John August

Archives for 2006

Redesign, part one

Geek Alert, Meta, News

Readers who visit the web site, as opposed to getting it through the feeds, will notice a few changes, both cosmetic and architectural.

We’ll start with the obvious stuff. The blue header is a little bluer, the footer is fatter, and there are fewer entries per page.

There’s now an archive listing on every page of the site. This is by far the biggest change. [Certain people](http://www.davidanaxagoras.com/) have long pointed out the disgraceful lack of accessible archives for the site.

I feel that archive navigation isn’t really that crucial for most blogs. Odds are, a reader visiting your site doesn’t want to poke around to see what you really thought of Miss Congeniality 2. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be able to, it’s just that most blogs are about what’s happening today, not a year ago.

Archives are history. Most people just don’t care.

That said, johnaugust.com doesn’t function quite like most blogs. A reader stumbling across this site is likely to be interested in screenwriting, and is likely to have specific questions that I’ve addressed in earlier entries. The ability to easily wander through the 500+ posts is a huge advantage, and the new archive structure will (I hope) make this possible. Try it out, and see what you think.

There’s also a new “Recently” section beside the archives list. Off-Topic, which used to be its own page, is now part of the same footer package on every page. It’s still powered by [del.icio.us](http://del.icio.us), which has made it ridiculously easy to add a link-roll. (The old way involved cron scripts and cache files; the new way means cutting-and-pasting two lines of javascript.)

The new footer is hugely inspired by [Hemingway](http://warpspire.com/hemingway), a terrific and spare theme designed by Kyle Neath. I’m calling my version “Bradbury,” which is a lame and obvious pun.

The boring and invisible change is that I’ve upgraded to the most recent version of [WordPress](http://wordpress.org), which is faster, slicker, and one hopes resistant to [evil little script kiddies](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2005/what-happened). I’ve actually had the new version running for a while on a mirror site, and it’s proved to be very stable.

If I were a Proper Designer who really thought things through carefully, I’m sure I could come up with a full rationale for why everything is the way it is on the site. I can’t. Some of it is just that way because I like it. But your feedback is always welcome.

And yes, there’s a part two. Soon.

How the hell did I get on this mailing list?

Rant

crossword pajamas[PajamaGram](http://pajamagram.com) sells robes and pajamas — mostly for women, but they have some “cute” couples pajamas that are worth flipping to the back to see. Such as these his-and-hers [crossword pajamas](http://store1.yimg.com/I/pajamagram_1879_25298615).

I ask you: Could anything be better than doing the Sunday crossword puzzle _while wearing crossword pajamas?_

I’ve now gotten three catalogs from this place, and I’m at a loss to figure out why. Yes, I’ve ordered stuff from baby catalogs recently, but having an infant hasn’t led me to swearing off actual clothes. I’m tempted to call and ask to have my name removed from their list, but I fear that it will be the snail-mail equivalent of the spam-reply trap: once they know an address is valid, the volume increases.

So for now, I marvel, then recycle. And try to figure out exactly who’s buying this stuff.

If you see me writing ugly pajamas into a future script, it’ll be our little inside joke.

The word escapes me

Words on the page

For the past few months, I’ve been at a loss for word. Not _words_, but one very specific word. It refers to knowledge that would only be known by people in a specific group. One would use it thusly…

“The distinction between italic and oblique is obvious to a type designer, but is frankly a little too _blank_ for everyone else.”

I really needed the word. But I couldn’t remember it.

I started asking people, smart people, if they could help me figure out the word. No one could.

I Googled “pertaining to a specific group.” I got page after page of words, but not the right one.

I was 90% sure the word started with ‘e.’ So I actually went through the dictionary, page by page, looking at every entry for the letter ‘e.’

But I couldn’t find it.

Then last week, while walking through an almost empty theatre, I heard someone say something magnificent: _esoteric._

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

es•o•ter•ic (es-uh–ter-ik) adj.

Intended for or understood by only a particular group: an esoteric cult. See synonyms at mysterious.
Of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of people.
Confined to a small group: esoteric interests.
Not publicly disclosed; confidential.

I have no idea what the person was talking about. I just heard that one word, and felt the relief of an agonizing itch being scratched. I immediately emailed myself the word, just in case.

Just today, I found a [Reverse Dictionary Search](http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml) site, which I’ve already bookmarked for the next word I can’t remember.

I’m setting the TiVo for Bubble

Meta

Bubble[Steven Soderbergh’s](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001752/) new movie, [Bubble](http://imdb.com/title/tt0454792/), opens in theaters today. I’ve hardly read anything about the movie itself, because all the publicity is about the unique (some say troubling) distribution strategy: reducing the traditionally months-long window between the theatrical release and the DVD release to mere days.

Of course, DVDs have always come out a few days after a movie. [They’re called bootlegs.](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2005/fixing-broken-windows)

The film is also debuting on HDNet movies tonight. I wasn’t sure we got that, but it turns out it’s been there all along, right at channel 78. So that’s where I’ll be watching it.

Also, I had assumed screenwriter [Coleman Hough](http://imdb.com/name/nm1024512/) was a pseudonym for Soderbergh (like “Peter Andrews” the cinematographer), because Hough’s only real credits are Soderbergh’s indie movies. But then I found an [actual article](http://www.moviemaker.com/hop/15/screenwriting.html) about the woman.

So I apologize for doubting her existence.