i like my town with a little drop of poison

one off

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:46:30 GMT

if you know me,
or have known me,
in real life,
please read this (short) blog post

http://www.jhimm.net/wabi_sabi/?p=161

the end, i think, finally and for always

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:28:30 GMT

LJ seems to have disabled the URL mechanism
that i have been using for several years now
as the means by which i convert my filtered friends view
into an RSS feed which i can then view as a cohesive whole.
their FAQ no longer contains links to the technique i was utilizing
and now simply recommends subscribing to each user's LJ page through a reader individually.
the problem with this, of course, is protected entries,
not to mention RSS subscription bloat.

so,
at this point,
i guess i am done with LJ.

if you say something i need to know, be sure to write to me directly.

otherwise,
i'll be posting day to day life on Twitter
(which i believe will get re-posted here en mass)
and my spiritual blog will still be at Wabi Sabi.

bye.

why is this a big deal?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:31:08 GMT

twitter and all the blogs are ablaze with the "scandal"
that the McCain campaign spent $150,000 to dress the Palin family.

so?
do you people not think that all campaigns spend money on wardrobe?
there are,
what,
about eight of them,
including the poor schmuck about to get shot-gunned into marrying in?
considering how -often- they appear in public,
this isn't like they all got one outfit worth $18grand each.

i'd love to see comparable numbers for Obama, Hilary, &c.
i doubt they are much different,
when you consider that they're dressing far fewer people
and you look at the numbers on a per person basis.

campaigns are money sinks.
we knew this, right?

we've swung too far the other way now

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:16:26 GMT

shortly after 9/11/01 it was hip (thankfully briefly) to be pretty anti-muslim.
i suspect with some aspects of our society (thankfully fringe) that's still the case.

but now,
society has swung too far the other way.

file this under
"Christians simply boycotted 'Passion of the Christ', so boycott the game".

for that matter,
Christians find -most- video games offensive for one reason or another.
i don't see anyone jumping to appease them.
in fact,
it is becoming increasingly hip to be actively anti-Christian in pop culture.
(which, while disturbing and personally annoying, i at least understand.
the whole anti-muslim thing never made -any- sense to me.)

if the game developers think that musical artist had value when they hired them
(or licensed their music)
why not demonstrate your convictions by standing behind the artist
as someone with a valid form of artistic expression (which you -paid for-),
and refuse to back down,
and release the game as is?

guns in chicago

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:45:07 GMT

cops get M4's, i get... nothing

so,
apparently it makes perfect sense for Chicago to violate my 2nd amendment rights
and not permit me to own any gun of any kind,
but in spite of this,
it still necessary for the police to have M4 assault rifles.
great.

i cannot WAIT to move out of this clown car of a city.

what privacy?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:03:04 GMT

why do so many people think that Google Earth violates their privacy?
Google doesn't take the pictures.
Google doesn't pay to have the pictures taken.
Google pays for the use of existing pictures
which were already being taken prior to Google Earth.
you already had no privacy before Google came along.
why are so many people so obsessed with demonizing Google?
i don't think they're saving the world or anything,
but i don't get this bizarre, knee-jerk reaction to data-mining as a business model.
IT stands for Information Technology.
everything is about information.
but information has no value all by itself.
you have to -do- something with it,
and so far Google's doing that better than most people.
so how is this a bad thing?

if i have dozens of email conversations about midi-controllers,
i'm -thrilled- that gmail tells me where to buy them cheaper than i do now.
and since their ad serving system is completely automated,
no one at Google -knows- i want to buy midi-controllers.
no one's looked at the content of my email, no one cares!
they have better things to do.
like driving around -public- streets taking pictures
so that when i want directions to a new restaurant,
i can -see- where i'm going to go!
and this -also- doesn't violate anyone's privacy
because they're -public- roads,
and if you're on them when they snap the pictures,
you're -in public- and -have no privacy- anyway.

i just don't get it.

adventures in loneliness

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:07:56 GMT

spent the day driving from mystic, ct
to narragansett, ri (and point judith)
and back again
just to prove to myself i'm not crazy
that the lakefront in Chicago is nothing like a real coastline.
i was right.

my lips taste like salt.
my skin is tight and dry.
the sand in my shoes is not pure, white silica.
i saw shells and rocks,
seagulls the size of shepherds,
fishing trawlers
and coastal bungalows stretching on for miles.

i ate smoked scallops.

if i wasn't so lonely i'd be ecstatic.

the four year cycle of realizing i hate almost everyone

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:28:26 GMT

if i see one more
"i wasn't going to get into politics this time but..." post
so help me.

why is it that every four years
i have to be so brutally reminded
that even people i know well,
hold near and dear,
know to be well educated and thoughtful
all turn into knee-jerking,
bile spewing,
opinion-and-soundbite over fact shouting
hate machines.

i have friends on both sides.
if you paint "the other" as Evil,
you insult my friends
and you insult me for having them as friends.

you're all wrong,
and it gets proven every four years
when the fruits of your ideas and ideals prove to be hatred.

and so it begins

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:53:27 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/technology/21comcast.html

not only are providers now deliberately (checking) and then dropping certain kinds of packets
but now if you actually -use- what you -pay for- expect to get throttled.

i love how everyone's ads are for how shockingly fast their service is
and just how shockingly much crap you can download/upload -constantly-
but in actuality what they're going to do is re-route the bandwidth you paid for
to someone else who ... isn't using it as much?!

WOW.

yet more blatant music plagiarism sanctioned by big industry money

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:38:03 GMT

Left: Demi Lovato's new album cover.

Right: No Doubt's Rock Steady album cover from years and years ago.

this is really starting to get completely out of hand.

oh,
and have you heard?
hip hop MC's are starting to slip product slogans[1] into their rhymes
and rather than having to pay to use the trademarked phrases
they're being paid
because companies are treating it as advertising.

someone remind me again why my album is illegal art?

[1] such as 'double your pleasure, double your fun'

shaving update

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:29:51 GMT

so,
my fancy, expensive new brush
is shedding bristles at a disturbing rate.
this worries me.

also,
better brush and working for a better lather
means that instead of getting a long two years out of this soap round,
it is looking like i'll be lucky to get 9-12 months out of this one,
and i'm now barely shaving more than once a week.
i need to re-watch some of the videos on this,
as i think i may be mis-using the brush and soap
both wearing out the brush and using up too much soap.
but this job blocks videos so i have to do it at home and keep forgetting.

i'm anxiously awaiting some heirloom pieces from my mother's father
who passed back in the spring.
a shaving bowl and possibly some safety razors.
i like using a proper shaving cream for doing touch-ups mid-week
and this will be much simpler if i have a bowl to work a lather in
(i have a sample of shaving cream that i pull dabs out of for now).
right now i just wet my face and use the whiskers like brush bristles
and create the lather right on my face.
not ideal,
but its working.

the Taylor of Old Bond Street bay rum is like magic.
no razor burn, no itching, burning, or stinging.
and it smells great.

that state of music in 2008

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:17:39 GMT

if the music industry wants a clue as to why CD sales are off 25%
here's a quick clue:

Katy Perry's big hit "I Kissed a Girl"
gives me at least two kinds of deja vue --

1) the drum line is, i believe, straight out of Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2". if it isn't from that song, it is from other glam rock hit for which i am mistaking one for the other. if it isn't a direct sample, it ought to be copyright infringement because it's mimicked right down the echo effect. who wants to bet apples to gold bricks they aren't paying licensing?

2) didn't we hear these lyrics in 1995 from someone named Jill Sobule?! has our culture progressed so little in terms of defetishizing lesbianism that we've taken this story from an amusing folk romp and turned it into yet another dance floor grinder?

but this song is going to earn someone millions of dollars and i can't get 50 copies of "if { then } else { do }" pressed to sell (or give away) to my friends because somehow i'd be robbing Phil Collins, John Bonham and Peter O'Toole blind.

GO LISTEN TO METRIC INSTEAD!!!

copyright only matters if you can't pay up

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:57:55 GMT

many, many years ago, during the days of Mtv's "Liquid Television"
there was a marvelously animated series called Aeon Flux.

during one of the more bizarre and chilling episodes,
a character has her legs removed by a laser security system
and then automated robots rush out and sew up the wounds so that she doesn't die,
thus dooming the failed escapee to a life as a cripple.

Trevor Goodchild is heard to say
"That which does not kill us, makes us Stranger."

apparently a nearly identical line is spoken by The Joker in "Dark Knight".

i sure hope the screenplay author payed a licensing fee for that "sample".

Guerrilla Tactics Political Post

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:21:18 GMT

anyone who is offended by the New Yorker cover of candidate Obama and his wife
is an idiot who needs to get a hobby aside from hand wringing.

the cult of personality and false hope clearly for sale all over the south side of Chicago
and the gross profiteering which is riding that false hope is far, far more offensive.
"change" is a lie.

here's the deal:

stereotypes are offensive,
so it is said,
because they reduce complex individuals down
into a handful of easily identifiable ear marks,
which may in fact be based on prejudice rather than fact.
they minimalize people.

by that definition,
no one is a stereotype.
the image that a stereotype depicts doesn't exist.

but if no one is a stereotype,
then any humor which pokes fun at stereotypes
actually pokes fun at no one
and so cannot actually be offensive.

humor that pokes directly at an individual,
a real individual,
and belittles aspects of that person which make them who they are
either out of ignorance, hatred or fear,
that's offensive.

but the people on the cover of that magazine don't exist.
and so the image makes fun of no one.
and thus cannot be offensive to anyone.

if something actually -is- offensive,
because it actually pokes directly at an individual,
then only that individual can take offensive.
anyone who steps in to take offensive on their behalf is grand standing
and just wants undeserved attention.

Tweets for Today

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:18:18 GMT

today's tasty tweets

08:59 facebook needs to sort itself out. i can only drink so much tea staring at a dead screen. why have i written more perl in 2008 than java? #

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Tweets for Today

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:18:27 GMT

today's tasty tweets

14:37 the only thing i seem to enjoy about living in Chicago is using the phrase "back East" (which i like) in a condescending way with locals. #

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Tweets for Today

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:39:21 GMT

today's tasty tweets

10:12 btw, i'm not dead. just boring. #

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how on earth can people possibly be this stupid

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:05:27 GMT

just heard a story on NPR
about a man in California
who installed solar panels.
he then discovered that his neighbor's redwood trees often shaded the panels.
apparently CA has a law that it is illegal for anything you own to shade someone's panels.
so he sued.
seven years later the courts found in his favor
and his neighbor had to significantly trim back the trees.

idiots in California: saving the world's natural resources -- no matter what.

more people hate

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:09:40 GMT

so i'm headed east on Roosevelt coming from Home Depot
about to cross State to head back to Lake Shore Drive.
there's a left turn lane which is beginning to emerge on my immediate left
and i'm stopped at a traffic signal, about eight cars deep.
i can't pull any more forward,
and several cars are just squeezing past me to get into the new lane.

*bump*

a f** g***** b**** p******* in her boyfriend's Excursion
having seen the various sensibly sized city cars fitting past me
has attempted to follow suit and plowed right into the back left corner of my car.
i look back in extreme agitation.
i _REALLY_ don't want to deal with a fender bender in -this- intersection
at 10am on a Saturday morning.
the ripple effect into other people's days will be insane.

apparently she didn't want to deal with it either.
because instead of waiting for the light and then pulling through after i moved
she -PUT HER FOOT DOWN- and -DROVE THROUGH- the corner of my car
sped off, made her left turn,
never to be seen again.
because i'd pulled up as flush to the cab in front of me as i could
in an effort to help the previous cars get into that lane,
i couldn't swing left and give chase.

among other reasons to hate Chicago,
this city is also turning me into a racist.
it isn't that people from certain demographics -can't- drive,
but that they chose to use their minority status as a weapon
and -deliberately- drive as recklessly and aggressively as possible
because they know no one can say boo about it
without it becoming a race issue which they know they'll win.

Tweets for Today

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:22:47 GMT

today's tasty tweets

10:46 i finally get to do something that doesn't resemble monkey work. #

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an observation

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:07:28 GMT

public education in this country will be
and at this point -should be
replaced by private education for the majority of young people
for one very simple and obvious reason that everyone is ignoring:

parents now treat education as a service being provided to -their- child.
they expect and demand individualized service and performance.

the core, binding principle of public education is communal and catholic.
all for one, one for all.

parents all want to believe their child is exceptional in some way shape or form.
either exceptionally gifted
or exceptionally broken.
if parents can't have an A+ honor roll student,
they expect their kid to be in every special education program possible
or at the very least one on one tutoring to ensure improvement.

when parents disagree with the way schools handle their child
they tend to blame it on teacher incompetence, laziness
or lack of school funding which is preventing more personalized programs.

it never occurs to them that the reason they disagree with the school
is that the school's decision is based on what is best for -all- children collectively
not on what is best for -that- child in a vacuum.

try to explain that to a parent and be prepared to have your head removed.

this conflict will continue to destroy public education
as it has already begun to do for decades now
until the entire premise simply ceases to be untenable.

Tweets for Today

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:09:59 GMT

today's tasty tweets

01:09 that may have been the most psychologically damaging thing i've ever done. i think i may be permanently broken from that show. #

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Tweets for Today

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:09:06 GMT

today's tasty tweets

08:32 shut up shut up shut up shut UP you stupid queen SHUT UP!!! this is an OFFICE not your local coffee shop. #
11:29 going with the team to chinatown for lunch to say goodbye to Ben #
13:49 wow. almost actually real chinese food. #
14:50 once again, friday afternoon, and facebook performance goes completely to seed. #
15:00 whatever happened to Eminem? did the Fab Five give him a free make-over and turn him metro? #
15:37 tomorrow/sunday i will finish X Files up through season four. that show has not aged well at all. #

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Tweets for Today

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:05:14 GMT

today's tasty tweets

09:36 really wish if it is going to keep raining that it would get warmer, not colder. #
10:13 my wife just informed me that she has scritched the dog's chin #lunnie #
10:20 my wife just informed me that the dog is now chewing a nylabone #lunnie #
10:33 my wife has just informed me that our dog has bear foots #lunnie #

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Tweets for Today

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:10:35 GMT

today's tasty tweets

08:39 my entire itunes library (5600 songs) mysteriously vanished over night. itunes wasn't even running. #
08:40 no laptop at work today, can't do audio from work station, no rap battle for me :( #plaidteam #
08:48 oh my god, what the hell does life expect from me? i can't take much more of this. #
14:50 days like this are the days i wish i could cease to care. #
17:34 once again the Chicago branch of the USPS can go fly a kite in a lightening storm. #

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