funny story from blogon2004. personally, though, i'm not all that interested in mozilla/firefox "winning," as such. i'm interested in seeing internet explorer either driven out of the market, or updated with decent security and standards-compliance. options are good, i like options, we just need to get rid of the bad ones.

now this is just cool--maybe we'll see this in the next incarnation of windows? it seems the gnome gui developers have capitalized on windows users' propensity to use the time-setting widget (double click on the clock in your taskbar) as a makeshift planner. the gnome version will include imported evolution (the non-windows outlook) calendar info. brilliant guys. gates, are you listening?

funny article at wired: microsoft is selling slate, the online magazine that only a few weeks ago recommended people not use internet explorer. coincidence, naturally.

in real news, lance armstrong got his sixth tour de france title, and israelis formed a 55-mile human chain to protest whatever it is israelis are protesting these days.

i had cambodian food for lunch, and oatmeal pancakes with blueberries for dinner. that is all.

i was once a rabid star wars freak. really. saw the movies for the first time on october 16, 1996. i was thirteen. bamo, instant obsession. i read every book i could find (my first exposure to science fiction), maintained several websites, could (and still can) quote all three movies in their entirety, conversed animatedly with my brothers on this or that bit of plot/technical minutiae. i still have one of the most comprehensive original script collections available online.

i walked out of the episode i theatre in 1999 feeling personally betrayed. you must understand, i knew everything about that movie. i knew cast, crew, artists, musicians, background character plots, vehicle specs, bloopers--everything. so i knew what it could have been, how much potential it had.

i'm still bitter.

anyway. lucasfilm has released the title of episode iii, opening may 19, 2005: revenge of the sith. (maybe he assigns stupid titles on purpose?) here's hoping it's actually worthy of the name star wars...

in related news, anible and i went to see the bourne supremacy this evening. excellent movie. very well acted by all parties, i thought. (i saw one of the bad guys play claudius in an rsc production of hamlet at the barbican a couple years ago. he always plays bad guys.) it's considerably darker than the first movie--they get you mad in the first few scenes, and then keep you mad for the entire rest of the film. but it is very good. (a few people can't handle the cinematography--it's jumpy, nervous. i found it to be annoying at times, but in general a good addition. definitely enhanced the intensity, which was probably the point.)

it was a glorious day, so anible and i also hit a few possible wedding locations, to see what they looked like in sun. got some pictures. possibly more on that tomorrow, must sleep now.

obligatory freeipod referral.

lazy saturday mornings...ahhhh. time to catch up, methinks.

first of all: shameless plug for my freeipod.com referral. there's a previous post with more info.

and now, a bit o' linkage:

• redemption in a blog has a great article up detailing the upcoming thunderbird 0.8 release. complete with pictures. details the new rss support, new global inbox, better remote image blocking, and (my personal favorite) the long-awaited 'get all messages' button. go read it.
• my friend dan has a blog! (so this'll make three dans on the ol' link bar...) he's posted a response to my response to gerv's response. and in response, well, i don't share dan's perspective. i don't think "except by me" can be replaced with "except by love," or "believe in me" with "believe in love." jesus often taught in parables, yes, but his words are definitely not limited to allegory and metaphor. (and incidentally, i don't consider theology to be one of c. s. lewis' strong points.)
• asa writes on the firefox community marketing initiative. we're looking for donation of high-profile ad space. if you're interested, contact blake and rebron.

anible and i have somehow managed to cull our guest list down to 100, from about 200. painful process. i don't recommend it. i think we're going to employ the "a-list, b-list" routine--send out invitations three months early to everyone who really must be invited, and then send out more after you get rejection RSVPs. because, see, i really want my college friends there, and so does he, but we've got too many freaking family members/ancient old friends. ah well. we've also narrowed down our location options to two. or three, if we like the place we're visiting today. we've got budgets mostly worked for both--i have no idea how much flowers will set us back, but i hear they're pricey. i'm not into the ceremony-location-as-bower thing, so maybe it won't be so bad. o we decided on music for the reception: contra dance. we're going to do a contra dance. (for the unenlightened: irish group dances. not to be confused with square dancing.) it would be so much fun, and we could save a few hundred dollars.

let's see...ah yes, i almost bought a car. it was a lovely little car. a 1989 volkswagen jetta, four cylinder 1.8l engine, 5-speed transmission, immaculate. needed about $800 of work, but the son of the owner said the asking price was $1000, or less. not so, said the owner. ah well. it was a nice little car. no power steering--i'd never driven a car without power steering. that was exciting. p'raps i'll find another.

alrighty, then, folks, i've signed up for what may be my very first internet scam. got it from forevergeek. here's how it works.

1. go to freeipods.com using my referral link.
2. decide whether you want an ipod mini, a 20gb ipod, or a $250 gift certificate.
3. sign up for something stupid and cancellable--the ebay option is probably the best choice, though aol also works (aol is too big to start scamming people).
4. get five other people to do the same thing.
5. rejoice when your free ipod arrives.

i know, i know. me? this? seriously, check out forevergeek, he's got more resources there. (just don't use his referral link! he's already got five! ;p) seems to be valid. and if not, well, you haven't spent anything. you can email me to tell me i'm a moron, if it makes you feel better.

come on, come on, free ipod! come on!

god must be part computer geek.

no, seriously. he once worked through shepherds and kings and the odd walking staff. a few thousand years later, he works through blogs? come on, that's just...well, awesome, really. is your god that versatile?

the post from yesterday has had upwards of 250 views, thanks to some linkage from fellow christian bloggers gerv, who does not appreciate my disregard for principles of english capitalization but linked me anyway, and jarsonic, who shares my birthday. exciting.

in other news, the new post editor blogger just unveiled is driving me nuts. the rich-text view triggers the new FAYT behavior, and some of the keyboard shortcuts i use often (ctrl+l to focus the location bar, for example) are bonded to html tags (like <blockquote>). probably should file a bug on that FAYT breakage.

o, and i meant to blog this earlier. mozilla and acrobat reader have never played nicely together, but i found an article that can help them be at least civil. it seems acrobat loads all its plugins on startup by default, instead of just those in use. so if you move every unused plugin to the "optional" folder, you can drastically decrease startup time. good to know.

the mozilla community has recently been embroiled in theological debate. gervase markham, a christian mozilla dev, made a comment that touched off a massive controversy regarding the nature of god, prayer, christianity in general, etc. it's been recently expanded to include abortion laws in the uk.

lots and lots of kudos to gerv from this peon for making a stand and upholding the word of god. lots and lots.

*pause*

can't resist adding my own two cents.

i've read so many responses to gerv's post that go on about god's unconditional love, inclusivity, relationship to buddhism and islam, etc., etc. i've not read much regarding his holiness, his immense sacrifice, and our responsibility. guess what folks? the god of the old testament is identical to the god of the new testament. god is god, same now as he was yesterday, same yesterday as he will be tomorrow. the covenant has been revamped--the purpose of most of the old laws and rituals was to typify (point to) christ and the ultimate redemption of god's chosen, and it was fulfilled when he came--but god has not. he is every bit as holy, as awe-some, as just, as righteous and as intolerant as he ever was.

he is also as joyful, loving and merciful as he ever was. but it's as dangerous to neglect his less-palatable character points as it is to ignore his more savory qualities. we're human, we know we're sinners, we know our lives and our world are broken. so it's reassuring to talk about a god who just loves, loves, loves. it's easy to talk about how christians and jews and muslims all worship the same god, really. it's comforting to think that buddhists and hindu and moonies, if they're honestly trying to do good and live good lives, will go to heaven.

i honestly want to know how proponents of such arguments get around the "i am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the father except by me" statement. hard to get much more exclusive than that. notice: not "a way, a truth and a life," not "except by me, unless they're earnestly living the best life they can, in which case my death, my separation from the godhead and all the entire redemptive history leading up to it was not necessary. they're all set by themselves." a terrible, terrible price was paid to restore the relationship between god and human. (consider that, consider how much value god places in us. love like that doesn't exist anywhere else.) holiness is fairly stringent requirement. don't just brush off that sacrifice, don't just brush off the gargantuan goal that christ's death and resurrection accomplished.

some more news for you, while i'm on the topic: heaven is not the point. the christian life isn't about subscribing to god's line so we can all arrive in heaven one day. the christian life is about (to quote the westminster shorter catechism) glorifying and enjoying god, forever. catch that? god, it's about god, god is the point. the glorifying and enjoying part doesn't get put on hold until we're in heaven.

and don't give me guff about "christians don't do this." of course christians don't do this, not perfectly. hello, human? that whole "we're sinners" thing still applies. the difference is that through christ, our focus is changed. it's not about doing good for the sake of doing good, or to live up to a standard for some greater reward, or to make us feel better about ourselves. christ has justified us--we are no longer required to live with perfect holiness to be in relationship with god, because christ fulfilled that requirement with his life, and paid our penalty with his death. and then he defeated the whole cycle of sin and death and declared the new covenant, built on faith in him by the grace of god, with his resurrection. anyway. we do good because we actually do love this god. our focus is on him. we take joy in his pleasure. we love to see him "highly exalted," so to speak. when our actions are in line with his character, he is pleased. in an angels-dancing, trumpet-sounding sort of way. which makes us pleased. so we're all pleased, really. except the non-christians, who misunderstand and get pissed at us for our intolerance or our inconsistency. to whom i say this: yes, we are intolerant in that we believe in absolutes. truth. christianity is not a post-modern lifestyle. there is one god, who has provided for the human race exclusive access to him through his son. there are no shortcuts, no longcuts, no alternatives. no apologies, call us arrogant if you must. for our inconsistency, many apologies. we are called god's messengers, ambassadors of his kingdom on earth, and we too often botch the message through our own loss of focus. we can only point to the one who sends the message and say, "our inconsistency has been paid for by the one who knows no inconsistency. follow him."

...so a little more than two cents. right then. go gerv.

i bring to your notice a remarkable, unusual, once-in-a-lifetime event. today, mozilla patched a security vulnerability. it's an unusual event, of course, because mozilla has no security vulnerabilities. more at eweek, cnet, and newsforge. if you're using mozilla/firefox/thunderbird on windows, check out the official docs.

*falls asleep for ten minutes*

right then, continuing on.
*ahem*

the previous tale, however, does not describe the event of which i spoke.

ladies and gentlemen, i bought my wedding dress.

you'll have to email me for a description (certain individuals ain't allowed a glimpse until i start step-gliding), but rest assured: it's mahvelous. for the first time, in all my dress-shopping, i looked in the mirror and said, "good heavens. that's it." there were two (grandma came this time) sharp intakes of breath behind me. it was terribly exciting--the dress is perfect, exactly what i wanted for my wedding day. also bought shoes, hair things and relevant undergarments.

i've got a dress, babay! yeouw!

(to the ain't-it-a-bit-early skeptic: no, it isn't. go away.)

tried to go biking with anible this morning. he's such a wonderful human being. wasps/hornets swarmed the car in the parking lot, sending my bee/wasp/etc. phobia into overdrive. (they were chasing me, and i was running in circles. he didn't laugh or anything.) he got my shaking behind into the car (where i sat and shook) as soon as a door was free, got all the bike stuff into the shade and chased all the nasty buggers away. i managed to bruise my knee prettly badly, tripping over a concrete lampost on my first round. the joint still hurts, though it seems to be loosening up a bit. ag, it was awful.

to bed. goodnight, moon.

the fontainebleau is lovely. it's a big old farmhouse, completely refinished inside. massive banquet hall. the property borders the lake, so there's a little dock with a few boats, and a launching ramp a few feet down the shore. the ceremony would take place close to the water, at the only semi-level area under a massive, ancient oak. (i think it was an oak. i could be wrong.) if the weather was bad, we'd move to the chapel, and that's the part that worries me. it's a bit of a hike from the inn backyard through the woods to the chapel. so first of all, if it started to pour, everyone would be thoroughly soaked, and then they'd get to sit in an un-airconditioned pew for an hour. second, people who can't walk/otherwise transport themselves terribly well would have a hard time getting to it. we could provide transportation (would that be delegated to the groomsmen, p'raps?), but the chapel has no parking lot (just some stairs down to the road), and there's only so many cars you can park on a windy road with almost no shoulder. i guess whoever drove would drop people off and drive back to the parking lot?

bad weather aside, i could see the whole thing. i could see kids running around playing tag, i could see friends and family milling with plates of goodies, i could see the cake set up in the buffet room. i could see the flower girl tossing daisy heads and star flowers. i could see anible and i, standing under the tree, surrounded by happy people in white folding chairs. heh, i was even having visions of the red sky (our '69 rhodes bantam) clipping up and down cayuta lake...(probably not a feasible idea for people in wedding attire, but it'd be so neat).

my ancestors are notorious one-track-mind-ers. they could go for hours and hours on one field, throwing bodily needs and other external forces to the wind. got a lot done that way. (unfortuntely, got a lot not done that way too.)

i've discovered that i am no longer capable of normal conversation. well, let me be more specific: i am not capable of initiating normal conversation. when my mind is idling (like a car, not an im client, 1u53r...) it turns to the fiance, the wedding, the engagement, the guest list, the venue, the date, photographer, the dress, the bridesmaids, the registries...it better not be like this until next summer. i'll implode.

o, a note on those registries. mum and dad think gift registries are extremely tacky. "it's a wedding, it's not about getting gifts, people should be able to get you whatever they want, if you get duplicates you'll have replacements if something breaks," etc. now, i know weddings are not about the massive quantity of loot accumulated, but the fact of the matter is, there will be a massive quantity of loot accumulated. it's not the point, but it is a reality. and since every wedding pulls in approximately the same slew of stuff (dishes, glasses, silverware, towels, sheets, etc., etc.) why not do your guests a favor and let them get organized? remove some of the "i'd get them an 8-12 place setting if i was sure mary and nigel weren't getting them one" guesswork, as well the "i am clueless" guesswork (that's me at weddings), to say nothing of the "hmm...blue or pink and purple?" guesswork. and it's not as if they must use the registry--it's completely optional, in place for the guests' convenience and ignored at their discretion. lone gunmen are free to walk alone.

so that's my thought on gift registries.

anible and i are going to check out the fontainebleau inn tomorrow morning. it's about half an hour out, on cayuta lake (not to be confused with cayuga lake--mine--and keuka lake). mom played for a wedding there in september, said the grounds were breathtaking and ideal for an outdoor ceremony. (if the weather's bad, there's a stone chapel nearby.) the photos on the website are lovely, so we're going to take a look. i'm already imagining the scene...

o o, and we figured out how we can have 200 people at the reception: don't serve dinner! i mean, consider: a 1pm wedding is over by 2. that's not dinner time, that's early-afternoon-snack time. so we figured, bother dinner, just have light stuff, box wine and water/soda. save thousands of dollars. yeah baby.

and in the interest of shunning my heritage, a little engadgetry: the latest incarnation of stupid crooks, this one involving a gps-enable bmw and a car thief, and some strange things going on at sony.

the peak of a wooded cliff. clouds. enter anible (with camera) and gemma in casual dress.

anible: now you wait here, and i'll go down to the creek and get the picture from there.

gemma: where do you want me?

anible (pointing): just there, between the tree branches.

gemma avoids the deer droppings and gets comfortable in the space anible indicated. exit anible down the cliff.

a few minutes pass. gemma hears a noise behind her and turns. anible, dressed in a full suit and holding a purple folding chair, stands in the clearing. anible unfolds the chair and places it in front of him as gemma watches, comprehension and incredulity growing simultaneously in her face.

anible (fighting a smile): have a seat.