Apparently, faced with the possibility of a whole month of leisure after the big move, I’ve decided that I’ll be watching some TV. It all started when Julie and I sold our house and decided to each splurge on a gift for ourselves. Julie chose a chocolate temperer. Good choice.
I picked a ReplayTV. It’s the same thing as a Tivo, but infinitely more hackable. So far, in the two weeks since I bought it, I have:
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All Geeked Out With No Place To Go Read More »
In exactly one week, we will pack up the last of our belongings and depart Cincinnati for the familial ties (and hopeful support that those ties will bring) of “The D.C. Area.” This is not to say that Julie and I are taking the kids to D.C., but “The D.C. Area” conveys more urban hipness and adventureous spirit than does “Suburban Maryland” which is where we’re really moving. Oh yeah, and we’re moving in with her parents.
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Can a Career Rock? Read More »
Speech Delivered by Vice President Al Gore
Thursday, June 24, 2004, 12:30pm
Georgetown University Law Center
When we Americans first began, our biggest danger was clearly in view: we knew from the bitter experience with King George III that the most serious threat to democracy is usually the accumulation of too much power in the hands of an Executive, whether he be a King or a president. Our ingrained American distrust of concentrated power has very little to do with the character or persona of the individual who wields that power. It is the power itself that must be constrained, checked, dispersed and carefully balanced, in order to ensure the survival of freedom. In addition, our founders taught us that public fear is the most dangerous enemy of democracy because under the right circumstances it can trigger the temptation of those who govern themselves to surrender that power to someone who promises strength and offers safety, security and freedom from fear.
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Our Founders and the Unbalance of Power – Gore SpeechRead More »
Our Founders and the Unbalance of Power – Gore Speech Read More »
Yes, it’s true: the Vice President is having a problem with his pants and Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show) is worried about him.
Yesterday, in addition to the sound (and hilarious) spanking given pro-war stooge Stephen F. Hayes, author of the book, ?The Connection : How al Qaeda’s Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America,? Jon showed some truly heartfelt concern for the Vice President’s pants.
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Jon Stewart Concerened About Cheney’s Pants Read More »
Cory Doctorow posted on Boing Boing about a Fresno cop accidentally exposed when working undercover (bullshit L.A. Times registration required) in a Fresno, CA peace group.
Fresno Cops Spying on Peace Groups Read More »
It’s taken me a few weeks to get this thing back up and running. I’ve just been way to busy with other shit and nobody reads my blog anyway so who cares?
I’m trying to decide if I want to bring all my old posts over to this new system or not. Probably not, but if I get bored enough I just might.
I am an mostly sedentary activist who thinks that corporate greed, right-wing politics, and the christian right (is there really a difference?) is turning our world to shit. In my professional life I have actually been known to demonstrate a passing familiarity with competence for hours on end.
I was a rock star once for about fifteen minutes and have nothing to show for it but a few CDs, some videos that are starting to deteriorate, a gold record for a band that I played with ten years before they made it big, loss of hearing in my right ear, and a slight tendency to drink beer.
I can be selfish.
I get too worked up about things I care about, but have a sometimes alarming disconnection with the world around me.
I never, ever, ever get enough sleep.
The right song at the right time can completely change me.? Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) this effect only seems to last a few hours at the most.
I am partnered to the most amazing woman ever. She has completed collecting all data for her PhD dissertation, been accepted to her 1 year internship next year, taught three classes (or more) a week for a couple of years now, designed one of them and developed the syllabus herself (no textbook exists, so she’ll just write it herself and, oh might as well submit it to McGraw-Hill) learned to quilt (by dreaming about it), learned HTML to help with our website, birthed two not-tiny kids, learned to make candy (not the easy shit either), helped me immeasurably to cope with depression, and managed to stay in love with me even when I make it hard.
Life is mad. Life is hard. Life is a struggle. Life can be incredibly sad.
But without J…life would be pointless.
What a superstar, truly.
Julie is a Superstar Read More »
I never heard back from Mike. I’m starting to think that maybe he was on to something. I mean, he seemed to be pretty serious (about the aliens) and then never got back to me.
He just moved to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago from here in Cincinnati and I’m not too sure how screwed on his thinking cap is right now. I just hope he was reading as I was sending my messages to him even though he wasn’t typing back. Maybe he didn’t want to slow me down. Sometimes I get going pretty fast. I was using my computer and those go pretty fast. Even to San Francisco. I like to call it ‘Frisco, but that really makes people who live there mad so I only do it real quiet. And never on the bus. I think they have a thing there called BART. I wouldn’t say it on BART either. Just ’cause it goes real fast doesn’t mean they won’t get mad.
I wonder if he had time to try the garbage disposal, or if he even had batteries in his boombox.
I liked Mike.
But that’s what happens when a kid from Ohio goes to California: More often than not he gets eaten. I know. I’ve been there. I always take my boombox and plenty of spare batteries just in case. You never…ever…know.
Yours,
Tim
Continued (aliens) Read More »
Mike: I just had a strange thought. What if you heard a strange noise from outside your window. You moved closer to see what it was as it got louder and louder. You couldn’t put your finger on what it quite was. Then you realized ugly alien beings were invading.
Mike: That would be freaky as shit.
Tim: What would you do?
Tim: They would probably want to mate with you. or experiment or something. Most likely it’s eating you that they’re interested in. Or something worse.
Tim: Maybe they would be nice. But they might not be. Can they run fast? How about climb walls or fly? Breathing our air may be tricky for them so be sure not to get near water if that’s what they breathe in. uunless water kills them or something like in that one movie, in which case get in water. But then there’s breathing problems for you. You will have to come up sometime.
Tim: When you do they will try to take off your head. When they come down to do this (if they are flying) then you can splash them to kill them.
Tim: But if they are not harmed by water this won’t do any good so you will have to try something else. Maybe they are afraid of certain sounds. Try a crying baby first. Lots of people get freaked by this sound. But it might just make them hungry if they eat people, cause if they do then they would probably like babies best and this would be a bad way to try and frighten them.
Tim: Another good sound to try is a garbage disposal. They are hard to carry around and need electricity so you will need a backpack to carry it in and also a battery pack. Or maybe a recording of the sound that you can play on your boombox (you’ll need batteries for this too) would be better.
*** Auto-response from Mike: I am currently away from the computer.
Tim: Maybe it’s a sound that would not be very obvious to you or me. Maybe the sound of a doorbell. Or cruching leaves. If you want, you could put a bunch of these on a tape for the boombox you are carrying in your backpack and try a bunch out to see what works best. On the other hand, if I were an alien I think that sounds would not be too scary so you might want to try something else. And plus, what if they don’t have any ears?
Tim: Did you think of that already?
Tim: You should forward these instructions to lots of other people and let them know in what order you plan on attempting them. Then when the first few don’t work and you get killed by the aliens, others will not waste time trying the same things (you know, water or sounds) that you did and just die needlessly.
Tim: They may not have any way of knowing how far in the process you got exactly but at least they won’t start at the very first one and waste too much time before getting to one that might work.
Tim: So what do we have so far?
Tim: 1. Air
Tim: 2. Water
Tim: 3. Sounds
Tim: a. Baby crying
Tim: b. Garbage disposal
Tim: c. Doorbell
Tim: d. Drunching leaves
Tim: Feel free to add some more and let me know. I’m going to send these on to some friends of mine who know about aliens to see what they think too. Good luck Mike.
Tim: Mike?
*** Auto-response from Mike: I am currently away from the computer.
Tim: OK. Write back when you get a chance.
*** Auto-response from Mike: I am currently away from the computer.
What if you heard a strange noise? Read More »
