12:41 PM - these boots, and what they're made for
Current mood: content

Currently watching : The Endless Summer II Release date: 30 September, 2003

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8:53 AM - good writing makes me smile
Current mood: nostalgic
Category: nostalgic Movies, TV, Celebrities

Before the Simpsons came dashing to their couch every week in a different way in their episode opening theme, there was the answering machine of one ex-con turned private detective Jim Rockford.

Every week, the show started with a shot of Rockford's answering machine, and the voiceover: "This is Jim Rockford. At the tone leave a name and message. I'll get back to you."

The messages that people left had nothing at all to do with the current episode, but were brilliant in that they colored the character of Rockford perfectly, in a very brief amount of time, in the starting theme.. as opposed to and apart from the episode itself. That the messages are mostly hilarious is just a bonus.

A very clever little idea. One I plan on paying homage to, if I ever write.

Heh.

I have very fond memories of watching the Rockford Files. I read more then any child should, but I also watched a bit of TV. Among these formative experiences were Quincy, MASH, Sanford and Son, The Tonight Show, Lawrence Welk, Hee Haw ( er, yea. we traveled a lot ), and of course a slew of PI shows...  but before them all, there was The Rockford Files.


This is Jim Rockford. At the tone leave a name and message. I'll get back to you...

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8:57 PM - Like Christmas in July, in February
Current mood: chipper
Category: chipper Automotive

Someone at the Seretary of State's office loves me.


And I mean -really- loves me.   

As of sometime early this week, for absolutely No Good Reason, I come back as "Clear and Valid"  -and- "No Convictions on Record".

Those of you know me know that this is all quite impossible. The Man has been running me to ground lately, over a matter of what I like to call "civil disobediance", but really probably amounts to "laziness" married with a genuine loathing for our Toll Authority here in Illinois.

So, after living underground for   w e e k s   I finally cave into social pressure to make reparations to the ITA, and get my name back.

This proves to be difficult beyond reason and comprehension.

By my tally, after two weeks of honest effort and payment, I was only halfway through the process, hoop-jumping wise and fine-wise. But yesterday, a forever friend of mine who's a cop lets me know that I'm CV...   I confirmed this with my brother-unit ( also The Man ) who tells me that I am -also- rated "no convictions"   which in IL means that as far as The Man is concerned, I've never been stopped for speeding.

Me and baby Sean Preston have the same driving records.

Any of you who know me should be open-mouthed now, or laughing yourselves silly.

I have more speeding convictions then any three of my friends put together. The only thing I can think of is that I had a very pleasant conversation with ITA employee as we tried to run down my jaded history there...   but I don't see how that person could have not only returned me to CV status, but also expunged my record of all prior convictions. I have been assured by seveeral People Who Know that the system doesn't work that way.

This is like Christmas in July, in February    :  )

Anyway... enough silliness. Surely everyone knows that I am tempting the power of The Jinx to come and either reverse my fortune here, or else I will be pulled over, arrested and sent to Guantanamo for speeding before the week's end.

ahhhhhhh yes, the little things in life make us smile, sometimes.

heh heh heh

Hmmmmmmm. I -do- know someone down in Springfield though....

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12:06 PM - yea, more politics
Current mood: bored
Category: bored News and Politics

From "Get Your War On"...

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1:31 PM - and then, I smiled
Current mood: giddy
Category: giddy Romance and Relationships

At the moment, I feel like I just went to a chiropractor.

For the soul.

I thought I was fine, or reasonably fine. Then an adjustment was made, something -cracked- into place...

...   and I feel like I haven't felt in Quite Some Time.



Vague enough for you?   Sorry...  but I had to tell -someone-   and you were it.      ;  )

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9:22 AM - dare to do our duty
Current mood: discontent
Category: discontent News and Politics

"The world has never had a good definition of the word 'liberty.' The American people just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty. But in using the same word, we do not all mean the same thing.

"What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts -- these are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosom. Our defence is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own door.

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow?

"Never.

"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer that if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be the authors and finishers.

"As a nation of free men, we must live through our times or die by suicide. Let reverence for the law be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in the schools, in the seminaries and in the colleges; let it be written in primers, in spelling books and almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and enforced in courts of justice; and in short, let it become the political religion of the nation. And let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly at its altar. And let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals may, the continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that in future national emergencies, He will not fail to provide us the instruments of safety and security.

"Let us not be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to ourselves.

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

-- Abraham Lincoln

Thank you, Mr. President, for being someone insightful and wise enough to be worthy of the title of the office. Also, thank you Ron Moore for reminding me, and thank you Disney for teaching me, a -long- time ago.

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12:28 PM - Hey, could you please charge me for email?
Current mood: annoyed
Category: annoyed Web, HTML, Tech

So, email is free.

It's always been free. Early on ( well, early on for what is now the Internet, a few groups floated the idea of making email something you had to pay for...   but it never really went anywhere.

And consequently, email really took off. So did spamming, but most people do okay, striking some balance between the spammers and their friends forwarding them very important jokes and chain letters.

Now, there's another push for the idea of pay email. Our good friends at Yahoo and AOL are behind it this time, each of them substantial mail providers on the internet.

If they have their way, it will work like this: if you'd like to send email to any of the half-zillion people who's email addy either ends in @yahoo.com or @aol.com , you'd have two choices:

1. pay anywhere from a quarter-cent to $.01 per email message. this will guarantee delivery.   Or...

2. not pay. Email sent from a source that doesn't "pay" ( more on this, below ) will be shot through the ever-increasing gauntlet of spam and content filters. Also... links, graphics and multi-media content will be stripped from these emails.

If you want to send pics, movies, or links to nana on Yahoo...  no-pay is not an option.

Payments will be vetted through some 3rd coporation; Goodmail being the most likely candidate. The way it would likely work if AOL and Yahoo get there way is that if you want to send email to their customers, it would either have to come from Goodmail first, or have all that other stuff stripped out, and maybe not make it through at all.

Gosh, I wonder if Yahoo or AOL own any part of Goodmail. Hmmmmm.

You'd have to get a Goodmail account, and pay them, if you wanted to send email to grandma, if she had a Yahoo email address.


On the plus side... If you happen to have Yahoo or AOL email, odds are your spam emails will drop to zero.

On the down side, most other emails would also drop to zero, probably. How many of your friends like you enough to get a Goodmail account and pay to send you email? Do you think it more likely that they'll just keep sending email the regular way, and if you want to "get" their email, you'll have to jump to some easier email system?

I dislike spam, of course. But to me, this sounds like someone not really looking to solve a problem, but more like their looking to make a buck. Or a quarter-cent, times a zillion.

I'm not sure how this will go...  they are hold Congressional hearings on this right now, and as the oil companies have no firm stake in this eaither way, it's hard to say which way things will go. Greedy bastards and fed up spam-ees will calmour for the service, and 98f the population will come out against it.


I can tell you this, though. If it's adopted, I believe people will simply go to sources that don't require such tomfoolery, pressure their friends and relatives to do likewise, and do what they can to edge around such tollbooths. I see people taking more time and effort to cirvumvent paying then just paying and dealing with the indignity of having something that was free now pay.

Commoditization is a term describing a service or product that is so widespread and offered at so many points so that it doesn't make sense to charge for it. Water is like that, in America...  water fountains are everywhere, and none of them charge a cent. Or a quarter-cent. Bottled water companies come along and redo the biz model a little, and now can charge for water...  but you can still get it for free.

What AOL and Yahoo are doing is essentiall the same thing; they are offering their water, but now charging you for it. Their not making their water better...  but rather everyone else's water worse.

Yum.

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8:27 PM - You're gay, Pete
Current mood: embarrassed
Category: embarrassed Life

"Do you know how I know you're gay, Pete?"

"Oh?  How, Chris?"

"You're gay because you like painted quarters"

Silence.

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6:57 AM - Six more weeks? Crap.
Current mood: chipper
Category: chipper Life

So, the groundhog Punxsetawney Phil saw his shadow, this morning.

This of course got me thinking about Hawaii again ( shocking, how often that happens, eh? ) but also, about days I would re-live. There's much more detailed blog in here, with this idea... but I don't have time now. Expect that to be fourthcoming: a list of days I would relive.

Anyway... an interesting tidbit: I used to live in a town called Harvard, IL  ( I'm completely serious ) which was very close to a town called Woodstock.

If you have ever seen the movie Groundhog Day, you would recognize Woodstock. That's where they filmed it. Pretty cool.

"Don't drive angry."

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2:20 PM - And now, for something completely different. Kinda.
Current mood: blah

You know, you remind me of the man that lived by the river.

He heard a radio report that the river was going to rush up and flood the town. And that all the residents should evacuate their homes.

But the man said, 'I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God will save me.'

The waters rose up.

A guy in a row boat came along and he shouted, 'Hey, hey you! You in there. The town is flooding. Let me take you to safety.'

But the man shouted back, 'I'm religious. I pray. God loves me. God will save me.'

A helicopter was hovering overhead. And a guy with a megaphone shouted, 'Hey you, you down there. The town is flooding. Let me drop this ladder and I'll take you to safety.'

But the man shouted back that he was religious, that he prayed, that God loved him and that God will take him to safety.


Well... the man drowned.

And standing at the gates of St. Peter, he demanded an audience with God. 'Lord,' he said, 'I'm a religious man, I pray. I thought you loved me. Why did this happen?'


God said, 'I sent you a radio report, a helicopter, and a guy in a rowboat. What the hell are you doing here?'

---------------------------------

So often, we see what we want to see, what we need to see, instead of that which is there, right before our eyes.

It is a worthwhile thing, to aspire beyond this veil, the shroud that is a legacy from how we may have been raised, the shows we might have watched, books we might heave read. From whispers that might have worked their way into who we are.

Not all of these things taken in are bad. Most of them aren't, maybe...  but being cut off from the idea that things might be different then you were led to believe is necessary to so many different kinds of growing.

To always be open and receptive to something that could crack your foundation, shape another paradigm, is one of the noblest aspirations we can have, I think.

Chip away, once in a while, at something you believe wholeheartedly in.

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11:15 AM - State of the Union
Current mood: discontent

So, thinking about watching Georgie pontificate through the State of the Union speech makes me phyiscally, tangibly ill.


Please God, give me a guy who only lies about blowjobs, and then admits it. Give me a guy who's more eyebrow-raising acts involve  pardoning a billionaire, or letting some Chinese hang out at the Whitehouse.

Where do I find the guy who doesn't actively obstruct hurricane investigations?

Where can I get the one who will seek the court's permission before taping my phone? Arresting me and throwing my citizen-ass in the brig of some Navy ship, without telling my mom or letting me have a lawyer, or even charging me? For  y e a r s .

Where can I find the guy who'll fire his people when they get caught comitting felonies?

Where can I find a guy who's policy isn't  -e n t i r e l y-  based on the same reason you hated to hear from your mom...  "because I said so".


Great Zombie Jesus I hate this guy. I hate what he and his friends have done to this country, this country's image, and this country's ability to do -anything- in the world except fuck up.

I'm so tired of the spinners on the Right, and the ones on the left who not only spin, but are incompetant and can't even do -that- correctly.


I hate the fact that this guy could bare-bottom-spank a 15 year old darkly-complected child during the State of the Union address, then pull out a Deagle and put one in her brainpan... turn to the cameras and the joint session and tell us all that not only was what he just did was legal, but necessary for the safety of our country, in a post 9-11 world.

And we'd let him.

My country has become a wayward son. The one that uses drugs, slaps women, yells at family get-togethers, and thinks that money makes everything better, and that -having- money makes you someone who should be listened to.

The State of the Union seems to be this... it resembles the country so many people died to form, bring along, safeguard and shape... in name only.





"Yearning"   Ken Tanaka, photographer

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8:08 AM - The eyes of a Ranger
Current mood: optimistic
Category: optimistic Web, HTML, Tech

I am enough of a man to admit when I have a problem.
I might be a tad bit addicted; after all, it changes a bit, every day.

Who can I turn to for help, in my time of need?

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10:30 AM - A book by its cover. Or something.
Current mood: curious
Category: curious Life

So, There I was at work, plucking away at an XML app thingy, when Miriam IMs me out of the blue. This happens all the time, of course; and it's worth mentioning that Miriam sits about ten feet away from me, that I can look up at her, open my mouth, and in a normal Indoor Voice have a conversation with her. Sometimes IM is just the more appropriate choice. There's a whole blog in that, I think, somewhere in the back of my mind. Anyway...

Miriam:

if you were on a date, and you went back to someone's house for coffee (or at a dinner party, whatever) and found that they had organized their bookshelves by color, what would you think?

Pete:

hmmm

Pete:

Firstly, that they weren't colorblind.  This might go to further assurance that they were not, in fact, post-operative.

Pete:

:    )

Pete:

But seriously. Hmmmmm.

Pete:

It would be a flag, for me to look for other things. my guess is that people who do such things are looking to control aspects of their life that are easy to get ahold of, as a reaction to other ( huge-er ) areas of their life that they feel are beyond their control

Pete:

That would not bode well, for the starting romance.

Miriam:

How would your opinion contrast about a person who used Dewey or Library of Congress' systems?

Pete:

It would change only in the order of magnitude I would be looking for...  not the general theme. Someone who organizes along those lines ( instead of color ) probably is sharper, and has more depth...   this might be great, but then their problems are going to be huge-er-er, as such people might generally be better at taking care of these things. So if they're out of control, that might be way-bad.

Pete:

And none of that is a given, of course... but it would alert me to be on the lookout.

Pete:

More then usual.

Miriam:

Ok, so it's the level of precision/control that's jarring, as opposed to "logical system" vs "flakey system"

Pete:

Most of the time, yea

Miriam:

�Foucault..... yes that book is in the periwinkle shelf�

Pete:

Unless their personal library is so large, as to merit that sort of thing.

Miriam:

O_o

Pete:

Most of the time, that's not the case

Miriam:

Ok, so lets say the set up isn't DD/LOC vs. color, but "subject" vs. color - what do you think then?

Pete:

Organizing by subject is less a flag, maybe not a flag at all... I'd see that as the default. Just an organized person...  on par with no organization, and my flag-looking wouldn�t be raised to an increased level.

Miriam:

Gotcha

Miriam:

Question inspired by http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/31462

Miriam:

This, however, is by far my favorite answer: "Imagine your books are persons. Then arrange them according to the conversations they could have with their neighbors."

Pete:

Ha!

Pete:

I would need to already be �very- close with my sweetie, for her to reveal that little tidbit to me and not have it set off warning bells 

Pete:

:   )

Miriam:

rofl

Miriam:

I think it was meant as a joke

Miriam:

The color thing sets alarm bells off to me

Pete:

I'd be sooooooo tempted to hold up a given book, and do a bit of exploratory fucking-with...  "So, if this book were talking, what would it be saying, honey...?"

Pete:

Color is kind of a lazy-person's way of doing it, I'd think. Obvious and something that you could do from your medulla, not yer cerebrum.

Pete:

But it would hint at bigger things, possibly, as I said.

Pete:

But, also like I mentioned, that's assuming the library didn't, in fact, rate a classification system.

Miriam:

It�s a funny thing; it's organized, yes, but in a mostly useless fashion

Pete:

Right

Pete:

There�s no meta-game, there.

Miriam:

I knew someone who had their books organized by PUBLISHER

Pete:

Eeeeks

Miriam:

lol

Pete:

I would be hearing reactor-emergency class warnings in my head, there.

Miriam:

Like, the person who organized by color, would be the same one who would answer, "spaghetti" if you asked them what was the difference between Jesus and the Buddha...

Pete:

lol    Indeed. "How very cute. But no, really...?"

Miriam:

Exactly

Miriam:

Or, the one person I've seen in the wild that did the color thing? A _COMPLETELY_ unimaginative, dull, dreary little bitch, and I always read it as her way to be "look how kooky! I can be..."

Pete:

Ha!   Well, there is that, too. It could just be someone striking out, doing something -crazy-

Pete:

Also a matter meriting a bit of attention, if this is them being "whacky"

Miriam:

Right

Pete:

The must be a -terror- on the dance floor, after a few mai tais

Miriam:

Ugh

Miriam:

     I don't even want to THINK about ( that girl ) on the dance floor

...and so on. Yea, I know. I am not a trained psychologist...  but niether am I offering up testimony as to the mental state of someone in a felony trial. Just my opinion, and an off the cuff one at that.

But then in Usability Nerd fashion, I started to consider the idea. I guess my own library is organized loosely by subject, with a smattering of frequency dictating placement as well. The books I use all the time are close at hand, the ones I don't maybe on the bottom shelf. Also, some minute consideration ( like, for a few seconds at the most ) given to the size of the book.

Don't want the books' sizes interfering with my ability to get at them. -That- would just be crazy.

:  )

In a ( very ) mini poll around the office, again aesthetics reared its head in how people organized their lives; one of the more popular answers was somethign along the lines of how the books looked: ratty books are not generally kept in the living room, or next to the fine china.

Oh, the ( boring-ass ) things I know.

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8:37 PM - It's all about the "O"
Current mood: curious
Category: curiOus Life

Actually...  it's all about the branding.

Branding is something's consensual identity; that which is associated or attributed to it by everyone who perceives it. Corps spend -zillions- of dollars on branding, and a corp's brand identity is estimated to be at least -half- of the company's total worth.

Half.    At least.

Not the stuff it owns, Not the people it employs, or the money they'll probably make next quarter. Just what comes to mind when people think of them. The little, probably irrational associations people have.

Who cares, eh?

Immune from all this? Are you smarter then that, and you just make decisions based on the product or the thing itself, not on it's branding?

Got an iPod?   

Why?

Dell makes a thingy that's twice as good, and costs a third as much. But it's not an iPod, is it? I don't even know what Dell's thingy is called. And I'd never consider owning it.

Branding.

Overstock.com   I have no idea what they sell, there. But I sure as hell remember the commercials, and the name of the company. This is due to a number of factors, but most of those center on branding efforts put fourth with a hot older chick in a group of 80s-eque monochrome settings. Overstock.com's name recognition went from 12% to 47% in one quarter, after these commercials aired.

These are the kinds of commercials where I can't take my eyes off the TV, and I wave my hand vaguely at whomever's talking, gesturing that I'm not listening to their prattle for 42 more seconds.

"It's all about the 'O'..."


What is your brand like? When people think of you at work, what do you suppose they associate with your name, with the idea of you? Do you work on maintaining this in a good way? How about in your personal life... How do people think about you?

I'm not being shallow, certainly. It's a very different discussion, debating if you should care what your "branding" is...   I'm not asking if you care. I'm just wondering if you're aware of -what- it is.


Apparently, with me, it's all about the intellectual arrogance, with a hint of humor, a helping of loyalty and empathy, and maybe a cheesburger, wrapped in a Ralph Lauren buttondown.

Hmmmmmmm.

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11:30 AM - Could you hit me over the head, please?
Current mood: amused
Category: amused Romance and Relationships

"Oh, so do you usually have women throw themselves at you?"

Someone recently asked me this. No, as it happens, women dont generally throw themselves at me. Because of how I am, how I grew up and all that, I look for signs. Body language, a reaching out, something said. Stuff like that. I generally do not make the "first move". I wait for women to throw themselves at me. Well, kind of.

When I was young, a sophomore in high school, I was much geekier then I am now, or even then I was back when you and I first met, whenever that was. I also didnt have an amazing amount of confidence when it came to girls. One time on the bus, I screwed up my geek-nerve, and asked a girl out. Dawn Baccini. She was hot in a 1984, big-hair kind of way, and she was a freshman, ripe for the plucking.

Id never asked anyone out before. I was terrified. Up to that point, the only real experience Id had with women was a long make-out session with a neighbor girl when we were in first grade, and then in third grade the sister of a friend who loved to show me her, well, you know.

After third grade, there was a bit of a dry spell. Until sophomore year high school. But there I was, a sophomore, in between 2nd period Typing and 3rd period Spanish. I have no idea what compelled me to do it, there in the hall, with witnesses.

I had no plan; no car, no license, no idea of what to do... just that I wanted to do it, with her. I was crazed with adolescent fervor. So I blurted it out, and she smiled, nervous, and said yes.

That next day, our relationship came to a spectacular, tragic end. We rode the bus together. Well, rather, we rode on the same bus. But given my bravado and display of raw nerve and manliness the previous day, I felt a change was in order. She got on the bus, and sat in the seat ahead of me, instead of next to me.

I was puzzled. Vexed. Why not sit next to me? Was I not A Man, a Colossus, striding the earth?

"Hi Dawn," I mumbled, feeling much more confident then I sounded. She turned around and said hi, and looked at me as if waiting for me to say something. I cant remember the exact words I used, but they were something to the effect of "since youre my girlfriend, why dont you sit next to me?"

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