April 17th, 2004
The "3 Rs" of BookCrossing...There was an article about this in the paper today. What an odd idea, but I can see how some people would get really caught up in it.
1. Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
2. Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!
Posted by fad at 7:12pm
Double or half Windsor?
Posted by fad at 12:24pm
A couple things.
To the ex-marine in the F150 that was in front of me: Thank you very much for your service, but it does not excuse going 30mph in a 45mph.
To bicyclists: Yes, it is beautiful out. A perfect day for a ride. Having spent the great majority of the last year and a half as a pedestrian on a sidewalkless, narrow-to-no shoulder road, I understand the importance of sharing the road. However, when there is a nice, wide shoulder there, what the hell are you doing in my lane? I don't care how much you spent on your bike or your little biking outfit, get this through your head: you are not a car.
Thank you.
Posted by fad at 11:36am
April 16th, 2004
Posted by fad at 6:04pm
Here's an amusing story to go into the weekend.
The man called the [KFC] restaurant March 31 and told the manager he was a police officer. The caller told the manager that a robber was on his way to the store and that the store employees should cooperate so nobody would get hurt. Police planned to grab the robber as he left the store, the caller said.Best part: he got away with it, at least to this point. He got $200. Police, smart as whips, suspect the caller and the robber are the same guy.
Posted by fad at 5:19pm
"Man, it's gonna be just like the 60s, man. We're gonna storm the administration until there is justice, man! Then, like, we'll have stories to share with the elders over the next drum circle."
The University of Illinois chancellor met with 40 protesters Friday, one day after they took over the main administration building to demand the school get rid of its Chief Illiniwek mascot and associated Indian-head symbol.They have other demands too.
The protesters said they had three demands: immediate elimination of the Chief mascot, dance and symbol; a formal apology to anyone offended by the Chief; and increased funding for Native American and other minority programs on the Urbana-Champaign campus.Plus they demand that the next mascot be something that does not have a face or cast a shadow.
In an advisory referendum held as part of the campus' student government election last month, more than two-thirds of the 13,000 students who voted said they favored keeping the Chief.That's 40 people out of a campus of 38,000 and after an overwhelming vote who are trying to force what they want on everyone else. I'll bet they'll even tell you with a straight face that they are for democracy. Hell, everyone's for democracy, as they as the people vote the way they are told.
Posted by fad at 2:39pm
Yeah, this is what I was doing instead of looking for stuff to post about. Just another thing to waste time on instead of actually writing (The below post is another. Heavens no, I can't proceed until I have those meaningless translations!)
It looks much better in Mozilla/Firefox than in IE, but I'm not all peppered to work out those kinks, so you IE people will have to cope.
Posted by fad at 2:19pm
April 15th, 2004
Anyone know any good resources for easy, but accurate, translation of some phrases into Latin and/or 16th or 17th century French? If so please email me the information.
Thanks.
Posted by fad at 5:33pm
This passage is why Cryptonomicon grabbed me right away. The characterized Alan Turing is speaking about his frustration in trying to educate against one of the main characters' desire to do everything from scratch.
You -- Rudy -- and I are on a train, as it were, sitting in the dining car, having a nice conversation, and that rain is being pulled along at a terrific clip by certain locomotives named The Bertrand Russelland Riemann and Euler and others. And our friend Lawrence is running alongside the train, trying to keep up with us -- it's not that we're smarter than he is, necessarily, but that he's a farmer who didn't get a ticket. And I, Rudy, am simply reaching out through the open window here, trying to pull him onto the fucking train with us so that the three of us can have a nice little chat about mathematics without having to listen to him panting and gasping for breath the whole way.At my last...no, make that two jobs ago, now, my boss expressed a similar frustration about me. Someone came into the office and asked him if he had a pencil. He said, "No, but [fad] here will run out to the forest, cut down a tree and carve you up a new one by hand, if you'd like."
For some reason, I always want to do everything from new. I don't use the tools or knowledge provided me; I want to discover or make those tools for myself. That's why this is a custom-n-crappy blogging system. That's why I couldn't just always accept theorems or formulas, but wanted to build them myself. It's also, I believe, among the reasons I am incapable of comprehending poetry or literature and enjoy making up new words for the sound and rhythm they may provide that exact moment.
It often ends up in frustration and torpor as meaningless details and retreading get in the way of accomplishment and progress. Burrowing, burrowing, burrowing forever can grab attention and waste an incredible amount of time, but it leads to little accomplishment, especially if there is already a framework from which to work. It would be better to spend that time and energy building with and upon that which is already there. But the lure of full understanding, of digging deep, is often too hard to be distracted from.
Um. That's all.
Posted by fad at 2:45pm
They keep teasing us, but will it actually happen?
Last year, Futurama and Family Guy reruns did so well that it's likely both shows (which Fox killed in prime time) will produce new episodes.I don't care about the Family Guy. Unlike almost every other person I run across, I never liked that show, finding it mildly amusing at best, predictable and dull for the most part. But new Futurama? I'd bite shiny metal ass for that.
Posted by fad at 1:26pm
It has been linked to many other places, but defiance and action such as this deserves as much airing as possible.
The dead man was identified as Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, a security guard.My sympathies to his family. May justice equal his honor.
As the gunman's pistol was pointing at him the hostage "tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'now I'll show you how an Italian dies,'" he said.
Posted by fad at 1:16pm
Well, this explains it all.
People born in summer have a sunnier outlook than those born in colder months, the results of a survey show.Since my birthday falls 3 to 4 days short of the official beginning of summer.
More than 40,000 members of the public took part in the online survey.Online survey? Ya don't get more scientific than that!
Posted by fad at 1:05pm
Here is a curiousity in reporting. The UN, always jumpy to condemn the heck out of Israel, had to struggle to condemn Cuba.
The UN Human Rights Commission has passed a motion censuring Cuba for rights abuses - by just a single vote.Cuba, like all tyrannies, knows the exact words to use to match with current Western dupist sympathies.
But representatives from the developing world warmly applauded Cuba's ambassador, who passionately denounced the vote as "yet another American attack on Cuba's independence and sovereignty".This is the new cry of lefitsts. "Sovereignty" rules all where the international order of Class used to hold sway. Now it doesn't matter how the people of a nation are treated. No, better put, it's none of our business. Hey, if they don't like it, they can fight back. Imagine these people in the 40s. "So there were extermination camps. If the Jews, Gypsies and others didn't like it, it's their problem to fight back." This racism is excused by the trump of opposing the US. If the United States tried to push through a resolution that the sky is "blue", hunger strikes would break out protesting the violation of sovereignty to declare it "aardvark". There is opposition only. Logic and morality are mere words to exploit and shift against the US.
As a point, Human Rights Watch cannot approve of this condemnation, which it says is deserved, without slamming the US and the West.
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch says that the commission sometimes risks losing its way in the fog of ideological point-scoring.At the end of this article, all you really know is the US threw around its might, is ideologically driven, often unconstructive, oh yeah, and Cuba did bad.
[...]
"The US's role could and should be more constructive. It chooses to protect its allies in the war on terror."
Posted by fad at 1:01pm
After reading about this study, I wonder how long it will be before someone tries to mandate that car stereos have some control in them that prevents certain things from being played.
Britain's RAC Foundation for Motoring on Wednesday named the strident classical piece ["Ride of the Valkyries"] the No. 1 tune not to play while driving, based on research it says shows loud music can cause accidents.Personally, whenever I drop in Mike Ness' "Cheating at Solitaire", it takes no time before I notice that somehow the spedometer is teasing 100mph+. I try to reserve it for the backroads of Montana.
The "Dies Irae" from Giuseppe Verdi's "Requiem" was also considered a no-no.
The top five list of tunes to avoid while behind the wheel was rounded out by three modern songs -- "Firestarter" by the Prodigy, "Red Alert" by Basement Jaxx and "Insomnia" by Faithless.
Posted by fad at 10:22am
Munster, Go Home is on!!!!!
Finally, American Movie Classics lives up to its name.
Posted by fad at 10:09am
Ah, TV. You know I love you like no other, but you're testing me, baby. You're testing me.
The company behind the Lingerie Bowl, in which near-naked women played full-contact football for a pay-per-view audience, is closing in on a deal with Fox Television Studios for a 10-episode reality TV show based on the concept.Games would remain pay-per-view. This goes beyond the "catfight" pair of diggums to show what all men like to see: women getting hit and hurt.
The series will feature scrimmages and other behind-the-scenes activities of the female football players
But there are more great ideas.
Horizon is taking bids on its "Guy's Night Out," a hidden-camera reality show that has single men hitting on attractive ladies. "The guys accrue points based on how well they do with the ladies," Mortaza said.I wonder how my "Hey fucktits, why don't you shake those over here?" would do. Or my friend's legendary, "My your breasts are lovely this evening. Man thing is hard." (used, if memory serves, in a contest amongst his buddies to see who could get slapped first.)
In the planning stages at the small studio is "Til Death or Opportunity Do Us Part," whereby the vows of married couples are tested when dates are arranged between the spouses and their respective "old flames," Mortaza said.Why not just have "Out of Work Actor Threesomes" and get it over with. As I said, you're testing me, baby.
Posted by fad at 9:51am
Ok, this is a sad waste of money and sweet, purifying anger.
A group dedicated to building the Counter Clinton Library (search) — a rebuttal to the Clinton Presidential Library (search) — has [...] received word this month from the IRS that it had received the tax-exempt status to pursue its goal of responding to what it sees as "propaganda" planned for the official $160 million presidential library, which is scheduled to open Nov. 18 in Little Rock.I can't believe there are still people so caught up in 1998 that they are willing to waste the time and money on this. Of course the presidential library is propaganda. That's what they exist for. I've been to two presidential libraries, Nixon's and Carter's. Of the two, Nixon's was a lot more honest and balanced, and that ain't saying much. About 90% of Carter's was all about what happened after he lost the '80 election. The highlight, seriously, of Carter's library was that it had a section with all the "School House Rock" episodes that you could play on demand.
Posted by fad at 9:33am
April 14th, 2004
Unfortunately, on the laziness front, all current possibilities require moving, and not to the west coast like I'd prefer. But getting a paycheck and a decent job is more important to me right now.
Posted by fad at 4:06pm
Ok, one more entry just because of how perfectly it describes the moment the desire for power overtakes morality. Here's the background with names removed to eliminate search hits.
[He] knew what he was doing when he drove his SUV onto a sidewalk and hit [her], nearly killing a woman he had never met.He wasn't kidding about that last part either. Now here is the quote, and I'll bold the chilling part.
[...]
When he saw the attractive woman, [he] told a friend who was a passenger, that he would kill her to have sex with her body.
"Then I kind of swerved over and I could feel the tension building in the car," he said in the interview. "It was something I'd never experienced... It was like, look at what I'm capable of."I could write reams (well, if you printed it out after I typed it) about this, the concept of the "superman", "Crime and Punishment", G.B. Shaw, and collectivism's need of a "superman" as the meta-individual, but that goes to the depressing/annoying topics mentioned below.
Posted by fad at 3:01pm
Since I have nothing else for you today, but need to provide content lest I lose the three readers I have not to this point lost, I present a listing of those things really chapping my hide today.
- ESPN's overinvestment in Barry Bonds this year. Billy Packer shows more restraint when talking about Duke than that network has over Bonds.
- That some sports columnist pro formas out a column explaining that the real reason people don't like Bonds has nothing to do with him being a public asshole, but because of latent racism. Hey, sometimes a jerk is just a jerk whether he's smoking a cigar or not.
- Reading on a forum for a band and seeing that people are horrified that a Republican politician also likes the band. Then reading them comfort themselves by their innate knowledge that everyone else who likes the band is actually good-hearted and true because it's just too harsh to consider that someone who disagrees with you politically could ever like the same things as you.
- People who don't write out their swears, but half-assed censor them with dashes and asterisks. It comes across to me as a false nicety. If you're going to use the fucking word, then use the fucking word or be creative and come up with something new if it bothers you so much. This is up there with emoticons and "LOL"/"ROTLF" with me. I need help.
- That my hide is not actually chapped.
- That I can watch the entirety of the federal income tax I paid being wasted to pay for one single grandstanding speech by a now useless September 11th commission. Turn off the damn cameras, and we might see some actual good.
- That the half dozen topics I thought up to write about were all too annoying and/or depressing to be worth the dragging down effort required.
- That the one fun thing, a detailed guide on how to enjoy Disneyland in 1992, turned into a spectacular failure, eulogized here.
- The damn wrappers on Cadbury eggs are too difficult to get off.
- That I'm just a Mr. Cranky Pants the last couple days.
There. I feel better. Well, actually I don't, but at least I typed shit.
Posted by fad at 2:02pm
April 13th, 2004
Oh, but, no, I will not be watching it. There is no point to it as it is just a show mostly for the press to feel important and the President to say as little as possible off script. News isn't made at these things, only enough spin to dry a million salads.
UPDATE: Ok, I caught a couple minutes and have this one thought: He needs a haircut.
Posted by fad at 6:39pm
I'm going deep Joy Division here, so most, hell, all of you will want to skip it.
[Click to read what happens when I have too much time on my hands]
Posted by fad at 3:52pm
"Rocket Powered Lunch" would be a great band name.
I won't explain what made me think of the phrase.
Posted by fad at 3:19pm
They may turn out ok, but I really hate it when someone's creation becomes commodity to be continued after they die.
James Bond, the nation's most famous fictional spy, is to return next year for a new mission - as a teenager.I really don't give much of a damn (not even the "a") about Bond; never was a fan of the movies, nor have I read the books. It's the whole concept of farming out the creation. I know it happens all the time, but doesn't mean I have to like it.
[...]
Actor and novelist Charlie Higson - best known for his work on TV's The Fast Show - has been commissioned by Penguin Books to write the prequels.
UPDATE: I realize Bond is a bad choice for this point since most knowledge of him comes from the (often bad, in my opinion) movies which have been created by others.
Posted by fad at 2:10pm
I love it when others decide their contest or movement is more important than my potential health.
But sorority members at the University of Missouri-Columbia — a school that once set a world record for blood collection — were urged by a fellow member to lie about their health.Hell, after you donate, it's not your problem anymore.
In an e-mail sent last Tuesday to about 170 members of Gamma Phi Beta, sophomore Christie Key, the chapter's blood donation coordinator, wrote: "I dont care if you got a tattoo last week LIE. I dont care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent peircings? LIE."
Posted by fad at 1:06pm
Well, that was a fine waste of an hour and a half. Ever been writing something that is just grooving along, and you can't believe how easy this is flowing only to realize, once you step back, that it is utter crap? It's like driving along feeling like you're making good time when you suddenly realize those signs say "East" instead of "West".
And, no, this isn't one of my "I'm crap, so it must be crap" moments. This is just plain crap.
Posted by fad at 12:45pm
All the best to Mrs. McCain. A stroke at 49 years old....Thankfully it doesn't sound severe.
Posted by fad at 11:35am
This site would be remiss if if did not link this story:
"Farm accident victim who had arms reattached plans to run for office"
Posted by fad at 10:01am
"Plea to halt US girls' Iraq duty"
They have suffered tragedy. Must they also be insulted by being called "girls"? They are women; adults serving their country. I know they will always be girls to their parents and family, nor do I in any way think the term "girl" is an insult, but this is a manipulative attempt to turn them into mere children being exploited. And not just a little sexist too.
Posted by fad at 9:42am
The cheap comedian in me wants to make all sorts of easy Clinton jokes about this, but this is 2004, not 1998. I have better things to make bad jokes about. Like velcro. Or the fact that Bush is going to lose a ton of votes by forcing "American Idol" to shift a day because of his news conference tonight.
Posted by fad at 9:34am
Last week was relief. I hated that job and was letting it kill me. Since I also hate myself, I figured I didn't deserve better. To be free of that place, however it happened, just felt good. But last night it finally really sunk in. Shit. I don't have a job! Cranked out a few more resumes and prepared to talk to a few more slimy recruiters. Ok, they don't seem to be as slimy this time around as last time I badly needed their services.
It's not panic point yet. I am getting a decent severance, though when will be fun. When I first started working for the company, I spent two months in Washington before moving here. Despite numerous attempts to get HR to update my address, they still mail everything out there (luckily I was using my parents' address at the time, so I still get them). Realize this is an HR department which lost my I-9 forms 3 times and required me to fax in my insurance forms 4 times before a bitchy-gram email convinced them to actually check if they got them. They also hold the record for greatest butchery of my last name.
The last time I was out of work was when my former company shutdown. The CEO called is in and told us it was over. Since it was supposed to be payday, he also told us we weren't getting paid, nor should we expect payment for the pay period we just completed. We had worked nearly a month for free, it turns out. But they provided pizza and liquor so it was supposed to all even out.
On top of the fact that the industry was crashing, looking for a job a week before Thanksgiving sucks. Anyone with the power to hire is on vacation or trying to meet end of quarter numbers. I spent nearly 6 months out of work that time. My friends in St. Louis kept claiming they could get me a job out here, but I desperately didn't want to move to St. Louis. But six months is a long time.
After a period of nothing, one of the slimy recruiters managed to get me an interview. It was another start-up with a very questionable future, but it was a job. I figured I could get at least 6 months out of it, add some experience and get back on my feet. The interview went well. The technical people wanted me. But then I had to talk to the financial guy. He asked my salary requirement, and I gave a number 1/3 lower than my previous salary, but a shitload better than the $0 I was making at that moment. He said he would get back to me soon with an offer.
I drove the 30 minutes home thinking it was finally over. Finally I had a job. Finally something. The relief was fantastic. Checking my email when I got home, there was one from my original contact with the company. She thanked me for coming in and said she was sorry that I didn't want to work there.
Wait.... Huh? Did I just read that right?
I sent her an email explaining that I had agreed and we were just working out salary. She replied that after I left, that guy came out and said he made me a concrete offer (he didn't) and that I rejected it out of hand and left, something I could not do since no concrete offer was ever made. He didn't even have the balls to say to my face, or directly communicate to me, that he didn't want to hire me. He made his lackeys do it after lying to them. That night, after being jerked around like that, I called my friends and St. Louis and told them to get me a job. And that's why I'm stuck here today.
For the life of me, I wish I could remember the name of that company and that guy. I'd burn it across the internet to let everyone know never to trust him and never do business with him.
Posted by fad at 9:25am
April 12th, 2004
Posted by fad at 4:55pm
The Billy Bob/Angelina fallout continues.
Married life is over for "Full House" actor John Stamos and "X-Men" actress Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, the former Victoria's Secret model. The couple has separated after five years of marriage, publicist Lewis Kay said Monday.There is no hope.
Posted by fad at 4:27pm
Look out now. They got things figgered out there in Warshington Dee See.
President Bush said on Monday that U.S. intelligence operations might need to be reformed because of weaknesses that allowed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to take place.¡Con queso!
Posted by fad at 3:18pm
This news is unpleasant, but not surprising.
Marines on Sunday examined a house that was discovered three days earlier where two such belts were found. The new search revealed three more belts and a carton with "82nd Airborne" stamped on the top that was full of U.S. Army-issued desert fatigues, said Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.Later on is this detail.
Islamic books, pamphlets, tapes and farewell letters in Arabic also found suggested that some of the men were not Iraqis, but foreign Sunni Muslims who came here to fight in a holy war, the newspaper said.Which makes me take issue with the way this is phrased.
Military commanders, though, say several foreign fighters have entered Fallujah and infiltrated the ranks of the insurgents. In the past week, at least five - including a Syrian, and Egyptian and a Sudanese - have been detained during the siege of the city.I sent those bold tags to infiltrate the paragraph. "Infiltrate" suggests clandestine, not by request of the main group. I think it's safe to say these foreigners are there by request and were happily welcomed in. There was no "infiltration" in those ranks.
Posted by fad at 3:05pm
Why must so many of those who are against US efforts in Iraq also actively support those movements, Iranian and Syrian state-supported and al-Queda batshit-supported, which seek to kill anyone they can to weaken resolve? Well, the answer is pretty easy. It's because they are so blinkered, naive and tunnel-visioned on US evil, they lack -- ready for it? -- nuance.
[Yeah, I blather for a while.]
Posted by fad at 2:26pm
In his 2002 State of the Union, besides the "Axis of Evil" line, President Bush, in one of those empty moves politicians always do, called on Americans to volunteer two years over their lifetime to public service. Reason Magazine, through its Reason Express weekly email, called it an endorsement of "indentured servitude". This, of course, was ridiculously over the top as such a call was not a requirement, nor tied to any financial situation. But we've grown used to overblown hyperbole in the Nick "When You're This Smug You Don't Need An Argument" Gillespie era at Reason.
If you want to throw that tag somewhere, though, check out John Kerry's idea.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Monday renewed his call for a comprehensive commitment to national service by Americans of all ages, telling college students that "change starts with you" as he proposed to tie aid for college tuition to national service.And oh! the things they will do! Such as...
[...]
"But the fact is, this election is not just about what we're going to do, it's about what you're going to do,"
Well, ok, he doesn't know yet. But you can be damn sure you're gonna do it!
While Kerry pledged to "offer a lot to young people," his prepared remarks did not specify the relationship between service and tuition.
"But like no president since John F. Kennedy, I'm going to ask young people to give something back. I'm going to ask you to serve your country to go out into your communities and teach children, be mentors, build homes and protect America," he said.And by "protect America" he means going into law enforcement, because, as he has stated, the fight against America's enemies is to be found there.
I'm sure he'll get what he's asking for. I mean, who can resist an inspiring call to service from that dynamo of an everyman that is John Kerry? How about he tie service to how little we have to hear him speak or how little he is involved in our lives? I bet there'd be lines to sign up for that.
Posted by fad at 1:22pm
I haven't mentioned too much Richard Clarke, mostly because his contradictions and other problems are being handled everywhere else. To this point, it has largely been cast as a NowClarke vs. ThenClarke or NowClarke vs. Rice. Here is a rather extensive report on Clarke vs. those who were actually there. One example:
More significantly, Clarke wrote that agents had found "explosives and a map of the Los Angeles International Airport" in the car, implying the threat to the airport was known almost immediately.The article ends with a defense of Clarke and then this statement.
There was no map in the car. A map of Greater Los Angeles was found days later in Ressam's apartment in Montreal. Nobody had a clue for nearly 11 months that Los Angeles was a target.
And Clarke's conclusion remains valid. Al-Qaida, he wrote, was here — and actively attempting to attack the United States.Well, geez, what insight. I could have told you that back in 1998. That still doesn't mean a damn specific thing. In fact, when it comes to specifics, Clarke seems to have the most trouble.
UPDATE: In other news, Clarke's book has been optioned by Sony Pictures. Ok, who plays Clarke? Tim Robbins or Kevin Costner? I hope it's Costner, and he tries to do an accent.
Posted by fad at 12:55pm
April 11th, 2004
But this time around, I was also struck by something that did not occur to me when I first read the book in the early 1980's. In her 297 pages, Rachel Carson never mentioned the fact that by the time she was writing, DDT was responsible for saving tens of millions of lives, perhaps hundreds of millions.It's a must read.
DDT killed bald eagles because of its persistence in the environment. ''Silent Spring'' is now killing African children because of its persistence in the public mind.
Posted by fad at 12:16pm