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(13)
01:27:52 PM,
Saturday 6 September 2008
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Obama parked here! We need a plaque!
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01:25:27 PM,
Saturday 6 September 2008
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Carbon black: I am inexplicably fascinated by the manufacture of Carbon black: basically, powdered carbon, for use in inks, dyes, tires, and maybe a couple other things. I became aware of them because they were one of Huey Long's (many) enemies. I'm a bit fuzzy, but it seems they opposed bringing natural gas into New Orleans, because it would drive up their material costs, and also possibly because the same companies also made artificial gas (propane). Also, apparently there are some people attempting to add carbon black manufacturing to natural gas power plants, to reduce the carbon dioxide produced. Part of my interest is that there are entire industries of which I am completely unaware
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(3)
01:51:05 PM,
Thursday 4 September 2008
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I propose that we call those who shuffle along to work in the morning with their cellphones glued to their ears be called telewalkers. As in, I had to ring my bell twice at a wrong-lane telewalker this morning. I passed three consecutive ones by Thornton field today. I find it pretty to think that they all have jawaches, rather than cellphones. During the morning commute I think it gets as high as 15% of the foot traffic.
Also, 10:15 joggers are an entirely seperate species from 7am joggers. Sort of the way the different sets of 17 year cicadas never meet.
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(1)
03:59:17 PM,
Wednesday 3 September 2008
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Is it because I cannot see you that you feel so free to steal my excess baggage full of darkness and despair?
There is an Over the Rhine retrospective out that includes Within Without! One less reason to ever use my tape deck!
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11:12:40 AM,
Wednesday 3 September 2008
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Granted, I'm only just getting into his later career, but at this point, I totally would have voted for Huey Long. Also, I now understand why some people hear the word populist completely differently from the way I hear it. I was only really aware of the George Wallace end of things, and I hadn't understood that there was a shocking lack of Whiggery in the South, of the political ramifications of a plantation culture. Huey Long was what he was, but he was also the only way a progressive voice was going to be heard in that culture.
Which brings me to the half-baked idea: Huey Long and Sarah Palin have a lot of similarities, and I mean that in kind of good way. I'm still somewhat underinformed about Palin, but it they both came out of a completely broken political culture, and survived through a hard-nosedness that borders on abuse of power. The first word people reach for in both cases is colorful. Both terrify the establishment, and are gleefully Not Our Sort Of People. Both have problems with their siblings and extended family. (Sarah Palin's Mother-in-law is quite something) Unfortunately, she seems to lack his vision, or his profound understanding of the dangers to religious sectarianism. Which is all to say, I don't find Sarah Palin ridiculous, or silly. I find her somewhat frightening.
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(9)
07:29:10 PM,
Tuesday 2 September 2008
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I admit to being somewhat excited about Google's browser. But I'm kind of thrown by them naming it after William Gibson's Chrome.
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(12)
02:16:46 PM,
Tuesday 2 September 2008
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I've now lost 10% of my mass using the WeightWatchers online thingum in about 5 months, and have, for the first time since high school, an officially sanctioned BMI. I'd never managed calorie counting before. (It isn't exactly calorie counting: it penalizes high fat foods and rewards fiber and exercise, but more or less). What it's done is just make me aware of the differences between foods, which I was only vaguely aware of. In a lot of ways, I am now less guilt-ridden about food than I used to be. Now, when I'm keeping track, like this evening, I know that I need to eat more. Dessert becomes a responsibility, not a transgression. At least for me, if I keep track, I eat less, automatically. My problem with food is that I will overeat absent-mindedly, in ignorance, not that I am actually too hungry, or that I'll just forget to eat for a day or two and then feast. I have very poor lines of communication with my stomach. So once I know where I am, it's not hard. The hard part is being organized enough to keep track, and so having a web-app to keep track with a decent database of foods, and reducing everything to small integers, to stop me getting hung up on false precision, it really does make things easier. So does the guilt of seeing the monthly charges. So I'm not endorsing the underlying nutritional principles, and I'm certainly not endorsing the aesthetic or the recipes, but I must admit that its seems to have worked. For someone who doesn't have my accountant's soul, and compulsive need to win computer games, it wouldn't be as helpful.
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09:14:56 PM,
Sunday 31 August 2008
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The difference in the press coverage of Gustav and Katrina at the same point is noticable. I am a slight meteorological geek, and read hurricane blogs in season, something I consider slightly disreputable. I'm not sure people in general really crave destruction, but hurricane blog commenters definitely do. I wonder how many years this heightened sensitivity will last. Would Bush have stayed home if it if had been Miami or Brownsville, instead of New Orleans again? The trouble is that it's one of those unsolvable problems. Evacuations are expensive, difficult and dangerous, and there's no good way to know when they'll be necessary and when they won't.
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(1)
06:31:05 PM,
Sunday 31 August 2008
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I listened to various speeches on NPR last night. Clinton was very listenable. Kerry still bugs me, but he had some good jokes. (Erika didn't know who he was, but still got irritated with him) I was very impressed with Tammy Duckworth, just on the radio, she had so much more gravity than most of these professional windbags. The Biden's just went in one ear and out the other. Blah blah blah Scranton blah blah bloody nose blah blah. (You'd think I'd have more sympathy with him, since I too was born in Scranton yet claim to be welsh, if not actually Neil Kinnock (whose wife is the only other person I know with my mothers name)). Words cannot express how happy I am it's Obama/Biden, and not Biden/Obama.
I'm getting heartily sick of McCain = Bush. There may be some truth to it, but it's also utterly transparent political engineering. I much prefer it when they actually criticize him or his policies, rather than just rely on guilt by association.
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(2)
05:23:50 PM,
Thursday 28 August 2008
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Light reflecting off of your neighbors windows, should they be slightly concave, can melt vinyl siding.
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01:20:00 PM,
Sunday 24 August 2008
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Obama/Biden: Mania Do ebb
Barack Obama / Joe Biden: Join Bad Ameoba Backer
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(4)
08:24:56 PM,
Saturday 23 August 2008
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site & script courtesy of Moss
