July 8 2003

# I'm posting more frequently over here.

June 30 2003

# I tried and tried, but I just couldn't resist linking to this parody:

"Confirming their intent to battle Google's new Blogger service, MT then announced on its TypePad site that the it would be rendering all of its users' posts in image format- meaning that any blog hosted by the TypePad service would be immune to Google's awesome searching reach, because the blog entries would actually be images, rather than text ... Taking the incredible step to block your users' access to and from Google, the de-facto clearinghouse and meetinghouse of the Web, is a bold and almost paranoid move for MovableType to make in a war that hasn't even begun (neither the new Google-powered Blogger, nor MT's new TypePad sevice, have yet to launch). It's as if MT has forgotten how precarious their strong hold is over such a fickle group of fans."

For reference, the author was referring to this dollarshort.org post, which, I assume could have only benefitted from a "THIS IS A JOKE" disclaimer. The confusion over my feeble attempts at humor has spurred us to create the <$MTJoke$> tag, which from this moment on, is a required Movable Type tag to be used when indicating sarcasm, gentle ribbing, playful jests and half-truths. THIS IS A JOKE! I guess my 26 paragraph screed on Google's gourmet chef wouldn't go over well either.

June 9 2003

# Up on The New Yorker site, you can find Our Perfect Summer, a new story by David Sedaris. We actually heard Sedaris read this story back in April when he made a stop at the San Francisco Opera House during his last book tour. Then, the story was called "The Ship Shape," (I think this is a better name) and immediately after hearing it, it rose to the very top of my Sedaris personal favorites lists. I, of course, have been anxiously awaited the print version since then. It was especially great to hear him read this story live since it's so terribly bittersweet and he does an incredible job delivering it. It's moving without being over-the-top sentimentality (this is still Sedaris, after all) and the amount of humor in the piece is just right. No one plays the fool; instead it's a story about hope and disappointment amidst the sort experiences we all have as a kids. It's a great piece and definitely worth the read. We also met Sedaris at the signing he was doing before the event. He was sitting at a table, alone, sort of behind a pillar. Us being us, we made some horrible small talk and I embarrassed myself fully. As we were leaving, I put my hand out to offer a handshake and then quickly pulled it back, not knowing if he even likes to be touched. (Based on his books, who'd think he'd like strangers touching him?) After I asked if it was alright to shake, he laughed and probably thought I was a nutcase. This is why you should never meet the people you admire. Link via Kottke. (11)

June 5 2003

# This MetaFilter thread about someone's version of the game of MASH reminded me of the version that Ben and I whipped together about two years ago. Because it became pretty popular and because there are a lot of images, the game became a bit of a bandwidth hog and we were constantly going over our transfer allotment. So, I took it down and -- though I promised it would return -- never put it back up. Well, tonight, after playing around with the game again and thinking it was pretty neat, I decided to bring it back (for the time being). And since, even with a new server, it still be a bit of bandwidth drain, I decided to put up a TypePad ad to at least make good use of any possible traffic it might attract. When we get our overcharge bill at the end of the month, I may at least be able say to say that the endeavor might have possibly brought in a user or two. Play Mash.

May 22 2003

# And this is why people call us innovators.

May 20 2003

# While getting ready to release more information about our new service, TypePad, I realized that there are some basic questions that need to be answered first. We've been trying to think about what the likely TypePad audience would like to know and I figured it's probably better just to ask them**. So, if you're considering using TypePad (See this release for more information) and you have some time (~15 minutes) today to chat via IM, please read this entire post and then contact me. I'd like to speak to between 10-15 people. Update:Thanks all who contacted me! ** I picked dollarshort.org instead of Six Apart or Typepad.com because I think that my readership is a bit more varied.

May 10 2003

# I need some recommendations for a digital video camera. My requisites are few: It needs to be fairly inexpensive (under $500), use FireWire for transfer and have a track record for working well with Macs. It need not be a spectacular camera, but one of the best I can get for my price range. (14)

May 9 2003

# My taste buds, with age, have begun to change. Unfortunately, most aspects of my personality are a good lap or two behind. This realization surfaced last weekend, during a trip through the Sonoma wine country. For dinner, we had a mighty fine meal at a Portuguese restaurant and drank a bottle of Portuguese wine -- a huge step for us. Getting to a point where wine has become palatable involved a year of really only drinking water with our meals. We were so addicted to carbonated beverages -- particularly Pepsi -- that we couldn't drink anything that wasn't as sweet. Ordering a bottle of wine to go with dinner was a sad sort of accomplishment, but an accomplishment nonetheless. The day after that dinner I was riding high from our Portuguese wine success. So I decided to press our luck and suggested that we should visit a winery for a tasting. Ben's response? He made a quiet little noise that sorted of sounded like agreement; he then choose to accidentally drive past each winery entrance. "Oops," said Ben. Since we had gotten through an entire weekend without fighting, I chose not to escalate and instead thought about what would happen if he did manage to make a turn-off into any of the handful of wineries along the way. I can guarantee that this is exactly how our tasting would go: Ben and I would enter, with me cowering behind. I would nudge him to go up to the counter and figure out what's the proper wine-tasting protocol. He'd say no and tell me to go. I'd return the anti-social volley and he'd give me the look and angry sigh. It would be like two kids at a dance telling the other to approach the person they want to dance with. Neither one's going to do it and they're both going to look stupid in the process of deciding. I would then get extremely frustrated and want to leave. As we'd walk out, I would change my mind and say that I can indeed handle the stress of being out of our element. On the way back in, I'd see some guy swirling his wine and looking all self-important. I would stare, trying to process the moment a person changes into the sort who swirls wine and talks about bouquets. Ben would nudge me and tell me to stop making my mean face. We'd then go up to the counter, stand speechless for a while and then realize that we don't like wine that much. I would then write an inspired poem and wonder, why the hell I'm wasting my talents on software development. I Can Stomach Fish Now Too By Mena Trott, age 25 Mushrooms, wine, coffee and tea. Don't take my youth away from me. Instead of a "oh my, this bouquet is dripping with a hint of oakey, strawberry sarcasm." You get a "tastes good and it doesn't make me want to die."

May 2 2003

# In response to Andrew Orlowski's piece for The Register that intimated that, as a strategic move on Joi Ito and Neoteny's part, we were showered with "advanced publicity" (where advanced publicity includes wining and dining and, oddly, showing me a cork trick) prior to the investment, I have only one comment: Mr. Orlowski, please get your facts straight. It was this stuffed Domo Kun -- presented to me by the cunning folks at Neoteny -- that was the backbone of the deal. I witheld posting this photo until now out of fear that our deal, and their interaction with us, would be totally transparent. As to being called a "cute, but strangely synthetic twosome," I can only venture to guess that Orlowski got the "White Stripes of the weblogging world" memo. Synthetic? God, if only. You would think, based on the way that Orlowski phrases things, that Joi making me wear the latest Shibuya fashions and having me promote weblogging at Japanese functions is a bad thing. As if it makes him the Lou Pearlman of the weblogging industry! What's wrong with an executive showing a little flair?

April 24 2003

# So now it probably all makes sense why my posting habits here have declined to a mockable all-time-low. If I had posted more frequently, my entries would have most likely been about the amount of stress I was under or how tired I was from working. And, if i posted that, I'm sure a number of you would have thought "what the hell is she talking about? Movable Type can't be that hard to develop." And, if I had ignore the self-embargo I had placed on myself not to speak about work, I feared that not only I would have said too much but I would have also created a public record of my weaknesses -- something that I was sure would come to haunt me some day. So I wrote the sort of posts that kept me in a pre-TypePad, pre-funding state of mind. What you see in my archives from the past few months represents almost all thoughts I've had that relate to my for-public-consumption life. The fact that I've forked has been incredibly difficult to reconcile in dollarshort.org and I'm so terribly happy that, with this announcement, I'm living an secret-free existence. We write weblogging tools because we believe in the medium. At some point, the writer has to choose what they can and can not disclose in public. Some of this has to do with strategy and some of it has to do with legalities. Weblogging is amazing because you can read the thoughts of a newly-minted CEO and understand, with one post, what has been going through her mind for the past couple months. That's a power that we can't take for granted. (30)

April 19 2003

# After meeting Rannie at SXSW this year, he invited me to paticipate in his 300 Exposures project. Here are the photos I took around San Francisco and Tiburon. Somewhat related note: In an attempt to not look about 14 years old, I had most of my hair cut off. Additional note: the background in these photos is the chalkboard I used for my 20x2 movie. Ben mockingly calls the set-up of me talking photos in front of this board my "photo studio." On occasion, and to the dismay of our neighbors downstairs, I've dropped the "photo studio" while taking photos. There's nothing like the sound of a 2x3 chalkboard hitting the ground from two feet up to make me feel really ridiculous and vain.

April 15 2003

# From the maker of DoomBuggies.com, the excellent Haunted Mansion resource, comes the newly launched Tell No Tales, the unofficial tribute to the Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, I've been checking back repeatedly to see if this site had launched. If that makes me a dork, I accept the nomenclature gladly.

March 28 2003

# Children's Books Online: The Rosetta Project, Inc "The Rosetta Project's collections currently contain about 2,000 antique children's books which were published in the 19th and early 20th century. We shall be putting these combined collections on line as funding permits. Our current goal of putting 2,000 volumes on line will create an online library of aproximately 65,000 html pages." Link via Coudal.

March 27 2003

# An emergency (that means short notice) dentist appointment yesterday triggered by unholy tooth sensitivity confirmed that my stress-induced tooth grinding/teeth clenching (also known as the sinister bruxism) is getting way out of hand. At the rate that I'm grinding down and flattening my teeth, I'm going to need a chewing assistance dog in no time.

# We're so "way too fucking busy" that we are the Trotts.

March 22 2003

# I was invited to participate in this year's 20x2 during SXSW. The theme: "What RU W8ing 4?" (What are you waiting for?) Here's the two minute movie I made.

March 19 2003

# Do you know that sort of block you get when you haven't posted in a while and you just can't bring yourself to take the time and think about all the stuff you've processed in the time spent away? That's how I am feeling right now; as I write this, it's gradually subsiding. Though we returned to California on Saturday, it feels as if we just got back from our trip to Austin and Chicago. Both went well and I will hopefully find the time to expand on our experiences.

March 7 2003

# When I dropped and subsequently broke the latch on my iBook this morning, I figured that my day was off to a pretty bad start. When we were still in the security check-in line five minutes to our departure, we knew it was a lost cause. So now we have to wait five hours until the next flight and will be arriving in Austin far too late to break bread with anyone. Ben rightly hates me because I was the one who said "Arrive to the airport two hours befoe the flight? That's so last year." I hate myself too. By the way, the flight to Austin is for SXSW, where I'll be moderating a panel about Weblogging on Tuesday, March 11. I can be also be found (being artsy and stuff) at 20x2 on Monday, March 10th.

February 26 2003

# Once, long ago, after receiving a particularly personal, dramatic, too-much-information type of email from an acquaintance, I was about 87% tempted to reply with a blank email with "Remove" as the subject. Since that time, however, I have nourished that 13% strength into a good 30-35% tolerance for inbox melodramatics. Resisting the urge to respond to personal emails with "remove" or "unsubscribe" has been the gauge I use to measure my humanity. I think I'm doing well.

February 23 2003

# Only recently have I begun to truly realize that the King of Thai Noodle House near our house is really bizarre. For those unfamiliar with the restaurant, King of Thai Noodle House is part of a chain of very casual and inexpensive noodle houses throughout San Francisco and, I believe, the East Bay. None of these restaurants have the same name and the subtle variations are responsible for confusion among friends; no one can ever be completely certain that they've eaten at the restaurant we refer to wrongly as King of Thai Noodles. There's a King of Thai Noodle House I, King of Thai Noodle House II, King of Thai Noodles House No. 5 (the one we eat at), King of Thai Noodle Cuisine, etc... When we ask if the menu is "purple and busy" and they agree, we realize we're all on the same page. So why is the one near where we live so odd? Well, if you asked me before tonight I would say it had something to do with the fact that it seems to want to be a sports bar -- if by sports bar you meant, a thai restaurant decorated with soccer and football posters and a lone soccer ball lying behind a table. Another weird thing: In one part of the restaurant, there is a sign that says "gifts for sale" and below this sign is some children's drawings and an empty picture frame. This area of the restaurant sort of creeps me out. And then the kicker: There's a television in the restaurant too -- which, if King of Thai Noodle truly wanted to be a sports bar -- wouldn't be weird. But sports are never on. Instead, the staff plays any sort of show they'd want to watch in their own living rooms. Once they were watching Antiques Roadshow, another time the news. And tonight... American Psycho. And the volume was really loud. And it wasn't even the funny part (as says Ben) of the movie -- it was the part with the chainsaw. I wouldn't know what parts are funny since I refuse to watch the thing. But, I know about the chainsaw. So I'm eating my noodles, with my back turned to the television and I'm yelling at Ben to make some conversation so I don't think about what I'm hearing on the television. I repeatedly tell Ben to "ask me a question," figuring that the best distraction comes from me being puzzled. So Ben says "when does the next season of The Sopranos start?" And I'm like, "how the fuck do I know? Ask me something I could possibly answer!" And then, on the television, I hear a cat meowing and Patrick Bateman is saying "here kitty kitty" and I've reached the point where I want to plug my ears but I don't because I don't want to be conspicuous and make the staff at the restaurant feel like they have to change the channel. Sure, I think they're completely insane for not realizing that they shouldn't be playing American Psycho at a restaurant, but I also realize that they're really invested in the movie -- the waitstaff and the cook are staring at the screen with their mouths dropped open. I mean really, I don't want to be the bitch customer that makes an entire staff miss the last 15 minutes of the movie that they've been watching for two hours. So instead of contemplating about when the new season of The Sopranos is going to start, I'm blocking out the sounds of a Patrick Bateman screaming about all the people he's murdered and watching our waitress flinch and partially cover her eyes. And then, I can't help but think how much better the people at the other King of Thai Noodle House No. 2 have it: "Yellow hanging lights in woven straw lampshades and purple walls covered with photographs add a warm, homey glow to the small room." But our King of Thai Noodle House has the soccer ball.

February 20 2003

# Some links:Disney Paper Resource Center Updates to Yesterland: Disneyland in 1955 and Sub Lagoon Still Empty. (links via scrubbles.net)

February 19 2003

# I'm turning down the vibrancy on dollarshort to give my eyes a break. If you're not noticing any changes, view the stylesheet and reload.

February 18 2003

# Greg Storey, a nominee for the best weblog at the SXSW web awards, has requested that I mention that he wants to give away his two free passes to SXSW Interactive because he will be unable to attend. If he wins the award I volunteered to go up and accept in behalf because you know I really want the opportunity to win over the crowd with my extreme cuteness two years in a row. I'm like a little pixie of optimism and delight.

February 15 2003

# Vagabonding "chronicles the solo, one year, round-the-world journey of Mike Pugh, an optimist from Chicago, USA" I selected Vagabonding as a Movable Type site because of Mike Pugh's mastery of the system. He knows how to use the tool and make a beautiful, engaging and easily-navigable site. It's a great site that MT's capabilities. But beyond that endorsement, it's just a fantastic site, period. You can read his photo and travel ephemera-illustrated travelogue entries, watch edited video of the sights he visits and people he meets (View an intro about the trip), track his route, view his photos, and even sponsor his trip (and get a physical something in return). Pugh even provides a press kit and possible story angles for those looking to write a story about what he's doing. After seeing Vagabonding, I know that if I ever have the opportunity to travel the world, I need a site like this. Knowing me however, I'd wait until the night before the trip to even begin working on the thing. At least someone has the motivation to do it right. It's truly a testament to personal publishing.

# This is a living, breathing weblog entry. Actually, it's the never-ending comments that make this so. I actually wrote about this post here. Well, my disbelief that a thread could continue so long after its initial creation has diminished and I too have a question for those who find that post: "Does anyone know the title of the piece featured in the American Express commercial with the two robotic arms bending and twisting the Blue card? It's a classical piece of music that may have featured predominantly in a movie. It sounds incredibly familiar, but I can't place it." Update: Peter J. sends a link to the actual commercial. There is, however, no song credit. Do you know the answer? (9)

# I made a couple of changes around dollarshort.org tonight. Namely, I consolidated the styles of this version of the weblog and the older version from 2001-2002. Also, I tidied up the archives page. Finally, the location of the RSS feed for this site has returned back to dollarshort.org/index.rdf. This replaces the hiatus feed.

February 14 2003

# I was digging around in my archives tonight and stumbled upon this old post. People, you've got to appreciate the cleverness that went into creating that photo. Well, I at least do.

February 11 2003

# Can you connect to paypal.com? We haven't been able to reach the site for the past two days. However, others can. Let me know. (16)

February 7 2003

# I tried to tell this kid that a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush. But did he listen?

# Cory's account about acquiring "contraband" at the airport's gift shop caused me to recall a little non-incident that happened on our way to North Carolina last month. After passing through a rigorous security screening in which I had to take off no less than three articles of clothing, I wandered into the terminal gift shop to purchase some flight reading materials (I always buy really trashy entertainment magazines for plane trips -- it's a guilty pleasure). There, in the gift shop, on a pile of magazines lay a (worker's ?) abandoned, massive 12-inch screwdriver -- something that would have certainly been confiscated by airport security. Another customer in the gift shop picked up the screwdriver and brought it to the store clerk who immediately gave a big fat whatever look and thus confirmed the notion that people who hate their jobs and aren't too intimate with common sense should not work near airplanes.