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Today's Fortune: |
   
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Saturday, March 23, 2002
Macromedia sux. I've downloaded two versions of Flash Editor and both of them give an error about being corrupt and needing to redownload them. All I want to do is make a map of Austin with indicators of cool places on it. Posh.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 3/23/2002
Thursday, March 21, 2002
I remember smoking from the hookah Cade got in Egypt, along with the apple flavored tobacco he got there. It was the best tasting thing I've ever smoked. I wonder whatever happened to Cade... He probably got eaten by some ivy league law professor. har har.
Devin's remark about his 280Z and T-tops makes me want to mention that I have been thinking a lot about getting a new car. I had been considering a Big American Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, with 3.8 liter supercharged engine(0-60 in 7.0 seconds) and all the works, but then I found out how much insurance would be. Now I'm seriously considering a Subaru Impreza WRX with 2.0 liter tubocharged(0-60 in 5.7) boxer engine and all wheel drive. Getting the WRX would be a weird turn for me, since right now I have this flashy firbird with T-tops that is seriously impractical, and seriously NOT fast, while the WRX is stupifyingly fast, yet looks like a japanese econobox, and has a backseat and a trunk.
Either way, I just want to get rid of my firebird. I've been in 3 accidents in it, it's been falling apart for the last few years, and the novelty of owning a firebird in high school has long since worn off. Every time the subject of cars comes up in a conversation, and I have to say that I drive a firebird, I can see the thought behind the other person's eyes: "oh, that's that asshole-car." And for the most part, they're right, most people who drive firbirds and camaros are assholes. But here comes a punchline... Instead of the word FIREBIRD above the flaming bird logo on the back of the car, there should be the word ALBATROSS. Double har har.
.: posted by Jeremy 3/21/2002
I've smoked Kool-Aid before, and believe me, it's not what it's cracked up to be. For the most part, it only makes your throat burn and your eyes water, but there is one cool side effect--your trachea will turn the color of whatever flavor you're smoking.
We're having some beautiful weather, here, too. I sure wish I was on unemployment again. The backyard of our house has a hammock left over from some previous owner. Today would've been a perfect day to lay in that hammock and think about how urgent it is that i find work. And how I'll start searching first thing the next day, as long as nothing comes up. . . like the sun, for instance. . . Someday after I've been a successful architect for a few years, I'll go on sabbatical and just lay in the grass in the backyard.
Dad's worked continuously his entire life. When he retired a few years ago, he complained because he couldn't stay busy. I hope I never get in that situation. I was unemployed for four and a half months, and I never got tired of it. I think I could probably outlast anyone at doing nothing, if someone would just give me a chance. Instead, I have to work full time at this stupid lightbulb changing job, and go to class to boot. It's ok, though--I have my eyes on the prize. I recognize now that you have to work pretty hard in order to do nothing for a little while. I guess it's just a vicious cycle...
.: posted by andy 3/21/2002
Austin is so nice. I was in Denton yesterday and it was raining and cold, and Austin is warm and sunny and green. Oh, and there are trees, and hills and cool buildings and places to go.
I went to Ararat last night, and drove around Barton Parkway. I smoked pomegranate mu'essel in a hookah at a friend's house.
This is something I think you would like, Andy. The tobacco isn't lit directly, and contains other things, like molasses and fruit, so the smoke is very mild and carries the taste of the fruit. In this case it reminded me of pomegranate Kool-Aid.
Today I'm going to go to UT to get my transcript, and walk around campus and the drag, and eat at Thai Noodle House then go driving out on 2222. It's days like this that I wish I still had my 280Z, or any car with T-tops.
No plans for dinner yet, but sushi is sounding good. I miss Austin.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 3/21/2002
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
This is pretty sad.
I remember when I was at some hockey game once and I was trying to return to my seat after going to the restroom. An usher was keeping people from returning to their seats while the puck was in play due to the off chance that a puck would come flying up to the 30th row and hit an inattentive spectator returning from the restroom. I thought that was pretty over-cautious at the time, I guess I don't feel that way anymore.
.: posted by Jeremy 3/20/2002
The CIA was "accidentally" using a form of cookie on its website that is prohibited from use by the govt.
.: posted by andy 3/20/2002
The complaint generator. Here's the complaint I generated about Jeremy. It's not too far off, considering that it claims Jeremy wants to "shout obscenities at passers-by."
.: posted by andy 3/20/2002
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Somewhere in the world, someone's got a good system. Two multimillion dollar heists in two months. Not too shoddy. I absolutely think the two robberies are connected in some way.
.: posted by andy 3/19/2002
This via a friend at college
In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkopf was asked if there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harbored and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America
his answer was classic Schwartzkopf. He said, "I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting."
.: posted by George 3/19/2002
The Beef People have a new ad, this time targetting women. The basis of the ad is that beef is loaded with essential vitamins and nutrients; iron, zinc, and protein; in short, nutritious and delicious. Nevermind all those hormones and chemicals and stuff. Don't get me wrong, my dinner tonight was 4 pork chops and a can of Big Red (Vegetables are good, but cooking more than a single item for one person is a waste of effort. Don't worry about me though, on Saturday I had 3 crowns of broccoli and ranch for dinner.) I just think it's funny that we sit very close to the top of the food chain and pretend that we aren't getting large doses of all these toxins. There's a reason why Ben & Jerry's has extremely high levels of dioxins, and why DDT was so devastating to birds of prey, and not so to fish.
Speaking of toxins, I'm really baffled by a few methods of sterilization and preservation we use. First, chlorine. Chlorinated drinking water, to push all those 'bad' ions out, and coz it kills all those little noseeums that getcha. Chlorinated pool water, which doesn't taste good, but won't kill you if you swallow it. It kills everything else though.
Salt. Like salt pork and every other preserved food before Louis Pasteur. I've read about home-preserved hams, which are soaked in supersaturated brine for like 4 weeks, then hung to dry at room temperature for a few more weeks. The interesting thing about this method is that you know if the ham isn't preserved, because any part of the ham that isn't preserved rots and gets maggots. So, bacteria and insect larvae can't consume salt preserved ham, but a person could survive on it for weeks or months, maybe indefinitely with some vitamin suppliments.
Saw Harrison's Flowers today. Overdone in about every way possible. Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist with wonderful wife and kids wants to retire and tells his boss his luck has run out (can we say heavyhanded foreshadowing?) but gets sent to Croatia to cover what turns into the ethnic cleansing of 1991. Before he goes, his 7 year old son is distant, a set up for a role reversal later. He's reported as killed, but the wife doesn't believe it and goes over as a photojournalist and to find him.
She is the Scarlet O'Hara type, fainting in the office and locking herself in a room in her house for days . Once she gets to Croatia she faints repeatedly, and maintains the same withering southern belle attitude. Lessee, there's also the young, anti-establishment photojournalist who, between using all kinds of drugs and screaming at every main character, is really a good guy. Then there's the Irish sidekick photographer who is the voice of reason in Croatia, but loses control once in the entire movie so that the rebel can martyr himself to prove beyond a doubt that he is really a good guy.
The real war scenes are way cheezy, guys running out from behind tanks that are moving slowly forward, throwing their arms up in the air and falling over backwards. The urban combat, checkpoint and sniper scenes are much better, but I got the distinct feeling that they were trying to make them more surreal than they should be. Too many citizens and reporters running between advancing tanks which are taking fire. I understand that civil war is very surreal and muddled, but they knew the advancing army was coming, and could have run across the street when they first saw the tanks instead of waiting til they got there.
The director tried really hard to make the movie a tragedy, but apparently couldn't bring herself to do it. Every little victory in the film is soiled, but works itself out. They only exception is the martyring of the rebel I mentioned above, but that was it's own best resolution.
If I'd seen the entire title I wouldn't have watched it, but it looked so innocent on the LCD screen above the box office: HARRISON'S (R). That and it started in five minutes.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 3/19/2002
Monday, March 18, 2002
Last year at this time I was posting to sadmind.com from the top floor of the Radisson in Santa Monica. I could see the ocean from my window. I remember having mixed feelings about it. I was a 23 year old alone on the other side of the continent from just about everyone, and I was visiting clients who were openly hostile in some cases. I was also extremely jet-lagged. But I felt pretty important, and I liked that I was on a business trip to the West Coast, and that I was trusted enough to go alone. Really, the only thing I miss about doing dot com work is the view from that hotel room.
Today some college kid spit on the seat of my scooter while I was checking the fire extinguishers inside one of the dorms. I know it wasn't an accident because whoever it was spit twice. I know that maintenance is a perfectly respectable career field, but I'm at the very bottom of the maintenance totem pole, and it's not like I needed someone to make me feel lower. I was very pissed off when it happened, and I went and told Flounder and Bob (two of the guys I work with), and they were pissed off, too. Now it just makes me feel bad. What a sorry, mean-spirited thing to do to a person.
.: posted by andy 3/18/2002
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Rallisport Challenge is a great game. It makes me feel like if they were to broadcast rally races in the US, I'd want to watch them. The game also makes driving off cliffs seem like fun, though.
And there are two more things this game makes me consider: 1) Maybe I should consider as my next car a smaller, turbocharged, all-wheel-drive car, and 2) That an Xbox is still not a good substitute for real human interaction.
.: posted by Jeremy 3/17/2002
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