Sunday, December 31, 2006

Marathon TV

Posting with Jason on lap. You'd think that Dakota would have been harder than Jason for this, but Dakota was less wiggly when I would type.

esz


Stuff like above will just haapxpen with a little help from the baby editor. Anyway-- The new year is a time to make important resolutions. Be resolved to watch the TV that you missed. I'll help:

exciting tv
  • dick clark's rockin new year with ryan seacrest
  • NBC's l&o suv marathon
  • cartoon network Metalocalypse marathon
  • food network Ace of kidneys marathon. I'm kidding. It's called the "Ace of Cakes" Hi, Greg Chwerchak! This is followed by a full day of Bubby Flay. Hey, that rhymes! In truth, I hate Bobby Flay. Ever since I saw him give the worst misadvice on how to fry a turkey.
  • SCI-FI Channel 26 hour Twilightzone marathon!!!! I remember when this was strictly a WPIX deal, but as I don't get that channel, GO SCI FI!!! This was the greatest pinball game ever.
  • BBCA's traditional new year's eve AbFab Marathon WHeels on fire! Rolling down the road...
  • CMT Hee Haw Marathon Hee Haw aired at the same time as "Laugh In" the difference was that Hee Haw used computers to edit the show and laugh-in did it manually. Hee Haw lasted a billion years longer than Laugh-in and the jokes are still as funny as they ever were (I understand that this is a matter of taste, but even if you don't think that Minnie Pearl is amusing, my statement is still true).
  • TNT will ALSO have a law & order marathonn. No link. TNT is for suckers.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Mister Chime as it is mere he.


I like cofee.

I am tired of lame visual puns about Java and Linux and I wish they would stop.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

This is supposed to be the header graphic



Instead of that corny racetrack thingy. Instead, I have it on the bottom. Ben Loggins, if you are still reading this blog, you can tell me where I messed up on the CSS. "For starters you never really learned it."

True. This is all one protracted study break from Labor Law. Labor Law is an invitation to an ugly fracas.


Finally, NPR had some dofus music critic put down "Christmas is 4 ever" the Bootsy Collins Christmas album. I just downloaded it from iTunes. It's awesome.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Billy Wilson joins indiehq

I have changed the header on this blog to reflect that Billy Wilson has discontinued his blog in order to be a part of a bigger blog. "Indiehq" is pronounced like "Indeed" with an "eek!" at the end, as in a word that rhymes with "William Li is a big geek!"

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Three Ice Skating Snowmen Bring a Message of "Peace on Earth"

I'll start with an aside: We just had a brownout that took out the whole block. Was it the Snowmen? I think so. Because I am on a laptop, everything stayed up. Go battery power!

On to what I was going to say:

Years from now, I will probably wonder how I talked myself into this, but I was just thinking about how when I was in elementary school, we used to do musical numbers every year that were about Christmas, which I always like. I don't suppose you can do that now. In particular, they always did "We need a little Christmas" from Mame. Look that up in wikipedia and you'll understand why the rest of the musical is pretty much unperformable now. Anyway... here is the Libretto:


Mame:
Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute.
It hasn't snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen.
Slice up the fruitcake;
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
All:
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now.
Mame:
Haul out the holly;
Well, once I taught you all to live each living day.
All:
Fill up the stocking,
Young Patrick:
But Auntie Mame, it's one week from Thanksgiving Day now.
All:
But we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute.
Agnes:
It hasn't snowed a single flurry,
But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
Ito:
So climb down the chimney;
Put up the brightest string of lights I've ever seen.
All:
Slice up the fruitcake;
It's time we hung some tinsel on that evergreen bough.
For we need a little music,
Need a little laughter,
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy
"Happy ever after,"
Need a little Christmas now.
Need a little Christmas now.

Posted by Picasa

Friday, December 08, 2006

How's that ditty go again?

  1. For the Money
  2. For the Show
  3. To get ready, and
  4. To go!

Forget the money part, Dakota preforms for the love of the game. Or the show as it is in this case. Tonight is the first of 4 Nutcracker on Ice: All Jazzed Up! shows that she is skating all weeknd. This year she is a toy and a mouse - meaning she gets to fight soldiers and then die dramatically on the ice! She is totally thrilled, as am I to see the whole thing on Sunday. Till then, I am doing my duty as an involved mother - AKA dressing room mom, er, wrangler. How much trouble can 12 3 4 5 and 6 year olds get into? ha ha ha

We are chilling at home until Will gets out of work, and then we will scarf some grindage, and hit the road to the rink. How glad am I right now that we are actually as close as we are?

I'll post the link to pics in a few weeks when they are available. Till then, enjoy last year's...

http://cnsphotos.dynalias.com/nutcracker2005/Group1/index.htm Can you find Dakota? Hint, she is a tuxedo wearing cat. Tres cute!

and here http://cnsphotos.dynalias.com/nutcracker2005/Tots/index.htm you have to look harder for her, as they are all wearing the same costume.

And here are the pics of Dakota's current skating coach, last year as the featured guest skater http://cnsphotos.dynalias.com/nutcracker2005/Special_Guest/index.htm

enjoy!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers

Sometime this evening, my beppe, my grandmother, passed away. She had wanted to die at home, but she decided earlier that it was more important for her suffering to end, and less important where, and she passed easily (they tell me). She did recieve the pictures this morning that I fedexed, and the card my brother sent.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and words. I am reacting very oddly and calmly right now, but I am sure that the full force of this will hit me very, very soon.

She may be "gone", but she will live on forever in my heart and memory, and in the hearts and memories of my family.

Peace.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Please Have Thoughts (or Prayers) of Peace and Love for my Grandmother

My Beppe is sick. Actually, sick doesn't begin to cover it. She had a heart valve replacement operation a few weeks ago, and she is still in the hospital. Fluid continues to pile up around her heart, but her blood is so thin that they are having trouble keeping it drained off. She is on a ventilator and can no longer talk on the telephone, and my Grandfather is reluctant to hold the phone up to her ear, or maybe it won't reach. She is basically in congestive heart failure, and she wants to go home, to be in familiar surroundings when she passes, but right now, as of this evening, that is not looking possible.

Owen (my brother) and I desperately want to fly to Phoenix, just to see her one last time, to hold her hand, and to tell her we love her. But our mom (Beppe is her mom) seems to think this might be a bad idea, that we might get in the way, or make things more complicated. Or perhaps Beppe doesn't want us to see her, and therefore remember her like that. We know we need to respect their (mom, Beppe, Papa) wishes, but this is all very hard to grasp, process, accept or otherwise deal with.

I Love my grandmother. I always have. Even when I was 7 and out of spite and grumpiness from having to go home from a week spent visiting with them on their boat in Hawaii, and I said "I hate you" I didn't mean it and instantly regretted it. But I am not sure that Beppe has ever truly forgiven me for that childish indescretion. I hope that she has, but I am not positive. She is an amazing woman, who has done and lived through and seen so much in her life. I know that 82 years is a full life, but it still to me doesn't feel like her time. I know that she has made peace with what is to come, but I am having much difficulty with this. Even though I am practically 30, I feel like a powerless little kid. I just want to crawl under the covers and cry until I fall asleep, and then wake up in the morning and have the sun be shinning and every thing be better. I know that when her time comes, she will be at peace - but I am pretty sure that I will not be for a long while.

I am frequently fond of saying that I try not to regret, just do things differently the next time around. But in this case, I do regret not calling more. Not writing more. Heck, not emailing more. I regret not sending pictures of the kids more often, but am so thankful that my mother nagged me into the realization that I needed to send pictures and drawings of the kids to Beppe in the hospital. I wish I had visited more. I wish that when we did visit, that I had spent more time talking with her, hearing her stories, learning more about her and her youth. But that was a topic that she never has really enjoyed - she was born in the mid twenties and grew up in Nazi occupied Holland. What few stories I could get out of her always amazed me. I just wish I had grown up sooner and been ready to hear them all when she was willing to talk. I regret not being more attentive. I regret not being more affectionate. I regret not being more "there".

If you are reading this, please pray for her comfort, whether it be her sudden improvement so that she can go home (which I selfishly want, but I know is unrealistic), or the more likely comfort of no longer having the pain of slow heart failure. And please pray for my grandfather, who has spent the past 60+years being a part of a 2, and I am sure who cannot remember how to fly solo. And for my mother and uncle Falco, that they find and remember all the joy that they have known in their lives with their mother, and that they find peace as her time with us draws to a close. And also, if you have room, for my brother and I, and our cousin Erik, and Dakota and Jason, the 3 grandchildren and tw0 great grandchildren of Beppe. I am not sure if it is selfish to ask for prayers for myself, but I know that I am going to need them, because right now I am in need of the strength and maturity to deal with this situation rationally.

And if you are not the praying type, please just think positive thoughts. We need some positive energy sent out into the world right now.

Thank you.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Newspeak buzzwords are just the 18th and 19th century rehashified

'Promptitude' is an awesome word.


Courts of admiralty usually consider the following circumstances as the main ingredients in determining the amount of the reward to be decreed for a salvage service:
(1.) The labor expended by the salvors in rendering the salvage service.
(2.) The promptitude, skill, and energy displayed in rendering the service and saving the property.
(3.) The value of the property employed by the salvors in rendering the service, and the danger to which such property was exposed.
(4.) The risk incurred by the salvors in securing the property from the impending peril.
(5.) The value of the property saved.
(6.) The degree of danger from which the property was rescued.
Compensation as salvage is not viewed by the admiralty courts merely as pay, on the principle of a quantum meruit, or as a remuneration PRO OPERE ET LABORE, but as a reward given for perilous services, voluntarily rendered, and as an inducement to seamen and others to embark in such undertakings to save life and property.

Public policy encourages the hardy and adventurous mariner to engage in these laborious and sometimes dangerous enterprises, and with a view to withdraw from him every temptation to embezzlement and dishonesty, the law allows him, in case he is successful, a liberal compensation.

The Blackwall 77 U.S. 1, 13-14 (U.S.1869) (footnote citation omitted)

Saturday, November 04, 2006

"I'm the one who invented the word 'rainbow-riffic'" -- Dakota

This is a test of my secret "email -> publish as blog post " address.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Dakota's First Jock...

..actually in her case, it is a jane, not a jock.

She is getting tough enough that protective undergarments seemed the right way to go.

Words cannot describe how proud I am!

Sunday, October 29, 2006

I was recently eliminated in a competition

but luckily it wasn't for staredown

Saturday, October 28, 2006

For those of you keeping track...



Just an update. I plateaued for a while, but things seem to be moving again.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Stephen Klineberg once said...

...in his lecture about the nature of human nature that there are few things more terrifying than someone who actually wants to become President of the United States and then does become President of the United States.

After this elegant quote, Klineberg went to make a point. I forget what it was, but I was nevertheless impressed by his eloquence. I imagine that Klineberg has a lot of students like that: love the lecture, miss the point.

Perhaps this is why he said "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" so many times and in so many different ways, hoping at least once it would stick. And his point is well taken, even if I don't understand what "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" means.

That's not true, I understand that Klineberg means that in 2008 we need a leader who can reinforce concrete American values. We need a leader who can support a stable platform for peace and prosperity. We need a leader who can help Americans step up to a higher place.

"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" means that we should have an anonymous slab of composite building material poured into a stairwell mould and elevated to the highest role of public office. America is ready for Re-Bob.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Dakota's plans

Amy, Dakota will most likely be elected president, and then in a fit of frenzy, after some crazy intrigue, some lame-o will be coerced into nominating her supreme emporer, everyone will agree, and then, she will have a galactic empire to run. With the help of her underling (little brother), Darth Jason.

If I wasn't too tired, I would stage a photo of this and post it. But I am, so I won't.

blah.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Options

William, wouldn't it be easiest to make Don Mattingly president? Maybe with Obama, maybe with Gates. Your choice. Personally, I favor Dakota.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Curse William Li's steel-trap mind!

In response to his last post, I was going to write a hilarious mock letter:
Dear Mr. Li:

This law firm represents a mass of concrete cement and re-bar ("Re-Bob").

It has come to our attention that you have created a website... etc.
But as ever, William is one step ahead of me. Re-Bob is public domain, available under a Creative Commons license! Curses, foiled again!

Friday, October 13, 2006

Ceasing and desisting. (also... Re-Bob for president)

Oprah- I have said before that you and Bill Gates should be co-presidents of the united states. Although this was meant as an ironic statement, I didn't know that you were going all injunction-ballastic on other people who said it for real. As a result, I am giving my actual notice to you and the world: I no longer want you to be president.

My ironic endorsement for president now goes to a mass of concrete cement and re-bar. I shall dub this candidate "Re-Bob" and in all future witty comments about the state of national politics (either on this blog on in life) I will make or think about making an oblique but witty reference to Re-Bob.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

George: Hire Don Mattingly

Dear Mr. Steinbrenner, supreme emenance of the New York Yankees and all-around humble guy,

Sure...I love Lou Pinella also. Seriously though, throwing temper tantrums and critisizing club management tends to rankle you, so why hire a GM who has done both? Consider the noble slugger turned coach Don Mattingly.

Listen to me George, Joe Torre is a fallen hero. His stature was such that you just let him keep the show running even in years when the roster looked old and busted. But now that the best Yankees team in a decade has blown it, it's time for to go with a new GM. Everyone agrees with you about this, for once. You nevertheless need someone of equal stature. Mattingly was the model for Derek Jeter. The players revere him, as do the fans. Everyone will respond to his message and if this most talented Yankees team that won an insane 97 games in the regular season but laid a gigantic egg against the Tigers doesn't win the series in '97, you can always Billy Martin him.

(Oh Billy... how we miss your antics).

Your friend, although sometimes I hate you,

William Li

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Something to look at while procrastinating

This clever commercial done by Spike Jonze:

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Bazooka Joe is a keen wit.

I have always found Bazooka Joe to be a riotious chortle. In my halcyon days of youth, I would sit in the school bus and have a good belly laugh. Oh, the laughing that I would have! Such laughing as one has never heard!

I would laugh so much that some good friends would want to know the nature of my ailment, and I would tell them, "This Bazooka Joe comic is a source of intense amusement for me!"

I was well known amongst my peers for such keen observations. My actions were often remarked upon for their distinctiveness, for I am mirth incarnate! Hark!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

When I become Lord Chancellor of the English Language

The spelling of "separate" will become a choice of

seperate

or


seapirate.



AVAST DIRT DWELLERS!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Amazon.com: Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams

Several things are wrong with books like Getting to Maybe: How to Excel on Law School Exams

1. I've convinced myself that this sort of explanation is like trying to explain how to make pepper make you sneezy. "You have to get sensitve to pepper, that way sniffing it will make you sneezy" "Okay, I've got my nose full of pepper. Now make me sneezy like a cartoon bad guy!"

This is a very strange analysis. Why is answering a law school exam question like involuntarily discharging a random spray of unpleasant... oh I got it.

2. "Getting to maybe" is fundamentally the wrong place to get to. The place to get to is "So what?"

As in: Cardozo says, "instinct with an obligation..."

Did you just get there? Good. You are ready for the exam.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

The unintended brilliance of the Microsoft Exhange default dictionary is that house.gov is suggested as "Hoosegow." Hello, Duke Cunningham!

I am mainly posting this to try out the blogging features of Writely. Oddly the word "Blogging" needs to be added to the dictionary, as does the word "Writely.

Okay now for the features test drive:

  • Added Tag
  • Added Multiple Tags
  • Added a snazzy table describing the prisoner's dilemma game

X

Cooperate

Defect

Cooperate

3/3

5/-1

Defect

-1/5

0/0

  • Edited the underlying HTML code
  • Picture - not working. Might be my rotten broadband. T1 down 300 baud up.
  • Added comment


  • Horizontal line
  • My favorite special char: §
  • Added header

Friday, September 01, 2006

eh?

What?

Thursday, August 31, 2006

This post has my Copywritten color comment catchphrase



ZAMBONIUM. This is not the catchphrase.

You can "view source" on the article too see it the catch phrase, but because it has all the overhead crud from blogger, if you Ctrl+F on "ZAMBONIUM" it will get you there faster. Also this works better if you look at the article from the "Permalink" view.

Copyrights are created by the act of authorship, not registration. I will add some notes about this to this article. Later.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

What's the difference between gray and grey?

This appeal requires us to sort once more through the authorities distinguishing maritime and non-maritime contracts in the offshore exploration and production industry. As is typical, the final result turns on a minute parsing of the facts. Whether this is the soundest jurisprudential approach may be doubted, inasmuch as it creates uncertainty, spawns litigation, and hinders the rational calculation of costs and risks by companies participating in this industry. Nevertheless, we are bound by the approach this court has followed for more than two decades.


Hoda v. Rowan Companies, Inc. 419 F.3d 379, *380 (5th Cir. 2005) (Jones, J.)

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Dakota starts school...

Jason and I went to pick Dakota up from her first day of Kindergarten yesterday, and we were greeted by a pink fairy. Dakota had found the costume box (and according to the lady in charge, she had already tried every last one of them on) and thusly decided that extended care is a good thing (and Mommy not picking me up immediately after school is ok).

I asked her how her day went. What I learned from our various conversations:

Her teacher is, "nice, even though she wears glasses and is a bit bossy. But most teachers are bossy."

"They are?" I asked.

"Yes mommy. They have so many rules. Just like you and Oma."

Oh good. She is seeing the connection between having teachers in the family and going to school.

Also, any time she talks about a girl in her class, the child is referred to as a "person" (the person next to me at lunch was named...). However, if the child in question is a boy, he is referred to as a "boy." So does this take the old bumper sticker slogan (Feminism is the radical idea that women are people too) to a new level? Are only women (girls) people, and men (boys) are just men? I'm probably overanalyzing.

Also, PE has "lots of exercising" and she can't wait for music class tomorrow, and today in art she picked the picture she liked best from a book ("page 5 was my favorite, and then I saw page 10 and I changed my mind") and drew herself in that picture on her paper.

The highlight of her day seemed to be when she bought her own chocolate milk from the lunch lady all by herself. Definitley a step up from last year, when mommy would buy it and walk it out to the daycare. I know she felt so responsible carrying those 2 quarters in her pocket, and so proud that she didn't lose them. And she was so thrilled to show me the change that the lunch lady gave her back.

"two pennies!" (milk costs 48 cents?)

"um, no honey, those are dimes"

"dimes. Ok. I need to remember that"

I thought Dakota's Kindergarten experiences would rival (or at least somewhat resemble) those of Junie B. Jones. Yes, there are similarities, but so far, no "highjinks have ensued" after any of her escapades.

Well, at least as far as I know. Her folder has had a happy sticker each day...

Monday, August 21, 2006

Baby Bunny visits the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum

 

This is Dakota's Baby Bunny. It is a plush toy licensed by the University of Tulsa. It liked the modernist sculptural concepts of Noguchi.



There are many notable things about Isamu Noguchi. What you know about "modern" design (which is not to say "contemporary" as the modern era ended decades ago) might well depend on what you know about Noguchi. Did you know that he and Buckminster Fuller were lifelong friends? Did you know that Noguchi never got to make the Ulimate Children's playground? Did you know that his half-sister, Ailes Gilmore, was a pioneer of modern interpretive dance? It's all true!


 

Like all borgeois college types, bunny decided to hang out in the gift shop cafe and chill.

 Posted by Picasa

Friday, August 18, 2006

The IAU committee had 12 members

And guess how many planets this "12 member" committee says there are ...


The IAU draft definition of 'planet' and 'plutons' from PhysOrg.com

The world’s astronomers, under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), have concluded two years of work defining the difference between “planets” and the smaller “solar system bodies” such as comets and asteroids. If the definition is approved by the astronomers gathered 14-25 August 2006 at the IAU General Assembly in Prague, our Solar System will include 12 planets, with more to come: eight classical planets that dominate the system, three planets in a new and growing category of “plutons” – Pluto-like objects – and Ceres. Pluto remains a planet and is the prototype for the new category of “plutons.”

[...]


Dr. Pluto was glad that Drs Mercury,Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune voted for her.

The big surprise was that Dr Charon and Dr 2003UB313 also got enough votes. Apparently having won "Rochambeau" means that the rest of the comittee needs to name a planet after you. I can't waiting until my kids run that committee and rename the planets: Dora, Elmo, Kermit, Scooby-Doo, Kim, Possible, etc.

I didn't make a joke about "Dr. Your..." oh never mind.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

No Fear

I was afraid to leave school today. Because if I left school, then the day would be over, night would come, and with it the following day. And the children.

They always come, and there is nothing you can do about it. There is something magical and surreal about working in a school bereft of children. But clearly that is not what nature, God, or the school board intended (oh - to work without actually having anybody to teach...my room would be SO organized).

And without learners, my job would be rather pointless. That said, this being my first year in high school. I was feeling a bit nervous. Well, not actually nervous about anything in particular, just nervous that the nerves would kick in sometime about now. But they haven't. I have even decided I don't need my traditional night before school starts liquid dinner acoutrement. I am feeling very capable, and very at peace.

So I have realized that what I was afraid of was being afraid. I know, the only thing to fear is fear itself. But I guess in my anticipating the fear, I forgot to actually have it.

Strange. Now if I can just make it to bed on time (darn Dawson's Creek Marathon on the N), tomorrow will be a pice of cake. Well, maybe not a piece of cake, but definitely a slice of pie. My mom's beef and spinach pie. Meaty, hearty, and fun, but with ample spinachy nutritious goodness too, all wraped up in a Vegan crust.

With only a hint of cheese.

***
Here's to only a hint of pedagogical cheese tomorrow!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Rockin out with Harry and the Potters at Kicks

U
nappreciative indoor soccer players at kicks heard but did not know the rockingness, upstairs in the balcony lounge, that was Harry and the Potters, melting faces with a killer show.   I thought for sure that between the big write-up in Houston Press and word of mouth, the venue would have sold out. And while it was a solid 110-15, there was still plenty of room, which is probably better anyway. Mostly the scene was misunderstood teenage girls swooning at the vanguard of the newest(ish) sub-genre of nerd-punk dubbed "Wizard Rock"


For certain, I looked extremely out of place, but that would be a fair statement for me most anywhere (except, perhaps in Thailand with a sheer flirty Jedi robe and dreadlocks). Nevertheless, the kids sure let me know it, boy howdy, with their "who's this creepy old guy?" and "hi, loser" looks. Whatever, I am too old to suddenly become cool. Louren, however, had no such problem. They sense her awesomeness and are awed.


Although the opening band was fun and talented, the Potters really transcend the conceit of writing songs where the lyrics are derived from the events of the Rowling novels. These guys are  musicians with deep understanding of the various subgenres that their natural audience funks and grooves on.

  • "Fred and George" opens like it could be Ween.
  • One of the songs off the new album features hp yr 4 playing an americanized English-ska sax, and the kids skanked along in harmonious bliss.
  • And, of course, at some point, the few teenage boys found something to mosh over.
  • The moshing, however, wasn't for "Sectumsempra" a beautifully constructed bit of Grindcore that taps into one of the darker parts of book 6 with a monstrously violent spell that has a more human consequence of giving away a badly kept secret. "Sectumsempra" comes on so suddenly and with such rage that the little girls look genuinely terrified, then its over.


Harry Year four speaks to the audience alternately in character as the slightly introverted Harry, alternately in other rock personas: one minute he's twisted like Trent Reznor, the next he's a strutting Mick Jagger, the next he's "Paul's little brother." Harry Year 7 is more direct. He is who he is: a musician dressed up like a fictional character for a book that NO ONE HAS READ YET, BUT EVERYONE SEEMS TO RELATE TO.


The brevity of the songs themselves, besides having an overall characteristic of the early work and impatience of young minds literally bursting with ideas, has a great punk feel to it.  The many "1 minute, all concept" songs on their 1st album reminds me of the eponymous "They Might Be Giants" first release on BarNone. But this act can get old, bands risk becoming jaded King Missile-like Art rockers, and no one will dispute: there need only be one King Missile. Not to worry with the Potters, however, the lean and hungry of the 1st album becomes lean and muscular with the release of Harry and the Potters' second album, "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!" and even more so with the new "The Power of Love" album. Indeed, they've really hit their stride.


By "stride" I mean, we get into what makes Harry and the Potters' music more than just a novelty act: The books by Rowling are merely a jumping off point into the a universe of material that the DeGeorge brothers treat with intelligence and vigor. In doing so,   Posted by Picasa Harry Potter at 15 and 18 year old reference points becomes a narration of a hostile wizarding world and an even more turbulent inner world. Because there can be an overwhelming level of cheese in taking on this perspective, the Potters deserve credit for even attempting to take on such dangerous artistic ground. But its more than an "A fir effort" -- Harry and the Potters avoid the Scylla of the condescending voice that adults tend to take when they are sotto vocce a teenager AND the Charibdis of the self-pitying voice that plauges wuss-rock and emo generally (emo is the derisible "Iron John" of middle-class teens; discuss). Instead, Harry any the Potters achieve an essential authenticity by relating to what's messed up about Harry's life and what's messed up about the Muggle world-at-large. Harry and the Potters nail disdain for incompetent adult leaders ("Cornelius Fudge is an Ass"), adolescent hubris ("This Book is so Awesome"), and loss ("The Godfather: Part II", "Dumbledore"). The audience cheers gratefully for the outlet of what might be otherwise inchoate.


To drive this point home, the band has a predeliction for all-ages shows at libraries and actually made up a summer reading list of other authors that really speak to them and (to whatever degree) express for them. At first I thought that was odd, but that was because I departed from the jumping off place too soon.


I actually wrote a book report on Cat's Cradle as part of my Junior year termpaper on the (then) complete works of Vonnegut. If my apple //e back home still works, I'll see if I can't somehow dig it out next week.


Last comment: these boys were in Austin yesterday, played a big set tonight and are playing two sets tomorrow in Dallas as part of their incredible pace of 47 shows in two months. That's hard work. Rock glory is hard work.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Nuuv Chitthithl

I would not have guessed that Jedi William was Thai. Or that he would wear a sheer, flirty Jedi robe.

But the dreadlocks... that went without saying.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Master Carolus Javier's Select College for the Sons of Gentlefolk

One of the things that I always enjoyed about fantasy as a genre of fiction was the ability to have thinly vieled characters who are just a stand-in for someone familiar but with ridiculous names.

Here is my name if I were to write a "Star Wars" novel with a thinly vieled stand-in for me as a Jedi...

 

Cartoonishly rendered by me using MS Paint. MS Paint is not to be mistaken for Ms. Paint, who is the character from the 1980's spin-off video game. Posted by Picasa


Which brings me to the question. Where am I on the hero's journey (Oh I'm a hero now am I?)

Well, it depends on what the adventure is. I'll say that the adventure is "get some sleep after a difficult final exam" in which case I am in the "refusal to answer the call"


...





okay it's the next morning. My stomach hurt all night thinking about that rotten exam. It's a bit uncharacteristic of me, I know, to break character like this but ARRGGGHHH! The stuff that I got down really cold versus the tough way that they... and then... the but... and then there was this part where... and I should have said ... but I had... and I just blanked!... and... the... what... and... but

LIKE I GOT ANYTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT!!! E Hewett does all of his exams via the socratic method... and normally not in English. I'll take the tax code over that 9 times out of 10. I'll save the 10th time for the philsophy test that says "Define the universe and give two examples" I've always wanted to take that test.

Anyhow, Louren said that I would feel better watching the Dormitory Boys' new lip-syncs. I love the way that they make fun of the cheesy instrumental riffs. Check this out:




That's funnier that impaling a real potato imitating a anthropmorphized potato simulacrum of early 20th century american xenophobia Not the ice pick ahhhhhh!!!

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Feeping Creaturism: Google Toolbar Button Gallery

Google Now has a toolbar button that brings up a web page to add tool bar buttons to your Google toolbar

Meanwhile the popular "BlogThis" button is harder to get to.

This is very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very bad.

Rather than explain why, I'll tell a story.

Once there was this great little company. It was fast and agile and run by smart hard-working people who were scrappy and put one over on the dominant computer company of its day. But those things were not enough. Then one day, it really got its act together and pulled out all of the stops to create a product that everyone agreed that, while not perfect, was waaaaaaay better than the last major release and was pretty good overall. It was relatively lightweight and clean but had smart features that were useful.

This was a golden moment. In future years, its product line headed off in a profitable but very controversial (and this author says very wrong) direction and a bad omen was that the next major release included a showcase feature that was mostly Intellectual Property infringement.

The company is as you have probably guessed but here is the surprise: the very wrong direction is GUI.

Take a deep breath and savor folks. Just as "Friends" jumped the shark when Rachel didn't get married to the dentist, I feel that this new google toolbar means that that the DOS 5.0 era is over and the DOS 6.0 fiasco phase will soon begin.

Oh Google...

Dim the lights folks, I am going to sing a sad song

Oh Google...
Well you came and had a clean GUI
Now there's junk in the way
Oh Google...

Change in tempo, let's lower the disco ball and light this place up awwww yeah...
My blogger I, can't get enough of this blog entry (oh my my my)
My blogger I, can't get enough of this...

clang clang clang goes the trolley
ding ding ding goes the bell...

big finish now, ethel mermaid style
You'll

NE

VER

WALK

A


LOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!






Good night everybody! Good night! I love you all! Thank you! You like me! you really like me! Top of the world ma! 23 skiddoo! You are beautiful! JAZZHANDS.






ok, back to studying....

sweet smelling rose?

I know a woman who chose to not go by her husband's name (professionally) because of the name of a certain pancake syrup (with me so far?). I also know a woman who if she marries a certain guy, will be forever known to many as Mrs. Fields.

This brought William to decry that so many good names have been ruined by the mass marketing of foodstuffs (and other cultural atrocities).

"Nobody wants to go by Mrs. Dash anymore. Or Mrs. Doubtfire. Or Mrs. Marple for that matter. Oh, wait, she never did marry, did she. The Spinster Miss Marple then."

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Ok, Rupert Murdoch, I will be part of your hype machine

And the song goes...


Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

blah-blah blah-blah blah-blah blahblahblahblahblah
blah-blah blah-blah blah blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH

Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

Find me on MySpace and be my friend!

Run for your lives

A 3U rack-mountable graphics card for the low low price of $18K!

Friday, August 04, 2006

Namesake Series

Thank you, Louren, for reminding us of the Namesake Series:
Cassette tapes of the works of famous authors read by actors with the same last name. David endorsed them indirectly during "This is Spinal Tap." Series included Danny Thomas reading "A Child’s Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas, MacLean Stevenson reading "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson, and star basketball player Julius "Dr. J" Irving reading the shorter works of Washington Irving.
How much better would most Patrick Swayze movies be, with a simple casting change from Swayze to Patrick Stewart.

But this brings up some important questions:

Would Bodhi still have such luscious long hair (requiring Stewart to have extensions or a wig) or would the thrill seeking surfer be bald?

Would Dr. Houseman have freaked out so much initially about Baby dating Johnny if he had been played by Stewart, or would he possibly have freaked out more? (Can't you just see Picard saying "nobody puts Baby in the corner"?)

And don't you think that if Stewart had been Jed, that the Commies never would have taken Colorado?

And no question about it, that pottery scene would have been WAY hotter with Stewart as Sam.

Speaking of guys named Sam, would Quantum Leap have been better with a different Enterprise Captain leaping through time?

I'm just sayin'. (clearly I am ready to go back to school. I have a splitting headache, and it may or may not be due to these random thoughts which are filling my head which is currently otherwise unoccupied with the minutae of my school work).

***
Oh, and further proof that Jason is going to make me proud with his wierdness. We know that he doesn't like sweets (cake, cookies, ice cream, etc). But now he is eating a piece of bread. Most little kids eat the middle, and stinkeye the crusts. Not Jason. He peels off the crusts and eats them first, and then plays with the squishy center.

Oh, and Dakota just asked me, "where do we keep the peanut butter sandwiches anyway?!" Funny Girl.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I'm Official! Ok, so it has been official for a while, but sometimes it doesn't seem real unless your name is on the website!

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Attack of the Saturday Morning Project

Kids - just because there is a how-to video...

Dakota's Bunny is Yellow. I think that her's came out the best.  

"What did you use for the black eyes?"

Black eyes peas.

For the real deal check out Aardman Animation Studio's Attack of the Were-Rabbit. Posted by Picasa

Friday, July 28, 2006

BigChampagne is Watching You

Check out Eric Garland's cool picture in : Wired

Sunday, July 23, 2006

My Little Hockey Player :)

No, not Jason, Dakota! She has been skating for over a year now, and about 2 months ago, the rink we go to sponsored a girls only learn about hockey event, featuring two members of the US womens' Olympic team, who of course brought their gold medals! Dakota got to use a stick to shoot some pucks, had her picture taken with the players and their medals (I need to scan it so you can see the look of awe on her face), and the rest was history.

Now every Sunday, for an hour, Dakota and I go to the rink for hockey. For half an hour, they practice skating with the sticks, getting up, sliding, falling down, curving turns, and other skating related skill work. Then, for the last half hour, they play little games. She has unbelieveable amounts of fun, and is always quite sweaty when she is finished, with a HUGE grin on her face.

Today, she wanted to stay to watch the "big boys" play (drop in for hockey players anywhere from middle school to adult it seemed). She enjoyed it for a few minutes, but I think she would have preferred to be out there herself.

She still figure skates two or more days a week. And she still waves at the Zamboni driver as he is cutting the ice. But she is now just a bit more fierce on the ice, a sight to behold.

That, and even with her on figure skates and me on hockey skates, I can never catch her at tag, and she is so fast that she can tease me about catching me, skating behind me for a long time, pretending to not be able to reach me, and then sneak around to the front and surprise me.

I just can't wait until both kids are old enough to be on the ice!

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Dakota captures the essence of Scooby-Doo

Look Dad, It's Scooby-Doo! Hey, I've seen this episode. It's called, "Scooby-Doo and the Man wearing the Scary Ghost Mask."

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

E. Hewett in the House!

For dinner tonight. Dakota is thrilled, Jason is nervous. Understandably so, when there is yet another person in the house who is like 5 times as tall as him!

In other news, I have been seduced by myspace. Ok, not really, but it is pretty cool.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Living in Houston, I naturally wonder about the ribbons

Specifically, I wonder if there isn't some vendor with no particular ideological position other than the desire to sell a whole bunch of ribbon shaped magnets.

So the answer is: Yes. And apparently they want to encourage bloggers to give them free advertising.

Custom Ribbon Magnet: All Your Ribbons Are Belong To Us"
Custom Ribbon Magnet: All Your Ribbons Are Belong To Us: "Make your custom magnet at SupportOurRibbons.com

Clever Response

DARN IT! I tried to make a clever magnet response, but to no avail! Rat Toenails and Fart MOnkeys!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Home Sweet Home

I am back from Oklahoma. I will blog more to tell about my week at "American Idols: Synod Youth Workshop" after I have caught up on sleep.

Long story short, Sunday night, 6 ir so hours on the floor of a creeeeeeeeeeeeepy church in a sketchy neighborhood (ok, not by my standards, but whatever), followed by 4 nights of 5-6 hours of sleep, and capped off by a whopping 4 hours of sleep, and 9 hours of driving today.

yay me!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

N. Korea ruins dinner


"The recently created circumstance is making the situation in the region unstable and is also affecting the South-North relations,'" the South's chief envoy, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, said in a speech at a dinner with the North's delegation at the opening of four days of ministerial talks.


Jae-Soon Change, "Envoy: N. Korea destabilizing region
Discord among Asian nations follows missile tests", Houston Chronicle (July 11, 2006).

The North Korean Minister of Agriculture was berating a waiter at that particular instant and did not hear the remark. The South Korean Minister of Teenage Angst just rolled her eyes. And the maître d' told the delegations from Indonesia and East Timor that there were no tables available but if they wanted to eat in the bar, there was room enough for all of the ministers.

Meanwhile, outside the restaurant, Dave Matthews was quarrelling with his valet.

Matthews: "This is another fine mess, Lionel."
Valet: "I'm terribly sorry, I thought it sounded over the phone like they said that this was a restaurant for minstrels who squawk!"

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Funny Girl & Sweet Boy

Dakota and I are driving down the road. She is prattling on, and I decide to distract her by initiating one of her favorite games (and thereby circumventing her desire to play "the copy game"), "Waiter and Customer."

Louren, "Ok Dakota, I'll be the customer, and you be the waiter."

Dakota, after a brief pause, and in her best fake french accent, "Hello madam. I am glad you are back today. But tell me, why are we driving around in your car, and where are we going?"

It was all I could do not to pull off the road from laughing so hard.

And when the story was related to Oma and William, she proudly proclaimed, "yep, I said that!"

***

I am packed for Oklahoma. I have showered. I am about to wake Will up so he can drive me to the church. I can do this. I can be away from my own kids for 1 week so that I can help chaperone teenagers at "church camp."

My mom will do a fabulous job here with them, I know this. But why do they have to get super snuggly and sweet right before I leave?

And why is this harder than leaving my kids to go to work in the morning? Jason is still so young, I hope that my absence is not too hard on him. He is rather easygoing, so he might not even miss my presence. Dakota is putting up a good front, pretending that she will cry every day, but I know that it is far more likely that she will bake cookies every day.

I know my kids will be fine. But I am suddenly filled with stomach butterflies of a sort not felt for many years.

Although I bet this is how I am going to feel in a few short weeks when Dakota begins Kindergarten.

*deep breaths. You can do this*

Monday, July 03, 2006

Another vignette: Trying to get Dakota to go to sleep

DJ: Daddy, the fan woke me up. It was going [mimics fan]

Wm: That is a fairly good impersonation, Dakota. Now I would like for you to impersonate a bear in the winter and hibernate.

DJ: Daddy! Not all species of bear hibernate. Polar bears don't live in caves, they like winter and live where its cold.

Wm: Well ... I mean a brown bear that lives in a cave.

DJ: Okay, but before a bear hibernates, it likes to eat the skin of fish, and berries, and it eats a lot of food.

Wm: Dakota! Assume that this bear has already been on a feeding frenzy. Now it is time to slow down and go to sleep.

DJ: Its not really sleeping so much as slow motion. It has a special posture. I can't do it. I'll just show you with my hands. Pretend this hand is a bear...

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Dakota's version of "Waiter there is a fly in my soup"

"Waiter? There is a caterpillar in my oatmeal."

...

"Waiter! Now there is a butterfly in my oatmeal."

lmao

Friday, June 30, 2006

Superman Returns and is awesome. Now some lyrics:

Who's flying around,
all over town?
Who's fly around --
Superman!!

Look up in the sky.
Who is that guy?
It's a bird!
It's a plane!!
Superman!!!

I was explaining to Louren that I sometimes call him "John L. Williams" but I really mean that he's Kryptonian and his name is "John-el"


Some of the critics didn't like the movie. They are bad people who have never read comic books and should not be allowed to see any more movies, only the test pattern on a tv.

Most people, liked the movie. That's because most people rule!

It can all be explained with a Syllogism:

All movies that are "Superman Returns" (like for real, not just someone decided to rename "Ishtar" or something) are totally awesome!

I just watched "Superman Returns"

I just watched "Superman Returns" which is a movie that are totally awesome!

Q.E.D.



Oh and then let me deconstruct it for you:

Superman represents the main character in a totally awesome movie called "Superman Returns"

So the meaning of "Superman Returns" is that you get to go see a totally awesome movie.


What was so awesome about it?

It was totally awesome.


If you don't believe me, check out my Platonic Trialog:

Once upon a time, Aristole and Focault were having Cerviche and discussing the nature of Aesthetics:

Aristotle: The nature of beauty the truth of the object of art.
Focault: No, the nature of beauty is existential experience of beauty that we imbue into the object of art.
Waiter: Okay, two Pabst Blue Ribbons. Hey, I don't know what you guys are saying but "Superman Returns" is a totally awesome movie.
Aristotle and Foucault together: Yes.


________________
/.,------------,.\
/// .=^^^^^^^\__|\\
\\\ `------. .//
`\\`--...._ `;//'
`\\.-,___;.//'
`\\-..-//'
`\\//'
""

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Notes from Vacation

Dakota says a soul train is a train that has two engines and carries lots of good things for people. Ok.

Dakota and Oma made cookies. The only mix available (for ease of maintaining Dakota's interest, not for ease of Oma's cooking) was oatmeal. Dakota was initially not thrilled. "I don't like porridge cookies" she said. She changed her mind with the addition of walnuts and craisins.

Jason waves hello and goodbye at everybody. He also said "hello" twice yesterday, but not again since. And only in conjuction with stealing my cellphone.

My camera does not want to work. I think this is due to sand from the beach having still been in my purse when I last put it in there. It makes a nasty grinding noise when I try to turn it on, and it won't focus on anything. Yech.

Dakota has started swimming lessons. Jason will start in two weeks (with me or Oma). Dakota's previous year swim instructor remembered her, and he and Dakota's current swim instructor were sharing notes. Great.

Oh, and Dakota is going to start hockey in July. She now has a helmet, elbow and shin pads, and gloves, all of which will eventually become Jason's. She also has a stick, taped in lovely hot pink. Yay pink. Yippee. She is beside herself, and looks darn cute in the gear. And yes, the helmet has a face mask.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Warren Buffett gives the Gates Foundation a zillion jillion kaquillion dillion dollars

Once I was at Valhalla on a Friday afternoon and only had half the money needed for a pitcher of Natty Lite, so Andy Chen kicked in the other twenty-five cents.

Look out Bill and Warren, we're big spenders too!

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Whoops, forgot to add the link

Cheers to Travis for lampooning my editing mistake of my recent post: 3 of 4: When we're Saying, "Hi, Dr. Bot". I added the link in the article so it makes more sense now.

Although I rarely explain the joke, my bad craftsmanship requires that I do.

The link in the title to When we're Saying, "Hi, Dr. Bot" is to "Why I read the boring news" because my title is an anagram of Trav's.

That's the parody.

Something that is often lost is that when I parody the EH, its not normally to make fun of Trav or his writing style but
(1) to make fun of culture at large and blogs in particular
(2) to play semiotic (or semi-idiotic) games
(3) to delight in being an absurd foil to Trav's seriousness or to confuse by being deadly serious to Trav's whimsy
(4) to model what parody should be rather than what it normally is, which is often both unoriginal and mean-spirited (i.e. Capt.Sarcasm's doofus side-kick), and rarely entertaining (e.g. the "Scary Movie" series).


This is a somewhat roundabout way of getting to a public apology. Trav is not a tool of The Man and I regret that by failing to add an href html tag, I gave that impression.

My shame

With perverse anticipation, I clicked on the link, eager to see the latest "disappointing 'breakthrough hardware' from Microsoft". To my deep embarassment, I discovered that the disappointment was none other than my own writing! Then, the growing horror of self-awareness as I realized not just that The Hollerer was not delighting the consumer - I'd long known that - but that I had been an unwitting tool of The Man. Dave knew enough to escape; now that I knew, could I?

And then the slouching. Guess I need to do more yoga.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

When we're Saying, "Hi, Dr. Bot"

With much fanfare, yet another disappointing "breakthrough hardware" from Microsoft slouches towards the consumer. In fact, it might turn out to be a nice little music player and Microsoft is fantastic at being 2nd to market. My gripe is mostly with the over hyping. That and adverbs. I find that I trust adverbs less and less. I truly believe that they are lurking horror.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Look ma! Deprecated tags in the header

From a CSS standpoint, this page is just one big insult.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Fun Fact: The Industrious dung beetle can carry away an elephant patty in about an hour.

Unfortunately the archives of the Buzzer do not extend back to 1991-92, otherwise they would have my favorite space filler of all time. When I wrote it, Rory and I were annoyed/amused by shameless space fillers. I had a particular axe to grind with the insulting crud that was aimed at kids. The seemingly "science education" materials that, in fact, carried no useful infomation at all.

Apparently, video games can do it to. Check out this ridiculousness:

  Posted by Picasa

Friday, June 16, 2006

Bill Gates to Follow Dave Miller and leave Microsoft

Today @ PC World - Bill Gates to Leave Microsoft; CTO Ray Ozzie Steps Up

It is reported Mr. Gates was imagined to be thinking "When Dave Miller left Microsoft in order to do... no no no in order to just be. That gave me pause. Well, that and the fact that I am the richest man in the world."

I've previously expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for Ray Ozzie and I have not changed my mind.

What's next for Gates? People (like Gates himself) say he will focus on his charities, but I believe that he and Oprah Winfrey will run for co-president of the United States in 2008. Someone will try to tell them that its not allowed and they will just laugh. Gates will say something about "don't stiffle innovation."

Thursday, June 15, 2006

No Title

So this morning, I asked Will, "Can you take Jason..."

and before I could finish he said, "to work with me? Sure! I'll bring his high chair, and he can sit and eat cheerios all day. He can wear his white dress shirt and khaki pants, and I will pick him up a little tie. And I will make a sign that says 'mini-me'. Sound good?"

He had me laughing so hard at the image that I almost forgot to finish asking him about taking Jason with him and Dakota to skating on Saturday so I can go to the studio for a few hours.

P.S. The kids have cute new summer haircuts, and if you know my email, and send me a request, I will send you a pic. Will just isn't thrilled at the idea of recent photos of our offspring being on the web, and i kinda have to agree.

Monday, June 12, 2006

I know, I know, 5 year olds don't hear the "not" part

What is the quickest way to get a 5 year old to do something you don't want her to do? Ask her to not do it.

ex. "Dakota, it is very important right now that you be calm, and not go crazy."

Dakota, 10 minutes later, while running around, "I'm going crazy, I'm going crazy!"

She is confined to her room for the remainder of eternity.

And probably is already on the Principal's list of "ones to watch" for next year.

Great.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Hot Dog, My Baby

Danny Katch and I composed the lyrics and music to "Hot Dog, My Baby" while on a leadership retreat in High School. The idea was that a catchy hook, some clever rhyming, and a love interest could make even the stupidest thing a poppy hit. We proceeded to bust out


She didn't like Chicken but she wasn't no vegetarian
She didn't believe in God but she wasn't not Unitarian
She liked Robin Hood but she didn't like Maid Marion
dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit ... Hot Dog"


The way it came out was Danny Katch said the first line, then I sang the first line and the first half of the second line. Danny finished the second line and started the third line. We finished the third line together. Then we got stumped and I said "well the you'd have something like dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit ... Hot Dog"
to suggest a musical structure, but Danny didn't think we could improve on that. Three more verses came pretty easily, and that was that.

The song structure is fairly classic melody run following the minor pentatonic (i.e. the blues scale) in a I - IV - V progression

Nevertheless, there was something so hilarious and natural about it that the two girls who were there just rolled their eyes because they thought it was a "bit" which we had rehersed earlier. As if Danny ever needed to reherse!

Before I graduated, Danny and I were horried to find that Deadeye Dick had plagarized our concept. I suggested he sue and he suggested that I start the revolution. Actually, I'm making that last part up. Call it revisionist irony.

I forgot all about this song until, for some reason, I sang it for Noah. I think its his favorite song. Maybe it's just his favorite song by me. Noah, whenever you get married, I'll sing it at your rehersal dinner. Actually... maybe that's not such a great idea.

Anyhow, whenever Dakota is watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and I hear TMBG sing Hot Dog, I get a little freaked out.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Foreign Video

You may recall Slate jumping on the YouTube tip, and the fruit of this latest cultural awesomeness is Wilber Pan - Bu De Bu Ai (Have To Love)


proving that notwithstanding certain slander about Asians, there is one type of cheese that seems to be universally appealing.

If you don't love this immediately, try it with extra irony, which is how slate served it up and we are hooked.

Super props to Louren for finding a translation of the song presented as a way to learn mandarin through pop music. Awesome awesomeness

In all seriousness (as much as I can mustard anywho) the Slate article misses that the obvious improvement of the lip-synched version through the extra layers of semiotic coding goes back to a ccanonical rant (circa 2000) that I need to post about how after our society is just an archieological record, the culiminating cultural product of the 20th century, the one that concises describes all of it and ties the 19th and 21st centuries together is Pink Wizard of Frand Lloyd Oz

Friday, June 09, 2006

Boat's in Trees

Oh New York Times, writing about 100-Ton Symbols of a Recovery .
To understand a little about this small crustacean of a city nine months after Hurricane Katrina, you have to accept a counterintuitive concept: Boats in the trees.


What? I mean it. What?!?

1) What does the New York Times think that they understand about Alabama? Brandon Kirby scoffs at you, and not the nice kind of scoffing either.

2) What's counterintuitive about Boat's in trees? Obviously in your small world you've never watched "Fist of the North Star" - Ocean liners in skyscrapers

3) Of course the biggest problem is that the photograph is of a boat... not in a tree. I'll edit:

To understand a little about this small crustacean nine months after Hurricane Katrina, you have to accept a bit of cocktail sauce at the counter and stick the shrimp fork into it. I've had better: Look at this photo of a boat on the grass!

Search and Rescue

Jason is very good at finding things. Once, he found some fish that had gone missing between the car and the house after a trip to the grocery store. Not sure where he found it, but it was within 5 minutes of my arriving home, which was unfortunately not withing the three minutes it took for me to freak out and be back in the car heading for the store to buy more fish. We had a lot of fish that weekend.

Today, he has been finding things in cabinets that I thought were child proofed. Also, I have been sorting through the last boxes from elementary, to decide what really needs to go to highschool, and what can stay at home, or go to mom. Jason has been thwarting this, resorting things from box to box.

****
Dakota just came up to me and asked, "can we sell our house?"
She wants to see soot sprites like in my neighbor totoro a japanese animated movie she adores.

Sorry kiddo. We are here until a major event occurs, such as Will being offered the chance to practice law someplace exotic, or they rezone the schools. I don't see either happening anytime soon.

Besides, I love our house. And it will be clean and organized, sooner if Jason stops helping.

I must get him back to two naps a day. Is it 9:30 am yet?

Monday, June 05, 2006

Why I am glad that Harry Knowles is not Dakota's uncle

Read this here. Specifically the last three paragraphs (okay, not the last one, but the next to last two).

Taking a 5 year old to see a horror movie, so the kid will learn to be good? Nice.

I know that Owen would never take Dakota (or Jason for that matter) to see an inapropriately scary movie at age 5.

And I know that Eugene would never take Dakota to a movie (because that would necesitate Stephanie being there as well, and probably end up including Teresa too - and be something like The Sugar Princess Ponies Tea Party Adventure - Part 3 IMAX - and there is no way that would ever happen, because have you seen what movie tickets cost in New York?)

I guess what I am saying is that I am glad that my kids' uncles (and "uncles" - Dave, Trav, Erik, Jeff, Andy, etc) are smart enough to know what movies are and are not good for a 5 year old.

Friday, June 02, 2006

trespassing william can't do card tricks as well as the dog from MIB

So I've mentioned before that I started law school on my 30th Birthday and that this was very satisfying but I never explained why it was satisfying. Here's why:

One of my favorite books of all time is The Trial by Kafka. I can't imagine that my fondness for Kafka in general or The Trial in particular is a surprise to anyone, so rather than explain, I will just make a few observations.

  • The main character of "The Trial" is Josef K. I asked a former co-worker to write one of my Law School recommendations. His name is Joseph K.

  • One of the cliches of lawschool is that law students learn the "secret handshake." It is somewhat true, not because the working of the law are secret (in fact, they can not be, as a matter of law!) but because lawyers themselves are so bizarre, as are their terminology, abbreviations, and customs. It is all so obscure and surreal to a non-lawyer, that one-hour TV drama's aside, the law can seem like an impenetrable secret that hides in plain site.

  • Josef K's trial begins on his 30th birthday. Its an upsetting ordeal. A year later, he is executed.

  • Most law students who perish, do so in the first year and drop out. I did not. Ha!


  • "Like a dog!" (irresistible joke)

    Ok, ok... I will explain in better detail than that.

    I spent a considerable amount of time fretting over my admission essay. While people are allowed write on a wide range of different things, I imagine that the main entree is some flavor of "Why do I want to be a lawyer?" For people like me, exiting a successful career outside of law, requires that this dish come with a helping of "Why I think being a lawyer will be better than the thing I am doing now" on the side.

    What I ultimately wrote, while okay and factually true, was nevertheless even more overworked than my canonical rants. It was something on the level of giving "sometimes I just care too much" as the answer to "What would you say is your greatest weakness?"

    Aside: If you are ever in an interview, and you are on the fence as to whether you even want to take the job, and the person who would be your supervisor asks you this question, end the interview. Be polite, but get the heck out of there!

    So what was it about The Trial, that motivated me? For those who believe in justice and due process, The Trial is a supremely dismal tale. The depth of the horror, and my motivation, can be found in the penultimate paragraph:

    Would anyone help? Were there objections that had been
    forgotten? There must have been some. The logic cannot be refuted, but
    someone who wants to live will not resist it. Where was the judge he'd
    never seen? Where was the high court he had never reached?


    Unfortunately, this is how the court system appears to almost everyone who fails to have obtain competent advocacy. Now, some people say that this means that our system of justice is too complex. Those people are kidding themselves. The world is complex. Cases which are tried invariably encompass some facts which are unusual and/or contentious. Therefore, the principals which guide the rules of law must be deeply understood in order to achieve a just result.

    Sometimes the stand-by recipes for justice: "Split the baby" and "I'll flip you for it" will not do the trick. The only acceptable solution is to have a judicial system that is equal to the task of adjudicating controversies in this complex world, and for everyone to have the best advocacy possible.

    Sunday, May 28, 2006

    Oma's Choice?

    Given the choice, I am not sure that Oma would have eaten here. We didn't either, but mostly because it was closed on Mothers day. The gas station across the way did also sell some of their more portable items (salsas, jellies, etc), but I was not moved enough by the drollness of the name to actually buy any.

    But William did take a picture of the BIG sign.

    And yes, that is a giant bull with a sign board on his side. Posted by Picasa

    Friday, May 26, 2006

    Thursday, May 25, 2006

    The past is overrated

    I'm going to do a subset of the Canonical Rant called a Cranky Diatribe. I won't explain why it's more specific than the general class of C-R. So, T.S.

    Ben posted Quindlen: Hillary Is Wrong About Youth - Newsweek Columnists - MSNBC.com on his blog, words because he was responding to the "the rat race is not all it's cracked up to be." I'll leave it to Trav to discuss whether the real reason there is so much middle-class discontentment is (a) the revolution of rising expectations and (b) crazy people stretching for a house jacks up prices on everyone. I want to go to one of my canonical rants:

    The past is overrated. Quindlen tears into the notion (from our ancestors) that our ancestors were nobler then than we are now and that the good old days are gone. But I think Quindlen's focus on codgerims (her term) is wrong. It's not finding fault with the present that's wrong (that's a good thing to do); it's comparing the present with the past, which is overrated.

    There is no such thing as the good old days, and our ancestors were not better than us. The past was bad, and we improved it. Some of these improvements helped the situation; some just caused new problems. Nevertheless, in the past, the (then) present-day people were a whole lot more honest about the fact that the (then) present needed a whole lot of fixing up, and the (then) modern-day contemporaries spent a whole lot of time and effort developing {technology X} and {medicine y} and fighting {evil historical figure Z} and on beyond Zebra.

    Do you know that in the past, people had to get out of their chairs to change the channel on the TV, and in any case, it hardly mattered because there were basically only three channels, and all of them had virtually identical programming? And before that, people just listened to the radio? And before that, the one person who could read would merely read the latest installment of a serialized drama out loud to his illiterate family. Today, I don't even need to watch the show. TiVo will suggest something for me and record it for me; I can read the summary and flip through the good parts, and be done with it. I watched the movie "Emma" this way. I can tell you for certain that I would have hated the movie, hated the radio play, and hated having to listen to it being read by my dad in my drafty Victorian hovel. However, I liked the movie at 2x speed for the parts featuring Alan Cumming and 8x speed for everything else. I finished the movie in 3 minutes.

    "But you don't know what it was about?"

    I wouldn't have known what the heck they were going on about any better if I had been forced to suffer through one of those other delivery methods, but at least this way, I can tell you who was in the film and that it depicts the past, and as best I can tell: the past is overrated.

    Monday, May 22, 2006

    Local Girl Makes Good

    I was taking a break to read about how An Incumbent Proves Resilient in New Orleans when I noticed the byline was former Thresher editor Shalia Dewan. Then I noticed that, in fact, she seems to have been a Time correspondant for a while.

    Well congratulations NY Times for making a smart hiring decision. Maybe you are on the road to recovery after all.

    Friday, May 19, 2006

    Walk Barry Bonds

    William Li(from Dartmouth) this entry is for you.

    I saw Decision to boycott Barry Bonds is not about race and thought that pitchers (or rather, Managers) had decided to Intentionally Walk Barry Bonds for the rest of the season, which is far better than the bean ball that he got from my Astros and vaguely honorable. But that article isn't about that.

    I, however, am all about giving BBs to BB for the rest of the reason. It's not without precedent either. In 1985 when Randy Bass came within 1 HR of tying the single-season record of Sadaharu Oh, none of the Japanese pitchers would pitch to him.

    "William, they were exhibiting Anti-Gaijin prejudice."

    It's true, William, they were and I'm not here to defend Japanese baseball. I nevertheless wonder if the motive was specifically rascist or more a panicked reaction that the unintended consequence of importing MLB players is that the untouchable records of national icons might be broken. I wonder if a Japanese-American MLB player wouldn't have had the same treatment.

    "So you admit that Walking Bonds would be prejudice."

    Not at all. The parallel which I am making is about the panicked reaction to unintended consequences. Until Bonds threatened Ruth's record, I don't think people woke up to the meaning of steriods use. People were still saying stuff like "these are big boys and it's their body" and not giving any thought to the idea that the game itself might have some integrity. Now that the consequences (in the form of the graceless and self-pitying Barry Bonds) draw near, we see second rate pitchers chucking bean-balls. Intentional Walks aren't ideal, but they are far better and its also more out in the open. Journalists can then question the pitchers and a managers who can then make statements like:

    "Baseball has always been more than just about baseball. See those thousands of fans holding up the asterisk sign. That's not just a message to Bonds, that's a message to me. When Baseball Almanac makes the entry with the Asterisk, I don't want to be associated with the record. I don't want to go down in baseball history as the person who served up a fat meatball to the steriod-using cheater."

    "We are talking about breaking Babe Ruth's record, not Hank Aaron's. Ruth was a great hitter, and an icon, but he himself is hardly a paragon of virtue."

    I was going to do a humorous comparison between Bonds and Ruth saying untrue things like Babe Ruth was a teetotaler and a devoted husband and that he always helped old ladies cross the street, while Bonds always had a chip on his shoulder and even called his mother's obstetrician a rascist after he got spanked on the bottom. But the material wasn't all that funny once I started trying to write it out and I need to shave and go to work, so let me close up.

    Because Barry Bonds has never played either for the Yankees or the Astros, I assume that all of the bad things ever said about him are true and to me, it's the best possible argument for walking him for the rest of the year. That said, if he does happen to break Ruth's record, let it be against the Mets. The Mets... ha!

    Monday, May 15, 2006

    1984 by George Orwell: Chapter 9 (unedited excerpt)

    1984 by George Orwell: Chapter 9:

    On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns -- after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces -- at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally.

    There was, of course, no admission that any change had taken place. Merely it became known, with extreme suddenness and everywhere at once, that Eastasia and not Eurasia was the enemy. Winston was taking part in a demonstration in one of the central London squares at the moment when it happened. It was night, and the white faces and the scarlet banners were luridly floodlit. The square was packed with several thousand people, including a block of about a thousand schoolchildren in the uniform of the Spies. On a scarlet-draped platform an orator of the Inner Party, a small lean man with disproportionately long arms and a large bald skull over which a few lank locks straggled, was haranguing the crowd. A little Rumpelstiltskin figure, contorted with hatred, he gripped the neck of the microphone with one hand while the other, enormous at the end of a bony arm, clawed the air menacingly above his head. His voice, made metallic by the amplifiers, boomed forth an endless catalogue of atrocities, massacres, deportations, lootings, rapings, torture of prisoners, bombing of civilians, lying propaganda, unjust aggressions, broken treaties. It was almost impossible to listen to him without being first convinced and then maddened. At every few moments the fury of the crowd boiled over and the voice of the speaker was drowned by a wild beast-like roaring that rose uncontrollably from thousands of throats. The most savage yells of all came from the schoolchildren. The speech had been proceeding for perhaps twenty minutes when a messenger hurried on to the platform and a scrap of paper was slipped into the speaker's hand. He unrolled and read it without pausing in his speech. Nothing altered in his voice or manner, or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different. Without words said, a wave of understanding rippled through the crowd. Oceania was at war with Eastasia! The next moment there was a tremendous commotion. The banners and posters with which the square was decorated were all wrong! Quite half of them had the wrong faces on them. It was sabotage! The agents of Goldstein had been at work! There was a riotous interlude while posters were ripped from the walls, banners torn to shreds and trampled underfoot. The Spies performed prodigies of activity in clambering over the rooftops and cutting the streamers that fluttered from the chimneys. But within two or three minutes it was all over. The orator, still gripping the neck of the microphone, his shoulders hunched forward, his free hand clawing at the air, had gone straight on with his speech. One minute more, and the feral roars of rage were again bursting from the crowd. The Hate continued exactly as before, except that the target had been changed.

    The thing that impressed Winston in looking back was that the speaker had switched from one line to the other actually in midsentence, not only without a pause, but without even breaking the syntax.

    Thursday, May 11, 2006

    Last exam of the semester

    I know it's totally lame to post a link to super-popular viral videos and call that a blog post, but hey... Urban Ninjas have me psyched.

    First lunch... then test. (Yes, I'll be having the Grill Cook's Medal Li)

    Tuesday, May 09, 2006

    The New York Times: A bunch of haters

    Check out
    The New York Times: Search for 'david blaine'

    Read the ones written by NYT writers.

    What is the deal? Why kick a man when man when he is just trying to entertain us with improbable feats of endurance? Elitist snobs!

    Monday, May 08, 2006

    JUST MY LUCK

    JUST MY LUCK Marlene King and Amy Harris stole "Commuter Notes and Parables" #1.

    Darn it!

    Friday, May 05, 2006

    Follow-up entry on Jason's exam

    Jason seems to be recovered after his horrible exam. Having just had one horrible exam and with two more horrible exams to go, I literally feel my son's pain.

    So funny story: We are in the doctor's office and Jason is crying and screaming from feeling sick and especially for way they took their sample and I am trying to comfort him when I giggle inappropriately.


    The PA looks at me. I cough and say nothing but she I think that she somehow knew that I was laughing about the joke about the difference between a phlebotomist and a uralogist.

    Thursday, May 04, 2006

    What do you eat for lunch when you have last minute jitters and won't eat dinner?

    There are no honor code restrictions on that disclosure.

    Go for the "Grill Cook's Medley."

    Tuesday, May 02, 2006

    As if it wasn't hard enough being Jason

    He spent Saturday night throwing up, giving me the chance to bunk in his room for the night.

    Sunday, he was weak and mopey, recovering from the gastric pyrotechnics.

    Monday, the daycareladies call to say first that they think he has thrush, and then to say that he has a fever of 103.1.

    The Dr. first ignores my please for an immediate appointment to diagnose the thrush, but then one of the other docs sees him with the report of the high fever. Which led to bloodwork and
    ***(WARNING!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE WEAK STOMACHED OR WILLIAM ** catheterization, followed by a diagnosis of a big bad ear infection which was minimized by his constant use of his asthma medications. Oh, and he is cutting 4 teeth (2 molars, 2 incisors right now).

    On top of all this, today, his "girlfriend" at daycare bit him on the arm.

    Poor Baby :(

    The good news is he has started drinking milk again, and sitting cross-legged in front of me, eating bites of chicken.

    Bites small enough that he doesn't really have to chew them, though.

    The paperwork has gone through!

    Well, in this digital age we live in, of course I mean "virtual paperwork" i.e. I got an email saying that my transfer had been approved, and that as of next school year, I will be teaching high school! I will not list the name here, but you can ask Dave, or Will, or momanddad.

    I am thrilled, elated, anxious, terrified, impatient, mellow and contemplative all at the same time.

    So far the responses have all been positive. My favorite (repeated) comment is, "oh. Does it pay more to teach older kids?" Um. No, of course not. If teacher pay was correlated to the age of the student, college professors would make WAY more than they do, and nobody would teach Kindergarten. And as I have said before, teaching Kindergarten automatically qualifies you for sainthood in my book.

    ***

    So then if not for more money, then why?

    It just felt like the right time. That's all. I have nothing but love for elementary and my current campus.

    That and I love a good challenge. And I am pretty sure that none of my high school students will ask me to tie their shoes.

    Saturday, April 22, 2006

    Happy Earth Day

    William, shouldn't you be studying? Yes. Probably.

    Dakota is watching the Captain Planet Marathon on Boomerang before her ice skating lesson. I remember when this cartoon first came out, it was just the zenith of cartoons that successfully propelled the sale of toys (GI Joe, Transformers, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) had given way to more players entering the space with lower production value cartoons and toys for a higher price (Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Inhumanoids, Galaxy Rangers, C.O.P.S.). Enter Captain Planet. I have some gratitude for the makers of this show. There would be times when I would try to procrastinate studying by watching TV and it would be Captain Planet, within 2 seconds, I would be back to studying.

    I never gave it much thought as to what, precisely, it was about Captain Planet that annoyed me. My gut reaction was "Don't tell me what to think, Orwellian Propagandist!"

    Dakota is not so picky.

    Actually the show manages to pack in a huge amount of relatively sophisticated (if biased) discussion about environmental issues pitting the Planeteers against misguided capitalists and various one-dimensional bad guys. One the annoyingly preachy scale of television, Captain Planet scores less than a full blown "7th Heaven" but higher than "the original Star Trek"

    In the particular episode that was on happened to deal with "Clear-cutting" in the lunber industry. Although the episode took certain (ahem) liberties with how an ALJ (Administrative Law Judge) will conduct a regulatory adjudication, the fact that they the competing interests joust over adminstrative procedure in order to prevent the other side from submitting decisive subtantive material was surprisingly interesting. Then, suddenly, the Planeteers get backed into a corner and invoke their magical power to summon Captain Planet, the most annoying Deus Ex Machina ever, and the whole episode was ruined.

    The memories all came flooding back: Wasn't there something vaguely rascist and ethnocentric about the ham-fisted way that the writers tried to be "inclusive"? Why have the essential elements be "Wind, Fire, Water, and Heart"? If you want your cartoon to be educational, teach science not alchemy! And not to put to fine a point on it, Captain Planet himself is a freaky, wussy, smart-alek.

    Having said all that: I feel that I should do my part to raise awareness. Be aware that Arbor day is April 28. Whew, all of my middle-class guilt is washed away in one big empty guesture.

    Sunday, April 16, 2006

    Recognizing the substance

    On law school exams there is an important skill called issue spotting. It works a bit like this

    If you are too lazy to click the link it's a clip from Indiana Jones 3 where the dialog goes:

    Elsa: What's this one?
    Indiana: The Ark of the Covenant.
    Elsa: Are you sure?
    Indiana: Pretty sure.

    Ideally in Law school they would teach you the substance of the law by having to get important clues from your ex/offspring of your former teacher only to be interrupted by gun-toting Nazis in the process, followed by a day of digging in the desert, followed by being tossed into a pit full of snakes, followed by holding on to a submarine for hundreds of nautical miles, followed by witnessing the judgment come down wherein it looks like you've lost but then all of adverse parties and their advocate have their faces melted off, but then you can't collect on the judgment because a federal agency is within its discretion to seal all the records and anyway all the facts must be held in confidence through sancrosanct rules. But at least you've learned something.

    unfortunately, all they can really do is make you puzzle through the hieroglyphics of these adventures and be amazed.
    "Too late or still too soon too soon to make lots of bad love and there's no time for sorrow. Run around, run around with a hole in your head 'til tomorrow."
    -----They Might Be Giants