donsense

378 Year Random Eleven

2013-12-05T20:51:00.003-08:00

Below, you'll see I was going to post a story 3-1/2 years ago about this family farm in New Hampshire. It never went beyond "draft" form because a number of months earlier I had sort of abandoned putting together blog posts here altogether. I didn't intend to NEVER post again, but hey it got away from me.

Tonight I went to leave a comment on a relative's blog, and had to sign in through Google, and so I guess it identified me as Don the Blogger. Out of a strangely sharp sense of curiosity I visited my own blog, feeling sort of like I was visiting a forgotten childhood home or something.

OK next, scrolling through my long list of unpublished tidbits, I saw the story of the family farm up for sale in New Hampshire, after running continuously since 1632:

"Hate seeing stories like this...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2010/07/27/nations_oldest_running_family_farm_put_on_market_in_nh/?page=2"

I read the article from 2010 and then googled the farm to see when it was finally sold. It just sold 3 weeks ago! Huh. See, I haven't missed much.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20131105-NEWS-131109882

Oh, and furthermore...

Back in 2010 I was publishing a "Random 11" songs I had heard that day on Pandora or wherever. This article was apparently going to be one of those. So OK:

Robert Plant and Alison Krause - Your Long Journey
Amandine - Faintest of Sparks
Chris Bathgate - The Last Parade On Anne St.
Colin Hay - Waiting for My Real Life To Begin
Laura Veirs - Wide-Eyed, Legless
Andrew Bird - Spare-Ohs
The Violet Archers - Simple
Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah
David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
The Cure - A Night Like This
The Milk Carton Kids - Undress The World

Astrotweets

2010-03-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

Lately I've wondered if I would ever get back to blogging. Today I saw this cool story of astronaut Soichi Noguchi sending mobile pictures from the international space station back to earth through his twitter account.

As far as I'm concerned, that about does it. We've accomplished everything.

Most of us use such technology to show the world the sushi plate sitting in front of us. Which, up to now, left us one step short of accomplishing "everything."

In the meantime, here I was about to post the link to my facebook when I remembered that once upon a time I used to blog.

When I arrived here to finally show my face again, I was horrified and amused to learn that it was exactly one year ago today that I posted. So, instead of composing a draft and then letting it stew for a month and then maybe adding photos, and thus merely bulking up my 'drafts' folder, I'm just going to publish this and run.

Beware: DilbertFiles.com Is Not A Joke. I Repeat, Not A Joke.

2009-03-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Reading Dilbert panels is really really important.

I once formulated an extremely convincing argument for including a visit to Dilbert.com once a day in order to, well, something something, business acumen, cultural something finger on the pulse, savvy insight, something something staying on my game. Be the ball.

I wish I could remember it.

So when I went to read me some Dilbert this afternoon - after work, uh, during research time, preparing for tomorrow something something be the ball - I saw a link to something called DilbertFiles.com.

Instantly I broke out into psychotic laughter because Dogbert was pointing to the ad and clearly a joke was intended. Eventually, through my tears of internet mirth, as I came out of my coma, I could see Dogbert was quite serious.

Hmmm. Confusion. This was a real link to a real service, and I was not actually supposed to split open with laughter and spill my convulsively cramping innards onto my desk.

So, I cleaned up the blood and clicked on the link.

Apparently, for a nominal fee, you can create an online server space which can be used to transfer monster-sized files to people, with upwards of a hundred huge attachments on a single standard email. You can created shared folders, password accounts, and the like, and use the space as an online backup for everything which you can actually access from any computer anywhere with no special software.

Question is, how safe is Dogbert going to keep my files??

I don't personally see a compelling need to subscribe to any level of the service they offer, but I can see how some small businesses or a professional, like a graphic artist for instance, might find this pretty handy.

Talk amongst yourselves. I'm heading back to the funny pages.

Bobby Jindal Is A Perfectly Normal Young Obfuscating Republican Who Supports Creationism In Schools And Was Once Involved In A 3-Hour Exorcism....

2009-02-27T06:39:00.000-08:00

You think the Louisiana Governor is squirming now?

Wait until he seeks higher office and THIS gets more play.

Arizona Phoenix* Random Eleven

2009-01-30T20:17:00.000-08:00

Jesusland - BEN FOLDS
N.M.A. - EEF BARZELAY
Carolina - BENJAMIN GIBBARD
Welcome Home - RADICAL FACE
Naked As We Came - IRON & WINE
The Last High - THE DANDY WARHOLS
Simple Love - ALISON KRAUSS
Right Side, Wrong Bed - SMASH MOUTH
Feeling Oblivion - TURIN BRAKES
Lies Behind The Sun - PIERCE & E.J. MAGGI
For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless in Ypsilanti - SUFJAN STEVENS

* A long long time ago a man who had only recently worked as a grocery checkout clerk - a bagger - got himself a job as a quarterback on an arena football league team, where he started making the relatively big bucks. In an unlikely twist, the man some time later was the starting quarterback on an actual NFL football team. There, he did his job in a satisfactory manner, a description that would have been just as apt at the little grocery store for which he had not too long before filled bags of sundries. One day this NFL quarterback found himself playing in the Super Bowl with his team. My, what a rise to stardom.

The man then did what all good quarterbacks do: he faded. He bounced around the league, started behind rookies and other quarterbacks who will never be known as greats. He was, in a way, back to bagging groceries.

But never count out a nice guy. After being a washed up back-up QB for most of four seasons, suddenly the man starts every game, for an entire season. Suddenly the man wins games, suddenly the man is on top, again. His team, his new team, is going to the Super Bowl. Only one other quarterback in history has brought two different teams to Super Bowls.

He is reborn. He is risen from the ashes. It's fitting that this man, this year, plays in Phoenix.

MORE

10 Lessons* Random Eleven

2009-01-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

Do not fear the link. The links provided go to an info page for each song provided by pandora dot com. Hear a sample and then act according to your whim. But always come back here. Simple.

Let Me Know (Demo) - YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Each Coming Night - IRON & WINE
Jenny Under House Arrest - THE TROPHY FIRE
On/Off - SNOW PATROL
Seaside - THE KOOKS
1995 - THE RADIO DEPT.
Tame Thoughts - WARM IN THE WAKE
So Says I - THE SHINS
Your Scars - CHARLEMAGNE
President Of What? - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
The Great American Napkin - THE SUMMER SKINNY

*I guess January 18 is as good a time as any to do a quick and mercifully final look back at what went wrong with the Bush administration. Not just to keep flogging the beast but to see if there are any general lessons to learn.

Oh, and there are. Bob Woodward writes in the Washington Post on ten insights to draw from the Bush, uh, calamity.

Just A Second - or - So That's The Purpose Of The Earth's Rotation And International Time Keeping Whatsa-Whoosit Commission

2008-12-28T10:51:00.000-08:00

Secret functionaries of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service are going to insert an additional second into the space-time continuum, in between 11:59:59 p.m. and 12 midnight on New Year's Eve. Oddly, this is about when every person on the planet will be paying attention to the clock.

Very very crafty.

Intercepted communications indicate that this additional second has been smuggled into this dimension for the purpose of adding to the already massive block of time currently amassed over the eons. The intent, as deduced by counter-intel analysts, is to keep the earth on track with reality, a goal which the most recent United States Presidential Election had already purportedly achieved.

Science marches on. And so does time, even with the additional weight.

See for yourself.

A-11* Random Eleven

2008-09-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

I used to be able to link each song to a full free play at Napster (the legal Napster). Now, I can't do that. I am linking each of these to a sample play at either Amazon or Itunes or some other place as I see fit. If I were driven to be cleverly rich and have all those multiple streams of income I'm always hearing about, I am sure I would go through the time to set up a referral link commission thing, with one of them. But, No.

Coyote - JENNY OWEN YOUNGS
The Way I Am - INGRID MICHAELSON
Foundations - KATE NASH
Engine Heart - MIRAH
Finally Woken - JEM
Gray Or Blue - JAYMAY
The Polite - KATIE TODD
Happy Alone - EARLIMART
Hands - MS. JOHN SODA
The Park - FEIST
Dark Side - POLLY PAULUSMA

* If you tune in to an NFL game one day and you see the offense line up with three lineman at the ball, three receivers out right and three out left, with two quarterbacks something like 8 or 10 yards back from center, go ahead and blink so you can watch closely, and then remember this article.

What may one day be the offense of the future of football was dreamed up at Piedmont High School by coach Kurt Bryan and Director of Football Operations Steve Humphries a few seasons ago.

They call it the A-11, and if they threw it out onto the field every now and again you might forgive the trickery. The high school has but 1000 students and sometimes you have to drag a little desperation onto the field and see what he scares up.

But this is no gimmick. This is how the offense lines up most of the game. This is a full offensive scheme which runs, passes - and yes, inserts a trick play or two - and which in its first season produced a 7-4 record and has resulted in three straight post-season appearances.

What makes this offense so innovative is that depending on exactly where everyone lines up, any five of the eleven players on the field could be eligible to catch a forward pass on any given play.

The "Offense of the Future" looks kind of fun, even here in the present.

PS -- If you worked your way through this post because you arrived with an undying interest in Mirah and Feist, but you found yourself in an article about football and became hopelessly lost at "three linemen", well... thanks for trying.

Beach Day

2008-08-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

I can never be entirely certain, but I think the kids had a good time at Torrey Pines.

Earthquake

2008-07-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

About 2 minutes ago. 11:43 PST. It felt like it was rocking west/east. I'll guess a 4.something near or off the coast of San Diego's North County. Or of course, bigger than 4.something but farther offshore.

UPDATE
It was about a 5.8 centered about 80 miles ~~northeast~~ northwest of my location, near Chino Hills directly east of L.A.

Almost a whopper.

This site is great.

UPDATE #2
Now a 3.8 aftershock around the same area. Could not feel that one here.

When The Professor Asks What Kind Of Crap You're Working On, Say It's Pre-Clovis. He Digs That Shit. Well, you do. For Him.

2008-07-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

Would you prefer I use the term "scat"? Maybe "Fecal Fossils"? Hey, I like that one!

Caspar Milquetoast

2008-05-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

I'm a busy guy. But, not too busy for you, the top-tier blog peruser. No, despite my overburdened underpaid semi-professional nearly-hypothetical "career", I am still able to upload a blog post, or two, roughly every quarter (or two), all year! Because I care.

I was researching ("lunch-killing") the origin of the word Milquetoast three or four months ago and came across the newspaper comic strip character "Caspar Milquetoast".

Sayeth the article found at the above link, in part:

H.T. Webster's most famous protagonist was such a wuss, he'd buy a new hat when the one he was wearing got blown onto a patch of ground protected by a "Keep Off the Grass" sign. A sign reading "Watch This Space" could render him motionless for hours.

Funny, funny stuff.

Sated, and excited to have acquired a link to "content" for my media empire, I captured and saved it into my blogger drafts where I have since left it at a constant temperature in oak barrels at my secret blog fermenting location deep in the mountains of... my... secret... state. This slow process has allowed it to acquire a mesmerizing redolence not unlike a tincture of brambleberry, cracked pepper, sweet alyssum, and soap.

Served now for your pleasure, here.

Above, actually. In the second paragraph.

Daily? Who Said Anything About 'Daily' ? Oh, I Did? Well, Yes, But I Also Added '-ish', So This Is Daily-ish: Let's Talk Saturn

2008-03-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

If you look at Saturn every night you'll slowly lose the ability to see the rings. This, like all natural phenomenon has a perfectly logical explanation, although I would really like to tell you that ring-miners from quadrant eleven-peck-do have been taking all the colors away and Saturn's almost out now.

So, the truth: You're going blind.

Alright, alright, the real truth.

As Saturn passed us every now and then we must of course pass over the ring horizon or the - I don't know - but we're soon going to be looking at Saturn edge on with the ring.

Read all about it here:

NASA - The Vanishing Rings of Saturn

NOTE - the body in the photo above is Saturn's moon Dione, revolving around Saturn in a sea of objects making up the ring. This view is edge-on. If you look at Saturn through a telescope right around now, this is what you'll pretty much be seeing.

Well, not Dione. You won't see Dione.

Sorry. I know how much you wanted to.

Must ... Type ... Words ... MUST ... Hit ... "Publish" ... - or - Since When Does Publishing Twice A Year Count As "Blogging" Anyway?

2008-02-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

BREAKING NEWS:

BLOGGERS GET WRITER'S BLOCK,
EVEN THOUGH NOBODY READS WHAT THEY WRITE!

VIDEO AT 11:00 ... IF WE'RE UP TO IT!

Seriously now. This is ridiculous.

I maxed out my allotted space for DRAFTS in my blogger site about 2 years ago. Every time I get an idea for a new post and save it as a rough draft, the oldest unpublish post drops off the DRAFTS list. What a perfectly senseless waste of time well-wasted in the first place.

You didn't even know there was a limit, did you. Clearly, I'm an old pro.

So, a new vow. I am not ashamed of making this new vow in public because, well, nobody reads this site anyway.

The vow:

Even if I don't have the time to craft an elegant and insightful expository piece worthy of Slate or Wired or Smithsonian Magazine Online, I will whack out a 400 word blob of blogness anyway, if I have to hire an untrained team of juvenile monkeys to do it for me. Every day. -ISH.

I promise.

Again.

Oh, and make sure to go bother LUKE and MIKE and LUKE&MIKE&ME&OTHERS for their ridiculous lack of hitting the "PUBLISH" button too. (Mike's better than the rest of us, but...)

Thanks.

[UPDATE - I've noticed that Mike's server is down. My guess is that he'll notice in about a week or two. We'll see.]

Pacifist Propaganda * Random Eleven

2008-01-28T21:57:00.000-08:00

Through December - LAURA VEIRS
One Man Guy - RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
Gillian (Live) - THE WAIFS
Between The Lines - SAMBASSADEUR
Eyes - ROGUE WAVE
All U Can Eat - BEN FOLDS
Bronson - CALLA
Kissing The Lipless - THE SHINS
Radiation Vibe - HEM
Tomorrow Is A Long Time - NICKEL CREEK

* I always hear that until Vietnam no one ever protested wars in the United States. Of course I always chuckle hearing that. There probably hasn't been a war in the history of Earth that wasn't protested in some manner.

I thought of this when one day as I was - don't ask me when or why - checking in on the FBI:

# Publication Number: M1085
# Publication Title: Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation 1908-1922
# Publisher: NARA
# Series: Old German Files, 1909-21
# Case Number: 8000-174151
# Case Title: Pacifist Propaganda
# Suspect Name: Mrs. S. E. Sheffler
# Page: 1
# Collection Title: Investigative Reports of the Bureau of Investigation 1908-1922"

10,000 Defeats* Random Eleven

2007-07-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Cold Cold Ground - JOHNSMITH
Falling - CAREN ARMSTRONG
Liar - ESKIMO JOE
Tickets To The Fight - SODASTREAM
Calling God - JANN ARDEN
Buried in Teeth - MARIEE SIOUX
Planxtry Ellie Murphy - COLCANNON
Clove Cigarette - STEPHEN ASHBROOK
Doubt - STEREOLAB
1/2 a Million Miles From Home - DIANE CLUCK
Bridges And Balloons - JOANNA NEWSOME

* Nearly meaningless milestones are fascinating because in such markers we can find volumes of hidden significance. The rest of the story, so to speak.

The Philadelphia Phillies baseball team are about to garner their 10,000th loss as a major league team. This is significant in that there is not a single team in any sport in the entire world at this volume of losses.

As losers go, they're the best.

Better yet, they're not even lovable losers, which is why we don't know about this spectacular streak of theirs. Every year we see stories of the undyingly faithful fans of the Cubs and the Red Sox, willing to wait generations for their teams to one day win the big one. Faithful to the end for their lovable losers. But Philadelphia is brutal. Brutal to visiting teams, brutal to their own.

So now we know why. I read that Philadelphia as a city has gone the longest of any city with teams in all four major sports, without any championship. If it wasn't for that whole "birthplace of America" thing I'm not sure there would be a reason for keeping the town around.

But let's look at this 10,000th loss in another way.

In 1990 I read a book by Luke Salisbury called "The Answer Is Baseball", and I consider it a primer on how to illuminate the fine but ubiquitous network of strands connecting our cultural artifacts and the forces moving our society hither and yon. Baseball is not just baseball. Our relationship with entertainment and leisure is as significant a force in our lives as our jobs and our families. Why? There is a cultural meaning embedded in that connection. It's a relationship. It's a dance or an art form which allows us to reconcile, or at least, tinker with, the complexities of what we see as right and wrong with our lives and the world. You think I'm being dramatic? Just ask a baseball fan about their biggest disappointment and you will see somebody brought nearly to tears over a single curveball thrown decades ago.

Salisbury's book uses baseball trivia to open essays that journey into deeper valleys of significance hidden in the nooks and crannies of statistical tables. Well, it's fun, too.

For instance, what could it matter that there were two different major league pitchers who each threw home run balls to both Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron at some points in their careers? Well, understand, Ruth ended his career in 1935 and Aaron began his in 1954. Who pitches in the major leagues for twenty years!? Great pitchers, that's who.

[23 JULY 2007 UPDATE] I might have this stat all flubbled with another. A serendipitous post by Tom McMahon over at his blog says that pitchers Lefty Grove and Ted Lyons did something similar to what I was describing. They each gave up home runs to Babe Ruth during his 60 Home Run season in 1927, and gave up hits to Joe DiMaggio during his 56 Game Hitting Streak in 1941. This might just be the story I recall. My point is the same, of course. Great pitchers, long careers. And don't ask me why I capitalize Significant Baseball Moments; I just do.]

In such simple stats can be found a deeper story. Sometimes that story speaks volumes about the society in which we live. The first Native American to play major league baseball preceded the first black major leaguer by nearly 50 years. And the story of this one man's rise and fall illustrates the tragedy that is the story of the American Indian in 19th century America.

But not only do statistics and stories from baseball's past reveal details of our society at large, they connect our own personal stories to our present. Everyone has an "I was there" story, a "What I was doing when JFK was shot" story. And everyone can recount an anecdote about the TV star or ballplayer who grew up in their neighborhood.

Hank Aaron once hit a home run in St. Louis which, because he stepped out of the batter's box to hit the ball, was disqualified as a home run and he was ruled out instead. His record 755 home runs, of course, don't reflect this small detail from the afternoon of August 18, 1965. But it happened. And it's a story for at least one fan that connects back to his childhood playing pickup ball with the kids in his neighborhood. One of those kids was the son of the man who gave up that ghost home run to Hank Aaron that August day and got an out instead. This man, in fact, was himself ending a long career that began with the disappointment of not pitching in the 1950 World Series because his unit was called up for Korean War Service.

Such is the endless social and cultural tapestry woven with the trivial details of a child's game.

So to the Phillies and their 10,000 defeats. Who loses 10,000 games? Well, a team that has remained in the same city in the same league for over 100 years. They are the only team in any sport in America who has accomplished that. A team that has played in front of nearly six generations of baseball fans. Six generations of Philadelphia children and adults who, abuse their teams as they may, won't ever give up on them, and whose life stories are intricately tied to the many defeats AND victories fought one day at a time, one inning at a time. One pitch.

Tug McGraw threw the final pitch that sealed the Phillies only world championship, near the end of his career, and as a boy I used to read the comic strip Scroogie which he ghosted through a writer and illustrator and published in newspapers throughout the U.S.

It was about a lovable loser baseball team.

In one strip, Scroogie explains the game-of-inches adage to his skipper during a mound conference. The skipper says, "Inches? That ball went 793 feet!"

Scroogie's reply: "Yeah, 9,516 inches."

A game of inches, a game of defeats, a game of life.

Hard Wired, Soft Wared, Free Willed - or - Free Will, But I Won't

2007-05-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

I watched the film Stranger Than Fiction with Will Farrell playing Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who realizes he's simply a character in somebody's unfinished novel.... He consults with a psychologist and then with a literature professor. He desperately tries to determine whether his story is a tragedy or a comedy.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I get to Harold's problem let me throw you a number:

"57".

Fifty-Seven is the answer most of the time, if you ask the right question.

Ahh. The right question. But for a society with all the right answers, it is disturbing how often we are unacquainted with the right questions.

As is taught in sales and marketing courses from universities to corporate training rooms throughout the land, to get the answer you desire, you need to simply come up with the right question.

Is this due to the nature of our brains, or the universe?

If I stand before one thousand people, get them to clear their minds by asking a series of simple calculations, and then ask them all to "think of an odd number between 40 and 60", the vast majority of them - let's say, about nine hundred and seventy of them - will automatically think of the number "57".

Why would far more than 90% of people think of this one number, among ten choices?

If I ask them to think of a colored vegetable, most will envision a carrot.

A colored tool... a red hammer.

How is it we can all see ourselves as autonomous individuals, yet we all come up with exactly the same answers to questions which seem to offer us a myriad of choices? If our brains all react the same, like preprogrammed automatons, what does this say of Free Will? Creativity? Cooperation? Tax reform?

Well, I don't know. It says red hammer, it says carrot, it says 57.

But also, it points to some sort of universal strategy or pathway for problem-solving or memory-retrieval, perhaps part instinct, part learned behavior.

Our similar wiring makes us think in a manner that is most predictable when we control for a few points of input.

It's how magicians get away with everything.

Does this mean we are forever doomed to act as all others before us, and all others after?

Well, did you ever notice we've never stopped warring? Procreating? Organizing? Dreaming?

We are to a degree controlled by our wiring. When somebody acts just a little out of the norm, he's nuts. His behavior is not what is expected, even if we don't know what explicitly we should expect, or why.

I watched the film Stranger Than Fiction with Will Farrell playing Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who realizes he's simply a character in somebody's unfinished novel.

The film very cleverly plays with our sense of fate, predetermination, and particularly the forces that compell us to act the way we do. The film was far more sophisticated than I expected going in. At it's core it asks who writes the rules? Can the rules be broken? If we discover what fate awaits us, do we have the will to change it? Should we? What are the consequences?

Harold Crick follows self-imposed rules of behavior to the point of obsessive compulsion but the question for us is, is it because he is written this way? Are we all written similarly?

The author is following rules of literature in creating and running Harold's story. But she herself is compelled to follow certain self-imposed rules regarding how she deals with the protagonists in all her novels (she kills them).

When Harold suddenly begins to hear her narrative voice as he goes about his day, he is given an insight into where his actions are leading. Suddenly, he is thrown off of his original path. And so is his author.

In trying to discover his future, is he changing it? He consults with a psychologist and then with a literature professor. He desperately tries to determine whether his story is a tragedy or a comedy.

In the process, he transforms. He lives. He does things he never thought of doing. Is he suddenly freed from only his own constraints, or also from the unseen but more tangible forces moving him about? This still is as the author is writing it, no? He is still moving inexorably toward the carefully crafted climax of the story. Right?

The author, for her part, is completely unaware of Harold's recognition of her existence. As far as she is concerned she is writing another story of fate - "Death and Taxes" - and she struggles mightily to develop the plot device for the story's climax, while Harold seeks her out in an effort to avoid what he understands is his untimely end.

The whole story is about breaking rules - rules of conduct, rules of writing, of traffic, of love, of the universe. It shows us there are rules we know about, and rules we don't.

We may be purposely defying the constraints we see laid upon us, as does the subject of Crick's audit when she refuses to pay a portion of her taxes; as does Crick himself when he falls in love with her and gets involved. Or we may be breaking rules we don't even know exist, laws written in our DNA or pathways paved in our brains over time, or passages written by the fates in a larger narrative intertwined with the threads of others' stories.

We all die. This is the explanation given to Harold by the lit professor when he so vainly tries to avoid his pivotal role in a story almost finished. What we do and how we conduct ourselves up to that point, however, allow us the ability to co-author this story. Harold does things, effects people, and truly lives, knowing that he needs to do it now, before the story ends.

Kurt Vonnegut's novels almost all used the story-within-a-story device to explore fate, playing with time travel and predetermination and authorship. Billy Pilgrim became "unstuck in time" and a couple of the times he keeps dropping into are where he is telling his own story after the fact. And, before the fact. Many of Woody Allen's short stories deal with stories within stories with the characters discovering their authors' existence, and the authors themselves finding they too are characters, and everything becomes a circus of discovery of fate's trifles. Mighty Aphrodite plays with the gods playing with the fates of mortals, and themselves being characters, in a play of course, on an ancient Greek stage.

Douglas Adams's entire five books of the trilogy "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is nothing if not a whimsical pummeling of our ideas of who authors whose existence, and how little control we have over any of it.

My favorite literature all struggles with these relationships, existentialism, time, fate, ethos, recognition, and the struggle between choice and acceptance, and the dignity of our own place in the bigger picture.

John Irving, William Shakespear... I suppose it would be easier to list the authors who do NOT work with these constructs.

... So, if we think we know our fate, and we walk willingly into it because we understand the purpose it serves, is this now free will? Are we, in this act, writing our own story if we already perceive it to be written?

Perhaps for the moment all I can say to that is "Green Screwdriver".

Although it has little to do with what I've just actually written, I include for you here a link to the article which spun me off into this direction. You may have to register though because it's been a while since I read it at NY Times online:
Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t - New York Times

Fallon Ku

2007-04-28T00:27:00.000-07:00

mike and aleah
friends family hearts and masks
daffodils and pie

Tridecennary - or - I'm Sure If I Try Really Hard I Can Think of Something I've Been Doing For Thirteen Years

2007-03-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

According to Anu Garg at A Word A Day, the word Tridecennary is not to be found in any dictionary in the world save one, the Oxford English Dictionary. Something to do with the relatively unappetizing nature of a 13th anything, particularly an anniversary.

Also, as of yesterday when he penned the entry for his daily word blast, a Google search on "Tridecennary" only brings up one hit.

Since AWAD has 600,000 subscribers the world over, including me, I'm sure the Googledearth will end about... an hour ago.

"A Word A Day" began 13 years ago this week, and I believe I've been on the mailing list for over half that time. That means I have forgotten the meanings of more words than you'll ever know. Punk.

And while I was typing in that sentence in my angry old man persona it occured to me that in 1994 I started a business which I am still running, more or less. It's not exactly the same company, and I have no employees, and, well, I'm still counting this year as my Tridecennary.

ps - The image of the wooden blocks, I stole from a blogger in England because I like how the number 1 is reversed. The image links to his blog if you want to rat me out. Punk.

pps - I officially claim to have coined the word "Googledearth" - meaning, "a lack of internet references to a word or phrase, as evidenced by a paltry list of results when searching for the word or phrase in Google." Donald J. Sheffler. Pass the word. Literally.

ppps - Yes, I know there are uses of the phrase Googled Earth, and thus a Google search of googledearth will indeed bring results, but not the way I phrizzled it, my friend. I also see a company trying to sell the site googledearth.com, but again that's merely an opportunistic money grab based on "Googled Earth" along with any number of other mispellings or typos of or about Google Earth. Go ahead, I dare you to keep arguing with me. Punk.

The Golden Tomato Awards for 2006 - or - How Do You Choose A Film To Rent?

2007-01-27T22:38:00.000-08:00

I used to be a Netflixian. Then I dabbled in Blockbusteria. Now I only have time, money, and inclination enough to sweep through the local library once every couple months for a flick or two.

Which is a dreadful tragedy, seeing that I currently have about 458 films to see, listed in order of preference based on reviews, awards, the stars, the directors, the image on the front of the jewel case... you know, all the stuff that should tell you if you'll enjoy the experience.

Let's see, if I get to see about 10 films a year, and my list grows at the rate of 50 films a month, at what point will I drop a piano on my head to stop the throbbing? And how is this related to the trains that start in Cincinnati and Dallas at different speeds and exactly how long before they'll collide in Knoxville?

I've created a monster because I truly feel compelled to see them all, someday, somehow, every last one of them including Mumford.

If I could only just make it all the way through the third season of The Shield I think I'll be well on my way.

Don't you ever wonder if, on your deathbed, you'll regret that you never actually watched Being John Malkovich because you kept dropping it down on your movie list in favor of Wag The Dog and The Shipping News, for like, your final 45 years on Earth?

I don't, because I've seen Being John Malkovich already. Glad I saw it. But do YOU ever wonder such things?

Every January, like an eternally reincarnated lemming, I throw myself off the cliffs of sanity and I peruse the lists of the previous year's greatest films at sites like ROTTEN TOMATOES. It's a site dripping in so many comprehensive lists according to genre and year that I can get my gluttonous fill all in one stop, and then cry myself to sleep for the next 340 nights knowing I'll never see 99.9% of what I've just listed as "must sees".

Seriously, I'll climb Everest before I get to number 100 on my list.

At times like this I hate films. I hate the internet. I hate the professor who replaced the two trains in the math problem with two motorcycles and a spiral parking garage ramp. Terrorist.

Georgia Destroys 488 Towns -or- I Coulda Sworn Chatoogaville Was Right Here!

2006-12-28T23:34:00.000-08:00

Seems the official cartographers at the transportation department in Georgia are quite the decluttering types. So if you live in or near what used to be Hemp GA, or proudly call yourself a citizen of what turns out to be not Po Diddy Crossroads GA, you and the other unworthy denizens of the "Late 488" have been swept under the rug... the impossible to re-fold as it originally was folded rug.

Some of my favorites: Phinizy, Flippen, Gammage, and Smarr.

If my gramma was from Poetry Tulip GA and then all of the sudden even her ten gallon magnifying pan can't find her dot on the map, she'd be ready to fly into the nearest airfield and flag down a passing roadster and stand on the runner if need be, until she could hop off at the nearest deer crossing and then wade through the thicket into town, er, the filling pump, and start kicking some cartographic butt.

These places are drenched with meaning and value. I hear that the Town Formerly Known As Chatoogaville holds the distinction of being the last little country store on the highway to Alabama if you're tooling around northwestern Georgia. That, honestly, deserves a dot.

"Hey," comes the defense from the handwaving, protractor-clutching state employees with nothing better to do than to reduce good folks' hometowns to erasemarks, "whoever heard of Hickory Level anyways? Who, that is, other than Hickory Levelorians... or Levelatians... er uh... Anyway!"

So to all the New Invisibillies: Happy New Year to You, whoever you are and wherever you were.

Georgia erases 488 places off the map

By the way, it turns out that if any of these bumps on the road have zip codes they'll actually be spared. And finally, I have to leave you with the official list:

COUNTY / TOWN:
Appling Pine Grove
Atkinson Kirkland
Bacon Guysie
Baker Bethany
Baker Crestview
Baker Elmodel
Baker Hoggard Mill
Baker Milford
Baldwin Browns Crossing
Baldwin Coopers
Baldwin Hardwick
Baldwin Scottsboro
Baldwin Stevens Pottery
Banks Hollingsworth
Bartow Cassville
Bartow Folsom
Bartow Funkhouser
Bartow Pine Log
Bartow Rydal
Ben Hill Bowens Mill
Ben Hill Queensland
Berrien Glory
Bibb Lizella
Bleckley Cary
Brantley Atkinson
Brantley Lulaton
Brantley Waynesville
Brooks New Rock Hill
Bryan Blitchton
Bryan Ellabelle
Bryan Groveland
Bryan Keller
Bryan Lanier
Bulloch Denmark
Bulloch Hopeulikit
Bulloch Leefield
Bulloch Nevils
Bulloch Stilson
Burke Alexander
Burke Munnerlyn
Burke Rosier
Burke Saint Clair
Burke Shell Bluff
Burke Vidette
Butts Fincherville
Butts Stark
Butts Worthville
Calhoun Turman
Camden Colesburg
Camden Harrietts Bluff
Camden Saint Marys
Camden Spring Bluff
Camden Tarboro
Camden Waverly
Camden White Oak
Candler Aline
Carroll Bowden Junction
Carroll Clem
Carroll Hickory Level
Carroll Hulett
Carroll Jake
Carroll Kansas
Carroll Lowell
Carroll Sand Hill
Carroll Tyus
Catoosa Keith
Charlton Moniac
Charlton Race Pond
Charlton Winokur
Chatham Monteith
Chattooga Chattoogaville
Chattooga Cloudland
Chattooga East Trion
Chattooga Holland
Chattooga Poetry (Tulip)
Chattooga Tidings
Cherokee Buffington
Cherokee Cherokee
Cherokee Free Home
Cherokee Hickory Flat
Cherokee Keithsburg
Cherokee Lathemtown
Cherokee Lebanon
Cherokee North Canton
Cherokee Sharp Top
Cherokee Union HIll
Clay Days Crossroads
Clay Suttons Corner
Clinch Council
Clinch Edith
Cobb Blackwells
Cobb Clarkdale
Cobb Due West
Cobb Lost Mountain
Cobb Macland
Coffee Pridgen
Coffee West Green
Colquitt Autryville
Colquitt Cool Springs
Colquitt Hartsfield
Colquitt Murphy
Colquitt New Elm
Colquitt Sigsbee
Columbia Evans
Columbia Leah
Columbia Lewiston
Columbia Martinez
Columbia Phinizy
Columbia Pollards Corner
Coweta Madras
Coweta Powers Crossroads
Coweta Raymond
Coweta Roscoe
Coweta Sargent
Crawford Horns
Crawford Musella
Crawford Salem
Crisp Hatley
Crisp Raines
Crisp Wenona
Dade Wildwood
Decatur Ausmac
Decatur Fowlstown
Decatur Lynn
Decatur Vada
DeKalb Brookhaven
DeKalb Klondike
DeKalb Tucker
Dodge Gresston
Dodge Roddy
Dodge Yonkers
Dooly Drayton
Dooly Snow Spring
Douglas Bill Arp
Douglas Chapel Hill
Douglas Fairplay
Douglas McWhorter
Early Colomokee
Early Damascus
Early Hentown
Early Killarney
Early Lucile
Early Nicholasville
Early Rowena
Early Saffold
Echols Haylow
Echols Mayday
Echols Needmore
Effingham Ebenezer
Effingham Egypt
Effingham Meldrlm
Effingham Shawnee
Effingham Stillwell
Elbert Dewy Rose
Elbert Fortsonia
Emanuel Lexsy
Fannin Epworth
Fannin Hemp
Fannin Higdon
Fayette Starrs Mill
Floyd Coosa
Floyd Crystal Springs
Floyd Everett Springs
Floyd Floyd Springs
Floyd Mount Berry
Floyd Pinson
Floyd Rosedale
Floyd Shannon
Floyd Six Mile
Floyd Wax
Forsyth Big Creek
Forsyth Chestatee
Forsyth Coal Mountain
Forsyth Heardville
Forsyth Matt
Forsyth Silver City
Franklin Sandy Cross
Franklin Unity
Fulton Birmingham
Fulton Crabapple
Fulton Red Oak
Fulton Rico
Fulton Sandy Springs
Gilmer Cartecay
Gilmer Cherry Log
Gilmer Whitestone
Glynn Everett
Glynn Sea Island
Glynn Sterling
Glynn Thalmann
Gordon Cash
Gordon Nicklesville
Gordon Redbud
Gordon Sonoraville
Grady Beachton
Grady Harrells Still
Grady Nickleville
Grady Rocky Hill
Grady Spence
Greene Bairdstown
Greene Greshamville
Greene Veazey
Gwinnett Five Forks
Gwinnett Harbin
Habersham Batesville
Habersham Hollywood
Habersham View
Hall Belmont
Hall Blackshear Place
Hall Chestnut Mountain
Hall Murrayville
Hancock Culverton
Hancock Devereux
Hancock Linton
Hancock Mayfield
Hancock Powelton
Haralson Draketown
Haralson Felton
Harris Cataula
Harris Ellerslie
Harris Jones Crossroads
Harris Mountain Hill
Harris Mulberry Grove
Hart Airline
Hart Nuberg
Hart Reed Creek
Heard Glenloch
Heard Glenn
Heard Roosterville
Heard Texas
Heard Waresville
Henry Flippen
Henry Kelleytown
Henry Ola
Houston Clinchfield
Houston Haynesville
Houston Henderson
Houston Kathleen
Irwin Holt
Irwin Lax
Irwin Waterloo
Irwin Wray
Jackson Apple Valley
Jasper Adgateville
Jasper Eudora
Jasper Hillsboro
Jeff Davis Snipesville
Jefferson Grange
Jenkins Perkins
Johnson Donovan
Jones Bradley
Jones James
Jones Wayside
Lamar Goggins
Lamar Johnstonville
Lamar Liberty Hill
Lamar Patillo
Lamar Unionville
Laurens Cedar Grove
Laurens Minter
Laurens Rockledge
Lee Byne Crossroads
Lee Palmyra
Liberty Retreat
Liberty Sunbury
Lincoln Amity
Lincoln Chennault
Lincoln Kenna
Lincoln New Hope
Lincoln Woodlawn
Lowndes Bemiss
Lowndes Twin Lakes
Lumpkin Garland
Macon Fountainville
Macon Garden Valley
Madison Diamond Hill
Madison Neese
Madison Paoli
Marion Brantley
Marion Doyle
Marion Draneville
Marion Five Points
Marion Juniper
Marion Putnam
McIntosh Carnigan
McIntosh Cox
McIntosh Cresent
McIntosh Eulonia
McIntosh Jones
McIntosh Meridian
McIntosh Pine Harbor
McIntosh Ridgeville
McIntosh Shellman Bluff
McIntosh South Newport
Meriwether Harris City
Meriwether Oakland
Meriwether Wooster
Mitchell Brachville
Mitchell Greenough
Mitchell Hinsonton
Mitchell Hopeful
Mitchell Lester
Mitchell Pebble City
Monroe Berner
Monroe Blount
Monroe Brent
Monroe Dames Ferry
Monroe High Falls
Monroe Juliette
Monroe Russellville
Monroe Smarr
Monroe Strouds
Montgomery Kibbee
Montgomery McGregor
Morgan Centennial
Morgan Fairplay
Morgan Pennington
Murray Holley
Murray Ramhurst
Muscogee Midland
Muscogee Upatoi
Newton Almon
Newton Oak Hill
Newton Stewart
Oglethorpe Sandy Cross
Oglethorpe Stephens
Oglethorpe Vesta
Paulding New Georgia
Paulding New Hope
Paulding Union
Paulding Yorkville
Pickens Blaine
Pickens Hinton
Pickens Ludville
Pickens Marble Hill
Pierce Mershon
Pike Hollonville
Pike Lifsey Springs
Polk Esom Hill
Putnam Flat Rock
Putnam Nona
Putnam Stanfordville
Putnam Warfield
Putnam Willard
Quitman Hatcher
Rabun Wiley
Randolph Coles
Randolph Fountain Bridge
Randolph White House
Richmond Gracewood
Rockdale Magnet
Rockdale Milstead
Schley LaCrosse
Schley Murrays Crossroads
Schley Sellars Store
Screven Captola
Screven Dover
Screven Millhaven
Screven Woodcliff
Seminole Desser
Seminole Reynoldsville
Spalding Digby
Spalding Experiment
Spalding Pomona
Spalding Rover
Spalding Vaughn
Spalding Zetella
Stephens Boydville
Stewart Barges
Stewart Brooklyn
Stewart County Line
Stewart Florence
Stewart Louvale
Stewart Randall
Stewart Renfroe
Stewart Sanford
Stewart Troutman
Stewart Westville
Sumter Arles
Sumter Flintside
Sumter Friendship
Sumter Methvins
Sumter New Era
Sumter Sumter
Talbot Box Springs
Talbot Pleasant Hill
Talbot Po Biddy Crossroads
Talbot Prattsburg
Taliaferro Lyneville
Taliaferro Raytown
Taliaferro Robinson
Tattnall Mendes
Taylor Charing
Taylor Fickling Mill
Taylor Howard
Taylor Jarrell
Taylor Mauk
Taylor Potterville
Taylor Rupert
Telfair China Hill
Terrell Doverel
Terrell Graves
Terrell Pleasant Hill
Thomas Five Points
Thomas Patten
Tift Brookfield
Tift Chula
Tift Eldorado
Tift Sunsweet
Toombs Cedar Crossing
Toombs New Branch
Toombs Parkers
Toombs Stanleys Store
Towns Alexanders Mill
Treutlen Lothair
Treutlen Orianna
Troup Abbottsford
Troup Andersons Corner
Troup Big Spring
Troup Evansville
Troup Harrisonville
Troup Long Cane
Troup Smiths Crossroads
Troup Wares Crossroads
Turner Amboy
Turner Coverdale
Turner Dakota
Turner Inaha
Turner Worth
Twiggs Bullard
Twiggs Dry Branch
Twiggs Fitzpatrick
Twiggs Huber
Twiggs Myricks Mill
Union Ivy Long
Upson Crest
Walker Catlett
Walker Cedar Grove
Walker Centerpost
Walker Cooper Heights
Walker Davis Crossroads
Walker High Point
Walker Hinkles
Walker Naomi
Walker Noble
Walker Villanow
Walton Mount Vernon
Walton Nicholasville
Walton Pannell
Walton Youth
Ware Bickley
Ware Dixie Union
Ware Glenmore
Ware Millwood
Ware Needham
Ware Okefenokee
Ware Taimo
Warren Cadley
Warren Cedar Rock
Warren Mesena
Warren Norris
Wayne Broadhurst
Wayne Doctortown
Wayne Gardi
Wayne Madray Springs
Wayne Manningtown
Wayne McKinnon
Wheeler Jordan
White Leaf
White Nacoochee
White Sautee
Whitfield Dawnville
Whitfield Mount Vernon
Whitfield Rocky Face
Whitfield Tilton
Wilcox Owensboro
Wilkes Aonia
Wilkes Prather
Wilkes Sandtown
Wilkinson Nicklesville
Worth Anderson City
Worth Doles
Worth Gammage
Worth Gordy
Worth Isabella
Worth Shingler

Spy Ku* Random Eleven

2006-12-12T23:54:00.000-08:00

Loss - MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Bridge - PAGE FRANCE
Listen - DEAD HEART BLOOM
Years and Years - LYLAS
Breeze Black Night - THE DITTY BOPS
Perch Modifier - WOODEN WAND
Hills - THAO NGUYEN
La Lune - MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY
Cover Yr. Eyes - LOIS
Follow Me - THE SOFTIES
Brainiac's Daughter - THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR

*
polonium punch
afterglow of sweet revenge
a drink best served cold

.....
Polonium is Nasty. You can easy kill an international spy with just a small sample of it in a drop of water that perhaps finds it's way into his martini, maybe. Not that I have any knowledge of such a plot, or even of the seven dour conspirators who met in a Belarussian cafe last April to finalize details in a hushed urgent manner. No, I am a humble cobbler, concerned only with feet.

Polonium (Polonium-210)is the first element discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie when they were trying to find out why pitchblend was radioactive. It is a byproduct of the decay of naturally occurring Uranium-238 so it can be found in nature but in extremely small quantities. Uranium decay only produces a relatively small amount, and what little it creates has a half-life of only 138 days.

This versatile little radioactive killer is one of the elements under investigation as a heating source for space missions because it gives off so much radiation that half a gram in a capsule heats up to 500 degrees C.

Everything you wanted to know about Polonium, but were afraid to ask: X

Zonal Pelargonium* Random Eleven

2006-12-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

Across The Universe - RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
Running/Returning - AKRON / FAMILY
The Party - MATT POND PA
Wildflowers - TOM PETTY
Iceblink Luck - COCTEAU TWINS
Do Not As I Do - HANNE HUKKELBERG
Icebound Stream - LAURA VIERS
What A Shame - THE KINGSBURY MANX
Stewed Bark Of An Old Tree - DEVENDRA BANHART
Jackie, Dressed In Cobras - THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
Skeleton Key - MARGOT AND THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO'S

* We have these geraniums (gerania?) in the front and back which grow like weeds and flower multiple times throughout the year, bringing all manner of hummingbirds and butterflies and imbuing all our views with a circus of color and it's all just so Oz-ish (Where are the poppie fields?).

Anyway, as I understand it, in most parts of the country you have to pull the geraniums and shake out the dirt and store them in a cool dark place for the winter and then replant in Spring, and so on. But this is Southern California, where the motto is "Let It Grow" (or "Smoke em if you got em", I can't remember which). I just cut them back when they grow over the path or get taller than me.

Last weekend I needed to see if it would be OK to cut these back right before Winter this year. Probably nothing short of driving a tractor over them would do them any harm, but it never hurts to check. I just don't want to wait until the Spring because this year we hacked them all back right before they would have flowered so they didn't do their colorful thing.

Knowing that Al Gore invented the internets for such a thing, I hopped online to learn about my flora.

It turns out that our "geraniums" aren't actually geraniums. They are often referred to as Garden Geraniums or Zonal Geraniums because of the pattern on the leaf, but they are actually Pelargonium. Linnaeus originally included them with Geraniums when he classified them, causing almost as much confusion as when he put humans into the same category as the striped bark beetle.

So there are real Geraniums, and there are the common Garden Geraniums which are not Geraniums at all.

Zonal Pelargonium. That's what grows all around my house. Ya learn something new every day.

Lumpy Moon* Random Eleven

2006-11-13T22:05:00.000-08:00

Her is You - MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
My Friend The Addict - COLIN MACINTYRE
Hourglass - A BAND OF BEES
Engine Room - TUNNG
Concrete Seconds - PINBACK
Fingertips - EMILIANA TORRINI
Deus - THE SUGARCUBES
The Party's Crashing Us - OF MONTREAL
Roses And Teeth for Ludwig Wittgenstein - MATMOS
Prelude From Partita No. 3 For Solo Violin - BELA FLECK
Donkey Town - MARK KNOPFLER & EMMYLOU HARRIS

* NASA says gravity on the moon is really lumpy, meaning if you're in orbit around the moon you will pass through strong fields of gravity and weak fields. If you were standing next to an area with a strong gravity field and you hung a plumb bob, a weight at the end of a string, it wouldn't hang straight down toward the center of the moon but would actually lean a little toward the area with the stronger field.

So, golfing on the moon has yet another variable to deal with.

Almost as important, this is causing havoc with the orbits of satellites and it is nosediving them into the ground. Previous manned missions to the moon had orbits at angles which eluded the lumpy parts but future missions will have to use small rocket blasts to continually adjust their orbits.

In addition, new training protocols for all future astronauts have already incorporated instructions to drop down at least one club and close their grip a little on anything over 500 yards.

The earth's mass is for the most part uniformly distributed so gravity on the surface hardly varies at all. The moon, though, apparently has extremely dense areas distributed haphazardly throughout it. So instead of being all swiss cheese, it's a badly mixed lump of swiss, mozzarella, brie, and very sharp cheddar.

Yes, these are the things I ponder while gathering your random eleven.

Fall Back* Random Eleven

2006-10-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

The whole weekend now, I have been unable to upload a photo to blogger, so forget it. The universe is balancing against the hour I gained on Sunday morning. And in case you are unaware of my position on karmicism, here's a clue: I just coined the word "karmicism".

UPDATE - got a photo up...

Maybe now is a good time to remind you to go ahead click the links and listen to the songs, if you are so moved. Any links go to Napster, where you can listen to the song for free, and no, I will not make any money on the link nor on any action you might then take once you are there. And it's the squeeky clean legal Napster which pays royalties and stuff.

Just go and enjoy.

Here's the list:

Total Peace - SEBADOH
Thinking Out Loud - EMILIANA TORRINI
Strange - BUILT TO SPILL
I Die - MAGNETIC FIELDS
Look Away - THE APPLES IN STEREO
Sheriff Ochs - KIND OF LIKE SPITTING
Old Flame - THE ARCADE FIRE
Afford - AKRON/FAMILY
I Thought - BRYAN FERRY
Telephone And Rubber Band - THE PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA
What's In Store? - ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI

*We never forget to set the clocks on fall-back weekend, ever.

Not until this time. After I realized - about midmorningish - I filled the extra hour with coffee and a newspaper. From now on I will make a habit of forgetting to fall back until about mid-Sunday. Quiet mornings need to last longer anyway.