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[17 May 2008|03:46am] |
Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins in better days:
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[15 May 2008|03:34am] |
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Curve -- "Hell Above Water" and "Chinese Burn" |
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Three brief notes:
1) I'm amazed that the QFC on Broadway now has a substantial selection of British and Commonwealth food: marmite, spotted dick, malt vinegar, etc. I wonder if the weak dollar has brought a lot of tourists here.
2) Why didn't anyone tell me Curve rocked?
3) As ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mercuryslavejq has observed, apparently there are no pants in the future (NSFW): ( Read more... )
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[08 May 2008|06:15pm] |
Wildlife note: Observed a coyote up close last night. It was about a half mile from my place, near a wooded area adjacent to a sprawling office park. It was running along the road; I was in my car and kept doing u-turns to slowly drive past it. It didn't seem particularly afraid, probably assuming that I was simply one of many passing cars on the road. After a couple of passes it changed direction and ran toward the parking lot of the local TV station. I followed it into the parking lot, but lost sight of it soon after. It probably disappeared into the gulch that encompasses the Black River.
I have kind of mixed feelings about seeing a coyote so near my house. It's fascinating to see wild nature up close, but I am concerned about the safety of my cat. A few years ago I saw a something on my street a few times that looked remarkably like a coyote, but I wasn't sure it wasn't just some freaky mutt. My area is relatively densely suburbanized and I had a hard time believing that a coyote would penetrate that far, but it's not unheard of. The local game control person told me that they do not trap or hunt coyotes.
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[03 May 2008|06:26pm] |
I saw a so called "Smart Car" the other day:
Experts caution that people for whom safety is a priority should avoid the smallest cars.
"You can't repeal the laws of physics," said Russ Rader, media relations director for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which conducts its own car crash tests. "Size and weight are very important aspects of safety."
"You can do things to a small vehicle to make it safer, but it will never be as safe as a bigger heavier vehicle," he said.
The IIHS -- a nonprofit group funded by auto insurers -- has also not yet crash tested a Smart car, but Rader expressed concern about the number of small cars hitting U.S. roads.
"There are potential public health consequences in a switch to small, lightweight vehicles and consumers need to know that there is a trade-off for getting better fuel economy," Rader said.
"The death rate for drivers in the smallest cars is twice as high as it is for people in large cars."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/08/smart.car/index.html
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[01 May 2008|02:37am] |
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Wildlife notes: An opossum was on my patio tonight, the largest beast I've ever seen on my property. The other week I'm convinced I saw a bald eagle near Southcenter.
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[30 Apr 2008|10:53pm] |
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The other day I noticed that the Army is now offering signing bonuses that are apparently restricted toward buying a home or starting a business, not money toward college as was the offer in the past. Initially I assumed they were trying to appeal to people who had not even the vaguest college plans, but the next day there was a story on cnn.com about veterans protesting that the Army's college funds were so stingy that they couldn't make much progress toward their degrees. I have long noticed that the military's money-for-college deals wouldn't take you very far at a private school, but now from what I read, it wouldn't take you far at a public university either. So perhaps that's another part of the explanation for their change of tack.
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[23 Apr 2008|10:21pm] |
Congrats to blue_succubus for debuting(?) at number seven on the NY Times list of best selling children's paperbacks.
7 FROSTBITE, by Richelle Mead. (Razorbill, $8.99.) Book 2 in the Vampire Academy fantasy series. (Ages 12 and up)
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[21 Apr 2008|06:32pm] |
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From "Euphemism and American Violence" by David Bromwich, in the NY Review of Books:
In Tacitus' Agricola, a Caledonian rebel named Calgacus, addressing "a close-packed multitude" preparing to fight, declares that Rome has overrun so much of the world that "there are no more nations beyond us; nothing is there but waves and rocks, and the Romans, more deadly still than these— for in them is an arrogance which no submission or good behavior can escape." Certain habits of speech, he adds, abet the ferocity and arrogance of the empire by infecting even the enemies of Rome with Roman self-deception:
"A rich enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for power. East and West alike have failed to satisfy them.... To robbery, butchery, and rapine, they give the lying name of "government"; they create a desolation and call it peace."
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[21 Apr 2008|06:27pm] |
CNN: Army, Marines give waivers to more felons
"Recruits convicted of assault, drug possession, making terrorist threats allowed in."
"Making terrorist threats?" Wait, aren't we supposed to be fighting the terrorists? Ha ha. Well, I can see waivers for burglary--a skill that conceivably could come in handy fighting insurgents.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/21/military.waivers/index.html?iref=topnews
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[18 Apr 2008|02:43am] |
Which "The Little Prince" character are you?
Saint Exupery's 'The Little Prince' Quiz.
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[15 Apr 2008|05:55pm] |
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Something I was tempted to say today:
"Montana"--is that your real name or your stripper name?
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[14 Apr 2008|03:32am] |
I like Tim Ferriss' exhortation to "be that kid." So I join him in saying, "be that kid!"
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Mixed drink of the week, via blue_succubus:
"It's called the Bleeding Heart! Take one shot of peach vodka and mix it in a short glass of 7UP. Add two heart-shaped ice cubes made of cranberry juice. They bleed, get it?"
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[06 Apr 2008|04:22am] |
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Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!
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[04 Apr 2008|06:58pm] |
I bought a steel sphere yesterday. It looks sort of like that thing the guy in that Escher print is holding up. I got it at Seva Home. They come in various sizes.
I'm blogging from Touchdowns, a sports bar in my hometown. The floorplan is interesting and it has a nice atmosphere. It's near the airstrip so it gets a lot of light during the day. Although I have a lot of run ins with people in my hometown, I think those are typically with outsiders. The people here seem cooler and more like the people I grew up with: metal on the jukebox and union and motorcycle affiliations displayed. I also met a cool Spanish lady. Even from a distance I could tell she was European, so I rolled up to her and told her so.
I can't find the original Escher handy, but this one is pretty funny. It's from Worth1000, a hilarious website:
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[06 Mar 2008|07:57pm] |
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It's great to get a message from an old friend who signs off "from the desert in Eastern Chad." He works for UNICEF, and is always in some exotic locale or another.
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[03 Mar 2008|04:07am] |
(credit: decadence)
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