We're going to break the drive somewhere in New York, since its 2 people, two vehicles, one cat. We want to make it as far as possible, so we aren't reserving a hotel; I'm making a list of hotels along the route. The only website to support this activity that I've found is Holiday Inn. A couple, like Motel 6, give a nice list of all their locations in a State, which makes it easy. Why Mapquest or Yahoo or Expedia doesn't let you search by route is beyond me.
_
respond?
09:30:27 PM,
Saturday 17 August 2002
-
Last night, the BBC's main stories were the Elvis anniversary and this new civil lawsuit against Al'Quada, Sudan, the House of Saud, Islamic charities and Cat Stevens. (Okay, they haven't thought of Cat Stevens yet, but its only a matter of time). I think the BBC delights in finding stupid americans to interview, and once it finds them, leading them to expose themselves as much as possible. It knows what its audience wants; Penguins, Prostitutes and Stereotypical Stupid Americans. What will Fox News do? Will they side Muslims, or sleazy Trial Lawyers?
I need to remember that Prince Feisal was not actually Alex Guinness in a silly costume; and even if he was, thats no reason to have much sympathy for the Rulers of the Desert Kingdom. Nor is Dune, for that matter.
_
respond?
10:24:55 PM,
Friday 16 August 2002
-
I just heard an ad on the radio for a Kia, the "fastest growing sedan in the US". I wonder what you feed it.
_
respond?
(6)
12:35:18 PM,
Thursday 15 August 2002
-
1: Buddy Holly was first and foremost very strange.
2: Chocolate Banana Bread is in the oven. I'm nervous.
3: Stuff in Boxes takes up much more space then Stuff and Boxes seperately.
4: Its depressing when a shortwave station gives a website where you can listen to it.
_
respond?
(2)
12:31:09 PM,
Wednesday 14 August 2002
-
Albrechtsberger, one of Beethovens teachers, wrote a concerto for jews harp. I'm going to miss detroit public radio.
_
respond?
(1)
11:15:28 AM,
Sunday 11 August 2002
-
The worst part is, after packing my books, I get a strong urge to go out and buy more; sometimes the same ones I just packed.
_
respond?
(1)
03:05:11 PM,
Saturday 10 August 2002
-
Okay, so we bought 10 or so sterilite boxes from Meijers 2 weeks ago. clear plastic, with nifty folding lids that you could stand on. $7 each. We filled them all, so I went back to Meijers, and they didn't have any, so I went to target. Still no luck. Office max, another target, Kmart, Walmart, another Meijers, still no boxes. A 5 hour box quest. Of course, all these places had piles of plastic boxes, just none that matched. This is what happens when I don't have a job, apparently. So now we have plain blue plastic boxes, which means we need to label them.
_
respond?
03:03:24 PM,
Saturday 10 August 2002
-
"I'd like to give you this letter back."
"It's my one love letter."
"It's beautiful, I'm just the wrong person."
"Its probably just as well. I plagerized most of it from James Joyce. You probably wondered why all the references to Dublin."
-Crimes and Misdemeanors
Also, the only time I've ever seen footage of Mussolini. Its one thing to despise yourself. Making a movie where your long-running film persona makes a documentary about what a disgusting person you are, and how depressig it is that God doesn't do anything about it, just before your life comes crashing down into the tabloids, is something else again.
_
respond?
(1)
10:33:49 PM,
Tuesday 6 August 2002
-
One telephone menu I encountered, I can't remember where, listed all the options, before listing all the options in a different order with the number you needed to press to select that option. The mind boggles.
_
respond?
02:40:02 PM,
Tuesday 6 August 2002
-
I am experiencing the joys of Ameritech customer service. I cancelled my phone service for August 20th, but couldn't get an answer on whether my internet service would be cancelled at the same time. When I tried to cancel using their website, (it being internet access, after all) all I got for my troubles was an email, 3 days later, with a telephone number to call. I call the number, go through a set of menus spoken in a deep, sexy voice; selecting the options to cancel my dialup service. After that, I someone starts talking to me in a nanny-goat michigan accent, so I assume its a real person; alas, I am deceived. I finally get to someone who tells me she needs to transfer me to the cancellation department. More wierd bongo-driven musak, then a very friendly woman who wants to know how long I've had DSL, and transfers me to the dialup department. More bongos, the same nanny-goat message, then the woman comes back to helpfully tell me I'm on hold. Finally, I get to speak to someone with a lovely sling-blade accent who tells me sorrowfully that it doesn't let me cancel ahead of time, only on the day.
_
respond?
02:37:45 PM,
Tuesday 6 August 2002
-
Do you find yourself simply eating brownies raw, because they're too dry after being cooked? The solution: Hot Fudge Pudding Cake. Basically, make brownies, put them in the pan, cover them with a layer of cocoa and sugar, and pour weak coffee over the whole thing, then stick it in the oven. The coffee seeps through the brownie, turning into fudgelike stuff. most of the cocoa-sugar goes with the water, but enough stays to make a good chewy top crust. When you take it out of the oven, the fudge sauce is still boiling, making the whole thing look like the swamp in the Princess Bride.
_
respond?
(2)
06:24:10 PM,
Saturday 3 August 2002
-
I just learned to whistle!
_
respond?
(11)
08:10:56 PM,
Friday 2 August 2002
-
When we kenneled Atari at the vet for a few days, he apparently pounded at the door to his cage until his paws bled, and they had to give him run of the room. His paws are still raw and pink. I respect him for it. He values his freedom more than his comfort; and does not put of with people doing what he considers wrong. He is a great-souled cat.
_
respond?
07:59:43 PM,
Friday 2 August 2002
-
Was Stanislaw Lem the head of a Communist conspiracy to infiltrate and commendeer science fiction? Philip K. Dick thought so. Of course, he also thought Neo-Nazis were sending coded messages in science fiction novels.
_
respond?
(2)
06:28:46 PM,
Thursday 1 August 2002
-
Went to Lake Michigan. Back now, with requisite amount of sunburn and sand. Reread Solaris, trying to imagine Mr. Clooney as Kelvin. Worked better than expected; Kelvin as arrogent thug. If you haven't read any Lem, skip Solaris. Awful translation, Polish to French to English. Hoping for new translation with movie.
_
respond?
05:52:55 PM,
Thursday 1 August 2002
-
France was long a despotism tempered by epigrams
Thomas Carlyle
Discovered while looking for La Rochefoucauld
_
respond?
(1)
05:57:11 PM,
Sunday 28 July 2002
-
Devdas: A Bollywood epic that was unexplainably playing at my local megaplex. Like nothing I've ever seen. Its what I wanted Moulin Rouge to be. Platial sets (the poor girls house seemed to be built entirely of stained glass) and really expensive clothes are much better uses of a film budget than digital effects. Lots of unbelievably beautiful people running around being melodramatic, and dancing. It was also sincere about its melodrama, which makes it all so much more tolerable. Ironic winking takes away the emotional teeth of stories, and completely over the top love stories can least afford it. The confrontation between the mothers, complete with roll of thunder and prophecy, is glorious. Big, and swooping, and utterly unabashed. The music is as wildly outlandishly huge and exotic as everything else in the movie. I love tablas. I want to see Shakespeare get this treatment.
_
respond?
06:39:52 PM,
Saturday 27 July 2002
-
Eat GM Or Starve, America Tells Africa Not the headline the guy interviewed wanted to see. I find it strange that GM seems to be such a big deal in Europe. A good example of the tremendous power of labelling laws, which can be used for good or evil. The Atlantic had a good article about where flavors come from. Natural flavors and artificial flavors are sometimes chemically identical. The natural ones are just more expensive to make. A good example of bad, or at least unresponsive, government.
_
respond?
(5)
04:18:28 PM,
Friday 26 July 2002
-
A website suggested that instead paying for an unlisted number, be listed under a false name, so you can immediately identify telemarketers. But what to choose? Evil, Telemarketers? Emperor, Norton? Unlisted, Number? Claptrap, Boring? Cthulhlu, George? Grrrr-Argh, Meow? Or simply something difficult to pronounce?
_
respond?
01:01:30 PM,
Friday 26 July 2002
-
A grain inventory:
Brown rice, white rice, basmati rice, wild rice, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour, bread flour, cake flour, rice flour, graham flour, wheat bran, buckwheat, quinoa, oats, cornmeal.
_
respond?
(2)
11:02:52 AM,
Friday 26 July 2002
-
Moss is currently 16th of 2 million on Google under "Moss", two spots ahead of the first Kate Moss fansite.
_
respond?
(1)
09:56:19 AM,
Friday 26 July 2002
-
_
respond?
09:55:56 AM,
Friday 26 July 2002
-
Coming Soon is becoming one of those lies that is so common that it simply shifts meaning and stops being a lie at all. like "It's alright" or "How are you?" I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now. Not that I'm bitter about Harry Potter, oh no.
_
respond?
(1)
09:23:11 AM,
Friday 26 July 2002
-
My mother, in her role as local librarian, was contacted for this story. She was also contacted by a kindhearted gentlemen who wanted to warn the people of Hershey that if they weren't careful, Hershey kisses would all be made by the Chinese.
_
respond?
07:24:52 PM,
Thursday 25 July 2002
-
It should be possible to use some sort of little script and google to make a tool that studies the use of popular phrases. For instance, what "ate my soul", and how often?
_
respond?
06:24:58 PM,
Thursday 25 July 2002
-
Just one more post, and then she'll stop looking at me...
"A person whose stock portfolio has gone up by $100,000 believes—and is officially encouraged to believe—that she has claims on $100,000 worth of additional stuff. If she sells the stock today and buys the stuff tomorrow, she may get $100,000 worth. But if claims on new stuff are proliferating faster than new stuff itself, something's got to give."
-Mr. Kinsley
_
respond?
06:04:04 PM,
Thursday 25 July 2002
-
Most people I know watch and enjoy Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Most websites I read use it as an example of good television. (Granted, I've been known to go to slayage.com... twice a hour, when depressed) It has fantastically low ratings. This means I must be a card carrying member of a demographic.
_
respond?
(1)
05:52:40 PM,
Thursday 25 July 2002
-
And now I'm going to have to see that picture until I do quite a bit more blogleting. Clever of me.
_
respond?
05:47:24 PM,
Thursday 25 July 2002
-
This picture of Dear Prudence alarms me. I suppose I knew she was old, and knew that she was a socialite type, but still. She looks far too rubbery.
_
respond?
(4)
05:46:13 PM,
Thursday 25 July 2002
-
People are willing to pay quite a lot for convenience. People paid a lot of money to get their music collections on CD, not so much for sound quality, but as for portibility and easy track selection. This is why even free electronic texts of Dickens or Jane Austens letters hasn't curbed my book shopping. The interface isn't as good; I'm not sure eye strain is much of an issue, (Especially with my new fancy LCD monitor) but simply not being able to tow it into the bath, flip around, change body positions, etc. Another example is computer reference books; no matter how nice the search and index functions are, it still takes up monitor space, which is far more valuable than desk space. MP3's are much easier to use than even those 100 CD changers, and infinitely better than my poor trodden on tape collection. I think that really cool printers will be what make electronic books popular; I hate buying hardcover books, have difficulty throwing out my paperbacks, etc. Even some paperbacks are too unwieldy, Printing bound portions of books, choosing whether to print facing translations, footnotes, etc. Yes, waterproof tablets might work, but I'd want at least 4 of them available. Corn-based paper or in-house recycling, or 100 pages of paper thin etch-a-sketchish stuff would solve the glaring problem.
Point of sale printing is good too, of course.
_
respond?
05:29:51 PM,
Thursday 25 July 2002
-
Job Smeets - "It's not essential that my objects are functional. Function is an invention of industrialism because it sells better." How crass of the industrialists. Thats just whats wrong with the free market. Perhaps it made more sense in dutch.
_
respond?
(4)
07:34:21 PM,
Wednesday 24 July 2002
-
In an attempt to spread out the new indignities and torments, I'm trying to introduce Atari to his collar and nametag today. He isn't pleased. The bell isn't helping matters, but it is amusing. Everything with excess dignity should be made to wear a jingle-bell.
_
respond?
(7)
01:54:06 PM,
Wednesday 24 July 2002
-
Our building. We get half the 3rd floor. We all need buildings to help us along. The landlord is insane. We were delighted to find him, insane is much better than evil. When we went to see the apartment, he first showed us his own house, how you could tell it had been cut in half and moved across town, and a magazine with a picture of a replica of his living room.
_
respond?
10:47:09 PM,
Tuesday 23 July 2002
-
Erika and I are moving to Providence in a 4 weeks, and we still don't own any bubble wrap. _
respond?
(10)
10:37:58 PM,
Tuesday 23 July 2002
-
Klunk! The pipes vibrate noisily.
A Black Pudding named Atari oozes up from the drain.
_
respond?
10:24:24 PM,
Tuesday 23 July 2002
-
This is a test.
_
respond?
(11)
06:13:33 PM,
Tuesday 23 July 2002
-
site & script courtesy of Moss