Let me just say how much I hate hipster bars. It’s all about appearances. At the Zoo, it’s all about community, and having fun, and just being around each other. At the Hipster Bar, it’s all about what clothes you’re wearing and what drink you’re having. –And hey, can you dance to this techno-remix? The overall feel is just one of separation; whereas in the Zoo, you’re bumping up against one another and sharing glances, not making them, and best of all, singing along!

I also have to report that our local Queer Center has moved it’s location. It used to be on the second-story of a building, which was not handicap accessible and not visible from the street unless you were looking for it. It’s now located on the first-floor of a building closer to the heart of the downtown, and has two large windows. We were given a tour tonight by a board member and let me just say, I’ll be the gal hanging out watching films while knitting. It feels comfortable there and I’m really glad they moved to a more prominent locale.

The thing I’ve learned tonight: it’s true, as you age everyone just gets more bloated, so why not just have fun together?

You can see the inside of the rest of the book here, and order it here for only $15! Sold!

People of good intentions and progressive predilection are scratching their heads wondering just how President Barack Obama managed to turn himself into George W. Bush Lite with sugar-on-top just twelve weeks after that fateful walk down the US Capitol’s east stairway to the waiting helicopter. I’m hardly the first observer to note that Mr. Obama’s actions in the face of an epochal finance fiasco and economic collapse are a mere extension of the pre-January-20 policies, carried out by much the same cast of characters.

James Howard Kunstler, “Note:Hope=Truth”

I struggled to contain myself.

What can you expect from a group with a song entitled “Sperm Receptacle“?

As I glanced around the crowd, women comprised at least half the attendance. In the first group to perform, The Crazy Monkeys, there are two women members. Even with this, they played mainly stereotypical female roles (ditsy girlfriend, girlfriend/wife who gets pregnant–whoops!, etc.).

There wasn’t much of substance in either performance.

Why not try some satirical work, or lampooning, of current political events instead of rehashing the same old bullshit from those who did it better, the first time around?

I’m so happy I didn’t pay for any of this shit.

• Adblock Plus

It makes me supremely happy to surf the web without being advertised to and extremely angry when I visit a site with a sidebar (or often, a second sidebar) crammed full of ads. Everyone likes to get paid, son, but shit. Ads are the second reason as to why I refuse to use Internet Explorer (the first being that it sucks at standards-compliance).

• ColorfulTabs

I usually have at least four open tabs and being able to easily distinguish them is a bonus. That you can select the fade on non-focused tabs is awesome.

• Greasemonkey

What is the Internet like without this? I cannot remember. Greasemonkey is a beast and has a fantastic community of folks who are just as anal as I am when it comes to being able to customize your experience. I haven’t had to click the Next Page button on Flickr or a Google search in FOREVER.

• Undo Closed Tabs Button

Why oh why did I just close that tab?! With this addon it doesn’t matter if it was the most recently closed tab or if I closed it 60 tabs ago, it’s in the history.

• BetterSearch

This works well in tandem with some of my Greasemonkey scripts; it shows small screenshots of each search result.

• ColorZilla

I love you, ColorZilla. Allows you to identify any color, anywhere on a website.

• Image Zoom

Hate it when folks only post small sizes of images? Me too. Zoom in!

• MeasureIt

Good for web development; find the size right on the screen.

• Mouse Gestures Redoux

There’s something about being able to go back a page just by right-clicking and dragging left.

• PDF Download

I get to decide how to deal with PDFs: open, save, or view in another tab.

• Web Developer

The best addon in my collection. Could not live without it, I think.

• Delicious Bookmarks

How I save everything I find, quickly.

• DownThemAll!

A mass downloader. Great for visiting mp3 blogs.

• Fetch Text URL

I hate it when web addresses aren’t hyperlinked. Select the URL, right-click, open in new tab.

• Screengrab

Creates an image of the entire website.

• TwitterBar/Twitterfox

TwitterBar lets you post to Twitter via the address bar. Twitterfox let’s you post to Twitter and receive updates.

educeme.com is running without CSS for the next 48 hours.

The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words.

As long as I’ve done my job as a coder/designer, you should find Educe Me to be readable, legible, and still navigable. Things will have degraded nicely if you see every section of my site in a logical manner–a header at top (and the usually-hidden skip to content link), navigation, then the posts, with all the extra stuff at the bottom.

Web standards are important!

30,055 people took the survey. Things that caught my eyes:

This explains why I’ve always found it so difficult to find other women designers.

Inspired by Creative Commons and the open source software movement, the FMA provides a legal and technological framework for curators, artists, and listeners to harness the potential of music sharing. Every artist page will have a bio and links to the artists’ home page for users to learn more about the music they discover via the Free Music Archive. We also seek to compensate artists directly. Artist, album and song profiles will contain links to buy the full album from the artist and/or label’s preferred vendor(s). Users can also “tip” an artist if they like what they hear, sending a donation directly to the artists’ PayPal account. Artist profiles include tourdates, encouraging users to step away from the glowing computer screen and see some real live music.

The site is reminiscent of Jamendo, another site which offers a sharing place for artists (large community of European groups) with the same option of compensation via donations–perhaps they can join efforts or at least learn from one another.

It’s free. No sign-up required. No password needed, really; just put in a name.

90% better if you have a Wacom tablet, or other such interface/input device. Do not attempt to use it via laptop, as your trackpad will surely make you lose. Or shit, risk it with your trackpad drawing skillz; whatever.

You will forever thank me but your professors may hate me.

Click here to read the results of 2007′s survey.