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📚 twenty-two of 2020: Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp ⭐️⭐️⭐️

On its own, a fairly standard action thriller. But as the source material for Die Hard, it’s a fascinating artifact. Surprisingly similar, and all changes made for the film were for the better.

On This Day: May 6

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 25 posts previously published on May 6th

  • 2023
  • 2022
    • Modern Star Trek Needs More Technobabble Okay, fine. Because absolutely nobody asked for yet another Star Trek hot take from some random nobody on the internet, here we go. This is the stuff that I don't like about modern Trek. ➡
  • 2020
    • 📚 twenty-two of 2020: Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp ⭐️⭐️⭐️ On its own, a fairly standard action thriller. But as the source material for Die Hard, it’s a fascinating artifact. Surprisingly similar, and all changes made for the film were for the better. ➡
    • On This Day: May 6 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from May 6 ➡
  • 2018
    • Sorry, Mr. Spider, but the ceiling directly above my bed is not an acceptable spot to hang out, and you will be evicted post-haste. ➡
  • 2016
    • Birthday weekend date night number one: dinner, dessert, and a CWU vocal jazz concert. (127/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Not a bad day, not a great day. Not disappointed to be relaxing in bed (yes, at 8:30…my inner twenty-something is quite ashamed). ➡
  • 2006
    • Who is John Galt? I'm not entirely sure about this one -- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will be starring in a film version of _Atlas Shrugged_. ➡
  • 2005
    • QuickTime 7 HD Just for grins and giggles, I decided to download all the different Serenity trailers available to compare them. I grabbed all four 'normal' versions from the Serenity trailer page, the two HD versions from the Serenity HD page, opened them all up at once, and took a peek. ➡
    • Jonesing for Tiger Anybody in Seattle feel like letting me borrow their Tiger install disc until Monday when mine gets here? ;) ➡
    • You won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any Jews! I spent most of the first part of my morning in tears today -- because I couldn't stop laughing. Last night I noticed that the iTunes Music Store had the Broadway cast soundtrack to Spamalot. Of course, that was a no-brainer impulse buy. ➡
    • Microsoft reconsiders, supports anti-discrimination laws Via Scoble, Ballmer's e-mail announcing Microsoft's re-committing to support anti-discrimination legislation covering sexual orientation. ➡
    • Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy For my part, I had a blast. It wasn't perfect, but I thought it was _quite_ enjoyable, and a reasonably good attempt at putting Douglas Adams' particular brand of absurdity on screen. ➡
  • 2004
    • This is just goofy I'd be pissed if it weren't so damn funny. That's just goofy, though — because I have a DVD drive, I have to install iLife from the DVD? The install CD is entirely useless to me? Honestly, that's one of the most bizarre things I've seen from Apple to date. ➡
    • We need a Japanese president Case in point: a Japanese minister has resigned in disgrace after failing to pay into a national pension plan. ➡
    • Why isn’t Limbaugh muzzled yet? I could hardly see straight when I first read that, let alone come close to forming a coherent response. Thankfully, Kirsten did much better than I… ➡
    • National Day of Prayer So apparently today was the National Day of Prayer. I'm sure that was appreciated by those Americans who are Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Mormon, pagan, agnostic, or atheistic. ➡
    • State votes ranked by IQ Here's a fun chart: States ranked by average IQ and how they voted in 2000. ➡
    • Seattle Skyline Not the best quality panorama in the world, but not terribly bad, considering it was taken while bobbing along on the waters of Lake Union in a Duck. ➡
    • Countering the ‘rains all the time argument’… Looks like Washington might be facing another drought this summer. ➡
  • 2003
    • Cynicism Reigns Supreme My personal 'sometimes more serious than others, depending on how many momos I had to deal with today' opinion is that, quite simply, we (i.e., the human race) are breeding ourselves into oblivion by breeding for stupidity. ➡
    • Well, of course! For my opinion…see a future post in the metaphysics category. ➡
    • Peace is our profession Operation Strangelove: On May 14th, host a screening (even if it's just for yourself!) of Dr Strangelove (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)! ➡
    • iTunes Man Sell us a song, you're the iTunes man, / Sell us a song tonight. / Well, we're all in the mood for a melody, / And you've got the pricing just right. ➡
  • 2002

On This Day: May 5

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 27 posts previously published on May 5th

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2021
    • Yes, Virginia, There Is Still A Goddamn Global Pandemic: “We’re not sitting in the dark, aroused by our own isolation. It’s just, we remember Jurassic Park. There were just dinosaurs eating people like, ten minutes ago. We’re not so eager to re-open the park just because you say it’s safe.” ➡
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • This Twitter juxtaposition made me laugh this morning. ➡
  • 2016
    • I'm still voting. Because that's part of participating. ➡
    • As long as the state has to spend money on this foolishness, I might as well give them something to do. ➡
  • 2014
    • This is another one that looks like it could be an album cover. ➡
  • 2010
    • Links for April 29th through May 5th Sometime between April 29th and May 5th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • DJ Spooky remixes Public Enemy's "By the Time I Get to Arizona" for 2010 • Local Boy With Cancer Turns Into a Superhero for a Day • On Telephones • Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline • From Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Flash ➡
  • 2009
    • Links for May 2nd through May 5th Sometime between May 2nd and May 5th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Secrets of the Phallus: Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? • The Biology of B-Movie Monsters • Cheap Thrills With Muppets Rawk • Stop Worrying About Your Children! • Old Japanese Maps on Google Earth Unveil Secrets ➡
    • Birthday Penguins! My pictures from my birthday trip to the zoo to see the new penguin exhibit (and the rest of the zoo) with Prairie, Peter, Hope, and Nalah are up! ➡
  • 2008
    • Happy Birthday Royce! Once again, we are reminded that the true celebration on this day isn't Cinco de Mayo, but rather Royce's birthday. Too many people get that mixed up. I have no idea why. ➡
  • 2007
    • Happy Birthday Royce! Today marks the 34th birthday of Royce, whom I've known since 4th grade. ➡
    • Norwescon 30: Saturday Finally. After nearly one month and almost six hundred photos uploaded, I'm done with this year's Norwescon! Last night, I finally uploaded the last of my photos from Saturday, the only other day I was there. ➡
  • 2006
    • More May Birthdays May really is a popular month! Other people of note have birthdays around now... ➡
    • Happy Birthday Royce We're well into the May birthday run (August must be a _really_ boring month). Today: my long-time partner in crime, Royce, who is _still_ two days younger than me. ;) Happy birthday! ➡
  • 2005
    • The problem with time travel… Any feasible time machine would somehow have to ensure that the traveler was able to move temporally while remaining stationary spatially _relative to their starting point_, and not to the universe as a whole. ➡
    • 05/05/05 5:55:55 Thursday (5th day of week), 5th of May, 05 @ 5:55:55 — once every 2000 years ➡
    • Happy Birthday Royce! Today Royce, whom I've known since fourth grade, turns 32. All these years and I'm _still_ two days older! ;) ➡
  • 2004
    • Custom kids, made to order How would you feel if a major reason for your existence in the world, possibly the primary reason for your conception, was to act as a genetically guaranteed donor to cure your older sibling of a disease? ➡
    • Happy Birthday Royce! Day three of the May Birthday Extravaganza — my long-time friend (since 4th grade) Royce hits 31 today. ➡
    • Karma just kicked my ass Apparently I pissed someone off with my self-righteous indignant babbling about IE (and, implicitly, Windows) being inferior to just about everything else out there (including, but not limited to, the Mac). ➡
  • 2003
    • Rebel without a threat End result? I'm the 'safe bad boy' — or, as I titled this post, the 'rebel without a threat.' Enough of an oddball dark side to catch someone's interest, but still quite able to make a good impression on the folks when I come by to meet the family. ➡
    • On belonging: Square peg, round holes Apologies beforehand — this is somewhat rambling, disjointed, and more than a little bit self-indulgent. Feel free to skim right past. ;) ➡
    • Skip, skip, skip to iLoo! In time for the summer festival season, MSN is in the process of converting a portable loo to create a unique experience for surfers looking for an alternative to the bog-standard festival loo experience. Users will be able to sit down, undock a wireless keyboard and conveniently access the first ever WWW.C. ➡
    • Happy Birthday Royce! As he's a whole whopping two days younger than me, today is his 30th. Happy Birthday, Royce! ➡
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📚 twenty-one of 2020: Matter’s End by Gregory Benford ⭐️⭐️

An average collection of short stories, some of which show their age more than others—especially one that starts with a riff on Mormon missionaries and ends with what comes across as (unconscious?) Islamophobia.

On This Day: May 4

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 26 posts previously published on May 4th

  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 2 Din Djarin (with Grogu) was on campus for Star Wars Day today! ➡
  • 2020
    • 📚 twenty-one of 2020: Matter’s End by Gregory Benford ⭐️⭐️ An average collection of short stories, some of which show their age more than others—especially one that starts with a riff on Mormon missionaries and ends with what comes across as (unconscious?) Islamophobia. ➡
    • On This Day: May 4 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from May 4 ➡
  • 2018
    • My shirt for #StarWarsDay: dun dun dun, dun dun-dun, dun dun-dun…. May the Fourth be with you! (#llap 🖖) ➡
  • 2017
    • A little hard to see, but we got a double rainbow tonight! ➡
  • 2016
    • Today bounced me around a bit, but I think I ended on an upswing. I’ll take it, at least. (125/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Jeepers creepers… ➡
  • 2010
  • 2008
    • Happy Birthday Kevin! As always, my brother is just a day and three years behind me, so today marked his 32nd birthday. I hope it was a good one! ➡
    • Applescript: iPhoto or Aperture? Whenever a memory card is inserted, the Applescript launches, checks the volume name of the memory card (which is set by the camera when you format the card), launches the appropriate photo application, and then quits. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Adventures on the Metro Then I heard the sound of the bus braking and pulling over to the side of the road. The doors opened, and the sweet smell of pipe tobacco wafted out as the driver beckoned me in. 'Hop on!' So I did. ➡
    • It’s still not my fault… IE still sucks, and it's still not my fault. ;) However, progress has been made on that front, thanks to the absolutely mindblowingly incredible technical wizardry of Dean Edwards' IE7 hack. ➡
    • Happy birthday, Kevin! It's day two of the May birthday extravaganza — my brother Kevin turns 28 today! ➡
  • 2003
    • Happy Birthday Kevin! Happy Birthday Kevin! I know you're out somewhere between Africa and Alaska somewhere, but welcome to being 27! ➡
    • Renew! Renew! Renew! Well, I'm still here and kicking around, so it seems I didn't go up in a fiery explosion in the ritual of Carousel. Frankly, I'm relieved — I've always said I wanted to go out with a bang, but not that literally. ➡
  • 2002
    • Panic Room David Fincher's (one of my favorite directors) latest film, Panic Room, has been in the theaters for a few weeks now, and I just finally got around to seeing it today. Some fan, eh? Ah, well, life's been a bit crazy lately. ➡
    • Dancing is not a crime! There's been a lot of political struggle here in Seattle recently over the Teen Dance Ordinance. A local organization called the NorthWest Late Night Coalition was in the plaza today, holding a rally to gain support for their part in the battle to repeal the TDO, with an information booth, speakers, and DJ's playing. ➡
    • Happy birthday Kevin! Happy birthday to my little brother! Kinda scary to think that he turns 26 today -- in some ways, scarier than me turning 29 yesterday. Yikes. Hey -- he's still my little brother, though. ➡
  • 2001
    • Happy birthday, Kev! Can't believe I almost forgot to say anything about this -- my little brother turns 25 today! Wow...that's kind of frightening. But cool, too. Happy b-day, bro. ➡
    • Memento Very, very cool -- certainly the best film I've seen so far in 2001, and I'm so looking forward to it coming out for sale -- I need to watch it quite a few more times just to make sure I'm seeing everything correctly! ➡
    • Statistics Now, if you're really bored, you can take a look at just how much traffic my webserver actually gets. The page is generated automatically every day at midnight, so the numbers should always be up to date. Purdy nifty. ➡
    • Well, hrmpf. Well...as far as birthdays go, yesterday wasn't the worst -- but I can't honestly say it was the best, either. Ah, well, more reasons for me not to worry about missing living up here too much when I bail. ➡
by

Forty-seven! While I don’t really have any basis for comparison, so far, this quarantine birthday hasn’t been too bad.

On This Day: May 3

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 38 posts previously published on May 3rd

  • 2024
  • 2023
    • Year 50 Day 1 Having fun at Woodland Park Zoo's Bug's Eye View exhibit on my birthday. ➡
  • 2021
  • 2020
    • Forty-seven! While I don’t really have any basis for comparison, so far, this quarantine birthday hasn’t been too bad. ➡
    • On This Day: May 3 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from May 3 ➡
  • 2019
    • Me at 46. Not terribly shabby, I think, even at officially being closer to 50 than 40. ➡
    • Book thirty-two of 2019: White Trash Zombie Apocalypse, by Diana Rowland ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This series continues to entertain, as the filming of a zombie film provides backdrop to expanding the political and scientific worlds of the zombie population. Conspiracies galore! ➡
  • 2018
    • Thanks for all the kind words today – 45 seems to be off to a pretty decent start so far! (Not sure why I look so skeptical in the pic. Guess my selfie game wasn’t on point today.) ➡
  • 2017
    • The birthday dinner table as I got home, with dinner, for dessert, and as I blew out my candle. I may be a little bit spoiled. I may also be okay with this. ➡
    • Happy birthday to me! Made it to 44, and plan on sticking around for quite a while longer. ➡
    • Came home for a birthday treat lunch: cheeseburger, fries (well, oven-cooked rosemary and garlic potato slices), and root beer float (with extra-bendy straw)…and a dessert treat for later (’cause I’m quite happily stuffed right now)! ➡
  • 2016
    • Me at 43, with birthday presents: a Lego set, and the complete Buffy the Vampire Slayer collection. Yes, I said 43, why do you ask? ;) (124/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • What 42-year-olds (this one, at least) get for their birthday: Star Wars car floor mats (from parents), a movie, book, and game (from Pearl), card (from Prairie’s mom), and Batman Legos, socks, and undies (from Prairie). :) ➡
    • Birthday breakfasts should definitely include donuts. ➡
  • 2014
    • And finally, dinner birthday cake! I may be caked out for a while after today, but that’s what birthdays are for, right? ➡
    • Birthday booze at the Starlight with friends. :D ➡
    • Superbatman! Batsuperman! My feet are confused! ➡
    • Lunchtime birthday cake while watching the most recent Riddick film. :) ➡
    • Superman Chucks for a birthday win! ➡
    • Heading out to Home Depot, so we both chose shoes that look like they’re paint splattered. :D ➡
    • Breakfast birthday cake! ;) ➡
  • 2009
  • 2008
    • Bet on the Filly This is neither pro-Obama nor anti-Clinton in my mind -- I haven't officially taken a stance yet, though unofficially I'm throwing my vote in with Cthulhu (why settle for the _lesser_ of two evils, after all?) -- I just think it's really funny. ➡
    • Bittersweet Birthday As of today, I'm officially old enough to be elected President of the United States -- 35. I believe this is my last age-related milestone before official senior citizen status, though there may be something I'm not remembering. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2006
    • The Masked Guy During one of the summers in Pennsylvania, one of the TA's was a young man named Tim, who often filled his notebooks with cartoon doodles, many of which centered around the adventures of The Masked Guy. ➡
    • Loot! Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes! It's been a fun day so far...I've got the afternoon off, so I think I'm going to head out wandering while the sun's out, and I had a small pile of presents to open during lunch. ➡
    • Wikipedia Birthday Meme Earlier this month there was a Wikipedia Birthday Meme running around that, given its subject and the proximity to my own birthday, I figured I'd just hold off on playing with for a bit. So, three weeks or so after everyone else, it's my turn! ➡
    • Birthday 33 Happy birthday to me, I'm now thirty-three, I should have better words here, but I suck at poetry. ➡
    • Pictures that haven’t been drawn yet. Photo of the day...sidewalk chalk. ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2002
    • A few new site bits I've added a few features to the site -- one a couple weeks ago, and two just a few minutes ago -- and I figured I'd babble for a moment about them. ➡
    • Lastyear Well, I've made it to 29. So...in another year...do I run? Or head for Sanctuary? ➡
  • 2001
    • Heaven forbid that happen! Imagine the disincentive to software development if after months of work another company could come along and copy your work and market it under its own name…without legal restraints to such copying, companies like Apple could not afford to advance the state of the art. ➡
    • The van is back! This just rocks -- my parents van, which was stolen about two weeks ago, will be back in their hands sometime today! ➡
    • Happy birthday to me! Well, I'm 28. We'll see how the day goes. ➡

Difficult Listening Hour 2020.05.02: Birthday Edition

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A rare pre-planned set; I selected this set of tracks just because tomorrow’s my birthday and these are some long-time favorites that I wanted to play. Back to the usual unplanned randomness next week!

  1. Shakespear’s Sister, Stay
  2. Peter Murphy, I’ll Fall With Your Knife
  3. Soft Cell, Seedy Films
  4. The Normal, Warm Leatherette
  5. Renegade Soundwave, Renegade Soundwave (Leftfield)
  6. Lo-Fidelity Allstars feat. Pigeonhed, Battle Flag (Radio Edit)
  7. The Cardigans, Erase/Rewind
  8. Thompson Twins, You Take Me Up (12)”
  9. The Art of Noise feat. Tom Jones, Kiss (Art of Noise)
  10. Figures on a Beach, Accidentally 4th Street (Gloria) (Remix)
  11. LaTour, Allen’s Got A New Hi-Fi
  12. Eurythmics, Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) (Extended)
  13. DJ Tripp, Express This Way
  14. The Azoic feat. Seabound, Obsession
  15. Sunscreem, Love U More (A Version)
  16. Pet Shop Boys, It’s a Sin
  17. DJ Wüdi, Just Can’t Get Flexible in 1999
  18. Information Society, Going, Going, Gone (Razed in Black)
  19. Psychic TV, I.C. Water
  20. Diane Birch, This Corrosion
  21. Marilyn Monroe, Happy Birthday to JFK

On This Day: May 2

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 27 posts previously published on May 2nd

  • 2024
    • Year 50 Day 366 Oh, you thought this ended with day 365? It's a leap year, so there's an extra day! ➡
    • Reclaiming the Web I miss the 'good old days'. I hope there are enough other people who also do that we can reclaim some of that outside of the walls of Meta and others. ➡
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2018
    • Silly birthday presents from mom: A knit helmet, and a Lego(-compatible) mug and wizard. ➡
    • Best thing I’ve seen from yesterday’s May Day protests in Seattle: a Proud Boy struggling to destroy a sign while being encouraged and offered helpful tips by bystanders. He tried so hard! ➡
  • 2017
    • Unnecessary quotation marks! ➡
    • Book twenty-seven of 2017: Twilight’s End, by Jerry Olton ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #StarTrek #tos ➡
  • 2016
    • Book seventeen of 2016: Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (123/366) ➡
  • 2015
    • Prairie and I out for a birthday weekend date night at the opera. ➡
    • The traditional pre-show froyo! ➡
    • Got to put together one birthday present today. Raaarrrwwwrrrr!!! ➡
    • An exciting morning of homework on my last day of being 41. Whee? ➡
  • 2014
    • Lots of pretty spring flowers and trees around campus these days! ➡
  • 2011
    • bin Laden’s Real Victory This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory -- he has changed America’s psyche from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed. ➡
    • Troubled I just want to take a moment to call out three friends (one of whom I've never even met in person) for making posts more in line with my own feelings on the matter. ➡
  • 2010
    • The Decline of Northern Civilization This is a piece by[Josh Medsker, originally written for and published in the Anchorage Press in October of 2000. When I first found this, it inspired my 'Back When Anchorage Was Cool' post. Unfortunately, at some point since then, a redesign of the Anchorage Press website took Josh's article offline. Recently, he was kind enough to dig the article up, dust it off, and pass it on to me. With his permission, I'm re-posting it here. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2005
    • Then it hit me… THEN IT HIT ME / im not going to be famous / i wont get to be a rock star / im going to be stuck on the payroll / doing work that doesnt interest me / for a very long time ➡
    • Lesbian minister re-frocked A nice update to a story I was following some time back: the Methodist minister who was de-frocked after revealing that she was a lesbian has been reinstated by the Methodist church. ➡
  • 2004
  • 2003
    • Last Day When your lifeclock in the palm of your left hand begins to blink, your time is up in your present body. Upon blinking, proceed to our Headquartes on Nolan Street, 7th Floor, Room 1976. There, you will be given proper ceremonial garb and final instructions for participating in Life-Renewal on Carousel. ➡
    • I am… Michael is… Woody is… Wudi is… (Fun with Google) ➡
  • 2002
    • Not Another Teen Movie A while ago, I started seeing trailers for Not Another Teen Movie, and they actually caught my eye. Surprisingly enough, for the most part, I wasn't let down -- I had a grin on my face for the majority of the film, frequently giggled, and even out-and-out laughed at a few moments. ➡
  • 2001
    • ‘toons and Tunes Happy May Day! Only two more days 'till I turn 28...not that I'm keeping track of this for any real reason or anything. Just thought I'd mention it. ➡

Happy May Day

by

You hear that sound, the rain is coming down
It says there’s a ripeness setting in
The children spin around ’til they crash into the ground
Singing “Welcome Home Forever Once Again”

And when you hear the spirit’s call
There ain’t no use to fight
And if you want to reap tomorrow, you better sow your seed tonight
You better sow your seed tonight

You feel that fire lift your body higher
An old, old dance is growing here
Better kiss me soon while the blossoms are in bloom
Or you might just have to wait another year

And when you hear the spirit’s call
There ain’t no use to fight
And if you want to reap tomorrow, you better sow your seed tonight
You better sow your seed tonight

You feel that beet, come on, move your feet
Old man winter’s dead and gone
There’ll be wiggling of the toes, there’ll be taking off of clothes
There’ll be silly naked dancing on the lawn

And when you hear the spirit’s call
There ain’t no use to fight
And if you want to reap tomorrow, you better sow your seed tonight
You better sow your seed tonight

— Jason Webley, “May Day”