monkinetic weblog | redmonk.net

Well, we’re back! Tired and a bit jet-lagged, but very happy to be home!

Oh, I miss the internet. “But Steve,” you say, “you’re on it now!”

With all respect to my fairly wired grandmother, a 49k AOL connection does not “The Internet” make. In just over a day I’ll be back home, basking in the wireless broadband goodness that is my home network. Yum!

Well, tomorrow ends our 2+ week sojourn in Jacksonville, Florida. We’ve been helping to care for Jodi’s grandmother Becky, who is suffering from cancer. Jodi has done the lion’s share of the work - I’ve tried to support her the best I could.

I want to write more about what it’s been like here, caring for someone dealing with a life-threatening disease and all that comes with it, but I think that it’s not yet my story to tell. Perhaps at some point it will be.

We love you Becky.

from FreeForm Goodness comes the fix for Safari’s minimum font size, which changed in Safari 1.0. quoteHidden pref, your ass is mine.
defaults write com.apple.safari WebKitMinimumFontSize 9
defaults write com.apple.safari WebKitMinimumFixedFontSize 9
(you need to enter those two lines in the Terminal.)endquote

quoteIt’s crazy what you could had, crazy what you could have had…
I need this, I need thisendquote

Country Feedback is one of my all-time favorite R.E.M. songs, from the album Out Of Time.

Of the 5 versions I have, the best one I think is a live recording from Atlanta, August 31, 1999. Michael Stipe’s vocals are ragged and haunting, the live, loose, setting lends an even more desperate tone to an already impassioned lyric.

Peter Buck’s guitar work goes on and on, with a lot more distortion, reverb, and yes, feedback than the (now seemingly) anemic album version. He plays all around the melody, lurching through his signature arpeggios, and even getting a decent solo feel to it, which was never his strong point.

One of the things I love about this song is it’s determinedly languid pace. It flows and flows, Stipe’s extra lyrics and vocalizations toward the end slide along on top of the music, drawing you in.

In my mind’s eye I see the wooden shack above the bank slide by as the river carries me past - slow, green, and cyprus-choked…

Rands in Repose describes Nerd Attention Deficit Disorder. Hi, my name is Steve, and… hey! I have email!

No time to blog this properly, but Bill blogs an IM conversation we had about Mark Pilgrim’s “Winer Watch”. See Bill’s site for links.

BTW - not having enough time is a Good Thing ™. I’m too busy working. Hot damn!