Off the grid

Got personal business to attend to tomorrow. I'll be back soon enough to post random crap I find on youtube.

But to tide you over, this song is currently stuck in my head. Enjoy.

Contrast

I don't have many passions, I guess you could say.

One of the few that I share with people is that amorphously-defined mess called "Industrial Music"

By accident, I informed someone of the existence of Genesis P-Orridge earlier today, and I am now fighting my natural inclination of "Cool, and then there's this, and that, and this, and this other thing, and these people and...."

Instead, I'll just say I find beauty in strange places in this music. Same band, two different pieces, see something in both of them.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Einsturzende Neubauten:

Happy Thanksgiving

So many things I'm thankful for: friends, family, not having ebola. Too many to list here.

But as an example, let me just say I'm thankful I don't dress like this anymore.



For those celebrating the holiday, may it be a safe one. For those not, happy Thursday.

-transiit

(also kinda thankful that I'll never have that haircut again. yikes.)

Polkadot Cadaver

I like this for reasons I can't explain.

It's that time of year again

This friday, as I have for years, will be participating in "Buy Nothing Day".



It's actually November 27th, but they haven't updated the video "officially" in a while.

rage.

Love them bailouts. Seriously, Love (or maybe the hate of a thousand suns. Can't tell yet)

Still hanging onto hope this administration is going to get more shit right, but wow, what a cock-up.

(via BoingBoing via Mitch Kapor)

rebirth

The High School-Era Zombie Short I linked to a few months back seems to have...um...taken on a life of its own as people repost it on Facebook. Now if I can only get Mike to post a few of the other ones we made back then...

Side Effect

One of the side effects of dumping a bunch of weight I hadn't accounted for was that I get cold pretty darn easily these days. Meeting up with a friend this afternoon where he pointed out that I was shivering (yes, even in the still somewhat balmy California autumn) got me thinking.

Hey, I don't have that awesome layer of insular fat anymore. If I'm not moving around, I feel cold again rather than being some sort of human furnace.

Hassles aside, I like this. I can dress for the occasion to overcome, you know? Break out the thermals again if I gotta.

Side effects, and yet more evidence.

Columbus, go home!

Sneaky. I love it.

(thanks, DangerAmy!)

Retirement

It's no secret that I spend a little too much time on the internet, and as far as IM goes, I've been trying to find new conversation starters.

However, I think I will retire the following three, they just haven't done well.

"Run for your life!"
"I will destroy you."
"Does this look infected to you?"

Anyone that has other "Bad ways to try to start up conversation" tips, comments appreciated.

Of course, I'm "transiit" just about anywhere, so if you're having a slow night, I'm easy enough to find if you can't shake the boredom. I can totally amplify that for you.

Social Media

Well, especially the sort of place where you run into people you probably had no reason to stay in contact with, broad generalization, sure, but I offer you this quotation from the reasonably good film, Grosse Pointe Blank

Marcella: You know, when you started getting invited to your ten year high school reunion, time is catching up.
Martin Q. Blank: Are you talking about a sense of my own mortality or a fear of death?
Marcella: Well, I never really thought about it quite like that.
Martin Q. Blank: Did you go to yours?
Marcella: Yes, I did. It was just as if everyone had swelled.

You can disagree, but that's not going to stop me from rewatching it right about now.

Huh.

You know, the last time I heard the words "Easy, Cracker", it may have been an insult. Didn't think it was culinary advice.

(via BoingBoing)

All is Right in the World

Roger Ebert hates the new Twilight flick

Best opening for a movie review in a while:

The characters in this movie should be arrested for loitering with intent to moan. Never have teenagers been in greater need of a jump-start. Granted some of them are more than 100 years old, but still: their charisma is by Madame Tussaud.

Still not as good as the old Bloom County line "This movie does for film what Jonestown did for Kool-Aid.", but up there.

Still moody

And going to sleep.

Holy Crap, I'm sick of Ticketmaster.

There's a litany of everything that's wrong with TicketMaster around any corner, you can go look them up. Fees, sudden cancellations without refunds, you name it.

But as I'm not a big fan of receiving spam, I set up a new email account every time I have to purchase through them. Lecture by Azar Nafisi and Marjane Satrapi, here comes the email: "We see from your interests that you might be interested in the upcoming shows: Green Day, Slayer, Dashboard Confessional." Skinny Puppy tickets? "We see from your interests you might be interested in the upcoming shows: All American Rejects, Bon Jovi, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons"

Seriously, I'm not making this up. You can click on every opt-out button you see, and they're still going to send you this shit.

Throw on top of that the venues are now in on the act. So you get all the Ticketmaster spam saying "You will like this!" and all of the venue spam "They are playing here, so you should see it!"

Fuck it. If I go see another concert, it's going to be cash on the barrelhead at the door.

Be careful what you wish for

So..um, maybe nobody in Texas is married anymore.

As a friend said "oops"

Another take, and yet another

This gets a special place in my sense of amusement as my father and stepmother live in Texas, and I may have had some conversations with my father last fall regarding CA Prop-8 where we weren't seeing eye-to-eye.

(for the record, he still hasn't gotten back to me on a certain question that I set him up with already knowing the answer. In his, er, defense, he probably forgot.)

For the record, I believe that powers that be are already in a race to resolve this, and the powers that would like to be are going to make as much hay as they can out of it. I still reserve the right to be amused by it for now.

moody

(sister machine gun)


( makes me think of )

Winner

Worst thing I've heard in a while: "I'm sorry you won't get to be with your family for Thanksgiving, that's too bad. But I'll get to be with mine, which is good."

Bitter pill to swallow in a conversation about how my family is doing right after my grandmother died and I'd lost a significant piece of core family.

Bloody hell. Fuck it.

ok scratch that.

This is just too good.

HOLY S#@&, FROZEN WAFFLE SHORTAGE!

Golly, we might have to buy *gasp* generics.

(or on second thought, I haven't bought frozen waffles in nearly ten years...)

So, as a public service, here's a decent waffle recipe:

2C all-purpose flour
2t. baking powder
2T sugar
1/2t salt
2 eggs
1t vanilla extract
2C milk
6T butter

Melt the butter or hack it up into real wee bits. Mix it in with the liquid ingedients as best you can. Mix together the dry the ingredients as best you can. Fold the wet into the dry and let them sit for about 30 minutes (gives the baking powder a chance to get working). Cook on your favorite waffle iron. Makes...um....enough. You can freeze the leftovers and guess what, they're just like the missing frozen waffles. Wacky, no?

Turns out that this holds true for just about any waffle recipe you can find on teh intarwebs, so if you don't like this one, there's plenty of others.

No waffle iron? Well, there's probably plenty of pancake recipes you can go with. The truth of the matter is that anything from waffles to french toast can be made in a batch and frozen with less than an hour's effort for more than a week's worth. I'm sure you all have an inkling of this, but I like the idea of the great Eggo Shortage of 2009 followed by Eggo Rations/Eggo Lines/etc.

Nothing to say.

I'll spare you the rehashed links, the xkcd, the crap I find on youtube.

I'm sorry, I just have nothing to say tonight.

Hope you are well.

On second thought, maybe I should reconsider academia

(courtesy, XKCD)

Milestone 3

Took longer than I'd thought, But (insert string of expletives here), I did it. Sub-180. A few pounds to goal weight. (insert more expletives here), yeah!

Dumbphone owner.

Dumbphone owner, and will be until the stupidity gets sorted out.

Enter the stupidity.

This is a primer.

A friend said that they'd been recommended to check out Skinny Puppy. Being one of my favorite bands, I said I would post a primer on the subject here. So, dutifully fulfilling my obligation.

You can go look up the history of them on places like Wikipedia or Litany, no need to rehash that.

But, a sampling, in no real order:








UPDATE: By request, another version of "Smothered Hope"

UPDATE 2: You don't like ogre, ok, try the ohgr.

zero plus two equals one.

Goodnight, Friends

OMG! koalas!

(via BoingBoing)
Questionably cute animals may be extinct soon-ish. Film at 11.

Comedy.

I keep tabs on various places that might mention me. Total ego-thing, no doubt.

But for several weeks, I've been filtering shit from the convicts of this place (well, I think)

And it's a little funny watching them. Rock on, illiterate youth.

Goodnight, my friends

Everything I loved, early 90's edition.

Sorry, brain dump.







Tons more I could go with, but hey, I bothered you enough.

Yargh.

How does one deal with what feels like a mental short-circuit?

Ok, this "embedding disabled by request" thing is getting annoying.

So, forget it, here's a link

Tomorrow's going to be an interesting day. This song, while the memories sort of predate the context, remind me of the era in my life that's going to be the height of sentimentality in the next 24 hours.

Can't get this song out of my head.

So let me share it with you

Goodnight, my friends.

Ongoing Dispute #12

Been a good long while for one of these. Bring it on.

• A bicyclist was struck by an egg thrown from a gold four-door sedan.


• A caller reported seeing a man on a bicycle with a gun tucked in the back of his pants. Police responded and learned the man was filming a "western" for a class film project, and the gun was an Airsoft pistol.


• A person was rolling on the ground in the middle of the street.


• Two people were seen fighting as several others looked on in Central Park. Police arrived to learn that the people involved were filming a fight scene for a movie.


• Police received two calls about possible shots being fired, but the police helicopter reported that the calls came in just about the time the Disneyland fireworks show started.


• A three-wheel adult tricycle with 30-inch wheels was reported stolen.


• A woman returned home to find a high-school-age boy in her dining room. She questioned the subject about why he wasn't in school, but he just left out the back door and walked away.


• A caller told police he paid a prostitute $300 but she left with her pimp without providing any services.


• Two cars collided and one person complained about pain.


• A fire was reported just north of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, and a 14-year-old boy was seen nearby panting and out of breath.


• A man with a crowbar was chasing another man.


• A man entered a store, grabbed a backpack and tore the tags off it. He then filled the bag with iPods, headphones and a GPS and left the store on a bike.


• A man wearing headphones was exposing himself at a gas station.

(source as often, OC Register)

A Triptych of Booger Haiku

I need to stop thinking about work.

Some days they run on
Some days they could cut through glass
Vile snot meet kleenex

Seriously, this is a bad sign.

An itch in my nose
Do not want to be picking
Anyone looking?

I've been fussing over fiddly technology bits too much.

Did anyone see
That bit dangling gently
Last time I sneezed?


Anybody got a peanut?

It's that time again.

The weather is right, the days grow short, mood is set. Pack away the angry music and relax.



DJ Shadow - The Number Song.

I love fall.

(bonus: DJ Shadow - Midnight in a Perfect World)

I really want a proper weekend.

I may have to fake an aneurysm or something.

need.
time.
off.

Remember kids

Lawyers are not technologists. They are not scientists. They are not engineers. They are lawyers.

MR. JAKES: It might have. It might have.
JUSTICE SCALIA: It clearly did.
MR. JAKES: Well, it's not that clear from Circuit's transformation test whether that or not, because although the Federal Circuit but his undulating has said transformation of data might qualify, it said it has to represent something physical, something -- a real object. And sound doesn't necessarily have to be that. Sound can be generated artificially. So --
JUSTICE SCALIA: Sound -- sound is not physical, and electric current is not physical?
MR. JAKES: I think electric current is physical.
JUSTICE SCALIA: Yes, I think so.
MR. JAKES: Yes.
JUSTICE SCALIA: Sound is, too.
MR. JAKES: It can be, but when it's over a wire, it's not. It's something else. It's an electrical current then.
JUSTICE SCALIA: Sound is not transmitted over the wires. Sound has been transformed into current, and current is transmitted over the wire and then transformed back at the other end into sound.

I like this for reasons I'm not sure I understand

(via Boing Boing)

hurt

Dear World

Dear World,

You don't like search engines, create a file on your domain's root called robots.txt. All it needs to have is this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Thank you.

If you're a user that doesn't have access to such things, well, you'll just have to self-censor.

That'll be my public service announcement for the year, thankyaverymuch.

-transiit

Sonic Death Rabbit

Been listening to them since they opened for SP a couple weeks ago. Really liking it.

Here, try some:

Ogre

Ok, this will be of limited interest to most, but I dug it:

Culinary Arts - The McNuggetini

(found via JWZ)

Nerd Overload

I can't even count everything going on in this.

Found via Laughing Squid

um...err...uh...

Ok, I totally can't parse this, and on the hope that it's being an early edit is the only explanation, this is going to be one of the few times I ever copy/paste an article verbatim. Seriously.

CHIPLEY, Fla. - A tot missing for 5 days has been found alive under her baby sitter's bed, authorities said early Thursday. Police said 3 people had been detained in the case.

Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock said that investigators found 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick in a box at Susan Elizabeth Baker's home near Chipley, a rural Panhandle town.

Haddock said deputies are working to charge Baker, her husband James Arthur Baker and Chrystina Lynn Mercer, who is the child's mother.

The girl's parents reported her missing Saturday afternoon. Haddock said authorities don't believe the father was involved. He said Susan Baker and the father are related.

The girl was last seen when her parents went to bed about 3 a.m. Saturday.

Earlier in the week, police said they believe she disappeared from her home in this remote, makeshift community of dirt roads, tin-roof shacks and old mobile homes sometime before 8 a.m. Saturday. Her parents reported her missing around 11 a.m.

"We have searched every dumpster in the city limits of Chipley, we have turned over every garbage can," Haddock told reporters on Monday.

At the time, Haddock said search teams had been focused on the densely wooded area surrounding the enclave about 45 miles north of Panama City where the girl and her family live.

"The child cannot walk or crawl, it did not leave the residence by itself," he said.

Neighbors in the ramshackle neighborhood of clotheslines and "Beware of Dog" and "No Trespassing" signs on Monday said they rarely spoke to or saw the parents of the missing infant.

"They had only lived here about two months. I only know that this is a wonderful neighborhood and I've always felt safe here," said Donna Davis, who lives two homes down.

Oh, crap, it's AP. I probably owe them scads of money now.

I blame MSNBC, where I found this

What I think I did figure out is that Baker's husband is not the father. Baker is not the mother. The local law enforcement checks garbage first. It might not be the best of neighborhoods, but the locals are keen on it? So, um, Mercer is the mother, but Baker's husband, not the father. Baker not the mother. Clearly Mercer. Not Baker nor her husband. But keep in mind that "her parents" are referred to as a general, so maybe not Mercer (earlier referred to as the mother.) Uh. Er. Um. WTF? Oh, ok, adoption. Let's keep them secret, parents of "Shannon Dedrick". We won't figure you out your identity, parents of "Shannon Dedrick" Nope, no clue there.

I would just like to go on the record that I have never met or married Baker, Mercer or Baker's husband. Nor do I have a child with the surname "Dedrick", which is clearly not "Baker" or "Mercer". And I suspect Haddock is mostly an innocent bystander. Just sayin' is all.

So, hey, how's that newspaper subscription business going?

UPDATE: It appears they re-wrote it. I wonder how much other off-writing gets replaced when nobody's looking?

R.I.P.

Helen Koski, 10/8/1921 - 11/4/2009

A reasonably serious talk from a not-always-serious gentleman.

Why I periodically stop following tech blogs...

Because I just don't give a damn about this week's upcoming cell phone rumor.

I've had the same phone for 3 years. At some point, it'll likely die, and I'll have to go get a new one, but holy crap, do I care about whether or not there might be some leak about what could be part of a case of the next iphone?

Reason #437 I don't miss having cable.

Industrial safety videos on youtube.



Auf Deutsch!