RIP Possum, ? - 2003
Alas, it seems that the possum, whose public debut was chronicled on this very site, met its untimely demise in some sort of motor vehicle incident sometime earlier today. The authorities have been notified, but they have no suspects. (Well, ok, I left a message on the answering machine at the city's animal control office.)

I'm at work and I just received an invoice through the mail with two huge sneaker footprints on it. This just reinforces my phobia about sending anything truly breakable through regular mail.

According to this Wired story, the US Army has deployed a boatload of Panasonic ToughBooks running Windows 2000, and precisely one Titanium Mac Powerbook. Of course, the media folks deployed with the troops have all sorts of macs.

The digital camera's here... Yay!

Regardless of your viewpoint on the war, William Saletan makes a good point in Slate:

If you tuned in to President Bush's Thursday night press conference to understand his point of view on Iraq, you got what you came for. If you tuned in to find out whether he understood yours, tough luck. That was the deal when we traded in Bill Clinton for Bush. We got a president who understood the difference between truth and lying. We gave up one who understood everything in between. The upside is that our president is doing the right thing in Iraq. The downside is that he can't talk anyone else into going along.

[...]

[S]ometimes, things aren't black and white. Sometimes they're gray. When the governments of France, China, or Mexico don't see things your way, you have to start the process of persuasion by understanding where they're coming from. That's where Clinton was at his best and Bush is at his worst. Four times at his press conference, Bush was asked why other countries weren't seeing things our way. Four times, he had no idea.

Also, ABC's Nightline had an interesting report the other night about how Bush's Iraq agenda was basically mapped out by a bunch of his cronies in a right-wing think tank years ago, long before September 11. The September 11 attacks just provided the political climate needed to put the plan into action. Ted Koppel introduces the story:

You can watch our story tonight on at least two levels. One, the conspiracy theory, as in this excerpt from a Scottish newspaper, the Glasgow "Sunday Herald". "A secret blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure regime change even before he took power in January 2001." And a similar, if slightly more hysterical version from a Russian paper, the "Moscow Times". "Not since Mein Kampf has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed, years ahead of the blow."

Take away the somewhat hyperbolic references to conspiracy, however, and you're left with a story that has the additional advantage of being true. Back in 1997, a group of Washington heavyweights, almost all of them neo-conservatives, formed an organization called the Project for the New American Century. They did what former government officials and politicians frequently do when they're out of power, they began formulating a strategy, in this case, a foreign policy strategy, that might bring influence to bear on the Administration then in power, headed by President Clinton. Or failing that, on a new Administration that might someday come to power. They were pushing for the elimination of Saddam Hussein. And proposing the establishment of a strong US military presence in the Persian Gulf, linked to a willingness to use force to protect vital American interests in the Gulf. All of that might be of purely academic interest were it not for the fact that among the men behind that campaign were such names as, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. What was, back in 1997, merely a theory, is now, in 2003, US policy. Hardly a conspiracy, the proposal was out there for anyone to see. But certainly an interesting case study of how columnists, commentators, and think-tank intellectuals can, with time and the election of a sympathetic president, change the course of American foreign policy.

--Transcript via Lexis-Nexis

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that even if it is justifiable and necessary, the war should not be carried out without the backing of the UN and the majority of our allies. The world is too interconnected these days for us to take action without considering the effect of the action on our relationships with other countries. Launching a first strike that most of the rest of the world (and many Americans) see as wrong is bad policy, even if you feel that the war is just.

I want to be clear any anti-war sentiment gleaned from the above paragraph is not directed at our soldiers in the field. I have imense respect for those who volunteer to serve our country, and I understand that it's their job to carry out orders. But supporting them doesn't imply an obligation to agree with those orders.

I think that many of the hawks fail to appreciate the true impact this war could have. We're talking about billions and billions of dollars in military spending, a substantial US military presence in the Gulf region for decades, and possibly permanent harm to our relationships with our Allies and the UN. Not to mention the possibility that the war may drag on longer than predicted. And the human toll on both sides -- especially the challenge of invading and conquering a large and already impoverished country without precipitating a massive humanitarian crisis.

I am prepared to admit that I could be wrong on all of this. But I wish Bush and his crew would at least give a passing thought to the idea that they might be wrong -- or at least that the opposition might have some valid points that should be addressed. The "anyone who isn't with us is against us" doctrine may sound good on the evening news, but it's not a very intelligent way to run a country.

I finally broke down and ordered a digital camera last night. It's from some hole in the wall on the Internet, so I don't really know when it will be here. But expect to see more visuals on this page in the future.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I spent the afternoon studying and listening to a bunch of bluegrass guys jamming at BJRC.

Then I went with some friends to saw a very long (but quite good) 1954 Japanese action movie called Seven Samarai at The Belcourt. If you've seen A Bug's Life, you know the general gist of it.

All in all, a lot better than today's marathon session at work. And more of that in store over the next week, since we have a product launch coming up. Gak.

Just confirmed my reservations for the trip to Europe. The good news is that the airfare only cost me $93 due to creative use of frequent flyer miles. The bad news is that I had to fly into Rome to make this work, since US Airways doesn't serve all that many European airports. So I'm arriving and departing in a different city from the friend I'm traveling with. But still, for $93 I'll put up with some hassle!

We've talked about renting a car, but one snag is that most cars over there seem to be stick shift. I haven't driven one of those suckers in years, and the last time I did the owner (who was in the car with me) apparently swore she'd never let me touch it again. But I got us home, and the car survived the experience...

Anyone know the Italian for "I'm trying, but it keeps stalling -- pull around me!"?

Local radio bigmouth Steve Gill held a ''Bash A Peugeot For Peace'' rally in support of the war yesterday. ''That felt good,'' said one of the participants after swinging a sledgehammer at the French car's trunk. ''It's pretty good exercise, though I don't know what it's symbolic of.''

I'm glad to know that Nashville broadcasters are doing their part to contribute to intelligent debate about US foreign policy.

OK, I'm a little bitter. This year, my alma mater has lined up Bill Clinton to speak at commencement. Last year it was Rudy Giuliani. Obviously they're going for folks who have something interesting to say.

So who did they have at my graduation, you might ask? Some guy named Robert Fulghum, who wrote some book about sharing and taking naps. I'm glad someone was inspired.

Not such a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Mr. Rogers, children's television fixture for more than 30 years, died of cancer early this morning. He was 74.

I had a hankerin' to blog up a storm last night, but unfortunately Blogger was down all evening due to server upgrades. And thus the world loses another literary masterpiece to the vagaries of technology.

Not as much time tonight, but I'll give you the highlights (and some random late-night rambling) :

I've decided to withdraw from one of the graduate classes I'm taking right now -- for a number of complicated reasons, beginning with the fact that the professor seems to have communications issues, and getting an ulcer just doesn't seem like much fun right now. The bad news about this is that it could end up costing me a big pile of moolah -- as much as 50% of my cost for the class. (At the suggestion of a registration advisor, I am petitioning to get a larger refund due to the problems with the class, but I'm not holding my breath.)

I have other reasons for this seemingly rash decision. One of my friends from college has decided to take a month off to bum around Europe after he takes his med school boards. And, having heard my musings about how I'm squandering my waning youth in middle America instead of seeing the world, he invited me to join in. (You can see my dilemma: stultifying information security class on one hand, European vacation on the other!)

So assuming I can work out the travel arrangements in the next few days, it looks like I'm headed for the south of France sometime in mid-April. I'm still going to be in the middle of my Knowledge Management class then, but I figure it's my duty to test the flexibility of online classes at least once in my graduate career.

We have a huge project at work that's supposed to launch in April, but in my opinion the schedule is already hopelessly optimistic -- so I don't think my absence for a week or two is really going to make all that much difference. Today I bounced the idea off of my boss's boss, and he told me to go for it. He also mentioned the possibility of hiring more help again. This is a very good thing, since unrealistic workload is probably one of my biggest complaints. He's been very concerned about my general mental health and well being lately -- I suspect that he was tipped off (or just guessed) that I've been dipping my toe in the job market a bit.

Recently I've become even busier after being handed the responsibility for the company archives. This department has been neglected for years, and has been cut to the bone in terms of staffing and resources. (The higher ups bought into the notion that a few computers would magically reduce the work involved in maintaining 50+ years of various archival materials.) I'm kind of enjoying the challenge of whipping things into shape, but it's a departure from my normal technology duties. Which just makes the three big programming projects we've got going on right now seem even more daunting.

Today I went out to the big boss's house to work on his company computer. This has become a ritual once or twice a year. Sometimes I do highly work-related things on these visits (updating virus software, installing VPN clients, etc.) Other times, not so much. (Installing a wireless network to his son's room isn't exactly on my copy of the company's strategic plan.)

I don't mind this as much as you might think, though. The big man is a wine afficionado, and in return for the housecalls he keeps me in decent vino. Plus I figure it's not a terrible idea career-wise to stay on good terms with a guy who has a corner office and the letters V and P in his title.

It's hard for me to believe that I've been with the company almost five years. I'm starting to feel like an old timer -- I've been here longer than many of people I deal with regularly. This is the job that I was supposed to leave in a year or two, and here I am about to vest in the pension plan. Last night I actually had to stop and think about my age for a minute -- I somehow didn't remember turning 27. I feel like I'm in some sort of strange dimension where I'm losing track of real time. My life is measured from deadline to deadline, and I can't think in terms of anything bigger. It's bizarre -- and a cry for help from my subconcious, I think.

Missing out on the snow...

Washington, DC, March 1942

I am very jealous of everyone in the Northeast. I love a good snowstorm -- and Tennessee just doesn't get enough of them. (Admittedly there's been more snow this winter than any other time since I moved here, but folks still consider it the blizzard of the century if five or six inches of snow stick around for a day or two.)

I talked to my parents yesterday, and they were right in the thick of things, with something like 16 inches on the ground and more coming down. (The Washington Post describes the scene.)

I was working in DC when the blizzard hit in 1996. I was home from college and working, and got to stay home from work for a few days. Then I had the adventure of making my way across town to work for a day or two before the next batch of snow. My brother was visiting a friend on the other side of the county, and ended up spending a couple of days there until I made it there to pick him up. Meanwhile, my dad stayed home from work, my middle brother stayed home from school, and we all just enjoyed the automatic holiday. I have a picture of my brother, my dad, and me posing with shovels amid the massive piles of snow in front of the house. (The picture is crooked -- I think Mom was having trouble operating the camera with gloves on.)

I honestly lookat the whole thing as an adventure. Everyone's in the same boat -- marooned by a blanket of white fluff. It's a good opportunity to sit down and smell the hot chocolate. Something people should do more of.

There's a guy named George who works the register late Saturday night at Kroger. He does a running commentary under his breath as he scans your groceries. "Ahh. Radishes... No, Spinach! Spinach is good. I love wild spinach. That's good stuff... We close in 15 minutes, you know. Some stores are open 24 hours. But not us. No. We close at 11:00 sharp. People don't know that. There's just two of us here now. Course some people have their day off. Not me, I already had my time off. Now I've got to make up for it. John Grisham book. He's a good writer. I've read his stuff. The Pelican Brief. Exciting. Better put the pizza in its own bag. Soda pop! Put those over here, yup."

Everyone thought Ken Lay of Enron was insider-trading, low-life scum. Turns out the real story is a lot more complex than that.

Help! I'm stuck somewhere in the wilds of deepest, darkest middle Tennessee fixing a computer. (Well, ok. Maury county.)

Will try to post details of parental visit soon (hint: it involved my first trip to the Grand Ole Opry), but right now am trying to deal with the fact that I'm two weeks into classes and already behind in my reading.

When it woke up, the dinosaur was still there

That, in its entirety, is one of the shortest stories ever written. Alas, its author, Guatemalan writer Augusto Monterroso, passed away on Friday.

Parents here visiting, so blogging is likely to be eratic for the next few days.

OK, the possum is out there again. I usually keep the shade on that window closed -- I'm starting to wonder if he's been hanging out on that windowsill all winter. It's behind a bush, under a roof overhang, and probably pretty warm due to my lack of decent weather stripping. If I were a marsupial, that might be the sort of place I'd dig.

Still no camera, but he looks almost exactly like this guy.

Possum!

Just had a possum sitting on the window ledge right outside my bedroom window. Oblivious to the whole thing, the cat was sitting on the sill of the next window over. Eventually she noticed the possum and started meowing and pawing at the window. The possum didn't exactly seem to be intimidated -- he yawned twice and sat there for a while before eventually climbing down the bush and sauntering off. (This is East Nashville , after all. A possum's gotta maintain his tough-guy image if he's gonna make it on the street.)

I snapped some pictures, but I don't know if they'll turn out. And still being digitally impaired, I won't know until I finish the roll and take it to be developed. That's just how old-school we are here at Newton's Kumquat. (I have my eye on a Canon Powershot S45, though, so maybe I'll get with the digital program soon.)

Swimsuit issue coming soon!

The National Geographic swimsuit issue, that is. The sober-minded magazine is publishing a 100-year retrospective of the swimsuit, timed to roughly correspond with the publication of the better known swimsuit issue.

Sports Illustrated seems to be dealing with the competition well. "‘As the pioneers of the swimsuit genre," said Rick McCabe, "we welcome National Geographic into the fold."

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of- wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never Lark, or even Eagle flew -
And while with silent lifting mind, I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

- John Gillespie Magee, Jr, 1922-1944

In memory of international heros Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, and Ilan Ramon.

This guy at the INS had a huge backlog of paperwork, so he ordered his employees to start shredding. An estimated 90,000 documents, including passports and birth certificates, were destroyed. When the backlog had been eliminated, the manager ordered his employees to keep shredding so that they could "stay current."

Guess that whole reinventing government thing must finally be kicking in - bet they weren't that efficient when Clinton was in office! (Link via Boing Boing.

Out of control spam -- I think it may be time to get a new e-mail account...

I am no big fan of many of the policies of George W. Bush..

Economy? Let's cut taxes for the wealthy, increase government spending, and build up a record-setting federal deficit. Environment? Let's relax clean air regulations and encourage the purchase of gas guzzling vehicles. Foreign policy? Pay lip service to the UN while waging an undeclared war in the Middle East and ignoring other countries with more advanced weapons programs. You get the idea.

All that said, I want to take a minute to voice my wholehearted support for one of the initiatives Bush touted in his recent State of the Union address. Bush's unexpected proposal to spend $15 billion over the next five years on AIDS treatment and prevention in Africa and the Carribean is more than just another foreign aid program -- it's a moral imperative. As Bush put it,

Today, on the continent of Africa, nearly 30 million people have the AIDS virus, including 3 million children under the age of 15. There are whole countries in Africa where more than one-third of the adult population carries the infection. More than 4 million require immediate drug treatment. Yet across that continent, only 50,000 AIDS victims _ only 50,000 -- are receiving the medicine they need.

Bush's speech only hints at the horror of what's happening. The worldwide AIDS epidemic has already left behind more than 14 million orphans, 92 percent of whom live in Africa. In Botswana, more than 38 percent of the adult population is infected with the virus. (link)

Secretary of State Colin Powell recognizes the gravity of this situation:

Powell called HIV/AIDS "a catastrophe worse than terrorism." He said, "One threat that troubles me perhaps more than any other does not come out of the barrel of a gun, it is not an army on the march, it is not an ideology on a march. It's called HIV/AIDS." (link)

Please take time to contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support Bush's plan to increase funding to help fight this global crisis. Health should be a universal human right, and as one of the richest countries in the world the US should be taking a leadership role in financing this sort of initiative.

Yay! DSL is back!

I am blog impaired right now due to the fact that my DSL provider (Direct TV DSL) has apparently gasped its last. I've signed up for service from Butler.net, a small local DSL provider, so hopefully I'll be back in business in the next few days.

Right now I'm doing the unthinkable and blogging from work. It's actually 1:30 in the morning, but let's just say I wasn't exacly in a state to drive home right away after departing the Saucer this evening. 47 beers down, 153 to go.

I have another class from the the professor from hell. I actually signed up knowing he was teaching it. The class I was hoping to take at another school fell through, and this was the most interesting one that wasn't full. But this means another freakin' group project and probably more hellish exams. Gak. On the plus side, after this semester I'm six credits away from finishing the degree!

My parents may be making a surprise visit to Nashville next week, so I might be spending my weekend cleaning house so I can show them how organized my place always is. ;-) This also means coming up with suitably parental activities, including where to send them while I'm at work, since I won't be able to take the whole week off. (Of course they're still waffling about the plane tickets, so they may never make it.)

Someone at the electric company apparently tripped over an extension cord and inadvertently cut off power to our office building this morning. This shouldn't have been a big deal -- we have an uninterruptable power supply the size of a VW bus that's supposed to keep the computer room in electricity when things like this happen.

Unfortunately, however, the it malfunctioned, and just about every computer system in the company took a hit at the same time.

So I spent all day working with many other folks to resurrect all of the various systems. Overall we were pretty successful, although there are still a few lurking gremlins. (One server still refuses to come back online correctly, a router got fried, etc.)

This was not how I had planned on spending my last weekend of freedom before classes start, though...

Danielle started a conversation about Chili... I typed in my favorite in her comments, but I figured I'd share with you folks too:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into one inch cubes
1 small onion, coarsely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium green bell pepper, coarsly chopped (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 can (14 1/2 oz) red kidney beans, undrained
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes (I sometimes use canned tomatoes with chilis mixed in - something like RoTel.)
1 tbsp Chili Powder
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano or cilantro leaves
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken, onion, and bell pepper. Saute 8-10 minutes.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Simmer 15 minutes. Makes 6 cups.

(I think this was clipped from an ad, and they had a "serving suggestion" of putting it in a hollowed out bread bowl, but I've never done that.)

Argh. I actually write a post for a change, and freakin' blogger won't let me publish it! I gotta do something about that...

I know, I'm a lazy, non-posting scumball lately. I promise I'll get back in the habit once classes start again. (My procrastination potential increases in a linear relationship with the amount of schoolwork I'm supposed to be doing!)

I've been trying to make my "goof-off time" count. Among other things, I've actually read some books that have nothing to do with technology management, including:

• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
• The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester
• The Natural by Joe Klein
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (originally reccomended by Danielle, I believe)
• Look at Me by Jennifer Egan
• The Summons by John Grisham
• Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Chicago Then and Now by Elizabeth McNulty (Christmas gift from my mom who went to a conference in Chicago and fell in love with the city.)
• Fresh for '01 You Suckas: A Boondocks collection by Aaron McGruder. (Still my one of my favorite comics that the local paper is too chicken to carry.)
• Most of the relaunch issue of the Oxford American, which has been on woefully shaky financial ground for the last few years, but is supposedly coming back.

I've even done some cleanup around the house, although it's still pretty disorganized. But at least they're no longer sending out avalanche warnings for the area around my desk. And I used rubbing alcohol (folk remedy suggested by some website) to clean the little aphid thingies off of one of my big houseplants. The patient is in remission, but we'll see how it goes.

Decided to try growing a beard -- after not shaving for most of my vacation. Reaction a work yesterday was generally positive. We'll see what happens.

In PA through Wed. Staying up all night, playing video games, losing money at poker, feeding deer, and otherwise generally goofing off. Much fun.

Off to Lord's Valley, PA to hang out with college friends for New Years. My friend is looking for fun things for us to do -- so far the options include a cement museum and a fishing lure museum.

Merry Christmas!

Urgh. Somehow it has fallen to me (again!) to go pick up the $#@*!%$ Honeybaked Ham. For those not familiar, this is a cherished holiday tradition that involves standing in a long outdoor line in a suburban Maryland strip mall to retrieve a hunk of meat. I'm just bubbling over with holiday cheer about this, if you can't tell.

Stayed at work until 4:30 AM on Saturday finishing up odds and ends, then slept for a while, packed, and left town Saturday evening. Drove as far as Bristol, stayed at a hotel, then drove the rest of the 675 miles today. (Of course I had to stop at my Mom's favorite barbeque place on the way out of Nashville and load up a cooler for her!)

The sky was absolutely beautiful driving up the Shenendoah valley on I-81 -- there was bright golden sunlight coming from the west with highlighting fluffy white clouds. But to the east of the mountains you could see a solid wall of black clouds. Every once in a while the ridgeline would dip and you could see brightly colored clouds underneath it all.

I'm in DC for the next few days, then heading up to a friend's place in the boonies in Pennsylvania for New Years, then back here for a dentist appointment (fun!) and back to Nashville sometime roundabout the 6th.

Now that I actually have some time, I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to put up Christmas lights for the 2 days I have left before I head north. I like the way they look, but, man, that's a lot of untangling and stuff.

I've managed to con my 12-year-old neighbor into taking care of my cat while I'm gone. (I plan to pay her, but I think I probably could have pulled a Tom Sawyer -- she was just excited about playing with the cat!)

This is kinda cool. Yamaha has a CD burner that can use the unburned area od the CD to burn text into the data side of the disk, creating a permanent label.

On an unrelated technology note, it seems that DirectTV DSL (née Telocity) is being closed down by Hughes. (My 30-day warning arrived via e-mail at 4:30 this morning.) I originally switched to Telocity after Comcast@Home (née Intermedia@Home, aka Excite@Home) gave me crap about running a web server on my connection. So it looks like I'm back in the market for a provider. At this point, I think the top contenders are SpeakEasy and Butler. The second one seems to be run by some local guy out of his garage, but then again, there's something to be said for knowing where your ISP lives. And I really like the fact that he's actually encouraging people to set up open-access WiFi access points using his service -- that's a refreshing change from network nazis who run some of the big-name providers.

As of 4:30ish this morning, I think I'm finally done with classes for this semester! Now to deal with the other parts of my life that I've been ignoring for the last month. Including this blog.

A sad day...

They just demolished the Capital Center, also known as the US Air Arena. It was an ugly building, and the new downtown arena in DC is in a much better location. But the Cap Center was part of growing up in Prince George's County. It is where I went to my first rock concert and where I graduated from high school. And I remember going there with my family a number of times to see "Spirit of America" pageants put on by local military units, and one time I was part of a chorus that sang the National Anthem before a hockey game.

The arena was built in the early 1970s, and I grew up along with it. It was probably of limited use with no hockey or basketball team to fill the seats. But it's still sad to see it go. They're going to build a shopping mall on the site.

Argh! My professor from hell did it again. While this exam is not as bad as the 35 hour midterm, it is still nuts. He seems to think that as long as he tells us to limit each response to three pages, we shouldn't have a problem. But the problem is that each question has 4-5 subquestions, and each subquestion could easily take up 10 pages on its own. I mean, "What factors were responsible for GM's and Chrysler's problems?" isn't exactly a 5-word answer, let alone "Compare the roles played by information systems at Chrysler and GM. How did they affect the structure of the automobile industry?" And these are just two of the four answers I'm supposed to cram into three double spaced pages. And then there are four more broad questions each with 4-5 subquestions where this one came from.

And I haven't even started the final for the database class.

Oy. I need a beer.

Update on the Harry Potter clue auction. The Leaky Cauldron raised enough for a $24,000 bid, but was beat out by an anonymous American bidder who pledged $45,231. The good news is that between the winning bid and the $24,000 the Leaky Cauldron raised, somewhere north of $60,000 is going to buy books for kids in Eritrea. But the elusive Potter clue is still secret...

Sorry I've been so quiet lately. Lots going on at work, and all sorts of end-of-the-semester madness with my classes. Two finals in the next few days, then I'm done. (And can start thinking about all the other stuff I've been ignoring lately...)

The Leaky Cauldron, a Harry Potter fan blog, is raising money to bid on J.K. Rowling's 93-word clue to what's going to be in the next Harry Potter book. If successful, the clue will be posted on the site for all to see -- their worst fear is that some rich collector will score the note and keep it secret.

Sotheby's has estimated that the note may go for as much as $9,400 in the auction next week. It's all for a good cause, though. The proceeds are being donated to Book Aid International, a charity that distributes books in third-world countries. And Leaky, Inc.(as the newly-incorporated Blog is now known) will donate the proceeds of its drive to charity whether or not it is successful in getting the note.

Some guy tried to FedEx a letter to Santa, and according to the company's online tracking system they delivered it to a ski resort in Colorado. With the big day coming up in less than three weeks, you wouldn't think the sleighmeister would have time for a snowboarding jaunt in the Rockies! Shouldn't he be making a list, checking it twice, and finding out who's naughty and nice? Not to mention figuring out how to get lumps of coal and sugarplums through airport security. What a slacker.

Then again, maybe he's just attending a Santa Convention.

Or he could be on the lam because of his criminal record.

We had a charity auction at work today, and I picked up a bunch of books including Dreamland, The Map That Changed the World, Gumbo, The Ford Century and German for Travelers. Not that I need any more reading material -- I already have books stacked on every available surface. In fact, I really need to get more shelves or I'm going to run out of living space.

I also had the winning bid on a Mr. Coffee Espresso machine. (I can sense the coffee purists turning up their noses, but I figured for $8.50, what the heck?) Tried making my first shot tonight, but I still have some kinks to work out in my technique. While looking for tips, I came across this site. I had no idea you could actually buy a $1800 coffee machine!

This weekend is all about finishing up a paper and getting ready for two finals. Plus laundry and grocery shopping. All sorts of fun.

The tree in front of my house was coated with ice this morning. It was beautiful, but since I am unfortunately lacking in the digital camera department, you don't get to see it. I've got to do something about that.

As of 1:00 this morning, I have consumed 34 of the requisite 200 beers to get my own plate on the wall at The Flying Saucer. According to their patented BrewTron computer, if I continue my current rate of alcoholic beverage consumption my name should go up in tableware sometime roudabout 2013. Luckily the bar is strategically located not too far from my office, and has comfy couches. We've tossed around the idea of setting up a wireless network and actually conducting business over there.

I think I'm finally telling the folks from the out-of-town job to take my name out of the running. They wanted me to give them references, and ironically one of the folks I called to set up as a reference ended up helping convince me to turn down the job.It just didn't seem like a good fit for me career-wise or company-wise. I'm still not sure I won't up and move out of Nashville one of these days, but I'm staying put for the moment.

The rest of Thanksgiving weekend was fun. We went and got a load of firewood for the newly-reconstituted fireplace, and then my brothers and I spent the afternoon playing lumberjack and splitting it with a sledgehammer and wedge. Amazingly there was only one incident involving blood.

The Salvadoran restaurant turned out to be really good -- it's one of those little holes in the wall you might not think to try.

My parents gave me a framed 1930s Fortune magazine cover as a belated birthday present -- which is very cool. I've been into these ever since I came across one in an antique shop on vacation. The depression hit soon after the magazine lauched in the late 20's, and they were able to hire first rate artists for dirt cheap. So they published all sorts of nifty art-deco design. Here are some examples, although I don't think they're the best ones.

Got a call from a recording of the "Rockin' DJ" at work, who it seems was trying to pitch some sort of voice mail service. I hit the button like I was going to order, and then gave the telemarketer a hard time until she disconnected me. Then I used the web to track down the company in Texas and file a complaint with their local better business bureau. I know these little crusades I go on every so often are futile, but they help break up the monotony.

You should read this Thanksgiving post by Media Minded about why, despite its blemishes, America is still a great place to live.

I'm at my parents' in DC for the next two days, and my two brothers are also visiting. Today we did all the the typical Thanksgiving things. We also -- for the first time in at least a quarter century -- lit a fire in the fireplace. The damper broke sometime roundabout 1974, and they just now got around to having it fixed. So we got to play with fire 'n stuff.

The other strange thing is that my mother has continued her longterm slow-motion campaign to convert my old room into a guest room. This started out slow, but has picked up momentum and has proceeded to the point where it no longer feels like my room. (I think this happened when I got home and realized that my old penants had been removed from the wall, flowered wallpaper had been applied, and an antique china shelf had taken up residence in the corner. My middle brother's room has become my mom's office, and I think my dad is circling like a vulture over my youngest brother's bedroom when he officially moves out. (He's graduating from college in May, but is pretty vague about his plans after that. They may involve going to seminary and/or doing some sort of service program for a couple of years. Earlier he was talking about moving to Salt Lake City. )

Tomorrow we're having a very belated celebration of my birthday and my brother's birthday by going out to a nearby Salvadoran restaurant that my parents apparently begun frequenting. This should be interesting -- I'm not sure I've ever had Salvadoran food before.

Unfortunately I have to go back to Nashville on Saturday night. I used a frequent flyer award to come up for free, but the tradeoff was that I had to travel today and Saturday to avoid the holiday blackout periods. Oh, well. I think I'm going to drive up and take more time around Christmas.

I should be working on schoolwork, but I figure I'm exempt since this is a holiday. Am going to try to be good about this tomorrow.

Seen on the back of a new keyboard:

WARNING: Feeling the discomfort, Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI) caused by the long periods had habits & repetitive motion at improper working environment. Please cease to use consult your professional immediately.

Q: What skitters and scurries and makes strange noises in the early morning?

I don't know either, but I think it may be living in my attic.

Living, on a Jet Plane

Max Power Aerospace, a company in nearby Smyrna, TN is apparently selling "Airplane Homes." They are made of out decommissioned Boeing 727 aircraft mounted on pedestals, and can even be mounted to swivel in the wind!

The best part? You can bid on one on E-Bay.

Profiles in Frustration

Today has been a very strange day. First I got roped into a last-minute project that would have waited until tomorrow if I worked in a democracy. Unfortunately, it seems I actually work in a dictatorship, and the work had to be done tonight.

When I finally escaped, I headed over to a party a work friend was throwing for some of the college kids I spoke to last week. (They followed me back and are visiting our office this week.) Hung out there for a while, then headed home. I managed to scatter the contents of my CD case all over the interior of my truck while I was driving, so I was a bit preoccupied when I pulled up in front of my house. Which is my excuse for why I locked the truck up with my keys sitting on the front seat.

I had another key to the truck in the house, but it was utterly useless since the house key was in the truck. So I started evaluating my options. I thought about knocking on my neighbors' door. But since it was around midnight and they have small kids, I felt really bad doing this, especially since I'm not 100% positive they have a current key.

So then it occurred to me that I keep a spare house key in my desk drawer at work just for situations like this. SoI grabbed a cab and headed across town to my office. When I got there, I ran in, figuring that I could just grab the key and be out in two minutes. But I had forgotten one thing: the door to my office was also locked, and the key was... in my truck. So then I had to tear around the building to find a cleaning person with the right key to get into my office, grab the key. That probably ate up ten minutes or so on the taxi meter.

Then I headed back across town, opened up the house, found my spare truck key, and retrieved my key ring. Total cost: 45 minutes and $15. Better than the hour and $60 I would have spent calling a locksmith, but still not exactly what you'd call a good use of time or money.

And now I'm compounding the damage by blogging about this instead of working on my class project that's due tomorrow...

Hometown in the news

My hometown got a big story in the Washington Post because of its decision set up a corn silo to support residential corn stoves. You heard that right: corn stoves! Apparently corn makes a great environmentally-friendly heating fuel.

Takoma Park, a town of about 17,000 people on the outskirts of Washington, DC, has also been a nuclear free zone since the mid-1980s. And unlike Nashville, they've had a well-run mandatory recycling program for years. (Don't get me started on Nashville's expensive new program that only picks up once a month, requires the use of minivan-sized 100 gallon drums, and doesn't even take glass or plastic!)

I have heat now, although I'm not convinced it's not going to cut out again the next time it rains. But at least it's toasty inside.

Margaret over at MightyGirl linked to BlackPeopleLoveUs.com, a highly (but subtly) satirical website making fund of various racist attitudes. Reading the letters received by the site, it seems that about half of the people get the joke, and the other half are utterly outraged by the whole thing. I was curious as to who the prankster was, so I did a whois on the domain and found out that it was owned by one "Jonah Peretti." I then did a google search on this name and hit paydirt. It seems that Peretti is the guy who tried to order customized sneakers from Nike with the word "sweatshop" stitched on them, and set up a "rejection hotline" in New York City as an experiment in spreading news by word of mouth.

He's was talking about the rejection line phenomenon when he made the following statement in this article:

People think of media as this monolithic thing that chooses to cover one thing or another. But really, it's people who make media, and they hear stories from friends of theirs. Social networks tie into the way mass media works.

The subplot is I'm trying to demonstrate that the Internet hasn't become totally corporate. Individuals with very little money can still reach millions of people.

This is along the lines of the point I was trying to get at with my little "media" diatribe a few months back (here and here).

(Argh! In looking for those last two links, I discovered that Blogger had shredded all but two weeks worth of my archive! One of these days I gotta move this sucker off to a better publishing system. All the cool kids seems to be using Movable Type these days, so maybe that's the way to go.)

Update: The repair guy they sent this time isn't exactly what you'd call "articulate." He just wandered through my living room and said something along the lines of "ahbeleete module gwetijh ahnf." I just nodded -- it sounded like furnace-fixin talk to me...

Cold house update: Gas logs in fireplace have provided some heat, and repair guy is now poking around in the furnace. Am temporarily holding off mailing box of spiders to landlord.

It's very cold in my house. Am comtemplating torturous deaths for my landlord.

Random Snippets

The small college town where I just spent the week had a number of cable access channels -- including two for local high schools, one for the college, one for the city, one for the county, etc. One was apparently the "Error reading drive A" channel. This error message on screen for the entire week. I watched it for a while, figuring that something had to happen eventually. I probably doubled their audience.

I was apparently outside of the coverage area for both my pager and my cell phone. Which was great until my office fedexed me a replacement phone on Wednesday. So much for escaping the leash.

Took an unplanned side trip to the quilt museum in Paducah, Ky. Which I have to say was pretty incredible, despite what you might think. Quilting is apparently big business there -- not only do they have the museum, but they have quilting magazines, quilting suppliers, and an internationally-known quilting show. Also got to see the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, and got a quick look at the nifty historical murals on the flood walls along the river.

Got home to find my heat broken again, for the third time this fall. My landlord is not my favorite person right now.

It's cold and rainy. The guy at the little health food market seemed amazed that I had left the house -- apparently he heard a rumor of a possible snowflake this weekend. In Tennessee, it's customary to hole up for a week whenever someone uses the "S" word. Once again, I'm just not fitting in...

An old friend from high school pointed out this great site.

Ugh. 8:00 AM classes were bad enough in college. And back then I could always stagger in at 8:05 and settle in the back with an emergency coffee ration!

Now they're expecting me to get up and talk coherently to dozens of students at that hour. It's inhuman, I tell ya!

People keep googling me looking for "pictures of kumquats." Here.

Now leave me alone, already!

I confess to getting sucked into the Harry Potter books after constant harassment by a friend. But in Harry Potter Pampered jock, patsy, fraud, Chris Suellentrop debunks the cult of Potter, claiming that the young wizard is just another quidditch jock skating by on his parents' money and reputation. hehe.

The most amusing thing is how seriously some of the people commenting on the article are taking it.

Pulled an all-nighter on Friday fighting with a brand new $20,000+ Dell Linux server that kept freezing up. It has now gone 22 hours under load without keeling over, so hopefully I'm done with the danged thing. On the other hand, the $1000 Linux server sitting under my desk hasn't gone down since I installed it in July. The IT gods can be a fickle bunch.

I'm going to be out of town this coming week -- I've been recruited to speak to college students about my job 'n stuff. Should be an interesting change, but it's also a bit intimidating. (Like all of a sudden I'm some sort of role model or something!)

Right now I'm busy straightening up the house -- don't want the catsitter to know what a slob I really am...

In election news from Tennessee, it looks like we're going to have a lottery and a democratic governor. (But a Tennessee democrat isn't that different from a Republican anywhere else.) Lamar Alexandar won Fred Thompson's old senate seat, which was vacant after Fred quit to pursue an acting gig on Law and Order.

A constitutional amendment to repeal a $50 limit on fines imposed by the government without a jury trial did not pass despite receiving a majority of votes cast. The limit was written into the state constitution in 1796, when $50 was a much bigger deal. I waffled on this a bit, but eventually decided that slumlords and other scum should have to pay a meaningful fine if they violate city ordinances.

In local Nashville news, term limits were once again upheld for the Metro council. (In most cases, I think term limits are a bad idea. They just reduce the number of choices available to voters and lead to a lot of lame duck candidates who don't care what the public thinks anymore. If you don't like what a politician is doing, it's your right to vote them out. You don't need a term limit for this.)

I'm stuck at work working on programming for a project that has to be done by tomorrow. To test it, I have to fire the scripts up and let them run for a few minutes before I can tell if they're doing what I want.

Problem is, I have no attention span, so I keep firing them up and then going off and reading blogs, writing e-mails, staring aimlessly into space, etc. Then when I make it back to the real work, I've forgotten exactly what I was trying to test in the first place. This has happened repeatedly tonight. Urk. Think I need to go home.

Well, I just turned 27. So far I've celebrated by, um, working on a paper for my database class. The fun never stops, I tell ya.

This is actually from yesterday, but I'm in the mood to rant a bit, so... It appears that the nut jobs found out a few kids were actually having FUN in school, so they got right to work making sure that sort of silliness would never happen again. See Schools no longer embrace holiday from yesterday's Tennessean. I have many fond memories of dressing up and going to school in sometimes horribly uncomfortbale costumes that my parents spent hours on. I remember one year my brother wanted to be an ear of corn, so my parents put together the costume complete with a ski cap with tassles hanging out of the top. (I think that's still around somewhere at home.) Why are we trying to take away these sorts of memories from our kids? I find the fact that people call Halloween a pagan holiday to be especially laughable. A number of our modern Christmas traditions are rooted in pagan solstice rituals, but I bet these folks have no problem whatsoever with having a Christmas tree in their house. Cultures have always mixed and melded, and the meaning one culture places on a celebration may be totally different from another. In the case of Halloween in 20th century America, we basically have a secular celebration that's mainly about dressing up, scaring people, carving pumpkins, and getting sick on tons of candy. To attach any deeper meaning to it is just plain nuts. I really hope this is just a Tennessee thing and not a nationwide trend...

Couldn't find my good pumpkin caring knife, so my jack-o-lantern looks like it got hacked by some sort of ghoul. Then again, I guess that's kind of the point.

Back in Nashville now. The interview with "Company X" went ok, I think, but I really don't know if the job is a good fit for me. Seemed like the place wasn't necesarily very open to new ideas, and I didn't get sense that there was a whole lot of excitement about what they do My stress level in my current job was near an all-time high this morning, but as I went through the day I began to appreciate some of the things that we've done since I got here. I feel strongly about the way certain things in our business are going, and I wonder if these ideas might clash with the culture at Company X. On the other hand, it's in a part of the country I'd much prefer to be in. And there may be some interesting advancement and networking possibilities involved in the job. And it would be an opportunity to learn some new things. And it might pay better. I've had this little argument going on in my head ever since I walked out of the interview, and it's driving me to distraction. Which is bad since I have a midterm due tomorrow and have barely started it. Ack!

Out of town for afformentioned job interview. Visiting some friends while I'm at it. Still waffling - we'll see how I feel about this after tomorrow.

And now a tale of technological woe...

So there I am in coastal North Carolina, and I have to hop a plane and fly home to decidedly noncoastal Nashville in about 6 hours. Wanting to avoid this unpleasant reality as long as possible, I grab the bare necessities (towel, sunglasses, and, of course, cell phone) and head down to the beach. I arrive at said beach. I set down the towel. I take off the sunglasses. And I head for the water. (Those reading carefully have probably already noticed the problem here.)

I dive blissfully into the ocean, enjoying the crashing waves and salt water. I get in about chest deep when I notice a strange sensation coming from somewhere in the depths of my bathing suit. (No, not that kind of sensation, you perv!)

Always alert for sharks and other precursors to the loss of vital anatomy, I swat at it, only to realize that it is rather rectangular, and is vibrating in a rather mechanical way. Sort of like, well...

CRAP! Grab for pocket, and retrieve a very wet cell phone that is shaking like it's about to self-destruct. That would be bad, I figure, so I attempt to remove the battery from the back of the phone. Only the battery is spring loaded, and immediately flies off and disappears beneath the waves. I make a brief attempt to dive after it, only I'm still trying to hold the drowning remains of the phone above water. At this point people on the beach have noticed the strange dance I'm doing, and are probably considering calling in the coast guard for a maritime rescue.

After a minute I give up on the battery and head for shore to deposit the phone. Then I head back out to the area, and remarkably find the battery with my foot.

I retained some hope that my poor little flip-phone would come back from the dead after a few days of rest. After all, I've seen computers get doused and come back to life. (Although the salt water was sort of a new twist, I have to admit.)

For the first day or so the cell phone would vibrate in a sickly way if I reattached the battery. But now I like to think it has passed on to a better world. And I've temporarily reverted back to my previous cell phone (circa 1999) which weighs about 20 pounds and will come in handy if I ever need to take out a mugger.

So I guess I'm in the market for a new phone one of these days. (And as my pennance, I'm giving mocking the stupid things my users manage to do to their laptops. At least for a week or two.)

Page says I don't post enough. And she's right. Truth is I have a horrible case of Blogger's guilt about this. So I hereby resolve to increase the level of inane crap I post on this page. When I get around to it, anyway.

Guilty pleasure of the day: Last week, I ordered several books for my Organizational Performance class from Amazon.com. I had a coupon for $10 off my order, but only if I spent more than $50. So naturally I had to buy a few "bonus" items. (After all, I have to do my part to support the American economic recovery.) So I threw in a copy of Home by the Dixie Chicks, and the DVD of Amelie, which I saw in the theater when it was released in the US.

So instead of flowcharting and analyzing, I spent the last few hours watching the whimsical Parisian flick. Which, I have decided, is one of my favorite movies of all time. It is just a beautiful film in every respect, and the story appeals the closet romantic in me.

So I finished the DVD, and had pretty much decided that I needed to take a trip to Paris. Then I clicked on the director's commentary while I burrowed back into my laptop. Suddenly, I heard director and Montmartre native Jean-Pierre Jeunet tell me just how bad an idea this was:

Dont come to paris. It's a nightmare for the French people. And this film is a big lie, believe me. Paris is very different. We have a lot of dog shits on the street. It rains every day. And we have a lot of traffic jam. This film is a big cheat.

(pregnant pause)

Except Montmartre . Montmartre is very nice.

And later, admiring a shot:

It's a little bit like a real set. Look at this set, it's amazing. You know, Paris is very nice.

Sorry, Jean-Pierre, I'm not buying your "Paris sucks" routine...

When I got back from vacation, this little gem was waiting on my work voicemail. Note that while my company has a telemarketing department, I have absolutely nothing to do with it.

Look here as soon as you return October frickin 14th. This is [NAME OMITTED TO AVOID LITIGATION]. I have a letter from you that says you will not telemarket me again. I've had some of your crappin people call me today and I don't appreciate it. OK? Why don't you wake up down there. Why don't you get somebody to happen. And find out what you're doing. If... if... if... I am called one.. more.. time.. I will turn my attorney over to you and we'll deal with it then. So why don't you shake some crap up down there boy. Punk sissy. <click>

I thought this was pretty amusing, but it's nothing compared to the voicemail received recently by one of the Tennessean's music writers. (Scroll down until you see the headline You're not going to (expletive) believe this!)

The Last Page asks a thought-provoking question:

Which would be better? If the sniper stopped now, with this last killing, and got away, never to be heard from again, or if he killed just one more person and got caught.

You can read my answer here. Scroll down -- as usual, I'm late...

Got back from vacation on Monday, but have been dealing with accumulated piles of crap at work and midterms for school. So haven't had a lot of time to post. The beach was great, despite a near miss from Tropical Depression Kyle one day. In other news, the loyal readers will remember the out-of-town job I've been stewing about lately. I now have an interview scheduled for it, but I'm still just as wishy-washy as always. We'll see what happens. Will try to spend a bit more time posting this weekend...

Currently on vacation with my parents on the North Carolina coast. And, while I have my laptop with me to do classwork, it appears that the closest internet access number is long distance. So expect few postings this week...

The Washington Post has a profile of the historian at Arlington National Cemetery. The piece closes with this:

One time, he was making his way through the cemetery, when he spotted what he thought was a discarded soda can. How could anyone be so insensitive, he wondered.

But as he walked over to the headstone -- the grave of one of the casualties of the Persian Gulf War -- he realized it was an unopened can of Iron City Beer and that there was a note attached: "John, we said we'd share a beer when you came back. Welcome back." Sherlock left the can where he found it and walked away.

I have a friend in medical school who has basically furnished his department with drug company freebies. (pens, glasses, clocks, towels, etc.) Unfortunately for him, looks like the gravy train is leaving the station...

This is old, but very amusing.

As you may know, Clippy the Paperclip was ostensibly killed as a marketing gimmick to promote the launch of Microsoft OfficeXP last year. The company actually set up a website complete with an animated movie portraying the delivery of the clip's pink slip. Clippy's voice is done by (who else?) Gilbert Gottfried, and his favorite saying through the piece is "HEY! YOU! WOULD YOU LIKE TO WRITE A LETTER???"

The site also features a "kill the paper clip" game, a link to Clippy's Amazon Wish List and Clippy's Resume (he's job hunting now).

<sigh> If only they could put that much effort into writing secure code..

I am utterly amazed by the efficiency of spambots. My kumquat301 e-mail address has only been around for a few months, and it's already getting dozens of offers for Viagra, University Diplomas, Hot Young Teens, etc. In the interest of closing the barn door after the horse has been made into paste (or something like that), I just obfuscated the e-mail address on the left -- hopefully that will prevent things from getting any worse!

As I'm sure you've noticed, thus far I have chosen to remain more-or-less anonymous on this Blog. This was not an easy decision -- I've always thought that people should be willing to stand behind their viewpoints. But the problem is that this blog is more than just a collection of political or social views. It contains musings of all sorts about my daily life, my job, my coworkers, etc. I don't have a problem with the rest of the Blogosphere reading my little rants, but I'm not too thrilled about the idea of a coworker logging on and discovering that they've just been skewered in full view of everyone on the Internet. And as you may have seen recently, I have some doubts about whether I'll even be in my current job a year from now. I'd rather not broadcast the details of my job-hunting exploits to my boss, at least until I figure out what my real intentions are.

Being anonymous hasn't been the perfect solution, since I've found that I self-censor some things to avoid giving away information that would let people figure out my "true identity." (This is not as difficult as it sounds -- I recently stumbled on an anonymous blog written by someone who I've dealt with professionally, and was able to figure out who was writing it by looking at clues scattered throughout the writing.)

As a compromise, I've decided to post some information about who I am in a very general sense. Loyal readers are unlikely to find anything new or scandalous here, but I figured I'd at least you can confirm your suspicions about what sort of nutcase I really am.

I am a 20-something male, currently living and working in Nashville, Tenn. I grew up just outside of Washington, D.C., and went to college in upstate New York where I majored in English. (I still have a lot of friends in the Northeast, which accounts for some of my intermittent scheming to get out of Nashville, and for the number of frequent-flyer points I've managed to accumulate.) I moved here about 4 1/2 years ago, and work in the technology field for a somewhat recognizable company in the "communications industry."

Off the job, much of my free time right now is spent working toward a Master's degree in Technology Management -- a longterm project that began in January 2001 and will probably conclude sometime late next year. The idea being to prove that someone who spent college reading Foucault and Faulkner can have at least a passing clue about Apache and aggregate database functions. I'm taking classes online from the University of Maryland's University College. I have mixed feelings about the online format. On the one hand, it is definitely a boon for people with unpredictable work hours or travel schedules (I have had classes -- and even done group projects -- with military personnel stationed overseas). On the other hand, since almost all interaction is done via the web, you lose some of the social aspects of a traditional classroom. And you have to be very disciplined to force yourself to do all of the reading and writing.

Politically speaking, I guess I'd probably stake my claim in the Liberal/Progressive camp, although I try to avoid blindly subscribing to any one viewpoint. I honestly believe that Bill Clinton, while admittedly a schmuck in his personal life, was a very good president in terms of domestic policy. (And I thought that wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to essentially prosecute him for gettin' it on in the Oval Office was a travesty.)

Well, that's a start. Perhaps I'll make an effort to reveal more details about myself in the future. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the good and bad points of online anonymity...

The Washington Post has a profile of Mike Flugennock, an ultra-liberal poster artist whose work is commonly seen on lamp posts in Washington. Whether or not you agree with his politics, you have to admit that his posters are striking. His website (www.sinkers.org) includes downloadable versions of most of his posters free for posting by the general public.

I am endlessly amused by the creative ways people can come up with to screw up their computers. Had to do emergency surgery today after an executive secretary discovered that it's actually possible to slide a CD-ROM underneath the CD-ROM drive so that it drops down inside the case. This, my friends, is why they pay me the big bucks.

Some loyal readers will have read my earlier ambivalent post about applying for a job in another city. Since doing that, I've been alternately depressed about not hearing back from them, and relieved about not hearing back from them. Well, I finally got "the call," and after playing phone tag for a day or two spent an hour on the phone with my potential possible maybe future boss. Not that I've decided to go through with this. Then again...

Anyway, despite my inner turmoil about actually quitting my job and moving, the whole "pre-interview" thing went pretty well. We chatted about all sorts of things, and I got the sense that an actual interview was a definite possibility.

To my mind, the oddest part came up at the end, when he pointed out that the job would involve at least one trip to a small northern-European country well known for its fairy tales. He wanted to know if I was OK with this, given that several applicants had said they would refuse to travel overseas in "today's climate."

My feeling on this is pretty straightforward, and it hasn't changed a whit since September 11: If someone -- anyone -- wants to give me a free trip to Europe, I'm totally down with that. I'll meet you with passport in hand, anytime, anyplace!

That said, I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole job thing...

Spam subject line of the day: "Diplomas from prestigious, non-accredited universities!"

Wow. Not only can I get a diploma from a "prestigious" university, but it's also non-acredited! Isn't the Internet great?

Danielle just blogged this very cool project, wherein volunteers take pictures at the confluences of latitude and longitude lines around the world. Turns out that one of them is across the street from a greocery store near my parents' house.

See, I always knew there was such a thing as too clean!

The closed streets and helicopters in my neighborhood this morning turned out to be because George W. himself was stopping to say the pledge of allegiance at a school up the street. Actually he was in town for a big political fundraiser for senate hopeful Lamar Alexandar , but the pledge shindig apparently made it count as a "business trip," allowing the government to pick up part of the tab.

Lamar happily accepted $800,000 in contributions from the Bush fundraiser, plus another $300,000 in soft money contributions to the state Republican party. This despite the fact that a few years ago Alexander accused Bush of holding an auction for the presidency on the White House lawn. Guess he's over that now...

Word is that Spanish porn giant Private Media Group (which is traded on the Nasdaq exchange), has made an offer of $3 million worth of stock to acquire the twitching remains of Napster. The company says it plans to create an adult-oriented peer-to-peer file sharing network featuring premium contentat additional cost. The RIAA, I expect, is happy.

I was never a Napster junkie, but I'll confess that I used it on occasion. The great thing was that you could try out all sorts of music without risking spending $15 on a totally lousy CD. I found a lot of music that I never would have discovered this way, and I've purchased CDs because I heard the music first on my computer. I think if the record industry had tried to come up with a fair and reasonable way to make this sort of service work, they would have done well. Instead, their knee jerk reaction just forced Internet music to be more furtive and ultimately less controllable.

Singer/Songwriter (and Nashville resident) Janis Ian wrote a great article earlier this year about how internet downloads are actually a good thing for most recording artists. In it she methodically debunks the assertions of the RIAA about how downloadable music hurts musicians and the music business:

If you think about it, the music industry should be rejoicing at this new technological advance! Here's a fool-proof way to deliver music to millions who might otherwise never purchase a CD in a store. The cross-marketing opportunities are unbelievable. It's instantaneous, costs are minimal, shipping non-existant…a staggering vehicle for higher earnings and lower costs. Instead, they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off, bleeding on everyone and making no sense.

One of these days, the big record labels are either going to get with the program. Or they're going to decline as cheaper and fairer alternatives emerge. It's their choice.

A rainy night in Nashville

The rabbit has a charming face; Its private life is a disgrace. I really dare not name to you The awful things that rabbits do; Things that your paper never prints -- You only mention them in hints. They have such lost, degraded souls No wonder they inhabit holes; When such depravity is found It can only live underground.

--Anonymous

After an extensive Internet archeology project involving retrieval of 20-year-old 9-track tapes from a warehouse in Pittsburgh, Mike Jones has traced the origin of the ubiquitous smiley :-) to a post on a Carnegie-Mellon computer system in 1982. Here's the idea that started the revolution:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-) From: Scott E Fahlman I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers: :-) Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use :-(

It appears that the idea for a "joke mark" emerged after someone caused a panic by joking that one of the physics department elevators was contaminated with mercury. (There had been a previous discussion about what would happen to a blob of mercury on the floor of the elevator if the cable snapped.)

Interestingly, in reading the followup thread, many people began using doing it the other way (-:, which doesn't look very familiar to us now.

And now, an excerpt from Pumas on Hoverbikes at MonkeyBagel.com:

We've all heard the "herding cats" analogy with regard to managing programmers. Managing sysadmins is like leading a neighborhood gang of neurotic pumas on jet-powered hoverbikes with nasty smack habits and opposable thumbs. Oh, and as a manager you're a neurotic junkie puma too, only they cut your thumbs off and whereas all the other pumas get to drive around on their badass hoverbikes and fire chainguns at the marketing department, YOU have to drive a maroon AMC Gremlin behind them and hand out Band-Aids and smile a lot, when all you're REALLY thinking about is how to get one of them to let you borrow his hoverbike for a few minutes so you can show those fools how it's DONE. This is because managers are usually people who proved that they were handy with a chaingun and were thus rewarded by having their thumbs cut off and their weapons handed to some punk college hire.

Hehe. Very true, I think. Except that some managers weren't very good with the chainguns in the first place.

The Tennessean has posted a collection of almost 500 reader essays about September 11th. They are written by a wide variety of people -- 5th graders to retirees. Some are pretty out there -- one guy claims that he tried to warn NYC officials about the attacks based on what he read in the book of Revelations. But other are well written -- and taken as a whole the project is a notable cross section of the way people dealt with the tragedy. Here's one:

Why do people hate each other so much? I don't see why people hate each other so much that they would kill people and destroy buildings. I think they don't know what love is or have never felt love in their lives. I think we should all find ways to spread love around to other people. Some things we can do is be nice to all our friends and enemies, help feed the hungry and poor, give homes to the homeless and help our neighbors. Since Sept. 11, people have been nicer to each other and more helpful in their communities. To remember those who lost their lives, we should all try to do something every day to make the world a better place to live.

--Caleb Pease
Westmeade Elementary School

Here's another good one about living in fear. (The section also contains more than 400 drawings done by area school children.)

Check out Peeling the Onion, an interesting look at the making of The Onion. (Link via Scrubbles.) Includes this interesting observation:

Stalberg says he particularly liked Siegel's [Pulitzer Prize] nomination letter, which ended with a George Bernard Shaw quote that Stalberg wrote down and saved: " 'Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.' "

That, says Hanson, is what the Onion is all about. "Some people see comedy as a venue to provide light distraction, put a smile on other people's faces," he says. "And yet if you really understand what comedy really is, I believe, it's not about lightheartedness at all. It's about very harsh and terrible things that were really horrific. It's sort of a way of processing horror and misery. That's where comedy comes from."

I just applied for a job in another city. This is not a new thing. It's actually the third out-of-town job I've applied for in the last three months. The difference is that this is one I'm actually qualified for. The others were more "no way in hell they'd hire me, but if they really want to give me a lot of money to come work there, it would be cool." Crossing the line into jobs that I actually have a chance of landing is a bit of a leap for me. The thing is, I'm not even sure I want a new job. I came to work in Nashville just over four years ago. I never thought I'd end up this far south, but I was out of school and needed a job, and there was one here. By all rational standards, it was a pretty good job. It paid well, had a passing relationship to my undergraduate degree, and was a great opportunity to learn. The first year was a bit crappy, but overall I've learned a lot and I've gotten to do some very interesting things. But I'm not sure I've ever truly become a Nashvillian. Not that I have anything against the city. If anything, it's grown on me. And I think great things are happening here. Since I arrived, two pro sports teams have come to town, and a agreat new art museum and central library have opened. I think it's definitely a city on the upswing. But I continue to spend too much money flying back to places like Washington, New York, and Boston to visit friends and family. And when I am in Nashville I feel like I spend way too much time working. Perhaps, I tell myself sometime, it's just time for a change of scenery. This is not a new thing -- I've been telling friends that I'll be out of Nashville in two months for about 4 years now. But I now I'm actually considering doing something about it. But then there's my job, which for the most part I like and would have no real problem with if it were located elsewhere. And I don't think they'll go for the full-time telecommuting thing. So I'm totally not sure what I'd do if I were to be offered a job elsewhere. But mulling it is certainly keeping me up nights.

Where have I been?

Newton's Kumquat has been on something of a summer vacation for the last month or so. I'd like to reassure my dozens of loyal readers (well, ok, two) that this is not permanent and should not be taken as anything more meaningful than a fit of inexcusable laziness.

As some of you may know, I'm taking online classes from the University of Maryland University College toward a master's degree. Since this involves a lot of typing, I tend to end up glued to my computer for hours on end. (This isn't always welcome, since I spend most of my time at work also glued to my computer.) Blogging provides me with a way to avoid school work while pretending that I'm still busily slaving away.

August, however, was a month of no classes and hellish hours on a project at work. Since I didn't have to do school work, I tended to avoid the computer when I got home. (My real-world accomplishments included skipping town to visit friends in New York, watching strange late-ngiht TV movies, and actually reading books that didn't appear on a syllabus.)

But, now that classes have started again, I'm once again glued to the computer and looking for ways to procrastinate. And so, gentle reader, be assured that you can look forward to more of the quality prose you've come to expect from Newton's Kumquat.