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Friday, May second, 2008
This week I have been making an effort to add illustrations to my posts and to my sidebar links. I'm pretty happy with how it's looking and intend to keep doing that -- it seems to make the page a lot more visually engaging. Also thinking of trying to find a graphic that would fit nicely in the upper right-hand corner of the page, where there is a lot of empty space.* Somewhat related, I've been doing a lot of work on the interface for adding new posts and editing posts, so that I'm able to see how the post will render as I'm adding it. Would like to do something similar for adding/editing the daily "Of interest:" links, but that is going to be a bit more involved.
 *Update: Found one! How do you like it?
posted evening of May second, 2008: Respond
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 Ragebunny has discovered a new photostream on Flicker; one which purports to be maintained by [presumably some person working at] The Library of Congress*. It is a fantastic thing: tons of archival photos, right now from the 1910's and the 30's-40's, and I'm assuming more decades will be uploaded soon.
 Also on LJ today, Gertrude Crumlift Sturdley links to a NY Times article about smutty archival recordings. Good stuff!
 * Confirmed: Here is the LoC's FAQ regarding the Flicker project.
posted afternoon of May second, 2008: Respond
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Thursday, May first, 2008
 I totally forgot to note the passing of another year blogging, which happened last Friday. I have been keeping this journal for 5 years, now! (At roughly 240235 posts/year.*) That is a long time.
I feel like writing some reminiscences of starting this journal, but not right now. Maybe on the weekend I will. (In the meantime, here is an early post about my motivations in starting a blog.)
 *Forgot: the id number of the latest post is not quite the same as the number of posts, since there have been a couple of deletions here and there. (It's very front-loaded though: in the first four years the average number of posts is 176, in the fifth year there are 473 posts. I wonder what the sixth year will bring?)
posted morning of May first, 2008: Respond
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 Oh boy, another month! This one is going to be the month of my birthday and the month when our garden really starts looking garden-y. (April hasn't been too bad -- some nice flowers -- but in May you start getting the lush greenery, the azaleas and the mountain laurel are going to come out in force, I need to start mowing the lawn.)
posted morning of May first, 2008: Respond
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
I wrote in comments to Dr. Waterman's post at The Great Whatsit, that the first two stanzas of "To Brooklyn Bridge" had me anticipating a story -- maybe I should try and explain what I mean.  How many dawns, chill from his rippling rest
The seagull's wings shall dip and pivot him,
Shedding white rings of tumult, building high
Over the chained bay waters Liberty --
Then, with inviolate cure, forsake our eyes
As apparitional as sails that cross
Some page of figures to be filed away;
-- Till elevators drop us from our day... So: You see the seagull flying across the bay in the dawn in the first stanza -- and I think this stanza is really the most beautiful bit of the poem -- and the second gives a feeling of dropping, as if we are taking our eyes from the gull to look at the events below it. Great! We're going to have a poem describing some events on the lower Manhattan waterfront! But no; the lens never focuses after it leaves the gull. That's my complaint. "Till elevators drop us from our day" totally makes me think, "Till human voices wake us, and we drown."
Update: Waterman suggests that at least some of the images in subsequent stanzas could be interpreted as transformations of (or references to) the seagull. This is an interesting idea.
posted evening of April 29th, 2008: Respond
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The University of Utah press will be publishing Autobiographies of Orhan Pamuk: the Writer in his Novels, by Michael McGaha, in July. It purports to be "the first book-length study of the life and writings of Pamuk", a claim which is born out by the searching I've been doing online. So, exciting! Can't wait! It is an excellent, promising title for a book about Pamuk's novels.
posted morning of April 29th, 2008: Respond
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Monday, April 28th, 2008
Go take a look at the test composition and grading method that heebie-geebie is describing, "Tiered Testing" -- it seems to me like it makes a lot of sense.
posted evening of April 28th, 2008: Respond
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Well, Lush Life is seeming (⅓ of the way in) like it's not as good as I remember Freedomland being. It's a fun book, and exciting, but it doesn't really bear thinking about -- like I'm enjoying the read as long as I'm not thinking about what I'm reading. It's reminding me a lot of NYPD Blue, in that way. So, no posts about this book, I'm just going to read it without the reflection.
posted evening of April 28th, 2008: Respond
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Sunday, April 27th, 2008
I'm taking a little break from the heavy European lit to read Richard Price's Lush Life. Ellen's been really enjoying it and she just finished, I'm going to dive in tonight. We've read Clockers and Freedomland previously and enjoyed them both -- if memory serves I thought Freedomland was by far the better of the two so I've got my fingers crossed that the upward trend will continue with his latest.
posted evening of April 27th, 2008: Respond
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Friday, April 25th, 2008
Many thanks, to whomever it was that recommended The Man Without a Past to me! I have forgotten who you were and in what forum you made the recommendation, though something tells me it was in a blog post. Ellen and I loved the movie and are wondering if the soundtrack is available.
...Yep, it's just a click away.
posted evening of April 25th, 2008: Respond
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