November 16, 2004
{Interlude 2}
I've dropped a teensy bit behind schedule -- I mean, it's halfway through the month and I'm halfway through
Incognito, but I was hoping to keep up daily installments while I can because I know there are a few days coming up that I probably won't be able to. We'll see.
Bit of a setback on Friday morning, when the OS X 10.3.6 update hosed menelaus; it took me until about midnight to get him back on his little rubber feet, and I suspect I'll be finding things that aren't right for months to come.
One depressing aspect of the experience of reinstalling was being reminded how smooth and fast Pollen used to be. One of the point updates -- 10.3.3, I think -- really put a spanner in the works, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. It's very vexing. Seeing it running at full speed again was gratifying and dismaying in equal measure. Were it not that various pieces of software just didn't work anymore with vanilla Panther installed, I'd have been tempted to stick with the downgrade.
Friday was also a dreadful day at work, and it all added up to be pretty fucking miserable.
The weekend saw some improvements. On Saturday I cooked Ian breakfast -- scrambled eggs on toast with cheese and tomato -- which almost never happens. Skipped the gym with Stuart -- he'd strained his shoulder the previous time -- and we hung around in town eating ice cream instead. Later, back with Ian, went to see Bad Santa, which was highly entertaining.
Sunday included some sleazy misbehaviour that, for the benefit of your delicate sensibilities, will go undescribed. Fun was had, but there were also moments when I just had to seek out a quiet dark corner in which to silently scream, wishing I was somewhere else, with someone else, doing something else. (Even if it was doing exactly the same, it would be something else.) I wonder if there'll ever be a moment again when I'm not wishing that.
Walking home across the Millennium Bridge in the evening chill, the river to the east was lit up bright red. I've no idea why, but it was sinister and beautiful. There were lights in the sky too, which were there again tonight.
At home, we watched the wonderful Errol Morris film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control on DVD, which was just as splendid as I remembered from about 7 years ago, and Ian liked it as much as I'd hoped. If you haven't seen it, seek it out. Close friends might even get to borrow it.
Today it was back to work; not as bad as Friday, but still rather flat. The weather's turned cold and everything is glumly wintry. At least I finally made it to flying trapeze this evening. I feel better for that.
Posted by matt at November 16, 2004 12:00 AM
The red lights were part of the Remembrance day commemoration ceremonies; I'd wanted to see it in person - the lights and the three million poppy-petal air drop - but work and money kept me from indulging this want. Eerie is good in its own way, and views like that are best enjoyed in company, in silence. We've shared a few moments like that on said bridge :)
It is certainly frigidosity out there, but at least it isn't wet; two days of punishing sunshine and brisk cold have to be cheering at some level, and if London isn't faring quite so well as East Angular [sic], then you'll just have to enjoy it vicariously. Shut those eyes for one minute, see some brilliance, and feel better about your day for just a few moments. It makes a difference.
Especially if you're an optimistic nut-job. Now close those eyes, breathe in, breathe out, snow-blind yourself and smile!
Just another word of encouragement on Incognito. I like the way that it's developing greatly.
I would suggest a category index for the chapters, though. Might make it easier to read later, if you want anyone to.
(incidentally, did you know the tab order on this comment form is broken?)
Thank you. I rather like the way it's developing myself -- it keeps surprising me :)
(Inexplicably keen-eyed observers may notice that, after much dithering, I've reverted chapter 9 to its original title. I've been generally adopting a hands-off approach to the posted material, but in this case I think it's necessary. But I've been wrong before.)
The chapters are being listed on the
stories page, which is discreetly linked in the sidebar. I don't know if that's the sort of thing you have in mind.
And no, I didn't know the tab order was broken (bloody Mac users, never bother to tab around controls). The form code is just the MT default. Its order looks sort of ok to me. Is the problem that only the text fields are tabstops? Or is it that there are input fields in the surrounding page that don't have tabindex settings?
Safari seems to do the decent thing in this case, but I guess I should try it with IE and Firefox at the very least and see what they make of it.
The stories index was just what I was looking for. I just hadn't noticed it.
The tab order is broken because when I tab out of the "Comments" field the next destination for the focus is the first email address on the page, then every other email address, then the "Remember personal info" radio buttons, then "Cancel", then "Preview", then "Post". So the buttons are given focus eventually, but a long way behind other things.
If you can, I would suggest making Preview the next thing after the main text field, then Post. Is Cancel even necessary?
Sorry, this is turning into a very boring comment. It's still an excellent story though.
I hould add that all of this tab order stuff is in Firefox on Windows. Like you, I am a Safari user on my Mac and that just doesn't let me tab to buttons at all so the point is moot there.
OK, I think it's sorted.
Thanks for reporting the problem and testing the fix for me.
