Category Archives: uncategorized

First, let me say that it’s not just me that thinks Ariel is hot.

I’ve just learned that INXS, who was my absolute favorite band for a couple years in high school (yes, yes, I know, just shut up), is going to do a reality show called Rock Star, in which they’ll hold auditions on five continents to find a replacement for Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997. I’m so disappointed in these guys. I thought they had more class than this.

One random reason why I don’t drink: The man went to the hospital last week complaining of serious stomach pains, and X-rays revealed the construction bars were lodged in his stomach. I do enough stupid things while I’m sober.

Lava safety tips:

– Stay inside the National Park Service’s rope perimeter.
– Do not go near the water and do not enter bench areas. Stay at least a quarter-mile inland.
– Move inland quickly if you hear cracking or booming sounds or other unusual noises.

I’ve also learned, after less than 48 hours of relative solitude, that if I were still single, I’d probably be dead.

So here I am in Knoxville, Tennesee. I flew this morning. My flight arrived just after noon and I was settled into my hotel room and unpacked shortly thereafter. My training (the reason I’m here) begins tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. Wish me luck.

I’m travelling alone again, since plane tickets for this trip were so expensive. So once again, I’m here without Jen and Grace, so my evenings are free and boring.

Dave and I tried to get iChat AV to work, but we had trouble since he’s still at work. We’ll try again when he gets home. Hopefully it’ll work when he’s no longer behind that particular firewall.

So, Apple kicked in a couple free iSight cameras for our recent order. Naturally, being the inquisitive and investigative types we are, we tried them out right away.

The iSight and iChat AV work great over our cable modem connections. We got great frame rates (15-20 per second) and phenomenal throughput (about 190 kps). Sweet! Audio was perfectly intelligible, but not CD quality. Here’s me chatting with Dave:

And here’s me chatting with Dave’s cat, Dart:

Dave is a much better conversationalist than Dart, but Dart held his own until we started discussing the influence of The Kinks on 80s new wave bands. After that, I could tell he was faking it.

I’m getting ready to release Tangelo 1.0b5 to my beta testers. This version supports multiple weblogs and provides valid RSS and Atom feeds, plus a few minor interface improvements.

Warning: minor geek speak to follow, but nothing too deep.

Getting the RSS feed to validate was a chore. I worked on it for days. I couldn’t understand what was wrong. The file that Tangelo generated on my own machine was perfectly valid and perfectly fine. Hmmm. Must be something wrong the FTP code, because once it’s uploaded, it has a null character toward the end of the feed. Weird.

Now, I’m programming Tangelo in REALbasic and I’m running the latest release, version 5.5.2. I also keep 5.5.1 handy, as I’ll often launch the older version to test something quickly. This is what I was doing with Tangelo. I had my main code open in 5.5.2, and my demo code open in 5.5.1. Everything worked in the demo code, but as soon as I switched to my production code, BOOM! Feed’s broken.

In REALbasic, all networking is done through sockets. So once I realized that the difference was between 5.5.1 and 5.5.2 (and not in my code, which is correct), I figured there must be something that changed in the socket code between 5.5.1 and 5.5.2. So I posted a question to the incredibly valuable REALbasic Network User Group, the best and most informative mailing list I’ve ever participated in. Turns out there’s a bug in REALbasic 5.5.2, but it’s not in the sockets. It’s in the BinaryStream, which is simply a way to read data from a file (as opposed to treating the file as text). As the BinaryStream reads in data (in chunks, the size of which is determined by the programmer), it adds a null character to the stream. Thanks to Lou Forlini for pointing me in the right direction.

So, the fix for now is to revert to 5.5.1, which isn’t that big a deal, I suppose, and hope for 5.5.3. And if there is no 5.5.3, hey, that’s cool. That just means RB 6 is coming faster.

But I’ll settle for one or two.

When people tell me I became president on January 20, 1981, I feel I have to correct them. You don’t become president of the United States. You are given temporary custody of an institution called the presidency, which belongs to our people. – Ronald Reagan, 1988.

This one’s for the Gipper. Rest in peace.

I’m still haunted by former first lady Nancy Reagan’s recent statement about her husband’s deteriorating condition: Ronnie’s long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him. A chilling reminder of the unrelenting disease that claimed him.

We finally got around to re-recording “It Happens All The Time” this weekend. Click here to download the new version. No more goofy synth running through the whole song (there’s still a tiny bit of synth in there, but it’s completely different and I think it’s used much more effectively this time). Two guitar parts plus bass and drums. Rather than using a stock drum track like I did before, I created a new drum line from scratch in Reason Adapted, an absolute kick-butt program from Propellerhead Software.

And last night, my good friend Brett came over to give GarageBand a try. Brett was the worship leader at Westwood who preceded me. He’s now the Worship and Arts Director for NewSong Fellowship in Lancaster. We fooled around with GarageBand and Reason (ReWire rocks!) for a while, then he decided to record a worship song he’d written a few years ago called “You Alone.” Click here to hear it. Brett did all of the male vocals and guitar work. His girlfriend Jamie did the female vocals, and Jen did the bass line. What did I do? Ummm… I was the producer. Yeah, that’s it. I produced the whole thing. Well, I did help to talk him out of including the Nordic Keyed Fiddle. But Brett was floored by the possibilities that GarageBand and Reason present. I figure he’ll be saving up for a Mac pretty soon.

PowerBook G4: $3100
M-Audio MobilePre w/Reason Adapted: $150
iLife ’04 w/GarageBand (educator discount): $35
Being able to record a song in an evening and have it available worldwide on the Internet the next day: Priceless

I try to be as apolitical as I can. I don’t really enjoy discussing politics, and I know that many of my own convictions and beliefs, while strongly held, are at odds with what many people, including many close friends, believe. And that’s OK with me.

But I have to mention this whole Michael Moore thing. I agree with Josh that Moore is “one of the few people who I believe sincerely hates America, including all that it has ever stood for and everything it currently stands for.” But let me be clear: I don’t dislike Moore because of his politics; I agree with him on some issues (but not many). I dislike him because he’s dishonest.

Andy Ihnatko is one of my favorite writers. I trust what he has to say, because he’s honest. So I was interested to read about his investigation of the facts laid out in Bowling for Columbine. Andy wrote: My research is still preliminary. I’ve found so many problems with the accuracy of the film that at some point, I just had to throw up my hands and start at the beginning of the film and work my way forward. So let’s start with the title of the movie. Moore notes that the two kids who committed the Columbine massacre had attended a bowling class before attacking the school and asks why so many people blamed music, movies and video games for the tragedy. From the same logic, why not blame bowling? Read Andy’s full essay for more.

Another article says, Every single scene in Michael Moore’s films are like this. They seem to be intelligent; they seem to reveal some deep inner truth, but after a few moments of scrutiny, they fall apart. If you’ve ever taken an organic chemistry class, you know that there’s always a guy who sits up front and looks like he knows everything. You also know there’s a difference between looking like you know everything and actually knowing everything. Michael Moore is an expert at looking intelligent, not at being intelligent.

In accepting his Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, Moore went into his famous rant: I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to – they’re here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction. We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it’s the fictition of duct tape or fictition of orange alerts we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much. Regardless of your politics, your Oscar acceptance speech isn’t the time to rally the troops or denounce the president. It’s when you say “Thank you!” and leave gracefully.

Now, his latest project, Fahrenheit 9/11, is scheduled to be released on June 25, which happens to be my tenth anniversary. Fahrenheit 9/11 — doesn’t that name ring a bell? It sure did for Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451: He is a horrible human being. Horrible human! He also states: Michael Moore is a screwed [expletive deleted — this is a family site, thank-you-very-much], that is what I think about that case. He stole my title and changed the numbers without ever asking me for permission. Tell us how you really feel, Ray.

At any rate, you may recall that Disney, the parent company of Miramax, took a pass on Moore’s new project last month: Miramax Films announced yesterday that it would not be distributing the film. This was a day after Walt Disney Co., which owns Miramax, made a public statement that it would prevent Miramax from releasing the documentary. And Moore, predictably, went into a huff about censorship, which really wasn’t at issue, since the government wasn’t involved.

But Disney’s move gave Moore an excuse to draw some more attention to himself. In doing so, he claimed that Disney had just dropped the bomb on him, and he feigned surprised. But then, Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political censorship, the film-maker Michael Moore has admitted he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it. Oh, so that’s how it is. We have a word for that. It’s lying.

You may like Michael Moore. You may enjoy his work and agree with his politics. Hey, that’s cool with me. Just be honest, all right?

10) Lincoln – They Might Be Giants

Ana Ng and I are growing old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen, Ana, hear my words
They’re the words you would think I would say
If there was a me for you
“Ana Ng”

9) Muswell Hillbillies – The Kinks

You keep all your smart modern writers
Give me William Shakespeare
You keep all your smart modern painters
I’ll take Rembrandt, Titian, Da Vinci, and Gainsborough
“20th Century Man”

8) Grind – Jawbone Hill

Hey, baby, look to the seasons
Hey, baby, feel them one by one
Hey, baby, shout to the rainbow
Tell the Artist about His beautiful light
“Sun, Moon, and Angels”

7) The Burn Service – Vineyard Music Group

You are the fountain of my life
And in Your light I find my reason
‘Cause Your love reaches to the stars
Even the great deep
And Your love reaches to this heart
And it makes me sing
“Your Love Reaches Me”

6) Utopia Parkway – Fountains of Wayne

When you think you’ve found something worth holding onto
Reaching for attention, hoping she would notice
You collecting bottles and thrown away cans
Like she was returnable, one day would refill your hands
How she loved you, all you imagined
Fit so well into your plans
“Troubled Times”

5) Resigned – Michael Penn

What once I took as remedies were only chalk hypotheses
‘Tis the season for a breeze to blow them all away
To add insult to injury, the sum you gets means I agree
So you can call that empathy and find someone else to blame
“All That That Implies”

4) Ben Folds Live – Ben Folds

I pushed you ’cause I loved you guys
I didn’t realize you weren’t having fun
And I dragged you up the stairs and told you to fly
Flapping your arms, you started to cry you were too high
“Philosophy”

3) Much Afraid – Jars of Clay

Fare thee well
We’re trading all our words for tea and sympathy
Wonder why we try for things that could never be
Play our heart’s lament like an unrehearsed symphony
“Tea and Sympathy”

2) Pinkerton – Weezer

Yesterday I went outside
With my mama’s mason jar
Caught a lovely butterfly
When I woke up today
Looked in on my fairy pet
She had withered all away
“Butterfly”

1) Gordon – Barenaked Ladies

Drove downtown in the rain
Nine thirty on a Tuesday night
Just to check out the late night record shop
“Brian Wilson”

The Guardian: A teenager impregnated his younger sister, who later killed the baby and hid the body in a duffel bag in her closet, authorities said. Everybody loses here. Everybody.

The Crimson: In one entry, Burch said she was “ready to get a shotgun and declare open season on all senior faculty members and students who dared cross [her].” “It was definitely not my intention to slander anyone and I wasn’t trying to stir things up as they seemed to be implying,” she said. “I just sort of used the blog as a way to let off steam.” Um, yeah. You might want to rethink the whole “getting a shotgun and declaring open season on your co-workers thing” then. That kind of statement is apparently easily misconstrued.

azcentral.com: Sen. Mike DeWine fired a low-level staffer Friday after an Internet diary of her sexual exploits – including stories about taking money for sex from government officials – became the buzz of the Washington Beltway. Speaking of things you shouldn’t write on your weblog.

The Oregonian: Murder-by-abuse, punishable by life in prison with 25 years before possible parole, means the victim suffered from a pattern of assaults. An autopsy found Ryshawn Bynum died of a brain injury and had a broken neck, broken ribs and as many as 70 whip marks on his legs, buttocks, back and chest that were of various ages. This story holds a special place in my heart. Not only did a man do this to his own son, he also claims he’s not responsible because of generational trauma: Randall Vogt is offering the untested theory, called post traumatic slave syndrome, in his defense of Isaac Cortez Bynum, who is charged with murder by abuse in the June 30 death of his son, Ryshawn Lamar Bynum. Vogt says he will argue — “in a general way” — that masters beat slaves, so Bynum was justified in beating his son. OK, all racial and political overtones aside, how does anyone justify beating a child? I’m not naive, and I don’t condemn spanking, but breaking your kid’s neck and ribs and whipping the child is a horrible, horrible thing to do. Rule Number Three in my personal list of rules is Don’t Hurt Kids. A corollary to that rule says Especially Your Own Kid. This guy’s a sick piece of crap and needs to be punished twice: once for killing his own son and a second time for trying to hide from his actions with such a lame, politically charged excuse. The guy sickens me. I’d have taken his kid into my home if he didn’t want him anymore.

But there are some bright spots, like the eleven year old girl who wrote to Nordstrom’s to tell them that some girls would like to buy less-revealing clothing. Good for her. And some good folks are trying to save the apostrophe. Someone should. Plus, someone has mapped out Springfield. Cool. And someone is pointing out the idiocy of email disclaimers.

So it’s not all bad news. But is this the world I want my daughter to grow up in? It’s a scary thought.