Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Rabid Mac fan I may be, but I do have to admit that I’m not quite rabid enough to get an Apple-flavored tattoo.
However.
If I were to get such a tattoo, I really think that the sticker design on this Powerbook would be it. That’s just a thing of beauty.
(And yeah, this is another test of Flickr’s ‘blog this photo’ feature. We’ll see if it works any better than yesterday’s attempts.)
(Originally uploaded by Pete Barr-Watson)
Florida just can’t get a break, it seems. The current five-day forecast for Hurricane Ivan, courtesy of NOAA:
“Carbon Freeze/Luke Pursues the Captives/Departure of Boba Fett” by London Symphony Orchestra, The/Williams, John from the album Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology (1980, 11:12).
For the seventh year, Beloit College has published their Mindset List, giving a short rundown of where today’s college freshmen stand in relation to the world. I’ve caught this list for the past couple years, and it’s always fun to read…if a little frightening at times (I’m only 31, and this list can make me feel old).
- Most students entering college this fall were born in 1986.
- Desi Arnaz, Orson Welles, Roy Orbison, Ted Bundy, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Cary Grant have always been dead.
- “Heeeere’s Johnny!” is a scary greeting from Jack Nicholson, not a warm welcome from Ed McMahon.
- The Energizer bunny has always been going, and going, and going.
- Large fine-print ads for prescription drugs have always appeared in magazines.
- Photographs have always been processed in an hour or less.
- They never got a chance to drink 7-Up Gold, Crystal Pepsi, or Apple Slice.
- Baby Jessica could be a classmate.
- Parents may have been reading The Bourne Supremacy or It as they rocked them in their cradles.
- Alan Greenspan has always been setting the nation’s financial direction.
- The U.S. has always been a Prozac nation.
- They have always enjoyed the comfort of pleather.
- Harry has always known Sally.
- They never saw Roseanne Roseannadanna live on Saturday Night Live.
- There has always been a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- They never ate a McSub at McD’s.
- There has always been a Comedy Channel.
- Bill and Ted have always been on an excellent adventure.
- They were never tempted by smokeless cigarettes.
- Robert Downey, Jr. has always been in trouble.
- Martha Stewart has always been cooking up something with someone.
- They have always been comfortable with gay characters on television.
- Mike Tyson has always been a contender.
- The government has always been proposing we go to Mars, and it has always been deemed too expensive.
- There have never been any Playboy Clubs.
- There have always been night games at Wrigley Field.
- Rogaine has always been available for the follicularly challenged.
- They never saw USA Today or the Christian Science Monitor as a TV news program.
- Computers have always suffered from viruses.
- We have always been mapping the human genome.
- Politicians have always used rock music for theme songs.
- Network television has always struggled to keep up with cable.
- O’Hare has always been the most delay-plagued airport in the U.S.
- Ivan Boesky has never sold stock.
- Toll-free 800 phone numbers have always spelled out catchy phrases.
- Bethlehem has never been a place of peace at Christmas.
- Episcopal women bishops have always threatened the foundation of the Anglican Church.
- Svelte Oprah has always dominated afternoon television; who was Phil Donahue anyway?
- They never flew on People Express.
- AZT has always been used to treat AIDS.
- The international community has always been installing or removing the leader of Haiti.
- Oliver North has always been a talk show host and news commentator.
- They have suffered through airport security systems since they were in strollers.
- They have done most of their search for the right college online.
- Aspirin has always been used to reduce the risk of a heart attack.
- They were spared the TV ads for Zamfir and his panpipes.
- Castro has always been an aging politician in a suit.
- There have always been non-stop flights around the world without refueling.
- Cher hasn’t aged a day.
- M.A.S.H. was a game: Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House.
“Murderous” by Nitzer Ebb from the album That Total Age (1987, 5:43).
Y’know, it’s really hard to get anything useful done when I run across all these nifty new toys to play with.
First up was Flickr, an online photo sharing website. I’d actually poked around with Flickr a few months ago, and it didn’t impress me enough to come back. They’ve made a lot of upgrades to the service over time, though, and something finally prompted me to take a second look tonight. I must admit, I’m fairly impressed — impressed enough that I’ll probably finally take down my all too neglected photoblog, and stick with Flickr for a pesudo-photoblog. To that end, there’s a new item in the sidebar, just underneath the linklog, that will automatically update whenever I post a new image to my Flickr page.
One of the new features that sold me on Flickr is their RSS keyword integration. Each photo that is uploaded to Flickr can be assigned an arbitrary number of keywords, or ‘tags’ in Flickr-speak (for instance, the only photo I have up at the moment has the keywords ‘seattle’, ‘bumbershoot’, ‘fountain’, ‘kids’, and ‘children’). You can search for tags on the Flickr site, and then subscribe to an RSS feed for that search. I’ve set up four subscriptions in my newsreader (bumbershoot, seattle, anchorage, and alaska), so anytime anyone uploads a photo to flickr with one of those tags, I’ll see it pop up in my newsreader. Quite nifty.
There’s also a ‘blog this’ functionality that is supposed to allow you to instantly post any photo you find on Flickr to your weblog (which is where the previous entry came from). I’m not sure how often I’ll use this, for a few reasons. The first is simply that when I tried the test post, Flickr returned an error telling me that the post failed, though it later showed up on my weblog — not sure whether this was a Flickr issue or a TypePad issue, though. Secondly, Flickr-generated posts come through with no categories set, and me being obsessive about metadata, I’m not terribly thrilled with that. Lastly, there’s the simple aspect of appropriating other people’s photographs without permission (is permission for a picture’s distribution an implicit — or even explicit — part of the Flickr community or license agreement?), which I’m not sure what I think about just yet.
The other new toy for the night is the public release of the ecto 2 public beta. I’ve been using ecto as my weblogging client for a while now, and ecto 2 is a major upgrade to the application. Most of what I’m seeing I really like, though I did immediately switch off the ‘WYSIAWYG’ rich text editing in favor of the “old-skool” HTML editing, and I miss the popup window that used to appear when using command-U to insert a URL held in the clipboard (in ecto 1, you could copy a URL, select the text you wanted to make a link, and hitting command-U would bring up a window with the URL in the top field [which was also a drop-down menu containing recently added links], the selected text in the middle field, and an empty field for the title attribute; ecto 2 simply adds the link code around the selected text, with the boilerplate “TITLE” text in the title attribute; clicking the ‘create a link’ button brings up the old dialog box, so why doesn’t hitting command-U do the same?).
The downside to all this is that I got so caught up in exploring the new toys that it’s now far too late to get any laundry done tonight (which was the original plan), so I’ll have to do that tomorrow morning instead, as tomorrow night is packing night. Yeah, I’m so prepared for this vacation…
“Redemption Song” by Bakra Batá from the album Music for Bad Guys (1994, 5:29).
This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Some days, the depths of my own stupidity really amazes me.
Last night, as part of my preparations for going on vacation for a week, I worked on straightening up the apartment a bit, primarily by utilizing the time-honored method of picking up stacks of old mail and papers, dumping them in garbage bags, and taking them out to the dumpster (it’s not as bad as it might sound — lots of clutter, very little actual filth — but my family has a long tradition of never letting any flat space go uncovered for more than about ten minutes, and the piles tend to build up after a while).
This morning, while in the shower, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t set my AdSense profit check from Google aside into a separate pile when I got it.
Oh.
Crap.
Finished my shower in record time, took a look around my apartment, and confirmed my fear — the check wasn’t anywhere around.
Let me tell you, crawling into your apartment’s dumpster to retrieve your trashbags from the night before — after other tenants had added their trash bags, not all of which were closed properly, if at all — and then standing next to the dumpster, ripping them open, and pawing through them trying to find one particular envelope is not an enjoyable way to start a day.
Luckily, though, not only had the trash not been picked up yet, but I was able to find the check (at the bottom of the second bag, naturally).
Man, that was icky, though.
Today’s just a two-shower morning, I guess.
[![iTunes]] “I Melt With You” by Modern English from the album Pillow Lips (1990, 3:55).
[iTunes]: http://images.apple.com/itunesaffiliates/logos/iTunes_sm_bdg61x15.png {width=”61″ height=”15″}
Yet another “photography is terrorism” incident.
I was declared a terrorist, today. As I was walking around campus photographing art, buildings, cars, people, I was stopped by police.
The policemen asked who I was, what I was doing, why I was taking photographs, where I lived, all the good stuff. When I told them I was a student taking photographs for my own personal enjoyment (a concept they couldn’t comprehend); I was told this is illegal under the USA PATRIOT act.
I was greatly confused by this statement. My understanding is that I am legally allowed to take photographs of public buildings. I informed them of this and they were taken aback. They then went on to tell me that NJIT is not a public institution. They told me that it is publicly funded but not a public school. This is a blatant lie. If you visit NJIT’s website you see very clearly, “A Public Research University.”
Furthermore, the police refused to give me their information, even after I gave them my three pieces of ID (Rutgers, NJIT, and Driver’s License). I asked for their information and they told me they are from the precinct down the block. I didn’t want to push for their Badge Numbers as I had no paper with me. Instead I walked to the precinct and spoke with Sergeant Lincoln who told me to come back tomorrow and speak with him further on this matter.
Sergeant Lincoln was told it may be possible for me to get permission to take pictures on campus, until then I am a terrorist. He, too, did not give me their badge numbers.
(via Arcterex)
[![iTunes]] “Dreaming (Evolution)” by BT from the album Dreaming (2000, 10:09).
[iTunes]: http://images.apple.com/itunesaffiliates/logos/iTunes_sm_bdg61x15.png {width=”61″ height=”15″}
Finally, a campaign I can get behind.
Um…so to speak.
Are you a Citizen, a Patriot — or an American Hero?
Citizen: I pledge to withhold sex from non-voters for the week following the election.
Patriot: I pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and withhold sex from non-voters for the week following the election.
American Hero: I pledge to have sex with a voter on election night and withhold sex from non-voters for the next four years.
Disclaimers:
- Pledge-fulfilling sex must be consensual, legal, and generous. And safe. And hot.
- Acceptable sexual positions include, but are not limited to: missionary, doggy-style, cowgirl, reverse cowgirl, leapfrog, butterfly, humpback whale, cling wrap, squashing of the deck chair, accordion, reverse piggy-back, advanced (“twin”) leapfrog. Male-male, female-female, group, and oral variations of these positions can also be used to satisfy the pledge.
- Taking the pledge indicates a good-faith effort to abide by its provisions. Pledge-takers who have violated withholding provisions become effective non-voters, and are barred from sex with fellow pledge-takers.
- Pledge-takers who fail to vote are forbidden from masturbating. (Exemption: pledge-takers who are not eligible to vote are encouraged to masturbate frequently.)
- “Cybersex” does not satisfy the pledge, dorkwad.
- Non-voters may render themselves eligible for sex with American Heroes by voting at least twice in local, primary, and/or 2006 congressional races. Those voting in only one such race qualify to perform, but not receive, oral sex on American Heroes.
- Achievement of a Votergasm during election-night sex is probable, but not guaranteed. Those encountering difficulty reaching Votergasm are encouraged to slow things down, talk about it, and reduce the pressure. Other techniques include the use of massage oils, toys, “dirty talk,” “ballot stuffing,” and “exit polls.”
- Per the U.S. Constitution, children conceived on election night are eligible for gigantic interest-free loans from the U.S. government, and special t-shirts.
(via Rick)
The Republic of T pointed me to a (more serious than most) personality test, which diagnosed me as a ‘Type C’ personality, which I’d never heard of before.
Far from being a Type A, you possess many of the characteristics of a Type C personality. Type C persons tend to have either an “everybody must win” attitude to life with “Live and Let Live” as their credo, or they have a more flaccid and submissive slant to their personality. Whatever the case may be, you seem to lack the drive that could help you achieve your goals.
Interesting.
In the past, I’ve tested (online) as a Myers-Briggs iSfP (and got the same score again in a Trek-flavored version).
I’ve often semi-seriously joked that one of the things I’m proudest of in my life is narrowly avoiding becoming the über-stereotypical basement-dwelling pathologically introverted “geek” by discovering at one point that not only did I actually have a personality, but that it was apparently a rather pleasant one. This ended up putting me in the rather rare position[*] of being a geek who can generally cope fairly effectively with the real world — while I never dove into actual programming, I’m equally at ease working with HTML and CSS (or fighting with extremely entry-level Apache configuration commands, Perl or PHP, though I more often lose those battles) as I am going out to a dance club and bouncing the night away; or kicking back and having hilariously poorly informed late-night conversations about politics, music, religion, sexual habits, movies, philosophy, or whatever else might come up with whatever random characters happen to be at whatever diner I’m at.
All this made the Girl’s Guide to Geek Guys that much more entertaining, especially when I passed the link to Prairie. While my band and concert shirts greatly outnumber my software and tech shirts, once you get into things like the Trek obsession and my culinary habits…well, we both agreed that there were a fair amount of similarities there.
Wherever my personality is tested at, it’s one I’m pretty comfortable with, though, and — for me, at least — that’s the most important part.
[*]{#ps} Update: Upon re-reading this, I’m afraid it may have come across more egotistical than I meant it. I’m sure that “geeks with personalities” aren’t really all that rare at all — in fact, from the quality of many of the weblogs I read, I expect that there are a lot out there, many of whom are probably more well rounded than I am. I guess it’s just easy to succumb to stereotypes, even when one borders on that stereotype oneself.
“Enjoy the Silence (The Quad: Final)” by Depeche Mode from the album Singles 86>98 (1998, 15:25).
A first-hand account of being jailed for protesting (even though she wasn’t really protesting, and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) in New York during the RNC:
On Tuesday the 31st my friend Sarah and I were on our way home from vacation. We were driving right through New York City and were listening to news on the radio about the protesters at the Republican National Convention. We wanted to stop and bear witness to the protests. We wanted to add two to their numbers, if only for a few moments, as we each had to be at work on Wednesday. We drove to town, parked the car in a garage and rode the subway downtown. We had heard that there was to be a rally in Union Square Park from 5-7pm. It was published information and it never occurred to us that we would be participating in anything illegal.
[…]
Soon a line of police closed off the other intersection at Irving and 16th, trapping us on 16th St. We didn’t get on the street, we didn’t climb onto anything to see what was happening, we didn’t yell, we didn’t attempt to run, we didn’t appear violent in any way. There were probably 100 of us together there on the south side of 16th St, I think that the police had trapped other bubbles of people on the north side and farther up and down the sidewalk. We saw the police roll out a yellow net, a mesh bolt of fabric that they unrolled and used to push us into a tight group.
[…]
Eventually the police pressed us tightly together into a group. And then they kept pressing…. People were shouting to the police: “Tell us what to do and we’ll do it” and instructing us to hold onto the individuals the police were grabbing: “Don’t let them take them away.” I was on the perimeter of the group and I was scared that they would grab me next…. I was carrying a bag and yelled at Sarah to get her ID out and gave her some money, and someone else passed around a Sharpie and we wrote the number for the National Lawyers Guild on our arms. This was when I really knew that we were in trouble, even though it had never occurred to me that I had done anything illegal.
[…]
The police were instructed to lie to us, to pacify us, to tell us that they would move us soon, “It will only be a little longer.” Some police were honest and said they didn’t know what was going on, while others took out their hostility on us, blaming us for “clogging the system” and lecturing us about how we deserved what we got. There were instances of sexism and verbal abuse. We were held in numerous cells and we were often reshuffled with people from other cells, a tactic I believe was purposeful to help discourage solidarity.
[…]
I was held for 14 hours in Pier 57, also called “Guantanamo on the Hudson,” a warehouse previously used by the MTA as an automobile garage. The conditions were appalling. There were numerous cages built out of wire fence and razor wire. The concrete floor was filthy, covered with oil residue, soot and chemicals, there were in fact still signs posted around the facility warning of the chemicals. People experienced rashes, chemical burns, asthma attacks and head to toe filth. Some chose to stand or sit against the fence all night, but I was so exhausted I lay right on the ground and was caked and covered in filth.
[…]
Arriving at Central Booking we were again searched and I spent time in three cells before I was fingerprinted around 8pm. I was held in two cells and in hallways finally arriving where I would spend the night around 11pm. It was here that we were able to use the phone, or at least some of us were able to use the phone before the guards grew tired and refused to respond to any more phone requests. There were about 27 of us in this cell. Here we were given soap and toilet paper for the first time, and those women who were on their periods were given appropriate products.
[…]
Mug shots and waiting in various halls took two hours and then a new group of us were taken to another cell. This time I waited over three hours before my name was called and I was transported to a new cell, this time to see an attorney. From there it took another two hours until I stood in front of the judge and was released. It was 8:30pm Thursday night, I had been put in handcuffs on the sidewalk of 16th St. at 7:30pm Tuesday night.
[…]
I believe that that the mass arrests were a tactic to discourage any protesting. There are people who are full-time direct action activists, but when the level of commitment is raised from one afternoon of protesting to three days of work lost, people are likely to be scared away. I know that I personally am unlikely to attend any protest that is not legally permitted and well organized. At the same time I feel that my arrest and subsequent detaining have encouraged me to become even more aware of politics, my rights and any possible influence I might have over issues that concern me. I plan to monitor non-mainstream news sources daily to stay alert and aware.
There’s much, much more to the full article than what I’ve excerpted here — go check it out.
Welcome to George Bush’s America, 2004.
When November rolls around — vote.
(via Mike)
[![iTunes]] “God is a DJ” by Faithless from the album Sunday 8 PM (1999, 8:01).
[iTunes]: http://images.apple.com/itunesaffiliates/logos/iTunes_sm_bdg61x15.png {width=”61″ height=”15″}