about debris.com
debris.com is the personal website and journal of matthew mcglynn, also known as matt mcglynn, at least to googlebot.
The site was launched in October, 2000, to rave reviews by the three people who visited.
The software that powers this site is called monaural jerk. (If you think that name is dumb, wait until I introduce my kids.) monaural jerk, which you might be interested to know is an anagram for “journal maker,” stores my writing in a relational database and formats web pages on the fly, upon your request. The software handles all categorization, searching, browsing, pagination, and formatting. It presses shirt collars without starch. It types Dvorak. It has to duck when it goes through doorways. It is both “new” and “improved.”
Also, it’s free. See monauraljerk.org.
The content on this site covers a range of topics that appeal to me. I have some expertise in the admittedly disparate areas of bread baking, drumming, and software development. I write about the first two more than the third.
I try not to write about things I have no knowledge of, although in some cases I’ll spend a half-day researching a topic when I have something to say but wish not to say it if it’s going to turn out to be stupid.
I don’t always explain when I’m being sarcastic. The previous sentence is not an example of the point it’s trying to make.
Much of the traffic to this site comes from Google searches. This is not a surprise; monaural jerk was optimized for indexing by Google. It is not uncommon that after I write about a specific person, I get an email from that person, who found my site after ego-surfing. On two occasions the email came from the person’s attorney. Yes, I’m becoming more familiar with libel laws.
Some answers to frequently asked questions follow.
Q: Why did you call it debris.com?
A: Because debride.com was taken.
(débride, v., tr., to surgically remove dead or contaminated tissue)
Q: In a mixed-grain baguette dough leavened by wild yeast after a long cold fermentation, what is the ideal hydration ratio for ensuring a perfect crumb, assuming the final rise takes place in a proof box at 82°F, 80% humidity?
A: You just have to feel it, man.
Q: What’s up with the ugly masthead?
A: Believe it or not, I have a great masthead. It’s even dynamic; the background image changes every minute. If you can’t see it properly, it is most likely due to the inability of Microsoft-brand browsers to display the specific feature of CSS that the masthead depends on — specifically, background-attachment: fixed;
Read more at Eric Meyer’s wonderful and amazing Complex Spiral demo (which, if you run IE/Win, you also won’t be able to see). You can also click below to see what the masthead at debris.com looks like in a nice browser, e.g. Mozilla, IE5/Mac, or Safari.
Q: Help! I need help!
A: Call your therapist. Or, better yet, call my therapist.
