November, 2, 2005 archives

the los angeles conservancy is having a benefit at the former cathedral of st. vibiana on november 12. tickets start at $350 ($275 is tax-deductible).

when i was walking by the building yesterday, i was able to peek in and see how things were progressing. i took a picture (through the fence), but it didn’t turn out.

the same night, lauren bacall and larry gelbart will be doing readings at the central library as part of the gregory peck reading series. that’s free, if you’re a library associates member at the right level.

okay, since everybody else has finally tossed a link their way, now i have to point out the new curbed la, a blog about los angeles real estate and neighborhoods. they’ve gotten off to a great start.

it finally dawned on me what the building was in their header — it’s city hall. you’d think i would have picked up on that sooner considering i can see city hall from my desk.

i got a blood donor card after the blood drive a couple of months ago, and it’s been staring at me from my desk reminding me that enough time has passed so i can donate again. so searching for a local blood drive, i ran across one at the los angeles public library on november 21. because i already have a reason to be there that day (to observe a children’s tour), that works out really well.

something i learned from my blood donor card is that my blood type is a positive. i remember that we tested our blood to figure out the type in a science class in junior high school, but i could have sworn that i had b positive blood.

this wired article about myspace is interesting, but what really caught my eye was justin’s comment about it: “interesting, MySpace has evolved into "indie music + SNS", like Flickr is "photos + SNS"; also, each of the SNSes seems to have found a niche.”

i was thinking almost the exact same thing this morning, but in relation to yahoo! groups. where the groups concept is “form a group, here’s tools for them to use,” the new model appears to be “here’s a tool, form some groups around their use.”

hear that lonesome whippoorwill
he sounds too blue to fly
the midnight train is whining low
i’m so lonesome i could cry

i’ve never seen a night so long
when time goes crawling by
the moon just went behind a cloud
to hide its face and cry

did you ever see a robin weep
when leaves begin to die?
like me, he’s lost the will to live
i’m so lonesome i could cry

the silence of a falling star
lights up a purple sky
and as i wonder where you are
i’m so lonesome i could cry

— “i’m so lonesome i could cry,” by hank williams from 20 of hank williams’ greatest hits (among other hank williams albums)

not a happy song.

producing open source software by karl fogel (hardcopy) looks to be a very good book about the human side of producing open-source software.