Where Do All The Codgers Go?
Posted on | March 22, 2008 at 11:02 am | 2 Comments
I found this article interesting: Music fans prefer Wikipedia to MySpace. No demographic information is given in the article, and I wonder if it breaks down along age lines at all. I must admit that I myself will usually go to Wikipedia to learn about a band before I go to the band site or MySpace. I’ll even do that with old bands when I’m wondering what they’re up to these days, as well as with new bands. But then again, I go to Wikipedia first to research almost anything these days. Yeah, I know it’s riddled with errors, I’ve even seen a few myself, but it’s better than asking the neighbor’s dog Lila for information. Lila knows a lot, and talks to me frequently, but she didn’t know if Barack Obama’s parents were atheists or not. And she certainly didn’t know that one of my favorite groups from the 70s/early 80s had reformed and released a string of albums this decade. I didn’t know about that until I read it on Wikipedia. Or maybe it was in Allmusic. I forget. My point is: Wikipedia good, MySpace bad. MySpace is loud and garish and unfriendly like a nightclub. Wikipedia is quiet and comfortable like an old library. My other point is: Bands – keep your Wikipedia entries up to date!
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 31°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Passionate Reply” (Ultravox)
- “Blue Veins” (The Raconteurs)
- “The World” (Pennywise)
- “Drawing Fire” (Trotsky Icepick)
- “Lance Crocker, Almanac Cracker” (Monkey Typing Pool)
- “Curse of the Frontier Land” (Game Theory)
- “Joe the Georgian” (Al Stewart)
Close But No Cigar
Posted on | March 21, 2008 at 7:17 am | 3 Comments
Good Friday? What’s so good about it? I still have to go to work, don’t I?
In the news yesterday: Apple’s Logo Makes You More Creative Than IBM’s. I like this part:
The professors Fitzsimons and Chartrand asked test subjects to come up with creative uses for a brick while showing them images of Apple’s logo and IBM’s logo.
[...]
Imagine for a moment the scenario: Shown IBM’s logo, test subjects stare at a brick and think, “If I only had another, I could build something.” Those exposed to Apple’s logo, however, saw a myriad of possibilities for said brick: “It’s a jail-broken iPhone after an official Apple update, or a door stop, or maybe I could use it to break Microsoft’s monopoly. Why, ground up and seasoned properly, it would make a tasty, mineral-rich meal!”
That’s one of the weirdest paragraphs I’ve ever read in a news article.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but whenever I see a single brick, regardless of whether or not I just viewed a corporate logo, I always think “I can toss that brick in the air, and some dog out on the wing of an airplane might catch it in his mouth”.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 33°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Heaven on the Moon” (The Caulfields)
- “Mannish Girl” (Lloyd Cole)
- “There’s A Million Ways To Sing The Blues” (The Features)
- “Number Five With a Bullet” (Taking Back Sunday)
- “Perambulator” (Icicle Works)
- “This Is True” (Bill Nelson)
- “Have You Heard (Original Take)” (Moody Blues)
Pet Peeve of the Day: Don’t you just love it when your car is making an unusual noise that is really bugging you, and then when you take it to the shop, it suddenly stops doing it? Of course, that can be applied to malfunctions of items in general.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “friend and coworker eulogy”.
Runner-Up: “# 1 song about shitty friends”.
Second Runner-Up: “plastic surgery for ears earbuds”.
And Just Generally Weird: “pics of frogs eating cereal”.
Adams Mark
Posted on | March 20, 2008 at 6:01 am | 5 Comments
I was never much interested in History. I don’t even remember taking many history classes in school. All I remember is that the past bored me to tears, especially American history. As I get older, I’ve found that my tastes and interests are changing, and that I’m becoming more and more fascinated by world history. And I’m finding there’s tremendous gaps in my knowledge. I don’t think my education was very good.
I’m not quite up to the point where I’m watching the History Channel, but I may get there eventually. I especially like viewing historical epics. So I tuned into HBO’s new John Adams miniseries, the first two parts of which aired this past Sunday night. It’s interesting seeing the events played out that formed our country and the many personalities involved. It’s a look into a world that I didn’t know much about, except for the basic facts that every American schoolchild has drilled into him or her. I especially didn’t know much about the titular hero John Adams, other than that he was one of the early presidents and that his son (or father?) was also a president. Just like the fabulous Bush Dynasty. Paul Giamatti plays Adams as a fascinating individual, impartial and beholden to the law when he needs to be, and forceful and resolute when times and events demand that he take action against established authority. Laura Linney plays his no-nonsense wife Abigail, obviously a tremendous force in her own right and a great influence and font of common sense to her husband. These two are the emotional heart of the production, and they make it real. I also like David Morse as George Washington, the Man Who Would Be President. He plays him as a solid, thoughtful general and man-of-action, yet one who still seems somewhat conflicted and tentative at times. Stephen Dillane’s introverted, soft-spoken Thomas Jefferson is also a treat.
I like how the show shines the light on little known (at least to me) events like the Boston Massacre, and yet the stuff we’ve seen and heard a hundred times, like the Boston Tea Party, is shuffled off stage. The first episode has a horrifying tar-and-feathering scene that reminded me of the one in Carnivà le, and shows just how brutal and final that sadistic punishment was. There’s a lot of talking and political wrangling and people deciding the fate of the world in candlelit rooms, and again, the acting, writing and production values make what could be dull somewhat riveting. In an hour’s time, I learned more about the Continental Congress, and what was at stake there, than I ever learned in school.
So I’ll keep tuning in to learn more. Will this conflicted colonial rabble defeat their British oppressors and form their own independent nation? What part will Mr. Adams play in it? I can’t wait to find out!
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “corn flakes have almost no fiber”.
Rendezvous With Osiris
Posted on | March 19, 2008 at 6:41 am | 4 Comments
Arthur C. Clarke, “hard” science fiction writer and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, passed away yesterday at the age of 90. Though I admired what he was able to do: bring a sense of real science to the genre (despite detours into weird and quasi-mystical elements like the monolith in 2001), I was not a huge fan and haven’t read a lot of his books. There was no doubt he was hugely influential and an imaginative guy.
I did read 2001 and one or two of its sequels, which I enjoyed more than the original book. I never did read Childhood’s End, which a lot of my friends recommended. So, aside from a few short stories, the only other work of his that I can remember reading was Rendezvous With Rama. I read it as part of a science fiction class in high school taught by a teacher serving time who was teaching as part of his work release program. He was a big science fiction fan, although I frequently disagreed with his tastes and analysis. I did a book report on Rama, and from what I remember, he gave me a bad grade on it, saying that I totally got the theme wrong. Which was probably true, but hey, I wasn’t a very good reader back then. And who cares about the theme anyway when you’re that age? You just want a good page-turning read. Which Rama was, despite the fact that, like with most Clarke books (I hear), there’s no real antagonist in the story. All conflict came from Man Facing The Unknown, and there wasn’t any clear-cut answers or explanations. That kind of thing is entertaining once in awhile, but I’m not into a steady diet of it. I want some juicy villains or conflicts of emotion. I did like the “reveal” at the very end of Rama, even though it sort of made the thing into a shaggy dog story. (I never read the sequels.)
So, anyway, here’s to you, Mr Clarke. I hope your own final journey into the unknown gave you some concrete answers, and you didn’t just end up in some big white room and turn into an embryo.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 38°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Spiderwebs” (No Doubt)
- “Don’t You Feel Small (Original Mix)” (Moody Blues)
- “The Joke” (The Connells)
- “The Queen Of Eyes” (Soft Boys)
- “Sunday Afternoon” (The 88)
- “Horrible Day” (Frank Black)
- “Family Affairs” (Fay Ray)
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “christian ways to punish misbehaved kids”.
Cache Or Charge?
Posted on | March 18, 2008 at 7:21 am | Comments Off
Storm Update: Well, that snowstorm yesterday turned out to be an almost total bust. The sun was out by late afternoon and the streets dried up. Not much snow left on the grassy areas either.
I know I’ve been talking a lot about my iPhone lately, but I can’t help it. It’s my new gadget, after all. Today I’m going to talk a little about battery life. I read in a review somewhere that initially the battery life is not very good until it’s been drained and charged a couple of times. Initially, I was disappointed that indeed, the battery life did not seem to be very long and I was having to charge it like every other day. They also say that the first few days of ownership are bad because you’re playing with it a lot and focusing on the Internet capabilities. That drains the battery fast, especially if you’re using AT&T’s EDGE network instead of WiFi. Well, I’ve been through a couple of near-drainage/recharge cycles and now the battery seems to be holding its charge for a lot longer, even if I do a lot of Internet-over-EDGE stuff. So, yeah, I guess that reviewer was right.
That is all.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 33°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Mind’s Eye” (John Sharples)
- “I’ve Been Wild” (Stranglers)
- “Nothing Left” (Buzzcocks)
- “So Long, Superman*” (Firewater)
- “The Pledge” (Brendan Benson)
- “Old House” (Nik Kershaw)
- “Death Of A Rockstar” (Immaculate Machine)
* – One of my all-time favorite comic-book related songs (even though it’s not really). Bonus: It also mentions Lou Ferrigno in “Hulk” mode.
And hey, a John Sharples song! Quite a coincidence after yesterday’s search term mention of him.
Pet Peeve of the Day: I stepped in some oil in a strip mall parking lot today, which I initially thought was water. Luckily I caught myself before hitting the ground, but ended up with an oily mess on my shoes, and then on the mat in my car, and on the peddles in the car (making it a bit difficult to drive without crashing). Aaargh. It’s all cleaned up now. But what a mess!
Most Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “how to know that you are friends with a bad friend”.
Second Most Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “becoming a hermit couple”.
Interesting Typo Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “about small grope communication”.
Latre.
From A Scream To A Whisper
Posted on | March 17, 2008 at 7:43 am | 4 Comments
Well, it’s the morning, and we didn’t get the many inches overnight like was predicted. That happens a lot. It’s still snowing, but the roads aren’t too bad and I’m going to try driving in to work. We’ll probably get a few more inches throughout the day, but it looks like this isn’t the big March showstopper the weather people thought it might be. Hooray!
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “john sharples i can explain”. I’m sure John accepts your apology. (Yes, I know that’s the name of his album.)
Latre.