Baron Dave Romm's Friends
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| Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 |
supergee
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11:24a |
Oliver Willis notes an important demographic: John McCain has a clear lead among the delusional. EVERYBODY PANIC. WHAT WILL BARACK OBAMA DO TO APPEAL TO THE DELUSIONAL?–Oliver Willis |
mrissa
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10:16a |
Five Things on a Tuesday Morning
1. As I work on "Five Ways to Ruin a First Date" (which is about radio astronomy), I keep thinking, "Perhaps I'm not being subtle. Perhaps I'm merely being obscure." I keep putting in e-mails to people, "I can only do this as I can do it." Which is true but not perhaps ultimately helpful.
I refuse to do the kind of prose that jumps up and down and points frantically at its own subtlety, though. That's just not going to happen.
2. I woke up at 5:15 this morning. Since I was already tired from the weekend, this did not thrill my soul. We're trying a new method of keeping my back from getting quite so banged up with the falls in PT; hope it works. It requires an extremely high-tech solution: a larger rubber ball from Walgreen's. At least Mom got me the swirly sky blue kind.
3. I find I am really, really not emotionally attached to most of the library books I try being any good at all. Of the five I got yesterday, I have already discarded two unread. And this does not bother me even slightly. Go library.
4. I am trying, with moderate though not universal success, not to be cranky with people with the continuing vertigo ick, since it's not their fault. But inanimate objects are not receiving the same consideration. I have been cutting the tags out of shirts with wild abandon. There is one T-shirt I've been sleeping in for over a decade (because physics T-shirts are tough, apparently), with the tag in. No problem. Until this weekend when the Tag! Must! DIE! This seems like a harmless enough pastime, so I'm just going with it.
5. I am instituting a new policy. I am no longer going to listen to my friends making disparaging remarks about themselves without protest. If my friends were making disparaging remarks about each other, I would protest, so I don't see why it should be different when it's about themselves; certainly it doesn't make me any less uncomfortable. I certainly don't expect my friends to pretend that they are perfect and without flaw, but gratuitous self-directed nastiness is not the same thing, and not okay. I don't care to put one of you on the spot and say who it was that inspired this new policy, because it bothers me more frequently than just the one person; if it was just the one person, I would e-mail just the one person.
For handy reference:
X: "I'm worried about this thing, because I have such difficulty getting myself organized."
me: "I'm sorry to hear that. Do you think it'd help to blah blah, or etc.?"
BUT
X: "I am such a disorganized loser!"
me: "Kindly don't speak that way of my friend X." |
asimovberlioz
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7:32a |
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sraun
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9:28a |
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rvrjoe775
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9:29a |
Life on Mars I just saw that Colm Meaney will be in the new Life on Mars series. Great casting! |
davidwilford
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9:24a |
An interesting fact According to the latest ABC/Washington Post poll, only 31% of Americans approve of President Bush's performance while 66% disapprove. They also mention that Bush has gone 40 months without having the approval of a majority of Americans. Which incidentally covers his entire second term in office. Definitely a first for the Worst President Ever. |
freeimprov
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8:52a |
Also, he's "older than dirt", in his own words It's been a while since I smacked John McCain around, so I guess I'm due. Now, since he's older than Alaska, chocolate chip cookies, Israel, plutonium, Bugs Bunny, and Dick Cheney, he's supposed to have this "experience" that makes him a better leader than the supposedly inexperience Obama. And with that in mind, here's a trick question quiz! Poll #1187100 it's not important, really
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllWhen did McCain's vaunted experience show in his judgement? |
freeimprov
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8:17a |
capture the flag
Yesterday, while driving to work (sigh), I saw - and ran over - an American flag blowing around on Hiawatha Ave. My inner Boy Scout recoiled at this sight so hard I turned around at the next intersection and drove back to rescue it. I was expecting it to be completely trashed, but it turned out to be a good quality flag (nylon cloth) in okay shape, so I kept it instead of burning it (Note to politicians pushing the flag burning amendment - burning is the correct way to dispose of damaged flags, assholes. Now, would you please go do your fucking jobs rather than making up pseudo-patriotic distractions?)
Faron noticed it last night and asked what I was going was going to do with it. I said I'd probably hang it in the studio. She said "You're not going to have it on stage at Convergence on Juy 4?" Then she saw my face and said, "Did I just give you an idea? Oh, crap!"
Oh, yeah.
On an unrelated note, I started looking for a bicycle. I haven't owned a bike for many years, since my last one was stolen. But I have a really good bike commute distance (seven miles of scenic, at least once they rebuild the 35W bridge that my route would go under), and I don't have to worry about my bike getting stolen from work now - I can park it in the garage where it'll be guarded by guys with guns.
I found a bike I really like - a Redline 925. But at over $500, it's more than I want to spend. The thing about the Redline is that it's a single-speed road bike. The rear hub can be flipped for either freewheel or fixed-wheel riding. I HATE maintaining derailleur gears and grew up on single-speed BMX bikes, so the idea really appeals to me. I like the simplicity and the feel, although I rather fear the hill on River Road by the Franklin St bridge... anyway, people often convert older road bikes to single-speed. So I've started looking on Craigslist for conversions. |
davidwilford
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8:21a |
Happy birthday! To ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cakmpls! Enjoy your loot! |
drewan
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8:20a |
B-day wish Happy birthday to cakmpls! |
ericcoleman
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8:17a |
The Most Important Question Of The Day Poll #1187081
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllIt's important, really This one was the idea of my co-worker Dave ... I'm guessing this is going to start fights, but then again I thought that yesterday's quiz was pretty non-controversial. Some folks are just a LITTLE too into their stick shifts for their own good. |
sraun
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7:38a |
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mnfringe
[ unclebastard ]
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7:35a |
Five-Fifths of Romeo and Juliet
Hey all, here's a quick and dirty edit of the acts from Five-Fifths of Romeo and Juliet. This isn't archival stuff from the Fringe, just some handheld stuff I capture. Enjoy!
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wormquartet
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8:29a |
More disaster relief, more cheap funnie Grant Bocacioacoisloasaurus of Throwing Toasters has announced that for the next month, all proceeds from the "Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon" Vol. 1 and 2 compilations will be donated toward Myanmar and China relief efforts. These are great comedy music comps, featuring, among others, Luke Ski, Barnes and Barnes, Power Salad, Worm Quartet, Tom Smith, The John Schwartz Project, Raymond & Scum, Carla Ulbrich, Henry Phillips, and Weird Al himself. You can pick up these discs from CDBaby for a mere $9.99 each via the links below: Vol 1 - http://cdbaby.com/cd/fmscVol 2 - http://cdbaby.com/cd/fmsc2-=ShoEboX=- |
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bruce_schneier
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7:05a |
Interesting Microsoft Patent Application http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/05/interesting_mic.html Guardian Angel:
An intelligent personalized agent monitors, regulates, and advises a user in decision-making processes for efficiency or safety concerns. The agent monitors an environment and present characteristics of a user and analyzes such information in view of stored preferences specific to one of multiple profiles of the user. Based on the analysis, the agent can suggest or automatically implement a solution to a given issue or problem. In addition, the agent can identify another potential issue that requires attention and suggests or implements action accordingly. Furthermore, the agent can communicate with other users or devices by providing and acquiring information to assist in future decisions. All aspects of environment observation, decision assistance, and external communication can be flexibly limited or allowed as desired by the user.
Note that Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie are co-inventers. |
jrittenhouse
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7:26a |
Health update: A quick update to the general run of things.
The doctors visits have slowed down somewhat. Northwestern’s Infectious Disease people want to go digging to see if there’s bone involvement in the old foot wound, but it’s not because they think there’s something there, but because they’re covering all the bases. The wound isn’t healing very fast, so the wound care podiatrist is prescribing a special new thing to put in there called ‘regranex’ that is supposed to help a LOT on healing open wounds like that. I can’t tell you how annoying having that foot messed up is…
The leukemia doc has me on a monthly infusion of immunoglobulins, which eats the best part of a day and are a pain from the sit-there-and-be-bored-while-the-IV-runs department. Next treatment is in early June. |
dlacey
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8:17a |
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magentamn
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7:06a |
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jrittenhouse
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6:17a |
Same name and nicknames: People asked after the last set of pictures - what’s with the odd nickname set for the twins?
Both have the same first name - Meredith - and developed the same sound nickname (sounds like the name for a female horse, ‘mare’) but the families spell it differently. Meredith Ellen Harrington’s is spelled Mer, and Meredith Grace Ann Rittenhouse’s is spelled Mere.
The girls call each other Sissy, or refer to each other as Sissy. So when we’re at home and talking to Meredith Grace about her sister Meredith Ellen, we usually refer to ‘Sissy’.
Obviously, this works when the parents are emailing back and forth, but not when we’re speaking to each other or the girls are present. Then, we use “Meredith Ellen” or “Meredith Grace” to avoid confusion. Ally is just Ally.
We have thought that the idea of having Ally pick up the phrase ‘this is my sister Meredith and this is my other sister Meredith’ would be amusing, but none of the girls would find the old NEWHART show in the least bit interesting. |
fgherman
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6:14a |
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supergee
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5:22a |
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morgantisofkent
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2:43a |
About a quarter to 3 in the morning.
S isn't home yet.
Can't say I'm pleased.
Screw it, I'll go to sleep now.
Night all. |
jiawen
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2:34a |
Earthquake in Sichuan A large earthquake happened several hours ago in Sichuan, China. When I traveled in China during Spring Festival in 1992, I spent some time around Chengdu. Chengdu is a great city: just the right balance between busy and laid back, with spicy food, friendly people and some amazing temples. My fellow students and I took a side trip to Dujiangyan, which we heard had some irrigation projects, and a mountain that was supposed to have some nice scenery. I thought it sounded kinda boring, but it was either that or something even more boring, so I took the trip. I'm very glad I did. Dujiangyan 都江堰 is an amazing, ancient project where they split a river to irrigate a vast area of land. It also has some great temples, really cool rope bridges over the river and an amazing view of the Himalayas. And it's been irrigating the region for over 2500 years. Qingchengshan 青城山, the mountain we went to, turned out to be a major center of religious Daoism and a World Heritage Site. The temples were utterly first-rate; still in use, with superb southern-style roof 'horns' and lots of monks in residence, all dripping in history. Paths through caves, misty mountain peaks and hidden waterfalls -- like being in one of those Chinese ink paintings. And the trek up the mountain made me understand the appeal of pilgrimages. I felt like I was going to collapse as we reached the summit, but then someone said "Hey, look at that", and stretched out behind us were the upthrust mountain peaks and the intense green Sichuan plain stretched out beyond. It was a religious experience, I think I can say. Dujiangyan is very close to the epicenter. Apparently a school collapsed there, trapping over a thousand kids and teachers. And the official website of Qingchengshan is not responding, which is a bad sign. My heart goes out to all the people who've been hurt in this earthquake. I lived through a major earthquake while I was living in Taiwan; that was pretty terrifying, and it was a full magnitude lower than yesterday's quake. I hope deaths are as few as possible, and that the government response is quick and effective. I also hope that this makes a few more land developers in China understand the importance of building codes. As an aside, there was apparently a rumor going around that Beijing was going to be hit by an earthquake "on May 12, between the hours of 22:00 and 24:00". It was serious enough that the China Earthquake Agency 中国地震局 issued a statement denying this as pure rumor. Interesting in that it sounds ever so slightly like a dynasty trying to prove that it still has the Mandate of Heaven, especially when the earthquake happened in a province next to Tibet. |
budsharpe
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2:08a |
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druidsfire
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2:05a |
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