The Best Day

Today was a very good day. I might even call it my best day in a long time.

Yes. I will call it that. Here I go:

Today was the best day I've had in a long time.

First, I weighed in and found my weight has hit the lowest level in over a year. Diets do work, friends. Don't let anyone tell you differently, including that little negative voice in the back of your head.

The weather was perfect today. Sunny, blue sky, no wind. I woke up in plenty of time to go race. My nephew and my dad were there to see me turn in my second-best time ever, and my dad even got multiple pictures of when I crossed the finish line. I saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while and he kinda-sorta invited me to run in the Helvetia 10K, and I was in such a good mood I actually considered it!

My dad helped me with some re-wiring and bought me a delicious soy chai and muffin.

There was a Mythbusters marathon on all day!

Heck, I even made an ex-girlfriend cower behind her imaginary boyfriend, simply by walking by! How great is that?

Yes, a good day. Whenever anyone would ask me how the day went... I would actually tell them, and talk about the 5K I ran and how well I did and how great it feels and what running has done for me. Normally I'm not so talk-y but today I was a chatterbox. It was kinda funny.

Tracy told me that, with the great day I was having, I should buy a lottery ticket!

So I walked down to the corner market and bought one of everything. One Megabucks, one PowerBall, and two scratch-offs with a potential prize of $10,000. I haven't bought a lottery ticket of any kind in years. I was a chatterbox with the emotionally-detatched lady behind the counter and she just gave me an expressionless vacant stare as if I was high or drunk. I was high on the best day I've had in a long time, lady!

As I left, I turned back and made one last attempt to engage her by asking if she'd ever seen "My Name is Earl".

"No," she said. "What's that?"

"It's... um... a teevee... show?" I tried to explain about how Earl was a bad person but he bought a lottery ticket and got hit by a car and tried to turn his life around... but she just looked at me. Did she think I was a bad person now? Did she think I wanted to get hit by a car? Did she care? Did she even breathe? Holy crab!

I left before she harshed my groove.

I just didn't want today to end. • 9:12 PM 1 comments

The Notorious Bettie Page

Possible spoilers on this post for the movie referenced above. You've been warned.

I love Cinema 21. Such a cool old independent movie house. Union shop, even. And I think they've done a little renovation since last I was there - looked cleaner, and the heating and air-conditioning seemed to be actually working. I love sitting in the balcony. Multiplexes don't have balconies. Stadium seating is nice for the view, but it's still a distant second to sitting in the balcony.

I was at C21 to see "The Notorious Bettie Page", a biopic of the 1950s-era pinup model. I wasn't sure what to expect - serious story or cheese? Frankly, I didn't know much about Bettie Page beyond the fact that she was a busty brunette that seemed to become an icon.

But seeing the first scene with Gretchen Mol as Bettie, waiting outside a Senate hearing room, reading a letter from her sister back home in Nashville... Mol played the part with an amazing innocence and flirtatious charm. She seemed to be a girl who wanted to just have fun, found it hard to say no, and rarely saw any downside to accepting an invitation or request of any kind.

Of course, that led her into trouble, as she sometimes said "yes" to the wrong kind of guy. But the message of the film, at least what I took from it, was that trouble wasn't a reason to mope.

The movie was light and campy, and fun, even with the heavier scenes at the beginning, they don't weigh the film down with a lot of introspection. On reflection, I find this a bit surprising, but during the movie I just laughed along and enjoyed the naive way Bettie approached her modeling - even when she was tightly bound in a black corset and wielding a riding crop, Mol had this goofy, "Ain't this fun?" grin on her face and a playful spark in her eyes.

Most of the movie is shot in black-and-white, which matched the feel of New York City where most of the action took place. When Bettie runs off to Miami for a vacation and a romp with a tanned beach boy, the movie bursts into bright primary colors, like Dorothy in the Land of Oz. That color shift also prompted an appreciative chuckle from me and the audience.

Don't look to the movie for any deep thoughts on pornography or women's issues. The Senate investigation is played for laughs, as Senator Kefauver (played by David Straithairn as exactly the kind of stuffed shirt that Edward R. Murrow, played by Straithairn brilliantly in "Good Night And Good Luck", would enjoy taking down) leans in and with a subtle leer demands more information from his witnesses about bondage.

If it's this fun, who could restrain themselves? • 5:36 PM 0 comments

Recently Played disabled temporarily

I had to disable the recently-added "Recently Played" (songs) item in my sidebar.

Last.fm exports it as an image - and the image is too wide to fit in my sidebar.

If I scale it down to fit, it'll be teensy-tiny and unreadable.

I can pull my recently-played tracks from last.fm as an RSS feed. If I do it that way, I can format it however I wish. It'll just take some doing and a little bit of learning.

SIGH... I'll add that to to-do list. • 12:58 PM 1 comments

Word of advice

In Firefox, there's a little circular thingie in the upper right-hand corner, in the menu bar. It spins around when a webpage is loading.

If you click that little circular thingie, it will stop what it's doing and take you to the Firefox home page.

It will do this even if the page was in the process of re-publishing your entire blog to your webserver. Even if you didn't want it to do that. Even if it was a complete accident, and you now have to re-re-publish it.

So don't click that little circular thingie. Like I just did. • 6:53 AM 1 comments

Last.fm

I've added another item to the sidebar, via Last.fm, my most recently-played music. It's an experiment in using yet another "Web 2.0" site and all the social internetting that's been going on lately.

I listen to a lot of music, and I'm always interested in finding more. Last.fm seems like a good way to do that, and to share my musical tastes with... um... whoever is out there reading this.

Right now, of course, it shows nothing. The playlist will fill up eventually... that's the idea, anyway.

Haven't paid them yet, so I'm using their free features. And if their "iScrobbler" plug-in munges my iTunes I'm gonna be madder than mad.

So drop me a line if you like (or dislike) what I'm listening to, and feel free to make suggestions based on what you see. • 6:16 PM 1 comments

U-Scan Speed Demon

I'm a speed freak at the U-Scan. I try to hurry through it as fast as the machine will let me. Most times I'm already in position for the next option before it even comes up. I don't know why (I'm the same way with ATMs). I just don't like waiting. And it's not because there are often people behind me. Like I care about them.

I got into trouble once at an unfamiliar store, where they must have set the response time on super slow. I confuzzled the machine greatly, requiring the attendants intervention and frustrating me. I must have grumbled at my friend about the damned machines for at least seven minutes and forty-seven seconds.

But last night, at my local QFC, where I'm on my home turf, I was zipping through just like normal. Until I got to the part about paying. I had a twenty-dollar bill, and I could tell it was a bit wrinkled so I used a precious second or two before the machine asked me to insert my money to try to flatten it out. Just being efficient. But trying to feed it into the machine wasn't working. It just kept rejecting it. Again, it was slowing me down which is a cardinal sin and harshes my groove.

The nice attendant-lady gave me a couple of suggestions but it still wasn't so work-y. Apologetically I offerred to pay with my debit card but she waved me over, took my twenty and surprised me by ringing me up at the center aisle, and giving me cash out of her drawer there.

"Wow, I didn't know that was even an option" I said.

"Yeah," she replied, smiling, "it helps sometimes."

I mentally upgraded her from attendant to actual cashier. • 12:53 PM 0 comments

Wipe off the loser dust

Dear Harvey Danger,

Since your front man, Sean Nelson, has been having a run of bad luck lately, and is down in the dumps, I think the best thing for you all to do is to go out on tour. Surround yourselves with loving, adoring fans. Accept the accolades that those in the know, those who matter, are only too grateful to heap upon you.

I mean, I guess, sure, he's run off to party in the ruins of New Orleans (the bastard!). But as soon as he gets back, tour.

And when you hinted that you'd start touring again in February, did you mean this year? 'Cause in case you haven't noticed, it's practically May.

sincerely,

A Super Fan
Portland, OR. • 12:49 PM 0 comments

Making IE not be stupid

OK, so it looks like I've wandered into a minefield with my new design. Y'know, the one that doesn't work in Internet Explorer 6 or less. Which is the browser the vast majority of the public is still using stuck with.

Funny, I didn't notice that during the design phase. I thought about booting my new sexy thing into XP last weekend to check it out, but it's such a hassle to reboot and I didn't think it mattered. Also, I didn't want to be stuck in XP forever.

At any rate, I'm doing a lot of research on the topic, and as it turns out, there are a lot of workarounds and bug-exploits that will trick Internet Explorer (versions 6 or less) into rendering CSS2 elements the way every other browser does. It's like a riddle: when is "the standard" not standards-compliant?

So I'm learning about the CSS box model, and the star HTML bug and the underscore hack, and conditional stylesheets and all sorts of other stuff.

And learning is fun.

It's just not so fun when I'm doing it to support something that's both widely-used and brain-damaged.

At any rate, don't give up hope, IE >=6 users! First, as noted you could upgrade your browser to something more 21st Century:

• Firefox


• Opera


• ...for those on Apple hardware, Safari works just fine

If you can't switch from IE, you could try Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2, just released this week. I haven't installed that, because I still need a version of IE 6 to test my fix, but I've heard it's more *ahem* standards-compliant.

If you can't upgrade your browser at all (shame on you, surfing from work with such restrictive IT folk! You're going to get fired doing that!)... well, you can try to not load the CSS at all. I'm not sure how to do that, but that sounds like a great feature to add to my site, huh? I've seen it on other sites so I know it's possible, though.

Still, hold on, I'm working on it. I do want people to be able to read my site. I swear. It's not just for me and my closest friends. Honest.

I mean, c'mon. I'm a blogger, for crying out crab! I want attention! • 6:31 AM 2 comments

Billion-dollar idea

I love the internets! I've uncovered a billion-dollar idea, and here I am just giving it away for free.

Accessories for iPods are, it's been said, is a billion-dollar industry.

Consider this. Last year, Apple sold 32 million iPods, or one every second. But for every $3 spent on an iPod, at least $1 is spent on an accessory, estimates Steve Baker, an analyst for the NPD Group, a research firm. That works out to three or four additional purchases per iPod.

There are cases, and stickers, and add-ons, and car kits... you name it. However, there's one simple item that, it seems, no one has yet made.

I've got a beautiful iPod (30GB Video model in iconic white), and I keep it in a case. It's been in a case since the day I took it out of the package. First I had one of those gel cases, but it didn't have screen protection so I cobbled something up from some cell phone screen protectors. But I didn't like that solution - it hid the iPod too much and the clear plastic over the screen made it hard to see.

Also, I have a Griffin iTrip, which lets me play my iPod over any FM radio. I don't own a car, but I use FlexCar, so the iTrip was the perfect solution for me. It gave me a temporary connection to whichever car I was using at the time.*

But the iTrip doesn't fit into the dock connector when it's in the case. I have to take it out of the case to use it. Up 'til now I've used the old gel case, which I've modified to accept the iTrip - but that means the screen, the most important part to keep scratch-free, is exposed. My solution to that? Put the whole thing into a ZipLoc bag. Ugly but functional.

What I'd like is a simple connector, adapter, or cable that had a male dock connector on one end to plug into the iPod, and a female dock connector on the other that would accept the iTrip, and would allow me to use the iTrip without taking the iPod, the beautiful beautiful scratch-free iPod, out of it's protective clear case.

I asked the geniuses at the Apple Store. They'd never heard of such a thing. I've looked online. Couldn't find it. In the forums on iLounge, I found a thread that suggests that I could make one from an old dock. Yeah, I suppose I could do that. If I wanted to drop another $40 on a new dock just to tear it apart. Ugh. And if I'm going to do that, why not just buy the iTrip Auto, which already does what I want? I mean, besides the fact that that little doohicky costs seventy smackers and would be yet another cable I had to carry around, rather than a cheap little adapter...

Why doesn't someone just, y'know, make something like this, already? I know there's folk out there who would buy one?

* And if this doesn't prove the point about accessories, I don't know what will. In addition to my $300 iPod, I've bought not one but two cases and a radio transmitter that I infrequently use. Actually, the iTrip is my third one - I've had two previous models, for earlier iPods. Of course, neither of those fit my newest iPod... which can only be solved with the application of mo' money. • 6:16 AM 0 comments

Welcome to Lunar Obverse 2.0!

It's published!

It's late and I need to get to bed, but the new site is published and working.

Feel free to poke around and see if anything is broken and let me know. I'll be doing the same over the next week.

I still want to update the photo gallery to match the look of the rest of the site. I have some other, smaller things to fix, also - old links that now point to dead URLs, trying to reverse the order of the Archive list, giving the Maps an actual page, updating and re-posting my trophy page... probably other stuff, too.

But for now, this is my new beautiful home on the internets. • 10:01 PM 1 comments

Sorry things have been so quiet around here (also here and to a lesser extent here).

Believe me, I have no end of things I could comment on, or write about. I'm marinating in snark and need to get it all out. However...

I've been deep in designing my new look. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to show you all. It fits all the criteria I wanted - clean, modern, valid HTML, XHTML and CSS. It's also an obvious evolution from what I've been using.

I'm posting this on Saturday morning - I should be switching over to the new site by Sunday evening. Just a few more kinks to work out, especially on the comments, and I'll be done.

I also want to add an "about me" section, and reformat my blogroll and links. I'll need to go back and fix any broken links in my almost 1000 posts, and make the picture gallery match the look of the rest of the site. I'll do all that after the rollout, though.

I've learned a lot, and have to give reluctant thanks to John Gruber of Daring Fireball for forcing me to dig in and code my stuff myself, as well as extra thanks to Caleb Phillips of small white cube, my webhost, for help and patience. And no thanks to my mortal enemy for borking the connection to the server at odd times and hours, usually when I'm expecting an important email or, y'know, working on my site. Fuckers. • 11:19 AM 0 comments

Series of shocks and disappointments this morning, some worse than others:

• dante, due to my mortal enemy's failure, was unreachable all night and most of the morning, cutting me off from my site and my email.
  
• The cute blonde barista that gave me her email address last week gave me ample evidence this morning that she's only doing her job and being customer-friendly - nothing more.
  
• I find myself monumentally unmotivated at work (not that that's a new thing, mind you, but the guys on the team I work with were complaining more heavily and passive-aggressively than usual about the workload)
  
• And the scariest piece of news is that last night around 4:00, when I was leaving work, there was a shooting on the corner by my building.

What in the hucking fell am I doing here? If I could be randomly injured at any moment, why am I wasting time working somewhere I despise?

Something's got to change. • 9:48 AM 0 comments

Update on site re-design:

I'm this -> <- close to being ready to roll it out!

I just need to:

• design a logo,
  
• tweak the colors a bit,
  
• figure out what's going in the sidebar,
  
• get the comments section working,
  
• go back through the archives and fix broken links,
  
• get all the little "goodies" like the drop-down menus working,
  
• and update the picture gallery css,

...and I'll be done.

I think y'all will be pleased with the result. Very pleasing, simple design, easy to read and dial-up friendly.

It should even be mobile-device friendly for those of you reading my blob on Blackberries or cell phones or PDAs. Y'know... management-types. • 10:02 PM 0 comments

I read a review last night for a book called "Why?" In it, the author, Charles Tilly, analyzes the reasons we give for different things, and breaks them into four categories: a convention, a story, a code, or a technical account.

You can read the review linked above, or the book (which I am going to do at some point) for more complete descriptions of the four types. The main thing I took away from the review, however, is that which type of explanation we give is more dependent on our relationship with the person to whom we're giving it - we use stories, for example, with people we are close to or want to be closer to, we use technical accounts to impress with our knowledge, and we use codes or conventions with people we are strangers to or want to distance ourselves from.

It was with all this in the back of my mind this morning as I approached my normal bus shelter, and saw this guy standing inside there, smoking. I've seen him before and I've seen him smoking before, and I'm not normally hard-core about not smoking but sometimes it irritates me, and Tri-Met has recently helpfully put up "No Smoking" signs on many of their bus stops which gives me a reason to speak up - that reason being a code, or more specifically, a code of behavior, a rule to follow or procedure.

I walked up, he looked at me briefly, I looked directly at his cigarrette and then back at him, pointedly, I thought. It was very passive-aggressive of me.

Before I'd thought through what I was going to say, I burst out with "You know, there's no smoking at the bus stops!"

He looked at me, looked at his smoking butt, and took a step outside the shelter. "There. I'm not in the shelter anymore."

I walked up into the shelter, and pointed at the "No Smoking" sign. "All I know is, it says 'No smoking'. I don't know about in the shelter or not in the shelter."

He took a few more steps away. "Sorry," he said, sounding not sorry at all.

I stood there, inside the shelter, upset by the encounter, and then the concepts of the four different reasons flooded back into my thoughts. Was that kind of an asshole way to tell that guy not to smoke? Probably from his perspective, it was. But I didn't like him and didn't particularly want to like him or be his friend; I just wanted to not have to breathe his smoke.

But I pondered the different types of reasons and tried to come up with one of each other type. For a convention, which is like a lower-level simplified code, I could have pointed out that bus stops are for everyone, or asked him how he felt about non-smokers. OK, I'm not completely 100% sure of the difference between a convention and a code so I'm fuzzy on what I could have said here.

For a story... I could have told him about my mom who died of lung cancer (whoa, heavy one) or just mentioned how I've seen Tri-Met drivers enforcing the no-smoking zone.

For a technical account, I might have offerred information on the damage smoking does or how second-hand smoke can be as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than smoking itself.

As I write them, none of the above explanations, including the actual one I used, sound good to me now. At the time I just grabbed for the one that came to mind right away. In the future I may give more thought to the type of explanation I give, though, and I think that's a valuable skill to have. • 6:47 AM 2 comments

On the other hand, for the millions of my readers who depend on instant updates of all content on this site* via RSS or Atom feeds, I believe I have fixed my broken Atom feed for now.**

You should see the link over in the right sidebar, or if you're using a modern browser (sorry IE users) you'll see the tell-tale orange feed link in its appropriate place.


* And by "millions" I mean probably none of you.

** And by "for now" I mean until I update the site and forget to fix the broken site feed again. • 6:50 AM 0 comments

Site update:

I've worked on the re-design all weekend and, well, it's not done. I'm very close, and I think I've got all the major components in the right arrangement to each other, but there remains much tweaking of sizes and margins and all that, and I still need to add in the optional components I'd planned for.

Plus I still need to design a new logo. That's the hardest part. Despite my love of Mac OS, I'm not really a graphics kind of guy. Can't have a new design without a new logo.

It's fun, and I'm learning a lot about CSS and XHTML and how Blogger works. But just give me a little more time, maybe this coming week, before I unleash Lunar Obverse 2.0 on y'all. • 8:02 PM 2 comments

Even though I haven't actually posted about it yet, I have, in fact, used Boot Camp to install Windows XP on my new sexy thing. It had it's scary moments, not the least of which being the fact that I was installing Windows XP on my Macintosh, but mainly related to the fact that this is beta software and drivers. But once it was on there, it seemed to work OK. I installed a couple of games and they ran pretty smoothly (I'll finish up the longer report and post it... um... soon).

I haven't run it a lot this week because I've been working on my site re-design, and everyone is right - rebooting is a pain in the ass. I keep thinking I'll get around to playing those games soon...

But now, via The Unofficial Apple Weblog, I'm reading a discussion thread about a bunch of people who are stuck in Windows XP! They've booted in, and they can't boot out again. I haven't read the whole thing (there's 117 replies to go through) but mostly it's a sad sad tale of doom and woe.

Maybe I'll get rid of that partition... until the beta software is a little less beta... • 6:46 AM 0 comments

It's so strange seeing the picture of a friend I haven't talked to in a year, plastered all over town.

But then, she is a famous ballerina. • 6:35 AM 0 comments

Why do projects, which seem so simple at first, always seem to snowball into larger and larger projects?

So, as mentioned, I'm elbows-deep into redesigning this site. Basically from the ground up. It's fun, being all design-y and stuff. I'm digging it.

But I've realized that I'm going to have to go back over my previous posts on this blog and add the appropriate CSS tags to make the styles all work correctly. I wish I was better at using grep or awk - would make it so much easier.

But then, I also had a realization about domain names and blog names (those are two different things to me - I've caused confusion in others by mixing-and-matching). For instance, here are the domains I own:

• bamoon.com (you are here)
  
• brian-moon.com (currently the dev site for LO 2.0)
  
• lunarobverse.com (not currently being used)
  
• liefactory.com (my political blog)
  
• runmoonrun.com (my running blog)

And here's the thing. The Lie Factory blog is on liefactory.com. Run, Moon, Run! is on runmoonrun.com.

But Lunar Obverse, this blog you're reading now, isn't on lunarobverse.com. I got to thinkin' it should be.

But Lunar Obverse, the blog, is my personal blog. However, Lunar Obverse Consulting is my DBA and business name.

The reason I've been holding off putting something up at lunarobverse.com is because I meant for that to be my professional site. Now I'm thinking that maybe I should move this personal blog that you're reading now to lunarobverse.com, and make bamoon.com or brian-moon.com my professional site.

Decisions, decisions. The more I thought about it (and was gently prodded about it by my friends) I realized that, if I was really super-cool, I could make one page the jumping-off point, and aggregate all the new content in one place for your reading pleasure. That would probably be kinda easy to do, although I don't know how much strain that would put on dante. I've been making a lot of requests of Caleb lately and he's been very supportive but I don't want to push it...

For now I'm just going to finish the re-design. Then update the back posts, fix broken image tags and links. Finally I'll figure out what to do with all the domains I now own. It's an ownership society, they tell me, so I guess I'm doing pretty well in virtual estate.

As a side note, this will mark my 933rd post on Lunar Obverse. I might have a celebration or contest or something for my 1000th post. I've got a lot of garbage swag I could give away... Just an idea. Maybe it'll boost my readership! • 6:59 AM 0 comments

Nice. Look closely... image not safe for work (if you're managed by small-minded children):

• 6:53 AM 0 comments

I got an anonymous comment tonight, in response to this post, as follows:

is this the same jann brown that managed the johnson oil company in astoria oregon a few years back. there was talk then that she left with more cash than was hers. - 4/12/2006 05:53:44 PM

I'm answering here, as well as in the comments for that post, in the hopes that our anonymous commenter might show up and drop a few more details, or shoot me an email, or something.

Others would know better than I, but the Jann O. Brown I'm referring to has worked at Multnomah County for at least as long as I have - I started in September 1999, and Jann had worked there for at least a year or two prior to that, I believe. I know that she also worked for the Army Corps of Engineers at one point, though I don't know exactly when.

The Jann I'm talking about is about 5'7", light brown hair, tanned, thin, in her 50s. That's all the details I can pull out of my brain right now but I have been drinking tonight.

If anyone knows any more, or if this is just an unfounded accusation, let me know. When I'm seeing straighter I'll try to google around and see what I come up with. In the meantime I'm just passing this along. • 7:24 PM 4 comments

Update on the internets shenanigans and goings-on.

First, my site redesign. I've been wanting to do a site redesign for a while. I even teased about it a while ago, but I can't find the post, so no linkie. Just know that it's been on my back-burner for a long time.

I really like the moon background picture, and the three-column look, but it's not standards-compliant and it really sucks for folks on dial-up. Yes, there are still people who have dial-up internets. I know, I know, you thought it was an urban legend like Budwiser not selling beer to Arabs or Bill Gates sending you $5, but it's true.

I also wanted to somewhat simplify the overall graphic design. I'm pretty sure I'll just have two columns, for instance. I'll still have a moon theme but it will be subtler - moon bullets on my posts, for example, and a moon banner picture across the top.

Here are a couple of sites that I like and that are inspiring me:

• Daring Fireball
  
• Kottke
  
• Furious Nads!
  
• group hug (text content might not be work-safe)

There might be more but those are the ones I can think of (and link to) off the top of my head.

Second, my political posts will be on a separate domain and a separate blog. After going to Powell's last weekend to see Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and Jerome Armstrong talk about their new book, Crashing The Gate (about which event I have a post I need to finish up), I thought I'd work on blogging local and national politics a bit more extensively - and I had a domain I registered a year ago and hadn't been using that would comment on my cynical view of politics.

Say "hello" to The Lie Factory.

Likewise, I'm moving my running-related posts to a brand-new domain and separate blog. For now anything to do with training or racing will be there. Right now I only have one post, since I just bought the domain this morning (from GANDI, a French company that only charges 12 Euros per year. I forget the exchange rate but it's cheap, believe me).

Introducing Run, Moon, Run!.

Once the site re-design is done here, I'll add some bells and whistles to TLF and RMR. For right now I'm just using some default Blogger templates. • 12:32 PM 1 comments

Sorry for the lack of posts 'round here. I've got (yet another) a new project I'm working on, and a couple of posts in draft form that I'll try to toss up here when they're good and ready and not one minute before.

In the meantime, let me just say "ow." • 6:46 AM 0 comments

Wow! Sure, I've wondered if my union was in bed with management.

But I always assumed it was metaphorical. Not literal.

Copies of the relevant articles archived here and here. • 1:24 PM 0 comments

I'm totally stealing this from John Gruber, but I think he's being really really eloquent when he says:

"Holy shit!"

Apple has released a public beta of a utility to let you dual-boot Windows XP on your Intel-based Mac, called Boot Camp.

And the bestbestbest part: this technology is going to be included in the next version of Mac OS X, 10.5, Leopard.

This totally looks like a surprise strike at a target of opportunity. What's that? Oh, haven't you heard? Windows Vista isn't going to ship until 2007. But IT OK, Microsoft is going to put stickers on any PC even barely capable of having Vista installed on it, thus guaranteeing that anyone who actually upgrades in '07 has a really really shitty experience. Nice one, Microsoft! Go, Apple!

Once people get used to running Mac OS, and can compare it side-by-side with XP on the same hardware... I'm betting that some folks eventually just get rid of XP altogether. Not all, mind you; I'm sure some will continue to use both, and some will actually prefer XP for many reasons. But there will be at least some switchers, and that only works to Apple's advantage, since the bulk of their income still comes from sales of hardware, not software.

Knowledge Base article with all your FAQs about Boot Camp found here.

OK, that does it. I'm totally dual-booting my new sexy thing this weekend. • 6:48 AM 0 comments

Holy crab!

An article about the corrupt management at the county in the local paper

AND

Tom DeLay weaseling out of facing the voters?

Good things are supposed to come in threes.

If I get any more good news today I might...

Damn, I got nothin'. I just can't be that lucky.

Update 4:14 PM - I'm adding this (image stolen from Duncan Black, who probably stole it from someone else found it somewhere else), mainly for Tracy, who actually made me do the Snoopy dance earlier today when she didn't know what I was talking about:

• 12:25 PM 1 comments

Great article on the front page of the Portland Tribune today.

Remember, though, you read it here first. • 6:35 AM 0 comments

Over the weekend, Josh Marshall took a break from his usual excellent journalisming about politics and mused about the esoteric topic of baseball team loyalty. He's trying to pick a team, now that he's living in New York City.

Basically, he's asking if he should root for the Yankees. In his words:

"But the Yankees? Becoming a Yankees fan almost seems like apostasy."

Essentially, Josh is pointing out that a little suffering makes enjoying the victories sweeter. And since the Yankees hardly ever lose, there's really not enough suffering to make it enjoyable.

Don't look at me like that. I understand him completely. Maybe only baseball fans can get that.

At any rate, he asked for comments and suggestions from fellow baseball fans.

I sent him the following:

I don't know if you're a fan of "Get Fuzzy", a syndicated comic strip about a guy named Rob, his dog Satchel (named after, of course, Satchel Paige) and his cat, Bucky (named, of course, after Buck O'Neil from the Negro Leagues)...

...but I think, if you are, all you need to know is that Bucky is a Yankees fan. Do you want to be like Bucky?

The comic is set in Boston, though (which coincidentally is the hometown of the artist, Darby Conley), so that might tend to explain things.

• 12:46 PM 0 comments

I realize I stopped Friday Cat Blogging a while ago. Mainly because my camera is teh suxxorz.

Tracy has revived the tradition with post about Snickers, her mama cat. Er, former mama cat - she had that "fixed".

Just for reference, Snickers is Smacky's mama. • 10:27 AM 1 comments

Last Thursday, a co-worker announced over the tops of the cubes, "I get the most boring spam ever!" With much vehemence.

Since I was the only one there in at least a 4-cube radius, I wandered over.

He had his personal webmail open, and was going through and deleting vast numbers of messages. "Here's one for donuts," he complained. "Another one! One for a Chevy Tahoe! Mattress offers!" Delete, delete. "J. C. Penney!"

I said, "Dr. Seuss? Insurance? You're right. Very very boring."

He shook his head. "I must not go to the really exciting websites."

"Listen, if you want, I can show you some... I get porn spam all the freakin' time."

He looked up at me. "Nah. I'm too old for that shit."

"But you had to think about it, didn't you?" I smiled back. • 9:26 AM 2 comments

Just as it was last year, I still hate surfing the internets on April Fool's Day. I can typically spot the fake or funny posts, but sometimes it takes me a minute or two of pondering.

If you're interested in some of the best, Andy Baio at Waxy has a compilation post.

Just for the record, I will never ever post a fake entry. I have a terrific sense of humor, trust me (or, trust my friends), it's just that April Fool's jokes are overdone.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go finish running the marathon I started this morning. • 9:19 AM 0 comments