Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Many, many congratulations to Kevin, Emily — and Noah Avery Hanscom!
Noah Avery Hanscom was born this morning, the Feast of Sts. Helier, Plechtelm, and/or Steven Harding Tenenan, at 3:56 AM (Memphis time), weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. Emily and Noah are doing well, and Noah, so far, in his less than a day outside of his mother, seems to have his father’s laid back attitude toward life.
Yay!
iTunes: “Happy Birthday” by Concrete Blonde from the album Free (1989, 2:22).
While I’m sure it wouldn’t be that bad if I did this every day, when I’m used to closing the store down at 9pm and going to bed around 2am, getting up at 5am to open the store in the morning — especially after working the usual closing shift the night before — is not very fun.
What kind of hyperactive overachiever needs to make copies at 7 in the verschluggin morning anyway? Don’t you people sleep?
Okay. Just had to get that out of my system. On the bright side, I’ll be bustin’ out of here at 3 in the afternoon today, which isn’t entirely bad, even if all I’m going to want to do when I get home is take a nap.
I just wanted to toss out a quick congratulations to Phil, who with the release of O’Reilly’s Mac OS X Panther Hacks, is now officially a published (co-)author!
I haven’t even managed to wrangle my infamy into that particular accolade. ;)
iTunes: “Life In Ecstacy (Long Dong)” by Trust in 6 from the album Techno-Trax Vol. 1 (1991, 6:37).
One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Ave, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the US Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.”
The old man said, “Okay” and walked away.
The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.
The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same US Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”
The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it,”
The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”
(via amberglow)
Last weekend I got to hang out with by brother on his way down to Oregon, where he’s looking for job and housing possibilities for an upcoming move to Corvallis, where his wife will be going to school. The plan was for us to hang out this weekend too, on his way back to Mississippi — but all that just changed.
Emily started labor last night, and so Kevin just called to let me know that he’s flying back to Mississippi to be there for the birth of his baby! Apparently things are still early in the process — the hospital sent Em home last night after she went in — so chances are good that Kev will be able to be there for the birth.
I’m about to be an uncle. Pretty cool, huh?
iTunes: “Block Rockin’ Beats” by Chemical Brothers, The from the album MTV’s Amp (1997, 5:00).
How wonderful. I can’t claim total inspiration for this, as all I did was point to the article regarding Ian Spiers’ run-in with Homeland Security while photographing the Ballard Locks, which brought it to the attention of Myk O’Leary of Life, it is a Travesty. After reading that article, however, Myk is organizing a peaceful protest at the Ballard Locks.
In response, I will be trying to organize a photo shoot at the Locks as a means of protest. Anyone else who cares about our rights as Americans to photograph interseting PUBLIC subjects are welcome to join me. If you are a photographer in Seattle, please consider coming.
If you are hesitant (and this is fair given what already happened) at least pass this on to others you know who may want to come along. Feel free to post the link to any and all boards that may have folks who would come (I’ll be posting to dpchallenge in just a few minutes after this post goes live.)
DETAILS: Sunday August 1st, 2004 1PM – 4PM We’ll meet at the front gates at just before 1PM, if you’re late, just look for the gaggle of tripods inside the property by the locks.
I’ll do my best to be there. Thanks, Myk.
iTunes: “Ya Mama” by Fatboy Slim from the album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000, 5:38).
From Dr. Joyce Brothers — how much do you know about men and sex?
True or False:
Fellow weblogger John Hoke had an interesting experience with the TSA yesterday while flying from LaGuardia to Dulles…
One screener asked to manually inspect one of my bags, knowing that I had nothing in it that was prohibited based on the TSA’s own site I allowed the search. This inspector found a lighter that I was given by my step daughter for our first Father’s Day together. It was a cigar lighter that did not run on Liquid Fuel, but gas. (Unabsorbed Liquid fueled lighters are prohibited based on the above PDF). He looked at it and exclaimed, “Wow I have always wanted one like this”. Then proceeded to tell me that he had to confiscate my lighter.
I calmly explained that it was not on the list of items that are prohibited on his own Department’s website. He replied he was allowed to use his judgement (what little of that there apparently is) and he was confiscating it. I requested to speak with his supervisor as he was not wearing any TSA identification, no name badge, not badge at all.
The supervisor came over and the screener was confiscating it, end of story. Tried to be helpful in that unhelpful supervisory way.
…I will be writing (and posting here) a letter to the TSA, even though I was told by the supervisor “Go ahead and complain, there is nothing you can do to us.”
Seems to me that this is pretty simple — petty thievery, compounded with harassment and the overbearing attitude that any amount of power will instill upon the small-minded. More and more, the TSA seems to be less concerned with actually providing any amount of security, merely using the power they’ve been granted to harass, humiliate, and steal from anyone coming through the gates of the airports. Sad.
And on a semi-related note, who comes up with these lists of what can and can’t be admitted on the airplanes? My mom came through Seattle on her way Florida from Anchorage a couple of months ago, and I was flabbergasted to see that she was allowed to bring her knitting needles on the airplane. Sure, “knitting needles” sounds innocuous enough — but these were two six-inch long metal spikes connected by an approximately eighteen inch metal wire. Two stabbing implements and a very effective garrote, in other words, should someone choose to use them as such. Yet these are allowed? Just bizarre.
Just watch what you take on the planes these days, folks — and hope you arrive at your destination with everything you left with.
iTunes: “Genauso Wie Ich (Future Pop)” by Beborn Beton from the album Tales From Another World (1994, 5:55).
Meme time, started by A Whole Lotta Nothing, and being tracked by Kottke: how many clicks to get from Google’s homepage to your website without using the search box?
For me, it’s eight.
(This piece is attributed to Nancy Greggs of The Guardian UK. I found it on BOP, who could only locate another copy at ToppleBush, though a quick Google also found copies on Democratic Underground and LiveJournal. Since there’s no real “original” to post, I’m reposting it here. It’s worth it.)
Dear Mr. and Mrs. G.H.W. Bush,
Once again, it is that time of year when we update the parents of our students on their child’s progress, and we regret to inform you that your son, Georgie, is not doing as well as we’d hoped and expected when he embarked on his four-year program at our school.
As you are well aware, Georgie was installed as class president at the start of the school year, despite the fact that the majority of his fellow students did not vote for him. We foresaw problems immediately, but were assured by several school board members (who, as we understand it, are friends of your family) that this would not result in any real difficulty. Unfortunately, they have been proven wrong.
In the area of scholastic achievement, despite our best efforts, Georgie is still reading and speaking at a grade level far below our usual standards.. At this point, we are not sure if his failure to learn is due to laziness and a lack of ability to apply himself to his studies, or if he simply lacks the intellectual capacity to improve in these areas.
His oral presentations to the class are particularly troubling; it is apparent that Georgie has not read the necessary materials, and he often simply fabricates facts to hide this shortcoming. In oral exams, he tends to repeat the same answers over and over, e.g. “The economy is good; jobs are on their way,” indicating a profound failure to keep up with the Current Events portion of the curriculum.
Georgie also tends to fabricate elaborate stories about himself – which, admittedly, can sometimes be very amusing. During a school celebration last May, he delighted his fellow students by coming to class in a little “flight suit” (just like the grown-ups wear!), and had everyone in stitches with his story about the family dog having eaten his report card from military pre-school!
On the whole, however, Georgie does not play well with other children. His “leadership” in the classroom continues to divide many students, one against the other. Other study groups, such as our French and German-language classes, are no longer willing to cooperate with Georgie’s group, even though they have traditionally done so in the past.
Your son also displays a lack of taking responsibility for his failings, and seems unable to appreciate the consequences of his actions. Although he was provided with the best textbooks on the subjects of the Economy, Job Creation, The Environment, et cetera, these books were damaged or completely destroyed within a matter of months. Georgie insists that he “inherited” these books in poor condition, despite all evidence to the contrary. (In fact, these same textbooks were previously used by one of our very best students, who actually returned them in better condition than he found them!)
During his first few weeks with us, Georgie quickly became part of a group of other “problem students.” Despite warnings, he has consistently befriended children whom we consider to be “bad elements,” such as Little Kenny Lay and a foreign-exchange student named Chalabi. Both of these youngsters have been expelled from other schools due to their involvement in cheating other students out of their lunch money. We feel that these kinds of relationships can only lead to no good, and hope that you will advise your child accordingly.
Georgie often displays aggressive behaviour in the schoolyard, and recently assaulted a student in another school district, completely unprovoked. When asked about this incident, Georgie insisted that the other child was armed and dangerous. When investigation into the matter proved otherwise, Georgie changed his story several times: he was just trying to “democratize” the other child, the other child’s school was harboring gang members, and so on. Quite frankly, his story on this topic has so changed from week to week, we simply can’t trust his word at all anymore.
Georgie’s friends, while not great in number, are very loyal, but tend to be over-protective. If any of the other students point out Georgie’s failing grades, these friends simply shout them down and tell them not to speak at all. When Georgie was summoned to the principal’s office several weeks ago, he insisted that his “best friend” come with him. We feel that it is in Georgie’s best interest to learn to stand up for himself; failure to do so could seriously damage his ability to handle a leadership role in his adult years.
As you are aware, final exams will be held in November, and Georgie’s past performance leads us to conclude that he will not be able to achieve the grades necessary to continue on with another four-year term at our institution.
Yours Truly, Ms. J.Q. Public, Assistant Principal