READIN

Monday, December 15th, 2003

🦋 Links that know when they are followed

It occurs to me that it might be nice to have links (to outside web sites) that knew when a reader clicked on them, in order to update statistics -- my idea is to sort my blogroll by how frequently each of the links is used. Here is an idea for how to do it: Currently the link is <a href="http://someurl">Link Text</a> -- but if the link were <a href="http://www.readin.com/blog/blog.asp?redirect='someurl'">Link Text</a>, then I could update my statistics and redirect. This might confuse some browsers' site history, causing the back button not to work properly; I'm pretty sure Explorer and Mozilla know what to do when confronted with such a situation but am not sure about earlier versions of Netscape. And I would want to have some Java code for mouseover, so that the browser's status bar would just display someurl when you hovered over the link.

Update: Weird, now (Tuesday) I see someone has browsed to my blog following a link of the type I am describing: my referrals log shows a visit from http://www.popdex.com/redir/?u=http://wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/000634.html. (The "u" redirect URL is the address of the Koufax Awards thread on Wampum.) Apparently someone followed a self-conscious link to the Koufax Awards, then followed the link on that page to my blog. And for some reason their browser remembered the self-conscious link as the referrer instead of the redirect.

posted afternoon of December 15th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Programming

Friday, December 12th, 2003

I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay last night -- by the time I got about halfway through I was utterly enthralled. I am sending it along to my dad (a comix collector) to read.

posted morning of December 12th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Sunday, December 7th, 2003

🦋 Father Christmas

The Crooked Timber thread on annoying Christmas songs inspired me to think of "Father Christmas" by the Kinks, one of very few non-annoying popular Christmas songs. (Thanks to Apostropher for telling me which song I was thinking about. Google supplied me with lyrics and I came up with some chords that seem about right. The rhythm is still giving me a little trouble. Here is Tim Harris' transcription, which seems a little better than mine, he plays it in G while I prefer C.

posted morning of December 7th, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Guitar

Saturday, December 6th, 2003

🦋 Snow parties

The snow is coming down fairly thick -- I spent some time this morning cleaning the kitchen and putting steel wool in a few gaps we have under the cabinets, and fixing up Sylvia's project area upstairs, and am looking for other stuff to do inside the house. This afternoon and evening are parties on the block; Jim is having people over to play guitar and mellow out in preparation for Connie's big party this evening. (It is Jim's 51st birthday.) Connie hired a cellist to come provide music for her party but it is not clear whether he will be able to make it in the weather; if not we will bring guitars over from Jim's.

posted afternoon of December 6th, 2003: Respond

Thursday, December 4th, 2003

The weather will be bad tomorrow and Saturday, so it looks like no timber-framing workshop for me -- even if it is still going on, I don't relish the drive down to Trenton before dawn with ice on the roads. Ah well -- there is stuff to do around the house anyways.

posted evening of December 4th, 2003: Respond

🦋 Phœnix

I switched over to Mozilla Firebird today and I like it.

posted afternoon of December 4th, 2003: Respond

Wednesday, December third, 2003

More Kavalier and Clay -- it is very absorbing and just about perfect for reading on the train. A review I read of it stated correctly that despite its substantial bulk, it seems to fly past.

posted evening of December third, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Michael Chabon

Tuesday, December second, 2003

This morning I started reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, which I found in the train station. It seems so far (60 pp. in) like a fun and amusing read, not touched by genius but the work of an attentive craftsman.

posted morning of December second, 2003: Respond
➳ More posts about Readings

Sunday, November 30th, 2003

🦋 More family visiting

Sylvia and I wrapped up our Thanksgiving weekend by going into the city today to visit Miriam and Blythe, who was in from Kansas with Isaiah. We met at the Museum of Natural History but decided to skip going to the museum and enjoy the beautiful weather. Spent about an hour at the 82nd Street playground, where Sylvia and Isaiah made some progress towards getting to know each other -- starting off with a tug-of-war over Sylvia's hat, with Isaiah holding up quite well against his older, taller cousin -- I stepped in and got them playing ring around the rosie for a while, though Isaiah didn't understand the falling-down part -- then we moved on to running around in circles without singing, and lots of climbing. Then we went for coffee and hot chocolate (and great mofungo) at Cafe con Leche on Amsterdam, and took a long walk down to Columbus Circle. Sylvia did very well on the train rides there and back.

posted evening of November 30th, 2003: Respond

Saturday, November 29th, 2003

We got back a few hours ago -- the trip was pleasant, most of our interactions with my family were stress-free, and it was really nice to watch Sylvia playing with my parents. Yesterday afternoon we were all sitting around their living room and somehow a game developed where whenever the conversation skipped a beat, Sylvia would run to whichever grandparent she was not currently sitting by and give a big hug -- a running leap hug -- and then sit next to that grandparent until the next skipped beat. Also she spent a few hours Thursday morning, helping my mom cook -- she made pumpkin pie and stuffing for the turkey, and helped stuff the turkey. (The stuffing did not come out very well, but I think that was the fault of a too-hot oven rather than due to any shortcomings in the preparation.)

Seeing Monique (and Justin and their kids) and Jeremy and Mike was great -- also Manjeet and J'aimee were there, neither of whom I have seen for more than 10 years. Brianne (is that correct spelling?) has grown up into a wonderfully hip high school student who reminds me very strongly of Monique at her age.

posted evening of November 29th, 2003: Respond

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