mantis hangs out — literally — from a floor lamp, and an array of casket selections can be viewed in the office. After the funeral mass and burial ceremony, I spy an oblique cube headstone. It is, to say the least, unique. We then retire to a nearby diner for brunch. The pickles are amazing.

Bound Brook Cemetery: Cube Headstone
Pickled Vegetables Pickles

New York, the next day. We look at Asian art at The Met and eat sushi at Kiku. The waiter says they have a shipment of some excellent Toro in the sashimi selection. I order a piece. It’s $4, but is the most amazing fatty melt-in-your-mouth chunk of tuna I have ever eaten. Along with a few pieces of salmon it is one of those sashimi meals where I am sad to come to the end. Outside, a view of Midtown Manhattan.

Looking towards midtown from Kiku Sushi in Chelsea Metropolitan Museum of Art

It all feels so material and bodily. I feel like I should be grieving more, not touring about New York and absorbing classical art and raw fish. But I’ve always had this numb matter-of-factness about death, and a hope from tenets of my faith regarding the afterlife. A heavy casket, but lighter at least by the weight of a soul redeemed.

Times Square-42nd St Station