Well, it smells like the ass end of a barbeque pit. There's a haze that hangs through the air of fine particulate matter that is undoubtedly giving a good portion of the state respiratory problems, if not now then in the future. And hot damn if it isn't getting damn hot.
How are things in your neck of the woods?
Can we make make an exception to Godwin's Law when we discuss the Bush administration (or given recent debates, Republicans in general)?
Maybe one of these days my little 30-second spot will become irrelevant. Today is not that day.
There's a trailer out for the new Clone Wars series. Looks to me like a video game cutscene...if they were going to use the Tartakovsky designs, I don't see why they couldn't have just done it in 2D like the last series instead of the weird hybrid approach they seem to have decided on.
And..."coked-out Carrie"? I'll have to take their word for it.
Getting reacquainted with my camera and found a willing subject outside. Both are cropped from the original photo. The bottom was also tweaked slightly for brightness/contrast, but the top image is untouched except for selecting the white balance.
Breakfast time this morning and I let out Opie from the basement as usual. Only this time there was a deafening noise coming from downstairs, as if I forgot to turn off a wind tunnel. Turns out the PowerMac's fans had somehow managed to turn themselves on full blast overnight. I've been resigned to its inherited sleep disorder (from the G4 before it, which suffered from the same problem), but this was something new. I turned off the machine and worried about it off & an all day, since the last thing I want is sudden hardware problems. It's turned on okay and I'm able to get work done, but now that it's time to sign off I'm not sure if I should leave it on, or turn it off. Hmm...
Via Audiofile, I've learned that Hillary is shopping for a campaign theme song. The Audiofile crew engage in some serious over-analyzing of the choices, and personally I think the idea of having people vote on this is pretty stupid. (And she's foolishly asking for suggestions-- I wonder how many people have suggested "Irresistable Bitch"?)
But.
"I'll Take You There" is on the list, which I think is one of the most awesomest songs (not to mention bass lines) ever. I'm not a big fan of Hillary and don't know that I would be thrilled with her using that song, but if it exposes anyone to Mavis & the gang, I'm all for it.
Of course, this being a blog post you know where this is going. I'm going to feel compelled to offer up my own list of campaign songs (Yes, I know this is eleven. I'm courting the Spinal Tap vote.):
The house is getting a long-overdue paint job, and tonight the painter is inside doing the last few bits inside the windowsills. This involves opening each of the windows, doing a little scraping, and then painting what I'm assuming is just an inch or so wide strip. Theoretically, this should be no big deal. Even though our windows are on the old & creaky side, I had to open all of them a week or so ago to loosen the screens, so tonight's job shouldn't be hard to do...or not. I think he's spent the last hour banging, grunting, and no doubt cursing at pretty much every window inside the house.
Meanwhile, the cats are down in the basement staring vaguely upstairs in a state of mild alarm wondering what all the commotion is, and sticking to me like glue if I venture down there. Mind you, these are the same cats I practically needed five hands to get down there in the first place. I'm sure they'll be glad to get back upstairs, but in the meantime they're getting a good cardio workout just from the noise.
You might need to squint, but if you look close I think you'll be able to spot the trend.
Saw "An Unreasonable Man" last week, and highly recommend it. It includes lots of information about both how he came to prominence, and of course his presidential runs. It was the latter that I found the most revealing, and not just about Nader. He's been portrayed by many in Democratic circles as something of a megalomaniac and you would think single-handedly responsible for Gore's defeat in 2000 and all the ills that have followed. However, I came away from the movie thinking that while he may not be blameless, his actions in 2000 were perfectly justifiable.
What struck me the most, however, was that I think we are entering a period where sentiment is going to be swinging towards Nader's way of thinking on social issues, even as he continues to be derided by those on the left. I find this unfortunate, because had he been able to join his organization with the netroots he could have harnessed something incredibly powerful. I can only hope that people can forgive and forget so that everyone can get with the process of straightening this country out.
We're going to be taking a trip to Montreal this summer, and are feeling the need to practice our french. Ideally this would mean tracking down old textbooks to review conjugation rules and vocabulary, but mostly we just have conversations like this one.
INT. dining room, morning
JASON is finishing his breakfast when CHANDRA enters the room.
Chandra
Ca va?
Jason
What?
CHANDRA
Ca va?
JASON
Mitä?
CHANDRA
En ymmärrä.
JASON
Ah. I need money.
CHANDRA
(grabs her purse and starts rummaging in it)
Vayin?
JASON
What?
CHANDRA
Vain?
JASON
What?
CHANDRA
How do you say "twenty" in french?
JASON
(in a comically bad french accent)
Twen-TEE
CHANDRA
No, come on-- how do you say it?
JASON
Vingt.
CHANDRA
Van. 'Kay.
JASON
Qu'est-ce que c'est, ce "'kay?"
(a beat)
Okay, that's just awesome.
Martine gets philosophical, and wonders what might have been if she had had access to the Internet growing up. It's an interesting question to ponder, though it's the kind of thing you can't really answer. She seems to think that she might have turned out different, and I can see why she would think that. Speaking for myself, I spent a lot of hours on an Apple //e as a kid, and with access to the net there's no telling what I might have done. In college I very often walked to the library to look stuff up, but there were times when the quad seemed miles wide, so I didn't always take advantage of those resources. As to whether I would have ended up a different person, or doing something else with my life, I don't think so. Even though I ended up working as a web developer, I don't think I would have pursued it actively as a kid. I would have been largely a consumer of information until I felt like I had something to say, and while I am an unabashed nerd now there was a time when I fought against it. Fundamentally, I think the path I would have taken was going to be similar no matter what technology was available to me.
But then again, who knows?
Just realized I hadn't posted in a while, and even though I don't really have anything pithy to say I hate to see a good blog go to waste. So, here are a couple tunes for your enjoyment and/or deletion. Be warned, these are super-sloppy. The first I recorded tonight, and the second I just found laying lying laying accidentally on my hard drive.
Note: if you click on these and get garbage (I did), just right-click and do a "save as".
I also found something a little more crisp, but I'll save that one for tomorrow.