hmmm

June 07, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I just realized that I had 13 files open in one vim session. I think maybe at that point you're supposed to realize that, hey, there's a world outside of this terminal window. At least I'm not using emacs, though. Then I'd probably just boot straight into it and never leave.

I was looking through the eThreads code tonight, as part of my rewrite. I found stuff in the core that I didn't even know was there, which is kind of crazy when you consider that I wrote it all. That's what happens, though, when you write something over the course of 6 years. According to this history I did in 2002, the last ground up rewrite before these last few weeks was in 1999. Granted, a lot of the code has changed since then, particularly with the work I did in late 2001 / early 2002, but the major pieces were put in place in '99.

And yet, with all this revision, I still beat myself up with things like:

my @f = $content =~
    m!\G
        (?:
            {(/?)(\w[\w\.]*\w)(?:\s+(?:"([^"]+)"|([^}]+)\s+))?\s*(/?)}
            | (.*?)(?:(?={[\w/])|$)
        )
    !gisx;

Mmmm... Regular expression fun.

songofthemoment: Joseph Arthur - "All of Our Hands"

June 07, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I recently made mention of Joseph Arthur, and so to check the link I went to his site and noticed a free song linked off the main page. I had sort of forgotten about him after getting out to Largo to see him in Oct. 2002, so I eagerly downloaded the track.

At first, I didn't know if I liked it, but I'm lazy so it stayed up in my mp3 player. I listened to it a few more times, and all of a sudden realized, hmmm, I do like this. So I'm mentioning here. After all, it's free music. I'm hoping that when the new album gets out Joseph gets back out to LA. It's been a while.

Music: A Full Night at Molly Malone's

June 05, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Friday I did the whole bike back from work thing, took a shower, waited for Magilla to get back from work, and then finally we set out. First up was a little walk up the street to check out the studiowarming party for Artistsalon.com. They put on monthly arts events where anyone can come and just do whatever it is they do. Art for art's sake, they like to say. We spent a little time talking to Jason Waters -- the guy responsible for Artistsalon -- after he wandered into a conversation we were having about tap water competitions. I'm pretty sure he thinks we're weird now. He was school of theatre at USC, which is cool.

But anyway, I was writing about music... After spending a little time at the party I hopped in the car and headed over to Museum Row. Destination, Molly Malone's. I was originally just headed there to meet up with someone I needed to talk to, but looking at the bill earlier in the day it turned into a show I was excited about. Paper Sun (to be mentioned and linked in a second) were putting the night on, looking to bring together a bunch of acts they enjoy and are friends with.

First up was Dawn Thomas, who I'm mentioned before in the context of singing a song with Saucy Monky. I only caught the last couple songs, but I enjoy hearing her vocals.

Next up was... I can't remember his name and the Molly Malone's calendar won't load for me at the moment. Doh. It was good, though, and I apologize to whoever I'm getting to short-change here.

Third up was Paper Sun. I first saw them last October, when they played a show at Room 5. I've also mentioned that Sally has been playing with Saucy Monky. Paper Sun's got a really jazzy vibe going on, and I've really enjoyed them both times I've heard them. I especially like their song "Los Angeles", but I can't seem to find a clip of that online to point you to. I'd encourage checking out "Never Alone" (mp3 link). I think that's closest to the live sound of any of the stuff they have online.

Next up was Gabriel Mann, who I'd heard of but never heard. Really good, definitely worth checking out.

Now, these last three bands all shared one thing in common that I think deserves to be pointed out here. All three shared bass and drum combo Carson Cohen and Adam Marcello. Now, I'm no musician but knowing your stuff for three different bands in a row seems to me like it would be a bit tough. But they pull it off, and they do it well. These two are everywhere. It's crazy.

There was one last act, but again the calendar isn't working and I actually had to leave anyway so I wouldn't be able to do much commenting regardless. A fun night to be sure, and something that they're looking to put on more often.

L.A. Means Business

June 04, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Brady Westwater, who just joined the LA blogging scene, today pointed me to an event he's helping put on called L.A. Means Business. As you can see from the L.A./Downtown discrepancy between title and URL, it's focused on bringing business back to the central city. From the site:

So whether you want to create the latest hot night spot, a hip fusion restaurant, a new clothing line, an art gallery or a book store - or start a museum or a non-profit that funds micro-businesses or job training - or found a new magazine or publishing house, hold a film festival, bring Broadway and off-Broadway theater to LA’s Broadway theaters or manufacture the next big thing in furniture or electronic games - this is where you will need to be on June 19th.

I arrived in Los Angeles three years ago after having lived in a variety of towns that really didn't have much to say about urban planning. In Sumter I doubt the issue really ever came up. In New Jersey, well, I lived in the middle of a million acres of pine forests. Muskegon came the closest, with its constant discussion about how to revilalize an ailing downtown waterfront. Still, though, I can't call Muskegon urban. Talk about the downtown issues there lacks immediacy. It's interesting to read about, but really 90% of residents aren't too concerned about it. Or at least that's how I felt.

But then I moved to Los Angeles, first to the USC area and more recently to downtown. LA has more than its share of cool areas, but over time I've become a bit obsessed with downtown. Were I to start school over today I would give serious thought into going into Public Policy and Planning. Downtown right now just feels so like you're getting in at the ground floor. Instead of reading countless articles waxing theoretical, you can look outside and see change. You can see resturants opening and buildings under renovation. You can see the neon begin to relight.

And that's fascinating. So, yeah, I'll be checking out the event on the 19th.

thoughts on architectures and caching

June 03, 2004 by Eric Richardson

99% of you are going to want to ignore this post. I need to write something out, and this is convenient, so I'm doing it here. It's technical, though, so if you're not in to that feel free to do something else. Maybe you want to read it to see how oddly my mind works, but I doubt it. That's why I'm hiding all the content after the jump. Click on if you really want to see it. — Continue Reading...