July 29, 2007 to August 4, 2007
Wherein I could have Blogger backdate this so it looks like I posted on Sunday instead of Monday, but that would be wrong
A quiz:
Rules:
A quiz:
- People who enjoy yard work are fucking insane.
- I should be living in a studio apartment in a rundown warehouse district instead of this wooded suburban "paradise."
Rules:
- Show your work in the comments.
- Before any other comment can be left in this thread you must answer the quiz. I will delete. Once you've left an answer, you're good for the week.
posted by bill at 8:09 AM
33 Comments:
Bruce Schneier is posting a five-part series of interviews with Kip Hawley, the head of the Transportation Security Administration. Part 1:
BS: I want to assume the TSA is both intelligent and motivated to protect us. I'm taking your word for it that there is an actual threat -- lots of chemists disagree -- but your liquid ban isn't mitigating it. Instead, I have the sinking feeling that you're defending us against a terrorist smart enough to develop his own liquid explosive, yet too stupid to read the rules on TSA's own website.
KH: I think your premise is wrong. There are consequences to coming to an airport with a bomb and having some of the materials taken away at the checkpoint. Putting aside our layers of security for the moment, there are things you can do to get a TSO's attention at the checkpoint. If a TSO finds you or the contents of your bag suspicious, you might get interviewed and/or have your bags more closely examined. If the TSO throws your liquids in the trash, they don't find you a threat.
Me: If I'm not a threat then why the hell are you throwing away my stuff? Idiots.
KH: I often read blog posts about how someone could just take all their three-ounce bottles -- or take bottles from others on the plane -- and combine them into a larger container to make a bomb. I can't get into the specifics, but our explosives research shows this is not a viable option.
Me: Really. You've determined that combining the liquids from a bunch of 3oz bottles into a larger bottle isn't dangerous. If that's the case, then what's the point of disallowing larger bottles? If combining 4 3oz bottles is safe, why can't I just carry on a 12oz bottle?
Photodude writes:
Though there’s been some “mind changing” there’s still a lot of people so invested in their position on the war that rational argument left the building some time ago (that goes for the “pro” and the “con”), leaving a harsh fog. Plus some sticky smelly stuff on the ground that you can’t see because of the fog, and that’s just as well. Then throw in a wide open presidential campaign with more candidates than I have appendages. Mix in one President who has the ear of 28% of the country, and you have a recipe for talking about the war without really talking about the war.
I’d like to try and strip away the fog and sweep away the crap.
and later:
....Democrat or Republican, what you want to happen .. isn’t. What your candidate says they would do now, they can’t. Ask your candidates for 2008 what they are going to do when they take over. After hearing months of it from all of them, Pollyanna talk of what they would do “today” is just more hot air at this point.
So what's the deal with D'Nealian handwriting? Other than sounding like the font used on the Klingon user interfaces. The Child's kindergarten will be using this style. It will be interesting to see how The CHild adapts from the stick figure handwriting style The Child learned in pre-K.
Will also be interesting to see which parent The Child takes after. The Mother, with her perfectly manicured engineering lettering. Or the Father, with his illegible chicken scratches (who was just given a package including all report cards from grades 1-6 and the lowest score was always handwriting, of which the most positive comment was "show improvement.").
I'm thinking I'll set up a new blog and vox solely for the vinyl digitizing. Aside from all the 80s flotsam there's also a large amount of Disney storybooks I'm thinking about turning into videos. So I might need to establish a youtube account, as well?
Seems complicated--blogspot for the blog, vox for the music, and youtube for the videos.
I could use vox for the whole thing, but I'm not particularly thrilled with their whole set up; it was just an easy way to upload audio.
Ideally, it would be nice to embed audio clips in blogspot posts (like you can with youtube videos), but I think the only applications that let you do that are loading from your own servers? Or have I missed something?
Anyone have any suggestions? Easy and not very time-consuming are my goals.
thanks.
suggestions
Any thoughts on Odeo?
People who enjoy yard work are fucking insane.
I would say, rather, that they are vestigial farmers, who should liberate themselves from their pre-industrial past and join the 20th century. They may not be entirely capable of joining the 21st, mind you; you have to take what you can get and pray for the next generation.
Alternately, they could and should convert their "yards" to working farms: my operating theory of yard work is to mow when it's hard to walk, fertilize that which produces food, and ignore everything else until it impinges on walking or food-producing space, at which point it gets cut back mercilessly.
I should be living in a studio apartment in a rundown warehouse district instead of this wooded suburban "paradise."
Woods/forest are much easier to maintain than the Versailles-style lawns we consider "yards." I wouldn't consider woods a problem. Rundown warehouse districts have a way of becoming gentrified, which is as much of a problem, I'd say. Though I wouldn't mind an actual warehouse, for the book storage.
If you get around to digitizing the storybook stuff, let us know. There are a couple of people out there who are already doing that kind of work, not to mention my spouse, whose collection of storybook records is considerable: our child is a great book listener.
1. People who enjoy yard work are fucking insane.
No real argument here, one of the definitions of 'fucking insane' is doing the same thing over and over yet expecting different results. Sounds like yard work, all over. I would differentiate 'yard work' from 'gardening' however. 'Yard work' suggests the maintenance routines required by law and custom to maintain property whether you want to or not, 'gardening' suggests a little patch of dirt where you carefully cultivate a bit of nature. Hard to have a garden without a yard, though. There's the rub.
2. I should be living in a studio apartment in a rundown warehouse district instead of this wooded suburban "paradise."
Maybe, it's possible that if you were a single 20-something man living the life of a bohemian artist, that would be highly preferable to your current conditions. But, given other comments, that doesn't sound like your current condition. Families thrive in space, that's why sprawl happens.
Or you could go Zen on this motherfucker, and the only tool you'd need would be a rake.
This is Tuesday Trivia LVII, which I pronounce "lovey,"
I would like to recognize last week's #7 for its general excellence. Very "gettable" once you figured out the right way to look at it. I never did, unfortunately. On to this week.
1. First thing that popped was "Toastmasters," which was probably not a nickname for the 303rd Bombardment Group. I'll think about this one for a bit. I initially wrote "Taoistmasters." That could be interesting. Don't think the Taoists could take this group.
2. No answer. Don't think I've ever heard the islands called that.
3. Cherry?
4. The Third Mission Impossible movie
5. pink?
6. Vatican City
7. Hmmm, kinda gross. It does give me the opportunity to once again recommend the following book: The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery. Other than the two exceptions, references are from wikipedia.
Barrymore: film director Raoul Walsh "borrowed" Barrymore's body after the funeral, and left his corpse propped in a chair for a drunken Flynn to discover when he returned home from The Cock and Bull Bar
Chaplin: On March 1, 1978, his body was stolen by a small group of Polish and Bulgarian mechanics in an attempt to extort money from his family
Charles: the severed head of King Charles I of England was exhumed after 165 years
Cooke: ...that bones of Cooke and many other people had been surgically removed before cremation by bodysnatchers
Hadyn: A group of phrenologists managed to steal Haydn's head and have his headless body buried.
Parsons: In a story that has taken on legendary stature, Parsons' body disappeared from the Los Angeles International Airport, where it was being readied to be shipped to Louisiana for burial
Peron: The new authorities removed Evita's body from display and its whereabouts remained a mystery for 16 years.
Sterne: In a curiously "Shandean" twist in events, it appears that Sterne's body was stolen shortly after it was interred and sold to the anatomists.
The Wiki for Gram Parsons needs some editing or structural assistance. Does this make any sense to anyone? I think I know what it's trying to say, but it's so muddled as to almost propose opposing sentiments:
While touring with The Byrds in the summer of 1968, Parsons dropped out of a planned concert in South Africa, citing opposition to that country's apartheid policies; McGuinn and Hillman subsequently fired him from the tour.
During this period Parsons became friendly with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. It has been suggested that Parsons was mostly apolitical and merely took advantage of an opportunity to hang out with his idols, although he did refer to one of the younger African-American butlers in the Connor household as being "like a brother" to him in an interview and did not seem to exhibit racist tendencies.
"was mostly apolitical" and "did not seem to exhibit racist tendencies"? Did he exhibit racit tendencis elsewhere? Though boycotting South Africa would suggest not. Were Mick Jagger and Keith Richards racists, so hanging out with them would raise questions? This section has issues.
People who enjoy yard work are fucking insane.
Self-evident. Requires no additional explanation.
I should be living in a studio apartment in a rundown warehouse district instead of this wooded suburban "paradise."
Bullshit. If I'm living in an apartment in the city, I won't have a lawn. If I don't have a lawn, how can I put my El Camino up on blocks on it? Plus, the woods provide good cover in case you need to flee from federal agents. It's too easy to be spotted by helicopter in the city.
1. People who enjoy yard work are fucking insane.
True.
I do not enjoy yard work. I am quite sane. Therefore, people who enjoy yard work are insane. QED (This answer is brought to you by the logical fallacy: Just because its's fallacious doesn't mean it's wrong!)
2. I should be living in a studio apartment in a rundown warehouse district instead of this wooded suburban "paradise."
While the Boy from Chopper City probably said it best, I will simply point out that, though it may be a jungle, the urban landscape never brought me a bobcat in my backyard. Mostly because there's no backyard, let alone a wooded one. Although, if bobcats in your backyard aren't your thing, maybe your should live in your wee tiny studio with your exposed pipes and noisy air ducts and lack of yard work.
What Disney storybooks do you have? Do you mean the old Disneyland Records recorded storybooks? Because that would be most cool. I loved those.
I've added the fourth Aztec Camera song: http://soquoted.vox.com/library/post/aztec-camera.html
Turns out a can of compressed air does a jim dandy job of cleaning out the grooves.
ps: is anyone listening to the vox tracks? I have no indication that anyone has been over there.
I like a yard, just not all the work associated with it. Plus I'm pretty much incompetent whenn it comes to weilding basic yard tools. I blame my parents who had me pushing a lawn mower when I was 5.
Also doesn't help that Sunday morning at 9am, though the temperature was a comfortable 85 the humidity was 120%. Soaking wet before I made it down the stairs.
hat Disney storybooks do you have? Do you mean the old Disneyland Records recorded storybooks? Because that would be most cool. I loved those.
The Wife has a bunch of 45rpm storybooks that we've played for The Child. I had the LP storybooks--Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Three Little Pigs are the ones I recall, though there were a bunch more. I need to see if my mom has them or if they were loaned to one of the siblings. I'll cry if they've been lost.
I know mine were all sold/given away during one of our many moves. As a Navy brat, I didn't get to keep most of what I would now consider childhood treasures. I would love to have all my Little Golden Books and Dr. Seuss books. I can't even think of the Nancy Drew books I lost to a garage sale.
New song added: How To Keep Time To Music.
Might be my favorite Wallets tune. I'll discuss later. Anyway, that's up at a different Vox address. I'll start moving music over as I'm creating a new blog to concentrate on the vinyl.
No need to bookmark it. I'll announce it when I roll out the new blog in a week or so.
(regarding vox) I've listened, just haven't bothered to sign up for a vox account to comment.
Thanks for the link and mention (though one of the links suggests that I'm red, hot and blue, which I'll take as a compliment).
xwl--oops, sounds like I forgot to proof the links.
Also didn't know you needed to sign up to comment. When I get the new one rolling, all the text will be in blogspot and I'll use vox just to store the songs.
Landscaping couple
Bob Roll in Esquire:
Paired with two British cyclists, Roll believes his job in the booth is to provide the American story in the Tour, a role that he clearly relishes, purposely mangling French words and even the Tour's name. (Out of Roll's mouth, it's the "Tour Day Frants.") Consider it an act of rebellion against the tyranny of European restaurant staffers.
"On Tour," says Roll, a former professional cyclist and member of the original 7-Eleven cycling team, "no matter how perfectly you spoke French, [French waiters] pretended like they didn't understand you. That got old real fast. To get revenge, I decided to mispronounce as many French words as I could. Then I got to doing it all the time. The class system is still really prevalent here. And [the language] is a little pretentious..." Roll says a French phrase, which sounds dead-on. "That sounds pretentious -- it doesn't add to that American commentary idea."
In Slate:
Religions appear strange in inverse proportion to their age. Judaism and Catholicism seem normal—or at least not deviant. Mormonism, less than 200 years old, can seem a bit incredible. And Scientology, founded 50 years ago, sounds truly bizarre. To hear from a burning bush 3,000 years ago is not as strange as meeting the Angel Moroni two centuries ago, which is far less strange than having a hack sci-fi writer as your prophet.
Lyrics for Set The Killing Free. Wish I could figure out what this song is about because it seems like an interesting story...and "With your lips like a sucking surprise" is a great line.
We are tirelessly talking
And rushing and walking
And digging the graves of our sins
Oh, we must dig so deep
That there's something for keeps
But that's where my story be-gins
I've been drumming my fingers
And bumming with singers
Who'd sung with a watch at a wake
And they blamed rock 'n' roll
For the sleep in their soul
And they swore they had nothing to shake
Oh, Jesus in heaven
What's be-come of me?
Oh, shake it and break it
Set the killing free
When the money gets short
I am holding the fort
Like I'm smiling with smoke in my eyes
So swim over the road
To my humble abode
With your lips like a sucking sur-prise
If it's a hassle to do
Get a ticket for two
And we'll reach for tomorrow to-night
When we hit font en blue
Then our ticket for two
Is a pass to the place of the night
Oh, Jesus in heaven
What's be-come of me?
Oh, shake it and break it
Set the killing free
Hey, I need the address
Of the house of caress
'Cos my side of the bargain is bust
It won't come on a plate
Of fine silver from fate
So I'll chase it with wonder and lust
Since I signed for no rest
I'll sub-mit to the test
Of a body marked suffering slim
And I've torn it apart
From my head to my heart
And I'm left with a whore and a hymn
Oh, Jesus in heaven
What's be-come of me?
Oh, shake it and break it
Set the killing free
Alan Sepinwall reviews Steven Moffat's Jekyll, starting Saturday night on BBC America. Moffatt previously wrote Coupling and a few other things I haven't seen.
What I find most hilarious about this is is that this story will probably be one of the most blogged-about things of all time.
Listening to AM 1500 KSTP in Minneapolis.
In addition to all the debris that needs to be removed from the river, I wonder if the locks were damaged. This will also effect Mississippi river barge traffic.
Patrick Reusse on a busy sports week in Minneapolis
So Long To the Tour:
As for this years doping scandals. Why is LNDD still the lab for the Tour? In his arbitration hearing, Floyd Landis did not prove his innocence, but he certainly proved himself not guilty. I would love to know if LNDD is still using the wrong software in their testing machines? Are they still stopping the tests in mid run to make adjustments that, according to the manufacturer, negate the reliability of the results? And of course, the issue is not just false positives, but false negatives. Until Tour officials can come up with a trustworthy lab, why even bother to do drug tests. And if they can't do reliable drug tests why even have the tour. Too, is it ethical that LNDD seems to have an open phone line to the French sports newspaper, L'Equipe? For a sport that puts so much emphasis on ethics, it looks bad when a newspaper has access to what is supposed to be confidential information before tour officials. I've read that Alexandre Vinokourov is going to challenge his blood doping test results. If, like Landis, he is able to discredit LNDD, every test result, positive and negative, will be called into question. I don't know what the civil laws are like in France, but here in the United States, LNDD would be the defendant in a rather large law suit.
Ken Jennings:
We got yelled at for goofing around on-stage during a stoppage of tape in our match. Grand Slam contestant security made Jeopardy!’s look lax in comparison. I think they had the Hell’s Angels from Altamont in charge.
BBC is the only company which I 'steal' torrents from.
They're screwing the British public, so I figured I'd screw them right back.
Plus, it's more 'time shifting' than stealing as the stuff I'm interested in finds its way on American cable.
I've watched Dr. Who, Torchwood (which hasn't found its way to the USA yet, probably cause it's a bit too pansexual), Extras, and now Jekyll that way.
Jekyll's worth watching, it builds slowly, and is pleasantly creepy and atmospheric, with enough humor to add spice.
The anti-Americanism is typical, though (and the Brits they have playing Americans mangle their accents horrifically).
But they tell a lot of story in six hourlong installments.
Michelle Ryan (soon to be Jamie Sommers on NBC) is cute as the assistant with a crush on Dr. Jackman, but doesn't really do anything. I've seen her in stuff, yet I've yet to see her act (but she is nice to look at). Probably not her fault, hot young women rarely get asked to act.
What I'm working on tonight: ''The Birth of Rhapsody in Blue." Maurice Peress's recreation of Paul Whiteman's Aeolian concert.
NY Times review
I forgot all about this song; come on kids, sing along:
I got cowgirl fever, cowgirl fever up the ass
I get cowgirl fever, guess I'm gonna head her off at the pass.
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