Ultranormal

  • All Wrong

    For all the wrong things in the world:

    There is at least some good news:

  • Dissent

    Dissent Protects Democracy

    Now there’s a protest sign I can get behind. The bomb with “Your Name Here” on it looks great, but doesn’t say what I want to say. The only things I can think of to sum up my feelings that would fit on a protest sign are (and feel free to use these on a poster if you want):

    • I Think George W. Bush Is A Big Fat Doody

    • Make Dip Not War (maybe that should be “Don’t Let Dips Start Wars”)

    • Just Cuz I Don’t Like President Bush Doesn’t Mean I Like Saddam

    • I Support Out Troops. I Don’t Support Inept, Corrupt Administrations

    • My Enemy’s Enemy Is Not My Friend, Mr. Bush

    • Since We Gave Him Those Weapons, Can’t We Just Recall Them?

    • What Else Did You Sell Him, Mr. Vice President?

    • Poor Colin Powell – It Doesn’t Look Like He Even Believes What’s Coming Out Of His Mouth (ok, maybe this won’t fit)

    • Why Is The Draft Dodger So Hip To Start This Thing?

    • Those Who Start Wars Have Rarely Fought In One

    • Mearde is ‘Freedom’ For BS

    We had a little party for work tonight and we ended up talking about President Bush, the war and how ashamed we are of the President. It was enlightening how many people we got around the table who all felt the same way, and all on accident. It wasn’t a meeting of the Anti-Bush Superfriends of anything. Thankfully, we didn’t spend all night on Bush, Cheney and the Funky Bunch. I got some great lines in. My favorite of the night was, “Yeah, ‘concubine’ is my favorite word in the Bible. It sounds like a car… Coming this spring, the Chrysler Concubine! Of course, it’s a rental.” The rental part really got ’em. I’m a comedic genius.

  • Max’s Happy Music

    I decided that today was a good day to make Max a happy music CD of stuff he should like (should in that it would be wise for him to like it, not that I think he’ll like). It may end up being a multi-volume set. Today, volume one:

    1. If I Had A Boat – Lyle Lovett – Ok, this one’s a slam dunk. Max loves this song, as do I. We used to sing it every night before bed during our bedtime Story/Song/Prayer/Love you, goodnight ritual.

    2. Minimum Wage – They Might Be Giants – I loved TMBG, and they’re funny enough that Max probably will too. If he likes this one, I’m running out to get their album of kids’ songs.

    3. Let’s Go Crazy – Prince – Max is all about going crazy.

    4. Funky Music (Fatboy Slim Mix) – Hardy Hard – From the Essential Millenium album, this one just makes me wanna move. Max likes to move ,so logical move, no?

    5. The Time Warp – Dr. Frank N Furter – Who doesn’t love to do the Time Warp?

    6. Canary In A Coalmine – The Police – Early Police makes me shake my butt, and Max loves Ska. It was either this or Man In A Suitcase

    7. Back On The Train – Phish – This song has a great bouncy rhythm and is a lot of fun to sing along with. Max will sing Phish in the car if it’s on, so hey, why not this one?

    8. Cars Trucks Buses – Phish – This is a short instrumental from Billy Breathes that just screams happy. A little break from words to catch his breath before we move on to…

    9. Particle Man – THBG – If you went to high school in the early nineties, I know you know all the words to this song still.

    10. Raspberry Beret – Prince – This one is on here so Jen can tell her “Rags, baby, hooray” story to Max.

    11. Mr. Jones – Talking Heads – This song kicks some serious salsa ass. The horns alone are worth putting it on the disc.

    12. New Sensation – INXS – Power pop, Australian Eighties style. Tell me you don’t want to get up and dance in that floppy leather jacket Michael Hutchence way. You don’t? You’re a liar.

    13. Delirious – Prince – Yeah, there’s a lot of Prince on this one. I loved Prince when I was ten… no, not that way. His early stuff, especially the stuff on this disc just makes me happy, especially the synth riff at the beginning of this song.

    14. I Love Being Here With You – Six Feet Under Soundtrack – Goin’ Old School with this one. It’s jazzy. Gotta have a breather after Delirious

    15. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) – TMBG – If you had it, you’d put it on a mix CD for your kid too. Come on, admit it.

    16. Hey Baby – No Doubt – I think this is the first song after If I Had A Boat that Max learned the words to.

    17. Deeply Dippy – Right Said Fred – They’re not just I’m Too Sexy. This is an amazingly cute song from the same album. It just makes me smile.

    18. 1999 – Prince – Yes, we danced in 1999, even though Max was very little.

    19. Blind – Talking Heads – Rips almost as much as Mr. Jones. Plus, David Byrne is just funny.

    20. Le Flic Et La Fille – Arling & Cameron – More power horns and happy jumpin’ beats. A little break before…

    21. Turning Japanese – Skankin’ Pickle – How could I not put this song on the disc?

    22. Heavy Things – Phish – Another bouncy Phish song. Plus it’s about heavy things falling on people, which is automatically funny.

    23. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It – REM – How could I resist this challenge? If Max memorizes the words to this one, I’ll buy him a Corvette.

    I hope Max likes it…

  • A Microsoft Free World

    The switch to OS X is going well. I finally downloaded and installed OpenOffice. Other than it taking a year to start up, and requiring X, it’s doing fine so far. I just opened up a gigantic Word doc and it handled it fine. It reads the fonts OK (although without anti-aliasing), and only slightly munges tables. I think I can live with it. For someone who uses Word or Excel all the time, it might not be a good solution, but I only open Word when I absolutely have to in order to read product requirement docs, and only open Excel when I get reports – which isn’t very often. I write all my docs in HTML.

    The Powerbook is straining under the weight of the dual displays and all these open apps, but it’s not bad enough yet to consider moving to the big machine. I am loving having two monitors hooked up to one machine. It makes things so much nicer. I have an old SGI monitor with a digital input, so I may try hooking my Quiksilver up to that (it’s an 867 with a ton of RAM, so it should handle better than this, but then I’d have to install all the toys I’ve put on the Powerbook which could take days).

    My computing environment is completely free of Microsoft’s influence now. I no longer worry about what info my computer is sending back to the “MotherShip”. This may not bother most people, and if it doesn’t bother you, then by all means, use XP. It bugs the living crap out of me. It’s my computer. It’s not Microsoft’s computer. I bought and used Microsoft’s software, but it’s still my machine. Microsoft has no business knowing what I have installed or how often I use those programs. What else does my computer tell Microsoft when I’m not looking? Does it send them the names of the documents on my computer? Does it send them the list of e-mail addresses I have in my address book? With them, there’s no way to know because everything is a black box. In OS X, it’s just BSD with a pretty face. If I wanted to, I could get under the covers and see exactly what’s going on. Not so with Microsoft products.

    This is why Open Source will ultimately win. It’s not because it’s inherently better. It’s not because it’s geek friendly. We’re (ok, by we I mean me) tired of being lied to and manipulated. We’re tired of spyware. We’re tired of prohibitive licensing and insane software prices. We’re tired of being told with the products we’ve purchased. We’re tired of being treated like criminals. I don’t steal music or software. But, the software and music I buy, I want to be able to use as I see fit. I want to rip the cd’s so I can listen to them at work without having to bring the CD everywhere.

    Whew… Ok, I’m done.

  • Freedom Maids

    House cafeterias change names for ‘french fries’ and ‘french toast’

    And to think, we pay these guys’ salaries. Oh yeah, we voted them into office too. Does this mean they’re going to make the interns wear “Freedom” Maid outfits tonight? And you know what, let’s turn Germany into “Justice” and go get us a slice of Justice Chocolate Cake. Russia could be “Justified”. I think the members of the House had one too many nips of the Justified Vodka, don’t you?

    You’d think with the economy in the toilet, our country on the brink of war and facing international disdain and distrust that the yokels in the House would have better things to do than change the names of things. Next thing you know, they’ll make Double Plus Good Cola and outlaw paper. Big Idiot is watching… be careful what you say, unless you use big words. Big words confound Big Idiot.

  • The True Nonconformists

    It’s confession time. I love Swatches. I’m not sure why I do, but I do. I own six or seven of them. Most of them have dead batteries and a couple have badly mangled bands. I found my first swatch the other day in a drawer. Other than a dead battery and some scratches, it looks fine.

    There was a place in Tucson that sold used Swatches for \$20. They had the older, more collectible ones for more, but I only wanted the \$20 ones. I bought three or four there. Then, last week, I saw on our little employee site that we could get a selection of Swatches for \$15 a piece – all brand new. Of course, I went nuts, buying two before I remembered that my birthday is next Thursday and I should probably wait. Me, wait? Oh no. I got this one and this one (it’s not pink in person, all orange). They arrived yesterday and I couldn’t be happier.

    And then, I went into a meeting today and someone said, “Hey, nice watch. Lose a bet?” No, no I didn’t lose a bet. You’re just old and don’t get it, man. Swatches are my youth reclaimed. They’re cheap, durable and keep good time. They’re interesting to look at and are more fun than your chrome hunk of metal that probably loses minutes every week. My watch is cool. My watch is orange as hell and has a picture of mountains on it. Oh, and it only cost \$15, which means I could go buy another one next week without even thinking about it.

    Did I take too personally? Yeah, probably. But, as much as I tend towards conformity, there are times I just don’t do things like other people do. Ok, that’s complete BS. I’m a nonconformist. But, in saying it, I know you’re thinking of those goth babies with white faces or long-haired greasy guys in record stores railing against the system and the man. I’m not that kind of nonconformist. I’m a geek. I just don’t care what everyone else is doing. If I like something, I’ll do it. If I think something is stupid, I won’t do it.

    I’m not sure how this turned from my new watches to a post on conformity, but hey, here I am. Let’s go all the way. Nerds and geeks are the only real noncomformists left. Most of the other noncornformists I’ve met or still know may not follow society’s norms, but they definitely conform to their own little group’s ideas. Take the goth babies for instance. They wear black, they wear makeup and pierce themselves. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen most of them. They listen to the same music, worship at the altar of the same authors, etc. Nerds and Geeks? If you’ve met one, you’ve met a truly unique individual. Their geekiness and nerdism surfaces in weird and wonderful mutations that change with the frequency of batcrap in Carlsbad. Embrace the Rainbow of Geekhood. We’re out there, weird as hell, and really don’t care what you think about it.

  • Documents, Changes and Mood Altering Substances

    I hate writing documentation. I hate writing concept documents. I hate writing project plans. I like writing code. I’d gladly write code for almost anything over writing the documentation for that code. Unfortunately, I’m pretty good at writing documentation, and that means I get to do it more often than I’d like.

    After reading this last week, I’ve decided to start out this week forcing myself to use OS X and finally break my Windows habit. I realized that using my Quicksilver G4 isn’t really an option because I don’t use it all the time. I take my Powerbook home every night and surf for a couple hours after work, and during our blizzard, I worked from home on it and got it in a usable state with jEdit, MacCVSX, NetNewsWire and AOL. I could actually do my job on it without thinking about it. The problem with translating that to work is it’s not very comfortable to use a trackpad and laptop keyboard at work all day. My solution? Plug the powerbook into my KVM switch! It’s great! I usually have the Powerbook open all day with NetNewsWire and Camino open all day anyway. Now, it’s still open with the same apps, but now I have AOL, CVS and jEdit open on my monitor, and can use my regular mouse and keyboard. Bye-Bye XP, may you rot in hell.

    Computing is all about habits. Breaking old ones and creating healthy new ones is difficult – just ask anyone who’s ever dieted. Computing habits are sometimes harder to break. I’ve been using Windows for eight years to do my day-to-day job functions. Switching to a new platform, even one I like very much, to perform those functions is not easy. But, I can do it. I really really can…

    After the good news, much come some bad. This weekend sucked. We spent all weekend cooped up with a sick Max (he’s feeling much better) and an ailing (sore throat, also much better) and stircrazy Jen has done horrible things to my mood and sleep pattern. I’m exhausted even though I got eight hours of sleep last night. I’m also cranky and out of sorts. I’m hoping everyone and everything getting back to normal will help. I could really use a nap though.

  • Friday Night TV

    Thank goodness for TiVo. There’s now so much good stuff late on Friday night that I can’t believe trying to keep up without having TiVo handle it all for me. Let’s go over the list:

    • Ali G: It’s hard to say which show is funnier, but Ali G is one of the two funniest half hours on TV. The things he gets away with saying because of his outrageous accents are just brilliant. Submersive and somehow innocent, it will knock you on your funny bone, snap its finger in your face and show you its drawers as it walks away.

    • Penn & Teller: My wife hates Penn & Teller, but loves this show. They take the things no one else is willing to take on (but everyone is pretty sure is BS, but either doesn’t have the time or the stones to say so) and debunks them in the funniest possible way. The bottled water one last night was absolutely priceless.

    • Real Time With Bill Maher: I don’t really like Bill Maher. Really, I don’t. But, the panels are usually interesting. Paul F. Thompkins’ segments are very funny, and he’s committed to showcasing stand-up comedians. Sarah Silverman was really funny the first show, and Eric Idle was awesome last week. Worth watching for those alone (especially because you can fast forward through the other parts.

  • When The Rambos Do Something…

    They don’t kid around. Not only do Dawson and Annie both have blogs, but now step-daughter/daughter Laura has one too. What next guys, the cat?

    Pretty soon, they’ll be blogrolling, sitemeterin’, RSS Feedin’ pros. I feel partly responsible for inflicting the addiction on them. Really, I do. This all started with a simple “Hey, how do I get a blog for my wife?” and it’s ballooned into a family obsession (yes, I’m probably hyperbolizing here, but play along). You know this is all my vain attempt to get them traffic, right? It’s like trying to start a fire with a piece of string and a thimble (because how much traffic do I get? Not a whole lot).

    Where is this going? I have no idea… all this posting today is my way of avoiding work and staying awake until I can go home (well, go to Safeway and get Max’s medicine and THEN go home).

  • Three Days Old And Already A Pro

    So my pal Dawson started a blog. I told you that already. But, go back. Where there was once nothing, there is now content. Check out his Tips for Husbands. Words to live by, jackholes, words to live by.

    Daws’ Movable Type installation is now un-messed up and you should see some more neat-o stuff from him shortly (like an XML feed so you can try to keep up with him).

    In completely unrelated news, I’m down to 285. You may say to yourself, “Wasn’t he at 289 like two weeks ago? What took him so long? I can lose four pounds by taking a trip to the can!” Well, I was sick. I was at home. I lost my rhythm. I ate things I’m not supposed to. I was naughty. Since Monday, I’ve lost three pounds, so I’m back on track. In fact, I’m wearing my new smaller belt because I was down to the last hole on the “Middle” belt. I’ll see you at 250, suckers!