Steph: I thought you were going out to buy chicken.
Me: I was. But I decided to get pizza and cigarrettes instead.
Nick: Is that the pizza?
Steph: No, it's a guitar cable.
Me: I'm going to step out and get cancer now.

life

Last night I went to an indie rock (the phrase begs to not be capitalized) show at the Gream American Music Hall with Nick and Schnitz. Acts playing were Magic Magicians, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, and Quasi. The first act was lame two person drums and guitar only noodling, with scream-whined vocals. I never got the impression that this was a band, just two guys fucking around. Ted Leo & Co. rocked out on a few of the songs, which I approve of, but on others there was an overwhelming sense of preciousness and self-importance, and I can't stand the way Ted Leo sings.

Quasi were quite good. What is it with these ex-husband/ex-wife two-person acts these days? That's some fucked up shit. Anyway, the drumming was phenomenal, and the keyboard playing was pretty rad. The singing was pretty nondescript to me, though, and when the keyboard player guy picked up his guitar, he apparently lost all ability to create cool funky and melodic soundscapes, and reverted to shapeless indie-generic noodling. Some of those songs were saved by the drumming though.

Oh yeah, there were a lot of cute girls there.

All in all it wasn't bad for a night of three bands I'd never heard of before.

the culinary arts

Recent dishes I've made include orchiette with a sauce of forest-picked porcini, shallots and port wine, and tuna casserole (spiral noodles, tuna, mayonnaise and peas). Mood swingy eating habits.

I also watched the Iron Chef mango battle just now (Iron Chef Italian vs. a Mexican chef) and it rocked. Amazing dishes on both sides.

personal hacking

I've been working hard on reviewing the upcoming GNOME Human Interface Guidelines. Along the way I read many other HIGs including the classic Macintosh HiG and the new Aqua HIG. Quite a learning experience. I am getting more and more interested in interface design, and I hope someday I can have a job that mixes in more of that with programming.

work hacking

There were plans afoot for me to work on an interesting new open source technology at work. But it looks like we may manage to convince Apple to adopt the best existing open source product for this purpose instead, and help with it's development. I probably shouldn't say more until things are more firmly decided. Apple is definitely getting less dfearful of the LGPL and to some extent even the GPL.

The proprietary bits bug me, but Apple is doing way more to bring a great UI to Un*x, and to bring Un*x and free software to the masses, than many pure free software companies.

Still, it disturbs me how many people are just utter Apple fanboys, including people who work here. I'm pretty indifferent to the whole thing.