The Office, Season 2, Episode 5, Halloween

Questionable Content: Innuendo

on Sheppard Ave, between Brimley and Midland, there is a 'massage parlour' in the green-roofed plaza (congee king, pho ha). it is called Pink Rose Massage Spa. it has mirrored out windows. there are two neon signs on the windows that say OPEN or MASSAGE in garish colours, flanking the door on either side. on the door itself there is a message that reads:

ALSO YOU CAN ENTER
THE BACK DOOR
i kid you not.

i wanted to take a picture of it, but as sherm was posing in front of the door, it opened. i was fully expecting a heavily made-up chinese woman in a sleeveless cheong-sam (long dress) with her hair done up in a bun and chopsticks. instead, a tall and oddly portly caucasian woman opened the door and said, "you guys are losers."

Nerd Corner: Keyword Bookmarking in Firefox

if you are a Firefox user, here's a helpful bit of nerdery i picked up off Lifehacker, an awesome blog for nerds and people obsessed with productivity. the title link leads to Lifehacker's most thorough post on this subject.

anyone who uses a web browser on a regular basis uses Bookmarks (Firefox, Netscape) or Favourites (Internet Explorer) to access those commonly visited sites. Keyword Bookmarking allows Firefox users to type in a short Keyword in the Address Bar to access a Bookmarked site, rather than navigating to the Bookmarks Menu and finding the correct button. this means you no longer need to leave the keyboard. simply press Ctrl + L to get to the Address Bar, type in your keyword, and go.

Adding a Keyword to Existing Bookmarks
Right-click the bookmark you want to add a keyword for and you will see a few fields to fill in. type in a short phrase, or even just a letter into the Keyword field.

it took me a bit of work to get used to it, but now i have all my useful bookmarks keyworded. this spares you the trouble of organizing your bookmarks because you'll probably never have to click that menu again anyway.

Add Keyword Field to the Add a Bookmark Dialogue Box

the default Add a Bookmark interface (Ctrl + D to add the current page as a bookmark) in Firefox is quite spartan. you can choose a name, edit the location and enter a description. the extension OpenBook will allow you to tweak the interface to your choosing, adding a variety of options (such as bookmark location) if you so choose. i used this for awhile until i found something better.

Firefox's main claim to usefulness is its potential for user customizations, predominantly through the aforementioned extensions, little programs created by Firefox developers and users to extend the functionality of the browser. beyond that is the userChrome.css. this is a style sheet that dictates the way Firefox looks and acts through bits of coding a nerdy user might insert into the core Firefox program. with short bits of code, one can remove useless menus and menu options from sight, change scrollbars, and even add backgrounds to the menus. click here to jump to Lifehacker's mini guide to Chrome customization.

the important customization to note is:

/* Add a keyword when adding a bookmark */
#keywordRow { display: -moz-grid-line !important; }

now every time you Add a Bookmark you'll see:


with the Keyword field available conveniently upon inception.

Keyword Searching

Firefox comes with a built-in Google toolbar (Ctrl + K), so searching is pretty much already at your fingertips. it also allows you to add searches, such as Wikipedia or IMDB within that toolbar. that's all fine and dandy, but Google, Wiki and IMDB are not the only websites that you want to search. unbeknownst to many, Firefox will allow you create keyword searches. simply right-click over a search bar, say Google Images, and select "Add a Keyword for this Search". it is basically Adding a Bookmark that you activate by keyword.


set up a Keyword the same way you would a Bookmark


so now whenever you need to dig up an image...


simply type in the keyword for that search and enter the search query after a space. any keyword search that you add is added as a bookmark, so it'd probably be a good idea to dump them into a folder specifically for searches.

that's all for now. i'm all nerded out.

Porcelain Philosophy 2: The Closet

Note: formerly known as Life Theme (what a crappy name, eh?), this series of posts has been re-dubbed Porcelain Philosophy, inspired by Rodin's Thinker and its obvious connotations. huge life-altering concepts are best dealt with in the privacy and serenity of the bathroom, where you purge your waste below to make room for better things above.
---

Kallipareos. Of the lovely cheeks. Now she has it. The Homeric word is sparkling on her hook. And beyond that she is suddenly aware of all her Greek vocabulary, of everything which seems to have been put in a closet for nearly six months now. Because she was not teaching Greek, she put it away.
That is what happens. You put it away for a little while, and now and again you look in the closet for something else and you remember, and you think, soon. Then it becomes something that is just there, in the closet, and other things get crowded in front of it and on top of it and finally you don't think about it at all.
The thing that was your bright treasure. You don't think about it. A loss you could not contemplate at one time, and now it becomes something you can barely remember.
That is what happens.
And even if it's not put away, even if you make your living from it, every day? Juliet thinks of the older teachers at the school, how little most of them care for whatever it is that they teach. Take Juanita, who chose Spanish because it goes with her Christian name (she is Irish) and who wants to speak it well, to use it in her travels. You cannot say that Spanish is her treasure.
Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang on to it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.

- "Chance", Runaway by Alice Munro

the closet of my heart is the secret vault in which i keep that which is dearest to me. my secret vault is not built with fortifications in mind though. i dislike memorizing passwords and combinations and heavy metal. i see it has a quaint wooden door (two openings, like on Lamb Chop's Play Along) and a window (because some things in there prefer the light). the one shelf is sparsely populated by childhood trophies (the striped "rover's" floor hockey stick*), a few books (my first Bible, which i gave away) and a little box. photographs and memory sketches cover the facing wall. there is a calendar in the corner for important dates and a green marker clipped above it for additions. in another corner is a levitating frog. his name is George. it is a small and narrow closet, but i think i have enough space to get by for now.

* i was enrolled into a floor hockey league from grade one through three. each team was allowed 5 players plus a goaltender. two forwards and two defenders had to stay on their halves of the gym. the "rover" bored a stick that was wrapped with tape all the way up the shaft. rovers could cross the half-line without penalty.

Dove Evolution

video posting is great. i don't need to think to evoke thought.

edit: but i like to think. feel free to disagree.

"Beauty is a measurement of how thankful you are for what you've been given."