First plant shipment

The violet Dancing Geishas arrived from Park Seeds today. Hmm, I don't remember ordering them. They're not in my garden plan, either. Oh the best laid plans!

I think I'll plant them underneath our rose bushes out front.

Morrissey's selling the NFL

Could someone tell the NFL that using Morrissey's "Every Day is Like Sunday" ["every day is cloudy and gray"] is the worst use of a pop song since Phillips used the Beatles' "It's Getting Better All the Time" ["it can't get no worse"]? Not that I don't want Morrissey to make money.

Gardenarama

I spent a marathon session yesterday looking for plants for our garden. We decided that what we have is just too messy for us to maintain and we don't know what the previous owners intended, so we're going to dig some stuff up and plant what we want. I see why people hire garden designers to do the work for them - it took me a long time to find plants suitable for our zone, soil, and the amount of sun that the places where wanted to put the plants get.

So far I've ordered seeds or bareroot plants for purple coneflower (echinacea), shasta daisies, black-eyed susans, large yellow hyacinths for the front yard, cosmos, forget-me-nots, and blazing star, bearded irises, and a dwarf nandina firepower shrub to replace those that were eaten by the local groundhog or the voles.

In the spring, I'm going to buy astilbe, salvia, a Moon Madonna daylily, and Physostegia virginiana.

We have a lot of clearing out and weeding to do in the next three months...

Jonesey!...Wha?

Steve and I just stumbled upon Glen Jones's show on NJ classic rock station 105.7. Whoa.

Coincidences

When I was in college, some of my friends on the school newspaper would use my (maiden) name in songs. They'd sing my name to the tune of the Mission Impossible theme, etc. I told this to another friend of mine, who said they should use "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" by Looking Glass as a song for me instead.

Fast forward 10 years and I marry a guy with the last name of Brandi.

Not only that, but Looking Glass was formed at Rutgers, where my husband went to college, and is considered part of the Jersey Shore sound, where I sort of lived (about 20 minutes away from the beach) as a kid and where we sort of live now.

Watchmen by Alan Moore

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
== Sort of a spoiler alert == Lots of intertwining story arcs and themes to sink your teeth into. One I'm currently mulling over is the morality of Rorschach vs. that of Ozymandias. Rorschach thinks what Ozymandias did is criminal and that Ozymandias must be punished for it, but really, is what Ozymandias did so different than what Rorschach did throughout his stint as masked adventurer? Sure, Rorschach killed less people than Ozymandias, but both had the same motives: to save mankind. If we think of this in term of Dr. Manhattan's conclusion that every human being is a miracle given the immense odds against each one of us coming into being, then killing just one person, let alone more than one (but less than a hundred, though we don't really know) as Rorschach did, for the good of the many is just as bad as killing millions.


View all my reviews.

The sprinkler system

We had some guys install a sprinkler system today. Wow, what a headache. It only took about 3 1/2 hours but there were guys everywhere all at once digging holes and pulling up part of our brick garden borders. I couldn't bear to watch. Shielding my eyes from it didn't save me though as they used a ditch witch to do most of their digging; it was obnoxiously loud and I cringed whenever I heard grinding noises. So I buried myself into The Watchmen until I was finished with the book.

I should have been watching TV instead, I suppose, since the sprinkler guys cut our cable line and I didn't realize it until about a half hour before they were to leave. Our utilities are buried, which improves the aesthetic appeal of our neighborhood, but is a pain in the ass to deal with sometimes. The guys insisted that where anything was marked - gas, electric, cable - they dug by hand and slipped the sprinkler hoses underneath the existing lines. And it's true that part of the cable line wasn't marked properly. A cut we found, where a since-removed tree had I, I presume, moved the cable line a bit and where you can clearly see a cable poking through the grass (and about which I forgot to tell them) was about two feet from the marking. But, un uh, they're not in the clear; the cable guy who temporarily put us back into cable said there was at least one more cut in the cable line.

By temporarily putting us back into cable, I mean that there's a coax cable running from where the cable comes in from the street, across our yard, across the top of our driveway, over to our house's cable hookup on the side of the house. Reminds me of a John Fogerty video. The cable company's going to have to run a new line - the guy said within 10 days.

Plus, even though I told the sprinkler guy who came to give us an estimate, and who wasn't on the job today, that we only wanted our grass watered, not the garden because we'd rather use our drip-hose system to save water, today's guys installed heads that water the garden anyway. It's not that big of a deal because the heads that water the garden are on separate areas than those that water the lawn, and it didn't cost us more than if we hadn't gotten the extra heads installed, but still...

Lessons learned:

• Don't assume that what you told the guy who gave you the estimate will pass that on to the guys who will actually do the work.


• If you know of any quirks in your utility hook ups, don't forget to tell your contractors.


• Don't be surprised if they cut your cable line even if you do tell them about the quirks.


• Don't get too stressed out about it. In my case, the problem was temporarily fixed by 2:30 in the afternoon.


• Take aspirin or something before the work starts to ward off your inevitable headache.

Boo-frickity-hoo

I saw a headline on Google news saying that the CEO of Bear Stearns said his company would have been saved if the Fed bailed them out sooner.

Oh yeah? Well maybe he could have saved his company himself if he put a stop to the hedge fund shell game.

Robert Reich on tonight's News Hours with Jim Lehrer pretty much said that it would have been nice if Bear Stearns ponied up some collateral in exchange for the bailout money. Yes, that would have been nice, but this is par for the course. No one was required to put down much collateral during the bubble.

Things won't change until someone up at the top sets a good example.

Starting the garden

Steve and I have a garden that goes all the way around our house. It's mostly a border garden and mostly flowers. I wanted some vegetables, so we're going to clear out some of the old plants and make room for tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, and who knows what else.

We're starting from seed, and we don't have wide window ledges, so we needed a grow light. As usual, we procrastinated and didn't have time to order one, so Steve drove around the county looking for one, but no luck. So he bought an under the counter fluorescent light and installed it under the shelf of a low bookcase I didn't know what else to do with:



So far, three of the Romas, a pepper or two, and a Big Boy tomato have sprouted. Pretty cool.

Fosse

I realize now that I like Bob Fosse. When I was a kid, I thought his choreography was weird; when I was a teen and in my twenties, I thought it was dumb, passe, and what Kent calls "Entertainment" (air quotes included). But my mom, sister, and I went to see Chicago this Saturday, and seeing Fosse's work live changed my mind.

The moves suit the music (snappy homages to Vaudeville) well and I really like how Fosse uses the dancer's breathing or yelps as punctuation to the dance.

Now starring sexy TV icon John Schneider

John Schneider was good: he has a nice voice and was a believable cad/Ziegfeld headliner. He needs a haircut though; his almost-mullet doesn't suit the character. And Michelle DeJean as Roxie was far superior to Renee Zellweger.

We three were in the front row and most of the actresses made eye contact, especially Mama with the women, and Roxie threw me a rose at the end. Schneider didn't make eye contact at all; he's probably not used to performing on-stage and breaking the fourth wall would probably have made him break character.

Walking away

Is it any wonder that people are walking away from their homes when they can't afford the payments, what with crooked CEOs and other white collar criminals behaving as bad examples? If the can ruin a company by making risky but legal gambles and still walk away with 10s of millions in a golden parachute, then why can't the average person?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=144609&f=21

Ordering bbq by the pound

A couple of the guys at work are going to India for a few weeks to work with our off-shore co-workers. They think they won't be able to get much meat while they're there, so they're ordering a huge amount of bbq for lunch today. For 6 people, they're ordering about 4 pounds of beef, 2 pounds of chicken, and a few sides. I hope they get their work done for the day before their lunch arrives, because they're not gonna get much done after.

The funniest part of this article is the correction at the end

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location

The Age of American Unreason

Today's Salon has a good review by Laura Miller about Susan Jacoby's book, The Age of American Unreason. The book has some flaws, according to Miller, one of which is that Jacoby doesn't seem to care about why people like unreasonable ways of thinking:

The missing factor in Jacoby's formula is just that: In addition to being capable of rationality, we also have to want to be rational.

and

It's hard to imagine what could be more central to Jacoby's subject than the motivations of those Americans who chose what she describes as "willed ignorance" over reason. Isn't it likely that the recent resurgence of that ignorance arises from similar needs and desires? If there were some other way to address those needs (or fears), perhaps fundamentalism would be less appealing, and perhaps reason could be made more so. However, that would require admitting that people who are capable of reason will nevertheless sometimes pick an irrational course of action or belief. Rational people do this all the time, of course -- even intellectuals. But rationality has its own ideology, and one of its tenets is the conviction that, if given a fair chance, reason must always carry the day.

This makes me think about Transcendentalism, which was a counterargument to the Age of Enlightenment. Wouldn't it be nice if today's counterargument to reason (I wish I could say "our contemporary age of reason" because we never had one) had the same substance, a more thoughtful contemplation of spirituality and nature through poetry? Or is that passé?

I know peer pressure has a lot to do with some people not wanting to act smart, which supposedly makes others feel inferior, but I also think that the way in which we're taught at school should take some of the blame for people not wanting to think. Rote learning is good for some things, but it really drains all the fun out of learning; which is, curiosity, discovery, and that little tingle and light bulb that turns on in your head when you "get it".

out-of-print music on MP3

Here's a blurb about a Wired article about Anthology Recordings ("the first all-digital reissues label") from one of my co-workers:

http://www.jasonwoodard.com/blog/2008/02/11/DigestingWiredFeb2008.aspx

Looks purty good!

Who runs the elections?

One of my friends lives in New Zealand and expressed frustration at the media's discrepancies in the delegate totals of each candidate. She included one of her Kiwi friends on the email and he asked, "Who runs the elections in the U.S.?" Quite frankly, I didn't know, so I did some research and here's what I replied:

Ok, so each state decides how its voting or caucus process works. Some vote for delegates, some vote for specific candidates, and some caucus for a candidate or remain uncommitted. Each political party decides how delegates are allocated. In addition to delegates, both parties have superdelegates - people who are selected in ways other than by the voters (Democrats have much more than Republicans).

Here's an ask Yahoo answer about it:
http://ask.yahoo.com/20040213.html

and

http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president_how_primary_works.php

Why there's a discrepancy with the delegate counts in the news:

"The delegate counts are not really 'counts.' They're really delegate estimates," the director of surveys for CBS News, Kathy Frankovic, said yesterday. She said a key reason for the largest discrepancies is the different standards news organizations have about when to add delegates to the total.

http://www.nysun.com/article/69893

"That's because you're a threat to them."

"I'm not a threat. I'm a promise."

Mocha latte and brownie for lunch...

...because I'm not allowed to drink at work.

The Chocolate Bar

Where am I?

I was in a meeting in one of the rooms overlooking the Hudson and Hoboken, as well as a huge Emporio Armani billboard. As I was looking at the billboard, I thought about the pervasive air of wealth and luxe in this area (for those who can and can't afford it but buy into it anyway) and for a second or two, I really felt like I was in a foreign city. It was almost like an hallucination. I've been feeling like I don't belong in central/northern Jersey or New York City anymore because I feel like people look down on you if you don't own the most up-to-the-minute fashion, drive an SUV, or dress up to go to the mall, but I didn't think I felt it that deeply.

Merry Belated Christmas

A site of Christmas photos and greeting cards found in yard sales, trash, etc.:

http://squareamerica.com/xm1.htm

I've only gone through the homemade photo cards so far - they alone are worth the visit.


Here's a site that lists more found photos:

http://www.other-peoples-pictures.com/resources.htm#

Bad train day

After getting settled onto a train on track 11, Kent and I hear this
announcement:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been asked to inform you that this is not the train you think it is. The train you want is on track 12. Please proceed to track 12."

I'd like to see him do the haka

Elton John Given Rare Maori Award

The marginalization of the largest group of Americans

TV's triumphant overclass

Television continues to grow positively filthy with the filthy rich. And where is the middle class? Demeaning itself for money on reality and game shows, of course

By Heather Havrilesky

So where is the middle class in this equation? In the old days, we'd find them on sitcoms, at the very least. Yet these days, even sitcom characters live sophisticated urban lives in roomy, tastefully furnished apartments or massive homes.

 

 

I'm not the only one feeling marginalized - that's good, I guess.

Creed!

http://blog.nbc.com/CreedThoughts/

Moviegoer's Bill of Rights

By Andrew O'Hehir in Salon.

 

Modern musicals

Do the singers in modern musicals really have to over-enunciate when they sing? I just heard a clip of a song in Hairspray and while the song was kinda catchy, the singer over-enunciated to the extent that I just didn't want to listen. That's sort of why I like Jersey Boys - they were pretty true to the original style of The Four Seasons' songs - they didn't "Broadway-ize" them. It was like I was at a Four Seasons show.

Enemy propoganda

I'm so sick of people who criticize anti-war speech because it fosters enemy propaganda. We're in a war - wouldn't the enemy produce propaganda anyway??? And who the hell cares if they do? It's propaganda ! The Republicans love to dismiss other, non-war related criticism of Republican plans or ideas by Democrats as mere propaganda ( http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=74, http://politicalpartypoop.com/category/democrat-propaganda/), but when it comes to war, propaganda is dangerous. Fools.

Woman vs. wildlife

I'm working from home today and I set myself up in the dining room because it's right next to the bathroom and kitchen. Also, there's a nice sliding door that looks out onto the backyard with the roses and daisies.

Anyway, I was in the middle of updating a piece of online help when I hear this thud and scratching on the sliding door. I looked over and there's this groundhog peering into the house like a kid looking into a candy store. I hollered out in fright, thinking "rabies!" and waited for the thing to start foaming at the mouth.

He just stood on his haunches with his front paws on the glass - like he was shading his eyes from the light so he can see better into the house.

Then he went away and started eating one of the plants on the side of the patio.

I don't think I'm safe in my own backyard!

Welcome to the Summer of Paranoia '08

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/ap_on_re_us/flight_diverted

Where's the Lucky Charms: Jacques Derrida???

Imagine the possibilities! You could spend all day discussing the signifiers of each marshmallow sign!

http://www.salon.com/comics/boll/2007/07/12/boll/

Star Ledger series on the Newark riots: myth vs. fact

Part one ran today. It's fascinating - Newark was long in decline before the 1967 riots.

The push towards the suburbs was codified - the rules of the Federal Housing Authority actually specified that they wouldn't approve mortgages to "crowded neighborhoods" or to "inharmonious racial groups".

Also

By 1967, Newark believed its property tax rate, $7.75 per $100 of assessed value, was the highest in the nation. If taxed at that rate today, an average home in New Jersey - valued at $350,000 - would owe more than $27,000 a year in property taxes.

Even though Springfield and Bergen was largely populated by rental housing, soaring taxes had an impact. Landlords, fearful that making improvements would increase their tax bills, began neglecting their properties.

And

Even though one of every nine servicemen during World War II was black, only one in 670 mortgages insured by the GI Bill went to black veterans ...

And

Coming north for factory jobs didn't help. After World War II, the nation's economy began shifting from manufacturing toward service-based businesses. Between 1950 and 1967, Newark alone lost nearly 20,000 manufacturing jobs.

"These factory jobs had long been the first rung on the economic ladder that immigrant groups had grasped onto as they climbed upward," said Clement Price, a history professor at Rutgers-Newark. "Suddenly, that first rung was gone. And it dealt a serious blow to the ability of this group of African-Americans to replicate the success of other ethnic groups."

So blacks essentially were stuck in the decaying rentals. Those coming up from the South seeking their fortunes couldn't get a decent-paying jobs in the factories. They couldn't afford a regular mortgage and they weren't allowed to have a subsidized mortgage in either the suburbs or the city.

Update: Here's more at the New York Times.

Good one, Microsoft

It's Monk Time again

Years ago, Kent, Dieter, and I watched a WFMU chotchke video compilation that included an animated video of the extended version of Autobahn by Kraftwerk. But I think the one video that really stuck with us was the Monks' "Monk Chant".

Here's that video:




Autobahn was cool and all, but it's kind of hard to forget guys wearing fake monk wigs, playing large tambourines, and banging on kettle drums.

The Monks seemed to have stuck in a lot of people's minds because a new cover/homage album has been released. From the Village Voice:

Silver Monk Time: A Tribute to the Monks

In 1966, five American ex-GI bar band vets, re-christened the Monks, presented Germany with Black Monk Time. "Uberbeat," they dubbed it: drums directing bass volts, organ jolts, guitar feedback, electric banjo as percussion, echoing harmonies, and pre–Slim Shady chatter, jumping in and out of the mix, right on cue. "It's Monk Time, it's Hop Time," they called, before and after ragging on "Mad Vietcong," James Bond, and "What army? Any army."

Silver Monk Time compiles 29 covers and homages as follow-up to the 2006 documentary Monks—The Transatlantic Feedback. The Fall expertly probe the ripples of "Higgle-dy Piggle-dy," Jason Forrest folds Monks demo tapes into the birthday-suit salute of "Monk Hop," and the Raincoats simultaneously croon and hammer "Monk Chant" 'round the mountain. All this while the 5.6.7.8.'s "Cuckoo" spins right off its peak, brushed by the smoke-ring feathers of Nista Nije Nista's "Kuchhuche."

More at the Voice.

newspapers: Google News is your friend

Here's how newspapers can use Google News to their advantage.

 

Some newspapers were bellyaching about how Google News, which displays a story's headline and it's  lede, kinda steals content from them and, more importantly to the newspaper, gives readers enough information so that they don't click through to the newspaper's website and thus don't feed them ad revenue.

 

But Google News could be the newspaper's best friend. Readers who didn't know that a given newspaper ever existed can be exposed to it just by scanning Google News. The newspaper just has to reorganize the information in its stories. Online newspapers who want readers of Google News to click through to the their site should not put the most important information in the lede anymore. Just hint at it so readers have to click through to get the information they want.

 

Here's an example: The lede to a Houston Chronicle story about the hike in 30-year mortgage rates just said that there was a hike and that the hike was the sharpest its been in I can't remember how many years. But I wanted to know exactly how much the rate increased, so I had to click through to the Houston Chronicle's website. So they've made a few cents off of me when they wouldn't have before because I never think to read that paper.

 

Flowers we got with the house

Poppies will make them sleep...















Sleep...















One of our many roses.

So confined, yet so freeing

When the microwave broke at the office, someone wrote a haiku to it to sort of bring it back to life. Others soon added their haikus and eventually we were given a new microwave.

 

Now the toaster is broken and we're once again envoking the power of haiku to get a new one.

 

Here's my entry:

 

What should I do with

my raisin bread now that you

have foresaken me?

 

Area Man Somehow Roped Into Arguing Passionately For Green Day

Too clever by half... not really

On my way to work this morning I noticed a billboard on the Turnpike that just says, "The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus". At first I thought it was another evangelical message. Then I saw one near the Lincoln Tunnel that says "The Algorithm Killed Jeeves".

Ok, so I was intrigued and Googled it.

Turns out, it's a campaign from Ask.com whose mascot used to be Jeeves, that quintessential British butler. According to ValleyWag, Ask is touting that its algorithm is superior to Google's. Ask also staged "a guerrilla campaign against Google's 'information monopoly' in London".

Will it actually get me to use Ask.com? Remains to be seen.

If Ask were really smart, they would have bid on Google for a combination of the keywords "billboard", "algorithm", "Jesus", and "Jeeves" to make searches with those words return Ask.com first on Google's results.

Update: Ask.com doesn't even show up first in Ask.com's search results. :P

It may work for me, but...

Manny Ramirez Asks Red Sox If He Can Work From Home

Another reason to drink more beer

Beer maker, scientists to create energy

"[Prof. Jurg Keller, University of Queensland's wastewater expert] expected the brewery cell would produce 2 kilowatts of power — enough to power a household..."

Off the grid, but still drunk with power!

The War on Wars

White House seeks "czar" to oversee wars: report

So, this is like the drug czar, right? Like the guy who fights the War on Drugs only this would be America's War on Wars?

 

And ain't nobody wants to be the war czar, so maybe we'll escape this one.

 

The Washington Post quotes Retired Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander, and who is one of the men who rejected the job, "The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going."

 

Heh, yeah.

 

Walking in New York

Here's today's Garrison Keillor column in Salon. It pretty much echoes what I feel about walking around Manhattan though I try to avoid Times Square at all costs.

Restaurant mini-review

Viceroy

 

3 out of 5 Chiclets

 

On the southwest corner of 18th and 8th Ave.

 

French-American (pomme frites instead of french fries, but portabello burger) with European laid-backness (they don't rush you to order-eat-leave).

The harbinger

Ice cream man! One benefit of working in an office across the street from a school.

 

I think it's his first day out - I didn't hear him yesterday.

Hey Man, is that Freedom Rock?

Yeah, Man!

Well, turn it up!

What could they be doing?

On a couple of corners on Route 9, there are older men wearing orange crossing guard vests sitting in folding camp chairs on the corner taking notes. I don't think they're crossing guards because I've never seen them before.

Curious...

Cause of the pet poisonings

Is not a rat, is a hamster!

 

Sorry, I'm a pet lover, but I still had to say it.

Streaming WFMU

I'm currently listening to WFMU'S 20k Windows Media Player stream on my Treo as the bus crawls down the turnpike in the slush. Not bad. It cuts out when I browse to another web page, but I still think this is cool. Don't know how long my battery will last, though...

Guess I'd better give them some money as this is pledge week and all.

There goes the neighborhood

I'm one of those jerks with the Crackberries now. Except with a Treo.

So what nickname do the have for these? Special T? I can't think of anything good since I'm not part of the drug culture.

Bubba Ho-tep: review

(3 out of 4 chiclets)


Kent and I watched Bubba Ho-tep last night: it wasn't exactly what I thought it was but I still liked it a lot.

Bruce Campbell plays Elvis, who is alive because he switched places with an Elvis impersonator back in the 70s after he got tired of fame and his soul-sucking friends. The impersonator is the one who died from the drugs and so the king is rotting away forgotten in an East Texas rest home, which is cursed by an Egyptian soul-sucking mummy.

Together with a black man who believes he is JFK (Ossie Davis) with dyed skin and a bag of sand where the blown-out part of his brain used to be, Elvis sets out to kill the mummy before the mummy kills him and takes his soul, the one true thing of his he has left.

But fighting the mummy only takes up the last half hour of the movie. Before that, Elvis has to come to terms with how his life turned out. The main mummy of the movie is Elvis.

This isn't one of those New Age-y mid-80s body switching movies. Elvis switched places with the impersonator through a legal contract that was burned to ashes in a big barbeque catastrophe. If Elvis went public with the scheme to reclaim his throne, who would believe him? So after the impersonator died, Elvis was stuck with with his new identity forever. After breaking a hip impersonating himself on stage, Elvis spends the rest of his years in the rest home, all but locked away in a vault.

The inside of the rest home looks not so much like a vault, but more like what Hollywood portrays the inside of an Egyptian pyramid to be. It's very brown: the walls look like they're covered with mud, so much so that the dirt looks like it dripped down the hallway's wainscotting. Dim, torch-like wall sconces light the maze of corridors. And Elvis lies in his bed, almost in state, waiting for death or a reason to come alive again.

Campbell and Davis make a great team and create real characters, not just characatures. At first I wondered why Ossie Davis would want to be in this movie since I didn't think it fit the rest of the body of his work (turns out, Davis was in an episode of Night Gallery), but by the end I knew it was because it's much more than Elvis and JFK Battle the Mummy.

Another funny coincidence

Today I had another craving for ice cream and decided to pick up some Ben & Jerry's. They come out with crazy new flavors more often so today I picked up Neapolitan Dynamite (half Cherry Garcia and half Chocolate Fudge Brownie, which I guess technically isn't Neapolitan because it has cherries instead of strawberry, although Spumoni has cherries. which used to be sold as a form of Neapolitan ice cream) and Vermonty Python (coffee liquor ice cream mixed with chocolate cookie crumbs and fudge cows).

The Vermonty Python is excellent but since I just happened upon Napoleon Dynamite playing on Comedy Central, I'll have to say that the Neapolitan Dynamite is my favorite pick of the night, if only because of the coincidence. It's kind of like when Kent and I finally watched Eraserhead from our Netflix account after holding onto it for at least two months and it turned out that the night we watched it was David Lynch's 60th birthday.

Mike Schank guitar school

Someone in my office broke out his acoustic guitar and is playing a piece that Mike Schank plays in American Movie (though my co-worker is kinda rusty) and it brought a big smile to my face just like Mike brought a smile to Mark Borschardt's face on Thanksgiving. Unlike Mark, I haven't been feeling like there's nothing worth getting out of bed for but you don't have to be a struggling filmmaker for Mike to bring a smile to your face.

Use the blogs for good!

What can't bloggers do?

 

Now they're on the front lines of home security - they figured the Boston Mooninite  LEDs weren't bombs and had been talking about the guerrila marketing campaign for days.

 

"If Woody had gone straight to the police, none of this would have happened."

 

 

Cromulent

I don't know why, but the word cromulent just popped into my head. I looked it up in www.m-w.com but it wasn't there. Hmm.. Is it an archaic word? So I Googled it. Turns out, it was coined on the Simpsons and while it originally wasn't acceptable or authentic, I guess it is now.

I'm gonna hold my breath until you give me more money for the war!

From Google News ~3:10 p.m.:

It does matter!

A few years ago when I worked for a major software company, one of the system administrators named a cluster of servers after some Titans, specifically Cronus, Zeus, and Rhea. I sent out an office-wide email correcting him - Zeus wasn't a Titan!

 

But no one cared...

 

Where I work now, we're having an email argument about whether to name work teams after figures from the Trojan War. Some people think it's heroic, others think it's awful because most humans didn't survive and the ones that did survive suffered, eventually made it home, and then were killed by children or wives, etc.

 

Here, people care about Greek mythology. I love working here! :)

 

 

My days on the beach will never be the same

Archie comics is getting a facelift.

 

When I was a kid, I'd buy Archie comics all summer long. I'd read them while chewing Bazooka Joe bubble gum in between jumping waves and building sand castles on the Manasquan beach. The new look is stale and has no character.

 

Nothing but nog - Salon

I drank my first glass of spiked eggnog this Sunday. It never appealed to me before, but we had an unopened container left over from our party, so I thought I'd give it a try. I don't think I'd like it plain - the rum blended so nicely with the store-bought flavor.

 

Here's an article by Robert Sietsema discussing the origins of the tasty beverage - engineered and otherwise - in a warm, Christmassy tone.

Parent Mad 6-Year-Old Didn't Like Peanuts Special

Temptation

Someone in my office left a perfectly toasted bialy on top of the toaster oven. It's sitting there looking like it should be in a food magazine photo spread. I must say, I was tempted to steal it.

See, Family Guy is written by intelligent beings

The ongoing saga of the manatee continues here.

The classical is back

I noticed this morning that there's classical music playing again in the Port Authority. I wonder if this is a seasonal thing. I always thought they played it year-round because whenever I went into the city from my college campus, I swore they always played classical music. But maybe that was just when I visited during the winter holidays. It lends a nice calming effect to the whole enterprise.

To all you telecom people out there

Today, George Carlin on my daily George Carlin calendar, asks:

 

"I wonder when we pick up the telephone, does each of us get his own individual dial tone, or is there just one systemwide, master dial tone that each of us jumps on and off when we need it?"

 

Sounds like a stupid question, but it intrigues me. Know the answer?

 

 

Manatee heads to Memphis

Not satisfied with the New York scene, manatee heads to Memphis to try his fortunes in writing country and rockabilly songs.

Broke the curse

I finally broke my Beck curse. I saw him at the Loews Theater in Jersey City last night on my third attempt in seeing him.

The first attempt was at the Free Tibet show in D.C. He was scheduled to perform on the first day, but a huge thunderstorm passed through and someone in the crowd actually got hit by lightning. They ended the first day early and Beck had to go on to another gig in NY.

The second attempt was at Field Day. That was supposed to be held over two days out on Long Island, but the locals kicked them out and the show was moved to Giants Stadium for a one-day show. It rained that day, heavily at times, and while dancing backstage to Underworld (I think), Beck slipped and hurt himself. He cancelled his appearance that night.

I was sure something would happen last night to make Beck cancel, but he didn't and he put on a good show.

This video (from a NY show) is of the marionettes he used in the show. Every band member had a marionette that mimicked what the person did on stage. They created on-the-fly music videos of the puppets and the puppets even had their own teeny tiny puppet theater for themselves.

For Jersey City, they roamed around town to the tune of Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer. The puppet band even stopped at White Castle for a meal.

Today's commuter follies

Well this morning I was seated near the dueling throat-clearers. I don't know if your throat gets any clearer the louder you clear your throat, but these two seemed to think so. TGFiPods.

Then this evening, there was emergency construction on two of the Parkway's local lanes. There was so much traffic on the Turnpike before the exit to the Parkway, and on the Parkway before the Driscoll Bridge, that the bus was rerouted to exit 8 on the Turnpike (for route 33). I guess it was better than sitting in that traffic. It took two hours to get home, but I'm sure it would have taken longer if we stayed the course and went our usual route.

But the cherry on the top of my sundae were the 14-something teenagers skateboarding at the park and ride when we pulled up. About half of the boys had stripped down to their boxer shorts and a couple ran and scrambled to get their pants back on when they saw the bus. Very strange.

Friday the 13th

And in today's commuter follies:

 

I missed the 6:54 bus, which is OK because another one comes ten minutes later. Only that one was a little late as the driver had to switch buses because the first one broke down. She told the Old Bridge attendant this in great detail at which point one of my fellow passengers yelled out "let's get going!" Traffic was light and we got into Port Authority by 8:30, which is good. On bad traffic days, the bus ride takes two hours.

 

Once in Port Authority, I got on the downtown E train, which paused at 34th St. for more than usual because of congestion on the tracks; the conductor recommended that we switch to the A, which is express. Only by the time I got out of the train, the track cleared up and the train moved on without me. I went to the A tracks anyway figuring it couldn't hurt. But two local trains came and went while I waited for the A, so I decided to go back and take a local. The local train I boarded was slow as molasses and before we got to the next stop, two A trains passed us by.

 

So far, no other bad luck has happened. I wonder if this is all due to the stray black cat that hangs around our house. Maybe he crossed behind my car early this morning...

Update: As I drove home, a black cat ran in front of my car. Damn it!

What's the meaning of irony?

I've come to realize that there's only so much New York irony I can take. Hearing more than five minutes of it makes me want to throw something. It's like hanging out with an unfunny Groucho Marx. He had a sense of humor about himself, which is sorely missing in NY irony.

 

Tell it to my poor ears

Is Taylor Dayne making a comeback or something? I've heard her two hits every day during the past four days in various places. Friday it was at the Chelsea Salvation Army thrift store. Saturday she was on the radio as we flipped through stations. Sunday it was Home Depot. Today it was in Port Authority. And now she's playing incessantly in my head!

If I Had a Hammer

I've been listening to the Smithsonian's series of podcasts, which is very good, about the American Folkways record label. As I was listening to Pete Seeger lead his audience in singing "If I Had a Hammer," I realized how powerless the person in the song is. He/she has all these wonderful intentions of hammering for justice, ringing in liberty, and singing with his brothers and sisters if only he/she had a hammer, a bell, or a song.

 

But the person doesn't have a hammer, or a bell, or I guess a song (but isn't this the song he/she wished they had? What song do they want?) so what are they going to do in the meantime? Sit around and wait for those things? I mean, what are they going to do about it?

 

If I had some eggs, I could make some ham and eggs, if I had some ham.

Also born on my birthday

I've lived all my life thinking that the only famous person (of whom I've heard) that was born on December 20 was the actress Irene Dunne and today, courtesy of Wikipedia, I've found that

 

1957 - Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter

1957 - Mike Watt, American bassist

1966 - Chris Robinson, American singer ( Black Crowes)

 

were all born on that day, too.

 

That's better.

 

Bad timing

I took my MacBook to work with me today so I could finally watch Throne of Blood, which is one of my Netflix picks that's been collecting dust for about 3 months, on the bus to work. Just my luck, today of all days I happened to sit next to a young fella reading his day's Bible study.

When I got to the part in the movie when one of the lord's soldiers brings in a big bundle that looks like it could be a human head wrapped in a sheet, I turned it off. I figure that I'd like my fellow passengers to try not to do things that annoy me, so I didn't think my neighbor would appreciate seeing too much gore. Not that they show the head...

Dancing with the Stars

Right outside of the subway entrance in the Port Authority today were two people in gold star costumes and someone taking a picture with them. It was an ad for Dancing with the Stars! A woman shouted at us to remember to watch it tonight.

 

I guess it was partially effective because I remember that I saw them but I'm not planning on watching the show. Then again, it could have been a dream as I was not fully awake from my nap on the bus.

 

Come to think of it, it's a really smart campaign. If the MTA gives them the counts of how many people came in and out of the subway during the time the gold stars were there, they'll know exactly how effective the ad is by comparing the show's ratings with how many people saw the ad.

 

The best donut I've ever had

This morning I had an 8 am meeting, which meant that I had to catch the 6:15 express bus into the city. A lot of my fellow meeting-goers might not have been as "inconvenienced" as I was, but they were equally frustrated by the early start time. Luckily, the guy who called the meeting saved the morning by bringing us a dozen donuts from The Donut Pub on West 14th St. They make their donuts often, by hand, and they're open 24-hours.

Wow.

I had the plain cake donut and it was the best donut I've ever had. It was so crispy on the outside and so moist on the inside but not greasy at all.

Now, I like my donuts with some bite and substance to them so I personally don't go for the Krispy Kremes. If I were to get one off the conveyor, I might not even think they were the best. We had a little showdown about that at the meeting.

How precious!

This has got to be the best commentary on the War on Terror^tm yet:

Send in Jack Bauer!

Dad: Honey, where's your teddy bear?
3-year-old girl: Oh, the terrorist are hiding him.

Overlake Hospital
Bellevue, Washington

Overheard by: Nurse says what

via Overheard in the Office, Aug 31, 2006

Lower My Bills

Have you seen those LowerMyBills.com web ads? They usually have bizarre animated GIFs run on a continuous loop that don't seem to have anything to do with mortgage refinancing and debt consolidation. Sometimes it's a bunch of cartoon cheerleaders - one for every state in the union. Sometimes it's a series of photos turned into an animated GIF. Today I saw one of a silhouette of a woman in a long dress gingerly walking the peak of a tile roof. Bizarre. But damn them, they always get my attention.

The only candy with the exploded caramel

I can't have coffee or other caffeinated beverages for a while because of my problems with acid reflux. I'm not supposed to have chocolate either, but I hardly got any sleep last night and I'm crashing. So I bought a caramel Twix from the machine at work to help me out.

 

Lately I've been getting momentarily upset at the ad on the back for peanut butter Twix, thinking I mistakenly bought a peanut butter Twix when I actually did buy the caramel. So after my second of worry and relief, I opened up the package only to find that about half the caramel had exploded into one end of the wrapping.

 

Let me tell you, the Twix chocolate and cookie isn't the same without the Twix caramel and the Twix caramel isn't the same without the Twix chocolate and cookie crunch.

 

I want my money back! That was not a Twix! That was caramel, chocolate, and cookie, but that was not a Twix!

Lunch today

Today is pretty foggy and what I imagine to be London-y (I've never been), so I tried the split pea soup at Hale and Hearty Soups in the Chelsea Market . It was indeed hearty and very tasty. I had a small size and a half of a tuna wrap - they completely stuffed me. I think I'll just go with a small soup next time.

Mr. Softee

I'm ten floors up from the street but I'll be damned if I can't hear the Mr. Softee truck down there now.

name of my new MacBook

I came up with a good name for my MacBook as I drifted off to sleep on the bus to work today: Chiclet!

 

The MacBook looks like a white chiclet - it's smooth, rectangular, and shiny. And who knows, maybe I'll use my MacBook write a novel that'll be categorized as chick-lit. Not that I love chick-lit, but whatever the publisher decides is out of my hands.

 

I love it when form follows function.

Bruno Kirby, R.I.P.

It is with great sadness that we here at Mime is Money pay our last respects to actor Bruno Kirby, who died Monday from complications related to leukemia.

 

He had a long career: he was in such early-70s TV shows as Room 222 and the pilot of M.A.S.H.

 

Most notably for us, he played Rat Pack fan and limo driver, Tommy Pischedda, in This is Spinal Tap. The outtakes on the Spinal Tap DVD of Kirby crooning in his tighty whities is as good as anything in the released movie.

 

Bruno Kirby was certainly no fad.

 

Cat in the photo booth

Strange checking out my new MacBook.

Christmas in August

Yesterday, I ordered a white MacBook with 1 GHz RAM and an 80 GB hard drive. I can't wait for it to arrive - I feel like an eight-year old waiting for Christmas!

 

My six-year old Compaq PC is showing its age. I plan on reformatting the hard drive (again!) and installing more memory (if the thing isn't too old for that). I'm only going to use it for personal business- and work business-related functions; I'll use the MacBook for the fun stuff like ripping and burning, man! Maybe I'll buy a video camera somewhere down the line and make video films, Bren Bren! Yeah!

 

(That reference to video films and Bren Bren is from Brendon Small's cancelled cartoon, Home Movies. The character who said "video film" and called Brendon "Bren Bren" is Fenton, voiced by Sam Seder, currently of Air America's Majority Report. Every now and then you can hear Fenton's voice slip out when Seder gets agitated.)

After success with Family Guy, manatee takes on New York

If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

Summer Reading: Little Children by Tom Perrotta

I just finished reading Little Children by Tom Perrotta, who also wrote Election (they made that one into a movie with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick).

 

Rather than being about literal little children, the book is really about adults behaving like children on a playground and infatuated, horny teenagers.

 

Todd, a stay-at-home dad, and Sarah, a stay-at-home mom, have a summer fling: they think they're going to leave their spouses and run away with each other. But what will they live on? Their giddy adolescent feelings for each other? Neither one of them has ever held down a job good enough to raise a family on.

 

In the primary storyline, Perrotta deftly recreates the feelings of desperation felt by a girl with a crush: in a flashback, Sarah is in high school obsessing over a theater geek and finally gets to kiss him. The next morning, her father drives her to the SAT test; on the way, Sarah is giddy with the assumption that she has a boyfriend. Her heart is broken when, in line for the test, her "boyfriend" coldly explains that the kiss was a mistake.

 

In the present time, Sarah obsesses over keeping Todd and over his pretty wife Kathy. Sarah parks her car in front of Todd and Kathy's apartment and sits there for hours waiting for a glimpse of Kathy. When Kathy does finally come outside, Sarah's heart sinks at just how pretty Kathy is.

 

Minor characters include a child molester with the mentality of a 10-year-old weakling being bullied on the playground, his present-day bully: an ex-cop bent on driving the child molester out of town, Sarah's husband Richard, whose philosophy is to never fool himself into thinking he can fight his base desires, and a group of stay-at-home moms acting like a snotty band of popular teens.

 

The book ends with a suspenseful point-of-view switching scene in which the major and some of the minor characters reach their respective epiphanies. Todd and Sarah even realize that they've been acting like irresponsible teenagers, though Todd has to be hit on the head to finally get it.

 

Little Children is a deceptively quick read: its dialogue and prose belie a deeper meaning than a mere chronical of events that take place over one summer.

 

Recommended!

Pee Wee's Playhouse

I've been watching Cartoon Network's Adult Swim's reruns of Pee Wee's Playhouse (Wikipedia's entry) and it really takes me back to the late 80's/early 90's. I must have seen every episode three or four times because I remember them with great clarity.

 

I also find it hilarious that it's showing at 11 at night when the kiddies are supposed to be asleep. My sister was watching it at the tender age of 5 and I at 13.

 

I absoultely love the first season. It was an absurd mixture straight out of a John Waters movie. Everything fits together: the wonderful incedental music by Mark Mothersbaugh; the strange toys; the puppets; the speedo-wearing, buff and tan Tito the lifeguard; and the Divine Mrs. Steve.

 

The second season started up the other night - wow, what a disappointment. I forgot how much things changed. And not for the better, in my opinion.

 

In the first episode of the second season, Pee Wee is redecorating his playhouse and everything's under drop cloths. I guess this is their way of easing the kids at home into the big changes.

 

And those changes in order of what irks me most are:

• Captain Carl (the always funny late Phil Hartman) is gone
  
• The incedental music of Mark Mothersbaugh is replaced by that of The Residents and is more like traditional cartoon music than Mothersbaugh's subtle stylings
  
• the cute and sassy Dixie is replaced by the trio of flowers who now announce the King of Cartoon's arrival (lame!)
  
• the bedroom-eyed Globey, who always looked as if he were looking directly at whomever was talking to him, is replaced by a new cartoony, beady-eyed one (although the French accent remains)
  
• there's a new King of Cartoons (and a TV to replace the film projector; Pee Wee was righteously disappointed when the new King bestowed upon him the TV)
  
• beefcake Tito the life guard (hey, everything can use more Tito!) is replaced by Ricardo the soccer player who wears more modest shorts and a shirt (a shirt?!)
  
• the playhouse kids (did you know Opal was played by the ill-fated Natasha Lyonne?) are gone
  
• the "Divine" Mrs. Steve is replaced by Mrs. Renee

Thankfully, Lawrence Fishburn remains as Cowboy Curtis. (hoooo-whee!)

 

I'll still watch, but I'll feel cheated.

 

 

 

Jersey Shore literature

Salon is doing a series of book discussions focused on where in the world the book is set. Today's article by Susy Hansen is about the literature of the Jersey Shore. The first book on her list is Frederick Reiken's Lost Legends of New Jersey .

 

I read this a couple of years ago and found Reiken's discussions of the Shore to be pretty much just an expansion of those "You know you're from the Jersey Shore if..." emails. Great for people who grew up in Jersey and moved away, boring for people like me who still live here. FYI: The book only focuses on the Shore in the first half; it moves up to North Jersey thereafter.

How to take the bus from Aldrich Road in Howell, NJ to New York Port Authority

I recently took the bus from the Aldrich Road Park and Ride in Howell, NJ to New York Port Authority. When I take a mode of transportation I've never taken before, I like to do a little research about fares, tickets, parking and all that. I couldn't find much on the web about daily parking at the park and ride so I set out in the real world to find out and am sharing my knowledge with you here.

Note: At off-peak hours, the bus to NYC doesn't stop at the Aldrich Road park and ride, instead it picks passengers up at the bus stop on Route 9 North just before Aldrich Road. You can park at the park and ride regardless of where you board the bus.

Schedule: You can find the PDF schedule (valid as of July 28, 2006) for NJ Transit route 139 here at the NJ Transit website.

Costs (as of July 28, 2006):

• The bus costs $12 one-way. It seems that you can't buy a round-trip ticket, so you'll have to buy two one-way tickets.


• The park and ride costs $.25 to park for 3 hours. You can park for a maximum of 24 hours.

To use the park and ride when boarding the bus in the park and ride:

1. Buy your ticket(s) from the Colonial Coffee Shoppe in the Aldrich Plaza strip mall, located at the Southwest corner of Route 9 North and Aldrich Road.




2. Park your car in the park and ride, just behind the strip mall on Aldrich.

   
   

   Daily parking is in the West side of the lot (the side furthest from Route 9).

   
   

   Daily parking spaces are numbered. Only monthly permit holders should park in non-numbered spaces.
   

3. Remember your parking space number.




4. At the park and ride bus shelter, go to the machine with the big 'P' on it and pay for your parking.
   

   Follow the instructions on the screen.
   

5. Sit back and wait with joyous anticipation for your bus.
   

To use the park and ride when boarding at the bus stop on Route 9 North: I suggest parking your car at the park and ride first, walking to the Colonial Coffee Shoppe to get your tickets, and then walk up to the bus stop.

Helpful Hints

• Sometimes buses from the Academy bus line substitute for NJ Transit. So don't be surprised if you wait in line at the Port Authority at the gate that says it's for NJ Transit route 139 and then get to the bus and find Academy bus #500-something. You can politely ask the driver whether or not the bus will be stopping at your stop.
  
• Don't sit directly behind the driver if you plan on talking to your companion or on your cell phone. I've learned this from experience. Apparently, if you look out the window while talking, your voice in full volume travels up the window to the driver and distracts him. The driver will get very angry and start yelling at you to keep it down.

Update (8/3/06):Here's the Wikipedia article about bus 139.

President Garfield died there

I'm reading Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation and while trying to find where the old Francklyn Cottage was in Long Branch, NJ (where President Garfield died; I think Vowell might tell me, but I'm not at that part yet), I found this cool website of old prints chronicling Garfield's death.

 

Hat tip to Annabelle for bringing up the story a couple of months ago and reminding me to read this book. (I hope she doesn't mind the pseudonym I gave her!)

 

If I had a million dollars

Audrey Hepburn's black dress from the first scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's is going up for auction. Le sigh.

Kill, Do, or Marry

Ok, gang, let's play Kill, Do, or Marry!

For each choice, tell us if you would kill them, do them, or marry them. Give us a little explanation for each choice to make this fun.

You can just play with choices of the opposite sex, or for even more fun, play with both sexes!

Here are your choices:

Women:
Katie Holmes
Angelina Jolie
Gweneth Paltrow

Men:
Keanu Reeves
Woody Harrelson
Robert Downey Jr

Go!

Yeah yeah, she's cute, but what's her thetan count?

Only Scientologists can see Suri-with-a-fringe-on-top.

Look out, Plankton! The oil companies are comin' ta git ya!

Geez, I didn't think Plankton was that bad.

This is weird - when I did a Google search for the Spanish company that's partnering with the Spanish University of Alicante to make the oil, Bio Fuel Systems, I found a company called BioFuel Systems based in England.

The only thing I can find that mentions Bio Fuel Systems, the University of Alicante, and plankton is the Reuters article.

And I realized after reading the article more closely that nobody's name is used. The article only attributes a "press dossier" from the company.

The article does say that Bio Fuel Systems was created this year, but I would think that a cutting edge company that released a press dossier would have a Web site containing that very dossier.

So I guess Plankton is safe: I wouldn't count on gas from that process any time soon.

Don't marry a gossip

I admit it - I'm hooked on My Life on the D List, the reality show that follows Kathy Griffin around doing her D list-y things. I find it funny - she's funny and she tells a good story. And I'm all about the story telling these days, which is why I listen to The Croncast, because I'm trying to hone my own story telling skills so I can start writing good fiction.

Anyway, back in May, Kathy Griffin divorced her husband, Matt, who was heavily featured in the show, because he stole about $72,000 from her.

So Kathy went on Larry King and told her story and Matt doesn't like that because it's a private affair. He hasn't been blabbing about it, so why is she?

Uh, hello? Because she's Kathy Griffin, queen of gossip, and this is a really juicy story, that's why.

You should have known what you were getting into, buddy.

Howell is safe

An Asbury Park Press article reported that Howell is the 11th safest town in the whole country.

I can attest to that. During the recent Independence Day four-day weekend, about half of our neighbors were shooting off firecrackers and bottle rockets and not a one caused a fire. Neither did I hear about anyone losing any fingers.

Cats that Look Like Hitler

The name says it all:

www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com

My b/w cat does not look like Hitler, although he does tend to bark (meow?) orders at me quite a bit.

The Monks!

There's a new documentary out about The Monks, a band from the 60's made up of U.S. Army GIs stationed in Germany. I first learned of them from a WFMU video. The documentary doesn't have international distribution yet but rumor has it that the band will reunite for a late-2006 tour.

But mine goes to 6.0

Holy crap.

Just make the damn site intuitive!

From Overheard in the Office.

You know what happens when you assume things?

I was thinking about why wearing a Support the Troops t-shirt would be considered an act of protest.

Maybe someone was reading into the message the wrong way because he feels very guilty that his actions aren't actually supporting the troops? Hmmm?

Granted, the woman wasn't treated as badly as Cindy Sheehan, but she was still removed from the audience.