Nudo: “Nudo is an olive grove. And part of it can be yours.” Pointer from springwise.com, which continues to entertain and delight me.

Following the splashy public announcement of [[Jaiku]]’s new API, I’ve updated [[class.jaiku.php]] to follow suit: updating presence is now done via the API if you pass a developer key (with no developer key, the old school way of updating is used). Thanks, Andy.

Although [[Jaiku]] provides several ways of updating your presence by mobile phone — you can send updates by SMS, and there’s a nice Series 60 application that runs on my [[Nokia N70]] that does everything but make bread — there are times when I’m away from my mobile phone and want to update.

Enter Asterisk and PHPAGI which, together with [[class.jaiku.php]] make [[Jaiku By Telephone]].

It’s not exactly a “ready for use by my grandmother” application because the text input system supported by PHPAGI (documented here) is a little bit like knitting with invisible yarn.

But it’s a cool proof-of-concept, and a good way to procrastinate a couple of hours on Christmas Eve morning.

I call into my Asterisk server, press a key to call up the AGI script I created, hear my current Jaiku presence message read to me, and then update my presence. I don’t quite get the keystrokes correct, but the result is:

If you’ve ever known any really hardcore cigarette smokers, you may have encountered a situation, say at 3:00 a.m., when you’ve all been up too late, where said smokers run out of cigarettes and are forced to forage for cigarette butts with enough extant tobacco to make lighting them up worthwhile. Really desperate smokers don’t care whether the butts were originally from their cigarettes or not.

It was this same general phenomenon that took me to the Great Canadian Bagel this morning in search of cappuccino. Everything but Cora’s wasn’t open early this Sunday morning (and we all know how that went last week). Even [[Catherine]] was still asleep. And so I drove around like a crazy man looking for a cappuccino fix.

I think, as a general rule, it’s good to avoid drinking cappuccino that is dispensed out of something like this:

To begin with, part of the point of my newfound early morning cappuccino is the early morning contemplation that it allows. You can do a lot of things in the front seat of a 2000 VW Jetta, but quiet contemplation isn’t one of them.

And then there was the “cappuccino” itself:

I know, I know: what was I thinking. Separate from the drive-thru problems, I should have known that the Great Canadian Bagel, where all their bagels taste like freeze-dried gloop imported from Mars, wouldn’t have what it takes to turn out good coffee. I was right: what arrived through the drive-thru window tasted approximately like an over-cooked Skor bar dipped in gasoline station coffee. This was “cappuccino” in the same sense that McDonald’s used to make “pizza” and Pat & Willy’s makes “Mexican food.”

Perhaps the other moral of the story is to never go north of Allen Street looking for good coffee. Or, for that matter, never buy cappuccino from your dry cleaner:

It was back to [[Beanz]] this morning for cappuccino. Today I specially requested a regular white china cup to avoid this problem.

The aesthetics of the experience were much-improved. Unfortunately I don’t have a taste for the Beanz beans.

Thanks to the readership for pointers to Just Us Girls and Crema Coffee; I’ll sample them on days when a mid-morning cappuccino is necessary.

A small mid-afternoon winter procrastination: class.jaiku.php, a PHP5 class to interact with Jaiku.

Update a little later: Once I had all that in place and working, I used the excellent Pashua “give any OS X script a GUI” application to make a primitive “Jaiku GUI”:

It should go without saying that this is all (a) experimental, (b) not exactly “point and click” easy to use because of the requirement of PHP5, which is not installed under OS X by default and (c) not sponsored by or affiliated with Jaiku itself.

Update even a little later: Using Platypus, another excellent OS X utility, you can turn the GUI PHP script into a bona fide “clickable” Mac application. Details in the Rukapedia.

Inspired in part by 10 Good Reasons to Choose Vintage Gifts, here are my picks for gifts you can purchase in [[Charlottetown]] over the next 48 hours should you be of the last-minute shopping persuasion:

• The aforementioned Funkfactory Drums at 211 Euston Street. They’re open tonight and Friday and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Amiel says “I’ll probably be open later”). Drums and musical thingies from $5 to $500; everything’s so beautiful that even non-musical-type recipients are eligible. And don’t forget the huge collection of hot sauce on the “wall of fire.”
• Kim Dormaar will be at the [[Charlottetown Farmer’s Market]] on Saturday morning from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. I suspect they’ll be a strong demand for his smoked fish products, so go early. His products are, literally, world-class.
• Once you’re done at Kim’s, turn 180 degrees and buy some of Lynne Douglas’s hand-knit slippers, hats, mits and other gear. My father’s warm feet are a product of Lynne’s handiwork.
• The Formosa Tea House, in addition to its usual selection of paintings and tea pots, has an intriguing selection of furniture arranged down the middle of their restaurant: benches, little tables, and so on. Very simple designs, and lots available for under $100. The tea house is open daily until Christmas Eve from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and then from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (they may close earlier in the evening if business is slow).
• City Cinema, open today and Friday but closed on Saturday, sells memberships for $20/year ($16 for students). They also sell “single ticket vouchers.” Is there a better gift for movie lovers? (disclaimer: client)
• Luna Eclectic Crafts & Gifts on Victoria Row (138 Richmond Street) is the less-soapy outlet of Moonsail Soapworks. They have a fascinating array of gifty things, from Japanese paper to books make out of recycled album covers. They’re open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day until Christmas Eve.
• Make a donation to CHANCES Family Resource Centre in someone’s name and help support their excellent work helping parents and children. We would not have survived parenthood without them. You can donate online at CanadaHelps.org (which takes a 3% fee off the top), or send a donation by mail to 16 Brighton Road. They’re a registered charity.

If you have other suggestions, feel free to post them as comments; include details if you have them (hours, location, etc.).

Until I did some research this morning, I’d always been confused about the naming of the Dora Mavor Moore awards. My friend Laurence received one in 1998. And my friend Bill’s piece Zorro was once nominated for one.

Dora Mavor Moore, it turns out, was the Scottish-born mother of noted Canadian polymath Mavor Moore who died on Monday. This well-worded tribute should tell you everything you need to know; in part:

There were two phrases that Mrs Moore was fond of saying, and they seem to reflect her own deepest nature and philosophy. To her, ‘The greatest souls are the simplest’. She applied it to Tyrone Guthrie, and somehow, in her own long and highly pressured career she, too, managed to preserve the purity and shining integrity of the young at heart. It is perhaps how she maintained her uncommon rapport with children.

And again, on a CBC Project 65 broadcast, I remember hearing her say, ‘Life is greater than art. We use art to perfect our life’. Today, ten days after her death, when her magnificent ninety-one years of life are over (seventy of them spent in the theatre of Canada), we fondly remember both the life and the art. To the living, life is, of course, most important; but after death it is surprising how one’s art lives on, even in that most ephemeral of the arts, the theatre.

That last sentence would, of course, apply equally well to her talented son.

I believe — unless anyone has any last-minute suggestions — that I have now visited every coffee shop in restaurant in [[Charlottetown]] that serves cappuccino. At least those that open before 8:00 a.m. and are south of Euston Street.

So this morning I had to double back and take my coffee at [[Timothy’s]].

I will take the holiday break to consider my options from here.

Amiel Lux, son of my longtime friend and colleague Peter Lux, recently opened Funkfactory Drums, a “full service drum shop” at 211 Euston Street in [[Charlottetown]]. I noticed that he was open as I was driving by tonight, so I stopped in.

Wow.

In recent years 211 Euston Street has been a second-hand store, a variety store and a video rental place. It’s never looked like a place you wanted to spend any time in. Until now. Amiel’s put a lot of work into breathing life back into the retail space, and what he’s achieved is absolutely amazing.

He’s also got more drums, shakers, bodhrans, maracas and relateed gear than you’ve ever seen in one place.

And as if that wasn’t enough, one wall of the store is dedicated to selling hot sauce, including three varieties of Amiel’s own brand.

If you’re looking for last-minute Christmas gifts for the funky soul in your family, I suggest you drop in. And even if you’re not, you should drop in just to compliment Amiel on breathing life into an old building.