June 30, 2004

No Hablo. Apparently, the Great Email God is mad at me, or my Dad sent another one of his 400-MB picture-laden files, because my server has shut itself down like a bank on a holiday. So if I'm not getting back in touch with you today, it's not because I don't love you.

Finally, after one abortive attempt, I got a copy of Retrospect for the Mac (a backup/archival utility) and loaded it on the server at home. Tonight I'm going to back up the entire work volume and then set up a script to do the same every week. I can't tell you how many copies of file upon file I have, in a frantic attempt to never throw anything away (this includes freelance work from eight years ago, written on software I probably can't run anymore), or how many times I've backed up the same file only to have lost all copies of it in some brainless mixup. Onward, men, to the twenty-first century!

Currently on heavy rotation: The Postal Service. 45 minutes of pure electro-pop bliss. I love this album more each time I listen. (Nothing Better is about as close to bittersweet breakup perfection in a song as I have ever heard.)

Random Links. Atlanta Time Machine. (via kottke) | Wonder what her husband thinks? | link

June 29, 2004

They're Growing Chairs. Along the stretch of Frederick Road towards Catonsville, the lawn chairs are blooming. From lowly plastic to luscious aluminum, multicolored varieties crowd the edge of the street, marked with ribbons of tape and twine. Bright beach chairs hug the grass next to the curb, whle stately motel chairs anchor the light poles and mailboxes. Across the street from our house, in front of the rental, several dozen white molded chairs clog the edge of the lawn, blending in perfectly with the weedy landscaping ignored by the tenants. Our lawn is clear (at least as of this writing), but I'll have to bring the $7 camping chairs out and block off a swath of our frontage before somebody else does. Saturday the front of the house will be crowded with people waiting for the parade, and we'll have front-row seats. | link

June 28, 2004

1956 Oldsmobile Holiday, Oella, 6.27.04

Reminder. Jen mentioned something to me the other day that got me excited—she asked if we could go to Assateague this year now that we have the Jeep. Friends, I had completely put aside the idea of camping on the beach again with the Scout off the road; somehow it had never occurred to me that we have 4-wheel-drive again, and the possibility of camping was back in our reach. This week I'm going to blow the dust off the camping gear and set up an expedition for sometime in September.

Huh. Today at work they asked me if I wanted to go to Siggraph in August, which is a surprise; not being the #1 3-D guru here, I figured I was low on the list of priority conference attendees, but somebody above me thinks it's important to have me there. Of course this means I need to rethink some of my plan for Jen's birthday, but the thing I had in mind was going to have to wait for the weekend either way. There are some very interesting and possibly interesting exhibits to see.

Recap. Saturday: Had the Jeep inspected—it passed. Bought a ladder, tested ladder, returned ladder and bought a taller one. Cleaned the sprayer, primed and painted the east side of the house. Cleaned out the Taurus. Got some soft serve ice cream with the Wards. Sunday: Finished painting the house, had a tasty breakfast, bought a steel motel table, two camera filters and an Emerson 550 for $21. Drove to Dave's house and enjoyed some good conversation, Indian beer, and new music (Thanks Dave!) Returned home to a delicious meal from Jen, and planned out a budget. This Morning: Registered and titled the Jeep.

Monday Learning Links. How to Pick a Lock. | MIT open courseware. | Bootable OSX DVD how-to. | Photoshop weathering primer. | link

June 25, 2004

Let Us Give Thanks. For cold A/C that doesn't overheat the engine. For working electrical components that don't flake out randomly. For a tape deck that works. For two cupholders that don't block the radio. For four working speakers. For comfortable bucket seats that don't lean. For a hatchback. For a trailer hitch, and the wiring to support it. For a full-sized spare. For a center console. For a factory roof rack. For peace of mind.

Accessories. Now that I have a new vehicle with a working tape deck, I need to pick up a few things for the iPod: An auto adapter ($19.95), so that I don't run the batteries down (and there's two power jacks in the Jeep!) as well as a new protector ($20) and dock ($30) so that the iPod stays off the floor. Will I be buying any of this anytime soon? Not likely, but that's why it's called a wish list. (While I'm at it, let's just add this to the list.) | link

June 24, 2004

The happy couple (Hi Shelly!), 5.22.04 ©2004 Shannon Bishop

It Has Begun. last night I started the process of scanning in the cream of the crop of the weddin' pictures last night to show you good folks. At some point, when I get some free time, I'll put them up honemoon-style, but for now here's a preview. (Dang. Am I really losing that much hair?) | link

June 23, 2004

Encapsulated Reviews. To the 5 Boroughs: Same as it ever was, like a new version of Hello Nasty. Velvet Revolver: Slash Temple Pilots. Modernized 80's metal. Shuggie Otis: trippy 70's funk. A soundtrack to your own personal selfsploitation movie. Big Star: The original. A blueprint for most garage bands that followed. The Killers: Retro-disco rock, not unlike your Franz Ferdinand.

No Jinx. You, my loyal readers, have suffered through four years of complaints about my cars—between the soggy love affair with the Scout and the love/hate relationship with the Taurus, you've glazed over during my tirades, love letters, repair bills and sob stories. Age and rust have caught up with the Scout, rendering her muffler-less last August during our move to the country. She sits in the driveway, waiting for the Big Bag Of Money to drop from the sky. Meanwhile I've sweated through two years of increasing unreliability from the Ford as the transmission slowly ground itself into a spinning nubbin, praying to the Sky Bully (new favorite phrase) to get me home without breaking down on the shoulder of I-83 or somewhere along North Avenue. Yesterday afternoon, I was treated to three unscheduled stops on the side of 695 after being forced to slow in traffic quickly; each time the transmission decided it had had enough and forgot where second gear was. Meanwhile, the heater must be run at full blast to keep the engine from starting a car-b-que.

So it is with great pleasure that I announce a new vessel in the Lockardugan Home Fleet: a 1998 Jeep Cherokee. It has about eight of the ten things I was looking for in a replacement vehicle:

It is also with great pleasure that I announce we have met our first neighbors aged under 70, who sold us the truck. M and S have two young boys, live in one of the houses I've lusted after from afar, and strike us as genuinely nice people. We're looking forward to getting to know them over for dinner this summer.

At the risk of spitting in the eyeball of Providence, it kind of came together perfectly. S put signs in the windows and parked the Jeep on the street last Friday morning; I saw it while limping the Tortoise home that evening, and Monday night we were test-driving. Superstitious fool that I am, I hope the Jeep serves us as well as the Ford (say what I will, that car paid for itself, every penny) and that our new neighbors don't run screaming into the hills when they get to know us. | link

June 22, 2004

I loaded iDVD last night and played around with it last night for a few hours—I'm going to burn a DVD and send it up to my folks. It takes some time to get used to the UI, but once I began to grasp the concept behind the layout, it made sense. One nifty feature is the drag-and-drop flexibility between iTunes, iPhoto and iDVD. I created an iPhoto album of all the honeymoon shots, a song playlist in iTunes, and dragged them both into iDVD: Bam. Instant slideshow on DVD, with all the image source files included so that my parents can pull them off the disc and print them if they like. I also re-encoded a Quicktime movie and included that on the disc, but I haven't tried re-encoding the video clips from my camera yet. Another good resource to look at (if you have four zillion photos, like me) is this article on O'Reilly, which covers backing up your iPhoto library with optical media. | link

June 21, 2004

Before: ugly grayish mildew-stained siding

After: blue-gray paint applied (except over that damn bush)

You've Got A Friend In Texas. 1. This morning Jen called me from home with news of a package from the Matejowskys; Lorie took the time to send up some good classical music: Shuggie Otis and Big Star for our enjoyment. Besides being the most photogenic family we've ever met, Lorie also made us a beautiful quilt for our wedding present, so they get awarded the Musical Quilting Superhero Trophy. 2. We're meeting Linda, another friend from Houston, at BWI this evening to catch dinner and a few drinks, which we're all looking forward to.

I, however, get the loser award for not having called my Dad last night. | link

June 20, 2004

Recap. This weekend was a busy one. Friday night Todd and Heather had us over for steak and sangria; the meal, company, and booze were all excellent. Plans are afoot. Saturday Jen and I got to work on the house—she worked on the inside while I started painting the outside. After settling on a different color (the new one is less blue and more gray, called "Pelican Bay") I got the front siding painted. Everything was going great until a wasp stung me on the knuckle of my ring finger, which hurt like a bitch. Suddenly, I turned five-years-old and ran downstairs clutching my swelling finger, saying, "guess what just happpened." Jen calmly applied a paste of baking soda and waited for me to stop grimacing. We celebrated with a tasty homemade stir-fry and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Today we met up with Shannon, our wedding photographer, to look at pictures in Takoma Park at a tasty cafe during brunch. Again, I can't say enough good things about Shannon and her husband Ganes. The pictures are all phenomenal; minus the obligatory 10% of eyes-closed/stupid face/blurry shots, there are a good 200 star-quality candids in there. Beyond that, there are another 200 that I'd be proud to call my own on a great day. She handed off a beautiful handmade box with prints from each roll archived alphabetically, and an envelope stuffed full of negatives, plus a CD of high-res digital shots. Wow. I'm going to borrow the scanner from work tomorrow and begin the long process of culling and scanning all these good shots.

Getting back to the house after a Target detour, I finished up the front of the house and we relaxed with Friday night's leftovers (yum). There's also two bits of news I'm not going to jinx by mentioning just yet, but I think they are a good sign. | link

June 18, 2004

Smelly Fresh Idea. I have no firsthand experience with this product, but I'm curious to try it out: the Fresh² bulb, which is one of those compact flourescent bulbs coated with a titanium dioxide coating, which creats oxidizers to neutralize odors. It's $20 for two bulbs, so I may not get around to buying them anytime soon, but... (via cool tools)

I avoided spending $200 on a ladder yesterday, deciding to wait until I need it—I'm going to be painting the front of the house first, and I can reach everything I need to out there with the section of ladder I do have (thanks, Dad—I'm going to bring it back, I promise.) We are a go on the color choice, and I'm looking forward to this job. I think it'll make a dramatic difference with the front of the house. We also have tentative plans to see our wedding pictures on Sunday. I'm nervous (I photograph poorly, unlike my wife) but excited. Also, I got the Superdrive installed last night in five minutes: open case, two screws, disconnect cables, attach new drive, two screws, close case. Toast immediately saw the drive, although I haven't loaded iDVD yet—I'm going to try the Ken Burns thing on our honeymoon photos and send my folks a disc.

Uh-Oh.There's a guy up in New Jersey selling off his entire collection of Scout parts. He has fenders, hoods and windshields for $150 each. This could be dangerous. I'll know more later. | link

June 17, 2004

Has anybody thought to ask one of these kids running around with the trucker hats that say Von Dutch if they actually know what Von Dutch is? Corrolary: Has anybody other than me seen the new rage in car window decals—Calvin kneeling in front of a big huge cross? I bet Bill Watterson is slashing his wrists over that one.

The Superdrive came this morning, so I have a date with the guts of our Sawtooth tonight for some upgrading. Not much else to report right now—this week has been a blur of work, dinner, freelance, and sleep. On the down side, Jen called me from downtown Ellicott City last night to report that some jackass stole the rear license plate (and bracket) from the back of her car in broad daylight. Thanks. So she has a date with the friendly drones at the MVA tomorrow to sort that mess out. | link

June 16, 2004

Assorted stuff. Thanks to the recently transplanted Jason, I've got two more albums crossed off the list at right. Thanks, brutha. It also looks like we have the thank-you cards done, so folks should be seeing them in the mail shortly. (Would you believe we still have the gifts piled high on the dining room table? We haven't had time to put them away yet.) This evening I also applied a test coat of paint to the siding on the porch. It's called "cloudless sky", and it's a light, slightly muted blue (we were originally thinking darker, but given the amount of sun this house sees, it's probably better to stick with a lighter color) which should offset the white trim very well. I'm looking forward to getting this on the house. Next stop: Home Depot, for a 32' aluminum ladder.

Vespa, near the Spanish Steps, about 11PM (shutter wide open, balanced on a trashcan), 5.29.04

Rome Update. I posted the second half of Tuesday's travelogue and most of Wednesday's return trip on the honeymoon page. | link

June 15, 2004

Time Out. This evening, after running around doing errands after work, I got home and unloaded 80 lbs. of cat litter as Jen made dinner. We sat on the couch and ate while the evening rain blew through Catonsville. After finishing the dishes, we took an evening walk under the damp streetlights to the neighborhood ice cream stand, where we got two chocolate cones (mine with sprinkles, Jen's with the hard chocolate shell) and turned for home. As we got back to the house, we noticed fireflies in our backyard. Standing under the big maple in the center and looking back into our neighbors' yards, we watched hundreds of them slowly winking among the canopy of leaves, seeking out each other in the darkness.

Nights like this, with simple things—ice cream, fireflies, Jen's laughter—are the nights that I live for.

Geek Update. For my peeps who are considering an Airport Express, there's a writeup here that looks pretty in-depth. | Yesterday I bought a Pioneer DVR-107 yesterday for the low low price of $104; it should fit directly into the G4 and allow us to finally back up the gigabytes and gigabytes of photos, freelance files, music, and other gunk we've collectedover the years.

Recommended Reading. Jen and I, on our way to Rome, stopped in one of those tiny airport bookstores where they carry nothing but five copies of each best seller, and found two books worth mentioning here: Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy, and Devil In The White City. The Lusitania book was a good read in the tradition of Walter Lord's A Night To Remember; it's rich in detail, it probes the history leading up to and following the sinking, and relies heavily on eyewitness accounts of the tragedy. (Not the most appropriate reading for intercontinental flight, but what the hell.) Devil In The White City is another historical book which reads almost as a novel; the author has taken great pains to research his material and provide factual evidence for everything, but he spins a pretty convincing story. Fans of historical and architectural Chicago will enjoy the background here, and fans of history will enjoy the confluence of notable figures in one city at one time. I can't say it was a "gripping" read, but it kept me turning pages to the end. | link

June 14, 2004

Whew. Jen has written about being busy elsewhere, and I'm riding the same train. I had lots of overtime last night working on a freelance gig (about 10 hours total, yeesh). I owe my folks and my sister a call, as well as a bunch of friends, and I'm only 1/2 through my share of thank-you cards. Luckily, this busy is good busy—billable hours are welcome. Saturday we set aside a day (mostly) to ourselves and spent about $100 on garden stuff at the Home Depot, including a full suite of herbs, two tomato plants, a cuke, a bunch of lantana and other assorted green things.

Funny Ha Ha: The Farenheit 9/11 trailer.

Today I brought the purple iMac into work and set it up on the network with everything shut down save iTunes. It was sitting on our breakfront in the dining room doing nothing, so I figured I'd use it for something constructive: streaming music at work. | link

June 12, 2004

For Further Investigation. Thomas Hart Benton. We saw a piece on Antiques Roadshow about him. I mean to do some more research on his work.

Another Update. I posted one half of Tuesday's travelogue on the honeymoon page. | link

June 11, 2004

Working From Home. A couple of guys got waxed on the Beltway last night, and because of that I spent 2½ hours on the Beltway going 5 miles an hour. No thanks. | link

June 10, 2004

More Content. I posted Monday's travelogue on the honeymoon page last night.

Random Observation. So Reagan died, and people are falling over themselves to honor and praise the guy. Meanwhile, Bush is thanking his lucky stars the Gipper took a final dive for the team. Alu Ghraib what? And John Kerry remains MIA somewhere in the Midwest. Memo to you, John: switch campaign managers.

Reviews. In the weeks between the wedding and today, we've seen more movies than we did all of last year. Some of these were sought out; some were freebies, and some were delivered to us. In order:

1. Shrek 2. Good harmless family fun. (We saw this the day after we were married, in a daze. Afterward we got sushi and beer, and tried to remember if it was all real or not.)
2. Paycheck. Yet again proving that Ben Affleck is like a nice window treatment: pretty to look at, but there's nothing behind the curtain. (In-flight movie, on the way to Paris.)
3. Training Day. It looked pretty good, but we couldn't be sure, because it was in Italian. (Our first night in Rome, devouring $120 room service.)
4. Open Range. Great western that went on just a little too long at the end. Robert Duvall is God. (In-flight movie, Paris to Cincinnati.)
5. Big Fish. Great flick; great acting; the story took some time to get going, though. (See above.)
6. Calendar Girls. Jen said this was good, but I didn't watch it. (see above.)
7. The Matrix Revolutions (#3). Shite. (First round of couch potato movies.)
8. The Missing. Western shite. We thought it was supposed to be a supernatural thriller. It was just a dull Ron Howard movie.
9. The Last Samurai. Great flick in the tradition of the white-man-enters-foreign-culture-and-becomes-one-with-the-people genre of movie (see: Dances With Wolves.) Beautiful, great acting, fantastic swordfighting. Cruise pegs the self-importance meter here.
10. Solaris. ZZZZZZZZZZZ... Is the movie over? darn. (second round of couch potato movies)
11. Seabiscuit. Beautiful, well acted, incredible production. (We watched this after finding out that Smarty Jones lost the Triple Crown.)
12. 28 Days Later. Suspenseful, frightening, nervous film. Well acted and directed—it kept us guessing, and it was smart in a European way (no lame-ass "surprise" endings, no pointless nudity, etc.)
13. Don Juan Demarco. Not as bad as you would think. Brando was not as messy as I would have guessed. (The DVD came free with a pizza. That's kind of a risky proposition, given the amount of boobies in this movie, but what the hell.)
14. The Triplets Of Belleville. Out of all the movies on this list, I'm definitely buying this DVD. Magical, wonderful animation and a decidedly off-kilter storyline. You'll never look at frogs the same way again.
15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Another entertaining, funny movie in the series. Interesting to see the characters growing up. (Saw this one last night on a whim.)

June 9, 2004

Jen in the backyard, 5.24.04 ©2004 Shannon Bishop Photography

Sneak Peek. Courtesy of Shannon and her husband Ganes, we have some preview photos of the wedding. As we talked to them about what we wanted before the big day, Jen and I joked that we wanted them to use the "Kennedy Filters" for our wedding—we were going for the relaxed Hyannisport lawn photo vibe, not the standard gooshy tripe most photographers offer. (One of the reasons we used them, besides the fact that they came recommended by a good friend, was that their portfolio was fantastic and had none of the standard wedding shots that make us cringe. They are both photojournalists, and their work is stunning.) From what we can see so far, they got it exactly right, and we couldn't be more pleased with the results. There are many more photos to come, but here's the first. How many brides are you gonna find who will put bugs on their veil and let the photographer take pictures? That's my girl.

Things I noticed about Italy/Europe:

1. Scooter culture. BMW sells a scooter with a windshield and roof-but no sides. Jen said it looks like a lightcycle from TRON coming down the road. Lots of newer scooters, and a few old Piaggios and Vespas here and there. Peugeot won the award for Most Often Abandoned.
2. Italians like to haul ass on the Motostrada. Our bus driver thought nothing of weaving through traffic doing 140kph in a fully loaded bus while programming numbers on his cellphone.
3. Italians, while questionable drivers, are wonderful, friendly, accomodating people. Except for that one snooty cafe guy.
4. Belly shirts are everywhere in Italy. On women who really shouldn't wear them. (My guess is that they were all tourists from America.)
5. Italians don't fool around with their coffee. Ask for an espresso and you'll get rocket fuel in a cup. I think it took us 30 seconds to walk the five or so miles from our hotel to the Colosseum.
6. Italians can't cook an egg to save their lives, however. And, they like to put sliced hardboiled eggs on pizza. (Oh, the humanity.)
7. Gelato is the bomb. Fresh pistachio gelato is like heaven on a spoon.
8. Rome is a wonderful, confusing, surprising, inspiring city.
9. We still haven't figured out the tipping/service charge thing. Apparently it's optional from place to place, and from country to country.
10. I have never felt safer in a city than I have in Rome.
11. Cafe culture is absolutely the way to live life. Having your choice between pastry, beer, water, wine, gelato, and dessert anywhere you go at any time of day is heaven.
12. Boobies on TV!
13. The Europeans can't seem to design or build a TV with a working remote. (Two different hotels!?!) Plus, the hotel in Rome always came on to the same channel at the same high-decibel volume, playing Italian pop music, which is an experience not unlike being assaulted during a Britney Spears concert. Corrolary: There is a channel programmed with nothing but European reality TV shows. And, the Love Boat in German is a fucking riot.
14. The Fumicello International Airport reminds me of a forgotten midwestern American mall. While there are Ferragamo and Prada stores inside, there is little natural light, it's painted drab gray, and the signage is atrocious. And, they lose your luggage.
15. Smart Cars. They have cars in Europe that are smaller than a Matchbox, which is a refreshing change from the American practice of building passenger vehicles the size of container ships.

We're already planning our one-year anniverary for somewhere in Europe; the front-runner is France. | link

June 8, 2004

Quick Links. I am so going to be buying one of these. | The fellow that played one of my favorite guitar breaks in the whole world is dead at the age of 61. | Googlewar.

The Sound Of The Real World. A quick post from the 9-5, which I barely reached this morning due to Tortoise problems; the trick of slipping out of gear during turns of more than 30mph has returned. Yay. Jen had three messages on the machine from last week, one of which has developed into contract work for the next three months—only two miles down the road from our house. My ear and jaw and head still hurt, but the antibiotic horse pills I'm on have dulled the sharp stabbing pains down to a dull ache, which is better. Baltimore was averaging about 60° up until today, but will climb to the mid 80's today and into the 90's tomorrow. Fortunately we missed the thunderstorms that followed the nuptials by a few days—that would have been fun. (Apologies for the crushing wedding day heat, though, my friends.)

Sage the cat has been doing triple overtime duty attempting to keep us cheered up; when he settles himself comfortably between us on the couch as we watch the third of four movies, begins purring contentedly, and rests his chin on Jen's chest, it's as if he's saying, "Baby, how can you be so down when you got so much Chocolate Love here beside you?" The other members of the herd all crowd around, and soon we've got a four-kitty lovefest smooshed on a queen-sized pullout (yes, America, when the post-nuptial blues strike, the answer is Blockbuster, Baskin-Robbins—Batman & Robin's, in Lockard lore—and the pullout couch in front of the TV).

I wish it could be the thing that makes it all better, but I'm still bummed that it's over. | link

June 7, 2004

Rome, Take 1. I just posted the first of the Rome pictures and travelogue.

Michelangelo's Revenge. Well, I was supposed to be back at work today, but a niggling pain in my jaw on Friday became a searing pain in my ear on Saturday and only got worse. So on Sunday evening, after taking a shower and changing into street clothes, we stopped into the Emergency Room at St. Agnes, an experience which made me regret leaving Italy again (or is that regret returning to Baltimore?), and waited three hours amid the screaming babies and chatty Hons for a nice doctor to tell me I've got an ear infection. Sweet. How did I not wind up with this after diving in Bimini? Stupid dumb aeroplanes. | link

June 4, 2004

The Temple of Vesta, Roman Forum (circa 200 AD), 5.29.04

12:26 PM Baltimore local time, 6:30 PM Rome. The Airport Shuttle got us curbside around 5:30 last night; we spent an extra unplanned day in France and our luggage still hasn't arrived. The trip was incredible, and I'll write about it here—promise—but for the rest of this honeymoon weekend, we're going to have the phone off the hook and try to drink ourselves through some of the leftover alcohol. Thanks for everything, everybody—shout-outs to all our amazing friends and family. We'll see you on Monday.

—the husband | link

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