An Infinite Number of Monkeys

Keep on crazy

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:46:28 GMT

After the fortieth or fiftieth glowing report of how genius it was for Palin to quit her job, I wonder if perhaps more 'lame duck' Republicans (Governors, Congressmen, Mayors, what have you) should follow suit. We could call it "A Few Months Without Republicans" and it would serve as an object lesson to all of us just how much we need them.

I try to think of people as good at heart, but they insist on opening their mouths.

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:37:25 GMT

It's my own fault for reading commentary on 'global climate change'.

The world won't come to an end in my lifetime i have no children but im sure if i did it wont come to an end in theirs or their childrens lifetime and so on for quite along while yet. So to be honest, i do not care. Im fed up of the whole talk of climate change, because quite simply i feel we the UK other paying for other countries who just dont tow the line, yes i dont mind using unleaded and not littering the place etc etc. But just feel its always just an excuse to take money from us.

I admire your conviction. You've decided that everything will be just fine, and so now you have the luxury of not caring and being fed up. Good on you!

Climate change is still mainly a luxury issue for rich countries and I don't see why poor countries such as India and China should have to limit their economic progress for the benefit of rich countries.

It's a shame, really to limit economic progress in poor countries like China and India (Poor China! Poor India!) just because they might be swamped, desertified, devastated, or other things that probably won't impact their economy at all.

How do you know how significant or irrelevant a given concentration of an agent is? If you were offered a glass of .039% of cyanide would you drink it? If you were offered a cup of tea with a nanogram of Polonium 210 in it would you drink it?

Cyanide is toxic. Carbon dioxide is naturally occuring and forms such a miniscule part of the atmophere it can have no effect on climate.

How do you know how significant an agent is? You could, I don't know, TRYING USING SCIENCE.

And then of course there's the usual flock of people who've gone from straight out denying that there is any problem directly into saying that of course there's a problem but there's nothing to be done la la la.

Thatcher's Bloody England. Is it any wonder my blood pressure is so high?

Water continues to be wet

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:15:35 GMT

Holy Crap! Panetta says the CIA misled members of Congress over the past several years! No, serious! Stop the presses! But it's okay, because that's not CIA policy. They're totally sorry.

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:35:52 GMT

Hooray for rediscovering pieces of your past that you wanted to rediscover.
Even if certain pieces do keep you up far too late.

BACON!

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:13:08 GMT

Lovely evening last night with Clay (who totally should have gotten that Very Goode Job, on account of being talented and also full of funny). I admired the new place, and trembled at the vision of an artist given a canvas with some inconveniently placed walls. I just wish things were a little closer together--it took me two hours to get home. ):

On this date

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:26:34 GMT

In 1928, the first sliced bread (Sliced Kleen Maid Bread) was sold, in Missouri. At that point, it was the best thing ever.

(This information brought to you by my 'Forgotten English' calendar, a Christmas present from moonlightnrain whose birthday today is.)

Down with the Sickness

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:19:56 GMT

I can't find it, but I think Will Shetterly made a post or posted an article about how the most popular option in the 'Revamp Health Care' discussion wasn't being discussed. Polls say that about sixty percent of people would like to see a public option on the docket. You know, like those abject failures in France and Canada. Last month, ABC had a town hall meeting to discuss 'questions from every vantage point' and, according to the article (I didn't actually watch ABC that night) the subject didn't come up.

Anyway. That's all lead up for more lefty Communist flag waving from the 'F' word.

There. Now I'm fabulously late for work.

Love Cats Empire

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:52:09 GMT

When I first heard of them, I thought The Cat Empire were some kind of poppy girl group, maybe conflating them with the Pussycat Dolls and Cat Power (Cat power, baby! Meow!), possibly with some make up styling tips from Peter Criss.
Then I heard one of their songs--a cover of Hotel California in prime French Cafe style with the Gitani accordion accompanying.
So when one of my birthday presents was their "So Many Nights" album, I really no longer had any idea what to expect. Except I'm fairly certain that it wasn't this Norteño funk mix that I got. I *was* just going to listen to a track or two, to make certain that Apple's crude lesson* hadn't screwed up the download, but here it is nearly midnight and I'm tempted to flip back to the beginning rather than write this quick review to the tune of Cats Laughing. (The one band I was pretty certain TCE did *not* sound like, but the next in line alphabetically.)
It's a lively sound, very energetic, and one that's very fluid. It flows from point to point in the genre blend the band occupies. I'm looking forward to owning some good speakers again, so that I can play this on them at sufficient volume to satisfy me.

*The lessons of Apple: The nail that sticks up will be pounded down. Why can't you just be like everybody else? Why you gotta Think Differently?

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:04:18 GMT

Mmm. Philadelphia Story. A possibly perfect film.

Gonna have a good time

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:44:51 GMT

Given the number of beautiful women offering me best wishes, I'm entertaining a motion to make every day my birthday.

You'd better listen to the voice of reason

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:19:23 GMT

Episode two of "So you want to be a DJ" went well, even if I will have to miss the first class. Got lost again, but allowed enough time to do so. And one of my classmates reminds me far too much of WindRose, except for the nose ring and several tattoos.

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:03:21 GMT

Update to getting the band back together:
The housemate decided, of the moment, to get people together for the long-promoted but never attempted and inaccurately named Endless Setlist on Rock Band. Our line up was Tersa, HarleyMae, CyranoCyrano, zdashamber, and motleypolitico, and we kicked things off around eleven. Most of the proceedings were simply endurance--we crunched through the earlier, easy, songs with an almost callous indifference, but the fans were just thrilled to see Gone Plaid back together again. They bought a crapload of t-shirts. We breezed through the bugaboo of Green Grass and High Tides, and our goal was in sight--the 58th and final song was "Won't Get Fooled Again" and with it the accolades of our peers and industry.
Alas, tragedy struck on song 57. (Musicians call it "The Heinz Curse".) The hand controller for the microphone, the one piece not in use, the one piece whose batteries did not get swapped out for fresh, died half way through Run to the Hills. And for a split second, the menu screen popped up to inform us that it had lost connection and we should press (X) if we wanted to return to the main menu. Of course, at that point, all of us were furiously pressing (X) as we tried to keep up. And before we knew it, or had any understanding why, we'd been booted out of the game. The fans, as we, were stunned into silence. Most of them filed out of the auditorium, crushed. Those who remained, we played an encore, but our hearts obviously weren't in it.
VH1 says that if we do it again and promise to succeed, they'll do a "Behind the Music" special on our triumphant rise from the ashes.

Happy holiday

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:22:01 GMT

When I was little and wanted to go to the fireworks, I had to bike down to the riverside hours before hand to bunker down and try to make it as comfortable as possible. If I'd done well, I had shade. If not, I had sunscreen. As the sun started to go down, I could retrieve my coat and try to avoid the folks hauling their beer coolers through the collected gathering, convinced that there was an empty space up close that somebody had just forgotten to sit in.
If I'd remembered to bring a flashlight, I could keep reading. And then there were fireworks. And that was nice too.

Tonight, in California, we ate pizza, watched television and surfed the net in our cozy living room until we started hearing deep prolonged booming sounds. Then we walked all the way out onto our patio, waved at our lovely neighbours, and watched the fireworks through the trees. And that was nice. In fact, I think I like the new version better. (Although RoseNeko's seems to be the best of all.)

Today I went to the station and met SadieO, who is to be my mentor. She showed me the library and walked me through some of the procedures and paperwork for the DJs. Despite my getting lost (it *is* Stanford campus) and showing up late, things went well. Tomorrow evening is an orientation thing, and hopefully I won't get lost. (I really don't have 45 minutes afterward to roam campus trying to figure out where my car is parked.)

Let's all go to the Lobby

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:07:52 GMT

Coyote Cinema pt I:
Up in two sentences.
Apparently making the central character a bitter old man ensures that the humor will be targeted directly at me. I enjoyed it.
Four wags!

Coyote Cinema pt II:
Public Enemies in two sentences.
I wanted to like this--Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in a period piece? For a film about bank robbery, this was a pretty leisurely damned film.
Two wags.

We're gettin' the band back together, man!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:29:10 GMT

And tomorrow we're kicking off a huge worldwide tour of my living room. Tickets are on sale at TicketBastard for $80 plus a small convenience fee. Come out, enjoy the holiday sun, throw pieces of your clothing at band members.

Oh. Em. Gee.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:15:48 GMT

This article was so truthy, so close to what I'd expect out of reality, that I bought into it until I started reading the comments under the article.
Curse you, Gay Marriage!

And also?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:43:29 GMT

When I was young and OutKast was cool and the strains of "Hey Ya" could be heard from every radio and television, I thought it was a happy dancy party song. I mean, even the Peanuts gang got their groove on to that song.

But these days, listening to the acoustic version and actually understanding the parts of the lyrics that aren't in the chorus? (Everything that's not 'Hey' or 'Ya'.) It's kind of a stone cold bummer.

Except when he says "Don't make me break it down for nothing." That's kind of funny.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:16:02 GMT

"In this month of July, eschew all wanton bed-sports."

--Gervase Markham, The English Husbandman

A gift from SeaChanges

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:06:49 GMT

Mark Morford says God may be just a little bit gay.

Another writing post

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:01:56 GMT

Lack of actual new words: Check
Minor editing of existing words: Check
Constant temptation to check email/LJ 'just in case': Check
In this icon, Pooh is wondering if he should play the black seven on the red eight.

Words, words, words, words. Words.

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:50:18 GMT

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you. *edit* Or just five words that I want to see your associations with/thoughts about. Or you give me five of your own, and I write about those. We're all about flexibility in this journal.

RightKindofMe gave me words to start this whole thing off:

Honesty
I try very hard, outside of the occasional diplomatic redirect, to hold to the truth. I don't always meet the standards I set, but given my standards I ought to be satisfied.

Questions
I'm full of questions. Sometimes it's idle curiosity. Sometimes it's not so idle. I think that one of the only reasons to become a History major (which I did) is because you've got questions. I ask a lot of questions to define situations that I'm uncertain of. I probably ask too many questions in these situations, because I'd rather be certain before I start than to make inferences and trust my own judgement.

Vanilla
I'm definitely not as vanilla as I was when I met her. And she definitely played a part in that, although not as directly as I might have liked. (: I've admitted to myself (and then to others) that there are certain things outside the mainstream that I like. And then I wrote about them. But I haven't acted on them much.

Gentle
Unlike honesty, I don't think I've ever criticized myself for not being gentle enough. Perhaps occasionally too gentle. I don't have a whole lot to say about this myself--it's kind of like asking a fish about water, I guess.

Ambition
This wasn't one I expected to see--she surprised me with the final entry. I don't see myself as an ambitious person--I'm not big on confrontation or competition. Advancement mainly serves the purpose of giving me more resources so that I can stop trying to advance and work on the things that really interest me, things like learning to play guitar, acting, singing, learning, telling stories, dancing... I have a lot of side hobbies.

Coyote Cinema

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:44:14 GMT

Almost forgot! Movietime!
This week's fare, the follow up to the classic "Night at the Museum", "Night at the Museum II".
In the words of Monty Python, This is not a movie for drinking, this is a wine for lying down and avoiding. When I look at a film and say that Owen Wilson was one of the high points, then you know there's trouble. The big problem here is a lack of coherence, a lack of direction. The movie feels like a sketch comedy show with recurring characters. Well. Recurring shallow characters. And while some of the jokes made me laugh, there was a deep sense of dissatisfaction generally.
I should be in bed right now, so I'm signing off and giving this mess a single wag for the 'Midnight Cowboy' joke.

4 the shorteez

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:05:43 GMT

Some of you locals may be interested in this:
http://groupon.thepoint.com/san-francisco/deals/sf-chinatown-ghost-tour
Groupon is a collective I belong to that offers a pretty decent coupon to members once a day, and if enough people are interested then they can actually issue the coupon.
Today's is a half price ticket on a Ghost Tour of Chinatown. I can't tell if it's awful and cheesetastic or cool and cheesetastic, but I signed on for it.

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:47:51 GMT

Does anybody know, off hand, when this new tobacco law Obama just signed goes into effect? I knew I should have bought a pack or two for just in case.

Edited to add this bit from Wikipedia because I laugh out louded.
Haji Jamahri, a resident of Kudus, Java, created kreteks (clove cigarettes) in the early 1880s as a means to deliver the medicinal eugenol of cloves to the lungs, as it was thought to help asthma. It cured his chest pains and he started to market his invention to the village, but he died of lung cancer before he could mass market it.

Woo hoo!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:14:17 GMT

I have a plot!
Well. A plotlet. A little baby plot. It's got a lot of growing to do. But GODS I'm so pleased to be through that hurdle.