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Luke Melia

9/30/01, 6 pm

Played some fun football in the rain in Central Park. Dad came and Kit was there with his son Sam. I dig the father and son football thing!

Dad made some delicious tofu watercress salad when I got home. His signature dish.

This afternoon, made an AvantGo version of my blog. I basically followed their instructions and then used php’s regular expression functions (preg_replace) to adjust the blog content as appropriate (i.e. no permalinks). The regex stuff is probably not the best for scaling purposes, but then again, this ain’t exactly the oxygen.com homepage.

9/30/01, one am

Couldn’t pull it together to get out to Kew Gardens tonight. After a full day of volleyball, I was pretty beat. Hopefully I’ll see Don soon enough.

Dad’s here after all. It was nice to see him tonight. He’s reading a book about the Taliban, trying to educate himself about these folks. He’s about two-thirds through and is recommending the book to others.

In getting the link for the book, I noticed that there’s a 3-5 week backorder on it at Amazon. This stuff is just information… there should be a better way.

Speaking of better ways (or other ways at least), I’m thinking about doing a Avant Go version of my blog suitable for reading on a handheld device. Should be pretty straightforward and will be useful to the throngs of busy readers. ;-)

I also had the idea of an email address, maybe handheld@lukemelia.com or something, that I could forward mail to for availability on my palm. I don’t sync my mail now, and don’t really want to. This would let me selectively make things available to me on the go.

The architecture would be to configure that address to process mail through a script that would dump the messages into a database or flatfiles. Then a php page would disaply them appropriately. I’d also need an interface for removing things and/or I could have things expire after a certain amount of time.

Made some more progress on learning Christmas Song. It’s starting to sound like a real song, as opposed to a random guitar flailing noise. I’m most proud of myself for choosing a song that is easy-to-learn.

Finally, I had sushi with Ilio and Cherilyn tonight. What a great pair or people, both separate and together. They make me wish I had a girlfriend again.

Almost.

I’m actually really glad that I’m single and really glad that I got myself in this situation. It’s been a long time, and the dynamics of really answering to no one but myself are refreshing.

I said “finally” introducing the last topic. I lied. I should also mention that I looked at a friend’s apartment this morning. To buy. He and his fiancé are selling and moving to Brooklyn. I’m not really going to buy it (or any abode right now) because I don’t have the down payment for one. I just wanted to get a feel for the process. It’s amazing how little space you get in Mnahattan for a few hundred Gs.

9/29/01, 2:28 am

Some really wonderful time alone. Came home late from work. Cooked some food and upgraded my Mac to OS X 10.1. Will and Dad are nowhere to be seen. Their stuff is here, but they’re not. Dad had mentioned he might head to Charlotte today for a few days.

Fortunately, his acoustic guitar giutar is still here. I lit some candles, shut the light, sat down in from of the computer with the guitar and worked on learning Dave Matthews’ Christmas Song with lyrics and tab.

Such a beatiful and emotive song. I remember driving home from UVA at one point, just listening to that song over and over again, singing along.

I’d love to get really good at guitar. But just playing it every once in a while would be great, too. Maybe I’ll buy one when Brad comes to visit.

9/28/01, 11:34 pm

Came across an interesting statement to Congress in 1998 by Steve Emerson, the journalist who made the “Jihad in America” documentary. It’s a long read, but even reading bits and pieces are interesting.

9/28/01, 2:14 AM

9/28/01, 2:14 AM

I finally understand why they call the music “emo.” I went to see Sparklehorse tonight at Bowery Ballroom. Joyce’s birthday present to me. Unfortunately, I was in quite a funk beginning the evening. Not a James Brown kinda funk, either. A kinda feel like crying for no reason but on-second-thought-don’t-wanna-make-the-effort kinda funk.

A poor birthday boy I made… Anyway, I was feeling a little better when I got to the show. Talking to Joyce’s British friend helped — accents generally make me feel better about life I think. When the band got going, I just lost mysef in the guitars and keyboards. Loud and emotive, the sound really let’s you put your whole brain in it. It’s a good experience.

Reminds me of Rainer Maria. I wonder if Brad’s heard of them. I’d be surprised if he hadn’t.

9/26/01

9/26/01

On the 26th, my brother will turned 23 years old. will Happy birthday, Will!

Will brought his girlfriend Rachel home to meet Mom on his birthday. Great present for Mom. She’s thrilled that he’s got a woman in his life besides her. I concur; Rachel’s great, and seems to make Willie really happy. She’s young – 18, younger than Dani’s boyfriend. That’s wierd!

We did our best to embarass Will at dinner. I even talked about how Monica and Isabella’s placentas were in our freezer for a few years (before Mom & Mike got around to planting a tree on them), but both Will and Rachel handled it great. Color me impressed!

BTW, here’s the image I sent Will from India 2 years ago on his 21st birthday.

9/26/01, 2:32 am

Tonight: Mexican food for Volleyball leads to Beer and Pool then Tequila so Pizza and Painting Walls and Trim then Bodies means Subway for Sleep.

9/25/01, 2:47 am

Added a page with a technical overview of the technologies used on my site.

I’m going to bed now. I swear.

9/25/01, 1:49 am

Great volleyball tonight at Chelsea Piers. Started with a clinic and dwindled down to 2-on-2.

I love sweating. People talk a lot about how most people don’t drink enough water. I think we should start talking about how most people don’t sweat enough.

Now I’m up too late again. I’ll be dragging at breakfast with the CEO tomorrow AM. She does monthly birthday breakfasts — everyone with a birthday in September is invited. Should be an interesting crowd. Lots of Virgos…

I’m not sure what to do about it, but I’m really scared. I’m scared of another attack. I feel like I’m a sitting duck and it’s not a good feeling. Gas masks are selling at inflated prices on Ebay, and their usefulness is dubious anyway. I have no doubt I can hold it together. I grew up in a cold war where the threat of mutual nuclear destruction got us through everyday. I can deal.

Now that I think of it, though, there was at least some perverse logic to hold onto then. They can’t nuke us cuz they know we’d nuke them. Where’s the balance between America and the terrorist mujahideen?

When it all comes down to it, I guess I just have to take my chances everyday, just like every human being does all around the world. If it was a card game, I’d rather raise the stakes than fold this hand.

9/24/01, two minutes before volleyball class

9/24/01, two minutes before volleyball class

Reason Online has an excellent piece that jives with a lot of my thoughts about the crossroads we’re at. What Happens Next? Six options beyond war and peace.

LukeMelia.com created 1999. ··· Luke Melia created 1976. ··· Live With Passion!
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