Collected Tweetlinks

Twitter link flotsam from the past few weeks, which I persist in collecting here because I can’t quite handle the ephemerality of Twitter. But do follow @syntaxfreeblog if you’re into that!

Collected Tweets

Twitter link flotsam from the past few weeks. Follow @syntaxfreeblog if you want to get these when they’re funkyfresh!

Collected Tweets

I decided to add a little value to the @syntaxfreeblog Twitter account by tweeting here and there about stuff I’m enjoying, but I still like the idea of collating those here for the record rather than losing them forever in the Twitter swamp. Where possible, I might also rephrase them better than I could on Twitter, or add a little value here which I didn’t have space to mention there. Here are a bunch:

Clearing Decks

I’m all “New laptop! New start!” at the moment and totally geeking out over reinstalling all my favourite software (which of course also includes copious online research on whether all these programs are still theeeee best ones for me), and since I spend more time surfing the web than any responsible adult should, a big part of this is achieving optimal Firefox zen. But before I went on a trawl for shiny new extensions to fill surfing needs I never knew I had, I decided I needed to do a little bookmark pruning. I haven’t been the best at keeping my bookmarks under control over the years, which became a lame reason for me not to use online bookmark syncing services like Foxmarks because I felt like this would only encourage me to perpetuate my disorganized shitpile rather than lick it into shape, and this needs to change soon.

A particularly mucky sump in my bookmarks toolbar was the folder I’d called “To Blog”, where I would happily drag links with every intention of blogging them but then blithely continue surfing and never get round to writing the entry. Once the dropdown list of bookmarks in this folder reached the bottom of my screen, I ostriched my head in the sand and just stopped adding bookmarks there. To the best of my recollection, the contents of this folder have not changed since maybe 2006. But upon exploration I found there was still some good stuff in there! Just so that I can delete it with peace of mind, here it is:

Articles:

  • Grief, Gratitude and Baby Lee: Beautiful, poignant article about perinatal hospices. I hope people know that the anti-abortion community isn’t actually all about murdering doctors and hating on women.
  • Soulseeking: From now-defunct (and sadly missed) Stylus magazine, Nick Southall writes about the conundrum of loving music so much that you sometimes forget how to love it, something I’ve grappled with for years. In 2005 when the article was written, there were definitely some readers of this blog who would’ve identified with it. I’m not sure if they’re still here any more but if the article resonates with you, holla.

Poetry:

Photography:

I only mentioned File magazine once here before but loved way more photographs than I linked to at the time.

Having A Good Time

I saw this during some lunchtime surfing at work during the week and literally had to stuff my fingers into my mouth while watching it to stop myself from squealing from delight in the office. (Via Mighty Girl.) Best wedding video ever, totally.

Brian & Eileen’s Wedding Music Video. from LOCKDOWN projects on Vimeo.

Congratulations, Brian and Eileen who I don’t even know! It looks like you’ll be having a fabulous life together.

Im In Ur Inbox, Luring U To Ur Death

You may already be aware of my penchant for deliberately creeping myself out from time to time. As luck would have it, Alec is away on yet another business trip, I’m alone in our home, and I’ve just discovered the Dionaea House.

At this point I should salvage some dignity by saying my reason for linking it here isn’t actually because I find it that scary, but I definitely enjoyed the read, and based on the fun discussion that took place in the comments for my scary movie entry it seems that some of you might like it too. It’s good even if you’ve already read House of Leaves but I guess better if you haven’t.

If you’re not big into scary movies but have a literary interest in innovative Internet-based narratives, it’s also worth reading. I know Blair Witch did it first, but the technique hasn’t got old for me yet. (Also linked here for sake of completeness – Ted’s Caving Page.)

Mahjong Would Have Made More Sense

My addictions to computer games have always blatantly arisen as methods of escaping my true priorities and lapsed once I no longer have important things to be skiving. After each year’s university exams Dope Wars never seemed as riveting as I thought it was when studying land law had been the alternative. My addiction to Stars also turned out inversely proportional to the amount of civil procedure rules I had to finish studying. I only play Wordy when I’m struggling with a blog entry but can’t get it right. I’m always most successful at World Of Goo when I should be watering the plants, doing my ironing, or cleaning the house instead.

So why, on the first day of Chinese New Year, when I could be napping off the huge buffet lunch I just enjoyed with my family, or planning our upcoming trip to California (YAY!), or savouring The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, am I playing Sirtet nonstop??!!

Elizabeth Eckford’s America

I’m as overjoyed as most other people about the new President-Elect of the United States, but won’t do the obligatory gushing blog post for fear of descending into platitude. I do, however, want to share this Vanity Fair article I read over a year ago, and which I searched out and reread the day Obama won the elections, because it had stayed with me all that time.

The article isn’t about Obama but Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine and subject of the famous photo you’ve probably seen of her attempt to enter her newly desegregated high school while behind her, a white girl’s face explodes in hatred. The article recounts that fateful day, Elizabeth’s harrowing high school years of constant bullying and total isolation, and how she continued to struggle with these experiences well into her adult life. Most fascinatingly, it tells of the reconciliation, friendship even, that occurred forty years later between Elizabeth and the angry white girl in the photograph, Hazel Bryan.

I’ll leave you to appreciate Through A Lens, Darkly in its full length. It paints a complex picture I’d rather not reduce to a summarizing, rose-tinted doodle, but I think it’s a fitting complement to one of the last few lines in Obama’s wonderful victory speech, where he was speaking about 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper and what she’d seen in her life: “And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.”

Taxi Jiver

Back from Kyoto! While I do the usual dawdle about processing photos and writing travel blog entries that abruptly end halfway into the holiday, have a random LOL: I was enjoying the snarky comments at Metafilter on The Cab Ride I’ll Never Forget, especially when people added their own anecdotes about their most memorable cab rides. Like much other Internet messageboard hilarity, the comic genius of designbot’s contribution is best appreciated unspoiled, and read in context with the rest of the thread, so I won’t explain here what I love about it, or post any excerpts. I just wanted to direct you to it because it totally made my day.