Greetings From The Future
Posted on | November 6, 2008 at 8:12 am | 4 Comments
Hey, I’m back! It’s a week later and it’s a Brand New America. The Fear Mongers and the Scientifically Ignorant have been banished. Even though Barack Obama has got his work cut out for him, I think he’s the right man for the job. The next four years should be very interesting. (I would insert a pic of a champagne bottle here, but I had one of those on the previous post.)
Thanks to InfK for continuing to comment on my blog entries during the absence of new ones, and in the face of overwhelming adversity. Also, congrats to InfK and Fahey on the impending arrival of offspring #2.
I’m not sure what my blogging schedule is going to be like. As I suspected, I really enjoyed my time off. A lot. It’s really nice to 1) have the extra time I usually spend writing a blog entry to get other things done, and 2) not have to constantly think all day about what I’m going to write next. I could get used to that. I do have a lot of stuff built up to talk about though, including more fun with iPhone migrations.
Pet Peeve of the Day:But the biggest impediment to resuming daily blogging is the DSL problems I’ve been having. I’ll save the details of that for a future post, especially since it’s an ongoing saga and I’m not sure yet what the resolution will be. (One upshot is that I pretty much have no Internet access in the late evening any more.) I’ve got some decisions to make, but I’m awaiting more information. I will say that Qwest, my DSL provider, has a lot to answer for. Good thing I have a relative who works for them.
Latre.
I know you all missed this! Here’s my jogging playlists for the missing days!
Jogged Tues 11/4: (@ 43°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Deadline” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Mothers Eyes” (Power Of Dreams)
- “Simple” (Midlake)
- “The Revenge of Vera Gemini” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Another Willingly Opened Window” (Bill Nelson)
- “Oh Patti” (Alphaville)
- “I Swear It (I Can Change)” (Violent Femmes)
Jogged Sun 11/2: (@ 63°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Always On My Mind” (Phantom Planet)
- “Talk To Me, Dance With Me” (Hot Hot Heat)
- “Judy Jones” (Anne Summers)
- “Last Chance on the Stairway” (Duran Duran)
- “Quinella Holiday” (Midnight Oil)
- “Anyone Can Play Guitar” (Radiohead)
- “She’s Walking Out” (The Stills)
Jogged Sat 11/1: (@ 51°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “The Robot’s Dance” (Classix Nouveaux)
- “What You Mean” (Possum Dixon)
- “Green Grow the Rushes” (R.E.M.)
- “Bike Ride to the Moon” (The Dukes of Stratosphear)
- “Operators Manual” (Buzzcocks)
- “One in a Million” (Echobelly)
- “It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career” (Belle & Sebastian)
Jogged Fri 10/31: (@ 51°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Welcome to Hard Times” (Belle Da Gama)
- “Never to Come Again” (Brad Jones)
- “Poverty Sucks” (Quasi)
- “What You Deserve” (Echobelly)
- “Stateless” (Ultravox)
- “Bullshit Detector” (Chris Mars)
- “Avenue Z” (ABC)
- “Wishful Thinking” (Alphaville)
Jogged Thurs 10/30: (@ 47°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Ha Ha, I’m Drowning” (The Teardrop Explodes)
- “We Love You, Carol and Alison” (Game Theory)
- “Driving Aloud” (Robyn Hitchcock)
- “Dislocation” (Ultravox)
- “Phone” (House of Love)
- “To Be Myself Completely” (Belle & Sebastian)
- “Lemons From Lemonade” (The Celebrity Pilots)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “guy i like is being a hermit”.
Videogame(s) Played During Blogging Vacation: Bioshock (PS demo), Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS), Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, starting all over again now that it has the Trophy patch; luckily I wasn’t too far into it), and Heavenly Sword, which I finally beat!
Another Crazy Pointless Milestone Reached
Posted on | October 29, 2008 at 7:05 am | 12 Comments
Woo hoo! Today marks one complete year of daily blog postings by yours truly. I’m not sure why I set this goal for myself, but I did, and I achieved it. So pop the bubbly and party it up! I’ve posted an entry every day since Oct 30th 2007, even while I was on vacation. And since 2008 is a leap year, that’s actually 366 consecutive posts, not just 365.
So what am I going to do to celebrate, while you’re downing the Sparkling Wine? I’m taking time off, of course! For a long time now, I’ve wondered what it would be like to go through life without writing something every day and without analyzing every aspect of my experiences for blog fodder. Maybe I can just enjoy the oddness of something without remarking on it or taking a picture of it? Maybe I won’t get as upset when I’m not always trying to turn life’s little annoyances into Pet Peeves of the Day? Maybe I’ll actually have a little extra time to get some other things done that I’ve been meaning to do? Or maybe I’ll just be extra lazy? Who knows? Maybe I’ll get so giddy from the freedom that I’ll never want to don those blogging chains again. But I doubt it.
My current plan is to take just a week off, so I should return on Thursday, Nov 6th. Will I resume daily blogging after that? I don’t know. As I’ve said before, if I get off pattern it’s really hard for me to get back on.
Oh, and that should give you all plenty of time to divine the mystery of last Friday’s post, which is still unsolved at this point.
If you really, really must know what I’m up to during the forthcoming week, check out my Twitter feed. (For those of you reading this by RSS, the Twitter feed is also displayed over on the left hand side of the blog.)
And no, I’m not taking a trip!
So, I’ll see you in a week. Unless something interesting happens in the meantime that I must comment on. Isn’t there a holiday in a day or two? And an election or something next week?
Latrrrrrrrrre!
Pet Peeve of the Day: Shirtless, sunglasses-wearing guys in shorts with shopping carts dancing in busy intersections in the middle of the day.
Happy Thing of the Day: Cloris is gone at last!!
Scary Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “snake found in cilantro”.
Knownots
Posted on | October 28, 2008 at 7:34 am | 6 Comments
I’m pretty much coasting this week. Phoning it in. There’s kind of a reason (or excuse) for it, which I’ll reveal tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s talk about donuts.
What kind of donut is this? I really want to know. N is an expert on donuts (she taught me the difference between cake donuts and raised donuts, which I had gone my entire life without knowing), but even she doesn’t know what these mutants are called. It’s like it’s some sort of deformed, irregular donut. It looks like some animal with small jaws took some bites from the outside of it. It scares me.
So please… what is it?
BTW, I prefer raised donuts and N prefers cake ones.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 42°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Tonight I Fancy Myself” (The Beautiful South)
- “She’s So Extreme” (Bill Nelson)
- “Fun & Games (live)” (The Connells)
- “Plans” (Bloc Party)
- “Too Much Time To Think” (Graham Parker)
- “Fire In The Lobby” (Immaculate Machine)
- “Brackish Boy” (Frank Black)
Pet Peeve of the Day: That no one’s figured out my little “puzzle” from Friday’s blog entry. I put more hints in the comments there, and there’s a huge clue in today’s entry!
Scientific Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “clock no batteries -hydro”.
Videogame(s) Played Yesterday: Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS)
Will You Still Support Me Tomorrow?
Posted on | October 27, 2008 at 7:11 am | 1 Comment
So, it’s come to this. Not only are the banks begging for your business (as long as they don’t have to loan you money), but now retailers are trying to get your business by explaining why they think they’ll still be around next year. Heck, Circuit City is talking about possibly closing 150 stores. If I had bought something expensive from them, I would be worried about them sticking around to service and support it.
So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I got an e-mail from the CEO/Founder of Crutchfield (from whom I have bought equipment in the past) explaining that they are in very good shape financially and that you can depend on them to still be around after you’ve made your purchase. (The e-mail is reproduced on the company website here.) It’s very interesting reading. The fact that a company CEO felt the need to send out something like this to their customers says a lot about the economic climate we’re faced with right now. Assuming that he’s being totally upfront, it’s sounds like this is a company that is being run like all companies should be run: We have no debt, a perfect credit rating and a legacy of fiscal prudence. Therefore, we will be around to serve you as we have served millions of customers for the past 34 years and throughout the last four recessions. Wow, that’s really refreshing. My fear is that it’s the exception rather than the rule and that we’re going to see some more storied institutions taking the big dive in the months ahead.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “great googalie moogalie you are having new mail in your inbox”.
Another Shot of Holy Wine Please
Posted on | October 26, 2008 at 11:57 am | 5 Comments
It’s Movie Review Sunday, and I ain’t got nothing. Haven’t watched any movies this week.
So here’s a Sunday themed picture instead (click to go to the Flickr page and see larger versions):
No, the church isn’t serving up food, drinks, and karaoke. The sign is from the Mexican cantina next door. I love how it appears that the sign belongs to the church. I don’t know what attendance is like at this church, but maybe they would do better if they offered karaoke.
In other news, I finally raked my front yard leaves yesterday. For some reason, there wasn’t as many as there were the last couple of years. Maybe most have blown away by now or something. I only had six trash bags full as opposed to the usual twelve or so. N helped out and we also cleared some gutters. I ache today more than I should. Still can’t do the back yard leaves, since most of them haven’t fallen yet.
Also, N and I celebrated our two-year dating anniversary yesterday by having a yummy romantic fondue dinner at the Melting Pot in Littleton last night, like we did for our one-year anniversary. The server informed us that this location is the most popular of all 120 Melting Pots in the world. The maze-like building it’s in has been around for a long time and at various periods has served as a library, a city hall, and a jail. Supposedly it is haunted by eight good ghosts and one bad one. I’m thinking the bad one burned his hand on a fondue fork, which is very easy to do.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “if i don’t like cilantro what else do i like”.
“No” Man
Posted on | October 25, 2008 at 11:12 am | 8 Comments
I was surprised a few weeks ago to find a mail-in ballot in my mailbox. I remembered that the last election was mail-in only, but that this one wasn’t. I don’t remember requesting permanent mail-in status, but I guess I must’ve checked that box when I sent in that ballot last time. So, I’ve filled out my ballot. At this point I haven’t turned it in, but will bring it to city hall on Monday or Tueday. I don’t think I’m going to mail it, as people are reporting postage problems. Besides, the city hall is kind of on my way to work.
I think everyone who reads me regularly can figure out how I voted on the major candidates. No reason to go into that here. That just leaves the other ballot issues. Colorado doesn’t have a lot of high profile ballot measures this time. There’s nothing like California’s Proposition 8, although Amendment 48 is in the same category of wrong-headedness. Here’s my thoughts on some of the more divisive amendments:
Amendment 46: Anti-affirmative action. It purports to be an anti-discrimination measure, but it’s actually aimed at reducing race and gender diversity. I’m against it.
Amendment 47: The “right to work”. This would essentially let workers opt out of joining a union and paying union fees. While I’m all for individual choice, there’s too much that’s suspicious about this (follow the money). And I’ve seen reports that say that other Right to Work states are poorer and have the lowest wages and worst workplace health/safety issues. So I’m voting No on this one.
Amendment 48: “Personhood”. This defines life as starting at conception. It basically gives all the rights to a fertilized human egg that a human being enjoys, including legal protections. There is just so much wrong with this one, I don’t even know where to start. The legal ramifications alone are mind-boggling (see some of them here). I think regardless of where you stand on the abortion issue, this is just not the kind of thing that belongs in the constitution. It’s just silly. No, no, no.
Amendment 58: Hiking the state severance taxes that the oil and gas industry has to pay. This essentially gets rid of a tax credit that oil and gas companies have enjoyed in Colorado that they don’t get in any other state. I can actually see both sides of the argument on this one, but ultimately I decided to stick it to the oil and gas companies just because I don’t like them. If that causes problems for the state and the consumers, oh well.
So, that’s that. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out on Election Day. Which can’t come soon enough. I’m so sick of all the TV and mail ads.
Latre.