Collected posts from the various blogs I’ve contributed to since 2002.
I’ve been following the chatter over microformats ( XFN, xFolk, hCalendar, and their kin) for some time, but having been having a hard time formulating a response to all the discussion. In particular, the discussion over at Ryan’s blog and some postings such as this one by Danny Ayers have triggered further thinking. ...
Today’s source of disgust is the fact that Calvin College will be hosting President Bush as the speaker for this year’s commencement (Brits read: graduation) speech, bumping out the previously booked Nicholas Wolterstorff. You can read the official announcement here or media mouse’s report here. It’s a remarkably divisive move for a college that has been trying to position itself as transcending the narrow confines of the world of “Christian education”. While the honour of being recognised by your country’s president is significant, it is diluted when that president is this divisive, has a track record of excluding people from his events on the basis of their political allegiance, and consistently attempts to co-opt the Christian faith into a narrow partisan agenda. While the appearance of President Bush may shore up support for the college in conservative circles, it’ll hurt attempts to reach out beyond them. ...
I suspect I won’t be the only one excited to hear that T-Bone Burnett’s new album has a release date. It’ll be the first new album from T-Bone since 1992, and is due in August on DMZ (a Sony imprint). According to the story, there’ll also be a 2-CD career retrospective released around the same time. “It is very primal,” Burnett says of his liberating new work. “It’s emancipation. Everyone who works in the record business is a victim of Stockholm syndrome, and I’ve finally been deprogramed. … We’re doing this to supply some liberty in the horrible environment we’re living in.” ...
With the Green Card interview yesterday (of which Kari has the full story) ending some hours earlier than expected, we decided to walk back along Jefferson from the federal building to our hotel, two blocks from the GM tower, exploring downtown Detroit. Downtown Detroit contains one of the densest populations of striking 19th century architecture I’ve seen in some time. Beautiful, tall, stone buildings are to be found throughout the downtown area, but they’re almost all extremely neglected. Boarded up windows and empty doorways abound, and aside from the Renaissance Center and a handful of office buildings, the only lively properties are casinos (largely established in 1996 to compete for tourist dollars with neighbouring Windsor). It’s one of the starkest examples I’ve yet seen of the devastating impact of urban sprawl, and deeply depressing. Looking upwards to the decorative tops of buildings was an inspiring experience, but the eyes’ journey back down to earth was sobering. ...
A super-brief update. I am currently sitting in a cafe in Windsor, Ontario. It’s my first time outside the US in 11 months, and proof that my application for permanent residency was approved. My passport is stamped and freedom is good :) More details to come.
Thanks to the proof-reading assistance of Ryan, this latest version of Services_Technorati should now comply with the PEAR coding standards, so I’ve moved it to alpha status, and upped the version number. Next up will be writing some unit tests for the module. After the fact, I know, but an important step. Getting a CVS or SVN repository up and running is also high up the list. And it’s probably time to return some attention to a project where I’ll be using this module to step-up the real-world testing. ...
A couple of bug reports reminded me that it was time for another release of Services_Technorati. This release fixes a typo and adds some important checks on the return value of $this->_checkOptions() I’m hoping to finish the last few coding standards issues this week so I can move the package up to alpha status. There’s still no word from Technorati about fixes to their attention.XML support, so I’m not inclined to hold up the package’s release based on that.
jystewart.net appears to be settled in on the new server now, and I’m back from a quick sojourn to Nashville, TN. Hopefully I’ll get back to a decent writing schedule shortly.
Three posts in one day. Whatever next? (I make no promises to keep it up) We’re headed to Nashville on Sunday to partake in this. If you’re in the area, please come along and join us. “Up From The Ryman” At The Downtown Presbyterian Church, On the corner of 5th Ave. North and Church St. 154 5th Ave. North 254 - 7584 Monday, April 11th 6:00 Pentecost Is For The People: An Evening Of Conversation with Will Campbell and David Dark in the chapel ...
Karl posted a comment on my previous entry asking for highlights and surprises from the festival. I’d intended to post something to that effect at some stage, but there’s no time like the present… Musically there was plenty to enjoy. With the presence of Brother Danielson and Half-Handed Cloud (and, to a lesser extent, Sufjan Stevens) there was a definite avant garde stream running through the event, and it was great to see the warm response to those artists. Among festival-goers there was a clear appreciation of what they were trying to achieve and many of us really enjoyed their sets. Seeing John Ringhofer (Half-Handed Cloud) perform was great after listening to his latest album so much of late. ...