| Long story. |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|11:59 pm] |
It's my fault, but I wasted my day. It was so bad, that I just put an entry in my phone calendar to remind me dec 14 of next year - is there anything legal I need to do now so I don't fuck off my birthday in line for some bullshit government/legal matter?
If I knew why I can't remember to do things on a schedule... no, wait - I do know why. Brain Damage. If I knew how to fix it...
So - anyways. My birthday is on a Monday, a few days before CHRIST!!!mas, of course it's low key. We celebrated in Austin over the weekend. My mother took the boy for the night and was a grandma (making cookies), and me, the wife, and Kimberly all went out for the night. Not much of a plan or budget, but we had a nice dinner, wandered around Austin's bar district, then booked an unbelievably shitty hotel to fuck in. Because it's yet another birthday where money is tight.
Yet, considering the dirty people we are. Wait. I'm finishing off my scotch, so, before you go any further wondering what is wrong with me, it's that I'm intent on becoming drunk. But the scotch is now done. 15 year old Balvenie. Same age as that Stripper in Iloilo, and only tastes a little better. Probably shouldn't mention that. People listening and all.
So, yeah. Fantastically dirty sex in a cheap hotel. Filthy. So filthy, I'm not going to post it because it would be restricted and hidden from lurkers and strangers. Behind a cut and all. Really filthy and hot. You'll have to wait till tomorrow.
But, still. I'm looking through my old birthday posts, and I'm feeling reflective, as the birthday boy approaching 40 should be. It was this day, just three years ago when Girl Monday stopped by my little car store and took me to lunch. She gave me a shirt so sexy I hardly ever wear it because I love it so much. It was THE DAY things started to take a turn for the serious. That was only three years ago. We were married almost a year later - year and a few days, officially, legally. I'm wearing the shirt while I drink and type. I love this shirt.
Let me tell you the really good points. As I sat wasting my day in the DMV, my phone buzzed with each little birthday greeting. Mostly on facebook, some other places - a lot of people I know and appreciate. I've had good friends, it's been the blessing of this life. Easy to look at the deficiencies, but it's the one thing I've always had, and I love them. I love you, all. Thank you for being my friends, both near and far.
As a note on where I am, let's turn to me. Here's a choice piece of quotation from my birthday lamentations on this day, a few years ago, when things were genuinely bad:
Dec 21, 2004. "What makes me sad, is that I am 33 years old, and still 5 years away from having a family, future, or life. It’s like doing time."
Dear Me: It was worth the wait.
My son and my wife are both snoring in the hall, and it sounds better than The White Album. With all this relentless strife, my thrashing attempts to be both stable and happy, I am happy every single day I wake up and discover that I am married with a son, it's not a dream, it's real and it's my life. I love them both so much, and while this isn't where I wanted them to be right now, they are safe, and I get to love them like crazy every day. Even if I do it badly.
I am Dad to him, I am Daddy to her. Some day soon I will be working a lot, long hours, relentless work. What will power me through is the memory of these days I spend with him, putting on shoes and tucking him in to bed so I can have snuggle time with my darling wife before bed. She made this world for me, exactly what I wanted for so so so so so long.
Well, I may be drunk right now. Good thing I honed my drunk typing by daily practice in the Philippines.
Better stop before I screw up something.
Dear friends, thank you. Dear wife, I love this shirt so much. I'm sorry we couldn't go have cheap tostados at our lunch restaurant on 24th street again, so I could tell you what I was thinking that day.
- T. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|06:56 pm] |
A friend and I were recently joking about how bad we are at paying bills. I'm specifically pretty bad at this. I cover the essentials: rent, utilities, what I owe to friends, etc. But if you're a large company, have fun.
The last time I did a credit check, a library fee showed up on my history. Which kind of surprised me, because I didn't know (until then) that libraries report you to the credit agencies. I brought this up in conversation, and continued to discuss how bad we are at returning books.
When my parents moved to their new home in early 2008, I had to go back to help "excavate" my old room. In the process of cleaning stuff out, we discovered a library book that had been checked out in 1989, for some project I was doing at the time. Naturally, being the Good Citizen (TM) that my dad is, he decided to return it to the library.
It turned out that in the last 18 years, the library had undergone some changes, including replacing the card catalogue with a digital computer system, and replacing the library cards with barcode things. See, before the age of silicon, we actually had to process credit cards and such by sliding a sheet of metal and making an impression of the data. My dad's library card was effective a hunk of metal with a number on it semi-fused onto a business card.
The library wasn't really sure how to process this, so they had to issue him a new card, and effectively create a new account so he could return the book. I think because of the bizarre circumstances, the library decided to waive the fine and simply charge him the cost of the book (which kept to the 1989 prices). He left the book with the library so another young kid could check it out.
Maybe when it gets returned next, we'll be using brain frequencies to check out books or something. |
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| Overshooting |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|05:46 pm] |
Dreamed this morning that I was on a train into the city to do Off the Hook, but noticed that the Long Island Railroad train didn't stop at Penn Station. I asked the trainman what the deal was, and he told me "oh, you should have changed at Jamaica. This train goes express to North Carolina."
After a moment, I asked "But I can change at North Carolina for the next train back to Penn, right?"
"Oh sure, no problem."
I got off the train in North Carolina, and learned that the next train back to New York wasn't for another three hours. Somehow this still left me enough time to get to the show, so I wasn't too worried. I decided to look around town.
I ended up in a dive bar, where the owner was panicking because the band that was supposed to play never showed up and the crowd was getting rowdy. I just so happened to have a copy of the karaoke version of my new album on me (apparently I had a new album, did I mention?) So he put it on, handed me a microphone, and let me take the stage. I sang some songs which I'd apparently written and recorded over the previous year, and which the crowd loved (wish I could remember them now!)
After that the dream cut forward to me arriving back home after ostensibly getting back to NYC from North Carolina, doing Off the Hook, and heading back to Long Island. On my doorstep I found a package addressed to me from the bar; in it was my backpack which I'd forgotten and a thank-you note for saving the day. |
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| 12/21/09 ... Another birthday. |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|11:35 am] |
Another day at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Thw auto queue system is down, so they are tracking numbers by hand - when a station clears their load, they walk up to the front desk and get 3 more. A routine already strained with the use of efficient tehnology is now on paper & pencil. Think I'll get out in time to pick up my son?
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| Well, my first mammoth hunt was not a success... |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|01:08 pm] |
It was a lovely sunny still day, with fresh light puffy snow perfect for tracking. I saw a bunch of mouse and bird tracks, but sadly, no mammoth sign. I'm not fussed. Then again, what would I do with a couple of tons of dead mammoth anyhow, even assuming that a) I found one, b) fatally darted it, and c) managed to avoid getting trampled into something resembling a big puddle of strawberry jam with extra bone fragments in the process, and I don't have a mammoth tag and in fact I'm pretty sure that there's no open season on extinct Pleistocene megafauna in Ontario?
Still, it's not all about the fish. Simply doing that sort of thing is more important than your chances of success, anyhow.
After determining that the Fearsranch was sadly uninfested by mammoth, I got some atlatl practice in using the bonfire woodpile as a target. Got a couple of dozen casts in before deciding that discretion was the better part of sanity when atlatling with an injured back. I did however score multiple hits on the pile at seven meters:
The atlatl (a Kanakadea from Thunderbird Atlatls) is very pretty and I am very happy with it.
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Atlatl and darts
And Rudy. |
Although learning how to aim it is going to take a lot of experimentation and practice, it does seem to throw quite consistently. And it can throw startlingly far. I lobbed a dart 83 paces into the field; at thirteen paces/ten meters, that's about 63 meters. I can see how somebody with some skills, a functional spine, and decent physical condition could easily launch a dart twice that distance. |
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| Minor annoyance... |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|11:06 am] |
People and marketers who think this is a good way to imply "things or people working well together":
Think about it! Especially before you use it as a logo or something. Nothing says "do not buy" like an image of something that will never, ever, work. |
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| The Unfuckable Five |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|04:31 pm] |
Today the always wonderful Miss Information talks about shit not to put in your dating profile if you actually want to get laid.
Then she asks people to brainstorm their own list. I can't speak for dudes. My Nerve profile when it was active was long, rambling and written while I was running from the law, dodging shitty emails from a soon to be ex-wife and snorting amyl poppers after a three day Jack Daniels, heroin and meth binge, so who knows what the fuck it said.
But here's my list of things I'd see in girl profiles that made me not respond to them even after the hallucinogenic toad tryptamines had kicked in.
Unfuckable five:
1. Any that use "69" or "cunt" in their profile name. There are more examples of this than you'd think.
2. Listing anything by David Sedaris in your profile anywhere. Yeah, yeah, every girl in New York who thinks she's cool reads David. And, he used to leave near me. Fine. But you are not telling me anything new. Why not mention a book or author that hasn't been put into 98 percent of all Nerve online profiles? Also, I don't want to be thinking about the "Homophobia Newsletter" when I'm trying to talk you into meeting me so I can get into your panties.
3. Any mention of REO Speedwagon, Hall & Oates, Air Supply or Nickelback in your profile.
4. Bitching about the types of guys who have fucked you over in your profile. I don't want to have to think about other dudes fucking you and then treating you like shit. And any guy who responds to this type of profile is going to do so because he wants his chance to fuck you and then treat you like shit.
5. That girl that used to be on Nerve whose entire Nerve profile consisted of "I'm looking for hairy Jewish apes. You know who you are." Why the fuck did Nerve always try to fucking match me up with that girl? And even if you were a hairy Jewish dude, would you respond to that shit? It would be up there with some chick posting "I'm looking for spearchucker mandingo warriors. You know who you are." |
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| Happy Winter Solstice, all! |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|09:53 am] |
Today at 17:47 UTC (12:47 Godforsaken Howling Northern Wilderness Time), the Sun will reach its southernmost point in the sky and begin to travel northwards again. The days are going to be getting longer again. May your celebrations be merry.
Were I Supreme World Dictator, aside from scrapping the 24-hour clock and having everybody switch to SIT instead (Beats and Millibeats are much more sensible units of time measurement and yes I am one of those geeks who owns a Swatch Beat), the year would end on the Winter Solstice. Aside from crushing the dilatory under my oppressive bootheel [insane laughter] by removing a whole three days of Formerly Religious Consumerized Winter Solstice Retail Festival shopping [more insane laughter] (note I did not write "Benevolent" Supreme World Dictator), it seems to me that better aligning the calendar to the astronomical realities it purports to measure would make excellent sense.
The atlatl should arrive today. I might take it for a walk limp 'round the house to mark the Solstice with a symbolic mammoth hunt.
Those of you who know Carolyn will know that she has a gluten allergy. So last week we picked up a breadmaker with a gluten-free setting, and after procuring assorted ingredients at the local health food store, gave it a test run last night. The resulting gluten-free pumpernickel/caraway seed loaf was most delicious and non-allergenic, although personally I don't find the process as much fun as baking it by hand. You dump in the ingredients and it just sits on the counter and whirrs and gronks and beeps, and you don't get the same pleasant sense of personal involvement, nor covered in dough and flour. But the results are quite tasty, and it does do all the work in the background.
I think that I'll bake some bread today. By hand. |
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| Dear UK Residents |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|12:56 pm] |
Good job at giving Sony Music a shitton of money and making an old Rage Against The Machine song #1 on the UK charts Christmas week.
This was a wonderful expenditure of your time, energy and hard earned cash. It shows the great tradition of British irony - funneling money to one of the biggest corporate machines in the world, while their "product" claims to rage against that machine itself.
Next year, my plan is to try to make William Shatner's "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" #1 on the UK charts during Christmas week.
I hope you'll support my efforts.
Love,
Bart |
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| December Books 7) Mr Singh Has Disappeared: A Concussed Novel, by Horst Prillinger |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|10:20 am] |
This was pressed on me by the infamous quarsan, and his efforts have been duly rewarded; I really enjoyed it. It is a fairly short novel, told in fragmentary, disjointed style (150 chapters in 135 pages) about the narrator's investigation of the disappearance of the head waiter of his favourite Indian restaurant. He spends a lot of time stuck down a well, in hospital, and musing on the precise nature of the vindaloo, the biryani and other Indian recipes. It is a real classic of surreal style, very funny in places. Interested to note that it was originally published in blog format earlier this year; the hard copy costs €10 and comes from amazon.de among other places. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|03:26 pm] |
Filet Mignon at DiMaggio's (and a delicious bottle of Domaine Carneros Taittinger), a magnum of Laurent-Perrier at the Bubble, Dim Sum at Yank Sing, whiskey at the Saloon, Jordan cooked stir fry, Pronto Pizza... Of all these things in a very consumption oriented weekend, the cheap breakfast at the prisoner cafe was my favorite. 
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| Nostalgia... |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|06:24 pm] |
Back in 1995, when I was in second year law school, I landed a really, really plum job, working as a research assistant for one of the professors, who'd been hired by Her Majesty the Queen in right of Hong Kong to do an in-depth review and report on how best to reform the Companies Ordinance (Hong Kong), which had been kludged together back in 1948 and was basically too ridiculously antiquated to serve as the major corporate statute for as economically booming a place as Hong Kong.
I spent the first year doing research work out of the McGill library, but in summer 1996 my boss decided she needed local minions, and so she had myself and my classmate TKX (who I haven't seen in far too long and should ping one of these days) flown out to Hong Kong for the summer, most of which we spent based out of some fairly comfy digs in an expat-oriented condo development known as Disco Bay on Lantau Island. We worked hard, commuted by ferry, accumulated a most impressive beer can pyramid, racked up a $2,000 A/C bill, and did a fair bit of touristing and hiking. EKH and Mayumi came down from Tokyo for a few days to visit, too. It was a hell of a good job, I scored massive resume points, and it was a major cause of my Sinophilia. And boy did I ever take a lot of pictures. Of the old Kowloon Bird Market, our trip to the Po Lin Buddha and hike up Sunrise Peak, and ye ghodz, just about everything else that would sit still long enough to be photographed.
This was back in the days before digital photography, too (I shudder to think of the environmental impact). Those snapshots have sat undisturbed in a box for about a decade, until I was reminded of them last night by a conversation with one of Carolyn's friends. I just spent several hours flipping through them and showing Carolyn the better ones.
1996 was the best year I had until 2005; the intervening years involved bar school, beginning practice, my heart attack, a depression, and the breakup with Suzanne. Had he known, that geeky larval yuppie in those photos probably would have flipped out, run away, and joined the circus rather than go through the next nine years. And wow, he was a very different person from who I am today. But still, most of those photos are of hills and streams and animals and the South China Sea...
I'll have to scan a few of the best ones and post them once I finish sorting them and sticking them into an album. |
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| The overnights meme |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|05:24 pm] |
List the towns or cities where you spent at least a night away from home during 2009. Mark with a star if you had multiple non-consecutive stays.
( 13" )
A lot fewer than some years. But also addfour overnight flights - two transatlantic, two between Europe and Africa. |
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| I don't have a vote in this one... |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|03:19 pm] |
...but like a lot of people I'll be watching with interest for the outcome of the selection process for the next Lib Dem candidate in Cambridge, now that David Howarth has announced his intention to return to his academic career (he is a specialist in tort, if that is the right way to put it). Of the six shortlistees (listed here and also here) the only one I know at all is Julie Smith. I know David Howarth rather better since we were actually next door neighbours during my second year, as well as being Lib Dem activists at the same college. David won in 2005 on his third attempt with a majority of 10%, having eaten substantially into both the incumbent Labour MP's vote and into that of the Conservatives who held the seat from 1967 to 1992. Assuming (as seems likely) that the Labour vote tanks, the Lib Dems hold steady and the Tories rise but not dramatically, the seat should be holdable in next year's election |
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| Whoring |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|01:11 pm] |
If you get a chance please click here and "digg" my new blog.
It may say something about registering - but if you are a member of Facebook you are already registered. Just click on "Use Facebook to register."
Thanks! |
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| Rules For The Vert Anglais In Montpellier |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|01:03 pm] |
Dear residents of Montpellier - I'd like to suggest some really simple rules of conduct when you hang out at the Vert Anglais:
1. Close the fucking door when you leave. In the winter it's closed to keep the heat in. In the summer it's closed to keep the air conditioning in. Both of which are important.
2. After you wash your hands turn off the fucking faucet. There is nothing worse than having to pee, realizing you have to wait for someone else to finish and seeing/hearing running water.
3. Yes there are two levels to the bar. But, you'll notice a sign in both English and French that either says "Open" or "Closed." If it says closed and you go up there, you are not likely to have someone come up there and sell you a drink.
4. No, you are not entitled to free drinks if you have had a couple rounds of coffee. And, asking the bartender for free beers after you've sat there for four hours nursing coffee will not make you any friends.
5. Loudly asking your server if he is gay while giggling makes you - not him - look like an asshole.
6. "Reserve" is not a difficult word to translate from French to English. If a table has a large sign reading "reserve" on it you should probably sit somewhere else.
7. If you walk up to the bar and see four completely empty seats and one seat with a half drunk beer and a cell phone sitting in front of it - chose any other seat than that one.
8. If you order a pink beer you have to accept that you will be slightly made fun of.
9. That pretty girl who serves you drinks during the day - she's an out and proud lesbian. If you are a dude hitting on her will get you nowhere.
10. Fucking tip the bar staff. They work really fucking hard and 80 percent of you bastards don't leave them a dime. |
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| Saturday |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|12:39 pm] |
The plan was to take Rome Girl out for a nice pre-birthday lunch at her favorite Indian restaurant in Antigone, but after she woke up and opened up the balcony window she decided it was way fucking too cold to head down there.
So, she decided she wanted to order Domino's and watch her favorite videos all day. This is a special treat because Domino's is ridiculously expensive in France (seriously - $30 for a peperoni pizza!)
We call up on Domino's but the dude there said they couldn't deliver. When I asked why he responded: "Il fait froid."
Fucker!
But the second Domino's we called delivered and we watched Bad Santa, Elf, Mary J. Blige in Concert and a Beastie Boys video compilation.
Then we went to the Vert Anglais and she downed a shitheap of Chocolate Orange Martinis and Apple Pie Martinis.
Today - her actual birthday - she wants to play poker with me and the boys at the Vert Anglais and backgammon with Alex Fuller.
Should be fun. |
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| December Books 7) Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space [by J.L. Morrissey] |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|11:07 am] |
 I thought I was reasonably well-informed about the history of Doctor Who spinoff fiction, but was rather amazed to discover this 1966 46-page story, in the same format (and by the same publisher) as the Doctor Who annuals, in which the First Doctor prevents an invasion from the Andromeda galaxy with the help of a family who he has rescued (just before the story starts) from the Great Fire of London. Apparently the text is by J.L. Morrissey, who published half a dozen detective novels in the 1930s and 1940s; the artwork is by Walter Howarth, the World Distributors stalwart illustrator. The story itself is standard Who, let down by rather dodgy astrophysics and some awkward phrasing (note extract from first para here). But the characterisation of Hartnell's Doctor is bang-on. |
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| ርሑስ በዓል ልደትን ሓድሽ ዓመትን |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|10:35 am] |
A friend of mine sent me this greeting:
which apparently means "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" in his native language.
A special prize for the first person to identify that language!
(And a very special prize for anyone who knows how to pronounce it...)
ETA: Well done ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bugshaw! Others may guess anyway by clicking on "reply" without reading what others have written. |
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| Kittens! |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|01:34 am] |
We have, through no fault of our own, kittens.
Six of them. All black. Five boys and one girl. One of the cats at zaiah's farm house got loose when she was in heat, and got knocked up almost instantly, so kittens! Six tiny fuzzy cute little tiny cute fuzzy little kittens!
They need homes. If you want one of these kittens, and you're in or near Portland, let me know! My cat Liam, who is not included in this offer, loves them to death.
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| Computer security? Best practice? yeah, those are things we've heard of. |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|11:59 pm] |
If you've ever run a small business, or done any accounting, you're probably familiar with Intuit, the company that makes the popular QuickBooks accounting software.
Intuit does a lot of things other than QuickBooks, of course. They are also a business Web hosting company, a payroll tax service, a credit card merchant account company, a computer virus distribution network, and a marketing company, among other things. Not everyone knows about all the services they offer; in particular, their marketing and computer virus distribution services appear to be underrated.
Yep, you read that right. They distribute computer viruses.
Oh, not on purpose, I'm sure. They simply appear to run Web sites whose Webmasters don't really seem to know a lot about Web security. Which would seem to be about par for the course these days, except that they..err, specialize in software that handles business financial information.
Which is a wee bit concerning, if you use Intuit and would like to feel reassured that they take the security of their network and servers seriously.
Now, to be fair, it's not actually their main site that has the problem, at least not that I've seen so far. Instead, they run many "community" sites, and on some of these sites they appear to have a...relaxed approach to security and best practices.
*** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING ***
The URLs listed below are live as of the time of this writing. They WILL try to redirect you to sites that attempt to download malware onto your computer. DO NOT visit these URLs if you don't know what you're doing!
While cleaning out the contents of the spam trap on one of the WordPress sites I run, I spotted a large number of spam-trapped comments advertising FREE NUDE PICTURES with URLs of an Intuit-owned property, community.quickbooks.co.uk. Now, I see these spam posts all the time, usually made from machines in Eastern Europe and usualy pointing to sites that try to download the Asprox or Zlob malware.
This particular site, though, is overrun to a large degree even for sites that have security problems. The site itself allows users to create their own profiles, but it does not appear to sanitize the user-supplied profiles for things like JavaScript and it allows users to embed links and images in their profiles.
Which is, when you get right down to it, a recipe for disaster.
Anyway, the community.quickbooks.co.uk Web site is currently home to a large number of fake, automatically-generated profiles which redirect through a series of intermediates to malware sites that use a cocktail of browser exploits and social engineering tricks to try to slip malware onto visitors' computers.
A smattering of these profiles includes:
http://community.quickbooks.co.uk/discussion/index.php?showuser=57944
http://community.quickbooks.co.uk/discussion/index.php?showuser=58063
http://community.quickbooks.co.uk/discussion/index.php?showuser=58395
http://community.quickbooks.co.uk/discussion/index.php?showuser=57939
Some of these profile sites, unusually, redirect through TinyURL to to destination payload site; others redirect more conventionally, through traffic loader sites in a manner similar to the ones I've written about before.
The sites redirect through TinyURL or another traffic loader to several intermediates and eventually end up at a place such as
http://stereotube.net/xfreeporn.php?id=45035
which offers free porn if you download a movie-player codec...which is, of course, a virus. (No free porn for YOU!)
Unsurprisingly, the payload site stereotube.net is registered with bogus information belonging to an identity theft victim; also unsurprisingly, it's hosted on black-hat Web hosting company Calpop, a California Web host that has a long and ignoble history of knowingly hosing malware sites for Russian organized crime, as I've mentioned before.
In basic scope and layout, this is nothing but yet another Russian malware distribution network. There are only a few things about it that deviate at all from the bog-standard run-of-the-mill compromises I see every day. The first is that the compromised site is owned by Intuit, which makes me very nervous about how seriously they take computer security.
The second is that the phony profile pages that redirect to malware hide some of the redirection steps behind TinyURL redirectors such as http://tinyurl.com/25avirua rather than relying 100% on their own redirector network (the TinyURL address redirects to a more conventional traffic redirector at http://arhetector.com/in.cgi?3¶meter=25aug, hosted by Worldstream.nl, which itself redirects to one of several sites such as stereotube.net or to http://tinyurl.com/stereotubeonline-boom-03, which redirects to http://stereotubeonline.com/xplays.php?id=48034 also hosted by Calpop.
The third is that the phony profile pages are pulling images from various real porn sites. For example,
http://community.quickbooks.co.uk/discussion/index.php?showuser=57939
is grabbing a picture from http://www.pink4free.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/Pink4Free/Cecash/BigTits/AllFreePorn.gif. The Web site pink4free.com used to run a WordPress blog--it appears to be defunct now--but that Wordpress blog still has an open image directory, and it contains advertising banners that the Russian hackers are drawing from in a bid to make the redirectors look more convincing.
When I go to my taxes next year, I don't think I'll use Intuit. |
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| Quote of the Day |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|09:15 pm] |
"The sky and its stars make music to you.
The sun and the moon praise you.
The gods exalt you.
The goddesses sing to you."
Inscription on a wall of the temple of Hathor, Egypt, 2nd cent. B.C. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|10:58 pm] |
So, at this point, I've totally got my hopes up. I'm picturing all the good things that this success will bring and everything. They're definitely good changes too.
At the same time I'm also convinced of the fact that it's too good to be true. It's so obviously too good to be true. You know what they say about things that are too good to be true don't you.
Therefore, I've got my hopes up about something that isn't true. I'm a moron.
Probably because I turned myself into meat head. I'm going to go lift weights now. Later Mr. LJ. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|04:43 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2 - Neutral Milk Hotel | ] |
I've been staring at the blinking cursor off and on for a couple of days now without knowing what I really want to write. I want to write out the grief I feel about my dog, but it's such a cold and bitter emotion that it feels like poison on the page. I can't stop crying whenever I try to write about it or talk about it. I know I need to put things like leashes and glucosamine biscuits and dog aspirin somewhere other than their usual places, but it feels wrong. Do I give them away? Do I put them in a box in anticipation of needing them for a future aging dog?
In the last few days since he's been gone, I'm realizing a couple of things, like just how much dog food my cat eats. A lot. A LOT. Almost as much as I thought Sancho had been eating. The noises I thought had been the sound of Sancho moving around the house are also still present in the house, which is slightly disturbing because what is that thump if not Sancho sliding from the sofa to the floor? I've also been avoiding home whenever possible. I went out for wine with Katie and stayed out much longer than the inner nag would have let me, had I been with dog. I went to see Avatar with Cory and her husband and their two kids. It was a good movie, I guess. Visually pretty and all that. But basically, it was like Fern Gully crossed with Alien but with giant blue cat people. I went out for drinks with Barbara and some other old guard that I work with and drank mango margaritas in a cheesy and terrible Mexican food restaurant and complained about our bosses. I went to one of those pottery firing places with Aura and glazed a mug. Aura stenciled, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" on hers.
An aside about Aura: On Wednesday when I was trying to take Sancho to the vet and realized that there was no way I could get him into the car without help, I called Aura to see if she could meet me at my house to help me. I'd put a sheet under him, and I thought that if I supported his middle, his front leg momentum would propel him toward the car and and I'd help with the rear end. It was a no-go. So then I tried to lift him on my own, but he yelped in pain, so I put him back down. When Aura showed up, I thought it would be best to just use the sheet like a stretcher. Also, I thought it would be better to put him in the back of her station wagon since it's flatter and easier to access. So Aura says, "Yeah, let's use my car. I'll pull it forward" and gets in her car and drives up my neighbor's driveway and across the lawn and into the bush right by my front door. I'm not complaining, but it's such an Aura thing, to be somewhat destructive in her helpfulness while aware of the most important task at hand.
Word got out to my students, and they have been incredibly nice and kind. Even kids who have been a major pain in the ass have tried to be at least funny if not well behaved. For example, the kid who drew penii all over his homework and then announced that another kid had teabagged a child at boyscout camp stayed after to tell me that when his dog died, he cried for two weeks and that it's okay if I'm still sad about it for a really long time because he still misses his dog. I even received Christmas presents this year, for the first time since I've been here. You know, I used to rake in the loot every year that I was at the last high school, but the first two years in Eugene, the kids have sort of ignored holidays. I don't know if it's the increased awareness of political correctness or what. This year, I was joking with them and said that teachers don't even ask for personal presents but instead for school supplies, and I said that my wish list consists of the following:
- a working stapler
- a hole puncher
- dry erase markers
So, I get to my third period class yesterday, and Tashara and Jessica and Travis are standing at the front of the class, and they're holding a Victoria's Secret bag and I'm like cringing because I am thinking that this is going to be terribly embarrassing, whatever it is that is about to happen. And Tashara says that because I'm the best! teacher! ever! the class discussed what to get me to show how much they appreciate me. But because no one had any money, they stole all of the working staplers they could find. The one they were most proud of came from the vice principal's office. The second best was a very stern math teacher's. Now I have nine staplers in a Victoria's Secret bag.
I'm leaving on a jet plane tomorrow afternoon to head down to Arizona for ten days. I'm really looking forward to seeing my people. Bree will pick me up at the airport because both Mom's car and Tim's car are in different states of broken. And I'll sleep in Japan or maybe the Colonies. Over the summer, I did the demolition for the front bathroom that my mom wanted to re-tile. We picked out tile and backer board and my mom said that now that she's retired, she can finally find time to finish home improvement projects. When I talked to her last week, she said that she hadn't really touched the bathroom since I left, which means that... sigh. |
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| Gibbon, Chapter XIII |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|12:04 am] |
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Another very long chapter, but an excellent read, full of incident and character. Diocletian comes over as one of the best emperors so far - a slave from Illyria who rose to the top, managed it well, and retired in time to enjoy his later years plating cabbages by the Adriatic. In the meantime he puts down Carausius' rebellion in Britain, wins a war with Persia and sorts out the empire by dividing it into four. Of course, that simply meant new structures that could go wrong; but it was a good solution to the problem of unmanageability.
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| An Earthly Child - spoilers |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|10:10 pm] |
I feel a bit mean posting this, because the other reviews I've seen so far of An Earthly Child are rather positive (without spoilers here and with spoilers here). I think Marc Platt's scripts are a bit like Marmite - you love 'em or hate 'em. However, to explain why I didn't like it requires a cut-tag and spoiler warning, thus:
( Read more... )
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| ACTS & PROVE, Part who knows what in an ongoing series. |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|02:55 pm] |
Note to readers: don't click the link unless you're really sure that you can handle graphic images of gunshot wounds...
This is what can happen to you if you stupidly neglect your basic firearms safety practices, in this case PROVEing (i.e. Pointing in a safe direction, Removing the ammunition, Opening the action, Verifying that the feed path and chamber are clear, and Examining the bore) your .45-70 (a big-bore rifle capable of dropping bison, for the uninitiated) before leaning it up against your ATV with the safety off. Doing this, and following the Four Rules are all you need to do in order to ensure that you will not have a negligent discharge (there's no such thing as an "accidental" discharge). However, some people...
The guy got really lucky; the rifle in question fell over and somehow (twig in the trigger, bubbaed trigger job, safety, who knows) went off. The bullet hit him just below the left shoulderblade from the side, travelled upwards under the skin across his back, and exited from the back of his neck, missing his spine by a whisker. Both entrance and exit wounds are best described as "horrific craters". Yeesh. They're an object lesson in the meaning of Rule No. 2: never point a firearm at something you aren't willing to destroy.
ACTS & PROVE, people, ACTS & PROVE... |
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| Snowbound, and social media |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|06:43 pm] |
It won't have escaped notice that the weather has been a bit cold round here of late. Some (including one who works in the same building as me) think we should take it in our stride, and to an extent I agree that one should try and be slightly Zen about it. But sometimes this is not easy.
Thursday night was a bad night. I was rather enjoying myself at a Bosnian embassy reception when I bit awkwardly on a (really yummy) piece of Baklava and my tooth, re-filled only that morning, began hurting like the blazes. I made my excuses to the ambassadors (the one I was talking to at the time, and the one hosting the party) and hurried as fast as I could to the tram and the Gare du Midi / Zuidstation. Less than 40 minutes later I had reached Leuven station, only 7 km from home. But Leuven was snowbound; the rest of the journey took over two hours, as buses failed to show up and trains were cancelled; eventually I trudged to the warmth of the Novotel and called a cab from there, jaw still aching.
Since then it's been OK here, but we were really alarmed to hear of the Channel Tunnel being closed - and 2000 passengers stuck inside it! - since we were due to head over to the in-laws' tomorrow for a couple of days before Christmas. There is no reliable information available on the Eurostar / Eurotunnel site; but in the Twitter era, you cannot escape instant and public consumer feedback. It is clear that traffic is backed up for hours around Calais and Dover / Folkestone, and there are worrying reports of chaos at the loading ramps. There is no way we can take the risk of travelling with a severely autistic child (who will turn seven on Monday) and being stuck in traffic for hours, so we are not going tomorrow - particularly since the forecast is for more heavy snow precisely in western Belgium and the Pas-de Calais overnight - and quite likely will not go on Monday either. Alas, no pantomime for F, and no reunion with Anne's cousins either. But sometimes you have to accept force majeure.
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| Lots of Who (mostly audio) |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|11:19 am] |
It's been a good few weeks for us Who fans who follow audio as well as TV. The last two parts of BBC audio The Hornet's Nest, starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, shipped at the start of the month; for Fifth Doctor fans, we have had the last two of the three Big Finish audios set in Stockbridge and co-starring Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, and also a Companion Chronicle told by Mark Strickson as Turlough; the Sixth and Eighth Doctors both went to Blackpool, and the Eighth Doctor also went back to a future Earth to see his granddaughter; and for good measure I'm throwing in the animated story "Dreamland" and the audiobook "Day of the Troll", both featuring David Tennant in his closing days as the Tenth Doctor. To put you out of your agony of suspense, I will reveal now that I thought the best and worst of these were the two Eight Doctor stories; read on to discover which was which. I believe I have avoided significant spoilers - though this is not always true of the reviews I have linked to.
( Hornets' Nest: Part 4, A Sting in the Tale and Part 5, Hive of Horrors )
( Three Fifth Doctor plays )
( The Nightmare Fair: the Sixth Doctor goes to Blackpool )
( Death in Blackpool: the Eighth Doctor goes there too )
( Dreamland: Tenth Doctor and aliens in Nevada )
( December Books 6: The Day of the Troll )
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| The Most Cake |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|10:19 am] |
While explaining Courtney Love In Translation to my shrink today she asked me if I felt like "doll parts."
I'm still pondering that one.
But, it's a good question. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|01:48 am] |
Hey Mr. LJ. Tomorrow is the last weekend before Xmas. I'm curious to see how it will go. We're way ahead of any other year. Imagine what the total would be if there was any mark up left on anything?
Steven Seagal: Lawman is either awesome or more awesome than awesome. Perhaps it is the awesomest of awesomes.
I've decided I'm going to find out about writing that test and then I'm going to write it. I'm highly suspicious that this is all too easy. There must be a trick or else why wouldn't everyone be a highly paid skilled tradesperson? The minimum apprentice wage satisfies the goal of the Year of Wealth. That's crazy.
Imagine if that actually happened? I'd have won at the Year of Wealth with months and months to spare. I'd have done it with the ridiculous plan of closing the store and becoming unemployed in order to acquire wealth since if I had not it wouldn't have been suggested as something to do. What would I do until the Year of Social? I'd have a half a year of nothing!
Of course, I'm cool with nothing. Maybe I'd just enjoy that.
Don't get your hopes up though. One thing that holds true in my life is that nothing will ever really work out. Failure is always imminent. Things just don't happen. Everyone I know moves along through the proper life of job, marriage, mortgage, kids while I sit here no further along than I was at 19.
Plus, like I said, there must be some trick I'm not understanding or else... umm... why isn't everyone doing it?
I treadmilled for twenty minutes at 4.2 mph. My left knee and ankle are hurting afterward darn it. Why am I so brittle?
You just wish you had a calamansi juice pouch.
Later Mr. LJ. |
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| Well, that was a success... |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|11:37 pm] |
After physiotherapy we popped over to South Nation Archery Supply this evening for a spot of bow tuning and had them install a set of Cobra Boomslangs on my bow (a Pearson Apache 300 which mieszko kindly gave me when he decided to hunt exclusively with stickbows). The bow didn't need much tuning; he moved the nock down a grand total of 1/16" and that was that. We then proceeded to the archery range in back of the shop to zero the sights.
I have yet to find my socks. I went from shooting minute of barn at ten meters without sights to minute of Bambi at twenty with the sights in about fifteen minutes, adjustments and coaching included (it's only a twenty-meter range, so once I get a little more mobile I'll have to take it out to the Vankleek Hill range and set the thirty and forty meter pins). This was incredibly gratifying, both because archery is fun and because it means bowhunting next fall for sure (barring my back not getting any better in the interim); If I get some regular practice in, and get to the point where I can bag carp with confidence this summer, I figure that I'll be capable to shooting the bow accurately enough to be ethically comfortable with taking it out after deer in the fall.
It's going to be fun to see how the Xmas Bow Project bows shoot in comparison...
Speaking of carp, I also picked up a Muzzy quick-release carp arrowhead and a better bowfishing reel. The head should actually work in terms of actually having carp-penetrating capability (unlike the one I started with last summer) and the reel should create less line drag.
My back hurts, but wow, was it ever worth it.
And it looks like ice fishing season may be upon us soon... |
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| Betrayed |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|07:51 pm] |
Betrayed
P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
YA fiction; fantasy
310 pages
Betrayed, the second installment in the bestselling House of Night series, is dark and sexy, and as thrilling as it is utterly shocking.
Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night. She’s come to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her, and is getting a handle on being the new Leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite group. Best of all, Zoey’s made some new friends and she finally feels like she belongs--like she really fits in. She actually has a boyfriend…or two. And despite the best efforts of her mother and step-loser John to humiliate her publically during parent visitation, she’s earned the respect of her professors and High Priestess, Neferet.
Then the unthinkable happens: human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the House of Night, straining human-vamp tensions in Tulsa to a breaking point. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey’s old life, she finds herself drawn into an intoxicating forbidden flirtation that threatens to distract her from the growing crisis. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night. Too late, Zoey begins to realize that the very powers that make her so unique might also threaten those she loves, and she must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart, her soul, and jeopardize the very fabric of her world.
I am officially addicted to this series! It is a different take on vampires and I really am enjoying it! I actually love that it takes place in a school setting and the twist at the end of the book makes me excited to read the rest of the books in this series! I can't wait to see what others think of this series so far.
Books read this year: 48/50. |
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| JOB OFFER: LOCKSS |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|01:56 pm] |
Dear all,
The company that I'm working for has a job opening for a good software engineer.
LOCKSS does digital preservation by distributing copies of articles in libraries around the world. This is a good team, with very dedicated programmers. If you want an unbiased idea of how wonderful this place is, write to tilton, who left about two years ago.
Here's the job description:
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LOCKSS Program Software Developer
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Job ID
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36723 |
Job Location
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University Libraries |
Job Category
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Information Technology Services |
Date Posted
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Dec 12, 2009 |
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This position is a two-year fixed-term.
The LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) Program, founded in 1998 at Stanford University, is an international community initiative working to preserve today’s valuable web content for future readers and scholars. We work with approximately 200 libraries and 400 publishers, from all corners of the globe. The ACM award-winning LOCKSS technology is open source, peer-to-peer, decentralized digital preservation infrastructure [www.lockss.org] based on Java and Unix.
We are looking for an exceptional software engineer.
Responsibilities: The person we hire will share responsibilities to design, develop, and deploy the LOCKSS Program software. She/he will work with a small team to:
• Develop, build, and implement major portions of the LOCKSS system
• Participate in weekly design meetings, code specifications, and code reviews.
• Implement design choices working alone or in a small group to deliver solid code in a timely manner, using a structured unit-testing framework.
• Understand trends: World Wide Web, data communication (peer to peer protocols), digital libraries and electronic journals.
• Analyze a diverse range of online publishing formats to enable content preservation
• Contribute to providing support to an international group of publishers, systems administrators and librarians who are using the LOCKSS preservation system.
Description of the Relationships and Roles: The incumbent will report to the Director and, LOCKSS Program, Stanford University Libraries/Academic Information Resources (SUL/AIR). She or he will work closely with the LOCKSS Program Senior Software Architect and the LOCKSS Chief Scientist. The Developer will be located in the LOCKSS Program offices at 1450 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto.
Equipment, Systems, software, skills to be used in the performance of the job:
Software and Systems:
• Java: Java Servlets, JUnit, Java thread programming, Java networking
• Unix and Linux shell scripting
• Emacs, Eclipse, JBuilder or some other Linux compatible IDE
• XML technologies
Skills:
• Ability to design, implement, test and deploy complex Web-based systems
• Ability to work independently and as part of a small team with minimal supervision
Qualifications:
A four year college degree or equivalent is required, and an advanced degree in Computer Science is desired. At least three years of programming experience with Java is required.
• Experience with:
o Java: Java Servlets, JUnit, Java thread programming, Java networking, AWT/Swing, Castor, XStream, PDFBox
o Development Tools: Eclipse/NetBeans, JUnit, Ant, CruiseControl
o Collaboration Tools : Subversion/CVS/RCS, Bugzilla/RT/Trac/Roundup, MediaWiki/MoinMoin, SourceForge
o Knowledge of C, C++, C# is a plus
o Knowledge of Ruby/Rails, SQL, Python, Perl is a plus
• Demonstrated ability to deliver projects on time and as specified
• Record of inquisitiveness, curiosity; a quick learner of new technologies and tools
• Ability to apply knowledge, ingenuity and logical thinking to solve systems and program design problems, within time and resource constraints
• Ability to work independently and in a collaborative production team environment where tasks are often shared and success is based on the effective delivery of systems and services
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; experience providing user support and writing documentation a plus
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If you're interested, visit jobs.stanford.edu and do a keyword search for "LOCKSS". The Job Title is "LOCKSS Program Software Developer", and the Job ID is 36723.
Take care, all! | | |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 19th, 2009|07:39 am] |
I recently worked on a short film based on the James O'Barr comic "Frame 137".
It's set in a post apocalyptic cyber punk world so I thought I'd post about it here :)
I know, I know, shameless promotion.
Anyway the Production Designer has made a behind the scenes video of building the set which is actually pretty cool to watch. There is an exclusive teaser of the actual film at the end of the video as well.
The website isn't up and running yet, though there is a facebook page if you are interested.
I hope you enjoy it. |
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| Most commented posts of the last year |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|10:05 pm] |
Posts since I last counted that got more than 20 comments - 42 in total, top 21 bolded, top 14 and top 7 in larger fonts.
( 42 most commented posts out of about 1100 )
So it's polls, controversial science fiction, and real life evil scientists that generate the most comments here.
One interesting thing (well, interesting to me) is that as Facebook starts to devour the internet, my posts of LJ entries to there are starting to spark discussion as well - and it is a completely different set of posts which get the most attention. More than ten comments were made on the following (there may have been others, but it is very tedious to chase these things down on Facebook):
( ten posts with ten or more comments )
Now, six of these are fairly hard politics posts, and I guess my facebook readership, being more reflective of my professional environment, is more likely to comment on those. But I find it peculiar that of the various posts I made about Torchwood: Children of Earth, two scored high on Facebook but a completely different one scored on Livejournal. I guess it is sometimes just a matter of the post catching the attention of potential commenters; a matter more of luck than judgement.
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