Practicalmadness

Today's challenges: making it though a workday without lashing out irrationally, making it through a Journal item without ever mentioning my workplace again, and finishing said journal entry entirely within the space of four minutes.

My current project is the completion of my first screenplay, Two or Three Things You Should Know About Mike Morpheus. That is to say, that is the project I am supposed to be working on, but instead I've been spending lots and lots of time at Peet's Coffee, and building my ingenious Movable Type-killer app, Practical Publisher. (Features so far include the ability to import new entries from any existing HTML page, regardless of the formatting. Future features will include the ability to import from files, make Graphical Blogs, and-- oh, hell, you don't care. You're here for the sardonicness.)

Thwack! This is the sound of me throwing in the towel, embracing this thing and giving up on my dream of building The Blogging System That Is Like Movable Type Only PHP-Based Oh And Better. And as I work on the newest redesign of Practical -- this time focused on content and a very, very spare page design -- I find that Movable gives me all the power I need to make the Practical of my dreams, that is to say, one that requires a minimum of effort on my part.

(What turned me around? Mostly seeing how much better Movable was working than my homegrown solution. And how much fun I was having editing plain old HTML using my newest toy, Dreamweaver MX. And how much more easily I'm breathing now that I don't have to fuck with building a fully-fledged Web App.

In a near-future installment, I shall tell of my battle with vampire jewelers (no, really!) in the Loop, of the growing madness of my cat Sophie, of such films as "Lilo & Stitch", "13 Conversations About One Thing", "Insomnia" and, of course, "Minority Report", and of whatever else is going on.

And if you are now, or have ever been, subscribed to the Practical newsletter Communique, dust off that spam filter: I am going to try to write Communique 6.01 in the coming weeks to see if it'll fly. Be afraid. Be kinda afraid.

Oh, that reminds me of a couple of things:

1. "Scooby-Doo" -- it doesn't totally suck, although it's more successful as a joke on the performers (AHEM Freddie Prinze, Jr. AHEM AHEM AHEM) than as its own movie. That said, it's the sort of remake that brings to mind Cameron Crowe's comparing an all-too-faithful remake to 'your band covering that one song you really liked' -- a tribute more than anything else, and as evidenced by Roger Ebert's Sun-Times review, if you're not up for some really, really inside jokes, you may as well go see Hot Mexican Sex Action, uh, I mean Y Tu Mama Tambien again. Full review? Maybe if I feel like it.

2. Practical's long-dormant No Subject discussion list has been invaded by spammers this week. I haven't yet taken any action; most likely I will shut down the list or switch it over to a moderated discussion, which shouldn't affect anyone as nobody was using the list anyway. We here at Practical care about you all very deeply* and hope nobody was offended, harmed or sexually excited by any unsolicited junk e-mail forced upon you by way of our mailing list. (* - Denotes lies.)