Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Many years ago, I might have thought that this sounded like a really good idea…
Barbara Bennett wanted to sell her Brother brand sewing machine, so she bought a classified advertisement under “Miscellaneous” and “Items under \$50” in The Columbian newspaper.
Instead, the words “sewing machine” were accidentally dropped, leaving a “BROTHER” for sale ad.
(via Prairie)
I’m experimenting with something that I found via Snowman on the TPUG — sponsored weblog entries. Three posts on my site now have small, fairly unobtrusive text ads at the bottom of the post, for which I get some small amount of compensation.
I debated a bit back and forth on this when I first read about it, but finally figured it was at least worth a shot. At least these are paid for up front and are given with my permission, rather than just some random piece of comment spam showing up more or less at random.
And I’m certainly not above trying to make the occasional buck or two on all of this (oh, by the way, have you visited any of my three CafePress shops lately? …[ahem]…)! ;)
Now, if only Google would let me into their AdSense program…
iTunes: “No Sense At All” by Khan, Praga from the album Pragamatic (1998, 7:09).
I was listening to “Sunday Edition” on the way to church. There was a story about President Bush’s appearance on “Meet The Press.” GWB wanted voters, when they go to the polls in Nov, to remember he is a “wartime President.”
There is a dark joke in Courthouses about a man who killed both his parents, then asked the judge to go easy on him as he is an orphan.
Yes, we were attacked on 9/11, but not by Iraq. My sisters and brothers in the military are being killed daily. GWB would not be a “wartime President” if he had not declared war, and gotten us into this unjust and immoral mess.
I hope voters do remember the war in Nov, but aslso the reasons GWB is a “wartime President.”
— Dad
The good news: the “first” three movies in the Star Wars trilogy (parts VI [A New Hope], V [The Empire Strikes Back], and VI [The Return of the Jedi]) will be released on DVD on September 21st.
The bad news: as has been rumored, speculated, assumed, and generally grumbled about for quite a while now, the DVDs will contain the newer, fancier, Greedo-shoots-first Special Edition versions rather than the original, unedited, like-we-all-remember-and-love versions.
The original “Star Wars” trilogy, comprising the 1977 movie, its 1980 sequel “The Empire Strikes Back” and 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” will be released on DVD as a four-disc boxed set in September, Fox Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. announced yesterday.
[…]
The boxed set will contain the special editions of the “Star Wars” trilogy released in the late 1990s and not the original theatrical versions.
Ah, well. Even with the Special Edition changes (which, to be honest, some I like and some I don’t), any of the first three films are still far better than the disappointing dreck of Episodes I and II.
And yeah.
I’ll be picking this set up on day one.
More and more, people are getting to the bottom of Bush’s military record — the real one, that is, not the glossed-over propagand-ized version he’d like us to believe.
The Columbia Journalism Review is calling for more detailed investigations into the “torn document” giving details of Bush’s service record:
The now-infamous “torn document,” which the Bush administration produced in the spring of 2000 is a statement of service credit that Bush apparently earned for guard service in 1972-73. However, most of the dates and Bush’s name, except for the “W,” have been torn off.
At first, this document was often included in media summaries of Bush’s National Guard service. However, it has been notably absent from many recent accounts, simply because most reporters find it so incomplete as to be useless.
…But now that Bush has gone on record saying that he will release all records necessary to settle this issue, it’s up to the press corps to decide just how high or low to set the bar of disclosure necessary to get to the bottom of things.
The mainstream media will be a bit late to the game, though, as Calpundit already has a good look at the document in question — not the torn version, though…
To make a long story short, Bush apparently blew off drills beginning in May 1972, failed to show up for his physical, and was then grounded and transferred to [the Air Reserve Force] as a disciplinary measure. He didn’t return to his original Texas Guard unit and cram in 36 days of active duty in 1973 — as Time magazine and others continue to assert based on a mistaken interpretation of Bush’s 1973-74 ARF record — but rather accumulated only ARF points during that period. In fact, it’s unclear even what the points on the ARF record are for, but what is clear is that Bush’s official records from Texas show no actual duty after May 1972, as his Form 712 Master Personnel Record from the Texas Air National Guard clearly indicates….
Bush’s record shows three years of service, followed by a fourth year in which he accumulated only a dismal 22 days of active service, followed by no service at all in his fifth and sixth years. This is because ARF duty isn’t counted as official duty by the Texas guard.
So Bush may indeed have “fulfilled his obligation,” as he says, but only because he had essentially been relieved of any further obligation after his transfer to ARF. It’s pretty clear that no one in the Texas Air National Guard had much interest in pursuing anything more serious in the way of disciplinary action.
Truly a sterling service record for our Commander in Chief.
(via Daily Kos)
Oooohhh — a new book by Dan Simmons! Being a big fan of his Hyperion series (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion), this is very good news in my universe.
On Earth, a post-technological group of humans, pampered by servant machines and easy travel via “faxing,” begins to question its beginnings. Meanwhile, a team of sentient and Shakespeare-quoting robots from Jupiter’s lunar system embark on a mission to Mars to investigate an increase in dangerous quantum fluctuations. On the Red Planet, they’ll find a race of metahumans living out existence as the pantheon of classic Greek gods. These “gods” have recreated the Trojan War with reconstituted Greeks and Trojans and staffed it with scholars from throughout Earth’s history who observe the events and report on the accuracy of Homer’s Iliad. One of these scholars, Thomas Hockenberry, finds himself tangled in the midst of interplay between the gods and their playthings and sends the war reeling in a direction the blind poet could have never imagined.
Simmons creates an exciting and thrilling tale set in the thick of the Trojan War as seen through Hockenberry’s 20th-century eyes. At the same time, Simmons’s robots study Shakespeare and Proust and the origin-seeking Earthlings find themselves caught in a murderous retelling of The Tempest. Reading this highly literate novel does take more than a passing familiarity with at least The Iliad but readers who can dive into these heady waters and swim with the current will be amply rewarded.
(via John Ludwig)
iTunes: “Feurio! (Remix)” by Einstürzende Neubauten from the album Industrial Revolution, 2nd Edition (1989, 4:49).
I’ve poked around with GarageBand a bit since I got it, but haven’t created anything major yet. However, it is way too much fun.
It’s also far too easy for me to put together something really, really stupid with it. This is dangerous. Fun — but dangerous.
And here’s the evidence: countrybounce — 71 seconds of banjo and drum loops.
I’m sure I can come up with something better than that given time. But for the moment, this stupid little ditty is it.
Enjoy.
Or don’t.
;)
iTunes: “Must I” by Lizette & from the album This Is (2003, 3:32).
I have no idea if anyone other than myself is currently subscribing to my ‘comments only’ RSS feed, but I’ve noticed an odd issue with it that I haven’t been able to troubleshoot yet. I’ve asked for help on the TypePad User Group, but I wanted to mention it here too, in case anyone else has been noticing this or might be able to point out what I’m doing wrong.
What I’ve been finding is that each item in my comment-only feed is being given the date of the original post that the comment is appended to, rather than the date that the comment was added to my site. For instance, a comment added today to a post from August shows up in my newsreader with the August date instead of today’s.
Here’s the code I’m using for each item in the RSS feed template (the full template code can be found in this post from last week):
<MTComments lastn="20">
<MTCommentEntry>
<item>
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#c<$MTCommentID$></link>
<description><$MTCommentBody remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTCommentID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0"> on
<MTCommentDate format="%b %e, %Y %l:%M %p">: <$MTCommentBody$>]]></content:encoded>
<dc:date><$MTCommentDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date>
</item>
</MTCommentEntry>
</MTComments>
Now, it all looks right to me, and the same basic code seems to be working in all the rest of my templates (for instance, in the ‘full posts plus comments’ RSS feed, each comment begins with a header that lists the correct date). For some reason, though, it’s not working here.
Any ideas?
Update: The issue has been fixed. Turns out that you can’t use an <MTCommentDate> tag inside an <MTCommentEntry> container (much thanks to Jamie Jamison for pointing me to the explanation).
The solution was fairly easy (and the code in my ‘how-to’ post has been updated): I just removed the date display from the body of the RSS item, and moved the closing <MTCommentEntry> tag up a couple lines. Here’s the new version of the above code:
<MTComments lastn="20">
<item>
<MTCommentEntry>
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#c<$MTCommentID$></link>
<description><$MTCommentBody remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description>
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTCommentID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0">: <$MTCommentBody$>]]></content:encoded>
</MTCommentEntry>
<dc:date><$MTCommentDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date>
</item>
</MTComments>
“Hey…could you help me?”
I turned around, halfway out the front door of the apartment building. Dan, one of the new tenants, was standing at the bottom of the half-flight of stairs leading from the landing down to the ground floor. He looked up at me with a slightly frantic look on his face. “What’s up?” I asked.
“There’s this crazy guy wandering the halls.”
“Here?”
“Yeah. He keeps banging on the doors…I don’t know what to do.”
I let the door close behind me and went down the stairs. “Is he down here?”
“Yeah, down at the end of the hall.”
Going around the corner, I walked down the hall to meet our unexpected and uninvited guest. He was standing at the end of the hall by the door leading down to the basement, leaning up against the corner.
“Sir?” I said. “Can I help you?” He grumbled something at me, I’m honestly not sure what. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t understand you. Are you supposed to be in here?” Another unintelligible grumble.
Great, this was going to be a fun one. “Sir, could you please leave?” More grumbling, though not grumbling of a cooperative nature. “I’m going to have to call the police if you don’t leave now.”
This got more of a response. “Yeah. Call the police. Take this outside. C’mon!”
“Sure, let’s take this outside,” I said, figuring that it would at least get the guy out the door. He started down the hall towards me, and I backed away, leading him towards the door. Eventually, I made my way back up to the landing where Dan was waiting at the door. Dan opened the door and stepped outside, and I stood at the landing, looking down the staircase at our new friend. “Sir? Did you want to head outside now?”
“Call the fuckin’ police. Outside. Both of you!” He still wasn’t very cooperative, but apparently he’d only go outside if both Dan and I went out first — assuming he’d even go outside then. I wasn’t terribly convinced.
“Dan, could I borrow your phone?” Dan handed me his cell, and I called 911 as the guy retreated around the stairs to stand by the building’s mailboxes.
“Emergency dispatch.”
“Yes — we’ve got a vagrant roaming through our building, banging on doors.”
“Where are you located, sir?”
“8th and Seneca.”
“Could you describe the person in case he leaves?”
“Sure — about six foot, black, with a greying beard. He’s wearing a grey jacket with blue trim, no shirt underneath, and maroon sweatpants. He’s got safety glasses on upside down,” (here the dispatcher started to laugh) “and one white shoe. No socks.”
“Alright, we’ll have someone there in just a few minutes.”
I thanked her, and hung up. Dan and I chatted for a few moments on the landing as we waited, occasionally ducking some small piece of debris that the guy had found lying by the mailboxes and sent sailing in our general direction. Eventually, he got tired of taking clumsy pot-shots (or just ran out of ammunition) and wandered back down the hall, at which point Dan headed down to keep an eye on him, and I stood at the door and waited for the officers.
A few minutes later, two patrol cars pulled up in front of the building, I let the officers in and pointed them down the stairs to our guest. They headed down and found him seated at the end of the hallway.
“Okay, come on,” the first officer said. “I talked to you yesterday about this. Matter of fact, this guy talked to you too,” he said, gesturing towards his partner. The guy mumbled something I couldn’t understand, but it didn’t seem to make the police officer any happier. “Look we’re tired of seeing you in here, okay? It’s time to go! What did you do with your shoes?” Another mumble, and a vague gesture down the hall.
“He had one shoe on a bit ago,” I called down the hall, realizing that the man was now entirely barefoot. The first officer started guiding the man towards the door, and his partner went down the hall, coming back a moment later with both shoes.
As the officers worked their way towards the front door of the building, some of the other tenants came downstairs, heading out. One of them saw the flashing lights outside the entrance, and turned to took a look at what was going on. “Oh, shit!” he said. “That’s the same guy that was in here yesterday!”
“Who keeps letting him in?” I asked. They just shrugged, and went on out. I stood out of the way while the officers ushered the man outside, then stood outside while they put him up against one of the patrol cars and started going through his pockets.
After watching for a few minutes, I asked if they needed either Dan or I for anything else. “No, we’re fine here,” said one of the officers. We thanked them for coming out, and started up the hill, Dan to a friend’s apartment a few blocks away, and I continued on up to the Vogue.
Ahh, the joys of downtown Seattle.
My computer doesn’t like my Prick.
I wanted to get my Prick into my computer. It didn’t seem like such a difficult task, should be simple enough, right? So I took out my Prick and put it into the computer.
The computer pulled it in, sat for a moment, then pushed my Prick right back out again.
That’s odd, I thought. It’s certainly not what I was expecting.
So I tried again. In went my Prick — and out came my Prick.
Weird. I thought that maybe my Prick was dirty, so I took it, got a soft washcloth, and gently cleaned my Prick, taking care to stroke in straight lines and not use circular motions. Once that was done and my Prick looked nice and clean, I put it back into the computer.
And the computer pushed my Prick right back out.
Admittedly, I’ve had my Prick for a while now, and it is getting a bit old. Maybe that’s the problem.
I guess I’ll just have to go to a store and get a new Prick.