Huffpost digs up one of my favorite old chestnuts — how sloppy reporting caused Al Gore (and everybody else in the world, ultimately) a whole lot of trouble.
…or “It’s my birthday and I’ll shear if I want to.”
The hair escapades aren’t over yet.
The hairstylist preferred this look. In a woird coincidence Mickey was getting his haircut in the chair opposite me, so the picture credit for this one is his.
This is more my style.
I’ve wanted a mohawk since I crushed on a girl in high school who had one. Yaqui-loco says I’m past the age where I can pull it off and it looks desperate. I, otoh, think that’s the whole point of a mohawk. If you’re 14, have no job and bad grades what does it really mean to have a mohowk. However if you’re 36 (tomorrow) and have worked for a company since it was the young upstart all the way through until it turned into “the man”…well, that’s saying something.
According to make Sunday’s worldwide pinhole photography day!
Don’t think I’ll participate, mostly ‘cause I’m not into mucking about with film outside of the canisters. Hmm – interesting concept: Why not take the ccd out of a cheap digital camera and fool around with digital pinhole pictures?
Even cooler than that – the Room Sized Camera Obscura! This, I could get behind…
Have we given you the garden tour yet? It’s a good time for it. Everything is strong and healthy. The withering heat hasn’t hit yet and the bugs are only starting to notice the feast before them. Check it:
As could have been expected, Google has freed SketchUp, after purchasing its developer, @Last Software last month. There’s still a pro version available for purchase with extra features that are useful if you’re doing commercial work.
I’ll add my small endorsement to the million others out there — SketchUp is a very cool and easy to use 3D modeling tool. I used it to recreate our utility room while we were remodeling it a few weeks ago. I dropped in the shelves and cabinets we were planning to buy, painted the walls, and kinda put down the vinyl floor to see how it would all fit and look.
I’ve been planning to expand on that and get our whole house done to help figure out a deck and landscaping plan. It now appears that once I do, I’ll be able to build directly on Google Earth, where other people can see it. Then I can furnish the house with objects from the 3D warehouse, a repository of user-created stuff.
Next week, we won’t need to leave the house anymore, we’ll just wander around on Google Earth and order pizza.
Here’s a thorough article from Popular Mechanics on the effectiveness of alternative fuels including on almost USA Today quality chart that summarizes the whole thing. I had thought that BioDiesel wasn’t that good of an alternative but it’s case is made pretty well.
According to a principle called Duverger’s Law, a first-past-the-post election system (candidate with most votes wins) like we have naturally leads to a two-party system.
Apparently this doesn’t rule out third parties, but a successful third-party will ultimately just replace one of the other parties, as happened when the modern Republican Party replaced the Whigs in the 1850’s. (By the way, I’m just paraphrasing the article here. I slept through most of Poli-Sci in college.)
First, check out the hail from last week:
In other news, I would appreciate everyone’s input on my fence design. I started off with a design I borrowed from a neighbor around the corner then Kelly sent me this design which is similar. So, I spent Saturday morning building a fence sampler. Take a look at these snaps and give me your opinion on both the structural options and the picket options.
Also, note the difference the picket materials make at a distance.
So, I completely remember being in high school, thinking how completely lame it was that the Rolling Stones were still around, what, 20 years after they were completely cool. Wondering WTF was going on with the ex-hippies who couldn’t leave the ’60s behind.
Yeah, so I crack open NPR’s Wireless catalog this weekend, and what do I see? The Fo’Shizzle doormat.
Yep.
If you’re reading the digest or RSS, it’s a good old doormat, with “Fo’ Shizzle – Welcome to our Hizzle” on it in old-school Snoop font. The sales blurb –
“Yo, G! Why not add some mad style with this super fly doormat, boo? Clean up your slanguage and muddy shoes all at once, thanks to our extra-rugged olefin mat, a fo’ shizzle (“sure-fire” to those hip to the jive) hit with every visitor. Easy care; hose clean.”
I think I’m ordering one.
Great – the Moonies supply most of the sushi restaurants in the US with fresh fish. How can I live without my tasty spicy tuna??
Becky and I hit the Big Apple this past weekend, extending the holy thre-day into a holy four-day. Here are some pictures and a little exposition.
Read more!Really interesting article on Ray Ozzie and Microsoft’s search to find itself (Hey, they’re about to hit 30, right?). I bring it up only for the following paragraph:
Ozzie spent several weeks thinking about the company’s problems, talking to Gates, and writing down his thoughts. The 51-page memo he wrote for the Robinswood meeting dwelled at length on the kind of trouble-free integrated customer experience he thought Microsoft ought to deliver. “What is being proposed herein is not the be all and end all with regard to significant initiatives,” the introduction reads. “[It] is intended to be a unifying force. A binding force. A galvanizing force for all major initiatives going on within the company.” (Emphasis added)
So, apparently the rumors of Microsoft’s next acquisition target are true…
(No, really, the article is kind of interesting. Go read it.)
I’m moving the fam to the midwest, letting the kids run around barefoot in overalls, and going off the grid thanks to this
The device – about the size of a credit card – pumps vegetable oil and alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, to convert the oil into biodiesel almost instantly.
Energy Independence Now!
New to my blogroll today is Letter from Hen Waller written by a couple recently transplanted to Portland, OR who are making a go at the slow-food, small footprint lifestyle. (Jank, don’t miss the pig roast done on a spit turned between the bottom brackets of two bike frames)
I’m actually recommending it based on the only other piece I’ve read so far — a well-told story about chickens, permits, and the meaning of neighborhood.
It made me feel naive in my hope for community. I know that I do not have great skills in this area. I, like many people in my generation, did not grow up in place. But I also reject my neighbor’s representation that what neighborhoods are about is not bothering anyone. I fear that this definition is what has resulted in the culture of deep alienation we live within.
If you’d be interested in an article written by Carl Bernstein that lays out a case for why both Democrats and Republicans in Congress should now be investigating the Bush presidency with an eye toward impeachment, you should really read this article.
Bernstein, who has a bit of cred on the subject, piles on parallels between this Bush administration and Nixon’s during Watergate. The article is packed with examples of abuse of power in both presidencies and suggests that a Senate investigation now may actually be the best bet for a Republican Congress in this election year, not to mention the best thing for our country.