2024.07.06
30,000 years dwarfs the thinking of most eschatology-minded Christians (I guess they do think of a 1,000 year reign of Satan) even when they claim to be thinking of "forever and ever"
There is a more resilient and thoughtful flavor of Christianity that understands there is value and strength in the religion even if straightforward readings of Revelation are misguided (or if the scriptures really mean it when they say "no man knows the day or hour") Heck - "preterism" says Revelation already happened, and did a good job calling the destruction of Jerusalem and he persecution of Christians under Nero.
That's a serious problem with going all or nothing in the rightness and correctness of your religion - the idolatry of saying this Book is inerrant, absolutely preserved by God in its long history of translation and compilation and curation - and must be taken more or less literally (i.e. maybe just poetic in some of the bits, like saying "4 corners of the earth", but overall never metaphorically)
The "inerrant" view avoids some heresies of ordinary joes picking and choosing what they want to believe (and so permits the church to wield doctrine in authoritarian ways) but boy does it create a rigid and ultimately brittle structure. And seemingly contradictory - the mental gyrations you have to go perform for what "generation" means when Jesus said "Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened" 2,000 years ago is a wonder to behold.
And this sense of All or Nothing reflects the brittleness that cracked open my own faith a teen. It seems like most believers are not very think-ful about why so many other folks believe so many other things - refuse to consider the nature of why they believe what they believe as anything but God-given, and aren't we lucky that were given just the right belief in this sea of wrongness, and can't we feel that in our heart, don't know about those other heathens. What a stunning lack of sympathy, a myopia that ignores what other people are seeing and lacks almost any introspection, just a feeling of "God must have graced me with the singular belief that happens to be correct."
I guess the thinking is if "Left-Behind" style readings of Revelation isn't correct, then who knows what other readings might be misguided? And I'm somewhat sympathetic to the fear that people might pick and choose the parts of the faith that seem convenient. (Almost like, you know, how many Christians seem to ignore that bit about rich people being radically unlikely to get into Heaven... camels through eye of the needle must mean something different.)
And that's what we have today. Mainstream folk Christianity forgets that Jesus was a radical leftist teaching generosity and compassion and sacrifice, and so degenerates into a tool to enforcing the status quo and nostalgic views of how things used to be - ignoring the work it took to morally GROW into supporting obvious markers of equality, like that woman are fully people who can vote, or that black people are fully people and can't be owned. (And yes, flavors of Christianity helped this country make that growth, but not the mainstream reactionary bent in ascendancy today.)
But a flavor of "All or Nothing" that has most molded me is the universalism of The Salvation Army and evangelical Christianity - that the most important Truths apply to (and are potentially available to) everyone, or else they are not worthy Truths I should rally for. The unlikelihood that Salvationist Protestants got it right while everyone got it various levels of wrong led me to conclude that this flavor of belief wasn't as universal as I needed it to be.
So I embrace the uncertainty. My Faith is- there IS a singular, universal Truth, and one with moral implications. But the other tenant of my Faith is that we can't be certain what the overarching Truth is. It might even have many forms, many paths to God - a view the New England flavor of the UU church leans into. But I think - almost by definition, a shared-reality based Objective, transcendent overarching Truth is the bedrock of everything that is. (heh - I realize I still tend to think of Truth as something on high... maybe I should switch my thinking to think of it as what's supporting the ground we walk and build on. Underarching, not overarching.)
So what's weird is this doesn't just put me into opposition with normal "we're right, they're wrong" faiths, it also puts me in opposition to "there is no single truth, so everyone has their own truth" existentialism. The idea that there is a yardstick we should be thinking of to frame our morality - no matter how dimly we can see it - is different than saying everyone has their own totally legitimate wooden ruler, and so we have no way of evaluating other people's Truth.
2023.07.06
Another interesting animation: The song name comes across as a bit racist (but not meanly so, like beyond the idea of "cigar store wooden indians" anyway), but it offers a glimpse into how Raymond Scott constructed Songs
2022.07.06
What's weirding me out is I haven't added any new songs yet THIS month.
★ ★ ★ ★ | Psycho (feat. GAWNE) Crypt & Joey Nato |
Visiting JZ (one of the few people who can sort of predict my music preferences) in Austin, we caught up on songs including this hip hop bop - fast patter along with scary psycho violins. |
Booty Swing Parov Stelar |
Old-timey swing w/ some modern elements (played at my dr's waiting room) |
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★ ★ ★ ★ | Creep (feat. Karen Marie) Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox |
Another from my dr's waiting room, retro-cover. |
★ ★ ★ ★ | Eu Na Rua Antonio Pinto |
from the movie "Nine Days" - very soft and sweet |
Sweetie, You're Wild Flying Girls |
Dylan wrote "can either of you tell me why this song is both catchy and unsettling? Is the rhythm on the up-beat? I love it/it makes my brain hurt." |
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Through the Valley Ashley Johnson & Chris Rondinella |
Get Played podcast mentioned this from the end theme for Last of Us Part 2... femalre voice and guitar with an apocalyptic vibe. |
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Abla Deme Lazim Olur Lalalar |
Funky grindy pop used in an Apple Keynote (not the part in arabic I guess) |
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★ ★ ★ ★ | Bridge Over Troubled Water Johnny Cash |
I've been looking for more Johnny Cash ever since "When The Man Comes Around" wasa a little bit too apocalyptic for my taste... |
We Ain't Came to Lose Raekwon & Ghostface Killah |
Making the rounds, some of the Wu-Tang doing a track for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. |
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The Good Book (Live) Tim Minchin |
I remember this jokey book about the Bible from wayback when, especially "I know the Good Book's good because the Good Book says it's good / I know the Good Book knows it's good because a really good book would" |
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★ ★ ★ ★ | Start with Goodbye, Stop with Hello Eliza Rickman |
Kind of haunting, toy-piano song, heard it Courtney's party recently but feel I know it from somewhere else. |
Jolene Me First and The Gimme Gimmes |
high energy version of Dolly Parton's classic via My dad is addicted to rock and metal covers of pop songs... |
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Oh Mary, Don't You Weep The Swan Silvertones |
Old school Doo-Wop... reading up on "Bridge Over Troubled Water", this song was an influence on Paul Simon... |
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Rolling in the Deep (feat. Monique) Urban Love |
Heard this in a Japanese restaurant in Montreal... it's a Bossa Nova cover, but it's maybe too close to the original... |
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★ ★ ★ ★ | 99 Red Balloons Nova Bossa Ltd. & Lizette |
Another Bossa Nova cover from Montreal... really dig it. |
2021.07.06
Huh, Luigi had it right, humans can double jump

2020.07.06
There are approximately 1,010,300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly explain how much I want to hit you with a chair.I can't find a proper attribution, so take it with a grain of salt, but it is a great coinage - recognizing the difficulties language can have in capturing intense feeling.
Sometimes quarantine feels like an endless series of "wait its time to cut my fingernails again already?"
Dang, you need to understand Simpsons Paradox to understand COVID #s - how you group data from various states or counties gives you different views. Simpsons Paradox is such a nasty bit of math!
Caroline Randall Williams: "My Body Is a Confederate Monument"
"On Sunday, July 5, a report on Ghislaine Maxwell during FOX News Channel's America's News HQ mistakenly eliminated President Donald Trump from a photo alongside then Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell. We regret the error," Fox News reportedly said in a statement to CNN's media reporter Oliver Darcy.
I knew Lee Fastenau back around 2004 when were both duffers fooling around programming Atari games - he made the beautifully designed game Reflex and lately has made some interesting minimalist Apple II games
2019.07.06
We now live in a time when everyone's a spitballer, from the president of the United States on down. America elected the world's oldest seventh-grader in 2016; we knew what we were getting from the earliest days of his campaign. Asked about one opponent, the successful business executive Carly Fiorina, Trump replied, "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?" He bullied the rest of the field with stupid nicknames. The hijinks continue to this day. Recently, Trump play-scolded Vladimir Putin as the Russian president smirked in reply. "Don't meddle in the election, please," said Trump -- as if the two of them had been caught giving wedgies and were forced to apologize. What, us worry?
In the 19th century, physicians discovered morphine and heroin, which suppresses coughing at its source—the brain.
Sometimes it's so hard not to shoot the messenger, when the message is the world is not perfectly tuned to bow to your every whim. Or to quote Homer Simpson, "Lousy Minor Setback! THIS WORLD SUCKS!"
If you can't handle me at what you have mistakenly assumed is my worst, then prepare to be unpleasantly surprised in the immediate future.
2018.07.06
Great panels of Superman and Batman's mutual admiration society:
 036-018_560.jpg)
via Kottke on Batman's Wedding
the chrono, the wall, the stream, the froth - this here is a personal blog entry pointing to my devblog referencing a kottke entry about a neat piece on how early blogs mighta killed the web as it was then. Basically different views from the quirky handcrafted homepage to the tool-produced blog to the streams of FB and tumblr and twitter to the "can never take it all in" froth of reddit...
2017.07.06
Filthy-mouthed but hilarious in parts...
Open Photo Gallery





















2016.07.06
Open Photo Gallery
Parasailing with Belmar Parasail over Ocean Grove...

(Not actually us, just to show what's going on)

Nice little bit of New Yorker Shouts + Murmurs Mini-fiction, "The Wedding Announcement".
"I want to YouTube about my life. I'll call my channel Happy Is Always The Answer."
--A young Human of New York
2015.07.06
Religion exists for two reasons: life is hard and death is terrifying
I'm so proud and so zapped at the same time.that was after a beauty like this:
Did not realize 'zapped' was a word...
Do you know why the universe is so dark / It's cuz you're not really looking
I feel bad for photons that travel 93 million miles from the sun and then have to bounce off your stupid face.
2014.07.06
- The Writing's On the Wall (OK Go) The optical-illusion-rich video has made the rounds, but the wistful sentiment of the lyrics grabs me as well.
- I've Got My Mind Set On You (James Ray) A lot of people didn't realize that George Harrison's song was a cover - but the original has brass and choir and is generally terrific.
- Empire (Shakira) A few people were surprised that "this is Shakira?" An interesting range of moods, from the Indie to the Epic.
- Iko Iko (The Dixie Cups) A band I joined for a 4th parade covers this... simple but so so catchy.
- Love Me Again (John Newman) A good Alex Clare / Too Close vibe.
- Mash Machine (FAROFF) I love a great mashup. James Brown vs Gorillaz vs The Doors vs Queen vs Aerosmith vs Led Zeppelin vs Pink Panther vs Stevie Wonder vs AC/DC vs Torpedo Boyz.
- A Drum Beatin (Atticus Avenue) SO CUTE... a dude bumps out a little beat on (his son's?) back, and the boy's delighted squeaky giggles become part of the rhythm.
- Mercedes Benz (Janis Joplin) A classic. Some people have tried to mix/techno up but the original just works too well.
- Work B**ch (Britney Spears) Stupid song, but I like its concept as a motivator. (First verse kind of works as a counter to "Mercedes Benz")
- Problem (feat. Iggy Azalea) (Ariana Grande) Not a bad pop song... I like that they seem to sample the original Star Trek "Red Alert" whoop.
- WHEN WILL THE BASS DROP (The Lonely Island) I love how this comedy short plays with the life of a DJ...
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force Theme (Schooly D) The animation opening...
- World Music Day - Dont Worry Be Happy (Culture Machines/ Various Artists) A nice cover featuring lots of artists from India.
- The Vatican Rag (Tom Lehrer) The classic.
- Flys (P.I.D.) Christian Hiphop from my youth.
- Give a Man Enough Rope (Will Roger's Follies) I saw this musical in NYC way back when. I remember the sentiment of "Give a Man Enough Rope" was kind of moving, but maybe in the reprise.
- Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (Allan Sherman) An ok song sort of ruined by a laugh track.
- Make It (Coco Brown). Oh dear. This is one of the raunchiest songs I've heard in a long, long while. I kind of like the request to "arch my back" but maybe I'm just into backs.
The conservative Supreme Court justices are sneaky, misogynist liars.
Sometimes on a freelance or independent project I get chuffed at how many esoteric little geek tricks I rely on. (Like using Perl, Processing, phantom.js, and general CSS mojo to get stuff prepped for a cool turn page effect library turn.js) Then I get worried that you know - this tool shouldn't be this hard, maybe I'm just doing it wrong. And then impostor syndrome slash general anxiety kicks on, and I think yeah, I can solve THIS set of challenges, but without a lot of wiggle room, what if the next ones aren't so amenable?
You know?
Ah well. Like Bogost says, "The solution to impostor syndrome is to accept that you are in fact a fraud and just get on with it."
2013.07.06
2012.07.06
The cloud? Son, I invented the cloud, but back then it was called uploading shit to your own webserver.
For it would have been better if the dust itself had not been born, so that the mind might not have been made from it. But now the mind grows with us, and therefore we are tormented, because we perish and know it.
2011.07.06
via BoingBoing
I have only been cursed by Americans. They are sharp-witted and very articulated and yet very free with their anger.
Netflix streaming puts The Tudors out of order and then loses rights to Californication. Screw you Showtime, we're not buying frickin' cable.
2010.07.06

Recently on Wikipedia I found this history of the Playstation logo, which caught my fancy for similar reasons:

That's some neat design work there.
So Boston fireworks on the projector looked great, but the sound was lacking- needed less music, more boom... Actually maybe broadcasts of fireworks could/should tape delay the audio, so it could be the one time the explosion and sound seem in synch-
WHAT THE... RT @Photocritic: In 'Back to the Future', Doc sets clock in the DeLorean to a day 25 years in the future. Today is that day.
2009.07.06
Open Photo Gallery

That's a ride we considered but didn't try... they use a combination system where you can get an all-day pass or use tickets. The latter works out to about $3.45 - $4.60 a ride, which seems like a lot, but probably compares favorably to what you get to go on at a six flags, and it's nice to have the option.
We did give "Adrenalin" a whirl...

Also later went on Pirate Ship one of the classics.
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Probably not 100% smart to be taking photos then, but hey. Just to play with rearranging that, getting the horizons about level...

Jane didn't quite feel ready for the "Power Surge", so here I am on it, up, up...

...and away!

Old Orchard Beach is interesting to me... I heard about quite a lot when I was in Cleveland because the Salvation Army has Camp Meetings there, though I never went to them. Currently the town is a mix of visiting Canadians (so it's generally French-language friendly) and bikers.

On the beach Jane found a ringing cellphone... turns out some guy had left it there by mistake, so we were able to do our good deed for the day and return it to him, over by the place where they sell the famous "pier fries", so a win all around.
And they have a lovely old pier, with a bunch of food stalls and bars over it.

Finally, on my own way home, the setting sun was doing interesting things to the clouds.

When the light gets coherent, the coherent become lasers.
"It may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down [and] plod along," Sarah Palin said Friday, in an attempt to suggest that serving her full term as governor would add to the nation's apathy. "That's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out." Sarah Palin is no quitter. That's why she's quitting.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/03/compuserve-shuts-dow.html - RIP Compuserve- post-AOL it's easy to forget what a groundbreaker it was!
http://lookatthisfuckingtumblr.tumblr.com/ - SO MUCH META
In a flurry of flame and fur, fangs and wicker, thus ended the world's first and only hot air baboon ride.
http://cellar.org/iotd.php - my firework-over-kayak-bow photo was Cellar.org's Image of the Day.
2008.07.06
![]() |
buddy icon from the offical site sort of gets it |
Lately I've noticed how strongly I respond to the portrayal of flight in games and movies. Sometimes to JZ's annoyance, like when I'd give up the mission in Earth Defense Force 2017 and just fly the helicopter around (theoretically to use its missiles, but it was a habit I continued even after our handheld weapons were dwarfing its firepower.) Or in GTA4, getting the "helitour" unlocked so I can 'jack copters and soar through Times Square at night was my #1 priority.
It reminds me of this exchange, I think from a non-fiction writing class at Tufts. circa 1995 or so:
"I wish I could fly..."...that was such a very good response to my probably-deliberately-provactively-random wistfulness.
"...I wish you could fly too."
Anyway, back to Hancock. EB + JZ saw more of the "surprises" blatantly telegraphed than I did, saw the twists coming a mile away. My mom was always better than me at that too. I guess I take too much at face value. And I know various comics have done the whole "ordinary guy with powers" thing, and at times the plot gets a little strained and convoluted with some strong human elements.
Over all I thought it was a great flick...
Related Article of the Moment
Slate on movie criticism and boxoffice performance. The upshot: while critics might seem a bit out of touch, with their ratings largely unrelated to box-office performance, it feels like that performance is mostly a factor of how many screens the movie opens on. If you look at the per-screen results, the unwashed masses and the critics are in better alignment.
Nice idea from the article:
If I were a publisher, though, I'd hire the best critic I could find and have him or her write two reviews: a short one, to be printed the day or week the movie opens and that gives away little of the plot but tells readers whether it's good or bad (the service aspect); and a longer, more in-depth review that discusses the entire film, to be posted online (the critical aspect). Then I'd put a message board beneath the in-depth review and sit back. Most people don't want to hear about a movie before they've seen it but would love to discuss it afterward. Boy, would they ever.That reminds me of some of the subjective and long-term perspective that "New Gaming Journalism" is aiming for.
iPhone... "dead strips", boo. Free replacement from Apple Store despite being EXACTLY 1 year... yay! *Everything* synching - double yay!
So sick of slow websites where I can view source and see everything is pretty much loaded, but nothing shows because of offsite includes.
2007.07.06
I've come up with a few justifications for it.
- First and foremost: my phone and Palm died at once. And then a schedule phone conference gets canceled, freeing my schedule for the evening. And then the Apple store at the Galleria had it in stock. That might be a compound message from the cosmos.
- Sprint ticked me the hell off. I go to the store seeing if I could get a cheap replacement phone to tied me over. The cheapest they carry runs almost $200. Then I decide to revive this old phone I had at home (the PocketPC I need to ebay, I decide to risk my pants calling people again...) The first guy says that I need another available phone for activation, OR I have to dig out the battery and get some numbers. So I hang up, do that, call again, and the lady I then talk to says, no, I still another phone around, can't help me.
- I haven't found a satisfactory replacement from the great but ancient Palm UI... I tried the Rexx back in the day, and most recently the PocketPC, but nobody gets it right. To be fair, the iPhone isn't an acceptable PDA either, but I have hopes that it's so connected, web-wise, that I can put together my own online apps to do what I need.
- I'm not happy with my living room laptop, this monstrously slow frankenMac I got on ebay. The iPhone might do yeoman's service in that role. Also, it has google maps built-in, and it might be a good supplement to the GPS aging in my car, even if it doesn't know where I am. It could also replace my iPod Nano... jury is still out on that.

My other gadgets, not so much. My Canon Elph is compact and takes great pictures, but it's not a delight. Similarly, my waterlogged Katana was never better than decent for me... plus it seemed to need its battery recharged way too frequently. I'm not so thrilled with the iPhone form factor, but it's still pretty slick.
Design wise... well, it's ok. I think glossy black and metal is a bit over-80s, but at least it's not the toilet white that was the old iPod hallmark. Looks a bit like a cigarette case from the back, actually.
Exchange of the Moment
"So are you going to play some Pac-Man CE?"
"Well I thought if I came over here, I should at least treat you to some two players gaming..."
"No, it's fine, I know how much that Pac Man game resonates for you."
"You're like my dealer! I better watch out or you're going to start charging."
"Yeah, that was my plan with the video games, 'first 9 years are free'."
Article of the Moment
I talked to a pretty wealthy lawyer in Cambridge, and he won’t go to Starbucks," says Simon. "For him, it’s an expression of his relationship to New England, but also to working people. Like he’s more populist through that.I know dunkies is definitely not as good karma as any mom-n-pop place (And I do go to Gail's on Medford St whenever I get the chance) but still.
2006.07.06
It is my considered opinion that "a cappella" is for singing, not for listening. I have no idea how it attracts any kind of fanbase.
Sidebar of the Moment
![]() | --I almost did a spittake when I saw that the sidebar from an MSNBC article on North Korea's missiles had its own "Launch" button... |
Other News of the Moment
USA to hit 300 million. Clearly I'm going to have to update my mental rough estimate of the population, which has been at "275 million or so" for too long.
Interesting how experts think it puts the USA in a better position than Europe and Japan, especially in terms of having a chance of caring for an aging population. It's a detail that should be brought up more often in immigration debates.
2005.07.06
Movie Review of the Moment
Saw the new "War of the Worlds" this weekend. Gotta say, didn't live up to the reviews for it. I mean, I know it's not going to be the "hard scifi" I might've been wishing for, a real "what if aliens really did invade." At times it almost felt like "the aliens are out to get Tom Cruise" (not that I'd blame 'em, but still.)
<SPOILERS type="minor" surprise-revealing="false">There were just too many "why"s...Why would the aliens bury their war machines and let them lie dormant for centuries and centuries? And buried in urban, presumably well-excavated areas to boot...why didn't we notice 'em? Why was that one camcorder working when all the electronics were fried? (Just to look cool, I know.) Why were all stalled cars conveniently pushed by the wayside so Tom Cruise never had to take it offroad? Why did a jumbo-jet just happen to crash at Tom Cruise's Ex's house? Why would a newscrew be scavaging food, and why would they think a plane wreck was such a great place to scavange food in a residential neighborhood? Why were people all over Tom Cruise's minivan, when the ferry seemed full of other still-working vehicles? The flaming train, sure, maybe it would keep running, but the array of flaming humvees? (Another 'just to look cool' I guess, like the train wasn't enough) What was so special about that basement, anyway, other than the fact Tom Cruise was hunkering down in it?
A straight, slightly steampunk "alternate history" port of the original story would have been so much cooler. The book (I just read the e-text) was fairly realistic, actually, almost all you have to grant is the idea of aliens from Mars. The human weapons are outmatched with no need of an invulnerability shield, and the aliens learn and counter our tactics. (Actually, you could play some cool "What Ifs" putting up original War of the Worlds tech against our modern military...might make a better battle than "Independence Day" which agains relies on force fields. It has been noted that ID4 was, in fact, a retelling of the original War of the Worlds, right down to the "virus" that takes 'em out.)</SPOILERS>
So I know I'm not reviewing this film in terms of what Spielberg was aiming for, but still...sometimes his drive to parallel real-life horrors like WTC just got in the way of the potential of this story. The trailer I saw, with a neighborhood being woken up by terrible, unknown sounds and lights in the far distance, was much cooler than the movie itself.
Photoshop of the Moment

--"Christina's War of the Worlds", from betaland. I was googling for some "War of the Worlds" ships to make a "Have You Seen Me?" poster for the previous ramble, but this seemed much better anyway.
2004.07.06
- The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.
--Frederick Brooks, Jr., "The Mythical Man Month" that I kisrael'd about recently. Reminds me of why I like programming... - A veritable Cornucopia of old 'Net humor
- More old electronic lore: textfiles.com has all the old stuff from the BBS days.
-
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, "What is it?"
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit. -
>> ClipclopclipclopBANGBANGclipclopclip
>> -- Amish driveby shooting
>Ermm.. seeing as the Amish don't like machinery,
>shouldn't that be "TWANGTWANG" as in a catapault
>rather than "BANGBANG" as in a gun?..
I like the version that goes "clipclopclipclopclipclopFROWNclipclop..."
-- Amish drive-by shunning.
Buddha Baby! Not me, but my parents nickname for me was "The Buddha" for a while when I was a baby...their friends knew they were kind of weird and thought that might actually be my name...
2003.07.06
I always thought I should trademark the word I use to describe my religious beliefs:Or like that old Greek Protagoras said, "The question is complex and life is short".
Agnokapathetic
basically from the Greek meaning, "I don't know and I don't care".
Article of the Moment
Another good Joel On Software, a piece on Presenting the User with Too Many (not that useful) Options. He points out how stupid it is that Windows asks you so many meaningless questions when it first opens up a Help file, the whole "Minimize database size / Maximize search capabilities / Customize search capabilities" -- no one knows what that's all about. I disagree with his attack of customizable toolbars, however...there are so many ever-growing toolbars these days that workspace real-estate is being compromised and I appreciate being able to get rid of most of that. For example, in IE, I have a single bar with the 5 main nav buttons (as small as possible, just icons,) a truncated "File..." menu set, and the address field, all in one line. I also like being able to increase my task bar to two lines. I think what he misses is that Windows toolbars (and the taskbar) have a new option to "Lock" the toolbars, which is on by default, and helps prevent the accidental "how do I get back from this?" issues that he brings up.
Tutorial of the Moment
For this month's feature on the Blender of Love I did a Quick Tutorial (well, "tutorial" might be stretching things a bit) on making those "flat color photos" that I previously showed you here, like the one with Mo and I on the Jersey shore. Also, it was a pretty good month for the front page picks, so you should go and read.
2002.07.06
Link of the Moment
Insightful Slate Joe Klein article on how the Europeans see us (and to a lesser extent, how we see them). Interesting excerpt: "The American identity can be summarized in a single polling question: We are the only country in the world where a majority has consistently believed--with the exception of a few years in the late 1970s--that next year will be better." That's a pretty amazing sentiment to have maintained even through Vietnam and the Cold War. He also points out that we probably wouldn't be building quite the level of global resentment we are if Gore was in the whitehouse (frickin' electoral college...I remember some essay way back when saying "it was like the electoral college...it worked ok as long as you didn't think about it too much"-- how wrong that essay was!
Quote of the Moment
By the time you know what to do, you're too old to do it.They had a touching moment of silence before the game. Not always the most fan-friendly guy, he was a hero on the field and off of it, giving up some of the most promising years of his baseball career to fight in WW2 and Korea. He set out to achieve greatness, and reached it. Another good quote:
If I was being paid thirty-thousand dollars a year, the very least I could do was hit .400.RIP Ted Williams!
2001.07.06
One Art
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
"horse--Horse.... horse---Horse...."
I wonder if we'll start naming big fires like we do storms. Maybe not, since fires don't travel to different areas and so are easier to name by place.
00-7-6
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And remember: you're not just another year older, you're... well, let's just leave it at the older.
--Note to Dylan on his birthday
00-7-6
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Big thunderstorm. Loud anyway. No wonder kids get scared, or that primitives believe in gods.
99-7-6
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"i would that the minions bring me my biscuits"-Sara
"summon the wait staff- I would have a scone"-Kirk
"oh dear- we have singed pussy in here"-Sara's Aunt
97-7-6
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