Halloween, 2002

That old black magic. When I was a fifth-grader in New Jersey, I lived in a big postwar development where all the houses were close, but not too close together. The streets were lined in a grid and well lit; you could always find your way back home by counting back down to fifth street, where I lived. On Halloween, my mother let me and my friend Brad wander the whole neighborhood by ourselves until the homeowners got tired and put the almost-empty bowl on the porch with a "take one" sign. For a kid who grew up pretty close to home (not by choice) this was a night of pure freedom—we ranged out as far as we could imagine, almost all the way up to the Krauzer's at the far end of the neighborhood (which was considered a Voyage To The End Of The Universe during the summertime.) We avoided gangs of bigger kids looking to terrorize us smaller ones by jumping into bushes or falling quietly into groups of larger kids. Brad's older brother Todd had warned us that he and his friends would be out looking for us with shaving cream and eggs. We walked the first few blocks in constant neck-jerking fear, but soon succumbed to the pleasures of free candy and no parental supervision, filling our pillowcases and itching at our costumes, and the night seemed to last forever.

I just read that Jam Master Jay was shot and killed in Queens last night. Everybody wave your Adidas in the air.

I also got an email the other day from our friend Paul, who has been quietly reminding me how bad the trucks I lust after are for the environment and for the other drivers on the road. Paul, I'm working on a reply—hang tight.

Jen and I went to the AIGA Baltimore's Pulp, Ink & Hops show last night, where they get you drunk and give you lots of paper samples. This year we departed from SOP and picked up only a few samples while drinking the same amount. It was good to catch up with a bunch of people we haven't seen since, well, the last PI&H show.

And what must be one of the most absurd things I've read in a long time, the Boy Scouts are gonna kick this guy out unless he renounces his atheism. You know what I say about the Boy Scouts? The hell with them. I don't think religion, or lack thereof, should have anything to do with whether or not you're a Boy Scout. Whatever happened to common sense? Seems to me they should give out a merit badge for that, too. Tell me what you think. | link

October 30, 2002

dashboard, chewbacca, 10.30

Sputter, sputter, cough. Currently, the Taurus is in the shop for various ailments; among other things, the idle is either racing or DOA with about a second of reaction time in the middle. The coolant system is on its fourth hemorrhage now, after a new radiator, set of hoses, thermostat and gallons of antifreeze. The Saturn is acting up as well—Jen called via cellphone this morning to have me on standby for a search and rescue mission. Today I started the Scout and had it three quarters of the way down Fleet Street when it decided to stall. Luckily I had some forward momentum and was able to point it towards the corner of the curb, but horsing a ton and a half of iron to the side of the road when the power steering pump has shut down is a bit like trying to make a left turn in a commuter train- it just ain't happening. Once I had her warmed up to 100% she was fine, but it seems that none of the vehicles in the Dugan-Lockard Collective like this rainy weather one bit.

OK, this is kind of cool, even if it's brought to you by the Mormons. The 1880 US Census data is now online; you can research ancestors based on a number of different criteria such as birth and death records, country and state, and their relatives. I looked up my namesake, William Dugan the First, and found a number of different records matching the criteria. I have to check with the Third and find out where and when the First was born, and perhaps I can provide some data to the family. (via megnut)

From Wired.com: Still Rabble-Rousing, a story about Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the 1970's.

There is a significant interest, after a meeting yesterday, in moving the 3-D development at work away from Discreet's 3Dsmax to Alias/Wavefront's Maya. As a recent learner of 3Dsmax, I have to say that I was impressed with Maya and excited to use the software. As a longtime Mac user and supporter, I definitely have to vote in favor of Maya, because there's an OSX version that looks good. Keep your fingers crossed. | link

October 29, 2002

backyard progress, lakewood avenue, 10.27

You will be assimilated. I burned a ton of CD's last night in an attempt to get backed up files off all the various machines laying around the house. Let it not be said I am a careless person—I think I now have about four backups of the freelance work I did back in the Greycube days. Speaking of, I'll be getting a final-final payout from Greycube this week from Dan; with that, the enterprise will officially be over.

I heard this on NPR a few weeks ago and was fascinated, now I'm finally linking to the story. NPR has done a fantastic job of programming, and it's nice to see their site is not a bastard stepchild.

BMWFilms sent me a notice that Hostage, their first in the 2002 series of movies, has been released; It's directed by John Woo and it's very good. As much as I like the backstory beginning, I love the original car focus of the first series—I realize they are advertising their whole line of cars, but I don't think the Driver would be tooling around in a Z4 convertible. The 7-series was a much better choice of vehicle. It's also good to see they have lots of hidden features like last year. | link

October 28, 2002

Ha-ha. Use this for your enjoyment the next time you get one of those annoying phone calls just as you're about to take the first bite of dinner.

With the exception of a section 3' by 7' wide, I bought, cut and installed all the decking in the backyard. Before I can screw it in place, I have to spec out the lighting and run the cabling; then it should be a straightforward installation of all the planks. We're almost there!

Knocking around my brain: Land Rovers. If I can't find a decent Scout in this area, maybe I can find a Land Rover Series II in decent shape somewhere. The purchase is way off in the distance (much as I've given up on another Scout this year) but it's good to educate oneself , especially with foreign-made trucks.

I found this article on the Baltimore Business Journal about the web design industry in Baltimore; I thought it was interesting from a developer's perspective. I was interested (but not surprised) to hear that a few of the other interactive shops in town had closed down besides GR8. | link

October 25, 2002

Progress. I got my CD-burner in the mail today via FedEx, and so far I've made a backup of my freelance directory; I'm in the middle of burning all the stuff off my old internal hard drive so I can use it for music storage. It's a bus-powered FireWire 8x8x24, it's small, and it does a pretty good job. I'm happy.

They got the asshole responsible for the sniper attacks last night; turns out he was sleeping in his car in a gas station around the corner from where Jen works. (That was where he was ticketed by the cops on October 8.) Thank god that area didn't fit his MO, and that Jen doesn't loiter long outside in that area.

It's another dreary, wet day in Baltimore. It's also freezing as hell outside- there's some kind of front in over us right now that is bringing frigid air all the way from the steppes of Russia; I woke up this morning with two cats glued to my body, drowsy from the heat of the wool blanket.

I suppose I should be thankful though, because along with my CD-burner (classified as a business expense) I've also made a long-awaited upgrade to my kitchen; I threw out the 1980's era microwave (lined with solid steel, finished in that lovely fake wood vinyl stuff they pasted on all appliances during the Reagan era) which had been, over time, cooking my reproductive organs from across the room. I threw it in the back of the Scout and heaved it into the Dumpster behind our office building, on top of a pile of old office chair boxes, never to smoke up my kitchen again. I then went and picked out a lovely new white microwave from the Sam's Club. | link

October 24, 2002

backyard progress, lakewood avenue, 10.24

Live, Local, Latebreaking. For the last few days, I've been setting up an outdoor work area in the backyard while I build the stairs. This includes plugging in the 13-year-old black-and-white TV my parents bought me when I first came to college and tuning in to The West Wing while I run the circular saw. (My neighbors love me.) In case you haven't noticed, there's been this idiotic nut running around shooting random people in the southern DC suburbs, which is far enough away that I'm not afraid to visit the Home Depot after work every day, but close enough that every dumbass local newscaster is having a brain hemorrhage attempting to channel Dan Rather.

Baltimore is a quiet, relatively peaceful blue-collar city where housing is cheap and the commute isn't too bad. So we get the third-rate newscasters, who attempt to put a serious spin on the spiraling murder rate between cheerful program shills for "Crossing Jordan".

Which is why I wince when the talking heads come on and fill up a half an hour of my time with in-studio and remote broadcasts dissecting what little information the PG County sheriff is releasing, injecting the most banal pop-psychology drivel imaginable into news items the size of walnut shells. Imagine Anna Nicole Smith giving a stream-of-consciousness dissertation on the socio-economic impact of the Gulf War and you understand my pain.

So it was with interest that I read the Baltimore City Paper's interview with Michael Moore, who coined the phrase "Sniper Porn":

"You have to ask yourself...after the first 15 minutes of sniper coverage on the 6 o'clock news, 'Am I learning anything here? Does this help me or my family? And if not, why I am still watching it?' Because at a certain point it becomes pornography—sniper porn."

I found a really good website, run by the EFF and a consortium of law schools: chillingeffects.org. Very good information about interent copyright law. Metafilter had this interesting link to some demographic information based on census data and purchase records: You are Where You Live. For the record, I don't use call answering, I hate Face The Nation, and I certainly do not have a subscription to Elle. | link

October 23, 2002

I'm sitting in a coffee shop up in Guilford reading an announcement about a free wireless network inside the store. It gives me the net id but tells me to call a number to set everything up...unfortunately my cellphone doesn't have coverage in here. Grrr.

All attempts to get Win98/WinNT to see or use the Laserwriter have failed; I think the final solution is simply to buy a centronics to parallel connector, hook it directly into the SMC hub and use the built-in printer server.

I bit the bullet and ordered a FireWire CDR/W from SmartDisk yesterday; it's an 8/8/24, but it's bus-powered and has a much greater transfer rate than USB. This will be the final step in my upgrade of the home network system, and allow me to once again back up native Mac files to a Mac disk, clear a ton of crap off the NT server, and generally clean things up. And, it was $99.

Here's a real nice website with a bunch of good info: WebmasterBase.com. | link

October 22, 2002

Moving violations. My Scout is a funny collection of quirks, oddities, safety hazards, and well-designed parts all moving together in a strange harmony. Generally, the gas/oil gauge remains dark when I turn the lights on; the bulbs work, but there's a funky connection in the 24-year-old wiring. As of a month ago, the right turn signal would light but not blink, although the relay for the hazards blinked all four turn lights. I drove it yesterday, after it sat idle in front of the house for two weeks, and coming home last night the heat blew steady and warm, all the dash lights were on, and both turn signals lit and blinked. I know it misses me, and wishes I would stop the rust that's eating away at the door pillars, and it broke my heart to know that I can't find anyone in the are who will take the job on. I love that truck.

I have a guy coming out on Friday morning to look at and estimate on how much it will cost to tear out and replace my front door and transom window, a job I've been waiting to do for the five years I've been in the house. I can't tell you how much I want to do this.

I found this article written by Joe Galloway about his experience in Vietnam, after watching We Were Soldiers. Interesting to hear the story from his perspective, and it's interesting to know that some of the reality made it into the movie.

Tonight in the backyard I got the rest of the step supports built, and I put another vertical post in under the stair platform. I wasn't able to get the stairs started because I bought 2x10's instead of 2x12's, but I marked out the pattern on the 2x10 to verify, and all looks good. So tomorrow afternoon it's back to the store for more lumber, and I'll begin cutting each stair riser when I get home. After that section is done, I can finish the framework and then start laying the planking down. I will post photos when there's a little more to see. | link

October 21, 2002

scout, padonia road, 10.21

Dog-tired. After the last three days, I am beat. I got certified to scuba dive on Sunday, after spending a total of about five hours in a Pennsylvannia quarry attempting to stay warm. We did a bunch of different skills, and finished off the day on Sunday with an eight-minute trip down the quarry wall at fifteen feet and back. It is another world down there, beautiful, mysterious, and exciting, and I hope I can dive somewhere with better visibility and more exotic marine life.

I also got four supports for the step built Sunday afternoon, in a last gasp of energy. The backyard is coming together slowly—I can see the end nearing slowly. A week of good honest work out there and I think I can get a lot of it completed.

The leaves are falling on my street. The trees planted on either side tend to drop about a month before the rest of the state, and every year it makes me a little sad in advance. Our little block looks much cheerier when the leaves are still green. | link

October 18, 2002

Little Old Lady From Pasadena. Jen lives in Catonsville, a commuter suburb of Baltimore, and as a resident, she gets the Pennysaver. She has actually made a habit of grabbing it on her way in and saving it for me, bless her heart, because I am one of those guys who loves to peer through the tag sale and Cragar van rim ads for that single gem, that nugget, that super deal. Browsing through this last week's issue, I found an ad for a Laserwriter Pro 630, the printer I've been nosing through eBay for these past six months. I drove down to Crofton last night in the rain and traffic and looked at the printer, which occupied the corner of a neat upstairs office in a trim suburban house. The guy was real nice, obviously didn't know what he had, but seemed interested in buying a Mac for himself; we talked for a bit, and I left $125 lighter, taking a chance on the unit because I hadn't seen a test print (I forgot to bring an AAUI connector) but knowing I'd probably be able to fix anything that was broken. I got it home, connected it to my hub, and ran a test print. The engine has a total of 2,764 prints on it—this on a machine rated for 450,000 prints on one engine.

This last week's New Yorker had a great book review article which made me stop and think, and bookmark a certain paragraph. David Owen reviews Measuring America, by Andro Linklater, which reviews how the shaping of the New Frontier, among other things, shaped our current measuring system, and illustrates why we are the only country not to adopt the metric system:

"The units in which American building materials are measured are idiosyncratic in the extreme—they include gauges, penny sizes, nominal dimensions, and a host of other anachronistic absurdities—but the over-all system works well, in part because it arose organically from human activity instead of being imposed from above by theoreticians. The standard metric measuring tape was clearly not designed by anyone who regularly worked with wood: a millimetre is smaller than the tip of a builder's pencil and narrower than the blade of a saw, and the closely packed, uniform gradations on the tape are hard to make out at a glance except in bundles of five. In contrast, a customary American tape—with its easily distinguishable divisions of sixteenths, eighths, quarters, halves, inches, feet, and sixteen-inch framing intervals—is harmoniously suited to the way in which it is used."

What struck me was the point that the system arose from human activity and not from theory. Many times I've had an design idea that I would like to incorporate into a site, only to test it and find that it was annoying or unusable. Simple things in my house, such as placement of appliances, have evolved over time to coalesce into usable patterns and methods (especially for me, someone who remembers visually.) | link

October 17, 2002

Double Standard. So, not that I would have expected anything different, but I read this and sat back for a minute, thinking about all the poor slobs in Baltimore City Jail doing the maximum 10-20 year sentence for posession, after having been screwed royally by the three-strikes law. Call me a bleeding-heart liberal, call me a wussy pinko, call me whatever you want. I just think that if this stupid broad gets three strikes, niece of the Prez or not, she goes to the pokey for more than ten fucking days. Otherwise, get rid of the three strikes law completely. Tell me what you think. | link

October 16, 2002

chevrolet, eastern avenue, 10.14

I got a cryptic call from my ex-girlfriend last night, asking me to do a favor for her and our cat, whom she took when she moved out. I had just gotten back from scuba class, and my hair still stank of chlorine from the pool and cigarette smoke from the instructor's ashtray after we took him to celebrate our final pool dive. I played the first message- the same jerk who keeps calling me about "Debt Consolidation" (but not as annoying—or as creepy—as the used car dealer who folded up a newspaper ad in a plain number ten envelope, with a cryptic Post-It attached that said, "Bill, this looks like a great bargain for you.") and erased that; the second one I mistook for Jen's boss at first, by the way she pronounced her name. I think she's going to ask me to take the cat back, but I'm not sure. Only a call tonight will tell. | link

October 15, 2002

Forward Progress. The balance of my Citibank card is, with the exception of about $500, paid off. You better believe I can deal with the interest on $500 instead of $3K+. That's a good feeling, to have that liability gone.

So I got DJ Shadow spinning Ape Shall Never Kill Ape on iTunes right now; does anybody know when he cut this and if it was a tie-in with that *ahem* Tim Burton movie...? (It's really funny to have Charlton Heston screaming about damned dirty apes! over a real sweet backbeat.)

I was able to put in the first step to the deck last night; there's a 4x4' support on either corner with carriage bolts tying in the step and the overhang boxes (pictures to come) so that everything is secure and won't hop or sag. Next I'm going to pick up a 2x8 or so and fabricate some stair hangers to tie in that step with the main frame; then I can lay and secure the rest of the joists, run wiring to the stair lights and planter boxes, and then the difficult part—figuring the math for the stairs and building them.

Note to Amazon: I want to hear the audio clips you so generously provide on the site, but I absolutely refuse to download and install the Real player or any software written by that company. | link

October 14, 2002

grand theater, eastern avenue, 10.14

Uh, zoom zip... We had a busy and fun weekend. Saturday we went to get supplies at the Home Depot, and I started on the deck. That night we had dinner with some friends and slept like babies. I was able to get a good portion of the framework in place Sunday, and I think in another two weeks or so we should have a pretty workable deck in place.

While I was doing that, Jen was filling the house with the warm yummy smells of cinnamon and rosemary. She's practicing with my sucktastic oven in preparation for Thanksgiving, when the two of us will be making the feast for my fambly, which has been Dugan tradition for the last six years or so. As usual, my oven refused to cook evenly or keep a constant temperature, so the cinnamon rolls were cooked longer than she would have liked, but they were still very tasty. She also made rosemary-garlic roasted potatoes with herbs from the garden, and we feasted on those while waching Amélie on DVD.

Windows Media Player sucks ass. I have an MP3 of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist and about every 20 seconds it drops out a full second or so of the file. At first I thought it was bad mixing, but now that I'm listening to it with Quicktime, it's complete and sounds worlds better. I so can't stand that WMP shit.

Wired did a great article this month on Lawrence Lessig, the lawyer responsible for bringing the copyright battle to the Supreme Court on behalf of you and me. | link

October 11, 2002

change of the seasons, lakewood ave, 10.11

Somebody was telling me something. I thought I had lost my birth certificate this Monday. For work, we're getting passports in case of travel, and I had been a good Boy Scout and gathered my birth certificate, carefully filed away in the archives at home, as well as passport photos and the application. I put them in a white manila envelope and tucked them away at work until we got a caravan of people together to go to the post office.

Fast forward to this monday, when we got a group of people ready to go. I can't find my envelope anywhere; it's not in the hastily organized shelf that acts as my desk (we work at folding banquet tables here- no desks to be seen) or in my laptop bag, or my sketchbook. I'm screwed.

Fast forward to last night. I open my file cabinet to organize my invoices, and what is sitting in the invoice folder? the envelope with my passport info. I had tucked it into my laptop bag for safekeeping and it got stuck in the invoices folder. Too bad I already put that $30 check in the mail to the Massachussetts clerk's office to get another certified copy...

...It's amazing how much darker the photo below is on my PC's CRT than it is on my Powerbook.

Todd sent me a link today where I can see just how many crimes were committed within a variable distance from my house. There's also a website devoted to my little corner of the world; now I can pull up important information like recycling dates. | link

October 10, 2002

lakewood halloween display, 10.9

Forward Progress dept.: I deposited a hefty freelance check in the bank this morning that will then be used to pay off about 90% of my credit card debt tomorrow. God, what a great feeling that is. Although my mind regards the credit card debt as a liability, for some reason I don't think of it that way- it sort of floats off on the side as a bill I just continually pay. Hopefully my 2002 policy of NEVER using the credit card will carry through and I won't creep the balance back up on it like I did two years ago. (I did exactly the same thing last year—a freelance job paid off the balance, and within six months there was $1K on it again. Grrr.)

The living room is red. Very red. I painted the wall going up the stairs a deep shade of red last night, and it has changed the whole mood of the house. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, because I didn't get the chance to cut the edges in or even out the application, so I'll reserve comments until that's done.

It's because of companies—and CEOs like this—that the current investor does not trust the market. This company's board should kick the two brothers out the door on their asses and keep the money. The employee made a great point. It's too bad the only reason he knew he could say anything was because he was already leaving. | link

October 9, 2002

Your lips are blue. I stink of chlorine. I mean, I reek of the stuff. My skin feels like it's shrunk about two sizes. However, the pool was great fun last night; we spent a lot of time just swimming, floating and spinning. Clearing my mask is a simple task now. I did note an alarming consumption of air, though- I have to focus on slowing my breathing and conserving oxygen when I'm at depth. I burned through about 2100 psi of air in an hour and a half.

I found a fantastic roundup of interface design criticism here via Matthew Thomas. Hmmm. How might I use this information to kill videogame designers educate video game designers?

Nate let me, um, borrow some Dirty Vegas stuff today, and I really am digging it. I will definitely buy this one.

Some days you wonder whether or not you're getting anywhere at all, and some days you get a sign that perhaps you are. Yesterday I got one of those signs, and for that I am grateful. Thanks, Julia.

Wow. I've been kinda down the last few days, and I'm not really sure if it's a cold (which Jen and I a re pretty sure I've been nicked by) or seasonal mood swing disease (which I've been known to get stomped by) or just lack of quality sleep. My concentration is nonexistent, attention span is about 5 seconds, and on top of that is the guilt associated with not doing what you're supposed to be doing. Which makes me get even less focused. Anybody else feeling the same way these days? | link

October 8, 2002

Duck and cover. Apparently there's some crazed asshole running around with a sniper rifle shooting random people in parking lots. What would make somebody do this? I just can't figure it out. My theory: another ex-Marine with an axe to grind.

Now that I'm 31 years old, I look back on what I sneered at as a punk 17-year-old and marvel at the power of early R.E.M. Boy, was I stupid.

Huh. Somehow, Amazon must have gotten some data on me from somewhere. Fully 60% of my Gold Box offers (6 out of 10) were in the 'Tools and Hardware" category. Does anybody know how they tailor their offerings in that category? I would be the first to suggest that it's based on past purchases, but I've never bought tools or hardware from Amazon before (that's what Home Depot is for, baby.)

The Annual Lakewood Ave. Halloween Window Display was erected yesterday and lit up last night; I will be in scuba class tonight but attempt to take pictures for posterity's sake tomorrow night for your enlightenment.

Here's an old link that I dug up from my dot-boom days: Pornolize. There's nothing funnier, after wading through days of re-reading and formatting the same new-economy doublespeak, than filtering it all through the pornolizer. It made all that marketing talk of synergistic cross-platform vertical tier-to tier value-chain plays so much more interesting. | link

October 7, 2002

Ugh. For whatever reason, last night I had the annoying, frustrating experience of being able to sleep for 15-30 minute stretches at a time, and then waking up with some part of my body aching, twisted, or hot/cold. So I think I got about 4 hours' sleep last night. However, I'm wearing my new shoes, so that makes life just a little better.

This makes me happy. I hope to god the Supreme Court upholds the NJ court's verdict, and this guy takes it. I don't want to contemplate the horror of a Senate with an overwhelming Republican majority. Not in the current political climate. | link

October 6, 2002

Note to self: When you've loaded your cart with a Super-Jumbo package of toilet paper, a pallet of canned cat food, the New Bonus-Size! can of tomato juice, three 25-lb. sacks of kitty litter, and seventeen other super-sized containers of consumer goods, remember this simple fact: The Humongous Warehouse Conglomerate Cleverly Marketed As A Down-Home Corner Grocery Store© does not take your MasterCard. No, little buckaroo, they have made it Corporate Policy® to only take Discover cards, so leave your fancy titanium frequent-flyer Corporate Edition card at home. | link

October 4, 2002

Full Disclosure. Songs I'm not ashamed to admit I have MP3's of: (with a nod to Nate)

• Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo (And you were thinking to yourself, "today will be the day I don't have a random thought about 'Weird Science'".)
• Leather & Lace - Stevie Nicks & Don Henley (reminds me of being 7.)
• Overkill - Men at Work (reminds me of being 11.)
• Turbo Lover - Judas Priest (reminds me of being at the 7-11.)
• Adult Education - Hall & Oates (it's a bad situation.)
• Saved By Zero - The Fixx (I was a huge Fixx fan in the Day. Member of the Fixx Army.)
• Love U More - Sunscreem (reminds me of being fucked up in college.)
• Rico Suave - Gerardo (someday Gerardo will be dead, and you'll be able to tell everyone, 'I was listening to his work for years'.)
• Welcome To The Pleasuredome - Frankie Goes To Hollywood (ahead of its time.)
• Barely Breathing - Duncan Sheik (Lite© FM)
• It's Only Love - Bryan Adams & Tina Turner (no explanation here.)
• Dr. Feelgood - Motley Crüe (yes, that's Crue with a ü)
• Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer (It's pretty. Shut up.)

Almost as if in response to my question a few days ago, Salon published an article about Manhunter, the first movie made based on the Thomas Harris novels. I have to say I agree, although i haven't seen Red Dragon yet. He does bring up a good point though—why remake it again?

Todd made a good point in reply to my Cash money post yesterday:

First are we certain John R. Cash still holds the rights to the song in question? Maybe we have a Michael-Jackson-owns-the-rights-to-The-Beatles scenario here.

Hmmm. My Amazon shopping cart (which has been up on blocks in my front yard, waiting for that Ford CobraJet with the 4-barrel carb) currently holds $38.46 in merchandise. I hover over the 'Continue' button, wanting to set the wheels of commerce in motion, but I hesitate. Better first to get paid. — link

October 3, 2002

My baby' fa'va. Note to self: Don't get a tattoo of your baby son's name if you're afraid people will think you're gay. And perhaps you should reconsider that tattoo of Snoopy® with the words "Question Everything" underneath. Perhaps you should Question Everything some more. (overheard this afternoon at lunchtime.)

FuckedCompany says Apple is going to lay off a bunch of people soon. That's bad news, and I hope it's not a harbinger of bad things to come. Luckily they have about a gazillion dollars in cash to ride out any bad weather. In other news, the Towson Apple Store is opening this weekend, and I was invited to join Jason to check it out but I'm passing to get work done on the deck.

Why, Johnny, Why? OK, so I'm behind the idea of the artist selling his or her work for commercial purposes. I can understand (but not forgive) The Rolling Stones selling limited rights to "Start it Up" to Bill Gates to promote Windows 95. They have more money than God, but it's their right to sell their creation to whomever they want. I mean, they wrote it, they own the rights to it, it's a commodity, and this is America, based on a free market capitalist economy. If I had written and recorded "Lust For Life", I'd probably do what Iggy Pop is doing now, and selling it to Royal Carribbean or whatever that company with the big ships is.

All that having been said, I am so very disappointed in Johnny Cash. The Man in Black. A Boy Named Sue. The Guy With The Finger.

Johnny, who Shot A Man In Reno Just To Watch Him Die, sold the rights to one of his songs. And like I said before, that's his right. But he sold the rights to ''Ring of Fire", one of my favorite songs. "Ring of Fire" is such a good song, Mike Ness and Social D covered it and I wound up enjoying it just as much as Johnny's version. But that's a different story. What I'm upset about is who he sold the song to.

Johnny Cash, Mr. Folsom Prison Blues, sold 'Ring Of Fire' to fucking Applebee's.

I love you, man, but you should have Walked The Line. | link

October 2, 2002

But I don't want to learn how to swim Dept.: I was worried that I would not be able to clear my mask this week, so I approached the pool with a pit of dread in my stomach. I followed my instructor's advice and practiced with the snorkel, inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the nose. When we first reviewed skills in the shallow end, I didn't get it, and I almost panicked, because last night we were going to equalize and do all the skills in the deep end. I suddenly saw myself at the quarry, unable to clear my mask, and failing certification. So while the others were going over their stuff, I practiced it until I had the breakthrough- plugging up the regulator with my tongue and blowing through my nose was what helped me do it right.

So we all begin equalizing and drop to the bottom of the pool; I had to go back up because my left ear wouldn't clear and it hurt. One of the instructors followed me back up and helped me slowly descend until I could clear both ears, and then he and I did the skills while the others did theirs in their groups. I did it! I was able to clear the mask like a pro the first time- even after removing it completely and putting it back on. *whew*!

Jen wrote me this about my comments on Manhunter/Red Dragon yesterday:

Have you seen the movie yet? Because perhaps that might be the best viewpoint to be looking at the whole of casting from... Although my heart belongs to William Peterson foreva!

I also found out that the Caesar quote Nate sent along was an Internet hoax, first debunked, apparently, by the ever-alert Matt Drudge. Yes, this will be the only time I ever mention Barbra Striesand in this log.

I liked this article, and the issues it brings up. How dare our legislators, ostensibly the people we have voted to represent us, journey to a foreign land to attempt to negotiate a peaceful resolution and avoid a war? Damn traitorous Democrats.

Timely horoscope, courtesy of Free Will Astrology:
If you were Bob Dylan, would you have licensed your poetic anthem, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" to be used in a commercial by a Canadian bank? Or are you more like Beck, who turned down Miller Beer's plea to buy one of his songs for $300,000? You will soon face a quandary, Pisces, that will ask you to meditate on questions like these. To couch your looming decisions in even more universal terms: Do you have anything in common with the young woman in the fairy tale who gave up the work she adored in order to win the love of a prince? Or do you have a clear idea of how to stay true to what's most valuable, even if an interesting temptation is calling you away? | link

October 1, 2002

desk, 9.30

Just leave it on my desk. So we got the credenza into the house (no small feat) and I put it where the IKEA TV cart was. Once the TV goes downstairs and the stereo comes down from the office, (and the green wall is painted red) it'll look real nice in the living room.

I also got my film for the 620 cameras yesterday, so I'm loading two of them up tonight for Jen and I to use. We're going to test each out to see how well they work and we'll use the two best for taking B/W pictures. I'm excited to use the Duaflex and the Ansco, and I think the Brownie will take real clean shots too.

OK, so I believe that Ray Fiennes is a casting coup for the role of Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon. However, Harvey Keitel as Jack Crawford is about as good as Marilyn Monroe as Lady MacBeth. And no matter what you say, William Peterson is still the best Will Graham, CSI or not. It will be interesting to see how well Ed Norton does in that role, and which movie is better. What's your favorite?

I added my home workspace to the workspace exhibit at somebodydial911. Penn is happy that he's a star on the web, too.

Zeldman comments on experiences loading, fighting with, and de-installing OSX on his machine, and offers a ton of helpful links to different sites claiming to know how to intall it the correct way. For the record, I was able to get it running just fine. The only problem I had with software were the fatal exception and core dump errors in my brain. | link

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