Sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, always a good time
I was looking through some old image archives (long story) and found this one.
WHO THE HECK IS THAT? I’m sad to say I have no idea whose baby this is. I’m pretty sure it’s not one of mine, and I’m not getting any good clues from the room.
If you read this blog and this is your baby, please let me know. Then I can properly apologize for not recognizing her.
It’s a fact that the more complicated an envelope appears, the less valuable the contents will be. Here’s a great example from today’s mail:
Yes, I can see that it’s URGENT URGENT URGENT and Extremely Urgent and has all sorts of technical garbage like “Time Sensitive” and “Materials Inspected” and (wait for it) “Urgent”. It also has that oh-so-realistic handwriting font so I’ll think it was specially made out just to me.
I must point out that it was definitely not hand-delivered to addressee. I suppose I’ll have to talk to the mailman (a way cool guy who wears khaki shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and Birks). Clearly he’s ignoring the clear instructions on the mail he’s delivering. Slacker.
In the end, of course, this was just a ten-page ad for a postal scale. Wow.
It’s no fun being old.
Last Wednesday in our league ultimate game, I tweaked my left calf. I’m not sure what I did– cut too hard, reversed direction too fast, whatever– but I was gimping a bit by the end of the game. Then I played two more games Thursday, and by Thursday night was really limping around. But Friday things seemed fine, and I figured it was just a temporary thing.
I played again today, and my calf is twinging. Dang. Tomorrow I’ve got a double-header, and then two more games on Thursday– I might be lucky to even be walking on Friday.
There was a time when stuff like this didn’t affect me at all. Now I’m feeling my age. And it’s not fun.
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
— Patrick Henry
Federal judge Vaughn Walker has ruled that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) case against AT&T can proceed, despite the government’s claim that divulging information about the NSA wiretapping program– of which AT&T was a major component– will severely damage national security. The unbelievable “state secrets” defense raised by the government has been struck down by Judge Walker with a deft statement:
This is great stuff, and despite the fact that the government will undoubtably appeal and continue to do everything it can to squash the case, it’s a minor victory for supporters of privacy rights.
A group of fans of the science-fiction television show Firefly, who pushed and supported the cast through the making of the (rather good) movie Serenity, have just released a documentary that basically shows the involvement of the fans and how their work kept the show alive and led to the movie.
Interestingly, they’ve released the entire documentary as a freely downloadable movie. This isn’t some back-room hack pasted together in iMovie– it’s a professional-quality full-length movie. Perhaps the best thing I’ve seen about it is their statement regarding why they released it for free:
Amen. Although I respect the intent of copyright, the current practices engaged by such organizations as the RIAA, MPAA, U.S. Congress, Disney, and a hundred other corporations interested more in profits than in serving their customers are deplorable. They’ve turned copyright into a system whose sole goal is profit, with no regard for the actual protection of ideas, as the original framers of copyright law intended.
I hope more groups follow the lead of the Firefly crowd. We’re already seeing it in the music industry, as more and more artists release their songs and albums in Creative Commons format– allowing free download, distribution, and remixing. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s a start.
An awesome entry from today’s Fark Photoshop contest.
Woo hoo! I learned to wakeboard last weekend… what a blast.
It’s a load of fun, at least until you catch a wave and smack the water face-first at 40mph…
I’ve always liked the opening title music for The Hunt for Red October. Tonight I’m listening to various soundtracks while I work, and this one came up in the queue. Curious, I hit the “Lyrics” tab in AmaroK to see if I could finally learn what those crazy Russian guys are singing about.
AmaroK didn’t let me down:
I spent a couple of hours today putting the finishing touches on my shiny new and improved photo album, in the hopes that I’ll finally be a little better about keeping it updated. The old one was database-driven, written about five years ago, and terribly difficult to manage– which explains why the most recent photos were almost two years out of date. The new one is much simpler, and allows me to quickly upload big batches of images.
Now, of course, I open myself to friends and family perusing the album to find compromising pictures of me or the fam…
