¤ jetless heights

+ Sat, October 30

Fallen Where They May Lie

In the morning, with wrecked blood red bodies and still-gleaming silver instruments of war fallen where they may lie, it was clear to the locals that a mighty battle had befallen the countryside during the night.

818 Oakland: Why the frat across the street can't throw a decent party

2:19 PM  ×  9 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Tue, October 26

Them White Music Things

There was a time when iPod news was the exclusive stuff of geeks and wide-eyed Apple cultists.  That was three years and three days ago.  I probably saw more than 15 of the little guys today going to only two classes.  Rich dorks no more, we’re talking Pretty Ms. ΔΔΔ-butt here.

Of course today’s announcement of the iPod Photo has my knickers all knotted.  60GB, 65,000 colors on the screen, 15 hours of battery life – what’s not to love?  The price.  Well yes, there’s the price which is the highest ever, but we’re talking about the granddaddy of all iPods here.  My prediction is that the fifth generation will see the iPod and iPod Photo roll back into one product.  Color screens across the line, maxing out at the traditional high price point of $499.  We shall see.

As for today’s announcement, nickd and I had a little conversation.

Phil: Apple
nickd: WHITE STRIPES EDITION
nickd: INTERPOL EDITION
nickd: TURN ON THE BACKLIGHTS



nickd: wow
nickd: sony really takes it up the ass again, don’t they
nickd: did you see that model they released yesterday?
Phil: Yeah, I read
nickd: they had to release the ipod killer again because people realized it wouldn’t play mp3s :p
nickd: and it managed to suck even more



Phil: Composite video and stereo audio in a mini-jack
nickd: …
Phil: jpg, bmp, gif, tiff and png
nickd: NO TARGA???????
Phil: NO EPS EITHER
nickd: NO MICROGRAFX DESIGNER; TRAVESTY



Phil: Apple - iPod Photo - Sync Your Photos
nickd: good lord
Phil: Pretty pics there too
Phil: And the new dock
Phil: (with s-video on it also)
Phil: Where’s the toaster attachment?
Phil: Or the kitchen sink
nickd: NICE DOCK
Phil: IT DOES NOT HAVE A  KITCHEN SINK
nickd: IT ONLY HAS A BATHROOM SINK
nickd: INSUFFICIENCY

3:11 PM  ×  1 Comment  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Sun, October 24

How To Make A Purchase At The Mall

My AlchemyTV DVR arrived last week and despite slightly crappy software, it is Good.  Why buy another appliance when I have almost everything I need sitting in front of me at this very moment?  All was good and well until I went to attach my GameCube via the input ports on the card.  Mini-stereo only?  No prob, I’ve got an RCA to Mini-stereo cable.  Wait, male plugs?  But the GameCube also has male plugs!

In this time of need, the blinding light of RadioShack shone upon my connection disjunction.  But that meant a trip to The Mall and The Mall is not a happy place.

I lost any and all desire to set foot in that godawful expanse of a building a decade ago.  Funny that this just so happens to roughly correspond with the disappearance of KBToys.  Go figure.  Since then, set foot in it I have, each time with thoughts turned squarely on getting out in hasty fashion.  Today’s trip was a good exercise in tactics developed for this goal.

Please note though, this is no guide for shopping at the mall.  For me, that’s near blasphemy.  That said, how to.

Obviously, you must know what’s in your mall and where in there it is.  If you’re going to get in and out as quickly as you can, you need to know where the closest door to your targeted store is and you need to park as close as you can to that door.  If your local mall has a site, they very likely have an online map, such as this handy one at my local consumer quagmire.  RadioShack.  Next to Sears.  Door located nearby.  Good, good, good.

In choosing the store though, you must know for sure that they have it.  You might want to call them in order to verify you’re going there for a good reason.  Knowing that I just needed two male-to-male RCA converters, RadioShack was the guaranteed store.  They have converters for everything, I doubt it’s even possible to name two devices that can’t be connected with the wonderful toys they have in that fantastic store.  Good techies go to the RadioShack in the sky when they die.

In getting to the mall, you must find the little known entrance.  The one where there are no cars and no traffic jams ever.  For Briarwood, there’s a small street off of State called Mall Drive, and – despite the name – no one takes it.  This is the entrance of choice.  Find your door and park.  Do not purposefully drive the wrong way down the parking lot aisles.  This labels you an Idiot Excelsius.  If you must turn 135° to get into the parking spot, you’ve already failed.

My largest beef with the mall is simply getting around within it.  By and large, the people in the barely ambulating crowds seem wholly unable to propel themselves forward in a line at a pace faster than a foot-dragging kid, cranky off the come-down of a sugar high.  This says nothing of the sudden stop-and-turn-fullcirlce motion many enjoy, nor of the immediate decision to turn-45°-and-plow,-people-on-the-sides-be-damned.  As if this wasn’t bad enough, now there are those evil kiosks in the middle.

Never make eye contact with kiosk workers.  They will feed on your soul.

In a store, you have safety in numbers.  If you don’t make a purchase, chances are the person next to you will, so the employees won’t hound you to make the sale.  At a kiosk, you are all of the customers at once.  If they don’t make the sale to you, they don’t make the sale to anyone.  You are their everything and they will get you.  Never make eye contact with kiosk workers.  They will feed on your soul.

If by this point you have made it through this gauntlet of consumer horror and arrived at your store, you have a moment to breath.  Find what it is you’re looking for and buy it, all the while relishing in your relative safety.  Then, deep breathe, jump back out there and battle back to the car and then again, out the safe exit and you’re scott-free.  Congratulations, you made it once again and are now ahead two male-to-male RCA adapters!

Of course, though, if said mall has one of these in it, well, then everything is entirely different.

2:02 PM  ×  7 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Wed, October 20

From A Basement

Each individual bit of Elliott Smith’s posthumous final album drops like a cannonball into a still lake, bound forever to last year’s events.  Listening is an exercise in helplessly watching ripples wash ashore.

7:42 PM  ×  2 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

No Voices-In-My-Head Cracks, Please

I’m taking a linguistics class this semester and last night, while reading in bed and slowly fading out of consciousness, something I read got me thinking about that voice in your head.  The one you hear when you read to yourself or think a thought in words - not that other one I’m expecting you all to make jokes about in the comments.  What voice is that?  Why does it feel like you hear it when you’re obviously not and why am I calling it a voice?  How is it able to play back music, drum kits and guitar parts included, when there’s absolutely no way you could possibly make that noise with your body?

If there’s a term for this, or any information online about this that you know of, I’d love to hear it.  Has  anyone ever even studied this really?  Weird stuff.

10:30 AM  ×  7 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Sun, October 17

Reconsideration

As I believe many of you remember and have occasionally brought up, I used to write a lot more than I have been.  That was another time though, another place.  I was a very different person when I started writing online, the composition of you all - the audience - has changed wildly in the last few years, my thoughts on what’s even acceptable for public display have become incredibly more conservative than they were.

But through this, and maybe because of this, I find myself writing much less than I’d like.  4 months in and I’ve averaged 1.75 posts a week.  There was a period of time where I was averaging 1.75 posts a day.

Starting over online was partially an effort in redefining my voice.  A sort of balancing act against a time when I was too candid online and definitely strained a relation or two.  While this is too withstrained, I hold firm in saying that there are many things which have no right being on display in such a public and eternal venue.  Sorry kids, but you’re not going to find details of your daddy’s college escapades in cached copies of the pages here.  I’ll tell you when you’re older.

This is a debate everyone involved in writing online must engage themselves at some point.  You never know what future employer, current employer, ex or longlost friend is Googling you and you never know what trail of yours they’ll find.  What are you comfortable with Old Lady Doris down the road knowing?

Obviously, I am not satisfied with the balance I’ve struck.  This itself is a push towards correction, where I offer you insight into what I’m considering.  I have offered few to no details of who I am and what I think in these past four months and that’s a problem.  This is the site of Phil Dokas, and so far Phil Dokas has been hiding behind the curtains.

1:11 AM  ×  8 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Sat, October 16

Interpol

If I had to pick a band that I’d expect to play a serious set and do it in a very straightforward and perfect manner, it would be Interpol, hands down.  Their music is a kind of surgery and in concert they are the needlepoint doctors taking meticulous care of you.

The setlist (and for the Googlers: October 15, 2004 - Detroit, Michigan - State Theater)

  1. Next Exit
  2. Obstacle 1
  3. Evil
  4. C’mere
  5. Say Hello To The Angels
  6. Narc
  7. Not Even Jail
  8. Hands Away
  9. NYC
  10. Slow Hands
  11. Length Of Love
  12. PDA

    Encore
  13. Leif Erikson
  14. Roland

    Second Encore
  15. Stella Was A Diver And She Was Always Down

They played with a nearly bare stage.  Amps were hiding out of sight, cables were few and ran quickly to the edges, even the non-member keyboardist was only half onstage.  It’s this minimization that makes much of their majesty.

And who doesn’t love a band that teases you with a double encore?

1:22 AM  ×  0 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Thu, October  7

Google SMS

Certainly by now everyone knows that Google makes the most useful tools of anyone out there.  Free, massive email, the best aggregated news of anyone, free usenet archives dating all the way back, an incredibly adaptive and knowledgeable calculator, local searching, maps, stocks – there’s not a lot they don’t do.

Today, they totally one-upped themselves in my eyes: Google SMS.  Loading Google on your phone has always been an easy thing (with a spartan page like that, certainly) for those lucky enough to have the web via their phone, but now you can access their knowledge via SMS text messaging.  Looking at this page, you can see how to look up businesses, people, addresses, prices, definitions, the calculator and – the best – quick facts all via your phone, nearly instantly.

The set of people with text messaging but without data transfer abilities on their phone is huge.  This is a huge step for the complete pervasiveness of Google into our lives.

I must say, it’s a wonderful thing to have such great guys providing such an insanely powerful and free service for as many people as they can.  Completely fantastic.

4:50 PM  ×  0 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Fri, October  1

It’s Also Not The Preferred Nomenclature

During the rabble on six-way vs. bilateral discussions with North Korea over their unending insanity, I simply prayed for Jim Lehrer to stand up and declare that “The Chinaman is not the issue here, dude!”.  Sadly, it was not to be.

12:36 AM  ×  1 Comment  ×  0 Trackbacks