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We're learning Arabic!!

F*#@bird!!

I hated the song Freebird from a very young age. I used to leave the arcade and sit outside until it was done playing on the jukebox and it was safe to go back inside. Hadn't heard it in years, but it still has the same effect.

I just had to watch Californication with the sound off and closed captioning on because of repeated blasts of my sonic nemesis. Like brussel sprouts, I have never acquired the taste. How in the world did that ever become an iconic song? It's so terrible.

At the beach with the girls

Just another Sunday driver?

Or.......death?

where are my posts??

So I guess it's not working to post from my phone anymore. Bummer, gotta figure that out.

Really late to this damn party.

People have many times told me last.fm was cool but I never even checked it out. STUPID ME. Pretty cool. I am spending today reliving the 90s in LA and SF. Little bit of Ed Hall, some Cows, johnboy, Boss Hog, Drive Like Jehu, Pain Teens, TFUL282, Girls vs. Boys, Melt-Banana and lots more.

I saw some great fucking shows the first half of that decade.

Anyone use last.fm? Got suggestions of others like that? My eyes are open to the coolness now.

Anyone know what's in it for them? It's not hugely ad filled.

What did Sasha dig up today?

Hands free to be an even bigger idiot.

Two weeks into phones being illegal while driving there is an unexpected and super sucky side effect. Now every one has two hands to change lanes more aggressively. Seriously, people seem to think they are race car drivers now.

You have a hand free now. Use the turn signal!!!

He's a KC boy now.

Here's Sasha with his new mama Charyb.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Northern route rules!!

Sasha wants to eat all of Vail.

Lookout Kansas City!! I'm coming your way!

Hugh Laurie wrote a book!

Yay vacation reading.

Summer starts right.

Ironman is really really fun!!

Hey Perv!

What color was the creepy van in the last amber alert?

6'11" of Russian awesomeness.

For comparison. I don't have a picture of him sleepy.

This is me sleepy.

I didn't tell Betsy my name yet.

i'm coming home.

In three weeks I get to come live with Bunkie and Betsy.

This is entertainment?

From my pay per view guide. Ghetto Brawls!

Farewell olive.

The olive tree had to go to fit the carport in. I shall soon be parking here and finally closing on this sweet home.

I don't drink the caffeine anymore, but...

Look what they served for lunch today at work.

it is indeed black.

I am now...

A hybrid driver. The charger is off to a new owner. I am currently getting 36 mpg average in an escape hybrid. Hoping that holds.

Political protest idea

Here's my new idea. Political cake decorating, and I don't mean fourth of July cakes. I mean anti torture and anti patriot act and anything else you might feel strongly about, but find others not willing come around on. Imagine you are facing down angry mobs opposed to your stance on global warming. What could spark a meeting in the middle like a big sheet of cake depicting the ravenous effects of melting ice caps?

Who doesn't love cake? Offices everywhere prove daily you can bring any group together with a cake. You get to fill the gobs of angry mobs with the best of your arguments. Give the biggest and angriest one the corner piece where all that is left of a once huge glacier retreats at alarming pace.

Anyone good with frosting? Even if they don't come around, it shuts them up for a bit anyway!

The first bit of something I'm writing.

A person can see both blocks of 1st St, and all three blocks of Main St from the top of the hardware store. It’s mostly a tar spill with a billboard graveyard poking out of it. Once upon a time there was optimism that this town would grow with the arrival of an interstate, but after the giant skeletons went onto the roofs, the highway was diverted with the advertisers, and the disproportionate metal rectangles stayed atop the hardware store for decades attracting nothing but bird shit and lightning. The ladies who were at the coffee shop at the time had heard all about his first encounter with the lightning from his oldest and only local daughter. She had kept with tradition and told the story, as you do, leaving out her darkest suspicions.

The storm announced itself a few hours ahead of the precipitation by darkening the horizon and electrifying the living things. The old man climbed to the roof unnoticed amid the flurry of preparations. Folks made hurried choices. Home or duck into the coffee shop? Pick up the kids or call and tell them to stay in the school? There were a couple of spots to check the forecast in town. Hanley’s bar had cable with an all day weather channel, and the hardware store always had the radio on. A small group gathered in the bank vestibule as the wind started to pick up and the first chilling drops hit hunched over figures under whatever makeshift cover they held overhead. The bank manager had locked up the interior door, but left the outer door for anyone who needed cover, and then made his own dash to the coffee shop.

what i did at work tonight.

recognize this?

Gag Me with a Spoon

Twenty years after this fine phrase died out, I believe we have it's substitute. In the last year or two, I've noticed a huge upswing in the use of the phrase "I just threw up in my mouth a little." Is it just me in California, or is this widespread?

P.S. Don't even get me started on the whole "douchebag" retro-revolution.

after the code book

fucking great book. so glad for the holiday to consume it fully and in it's entirety in a short period of time, and oddly appropriate for MLK day considering the nature of surveillance the FBI maintained over Dr. King. i didn't get this book expecting to open a political shit storm. i thought it would be a retelling of historical intrigues and for a good portion of it, it's just that, a series of chapters using actual historical stories to illustrate the emergence and breaking of 4000 years of message encryptions and supposedly unbreakable codes.

that however is merely the groundwork for the revelation that it is all material to me personally and to everyone who believes in privacy, or in truth. there is a political issue at the root of cryptography. who has a right to encrypt in a digital information age? 200 years ago to privately share information, all two people needed was legs to move them away from ears and a common language. the government seemed to operate just fine without access to those conversations.

communication now is more complex, and we use computers to communicate, but the government doesn't want citizens to have the right to use strong encryption without giving them an access key, because criminals would have an advantage over their investigative techniques, which in return they promise not to use without a court order. yea right. as the author points out, fingerprints are the most relied upon technique by law enforcement, criminals can simply wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, and as of yet there has been no call from cops to stop the general public from wearing gloves just in case.

this book is over five years old so i'll be doing some follow up reading for sure, but it's a very interesting thing to know the power to be secure from government prying is available and downloadable for free. unless of course they already have the quantum computers needed to decode the PGP and they just aren't telling anyone.

new books

what I'm reading.

ballad of the whiskey robber - a true story of bank heists, ice hockey, transylvanian pelt smuggling, moonlighting detectives, and broken hearts.

the code book - the science of secrecy from ancient egypt to quantum cryptography.

my pen pal

the other side of official stationary of the kansas department of corrections.

time to evolve

As another election approaches I am in for yet another season of frustration as people prove time and time again that we never learn any lessons. None. Ever. I mean the whole world not just evil consumer driven America. For thousands of years people have basically operated under the same notion that a leader must be elevated and followers will eventually be disenfranchised and a new leader will be elevated.

The selection mechanism may have evolved but the result is the same animal structure. It's time to evolve. We need some deep thinkers. I know philosophy is still a college major. Where is all the radical thought? I'm on a mission to find some new ideas. When I first heard about that Kid Nation show I thought it was a pretty wild idea. Kids have to build a society with no adults and no rules. Boy was that wrong. There were tons of rules and an established societal structure. Not interesting anymore.

I'll post anything cool I may find.

retesting for no junk added

test

test


ha ha this has been a mobile test. the bunkie pic too. posted from my phone. yay.

about the title

Since I'm perpetually giving 110% and never finishing anything, and given that I'm prone to sports metaphors, I give you "second overtime." I think I'll mix a little creative writing with my usual irascible commentary.

from pearly

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? took the money and ran.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
some years i do and some i don't. didn't last year. this year... write more.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? no

4. Did anyone close to you die? yes

5. What countries did you visit? none

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? solar panels.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? june 2nd, money, run, etc.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? promotion

9. What was your biggest failure? couldn't save my sisters house.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? none, but the dog tore her acl.
11. What was the best thing you bought? my new computer rules!!! or the roomba.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? bah.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? many family members bickering over a four year old boy.

14. Where did most of your money go? nowhere yet until the house closes, except for the dog acl surgery. for 4k i expected bionic but it's just a normal leg.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? hd

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
 a) happier or sadder? dead even
b) thinner or fatter? same
c) richer or poorer? richer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? going to movies, seemed like a good year.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? worrying.
20. How did you spend Christmas? visitig my sister with her kids in prison, surprisingly fun.
21. Did you fall in love in 2007? no

22. What was your favorite TV program? dexter
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? no time for hate although i think i'd be really good at it. i have great concentration.
24. What was the best book you read? willie nelson's bio diesel book.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? little steven's underground garage on sirius.
26. What did you want and get? promoted.
27. What did you want and not get? release date for the chevy volt.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? still catching up.
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? probably nothing and 37
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? an example of good justice.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? three websites and warehouse vintage store.
32. What kept you sane? superfood
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? drawing a blank, but i reserve the right to amend this.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? all constitutionality arguments.

35. Who did you miss? bay area people since i really haven't been back.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. small towns can be supremely corrupt.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.