Procrastination wrap-up

Do you ever get that paralysis that comes from not blogging regularly enough? I do. I have. That's why there's been so much in the past month that hasn't shown up here. I know I won't do some topics justice, but here they are anyway.

By far the saddest news for December was about my dear Luna-dog. After hashing (first time in a couple of months) with her on the 11th, I came home from work on Thursday, the 16th, to find her lying in my bedroom, clearly out of sorts: tired, sluggish, not wanting to stand, and not able to stand for very long when I helped her up. I got Kris to stop by and take a quick look, and off to the Emergency vet I went for what I expected to be just an antibiotic shot for pneumonia. A blood test an x-ray later, I found out it was a couple of bleeding abdominal masses, combined with a septic infection. I rallied Kris and Susie and off to a better emergency vet in Cary, where the diagnosis was confirmed and refined. Luna wouldn't make it through the night if we did nothing, and her chances were slim-to-grave if we did pursue heroic interventions. Having her put to sleep was the most difficult thing I've done in a long while. Luna was coherent and *there*, surrounded by three of the folks who loved her most in the world, as the doc pushed the meds that dropped her off to sleep, stopped her breathing and then he heart. I know she felt cruddy, and I know it was the best (if not only) choice to have made, but that didn't make it easier. We all cried and said our goodbyes. It was by far the crappiest night of the year. I miss my Luna.

More wrap-up soon. Happy new year everyone!!
-B

Dust Houses

I thought this was cool. ]



This Columbian artist Maria Adelaida Lopez, who cleaned houses while she went to college, creates houses covered with the cruft from full vacuum cleaner bags. Odd looking, I know, but I really liked the one here. It reminds me so much of a haunted house.

Link to Art MoCo article.
Link to artist's site.

-B

80% of California? Really?

I was surfing artichokes.org, looking for recipes, and found a very interesting fact. "Approximately 80% of the state's total acreage lies within Monterey County."

Well, they say you learn something new every day.

-B

Sony makes good?

Whoa. Sony is now not only offering to exchange XCP/rootkit enabled CDs for non-XCP-enabled ones (not necessarily DRM-free, just XCP-free, but I digress...) but they'll give you MP3's off all the songs on the CD when you do the exchange. I really am kinda shocked.

Exchange details are here.

You can exchange your SONY BMG compact discs (CDs) containing XCP content protection software for replacement versions of the same CD(s) without the XCP software. Please confirm that your CD(s) is among the titles and versions listed below and then select from the list the titles of the CD(s) you wish to exchange. Then click “continue.”

In the page that follows, you will be asked to provide the shipping information in the United States to which you would like to have the replacement CD sent. In addition, you will have the option of selecting whether you would like to receive MP3 files of the title(s) in addition to your replacement CD(s).

-B

Yay for Amazon!!

Major kudos to an Amazon.com for doingg the right thing. Not only are the Sony CDs they sell labelled with warnings about content protection, but they've gone a step beyond Sony's request that XPC-cursed CDs be pulled from the shelves, but Amazon is actually refunding anyone's purchase of one of these CDs, opened or not. This is a fantastic thing for them to do, and all in the name of doing the right thing by their customers. Offering to exchange customer's XCP-crippled CDs for real CDs is a good step, but Sony should have been the one pushing this refund solution from the start. Stupid company.

Amazon.com: Manhattan Symphonie [SONY XCP CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]: Music: Dexter Gordon: "This Sony CD includes XCP digital rights management (DRM) software. Due to security concerns raised about the use of CDs containing this software on PCs, Sony has asked Amazon.com to remove all unsold CDs with XCP software from our store. If you have purchased this CD from Amazon.com, you may return it for a full refund regardless of whether the CD is opened or unopened, following our normal returns process. Simply indicate that the CD is 'defective' as the reason for return."

Original topic thread found on BoingBoing.

-B

Presentation Zen

I found a great presentation blog that I wanted to share. It's Presentation Zen, and it's got a great outlook on how (and more importantly how not to) do effective presentations and visuals. Go check it out.

A few more links from there:

• Presentation Zen: Wabi-Sabi and Presentation Visuals (part I)


• Presentation Zen: Wabi-Sabi and Presentation Visuals (part II)

This little bit was copied gratuitiously from Wabi-Sabi Part II, because I though it so perfect and appropriate and releveant:


ACTIVITY
From this table below, how many of the ideas can you apply to the design and use of visuals or to the planning and delivery of your presentations?

	Wabi Sabi	Tech Slick
	Nature focused Authentic Allows things to age Subtleties Intuitive Personal One-of-a-kind In the moment The whole Open and unresolved Appreciation Seasonal Flexibility Tolerates ambiguity Paradoxical Unrefined Elegant Fractal Organic Living Handcrafted Soft edges Patina Stone Listens Sees Receptive Slow Humble Plain Reflective Mindful Heartfelt Warm	Technology focused Copied Strives for eternal youth Bold and obvious Rational Impersonal Conformity and sameness Future oriented Separated into parts Works toward closure Depreciation Quarterly Stability Intolerance of ambiguity Black and white Refined Ornate Square and measured Geometric Artifact Mass-produced Hard edges Plastic Steel Talks Shows Arrogant Fast Proud Fancy Unconscious Mindless Heartless Cold

-B

USATODAY.com - Senate votes to ban torture of terrorism detainees

From USATODAY.com - Senate votes to ban torture of terrorism detainees: "Another provision passed this month would ban cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners and establishes the Army Field Manual as the governmentwide guide for all interrogations. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the sponsor, was tortured during the more than five years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison during the Vietnam War.

Bush has said repeatedly that the United States does not torture prisoners. He opposes the measure because he says it would limit interrogators' ability to get information from terrorism suspects, and he has threatened to veto the defense bill if it includes that amendment."

I completely commend Congress for getting this ammendment passed and attached to the defense bill. I personally think that torture under any circumstances is wrong. To believe otherwise brings us down to the level of the terrorists. We have to take the high ground and do the right thing. I completely fail to comprehend Bush's statement: if, as he says, we do not torture prisoners, how would this bill limit interrogators' ability to get information? Can someone please explain this to me, because I just don't get it.

Stupid administration.

-B

Sony is dead to me.

Ah, it's sad. Sony did a bad thing, in that they released a few dozen CDs with a fairly aggressive DRM scheme (First4Internet XCP) that not only prevents you from using the content (music) that you just paid for, but installs some fairly insidious software, akin to rootkits used by hackers to gain control of your PC at a very low level, to hide the existance and assure the irremovability of their DRM. As if installing software on users PCs that they didn't want, that removes functionality they had before they tried to listen to that CD wasn't bad enough, they (like most large companies seem to) denied that any sort of problems existed. If you wanted to remove the DRM & rootkit that hid it, you had to contact Sony twice, and the installer left your machine with bigger security holes than it had before you uninstalled it. It was also discovered that the DRM/rootkit sent network packets back to Sony on a regular basis, something Sony assured everyone that it didn't do. When faced with this, Sony said that while yes, it does phone home, we ignore what it sends back so it's all the same, right? Sony continues to stall, not apologizing for the damage done by their uninvited software, and not releasing an begnign uninstaller.

Not that my purchases alone will make a difference, but Sony's on my bad-guy list from now on. No Sony A/V hardware. No Sony/BMG music. So Sony Playstation. I have, and will continue to, support vendors who don't treat me like I'm a criminal from the get-go. When I buy content, it's mine to do with (within the law) as I please. I get to decide what that is, not the company that made it. If I want to listen to it on my iPod in the car, or load it on my phone to be a ringtone, then that's my business. Companies need to learn that getting in the way of that will only make me (and a few million other cusomers) mad. And mad customers don't buy your stuff.

-B

Pub Quiz

VSI

Okay, I only scored 180. I didn't know some of the science ones I should have, and I got some of the culture and history ones right that I probably shouldn't have. Go give it a try and share your scores!

-B

The New Monogamy - Marriage With Benefits

From an Em & Lo column at the New York Magazine The New Monogamy - Marriage With Benefits: "For much of human history, monogamy (or, at least, presumed monogamy) has been the default setting for long-term love. Hack the system, goes the theory, refuse to forsake all others, open the door even a crack—and the whole relationship will crash. Any dissenters have been pathologized as delusional idealists or worse. But now a new generation of couples is employing a kind of homeopathic hypothesis: that a tiny injection of adventure will ward off the urge to stray further—as long as it’s all on the table and up for discussion. (And just as with homeopathy, a healthy percentage of the population considers this premise bunk.)"

Intersting premise. Not anything I'm about to go jumping into, but thought provoking. I'll post more here after I've mulled it over for a bit.

-B

Originally found at BoingBoing.

As seen in Harry Potter 6: The Half-Blood Prince

gormless (British informal) Adjective: lacking intelligence and vitality

So, that begs the question: can one be gormful? How about gormed?

Curious,
-B

Fashion hack: avoid wallet butt bulge - Lifehacker

Fashion hack: avoid wallet butt bulge - Lifehacker

A silly, but important thread over at one of my regular reads talks about wallet-bulge on guys, and how it ruins the topography. My $.02, (since I don't have commenting rights over there... hint-hint!) is this: go with a really slimmed down money clip in the front pocket. I use one that allows me a cash clip, an outside-visible clear pocket for my license, and inside spots for 4 cards, plus I use the foldy space in between for receipts. No wallet bulge. No painful butt from sitting cock-eyed for long periods. No scrambling for 'where'd I put that card...' again. Other useful, but seldom-used cards (library, video store, etc.) stay bundled in the car for easy access.

-B

Goodnight and Good Luck

Susie and I went and saw this over the weekend, and what a great movie it was!! All the actors did a wonderful job, and it left me with more questions about the whole McCarthey era hearings than it answered. But it was a very good snapshot at one particular part of that era. Murrow was a great journalist - it's a serious pitty that there aren't news organizations with that kind of backbone these days.

But that's another post.

-B

LunaDog

 

I love my OCD border collie. (And my darling wife who took this picture.)

-B 

Another 80's Dance Night done right

Another kick-butt night at Cat's Cradle last night. It seems that by sheer incompetence that they're making it harder for the non-UNC-student population to get tickets to get in at a reasonable time. Not to be daunted hasher Better Not Suck and I managed to tag-team the problem and scored tickets. We' had a fantastic time as usual, this time with BNS & BPD, Richard & Deb, Johnatan & Pat, and Ashley & 'her boy'. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

-B

Disney's Haunted Mansion

I found this really great site that details all sorts of backstage stuff about Disney's US Haunted Mansions. There's lots of details on how the effects are done, how the buildings are laid out, and some of the history of the rides. Check out The Haunted Mansion Secrets.


Originally found on BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/27/secrets_of_disneys_h.html

BSB - I want it that way

Okay, I know this is making (has made?) the rounds everywhere on the net already, but I got such a kick out of it I just had to post it here.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6739710473912337648

It's Backsteet Boys as done by a couple of Chinese students. It's too great for words.

Enjoy.

-B

Pet Cemetary Sells Out To Developers

Oh yay. North Carolina makes it on to BoingBoing again, and once again, in an odd, sorta unflattering way. They're moving a pet cemetary to make room for a Hampton Inn. Kinda eerie, because I know exactly where this is - we've hashed near there before. Hopefully it won't be as bad as Stephen King's possibility.

Original subcrawl link: http://www.subcrawl.net/node/86
BoingBoing link: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/25/pet_cemetery_dug_up_.html

-B

Miyazaki film festival on TCM

From BoingBoing:

Miyazaki film festival on TCM

Cartoon Brew says there will be a Miyazaki film festival on TCM in January. Nine of Miyazaki's animated movies will air.

This is the package of Studio Ghibli features that Disney acquired, which includes Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso and Whisper of the Heart. No word if TCM is going to run them subtitled or dubbed. This is probably timed to remind Academy voters to consider Howl's Moving Castle for Best Animated Feature. While I'm not crazy about TCM showing anything after 1970, I do admit Miyazaki's works are true modern classics.

CartoonBrew link
BoingBoing link

Woot! I'm really looking forward to this! There are 3 in there I've never seen, and don't recall having been easily available on home video. Time to crank up the Myth box.

-B

Sold my soul to the devil...

Yes, it's true. I've gone to the dark side, and all just for a sweet techno-tchotchke. Well, a sweet tecno-tchotchke and the apparently the best cell network in the area.

I just got a Motorola e815 (through Amazon - gotta love those rebates!) and a two-year sentence contract with Verizon. I have very mixed feelings about this, as I've heard more horror stories about Verizon than any other service provider out there. I think that they're not particularly more or less evil than the average wireless provider out there, but that they just have more customers to complain. I do think they have a greedy, non-customer-centric business model, but all I really need them for is a good phone and good network coverage. Everything else is just a seem edit away from being as Motorola intended it.

So yesterday started our 2-week worry-free trial, after which it's good-bye Alltel, hello Verizon. I'll miss Alltel, as they've always been great to deal with. I just can't take marginal- to no coverage at home and in my office. If I can't use my phone where I spend most of my time, why pay for it?

-Bill

CNN.com - Fire destroys 'Wallace and Gromit' warehouse - Oct 10, 2005

How sad. And this just after they got the weekend box office record w/ $16mil.

Fire destroys 'Wallace and Gromit' warehouse - Oct 10, 2005
"BRISTOL, England -- The company behind the new 'Wallace and Gromit' film said Monday its 'entire history' has been destroyed in a fire at a warehouse containing props and sets." CNN.com

But I think Nick Parks, they guy who created Wallace and Gromit, had a great perspective on this.

"Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal," he said.

Old Man's Eyes

"Starting around the age of forty or so, the ability to focus on closer objects decreases - books and newspapers have to be held farther away to bring them into clear focus. This is probably the first sign of the condition called presbyopia (from Greek words meaning "old man's eyes"). Another sign of presbyopia is that people's ability to refocus quickly between near and far objects decreases."

This becomes painfully apparent when Bon brings something to me and says "Here, look at this!" and puts it six inches from my nose. I used to be able to focus that close, but now find myself taking whatever it is and moving it out to 16 inches or so. Sigh. I'm getting old man's eyes.

quote from http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ergonomics/office/computer_glasses.html

Drama on row R, section 16

Susie and me (I? myself? whatever...) went to go see the Rolling Stones last night. Fabulous show - everything you'd expect from the Stones. They rock, even at age 62 (Mick), and I'm very glad that Susie talked me into going. We talked about what a Stones show would look like at some place much smaller, like Cat's Cradle, and while I thought it'd be a killer show, she thought it'd suck for Mick to be trapped on such a small stage. $65/ea for seats just about as far from the stage as you could possibly be still seems outrageous for a concert, but I guess that just shows my age.
I know it sounds weird, but I had almost as much fun watching this little human drama unfold on the row in front of us. All folks involved looked like Duke students, which wasn't too surprising. The girl in the cute plaid skirt (cps, henceforth) and the guy in the orange shirt (os) were sitting in front of us and to the right a bit. She was cute, he looked like you average casually dressed college kid. After the Stones started their set, I noticed her crouched down, sneaking a drag (or 3) from a joint from the guy in front of her. After that, she starts bouncing around and dancing with everyone near her. (Perfect attitude to have for a concert, btw.) Everyone, that is except her date, Mr. Orange Shirt. He seemed to be enjoying the show, but slightly annoyed at his dancing date. Ms. cps ends up dancing with Mr. Green Shirt 1 (gs1). He looked like a Duke frat person, and he was in the company of gs2, gs3, and (possibly) gs4. So cps danced with gs1 a lot, with lots of other fun, flirtatious stuff along the way. The more they danced, the more annoyed os got. Os tried to talk to her at one point and tell her he wasn't happy with her behavior, and from what I can tell, she told him to relax / f-off, after which she resumed dancing w/ gs1. As the concert drew to a close, cps noticed os was upset about something and tried to find out what, only to get the brush-off. Cps then stopped dancing with gs1 and tried to console os (talking to him, trying to nibble on his ear, kiss him) but he'd have none of it. When we left, they were still sitting there, settling into a nice breakup argument. To her credit, she was talking to him, rather than going home with gs1 and friends. I think cps was a bit of a skank for abandoning her date for someone else, while he was still there. I think os was a bit of an uncommunicative stick-in-the-mud for not dancing with her himself, and not having their relationship ground rules worked out better up front. Susie said "I'm glad I'm not that age anymore." Yeah, it's amazing what 15 years and a couple of landmark course will do for you.

Cheers,
-B

Kungaloosh Recipe

Original Kungaloosh Recipe -- Circa 1997

1 1/4 ounce vodka
1 1/4 ounce Malibu Rum
3/4 ounce Midori (melon liqueur)
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
1 splash cranberry juice

Mix well with ice or freeze. Yell kungaloosh! Drink deeply. Repeat as necessary.

Found at Kungaloosh Recipes -- Adventurers Club

Sheesh....

I really need to get off my butt and actually post something here. I find myself avoiding doing it (why?), and then dreading posting because it's been sooo long since I've posted, so it's self perpetuating. So, here I am running my mouth, saying not much of anything.

Not that I get that anybody else has ever read this. Yell if you read this post!!

-sbh

Richard Koch's 80/20 rules

A nifty read. A bunch of common-sense ways to get more out of life.

Learn to live the 80/20 way

OSCON 2005 Day 1 - The Ruby/Rails tutorials

Hi from Portland again. It's beautiful here, and something about the place makes me wish I had a bike here.

Day 1 Tutorials I attend were Dave Thomas's Intro to Ruby and David Heinemeier Hansson's Ruby on Rails - Enjoying the Riding of Programming.

Intro to Ruby was great. Dave is a great presenter and put on a great talk. It was well paced and did a great job of teaching Ruby from the ground up. It's a beautiful, elegant language and seems to be capable of great things in a very straightforward way.

I have really mixed feelings about David Hansson's Rails talk. He clearly knows his stuff.... heck, he wrote Rails while growing Backpack at 37signals. And there's no denying Rails is a great platform to devleop for. I'm having great fun trying it out and seeing what it can do. David's presentation was very much a whirlwind tech demo, and very much not a tutorial. It was great to see how someone very skilled could do very elegant things with Rails very simply and quickly. Rails just rocks. But the tutorial sucked if evaluated as a tutorial. There was no real structure, there was no way to take notes, next to no way to follow along on my own laptop, and it was difficult to walk out with anything approaching useful skills to get Rails going.

One other thing I learned on my own trying out O'reilly's Rails demo was that the default Ruby install with FC4 is missing something (an exception declaration?) that keeps rails from running completely. It runs enough to sorta work, but not enough to actually run controllers and the like. I pulled down and built Ruby from source and everything was great.

Portland, day 2

Day 2 was a blast.

We tracked down had breakfast at Arnolds (a great local-chain), grabbed tasty munchies at Trader Joe's, found REI and blew some time there, and spent an insane amount of time driving around Hood Mtn National Forest looking for Bagby Hot Springs. (Notice a trend here with the 'getting lost' thing? Me too.) Despite less than ideal directions, and a couple hours of fruitless exploring, we finally found it and it was fantastic! It turns out we weren't that far from it in the first place, and in our exploring, we hadn't actually backtracked enough to find it.

Up next: OSCON 2005 - Day 1

Hello from Portland!

Yay! Am in Portland w/ my darling wife Susie, and we had a great day. We toured the city... got lost... drank a bunch of good beer at the Oregon Brewers Festival... got shaken down by a druggie in Chinatown... (finally!) saw Hitchhiker's Guide at the Bagdad Theatre.

I'm out here for OSSCON this week, and it should be a blast. More on that as it happens.

Remarkable Tsunami pictures

This guy put together before / after pictures of the Tsunami damage.

Tsunami - Receding waters, Kalutara Beach, Sri Lanka

You really get an idea of how bad the damage really was looking at these. What would your town look like after this sort of damage?

-Bill

Second Life: Your World. Your Imagination.

Sheesh, I am soooo hooked. How did it get to be almost 1am???

Grocery Store Wars - And there was much silliness...

Finger on the trigger...

Dear Senators Dole and Burr,


The judicial filibuster is critical to the continued balanced democracy of our country!


Justices of all levels should not be picked and inserted based on partisan choices. They're important enough that a simple majority won't suffice - they need to be balanced enough to achieve a super-majority. I'm deeply, deeply disappointed at the Republican's wranglings to rewrite the rules so they can seat their appealing-to-less-than-the-majority candidates.


To me, it's simple. If a judicial candidate doesn't appeal to the super-majority, then they're not balanced enough to be a judge.


Sincerely,

-Me


Make your opinion heard while there's still time.

tasktoy

Busy morning round here? No, not really. I just had a small pile of worthy sites to mention and am just getting around to doing it.

tasktoy

This is my new home page (at home, and soon to be at work as well). It's not gorgeous, but it's damn functional. It's a list, link, and project manager, a la GTD (David Allen's Getting Things Done, a fantastic book I'll be writing more about as I get going with it.)

-Bill

Plogress.com

Here's a tool that let's you keep track of what your Congresscritters are up to. It's extra nifty in that it provides RSS/Atom feeds as well., so you can keep up on what they're doing from your own news aggregator.

Plogress.com!

I wonder if they tell you how your Senators and Reps voted on recent legislation?

Boogie Bra

Okay. Why am I posting about how to make a bra out of guy's tightie-whities? Because it seems like such a cool, creative, makeish thing to do.

Boogie Bra

There's a pretty interesting textile-oriented blog to back it up as well.

-Bill

Time

What happens when you let a designerish person loose with Flash? This does.

Time

It's cool, hypnotic, and does a great job representing a lot if information in a pretty compact and understandable format. Edward Tufte would be proud... or at least I think he would be.

-Bill

Password generator - cool tool!

Nic Wolff has come up with very slick tool for managing passwords across all the gazillion websites that each require their own. Using this Password generator tool you only have to enter your own master password. This script does an MD5 hash of the site url and your master password to give you a secure, unique, junk-looking password for each site. John Udell over at InfoWorld did a little 2.75 minute webcast on his blog about what it is and how to use it that's a far better explanation of how useful this tool really is.

For you Firefox junkies there's a greasemonkey script here (although I got an error every time I tried to install it).
And, finally, there's a bookmarklet for the same thing here.

All this originally found at LifeHacker.

80's Dance Night at the Cradle!

Hey y'all! Saturday was WXYC's 80's Dance Night at the Cat's Cradle. And other than mistiming our entry into line, such that we lost the rest of the hashers out of boredom (then Richard too!), and that most of the kids there coulda been half my age, we had a absolute blast. I really don't think the kids that were there seeing this as a fun novelty retro thing get this at the same level as those of us who had the 80's as our formative teenage / college years. Costume wise, no Seychelles flags this year, but (my personal) most original costume prize went to two guys who had white jumpsuits and helmets strung with lightning wire so they looked like Tron. So, Susie, Bill and me had a great time, dancing in the 500ish cozy crowd, singing and screaming songs that we knew from heart from the first time they were out. We left at midnight, hoarse, sweaty, ears ringing and very happy.

Cheers!
-B

Steve is an ass.

Steve Jobs, the long-time egomaniac in charge of Apple, is an ass. Apparently, he's not happy with the unauthorized biography published by Wiley, and has ordered all their tech books pulled from all Apple stores.

Sheesh. What an ass.

-B

Make your elected officials work for you!

I always get all proud and citizen-y when I actually get motivated enough about an issue to write to my Congress-critters about it. Well, yesterday there were two.

First off, the committee-neutering rules that the Republicans passed for the House Ethics Committee just make me mad. House majority leader Tom DeLay has been accused of taking trips (a golf outing to Scotland, I think) funded by lobbyests, and under the current new rules, no ethics investigation can even start until both parties on the Ethics committee agree that there's a need. Both parties agree on something in this Congress? Give me a break. It gets worse: if there's no agreement, nothing happens. Any ethics charges just quietly go away, and that's a bunch of crap. The Democrats have stonewalled the whole ethics process until the rules get changed back to closer to what they were before, and I say bully for them. And I let the Honorable David Price know exactly that.

The other thing that got me riled up was all the blustering about the filibuster in the Senate. The Democrats don't like Bush's judicial nominees, and threaten to filibuster any that come up for confirmation. The Republicans, of course, don't take kindly to this, and keep threatening to invoke the Nuclear Option (got to love the emotional payload on that term, eh?) and through parliamentary rule changes remove the ability to filibuster from the rules. I'm not at all nuts about what Bush has sent down in the way of judicial nominees, and I strongly support the current process remaining intact. It's worked well for many, many years, and the Republicans threatening to change the rules just because they don't like the way the game is going seems really childish and not at all good for the country. And I let Senators Dole and Burr know how I felt about that.

Relatedly, this also makes me mad. (I really don't usually spend this much time mad. The Republicans have just been doing a really good job at it lately. :-)) Bill Frist out making talks to the religious right (the same ones who kept Bush in office :-/) to oppose the filibuster as irreverent and UnChristian. I hope this backfires and gets exposed as the stupid emotional manipulative play that it really is.

-B

Good weekend

Hey world, good weekend here on the home front. :-)

We:

• Did the Angels Among Us 5k and Family Walk w/ Sus & B & O Lotsa fun, and for a good cause, but a bit much runwalking for the kiddo's, esp O. Yay Justin's Buddies!
• Blew off the Hash to work around the house. So much Spring yard work to get done.
• Ripped out the last ugly 70's-antique-gold bathroom fixture - the sink - and started replacing it with a gleaming new non-gold one with a new faucet set to match what I put in the shower last Summer.
• Bought plants for the garden and yard. Finally time to replace the grapes the city dug up a couple of years ago when they were doing the sewers.

Good, if slightly chilly weekend. But who am I to complain... at least it didn't snow here. :-)

Cheers,
-B

A couple of cat links...

First, I found this one. The Infinite Cat Project It's cats watching cats, kinda like an infinte reflection in a mirror, except excellently staged with cats. Something like 875 pics sent in by people as I write this. Ah... gotta love the internet. :-)

And the waaaay-too-cute-not-to-post category is cats sleeping in weird poses. If that's not cute enough for you, and you feel like you can take more, check out the 'duets' link on that page.

Meow,
-B (&M&M&S&JJ)

More travel searches...

Okay, premature post....

Here's a couple more travel searchers:

Kayak
SideStep


So far, in a quick comparison, Kayak wins for finding the lowest prices.

All of these were found on LifeHacker

-B

Cool new Travel Fare search tool on Yahoo!

This one's worth checking out. It's a fare search engine that checks a bunch of sites for travel prices to match your search criterion. Seems pretty slick.

Cheap Airfares, Hotel Rooms and Rental Cars on Yahoo! FareChase. Search dozens of travel sites with one click.

-B

Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion - Technology

I always wondered why no one used nuclear power for aircraft. Well, other than the obvious problems of weight, sheilding, environmental safety and the anti-nuke protests. It seemed like it'd be a good idea if they could overcome all those. This article talks about the research that went on around this during the cold war, and some of the politics as well. It's a pretty interesting read.

Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion - Technology

Wizard People, Dear Reader by Brad Neely (NOT Harry Potter)

Wizard People, Dear Reader by Brad Neely (NOT Harry Potter)

This seemed too cool NOT to share. I'm going to try this out this weekend.

What's a damn shame about all this is that a couple of theatres who scheduled a screening of this got shut down by Warner Bros. I don't see why - they're still making their money off showing the print again. This doesn't seem that different in principal than the gazillion Rocky Horror shows that go on all around the country every week. Oh well. Big media companies suck mightily - this is just another action proving it (again and again and again....)

Guess the character!

This is an app that someone put together to guess which movie / tv character you are. It was 2 for 2 on the ones that I tried.

http://guess.priceshout.com/index.php

Just married and deflow... floured... life is good!!