Thursday, September 05, 2002

...and now the US team has lost to Yugoslavia - they're out of medal contention. Wow.
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Megnut's mom, who once was guest host on Meg's blog, has invented a new idea -- googlecooking. Meg says "My mother types whatever ingredients she has on hand into Google and then picks the most appealing recipe returned in the results." Smart! [Scripting News] Now *that* is cool.
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How to have a pleasant evening on your own (based on my current experience): Get yourself a quality chicken curry, take-out Set up an interesting playlist of music (in this case, Prince, Liz Phair, John Coltrane, Marvin Gaye, and...ok, I can't remember the fifth disc. But I'll find out!) Find a beanbag chair. Sit in said beanbag chair. Grab a good book, preferably one not yet read - you can see my current read in the right-side column, thanks to Erik Benson's wonderful allconsuming.net. Blog 'til blogged out, then read, eat, listen, sit. hey, it's working for me quite nicely. =)

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Karzai attacker 'from Taleban area' [BBC World] What, he was from Afghanistan?
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Comment monitor bug fixed. Non-Internet Explorer-using folks like Scott Rosenberg will be pleased to hear that I fixed a silly bug with my comment monitor, and now it works in both Opera and Mozilla. Enjoy! Comment [Second p0st] [Don W Strickland: RadioFAQ] yay! Philip's Comment Monitor is an absolute necessity of blogging for me - the only way I can easily see what posts have comments that I haven't read. Thanks to it, I was able to easily see that Joe from people are stupid (happy now?) whined here a couple days ago, regarding a post from like a month ago. Actually, I guess I could have done without that specifically - but still, you get my point. =)

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My little sister just called me from the 11th row at the Rolling Stones concert at Gillette Stadium. She barely knows the Stones - her boyfriend got tickets through work, something like that. $350 tickets. Yesterday, she and my mom came over to have dinner and Megan (my sister) asked me if I had any Rolling Stones cds...of course, she asked this while Let It Bleed was playing. I spent the rest of the evening going "What? You're going to the Stones?!? Dammit!" Now I find out that she's close enough to "see the wrinkles in their faces". There is no god - if there was, it'd be me there and not my Dave Matthews Band-listening sister. Damn her! I am soooo jealous.

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I almost bought an X-Box yesterday...no real reason. I had left my power cord for my Playstation 2 at my old apartment, and just collected it today, so I could claim video game withdrawal...I got a significant bonus this week, so I could claim present-for-myself, but really, the only reason I was standing there in the ex-Babbages (I think it's Gamestop now, but I'm not sure), picking up a used copy of Max Payne and a new copy of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and then putting them back on the rack at least three times was an uncontrollable urge to Have Cool New Stuff. I'm not a complete idiot about it - well, not always. I did impulse-purchase a $600+ home theater system last spring, but that turned out to be a very intelligent purchase - five disc DVD/CD/SACD, surround sound speakers, etc...all in one box. Saves me effort, if nothing else. I also bought a $300 TV late last year...and now I'm tempted to replace it. Its 20" looked huge in my small bedroom, but now that it's sitting in the middle of my big living room, it's not so large. Now, it'd be one thing if I was thinking about dropping $400 or so on a decent 27"...but I'm a tech snob. The current TV is a wonderful Sony Wega, and my next TV will also be a Sony Wega...in which case, we're talking about $500+ for 27" - but it's flat! And it's got enhanced 16:9 mode! Whatever that means! It turns out that I have control over myself on spending over some limit...I think it's $150 or so. Since the home theater, I don't think I've dropped $150 in a sitting. Close to that, yeah, but I don't think I've crossed it. I will this weekend - I'm going furniture shopping with that nice bonus - but furniture doesn't have that fun-ness to it that new electronics do. I wish I could make that urge go away - I end up with a lot more CDs, DVDs, video games, and books than I really want. I've gotten better - but still...

8:36:11 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Canada considers legalising cannabis [BBC World] Good for them - any country sane enough to legalize and tax the hell out of pot will do quite well for itself.
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Hope in the universe For decades American politics has been trapped in a cycle that benefits no one except the media companies that own TV stations: Politicians felt they had to advertise on TV to get elected (generally they were right). Politicians had to raise enormous sums of money to pay for those TV ads. The money went from contributor's pockets directly into media coffers, with only a brief stop-off in campaign warchests. Politicians ended up beholden to contributors and devoting much of their energy to fundraising; the electorate got fed worthless "attack ads" and 30-second soundbites; only the TV station owners profited. Today's New York Times reports that, glory be, the era of TV political advertising may be beginning to fade:   The once-overwhelming influence of television advertising on political campaigns is declining, Democratic and Republican leaders say, leading them to embrace aggressively old- fashioned campaign tools like telephone calls and door-knocking in this year's Congressional elections. While candidates continue to devote most of their resources to television, they say the power of commercials to affect an election's outcome is being diluted by the glut of cable television stations, the popularity of such commercial-free premium networks as HBO and the anesthetizing frequency and similarity of political advertisements. If this trend story proves accurate, it could be the best news in a long, long time. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment] Also see an article at the American Prospect on Paul Wellstone's old-school campaign in Minnesota.

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Hedgehogs suffer sharp decline [BBC Science & Nature]
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For Celtics, it's all for Best. Boston Globe Sep 5 2002 8:18AM ET [Moreover - Boston news] Offer him real money, PLEASE, Paul Gaston. Travis Best is the only viable point guard on the market, and we NEED a viable point guard. Don't make him go to Miami for the veteran's exception of $1.4 million because we only offered him $700,000. He's a local boy (from Springfield) and a quality player. Don't be stupid. PLEASE.

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Iraq strike 'would open hell's gates'. Foreign ministers of the Arab League warn that a military strike on Iraq would lead to major instability in the region. [BBC News | WORLD] That's a fun phrase, isn't it? Just makes you feel all warm and cuddly, opening hell's gates does. But count me out - can't stand hot weather.
11:42:13 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Bid to Justify a First Strike [New York Times: International News] I love the Times' coverage of the Iraq bullshit (see Scott Rosenberg for an excellent reaction to neo-con whining over 'bias' in the Times' coverage, btw). The most disturbing thing about the Bush Junta's attempts to go after Hussein is the precedent it sets - it's ok to go after an enemy you think might attack you later. We've already supported this policy when Sharon uses it against the Palestinians, but there's a big leap in world perception from Israel doing it and the US doing it. As is correctly pointed out in the article, what does this mean for India v. Pakistan, China v. Taiwan, and any number of other hot spots around the globe? Is overthrowing Saddam Hussein really worth the potential cost in that regard?

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Are Weblogs changing our culture?. http://slate.msn.com/?id=2070360&;entry=2070447 A multipart debate in Slate between Andrew Sullivan and Kurt Anderson is going on over weblogs [BlogLeft: Critical Interventions] The answer? 3. I find this whole pretentious "weblogs are radical new world blah blah journalism blah blah culture blah blah" thing to be, well, pretentious, and a bit silly. Also, anything by Andrew Sullivan is almost certainly going to just be goofy, especially without editors. There's a great summary of this over at reverse cowgirl (lifted from Radio Free Blogistan) - the main agreement reached is that both Sullivan and Anderson want to have sex with Moby. Yup, blogs are sure changing the world.

11:30:27 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Karzai survives attempt on his life. Afghan President Hamid Karzai escapes an assassination attempt - only hours after at least 10 people were killed by a car bomb in Kabul. [BBC News | WORLD] Remind me *not* to go visit Afghanistan.
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Bush to Seek Hill Approval on Iraq War [Washington Post: Front Page] ...and of course, our wonderful reps will vote yes, 'cos you don't vote no when the president asks to go to war. It's just not done. I'm glad that Bush is realizing he can't go running off to Iraq without asking Congress' permission first, but maybe he should also check with, y'know, other countries? And Tony Blair doesn't count.

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Found a box score for last night's Argentina/US game, at an Argentinian site. As a team, the US shot 42% (18/43) from within the 3 point line, and 33% (9/27) from beyond. Argentina? 59% (30/51) for 2, 21% (3/14) for 3. Free throws broke down about the same. Andre Miller played 24 minutes, went 4/10 from 2, 1/3 from 3, 5 assists. Baron Davis went 3/6 from 2, 0/5 from 3, 3 assists in 19 minutes. Pierce went 2/5 from 2, 5/11 from 3, with 5 assists, 28 minutes - and two of those three pointers were in the last 30 seconds, after the game was functionally over. Team totals: 31 rebounds, 15 assists to Argentina's 40 rebounds and 22 assists. No one but the above three got at least 10 field goal attempts for the US, though Michael Finley scored 14 on 2/3 from 2, 2/5 from 3, and 4 free throws. Poorly played by the States.

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I *will* blog today, I *will* blog today... To all of you who've been desperately waiting for regular updates, your prayers are ANSWERED! To all of you who don't really care so much, I'm back anyway! =) I'm finally settling back into a regular schedule again - managed to wake up approximately on time today for the first time since moving...previously, I'd been using a combination of a clock radio's radio, its beep, AND my TV tuned to CNN. The TV is now sitting in my living room, and I have no plans to get another TV for my room. Therefore, I've had to wake up with just the radio and  beep - that's *hard*. For me, at least - I wake up very, very poorly. I now have Fox Sports World - Premiership football, baby! Last evening, I watched Rangers squash Dunfermline 6-0 in Scottish Premier action...it comes in clear and crisp. I love it. But I have three reactions to my FSW-watching so far: Are those beer commercials of UK origins? I'd imagine - for one thing, I've never seen a Carlsberg commercial in the States before. More significantly, though, the commercials all seem to have English-accented announcers. It's just a little odd, since the great majority of the commercials seem to be American, with these British beer commercials spliced in... Speaking of commercials - running almost every commercial break during the Sky Sports News hour I've got on right now and quite often last night, there's been commercials for a "natural alternative" to Viagra. I can't remember the name, but that's beside the point. I just find it more than a little disturbing when I realize that a sizable portion of the audience watching the same channel that I am are having...conjugal difficulties, shall we say. What, American soccer/footie fans can't get it up? My last observation has nothing to do with commercials - instead, it's just something that reminds me how much I love European football as a cultural thing. There was a brief segment on Sky Sports News on the Scottish national team and some problems they've been having. The probelms didn't stick in my mind, but their next opponent in international play did - the Faeroes Islands. The FAEROES ISLANDS?!? We're talking about the same specks of rocks north of Scotland, right? Beyond the Shetlands? Or are those the Orkneys...anyway, Scandanavian-populated (I can't remember whether they're Danish or Norweigan), but not exactly *big*. What's more, the announcers treated it like there was a chance of the Faeroes team actually doing well. I LOVE that. Oh, and congratulations to the Argentinian national basketball team on becoming the first team to beat a US team with NBA players in international competition. They're a high quality team with great teamwork...I'm actually more disappointed by the news that Detroit signed the Argentinian point guard, Pepe Sanchez, ex of the 76ers, than the loss (I wanted him for Boston) but still - we *LOST*. My boy Paul Pierce has to accept more than a little of the responsibility for this - he got into foul trouble very early, 4 minutes into the first quarter. This is a typical problem Pierce has - he gets too emotional, takes too may risks with the refs...anyway, Pierce had to sit out a lot of the first half because of that, and for some reason, he's the only player on the US team capable of scoring consistently...I can't find a box score, but the team as a whole shot just horribly. The US team may have had better players, but Argentina's definitely the better team.

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