My day at work, in unfinished beverages

The worst update in the world.

Posting is more and more infrequent, and for that I am more and more sorry. Things happening:

1. Lots of work. Like the hardest I've worked.

2. Moving to a new apartment (hopefully complete this weekend)

3. Listening to this Beach Boys rehearsal that Michelle sent me: http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2009/09/02/the-beach-boys-rehearsals-1967-2/

Chrome Quick Searches

My one complaint with Chrome for a while has been that I didn't think you could do 'Quick Searches' like you can in Firefox, where you set up a keyword that you can enter in your location bar to search a specific site (e.g. type "a cameras" to search amazon for cameras). However, someone at work pointed out yesterday that you can do this in Chrome and I've been a speed-browsing maniac ever since.

Chrome calls it setting up other search engines. Basically you perform a search at the site you want. Let's use the amazon example above. The cameras search results in the following URL:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cameras&x=0&y=0

You copy that URL and then right click it and select 'Edit search engines'. You then click 'Add' and three fields appear. The first is what you name the search (in this case, I'll call it 'Amazon'). The second is the keyword you want to put in the browser to trigger it (in this case, I'll put 'a'). And the final field is where you paste the URL. However, you have to find the search query you originally put in and replace it with '%s'. So the URL would look like this:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=%s&x=0&y=0

Click OK and you're done. Now when you type in the Chrome search bar 'a' followed by anything, you'll immediately be brought to the amazon search results for that query.

Melanesian Choirs

It's been almost two months since my most recent words here. What could possibly drive me out from my proverbial burrow? I am so happy listening to my most recent musical acquisition.

I don't know where this came from but I got home today with the absolute need to hear the Melanesian chants from the movie The Thin Red Line (maybe it was my recent heightened interest in Panda Bear's 'Person Pitch', which sometimes reminds me of these chants at points). I found one of the chants on YouTube. But it wasn't enough. I discovered that Amazon was selling the CD for $120. That is too much money and too little instant gratification. So I was driven to "the black market." But, now after emerging from my shady dealings with my dealer who calls herself "BT," I am so enthusiastically in possession of all 26 tracks of Melanesian chants from the movie soundtrack. If anyone else would like these, we can probably arrange something.

One thing I've been up to recently is becoming a full member of this group of awesome people: http://www.brutelabs.org/

You can see my latest small contribution in the blog section of this site (I used Blogger's API to feed the content into the site): http://crosscountry.welldone.org/

Stay tuned for an unveiling of my main project with the BRUTE LABS people, which more than announcing any contribution I made, really will be an unveiling of an incredible artist whose art belongs in all of our homes.

The Bing marketing campaign

Time

To complete a background investigation for work today, I had to list every residence I have had for the past 7 years.  This got me thinking about time.

In the traditional study of history, we tend to conceptualize time in terms of eras and blocks.  For example, in Western history, you have the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate, the fall of Rome, the Middle/Dark Ages, the Rennaisance, the Enlightenment, etc.  I think this way of thinking comes naturally to us.  We often hear how time is perceived linearly.  But past time seems to be perceived incrementally.  When I think of the past two years, the time is broken into different "eras."  And my "eras" will be different from most other people's "eras."  For example, June 2007 to August 2007 was my post-graduation summer in Providence.  Then September 2007 to November 2007 was my apathetic post-graduation time living with my parents in Richmond.  December 2007 to August 2008 was my time in New York.  September 2008 was a transition month spent in New York, Richmond, and San Francisco.  And October 2008 to the present is my time in San Francisco.

Obviously these "eras" were defined by where I was living at the time.  However, I think we break time into other increments as well.  For example, I remember October 2008 was the time I was in San Francisco but hadn't made any friends yet (i.e. a time of great personal productivity but significant loneliness).  And December 2007 and most of January 2008 were a time of joblessness and Lost season 2.  There are relationship timelines of course.  One ended in September 2007.  It started up again in January 2008 and lasted until August 2008.  And there are work timelines.  One job spanned summer 2007.  Another spanned January to August 2008.  And my current spans September 2008 to the present.

These are some of the ways in which I perceive the past two years.  But my increments are nothing like someone else's increments.  My friend Taylor has been living in a small town in Japan called Yakage since the summer of 2007.  So place would not be a significant marker of different "eras" for him.  I wonder what his perception of the last two years is.  And my friend Owen has been in Brooklyn that entire time.  I imagine his are defined by other things.  My friend Michelle was still in school for a bunch of that time so her perceptions are obviously different.  And my friend James was in Chicago for most of that time, so I'm sure he has a different point of view.

I think having "eras" is a good thing.  Maybe even an important thing.  The point when we stop perceiving events of significance in our lives to differentiate time periods is a point I would rather not come to.

Goats

On the way home from work, I saw about a million goats grazing in this field right next to the office.  I like seeing juxtapositions of the "high-tech" and the "natural."  But I do wonder why they were there.  Where was their shepherd?

[Edit: It has been brought to my attention that goats have a goatherd, not a shepherd]

I now work in a building closer to the center of campus, which is neat.  But, more importantly, I'm in the building with the absolute best breakfast on campus!  (All the more reason I need to start running again).  I've transferred to the Enterprise Support team.  There's a lot for me to learn.

I leave for Japan for a week on Wednesday, so I may post sparingly.  Not that I've been that prolific recently anyway.