Ultranormal

Greasy and Honest

Post author By Kevin Lawver
Post date January 9, 2003
Categories In daily tedium

It’s extremely rare to find honesty in business, especially auto mechanics. I always follow my dad and use whoever he uses to fix his problematic cars (oh my, the stories I could tell you about my dad and his car trouble). Dad has a way of ferreting out honest auto mechanics and then inundating them with expensive and funny car problems. Thankfully, my cars aren’t that bad. Still, I like knowing the guy I take my car to isn’t going to rip me off.

For example, after our latest snow storm, my left windshield wiper stopped working. I figured it would be an expensive “replace the whole thing” affair. So, Jen and I dropped off the car at lunch today. Not two hours later, I get a call at work from the guy saying it’s all ready to go and there’s no charge. Apparently, when it’s icey, the pivot bolts get loose. It was a 2 minute find-it-and-wrench-it job that would have cost me $60 anywhere else. So, if you live in Northern VA, definitely give Houda’s a call. You won’t regret it.

Home From Safari

Post author By Kevin Lawver
Post date January 8, 2003
Categories In computing

I surfed with Safari last night and I have to say I’m not impressed. On my TiBook (500mhz w/ 512mb), it took 5 seconds to launch. Mozilla takes 9 to bring up the first browser window, and I get more. Chimera only took 4, and provides most of the features of Mozilla. I’m not going to switch, because there’s nothing really new there. Steve touted the snapback button, and the improved bookmarks, which I don’t think are really all that great to begin with.

It’s not that it’s not good software. It does render pages quickly. It is nice to look at. But, it could be so much more. I’m not really happy having to worry about another browser, even though its rendering problems seem minor.

Keynote Ramblings

Post author By Kevin Lawver
Post date January 7, 2003
Categories In computing

I picked up the MacWorld Keynote by Mr. Jobs in the middle while he was showing off iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. What just came to me while watching this is that Apple isn’t gunning for the workplace anymore. They’ve ceded that to Microsoft. They’ve created an amazing Lifestyle Suite of software. The collection of iApps is robust, and with the new features, I think the Mac’s killer app. We geeks can talk about the BSD underpinnings of OS X, the cool things we can do with things like Fink and the Apache webserver built in.

Yeah, and I just saw the part where he dropped the name on us: iLife. Yeah… Ummm… I called it?

Anyway, I’m pretty excited about the bundle and the new features in all three. PLUS, the predictions were wrong. You’ll be able to download iPhoto, iTunes and iMovie for free or go buy the bundle. Sweet.

Ummm, why did they go and build their own browser? Hopefully, it’s based on Gecko so we don’t have to worry about yet another browser’s quirks. It’s pretty funny how familiar the Safari toolbar is to the Windows AOL Client’s. I’m honestly not seeing anything too hot about Safari so far. The benchmarks looked good, but the features don’t look compelling enough to make enough people switch to make supporting it worthwhile. Also, Steve, please stop touting the Google integration. Big deal. There are Google bars for pretty much every browser out there that offer the same features. Hopefully, it won’t be another HotJava (Sun’s unbelievable horrible browser packaged with Solaris).

If you don’t own a Mac… consider it. I’m making the switch as we speak (it’s harder at work than at home, where the switch is already pretty much complete), and I’ve been extremely impressed.

Christmas Pictures

The Lawver Family

Bowling Asses

Post author By Kevin Lawver
Post date January 6, 2003
Categories In funny

I am going to bowl my ass off tonight! Why? Because my ass now officially weighs less than my bowling ball.

The Lavatory Library

I’ve finished two books in a week and have started on a third with gusto. The first, I’ve told you about repeatedly: American Gods. I just finished Jolie Blon’s Bounce by James Lee Burke. It’s pretty short for a Dave Robicheaux novel, and I’m starting to get the feeling that Mr. Burke is running out of creative steam. His last three or four books, not counting the amazing To The Bright And Shining Sun have followed the same formula of some preternaturally bad dude, a horrible person from Dave’s past and a crime. I read Bitterroot over Thanksgiving, and felt a sense of deja vu. He’s written some amazing stuff. His descriptions of Louisianna, the South in general and sense of dialogue are uncanny. He can spin a great tale. If you haven’t read Heaven’s Prisoners or Dixie City Jam, go get them now. You could skip Joli Blon’s Bounce and not have really missed anything.

I’ve started on A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. I’ve read lots of posts from people about how funny his writing is and spied this book on the bookshelf in our bathroom (don’t ask… I’ll take pictures eventually) and said, “Hey, where did this come from,” to the yawning bowl, pulled the book down and went to find Jen to ask her. Apparently, her mom gave it to her (my mother in-law is a great source of literature… she’s always giving us books) at Thanksgiving and Jen just got around to putting it up on the shelf. I’ve only gotten through the preface and acknowledgements and laughed my butt off through them. I can’t wait to really start the book.

I go on these tears every six months or so and just rip through books until my literary demon has been sated and goes back to sleep. If I finish this one, I have Jen’s Christmas present to me, Wobegon Boy by Garrison Keilor waiting for me in our lavatory/library.

The King of Mosey

He ambled up the street, peering in shop windows and wondering at the people with hands shoved in coat pockets rushing from place to place, disappearing, reappearing as others doing the same, going somewhere he wasn’t. They walked in long, fast steps, covering as much ground as possible without running or looking desperate to be anywhere but going. He wandered, slowly, feet never going too far in front of himself, propelling him just enough to change the scenery. He wasn’t going anywhere, had no where to be but with himself doing nothing. He’d lost his purpose somewhere, and didn’t remember where it had gone to. He walked from one end of town to the other for no other reason than it kept him warm and passed the time while he looked for his purpose. He was the King of Mosey and wandered until he wandered clean out of sight.

Flummoxed

I’m in a bad mood. I’m mostly in a bad mood because I came home sick from work yesterday and spent all today feeling like microwaved elephant dung. I’m fatigued, congested, my various pains are paining me and I’m just plain old grumpy. It’s time like these that make me want to say all the unpleasant things I normally keep to myself. Which means this is a good time to stop.

Need Fonts?

Post author By Kevin Lawver
Post date January 2, 2003
Categories In computing

Oh boy, my friend Jon linked to BlamBot – WOW. They have some of the coolest free fonts I’ve ever seen: clean, well done titling fonts. Sweet, sweet stuff.

Coldplay and Transvestite Funny

Post author By Kevin Lawver
Post date January 2, 2003
Categories In music

As you’ve probably noticed, I resist what’s popular until I just can’t take it anymore and then embrace it as soon as everyone else has found it and proclaimed it to be the Best Thing In The Whole Wide World™. Well, here I go again. Heather got Coldplay’s Parachutes for Christmas and wow, it’s just great. I haven’t heard the new one yet (because Heather hasn’t let me borrow it yet), but Parachutes is just great. It’s moody, mellow and is great “float away into what you’re doing” background music. I’ve been listening to the album for a couple hours now, and I’ve finally figured out why it sounds so familiar. Colplay’s lead singer sounds an awful lot like Jeff Buckley, especially on the second track, Shiver. I loved Grace, and this album sounds a lot like it, which isn’t a bad thing. I know you all know this already, but I figured I’d share anyway.

Speaking of things I know that you probably already do too, I got Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill on DVD for Christmas. Now, I’d seen the show on HBO about a million times, but wanted a DVD to watch when I’m sick, and something I can loan to friends who haven’t been indoctrinated yet. The coolest bonus of the whole thing is that there’s a show Eddie did in Paris as a prep for his new show, Circle. It’s all in French, but has sub-titles, which were nice for them big words and funky conjugations I didn’t get. It’s mostly his older material, but there were some great new bits in it. My favorite being (and this is a paraphrase, because it was in this big thing about the Renaissance), “You know, I’m just like Leonardo Da Vinci. He invented this helicopter that doesn’t work, and when I was seven, I also invented a helicopter that doesn’t work!! I’m a bloody genius, I tell you.” It was funnier in French… I swear it was.

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