Friday, December 31, 2004
I should be writing.
OK, I am writing, I'm writing in my blog, but what I mean is that I should be writing, working on the two or three or whatever novels that are sitting, fallow in my brain. I can picture them in there, hard-bound books with no dust jacket, the words existing in some kind of indeterminate state, waiting to become actual. They're laying in plain sight, on a shelf right where my mental homunculus paces back and forth in the mental library where he spends most of his time.
No pressure, they seem to say (since, even though they're mental images of future goals, they aren't bound to the same rules as actual books), no hurry, just write us when you've got the energy and time... say, you're aren't doing anything right now, are you? Maybe you could just spin out a chapter or two...? No? Maybe work on the outline a bit, flesh us out? No? Well, we'll just wait here, then while you finish whatever it is you are working on. Yes, it's certainly been a long day, hasn't it? Long year, more like. We can see that you're tired. Just go rest a bit, and we'll wait here... still waiting...
Yeah, my mental images of my goals are really good with the guilt. They probably learned that from my mother. Heh.
Resolutions for 2005:
- Learn a musical instrument (carried over from last year)
- Write two novels *
- Pay off my credit cards and loan, then never carry a balance from month to month.
- Save no less than $2600.00
- I don't think I'm ready for a marathon, but I will attempt a half-marathon this year.
* I decided, after talking it over with my friends, that if I make a resolution to write a novel, I might put it off all year and then end up with not enough time to finish it. On the other hand, if I determine to write two novels, I'll have to get cracking in order to get them both done... clever, yes?
I finally got the correct battery for my iPod, and replaced it. It wasn't trivial, but it wasn't too difficult, either. Hard part was lining up the tiny connector for the hard drive, and figuring out what to do with the extra wire on the replacement battery. The original battery has just enough wire to reach the connector; the replacement has about three times that length. It's all good, though.
Today I did a full-on test... although not the test that Apple recommends. I did a test of the way I use the thing -- long playlist, cycling through my favorite CDs on shuffle.
Even then, it managed nearly 8 hours -- 7 hours 52 minutes 13.08 seconds, to be exact. Yay!
See? I was right and the Apple Store "Genius" was wrong. The battery was depleted.
Now it's DeadSexy again.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Group hug is a site for confession. Anonymous confessions about things people think, or do, and regret.
Makes for fascinating reading.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
End of year stuff. Been working on my financial fitness...
I have two credit cards and one loan (the loan for my iBook -- yeah, it's still not paid off). I compared the balances on each of them from the start of the year to now, and I found that my total indebtedness actually increased by $0.50. Depressing, huh? In other words, I managed to essentially pay off only the interest for the year.
What's a little more interesting is the amount of cash that flowed through each account, because I'd pay them down a bit, then I'd use them back up to the limit, then down again. I made $3840.95 worth of payments against the three accounts! Wow. That's a lot of money. Since the in-flow was almost exactly the out-go, it's apparent that I didn't actually need to use my credit cards and loans and cash advances...
And when you look at what the money cost me, in terms of interest, overlimit fees, draw fees, etc., those total up to $963.83. So I managed to turn $3840.95 into $2877.12 worth of goods and services. Obviously not a wise decision, since it's apparent that (since the payments were made) I had the money to use, and therefore didn't have to incur the extra fees associated with the cards and loan.
That's not even looking at the actual purchases I made. I'm not going there. For the most part those purchases were two trips I made during the year, and the occassional cash advance.
(What's even scarier is when I add in all the ATM fees, overdraft fees, and associated charges in my checking account. Those are also things that I could avoid paying entirely, simply with better planning. Including the above $963.83, that brings the total "fees I could avoid" up to $1586.87. Yeah, I bounce checks quite a bit... owie.)
So, for next year, this is my goal: I'm going to pay them all off. I've got the money to do it, and once they're paid off completely I can still get the benefit of using them (for instance, the miles on my Alaska Airlines Visa for purchases) without incurring the penalties (interest and etc.)
I've got a plan and I'm going to stick with it. I should have them paid off by summer. I think I can also stick some money in savings. I'm expecting a modest tax refund this year, maybe $600 dollars between the Feds and Oregon. Well, at least $500 from Feds, I can't estimate the state refund yet. That will help quite a bit.
My end of 2005 goal is: no outstanding debt and at least one month's salary in savings. To that end, my Christmas gift to myself was an actual savings account, which currently holds the princely sum of $300.
Grow, little savings account... grooooooooooow...
I wasn't feeling very adventurous for lunch today. Just thought I'd get a sandwich, no big deal.
Went down to Big Town Hero, a local chain. On the way there, I rolled around the different sandwiches I've had there, trying them out mentally to see which one sounded good. With the holidays almost past, I thought that their "Very Berry" turkey might hit the spot. Cranberry sauce and turkey. Only thing missing would be some dressing...
So I went, and ordered my sandwich... and after I'd put in the order, I saw a little standee on the counter announcing their "Panini" grilled sandwiches. Including a grilled Reuben... damn. Pastrami, swiss cheese, sauerkraut... Mmmmmm (am I supposed to capitalize the "s" in "swiss cheese?) I came --> <-- this close to changing my order.
Anyone have any experience with the BTH grilled sandwiches?
And what's up with all the sub shops playing catch-up with Quiznos, anyway? Do they all have to offer toasted/grilled/heated-up-in-some-way sandwiches now? Is that what the sandwich-buying public is demanding nowadays?
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Today is a day for linking to friends.
Caleb thinks he's fixed dante, the server his site, my site, and Geeks Against Bush (among others) all reside on.
Time will tell...
My friend Jake posted this a while back (I'm just now getting to it since he only told me where his blog was last night):
So... here's what I found:
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open the book to page 123.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your own bulletin...along with these instructions.
- Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.
My new mantra.Yeah, that's it. That's the fifth sentence on the 123rd page of the book I'm currently reading, which is "Radiant Cool" by Dan Lloyd. It's a murder mystery and an introduction to a theory of consciousness.
Monday, December 27, 2004
I guess there's something new to be learned every day.
Last weekend I made a long post about a trip to Seattle. In the post, I mentioned hearing some music in a restaurant that sounded like two songs mixed together -- or maybe just two radios playing at the same time, although that was unlikely, since the new song sounded pretty good.
This morning I was listening to KNRK, the local "alternative" station (although just how alternative can it be if they're owned by a huge corporation) and they played what I thought was Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"... but it was mixed with Oasis' "Wonderwall". It was both illuminating and frustrating. Much like trying to remember a song but getting confused, like you just can't quite remember how it goes...
Then, in this month's Wired I saw an article that explained what I'd heard.
Turns out that these are examples of what is called a "mash-up". It's been around since at least 2001 (an epoch by internet time) and even Salon did an article about it a year and a half ago.
So now I want to find that song, the one I'd heard in Seattle, the one that mixed Radiohead and Tone Loc. It's only a matter of time...
I'm experimenting with comments on my posts...
Naturally I'd prefer email, but comments might be amusing, too.
"You confound me like a woman!"
Asteroid impact update:
The asteroid named 2004 MN4 is being tracked by NASA. Since my last post on the topic, the odds of impact have decreased from 1/300 to approximately 1/56000.
*phew!*
I can now delete the reminder from my calendar.
I saw "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" last night. It's my new favorite Bill Murray/Owen Wilson/Wes Anderson movie. The entire movie maintains a very skewed view of the world, just slightly out of step with the world we live in. The only inauthentic scene, I think, is a minor one, seen in the previews, where Bill Murray is dancing to the electronic music being piped over his SCUBA helmet. I thought the computer-animated sea-life would be jarring or out of place but in context of the movie they were perfect.
Owen Wilson's Kentucky accent comes and goes, but I think (I'm hoping) that it was deliberate.
I think the David Bowie songs, sung acoustically in Portuguese, were an especially apt touch.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
I added permanent links to my posts. I had to kludge around in Blogger to get it all to work properly (mostly to get my sidebars to show up), but it's working for now. I can figure out how to make it pretty tomorrow.
It also increases the total size of my blog by a lot; and increases the time it takes to publish it once I make a post. But it will be worth it.
On this day one of the greatest philosophers of our time was born. A man of genius and intelligence, whose ideas shaped the world.
Celebrate with me the birth of Sir Isaac Newton, 362 years ago (more or less; his birthday is on 25 December by the Julian calendar in use at the time; in our calendar his birthday would fall on 4 January).
Even his strict adherence to a literal interpretation of the Bible can't cloud his status as one of history's greatest scientists. Newton invented calculus, codified the laws of optics and light, and stated his three laws of motion that remained the final word until the revolution of quantum mechanics in the 20th Century.
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Note to self:
Make sure and finish everything important before 1 January 2029.
Hmm... I'd better set a reminder on my calendar...
...check.*
*(Yes, my calendar now has a reminder set nearly 25 years in the future.)
The family of a soldier killed in Iraq is fighting Yahoo! over access to the soldier's email account.
Yahoo! claims that email accounts are not transferable, even after death.
Luckily I don't put anything important into my Yahoo! email account. My important email is either on Caleb's server, or archived on my own computers, or backed up somewhere remotely. I've got email saved that goes back to 1998...
In the event of my death, I'd want my survivors to see it. I mean, how else are my biographers going to piece together my life? A lot of important conversations in my life have happened in email. (quiet, you... email is part of my life!)
I guess if I ever get around to creating a will, I'll have to include what to do with my email and other data...
See what happens as I approach 40? Sheesh. At least I'm not worried that no one will want to read it all. I'm sure that there will be a huge demand for it. Really.
There's a cool-but-geeky (but cool) post over at the Pacfic Tech site, telling the story of how Graphing Calculator came to be written and included on the first Power PC-based Macintosh computers.
Basically, it was done by two guys sneaking into the building. Ron Avitzur wrote it up. He's my new favorite hero.
My favorite parts:
At 1:00 a.m., we trekked to an office that had a PowerPC prototype. We looked at each other, took a deep breath, and launched the application. The monitor burst into flames. We calmly carried it outside to avoid setting off smoke detectors, plugged in another monitor, and tried again. The software hadn't caused the fire; the monitor had just chosen that moment to malfunction.
NOTE: I'll bet it probably was an AppleVision 1710 monitor. Apple was always replacing those. Although the timeframe is a little off...
I asked my friend Greg Robbins to help me. His contract in another division at Apple had just ended, so he told his manager that he would start reporting to me. She didn't ask who I was and let him keep his office and badge. In turn, I told people that I was reporting to him. Since that left no managers in the loop, we had no meetings and could be extremely productive. We worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week.
Oh, man. My dream job. Imagine a world without managers... it's easy, if you try...
Most engineers at Apple had been through many canceled projects and completely understood my motivation.I think this is true at many companies, especially post dot.bomb.
My skunkworks project was beginning to look real with help from these professionals as well as others in graphic design, documentation, programming, mathematics, and user interface. The secret to programming is not intelligence, though of course that helps. It is not hard work or experience, though they help, too. The secret to programming is having smart friends.
Interesting... as well as a compliment and support for open source development.
Once we had a plausible way to ship, Apple became the ideal work environment. Every engineer we knew was willing to help us. We got resources that would never have been available to us had we been on the payroll. For example, at that time only about two hundred PowerPC chips existed in the world. Most of those at Apple were being used by the hardware design engineers. Only a few dozen coveted PowerPC machines were even available in System Software for people working on the operating system. We had two. Engineers would come to our offices at midnight and practically slip machines under the door. One said, 'Officially, this machine doesn't exist, you didn't get it from me, and I don't know you. Make sure it doesn't leave the building.'
Waitwaitwait... the folks developing the SYSTEM SOFTWARE only had a "few dozen" PowerPC machines to work with? NO WONDER the first PowerPC units shipped ran System 7.x so FRIGGIN' SLOOOOOOW.
And the reason they did it all:
I view the events as an experiment in subverting power structures. I had none of the traditional power over others that is inherent to the structure of corporations and bureaucracies. I had neither budget nor headcount. I answered to no one, and no one had to do anything I asked. Dozens of people collaborated spontaneously, motivated by loyalty, friendship, or the love of craftsmanship. We were hackers, creating something for the sheer joy of making it work."
Truly awesome.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
New music is so cool.
Got to work this morning, turned on the computer, opened up iTunes, and KEXP was playing "Interstate 5" by The Wedding Present, this week's new favorite song. I've heard it every day this week.
As great as it is having an iPod with nothing but my favorite songs on it, there's still something magical about turning on the radio and hearing a good song. I guess it's the difference between being in control and being surprised.
Surprises are good.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Just one week left for me as a "Thirty-something".
The following essay was written to illustrate a metaphor. However, after I wrote it I realized that the metaphor is, well... flawed. It's still worth sharing, however.
I'll add this to my "revise later" file.
*****
Is there no choice so wrenching as deciding whether or not to pick up a stray?
Poor little animal. For me, a cat person, stray cats are always the hardest to ignore. They're often so affectionate, and seeing their dirty coats of fur and often skin-and-bones bodies, and hearing their cries and yowlps... so difficult.
I always try to scare it off. I yell. I make wild arm movements. I jump towards it, run at it. I throw things near -- but I'm not an accurate thrower so I rarely continue lobbing things. I don't want to hurt the poor thing. I don't want to increase their doubt about us two-legs.
Isn't that pathetic? I assume that a stray cat has seen humans at their worst; that they've been beaten and thrown out into the cold and had to forage for food, that sadistic children have had their fun by heaping torment on the little animals, and that, in spite of all that the animal still seeks assistance from our duplicitous and cruel species.
I consider that the creature's instincts are generally good, since it's true that I don't seek to harm it further, and that I would take it in if I could. Yeah, it's an ego-stroke to think that a cat can judge my inner qualities. OK, that all is probably just in my head.
Yeah, it's probably just seeking food or warmth or might even just be bored, saw me walking by and, having vaguely associated my upright form with the basic necessities, started meowing and following me.
Thing is, I'll never know. Can't judge motivations well in humans, even with the benefit of sharing a biology and communication, let alone something as alien as a cat. Is it opportunistic? or seeking a higher form of compassion?
At any rate, frightening it off never works. It only draws attention, gets me involved with the thing, rewards its attention with more attention. It will only continue to follow me, since I have now become the most exciting thing it has found.
So, the choice. Can I take it in? And often, the choice is, no. It's not the right time. I can't have pets. I don't want the responsibility. I think of how one-sided it would be -- I offer warmth and love and food and care, cleaning up after it, and it gives me... what? What is the return? Intangibles like the comfort of knowing that I helped a fellow creature on this planet. The knowledge that my actions increased, by a tiny fraction, the amount of caring in the world.
And... selfish, I know... but... is that enough?
I mean, it's a stray. A wild animal. It really isn't compassionate in the way that humans are. I was only projecting my need for love onto it, giving it credit for higher emotions that it, honestly, probably doesn't have. It just just as likely to turn on me, scar me and bite me and shit on my floor, as it is to become a gentle loving companion. And it's likely not to matter how much effort I put into it; the end result is likely to be random.
That's when I ignore it. I walk away. I stop shouting at it, stop looking at it, even. I continue on my way. I can still hear it behind me, crying. It may even catch up to me and rub up against my legs. I keep walking, going over my justifications in my head.
It's a cruel choice. I can convince myself that it's the correct choice. The time isn't right to take this animal in. I'm not a rescuer.
Just walk away.
Monday, December 20, 2004
Had a good run tonight. Not a great one, but a good one, better than the painful one on Saturday. I managed a good pace for 2.5 miles.
I'm not sure what's wrong lately, I'm hoping I'm not allergic to my new cat, but I've been achey and had sinus and breathing problems, and lately a cough. I'm going to chalk it up to a low-level cold, and hope that it goes away soon. Tonight I didn't have much trouble breathing, although I still have the sniffles and sneezes, a bit, just a bit.
Apologies for the brief downtime this morning of the site. Caleb's working on the post mortem. Email was unaffected, it was only the web services that were down.
I had leftovers to bring to work today for lunch... but I ate them this morning. Mmm... cold chile verde for breakfast... almost as good as cold pizza.
No. Strike that. Better than cold pizza.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Warning! Long post!After a short painful run yesterday (I think I've got a cold, since I can't breathe well and have picked up a cough) on the Waterfront, my first outside run in weeks, Caleb and I got some lunch at La Terrazza (pasta is goooooood) and abused my FlexCar membership to drive 176 miles north. The goal was, of course, to see Harvey Danger play a small club in Seattle to celebrate Christmas and their new EP. Was that confusing? I mean, both the band was celebrating, and Caleb and I were celebrating. We all were, but, y'know, for different reasons.
We left town and immediately ran into bad traffic, having not even gotten out of Portland city limits. An early frustrating start. I have, in the past, made the trip from Portland to Seattle in just over 2 1/2 hours, and was hoping for a similar trip tonight. Because we got a late start in getting out of town, I was banking on it, actually, which is always a bad idea.
Once we got moving, though, I felt better. I blasted north, and Caleb played DJ with my iPod. It's funny when I let other people play with it, what they come up with. I'm constantly asking, "That's on there? I have that in my collection? Really?" And Caleb points out that I can't complain, since everything on there is on there by my choice. Even the ABBA songs, that I have no idea how they got on there.
More bad traffic outside of Tacoma slowed us to a crawl. The show, the show... There were three bands playing, Harvey Danger was the headliner, we were going to the early, all ages show (because Caleb's still six months away from full-fledged citizenship) and we had never heard of the opening acts and therefore were OK with missing one or both of them. Which was a good thing, since we were going to be late. Also, the tickets were only $10, it's not like we were going to be out a lot of money if we missed it completely.
Caleb wanted to flip off a Hummer H2 that we saw, all because of a website where people send in pictures of themselves "saluting" the disguised Chevy Tahoes that posers drive. It took several tries but he finally got an acceptable picture. He's going to send it in. I was worried that the driver would see us and pull out a shotgun or something; Caleb berated me for assuming the driver was male. It was not, it was a smallish woman. Still might have owned a shotgun, though.
On the drive I realized that going for a run when I'm coming down with a cold, then failing to stretch properly and then sitting in a fixed position for three hours is a Bad Idea. My hamstrings will never forgive me. And with the traffic I was unable to use the cruise control so I could properly stretch out my legs. Pain, pain, pain. Between the pain, the frustration of potentially missing the show, and Caleb choosing some angry metal music, I could tell I was heading for a bad mood. I asked Caleb to find some more upbeat music and he came through by queuing up Cake. Cake always makes me smile, even their so-so new album. That was followed up by They Might Be Giants, another good choice for erasing anger.
When we finally got moving again, we were nearly to Seattle city limits. Passed the Boeing plant, and we could see the spectacular downtown, so immensely tall from our vantage point. The day had been clear, and now it was cold but with a small bit of fog. (Yeah, I took plenty of pictures.) The freeway split, and I took what didn't look like the exit. Unfortunately, we ended up on the "Express" freeway. You know, the one with no exits. Dammit! We were supposed to get off at the Stewart exit. We took the very next exit (a couple of miles down the road), and then came back on surface streets, and, entirely by accident, while looking for a way to get back on the freeway, we ended up on Stewart Street. Such luck! The directions worked from there and we got to the club, the Crocodile Cafe -- after the band had taken the stage. The bouncers said they'd just cut off the cover. We could have gotten away with not paying.
The club has a front restaurant area, and another large room with a stage where the bands play. We walked in and Sean was singing a slower version of "Jack the Lion" from their first album (also, apparently, on their EP). We stayed to see the rest of their set, another 4 or 5 songs, plus a 4-song encore. Mr. Nelson bantered with the crowd over a name for the horn section he claims to have stolen from The Long Winters. I hadn't ever seen the Long Winters with a horn section, so it was news to me. Must be something they've added recently...
Someone has posted set lists for both shows on their official site. Here's the set list of the show we saw:
- Carlotta Valdez
- Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo
- Old Hat (featuring Megan of Racetrack on backing vox)
- Problems and Bigger Ones
- Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)
- Wine, Women, and Song
- Jack the Lion
- Why I'm Lonely
- Authenticity
- Plague of Locusts (featuring brass section)
- Meetings With Remarkable Men (featuring brass section)
- Flagpole Sitta (featuring brass section)
- ---encore---
- Wrecking Ball (featuring cello player)
- Pike Street/Park Slope (featuring cello player)
- Radio Silence (featuring cello player)
- Diminishing Returns *brand new*
So it looks like we missed a few good ones... still worth it, though. I even snuck a couple of pictures with my camera phone, although they totally suck, out of focus and tiny.
Tiny and fuzzy but you can still make out Sean Nelson's craaaazy hair.
After the show we each bought copies of the EP (sorry, all you Christmas shoppers out there; I bought it because I wanted it, and because by buying it at the show the band gets more of the money; support your local artists!) and then we walked to Seattle Center to go up on the Space Needle. I got some awesome pictures of Seattle being enclosed in fog from the observation deck, although it's difficult to take good pics at night without a tripod. Several of them are blurry when they're blown up full-sized. I bought a shot glass for my collection.
Wandering around the Seattle Center we were harrassed by a security guard who turned out to be quite apologetic for being so harsh.
Dinner was at a restaurant called Mamma's Mexican Restaurant. There were either two competing radios in there or someone had been making very strange remixes. My favorite was hearing Radiohead's "Pakt Like Sardines In a Crushd Tin Box" intermixed with Ton Loc's "Wild Thing" -- they actually worked together pretty well. I fell in and out of love with the waitress, and managed to make her laugh on several occasions, even though she ultimately broke my heart. Her loss, since I was leaving town and likely wouldn't be back there any time soon. I hope she's doing OK. Probably drunk and trying to forget today.
Trying to find our way onto the freeway again was troublesome, especially with the fog, so we decided to stop for directions. I was going to ask at a Burger King, but Caleb suggested, instead, a bowling alley across the street. Turns out the guy behind the counter was a character, salt-and-pepper haired and wiry and tattooed in a way that indicated he'd done hard time. His directions were pretty easy to follow and led us through a residential neighborhood and up and down several steep hills, but ultimately got us back on I-5 south.
The drive back was remarkably uneventful. Traffic was light, once past Seattle the fog lifted and did not return, and we only made one stop for a bathroom break and to steal some of the free cookies. Round trip was just under 380 miles. And totally worth it.
Friday, December 17, 2004
Dammit!
I got the replacement battery I ordered today. And tonight, I carefully pried it open (well, not very carefully; poor li'l DeadSexy will forever bear the scars of my prying it open), got the hard drive out (the connector on it it teeny-tiny)...
And it's the wrong battery. Too big. After studying the pictures, it became obvious. They sold me the wrong battery. Or something. I don't know, maybe, possibly, I made a mistake.
At any rate I'll have to send it back next week and exchange it for the right one. Stupid mail-order.
When I'm in my bathroom, putting in my contact lenses, Smacky likes to sit in the sink and lick the saline that falls when I rinse them.
Maybe he's part cow?
Sometime late yesterday afternoon, someone in my building sent out an email saying that they had a two-person ticket to the preview of "Meet The Fockers" and they were available to the first person to respond.
I shot off an email, but the guy didn't accept it; he replied back, "First person here gets it."
I did a quick search and found that he was one floor below me, so I bolted out the door and down the stairs, and asked the receptionist where this guy was located. She pointed me in the direction of his cube. As I headed over, I heard a voice behind me, asking the receptionist "Oh, is he here to see [so-and-so]?" in a disappointed voice. I snagged the ticket, and when I turned around, I saw that the person behind me was Kara, the receptionist on my floor. We went back upstairs.
Then I called around to find someone who wanted to go to the movies with me, and after four calls and a half-hour, I couldn't find someone who wasn't busy that night and could go to a movie. Normally I don't mind going to a movie by myself, but it was a two-person ticket, and Kara is a nice person and almost beat me to the ticket, and, y'know, holiday season and all that... so, seeing that I couldn't find someone to go with me, I gave Kara the ticket. She took her husband.
And she brought me back a couple of posters for the movie! Coolio. I'll put one up in my cube and one up in the computer room at home.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Don't ask why. I just do.
So cool. Get up, turn on the computer, open up iTunes for some IntarWeb radio (yay! KEXP!)...
And it comes up, and comes on, just as a Harvey Danger song is coming on... a slower, demo version of "Pike St./Pike Slope" which originally appeared on "King James Version".
I still haven't heard their Christmas song, "Sometimes You Have To Work on Christmas (Sometimes)"... which appears on their new EP of the same title. I guess I'll have to dig back in the KEXP archives and find it... or I could ask for it for Christmas...
hint... hint...
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Well, I broke down and bought a new battery for my 3G 40GB iPod, a.k.a. "DeadSexy". Sure, Apple says it's still "within specification" but dammit, the battery doesn't even last for a couple of hours playing if I have a playlist that's longer than 4 or 5 songs. When the thing was new, it could play for 7-8 hours before the battery was dead...
Lithium ion batteries are great, but they start deteriorating as soon as you start using them. Bleah.
I ordered it from Laptops for Less. Only $29.00 + FedEx 2-day shipping for $10.00. Less than half what Apple would charge for the same replacement.
It's apparently a little tricker to swap out the battery in the 3G iPods but, what the hell, I'm handy with tools... can't be that hard, can it?
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Sorry, people. No big amazing posts over the weekend. I spent more time thinking about writing than actually writing. It's amazing the contortions I can put my mind through in order to avoid writing.
- "I can't write now -- my apartment is filthy!"
- "I can't write when Smacky's scratching himself bloody from fleas; I need to give him a bath."
- "I can't write here -- it's too quiet. I'll go downtown and sit in a coffee shop somewhere."
- "I can't write here, it's too noisy. I'll go back home where it's quiet."
- And the worst of all: "I can't write now. Maybe I'll just poke around the internets and see if I'm inspired..."
(That last one is where hours upon hours disappear)
The good news is, this weekend I hung out and drank beer with Caleb and Gus, watched "Ocean's Twelve" (stylish, witty, excellent entertainment that doesn't aspire to be more than it is), watched "Donnie Darko" (the non-director's cut) for the first time (amazing movie but I'm left feeling 'what's the point?'), cleaned my apartment, gave the cat a bath, posted my editorial on Sec. Rumsfeld (see previous post), ran 3 miles... more or less, and got most of my laundry done. Oh, had lunch at a swank restaurant in the Pearl District. Can't remember what it was called, started with a "P", but it was very good. Just normal day-to-day stuff.
Sitting at Starbucks I saw a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Allyson Hannigan. As I sat there trying to get up the nerve to talk to her (and struggling to find something to say other than "You look like Allyson Hannigan" or "Is it true what they say about redheads?"), she sat there with a notebook, kept checking her phone for messages, and kept looking around. Obviously waiting for someone. The someone showed up; a short guy, balding, goatee, glasses. The girl and he sat down and she started telling him about his part -- apparently this girl was a filmmaker and was casting him in it. I listened in as best I could and tried to figure out if they were going to be very long. If not, I'd still try to talk to her.
A half-hour later, they were still deep in conversation. I headed home.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
My apologies to my regular readers. Haven't posted here in a while. Right now I'm in the process of working through my notes and gathering my resources for a novel based on a recent trip to Las Vegas... some of that may end up posted here, or maybe not. It will definitely make an interesting story...
In the meantime, if you're hungry for stuff I've written and don't mind some political thoughts, take a look at an editorial I wrote for Geeks Against Bush, examining the Rumsfeld Doctrine of politico-military deployment.
Other things I've been thinking about lately is atheism vs. "Intelligent Design" and other pseudo-scientific (lack of) thinking.
Yeah, I've been cranky. 'Tis the season.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
I was at the gym last night, in the middle of an "easy run" (no faster than a 10:00 pace), on the treadmill.. and I saw this woman get on the StairMaster or whatever, very cute... and she's wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt to work out in.
And my first thought was, "I'll bet she bought that after Boston won the Series this year. I should go over to her and ask her if she's a fair-weather fan." It sounded good in my head, it sounded cocky, and I could make it funny. It was a starting point, at any rate. The few times I've tried to talk to women working out I get a lukewarm response -- Like the time I hissed at a woman on the next elliptical trainer over, "Stop staring at me!" She said, "Oh" and then got off the machine and left. I must have embarrassed her.
Back to last night, Boston Red Sox. By the time I finished running, though, I couldn't find her. She must have finished and left. Bummer.
And, you know, I like baseball but I'm not a complete nut about it. I remembered the name of the player on the woman's shirt, and decided to Google him. Funny... it was Nomar Garciaparra, shortstop, who was traded from Boston to the Cubs this year... the year the Sox broke their curse.
From one cursed team to another... now that's irony.
So, if I had talked to that woman last night, and asked her that question, it would have turned out to be a really funny conversation. Because I'd be all cocky and knowing, but (assuming from the fact that she owned a Boston shirt from before the Sox broke their curse, that she was, in fact, a true fan) she could have lectured me about Boston and loyalty and schooled me in baseball knowledge and gotten all indignant... and I could have, oh I don't know, offerred dinner to make up for the insult or something.
Dammit, things always turn out better in my head.
I got a "Contact Me" message last night and it wasn't one of the 3 or 4 regular readers. Email is always good!
Turns out the guy was trying to track down the live version of "Cinnamon" by the Long Winters (OK, just John Roderick), as heard on KEXP last week, and my site helped him pinpoint where to look in the streaming archives. It's always good to hear from people who share my good taste in music. Behold the power of Google, or something.
Then I noticed it was Jerry "Tycho" Holkins from over at Penny Arcade! Coolio! An honest-to-internets webcomic superstar! Probably too much to think that he'll be a regular reader of my rants and posts, but, still.
So the weepy, previous association I had made with the Long Winters can now be replaced with a new, decidedly non-weepy association. Which means I still get to listen to them. Yay, me!
Tycho and his partner, Mike "Gabe" Krahulik also do good work under the Child's Play banner. Feel free to donate to help out the kids.
Monday, December 06, 2004
Quick post on lunch break (I love free wireless internets!)
Went to Taco del Mar and I didn't want a lot of food. Was going to get a fish taco and a drink. But it's Double-Punch Monday (two punches on your customer-appreciation card) if you order a burrito) so I decided I'd get a fish burrito. But only an Almost Jumbo (half the toppings of their regular sized ones, on a smaller tortilla).
When I got up to the counter, though, they were temporarily out of fish sticks. I had to wait about 4 minutes for them to bake.
So when I finally ordered, they upgraded me to a full-sized burrito "for waiting". Um, yay? I felt pressured into eating the whole thing.
But it was soooooooooooooooooo gooooooooooooooooooood!
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Ran at the gym again today. I've been unable to run at a 9:30 or better pace for more than 2 miles lately, so my goal today was to do 3 miles on the treadmill no matter what. I did, in fact, finish my 3 miles (plus another mile on the elliptical but I never count that; that's just warmup), but at a 9:46 pace or thereabouts. Argh. I want to be faster, dammit.
I could, I suppose, blame it on the lack of music. I brought my iPod (since music (and women in tight clothing) is pretty much the main benefit of running in the gym) but managed to forget my ear buds. Hard to listen to music without some kind of electrical-impulse-to-sound-wave converter.
My goal for next week is to duplicate my best official 5K time on the treadmill. I know I can, I know I can, I know I can...
I took a few pictures of Smacky yesterday (as you can see from the updated Picture of the Week to the right). I just put them in the Smacky folder under my Picture Gallery.
My camera doesn't do very well lately; has trouble focusing. Add to that the fact that Smacky is still a high-energy kitten and rarely sits still for long and most of the pictures I took were fuzzy. And the first few I took of him at the window clearly showed the trashcans outside my apartment. Yech. So I overexposed the next couple of shots and they turned out pretty good. I didn't even have to use Photoshop.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
More brutalful stories:
"Closer", staring Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen, is brutal. No heroic characters, everyone makes bad choices and rationalizes their actions and in any other movie would be considered unsympathetic... and yet, seeing the four of them go 'round and round trying to figure out what they want and how to get it... and failing, often... is an amazing experience.
Most Highly Recommended.
I've mentioned KEXP, a Seattle-area listener-supported radio station that plays great local and indie-pop (and lots of other stuff) music. I listen as much as I can. You'd think that wouldn't be a lot, since I live in Portland, OR, hundreds of miles south of Seattle, but thanks to the internets, I not only get rumors but I get streaming feeds from KEXP.
John in the morning yesterday had John Roderick as an in-studio guest, (shortly after 9:36 AM, according to their web-based archived playlist. Roderick is the main member of The Long Winters, a band who, I think, should get far more airplay than they do. Roderick's lyrics and arrangements are catchy, sweet, and very much like indie-pop versions of traditional Irish folk songs.
Roderick traded quips with the DJ, and sang three songs; "Ultimatum", a brand-new song that is supposed to appear on the Long Winter's upcoming third album, "Cinnamon", a great sing-along song from their second album "When I Pretend To Fall", and "Fire Island", a brand-new song that apparently isn't going to appear anywhere but here, or possibly in live performance (if Roderick can find and train a band that will stick with him long enough to tour).
I have fond memories of Long Winters concerts... so I was transfixed Friday morning, resisting the urge to call up friends (and ex-friends) and tell them to tune in. It was... brutalful.
More local political news -- my employer, Multnomah County, is still having problems. Intimidating managers seem to be the norm. Dr. Peter Davidson, the county's highest-paid employee ($157,000 annually) was trying to keep his racial slurs out of the press. Unsucessfully. The Oregonian first reported last Thursday that an unnamed county employee was reporting that Dr. Davidson had been pressuring her to keep quiet.
The employee used the "I" word -- intimdation.
She was named in a survey that the county performed earlier this year, where she claimed that Dr. Davidson referred to African-Americas as "mud people." The report linked above showed that the good doctor was put on administrative leave when the employee made the complaint about intimidation, which seems like a good move -- put him on leave, then launch an investigation.
But... why wasn't that done back in 2002, when the first reports of his racial slurs were made? Instead, Chair Linn merely shuffled the org chart, and kept Davidson on as an employee of the county. A tactic, I can report as a county employee, that was also used regularly when complaints surfaced about other managers.
Which is apparently what they're going to do about Jann Brown. Even though, technically speaking, Jann Brown doesn't have any staff under her... she sent out a meeting request for a "staff meeting". She's even bringing in breakfast! Joy. Rather than substantially address the hostile environment that Ms. Brown created, county management is going to pretend nothing happened. They'll spend taxpayer money to send these awful managers to "sensitivity training", but meanwhile the staff that has to work with her sees that favoritism and intimidation and suppression of complaints results in promotions and continued employment. Which further sends the message to other managers that, hey, these kinds of poor management are A-OK, too, perpetuating the culture of fear at the county.
The six-figure award that a jury gave to Lea Lakeside-Scott in an amazingly-fast decision (the jury in that case deliberated for only 2 1/2 hours, which normally signals that the defense has won the case but should be seen by county management as a strong rebuke, above and beyond the punitive damages) is only seen by the higher-ups as the cost of doing business. They want to push to reduce the award, then pay Ms. Lakeside-Scott off and make it go away.
I don't think this issue is going away, however.
As Mary Botkin, a representative for AFSCME (the union that many state and county employees belong to) said in another local case of racial discrimination (this one at the Oregon Department of Agriculture), "We wouldn't tolerate this at Nike. Why do we tolerate it in state government?"
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Second, one of the webcomics I follow is Sluggy Freelance, which has been running for years. I've been reading it for 5 years, and there's a whole lot of backstory, so it's taken on a depth just from sheer history that not a lot of comics have.
At any rate, the current story would take paragraphs and paragraphs to explain, but the main character, Torg, is just a regular guy but right now he's on this quest or something. He's spent the last several months in an alternate universe that was taken over by demons from the Dimension of Pain, and in that universe Torg met the alternate version of Zoe. In his regular universe Zoe and Torg are friends, and have tried to date but it's never worked out. Torg still has feelings for Zoe, though.
And, yes, you guessed it, because alternate-universe-Torg has gone missing, our Torg steps in for him, and Zoe and our-Torg fall in love.
Which is all just backstory (and recent backstory, too! I told you it was complicated (yes, it's very much like a geek soap opera))... and it all leads up to two of the saddest moments in the history of the comic.
(Pete Abrams is the creator of the comic)Why, Pete? Why did you have to kill off alternate-Zoe? I was unbelievably saddened when she died. Maybe it's just the stupid holiday season that's got me so emotional (I friggin' hate the holidays) but... dammit.
And then, in the past week, came the moment when our Torg rescues alternate-Torg from the Demon-King's freezer (see, Torg is trying to get the Ziploc-baggie of Goodness stored in the fridge, and the Demon-King's fridge has the freezer-side on the right, not on the left like Torg expected... oh, go read it, it'll make more sense that way)
...and it hit me. Our Torg has his own Zoe to go back to (although any geek worth his caffeinated beverage knows the pain of having a relationship and then having to go back to "being friends" and that is precisely what our Torg will have to do, with the added pain from having our Zoe not know what went on between our Torg and alternate Zoe (I just can't see Torg telling Zoe what his relationship with alternate Zoe was, but I've been wrong before (Why?! Why did you kill her, Abrams?!)
...but alternate Torg has lost his Zoe forever.
Dimension of Pain, indeed.
First, a correction about yesterday's post, a minor matter: the black elastic band bound into the cover of "How We Are Hungry" is not a bookmark. It's some kind of elastic band, apparently meant to hold the book closed or something. I've seen journals with that, now that I think about it. Oddness, but in a cool, quirky way.
However, there is, in fact, a silver ribbon bound into the spine that is, in fact, a bookmark. It doesn't show up in the picture I posted, but it's there. I discovered it last night.
It's strange to think of a book as having undiscovered properties or features. But, you know, in a cool, quirky way.
The book is so good so far. The second story features Hand, one of the main characters from "You Shall Know Our Velocity", but the story is told from the point of view of Pilar, a girl who is not Latin but has dark hair and a Latin name. Let me quote from the story (p. 50):
If there were a question that needed to be answered in this story it would be not one but many, and would be these: How can a world allow all this? Allow these people to live so long? To travel all these miles south, to a place so different but still so comfortable, and in that place, meet again? To allow them to be naked together for the first time? What would their parents think? What would their friends think? Would anyone object? Who would plan for them? How many times in life can we make decisions that are important but will not hurt anyone? Are we obligated--maybe we are--to say yes to any choice when no one will be hurt? We use the word hurt when talking about things like this because when these things go wrong it can feel as if you were hit in the sternum by a huge animal that's run for miles just to strike you.The story is called "The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water".
So good.
