"A few years later, i wrote him a poem. I tried to make it cute and rhyme and my only purpose was to get a signed picture of him for my apartment. The poem turned out to be sort of stalker-like (i dotted every "i" with a heart), and i didn't get a photo. :( "
Friday, September 30, 2005
Ken Barlow - Hunkalicious (say some)
One of the nice things about members of your family blogging is that you don't have to out their deep, dark, dirty secrets on your blog, as they're likely to do it themselves. My sister achieves this today with a post acknowledging her sick obsession with Ken Barlow, an obsession that has shamed my family for a decade, and will now embarrass my niece well into her college years.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells
"Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst. Prisoners were abandoned in their cells without food or water for days as floodwaters rose toward the ceiling." - Corinne Carey, researcher, U.S. Program, Human Rights WatchWorse than putting patients to death because there was no way to evacuate them? Any worse than how the other 923 official deaths (I agree with The Wege that there's a lot of counting left to do) met their end in a city that was shafted by a national discussion about what makes a great country versus what makes a great, Christian, country where the "deserving" don't have to pay for the "undeserving" because money = heavenly approval (among other things)? There isn't a worst; there's simply an unending list of what was unnecessary, unwarranted, unjustifiable and underwater.
The most horribly boring post most of you will ever read
I've been sitting here listening to Har Mar Superstar, Loreena McKennitt, Prince and Fiona Apple and updating my blogroll and pondering whether I should subject anyone to this little gem. I don't post technical posts very often, particularly because although I'm a programmer, I don't contribute a lot to the field (to my company, absolutely, just not to the profession in the way of forum responses, books, etc.). Call it sheer laziness if you like, because I'm capable of it, I just choose to direct my energies elsewhere. So it is with great sadness that I actually force such an item upon you, something that I have failed to find spelled out precisely elsewhere on the web that should be dumped on the web so that various individuals might find it when it is necessary to their sanity.
How to Make Your One to Many to Many SQL Server Updategram Function Appropriately When You Have Secondary or Tertiary Fields Involving a Rank or Numeric Value and Are Using a Biztalk Iterator Functoid to Populate the Updategram Identities (also applicable to non-Biztalk/BTS strict updategram functionality when using positional values)
Issue: when I moved from a one to many relationship to a one to many to many structure in an XSD file, I had to add a secondary updategram auto-id (updg: - if you haven't gotten this far yet in your project, my post is useless to you - but you can send me an email if you're desparate) node that had to resolve many records in the secondary table to many records in the tertiary table. You can't just use a constant like you can for all the first one to manys, because you'd have the same constant for multiple one to many relationships that don't actually all share ids (usually we just map in an "x" or "id" constant and the keys in the sub tables get the same constant > in this case, you have to be able to map many distinct parent records to all their distinct children, so an "x" constant alone is no good - you need "y", "z", "ab", "ac", etc.). In the past I fixed this by just mapping the iteration number of the secondary table record to the updategram id and the sub table/tertiary relational id - so "1" to lots of "1"s, "2" to lots of "2"s, etc. However, once another iteration value (rank for instance) entered the picture there was a problem because that value has "1" or "2" or "3" in its field, effectively telling the in-memory updategram that the constant is a replaceable value for any identities returned from the transactional insertion. The end result is that the updategram tries to map back to that value as a constant linked to the updategram id and when it gets confused, simply nulls it. In most cases, you'd get an outright transactional failure with rollback, but in this case you'll see a very peculiar behavior, the field is just nulled - I don't know if SQL Server just decides better safe than sorry, but the insert proceeds and ignores the constant to which it doesn't feel confident mapping a value. The fix (in BTS) involves mapping the iterator functoid to a new scripting functoid in the MAP that takes the iterator int(eger) as a parameter and just appends "CPID", or any other constant you feel won't be replicated elsewhere, to the end so that it becomes something unique you won't see in the XML otherwise (you could probably use a string concatenation functoid somehow instead, but that was just being annoyingly useless in my tests because of the string data type restriction). If you have an XSL setup instead of Biztalk, the same rule applies, just use a function or template to append a string to the end of the iterator. You'll want to test it, obviously, but it seems to work like a charm. Little fix, big impact.
Note, if you have MULTIPLE many-to-many relationships in a single updategram, you'll want multiple functoids (XSL functions) each with a unique string appended to the iterator so that it can tell the relationships apart.
Further note, if you ever see something similar happening, even in a non one to many to many updategram (just one to many), check and make sure that there isn't a field whose value - complete value, not just a piece of it - isn't exactly the same as the constant used to map the relationship. i.e. if a column has the value "x" for instance (but not "xyz"), that would be a problem if the updg:at-identity and corresponding sub table's ID uses "x" as a constant.
Code in Biztalk Scripting Functoid:
public string AppendConstToInt(int param1)
{
return param1.ToString() + "CPID";
}
How to Make Your One to Many to Many SQL Server Updategram Function Appropriately When You Have Secondary or Tertiary Fields Involving a Rank or Numeric Value and Are Using a Biztalk Iterator Functoid to Populate the Updategram Identities (also applicable to non-Biztalk/BTS strict updategram functionality when using positional values)
Issue: when I moved from a one to many relationship to a one to many to many structure in an XSD file, I had to add a secondary updategram auto-id (updg: - if you haven't gotten this far yet in your project, my post is useless to you - but you can send me an email if you're desparate) node that had to resolve many records in the secondary table to many records in the tertiary table. You can't just use a constant like you can for all the first one to manys, because you'd have the same constant for multiple one to many relationships that don't actually all share ids (usually we just map in an "x" or "id" constant and the keys in the sub tables get the same constant > in this case, you have to be able to map many distinct parent records to all their distinct children, so an "x" constant alone is no good - you need "y", "z", "ab", "ac", etc.). In the past I fixed this by just mapping the iteration number of the secondary table record to the updategram id and the sub table/tertiary relational id - so "1" to lots of "1"s, "2" to lots of "2"s, etc. However, once another iteration value (rank for instance) entered the picture there was a problem because that value has "1" or "2" or "3" in its field, effectively telling the in-memory updategram that the constant is a replaceable value for any identities returned from the transactional insertion. The end result is that the updategram tries to map back to that value as a constant linked to the updategram id and when it gets confused, simply nulls it. In most cases, you'd get an outright transactional failure with rollback, but in this case you'll see a very peculiar behavior, the field is just nulled - I don't know if SQL Server just decides better safe than sorry, but the insert proceeds and ignores the constant to which it doesn't feel confident mapping a value. The fix (in BTS) involves mapping the iterator functoid to a new scripting functoid in the MAP that takes the iterator int(eger) as a parameter and just appends "CPID", or any other constant you feel won't be replicated elsewhere, to the end so that it becomes something unique you won't see in the XML otherwise (you could probably use a string concatenation functoid somehow instead, but that was just being annoyingly useless in my tests because of the string data type restriction). If you have an XSL setup instead of Biztalk, the same rule applies, just use a function or template to append a string to the end of the iterator. You'll want to test it, obviously, but it seems to work like a charm. Little fix, big impact.
Note, if you have MULTIPLE many-to-many relationships in a single updategram, you'll want multiple functoids (XSL functions) each with a unique string appended to the iterator so that it can tell the relationships apart.
Further note, if you ever see something similar happening, even in a non one to many to many updategram (just one to many), check and make sure that there isn't a field whose value - complete value, not just a piece of it - isn't exactly the same as the constant used to map the relationship. i.e. if a column has the value "x" for instance (but not "xyz"), that would be a problem if the updg:at-identity and corresponding sub table's ID uses "x" as a constant.
Code in Biztalk Scripting Functoid:
public string AppendConstToInt(int param1)
{
return param1.ToString() + "CPID";
}
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
George W. Bush: The Biker Movie
I hate it when I don't read Adam Felber's blog for a week. I end up missing some inspired bits.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: Kid, you’re not listening. It’s different for you. When this ride is over, you get to go back to your big house and your wife and your rich parents and all this’ll seem like a strange, crazy trip to you.
BUSH: Crazy!
CAPTAIN AMERICA: Yeah. But this is my life. There ain’t anything else. I got less than no money, I’m bleeding, and you keep pushing me to make it worse… Do ya understand?
BUSH: Hmmm. I think I understand. What you’re saying… is that Captain America is in fact a giant pussy. Is that the gist of it?
CAPTAIN AMERICA: Kid, you’re not listening. It’s different for you. When this ride is over, you get to go back to your big house and your wife and your rich parents and all this’ll seem like a strange, crazy trip to you.
BUSH: Crazy!
CAPTAIN AMERICA: Yeah. But this is my life. There ain’t anything else. I got less than no money, I’m bleeding, and you keep pushing me to make it worse… Do ya understand?
BUSH: Hmmm. I think I understand. What you’re saying… is that Captain America is in fact a giant pussy. Is that the gist of it?
Blunt himself was dating a Philip Morris lobbyist
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Out with the old, in with the same old. From bad to worse. I'm sure you know all of the similar sayings. You can probably apply them to any resolution of the DeLay indictment that involves a consideration of his replacement. I hate it when they make my dances of joy seem so utterly pointless.
"Blunt’s best-known special-interest intervention was a 2003 late-night attempt — unsuccessful, as it turned out — to add an amendment sought by Philip Morris. Blunt’s son then was a lobbyist for Philip Morris in Missouri; Blunt himself was dating a Philip Morris lobbyist whom he later married, and he had received more than $150,000 in contributions from the company and subsidiaries."
Possession is 9/10th of the...
The Revealer has an enjoyable post at their site about the National Guard in New Orleans worrying about ghosts, satanic possession, divine intervention and uncanny Bible placement. It is obviously important to God to flood entire cities so that he can leave Bibles lying around to appropriate passages for believers to find. It would seem to me that a much smaller wind in each of their windows might achieve the same effect, rather than drowning a city full of people. Personally, I think it would be interesting to drop off a few thousand randomly-opened copies from the banned books list after the next national disaster to see what they make of it (I assume that would just be a sign that it was a Satanic-created disaster instead of a divinely-created disaster, although we all really know Katrina was the work of the Japanese Mafia). The opening quote (by a guardsman) certainly grabs your attention...
Elizabeth Rich notes that securing New Orleans for God certainly isn't in their defined mission, regardless of what the Administration has been telling them.
As an aside, I think the picture of Rev. Zombie's Voodoo Shop that accompanies the article is darn close to where Pooteewheet took this picture of a cannibalistic, voodoo-practicing, possessed pug. Of course he's resting in this picture - you always have to have a siesta after a meal of Christians and beignets.
"This is indeed a dark city and we’re bringing the light. You know wherever soldiers go, there goes the word of God."
Elizabeth Rich notes that securing New Orleans for God certainly isn't in their defined mission, regardless of what the Administration has been telling them.
As an aside, I think the picture of Rev. Zombie's Voodoo Shop that accompanies the article is darn close to where Pooteewheet took this picture of a cannibalistic, voodoo-practicing, possessed pug. Of course he's resting in this picture - you always have to have a siesta after a meal of Christians and beignets.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Brown Bunny
Why is Brown Bunny with Vincent Gallo so controversial? Pooteewheet and I couldn't tell you, and we've been watching it for an hour. Maybe it's all the driving. It is an inordinate amount of driving. Almost as much as in Fat Girl. Someone should do something very soon or the movie will be over.
Approximately 30 minutes pass with a quite a bit of fast forwarding...
Oh...wow was that bad. That was perhaps the worst thing I've ever seen and I've seen The Cave. Erik, for the sake of your sanity, get it off your Netflix list. I shall summarize so you don't have to watch it: I, Vincent Gallo, want to get a blow job from Chloƫ Sevigny. I shall make a movie where I drive around a lot, pick up nasty looking women with the names of flowers (Rose, Violet, Lilly, Buttercup...wait, that last one is from The Princess Bride), kiss them, and run away, because they're not the nasty woman with the name of a flower I left, Chloe Svingy, aka Daisy. The audience shall be bored, but if they're creative, they'll speculate about what sort of flower-named girl I might hook up with next, and whether the name "flower" qualifies as a flower name at all, while waiting for an original revelation that turns out to be really rather pointless and unrevelatory. After 1.4 hours of driving, I'll have a moving scene that is is entirely unmoving and unoriginal, but serves the original purpose, a blow job from Chloƫ Sevigny. 4 out of 10 critics liked this thing, but I think they just wanted to make up an excuse for wasting 97 minutes of their life watching this rather than just watching a porn movie. It wasn't controversial, it was excruciatingly dull and pretentious and the point and the character(s) and the characterization and everything else were run of the mill if not out and out regurgitated. If you must watch Vincent Gallo, please stick to Buffalo 66, his admission in that movie that he can't drive a "shifter car" is a better line than anything you'll find in Brown Bunny.
Approximately 30 minutes pass with a quite a bit of fast forwarding...
Oh...wow was that bad. That was perhaps the worst thing I've ever seen and I've seen The Cave. Erik, for the sake of your sanity, get it off your Netflix list. I shall summarize so you don't have to watch it: I, Vincent Gallo, want to get a blow job from Chloƫ Sevigny. I shall make a movie where I drive around a lot, pick up nasty looking women with the names of flowers (Rose, Violet, Lilly, Buttercup...wait, that last one is from The Princess Bride), kiss them, and run away, because they're not the nasty woman with the name of a flower I left, Chloe Svingy, aka Daisy. The audience shall be bored, but if they're creative, they'll speculate about what sort of flower-named girl I might hook up with next, and whether the name "flower" qualifies as a flower name at all, while waiting for an original revelation that turns out to be really rather pointless and unrevelatory. After 1.4 hours of driving, I'll have a moving scene that is is entirely unmoving and unoriginal, but serves the original purpose, a blow job from Chloƫ Sevigny. 4 out of 10 critics liked this thing, but I think they just wanted to make up an excuse for wasting 97 minutes of their life watching this rather than just watching a porn movie. It wasn't controversial, it was excruciatingly dull and pretentious and the point and the character(s) and the characterization and everything else were run of the mill if not out and out regurgitated. If you must watch Vincent Gallo, please stick to Buffalo 66, his admission in that movie that he can't drive a "shifter car" is a better line than anything you'll find in Brown Bunny.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Assisted Living
Pooteewheet and I watched Assisted Living the other night. Netflix summarizes:
Honestly, it was just very strange. The writer felt no need whatsoever to make the movie move at any pace that might keep your attention up, but in some ways, a movie that takes place in an old folks' home, where most of the actors aren't actually actors, but real old folks in the home interspersed with actors, should be expected to exhibit a pace that makes you feel like you're in a nursing home. While it seemed ponderous during the watching, in retrospect it was really a rather good movie (though I expect Pooteewheet to disagree with me) because I'm still thinking about it a few days later and realizing there were some exceptional moments in it and that it exactly set out to do what it was trying to do.
As an aside, there was this one scene that really made me laugh that might not be as funny to others. An old man comes inside the home and keeps repeating to the janitor that there's a dead animal outside, there's a dead animal outside, there's a dead animal outside. Todd (the janitor) finally goes out to see what the ruckus is about, and there's a motorized old guy scooter tipped over in the grass on the side of the road and a mashed squirrel lying there. The old guy is just standing over it with an idiotic look on his face somewhere between happiness that he may have been the one to run over the squirrel and excitement that he found a dead squirrel and it's a big event in his day. After watching my co-worker Erik run over a squirrel during the St. Paul Bike Classic three years ago, this is now how I picture him as an 87-year old nursing home resident, fondly remembering his glory days.
Simple syndicated rating system (SSRS)? 8.25 out of 10. The .25 is for the dead squirrel.
Exclusively at Netflix: Bored nursing-home janitor Todd (Michael Bonsignore) slogs through his job, breaking the monotony by toking up and toying with the residents. But Todd's shenanigans with feisty Alzheimer's patient Mrs. Pearlman (Maggie Riley) unexpectedly lead to a growing friendship as she begins to mistake him for the son who's forgotten her. Along the way, Todd rediscovers his humanity in director Elliot Greenebaum's unique docudrama.
Honestly, it was just very strange. The writer felt no need whatsoever to make the movie move at any pace that might keep your attention up, but in some ways, a movie that takes place in an old folks' home, where most of the actors aren't actually actors, but real old folks in the home interspersed with actors, should be expected to exhibit a pace that makes you feel like you're in a nursing home. While it seemed ponderous during the watching, in retrospect it was really a rather good movie (though I expect Pooteewheet to disagree with me) because I'm still thinking about it a few days later and realizing there were some exceptional moments in it and that it exactly set out to do what it was trying to do.
As an aside, there was this one scene that really made me laugh that might not be as funny to others. An old man comes inside the home and keeps repeating to the janitor that there's a dead animal outside, there's a dead animal outside, there's a dead animal outside. Todd (the janitor) finally goes out to see what the ruckus is about, and there's a motorized old guy scooter tipped over in the grass on the side of the road and a mashed squirrel lying there. The old guy is just standing over it with an idiotic look on his face somewhere between happiness that he may have been the one to run over the squirrel and excitement that he found a dead squirrel and it's a big event in his day. After watching my co-worker Erik run over a squirrel during the St. Paul Bike Classic three years ago, this is now how I picture him as an 87-year old nursing home resident, fondly remembering his glory days.
Simple syndicated rating system (SSRS)? 8.25 out of 10. The .25 is for the dead squirrel.
Funniest Religious Joke
ReligionNewsBlog.com has a post up entitled "Bigot on a bridge wins poll for funniest religious joke" about a joke competition by Shipoffools.com. Details can be found at the site or in the article, but here's the important part...
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.
"Well, there's so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Are you religious?"
He said: "Yes."
I said: "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"
"Christian."
"Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
"Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"
He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915."
I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it."
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked.
"Well, there's so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Are you religious?"
He said: "Yes."
I said: "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?"
"Christian."
"Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?"
"Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?"
He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915."
I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
24-9 so I obviously have time to blog
I know it's the third quarter of the Vikings-Saints game - but I didn't catch the earlier part of the game either, so I'm not missing much - I thought it might be more fun to blog and have a Schell's Octoberfest. Sure, they always stall after the first quarter, but hopefully a 24 pt. lead will be enough to keep them alive through the end of the game. On a positive note, it could prove to be a windfall for me in CDFFL given my lazy failure to move Daunte off the QB spot.
I just saw the pro-war rally on television (as much as I felt like watching), and I guess there could have been 400 attendees - I was noting to Pooteewheet that there seemed to be just over a hundred people visible in the audience shots. And yet approximately 100,000 turned out for the anti-war rally earlier? The pro-war rally sported signs like: "'Arrest the traitors'; it listed Sheehan's name first among several people who have spoken against the war." 100,000 to 400 and 46% of Americans with a strong disapproval rate about the course of the war...the Administration will never get a clue, but it's time other Americans did, and it's time that they realize 100,000 at an anti-war rally vs. 400 people at a pro-war rally is the difference between a popular consensus and a fringe movement of scared conservatives and concerned loved ones who can't choose to believe anything other than that their family members are risking their lives in the most noble of pursuits because to believe otherwise would be too painful.
Steve Gilliard has a very funny post up about conservative women and their dress code: Christian Femininity: Are We Resigned or Excited? where Elissa Kroeger worries that some people might perceive a tendency of certain Christian women to all dress in an identical way as similar to dressing "until they began to look more like Arab women than Christians. "
- Garrison Keilor and the Porn Squad
- Lynching and Capital Punishment/Homicide
- Anti-war Rally/Pro-war Rally
- Dressing like a conservative woman
On to a few interesting posts I noticed - two of them on Norwegianity and in the same entry. First, and I think this one will really amuse Mean Mr. Mustard, a letter to the Strib that I'm sure is by the wife of a former co-worker who left for more Christian surroundings - I'm sure she's criticizing Garrison about that whole Praire Ho Companion t-shirt issue, right?
Secondly, dig down through the post to find the whole write up about this bit "Are today’s high murder rates the product of the culture of lynching?" which talks about how capital punishment and murder rates can be tied to historical trends in lynching. I just received the book about the history of lynching I ordered from Amazon - it'll be interesting to see how that information and the book seem to relate.Still wondering why we have a new porn squad at the FBI? Letters to the editor like this typlify the audience Karl Rove is speaking to.
"Indecent or uptight? Like pornographers, Garrison Keillor tries to minimize the assaults on the moral fabric of our society, which has struggled to survive post-Kinsey, post-Hefner and post-Stern. Keillor’s Sept. 18 Op Ex column calls the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act a “high-water mark of official stupidity” and sarcastically writes, “I do not think you can ever do enough in behalf of our children.” We have failed our children miserably when it comes to protecting them from obscenity, profanity and indecency. You need only channel-surf on the radio or television for a minute or two to demonstrate this. Obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment even though Keillor lamely laments that the money spent in litigation “is a lot to pay for freedom of speech.” Again, just like a pornographer, Keillor objects to moral standards and tries to fool the public into thinking laws to uphold a decent society are foolish. After decades of prurient broadcasting, citizens are not so easily deceived." Ann Redding, Minneapolis. [Star Tribune]
I just saw the pro-war rally on television (as much as I felt like watching), and I guess there could have been 400 attendees - I was noting to Pooteewheet that there seemed to be just over a hundred people visible in the audience shots. And yet approximately 100,000 turned out for the anti-war rally earlier? The pro-war rally sported signs like: "'Arrest the traitors'; it listed Sheehan's name first among several people who have spoken against the war." 100,000 to 400 and 46% of Americans with a strong disapproval rate about the course of the war...the Administration will never get a clue, but it's time other Americans did, and it's time that they realize 100,000 at an anti-war rally vs. 400 people at a pro-war rally is the difference between a popular consensus and a fringe movement of scared conservatives and concerned loved ones who can't choose to believe anything other than that their family members are risking their lives in the most noble of pursuits because to believe otherwise would be too painful.
Steve Gilliard has a very funny post up about conservative women and their dress code: Christian Femininity: Are We Resigned or Excited? where Elissa Kroeger worries that some people might perceive a tendency of certain Christian women to all dress in an identical way as similar to dressing "until they began to look more like Arab women than Christians. "
"What we have to ask ourselves is this: Are we dressing to glorify God, to please our husbands, and to make the world a more beautiful place; or are we trying to make a political statement with our clothing? Is there anything wrong with making a statement with our clothing?"
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Monticello Book Burning - retronews
I came across this picture on the web the other day, quite by accident, and it really startled me, primarily because I lived in Monticello, Minnesota, in 1982 and this triggered a memory of adults discussing the event (I was fourteen). No one I know was there, but Monticello was a town of around 5,000 including the farmers, so there wasn't much that went on that everyone didn't know about. I wish I had remembered this when there was that whole ruckus about cancelling Lisa Westberg Peters' visit to discuss her book (and evolution) this last May. I suppose this was on the Big Lake side of the Mississippi as that's where the fundamentalist churches and church schools are, but I can't be certain, and the Monti Times doesn't have online articles going that far back. About the only other place I could find a reference on line was an Augusta State University paper that was comparing it to the 1933 German book burnings. I've submitted an email to People for the American Way (and the Monti Times) to see if they have further information, so if I get any backstory I'll update. But in the meantime, here's the picture.
BOOK AND RECORD BURNING, MONTICELLO, MINNESOTA
Organized by three fundamentalist ministers, 1982
Courtesy People for the American Way
BOOK AND RECORD BURNING, MONTICELLO, MINNESOTA
Organized by three fundamentalist ministers, 1982
Courtesy People for the American Way
Navy Secretly Contracted Jets Used by CIA
I'm pretty sure I once mentioned how happy I was that my ROTC boot camp time with the U.S. Navy fell through because they couldn't get appropriately organized. I shall continue to stand by that sentiment.
"SAN DIEGO - A branch of the U.S. Navy secretly contracted a 33-plane fleet that included two Gulfstream jets reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press." (from Yahoo)
"SAN DIEGO - A branch of the U.S. Navy secretly contracted a 33-plane fleet that included two Gulfstream jets reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press." (from Yahoo)
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Singularity Sky
I just finished reading Charles Stross’ Singularity Sky. I had plenty of time today as I elected to take a personal day and stay at home in shorts, hopped up on Benadryl with an ice pack on my leg, trying to finally get my yellow jacket sting to cease its fifth day of swelling (seemed to work, though I had a hard time focusing past the effects of the drugs). Singularity Sky is a good book, but a little heavy handed on the lesson that people are naturally good and when given the opportunity can govern themselves effectively without a paternalistic government, and that no government at all is preferable to one that goes overboard thinking for you and censoring dissent. If you just read page 276, you’ve pretty much got the drift of the whole novel, less the science fiction part. If you don’t think that’s a heavy handed lesson for a sci-fi novel, I will quote, just to assure you:“…Censorship just drives problems underground.
But, terrorists!
‘Yes,’ Rachel interrupted, ‘terrorists. There are always people who think they’re doing the right thing by inflicting misery on their enemies, kid…But—‘ she shrugged.
‘We can live with a low background rate of that sort of thing more easily than we can live with total surveillance and total censorship of everyone, all the time.’ She looked grim. ‘If you think a lunatic planting a nuclear weapon in a city is bad, you’ve never seen what happens when a planet pushes the idea of ubiquitous surveillance and censorship to the limit. There are places where—' She shuddered.
Martin glanced at her, ‘You’ve got somewhere specific in mind’…
Think Stross has something to say about the current political situation in Britain and the U.S.? The writing was passable and he shows some promise, so I’ll be interested to see how his second novel (Iron Sunrise) compares to the first. He does have a habit of using one or two words I am totally unfamiliar with (except “Eschaton”, but I wanted to include that because I’m now familiar with all four of the Wiki definitions):
Aestivation: (botany) the arrangement of sepals and petals in a flower bud before it opens. (zoology) cessation or slowing of activity during the summer; especially slowing of metabolism in some animals during a hot or dry period. Aestivation in animals is a state of dormancy usually to assist in water regulation, where minimal activity results in retaining more water during the hottest parts of the day. These animals will find a shaded/underground area to do this.
Arbeiter: German for “worker”. Used in socialism to refer to one of the working class.
Charabanc: a kind of open-topped bus common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It was especially popular for "works outings" to the country or the seaside that businesses would hold once a year…The charabanc tour is also the (admittedly vague - see the Beatles Anthology, episode 6) premise of The Beatles' 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour...
Eschaton can refer to:
- the end of everything, as studied in the subject of eschatology
- A weblog written by Dr. Duncan B. Black (a.k.a. Atrios)
- a transhuman entity in the Charles Stross novels Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise
- a game in the novel Infinite Jest in which tennis balls represent nuclear arms.
Fibrils: fine fibers (e.g., approximately 1 nm in diameter)
JOL'LY-BOAT, n. A small boat belonging to a ship.
lagomorph: The Lagomorphs, order Lagomorpha, are an order of mammals of which there are two families, Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and Ochotonidae (pikas).
Lagomorphs differ from rodents in that:
- they have four (not two as in rodents) incisors in the upper jaw;
- they will only eat vegetation (unlike rodents, who will eat meat and vegetation)
- the male's scrotum is in front of the penis;
- the penis has no bone as does the rodents';
- and they will re-digest first time feces to obtain the most from their plant diet.
Larmarckism: A theory of biological evolution holding that species evolve by the inheritance of traits acquired or modified through the use or disuse of body parts.
Lidar: noun: a measuring system that detects and locates objects on the same principle as radar but uses light from a laser; a potential technology for detecting air turbulence that can affect aircraft.
Loblolly boy: Obs. an assistant to the surgeon on board a ship.
Lysenkoist: from Lysenkoism. A biological doctrine developed by Trofim Lysenko that maintains the possibility of inheriting environmentally acquired characteristics.
Micturition: Urination, also called micturition, is the process of disposing urine from the urinary bladder through the urethra to the outside of the body. The process of urination is usually under voluntary control. When control over urination is lost or absent, this is called urinary incontinence.
Noosphere: The noosphere can be seen as the "sphere of human thought" being derived from the Greek Ī½ĪæĻ Ļ ("nous") meaning "mind" in the style of "atmosphere" and "biosphere".
Nous:
Meaning #1: (British) common sense
Meaning #2: that which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason Synonyms: mind, head, brain, psyche
Peltier (cells): presumably spaceship/rescue craft cells powered by the Peltier-Seeback effect. The Peltier-Seebeck effect, or thermoelectric effect, is the direct conversion of heat differentials to electric voltage and vice versa.
Penaid: Penetration Aid (for missiles)
Saprophyte: A Saprotroph (or saprobe) is an organism that obtains its nutrients from non-living organic matter, usually dead and decaying plant or animal matter, by absorbing soluble organic compounds. Saprophyte is an older term that is now considered obsolete. The suffix -phyte means "plant", however, there are no truly saprotrophic organisms that are embryophytes, and fungi and bacteria are no longer placed in the Plant Kingdom. Plants that were once considered saprophytes, such as non-photosynthetic orchids and monotropes, are now known to be parasites on other plants. They are termed myco-heterotrophs because a mycorrhizal fungus connects the parasitic plant with its host plant.
Spallation: noun: (physics) a nuclear reaction in which a bombarded nucleus breaks up into many particles (Example: "Some astronomers believe that the solar system was formed by spallation when the sun was a very young star")
Syncitia: Syncytium \Syn*cy"ti*um\, n.; pl. Syncitia. [NL., from Gr. ? together + ? a hollow vessel.] 1. (Biol.) Tissue in which the cell or partition walls are wholly wanting and the cell bodies fused together, so that the tissue consists of a continuous mass of protoplasm in which nuclei are imbedded, as in ordinary striped muscle.
Thistledown Rotor: almost impossible to find an exact definition, though certain porn sites turn up in relation to the word, but probably related to the way the thistledown on a thistle helps it float. Basically a helicopter, although one whose blades are turned by the downward motion of the craft (like an oak seed), not by a motor powering the blades.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths
I find this bit from Norwegianity (below) incredibly interesting, because if you read “Radical Religion in America”, one of the things you learn is that many of those who are devout Odinists and Asatru practitioners, the former being the (primarily, though not exclusively) racial Norse mythologists (i.e. it’s for white people), the later being the (primarily, though not exclusively) non-racial Norse mythologists (though they don’t think of them as myths, but as real – so that’s probably not the word to use) fondly remember books like this one as being the childhood spark that eventually involved them in Odinism or Asatru. Basically, it’s comparable to the big book of Christian stories, with the tales of Sampson, Noah, Daniel, David and Goliath, and Jesus with his loaves and fishes, that many parents get their children because stories about heroes with beautiful pictures are particularly addictive for children and might steer them toward Sunday school. Might I suggest if you have a daughter, you try something different (Amazon link to “Fearless Girls, Wise Women…” ed. by Kathleen Ragan).
From Marvel comic books to “Lord of the Rings,” Norse mythology has provided the inspiration behind many popular culture storylines and characters. Now, the Caldecott medalwinning “D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths” is back in print for the first time in 20 years. Pages of illustrations bring to life stories of the high god Odin, Thor the Thunder-god, the mischievous Loki, the Valkyrie maidens and the other gods and goddesses that populated the pre-Christian religion of the Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and Danish peoples. The volume by Edgar Parin D’Aulaire and his wife, Ingri, was brought out of retirement by editors at the New York Review of Books Children’s Collection and includes a foreword by author Michael Chabon.
[PiPress, second item]
My Sister has a Blog
Twice the Rice left Minnesota for Hawaii, and I think there's a rule along the lines of "the number of Korean adoptee bloggers in Minnesota shall be a constant", so my sister has picked up the slack. Most of her posts currently deal with her recent trip to Denver and pondering exactly how long it will take me to find her blog (six days), but I personally find it exciting that there will be a place to see cute pictures of my niece right alongside nursing pictures like "how to deliver a baby", as well as a place for my parents to see that she's on vacation so they won't have to call me a dozen times to ask if I know where she is.
Recent Doings
I have been woefully remiss in posting lately, but my whole family has been out of communication working on cleaning up a bit of rental property we maintain (a duplex) before the new residents move in. We've spent significant portions of Friday through Tuesday (and we'll back on Thursday) scrubbing off wallpaper borders, trimming branches and new shoots, weeding the giant asparagus plants out of the garden, yanking old tenant shelves and anchors out of the walls and plastering the resulting holes, and painting, painting, painting and painting. To top it off, the duplex has always had some sort of vendetta against me - it's about the only time I get hurt doing house work (um...on second thought, my parents' cabin doesn't like me much either, I have a good scar from some sheet metal we used during roofing last summer). This time around, a received a sizeable gouge out of my shin from a recalcitrant tree branch and had the exciting experience of standing on top of a yellow jacket nest while cutting some other branches. I felt several little things bounce off of me and thought it was just leaves from the branch I was working on, but when I looked down I noticed a yellow jacket stuck in my leg trying to escape for a second sortie. Eryn was helping me cut branches, so I grabbed her and hurried to the house, but within a few feet she was screaming and I had to yank a yellow jacket out of her arm. Good news, she's not allergic to yellow jackets. After ten minutes with a cold can of Diet Pepsi held to the sting and some commiseration with her stuffed mouse, Cheeser (who was also stung, according to Eryn), she was good as gold. Bad news, I seem to have developed some new allergies since last time I was stung, or perhaps it's because last time it was bumble bees and this time it was yellow jackets. My calf has plumped up like there's a softball under my skin and is spewing enough heat to melt down an ice pack in extremely short order, even three days later. I finally went on Benadryl and Advil, and it seems to be doing quite a bit better. I can't say as much for the yellow jackets who received a healthy dose of spray yesterday. I'd feel bad about that, but they started it, they live ten feet from the back door, and they're not feral honeybees, which have seen a 90% decrease in their population.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Rove
Someone in my comments once mentioned that Cindy Sheehan was shown appropriate respect by George W. Bush when he met with her the first time and when he expressed that he felt compassion for her position. I doubted his sincerity. If his closest advisors are any reflection of his own views, I should have doubted more strongly.
"Cindy Sheehan is a clown. There is no real anti-war movement. No serious politician, with anything to do with anything, would show his face at an anti-war rally." -- Karl Rove at businessman Teddy Forstmann's annual off the record gathering in Aspen, Colorado this weekend [via HuffPo]
Friday, September 16, 2005
More Kids Being Home-Churched
Go read the rest over at The Onion:
Tucker said he was inspired to home-church when his 10-year-old son Macon returned from Sunday school singing a lighthearted song bout Zacchaeus, a tax collector befriended by Christ, and then later recited the parable of the Good Samaritan.
"I couldn't believe that the liberal elite had infiltrated even the study of our Holy Scriptures," Tucker said.
Favorite Posts of the Day
Mean Mr. Mustard has been on a roll lately, and his links to Get Your Flood On and his moving interpretation/retelling of the Bush "I have to pee" note are spot on and worth linking to. It's good to see him back in fine form.
I sent this Boing Boing post directly to Elise from After School Snack because I had a feeling that it might bring her concern about rampaging, poisonous centipedes into some sort of focus. Centipedes aren't so bad - it could be worse, you could have a tongue-eating, tongue-replacing louse in your house.
And speaking of Elise and nasty parasitic things like our Administration (I have a hard time telling, are they the parasites on big business, or is big business the parasite on them, or is there a lot of mutual sucking going on?), she has a post up about the Potemkin maneuvers our Administration is up to in New Orleans. As if it isn't enough they're sending Karl Rove down there in some sort of attempt to improve his image (which I can only assume is supposed to offset outing Plame) and rebuild New Orleans as a political machine, they're back to their faux news ways by creating images of rebuilding and success where they don't really exist. She quotes Brian Williams on MSNBC:
I sent this Boing Boing post directly to Elise from After School Snack because I had a feeling that it might bring her concern about rampaging, poisonous centipedes into some sort of focus. Centipedes aren't so bad - it could be worse, you could have a tongue-eating, tongue-replacing louse in your house.And speaking of Elise and nasty parasitic things like our Administration (I have a hard time telling, are they the parasites on big business, or is big business the parasite on them, or is there a lot of mutual sucking going on?), she has a post up about the Potemkin maneuvers our Administration is up to in New Orleans. As if it isn't enough they're sending Karl Rove down there in some sort of attempt to improve his image (which I can only assume is supposed to offset outing Plame) and rebuild New Orleans as a political machine, they're back to their faux news ways by creating images of rebuilding and success where they don't really exist. She quotes Brian Williams on MSNBC:
I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.
Aqua City Motel
My co-worker Erik once played guitar for the band Plissken, named for Snake Plissken, anti-hero from Escape from New York. That was almost three years ago. My whole family was at that show, even my daughter was swimming around Pooteewheet's womb and appreciating the ambiance so close to Frogtown. After some time, the band has finally reformed, but with a new name, Aqua City Motel, a new keyboardist, and a new sound (and a new guitar for Erik, he moved to bass). This time, rather than taking my wife and daughter, I took my (retired) father - you can see his arm in the second picture below. We went early and caught a 7:40 p.m. breakfast at the Dinkytowner - they have a damn fine omelet that goes nicely with a Summit EPA, mind you (and my project lead and her husband met up with us after the food). I'd have more pictures of the band, but Pooteewheet left me a camera without much juice - my own fault, I should know to haul along a spare set of AA batteries if I'm anxious for pictures. Anyway, the new sound was nothing like the old sound, as was soon to be obvious when Erik showed up in his cowboy hat and cowboy boots. While I feared the worst...hillybilly hip hop...that wasn't the case. The band's sound was more like a mixture of Neil Young and Randy Newman (their keyboardist, who also played guitar and banjo, sounded exactly like a younger, edgy Randy Newman). Not country, and not even pseudo-close to country like The Eagles, though the song about the skies might have qualified. As far as I'm concerned, a fine change from their folkier St. Croix Girl sound when they were Plissken, and my Dad enjoyed himself. His single criticism was that their last song was really upbeat and one you could dance to and the band should play more songs in that style, because it was obvious the audience wanted to dance and it really perked everyone up.
If there was anything I thought was strange, it was the band's insistence that all their songs revolve around states and cities. There were songs about Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Mexico, Chicago, and a dozen other places - it made you feel as though it were time to immediately get up and go on vacation. Erik's solo was an exception to the city/state/country rule and was a great song. When you could hear his voice, it fit perfectly with the song style, and I only wish he had belted it out a bit so it was obvious he can sing. I'm not sure of the names of most of the songs unless they were specifically named after the cities and states, but the first song in the set and the last song were stand outs, and the pianist's (do they prefer keyboardist?) songs were good just because he was so damn enthusiastic that it was somewhat contagious.
I noticed today that Minnesota Public Radio has a wiki up to categorize local bands and musicians and Aqua City Motel was already listed as a band related to Exempt (from Death), the lead singer for Aqua City Motel's old band (Dan Tanz, third picture below). So if any of you out there are into updating Wikis, you now have at least one review to work from. And don't forget to mention that Dan was once an intern for MST3K and was once quoted as stating in reference to the most recent album by "VH1 darlings and Minnesota rock icons Semisonic":
Dinkytowner Promotional notice for Aqua City Motel:
Erik visiting John and I pre-performance and feeling a bit sheepish about his hat and boots.
The stage - Erik center, Dan Tanz on the right.
If there was anything I thought was strange, it was the band's insistence that all their songs revolve around states and cities. There were songs about Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Mexico, Chicago, and a dozen other places - it made you feel as though it were time to immediately get up and go on vacation. Erik's solo was an exception to the city/state/country rule and was a great song. When you could hear his voice, it fit perfectly with the song style, and I only wish he had belted it out a bit so it was obvious he can sing. I'm not sure of the names of most of the songs unless they were specifically named after the cities and states, but the first song in the set and the last song were stand outs, and the pianist's (do they prefer keyboardist?) songs were good just because he was so damn enthusiastic that it was somewhat contagious.
I noticed today that Minnesota Public Radio has a wiki up to categorize local bands and musicians and Aqua City Motel was already listed as a band related to Exempt (from Death), the lead singer for Aqua City Motel's old band (Dan Tanz, third picture below). So if any of you out there are into updating Wikis, you now have at least one review to work from. And don't forget to mention that Dan was once an intern for MST3K and was once quoted as stating in reference to the most recent album by "VH1 darlings and Minnesota rock icons Semisonic":
"Anyone who is ‘feeling strangely fine’ for long enough to make an album shouldn’t be making albums anymore."
Dinkytowner Promotional notice for Aqua City Motel:
Erik visiting John and I pre-performance and feeling a bit sheepish about his hat and boots.
The stage - Erik center, Dan Tanz on the right.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Etc - Bathroom Breaks and Whatnot
Exciting title, but likely appropriate. I blame Tall Brad for making me read a Robbins book - I'm in an all sorts of rambling mood lately. In order, in this post you will find the following (just hop between paragraphs - I'm going to assume my readers can count):
On a completely different thread, I've decided all of you that have owned iPods for some time now are really screwed up. I finally bought Pooteewheet an iPod and then set about trying to import all of our CDs onto the thing. At first Pooteewheet was doing individual songs until I pointed out you didn't have to sync all of them, so why not record the whole CD. Well, I have every CD I've owned since my first CD and CD player in 1987 (my friend Dan actually bought me my first CD before I had a CD player - Aerosmith if you must know), I've never sold any of them, and my wife has a hefty collection she's amassed since then. I know there are people with thousands of CDs, but I feel my collection of what seems to be over 500 is sufficiently insurmountable from a copying standpoint. I didn't have to waste this much time before technology, I just shoved anything I was unlikely to listen to into a box, tucked it in the closet, and forgot it existed. It wasn't until the iPod that I even had an idea that I owned 4-5 Eric Clapton CDs - I was pretty sure I owned just one, and that one by accident because I bought it from an old manager that had scored two and was trying to unload. On the other hand, it's been a long time since I've had a good chance to listen to my collection of bagpiping tunes.
I found this to be horribly sick and simultaneously funny:
Xeni Jardin:
Q: What's George Bush's position on Roe v. Wade?
A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.
For all of you that come to my site looking for the odd news about Terry Pratchett, this might excite you:
The BBC has announced that it is adapting Terry Pratchett's brilliant kids book Johnny and the Bomb (part of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, which includes Only You can Save Mankind and Johnny and the Dead) for TV. The Johnny Maxwell books deal with the fantastic adventures of three pre-teen Brit kids who travel through time and dimensions having advetures that are pure Pratchett: funny and humanistic at the same time.
And finally, one more Boing Boing link. It is a fact that when I first involved myself in computer games, they were text based. Ah, the days when my little brother owned a copy of Leather Goddess of Phobos and we felt liberated that we could pull one over on my parents by adventuring in the most salacious setting, and then tell on each other for doing just that. Truly a bonding moment for the NodtoNothing Brothers. BoingBoing links to a copy of a text adventure based on Hamlet (and other Shakespeare characters). Some advice, don't mock/attack Othello - he's just as pissy as he is in literature, although he might be my particular choice for executioner.
- Our President has to Poop
- iPod CD Capturing Bites
- Katrina Joke du Jour
- Terry Pratchett Comes to Television
- Text Adventure Hamlet
On a completely different thread, I've decided all of you that have owned iPods for some time now are really screwed up. I finally bought Pooteewheet an iPod and then set about trying to import all of our CDs onto the thing. At first Pooteewheet was doing individual songs until I pointed out you didn't have to sync all of them, so why not record the whole CD. Well, I have every CD I've owned since my first CD and CD player in 1987 (my friend Dan actually bought me my first CD before I had a CD player - Aerosmith if you must know), I've never sold any of them, and my wife has a hefty collection she's amassed since then. I know there are people with thousands of CDs, but I feel my collection of what seems to be over 500 is sufficiently insurmountable from a copying standpoint. I didn't have to waste this much time before technology, I just shoved anything I was unlikely to listen to into a box, tucked it in the closet, and forgot it existed. It wasn't until the iPod that I even had an idea that I owned 4-5 Eric Clapton CDs - I was pretty sure I owned just one, and that one by accident because I bought it from an old manager that had scored two and was trying to unload. On the other hand, it's been a long time since I've had a good chance to listen to my collection of bagpiping tunes.
I found this to be horribly sick and simultaneously funny:
Xeni Jardin:
Q: What's George Bush's position on Roe v. Wade?
A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.
For all of you that come to my site looking for the odd news about Terry Pratchett, this might excite you:
The BBC has announced that it is adapting Terry Pratchett's brilliant kids book Johnny and the Bomb (part of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, which includes Only You can Save Mankind and Johnny and the Dead) for TV. The Johnny Maxwell books deal with the fantastic adventures of three pre-teen Brit kids who travel through time and dimensions having advetures that are pure Pratchett: funny and humanistic at the same time.
And finally, one more Boing Boing link. It is a fact that when I first involved myself in computer games, they were text based. Ah, the days when my little brother owned a copy of Leather Goddess of Phobos and we felt liberated that we could pull one over on my parents by adventuring in the most salacious setting, and then tell on each other for doing just that. Truly a bonding moment for the NodtoNothing Brothers. BoingBoing links to a copy of a text adventure based on Hamlet (and other Shakespeare characters). Some advice, don't mock/attack Othello - he's just as pissy as he is in literature, although he might be my particular choice for executioner.
Bobo's World - Hate in NY
I believe that title is what First Draft and other liberal blogs use for similar stories (SPL via AP), so I'll stick with the convention:
Sept. 11 observance marred by assault on immigrant
The Associated Press
Published on September 12, 2005
Hours after many New York firefighters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a firefighter was arrested for attacking an immigrant worker [Scooter: Bangladeshi according to SPL's Hatewatch] and telling him he looked "like he's al-Qaeda," police said. (...)
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Funny Stuff from the Therapy Site - Jainism
The Counseling Resource Site had a post about Jainism today that actually made me laugh. I link and quote it in it's entirety. I'm sad there's no counter-response.
Posted: Tue 30 Aug 2005 9:04 am
Post subject: jainism
I have found jainism is perfect to help control the mind and emotions.
cheers stinky
Posted: Mon 12 Sep 2005 5:45 pm
Post subject: To Stinkyuk
I’m curious... How do you justify having and/or using a computer? It’s my understanding that the Aparigraha [Scooter: "non-possesiveness"] principle of Jainism living means non-indulgence in the enjoyment of the amenities and the comforts of life - which are superfluous for the preservation of life. Ie: food, clothes, shelter. Are you allowed to use a computer? - Connect to the world wide web? As long as you don’t ***enjoy*** doing so???Rose
My Wife Went to a Jim Jarmusch Movie and All I Got Was This Lousy Post
Pooteewheet went to Broken Flowers without me, leaving me to some quality time with Eryn followed by the sense that I don't really have any plans since she went to bed. I notice that most blogs seem to celebrate the fact that they pass 500 posts - I could mention I did that, but it was a week ago. Most also seem to celebrate their one year anniversary, but that was really at the end of July. It also seems bloggy to discuss your "accomplishments" as a blogger - meeting bloggers at Liberally Drinking, misattributing posts in various bloggers' mobblogs and guest postings (MNObserver), getting quoted on Orcinus, getting noted on Jesus' General and making the blog of the day on The Blotter (but really, I mean, I submitted it), finally losing my primo spot at the top of the MNSpeak aggregator, and topping 1000 hits per month on average. But then I notice, after reading The Rake and doing some research that Avatan, "Minnesota's Largest and Most Friendly Nudist Club" (check it out for the illustrations - they look like something out of the Word Perfect image gallery, circa 1992), has a hit counter almost a quarter million hits long and any webby accomplishments don't seem quite as spectacular, particularly as they get most of the Google hits for +bonsai +nudist (watch out, here I come), followed closely by an article discussing how being a Bonsai tree does not make you a good Christian, but that Christians do have nudist camps of their own. I think Eryn would fit right in, as she's been shifting to training pants and spent the day running around peeking in the back and annoucing "There's Eryn's butt!" However, I would like to mention to Tall Brad, who has a chili festival in the works, that Avatan has chili cookoffs now and then, followed by a nude art show and then nude dancing (though no nude Texas Hold 'em as far as I could tell, but that means there's a need). Please disinvite me from the chili cookoff list when it comes to that, it's enough for me that I cook my chili in the nude.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Leftovers - Presidential Wax Museum and the Jebus Horse
This (picture below) has been serving as my bookmark for the last month. While on vacation in South Dakota, I had a habit of picking up tourist information for places I absolutely did not want to go. The National Presidential Wax Museum was one such place. The "Wand Narration System" frightens me, let alone the (unpictured) promise of "George W. to George W." But the accompanying photograph is just wrong. There's the fireman, in jacket and jeans - soiled workclothes - looking up at the Twin Towers as they fall. There's GW staring ahead at the camera, nattily attired in fitted, spotless black dress pants and suede presidential sports jacket. I hope they replace it with that fishing in New Orleans picture or the guitar picture. It would be slightly less embarrassing. As for the "Holy Terror Mini Golf", somehow that just seems appropriate. I expect the "hit the ball in Frist's" mouth at the end is hilarious.
In the better late than never category, this is a final picture from the Minnesota State Fair. Pooteewheet took it because it made her chuckle. You know you're dedicated to your Jebus-fish medal/bumper sticker when you brand it to your horse's ass. You have to wonder if one of the horses in a nearby stall had the fish with legs.
In the better late than never category, this is a final picture from the Minnesota State Fair. Pooteewheet took it because it made her chuckle. You know you're dedicated to your Jebus-fish medal/bumper sticker when you brand it to your horse's ass. You have to wonder if one of the horses in a nearby stall had the fish with legs.
West Virginian Waste
I received a past due notice today from my garbage collection company. Normally a past due notice might bother me, although this was just an issue of a misplaced bill during our trip to South Dakota, but this notice came with an easter egg so delicious it made up for the reprimand. There was a short blurb about how much I owed, an apology if I'd already sent a payment, a bit about how to pay right away if I was worried about the whole thing, a "Sincerely" from the collections department, and then, out of nowhere, the notice:
"Note: WV law requires proper disposal of solid waste."
There weren't any warnings for other states. It wasn't being sent from West Virginia. Just this simple message appended to the end as a surety that I wouldn't forget. Now I make fun of West Virginia quite a bit, solely because it's a jab at Christy - but Christy...they have to make it more difficult. If your fellow (at least at one time) West Virginians are going to improperly dispose of solid waste to the extent that they receive a special reprimand on all Waste Managment past due notices, well, this tells me a few things. 1.) West Virginians are either very poor or don't like to pay their bills and 2.) they have a habit of putting solid waste where it should not be, possibly to offset item number one. These facts in no way dispell the myths most people associate with West Virginia. If I get a social security summary with the warning "Note: WV law prohibits marrying your first cousin" you are never going to hear the end of it.
"Note: WV law requires proper disposal of solid waste."
There weren't any warnings for other states. It wasn't being sent from West Virginia. Just this simple message appended to the end as a surety that I wouldn't forget. Now I make fun of West Virginia quite a bit, solely because it's a jab at Christy - but Christy...they have to make it more difficult. If your fellow (at least at one time) West Virginians are going to improperly dispose of solid waste to the extent that they receive a special reprimand on all Waste Managment past due notices, well, this tells me a few things. 1.) West Virginians are either very poor or don't like to pay their bills and 2.) they have a habit of putting solid waste where it should not be, possibly to offset item number one. These facts in no way dispell the myths most people associate with West Virginia. If I get a social security summary with the warning "Note: WV law prohibits marrying your first cousin" you are never going to hear the end of it.
Another Roadside Attraction
Tall Brad gave me Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins almost a year ago, pehaps more than a year ago, with the assurance that I'd enjoy it and that it shared characteristics with books by Christopher Moore. In honor of the book, I shall now ramble... For the record, you can have an English degree and have never read a word of Robbins - but I'm guessing many of you have never read historic utopias from the early Tudor/Stuart period or the collected writings of Queen Elizabeth, so it's tit for tat. I did enjoy Another Roadside Attraction, but is Robbins ever a wordy bastard. When Matt offered on After School Snack today to create a Tom Robbins-style rant, I knew exactly what option not to vote for (and unlike Matt, my boss is celebrating the whole Iowa thing, whereas I'd have a difficult time even being able to tell you which campus was hit by a tornado last week - I feel smug just knowing Iowa was hit by a tornado at all - it's the extent of my regional pride). Robbins' writing is dizzying, almost as much as Elizabeth's, and she liked to write once sentence per page. I'd find myself sliding in and out of the feeling that it was enjoyable to read his writing for writing's sake, and absorbing the joy he obviously takes in crafting a paragraph from the beginning word to the closing sentence, to wishing he'd just get on with it and expound on the story about the killer Catholic monks (though generally I hate stories about Catholic intrigue - that whole Dan Brown thing just irritates the bejebus out of me) and when the damn mummy was going to enter the picture and how it was so important when I was running out of book. In the end I enjoyed it most for how the writing captured the spirit of the main characters - modern "hippies" - and their relaxed, meandering, semi-mystical/spiritual approach to everything in life. It was obvious that much of the meandering (in writing and thought) was really designed to get you into a flow and relaxed so that something semi-profound relating to religion (and by religion I mean traditional religion as well as the general idea that the study of self can produce religious insight) could be lobbed the reader's way, requiring a short reread to understand how the bits fit together to create the point. Amanda always seemed the likeliest character to have these bits of wisdom at hand, though without the other characters as foils they wouldn't have had the impact.Minister: No, I had no connection with the military forces in Vietnam. I was a civilian missionary. My wife and I ministered to the Bahnar tribsemen. The Bahnar are a primitive people and were not involved politically in the war.
Amanda: How did you enjoy the Bahnar?
Minister: We weren't there to enjoy them. We were there to help them. But they were very friendly to us, if that's what you meant. The Bahnar Vietnamese are basically fine, simple folks. Of course they had some extremely backward ideas.
Amanda: Could you please give me an example?
Minister: Well, for example, your Bahnar believed that good souls go live under the earth when they die and bad souls go live in the sky. You can see what that implies. They though Heaven was down and Hell was up.
Amanda: But you changed all that?
Minister: Oh yes. Of course. That's what we were there for. We taught them it was just the other way around. (p. 194)
In some minor aspects, this book set me in mind of James Morrows' Bible Stories for Adults, which Amazon assures me is liked by people who like Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel, but which doesn't have the convoluted writing of Another Roadside Attraction. Morrow is more about (semi-)singular points in that book because it's a collection of short stories, so there's not quite the weaving of story lines and ideas exhibited by Robbins. I preferred Towing Jehovah to Bible Stories for Adults, however, so if you get a choice, you might want to go with the later.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
St. Paul Bike Classic 2005
I'm a little slow, but I wanted to watch the Vikings game after the ride, and then we had guests over for dinner and a round of late-afternoon sprinkler jumping. Not to worry, they brought their own springing-penis toy, just like all guests should.
On to the St. Paul Bike Classic. In past years it's been so cold in the morning that your hands actually ache just trying to get to the starting line. This year I stepped into my garage and thought, damn, it's hot in here! It was absolutely the warmest Bike Classic I've ever been on - it supposedly got into the upper 80s today - I think I'm still shedding a bit of heat eight hours later. I got my bike and gear together before 6 a.m. and pushed it over to Steve's house where Christy was going to give me a ride. I was a bit early so I just strapped my bike to her rack and then sat in Steve's front yard in the not-yet-daylight reading a book, much to the amusement of the Strib girl making her Sunday morning rounds. Around 6:30 we packed up and then drove over to get Sandy and head north to St. Thomas to start the ride. I saw Steve (different Steve, blogger Steve, not neighbor Steve) at St. Thomas, much to my surprise - it generally amazes me that you can find anyone in a crowd of several thousand people. The ride itself was generally uneventful - no squirrel mashing, no dead giant snakes, no accidents/deaths - and a little more difficult than in years past as few of us had been biking lately, so 30 miles was a haul. So, on to the pictures (by the way, I'm very sorry I didn't get a picture of the rock'em sock'em George W. Bush punching doll - I knew I wasn't relaxing enough when I didn't feel like coming to an immediate stop).
This is everyone at the Indian Mound rest stop looking appropriately tired after a very large hill, followed by a turn, and then another large hill. This year we had Phil and his wife and his wife's friend as additions, or perhaps as substitutions for Mean Mr. Mustard, after all it would take three youngsters to equal his age. He did join us for the traditional St. Clair Broiler breakfast, as did Lisa, said restaurant living up to its name by having intermittent air conditioning problems.
Christy and Sandy wouldn't give me a moon shot this year, so I had to settle for them coming out of the porta poties at the Indian Mound rest stop. Christy said a bad word so she has to eat soap.
Christy being silly. I think this is how they ride bikes in West Virginia. I have a similar picture of Sandy and Christy, but it's a little fuzzy.
Who's ever run over a squirrel during this ride? Come on, raise your hand if you have. Ok, now who dates the registration babe? Raise your hand. Worn tight biking shorts just to impress the ladies? Hand up! I thought so.
Action shot. Ming, Erik, and Phil - a peloton.
I don't know who this is - but it shows that the Como rest stop is very nice and there are a lot of bikes, so it's sort of proof we didn't just go on a made up ride and claim it was an organized event.
Erik doing his Elvis impersonation. I'm pretty sure Aqua City Motel, Erik's band, just does Elvis covers. I'll let you know next week after "the gig".
Phil and crew pulling into the Como rest stop - that's his wife Rochelle waving for the camera.
Sometimes just getting thirty miles of exercise is not enough - you have to dress up to do it. I kept trying to get a picture of this guy in the process of pedaling, but he was really hauling ass, so I had to settle for catching him with a mouthful of food.
On to the St. Paul Bike Classic. In past years it's been so cold in the morning that your hands actually ache just trying to get to the starting line. This year I stepped into my garage and thought, damn, it's hot in here! It was absolutely the warmest Bike Classic I've ever been on - it supposedly got into the upper 80s today - I think I'm still shedding a bit of heat eight hours later. I got my bike and gear together before 6 a.m. and pushed it over to Steve's house where Christy was going to give me a ride. I was a bit early so I just strapped my bike to her rack and then sat in Steve's front yard in the not-yet-daylight reading a book, much to the amusement of the Strib girl making her Sunday morning rounds. Around 6:30 we packed up and then drove over to get Sandy and head north to St. Thomas to start the ride. I saw Steve (different Steve, blogger Steve, not neighbor Steve) at St. Thomas, much to my surprise - it generally amazes me that you can find anyone in a crowd of several thousand people. The ride itself was generally uneventful - no squirrel mashing, no dead giant snakes, no accidents/deaths - and a little more difficult than in years past as few of us had been biking lately, so 30 miles was a haul. So, on to the pictures (by the way, I'm very sorry I didn't get a picture of the rock'em sock'em George W. Bush punching doll - I knew I wasn't relaxing enough when I didn't feel like coming to an immediate stop).
This is everyone at the Indian Mound rest stop looking appropriately tired after a very large hill, followed by a turn, and then another large hill. This year we had Phil and his wife and his wife's friend as additions, or perhaps as substitutions for Mean Mr. Mustard, after all it would take three youngsters to equal his age. He did join us for the traditional St. Clair Broiler breakfast, as did Lisa, said restaurant living up to its name by having intermittent air conditioning problems.
Christy and Sandy wouldn't give me a moon shot this year, so I had to settle for them coming out of the porta poties at the Indian Mound rest stop. Christy said a bad word so she has to eat soap.
Christy being silly. I think this is how they ride bikes in West Virginia. I have a similar picture of Sandy and Christy, but it's a little fuzzy.
Who's ever run over a squirrel during this ride? Come on, raise your hand if you have. Ok, now who dates the registration babe? Raise your hand. Worn tight biking shorts just to impress the ladies? Hand up! I thought so.
Action shot. Ming, Erik, and Phil - a peloton.
I don't know who this is - but it shows that the Como rest stop is very nice and there are a lot of bikes, so it's sort of proof we didn't just go on a made up ride and claim it was an organized event.
Erik doing his Elvis impersonation. I'm pretty sure Aqua City Motel, Erik's band, just does Elvis covers. I'll let you know next week after "the gig".
Phil and crew pulling into the Como rest stop - that's his wife Rochelle waving for the camera.
Sometimes just getting thirty miles of exercise is not enough - you have to dress up to do it. I kept trying to get a picture of this guy in the process of pedaling, but he was really hauling ass, so I had to settle for catching him with a mouthful of food.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
"Us and Them", from "Dark Side of the Moon"
Tild is right, this is worth clicking over to see - Driftglass from Chicago made a montage of pictures interspersed with the words to "Us and Them" by Pink Floyd. Primarily an emotional outlet for Driftwood, but also a good idea for spurring discussion, as is evident in the dozens of comments.
If it weren't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all...
I recently switched projects at work, but I spent ten months on my last one getting to know a whole new group of people and a few come-and-go contractors. New people always mean new stories, and this is my favorite from the last ten months. One of the individuals in my group is a hunter and really wants to make his own duck hunting boat. Toward that end, he bought a huge pile of aluminum and set out to weld his own duck hunting boat as a "fun project".
Item one: welding aluminum requires lots of equipment and electricity. Just buying the aluminum is not enough, you must lay the wires to the work area and buy the expensive welding equipment.
Item two: welding alumnium is not easy. If you try to do it without any experience, you get warped aluminum.
Item three: not warping the aluminum requires a semester of welding class at the community college. This requires more money.
Item four: if you're working with the acid wipe, don't get it on your arms, it removes all your pigment.
Item five: just because you've been taking a welding class for a few weeks doesn't mean you're completely ready, if you're in a hurry you'll still warp more expensive aluminum.
Item six: don't weld your arm, it hurts and can leave a quarter inch deep, four by four inch hole, that requires repeated applications of nuskin.
Item seven: a boat without a truck capable of pulling it is pointless. Buy a big truck.
Item eight: when painting, don't leave one of the cans of puke-colored spray paint in the sun next to your brand new, less than a month old, truck that you bought for pulling the boat (see number seven). It will explode and it will bake into the paint, giving you a permanent "I've been driving in mud" look. This is not as cool as it sounds.
Item nine: don't drop hot metal on your eyes - it'll hurt, cost you a copayment, and a lecture from the doctor about how lucky you were not to hit the cornea, causing starburst glare and the possibility of eye surgery.
Item ten: certainly don't do all of this where your wife can see it - even if you wear the pants, you're basically proving you don't know how to zip them.
Item one: welding aluminum requires lots of equipment and electricity. Just buying the aluminum is not enough, you must lay the wires to the work area and buy the expensive welding equipment.
Item two: welding alumnium is not easy. If you try to do it without any experience, you get warped aluminum.
Item three: not warping the aluminum requires a semester of welding class at the community college. This requires more money.
Item four: if you're working with the acid wipe, don't get it on your arms, it removes all your pigment.
Item five: just because you've been taking a welding class for a few weeks doesn't mean you're completely ready, if you're in a hurry you'll still warp more expensive aluminum.
Item six: don't weld your arm, it hurts and can leave a quarter inch deep, four by four inch hole, that requires repeated applications of nuskin.
Item seven: a boat without a truck capable of pulling it is pointless. Buy a big truck.
Item eight: when painting, don't leave one of the cans of puke-colored spray paint in the sun next to your brand new, less than a month old, truck that you bought for pulling the boat (see number seven). It will explode and it will bake into the paint, giving you a permanent "I've been driving in mud" look. This is not as cool as it sounds.
Item nine: don't drop hot metal on your eyes - it'll hurt, cost you a copayment, and a lecture from the doctor about how lucky you were not to hit the cornea, causing starburst glare and the possibility of eye surgery.
Item ten: certainly don't do all of this where your wife can see it - even if you wear the pants, you're basically proving you don't know how to zip them.
Organic HTML
Information Aesthetics has a link to a site/flash application called Organic HTML. There are no real rules to Organic HTML other than that it takes a website and based on colors, size, links and who knows what else creates a sort of alien-looking flower of varying complexity, brilliance and infestation. While rather perplexing without any rules, it is vaguely addicting, particularly when you know that it is possible to generate flies, leading to numerous tries until you find final satisfaction in creating a few bugs.
On to many, many sites, though if I seem to have forgotten you, don't take it personally - it says nothing about your importance to me or the importance of your blog to me or even the order of your blog in my aggregator. First, my site, http://nodtonothing.blogspot.com. Really weedy looking and some dark mushrooms. I can only assume all those little appendages are wikipedia links. The black mushrooms must be links to Mean Mr. Mustard, he's the closest person I know to mushroomdom. I'd show Pooteewheet's site, but it looks incredibly similar - which is sort of romantic.
My home page - not changed in many years. Sparse, pruned, lacking in flair, but sort of bonsai-ish.
Speaking of Mean Mr. Mustard, his flower is much more attractive than mine - some light blues and reds, fading into purple. Soothing and relaxed, and so unlike him. However, that big stick growing out the side that you could use to beat someone annoying with - that's sort of like him.
Yet another friend, Klund. Tall. There's probably something sarcastic hiding behind that main stalk.
And Mr. Mustard's favorite site, Worth 1000. Now we've got something interesting - big, bright, all over the place, but undoubtedly photoshopped just to show off and part of a project entitled "What would Worth 1000 look like if it were a plant" - rate it 2.01.
The Wege's site, Norwegianity. Also bonsai-ish, although it looks like there's an albino mermaid hiding in some seaweed in the center - probably a guest poster.
After School Snack (Elise, Matt, Chris and Alex). Elegant and at least four colors, which is appropriate, though don't ask me to guess which color is which person, because that always gets me in trouble on my site.
The Powerliberal. Maybe Robin's just too worried about the Drinking Liberally drink kitty to worry about whether her plant looks good on Organic. That's just good prioritization.
MNSpeak. Fresh, vibrant, new - the deathly colors of a morning that left twenty below behind several hours ago and has ventured in new territories so cold you can't even find them on your thermometer, just like Minnesotans like.
New Patriot - seemingly very patriotic.
Some of the big timers.
Eschaton
AmericaBLOG - there's a heart of gold tucked away in there.
Dave Neiwert at Orcinus - professional looking, yet spirited.
Jesus' General - looks like a flag pole in the middle.
World o' Crap - so long that you have to click to see how it's different from the rest. I picture two very long arms reaching out to grab crap from where ever they can find it.
The American Street
Crooks and Liars - jump through the circle of truth, fools, because if you don't, we've got it on camera!
Wonkette -this seems entirely appropriate.
The Revealer - inclusive looking, just like them.
Boing Boing. So not what I expected.
Planet Dan - perhaps this refers to the idea that examining the silliest aspects of our society always leads full circle - or maybe it's just the shape of a kickball. More likely, it's a hoop that the world's ugliest dog can jump through.
Finally, I managed to find some flies. It was a tough search. Believe it or not, I didn't look for hours and hours. These two happened to be two out of only four sites I tried once I started a fly search, which included The White House, Minnesota's unfortunate blog of the year, and these two sites. I circled the flies with red circles in the first one so you know what to look for in the second.
This one is RNC.org.
And this one is FEMA.
On to many, many sites, though if I seem to have forgotten you, don't take it personally - it says nothing about your importance to me or the importance of your blog to me or even the order of your blog in my aggregator. First, my site, http://nodtonothing.blogspot.com. Really weedy looking and some dark mushrooms. I can only assume all those little appendages are wikipedia links. The black mushrooms must be links to Mean Mr. Mustard, he's the closest person I know to mushroomdom. I'd show Pooteewheet's site, but it looks incredibly similar - which is sort of romantic.
My home page - not changed in many years. Sparse, pruned, lacking in flair, but sort of bonsai-ish.
Speaking of Mean Mr. Mustard, his flower is much more attractive than mine - some light blues and reds, fading into purple. Soothing and relaxed, and so unlike him. However, that big stick growing out the side that you could use to beat someone annoying with - that's sort of like him.
Yet another friend, Klund. Tall. There's probably something sarcastic hiding behind that main stalk.
And Mr. Mustard's favorite site, Worth 1000. Now we've got something interesting - big, bright, all over the place, but undoubtedly photoshopped just to show off and part of a project entitled "What would Worth 1000 look like if it were a plant" - rate it 2.01.
The Wege's site, Norwegianity. Also bonsai-ish, although it looks like there's an albino mermaid hiding in some seaweed in the center - probably a guest poster.
After School Snack (Elise, Matt, Chris and Alex). Elegant and at least four colors, which is appropriate, though don't ask me to guess which color is which person, because that always gets me in trouble on my site.
The Powerliberal. Maybe Robin's just too worried about the Drinking Liberally drink kitty to worry about whether her plant looks good on Organic. That's just good prioritization.
MNSpeak. Fresh, vibrant, new - the deathly colors of a morning that left twenty below behind several hours ago and has ventured in new territories so cold you can't even find them on your thermometer, just like Minnesotans like.
New Patriot - seemingly very patriotic.
Some of the big timers.
Eschaton
AmericaBLOG - there's a heart of gold tucked away in there.
Dave Neiwert at Orcinus - professional looking, yet spirited.
Jesus' General - looks like a flag pole in the middle.
World o' Crap - so long that you have to click to see how it's different from the rest. I picture two very long arms reaching out to grab crap from where ever they can find it.
The American Street
Crooks and Liars - jump through the circle of truth, fools, because if you don't, we've got it on camera!
Wonkette -this seems entirely appropriate.
The Revealer - inclusive looking, just like them.
Boing Boing. So not what I expected.
Planet Dan - perhaps this refers to the idea that examining the silliest aspects of our society always leads full circle - or maybe it's just the shape of a kickball. More likely, it's a hoop that the world's ugliest dog can jump through.
Finally, I managed to find some flies. It was a tough search. Believe it or not, I didn't look for hours and hours. These two happened to be two out of only four sites I tried once I started a fly search, which included The White House, Minnesota's unfortunate blog of the year, and these two sites. I circled the flies with red circles in the first one so you know what to look for in the second.
This one is RNC.org.
And this one is FEMA.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Coprophilia
My wife caught the family dog in her pen today eating a freshly dumped load of recycled Science Diet. I figured this was like when animals eat grass or rocks, or like when rabbits eat their own pellets (rabbits drop two kinds of leavings - one they can re-eat, the other they can't, for reference, see Rabbits: The Mystery of Poop), and that there must be a medical reason. Unfortunately, this is entirely wrong. Our dog is just gross.
I quote from the article Pooteewheet found:
I quote from the article Pooteewheet found:
Some dogs can't resist a tasty morsel of feces. These dogs will eat their own excrement or that of another dog. Some prefer horse feces, others cat feces. Frozen feces are popular in the winter time...
Dogs are historically scavengers, and this is believed to be a scavenger behavior...
Owners find this habit in their pet disgusting -- particularly when the consumed feces are thrown up all over the new carpet.
At least with your dog you can be relatively assured it's not a sexual fetish. But if you linked here as a newbie to the scat scene, might I recommend a brief journey over to the Coprophilia entry at Wikipedia where you'll find such useful information as:
Other slang terms describing this practice include Meatloafing, FedEx'ng from Browntown and Karling. There are different levels of the Karling. They include:
- Cold Karling - involving a process similar to the Cleveland Steamer.
- Warm Karling - involving a process similar to the Glass-Bottom Boat.
- Hot Karling - The same thing as a Warm Karl except without the plastic wrap.
Iraq Coalition Casualty Count
I know I'm a little slow up on the uptake now and then, which is probably why I'd never seen this site before today (I'm not entirely sure where I saw the link, but probably at Norwegianity). Plenty of other similar sites, just not this one - The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, complete with links to press releases. So, just in case you weren't paying attention because it seemed like death in New Orleans is overshadowing everything:
- 11 Americans and 2 UK soldiers already dead this month (as of yesterday)
- 1895 Americans dead in the 904 days of the war
- 95 UK soldiers dead
- 101 dead from other coalition countries
- 2091 total dead
- 7549 Wounded and returned to duty w/in 72 hours
- 6813 wounded and not returned to duty within 72 hours
- PTSD...?
For Klund - Wikimania
This is for Klund, because I know how much he likes my Wikipedia obsession. By the way K, did you know you can Wikipedia Wikipedia? And Kevin.
News junkies find Wikipedia more than encyclopedia Reuters - Tue Sep 6, 8:11 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Wikipedia, which has surged this year to become the most popular reference site on the Web, is fast overtaking several major news sites as the place where people swarm for context on breaking events.
News junkies find Wikipedia more than encyclopedia Reuters - Tue Sep 6, 8:11 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Wikipedia, which has surged this year to become the most popular reference site on the Web, is fast overtaking several major news sites as the place where people swarm for context on breaking events.
Princesses - A Sound Investment
My little girl is not yet between the ages of four and twelve, but I have been assured that at some point she will be, and when she is, she will embrace Princess Culture, regardless of my opinion on the subject. This disturbs me greatly, and I have been practicing my tolerance by remarking how nice her "three Disney princesses" nightshirt (which she inherited from a coworker [of mine, not hers]) is when she wears it to bed. Princesses are apparently so popular that they made the Yahoo mover list and were deserving of an explanation all of their own, The Princess Phenomenon. What's most disturbing about that fact is that it primarily means that if you were to picture legions of four year olds surfing the web for the latest news about Jasmine, Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontas, Ariel and Cinderella - your imagination probably couldn't live up to the reality. And while these most popular Yahoo princess searches may not do my daughter any good at the moment (though she has already learned to efficiently use a mouse because it means she can play games at Sesame Street online), they may aid some of you, and no doubt will aid my sister LissyJo in her obsession with The Little Mermaid. By the way, Allison, the real story is not nearly as happy as the Disneyesque version. And for Klund's little girl, a story of an Aztec princess, Ixtaccihuatl (like Snow White). For all I know the Aztecs were the mortal enemies of her ancestors, but it was the best I could do.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Almost Stuck and My Wife the Cupcake
I work with computers for a living and, thus, have a natural aversion to the things when I'm at anyone else's house - I fear the days people ask me to take a look at their machine because it's not working. I always take a look because I know that I'm at least moderately more literate than your average human being and I feel it's my duty to save the people I know a trip to someone more expensive if at all possible, particularly as it's often just a virus or a port or memory issues. My friend Dan'l works with furnaces. He has no such concerns about the tools of his trade and approaches it with an enthusiasm that in me would be equivalent to bursting in the front door, running to someone's computer room without even shaking their hand, and picking apart their hardware and software setup. So, the other day, I took him and his wife (my other friend), Katie, to check out my neighbor Steve's house. I took them because Steve has a cool house, particularly for my neighborhood (though he's doing his best to destroy various parts of it by dropping them 20-30 feet onto the pool table), but Dan'l was entranced by the fact that Steve has two furnaces and at least one was premeasured before it was even put in place...sweeeeeet! But hey, a picture of Dan'l in action is worth a thousand words. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't catch him fully wedged into that space behind the water heater and furnace - he was back there, pretty much just his face sticking out, picking Steve's furnace apart, showing him humidifier bits that needed replacing, and complaining about the munchkin who installed everything so close to the wall. I was struck by how creepy it would be to walk into your furnace room and see him there, peering out at you, just like in the Shining..."Here's Dan'l!"
On an entirely different note, I signed my wife up to receive mailings about Nestle' baking chips because I thought it might lead to some coupons for chocolate or swirled chips (she bought them, she gets enrolled, it has nothing to do with women doing baking - I actually made the last batch of cookies). Doing so involved this whole process of enrolling her in an online baking club with reward points. Part of the site also involved taking a quick survey. I figured this was the best way to ensure coupons, and filled it out as I felt it applied to Pooteewheet. The end result was like one of those blog/web surveys that pigeonholes you as a particular president, country or type of food - but this one was just funny. Presenting my wife, the cupcake...
Very Best Baker Personality Survey
What's your cookie personality? You're a...Frosted Cupcake
You're something of a showoff, aren’t you? (But in a deliciously good way!) For you, good taste is only part of the story. Your fresh-baked creations look like they were torn from the pages of a magazine, reflecting your winning sense of style. No wonder your treats get so many "oohs and ahhhs."
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
AmericaBlog on General Myers
This is a brilliant post (though AmericaBlog credits Wonkette for the idea). I'm always impressed when someone can graphically illustrate their point in such a way that disperate information provides a gestalt beyond the individual pieces and communicates something more strongly than pages of explanation. It's why I have Information Aesthetics on my daily list of blogs.
Anyway, go check out the headline montage at AmericaBlog - even outside its political context, it's eye opening.
Anyway, go check out the headline montage at AmericaBlog - even outside its political context, it's eye opening.
Someone Won Ben Stein's Brain
The latest urban myth to be examined on Snopes (per their syndicated feed) is:
Claim: E-mail reproduces Ben Stein's defense of President Bush's actions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Status: True.
in which Ben goes on to explain in rather patronizing tones (appropriately pepped up with words like "scandalously " and "slander") that President George W. Bush isn't responsible for natural disasters, because liberals all seem to believe that GW could actually control the weather, and we're wrong - and those liberals who believe in global warming are also wrong, but if they're right, it doesn't have anything at all to do with Kyoto. Somehow I doubt anyone in New Orleans was really focusing on Kyoto as the source of their problems over the last week - at least not during the time they were without food and water. But Ben's right about GW creating/influencing weather; if we believed that, we'd be wrong. No one believes that actually praying for good weather (or any sort of weather at all) is effective and can change the natural world. Nobody. Except for people at the Luis Palau Twin Cities Festival this summer. Actually, if you just follow the Google query +pray +"good weather" +minneapolis, you'll seen Minnesotans praying for good weather all over the place and assuring themselves that it worked. I'm not even going to search for other cities - I'm sure the ones who voted more strongly for GW pray even harder for good weather. Maybe no one was praying hard enough.
We're also treated to this wonderfully callous statement, particularly given that poverty is increasing under GW and he is responsible for working to alleviate that problem:
But I'm more impressed with Ben's tirade against health care, local officials and Hillary Clinton all in the same bullet, with a sort of reverse spin to point out that you should be thankful GW and his administration are currently in charge of your health care. You always want to finish on Hillary - maybe someone will think she caused the hurricane or that everywhere would look like New Orleans if she were in charge of anything. After all, dissing Hillary should be the anchor for any compassionate, non-politicizing treatise on New Orleans.
Claim: E-mail reproduces Ben Stein's defense of President Bush's actions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Status: True.
in which Ben goes on to explain in rather patronizing tones (appropriately pepped up with words like "scandalously " and "slander") that President George W. Bush isn't responsible for natural disasters, because liberals all seem to believe that GW could actually control the weather, and we're wrong - and those liberals who believe in global warming are also wrong, but if they're right, it doesn't have anything at all to do with Kyoto. Somehow I doubt anyone in New Orleans was really focusing on Kyoto as the source of their problems over the last week - at least not during the time they were without food and water. But Ben's right about GW creating/influencing weather; if we believed that, we'd be wrong. No one believes that actually praying for good weather (or any sort of weather at all) is effective and can change the natural world. Nobody. Except for people at the Luis Palau Twin Cities Festival this summer. Actually, if you just follow the Google query +pray +"good weather" +minneapolis, you'll seen Minnesotans praying for good weather all over the place and assuring themselves that it worked. I'm not even going to search for other cities - I'm sure the ones who voted more strongly for GW pray even harder for good weather. Maybe no one was praying hard enough.
We're also treated to this wonderfully callous statement, particularly given that poverty is increasing under GW and he is responsible for working to alleviate that problem:
"It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile."
But I'm more impressed with Ben's tirade against health care, local officials and Hillary Clinton all in the same bullet, with a sort of reverse spin to point out that you should be thankful GW and his administration are currently in charge of your health care. You always want to finish on Hillary - maybe someone will think she caused the hurricane or that everywhere would look like New Orleans if she were in charge of anything. After all, dissing Hillary should be the anchor for any compassionate, non-politicizing treatise on New Orleans.
12.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.
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