Memory Maps

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As far as memes go, this is one of the best I’ve seen yet. After discovering Google Maps‘ new satellite-view option, Matt Haughey took a screenshot of his childhood neighborhood and used Flickr‘s annotation feature to mark it up with memories of his growing years. This inspired the memorymap tag and the Memory Maps group — and I’ve added four Memory Maps covering my younger years.

South Muldoon, Anchorage, Alaska This first one is an overview of the South Muldoon Road area, where the majority of my growing years were spent. Covers two neighborhoods, two houses, and two elementary schools.

Susitna Elementary, Anchorage, Alaska The second shot zooms in a bit on one of the two neighborhoods, and covers from first through third grade. We actually moved to the other neighborhood in the middle of my third grade year, but parents kept me at the same school to finish out that year as it was still within easy driving distance. Not quite as many memories on this one as on the next, as I was much younger then.

Chugach Foothills, Anchorage, Alaska Shot number three covers everything from fourth grade until I moved out of my parents’ house after high school graduation. Lots of memories buried in this one — friends houses, play spaces…make sure to check out all the notes on the photo for some fun stories.

Bartlett High School, Anchorage, Alaska For the last in the series, we move a few miles north to my high school (the best six years of my life! Um…wait…nevermind…). Without being able to zoom into classroom-view resolution (which isn’t likely to happen, as it would involve ripping off the roof of the school), I’ve done the best I could to point out pertinent bits.

Fun to do. Not a bad way to revisit the old stomping grounds, either, since I can do it from the comfort of my apartment here in Seattle! ;)

iTunes “Thorns (Distant Vocals)” by :Wumpscut: from the album Born Again (1998, 5:50).

Living in a Theocracy

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How in the world can people justify going to war to free people from religious oppression, and at the same time, condone and encourage religious oppression here at home?

Here’s an outrage for you. There’s a growing movement among pharmacists and even doctors to refuse to provide legal and necessary health services.

Let’s start with pharmacists. In at least 10 states, they have refused to fill prescriptions for birth control, citing moral and religious beliefs. In so doing, they have incited a nationwide outcry by women (and their men) who rely on such basic medical services.

…Some pharmacists “just say no” to filling the prescriptions. Others don’t offer these women alternative locations where they can get them filled. A few zealous pharmacists have actually gone off the deep end and refused to return the prescriptions to the women for whom they were written. That’s obstruction — someone who is licensed by the state to provide a medical service (to wit, the pharmacist) has instead barred a customer from obtaining that service.

I’ve been seeing more and more stories about this lately, and find it absolutely outrageous. How much longer before the extreme right-wing pushes too far?

Hopefully, not much.

iTunes “Flesh ‘n Blood” by Oingo Boingo from the album Best o’ Boingo (1989, 4:09).

The House of the Rising Sun

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Nobody’s sure yet — and, in truth, we may never be — but there’s at least a good possibility that archaeologists in New Orleans may have found the House of the Rising Sun.

This winter, a nonprofit organization called the Historic New Orleans Collection decided to expand. The organization, which runs a museum and research center, owned seven buildings in the heart of the French Quarter but needed another to serve as a vault. The group bought a one-level, ramshackle parking garage on Conti Street — pronounced KAHNT-eye — and announced plans to tear it down.

The purchase was serendipitous. If just about anyone else had bought the lot, no study would have been conducted. But the organization — dedicated, after all, to Louisiana history — wanted to know the story behind its property. It asked a scholar at the University of Chicago and a New Orleans archeology firm called Earth Search to perform an excavation and document search.

[…]

The archeologists, who plan to launch a more exhaustive study on Tuesday, found that a hotel called the Rising Sun appeared to have operated on the site from the early 1800s until 1822, when it burned to the ground.

In an 1821 advertisement from the newspaper La Gazette, a company called L.S. Hotchkiss explained that it had taken over the hotel but offered reassurance to customers: “No pain or expence [sic] will be spared by the new proprietors to give general satisfaction, and maintain the character of giving the best entertainment.”

The next sentence: “Gentlemen may here rely upon finding attentive Servants.” Similar language, Gray said, was used in old bordello advertisements to make it clear — without explicitly saying so — that extracurricular services were available.

And there’s more in the linked article, of course. Just neat.

Also of note, and a page I want to revisit later: this listing of 250 different recordings of the traditional tune. It’s pretty slow, and would take a while to trawl through, but there’s a wealth of stuff there I’d love to listen to.

(via MeFi)

iTunes “Train” by Pigface from the album A New High In Low (1997, 24:18).

Countdown…

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…one month ’till my birthday. May 3rd, I hit 32.

And before you make any cracks, it would do you good to realize that with a little practice, it’s amazing how fast us old fogeys can scoot along in our walkers, and canes just give us an extra couple feet of reach when whuppin’ you young whippersnappers.

Oh, and as long as I’m being amusingly un-subtle, here’s my Amazon wishlist. Just in case. ;)

iTunes “Phorever People (Tee’s Flying Dub)” by Shamen, The from the album Phorever People (1992, 8:41).

Cyperpunk update

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About a year and a half ago, I put up a post about Billy Idol’s Cyberpunk album and included an OS X disc image of the floppy that came with the special edition package. Antonio Exposito was kind enough to e-mail me today and let me know that the disc image was corrupted — so thanks to Kinko’s keeping floppy drives attached to their rental Macs, there’s now a new, freshly-created disc image available for download.

iTunes “Happiness (Dub)” by Front 242 from the album Mut@ge.Mix@ge (1995, 6:10).

Slut!

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I picked up a cute test from Melissa: The Ethical Slut Test (yes, it’s yet another of those LiveJournal quiz memes…deal with it!).

My results (without the huge photo):

True Ethical Slut
Whoa! You scored 31 Sluttiness Points and 17 Ethics Points! Interesting…

Doesn’t sex just kick ass? You love it and your friends love it and your playmates love it. Sex is that overflowing bowl of ice cream you just have to share with the world. Because maybe, just maybe, if we can get more happy good sex out into the world, we can make it a happier place for everyone in it. You know how to communicate about what you want and how to listen to your partner’s desires. You even use your turn signals. You’re just an all around good person. You are one of the beautiful people.

Compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 71% on Sluttiness
You scored higher than 52% on Ethics

I can cope with that.

iTunes “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Prince and the New Power Generation from the album Hits/The B-Sides, The (1992, 4:58).

Snapshots from an evening

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Two girls finish their drinks, grab their coats, and leave their table. As they pass, one of them — a cute, short brunette — stops and turns to me. “You look really good. I just want to jump you!”

I, in my infinite wisdom and being my usual suave self, reply with, “Oh! Ah…thanks!” And they turn and head out the door.

(This led to a conversation with Melissa where, after I good-naturedly complained about this, she assured me that: women don’t “just say” things like that; that I am attractive, whether or not I’ve ever been able to drill that into my head; and that were it not for the little complication that I have a girlfriend, she’d gladly jump me — all of which are wonderful for the ego. Yay!)

The War Prayer

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This is so good.

The War Prayer, by Mark Twain

O Lord God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with pale forms of their patriotic dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst…for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives…. We ask it in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the source of all Love.

(via Terrance)

iTunes “Masters of War” by Dylan, Bob from the album Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, The (1963, 4:34).