Florida Election Fun Re-Visited? No, not another recount story, a real election this time. This election looks like fun. Now Playing: Florida II, With Janet and Jeb is a NY Times piece on theOp-Ed page. (Requires free registration)
Arrive 2 Hours Early? So here I sit at Austin Bergstrom, having arrived dutifully 2 hours before my scheduled flight home, only to clear check-in and security in less than 5 minutes on one of ther busiest travel days of the year. Thanks to the Admiral's Club wireless network, which is compatible with my PowerBook's "AirPort" card, I can at least surf and blog.
Security? There are people who were dentists and truck drivers last month now dressed in camouflage and carrying automatic rifles standing around all over the airport. Do I feel safer? Hardly. These reservists who might see a gun one weekend a month and two weeks a year at big boy sleepaway camp are now standing around bored watching the same idiots from Argenbright in blue polyester blazers, paid less than the kid at the Schlotzky's stand, scan bag after bag on a belt. I would not arm these people, I would use the money to pay scanners a decent wage, lower employee turnover, and improve training and technology. I am not comforted by a trigger-happy weekend warrior G.I. with an attitude holding a fully automatic, 800 round per minute rifle with a clip full of high-powered 5.56mm shells in a crowded building. What's worse is that most people seem to think that these guys make things safer. Shudder.
My new fave site of the moment is Bartcop.com. Filled with political commentary and raw humor, it pokes fun at liberals and conservatives alike, albeit with distinctly liberal leanings. It also includes Conan and Letterman quotes:
"The latest report from Afghanistan by Geraldo:
He says that Osama bin Laden is now in Pakistan.
Which means that the most hated man in Afghanistan is now Geraldo."
--Conan O'Brien
Serious Bartcop-linked item of the moment? Bartcop draws our attention to the cover story by Dan Briody in Jan 2002 issue of Red Herring entitled “The Carlyle Group: The relationship between the bin Laden family, George Bush Sr., and floundering defense contractors.” Very interesting stuff. I like this guy's sense of aim. Described as follows, Bartcop makes for intersting daily reading: "A recovering Catholic who loves fine tequila and claims to be ADD with a double-digit IQ, Bartcop lives somewhere in Oklahoma, calls his hometown Knuckledrag, or K-drag, because he is surrounded by caveman conservatives, to whom he has an open invitation every Thursday night to debate him in a chat room. Bartcop is a true original. He alienates many extreme liberals, and longtime fans desert him for a lack of ideological purity--he supported the current bombing, despises Ralph Nader for electing Bush, hates the NRA but owns a handgun. If The Nation is Jimmy Carter, Bartcop is Billy."
Shopping Can Be Such A Drag:Winn-Dixie Stores, the Southern grocery giant and Fortune 500 company that has been under attack for 14 months for firing a truck driver who cross-dressed off-duty, is trying to shut down a Web site protesting the company's actions. There is a truck driver in drag joke in here somewhere, but I don't do sports humor. Drag racing anyone?
I loved LOTR. It is destined to be a holiday event for me in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Gandalf willing. Epic in scope, yet filled with sweet details, lovable characters, thrilling chases and battles, and a positively LUMINOUS Elijah Wood (talk about cute cheeks you wanna pinch!). Ian McKellen rules as Gandalf, and Sean Astin vindicates himself nicely for years of dreck like Toy Soldiers.
If you are having trouble blogging, or would like an easier way to link to a story on the web, try this cool Java "BLOG THIS" link (drag it to your toolbar kiddies) and it will easily create a blog post item about the highlighted text or page you are on at the time you click it.
Also, if you are a WinDoze user, you can add a Blog menu to the right mouse button popup menu by running a Registry add-in. Email me if you are interested.
PFLAG is suggesting that instead of money, you give the Salvation Army a piece of your mind this year (in the form of "buck slips" that let the "Army" know why you're not supporting them). Not sure if I'll make their kettle my soap box (ahem), but I sure won't be giving them money anytime soon.
Stephanie: welcome aboard the belly (as it were). I also have experienced heinous service at a Double Tree (the one here in Austin). The most ironic part was that their "hotline to the general manager" – featured prominently on the back of their phone list – was not a working number.
Jerry (& hopefully Baze): I agree wholeheartedly, LOTR was double-plus awesome. (I shall not gloat (much) that I saw it even before you guys).
Blane: the buzzer on my dryer just went off and I thought of you (really!) Hmm, is there a C&W song in there somewhere?
Baze and I saw LOTR at 10 a.m. this morning. Yes, this makes us geeks. But, it also allows us to be among the first to say that the film ROCKS. Or at least, for me to say it ROCKS and assume that Baze concurs with my assessment.
Was glad to see your post, Steph. I suffered acute giggles (OK, it was really outright guffaws) when I came to the powerpoint slide that tracked the trajectory of Mike's career. Thanks for sharing it. :)
NASA is working on technology that would allow planes to morph shape in mid-air to adjust to flight conditions. We're getting closer and closer to living in the Jetson's age, people.
If anyone gets a picture of Jerry being burned in effigy, please look closely for Bert in the background. Bert is evil.
And for people like Baze, busily constructing horror stories of American gulags being built by Ashcroft, here is a truly disturbing story about journalistic excess
and the failure of the American media to truly report important stories:
Jack, I absolutely loved your flash animation for Veek. That has to be one of the sweetest web-based creations I've ever seen. The web can express just as much emotion, thought, connected-ness, love as whatever has come before it. Your flash animation makes me want to learn how to use the same tools so that I can direct creative energy at my loved ones. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Jerry: the new format is splendiferous indeed! Not sure what to think about this latest version of the GOP's big tent. It sure feels like more posturing than substance. On the other hand, some of it may be real, and it may drive off more of the lunatic fringe (like Pat Buchanan) to the netherworld of third-party irrelevance (not that I think that other parties should be irrelevant)).
Jack: I thought your Veek tribute was great! Please wish her a happy birthday for me. It's so cool that you got Alan Smithee to work on it. My favorite by him has to be Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh.
Baze: HRH has also managed to produce some very fine looking progeny, I must say.
I call this modified design "star-spangled Bellyfuzz." Here's a quick list of enhancements (or at least, reasons behind the changes):
The new colors should make it easier to tell the difference between visited links (blue) and unvisited links (red). I know that's backward from most sites, so lemme know if it drives you bonkers, and I can reverse them.
There was little separation between the posts, so everything could sort of blend together if you quickly scanned down the page. Hopefully, the new littl "star lines" will help you to easily differentiate between posts.
I don't know about you, but I like to know who wrote the stuff I'm about to read before I read it. So, I bumped all of our names to the beginning of our posts.
And finally ... before I made these changes, the timestamp was linked to that specific post in the archive. While not totally confusing, I still thought improvement was in order. So, I named all of those links: "perma-link to this post." That way, if you ever want to send out an e-mail linking to a specific post, share a post with friends, link to a post from another Web site, etc., you know you can always click on the handy dandy "perma-link" to get the specific URL to use. Makes life easy, and that's what being a lazy American is all about! :)
As always, lemme know if I can make your bellyfuzz experience better.
Shiny, Happy Republicans Holding Hands? Is the current Republican Administration the most inclusive one we've ever seen? This Newsweek column made me stop and consider the idea. And while I don't think the points brought up in it will alter my voting patterns, it does make me feel a little warmer toward the present state of the GOP. Let's just hope Tom DeLay doesn't take Armey's spot.
Hey Baze, I've been trying to donate a nice set of bunk beds, hardly used at all, to Safe Place, but they haven't returned two calls. If you think any other organization could be a good candidate for these, please let me know. I was thinking about Christopher House, but was unsure if they would want/need such things. I can't deliver them anymore since I don't have a truck, but we could figure out something.
Today is Veek's 40th birthday, and while I am a bit fearful about putting this out there for fear of ridicule, here is the path to the very first Flash movie I've ever created. I made it to tell her what the kids and I have done for her birthday, namely sending her to Aspen for a "lost weekend" with two of her best friends. The url of the movie is
here.
Feel free to go check it out, but remember - I'm not an artist, I'm more neanderthal than most of the folks in this blog, and I've never been mistaken for a developer. Just trying to learn Flash and used Veek's birthday as a reason to create a movie. It's not exactly high art, if you know what I mean.
Ignominious end department: When I saw the headline Big Country Star Found Hanged I thought Garth Brooks, or maybe some other singer whose music I routinely ignore had checked out. The truth was as sad as the demise of the Bay City Rollers though. "Found by a maid in a closet" is NOT what I want in my obit.
Maybe He's OK After All: So his ears make Ross Perot's look positively elfin, and he dated perhaps the most homely female this side of Hoyt Axton, while married to a veritable goddess, but he does have his good points. Proof that over a pint or two, anyone can look good.
Holiday Emotions: For some reason, I find my emotions welling up more and more often as I shop this holiday season. I am truly blessed with a wonderful family and great friends, my health, wealth and happiness, a life that is absent most all of the grief and sadness that fills that of so many this season. I want to help a bit, even more this year than others, since so many charities are experiencing huge drops in donations, at a time when so many need help. Sure, the Red Cross and the September 11th Fund have raised millions, but there are others, local and national that could use a boost.
Some favorites, if you are looking for a way to help others this season, include: The Annual ‘Today’ Holiday Gift Drive reaches some 350,000 children through 120 non-profit agencies around the country. You can donate a toy online through Amazon.com
Locally, our own Lesbian & Gay Rights Lobby is in trouble. Donations are way down, and conspiratorial state congressional re-districting moves have caused two of the most outspoken state congressional advocates of equal rights, Glenn Maxey and Harryette Ehrhardt to step down. You can email LGRL for info on joining, and see several volunteer opportunities online (they could obviously use some real help on their website as well!). Why not join and set up a small monthly donation? They can draft a checking account or debit card, and you'll hardly notice!
We have much for which to be thankful--this group of inveterate and witty web-travelers are among the things I am happy about. Take a moment to reflect this week and remember those less fortunate and more needy. Just sign me "The Little Bummer Boy."
Wow, I love that old motel site! It'll be a prime source for appropriating artwork for the creatively-challenged like myself. One nit, though: as per usual, there is no "Rhode Island" entry. It's not bad enough that Rand McNally chooses to lump us, Connecticut and Massachusetts into one page, but now we can't get an entry on the motel site? Enough of this madness - end discrimination against Little Rhody now!
Shoe sent in some links, and I just added them to the permanent collection there on the left. I also twiddled around with learning how to get archiving to work properly. Now we have the ability to browse previous weeks' worth of pithy bellyfuzzer commentary. And there was much rejoicing.
Before LOTR hits on Dec. 19, I wanted to catch up a little on the work of Peter Jackson. So I rented Meet the Feebles. Leave it to Ween to dedicate a large part of their site to these Muppets on acid. Anyway, I liked the film enough to want to watch it again to catch bits I missed the first time around. My favorite line from the movie: "Lyndon Johnson is bad egg." I wonder if Lady Bird or Liz Carpenter have seen Mr. Jackson's work?
Vodoo Academy is almost a soft (gay) porn. Gorgeous twinks, terrible acting, ridiculous plot, and ... no sex. Should have rented a real porn.
Battle Beyond the Stars was actually so bad, we couldn't sit through it. Made in 1980, we tried to watch the 20th anniversary edition DVD (which was likely identical to the original). It stars Richard "John Boy" Thomas, George Peppard (I really liked the Banacek series when I was a kid), and Robert "Man from Uncle" Vaughn. This film makes Battlestar Galactica look like high art. I know I'm supposed to like it 'cause Roger Corman produced it, but I'm not that cool.
Finally, there was Leprechaun In the Hood, which I rented in honor of my friend Owen (even though he wasn't there to watch it). Owen likes to play a crazed leprechaun dental hygienist on stage. This is a film constructed entirely from cliché. We had to fast-forward through the mind-numbingly bad rap. It did have some laughs, though: the protagonist rapper wannabes' monikers were "Stray Bullet", "Postmaster P.", and ... "Butch". There also was a fun drag queen named "Fontaine Rivera" (who gets fucked to death by the wily leprechaun (much like the audience)).
