Intellectual Poison

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1. Skydive over Monterey Bay.
2. Return to Cape Town.
3. Camping in Big Sur.
4. Trip to visit Jay et al in Rocklin.
5. Build nice speaker box for ghetto speaker system.
6. Start podcasting children's books.
7. Build invention prototype.
8. Reclaim the garage from the junk.
9. Obtain some new quality lens glass for XTi.
10. Get good at unicycling.
11. Shoot, edit and post more dog/cycling videos.
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Email: erik at intellectualpoison dot com AIM: fenriq911
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Jan 31, 2003

The Further Expected Joys of MetaFilter

In a curious moment of what to do and where to go online, I tapped MetaFilter and came across this Urgent Highly Confidential screed at SubIntSoc.net, sure its a forward from there but for anyone who's gotten one of those stupid emails from an African dignitary or whoever needing your bank account to transfer sums in the amounts of $34,980,000 dollars US.

But the link's better than all of them. Sure, it won't stop the spam but so what, sometimes they are funny as hell to read. Like the other day I told my boss about Google's translation station so she could read some Spanish spam. Hehehe. Nothing like wasting time translating it and then deleting it.

Also, check out this silly shadow movies on buildings (though a warning, its a huge freaking file and its Quicktime) stuff also from MetaFilter.
:: posted by Erik at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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TV to the Rescue
Those horrid shows, RealTV and You've Gotta See This will, on extremely rare occasions, show something that's pretty cool instead of yet another skateboarder doing a stair grind and catching the rail right in the nuts (which must appeal to someone because they ALWAYS show more footage of it).
But tonight I happened to catch a short piece on Grassboard.com and I think I want one.
:: posted by Erik at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Ooops, Fox Gets Another Black Eye

Today's Morning Fix (sent out at 3:45 this afternoon, hmmmmm?) details how Fox's Joe Millionaire has had a serious bondage mama on the show. One who's starred in numerous dungeonesque red movies where she's the dominatrix. Nice work! Check out the story at SFGate: A Nice Ball Gag for Joe Millionaire (SFGate credits The Smoking Gun for breaking the story about Ms. Whip-Yer-Ass) . They also lambast the show some and make fun of the whole concept really. In addition to pointing out the sad but quite obvious fact that every single one of those women lied blatantly about their ages, SFGate estimates that they shaved an average of 8 years off their ages which is sizable when they're saying their 26.
Pretty funny review really.

But I'd probably still watch the show and want to catch the finale. Why? Because that's when all these gold digging ho's are going to find out that Joe (or whatever his name is, Evan?) makes not very much money at all instead of the $50 million they'd been told he had. Just that moment, that priceless and timeless moment when they realize that not only are they gold diggers but the entire nation knows they're gold diggers too. Woohoo! Some reality television is well worth the price of admission, then again, all TV's worth the price of admission, just some is more worth it than others. Anyone got change for a zero dollar bill?

:: posted by Erik at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Animal Pics
A few pics from recent photo ops with Jagr and Modoc. And many many more to come.
Jagr in the cloverJagr amid cloverModoc head on ground
Modoc tweaking on couchLighthouse from the Jetty

One thing I really like about these pics are the colors in them, how the first two are all green with Jagr's black in them, Modoc on the couch is all browns and other muted earth tones and then the myriad blues in the lighthouse picture. Others in the series seem similarly tinted with a distinctive color tone. Kind of nice.
:: posted by Erik at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Attraction and Repulsion
As often happens, I do some of my best thinking in places where its not terribly conducive to recording that brilliance. For example, the shower is my best place to think but to do it properly I'll need my own stenographer. Or when I'm riding my motorcycle, I've been seen pulling over to the side of a highway just so I can write down a few notes. And I'm truly such a tremendous geek that I carry a small notepad with my everywhere I go so I can keep my notes.

Anyway, this morning I had my thought close enough to work that I was able to hold it until I'd gotten inside and could jot it down.

I rode Therapy in today and was sitting at a stoplight right down the street from work. I'd noticed a potentially very attractive woman walking away from me down the short street to the movie theatre. She had nice hair, long straight and blond, was dressed nicely though casually and carried herself with a confident air and I was thinking to myself that she was probably a very good looking woman who'd be fun to get to know (yes, I'm engaged to Paula and happy as heck but I am still human, Paula's cool with it though so relax).

And then there is fateful movement, a single move that effectively stamps a monstrous X across her. She bent her arm up to her mouth to take an indulgent puff on her skinny little cancer stick. Smoking a cigarette. Inhaling burned tobacco smoke and coating herself in its stench, staining her fingers, poisoning her lungs and aging her skin at ten times the speed (or whatever the current multiplier is).

There is no better or faster way to go from potential 8,9 or 10 to a 4,5 or 6. Just light up a cigarette and watch your attractiveness quotient plummet into the basement. At least in regards to me, which means that pretty well no one will give a damn in any case, but perhaps there are others out there that think as I do? Its certainly possible, I know that much.

I just don't get cigarettes, can someone please explain their attractiveness? They cost a quarter each now (20 to a pack, $5 a pack equals $.25 each), they make people smell awful, they make things around people smell awful, they litter the roads (which is another post but why in the hell do smokers think its OKAY to throw the nasty little butts out the window?), they pile up in gutters, they poison people, they make people look old before they have to, they profit old fat white men who are racists and they killed my father. Need more proof, heck, check out The Truth to hear and read about some of the truly reprehensible things that Big Tobacco has done in the name of killing their customers.

So this pretty girl became an untouchable just by the simple act of inhaling more burning plants (well, the wrong kind of plants). Does she care in the least? Heck no because there are millions and millions of men who would still worship her regardless of the fact that she smells like ash and tastes like the bottom of an ashtray.

Yuck, just the thought of kissing a smoker makes my stomach turn and churn. But hey, I'm taken so its not a big deal either way and Paula knows how strongly I hate smoking so there are no worries there. Just my random thoughts while riding in this morning.
:: posted by Erik at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 30, 2003

When the Going Gets Weird, the Weird Go Online
I'd forgotten that one of my favorite writers from my misspent youth is writing for ESPN's sharp edged Page 2. Go and check out the Hunter S. Thompson Archive at Page 2 and realize that he's still a pretty good writer even though he's not doing anywhere near the amount of drugs he used to do. But he still has the same venom and razor wit.

Might be adding the link to the perma-links along the side. Or maybe just his site.
:: posted by Erik at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Scary Stuff over at Tom Tomorrow

Here's a truly frightening post about Thomas Kean as the new chairman of the 9/11 commission and his damned near direct ties to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Umm, aren't they doing background checks on this people anymore?
Scary Oily Government Stuff with big thanks to Tom Tomorrow for the post, the news and the early Thursday scare. Just what I needed.

By the way, since Salon now makes people subscribe to read Tom's superb comics, they are now being posted a day later on Working for Change. And they are well worth the click through.
:: posted by Erik at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Bird Cliques, Speciation and Racism
I rode my bike into work again today, it was gorgeous out and there weren't even the usual half dozen fires smoldering down on the beach. Really a beautiful morning with small waves breaking on the beach and a slight, slight chill in the air.

I decided to drop down and cross the railroad trestle leading to the boardwalk because I like crossing over the river, especially its more estuary than river mouth. As much salt as fresh water mingling together under the bridge, if I squint a little bit then it could almost be seen as romantic.

And as I pedaled along the levee banks above the water, I noticed several fairly good sized groupings of birds floating in the water. There were the sea gulls all hanging out together, a small flock of geese honking away off by themselves, another group of sea gulls with a few random cormorants tossed in for contrast. And it occurred to me that, the birds were demonstrating a few principles that I'd been thinking about.

Racism and its definitively connected speciation in regards to these birds and to humans. These birds were congregating in a group of like birds for a reason. They were all separate and distinct species, a sea gull cannot mate with a cormorant and create a sea rant or cormogull, it just doesn't work. Unlike horses and donkeys, birds cannot cross breed. They aren't being racist, they're being speciaist (don't try to pronounce that one after a few drinks). And I'm not quite sure if I'll be able to make my point or even if there is a point anymore.

But the same logic of the birds cannot be applied to humans, there are no different races, there is no difference species of humans. There are cultural differences between groups of people but we are all human, we are all the same species. We can mate with a human from Ghana as easily (physically) as with someone from down the block. Dictionary.com defines race as a local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. Or, a group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race. So I guess it is possible to be racist within one's own species.

I'm not sure if there's a viable evolutionary argument for it so perhaps its more cultural than biological. I don't know, I'm continually struck by how it seems that racial lines are being drawn more sharply rather than being blurred by the wide spread access to knowledge that the internet age represents. Racism, hate crimes and all out wars are being waged with greater frequency and massive destruction.

Is there any solution? Maybe there is and maybe there isn't but I keep getting that image from The Planet of the Apes in my head where Markie Mark (sorry, new version) is just having the hardest time comprehending how the monkeys are talking (and then later gets cuffed in the head for calling them monkeys and not apes). The irony is that we're primates too, monkeys who came down out of the tree, picked up tools, language and culture and whammo, we're the prettied up apes. Its a shame we can't all get along a little better though.

And alot of that comes down to cultural differences, beliefs and mores. Racism isn't about evolution, its about culture, its about intolerance, narrow mindedness and bull headed stupidity. Calling every latino or asian or black guy by some racial epithet overlooks the fact that we are all, up close, individuals well capable of stepping outside the boundaries of our racial norms. And if I ever had to really break down the number of times my own people, white Northern-Europeans, have screwed me over then I should be far less trustworthy of my own "people" than of others. But then, the counter argument there is proximity. Because I grew up away from alot of minorities, they were never really given the chance to mess me around. Who knows? Its personal, its macro-scoped from societal beliefs to individual actions and reactions.

Or maybe I should just say that the birds were pretty as I rode my bike past them this morning and leave it at that.

But hey, at least we're not skiing on pooh! Like this article about an Aussie ski hill that creates snow made from human waste. Umm, yeah, skiing on poop! And I thought the landfill ski hills outside of Chicago were bad. Thanks to Jay for the story connect, I'll have to read it in much more depth when I get the time.
:: posted by Erik at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 29, 2003

Another Puzzle Piece Falls Into Place
or, Spam No More
Esther passed along this juicy little news article about a judge in New York barring a company from sending unsolicited emails to internet users (though assumedly they are still permitted to send email to non-internet users but declined to say how that could be done). Judge Bars Spammer regales us with the tale of MonsterHut Inc. who sent out 500 million (think about that, 500,000,000 emails) unwanted emails and then tried to trick people into thinking they'd asked for the email.

Umm gee, you didn't think the 500 million mile wide e-paper trail was going to trip you fools up?

The article also lets us know that no such company is listed publicly in the Niagara Falls or surrounding areas so maybe they do have a couple of brain cells to rub together.

Business News: Big Boo Hoos
Everyone, altogether now, Awwww, poor AOL, they lost not only big bad Ted Turner but they also lost almost $100 BILLION in 2002. Poor AOL. Shame they overcharged for crappy service and then mismanaged themselves into a dark and lonely corner. Now maybe we'll see a stem to the tide of free AOL cd's that are everywhere.
:: posted by Erik at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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A Morford Masterpiece
Mark Morford continues to astonish amaze, titilate and astound all who read him. Today's column is about Shania Twain's half time show during the StuporBowl
Is Shania Human? in which he reveals some of Shania's comments from her recent Rolling Stone interview in which she admits she couldn't care less about the music she sings, the sexy outfits she wears (she really doesn't care for sex all that much) or the life of a pop megastar. Which begs the question? Why in the fucking hell are you doing it if its not something you live for? Not the money, she's got more than she'll ever spend, not the fame, she doesn't care about it.

So what is the deal? Why work so hard for something you don't really want?
Basically I came away from Morford's article about the Rolling Stone article laughing and scratching my head at the same time. And I think I may just go and track down that Rolling Stone interview as well so I can be sure that she truly is a vapid pop star but hey, she's perfect for the Bush era. Pretty on the outside but filled up with nothing but air on the inside.

The OMG Link
It HAS to be shared although I can promise that darned near everyone who actually goes and checks this link out will be thoroughly and completely disgusted. Check out Chrissy Caviar for all your homo sapien ovum needs. Yeah, this crazy woman is selling individual eggs harvested from her own body. Why? Who in the hell knows and I'm pretty sure I already know too much about this nasty business. By the way, the OMG link is not (though it should be) an homage to Layne, its part of the SFGate Morning Fix email newsletter.
:: posted by Erik at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Five Fashion Questions

From the defunct (more or less, no posts since 9/2/02 but I liked the post so I'm copying it anyway) KityKity comes a list of five fashion based questions that originally came from smattering.org.

1. What's your favorite piece of clothing that you currently own? LL Bean super heavy polar fleece pullover in dark green
2. What piece of clothing do you most want to acquire? A barn jacket length black leather jacket
3. What piece of clothing can you not bring yourself to get rid of? None right now, Paula "encouraged" me to clean out my old clothes last week when she was up. Four trash bags worth of fashion disasters just waiting for Goodwill.
4. What piece of clothing do you look your best in? My dark blue wife beater tank top after a good workout
5. What has been your biggest fashion accident? Thinking circus pants (think MC Hammer but without the sequins and gold lame) were cool.

Other Hiccough News
Two quick things. One, why is called a hiccup when its spelled hiccough?
And two, Pacbell was giving me fits this morning. Worked from home DSL without any problems but when I got into the office to check on things I got numerous Forbidden messages. Other people attempted contact with the blog as well but were rebuffed just as I was. So I got on the phone with Pacbell Tech Support who were able to time things almost perfectly. By the time I was done with the requisite wait on hold and had begun to work on a repair ticket, the site was back up and running properly again. Apologies to all the Nipple Scarf surfers who had to look elsewhere for their silly pics but here you go, one last time because I'm a nice guy. Thanks, as always, to Tom Tomorrow for getting this pic and having the great taste to post it.

Nipple Scarves and Happy Wearers
:: posted by Erik at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 28, 2003

The Vigil Ends
Just got off the phone with my housemate and the vigil ended. Already. Just like that.

Jagr passed away this morning in between the time I went to work and Haytham came home. I'm glad I stopped to pet him and give him some love on my way out the door even though I was already late.

Poor little guy, he will be missed. But at least he did live a great life by the ocean, we should all be so lucky.
Jagr and Modoc making pals
:: posted by Erik at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Sports News Updates
No, its not the ceremonial firing of the losing coach from the SuperBowl (although that may still happen) but instead its news from baseball (which is ramping back up! Yeeha!)

The SF Giants Sign Jose Cruz Jr. who gives them pop at the plate and a decent arm in the field who can also steal a base or 32. The Giants are looking to come on strong next year with power, poise and no more little boys (had to do it, had to post a note about the kids in the dugout and how Barry's little boy or Dusty Baker's nearly got killed during the World Series).

And Paula and I are almost certainly heading down to Scottsdale for some spring training action! Woohoo!
:: posted by Erik at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Checking That Pesky HTML
True confession time, I cannot write HTML code, I cannot write any code beyond a very rudimentary level and I rely on cheater software to help fill in the gaps, like nice WYSIWYG programs like GoLive CyberStudio and Front Page. But they come up short when it comes to Blogger because of the funky special code they have in there.
Even so, I've been using places like the Bobby HTML Validator to try to ease my HTML issues. Its not working yet but I can at least see a glimmer of light down that long, long tunnel. Here's a good Link List of Validators from HTMLHelp.

And maybe one of these days I'll get my HTML cleaned up enough to get a decent rating from their system. Probably not though.

Other News: Wedding Stuff
The Santa Cruz Guide is becoming Paula's and my best friend as we work to nail down a reception hall that holds more than a 100 people (the yacht club is just too small for our needs though it was a great location and would have been awesome if it had worked out). Anyone got a big house they want to let use really inexpensively in Seabright for about 6 hours? No? Damn.
:: posted by Erik at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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A Long and Sad Vigil
I have been watching my housemate's cat these last couple of weeks. He came home a few weeks ago walking very stiffly, like he'd been kicked or beaten up or was sick. Since then, he's gone in to see the vet who pronounced him in need of a run of anti-biotics and that would set him up right as rain again.

But that just hasn't been the case. This is an animal who would bash (literally) his head against the door when he wanted to get outside again. A cat who'd jump from the second story balcony into a tree to get out when he had to be out and about.

Some quick background, he thinks he lives in a park a couple of streets over from our house. Reason being was that was where he spent much of his kittenhood because the house he actually lived in was across the street from the park and very small so he'd be taken over there to play. And Jagr grew into thinking it was where he lived. Up until when he got sick he would always end up there and that's where we'd go to get him if he decided to stay out for too many nights in a row.

This is also a cat that thought nothing of walking into a running shower and laying down in the water like it was totally cool. Or play in a sprinkler like a dog. He's been a most unusual and enjoyable creature.

But anyway, since he's gotten sick ihe's been a very different cat. He'll stay huddled up like he's cold for half a day at a time. He moves with a slow gait (sometimes moving so slowly that I don't see him move just that he has relocated from place to place in the living room or into the upstairs), he sits awkwardly, he barely eats, he lays down in strange ways, he has no bounce in him, his eyes are rhuemy (sp?) and he appears to be a very, very old cat. Last night I spent a few hours with him nearby so I could keep an eye on him. I saw him in the living room laying down but with his neck bent sharply (and looking horribly uncomfortable) to the left so that his face was against his stomach. I straightened him out (more to make sure he could) and he stretched himself out, as if he had a cramp but didn't have the energy to fight it so it locked him up to that side. I stretched him out a couple more times over the night, tried to get him to eat and would lay him down somewhere comfortable when I could.

At one point, after he'd been curled up under the overhang of the big bean bag chair, he got up and wandered about the room for a little while, slowly and unsurely, like he'd never been in my room before. At one point I watched him try to walk a straight line and fall over to the right (against my bed) and then to the left where there was nothing to catch him and he fell over. I think he's vision's gone bad on him because he peers very intently at nothing at all, walks through things he'd normally avoid. Last night I thought he was peeing in his water dish but instead kind of got caught in it and was pumping his leg to try and get through it. And then he kept his low saunter around the kitchen, notably uninterested in some lox I'd been cooking with and put a bit down for him.

Or he tried to sleep with his head inside my mini-liquor cabinet and then, as he turned over, knocked a few rolled up posters down onto himself and then just sat there looking around like he was totally bewildered about the world. Almost, though I shudder to say it, as bad as Ozzy Osbourne looks more than half the time on his show.

I am nearly distraught really, he's been such a good friend for a number of years now that I hate to see him so infirm. Hate to see him look like he's suffering, hate to think he's dying, hate to think of not having him to hang out with, hate to think of him gone.

And the awful part, the truly terrible part of the whole thing is that I know, one of these mornings, one of those late night trips to the bathroom, at some point I will come upon him and he'll no longer be breathing his labored breathes and his body will be stiff as rigor mortis has set in. It's my fervent wish that he does turn a corner and come back to us, that he gets better and returns to the cool, fun kitty we all know and love. I want it badly but I haven't seen any signs that he's improving at all. I just want him to live forever, is that so much to ask?

Maybe I should investigate that whole Peter Pan and the clapping thing to see if that would work over the internet?
:: posted by Erik at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 26, 2003

Kind of a Lame Super Bowl
Tonight's SuperBowl had its share of moments, its instants of photo moment fame.

But really, on the whole, what the fuck was wrong with the Raiders? They came out like they were on sleeping pills, moving at half speed through much of the first half. They woke up towards the end and put on a good finish but pretty well slept through most of the game.
Which brings up my ever present conspiracy theorist cynic voice. How can the best offense in the league come out looking like they are doped up unless they were doped up?

All I can say is yawn, at least the Bucs played well and deserved the win.

And a new week dawns anew with all kinds of joys awaiting me. There are good things, like looking for a place to move to especially now that we've recruited another body to join our house in Heather. Should make for an interesting house and I'm exoecting to be on or near the water. There are some ideal spots all over town really but Seabright's home to me and it has sort of started to become home for Heather and Paula was pretty happy and comfortable here. Why go too far for right now? The next year will be an interesting one, that's for sure.
:: posted by Erik at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 24, 2003

Wowie, What Mormon Hotties Are Wearing This Prom Season
I'll just get out of the way and let this link speak for itself.
Mormon Chick's Prom Dress

Kow Tow, kow tow to Paula for not giving her the attribution she oh so richly deserves.
:: posted by Erik at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Email Rules of Life
From Erika, some rules that govern our existence.

SOME IMPORTANT RULES OF LIFE
Murphy's First Law for Wives: If you ask your husband to pick up five items at the store and then you add one more as an afterthought, he will forget two of the first five.

Kauffman's Paradox of the Corporation: The less important you are to the corporation, the more your tardiness or absence is noticed.

The Salary Axiom: A pay raise is just large enough to increase your taxes and just small enough to have no effect on your take-home pay.

Miller's Law of Insurance: Insurance covers everything except what happens.

First Law of Living: As soon as you start doing what you always wanted to be doing, you'll want to be doing something else.

Weiner's Law of Libraries: There are no answers, only cross-references.

Isaac's Strange Rule of Staleness: Any food that starts out hard will soften when stale. Any food that starts out soft will harden when stale.

The Grocery Bag Law: The candy bar you planned to eat on the way home from the market is hidden at the bottom of the grocery bag.

Lampner's Law of Employment: When leaving work late, you will go unnoticed. When you leave work early, you will meet the boss in the parking lot.
:: posted by Erik at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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SuperBowl Fun
This started with an innocent IM from Esther but it quickly Googled into much more.
Lots of linky love about the biggest single team sports event in America. Most links are self explanatory but the Sprint one is for a game that takes place during commercials wherein Sprint PCS subscribers (and presumably web surfers) can vote on the quality or entertainment value of the ads they are watching. Not sure how the scoring comes in but whatever, it might make the game more fun to watch. Though I don't think there will be any issues with the quality of the game, it should be superb!
SprintPCSADBOWL� 2003
SuperBowl Ads
SuperBowl Odds
SuperBowl Recipes from Gordon Biersch
SuperBowl Cocktails
SuperBowl Recipes, New Orleans style

For those in need of some surreal bizarity, SuperBowlism at Googlism, want a taste? Okay, brace yourself. superbowl is dangerous day for problem gamblers, superbowl is good, superbowl is own, superbowl is as big as christmas, superbowl is a great place to put the fun back into birthday parties, superbowl is the best time of the year for commercials, superbowl is a fully fledged entertainment and recreation centre that caters to all walks of life, superbowl is the one, superbowl is the only game that day, superbowl is looming over us again, superbowl is looming over, superbowl is now america's top party occasion, superbowl is slowly improving, superbowl is the year's highest rated television event, superbowl is a repeat of the bears blowout of the patriots in 1985, superbowl is the jags, superbowl is the year's biggest deal by far.

Yep, just a taste of the Googlism freak!

And finally, SuperBowl.com, the home for the big game where you can get vid feeds, pics, news, stats, injury reports and lots more. Speaking of which, initial plans for a party in Aptos at Meg and John's have been derailed by John's totally selfish trip to Tahoe so if anyone knows of a local gathering that should be reasonably fun then drop me a line and let me know what's the haps. Scuttlebutt in the neighborhood is that Paul and Kim should have people over to their house for the game.

Viva Las SuperBowl!
:: posted by Erik at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 23, 2003

Cool Police Stuff Auctions
This is a cool site I found off of the now pretty well defunct Trivium but I'm still looking through the blog and finding cool nuggets.
Like Property Room which is a site that auctions of confiscated stuff. Like this 1995 Wheaties Raiders box but I'm not paying $300 for it so maybe someone else wants it?

Anyway, have a peekie and see if there's goodies you can't live without. The other cool thing they've got is a Steal It Back section that says if you register your stolen property there then you might get it back for free. Of course, its not supposed to get stolen in the first place if the cops are doing their jobs but that's a blog post for another time (whether the police are actionary or reactionary).
:: posted by Erik at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Fun Blog Stuff
Because its unhealthy to be serious all the time, I submit, to you, the surfer in search of pictures and, possibly, order forms for nipple scarves (the pics are below but I have none for sale, yet) three links to humourous sites. The only one that might be of any practical value is the calculator link but come now, who really needs to have dozens and dozens of difference calculators available to them at all times? Luckily I'm not one of them.

Online Calculators
Is Wolverine Human? which is actually a serious article about to how to classify X-Men action figures for import duties. And then SFGate spins it off into a funny story from there.
AND
a 60 foot lava lamp?
.

And another new one, Secret Communication System of Hedy Lamar.

And the coolest of the whole lot so far, Googlism to find out what Google thinks of you (or anything else you type into its search box). I punched in Intellectual Poison and it came back with this or let me summarize quickly.
Googlism for: intellectual poison
intellectual poison is just as deadly as physical poison when it leads to decisions which inflict great economic hardship and even death upon many people
intellectual poison is steadily destroying our culture

All courtesy of Esther, who should have been writing but got caught up in an IM chat with me instead. Though I'll swear in a court of law that it began as a work IM and I can even prove it if I have to!
:: posted by Erik at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comment |
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Cool Old School Literary Round Table Stuff

I was IM'ing with Esther, one of my company's analysts and a good friend of mine, and she made a reference to the Internet Press Guild being its own little Algonquin Round Table. And that, in turn, prompted more questions, a quick Google and zip-zowie, we've got some history culled from this site on the Algonquin Round Table.

The Algonquin Round Table, also called THE ROUND TABLE, informal group of American literary men and women who met daily for lunch on weekdays at a large round table in the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s and '30s. The Algonquin Round Table began meeting in 1919, and within a few years its participants included many of the best-known writers, journalists, and artists in New York City. Among them were Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, George S. Kaufman, Franklin P. Adams, Marc Connelly, Harold Ross, Harpo Marx, and Russell Crouse. The Round Table became celebrated in the 1920s for its members' lively, witty conversation and urbane sophistication. Its members gradually went their separate ways, however, and the last meeting of the Round Table took place in 1943.
:: posted by Erik at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Football and Roadkill

Just came across this news item on Yahoo about how highway deaths rise sharply following the Super Bowl.
Highway Deaths and the Super Bowl.

And the moral of the story? Don't think you're immortal after the big game and DON'T go driving drunk or buzzed. The cops will be out in force and enforcing the laws. And if you're in Oakland, please don't "celebrate" by setting fire to cars and participating in generalized mass mayhem. Why would you want to destroy your city as a statement of celebration? It just doesn't make any sense at all.
:: posted by Erik at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Working my Blog Concept List
Today could be filled with empassioned writing about familial issues and upsets and worries and concerns or filled with screeds of love, joy, happiness and elation. Or I could fill it by talking about these cool new puzzle toys I found at the art store yesterday (yeah, I'll mention more about them).

Instead though, I think I'll knock off a line item on my ever growing list of blog topics.
Today's first post will be about the new anonymity in the internet age. It is the faceless melting into the background afforded to those who have names like Bill Johnson or John Smith or Mary Peterson. Open your nearest phone book of some reasonable size and check to see how many of each of those names there are. If you were trying to track down someone with a common name like these or others then your task becomes that much more difficult just by virtue of having to wade through the dozens and hundreds and THOUSANDS of false positives.

Heck, Google: Bill Johnson and it returns more than 2 million hits! And sure, not all of them are going to be distinct but its a pretty illuminating picture of what I'm trying to convey. I'd give you my name to Google but I already know what comes up on it and I just don't feel like sharing. Besides, most of my hits are press releases and how exciting are they?

Anyway, on some levels I'm jealous of those people who can fade into the over named background by having a common handle. Its impossible for me as I am, to my knowledge (and Googles) the only one of me that exists anywhere in the world. And if not now then I will most certainly be the only one soon enough as I add another middle name to my existant one (if I've not blogged on it yet, I'm taking my father's secret middle name and adding it to my own). At the same time, I take extra pride in the uniqueness of my name, that I can trace both sides of my family back hundreds of years and know those factors that went to create me, the events that transpired to push my family tree all over Europe and into America.

But having a common name might be simpler (though I'm sure being confused with other people all the time would be a bit of a drag) though easier for the Terminator to track you down. Three Sarah Connors and the right just happened to be the last in the list, phew! Or we'd all be Skynet's little bitches by now. Ooops, sorry for the tangent but that's part of where the idea for the post came from. That and trying to track down a buddy who's moved out of town and his phone number was already busted before he left. So its damned near impossible to track him down now without paying $25 to USSearch (I wonder if they charge more for people with more common names? They should because there'll be more work involved in weeding out the wrong ones).

I don't know, that's really about all I've got to say on it for right now. I'm bummed because Paula's driving back down south as we speak (yes, she'd originally intended on heading out on Tuesday but I convinced her to stay a couple of extra days!). And there has been some unpleasant news from my family and some potentially very sad news. But I'll not write about any of it until I know for sure what the score is and where we all are. For now, just send good healthy thoughts towards Maine and send some to New York.
:: posted by Erik at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 22, 2003

A Win in the Battle Against Stupidity
In the ever continuing war against utter and complete social retardation, Yahoo News has reported that the Obesity Suit Against McDonald's is Dismissed. Wow! You mean parents need to take charge of their own kids and keep them from eating terrible foods and educate them on how to eat properly and not turn into human bowling balls? What's next, parents will be expected to discipline their kids when they misbehave and give them money for clothes and a life. When will it ever end?

Or, more to the point, when are parents going to accept responsibility for raising their kids themselves instead of attempting to rely on corporate America to raise them? And when are people going to stop trying to make their single income explosion by lawsuit instead of actually trying to produce something of real value instead of more legislation and rules? Its disgusting to me to think that people actually tried to profit because they thought food cooked in fat wasn't bad for them. Are they truly that stupid, in which case they should be castrated so they cannot produce more morons for society to coddle, or are they greedheaded assholes who are merely trying to feed off the system's loopholes? In either case, they're input is not needed in the gene pool.

By the way, the Judge in the case was U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet, which I think is pretty funny given the dietary nature of the case.

Other News: New Additions to Intellectual Poison
Finally got around to adding a couple of New Words to that page and am putting in some time on the Bookshelf, which has been started on and will now just continue to be built out.

I'm sure I'll come up with more ways to waste time at work as the day goes on. But its all good and fun.
:: posted by Erik at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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The Wiles of Good Fortune
I am in a good mood, I keep telling myself that. Things in my life have fallen into place in such a perfect manner that complaining about anything might come across as whining.

But things aren't totally perfect. My pending life with Paula is perfect and I truly cannot wait to get our lives combined into an almost single entity. She is, without a doubt, the best person to ever happen along into my life, the best thing to ever happen to me. She's making the drive back south today after being here for 11 days that really felt like 5. She's making the drive with the understanding and secure knowledge that the next time she drives up, it'll be with me behind her in a moving van and we'll be combining our lives into one. An event that will be just plain awesome all the way around (yes, even amidst the clothing purges, dear).

And then there are other aspects of my life, my day and my universe that are out of kilter and in need of adjustment. The house is like that right now, the weekend party is seemingly extending into the week, the over flowing beer bottle bonanza on the counters continues unabated, lights are left on, doors are left open and crap's basically being left everywhere. I'll easily grant that I'm not the neatest person around but damn, at least I can see that leaving empties all over the place is really just not cool. Oh yeah, apparently I'm the only one who can see that the trash needs to be taken out as well. Me, the one who works all day, I'm the one who's supposed to come home and clean up after my housemates? Umm, how can I say this gently, no FUCKING way. I'm not a goddamned maid and I stopped myself last night from taking it out or cleaning up.

So tonight is house meeting night even though Mark's still in Key West. The others need to be made aware of pending changes in the continuum of the house. Its changing because I'm giving my notice to move out and I'm the only one on the lease. And that means someone else gets to step up and take over house administration duties, a mantle handing over that I look forward to with far more relish than I'd thought I might. Best solution would be to turn over the house to Mark as H isn't going to want to take it and I don't think Alice (my landlady) would allow Scot to sign a lease with her.

Work is also causing issues again, as might be expected because it had been going well last week. No reason it can do that two weeks in a row. Basically all of our schedules are thrown out the window when we have to interview job opp candidates. Its a good thing to have a new people coming through the door but its also a tremendous distraction having to study up on people when I can honestly tell in the first minute of an interview whether the person could get the job or not. And its not my decision in any case. But hopefully we'll get a good one in today and all that will ease up.

There's more work stuff but I'm leaving it lie for now. No reason to continue to stir up trouble for no cause. I'm not an intentionally antagonistic person but sometimes people gets my hackles all up and I have a harder time restraining my tongue which has a tendency towards cynicism and sarcasm (yeah, generally not a great mix).

And yes, a huge part of me is bummed, irritated and saddened by the impending loss of my better half in Paula. I thought that I might really be chafing for my own space and time again but I'm really very much not looking forward to her being gone. She's the best company (and occasionally, incredibly goofy and sweet) I know and I love being with her. I miss her right now even though I know she's lying in my bed right now. So I'm taking it all with a grain of salt, I'm probably more sensitive than normal and it might cloud my judgment some.

There's also the guy I nearly hit with my car last night in the rain. I just didn't see him until it was almost too late though I was only rolling along at 5 miles per at the time. Still would have hurt and kind of shook me up some.

Life's good and I'm happy, I really am. But that doesn't mean there can't be issues that need to be dealt with. I did just pick up these cool little snap together plane models at that paper store (along with a super fine UniBall Vision Elite pen) so I'm not all bummed. And one of these days I'll get my act together and get some pics posted. I've got a new one of Modoc that just totally kicks ass! And a couple of great pics of H's big black cat, Jagr, in the clover. Oh boy!

Oh yeah, and one of the cover stories in the paper is about how rent prices are falling from last year! So HOT DAMN on that front! Because now that its in the paper, all the other rents should drop too so that the rentors can stay competitive and ain't nothing wrong with a little rent dropping price war especially when I'm looking for a new place to live.
:: posted by Erik at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 21, 2003

A Lighter Post and Cool News
Paula and I were hanging out, doing our thing, cooking leftovers from the AFC/NFC championship game party that we had on Sunday and continuing the task of cleaning up the place after having it tromped through by dozens of people all day Sunday. Well worth the time and effort as the party was an unqualified success on many fronts but I'll write about that later on when I've got pics from the housewarming party, Saturday at the crab feed in Pleasonton (with 1300 of my closest friends I've never met) and the Sunday's fun and game!

Quick side note, the Raider celebrations after the win in towns as far south as Salinas went without any hitches whatsoever. Just fans out honking their horns, shouting "Go Raiders" and stuff like that. Not a single arrest made in the entire greater Bay Area that was reported. And that's pretty amazing given the Raider fans general penchant for violent expression of team love.

Anyway, we ended up watching the second go-around of a new style of reality TV show that was really kind of cool. Meet My Folks is a pretty funny concept wherein, one person and their parents invite 8 people of the opposite sex into their home and start whittling people out in a speed round version of Love Survivor. I didn't like the 8 guys and 1 girl version but this new one where its 8 very good looking women looking to get together with one good looking (though impossibly decent) guy. And the catch is that his mommy is involved. One of the other nice twists in this one is that one of the eight girls was actually a mole planted to catch the first things the prospects might have to say about him when they were supposedly alone.

It was funny as hell to watch these girls try to backtrack from what they said, on camera, no more than five minutes before. And then they went to a movie theatre where the girls supposed friends would dish serious mud on them. Talking about being a g-string cleaning service maid (and possibly a hooker on the side), about shoplifting, about being a scam artist who just uses men for as long as she could, about being a nymphomaniac, about all kinds of things. AND THEN, the parents and the guy got to pull two girls out, give them lie detector tests and then dismiss one.

Oh yeah, the first "challenge" was a mixed doubles two girls in the hot tub with Mr. Man to help him determine who should go and play with him by the campfire. He chose the hoochie (a plus sized woman who was beautiful if a little quick on the draw) who we'd later learn ran a g-string maid service with the implication that she might also be pimping her girls out for extra services as well as herself. And why did her chose her? Because she was macking on him like mad in the hot tub and made the sensitive girl feel awkward, boo hoo. The best part of the whole campfire scene was when the parents got a fax to turn on their TV and watch their son getting naughty with this chick he met that day. Momma was not pleased at all when the girl started pulling of his belt and was going for the joy stick. HAHAHAHA!

So the two girls take lie detectors and one is tossed because she's effectively a tramp in momma's eyes. If you were going on a trip to Europe with a good looking guy and you're in your 20's then yeah, you'd probably expect to get naked and bump uglies, wouldnt' you? Well, she answered yes, had it confirmed by the lie detector master, Nick, and was dismissed. The other girl nearly fainted and also lied about saying the mom had good taste in clothes (which was a bad lie, the mom has bad taste in clothes and ain't nothing wrong with admitting it).

The final scene of the show is everyone BUT the dismissed girl leaving, in raw reality TV juxtaposition (normally its the loser who leaves and in this case everyone else left her behind), and going back to the house in the 'burbs where six girls were going to share one bathroom for the rest of the week but it was all good.

Of the girls that were left, the most physically attractive and most likely most warped insides was Chelsea, a Hawaiian goddess with perfect skin, beautiful long black hair and some emotional baggage. Other girls were pretty interesting but this one stood out from the rest, shame its looking like she's also damaged goods since all the other girls' friends had nothing but horrendous things to say about their "pals".

Which brings me my one announcement for the day, and its a biggie. Paula's moving to Santa Cruz, we talked about it alot last night and it just makes the most sense at this juncture. We'll be working on the timing and how to best work it all out but yeah, she's moving north for now and we'll be looking for a place to move into for March. And I couldn't be any happier for the new deal we're working on and for. Its to be with each other and that's the truly important aspect. I'm so very much looking forward to living with her and having my free time with her in our house together. I'm not looking forward to giving up my room in the house on First Ave because it will be the end of an era really, with Paul gone and me on the way out it'll be Haytham holding things together until he too, eventually, slips away as well.

Of course, maybe's its just in time before the termites cause the whole place to collapse in upon itself. But I know I'll miss the old place terribly, luckily I'll have the love of my life to distract me!
:: posted by Erik at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comment |
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Jan 20, 2003

Purely Misguided Religious Lefto-Freak Monkey Jacking Hate Mongers

This started out as a fairly reasoned post about pro-lifers and the lengths they go to attempt to legislate their beliefs on others. Not just change minds but to make it ILLEGAL to make up your own mind about abortion. They want to put their dirty, slimey GOD paws all over your body and tell you what you can and cannot do with it.
A couple of sites that popped up right quick from Google.
Life Decisions International is a dirty organization dedicated to nothing more than mucking around with Planned Parenthood's agendas because THEY (the LDI MORONS) know better what's right for other people.

March for Life Fund site which has a nice opening statement that goes like this "The MARCH FOR LIFE is the collective effort of grassroots prolife Americans to assure that our laws protect the right to life of each human being. An important step is adoption of a Mandatory HUMAN LIFE AMENDMENT to the Constitution of the United States. Such an amendment would require that individuals and society provide protectio