I’m heading out to Park City in a couple hours for the Sundance Film Festival. I’ll be video blogging, focusing mainly on the panels. But I’ll also be keeping an eye out for intelligent discussions and talks in non-Sundance venues. The plan is to post one video per day with a commentary and whatever additional resources are appropriate. The videos will be posted here and on Filmmaker Magazine‘s site.
If you’re going to be at Sundance and would like to meet up, drop me a line or find me by following me on Twitter. Have fun and remember: carry your phone charger at all times, and be careful opening the toothpaste that first time.
Tags: blog, film festival, filmmaker magazine, scott macaulay, sundance
Until now, I’ve been posting links automatically using del.icio.us. del.icio.us is a very useful social bookmarking tool. The site has an “experimental” feature that will automatically post to your blog a daily digest of any links you’ve bookmarked.
It’s a cool feature, but it’s extremely limited. You can’t import del.icio.us keyword tags as wordpress tags, and you can’t change that boring post title (e.g. links for 2007-11-27). Most importantly, it doesn’t let you filter which links get posted. So I’ve had to stop bookmarking things that wouldn’t be appropriate for the blog (even though they’d still be public).
So I’ve stopped it, until they fix it or until I come up with something better. From now on, if I have something to share, I’ll just write a post about it.
Tags: blog, del.icio.us, social bookmarking, web 2.0, websites
November 1st, 2007
9:23:21 am
General
We spent the long weekend in the District of Columbia for the country’s 228th and Mark’s 26th. (That’s our nation’s capital, not 116th St., for any of our in-from-out-of-town readers who might be confused.) After the three-plus hour schlep down and the rotten weather, in comparison with BSP’s reports of perfect weather back at home, I was ready to swear off leaving The City forever. That really is a strange little town. Their taxi cabs are like all different colors, and they don’t turn the little roof light off when they pick people up. The subway (called the “Metro” in a pathetic attempt to sound almost as cool as every other city in the world) has only about three stations. And there’s all this sky everywhere. But we had a generally good time anyway, particularly at that fabulous UK-themed Fourth barbecue. Good food, nice people and rain. I realize now that Manhattan (between Canal and 110th Streets) is not the only place in the world. With enough alcohol, free food, the opportunity to verbally smack a few Republicans around, and with all my friends leaving town anyway, one really can have a good time in other places along the east coast. Next trip: Brooklyn.
Also, thanks to Ass for finding this timely link for us today. Have a look at those t-shirts at the bottom. Hmm…some of those designs look vaguely familiar.
Here’s one of those new toys I was talking about. Now you can get blog.chirls.com on your web phone. It’s a little klunky right now, but it’s live for those of you who can’t wait any longer.
Just point your WAP browser here:
wap.chirls.com
Welcome back to the new, improved, badder-ass blog.chirls.com! Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been away for a bit. Wondering why? Well, no excuses here. Just none of your damn business. But I’m not that blog-abandoning lame-o you faithless layabouts took me for. Like Famke Janssen, I’ve risen from the ashes of time…or something.
Much has happened since the last update, but none of it to me. But, we’re finally at the beginning of another Summer of Chirls. This is gonna be the good one, for sure. Oh, and keep an eye out for the waffle project. Good stuff.
In celebration of my triumphant return, the technical staff here at blog.chirls.com spent the last couple of weeks upgrading the system. The comment interface is a little different, so that spammers will now have an easier time posting their ads on my website. And there’s some calendar thingy over on the right that looks pretty neat. I wonder what that does. Looks cool, anyway. You may notice I’ve trimmed the links a bit. Turns out I’m not the only one who’s been on hiatus, and some people (ahem) haven’t been so good at linking back.
So let’s see if we can’t get this thing going again. I’ve got some fun new toys to play with, and hopefully you’ll see some of them up here. Thanks for reading.
January 6th, 2004
4:21:19 pm
General
It’s already six days into the new year, and I’m still writing 5763 on all my checks…
I hope you will all forgive me for the lateness of the annual New Years issue of blog.chirls.com for 2004. It has taken me this long to recover from New Years Eve and get all my affairs in order.
The last days of 2003 were packed with the usual hectic end-of-year schedule: last-minute caroling rehearsal; Chinese food and Christmas movie marathon; repenting for all my sins; and down-to-the wire billing and collections so the blog.chirls.com accountants could close the books on the fiscal year. On top of all that, the Colombians living on the floor in my living room were temporarily replaced by a group of smaller and more efficient Japanese guests. So I had to learn Korean, or whatever language they speak over there. It turned out okay in the end though, ’cause they left me with a lot of great photos of my apartment and some kind of talking robot fish toy.
Anyway, that stupid year is over. So here’s what you’ve all been waiting for. My resolutions for 2004. In order to become a leaner, cleaner, fitter, happier Chirls by 2005, I resolve:
1. Blog updates at least twice a day (once on the Sabbath)
Thousands of you have come to depend on blog.chirls.com for our well-researched, thoughtful news and opinion on Politics, Arts and Culture, Technology and some other stuff that’s pretty much completely pointless. In return for your devotion, I owe you, the readers, the best effort I can muster. I see 2004 as being the year of quantity over quality (“The more the merrier!” “A lot is hot!”). So this is my pledge. Twice a day and no less (once on the Sabbath).
2. No more stand-up comedy
The success rate on this stuff is just too low, and I’ll not have it anymore. I mean, have you seen some of these comedians? Exceptions for Eddie Izzard and old Steve Martin tapes, naturally.
3. Become friendly with one Muslim person
At this point, I feel that I’ve gotten about as much as I’m gonna get out of Christians and Jews. It’s time to broaden my horizons. I looked into Buddhism, but I just can’t get behind the whole Eightfold Path thing. I mean eight? Honestly. And after last week, Shintoism is out! That leaves our monotheistic brethren, the Muslims. Anyway, I have a feeling the Muslim people are going to play an increasingly relevant role in the world come 2005. I may as well get a jump on it.
4. Eat nothing but protein bars
Impact carbs are the devil, just like rap music and the Internet. I’m done with ‘em! Bring on the hydrolyzed collagen and whey protein. Yum, that’s tasty!
That’ll be about all I can handle in one year. Thanks for reading. See you back here in 12 hours. Promise.
November 11th, 2003
3:59:04 pm
General
I was going to post a new Hot List today, but there has been an unexpected development that I feel I need to share. As of last Friday, I have decided to leave my position in the Brooklyn office. It’s not a decision that came easily, but it was helped along by the fact that they kept wheeling my desk chair out of the office with me in it. So the Hot List will have to wait.
Let me be clear about something: this is a good thing. The work was neither interesting nor challenging, and the terms of my employment were increasingly…unfavorable. Also, I was really tired of having my manicure ruined every time the carpenters asked me to carry a box of nails or shake their hands.
There is, of course, a down side. There were two or three people at the Brooklyn office with whom I shall miss working. There is also the matter of rejection. While almost everything about the working environment was completely awful, it still stings a little bit to be told I’m just not worth the money. It’s like being rejected by an ugly girl. You know how sometimes you meet a girl whose best features are her real swell personality and a quirky taste in hats? Maybe you met her at some college party on homecoming weekend or at someone’s gay wedding or something? And you decide you’re gonna be all friendly even though she insists on wearing spandex all the time when maybe she shouldn’t, but you still think her hats are great? So then she comes along and is like, “Hey, Chirls, it’s cool being your friend and all, but I want you to know that nothing is gonna happen between us ’cause I just don’t think of you that way.” And you’re like, “What just happened here?” My job was like that, except without the hats and the swell personality.
So, I guess don’t call me at the office number anymore. Stay tuned for the Hot List. Good Stuff.
[Edit: Thanks to Jewbacca for expert help with unemployment research for this piece.]
