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NYT goes recursive | December 15, 2006

Update: David Gallagher, a tech writer at the Times, emailed: “Aaron: Found your post via Kottke - I pestered the Web site and got them to put up a PDF. graphics.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/magazine/serk.pdf.” Thanks, David!

Today’s “Weekend Arts” section of the NY Times has a great recursive cover. I would link to it, but unfortunately they don’t have an image (or a PDF) of the cover itself on their website, so I’m reproducing it here: Click the image for a full-size PDF:

New York Times Weekend Arts, 15 December 2006, click for PDF

The associated article, Black, White and Read All Over Over, is also fun, and mentions one of my favorite Borges stories.

Posted 10:58 AM
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The Use-Mention Distinction | March 9, 2005

Gems from this week’s philosophy of language homework:

Turn the following into truths by adding single quotation marks, where appropriate. (Starts easy, gets harder.)

I also feel compelled to mention that my sociology professor showed the Numa Numa video in class today, as an example of cross-cultural exchange and “rip/mix/burn culture.”

(I learn serious things too. Honest.)

Posted 12:44 PM
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Strip | February 28, 2004

Dinosaur comic.

Seriously: if I haven’t yet recommended the daily dinosaur comic to you, get over there now.

Posted 11:22 PM
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A Non-Exhaustive List of -ster Clones | January 13, 2004

Please bear in mind when naming your next product.

Posted 8:32 PM
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Rejected | December 10, 2003

Some snippets from my ideas file (jot.txt) that have been there forever and are obviously going nowhere:

This image (real or imagined) that people are more like me on the west coast, Oregon/Washington/Northern California. Or is it that there are more people like me? What is the distinction?

—

She wasn’t bored, just boring, though she often confused the two.

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The worst UI design decision since they made you have to press Record over again every 1.5 seconds in Sound Recorder.

—

A guy at dinner, introduced to me by a mutual friend. First thing he says to me: “You look like me.” Me: “No, you look like me.” Parting words: “See you later, doppleganger.” (I like this kid.)

—

Looking back, it’s shocking how many things were wrong with the situation

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The hat on the pole. Who put it there, and who took it away?

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conduit825: how do you know they’re your favorite songs?
Aaorn2286: because I don’t get sick of them
Aaorn2286: after that one day where it’s stuck in my head and I play it a hundred times, i still like it
Aaorn2286: other songs can’t survive that kind of abuse

And then toward the bottom, all by itself:

How does that happen?

I forget what I was thinking when I wrote that one. (We may never know how it happens.)

Posted 11:05 PM
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Ribbon | December 1, 2003

Red Ribbon
World AIDS Day.



Posted 2:05 PM
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How to Play “Spam Story” | October 29, 2003

(In the tradition of “Where’s Porno?”)

  1. Select a piece of spam that somehow managed to get through your various filters and traps. (Penis Enlargement spam always works.)
  2. Sad couple. If there are pictures, paste them into Photoshop and do your best to make them look somehow sad. The Healing Brush is good for getting rid of those creases around the mouth that indicate a smile. Gaussian Blur out the cheerfulness. Make liberal use of sepia tones and faded edges. (If you don’t have the image-editing chops for this step, just use MS Paint to draw mustaches and evil eyebrows or something.)
  3. Use the subject of the message (e.g. “If only you’d known earlier…”) in a new e-mail, which is to be as serious as possible. For bonus points, reuse other important words and phrases from the original (“longer or fuller”, “just weeks”, etc).

Posted 4:53 PM
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Tragic | October 11, 2003

Puns (loosely) I have made in the comments of CSS files I wrote for various site designs, which might be forever lost to the world if nobody did ‘View Source’:

Cross-file under: Why Dreamweaver/Frontpage Take All the Fun Out of Web Design.

Posted 12:38 PM
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2020 | June 21, 2003

While I work on a more substantial piece that’s coming soon, I’ll reproduce some prior art to keep things moving around here. Found this in the very back of my drawer, in an envelope labeled “To be opened 5/1/2020.” (You will notice that I had not yet discovered ISO 8601 dates. Oh the horror.)

April 20, 2000

Dear Aaron,

How are things? I am writing this in the eigth grade. Ideally, this is to be opened and read in the year 2020. This probably will not happen. However, just in case it does — and since I have to write this anyway — I will include some personal predictions for the year 2020.

On this date in the year 2020, I will be 33 years old. At this time, I hope to be living somewhere other than here, preferably the west coast. I will have graduated from college with some kind of computer degree. With any luck, I will have a job in this field. I think I will have a pet or two, and well will live in an apartment or a small house.

All these things are amenable to change, but I am still pretty sure about most of them. However, ther eare also many questions I have about the future. I really have no idea if I will ever get married or have children. I don’t know whether or not I will ever have my own company. In 2020, who am I working for? Do I still know any of my old friends from school? What kinds of things do I do in my spare time? Has man been to Mars? Back to the moon?

Perhaps, having read this, you (I?) will write another letter, to be opened in another 20 years. Include in it your (my) future aspirations, and a copy of this letter, and we can see the progression.

If time machines are invented in 2020, come back and tell me some answers.

Sincerely,
Aaron

P.S. — Are you balding yet?

Posted 12:40 PM
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Announcing: | January 15, 2003

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado:

My first novel (c. 1990).

Posted 8:29 PM
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Concerning a lack of entries | November 15, 2002

The well has dried up. Looking for fresh water.

Posted 6:20 PM
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Deja Moo | October 7, 2002

Let it not be said that I am incapable of learning from my mistakes. This time around, I’m giving advance notice: I’m leaving to check out some potential colleges, and I’ll be back on Friday.

Posted 7:26 PM
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Request | October 6, 2002

As part of my tireless devotion to this site, I have an absurd number of various different browsers installed on my machine, for testing purposes. I am looking for a (free) program that will automagically synchronize bookmarks/favorites in all of these browsers. If you know of something like this, please let me know.

Posted 10:38 AM
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Gone: | September 18, 2002

Aaron has decided to travel in and around the tri-state area for a few days, stopping at select colleges to check them out. I feel that, as a devoted reader of his marvelous musings, you deserve to know the reason why he won’t be updating over the next couple days. Surely he’ll come back and tell you all about his adventures, and apologize profusely for not warning you of his absence ahead of time. :P

/db - 04:04:12

P.S.: I, db, am a wanker of intergalactic proportions.

Posted 4:04 PM
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Trendwhore | August 5, 2002

I’m given to believe that posting screenshots of one’s desktop and Winamp skin is the fashionable thing to do these days, so here it is: Aaron’s desktop. I like to keep things as minimal and uncluttered as possible, so I can gawk at my saurian wallpaper, made by the startlingly talented Reeks, of Deviantart.com fame.

If you want to read too much into it, you could say that the desktop is like my personality in some way or other, but I’ll leave that excess lucubration to the reader.

Posted 9:29 AM
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