Hyper Gumbo

Almost 10 Years To Go 60,000 Miles

Don — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:41:38 +0000

The Beetle has finally cleared 60,000 miles. Driving back from the shop, I notice that the almost-ping sound is gone. It’ll be interesting to see, once I run a full tank of gas thru the post-maint engine, to see if I’m getting better mileage. It’s been a good car so far.

Some People Just Don’t Want My Money

Don — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:53:24 +0000

When I unsubscribed from the paper version of Asimov’s, I specifically suggested letting me know when they had kindle support. I just happen to be browsing the magazine selection for kindle today, and find that they are now available.

Stupid Error Messages

Don — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:59:59 +0000

I love it when someone doesn’t think thru the corner cases,

“root is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.”

It’ll be reported, yeah…to ROOT =p

Machine Greetings

Don — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:00:26 +0000

In addition to the traditional calls from Mom, Dad, and Sister1, I got a birthday greeting from the robot at HR Block. It was a little creepy. I wonder if they make those calls to all people who file with them, or just the ones with birthdays close to tax season.

Corp Covers

Don — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:30:37 +0000

One of the, to me, stranger bits of the consolidated music biz are all the corporation-style cover albums. For example, someone put together a well produced set of cover songs done in simlish, the fake language of the video game Sims. Talk about a strange cross-marketing plan.

Odd Covers

Don — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:49:40 +0000

AllMusic says the Amadan version (Tell Me Ma) is “traditional”, but lists “Ronan Heenan/Alison Marr/McCroary/Ryan” as composer for the Lick The Tins version (Belle of Belfast City). A quick google suggests tha the traditional badge is fully appropriate.

Ralph Nader, class act (NOT)

Don — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:23:36 +0000

I’m watching the end of Fox News’ election coverage, waiting for the local news to start up, and they are interviewing Ralph Nader. The fox anchor brings up a statement Ralph made to someone else earlier, that it remained to be seen if Obama would turn out to be all americans have hoped for, or “just an Uncle Tom for big business”. It seemed pretty obvious that the fox guy thought Ralph had just mis-spoken, and tried to give him a chance to reword his worries in a little less offensive manner, but Ralph was having none of it, and really making a total ass of himself. I can understand once again, how my friend who used to work with Ralph back in the ’70s, could have such a low opinion of the man. It was pretty obvious that his pride was more important than the message he’d intended to send. It DOES remain to be seen how well Obama will turn out in practice. George W said a lot of stuff about uniting the country in his acceptance speech too.

But everyone knows, you won’t get anyone to listen that far into your statement, if you start it off with racist shit like that.

An Obama Tree Tradition

Don — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:39:59 +0000

I feel like starting a new tradition today, the Obama Tree.

J-Pod: Book vs TV

Don — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:11:01 +0000

In one of those odd places where, if I’d known the author of the original book, I probably wouldn’t have ever given the TV show enough of a chance, there lies the CBC produced J-Pod and the book of the same name by Douglas Copland.

I love the CBC. Compared to American TV, I think it’s far more witty, capable of poking fun at foibles on all sides of the political fence. When I discovered they had a show about computer programmers who did drugs and had sex, I was almost sold. When I found out one of their character’s drug-of-chocie was robotusin, I knew I had to watch it all. Add in the fact that Alan Thicke plays a hard-drinkin, oblivious, wanna-be actor, opposite an amazing Sherry Miller, playing a pot-growing just-a-little-nonsense mother, and it all sorts of delicious comedy gravy. I was more than a little annoyed when they ended the season with a cliff-hanger.

Wanting to know how it all works out, without having to wait, and hope that the tv show gets a 2nd season, since I had some extra audible credits, I bought the unabridged audiobook version, and started listening. It was pretty obvious early on, that there were some significant differences between the book and the show. One of the characters is completely missing from the TV version, and more importantly-to-me, alot of the characters turn out to be much more developed and involved, in the TV version. And the book is FULL of fake-disses of Douglas Copland, whereas I don’t think he’s mentioned once on TV. In general, I think the TV version is much better. It seems odd to my American eyes/ears, how the book has more product placement than the TV show. And I hate the book’s happy ending shtick. I much prefer the extended consequences of the TV version, though now, I’m just as stuck for finding out how it all ends.

Dear CBC, you so better have approved a second season of j-pod.

Jacta Alea Est

Don — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:51:07 +0000

(The die is cast, latin)

My vote is in the mail. If only tv-advertising could be aware of that fact, and not keep annoying me with commecials for/against different parties, policies, and whatnots.

At least the rain stopped long enough that the roads had dried out enough, I was willing to scooter over to the post office. First trip attempt since purchasing a scarf. I will need to try some different ways of putting that on. Today’s choice was less than fully effective, and made me paranoid that it was going to fly off me, and onto the windshield of the car behind me, in some cartoon-capers-esque prelude to a disaster. Thankfully, this trip went without incident.