The Sun Sets

It was only pretty good. But its too bad this credit crunch thing killed it.

Congratulations Falcon 1

The first successful launch of a privately owned orbiting vehicle was completed this morning in California. Reactions


1. You know, last weekend I re-watched "The man that fell to Earth" and had a very different reaction. Bowie spent way too much time messing around and not enough time clearing regulatory hurdles. That's because he hired an IP lawyer but not an administrative law attorney. What a shame.
2. Take that, Shenzhou 7!
3. I will see my dream come alive at last. I will touch the sky. And they're not gonna hold me down no more. I'm not gonna change my mind. 'Cause I got faith, of the heart; I'm going where my heart will take me. I'v got faith to believe, I can do anything. I've Scott Bakula. He is a really great actor. But I'll waste (I'll waste) has talents because I'm Paramount. But I digress.
4. Big deal, private space program. It's not exactly... how wait, it is.
5. I'm still sad that they didn't get Scotty's ashes into orbit on their last go around

Agreement as a debating tactic

One more thing. For some reason the McCain people think its funny that Obama agreed with him. Here is what Obama said:

“I think Senator McCain’s absolutely right that we need more responsibility…”

“Senator McCain is absolutely right that the earmarks process has been abused…”

“He’s also right that oftentimes lobbyists and special interests are the ones that are introducing these…requests…”

“John mentioned the fact that business taxes on paper are high in this country, and he’s absolutely right…”

“John is right we have to make cuts…”

“Senator McCain is absolutely right that the violence has been reduced as a consequence of the extraordinary sacrifice of our troops and our military families…”

“John — you’re absolutely right that presidents have to be prudent in what they say…”

“Senator McCain is absolutely right, we cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran…”

Which of those assertions should Obama have disagreed with? None. Even where McCain was basically imprecise (the business tax one for example) why form your statement like this: "McCain is wrong when he says the sun goes down at the end of the day, what's actually happening is the Earth is rotating." Nobody likes that guy.

McCain lost lots of credibility with his "what Se. Obama doesn't understand..." followed by a bunch of stuff that Obama clearly does understand, even if McCain understands it better. And as I said, since I disagree with some of McCain's basic conclusion (might always makes right) I wonder what McCain is doing with all that supposed understanding.

What brought me back to this point is that

1. McCain seems to be making a campaign commercial about how Obama agreed with statements of the perfectly obvious. As in "Vote for me, John McCain, master of the nearly obvious"

2. My grandfather used to say (according to my mom) that agreeing with someone is a good way to take away their best arguments.

We'll see.

Looks like CNN stopped watching when I did

Here's a transcript:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/26/debate.mississippi.transcript/

Maybe it'll be caught up later.

Live blogging Blue's Clues instead of the debate 2

I get it... Steve is some sort of reporter

His handy dandy... notebook. Is both a reporter's notebook and a clue notebook. Jim Leherer is sitting in his thinking chair right now.

McCain is totally crazy with his whole, "the Media is biased" shtick. He should read John Ellis.

Well.. it looks like Blue want's to be some sort of Doctor.

Live blogging Blue's Clues instead of the debate 1

Steve is going to play Blue's clues to discover what Blue wants to be when he grows up.

The first clue is a stick. Teddy Roosevelt said "Speak softly and carry a big stick" and he's McCain's hero. Too bad Teddy Roosevelt was totally whack.

You know what I'd rather see? A first lady debate.

Live blogging the debate 6

Mccain understands details of foreign policy better... but he"s reckless and aggresive. Sometimes fighting is necessary. But President mccain will always fight. At some point you become Bart Simpson "Good ol' rock. Nuthin' beats that!"

Obama"s heart is in the right place but he gives the exact impression of having no clue. Obama blew it on the bracelet throw down. And his "Henry Kissinger told me to sit down with Iran" business is totally insane.

I just let the kids turn on "Blue's Clues"

Live blogging the debate 5

Who won the Iraq war? Gen David Patreus? No. It was Maj Rory Quinn, USMC. He's come a long was from being comissioner of our Rotissierie baseball league

Live blogging the debate 4

Jason just came in with a light saber. He gets my vote

Live blogging the debate 3

I love mccain throwing ethanol under the bus and boeing. Take that iowa and washington for going blue!

Live blogging the debate 2

Honestly neither candidate is that awesome. That said I love the obama shout out to develop broadband and electrical grid

Live blogging the debate 1

Live blogging the debate: the reaction meter is awesome. I love people telling me what to think

ReBob suspending his campaign

Now is a time for action, because of fears that tourism industry counts cost of a cold summer, ReBob will be suspending his presidential campaign in the hopes that someone will notice him as something other than a crumbling, unstable, monument laced with iron-y. It is expected that after others have done the hard work of creating something new and useful, ReBob will try to elbow his way into the process in order to grand-stand, take credit, and declare victory by fiat.

The tax law Koan (recited on the occasion of the bailout hearings)

Shepard told his students, "The opposite of allowed is not allowed, not disallowed. When you understand that, you understand much about tax law"

Bill, a student, declared, "Just to avoid misunderstanding what you just said, I should just say that I do not understand"

Shepard shouted, "Bill! You can always be counted on to give the wrong answer!"

At that, Bill was enlightened

BILL'S COMMENT:

1. Just because an answer was wrong does not mean that an answer was not right.
2. Shepard's classes were taught on Sunday evening. There were no classes taught on Sunday evening. This does not mean that Shepard had to unteach us tax law, although he did.


DODGE'S COMMENT [Chapter 12.C]:


...the freeing-of-assets rationale... is no longer widely viewed as the basis for realization of debt-discharge income within the meaning of section 61(a)(12). Rather, the rationale today is premised on the fact that the prior receipt was excluded soley because of the debtor's obligation to repay. When the obligation to repay is extinguished, the justification for excluding the prior receipt disappears, triggering an inclusion...This leads us to the Zarin case...involving gambling debts... "What did Zarin receive in the year in which he became indebted to Resorts?" Zarin is a true conceptual puzzle characterized by some commentators as a case without a right answer... As a foundation for understanding the tax issues in Zarin, you should be aware that section 165(d) disallows deduction of aggregate gamblimg losses for the year in excess of aggregate gambling gains for the year, even if the taxpayer is a professional gambler."


MY COMMENT:

When the casino bails out the gambler so that he doesn't have to pay for the chips that he paid for with a marker, did he even make a bet? The cocktail waitress certainly thought so and does did the Treasury.

When the Treasury bails out the gambler so that he doesn't have to pay for the debts that he bought with borrowed money, did he ever really invest in anything? What an absurd question!

Remember the George M Koan:

I'm
a Yankee doodle dan
dee
a Yan
kee doodle
do
or
die
a real live nephew of my uncle sam
born on the fourth of july
I've got a yankee doodle sweet
heart
she is my yankee doodle girl
a
yankee doodle went to london just to ride the ponies
I am that yankee doodle boy!

New Browser: PUNCHY

Ok, Trav, here's the logo for my pre-alpha non-release version. My browser is designed for people who want to surf the web while driving. The interface seems to work like this:
* think about where on the internet you'd rather be.
* listen to AM radio
* text message your friends while eating a hamburger and downshifting
I admit that this browser is mostly vaporware and even so, it crashes a lot. But that makes it just like Google Chrome.

Signs that I am re-aclimitizing to NY

I start wondering, "How the **** can people root for the Mets?"

Oh Yankees, 6.5 out of the wildcard. At least you are not the Mets

When the guacamole is gone,

When the guacamole is gone, potato salad will do

My phonetic alphabet

Army
Baby
Crybaby
Donkey
Elephant
Frame
Garble
Honest
Inquiry
Jose
Knowledge
Llangollen
Nosey
Mosey
Oh like the letter O, not Zero, OK? But just the "O" part, not the K. No K. O.... O. O. O. But only one of them. O's I mean.
Posey
Qatar
Rabies
Same
Towage
Unctious
Verity
Xerox
Zeno


Digits

1 = Wu
2 = Wu Wu
3 = Wee
4 = Owage
5 = Eye
6 = Ummmmmm
7 = Eleven
8 = Ocho
9 = Ten minus one
0 = Oh

So we are finally getting rain here

But it doesn't look like my car will be clean. Shoot

[Double Feature] Gettin Psyched for Hurricane Ike / The '08 Election

THIS IS TWO POSTS IN ONE!

FIRST POST


Check it out: http://www.khou.com/perl/common/slideshow/sspop.pl?recid=12075&section=news

It's a simulation, see? Galveston will be totally underwater!

I was going to post another of the KHOU slide shows as humorous juxtaposition, but I decided it was in bad taste.

Anyhow, Harris County Officials told most people to hunker down, and we are further inland than Harris County, so we are hunkered down. Texan's take hunkering down on their homestead very seriously.

For example, here is a conversation that I had at the Kroeger yesterday (only slight artistic license taken).

INT. Grocery Store
ME staring in bemusement at the empty shelves of Dinty Moore.

SOME GUY [loudly to no one in particular]

I really hope there is a big event to justify stores being out of everything, I couldn't even get more bullets at Academy Sports.

ME

Oh my God! What kind of Texans have we become to be out of bullets? Everyone should always have enough ammo to defend their house from, at minimum, an uprising of an army of the undead!

BYSTANDER snickers.
SOME GUY

Well... no, I mean, I have plenty of ammo, but I just want to be sure. Like if I need to have my little brother reload the other gun while I'm emptying a clip and then toss it to me.

ME

Listen, if you are really worried about conserving rounds, don't fire any warning shots.

SOME GUY

Oh no, there won't be no warning shots. But I've only got about a dozen boxes for my .45, you never know what could happen

ME

Hey! One bullet one kill!

SOME GUY

You're right... Maybe I should get some more beer.

ME

Now you're talking sense, stay dry.


SECOND POST



Palindromes, get it?

Freedom for Freedom

http://helpandy.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/back-on-us-soil/

Couldn't resist the post title after I saw the picture. For some of us, the last 20 years have been a process of getting fatter and older looking. Andy still looks great, which is something, especially under the circumstance.

Anyhow, thanks to everyone who wrote their congressperson.

Help Filmmaker Andrew Berends

http://helpandy.wordpress.com/

Andy Berends went to my high school. Although I am from the New York area, the high school was only about 300 students. Although he was fairly reserved and only had a few close friends, everyone new who Andy Berends was.

Over one summer, he went on an exchange program. It seemed to have changed his life. He came back with long hair and wild libertarian ideas. He was derisively nicknamed "Freedom" but he owned that name and took it as a badge of honor.

Although Andy's was well known to be extremely kind, although with a bit of taciturn dry wit, so as to avoid being too "Hardy Boys." I should also say that his family are extremely nice people.

Anyhow, if you are reading this: this is a serious call for help. My former classmate could be in serious trouble.

Please consider writing your U.S. Representative and/or U.S. Senators and ask that they advocate for his immediate release.

Google Chrome Comic Book

Blah blah blah new google browser blah blah blah what does it mean blah blah blah future is here blah blah...

The thing that really interests me is the comic book about Google Chome. Did anyone else notice how much it looks like "Love and Rockets"? (The comic book series, not the band, stay focused)

Well... um ... that's all I have to say about that.

Summer Villians

Trav's latest post made me think about something I have been meaning to post about: things about summer that I am supposed to like, but don't. Simultaneously, I have been thinking about posting about comic book super-villians for a new era. So in the interest of both having my cake and also having a food fight:

The Pool. I can't swim. It's humilating but true. I sink like a rock. It's not for a lack of trying to learn either. This is not to be cornfused with a water park, which is awesome.	The Sudokoan. In the tradition of "The Riddler" and "The Puzzler" and "Toyman" and "Nasty Canasta" comes a foe wielding an evil combination of Sudoko and Zen Kohan-based villanous conundrums
Picnics. Except for church picnics, which are civilized affairs with watermelon and all the mayonaise salads (egg, potato, chicken, tuna), I hate siting on some bench that hurts my back and the checkered blanket thing is even worse, clean up is always a problem and the sandwiches are always soggy.	Hackney Cliche aka The Archnemesis once a friend to the superhero, but twisted by a corrupt heart, the archnemesis manages to overcome the superhero time after time, only to have the superhero slip away from the Archnemsis' deadly clutches moments before his nefarious plan is complete, but the Archnemesis always manages to get away at the last minute in his escape vehicle and shouts something like "Curse you, superhero! You've foiled my plan! But you'll never take me alive! You'll rue the day to crossed the path of The Archnemesis!"
Camping. I've had two sets of experiences to inform camping: Boy Scouts, which was pretty terrible, and Bike trips that I took in high school, which was pretty great. Based on that: when a campground is a cheap alternative to a hotel on an epic journey, that's fantastic. When some stinkin forest is the destination and the quality of your experience is equal to the ridiculousness of how much you spent at REI... bleah. Also the woods are dark and scary, the Blair Witch might get me.	Jargonizer. Archenemy of "Super Personnel Person", Jargonizer robustly interfaces, engages, and incentivizes his high-value team-members to synergistically execute fresh and innovative strategies. Jargonizer seeks the tipping point, to disrupt the status quo and create transformative coopetition in the marketspace with other "disruptive thought leaders", by leverging core competences and actively engaging challenges.

Yes, I sent you a YouTube invite

or if I didn't, send me an email because the YouTube mail client is whack.

So I've noticed that people post pictures and videos of their kids on the internet with reckless abandon. I don't think its a good idea, so please friend my request.

Anyhow, E Hewett's mentor told me that it was ok for me to go back to making movies. So...