Current Configuration

  • Blackbird: Half a Year

    Half a year! Well, more than that now because a man’s gotta work… by sitting at a computer… but I have to do specific things at that computer, not blog about things! So here we are now.

    Anyway, Blackbird (which is a nickname, for those who don’t know) is on the verge of some child-like behaviors and is moving quickly out of the infant stage (characterized by functioning much like a soft, adorable appliance that cries and converts liquid to poop).

    As time passes, and with my new full-time job, I’m taking less photos of Blackbird. We have quite a bit more video, but I haven’t had the time to edit and export anything. Perhaps before the next update I’ll put up some full-motion Blackbird, which is probably good, as her personality is coming out more and more in her movements and sounds.

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  • That’s Quite a Stadium You Have There

    I’m watching the NBC coverage of the Olympic Games opening ceremony and two things occur to me:

    1) Someone please pack the commentators into a van and make them disappear. I didn’t even know it was possible to be that inane.

    2) I don’t have an image to link to at the moment to support this, but I would like to officially announce here that I’ve renamed China’s “Bird’s Nest Stadium.” The new name is The Va-China.

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  • Zoe Keating

    Zoë Keating’s album One Cello x 16: Natoma is a piece of music everyone should listen to. I’m not sure I have the musical vocabulary to place it or articulate it with any skill. But if I had to put words to it, I’d describe it as intense, deep and abstract, but still accessible string work that can transform any space you’re in while listening to it. It’s the kind of thing that’s easy to turn into an “atonal nightmare of pretension” (to quote President Bartlett of The West Wing’s assessment of modern composing), but Keating never does. I am immediately drawn into it and my emotions are wrapped into its resonant rumbling, slow majestic soaring and exotic tonal modulations. The craziest thing is that, I’m pretty sure there are no instruments but layered recordings of the cello. Additionally, I understand that she creates these loops on the fly with foot-triggered hardware in such a way that no performances are ever the same.

    That description alone will probably make you want to preemptively hate it, but why don’t you just sample some of it here? Or maybe you should just buy it right now.

  • Blackbird @ 6 Months: IT’S COMING

    Don’t worry, it’s coming soon. Consider this a stopgap until then.

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  • TypeCon 2008: Buffalo

    Punkt TypeCon 2008

    It was good to be back. I missed last year’s TypeCon in Seattle, so I was very happy when I purchased my pass and booked my room for this year’s TypeCon in Buffalo. It was my third, and it was great.

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  • Chunky.

    So, Alisa and I are planning to make some old-fashioned sloppy joes with turkey burger, minus the ’shrooms (as they are basically MOLD, people). This lead to the following exchange ’twixt her and I:

    Alisa: I really like that it has celery in it.

    Me: ::mildly befuddled look::

    Alisa: I mean, it’s basically a Bloody Mary with meat.

    Me: ::mildly appetized, mildly horrified look::

    So, dear readers, I turn to you with the following query: Bloody Mary with meat. Yea or Nay?

    Bonus question: if yea, what meat?

  • Tiffin

    Oh man, oh man, oh man. Mt Airy has finally gotten Indian food! This news is competing with the birth of my daughter for coolest thing to happen this year.*

    Tiffin opened up a location along Emlen where the Hamlet Bistro used to be. A few nights ago we ordered up some standards: chicken tikka masala (CTM), alu gobi, and naan. Verdict?

    I now have two places to get great CTM. Tiffin makes fantastic food, and it’s very reasonably priced. Tiffin’s CTM is less creamy, emphasizing the tomato in the sauce. It’s so delicious, I used the naan to clean my bowl. Now I can eat CTM two days in a row and it will still be like eating two different meals. Perhaps, one day, I will achieve my dream: a different variety of CTM for each day of the week.

    *Kidding… I judge births and food on separate lists.

  • Blorg

    An inscription in all caps san serif letters on brushed metal that reads: Lubricate in clock oil. Clean in gasoline weekly.

    Unusual maintenance instructions found on a Ludlow caster.

    When promising your friends and family that you’ll blog every day about TypeCon, it’s easy to overlook the fact that to do so you’ll need to stop having fun and immersing yourself in type and actually sit down and write the damn thing.

    I promise, very soon, stuff on my experience at TypeCon in Buffalo. I was up until about 4am last night, so I predict a bit more sedentary activity for me today.

  • Overhanging Public Service Hanger Brochure

    By popular demand, we here at Current Configuration have set our scientists and design professionals to work creating an effective and elegant method of delivering our findings to those that may not yet know what a computer is. For three long years, millions of R&D dollars have been spent and thousands of prototypes have been created to bring you the Overhanging Public Service Hanger Brochure (PDF).

    And for those who would insist that there are “reasons” to hang the toilet paper in the underhung fashion of despots and savages: our cat doesn’t have a problem with it.

  • Mixed Bag

    One of these days, the powers that be in the entertainment industry will realize how valuable a robust offering online will be to their bottom line and their audience share. Until then, we’ll just need to keep an eye out for the more enticing furtive steps in their slow toddle toward the inevitable. As someone who doesn’t have cable and relies mostly on Netflix for their movies, the web is the obvious choice. And, over the last month or so, Hulu has been my destination of choice for TV and movies.

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