yesterday... | ...all my troubles were so far away

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

US fails to block torture treaty [BBC World]

When my home country is ever described as 'failing to block' an anti-torture treaty, I'm not happy. Check this out:

That, of course, is an 'illegal combatant' held at Guantanmo Bay.

God bless America indeed.
9:22:53 PM

AOL Posts Profit, Reveals Probe. AOL Time Warner reports a profitable quarter, but zings investors with an announcement that U.S. securities regulators are investigating its accounting. [Wired News]

There's got to be a joke in that headline somewhere. I just can't make it work.

I got bored and put Pearl Harbor on...oh my god this movie is horrible. It's almost 40 minutes in and it's just getting to the point a little. Affleck CAN NOT ACT. However, I am still waiting for Josh Hartnett to bust out the acting talent that I'm for some reason convinced he has in him...James King's character is named Betty Bayer - my last name RULES!...it, like every war movie of the last 5 years, has Tom Sizemore in it...and Jennifer 'Alias' Garner has a small part. But really, it sucks. Hard. After watching Windtalkers a few weeks back, I decided that the only person who could actually do justice to a Pearl Harbor movie is John Woo. I love Woo films - everyone makes a little 'augh!' noise when they die. Everyone.
8:42:11 PM

Leiter stays with Mets [BBC World]

I'm a baseball fan, but c'mon! How the hell is this worthy of BBC World news status?
8:27:51 PM

I've always wanted to write a novel. I've tried, but never even come close to succeeding. I suck at it. I just can't come up with a plot.

I know just how silly that sounds, but it's true. I can't come up with a plot to save my life. I came close once, but I realized that I was just re-writing Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon with Arthurian bits thrown in. Yeah, it was that bad. I'm going to have to get out more to come up with an idea, I guess. Ah well - at least I've got the ability to ramble, right? Right?
7:25:57 PM

That beer commercial with a Blur song in it - MGD. I was afraid of that - not just is Blur being used in a commercial for beer...it's being used in  a commercial for cheap, shitty beer.


6:11:18 PM

I'm gonna head home - leftover chicken scampi from Pizzeria Uno is calling my name.

I don't know how I lived my life without blogging. I suppose a diary would have served just as well - but for some reason, the knowledge that someone might read this makes it more important than if it were solely for my own consumption. Or maybe I'm just an attention whore and I feel like I'm getting attention. Beats me - it's just fun to write shit all the f'n time. We'll see if it keeps up.
4:47:58 PM

Hey, wow - the Dow went up almost 500 points today. On a related note, all of my stock options are below water. WOO! Go Capitalism!

It seems that Rob Lowe is leaving 'West Wing'. That's a shame. I've always liked his character - not as over the top as Toby or Josh, a little more normal. Hopefully they can work this out somehow. And if not, I'll take over the character for 25% of what Lowe's making now. Sure, I'm shorter and not near as attractive, but hey, I never got in trouble for videotaping myself having a sex romp with underage girls. It'll work out. =)

And also picked up from CNN.com - Connie Chung is interviewing Toby Keith tonight. In case you got lucky and missed this whole pile o' crap, Toby Keith wrote a jingoistic, profiteering song about kicking terrorist ass. Peter Jennings rejected it from the ABC 4th of July broadcast - 'cos it's a crappy song. Keith went on a rampage, accusing Jennings of censoring him, accusing Jennings of anti-Americanism...though I don't think he ever brought up Jennings' Canadian origins. =) Anyway - Chung's interviewing him tonight, and cnn.com is advertising it with the following caption: "Singer Toby Keith is angry. He says he was booted from a TV special because of his new song's lyrics. He talks to Connie." Um - Toby? You might have been booted because of the lyrics. Because they SUCK.

 
4:23:41 PM

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my afternoon...I don't have anything in particular to do here at work, I'm really hungry (that small bag of cheetos will keep me from exploding for another hour or so, but it ain't enough!) and I'm bored. There's an Outback in the parking lot here, next door to the movie theater (this all makes sense, trust me) but I don't think I really feel like spending money right now. Which is really weird, since I'm almost compulsive in my money-spending...I have an aversion to cooking. I also have approximately 50 books sitting around my apartment that I've bought and not yet gotten around to reading - not for lack of reading time, though I'm only reading maybe 50 to 100 pages a day. Video games, TV, DVDs, and the Internet all demand my time, too, y'see. No, I just buy too many books.

Too many video games, too. I'm playing my way through Chrono Cross for the Playstation these days, but I've got like 3 or 4 more PSOne games sitting around that I never quite got around to playing before buying a Playstation 2. I started THAT with Final Fantasy X, but then discovered Grand Theft Auto 3, and that swallowed a lot of my life. Games are like crack, really.

And before anyone says anything, I was this bad about books and video games when I was still in a relationship. And, no, the relationship did NOT end over my time spent playing video games. Entirely. =)
3:55:33 PM

Robert Scheer. It looks like America's love affair with George W. Bush is coming to an end. [Salon Headlines]

I have nothing to say on this right now that Scheer has not already said more eloquently than I'm capable of.

Overthrow the Bush Junta!
3:34:36 PM

Ned Martin, who was first a radio announcer and then TV announcer for the Red Sox from 1961 until 1992 died yesterday, on his way home from the Ted Williams tribute the Sox had at Fenway on Monday. I saw him on TV on Monday, talking about meeting Ted for the first time, sitting there with Carl Yazstremski...I could remember Ned as the TV voice for the Sox for most of my childhood. There's a great tribute to him at projo.com, written by their excellent sports editor, Art Martone. Check out the rest of his stuff, too. Some of the best baseball commentary, admittedly from a decided Red Sox bias, out there today.

I post here a LOT, don't I? Well, if I see something interesting, I'm gonna put it here. And I find a LOT of stuff interesting. If I have something to say, I'll post it here - again, I've got lots to say and will most likely bore you all silly within minutes. I say "you all" even though I'm skeptical that people are actually bothering to read this. I've gotten a couple comments - that's just a cool feeling, since it's proof that people are actually reading your blog - and I got an email from a friend from ten years ago (I love the Internet soooo much) so I suppose people are reading it. =) Hey, even if they're not, I'm entertaining myself. And that's what really matters. =)
2:03:17 PM

Damn. I missed lunch. I hate when I do that.
1:54:13 PM

Reid promises tougher ceasefire rules. Politics: The Northern Ireland secretary, John Reid, said today he would not hesitate to act against Sinn Fein if there was evidence of continued paramilitary activity by the IRA. [Guardian Unlimited]

I'm reading a book on Irish nationalism right now, with Tim Pat Coogan's book on the Troubles up next. This fit of Irishness was inspired by WGBH (Boston's PBS station) showing the BBC's "Endgame In Ireland", a four hour documentary of interviews and archival footage covering the last twenty years in Northern Ireland. I've got some vague connection to this - family legend is that my great-great-...-uncle was a member of one of the agrarian secret societies in Ireland around 1819. He supposedly got caught messing with a landlord or somesuch. His father, my great-whatever-grandfather, had served during the Napoleonic wars as a sargent and had received enough notice that he was able to keep my g-g-g-uncle from execution. Instead, the entire family had to go homestead in Canada. Didn't work out well - by 1830 or so, they were outside of Syracuse, where my mom's family comes from. I don't know if this is true per se, but it makes me feel a certain connection to the Irish Republicans - not the IRA, but Sinn Fein. So I pay close attention to things like the news item above. I'm still convinced that the only good things to come out of Sept. 11 were the overthrow of the Taliban and the IRA getting so freaked out at the idea of being grouped with al-Qaeda that they agreed to arms decomissioning.


1:23:02 PM

So Leo McKern died...I remember him primarily as the definitive Number 2 from the Prisoner and from my dad watching him on Rumpole of the Bailey. My dad always said how much McKern reminded him of my grandfather. The first time I watched the Prisoner's last episode after my grandfather died, I saw it. Not in personality, mind you, or even all that much in appearance, but in mannerisms. It's even more clear with Rumpole. Always made me feel a little better about the world to see Leo McKern and think of Grandpa Palmer holding forth on whatever subject seemed vaguelly interesting at the time. Thanks for that, Mr. McKern.

Ok, now I'm all depressed. New music...

now listening to ( Beck, Odelay )

There we go.
1:13:16 PM

We're all going to die.

So says the BBC - Space rock 'on collision course'

It's only...hmm...17 years away. An asteroid is on course to whack into the earth on February 1, 2019. Some panicky astronomer says "this asteroid has now become the most threatening object in the short history of asteroid detection". But then again, he only gets phone calls when an asteroid is on course to whack into the earth, so what does he know?

... Right. A lot more than me, I know, I know.

The best part about this is the picture:

And leave it to the BBC to give a picture like this a nice, calm caption - "An asteroid could devastate Earth"

Y'know, I picked that up from the picture. =)
12:57:03 PM

Scott Rosenberg in his blog addressed the issue of Salon Premium users wanting to pay less for Salon Blog...I don't have a problem with paying full price for both, but I'm always looking for more reasons to throw cash at Salon, as mentioned below. =)
12:37:33 PM

now listening to ( Pulp, Different Class )

I really wish I could find a way to do that automatically...when I put a new disc into the laptop, have it write to the blog with something like that. But I'm having bad luck with getting CDDB info with perl on Windows. Damn. Moving on...

Heard back from Tapped regarding getting an RSS newsfeed of their blog. No luck... I'll live, though. I promise.
12:23:27 PM

I know this is probably pointless, but I've got a question for you (whomever you might be). I'm a diehard Primal Scream fan - and I can't find enough music like that. It's really hard to describe it, so I won't bother. If you know Primal Scream, you know what I mean. The only other band I've found that really gets the same vibe for me is A3 (aka Alabama 3), who do the Sopranos theme song. I own both of A3's albums, I've got the last four Primal Scream albums with Echodek, the remix album of Vanishing Point, and Evil Heat, the new one coming out in a week or two, on order...I need more music like this. Ideas?
11:16:27 AM

Just to follow up on the Jude Law as Superman, Colin Farrell as Batman bit - I was checking to see what else Farrell's been in at http://www.imdb.com and I've only seen him in Minority Report. But he's actually got a part in another upcoming superhero flick - he plays the secondary villain, Bullseye, in Daredevil. If that kind of thing keeps happening, continuity will get all messed up and our nation's poor comic-deprived filmgoers will all end up with big headaches.

On a related note, Jennifer "Alias" Garner plays the scantily clad ninja chick Elektra in Daredevil. I can deal with that. Problem is, we're supposed to believe she's attracted to Daredevil, played by...Ben Affleck. Argh.

Jude Law BETTER be cast as Superman to make up for that. I need to watch Enemy at the Gates again...
11:13:02 AM

Batman vs. Superman cast? (0) [Bureau 42]

OK - this is rich. Batman vs. Superman, to be directed by Wolfgang "Das Boot" Peterson...good so far. So the big worry is casting. And they seem to have gone in a strange (yet very cool) direction: Colin Farrell as Batman, Jude Law as Superman. Yeah - an Irishman as Batman and a Brit as Superman. A SKINNY Brit, too. Mind you, he's the best friggin' actor of his generation that I've seen yet, so I'm cool with it. I'm still waiting for someone to realize that Superman's a Jew and cast Dustin Hoffman in the part...
10:25:51 AM

I want to learn French.
10:17:38 AM

There's certs and certs - VeriSign badmouths rivals. Do we hear something about a price rise? [The Register]

Oh fucking great. Not only do I have to jump through hoops twice a year to renew my business unit's IE and Netscape certificates from VeriSign, but now they'll charge more? Why the hell do we even bother? It's not like any users out there actually give a shit.

I'm sure you all find this interesting, right? =) Sorry - I'm a release engineer and once in a while I'll babble about work related shit. just ignore it. =)

now listening to ( the Rolling Stones, Exile On Main Street ) the greatest album EVER.
10:03:36 AM

OK, I'm briefly annoyed. I want to add American Prospect's friggin' awesome blog Tapped to my news thingie, but I can't find an RSS version of the page. I've searched google thoroughly - no references anywhere online to anything like that.  Ah well - I've emailed them. Hopefully I'll hear something back.
9:51:21 AM

Bruce Perens Plans On-Stage DMCA Violation [Slashdot]

Good for him. the DMCA is a BAD thing. And if we don't stop Fritz Hollings, the Senator from Disney, they'll inflict even worse on us - SSSCA, the "broadcast flag", and more...bastards.

...but it's all ok 'cos U2 is rocking my world right now with 'Mysterious Ways'. Legally purchased CD, I might add. heh. =)
9:40:05 AM

Why did I dream of China? I think I might know.

I think I might know why I dreamt of China last night...it's just a theory, though.

I seem to remember reading an article in Newsweek yesterday about a Chinese movie about a gay man. It mentioned that homosexuality is still persecuted in China. This led me to think of Maureen F. McHugh's brilliant China Mountain Zhang which deals with, among other topics, the persecution of homosexuals in China. And somehow this lurked in the back of my head until I fell asleep...where it took over and somehow I was dreaming of dorm rooms in China. Tada!
9:25:09 AM

In case you are at all interested, here's the page I just bought. http://www.siue.edu/~geschmi/transmet3912.jpg This is my fourth page - I'm bidding on a couple of others right now. There's only going to be 60 issues of Transmet by the time it winds up in a couple months, with around 25 pages per issue. There's something inherently cool about having 4 or 5 of the approximately 1500 total pages ever drawn of the most interesting and relevant sci-fi comic published since Howard Chaykin's brilliant American Flagg back in the '80s. You really need to read Transmet, if you haven't yet. Go buy it NOW.
9:18:19 AM

now listening to ( U2, Achtung Baby )
9:04:48 AM

At work now. I gave up on complicated bandages for my toe. It's way more difficult than it seems like it should be, so I just went with bandaids.

Oh goodie - I've got another page of original art from the comic Transmetropolitan on the way to me. Great, great comic, written by a crazy British man. Check him out - http://www.warrenellis.com He's a bastard in all the right ways.
9:01:33 AM

Heh. One of the benefits of being an early adopter is working for me right now - I'm the #25 most viewed blog of all-time at Salon. That'll change - I'm not near interesting enough to merit that. =)

So I'm wondering - how is Salon making money off this? 'cos they better. I have a constant fear of Salon running out of cash and vanishing. I feel like I have to somehow make millions of dollars so that I can give it to Salon and keep getting my Nothing Personal. I can't tell you how sad and pathetic I'd be without it.

The toe's not as bad as I feared. The only real pain there is the four places the anesthetic was injected. That shit HURT. Oh my GOD. It was the first time I've been pricked by a needle (excepting dentistry work) without completely freaking out in something like 8 years. And it HURT HURT HURT. I almost got sick from the ow. 'snot bad now, but I can still see the red dots where the needle went in. Ah well - at least I no longer have an ingrown toenail. Hell, I no longer have a good chunk of my toenail ever again. Hopefully.

Off to work now - that is, after I re-bandage the toe and eat a little more apple danish. The grocery store across the street sells these foot long, three inch wide danishes for 3.49. Perfect for attacking with a fork and eating 'em straight out of their tin foil and plastic containers. I love being unhealthy.
7:54:53 AM

Ok - as I'm getting up to turn off the TV (roommate turns on ESPN when he gets out of the shower - it's a compulsive thing) there's a beer commercial on. I can't remember which beer brand, but I've seen it before. What makes it of note is that it's using a Blur song off of Parklife. This shouldn't bother me as much as it does.
7:34:10 AM

Gotta get up, gotta get moving - I've been sitting on the couch for an hour and a half now. I need to get to the shower...I have to unwrap my toe. This actually makes sense - I had an ingrown toe nail fixed yesterday and I've yet to unwrap the bandages. Not looking forward to seeing the ick.  Ah well - off to it I go.
7:32:13 AM

I talk too much. It's a reasonably common flaw, but it's one that gets me in trouble nonetheless. I seem to be missing the ability to read people and know when the hell to stop talking - though sometimes, it feels more like I don't give a shit about whether my listener wants me to shut up or not. It's a nice thing about blogs - I don't have anyone reading this and don't expect to, so I have no limitations on how long I can babble.

Maybe I should change my blog title. Dreaming of China seemed interesting for a moment or two, but now I'm worrying people might mistakenly think I'm a Chinese expat or something. I'll leave it for now, but if something comes across my mind and seems interesting, I'm jumping ship.
7:10:27 AM

I should have waited another hour or so before signing up for my blog - then I could have gotten myself blog # 1138, which would allow the little dork in me to completely freak out.
7:00:31 AM

I dreamt a lot last night. As best as I can tell, I may actually have dreamt *all* of last night. It was one of those nights where you can't help but fall asleep early...I was lying in my bed at like 9:30pm, reading, and BAM, I'm passing out. Next thing I know, I'm waking up at 12:30am, and I can remember that I dreamt something. I go to the bathroom, get some water, fall back asleep and BAM again. It's 2 something in the morning, and the dreams got weirder. Something about China, maybe. There's no real logical way to explain just how I was dreaming about China- I'd been reading about the history of Irish nationalism, and the BBC (which I have on as fall asleep on my clock-radio) was talking about the Madagascar presidency situation when I fell asleep...but somehow, I was dreaming about China.
6:35:30 AM

the sun will come out... | ...tomorrow