Firefox 3 is my new favorite browser.
Many kudos to the Mozilla people for making FF 3 exponentially better on the mac than FF 2. Snappy, pretty, nifty new features, and an app that looks like it belongs on the mac, rejoice. There’s a small bit of bug fixing and cleanup left to be done, but it’s already outshining my other browsers. And since I regularly have 2-4 browsers open at once – Camino, Safari, Firefox, IE 7 & IE 6Â in Parallels – it’s great fun to find I’m spending most of my time in the new Firefox.
Get Firefox 3 (beta 3) here
Heidi Anderson was my best friend in college for a year or two. We met in the year-long Foundations of Natural Science class at The Evergreen State College and were lab partners in the chemistry component. Her father, it turns out, was a nobel nominated geneticist, so I think you can guess who carried the weight in the lab. She was one of the best-read people I have ever met, was an extremely competent backpacker, had a great sense of humor and will be missed.
After we graduated from college we drifted apart. When I heard that she was missing (link), I couldn’t stop thinking about her and briefly posted here about the situation and was on the verge of doing a mass emailing when, alas, the worst fears came to pass (link).
I have been struck by the tone of the news articles on her – perhaps it’s just that I’ve never had something like this happen so close to my own life, but I feel like posting a defense of her person here. It’s amazing how a general line like ‘she has a medical condition and needs medication’ can transform in the mind of the reader to something unstable or worse – Heidi had a chronic stomach ailment, no more.
Whatever the cause – accident or suicide, this is a sad end to a lovely person.
Rest in peace, Heidi.
Via my friend Mel Favara. I’ll be reading in this series.
The one I attended was super fun.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THIRD INSTALLMENT OF THE 1,000 WORDS READING SERIES: THE FUTURE
MAIDEN IN THE MIST, 7PM MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2008. FREE
CONTACT: MEL FAVARA 971-506-3340, mel.Favara@gmail.com
More info at 1000wordspdx.blogspot.com
In this innovative reading series, five participants each present 1,000 words of prose written for the occasion. Writers agree to produce 250 words per week for four weeks leading up to the reading; they are given a theme at the beginning (THE FUTURE, this time), and must include certain phrases and words in each weekly effort as capriciously assigned by the host. A stunning variety of fresh works result from the writers’ wildly divergent interpretations of the prompts, and the rapid-fire presentation of short pieces make for an entertaining reading. Reading:
Benjamin Parzybok: Ben founded Gumball Poetry, a literary journal published into gumball machines, co-founded Project Hamad which helped free Adel Hamad, a Guantanamo inmate, runs the treasure hunt/caper into the underbelly of the city known as Peachblow (via the Black Magic Insurance Agency), and runs a startup around walking(walkertracker.com). He has a novel, Couch, forthcoming from Small Beer Press in the fall of 2008. He lives with his wife, the writer Laura Moulton, and their two kids in Portland, OR.
Daniel Thomas: Now in the full bloom of manhood, Daniel embodies the wisdom and perspective of the formally trained philosopher, the earthy humility of the former junky, the vulnerability of the natural born aesthete, the taste and style of a foppish dandy and the inexplicable ownership of very strange purebred dog. For bread and wine, he builds houses with Hammer and Hand.
Jill Stukenberg: Fiction and nonfiction star Jill Stukenberg recently relocated to Portland from New Mexico, where she earned an MFA from New Mexico State University. She writes and teaches at Clark College and Clackamas Community College.
Series curator Mel Favara will also read. She teaches English and hosts other literary hybrid events in Portland. Her work has appeared in the Willamette Week, No Slander, Columbia Poetry Review, and in her zine, teen sleuth.
Special guest Matthew Hattie Hein, formerly of the band New Bad Things and currently performing all by his lonesome and teaching English all over town, will play the guitar and sing.
