AFK

I'm in Binghamton celebrating Thanksgiving (late) and Christmas (early) with my family, which has a large percentage of service sector employees and can't easily get together on the real holiday dates.

They connect to the Internet using this funny blue thing called an "ethernet cable," so I can't get online as often as I do at home. Which is perfectly fine by me; it's nice to be out of wifi range sometimes. In any case, I will be unlikely to post much while I'm down here. Happy Thanksmas*, as we call it, to you.

See you soon.



* Leave it to my Godless family to take the "Christ" out of "Jointly Celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas."

Unloading my brain

Here's some stuff you may or may not find as interesting as I do, none of which has to do with Thanksgiving, although I do wish you a happy one.

Pears are so good. They're like the champagne of apples. Except they're not actually apples, but you know what I mean, right? If you don't like pears, I can't really help you. I don't mean I can't help you like them. I mean I can't help you with what's wrong in your life.

Here's my "on-the-go" playlist of music from my high school years (graduated 1995). I added them in no particular order other than that in which they came to my mind, but the flow actually works pretty well. I especially like how "Bellbottoms" runs into the Lenny Kravitz tune. What would you add or remove?

The Dam At Otter Creek (Live)
Dissident (Pearl Jam)
Losing My Religion (R.E.M.)
Under the Bridge (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Disarm (Smashing Pumpkins)
Feel Us Shaking (The Samples)
Rhyme and Reason (Dave Matthews Band)
In the Meantime (Helmet)
Bellbottoms (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion)
It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over (Lenny Kravitz)
Buena (Morphine)

(I also had a lot of Christian "music" in high school, but I burned it all one summer after I got home from camp.)

Speaking of music, my two-year old son bought me a present: a Jack Johnson album from the iTunes Store. Anyone else find it slightly ironic that his mouse skills are advanced enough to open iTunes and purchase an album, but his taste is not advanced enough to buy something other than Jack Johnson? I mean, Jack Johnson's okay I guess. That one song he does is pretty good. But I don't need the iTunes exclusive album, complete with interviews and back stories. Great present, Abel. Talk about being "sixpence none the richer."*

And speaking of iTunes, here's a game that might be fun. If you have 99 cents to spare, go buy this song (link takes you to the iTunes Store). Then take ten minutes to listen to it, making sure to use headphones so you can hear the stereo effects well. Then talk to me or comment here and tell me what you think of it. There is a fairly high probability that you will hate it, but come on, it's only one dollar, and at least you would have fun telling me why you hated it. (Credit should go to former power blogger Nate Skinner for turning my attention to that song, if I remember right.)

What do you think about the fact that a few months after I wrote this, Ring of Fire Enterprises released this? Have I contributed to the culture wars? Should I demand a cut? Has anyone actually seen one of those on a car?

I reckon I'll stop for now. Warm wishes to all of you. Say hello in the comments!


* Good luck finding the actual C.S. Lewis quotation amidst endless pages about the band.

Dear HSBC

Dear HSBC,

I don't need your new triple-layered "security" for my online banking. I would rather take my chances that someone would somehow hack into my account than have to enter a second password using my mouse pointer on a virtual keyboard. And that's not figurative language or embellishment. I really would rather take my chances than jump through these new hoops. Seriously, what 60-year old vice president at HSBC wrote his password on a napkin and then lost it in order to make this happen?

But here's some advice if you're going to force us to do this. Don't make it a minimum of eight characters. A four-digit pin seems about right. Some of us use laptops. Oh, and another thing: threatening account suspension on the second mis-entry of that virtual password strikes me as over-reactionary. How about after the third mis-entry you can't try again for an hour? So help me if I actually do ever screw it up twice in a row and then can't get at my banking information.

Not that anyone in Hong Kong or Shanghai is reading this in some tall office building, but I am honestly considering ending a six-year banking relationship because of this. I can't be the only one, can I?

iPods on a plane!

Cool, a few airlines have added iPod connectivity to their seats. I hope this takes off like it did within the auto industry. From the press release: "Apple today announced it is teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPod and in-flight entertainment systems. These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays."

Welcome to the social

This pretty much reminded me of why I hated using Windows. The Zune sure seems full of promise...

I'll stick with my nice video-capable iPod, thanks.

For fans of the show Heroes

Since LOST is on hiatus until sometime after Abel graduates from high school, our Sunday night TV-watching party will shift to Heroes for a while. It's a good show with some potential to improve, especially as the acting gets better. That is, unless the fantasy stuff turns out to be a big science experiment like in LOST. Oh, wait...I think it already is. Anyway, I got a kick out of this T-shirt, and I thought I'd pass it along.

Quotable

"I read that President Bush's approval rating is less than 1 in 3. Nancy Pelosi, the incoming majority leader for the opposition party is in the same range. In other words, two-thirds of the citizens of the United States believe our leadership could improve if Bush drove his Segway into the majority leader and then over a cliff, assuming Cheney saw it happen and died of a heart attack."

--Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, in his blog. Read the rest for a fairly sensible idea to improve the democratic process.

*Before anyone gets irritated with me: of course I do not actually favor a violent end for any of our politicians. I'm just a sucker for a clever turn of phrase, and that, my friends, was one.

Bizarro-Yankees

Sheff on the move: Yankees trade Sheffield to Tigers for 3 pitching prospects

My first thought: yippee!

My second thought: Wait, aren't the Yankees supposed to be the ones giving up young prospects in exchange for aging talent? This is weird.

A good political read

The following statements from yesterday's Best of the Web Today column are all hailed by the author (James Taranto, a conservative) as reasons to be happy with the outcome of Tuesday's mid-term election. Which do you agree with?

1. Republicans deserved to lose.

2. It was not a referendum on Iraq.

3. It was not a victory for the left.

4. Victory may prove cathartic for the Angry Left.

5. George Allen will not be the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.

Read the column for the rationale. Interesting stuff.

Ban Comic Sans

(Via Greg Kendall-Ball.)

Phyllis Tickle's The Night Offices

If you are a fan of Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours series on fixed-hour prayer (and really, who isn't?), you'll be interested to know that Oxford University Press has released her newest volume, The Night Offices: Prayers for the Hours:

Now, in The Night Offices, Tickle offers the perfect complement to The Divine Hours, bringing together prayers, psalms, hymn texts, religious poetry and other readings not included in the original trilogy, covering the offices for the hours from late evening (Compline) to early morning (Prime). Fans of The Divine Hours will recognize Tickle's simple, elegant format, her use of a modern calendar rather than a liturgical one, and the single ribbon in the binding, to track one's progress through the year. As in the trilogy, Tickle makes primary use of the Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers, and she draws all the scriptural readings from the Revised Standard Version.

Find out more on the Amazon.com page.

Anti-smoking ads: brilliantly unsuccessful

According to an article from HealthScout.com, the tobacco companies' anti-smoking ads may actually boost teen smoking rates. Apparently, a recent study suggests that kids think cigarettes are less dangerous after seeing these ads.

I know it's hard to believe that the slogan "Tobacco Is Whacko If You're a Teen" isn't hitting home with the Gen-Y set, but apparently it's true.