Vox

.

I’m trying out Vox, the new hosted weblog service by Six Apart (makers of Movable Type and Typepad, and acquisitors of Livejournal). So far I’ve been mostly disappointed, but that’s probably because my expectations of a weblog service are rather different from what people usually want. Apparently most of you out there want an easy WYSIWYG editor with one-click posting of photos and other media — while I want full control over my HTML, with just line and paragraph breaks handled by the weblog app. Vox gives you tons of the former, with easy options for image size and alignment displayed in a slick multilayered javascript-based UI, but there’s nary an “Edit HTML” button in sight.

Matt Haughey takes a different perspective, however:

It’s funny how things come full circle — when I started out I hand coded blog entries, then I wrote my own CMS, then eventually I moved to a commercial CMS package and now I would prefer to never have to maintain a server or backups and I don’t really feel like designing my own blog templates anymore

I’m starting to understand how he feels about that tension between writing and coding, but while it’s nice to have ways to quickly insert preformatted multimedia into our websites without worrying about the validity of the code, sometimes you still want to get into the guts of an entry to mix things up a bit. That’s where Vox has so far failed me. Still, for the much wider market of MS Word-accustomed non-HTML users out there, this will likely be a much easier alternative to creating rich media weblogs, and in that I wish Vox the best. While it may not be a primary solution for me, I will still make good use of my Vox page as a repository to gather the drippings of my hidden obsession.

The service is still in build-up-hype-mode beta, so registration is closed to a precious few users who signed up to try it out, but each one of those users gets a few invitations to share with others — two, in my case. Want them? Come and get them.

Empty Encampment

.

mo_572_.jpg This is the entrance to a Pepco power station on E Street near New Jersey Ave NW. There’s usually a homeless guy named Reggie camped out under the awning here, but lately he’s been gone, and the awning has been vacant. (Pepco put up the gate and NO TRESPASSING signs to try and keep him out, but he just used it as a way to pitch a tent.)

Saturday afternoon, I found a tired-looking, middle-aged black woman sitting in Reggie’s spot. I asked him if she knew were he was, and she answered, “Legally, I’m his wife. He’s in jail.” She was undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer — not a grift, as the large, painful-looking lump on the side of her neck was quite prominent — and had just gotten out of the hospital, with nothing on her but the clothes on her back. Medicaid provided her with her three prescriptions for $1.50 each, and the local shelter would give her a bed for $5 a night, but she had not even that much on her. Her husband, obviously, would not be of any help. She would be able to visit him in prison on Tuesday, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to, since he had been philandering with DC’s other homeless females.

It rained that night, but she found shelter with the help of some cash and a copy of Street Sense from a kind stranger. I hope Reggie gets out of jail soon, and figures out how to get on his feet rather than go back to that awning.

Make friends with a homeless person and help her or him out — not necessarily with cash, but with some coffee or a hot meal once in a while. Yeah, sometimes they’re grifters, but more often they’re completely out of luck and don’t know how to start over. DC-area residents, TouchDC can point you to housing and employment charities if you’re interested in donating or volunteering.

Installing Sound Packs in Trillian Basic

.

Applying a skin to Trillian is easy, but for some reason there’s not a lot of documentation out there on how to install sound packs. It took me a while to figure it out: you have to copy the sound pack folder into /Program Files/Trillian/stixe/plugins, then open up Trillian Preferences > Skins, click on “Advanced,” and select the sound pack from the “Sounds” dropdown menu.

I mention this because I found an iChat skin for Trillian Pro. I use the free Trillian Basic, and being something of a default-mode lover (more on that some other time), I’m okay with the standard Trillian skin — but I wanted a gentler sound scheme. While the iChat skin is only for Pro users, it does come with an iChat sound pack which can be installed into Trillian Basic just fine, using the directions above. It’s so nice to have light and gentle “whoosh” sounds accompanying my messages now, rather than the urgently shrill notes of the default Whistler theme.

Beginner’s Iced Mocha

.

It turns out mocha is surprisingly easy to make. Remember to leave room for lots of milk and ice, and remember to use more coffee ground while brewing, to keep the blend strong as the ice melts.

  1. Brew coffee as you usually do. Pour into any mug or styro tumbler.
  2. Add two teaspoons of sugar, two teaspoons of Nesquik, and about half as much milk as coffee.
  3. Mix. Add ice. Mix more.

Note that you want to mix things before adding ice, since heat increases solubility, then mix again after adding ice to get everything cold. Don’t underestimate how much ice you need; it’ll melt fast.

iBook Loses Power

.

Set214_01 Well, the iBook is back in the shop, having succumbed to a bad DC-in port. The battery was down to 20% before I noticed that the AC adapter plug wasn’t working, and the thing went into power-save sleep before I could transfer data off it. I tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM, and when that didn’t work, I ordered a new 45W Apple iBook power adapter from an eBay retailer (they’ve gotten pretty cheap), and when that didn’t work, I tried yelling, and of course that didn’t work, so it was off to the Genius Bar.

Turns out the Genius Bar runs on appointments now; you need to reserve a slot with the Apple Store Concierge. I reserved an afternoon slot, braved a crowded rush hour Metro (I never ride at rush hour anymore, and yesterday reminded me why), and got to the store ten minutes late. No more Geniuses at the Bar. But one of the staff must have seen my angry scowl, because he came to the bar and helped out. The repair will cost about $150 (which is $20 parts and $130 labor, as the Genius half-joked), and I get the iBook back sometime early next week.

You know, looking back at all the problems this iBook has given me over the past three years literally from day one [1,2,3,4,5,6] I must say that it took getting a Mac to cure of me of being a Mac zealot. I can only recommend that if you do buy one, be sure to cough up the extra for AppleCare and some good external backup storage, because you’re probably going to need them. I certainly hope my next Mac fares better, though I still plan to hold on to this one, for sentimental reasons.

Stranded Chick (Update: Dead Chick)

.

Chick.jpg

This sparrow chick was sitting on the steps outside the office today. He (She?) probably came from the same nest from which those other dead birds fell. This one was still alive, though, and rather scared and disoriented. I was able to coax him onto my hand, and he showed himself well on his way to full adult birdhood when he jumped off and shakily glided back down to the ground, wings flapping frantically. I picked him up again and left him in the bushes by the door, where I hope he’ll be able to find worms and grubs to eat — and not be eaten by them in turn.

Update: Well, I returned to the office today, and there on the steps: dead chick. I guess he just wasn’t ready for the grand adventure of life. The carcass is now in the trash, off to join its siblings.

Dead Chick Another Dead Chick

DC Heat Wave 2006

.

Update: This entry was for the June heat wave of 2006. The following August, we had Heat Wave 2006: Part 2!

Heat wave! Apparently yesterday was as hot as it would get this summer, at least according to CapitalWeather. What I said back in 2002 still applies now: this weather was par for the course in Manila. Walking around DC in these hot, soupy summer days brings me right back to walking around Makati, through air so thick with ozone and nitrogen oxide from vehicle exhaust that you were almost swimming in it. Every day was a Code Red day. And this was in December.

WaPo has the science on heat and the body, and we have roundups from DCist and ReadExpress. (This all comes a bit late, of course. My windowside thermometer says it’s in the low 80s outside, rather than the low 100s it was yesterday.) More curmudgeonly “you youngins call this a heat wave” chest-beating from WhyIHateDC, and CartoonChurch reports that it is now rather hot in the UK.

Lemony BBQ Pork Chops

.

I’ve cooked a few things, but until last week, I had never cooked a pork chop. Oh, I’ve eaten pork chops several times, but I’ve never actually made a pork chop meal for myself. That changed on Friday, as I purchased two nice big slabs to do with as I pleased, along with a little shaker of BBQ Grill Mate. Here, then, is my quick and dirty recipe for BBQ-sprinkled lemony pork chops.

  1. Sprinkle pork chops with BBQ Grill Mate.
  2. Drizzle with olive oil and squeeze a lemon or two over it.
  3. Leave to marinate in refrigerator for the afternoon.
  4. Broil at 450°F for 12 minutes. Use a proper drip tray to let the fat and excess olive oil drip out.
  5. Serve with optional apple sauce.

As with most of my cooking, all times and quantities are arbitrary. If you’ve got a grill or a George Foreman, grill away; it saves you the step of dripping off excess fat and olive oil, which I had to do since I don’t have a proper broiling drip tray.

Curled-Up Paws

.

Sometimes the cat sleeps like this, and while she’s dreaming, she starts batting at the air.

Wasp On Sign

.

IMG_7539.JPG

Little wasp crawling around on a wooden sign in Harpers Ferry, WV.