Shaving your palms

Blogging about blogging is a lot like sending yourself e-mail. Both practices I have engaged in for a number of reasons. Testing out a new e-mail addy, making sure the new mail proggy works correctly, even double checking filter rules. But blogging about blogging is something I really try to avoid at all costs - except for today. Today I am going to engage in the tradition of link-love under the guises of telling rendering a great adventure analytical tale observation about blogging. In any event it will not be a long one, tail that is.

Two distinct philosophies of blog publishing are typified in the works of Humorlessbitch (Zo) and Listics (Frank). Now I am not here to offer deep contextual reviews of respective expressed world views(Weltanschauung ( [ˈvɛlt.ʔanˌʃaʊ.ʊŋ] (help·info)) . (See also Life-world (Lebensveld). Derived from phenomenology (q.v.), it refers to the taken-for-granted universe of daily social activity-- the forms of life (Wittgenstein).) Rather I am here to amplify certain nuances in blogging styles.

I wonder, for instance, if Zo gets to see how her blog is presented in different readers. Publishing only the 'teaser' looks like this in Google Reader.

One Split Second Before Sex

from HUMORLESSBITCH

rabbit blog: You’re craving that one split second BEFORE you fuck the guy, and nothing more. Most of us are hung up on that moment, thanks to being flooded with its supreme significance through every minute of our waking hours on earth. Well, yes … it represents everything. The moment at birth when your gaze locks onto [...]

"The moment at birth when your gaze locks onto ... " Yeah, you got me clicking on the headline link looking for the next phrase. An endearing reflection of grandson's first breath and love.

... someone to whom you’d just become the center of all existence.

Never mind that it isn’t true. Obviously, we are meant, in order to thrive, to believe it for a while. To live in the center of her love, in order to learn. In order to become a human child. Obvious, too, that the craving of that moment, anticipating it, is way easier than growing up.

A wonderful roller-coaster ride that takes a sudden left turn and drops you squarely into the rabbit hole blog... who in turn sends you head-spinning off to
"Poets and Writers." Poets and Writers and rabbits, oh my.

Frank on the other hand lays his meat, maintenance and a cherry pie right on the table in his Saturday Farm Report. In his usual style Frank seasons the offering with a slight spicy aside ... " that’s (J)erry Garcia on the pedal steel on the cut above." referring to Jefferson Airplane's Volunteers, The Farm ... eliciting fragmented memories of a hot summer day in East Lansing on the campus of Michigan State University... it was a day long happening...hippies and blankets, insence smoke and music...bellbottoms and tie-dyed t-shirts...and music. All contained in a hastily erected cyclone fence corral. The guy at the gate insisted on the $5.00 admission fee that I didn't have...so I and hundreds of others watched from the periphery...until the inevitable happened. The promoters abandoned their economic pursuit in deference to the pressing crowd. The fence came down and Jefferson Airplane took the stage. Grace Slick belted out...

Look whats happening out in the streets
Got a revolution got to revolution
Hey Im dancing down the streets
Got a revolution got to revolution
Aint it amazing all the people I meet
Got a revolution got to revolution
One generation got old
One generation got soul
This generation got no destination to hold
Pick up the cry
Hey now its time for you and me
Got a revolution got to revolution
Come on now were marching to the sea
Got a revolution got to revolution
Who will take it from you
We will and who are we
We are volunteers of america

And if you don't mind my saying Zo, you remind me of her.

Headline Questions - a cheap journalist ploy.

It would appear that we have become a society of questions.

Russia: Which way with the WTO?

Is Instant-On Chrome OS's Killer App?

QOTD: Are You Going 32 or 64-bit for Windows 7?

Israel: Does Violence Pay?

Chrome OS to Bring More Linux IT Jobs?

Azerbaijan: Overzealous minions?

Microsoft Window 7: Is New OS The Beginning Of XP's End?

Journalism or what passes for it these days is little more than reiteration of sound bytes and cut&paste press releases. What seems to be the objective is to entice the reader into rereading the pablum. To this end authors or more probably editors try to shift the responsibility from the writers to the readers.

I have written before that when I am asked a question the onus of the responsibility shifts from the asker to the askee. I have become increasingly uncomfortable with this shift. I find myself in the onerous position of either ignoring the question - and as such becoming the "Bad Guy". All too often the plaintive whimper issues forth, "I was only asking a question."

Or, should I pay attention to the question, I am faced with the ever present threats of dealing with a rhetorical question or even worse an inane (go-google-your-own-answer-question). The worst by far is the "I can ask you a question to remind you that I have the power to ask such questions." In all three cases I must accept the onus of responsibility (and do the work) of answering counter-productive questions.

For supposed journalists to rely on such a questionable practice speaks to their lack of initiative. The News should be reported as statements of fact - as best be determined by diligent research. Editorial content should be equally reported with straight forward declaration instead of whining attempts to garner interest or agreement.

Politkovskaya laureate murdered

Russia: Politkovskaya laureate murdered

from Global Voices Online by Vilhelm Konnander

This morning, prominent Russian Human Rights activist Natalya Estemirova was abducted from her home in Ingushetia by armed men. She was later found dead, a bullet through her heart. As mainstream media reports just another death of an activist - even when it comes to the assassination of one of the country's leading Human Rights' adovcates - some bloggers react with abhorrence.

Estemirova and Kovalev receive the Robert Schuman Medal

(Read more)

Because no one is above the Law!

Send and e-card: Demand a Special Prosecutor

Why my teenager doesn't twitter

1. Twitter doesn't belong to us. Like, Zanga was ours and so was, like, MySpace. For sure lately Facebook is becoming cool but only because, like, I know a bunch of college kids since I became a Junior.
   
2. Twitter only works good if everyone is, like, on at the same time an' half of us are at the Mall, duh!
3. And speaking of "Duh!" I really, like, don't want Jane to know exactly, like, what I am saying about Dick. Sheeeesh, that's like really dumb.
4. Oh yeah, and like, did I mention that Twitter is just, like, dumb. S'like soooo many rules and stuff.
5. Mostly I just don't wanna hear, like, you are always griping 'cause I am sitting in front of your computer. Like, that is all you do, like, all day long, is sit in front of your computer.

Like, gimme a break, Twitter is for dweebs...

What's good for GM...

Image via Wikipedia

Thomas Claburn writing for InformationWeek offered this observation about the recent announcement by Google of their forthcoming Chrome OS...

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows represents slightly less than 90% of the personal computer operating system market, a position it has held for years.

I assume that Mr. Claburn was suggesting that MSFT has a lock on OSs and that Google might do well to direct their efforts in a more profitable direction. Well, I have one observation to make about MSFT's lock on the market...

What's good for GM is good for the country.

He asked for it and he got it!

Leonard Bernstein

this was posted by Tom Sutpen to

If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,
There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

Pressure to bear on the Redmond monster

Image by michperu via Flickr

The heart of Mitch Wagner's observation is that Microsoft will prevail...

Google's Chrome OS Threatens Linux, Is Good For Microsoft
Posted by Mitch Wagner, Jul 8, 2009 11:47 AM
. . .
Where there is confusion in the marketplace, hardware manufacturers and consumers look to the safe choice, and the safe choice is Microsoft. When the Unix market was fragmented into multiple different flavors, Microsoft settled the confusion by driving everybody to Windows. Now, with Linux fragmented, Microsoft has the opportunity to make history repeat itself.

...in a manner of speaking, yes, Microsoft will survive. Microsoft will always survive. Personal computing will change. Personal computing will evolve. Personal computing will improve because the collective effort of Google and Linux and BSD and BEOS and OSX and all the rest will relentlessly pressure Microsoft into getting their sh*t together, finally. And that would never have happened if the market had not brought pressure to bear on the Redmond monster.

Linus Fortune #23

Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a young Priest, and
took great delight in making fools of his opponents in front of his
followers.
One day Zarathud took his students to a pleasant pasture and
there he confronted The Sacred Chao while She was contentedly grazing.
"Tell me, you dumb beast," demanded the Priest in his
commanding voice, "why don't you do something worthwhile? What is your
Purpose in Life, anyway?"
Munching the tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied "MU". (The
Chinese ideogram for NO-THING.)
Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened.
Primarily because nobody understood Chinese.
-- Camden Benares, "Zen Without Zen Masters"

Linux Fortune #17

I lately lost a preposition;
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair
And angrily I cried, "Perdition!
Up from out of under there."

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor,
And yet I wondered, "What should he come
Up from out of under for?"
-- Morris Bishop

Computers in the future...

Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vaccuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vaccuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons.

-- Popular Mechanics, March 1949

The Stranger Is Truthier Than Fiction

OMG! What a treat to read about folks living in foreign lands eating exotic foods and cavorting with (in)famous people... (Obviously they is ferrin'ers ... cain't be from around here ... tain't right to be talkin' about fois gras like it was goose liver or sum'thin.) So I ended up reading this article in The Stranger ... (warning: contains adult themes ... like gourmet food and adult tastes)

Same Food, Less Attitude

Elemental Next Door Might Be Just What You're Looking For

by Bethany Jean Clement

If you've ever been to Elemental@Gasworks and been cold-shouldered at the door by co-owner/sommelier/waiter/ bossypants Phred Westfall, you've thought to yourself, "Well, self, here I am literally at a dead end, and I'm thirsty and hungry and I've nowhere to go."¹ Then you've cursed Phred's (irritatingly spelled) name and slunk off into the evening...

What you would truly like right then is a place, say, right next door, with lovely food, and tons of wine, and (why not?) the same kind of loftlike but not hyperdesigned atmosphere as Elemental, and (while you're at it) a man who's the opposite of Phred to hand you a complimentary glass of sparkling wine and then proceed to be as sweet as humanly possible for the remainder of your time with him.

(More...)

OMG! OMG! I was dragged to the aforementioned site because I was swayed into visiting ...

...which opened my eyes to the delights that are possible when discriminating palates gather to observe delectable treats... (ya'll ain't from around these parts, are ya?)

Braving the Elementals

In the overlapping sets of Seattle restaurant owners and people who are dicks there stands Phred Westfall, and it's not because he spells his name funny. Call him eccentric, call him quirky, call him sui generis if you must, but he's got a most unusual way of running his candy store, Elemental @ Gasworks.

Elemental's kitchen, by Laurie Riedmeman, does very well indeed. Last meal here was exceptional, in fact. After a refreshing aperitif, a cascade of delights: gnocchetti, beef tartar topped with a quail egg, asparagus-spinach salad with shaved parmesan, quail over green beans, a pulled pork tamale with corn, a generous cheese board. Wines to match each course (selected and poured by Phred, on his best behavior), and the tab (which includes tax & tip) was about $80.

(More...)

I haven't had my coffee yet...

MASTERMIND: Aubrey Martinson

MASTERMIND: Aubrey Martinson

By: Amy Whitesall, 7/1/2009

Pottery appeals to Aubrey Thornton Martinson for a lot of reasons – beauty, functionality, the challenge of striving for unattainable perfection. She likes its concrete ways to measure success. Is the pot heavy? Is it clunky? People can use the things she makes, and that feels fulfilling.

"I'm really happy still when people tell me, 'I use that mug I bought every day,' or 'That's my ice cream bowl.' " she says. "That is exciting to me."

Martinson, the 30-year-old executive director of the Chelsea Center for the Arts, doesn't throw pots anymore. The studio she and her husband, Chris, set up in their Grass Lake home gave way to renovations, then to their daughter, Lily. The kiln they started building as college students is almost done, and has been for years.

Go HERE and read the rest.

Araki Nobuyoshi

Nobuyoshi Araki (Araki Nobuyoshi) is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. He is also known by the nickname Arākī.

TouchPuppet: Photographer Spotlight: Nobuyoshi Araki

Paparazzi feeding our blood lust.

Paparazzi feeding our blood lust.

(Curious that each side of the tableau is so carefully staged.)

Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)

Last time I saw this guy in my back field I thought it was just some old coarse weave tarp laying in the deep grass ... imagine my surprise when it slithered away.

fatchance: Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis),...

fatchance:

Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), observed at [an undisclosed location, because some people who share the same space with this harmless creature would never step outdoors if they knew he was there]. This snake was about five feet long (1.5 m). Learn more here.

[link to original | source: all creatures [great and small] | published: 3 hours ago | shared via feedly]

Perfidious Albion, deLux Fiat

[link to original | source: ffffound.com | via: feedly]

Crumb, Burroughs

nevver: Crumb, Burroughs

nevver:

Crumb, Burroughs

[link to original | source: /Ambivalence | published: 1 day ago | shared via feedly]

I'm going back to IRC ... See you there.

If you are old(er) like me you will remember the communities in IRC. You will remember the conversations. You will remember the friends...and the feuds. You will remember when groups of people talked with each other in near-real time. You will remember full sentences. But most of all you will be a member.

irc://irc.freenode.net#Pa^Patois

irc://irc.freenode.net#Joiito

irc://irc.freenode.net##Slackware

I cannot promise that I will be on all the time - I do have a real job and some semblance of a life. I can promise that if you catch me there we can share more than 140 character blurts.

The circle of Life and Death here at the Flying Pig Ranch

Out of the corner of my eye I caught the shadow. A fast moving dark blur.

"What the heck was that?"

I stood at the kitchen sink window and watched. There it was again. More an illusion than a fact. A large dark visage careening across the front field of the Flying Pig Ranch. I stood stock still and waited. Perhaps my aging mind was playing tricks on me.

It swooped low on broad wings. It was being chased by three sparrows and a starling. Undeterred it turned again, folded its wings and settled two thirds of the way down the driveway. The huge vulture paced. Warily eying its prize. A prize invisible from my vantage point.

---

Here at the Flying Pig Ranch we don't have fur bearing indoor pets. Too many allergies to 'animal dander'. So we have outdoor cats - or more specifically now, one outdoor cat - Pussin.

Anyone who has spent time with cats knows the difference between ambling and intent. When Pussin got up from her throne on the stoop and walked by me with intent I knew something was up. She made a direct line for the field behind the new shed.

---

Enamored with the prospect of a new species to list on the ranch roster I made my way outdoors to stand behind one of the Norway spruces closest to the driveway. The vulture was still being pestered by the smaller birds. Opening it 6 foot wing span it made a graceful leap to a nearby fence post. There it turned and kept a careful eye on the still unidentified prize. Mollified the smaller birds skittered away to their respective places.

Majestic in its stature the vulture just sat... almost as if in a cartoon segment... waiting... so we waited together ... I from my somewhat hidden vantage point and the vulture for ...

---

Pussin returned as intently as she had left. Proudly she presented the field mouse at my feet. As only a cat can she then accepted her accolades ... my scratching her behind the ears and compliments on her kill. Duly acknowledged she sat down with the dignity befiting her station and respect for her prey she began crunching away.

---

Satisfied that the time was right the vulture slipped from the fence post and settle next to its prize. Affixing it with one foot the sharp beak made quick work of the dissection. Three good tears each followed by a head-tilt swallow and the meal was over. A moment to preen and then taking wing the vulture rose in characteristic circles seeking thermals off our hillside to drift into the summer afternoon.

---

Pussin, having completed her repast, settled again on her throne to wash. Once properly appointed she languorously stretched out and napped.

---

Curiosity bested me. I went down the driveway. It took a moment of searching but there I found the lone fore claw of a mole.

As a father my heart breaks... Daughters For Life

Daughters For Life

There are no words that can adequately express the sorrow...

Bummer, dude!

Click the pic for the story.

Tanka, Renga and Haiku

Tanka

Tanka consists of five units (often treated as separate lines when Romanized or translated) usually with the following mora pattern:

5-7-5-7-7.

The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku ("upper phrase"), and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku ("lower phrase").

Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry than haiku. In ancient times poems of this form were called hanka ("reverse poem"), since the 5-7-5-7-7 form derived from the conclusion (envoi) of a chōka^{[citation needed]}. Sometimes a chōka had two envois^{[citation needed]}.

The chōka above is followed by an envoi, also written by Okura:

銀も	Shirogane mo	What are they to me,
金も玉も	Kogane mo tama mo	Silver, or gold, or jewels?
何せんに	Nanisen ni	How could they ever
まされる宝	Masareru takara	Equal the greater treasure
子にしかめやも	Koni shikame yamo	That is a child? They can not.

[English translation by Edwin Cranston]

The Heian period also saw the invention of a new tanka-based game: one poet recited or created half of a tanka, and the other finished it off. This sequential, collaborative tanka was called renga ("linked poem"). (The form and rules of renga developed further during medieval times; see the renga article for more details.)

Renga (連歌, renga^?, collaborative poetry) is a genre^[1] of Japanese collaborative poetry. A renga consists of at least two ku (句^?) or stanzas, usually many more. The opening stanza of the renga, called the hokku (発句^?), became the basis for the modern haiku form of poetry.

The first stanza of the renga chain, the hokku (発句^?), is the forebear of the modern haiku. The stand-alone hokku was renamed haiku in the Meiji period by the great Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki. Shiki proposed haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase "haikai no ku" meaning a verse of haikai^[6].

Reference

Wikipedia: Waka (poetry)

Wikipedia: Renga

RIP KODACHROME

© Steve McCurry
Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, at Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984.

June 22, 2009

A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon

They say all good things in life come to an end. Today we announced that Kodak will retire KODACHROME Film, concluding its 74-year run.

OR318 - Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last.

The March 18 Movement - Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last

The March 18 Movement was born out of a tragedy. On this day in 2009, Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, Iranian blogger and journalist, died in Evin Prison in Tehran. The December before his death, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison for allegedly insulting religious leaders, and engaging in “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Omid Reza was the first blogger to die in prison and his death reveals that getting censored is far from the worst thing that can happen to a blogger.

The irony is that, as more members of both the public and the media praise the ability of bloggers to inform, the more these de facto journalists around the globe become victims in fact. The March 18 Movement aims not only to make sure that Omid Reza is remembered, but also that other persecuted bloggers around the world do not disappear into interrogation rooms and prison cells. The March 18 Movement would like to become a voice for bloggers everywhere who are in risk of being crushed under the heavy machinery of repression.

This day, in memorial to Omid Reza, is dedicated to all bloggers around the world who run real risks simply to tell the truth as they see it. The March 18 Movement seeks to actively expand our sense of self to encompass those of us who are in danger and to extend the protections normally accorded to journalists to all those who spend their time and intellectual capital in sharing information about our world.

Neda

Neda

More moving parts? You gotta be kidding me!!!

Reported in Tom's Hardware that referenced Register Hardware, excerpted below...

British boffins ditch spinning media for ultra-fast storage tech

Not SSD, not HDD. Say hello to 'Hard Rectangular Drive'

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

19th June 2009 11:48 GMT

. . .

The read-write layer comprises a grid of millions of read-write heads created using the same lithography process used to make silicon chips. Each head is controlled by sending a signal along the appropriate row and column of the grid.

Inside HRD

There's not, however, a 1:1 correspondence between head and data bit on the media layer. Instead, the middle part is moved in the horizontal plane by piezo-electrics to allow a head to read a selection of bits, grouped as a sector.

You have got to be freakin' kidding me!!! More moving parts??? DUMB!

Most amazing photos ...

Please, if you don't do anything else today go here and see the rest of these photos...

The Incredible Century Old Color Photography of Prokudin-Gorsky

by R J Evans, Jun 17, 2009

In 1909 a remarkable project was initiated by Russian photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky. His mission was to record - in full and vibrant color - the vast and diverse Russian Empire. Here, with his story, is a selection of his amazing century old full color pictures.

Image Credit

Blu-Death-Ray FAIL

If this picture, borrowed from

,

is any indication then ...
yes,

Blu-Ray is a Failure!

How much is enough?

Steve Ruble At Micro Persuasion touched on a subject near and dear to me...

This trip was unusual. For only the second time I left my laptop at home and traveled with just a smartphone (in my case an iPhone), a Verizon Mifi router and an 8gb Lacie Iamakey USB drive. Nevertheless, I was remarkably able to do just about everything I needed.

Steve gives a real-world example of 'How much is enough?' More importantly this example shows what the constituent elements of 'enough' are. We are finally seeing computing platforms that offer the applications and services that make them truly useful.

At the same time we are beginning to recognize the difference between what we were taught to want and what we really need. This distinction is of major importance. In previous times it was the limits technology (8088, 80286, Desktop PCs, Laptop PCs. et al). With the advent of current processor technology the device is sufficiently powerful to support every application we might want.

Now we are being liberated from the hulking behemoths not by the PC makers but by market forces that have demanded functionality in hand-held devices. With this freedom comes the understanding that an iPhone or Palm Pre will not do everything that a desktop system will. Rather our expectations are coming more inline with our needs instead of our 'wants and desires'.

Thr real freedom that we are enjoying is not the small form factor computational platform but rather a realistic assessment of our true needs.

Getting out of the mainstream...

I am not going to the walled garden to eat 140 char worms!

I am going to cut off my media nose to spite my social face.

I am no longer going to wear my cyber heart on my digital sleeve.

I am going back to posting exclusively on this blog: Pa^2 Patois. This is where all of my views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda will emanate from. I won't be tweeting or retweeting or FF commenting or any of those micro posting things.

I have found that I cannot afford the time it takes to swim in the mainstream of social media connectivity. I cannot afford the distraction of everyone else's continuous views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda in real time.

Now before everyone's knickers get twisted let me acknowledge the worth of your individual contributions - each insight you offer is beyond measure. My answer is to include your weblog feeds in my blogroll. If, however, you don't choose to commit it to your weblog then it will slip away, just another tiny diamond in the great information sandstorm of life.

Some one recently said that keeping a blog was a lot of work. That person observed the amount of work was most likely the imputus for favoring the micro-blogging venues. Certainly it is easier to formulate a 140 character (or less) message and flitter off to the next important topic. Blogging, done well, requires larger and longer periods of time devoted not only to thought but expression as well. Hard work indeed.

So my commitment is to try and honor your hard work by setting aside large and respectively long periods of time to read what you do commit to your weblog(s).

Now, here is the irony of my circumstance - although my intent is to only post to Pa^2 Patois I believe that my dabbling in the FaceFriendBookTwitterFeed melange is so almost incestuously interconnected that I will still appear to be present and active. Ironical, wouldn't you say...er, tweet, er... uh... Shut up Papa!

Have a mission...

thanks (_chloedancer)

Louis in the sky with diamonds...

Superflat First Love by Takashi Murakami, Full Version

Seeing with photographer's eyes...

Pocket Camera Retro Wednesday #4

My typo love...

Paper cut typography made by Julene

Milestone(d)

The previous post was my 1,111th

Useful measures of conversion...

Respectfully stolen from my Slackware Linux Fortune program ...

---

1 Billion dollars of budget deficit = 1 Gramm-Rudman
6.023 x 10 to the 23rd power alligator pears = Avocado's number
2 pints = 1 Cavort
Basic unit of Laryngitis = The Hoarsepower
Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
6 Curses = 1 Hexahex
3500 Calories = 1 Food Pound
1 Mole = 007 Secret Agents
1 Mole = 25 Cagey Bees
1 Dog Pound = 16 oz. of Alpo
1000 beers served at a Twins game = 1 Killibrew
2.4 statute miles of surgical tubing at Yale U. = 1 I.V.League
2000 pounds of chinese soup = 1 Won Ton
10 to the minus 6th power mouthwashes = 1 Microscope
Speed of a tortoise breaking the sound barrier = 1 Machturtle
8 Catfish = 1 Octo-puss
365 Days of drinking Lo-Cal beer. = 1 Lite-year
16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
Force needed to accelerate 2.2lbs of cookies = 1 Fig-newton
to 1 meter per second
One half large intestine = 1 Semicolon
10 to the minus 6th power Movie = 1 Microfilm
1000 pains = 1 Megahertz
1 Word = 1 Millipicture
1 Sagan = Billions & Billions
1 Angstrom: measure of computer anxiety = 1000 nail-bytes
10 to the 12th power microphones = 1 Megaphone
10 to the 6th power Bicycles = 2 megacycles
The amount of beauty required launch 1 ship = 1 Millihelen

Wordsmith Extraodinaire

Spiff recommends...

Her point is...

Jennifer Maestre

Thanks /ambivalence

Lay down low and stand up swinging....

...land on me with both feet...HARD!

Let me just save...

...up enough of it so I can give it away.


. . .

Thoughts on Google's Wave

Disclaimer 1: I drank the Google Kool-aid a long time ago...

Disclaimer 2: The extent of my knowledge about Google Wave comes from the 1:20 video presentation seen at wave.google.com

1. Unlike some other social media critics I am IMPRESSED! Having few preconceptions and very little expectations I was simply blown away by the forward thinking of the Wave team.
   
2. My personal yardstick in matters of software/application tools: Does the tool meet the hand. To this I say a resounding "Yes!"

Observations:

The evolution of the Internet or any technology for that matter is not defined by desires or expectations. The evolution of technology is defined by on-the-ground, in-the-moment, proven achievements. Pundits all too often predicate their views and criticisms on their personal "vapor-ware" preferences as opposed to the existing, working, less-than-perfect real-ware tools offered in real-time.

New Word Order

Written On The City

Roasted Potato Salad... (Part 2 - The Eating)

There is something about simple potato salad. The creamy texture of the mayo, the bite of the mustard, the crunch of celery and the bright highlight of the onion all surrounding - in this case - the body of roasted potato cubes. With that last element the salad went from elegantly simple to simply elegant.

Now, if I might, let me round out the epicurian picture.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

I removed the "silver film" from the pork tenderloin (the smaller cut, 1 - 1.5 lbs) and then tied it into a pinwheel. Salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste then seared on all "sides" in 2 tbls of olive oil in a smoking hot cast iron skillet.

Once the browning is complete then cover the pork loin with strips of hickory smoked bacon. The bacon does three important things for this meal. First, it is a 'moisturizer' for the little roast. Second, it is a cooking indicator. I know I will be taken to task for saying this but, "when the bacon is done, the pork loin is done" (Yeah, I am one of those that prefers pork done. Sorry.)

Finally, the third and perhaps most important reason for the bacon is to compliment the potato salad.

So, in presentation there are three slight slices of roasted pinwheel pork loin opposite a serving of cold roasted potato salad married together with a strip of chrisp bacon.

Enjoy...

Roasted Potato Salad...

This will be an experiment in cross culinary thinking... so here goes.

I pealed and cubed a mess (4 medium & 5 small) russet potatoes. Then parboiled them, just a little too long but we will see. I had intended to only bring them to a boil and then stop but... distracted folding laundry. Subject to my own criticism - cooking is a full time, full attention activity.

I thooroughly drained and tossed the cubes with a mixture of olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, crushed dried rosemary, a sprinkling of marjoram and a touch of red pepper flake. I added a little more olive oil and then spread the cubes onto a stick resistant baking sheet. Popped the whole thing into a 325 F oven and set the timer for 15 minutes.

Turned them gently, still soft, due to being over parboiled. I will have to watch that next time.

Second turning begins to show a little body to the cubes. No color yet.

Like the Emril Lagassi fellow is fond of saying, I wish you could have Smell-o-vision ... just the scent of these roasting potatoes is to die for. Now I am torn. Just a second...

Third turn - cubes are now quite firm and beginning to show a haze of that GBD color (Golden Brown Delicious).

So I am torn... and so here is my resolve. I will divide this nearly 6 cups of cubes and only make potato salad with half of them. Just have to eat the rest of them straight up...maybe...

decisions...decisions...

We are all children of the digital age...

... it is just that some of us have more analog baggage than others.

My overgrown field is not empty!

I would call it more lazy than green. I stopped mowing the majority of our 1.58 acre parcel some time ago. It actually started out of boredom. I was bored with mowing a 1.58 acre short grass fairway. Open Mowing sums it up rather well...

This morning while I was out assessing the state of our poison ivy patch I saw a devastating sight. I cursed. I swore. My heart wept at the sight. Some lowlife careless human being had thoughtlessly driven their automobile across a section of my unmowed (unmown ?) yard. Worse still they flattened a 3 year old White Pine.

This isn't just any White Pine. This isn't a nursery 3 year old. No, this is a grown from a single twiglette sapling planted by my own hands White Pine. One of the few that we could find again after the grass grew tall at summer's end. One of the fewer still that survived not only the first winter but the second which included a wicked ice storm. Now to be laid low by some careless person who could not see that my overgrown field is not empty.

Cast Iron perspectives...

Carrying a 10" cast iron skillet full of boiling water from the stove to the sink offered a clear lesson: keep the water level. It is not about carrying the pan level. It is about keeping the boiling water calm and level.

Building a structure on a hillside might require extreme architectural measure but it can all be overcome by keeping the contained space level and calm.

A potter seeking to throw a utilitarian vessel must keep the contained space level and calm.

In personal relationships no matter how jagged and acute the angles one's heart must remain level and calm.

Don't watch this video... it will only confuse you.

For everyone else there's...

Thanks to

The Linux and Unix Menagerie

FUD: Don't get it on your shoes - it stains.

First: BrandIndex - cited as the authority that Mircrosoft is winning the PC vs. Mac war... Okay, but when I went to visit BrandX BrandIndex this is what I found...

Latest News Alerts

Below are some of the latest news alerts from BrandIndex - all stories are delayed by at least 24 hours.

Retail Downturn Rains on Macy's Parade »

Date Posted: 01 December 2008

Macy’s and it’s strong reputation scores

Please, note the date of this late breaking news item ... Hmmmmm, probably has a strong grip on the current market situation. Further down the page we got all the way to ...

The Recession Tracker: The Real Story of the Recession »

Date Posted: 20 February 2009

All the way up to 20 February 2009 - late breaking news....

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Then there was the case of the the cataclysmic concern that SSDs Can't Replace HDDs ...

Report: SSDs Can't Replace HDDs

. . .

However, storage system integration specialist Origin Storage quickly fired back at the company's claim, saying that any plan to replace magnetic hard drives--especially in laptops--is doomed to failure. Why? Andy Cordial, Origin Storage's managing director, said that SSDs definitely have their place, but cannot replace the "flexibility" and "longevity" that magnetic drives offer most laptop users in rugged environments and other "specialist" situations.

Always cordial, Andy Cordial makes his case that SSD 'cannot replace ... magnetic drives...'

In other late breaking news pundits affirm that the horseless carriage will never replace ol' Bossy and the surrey with the fringe on top.

Just lego yo feelin's

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