Next Archive - September 2004

Hope I Survive

The place I work is having company meetings this week, and morale building stuff. Tomorrow we play paintball, which I used to do a lot (twenty years ago). Makes me wonder if I'm not getting too old for that. Be fun to shoot people again, though. :)

If you don't hear from me again, you'll know why.


Blog Tag: Chatter

Cheese and Crackers Got All Muddy

Don't know what that means? Neither did I. Had to ask the author of the email in which CCGAM appeared. It's amazing we humans are ever able to communicate with each other at all. Amazes me no end when even a gorilla can point at her mouth and say "Ouch" in sign language, and her keepers take her to the dentist to get her teeth fixed.

When science finally perfects the time machine, some people will want to go back into the past to see the dinosaurs, or take a Polaroid of Christ, or maybe shoot Henry Ford before he created the Model T. Not me. I want to track down the genius who had the great idea to build a tower to Heaven and get him hooked on Gameboys or something so the Tower of Babel doesn't piss of God and reduce us to speaking in foreign tongues.

Would that apply to computer languages, do you think?

P.S. <b><i>Hi Dianne!</i></b>


Blog Tag: Opinion   Blog Tag: Languages

Smiling Bullies

We watched the DVD of Stand By Me tonight (courtesy of NetFlix), a touching, funny movie with a well-known cast.

There's a scene in the movie where Kiefer Sutherland has stolen Wil Wheaton's hat, a hat that belonged to Wheaton's late brother. He's playing keep-away with the hat, and he keeps getting this creepy grin. I recognize that grin.

Bullies enjoy what they do. (People don't do anything unless it answers some need they have.) It wouldn't be so disturbing if bullies pushed people around for a good reason, but the fact is they do it for the pleasure of it, and it shows. Creepy.


Blog Tag: Opinion   Blog Tag: Bullies

A Couple of Memories to Ponder

I was watching a segment on the news tonight about flu shots, and I had one of those flashbacks to early youth. Usually it's some smell that triggers that, like the smell of grass, or wet pavement, but tonight it was an image of a flu shot.

When I was about six or seven, I had a deep hatred of hypodermic needles. I was a really bad patient, and sometimes people had to hold me still, and the shots were painful. At some point, I convinced myself to stop being such a brat and take my shot like a man. (An eight year old man.) The strangest thing happened. The doctor gave me the shot, and it didn't hurt! Without the struggling, the tension, and the overactive imagination, the shot wasn't so bad. It was the anticipation of pain that made it so much worse. (You women who've had children have been taught this in birthing class already.)

It amazes me that I still have this memory, lo these many decades later. So what? you ask. People all over the world have memories from their childhood. But think about it: What's the oldest file on your computer? There are hundreds of files that I'll never see again, because the disk crashed, got corrupted, got lost, or became an obsolete format. I still have 5 1/4 inch floppies. I don't think I have any machines left that will read them. Wanna hear something really crazy? I still have 8 inch floppies. I'll never see those files again.

Thinking about it, I came to remember which file is the oldest one I have. Somewhere in my home office, Fibber McGee's office, there is a roll of yellow paper punch tape. For those of you who don't know that Paul McCartney had a band before Wings (Paul who?), once upon a time computers could save files onto a long inch-wide strip of paper. Deep in the bowels of my office is a paper tape with the game of Qubic (3d tic-tac-toe) saved as source code in the BASIC language, from the year 1973. That's my oldest computer file. And I could probably still read it, if I dug up my old Oliver Audio Paper Tape Reader.

How about you? What's your oldest file?


Blog Tag: Chatter

News Headlines for the Year 2029

Well, I love science fiction, I love thinking about the future, I love humor and I like to read the news. So what could be better than this funny look at headlines from the year 2029, that I copied from a post by fellow programmer Lauren on The Code Project:

1. White minorities still trying to have English recognized as California's third language.


2. Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.


3. Baby conceived naturally... Scientists stumped.


4. Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.


5. Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, California.


6. Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and Lebanon).


7. Iraq still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least ten more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.


8. France pleads for global help after being overtaken by Jamaica.


9. Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.


10. George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.


11. Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesday only.


12. 85-year study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss.


13. Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.


14. Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.


15. Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.


16. Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.


17. New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2036.


18. Congress authorizes direct deposit of illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.


19. Capitol Hill intern indicted for refusing to have sex with congressman.


20. IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75%.


21. Florida Democrats still don't know how to use a voting machine

Blog Tag: Humor

How to Cheat

Sorry, this isn't another post about marriage. It's for bloggers who want to easily add links to their posts, and who are using Internet Explorer.

If you scroll down, you'll notice a sidebar on the right labeled Blog Helpers. One of those is named LinkCode. If you click it, you'll notice that it brings up a dialog with some HTML code in it. The code to link to this page. Go ahead and close the dialog.

Now, drag the LinkCode link from the Blog Helpers section to the Links toolbar in your browser. (IE will warn you against this. Be brave.) This is called a bookmarklet. When you come across a web page you'd like to link to in your blog, just click LinkCode in your toolbar, copy the HTML to the clipboard with ctrl-c, then paste it into your blog with ctrl-v. (This is faster if you're editing your blog with one browser, and surfing in another browser window.)

That's it. Click, ctrl-c, ctrl-v. Blog on, baby.

(Use at your own risk. Your mileage may vary. Some parts incredible. Yada yada yada.)


Blog Tag: Links

You've Got to Hide it from the Kids

"The only charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties. ~ Oscar Wilde

I find myself hiding things alot. I don't like running out of my favorite foods, and my wife doesn't believe in stocking up, so I hide things here and there: a six-pack of soda, a box of my morning cereal, so our supplies don't get so low we run out. Same thing with towels. I have to hide one of the large bath towels I like so my daughter doesn't use them all up, leaving me to dry with a washcloth.

I even hide things from myself! I keep a few extra twenties tucked away in odd recesses of my wallet or in my car's ash tray in case I run out.

I hate running out.


Blog Tag: Chatter   Hiding Things

850 Words of Basic English

In 1930, Charles K. Ogden released a list of 850 words that he felt were a basic set of words to handle the majority of everyday communications. Master those words and the grammar to use them, and you know Basic English.


Blog Tag: Links   Blog Tag: Basic English

Easy Linking

Regular readers of this blog have probably noticed that when I mention a book or movie, I like to link to the item in question as a service to my readers. Up to now, that has taken a bit of extra effort, opening up another browser, searching for the item in question, and then cutting and pasting the URL into the post I was working on. But no more. Now there is a new tool to make inline linking easier.

The Google Blogoscoped blog has a number of wonderful search tools, such as the EgoBot that I'm fond of quoting, and the FindForward interface that searches the web in innovative ways.

Philipp Lenssen, the genius behind these web sites, has added a new feature at my request, as described here and in this post. It lets you put a simple link in your post that takes the drudgery out of making links in your writing. Now, when you go to write about the latest movie you can easily make it link so your readers can find out more about it (or order it) without a lot of hoohaw.

He has three different searches: movies, books and music. You substitute dashes for spaces, and put your search terms at the end of the URL, like so:
<a href="http://findforward.com/music/touch-and-go">Touch and Go</a>


Blog Tag: Links

World's Smallest Website

In case you haven't run across it yet, here is The World's Smallest Website. I think it's the last site before The End of the Internet.

Speaking of Shibumi, that's a funny, sexy, suspenseful novel by Trevanian, author of books like The Eiger Sanction and The Loo Sanction.


Blog Tag: Amusements   Blog Tag: Links

Stupidity as an Olympic Event

Just read a post about the moronic restrictions being demanded by the ATHENS 2004 Organising Commitee (sic).

I won't reprise the above-mentioned post, but suffice it to say that requiring web sites to ask permission to post a link to the Olympics web site runs counter to what the internet is about, and they are in no position to require a specified format for linking. They need to buy a clue.

But it's all good. I'm feeling better today.


Blog Tag: Opinion   Blog Tag: Olympics

Depression Repression

Friday. Woof. I've been working for three whole weeks now, and it's great to be back. But boy, am I bushed. I think that's part of the problem.

You see, last time I was out of work, I got really depressed. It wasn't that hide-under-the-covers, I-just-wanna-die kind of depression, it was just a gloomy feeling that didn't want to dissipate. Those who knew me wondered why I wasn't so happy, not so jokey, not as eager to get things done.

So this time, I worked harder when I was out of work to not sink into that self-defeating, self-sustaining depression that hit me last time. A big part of that was just a resolve to stay more upbeat, and to stay productive. Working on my mystery novel did wonders. It helped, but didn't totally dispel the dark clouds.

So now that I'm working, why aren't I better? Last time I got a job I was euphoric for months. This time I'm just less depressed. But I think I've got its number.

The problem with attitudes is that they filter your perceptions. If you're feeling good, then everything that happens is good, and you ignore the bad. If you're down, then everything that happens is bad, and you ignore the good. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you're Republican, then anything a Democrat does is bad, even if it wouldn't be bad should a Republican do it. And if you're a Democrat, then anything a Republican does is evil, despite the fact that you'd ignore it in a Democrat. It's only bad when the other guy does it.

So today, I made myself smile more. I paid more attention to what's good in the world. And it's helping. Like tonight on my way home. There are two sets of escalators up to the real world from the dark, damp netherworld that is the SF Muni. The second set of escalators always goes the opposite direction of what I need, and today the first set was out of service. Isn't that nice? It's Muni's way of telling me to "Lighten up!"

If I could just acclimate to my new sleep schedule, I think that would take care of the rest. It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for you. Some good news wouldn't hurt, either.

Or this.



Blog Tag: Chatter   Blog Tag: Depression

Backyard Blue Jay

As I've mentioned before, we have a Western Scrub Blue Jay who frequents our backyard, and who has learned to come (sometimes) when I call, and to eat out of my hand. Here are a couple shots of our little pet:

Blue jays are in the crow family, and what's interesting about their color is that there is no blue pigment in their feathers. The blue color comes from the way the feathers refract light, not from blue ingredients. (And yes, that's my hand with the raw walnut bits.)


Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: Blue Jay

Compliments of Egobot

You ask: How do I make the world a better place?
Egobot says: You do make the world a better place


Blog Tag: Amusements   Blog Tag: Links

ActionMan

Here's another blogger I read regularly (who wants to read constipated?), a man who makes us realize that not all journalists are heartless newshounds. Here he is, the ActionMan!

Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: beFrank

Egobot Proclaims My Destiny

You ask: What is my destiny?
Egobot says: Your destiny is not an end point, but a process of tapping into and expressing your divinely authored talents


Blog Tag: Amusements   Blog Tag: Links

The Google Face Game

Just found this link via Vox Machina: click The Google Face Game and select an adjective, and you'll get a screenful of faces that may or may not fit that adjective. Results may or may not be work-safe. You've been warned. Hours o' fun!


Blog Tag: Amusements   Blog Tag: Links

The Other Cat

Lest you get the wrong impression, let me say that Ringo is not our only cat. Dingus demanded equal time, so here is her picture. Can anything show as much scorn as a cat?

Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: Dingus

Something New This Morning

I've been going to the City (what locals call San Francisco) for two weeks now, and this morning I saw something that I haven't seen any other morning there. Shadows. Instead of fog and/or overcast, our closest star was actually shining.

The city looks different when there is a contrast ratio to the lighting, where shadows spring from people and lampposts. Funny thing about shadows; they never see the sun. If they could, they wouldn't be there. Something is always between a shadow and the sun. Shadows probably don't realize there is a sun. And, likewise, the sun never sees shadows. The shadows are always hiding behind things.

These past two weeks, the shadows were hiding even from me. I wonder where they all went? Were they hanging out in a bar somewhere, smoking and telling lies? Sleeping under park benches?

This morning, like many recent mornings, I climbed down the steps to the Muni station, and the next four trains going my way were all going out of service. Occasionally I'd see some commuter asleep in their seat, not knowing they were going to wake up at the train yard instead of their station.

This morning a gentleman who worked for BART told me that San Francisco was a union town, that the labor unions were too powerful and that was why the trains would never run on time. He said anyone who tried to clean up the system wouldn't last a week, and that was how people in San Francisco wanted it. He figured they were getting what they deserved.

Sometimes that's my greatest hope, and sometimes my greatest fear: that people get what they deserve. I'm not sure what that has to do with shadows.


Blog Tag: Chatter   Blog Tag: San Francisco

Good for what Itches

"There's nothing like a 5 o'clock shadow for scratching an itch."

You can quote me on that.


Blog Tag: Chatter

Blog Tools

I notice some of my blogger friends have discovered some of the cool tools that let you design avatars, like Abi-Station's Portrait Illustration Maker, Portrait Avatar Maker and Portrait Icon Maker.

Another service in a similar vein is the DollMaker to make custom dolls, similar to the ones you see at WeatherPixie.

Those of you who've been reading here a while may remember this post where I had links for some of the cool tools at Acme Laboratories.

Finally, there's a neat little online 3d banner maker at 1NetCentral.

Enjoy.


Blog Tag: Links

Christmas Cat Experiment

My cat Ringo, no longer a kitten, after climbing into the Christmas tree one year. Bad cat!

This post is an experiment. Move your mouse over the cat and he should morph from cartoon cat to photo cat.


Blog Tag: Amusements   Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: Ringo

Sidebar, Your Honor!

I don't know if this will work on your browser, but you can try it. Click Blog Tour and it should open a list of blogs I like to visit in a side pane of your browser, like a search pane. If it works, you'll be able to close it. You can also try dragging the link to your Links bar and then you can bring up this list of blogs at any time. Let me know how it goes.


Blog Tag: Announcements

Blame Magz for It

One of my cats when he was a kitten.

Blame it on Magz. She's the one got me cartooning photos with Kodak's big, free, intrusive 18-megabyte EasyShare program, which does an amazing job of "cartooning" images. This one's for you, Magz (hugs):




Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tags: Links

Been Working Two Weeks Now, Getting Up Early, Commuting to San Francisco and Back and Now It's Saturday. Here's Everything I Want to Do This Weekend:

sleep


Blog Tag: Chatter

Walk / Don't Walk

San Francisco's Embarcadero. 5:30 pm today. A man and his child, maybe five years old. Don't walk. The man restrains his son. "Don't jump out, it's red!" he says. And on either side of him, people are crossing against the red.

That was me and my daughter, a dozen years ago. As a parent, you've learned from painful experience that children imitate what they see. If Johnny next door eats grasshoppers, you can be sure that your kid will try it too. Once the child is older, you let them see what they will (if you're smart), and you teach them what's acceptable and what's not. But at more tender ages, you want to isolate them from those things you don't want them to imitate, knowing that words won't stop them like they will later (at least, until they reach adolescence, when all bets are off).

This is why parents of young children want the world to be well-behaved. It's how you keep your children well-behaved. There are only so many things you can keep them from doing, and you don't want to waste those shalt nots on grasshoppers, when it's more important to spend it on kicking and biting. People without children don't want to be well-behaved, and resent having their behavior constrained by the presence of children.

There should be a place you can live for seven years where people act properly in front of children. After that, you move back to the real world.

Yeah, like that's gonna happen.


Blog Tag: Chatter   Blog Tag: San Francisco

Shopping Cart Home

A shopping cart is the Winnebago of homeless people. You might call it a Nanobago (tm). You see them in the park, you see them on Market St. The owner's full complement of worldly possessions are packed in the cart, bundled up in rain-resistant garbage bags. I don't want to can't imagine having everything I own come out of a garbage bag.


Blog Tag: Chatter   Blog Tag: San Francisco

A Sense of the Olfactory

Sometimes I share my day with you in words. Some days I share it with pictures. Today, I will share it with smells. If you know my typical daily journey, you might even recognize where I am at each smell. Here they are:

Apple cinnamon oatmeal. Peppermint toothpaste. Cattle on the wind. Car exhaust. Brine. Ferry exaust. Perfume (Obsession, I think). Humidity. Sewer gas. Urine.

Carpet. Pizza! (it's Friday).

Pavement. Sewer gas. Urine. Ferry exhaust. Fresh, clean, Marin County air. Less humidity. Auto exhaust. Fruit blossoms.

Lipstick. Hair. Catbox. Toast. Butter. Cherry Coke. Beef (mmmm, beef). Peanut butter and chocolate. Fabric softener. :void:


Blog Tag: Chatter   Smells

More SF Pics

A Building



The Muni Ceiling



A case of Bad Plumbing?



Blog Tag: Images   San Francisco

Dizzy Landlubber

I've been spending so much time on ferries lately that sometimes I feel like I'm on a rocking deck even at home on dry land. And I'm not even blonde!


Blog Tag: Chatter

SF Pics

Some pics from recent meanderings:



Viewscreen from an alien starship?




The stairway to Heaven?




Vanishing Point




Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: San Francisco

Review of Collateral

Just saw the movie Collateral with Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Cool, cool, movie. Directed by Michael Mann, who created the Miami Vice TV show, but produced in a darker, suspenseful style, unlike the music video pacing of Miami Vice, with an inherent humor rather than the brazen cheesiness of Don Johnson.

Collateral is about an assassin, Tom Cruise, who gets into Jamie Foxx's cab and forces him to drive Cruise to his hits. The story revolves around Foxx's struggles to resist Cruise's control, understand the nuances of the situation, and try to escape or prevent further deaths. This is an action movie, with guns and cars and cops and Cruise, but it's also a great story about a man's goals in life, his ambition and his free will. It's a philosophical movie, using events to question and explore life's meaning.

It was interesting to me how Cruise's character, Vincent, used semantics to disassociate himself from the responsibility of his actions. One line he used was, "I didn't kill him; I shot him. It was the bullet and the fall that killed him." Vincent projected an air of unaffectedness, laying a rap on the taxi driver about how inconsequential human life is, and yet if he truly believed that I doubt he would feel the need to compartmentalize his feelings about it, wouldn't need to rationalize it.

It's been a long time since I've seen an action movie that was first and foremost a compelling story. There was no point in the movie at which I thought, wow, cool special effect. Instead, I was thinking, oh, that's funny and omigod and what happens next? The movie pulls you in and there are no sour notes to ruin your suspension of disbelief. No that's just wrong or he can't do that! or he wouldn't do that.

The movie opens with Jada Smith getting in the cab and engaging Foxx in a conversation that deftly conveys the character of the taxi driver. Foxx is quite believable as a working man with integrity, with ambitions that he hasn't risen to achieve. Jada Smith, with only her face and voice in the backseat to draw on, establishes her character with expressions that reveal the impression Foxx is making on her.

This movie has humor, action, suspense, contemplation and a look at the power dynamic between an assassin and his unwilling accomplice, all wrapped up in a slick production that displays good cinematography, acting and sound.

Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Bruce McGill and Debi Mazar are faces you'll recognize in the supporting cast.

If you want a summer movie that's easy to watch and leaves you with thoughts to ponder afterwards, check out Collateral. No empty calories.


Blog Tag: Reviews   Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: Collateral

The Slow Drift To The Dark Side

Every day I get Muni transfers that I put in my pocket in case I ever need them. If you don't have it on you there's a steep fine, I'm told, but in the week I've been riding the train nobody has checked. I know if I don't toss them, I'll end up with a pocket full of transfers, which would drive me crazy, so I try to throw them out as soon as I'm off the train.

Tonight I got off the train and the musician at the stairs looked like a homeless guy. A homeless guy with an electronic keyboard he was playing as he sang. Some days there's a sax player, some days a flautist, and some days an Asian guy playing a one-stringed instrument with a bow.

Anyway, tonight I was walking down Market towards the ferry and balling up my Muni transfer in anticipation of tossing it in the trash. As I'm doing this I'm looking at all the trash strewn across the sidewalk and pavement. Cigarette butts, newspaper pages, food wrappers, you name it. I'm looking for a trash can for my little ball of paper, and in the meantime I'm walking through a trash can called Market St.

So do I give in and just add my trivial bit of trash to the existing scattering below? No. I wait until I encounter a barrel and toss my transfer. But it worries me. As you walk around SF, there are people urinating in parks and alleys, copulating, sleeping or talking to themselves without benefit of cellphone. The detritus of society has drifted into piles in this corner of the country, discarded humans, and I'm fussing over a pea-sized ball of paper. People jaywalk, cross against red lights, drive through red lights, spit in the streets. It's been rare to see any of this in the places I've lived.

What worries me is that, in the face of these breaches of the social contract, I'll drift towards the dark side and begin letting myself ignore my goody-two-shoes attitude of doing the right thing and start emulating more and more of these behaviors. I've already started crossing against the light to get to the ferry on time.

I don't want to slide down the City's slippery slope. Stop me, before I err again!


Blog Tag: Chatter   Blog Tag: San Francisco

Strange Dream

I had a strange dream last night.

I dreamt that I had missed a spot when shaving, which I do sometimes and get these rogue beard hairs. Only in the dream, I missed a spot and there was a small feather growing out of my right cheek. It was thin and dark, perhaps like a bluejay's. I say that because there's a bluejay in the backyard who will come when I call and take food from my hand.

When I tugged at the feather I could feel it in my cheek. It was a very vivid dream.

I think I haven't gotten enough sleep this week. I plan to sleep in tomorrow.


Blog Tag: Chatter

Going Down?

So every morning this week I get off the ferry in SF and moo along with the herd to the Muni station. There are steps going down to the station, and there's an escalator going up, so I walk down the steps. Always a musician playing for change at the bottom, which is cool, but it's irritating there's only one escalator and it's going up, but better up than down, right? I have bad knees, so I hate steps. I figure at least the escalator will help when I reverse the process at the end of the day.

So every day after work, I get off the Muni and there are steps going up... but that's okay because the escalator is now going down. Wait, what's that again? Yes, the escalator is always against me. What's up with that? How did I get this bad karma? Was I a lawyer in my last life?


Blog Tag: Chatter   Blog Tag: San Francisco

Beautiful Women

One of the things I enjoy about San Francisco are the multitudes of attractive women there. It amazes me how many different categories of beauty there are. I see women who are elegant or sophisticated, women who are healthy/fit, women who are voluptuous, women who are cute, who are pretty, who are sexy. Women brimming with life, women who are quiet and sensitive. Asian women, with their perfect skin, glossy hair, doll-like features, elegant clothes. Black women with their saucy style, brilliant smiles, creative fashions. Some women are in-your-face attractive, and some are subtle, requiring you to look closely to see the beauty lurking within. How dull would our daily commute be without these sparks of Heaven to brighten up our days? Thank you.

And thank you, Mrs. Goodman, for your own brand of beauty. What a world this is.


Blog Tag: Chatter   Blog Tag: Women

Vote for Who?

I want to design a T-shirt. On the front it will say, "I hate Bush." Then, on the back, it will say, "I hate Kerry." That about covers it. Then everyone will hate me.

I dislike Pres. Bush for his attacks on our personal rights, his treatment of California, and the way he's embarrassed our country on the world stage, to name a few. I dislike Sen. Kerry because he won't take a stand, and won't stick to the stands he does take. What's he ever accomplished? He's never even governed a state. I should vote for the devil I don't know instead of the devil I know? I don't know. Seems like every year our choices get worse and worse.

Sorry to be so grumpy. I've been getting up at an hour I didn't know existed. Tell me something funny.


Blog Tag: Opinion   Blog Tag: Politics

WeatherPixie's Back!

Yes, WeatherPixie is back! Yay!


Blog Tag: Announcements

Ring Bell For Psychic

Saw this sign in the City today. What's wrong with this picture?


Blog Tag: Images   Blog Tag: Psychic   Blog Tag: Humor

I'm a Working Man

Which is not to be confused with a working girl.

It'll be nice to go to the Game Developers Conference and not have to wear my "Programmer For Hire" sign. (Knock wood.)

You know those movies where you see people commuting to work by ferry, traveling in herds like human cattle? Color me moo. I did the drive to ferry to Muni to hoofin' it thang today, and it all worked. And so did I.

Why do I feel this need to be productive? Well, first of course there's the money. I've got a mortgage to feed. But it's more than that. We all have roles, and one of mine is wage-earner. It's expected of me, by others as well as myself. When you don't fulfill your role you feel like a failure. Finally, I always take a long-term view of life. I ask myself what the purpose was of all these millenia of evolution, and how I fit into today's world. The answer I arrive at is that Nature wants me to live long enough to breed and prepare my offspring to do the same. Also, that when I'm working I'm contributing to society, and when I'm not I'm a parasite.

So, I'm working, and the people at work are great, and the job looks great, and I get to finally learn SF. My life is good. Now if only there was peace in the Middle East.


Blog Tag: Chatter

Cyborg Name Generator

Just found the Cyborg Name Generator thanks to my friend TwistedCat. This graphic was generated there:




Blog Tag: Links   Blog Tag: Images

Rabbits

Rabbits.

Went to the Novato Forest Faire again yesterday. I wonder how long I could live at the faire before I got tired of it. Or if I would. Love the food, love the crafts, love the music and costumery. (Is that a word?) Women who wouldn't normally be attractive to me look great at the faire. Too bad corsets went out of style.

Might go to a guitar show today.

Tomorrow is the first day of my new job. The workspace has exposed red brick, a low ceiling and round cement columns. Very hip. I'll be working in a hip parking garage. I moved to Northern California from the Los Angeles area about fifteen years ago, and I still don't know San Francisco. I know two main routes through the City. I go down 19th to get to the airport and parts south, or I take Lombard to Van Ness to get to the wharf or places off of Van Ness. From Marin County, the City looks like a big slab of concrete, which is what I moved to Marin to get away from.

I'm looking forward to it, though. I love meeting new people, I love acquiring new skills, and I love adventure. I've explored all of Marin County and most of the Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties. It'll be nice having new territory to conquer.

So if you see a dark-haired guy in dark amber sunglasses popping a GPS into his Pocket PC with a lost look on his face, that'll be me. Not to worry though, I love being lost. Just give me a hug and let me meander around until I find my way. I always do.

Kinda like this post. Didn't end up where you thought it would, did it?

Did you know Jim Carrey was in that old Clint Eastwood movie, The Dead Pool? It's playing on the tube as I write this, and there he is. Quel surprise. Guess where it's set? That's right, SF. Must be an omen.

I'm expecting two more Netflix disks to arrive. The one I've got in-house is Center of the World, which I selected for the sole reason that it has Deadwood's Molly Parker in it. I've reached that unenviable position where I've already rented every movie I can think of that I'd really like to see, and now I add movies to the list at whim. Click the YMDb and Listology links in the sidebar and you'll see what kind of movies I have, and what my favorites are.

That's all for now. Keep in touch.


Blog Tag: Chatter

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