Xaviar X. Xerexes

WordPress on the Desktop

by Xaviar XerexesDecember 29, 2015

A quick post to try out the new WordPress app for the Mac (it’s available for Linux and Windoz too). Seems pretty comparable to the in-browser editing experience. I also got my “annual report” on Altertainment from Jetpack. I didn’t do much blogging this year so understandly the world’s attention to the site has fallen off of a cliff, into the ocean and almost to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. The posts that got the most views in 2015 were all from before 2015! They included: The very old (and probably no longer all that practical) Using Drupal to Publish Webcomics from …

I Like the new DC United Logo

by Xaviar XerexesDecember 18, 2015

I was happily surprised when the new logo for the hometown futbol club came out. The new logo is a nice modernization of the existing logo that ties in the District of Columbia flag. I like the wings pushing out past the outline of the shield. It’s a nice way to play with the traditional shape of a soccer club crest.

Women’s League Soccer

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 3, 2015

We’ve had a decade and a half of professional women’s soccer in the U.S.which is often lost on people not paying attention. Yes there have been three leagues in succession – because the first two only last 3 seasons each – but taken in total there has been professional women’s soccer in the U.S. since the famous 1999 U.S. world cup victory. The first league, Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) launched a bit late – 2001 – to fully capitalize on the popularity of the U.S. women’s team victory but it did have most of that team plus a number …

Bookmark: Terry Pratchett

by Xaviar XerexesSeptember 4, 2015

RIP Sir Terence David John “Terry” Pratchett, OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015). Forty one Discworld novels have been published. Within Discworld, Pratchett weaved a narrative with many different characters that each had their own narratives across several books. So much so that anyone approaching reading them needs a guide on how to make sense of it all. The L-Space web has put together the above graphic which suggests starting points for each of the major “series” of stories within the novels. There is an alternative version below.

Oingo Boingo: Danny Elfman

by Xaviar XerexesSeptember 1, 2015March 9, 20201

The artistic genius, the driving force, the hub of Oingo Boingo is unquestionably Danny Elfman. Others made key contributions to the sound of the band, but there would be no oingo in the boingo with Elfman. He put out a solo album which for all intents and purposes is another Oingo Boingo album. The fact that the theater troupe transformed into the rock band and then ended before it faded away is all due to Elfman. Maybe a little bit to Tim Burton who hired him to score Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and then went on to work with him …

Oingo Boingo: The Mystic Knights Of

by Xaviar XerexesAugust 31, 2015

The pop band Oingo Boingo started off an basically an experimental avant garde theatre troupe called the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. When I was growing up I just missed this phase of the band and in the pre-Internet era tracking down “knowledge” of all aspects of the band was not just a badge of your “fandom” of the band — it was hard. I’ve learned a thousand times more about the history of the band in the last 10 years then I ever did in the moment back then. Pictures and music of them playing in clubs from …

Oingo Boingo: Weird Science

by Xaviar XerexesAugust 30, 2015

The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo was the sound track to my years in highschool and some of college. For those of us growing up listening to KROQ one would think Oingo Boingo was really popular and they were, but after moving to the East Coast as an adult it was interesting to learn it was actually a bit of a west coast phenomenon. I think I’m going to do a series of posts this week on different aspects of the band. (Nothing too deep and probably I’ll have to come back and update them) Their biggest hits probably …

Bookmark: Kim Stanley Robinson

by Xaviar XerexesAugust 23, 2015

I just finished Aurora, the latest novel from Kim Stanley Robinson. Kim Stanley Robinson is a writer of hard science fiction who brings logical, methodical extrapolation to any topic he ponders. He is, despite all of that, a fairly poetic fellow who often detours from physics to philosophy and the human condition. But still, hard science. Aurora is a very interesting but ultimately somewhat unsatisfying novel. As the book progresses it becomes apparent that the hero of the story, the true protagonist, isn’t human at all but the very interstellar ship that takes the humans on their long, long journey through …