People are always playing with vowels, trying to write books without the letter 'e', or seeing how we can live without vowels, but there's a great example going on right now at Survivorblog 2 right now. Today's Immunity Challenge to the contestants is to not use any vowels (or 'y' except as the first letter of a word) at all today. The first one that lets a vowel slip loses immunity for their tribe.

What's cool is the first hour, where people use at least five different methos to convey meaning without vowels before falling into a pattern. Keep in mind there are 15 active posters on that blog, with literally hunderds of posts a day. I can't wait to see who slips up first.

I've had a recurring waking fantasy for the past several weeks. Don't worry (or my apologies to you): it's not that kind of fantasy, well, not really...

I picture myself in a large, empty dance studio, ballroom, or other expansive interior space with a wooden floor. I'm with a partner who really knows how to waltz, and we're completely alone. I'm talking haven't-seen-anyone-all-day, Andromeda Strain kind of alone. I have a small boom box, but when I turn it on it sounds like the music is coming from the very walls, all of them, acoustically perfect.

We waltz, we dance crossstep, the kind of dancing where you communicate more with your partner silently than you could in words.

The walls in the space are non-descript, the floor doesn't creak. There are no cars driving by, jets overhead, neighbors to worry about waking, or even any direct illumination. The only textured sensory inputs are the music and the dance. It's like I'm a barrel filling up with something and that dance is the only way to pull the cork from the bottom to release the pressure.

Augh. Stress is getting to me, and I haven't been to the Starry Plough in almost three months (not that the above kind of dance could be found there...)

I'm working on a bunch of UI enhancements for the site. I've finished the first low-fi prototype but, since this is a relatively minor iteration over the existing site, once I finish a little user testing with it I'll implement the changes here and see how they work on the live site. (I love non mission-critical sites.) Anyhow, I'll be testing this weekend and likely implementing the changes next week based on the results.

One new feature of the site will be the Berkeley Photo of the Day. I tend to take at least 7 web-worthy pics a week, but I haven't been posting them in the blog because I've wanted to have a more aggregative way to view them, including a regular thumbnail of today's pic somewhere on the main page.

I've dubbed the latest iteration 'Fury 3.1', where the current site is 3.0, this is 2.0 (1999), and this is 1.0 (1995). I wish I still had 0.5...

While you're waiting, here's this weekend's Berkeley Picture:

Written on the chalkboard in LeConte 3, right before the first class of the semester. Apparently job one is to learn how to spell Berkeley.

I like Blogger, I really do. They help 30,000 people publish their own weblogs, but this is one of the reasons I don't use them to run this one:

Error 103:java.sql.SQLException: java.sql.SQLException: The log file for database 'pyra' is full. Back up the transaction log for the database to free up some log space. [more info]

Basically 30,000 weblogs are frozen until someone clears some hard disk space. Sometimes homegrown solutions are the best solutions.

I finally made it to the RSF today (RSF = Recreational Sports Facility, UC Berkeley's gym) and got to work out. I haven't done any 'plain' exercising for almost four months, so it was great to get out there and sweat. I have a midday break in my classes most days, so I'll probably start making a habit of it. Woo hoo! I know you care...

One class I'm really excited about this semester is MCB 61, Brains Minds and Behavior, taught by Prof. Presti. He only brings in a little organic chemistry to the class, but from what I've heard he's very effective. I'm really curious to see how this class investigates consciousness and behavior, compared to last semesters Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy of Mind classes.

And you've got to love a professor that looks at an audience of 500 undergrads, declares them all brain virgins and pulls a real, dripping brain out of a tin and walks around with it for most of the lecture.

Hey all, it's time for the Fairvue Weblog Awards! Nominate your favorite weblogs in a variety of categories for this contest with a ridiculously quick turnaround time.

I finally got the chance to go to a UI/IA cocktail hour: about 20 information architects getting together to discuss user testing methods and their own experiences. It was great fun. IAs are usually so spaced out amongst companies that we don't get to experience any sort of subculture, which is why I really like this kind of thing.

I love my work. Every day I get more excited about the prospect of working again, and I get more excited about getting my masters degree, so I can't even imagine what kind of fever pitch March will bring.

Today was also the first day of classes. Tomorrow (okay, today, since it's after midnight) I get to try out the rest of my schedule. I also got about 4 or 5 good 'photos of the day' which I'll put up in coming days. I'm looking at making photo of the day a regular feature... Don't forget, as promised, Thursday will bring five more AOLiza conversations as well.

If the site is down on Thursday, it's most likely due to rolling blackouts sheduled for California (for the first time since World War II) because we can't seem to buy enough electricity.

Serves me right for not hooking into an ISP with their own generators and UPS. Anyhow, if it shoudl go down, I'll have the site up again as soon as possible, and you can sit smugly in the knowledge that you have power.

I'm all for raising customer rates to what's needed, but then I live in a building that pays tenants electricity and is, itself, under rent control, so it doesn't affect me.

Wow! Regular content? That's right! Thursday AOLiza conversations are up! Five new conversations every Thursday. Check 'em out!