Fichte died of typhus at the age of 52.
Karl Marx had a long battle with pleurisy, but still made it to 64.
Wittgenstein died of prostate cancer just after he turned 60.
Stephen Crane died at 28.
Jack London barely made it to 40.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
Recent Netflix viewings
- Barry Lyndon
- Syriana
- Rent
- Friends With Money
- Freaks & Geeks disc 1
- V for Vendetta
- Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
- Love Liza
- The Last Picture Show
Friday, September 01, 2006
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Wikipedia Searches of the Day
Fazendas
Steampunk
People Who Survived Assassination Attempts
Denver Bears
Two of Us
Guthrie, Oklahoma (Guthrie was founded during the Land Run of 1889, growing from a population of zero to 10,000 in a single day.)
"There's No Disgrace Like Home"
Dejima
Mary Chesnut
Steampunk
People Who Survived Assassination Attempts
Denver Bears
Two of Us
Guthrie, Oklahoma (Guthrie was founded during the Land Run of 1889, growing from a population of zero to 10,000 in a single day.)
"There's No Disgrace Like Home"
Dejima
Mary Chesnut
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Books on the nightstand
Kings of Infinite Space by Jim Hynes
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
The Method Actors by Carl Shuker
Rising Up and Rising Down (1 vol. compilation) by William T. Vollmann
Mawrdew Czgowchwz by James McCourt
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
The Method Actors by Carl Shuker
Rising Up and Rising Down (1 vol. compilation) by William T. Vollmann
Mawrdew Czgowchwz by James McCourt
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Yaris
Here is our new Toyota Yaris. We tried to find a Honda Fit, but there were none to be had for miles around. In fact, one waiting list for them stretched until November. We also had trouble finding the Yaris in stock. This was really the only one we could find, but we really wanted something that could get close to 40 mpg. I felt like writing my congressman and demanding that auto manufacturers not only produce more compact cars, but produce them in large numbers. I mean, technically the Yaris and Fit exist, but buying them is extremely difficult (or downright impossible in some areas) because they are manufactured in such low quantites. Dealers are not eager to take on lots of them either because they have very little markup built into their prices.
Friday, June 23, 2006
books
I'm supposed to be reading The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake for book club, but I am just not that taken by the stories. I can't get into the collection because it seems affected and a lot of the prose is really overblown and these are supposed to be mood pieces rather than plot heavy so I'm just not digging it.
I am still reading Upton Sinclair's Oil! I'm at "The Killing" now and the plot is really bouncing around. He's a master at slowly building these plot sequences that will affect later plots and his characters in this one are pretty complex.
I've also been recaptivated by the story of Douglas Mawson. Maybe the baddest dude who ever lived. Next in the queue: Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier.
I am still reading Upton Sinclair's Oil! I'm at "The Killing" now and the plot is really bouncing around. He's a master at slowly building these plot sequences that will affect later plots and his characters in this one are pretty complex.
I've also been recaptivated by the story of Douglas Mawson. Maybe the baddest dude who ever lived. Next in the queue: Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Honest to God quote in the Tyler Morning Telegraph
"All of our lives since the fourth grade we've been told 'Your senior year when y'all get on varsity, that's y'alls year.'"
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Bennie Bickers
I am trying to compile some facts related to one of Dallas's most colorful figures: Bennie Bickers. Maybe someday this will be a scholarly paper or a piece of amateur history or something, but right now it's just a collection of facts (and theories) the really interest me. Here are a few:
- Bennie Bickers owned the University Club from 1953 to 1962.
- The University Club was about a block away from Jack Ruby's Carousel Club on Commerce St.
- There were 12 nightclubs in a six-block square of downtown Dallas in the early 1960s (The Colony Club, The Theater Lounge, The Egyptian Lounge) and a hundred others around town ( Eddie's Room, Top of the Hill Club, The Silver Spur, The Longhorn Ranch Club, The Vegas Club, The Cipango Club, Chez Maurice). I'm not sure about the location of all these places yet.
- According to his testimony, Bickers had known Jack Ruby for approx 20 years dating back to Ruby's time in Chicago.
- Supposedly a meeting took place at the Top of the Hill Club & Casino in 1948 wherein LBJ met with Meyer Lansky, Benny Binion, Benny Bickers, Jack Ruby, and other club owners/ Mobsters to discuss some campaign fundraising from the clubs. At this time, Lewis McWillie was also working at the Top of the Hill.
- McWillie is the one who took Jack Ruby to the Trescornia jail in Cuba in September of 1959. Was Ruby carrying the mob's bribe/bail money to release Santos Trafficante?
- Bickers was likely a lieutenant under Dallas Mob Boss Ben Whitaker.
- Bickers' son Mickey still lives and works in Dallas.
- Bennie Bickers owned the University Club from 1953 to 1962.
- The University Club was about a block away from Jack Ruby's Carousel Club on Commerce St.
- There were 12 nightclubs in a six-block square of downtown Dallas in the early 1960s (The Colony Club, The Theater Lounge, The Egyptian Lounge) and a hundred others around town ( Eddie's Room, Top of the Hill Club, The Silver Spur, The Longhorn Ranch Club, The Vegas Club, The Cipango Club, Chez Maurice). I'm not sure about the location of all these places yet.
- According to his testimony, Bickers had known Jack Ruby for approx 20 years dating back to Ruby's time in Chicago.
- Supposedly a meeting took place at the Top of the Hill Club & Casino in 1948 wherein LBJ met with Meyer Lansky, Benny Binion, Benny Bickers, Jack Ruby, and other club owners/ Mobsters to discuss some campaign fundraising from the clubs. At this time, Lewis McWillie was also working at the Top of the Hill.
- McWillie is the one who took Jack Ruby to the Trescornia jail in Cuba in September of 1959. Was Ruby carrying the mob's bribe/bail money to release Santos Trafficante?
- Bickers was likely a lieutenant under Dallas Mob Boss Ben Whitaker.
- Bickers' son Mickey still lives and works in Dallas.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
According to iTunes...
Whenever we leave the house for a couple of hours we try to turn on the iTunes so that our dog doesn't get too lonely. She prefers softer stuff like Beth Orton, Elliot Smith, and some jazz and classical, but lately I've turned on some audiobooks of John Updike short stories. According to iTunes play count, she's heard the story "Killing" twenty times now. So, if she's feeling a bit melancholy or restless, I try to remember this and wonder what she thinks of marriage now.
What does your dog listen to?
What does your dog listen to?
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Thank you, Jesus!
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Surfing.html
Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can't Be Fired
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 24, 2006, Filed at 9:26 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet.
Administrative Law Judge John Spooner reached his decision in the case of Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education who had been accused of ignoring supervisors who told him to stop browsing the Internet at work.
The ruling came after Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a worker in the city's legislative office in Albany earlier this year after he saw the man playing a game of solitaire on his computer.
In his decision, Spooner wrote: ''It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.''
He added: ''For this reason, city agencies permit workers to use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not interfere with their overall work performance. Many agencies apply the same standard to the use of the Internet for personal purposes.''
Spooner dispensed the lightest possible punishment on Choudhri, a reprimand, after a search of Choudhri's computer files revealed he had visited several news and travel sites.
Martin Druyan, Choudhri's lawyer, called the ruling ''very reasonable.''
Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can't Be Fired
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 24, 2006, Filed at 9:26 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet.
Administrative Law Judge John Spooner reached his decision in the case of Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education who had been accused of ignoring supervisors who told him to stop browsing the Internet at work.
The ruling came after Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired a worker in the city's legislative office in Albany earlier this year after he saw the man playing a game of solitaire on his computer.
In his decision, Spooner wrote: ''It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work.''
He added: ''For this reason, city agencies permit workers to use a telephone for personal calls, so long as this does not interfere with their overall work performance. Many agencies apply the same standard to the use of the Internet for personal purposes.''
Spooner dispensed the lightest possible punishment on Choudhri, a reprimand, after a search of Choudhri's computer files revealed he had visited several news and travel sites.
Martin Druyan, Choudhri's lawyer, called the ruling ''very reasonable.''
Monday, April 17, 2006
three movies that sucked
1. A History of Violence. Just got around to watching it this weekend and was very very underwhelmed. The ending was dumb (the killer dad sits down at the table), the violence was not that graphic (at least not on the scale of something like Saving Private Ryan), and the plot was just weak (did anyone really think this would be a film about mistaken identity? No, it was clear that "Tom Stall" was really this "Joey" guy but was just too dark and complicated to talk about it.). There was like a five minute sequence showing Viggo Mortensen driving from Indiana to Philadelphia. Dear Cronenberg, please edit out the driving sequences. Ask Vincent Gallo about this if you don't believe me.
2. 40 Year Old Virgin. Everyone raved about this, but no one told me it was over 2 hours long. And again, no suspense. We know from the beginning that he's eventually going to get Catherine Keener, but the film is so intent on taking itself seriously (for a comedy!) that it wastes time on all this "character" development stuff. There is, in scripwriting, a term called "The Big Gloom" which is supposed to be the last obstacle in the character's path toward a happy ending and everytime it looks like there is absolutely no way things will work out, but then of course somehow they do and The End. Well, 40-y.o.v. has like three or four big glooms and I can't think of any purpose they serve except to stall. There were a couple of funny jokes, but a lot of material fell flat and just sat there. Something I didn't like about either one of these is that they both seemed to take themselves too seriously, they were both earnestly trying to be A Great Film and we all know you just can't try to be cool.
3. Prozac Nation. Maybe the worst film I have ever seen. I could not finish half of it. Seriously, do not waste your time even reading about how much it sucks.
4. On a non-sucking note, I can recommend the movie version of "The Safety of Objects" as being not-all-bad. It's barely faithful to the book, but still entertaining in its own right (minus Joshua Jackson; I cannot stand that guy). The best movie I've seen so far this year: The Squid and The Whale.
2. 40 Year Old Virgin. Everyone raved about this, but no one told me it was over 2 hours long. And again, no suspense. We know from the beginning that he's eventually going to get Catherine Keener, but the film is so intent on taking itself seriously (for a comedy!) that it wastes time on all this "character" development stuff. There is, in scripwriting, a term called "The Big Gloom" which is supposed to be the last obstacle in the character's path toward a happy ending and everytime it looks like there is absolutely no way things will work out, but then of course somehow they do and The End. Well, 40-y.o.v. has like three or four big glooms and I can't think of any purpose they serve except to stall. There were a couple of funny jokes, but a lot of material fell flat and just sat there. Something I didn't like about either one of these is that they both seemed to take themselves too seriously, they were both earnestly trying to be A Great Film and we all know you just can't try to be cool.
3. Prozac Nation. Maybe the worst film I have ever seen. I could not finish half of it. Seriously, do not waste your time even reading about how much it sucks.
4. On a non-sucking note, I can recommend the movie version of "The Safety of Objects" as being not-all-bad. It's barely faithful to the book, but still entertaining in its own right (minus Joshua Jackson; I cannot stand that guy). The best movie I've seen so far this year: The Squid and The Whale.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Attention Authenticists!
One thing I really hate about teh internets is this self-congratulatory hipster egoism of getting there first--the authenticity of being a 28 year-old "oldtimer." I'm noticing it more and more, on a large scale.
A couple of examples (out of the million or so I could dig up):
1. From: http://a.wholelottanothing.org
"I started using flickr back when it was a flash-enhanced backchannel chat at etech many moons ago, and when it was finally released to the world, it was built off the previous web trend of social software."
2. The complex sarcasm tied up in megnut's statement here:
"all of us narcissistic a-list weblogers stopped frequenting this site years ago..." (I think she's being sarcastic, but clearly there's a grain of truth there as she did not post a comment on MeFi in 2004 or 2005 except to defend Kottke; and clearly the crowd who consider themselves "A-list bloggers" like kottke, megnut, and anildash HAVE stopped frequenting MeFi.)
3. Flickr even puts this into their login screen whereby those with pre-yahoo logins get to sign in under a different button, highlighted by the phrase "Rock On! You're Old Skool."
4. Caterina claiming that "Web 2.0 isn't all that" because here company made it, got bought by Yahoo!, made her a million bucks, and so the trend is over! We were here first! You guys now are all just lame! Except for the companies started by my web 2.0 friends whom I'm also advising!
Now, there are some legitimate cases where this might be OK, whereby someone who's truly an internet giant can stand up and pontificate on the history of particular applications or remind us our history, but most of the time I feel that this is just used as a badge of honor: "I've been doing this forever and let me tell you what it was like back in the old days. I'm so cool now that I jumped off the friendster/myspace/flickr/web2.0/blogger/digg/metafilter/
bittorrent/whateverthehellyouthinkiscool" bandwagon a loooong time ago. This is why I'm not into to "indie" rock. However, "the internet" and its many applications are too big to be confined to the esoteric authenticity wars of this coolness debate. Or are they? It's a small world after all.
I had some of the same issues with Yankees fans. Now, I consider myself a Yankees fan, but when I go to Yankee Stadium and end up making small talk with some guy wearing a Ron Guidry jersey in the bleachers, inevitably it will degrade into a game of one-upmanship of how this guy was born across the street from the stadium, saw Mickey Mantle hit home runs, caught a Reggie Jackson world series ball, etc., and that all this inevitably makes him a more authentic or real fan that someone who's recently moved to New York and also likes the Yankees. I say Screw That. In fact, that kind of I'm-authentic-you're-not might be near the root of some types of xenophobia. Anyone can be an authentic legitimate fan of a team, or user of a website. Accept it. Don't look down on people because they don't remember back when slashdot ran Java 1.1. You are a geek. This need for social heirarchy is simply clinging onto to the only remaining shred of power you can squeeze out of being an unemployed loafer who produces nothing in life but a website and a bloated ego. I'm sick of you all. You really are narcissitic egotists who can only feel important by claiming elder-statesman-status in a medium that changes every second of the day. You are all boring and will be forgotten.
A couple of examples (out of the million or so I could dig up):
1. From: http://a.wholelottanothing.org
"I started using flickr back when it was a flash-enhanced backchannel chat at etech many moons ago, and when it was finally released to the world, it was built off the previous web trend of social software."
2. The complex sarcasm tied up in megnut's statement here:
"all of us narcissistic a-list weblogers stopped frequenting this site years ago..." (I think she's being sarcastic, but clearly there's a grain of truth there as she did not post a comment on MeFi in 2004 or 2005 except to defend Kottke; and clearly the crowd who consider themselves "A-list bloggers" like kottke, megnut, and anildash HAVE stopped frequenting MeFi.)
3. Flickr even puts this into their login screen whereby those with pre-yahoo logins get to sign in under a different button, highlighted by the phrase "Rock On! You're Old Skool."
4. Caterina claiming that "Web 2.0 isn't all that" because here company made it, got bought by Yahoo!, made her a million bucks, and so the trend is over! We were here first! You guys now are all just lame! Except for the companies started by my web 2.0 friends whom I'm also advising!
Now, there are some legitimate cases where this might be OK, whereby someone who's truly an internet giant can stand up and pontificate on the history of particular applications or remind us our history, but most of the time I feel that this is just used as a badge of honor: "I've been doing this forever and let me tell you what it was like back in the old days. I'm so cool now that I jumped off the friendster/myspace/flickr/web2.0/blogger/digg/metafilter/
bittorrent/whateverthehellyouthinkiscool" bandwagon a loooong time ago. This is why I'm not into to "indie" rock. However, "the internet" and its many applications are too big to be confined to the esoteric authenticity wars of this coolness debate. Or are they? It's a small world after all.
I had some of the same issues with Yankees fans. Now, I consider myself a Yankees fan, but when I go to Yankee Stadium and end up making small talk with some guy wearing a Ron Guidry jersey in the bleachers, inevitably it will degrade into a game of one-upmanship of how this guy was born across the street from the stadium, saw Mickey Mantle hit home runs, caught a Reggie Jackson world series ball, etc., and that all this inevitably makes him a more authentic or real fan that someone who's recently moved to New York and also likes the Yankees. I say Screw That. In fact, that kind of I'm-authentic-you're-not might be near the root of some types of xenophobia. Anyone can be an authentic legitimate fan of a team, or user of a website. Accept it. Don't look down on people because they don't remember back when slashdot ran Java 1.1. You are a geek. This need for social heirarchy is simply clinging onto to the only remaining shred of power you can squeeze out of being an unemployed loafer who produces nothing in life but a website and a bloated ego. I'm sick of you all. You really are narcissitic egotists who can only feel important by claiming elder-statesman-status in a medium that changes every second of the day. You are all boring and will be forgotten.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Excuse for Absence
Haven't posted in about a month, mainly because we just bought a house.
Pics: http://flickr.com/photos/mbb/sets/72057594074773603
That's the other folk's furniture in there. We've just started moving some of our stuff over so that explains the total absence of books in these pics. Now the eternal list of home-repair projects commences...
Pics: http://flickr.com/photos/mbb/sets/72057594074773603
That's the other folk's furniture in there. We've just started moving some of our stuff over so that explains the total absence of books in these pics. Now the eternal list of home-repair projects commences...
Words I love to say (usually not aloud)
1. fecklessness
2. Cold Spring Harbor
3. mollycoddle
4. Katwijk Aan Zee
2. Cold Spring Harbor
3. mollycoddle
4. Katwijk Aan Zee
Monday, March 06, 2006
Quotable Quotes
MONTGOMERY BURNS:
Rob (High Fidelity):
video backpacker, Slacker:
Audience: Boo! Boo!
Burns: Smithers, are they booing me?
Smithers: Uh, no, they're saying "Boo-urns! Boo-urns!"
Burns: Are you saying "boo" or "Boo-urns"?
Audience: Boo! Boo!
Hans: I was saying "Boo-urns."
More, Slacker:
Stranger: ". . . How things been goin'?"
Dude: ". . . Well, you know, strikes and gutters, ups and downs . . . Yeah. Thanks Gary . . . Well, take care man, gotta get back . . . "
Stranger: "Sure. Take it easy, Dude."
Dude: "Oh, yeah."
Stranger: "I know that you will."
Dude: ". . . Yeah, well . . . the Dude abides."
"You there, fill it up with petroleum distillate, and re-vulcanize my tires, post haste. And none of your usual boobery!"
"Hello, I'd like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by Aeromail. Hmm...am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?"
Rob (High Fidelity):
What really matters is what you like, not what you are like. Books, records, films, these things matter. Call me shallow; it's the fuckin' truth.
video backpacker, Slacker:
"To me, my thing is, a video image is much more powerful and useful than an actual event. Like back when I used to go out, when I was last out, I was walking down the street and this guy, that came barreling out of a bar, fell right in front of me, and he had a knife right in his back, landed right on the ground and... Well, I have no reference to it now. I can't put it on pause. I can't put it on slow mo and see all the little details. And the blood, it was all wrong. It didn't look like blood. The hue was off. I couldn't adjust the hue. I was seeing it for real, but it just wasn't right. And I didn't even see the knife impact on the body. I missed that part."
Audience: Boo! Boo!
Burns: Smithers, are they booing me?
Smithers: Uh, no, they're saying "Boo-urns! Boo-urns!"
Burns: Are you saying "boo" or "Boo-urns"?
Audience: Boo! Boo!
Hans: I was saying "Boo-urns."
More, Slacker:
"I've had a total recalibration of my mind, you know. I mean, it's like, I've been banging my head against this 19th century type, um, what? Thought mode? Construct? Human construct? Well, the wall doesn't exist. It's not there, you know. I mean, they tell you, look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Well, there is no tunnel. There's just no structure. The underlying order is chaos."
Stranger: ". . . How things been goin'?"
Dude: ". . . Well, you know, strikes and gutters, ups and downs . . . Yeah. Thanks Gary . . . Well, take care man, gotta get back . . . "
Stranger: "Sure. Take it easy, Dude."
Dude: "Oh, yeah."
Stranger: "I know that you will."
Dude: ". . . Yeah, well . . . the Dude abides."
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