Navel Gazing, tips tricks and suggestions
I have been spending my morning messing around with Picasa. Yet another Google product (I think slowly but surely they are going to take over the world!), Picasa organizes and helps size and adjust digital photo collections to make them easier to share, either via the web, email, as print outs or on a photo cd. I have only installed it and messed with it for about an hour or so, but it seems pretty cool. I’ll let you know.
I dig fonts and the ability to play with them in word processing, desktop publishing, photo manipulation or other computer graphic art programs is just plain fun. I talked about Point Central last year, but recently I stumbled on this: Pfont dispenser, a fun little page of freeware/share ware and pay fonts to play with.
1. What were you like in high school? How have you changed?
I was the class clown. Really. Hard to believe, I know. I was the official master of ceremonies for most school events (pep assemblies, band concerts and stuff). I was really busy, with some school activity or an other almost every day of the week. Now, I go home and sit in front of the television and wonder where it all went so terribly wrong.
2. What are some of the worst meals you’ve had in your life?
I like telling this story. While stationed in Germany, we found this pizza place off base in Stuttgart that delivered pizza to the barracks. It was owned by a nice Czechoslovakian family. We noticed that the menu included a burrito smothered in green chili. Living in Germany it is really, really, really difficult to get Mexican food, so we ordered it. Now let’s review. Mexican food from an Italian pizza restaurant, made by a Czech family in southern Germany. Needless to say it lost a lot in the translation. It wasn’t bad, in fact it was quite edible after a few flagons of good German beer. But it wasn’t anything you would classify as a Green Chile Smothered Burrito.
3. What hand puppet is most, or least, likely to enhance masturbation?
Least likely? Kukla, and Ollie. (although Fran might do the trick, but she wasn’t a puppet, was she?) Any of the sock puppet family might do the trick, but more from a mechanical problem solving aspect rather than an erotic love aid.
4. What famous people did you have crushes on when you were growing up?
I have always had a little crush on Julie Andrews. She was a hotty in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. And let us never forget my absolute undying devotion to Mary Tyler Moore in her fine roles as Laura Petrie and Mary Richards (growllllllll.)
5. How did you quit (insert addiction here, NOT restricted to drugs!)?
I finally quit chewing my finger nails after many years of simply nubs on my paws by using an old fashioned trick. Tobasco and nail polish. A clear bit of nail polish to strengthen them and occasional bit of red sauce on the finger tips to quit chewing them. I quit smoking by no longer buying cigarettes and reading all the no smoking/quit smoking literature and statistics I could find. Once I began to grasp how terribly, terribly bad smoking is and how there are absolutely no redeeming qualities that come from smoking, I quit. But it was hard. Lots of cheating, lots of excuses to enjoys a bummed ciggie during a break at work. But now, four or five years later I am tobacco free and no turning back.
I just sent this off to the parents for their Wyoming ranch but thought I should share it with everyone:
You are building a home. You own a small ranch. You love to tinker.
You always need a good hardware store.
Here ya go!
this plus this looks a bit troubling.
I am torn.
I want Kerry to win. And a slow or declining economy can do just that.
But I am tired of the three year economic malaise that has inhabited the current economy and would like to see some real good news come out of Wall Street or Federal economic reports.
We have all danced to it. One of the Talking Heads biggest hits. An 80s staple. Bring on the big beat. But give it another good listen. I mean really listen. Taek off the dancing shoes and sit down and consider the lyrics. This is a terrying song. About Armageddon. About the end of the world. I think David is preaching the new wave gospel. He means to take over. Byrne is preaching us to take the party to the hills because life here in town is about to rain hell.
“Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons
packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway
a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance”
That is some beautiful film noir imagery. It cleary set the theme and gets us ready for the dialectic to follow.
Next, that all too familiar lead up to the refrain:
“I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in the ghetto
I’ve lived all over this town”
This isn’t a class struggle. This affects all of us. We all must flee. Okay, here it comes – try not to dance, there is work to be done:
“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
this ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey
I ain’t got time for that now”
I mean it, I really mean it. Pay attention. I am not just some guy in a big old white suit dancing around. We have trouble, right here in River City.
“Transmit the message, to the receiver
hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, couple of visas
don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, trucks are loading
everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime
I might not ever get home.”
(Totally unrelated, but this reminds me of Warren Zevon’s lawyer’s guns and money. )
“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
this ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no mudd club, or C. B. G. B.
I ain’t got time for that now”
I really, really mean it!
“Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?”
Obviously, we have missed some of the drama already, but our time is coming.
“You oughta know not to stand by the window
somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter
to last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers
ain’t got no headphones
ain’t got no records to play
“Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time?
Can’t write a letter, can’t send a postcard
I can’t write nothing at all
“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
this ain’t no fooling around
I’d love you hold you, I’d like to kiss you
I ain’t got no time for that now
“Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock
we blended in with the crowd
We got computers, we’re tapping phone lines
I know that ain’t allowed
“We dress like students, we dress like housewives
or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle so many times now
don’t know what I look like!
“You make me shiver, I feel so tender
we make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving
you ought to get you some sleep
“Get you instructions, follow directions
then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day
whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace
the burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness
don’t want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don’t take no chances
you better watch what you say”
Wow, that is some magic. Like the last few hours of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas put to music. What we had is gone and the new is coming. We don’t know what it is. We should fear it.
I just dig this song.
1. What’s your favorite TV theme song and why?
The original Bill Cosby show (not the one with Huxtables but the one in 1970s). It was by Quincy Jones and it is a great mix of Jazz, Blues and Funk.
2. What’s your worst roommate story?
I had the most anal retentive boring and mean-spirited roommate my freshman year of college. Dan W. was an ROTC student, a proud Target employee and the stingiest bastard in the world. He had rented a refrigerator from the campus but kept it locked and in his closet. Inside his locked refrigerator was a case of some sort of Target brand soda. Each can was marked with his name. He used to take a lot of extra food from the cafeteria and keep it in the refrigerator as well. I was just a small town boy living the life of adventure in the big city and never had come across such an untrusting and mean spririted guy before. (He was wrapped real tight. He used to try to get into fights with all the guys on the floor and would physically shake with anger over the littlest thing (usually loud music, in a college dorm, in the 1980s, in Boulder – not a good sign)). And the fights went nowhere. It was a floor of midwest and California stoner dudes that were into the Grateful Dead and Rasta and didn’t want to fight, but that didn’t stop Dan. He once pulled a knife, or should I say a butter knife on a neighbor because of music. The neighbor laughed. I laughed. We all laughed. And Dan sauntered back to his room – locking me out as he pouted at the injustice of life. The next semester he moved to different dorm and our bong-centric floor went on with life. I have scarely thought of him until this moment.
3. What are you superstitious about?
Not much, really. I trust machines and processes and don’t generally life in a world where machines are personified with any kind of luck. I don’t worry about spilling salt or breaking mirrors and I don’t believe in ghosts.
4. The dumbest thing my boss has ever said is…
Hmmmm. I can remember some dumb bosses and dumb things they have done – but I don’t remember any good, juicy actual dumb boss quotes. I think the best dumb thing I recall was a publisher of small weekly I was working for in Gunnison. The paper came out on Friday mornings and John thought it was taking to long to put it together on Thursday night. He proposed having the whole thing done on Wednesday so it could go in the mail by Thursday put still keep the Friday publishing date and essentially missing two to three days of news and events each week. It was kind of stupid – all the sports news and city government coverage would have been two weeks old. This guy is so easy to pick on. There was also this huge breaking story of three lost cross country skiiers. They left from Aspen and then were lost and hadn’t returned in time. And their search eventually became a national news story, with Denver and National news media all over town chasing down the story. I had the orginal news story when they were found because I heard it on the radio scanner. I scrapped most of the weeks news and focused our coverage of this event. John thought this was a waste of time. People, he thought, didn’t want to read about this. I was stupified. A national news story breaks – the leading event with Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw and CNN and John, the publisher of the local paper, wanted to be the only paper that wasn’t covering it because it seemed like an awful lot of work.
5. What does your favorite mug look like?
It is a big yellow and black mug with a built in rubber coaster and emblazoned with the words Nexel. Done. It has a perfect handle asnd holds just the right amount of coffee for a weekend morning.
The problem is that we aren’t scared enough. Maybe we should just join the crowd and just play along.
Or do most homeless have laptops and wireless access the only thing holding them back from success is a decent web site? How about using the dough spent on hosting a website to give a guy a place to sleep?
Holy Crap!!! This dude was my next door neighbor in Congress Park for nearly three years. We mowed the lawn together. My sister even worked a few weekends with him laying sod for an other neighbor. I can say all the things you would normally say, like he was really quiet guy, tended to himself and on occassion would talk you ear off. My use of wood chips and a good part of my other BBQ methods came from this guy. My sister also worked with him indirectly in a more recent setting, at the Montclair Recreation Center, where he was working right before he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for RAPE! How scary.
I just sat there, looking at the television news saying, Shit!, that’s my neighbor Bill! What a small world. He had a cool little house up off Quebec by the Stapleton development. Wonder if its on the market? (snark!)