And just for Brad: The Harvard Doctorate on the history of Weezer.
From the Bell System Memorial website, the first car phone.
Hmmm. According to Metafilter, is is now illegal to smoke in any indoor public place in New York city.
It's my sister's birthday today. On this day in 1965, things got a little bit brighter here on planet Earth.
It was a good year overall, too. I mean after all, the Beatles came out with Rubber Soul in 1965. Maybe it's my sister's birth album (I have no idea what her birthstone is--diamond?).
I guess I caught a stange slice of a popular radio show. The official site is http://www.whitsend.org/ , not "www.atwitsend.org" as I thought from the broadcast. This makes much more sense. It's a show called Adventures in Odyssey.
In fact, you can listen to the broadcast if you want--go to the daily radio archive pages here. The show I heard was the Friday 3/28 show, "Grand Opening, Part 2." The part of the clip I listened to started at about 20:03 minutes in.
A quote from the clip: "How do I know you're not part of the weird secret things?!"
Maybe it is a little bizarre at that.
I went to pick up pizza last night, and as is often the case at night, I wanted to listen to talk radio. Usually I do this on longer drives, but heck, why not? Sometimes I listen to financial talk radio, but more often I like to pick up Christian talk radio--I'm fascinated by the shows I hear.
So I tune in good old 94.5, "The Voice," and I pick up the strangest radio show. It's a girl out on a date with a boy at a bowling alley, but she's upset because she thinks the boy is mixed up in something bad because of what she saw on his computer screen before they left his apartment (wait, it gets better). After they have an "intense" conversation in which she keeps bowling strikes--in the next lane over--she asks him to take her home because she's too upset to be with him. The next day she meets her friends at a soda shop where the owner--a "Pops" kind of character--listens to her story and checks it out. Finally, this episode ends with Pops coming back to tell them that the boy (Eugene) is apparently working on something that turns brain waves into radio waves for a sinister corporation. This is the cliffhanger, and we're to tune in next time to see what happens. Pops just keeps mumbling "Eugene, what have you gotten yourself into?" as the episode fades out.
Then the announcer wraps up and references this site. I went to this site tonight and it has seemingly no relation to the radio show.
I have yet to determine what relation this show has to this Christian radio station, or Christianity itself, or good entertainment for that matter. But it did cause me to waste the time writing this post...
A mixed metaphor I use to use a lot for fun (but one I usually meant):
I guess we'll just burn that bridge when we get to it.
People who make the biggest dents in the universe are often the people with the biggest axes to grind.
Psychologically and organizationally speaking, of course.
I'm sick. Thanks, Brad. No more close physical contact with you, buddy.
I went to work anyway today, and at noon it was suggested that I take some echinacea (3 tablets). This was a first for me, but why not? If I could kick this cold faster, great.
An hour later, my right eye went dark. My left eye wasn't far behind it. I could still see somewhat, but it was disturbing to find myself going halfway blind in less than an hour. I wondered if I was having some sort of weird stroke, but in the end I can only trace it to the echinacea.
It eventually wore off (slowly), and I drank four glasses of water to help flush this crap from my system.
I think I'm allergic to echinacea. I don't think I'll take it again.
Governor Ed Rendell today unveiled a new taxing system to fund public education. It looks like everyone in PA will be affected.
The governor talks about eliminating our property taxes. What he means by that is that he wants to reduce our property taxes by 15%-30%. I don't mean any comments here as a slam to Rendell--politics is all about positioning and spin, and Rendell could be targeting taxes a step at a time. Regardless, property taxes would go down 15%-30%, not all the way as the rhetoric suggests.
To make up for this property tax cut, the personal income tax in PA will go up an additional .065%. Rendell also wants to raise the income tax another .3% (why the .065% and the .3% are split out, I'm not sure. It seems that the .3% may be a short term temporary increase). The total PA income tax would now be 3.75%, relatively low as state personal income taxes go.
From what I can tell, the personal income tax will make up the loss from property tax reduction plus some. We (as a state) will all be paying a bit more in total taxes, depending on your income vs. your property value.
To provide even more funding, the governor wants to increase some so-called "sin taxes." He'll tax slot machines at racetracks and increase taxes on malt beverages (luckily, my fondness for Yuengling Porter tapered off a few years ago--y'know, it is an internationally rated five star beer). He also wants to increase fines on reckless drivers (who can argue with that?).
What does this mean for schools in the end? For one thing, the state share of local school budgets would go up, and the local share would go down. Local districts would have less control over their budgeting. Secondly, it seems that the richer districts would get less funding and the poorer districts would get more funding. Hopefully your district wouldn't become one of the losers in this scenario.
More importantly, no single school district has any indication of what their individual state $$ allotment will be. This is very bad. School districts at this time have no way to guess what their budgets might be for July 1, 2003. I repeat: this is a very hairy situation. These school budgets must be in final form in April or May at the latest for public review and second (final) votes in June. So the PA government has four to six weeks or so to settle this and get new aid ratio numbers out to the districts. Otherwise, this turns into a colossal mess.
The next few weeks will be very interesting.
My question at dinner tonight: which vegetable do they get vegetable oil from?
These are the questions that torture my soul...
This is why I have mixed feelings about the war. I see what the anti-war people are saying, but I also think they're being incredibly naive.
Regardless of Bush's true motives, is it possible that the war in Iraq is justified for humanitarian reasons? Why is ethnic cleansing in Bosnia wrong, but the same thing with Kurds in Iraq OK?
Just a question.
If you want the most up to date immediate newsfeed on the war in Iraq, go here.
Much thanks to Wil Wheaton for the link.
Man--I'm watching the Academy Awards, where virtually everyone has avoided political comments, until Michael Moore just won for Bowling for Columbine. He launches immediately into a diatribe about our "fictitious president" sending us into a war for fictitious reasons. Lots of booing. A few claps, but most of the people are really ticked. Everyone seems really embarassed.
Now it's a few minutes later and Steve Martin comes up to say that "It's so sweet backstage. The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo..."
Only in America.
Welcome to my life, where every day is an adventure and an education. This weekend the lesson is "How a Frost-Free Faucet Works." The stopper in the faucet goes way back into the pipe, so the faucet never freezes. At least, it never freezes unless you leave a hose connected to the faucet, which traps water in the faucet pipe, which can then freeze and burst.
Unfortunately, the lesson was learned after I left a hose on the faucet all winter and it froze and burst.
As they say on the airline seat info cards, "Ahora Usted Sabe."
I've been looking for a web reference to Robert Heinlein's house for several years. Heinlein designed and built his own house in Colorado Springs just as the '50s began. Later he designed and built another house called "Bonny Doon" when he moved to Santa Cruz in the '60s. These houses were full of ingenious features. The Colorado Springs house was featured in the June 1952 issue of Popular Mechanics, and I've finally found a reference to it. The article itself is scanned into JPEG files and posted on the site. Now if only I can find more references to the "Bonny Doon" house--the only one I've found so far is here. The relevant quote from the site: "The house itself was spectacular: Round, all local redwood, with a bonsai garden under a dome at the center of it. The entire inner periphery was floor-to-celing bookshelves."
Mike Pinkerton articulated a popular viewpoint about being told that the time is over to protest the war, now get in line behind your country.
I see his point--free speech is a strength of our country, and how dare the government tell us what to think and that "it's basically too late, so shut up." That's bad mojo on the part of the government.
However: I think that most people would agree that we should at least support our troops that are out there even if we decry the reason for their involvement (if you don't agree, then you may as well stop reading--this post is lost on you). Now, as a soldier in a life or death situation, it is a crushing blow to your morale to hear that people at home hope you're OK, but they really think you have no business being where you are and doing what you must do. In combat, doubt and hesitation can get you killed. I have no problem that people feel strongly against the war, but I hope that no soldier ever hears of the discord over the war until they're out of harm's way. I've never been a soldier, but I have the utmost respect for those who put their lives on the line. I hope as few as possible leave this world in battle, and for those who do I hope they know how much their lives mean to us.
This is a great quote from the Scobelizer weblog today (now syndicated thirdhand by me):
"Funny quote: "You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war." From Terry Farrell in a newsgroup I frequent."
This is a blog reportedly from a person in Baghdad. Check it out. There are some doubts that the blog is authentic, but this blog says it seems real.
John Robb, yet again. John's essay on the Bush Doctrine is the most reasoned, balanced article I've yet read. A gripping must-read.
I sure hope he's wrong.
I've been reading the accounts of some people who have been in direct contact with Iraqi atrocities. This link is one of the most informative. When I read things like these, our actions seem clear. I hope our troops make this thing happen quickly and without loss.
Do you even believe this? Al Gore has been elected to the Apple Board of Directors. Not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story! Did April 1 sneak up on me?
Will he reinvent the Internet again?
I'm now blogging a second site using my friend Brad's Frequency application and Blogger. You can find the "Digital Frequency" website here. It'll be interesting to see how things evolve from here--Frequency is a clean, simple program that does what it advertises. Vive La Difference!
It's hard to name some top ten lists (music, films, etc.), but my top short story is a clear choice. The best short story I've ever read is Flowers for Algernon. If you're ever able to read it, don't read the extended novel (really novella) version--it's not as good. The short story version is twenty-six or so pages long, and won the Hugo Award for best short story in 1959. When the Hugo was presented by Isaac Asimov, Isaac cried out "How did he do this? How did he write such a story?" and raised his face to meet the eyes of the giant who created such words. Then he lowered his gaze to see normal-sized Daniel Keyes, who said "When you find out, can you let me know? I want to do it again."
The movie Charly with Cliff Robertson was made (as I recall) essentially from the short story and isn't bad at all (Robertson is excellent, but the cinematography makes it very clear at times that this is a '60s movie). The play was made from the novel version--it's sometimes popular in high school productions (my own high school performed it during my junior year).
You can find them here.Now I feel compelled to post mine (soon, but not tonight). Mine would contrast greatly with Brad's, since he is apparently unaware of the genius of musicians like Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, The Alan Parsons Project, and others that people of his generation don't seem to have the--ahem--maturity to appreciate.
Let the flames begin!
You know what happens when you forget you have a pot of boiling water on the stove steaming broccoli? I do. When the water runs dry the broccoli begins to drip into the bottom of the pan, burning and causing a strong, very unpleasant cabbage-like smell. Then your wife teases you. Then, when the burns scrub out fairly easily, you remind your wife that as hard as you tried, you couldn't match "The Great Molten Fused Pot of 2002" that she created last year. So there.
Um, hypothetically, of course.
Saint Patrick's Day is an extra cool holiday for me. I met my wife fifteen years ago today up at Penn State. Who would have know we'd have traveled so far together and have such an awesome life and two great kids?
I would have a green beer to celebrate, but that Saint Patty's Day fifteen years ago cured me of that disgusting swill. Perhaps I'll write down that story someday--it's somewhat interesting. I met Denise and then lost my grandmother on the same night. Then Denise lost her grandfather two weeks later. We didn't actually go out on our first date until a month later. Now fifteen years have flown by. I can never do anything simply.
I can't seem to get my wife to get blogging. Or get any enthusiasm together for it, anyway. Maybe I'm just not articulating it well enough.
There are two problems with web sites. One is appearance and the other is content. Your website can look great, but be years out of date. Your website can be up to date all the time, but look terrible. Some poor saps have both problems--old sites that look awful.
Enter blogs. Weblogs are a technology that makes it easy for you to update your website as often as you'd like. You could make weblog posts constantly, and some people do. Moreover, most blogging tools come with decent looking templates that make your weblog look decent enough to read easily. Better yet, most weblog tools are inexpensive, or even free (see Blogger).
Now for the meat of the matter. Most people use weblogs as journals and diaries, but move on to commentary on issues, or even outright journalistic reporting. Blogs can be good, blogs can be bad, but blogs are often at least as authentic as professional publications like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Think about it. Major publications are actually in competition with--and potentially in danger from--single-person publishing weblogs.
I've been on the scene several times during news events. In none of these situations--not one--has the media reported things accurately. During September 11th, however, I got more accurate and timely information from Internet weblogs than from the networks. Trent Lott's downfall in part resulted from his story rolling around on weblogs for two and a half weeks before the major news media finally caught on to the wave and publicized it. Just as the RIAA is petrified that the Internet has removed the middle man in the music business, companies like AOL are slowly realizing that the middle man has been removed from the publishing industry.
Weblogs aren't yet a threat to mainstream media, and it remains to be seen how the new age of publishing will shake out. The fact is clear, however, that weblogs deserve a good look, and some serious consideration. If you'd like to get started, weblogs of all sizes and shapes (and quality--let's be frank) can be found in several places. Try Daypop or Weblogs.com (click on the little globe icons to visit weblog.com sites) to see some cool, popular sites to try.
Fun--a quiz to figure out which political stereotype you are. Try it out.
I just read a great article at The Onion about the Bush Administration's first days. It's from January 2001, so it's already a bit strange to read from a post-September 11th perspective. It's a different world now--but I think the article is still hilarious.
Kevin Sites is a blog from a reporter in Iraq covering the country and the seemingly imminent war. Today's post is from northern Iraq and talks about Saddam's extermination of 5,000 Kurds because he suspected people in the city were supporting Iranians in an Iraqi conflict.
The site inculdes audioblogs too--try this out at the site if you've never tried "audblogs" before. I don't think they're all that hot, but they're all the rage right now among bloggers. I'm more of a reader than a listener, so I'm just not impressed--I have NPR for audio, and they do a great job for me.
So why can't anyone make a good Beatles cover song? OK, there are a couple. But the good ones are usually good singers or good bands singing the same songs the Beatles sang. No one seems to be able to reinterpret these songs in a new way (at least not well--I have heard some attempts that sound hideous).
I mean, look at the Grateful Dead and the tribute album Deadicated for comparison. The cover songs there are awesome--they make you think of the songs in a whole new way. To hear Lyle Lovett doing Friend of the Devil is amazing. So why can't anyone do that with the Beatles?
I think the answer is one of two things. My first thought is that the Beatles songs aren't really open to new interpretation. Maybe they're just done the only way they can be done--perhaps the Beatles didn't write music that could be appreciated in new ways by creative recording. I'm betting (and hoping) that this is wrong. My second idea is that the Beatles catalogue is so powerfully ingrained in the mind of every music fan and performer on this planet that it is virutally impossible for a fresh version of a Beatles song to be produced.
I hope that's the answer, and that we hear in the future some cool John, Paul, George, and Ringo tunes from, well, someone else.
Having said that, if you're interested in some good Beatles covers, I can name some. The soundtrack from I Am Sam has some excellent covers, and the cover album Come Together has a couple of really good covers (Phil Keaggy and PFR do a great We Can Work It Out and Collin Raye does a solid Let It Be). The tribute to John Lennon just after September 11th had much of what I'm talking about, including Alanis Morissette's version of Dear Prudence and Rufus Wainwright, Moby, and Sean Lennon singing This Boy and Across the Universe. Sean did a wonderful solo of Julia. Heck, Kevin Spacey did a (literally) rocking rendition of Mind Games (I am not making this up). Who would have thought it? That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.
I'm wiped. We just got back from Hershey Medical Center. Alyssa's apparently fine, but she had a huge reaction to one of the vaccinations she got yesterday at the doctor's. Her arm around the shot swelled up, became very red, and got very hard. The doctor said that it was essentially one giant hive (3 or 4 inches around). We had to cover it with Benadryl creme (it itches incessantly) and give her oral Benadryl (the first time she's had antihistamines in her life). She's taking it well. In fact, if she were taking it any better, she'd be bouncing off the ceilings. I think the Benadryl finally kicked in, though--she's now out for the count.
We are entirely too familiar with the emergency room at Hershey Med. I think if we go back there any more often they'll name the waiting room chairs after us.
My dad called the other night and while we were talking, my son Drew was running around the family room and playing (Drew'll be 4 years old in May). As I continue talking to Dad, Drew runs out of the room for a few moments and then returns. Without pants. He then runs around for a bit and again runs out of the room. He comes back a few moments later. Without a shirt. Drew then proceeds to run around in his underwear for a few moments. Then he sits down and strips off his underwear and continues his frolicking.
Now, I have a decent-sized family room with a couch in the middle of the floor. Alyssa and I are on the couch, Alyssa watching TV and me in conversation with my dad. For eight solid minutes, Drew proceeds to run in circles around the couch, naked as a jaybird, apparently in great and joyful spirits, leaping and cavorting. Then he sits down and watches TV for a few moments, and then puts his underwear back on. Then he runs around the couch for 5 more minutes. Then he sits down, apparently satisfied with his quest. I finish my phone call, take the kids upstairs, and put them to bed. When my wife gets home, I completely forget to tell her about Drew's "unique behavior."
The next night, I tell my wife about Drew's escapades and we discuss the situation. Is this normal? Is Drew acting out for some reason? Has Drew developed nudist tendencies? Will Drew grow up to become a professional nudist? We decide to ask Drew himself. Drew seems puzzled--perhaps he doesn't remember his nude adventures? Then the light dawns and he looks at us like we're idiots. "Daddy, I was Tarzan!" he exclaims in his "don't you get it?" voice. Tarzan runs around nudie-butt, I ask? Yes, apparently he does. According to Drew, Tarzan runs around in the nude all the time, except when he doesn't. Then he runs around in his underwear all the time.
Somebody tell me--they do grow out of this, right? Because I don't think they'll go for this when he's 21 and out in the workforce. Running around his coworker's desks in the nude might be considered improper workplace etiquette--or maybe I'm just old-fashioned....
Sorry I missed my post yesterday--I accidentally burned my hand and dealt with that all night instead of posting to this blog. Really, you say?
Yes, really. Since I managed to keep ice on my hand all night, I seem to have staved off blisters in all but two small areas on my hand. Moral of the story: never touch a pan you've taken out of the oven with your bare hand, even (and especially) when you're crowded and in a hurry.
This burn is nothing compared to the burn from my '87 VW Camper, though. It's time to tell that story soon.
This is interesting news buzzing around the Net the last few days. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission has some up with some images that show a huge impact crater from a long time ago here in North America. They believe that this impact caused the dinosaurs to become extinct millions of years ago.
So, if this hadn't happened, dinos would still rule the earth? Would we be living a strange coexistence with brontosauri? Are the Flintstones now a bizarre view into a strange parallel universe? Am I thinking way too hard about this?
You can find a good story about this at the ScienceDaily site.
Brad, that's who. My friend and colleague Brad's top ten movies list has another set of top movies. I think as our top ten lists develop they'll have some interesting contrasts, since Brad is ten years younger than I am. Music might be a sore spot, as Brad continually fails to appreciate even the best '70s music--Car Wash, Kung Fu Fighting,and Play That Funky Music, to name a few. You know, the classics. I just keep playing and playing them, and he's not coming around.
I feel a '70s fest coming on, playing in the office all day tomorrow...
Field of Dreams leaves us with a refreshed sense of innocence; it doesn't stand out in any one particular way, but it's got great moments, and most everyone knows the line "If you build it, they will come."
Plus, it's got a '73 (or so) VW Transporter in it. They even got the sound right in the audio track. That alone gives it a place in my top movies list.
One more top movie to add to the list. If you hate Kevin Costner, then this movie might not impress you as much as it did me. My feelings about Costner are neutral, but I thought the movie was great. A great message. Whoever could have thought that a post-apocalyptic postal service could generate the gripping tension and epic sweep of this movie? Even at three hours long, I thought it was great. The Postman rules.
Apparently Sean Astin (Sam Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings) is the son of John Astin and Patty Duke. I never knew that.
Oldsters like me will remember John Astin as Gomez in the original The Addams Family and Patty Duke from The Patty Duke Show (oddly enough). Patty Duke was also Helen Keller opposite Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, if I recall correctly. Patty took the role of Annie Sullivan in a remake of The Miracle Worker a few years ago. John Astin had a great part as a professor in The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr. a few years ago.
A few weeks ago, I was driving with my wife Denise and the little ones, and I looked over to see a car on a lot that looked like a Forester. I never figured out what kind of SUV it was, but a few miles later, Denise said she "saw me" checking out "the female" at the lot. She said I was caught red-handed (or -eyed as it were). This did catch me by surprise, so I explained to her that I was looking at a car and not at all at "the female." She seemed unconvinced, but then I had an idea. I explained to her that since I'd missed the female, and probably other attractive women during drives with Denise, could she just please point out all the attractive females wherever we go so that I would at least get to see the ones I was accused of looking at? I mean, it'd be a win-win situation, right?
She didn't think so, either.
I've long wanted to put some of my top movies into this weblog, but it's so tough to nail them down. Some of my favorite movies are showing their age, too. Regardless, here are a few of my top movies in no particular order:
Raiders of the Lost Ark--like my friend Kevin says, Indiana Jones has more action in his little pinky than James Bond has in his entire body.
Ordinary People--Robert Redford's first directed film. As I've re-watched this over the years, my understanding of what the family's conflicts are all about continue to evolve. A great character drama.
Risky Business--it transcended the subgenre of teen comedy movies. One of Curtis Armstrong's earliest (and possibly best) roles.
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring--need I say more?
The Two Towers is great too, but departs from the books more.
North By Northwest--Great Alfred Hitchcock film with Cary Grant. People say Notorious is just as good or even better, so I guess I should make a point to see it.
It's A Wonderful Life--so I'm a sucker. Sue me.
The Princess Bride--if you haven't seen this, go get it right now. Try to recognize Billy Crystal.
Back to the Future--I've seen it a hundred times. The attention to detail between 1955 and 1985 is amazing, by the way.
Groundhog Day--one of my all time favorites, and I don't necessarily see this as a comedy. One of my favorite scenes is when Phil is sitting quietly in a diner, looks around him, and smiles. You can tell he's begun to get what it's all about.
Pleasantville--a great character movie.
I tend to be into movies that are character driven more than plot driven. This explains many of my top movie choices, or other favorites like Gattaca.
I loaded my old copy of MasterCook onto my laptop today. It's a Macintosh System 7 product from 1995, but it seems to run fine on Mac OS X in Classic mode. I made a new Recipe Book in the program and started lisitng recipes. I came up with over 50 original recipes off the top of my head, but I need at least 250 for a good book. I thought of 30 more after dinner. If I can get 250 by the end of the week, I can start working on the book. MasterCook will take my recipes and calculate the nutritional values in each one. I can get the carb level in each recipe easily. It looks like this project is beginning to jell.
I've downloaded the latest nightly build of Camino (formerly Chimera). While the latest release of Chamino is version .7, the nightly builds are now focusing on the .8 version. The biggest change is that the developers are merging the code with the Mozilla trunk, which essentially means that they get all the benefits of the work that's been going on with Mozilla. The first visible benefit is speed. I could tell instantly that today's Camino is way superfast. Awesome.
The disadvantage is that we lose a few things until the bugs are ironed out again with the trunk implementation. Buttons and checkboxes in Camino have become boxy like they used to be, but that's just cosmetic. The history drawer window has lost its relative dating (Today, Yesterday, 2 days ago, etc.)--it went back to 0, 1, 2, etc. But that's just cosmetic too. The one pain is that the new build has reintroduced some instability into the program. But I can live with that--it'll likely improve daily as the developers excise bugs. There are indications of some new cool stuff in the works, too, like a new bookmark manager. You know, with the number of browsers running on the Macintosh platform, it's a great time to be a computer user.
I keep forgetting to post this: Go here to enter the sweepstakes for a Microsoft Tablet PC. I go for the NEC Versapad every time--it looks pretty slick. Haven't won yet, though. It goes on all month, so I'll keep entering.
Is it appropriate (or even acceptable) to laugh in front of your three year old child when, at the dinner table, he says wide-eyed (with great dramatic emphasis on each word) "I have to go to the bathroom now because I have to POOP MY BUTT OUT!"
The latest version of Chimera (now Camino) is out. Download it here!
Camino is a light and fast version of Mozilla (the new turbocharged Netscape Navigator), specifically written for OS X. If you want a superfast Windows browser, look for Phoenix on the Mozilla pages.
Here's a great article on what the Internet really is. A long read, but worth it.
Lost Highways has a great online exhibition on future art from the '30's through the '70s by Art Radabaugh. It's great stuff--it reminds me of futuristic stuff from the 1939 World's Fair, and the best Golden Age SciFi magazine covers. The exhibit is online, but they also display at their location in Philly.
Their stuff about car campers is cool, too.
Heard on 102.3 this morning (The Bruce Bond show, except that Bruce Bond has been prevented from appearing for a year--he's back on March 18th--long story):
"So why can't we use our Giant Bonus cards for better prices at the Giant Center stadium in Hershey?"
Heh heh. You see, Giant Food stores built the Giant Center, and their grocery stores have a bonus card, and...it's funny, right?
Forget it. I'd take back the post, except that I already typed the words...
Robert Scoble linked me to a great Linux Switcher parody. It's not a strict copy of the Apple ads, but it got me laughing out loud. It's spot on about Linux, too.
I just wanted to note that my former Scoutmaster, Jim Rowat, passed away just before Christmas (I think it was cancer). Jim was a great guy, an amazing Scoutmaster. A better storyteller never lived. I know that Jim Rowat has become a part of all the people he's worked with, including me.
Apple reportedly has a deal on tap that will let iPod and/or iTunes users download and buy songs for 99 cents each. The LA Times has the story, but it requires (free) registration. MacCentral, on the other hand, has the basic facts. The SJ Mercury News has an article, too. I'm all for it. If people pay 99 cents for ringtones on their cell phone, they can certainly pay the same for high quality music. Apple's using a codec format called AAC, which is reportedly higher quality than MP3. You can apparently also burn it to a CD for car or stereo listening pleasure. I really don't see any downsides to this.
Unless of course you're a PC user.
This is the greatest overview of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act problem that I've yet seen. It's funny, too--"Mickey" himself speaks out against his chains.
Go here to find out. I'm tied, between a Thrustship and Pacman.
Go "a href="http://quiz.ravenblack.net/videogame.pl">here to find out. I'm tied, between a ThrustShip and Pacman.
I have to tell you, folks, that John Robb has the most intelligent, balanced, incisive, and sometimes scary analyses of the impending war in Iraq that I've ever read. I've learned more about our foreign policy, history, commitments, and economy reading his posts than I've ever dreamed. Amazing stuff.
The wife of the grandmaster of science fiction passed away a few weeks ago. Ginny was not only the caretaker of Mr. Heinlein's literary estate; she also kept her husband and his affairs in order for a large portion of his life. She was extremely talented and accomplished in a number of scientific fields, and contributed much to Mr. Heinlein's novels as a sounding board and inspiration. Many of Heinlein's amazing female characters were based in part on Ginny.
Plus, she loved cats.
After Robert Heinlein passed away in 1988, Mrs. Heinlein relocated to Florida, where she lived for the last decade. RIP, Ginny. We'll miss you.
Dave Barry put up a link to this, which delighted my children to no end, for almost half an hour, until I considered pulling my ears off to stop the sound.
For the curious, here's the 412 as it comes from the factory (mine and Kevin's looked like this at first):
And here's how it looked after it was totaled in 1986:
After the accident, I had it towed to my apartment complex and used some of it for parts. Eventually, my apartment complex had it towed away without telling me (I understood their position--it had become a real eyesore). I still have the 412's title, though. I own it, however many atoms it's become now...
I read somewhere that Brendan Fraser is now a prime candidate for the title role in the new, long-in-the-works Superman movie. I say go for it. Brendan would be great. I mean, who else could have made something like George of the Jungle work at all?
Harvard has done a study on various dialectic variations across the United States. Fascinating stuff. Thanks to kuro5hin for the link.
They missed a few terms from here in Amish land, like "red up your desk" or "want to go with?" or"want some coffee awhile?" My personal chalkboard screeching grammatical slaughter here is "Your car needs washed." Washing, people, or to be washed. (Aaaggh!)
My wife was reading the Smithsonian magazine tonight, and told me that in the late '60s the Cuyahoga River in Ohio burst into flames five stories high, fed by the pollution in the waterway. It became a major influence on the Clean Water Act. Amazing what people and companies can ignore if it isn't their direct problem.
Robert Heinlein had a foolproof solution for waterway pollution: require every company to put their water intake downstream from their outflow.
I made a great low carb dish tonight of parsnips, scallions, and herbs. My wife loved it. I couldn't eat it, thought, because I discovered one big problem. Parsnips are waaaay high carb. My first clue was when they looked like potatoes in the skillet. Oh well. You live and learn.
Even more shameful was that when I bought them, I thought they were rutabagas.
From Isaac Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, the apocryphal story of the woman who, after reading Shakespeare, said "I don't see what's so great about Shakespeare anyway--it's just a bunch of quotations strung together."
Heh.