(subtitled my secret love letter to Tim and Karrie League) now with pictures — so I bumped it

This is the first in a multi-part episode titled “Why Don’t You Live In Austin?”. (Recurring every time I have an Austin moment where I say to myself “I am glad to live here.”) I am overjoyed that Austin is (in general statistic terms) not growing, but I still question why you would live anywhere else (general, but non-adherent, exceptions allowed for the big 5: New york, D.C., Chicago, San Fran, and L.A. — west of the PCH). Whenever I experience a night like Saturday night, that is so explicitly “Austin” in it’s nature, I can’t help letting this little light of mine shine.

Some of you may not know that previous to high school I was a “holy roller”. I attended a charismatic Methodist church overlooking Caddo Lake from about age 9 until I was about 15. I didn’t listen to secular rock-n-roll for the most part. At different points in my childhood I was grounded for possessing tarot cards, and my Mom burned my cassette tapes because she thought they were responsible for my increasing bad attitude. (She has since gotten a PhD in Psychology and realizes that my problem was that I was a teenager and the music reflected the conflicts I was feeling — not the other way around.)

Lindsayism.com has started The Backslider Project (which I suspect will be managed only slightly better than a BPB premise). Lindsay Robertson ‘s idea is to bring together the community of people whose childhood was impacted by the 1970’s charasmatic movement. She’s aiming for a warmly funny and embarassing take on the whole situation — along the lines of “Receiving the holy ghost, then going to see Ghost“. It’s kicked up a lot of memories for me that I thought I would share, though it may be hard for outsiders to understand.

3 comic strips in one day! what is wrong with this guy?!

You may have caught the link in my links section on PVPOnline. Here’s a shot from the latest series. I disagree with Scott’s basic assertion that dealing with real-life issues in comic strips sucks. I have been “enjoying” the story line running in Crankshaft and For Better or For Worse that dealt with alzheimers and homophobia, respectively, but I do agree that Boondocks has become just way too cynical. However, Scott has the funniest daily geek comic online today (and ties Penny-Arcade for funniest periodic comic online) and his blogs (beneath the daily strip) are a nice insight into the mind/life of the artist and I especially enjoyed his rant series about Wil Wheaton, which I will link to if he ever posts a “reprint”. Buy his books and read his strip!

We’ve just started using the Textile plugin for MT here at BPB and I gotta say that it’s pretty damn cool. (It’s basically a simpler way of marking-up text that isn’t as detailed as full-fledged HTML but works great for blog entries.

That said, the guy who created Textile has a pretty interesting blog at “Textism.com”: . Besides being a little “off” because I’m a yank and he’s a brit, the guy’s kinda looney anyway. His entry for July 28, 2003 entitled Toilet Roll Game is really entertaining.

Write notes on the fourth in a caffeinated, nervous hand, like Dustin Hoffman in All the President’s Men. Call out that you’ll be just a minute.

Missy’s got various Methodist Women’s group suppers over tonight and tomorrow, and Jake’s up visiting Grammy and Grandpa Bill in S’pit, so I’m probably headed to the multiplex for a supper of popcorn, snuck in beer, and a flick this evening (Much harder to sneak beer into the theater during the summer. Harder, but still not difficult).

I’m somewhat torn about what to see, mostly because nothing really leaps out at me. Probably going to go stare at Angelina Jolie’s butt. Part of me really wants to see Johnny English or Bad Boys II. Any suggestions? I’m kind of set on going to the theater. Love sticky floors and greasy popcorn.

A friend is getting married in Hawaii (Maui) in mid-January and Becky and I are (financially and emotionally) committed to go. We got a great deal on a combo deal of a flight and 6 nights at the Outrigger Maui Eldorado for about $1000/each. Unfortunately, I am a little too excited about it all. It is five months away and I am already digging through Fodor’s and Lonely Planet trying to maximize my experience without wearing myself out before the flight back.

Horseback riding and whale watching are at the top of the list. I keep hearing that the best way to whale watch, though, is via kayak. I am not real comfortable with my endurance level, vis-a-vis paddling into the ocean and back. I’d love to hear anyone’s advice on other recreational activities we should try, or doing the aforementioned recreational activities correctly. (Be sure to include your ridicule of me being out-of-shape and the liklihood of me getting in shape before we get to HI.)

Every time I buy something from Half.com they throw a column up on the left side with this header and show me a list of CDs and books that I already own because I bought them at Half.com.

If that’s not the most useless sugestion list, I don’t know what is. Maybe they need to cough-up a licensing fee to Amazon.com to get a real customer-product match engine.

John Wayne was on Stalin’s hit list. Armies of bodyguards, telling the FBI to let him take care of it. Makes Confessions of a Dangerous Mind seem plausible…

I have started seeing jank in one of my daily comic strips, Frazz.

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p.s. I have a list of about 25 comic strips that I read daily. I’m sure I will send them all here over time.

My gripe for today is editing hotkeys. Windows and Linux use Ctrl-(key) to do most commands; Macs use the squiggly key (Used to be the apple key). Ctrl is way out on the edge of the keyboard, the squiggly key is right next to the space bar. So when I hit the office Monday morning and start working, I’ve got to will myself to reach out with my pinky to hit Ctrl instead of hitting the Alt key.

Wah.

For the DNC’s presidential candidate. Here. Though the DNC is probably loathe to accept advice from “one who joined the vast right-wing conspiracy as soon as (Sen. Clinton) advertised it.”

My take is that Bartley is right on. Despite my personal dislike for Hilary, she polls well with the unwashed. If GWB’s the high school quarterback to your disgruntled band geeks (cyn), Hilary’s the Student Government president to my physics club geeks. I wouldn’t vote for her in a million years, but I’d give my left nut to see a election between her and W instead of any of the other contenders.

I got this from a friend through email. I think this sums up why I love golf and little Alex shall learn the sport despite the rolling eyes of my wife.

Ever wonder why golf is growing in popularity and people who don’t even play go to tournaments or watch it on TV? These truisms may shed light on reasons why.

23. This is a slice of golf history I thought you might enjoy. I never knew why there were 18 holes before this. Why do full-length golf courses have 18 holes,
and not 20, or 10 or an even dozen? How many of you golfers know the answer to this one?

During a discussion among the club’s membership board at St. Andrews in 1858, one of the members pointed out that it takes exactly 18 shots to polish off a fifth of Scotch. By limiting himself to only one shot of Scotch per hole, the Scot figured a round of golf was finished when the Scotch ran out.