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May 2008

Bottles and Books and Technology

What exactly does it say about me that when I recently stumbled upon a dirty picture of a boy impaled on a water bottle, I paid very little attention to the boy himself, nor to the slightly disturbing fact that he had a water bottle shoved up his ass, but immediately noticed that the bottle itself was from Publix, a Florida supermarket chain?

No, I’m not going to link to the picture here.

Other random thoughts during this brief break on a very busy Monday:

  • The hubby and I had lots of fun at the big Shepherd Center book sale last week, although I didn’t find any mislabeled pornography like I did last year.
  • After two semesters in grad school, I can safely say the idea that younger people are more “wired” and tech savvy than people in my age group is something of a false generalization. I think commentators are mistaking “nimble fingers capable of sending text messages really fast” or “familiarity with MySpace” for actual technological knowledge (like the ability to use a computer or put together a website).
  • This is a surprisingly useful service. I’ve recently used it to convert DOCX files to something I can use and to convert PDF files to Word or RTF format. It handles a variety of video and graphics formats too, but I already have most of these covered.
  • No, the photo above has nothing to do with anything else in the post. Thanks for asking.

Videolog: Cantaloop


Cantaloop
Us3, 1993.

For some reason, the strongest memory this song evokes is of my kitchen in San Francisco, and of me grabbing yet another Henry Weinhard’s from the refrigerator.

I drank way too many of those in 1993.

Storm a-brewin’

I was just thinking this afternoon about how long it’s been since I’ve hung out in the basement. So tonight, I did. Mainly because I was surrounded by tornadoes and assorted funnel clouds. Really close ones.

I think it’s over now, but this is one of the biggest (and longest) storms I remember in a long time. It’s been going on really intensely for an hour or more. My street is completely flooded, and the gutters have just sort of given up. It just keeps coming. And now they’ve extended the tornado warning. Maybe I should just sleep downstairs tonight.

What a creepy night.

Storm damage

The only damage in out little corner of suburbia was from all the water that rushed into the laundry/storage room through a small gap in our garage door. It’s not a big thing; it’s just taking time that I desperately needed for other things this weekend, and sort of guaranteeing that I’ll be a big, streeed-out exhausted gob of goo by Monday.

But at least I’ll still have a house, even if it is one where the laundry room carpet is a little damp.

Side note: I’m inclined never to do business with this company. When I was a little more concerned about the water in the basement, I called to see how much they charged to come out and assess the damage. I was told that not only would they not give me a charge for the service call over the phone, they also (a) would not provide me with an estimate before they started work, and (b) would make me sign a form in advance saying that I would pay whatever the charges turned out to be.

I asked them how many people were stupid enough to fall for that. They couldn’t provide me an estimate on that either.

Videolog: TV Party


TV Party
Black Flag, 1981.

Look. It’s Henry Rollins back when he was still cute and hadn’t morphed into a grotesque muscle clone.

Best Dilbert ever

Best. Dilbert. Ever.

OK, maybe not, but it was still pretty good, especially following all the data analysis in the paper I finished on Friday.

Busy

I didn’t really expect to be busier after the semester ended than I was beforehand, but I’m in the midst of a big client project that’s taking much longer than I expected. I’ve been trying to at least update the video, so anyone who cares will know I’m still alive. More updates soon, though, including the story of how yer humble host may become the world’s oldest graduate assistant, and other exciting tidbits.

Maybe “exciting” is too strong a term…