2024.03.30
Open Photo Gallery
2023.03.30
awww early birthday gift from my sweetie Melissa! Minifig with Tuba/HONK shirt, a laptop, can o coke, lil Nitendo and a Dean kitty!
2022.03.30
2021.03.30
Lower your blast shields, kids, cuz Uncle Hunty's been drinkin' Two Buck Chuck and doing the dishes, and now he has the hottest take in the galaxy: Empire Strikes back is the Batman of Star Wars movies: something you think is really cool when you're an adolescent, but which seems exponentially dumber the more you think about it.He's right! especially Point Two. And the start of making a galaxy that was way too small (oh btw Darth MADE that shiny gold protocol droid) and way too big (just no limits to anything, really going for that "Encyclopedia Galactica" scale) at the same time.
ISSUE #1! The Force. In the first Star Wars, "the Force" was mostly about intuition and "trusting your feelings". If you were REALLY strong with the Force, you could put a whammy on weak-minded people, like "these aren't the droids you're looking for" or when Obi Wan made some other stormtroopers think they heard a noise behind them. Darth Vader was strong enough in the Force that he made a dude think he was choking to death, and he had, like, a weird feeling when his old mentor Obi Wan was nearby, but it was so weak he dismissed it.
Then in Empire Strikes Back, the Force is suddenly full-on telekinesis in the first 10 minutes with Luke TKing his lightsaber to his hand, Yoda levitating an entire X-Wing out of a swamp, Vader TK-throwing stuff around during a fight, and Luke doing a wire-fu super jump. AND there's Force ghosts! Whereas Luke hearing Obi Wan saying "use the Force, Luke!" at the end of the first movie could've been a memory or at most Obi Wan's will reaching out through the Force to deliver one final message, in Empire he's right there walkin' around, sitting on logs and having conversations like this is all totally normal. AAAAAND then at the very end Luke and Darth have a telepathic conversation across probably thousands of miles of space, so that's part of the Force now, too. Which brings us to...
ISSUE #2! A big important message of the first movie was that even if you're just some rando farmboy from Planet Nowheresville, you could learn the mystical arts and use your farmboy pluck and skills you developed bullseying womprats out of sheer boredom to save the galaxy! This was very inspirational to all the Nowheresville farmboys of the world, of which there are quite a few, who had otherwise mostly been told that heroism was for princes and knights and stuff. Sure, Luke's neighbor happened to have been the sensei of Darth Vader, and Luke's dad had been a knight, but from the sound of it Luke's dad was just another of the countless dudes Darth Vader smushed on his way to supremacy.
Then in Empire Strikes back, we learn that Darth Vader IS Luke's dad! Oh wow! I guess he's actually only "strong with the Force" and capable of saving the galaxy because he's the son of the galaxy's most powerful wizard-knight, and it's all birthright, just like all the other heroes. Sorry, Nowheresville! Well, at least he's in the running for boyfriend to that princess, and that's a step up even from space wizard's son, right?
ISSUE #3 was gonna be about how it feels like the Empire "strikes back" way too fast after having their super-weapon destroyed, but the more I think about it that actually seems pretty reasonable, with them sending probes all over the place looking for those pesky rebels, and then dumping ALL of their remaining resources into smushing them when they find them on Hoth. And then they continue to spend their remaining resources chasing the Millenium Falcon all over for the rest of the movie, and are spread so thin that they have to hire bounty hunters to help them, and end up having to make a leveraged deal with a washed-out gambler for their final move. So that's actually just fine.
So there you go! In retrospect, all the changes in The Force Awakens that everyone complains about don't hold a candle to what Empire Strikes Back pulled on the first Star Wars.
And the skepticism shown about the force is so much more in tune with the "subtle mind tricks". Like when Darth says the line about "this battle station is no match for the power of the dark side" etc, he sounds rightfully defensive of a subtle mystical art, along with Han's blase and dismissive lines about it ("Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid [...] Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.")
ᴇᴄʜᴏ ᴄʜᴀᴍʙᴇʀꜱ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴʙʀᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ᴋɴᴏᴡʟᴇᴅɢᴇ
2020.03.30
"No good deed goes unpunished" so I acknowledge your secular mandate to reward my joint efforts at housecleaning with a pulled lower back in these quarantine times. I further acknowledge that in your eternal promise of "there is no situation so bad that it couldn't be worse" I might have come down with COVID-19 and be supplementing every dry cough with wrenching back spasms, so thank you for staying your hand, and please accept this benediction on your capricious power as reason to allow me slouch out from under the gaze of your bloodshot eye.
An old mentor of mine made this COVID-19 simulation, a bit more detailed than some of the other ones I've seen: ventrella.com/covid19/
Now it's kinda like life is just staring at the 3 dots on iMessage while coronavirus is typing
2019.03.30
"Oh yeah? Well I would commit human rights abuses just for more frosting."
"I would blaspheme for a few more sprinkles."
"I would wage an unjust war and commit war crimes for the recipe."
"Guys I think we should just chill out."
2018.03.30
Later I've noticed times when some people a bit to the left of me, or far to the right, seem to be indicating that you have to change something at its core, and then the good interactions you're hoping for will follow. (The anecdote for the left is how to get a band to lean into being diverse and welcoming, and for the right - I've even seen it in a scholarly way of presuming that understanding the Latinate roots of a word was more important than understanding the vernacular usage of it. But I also feel the right's view that "the apple don't fall far from the tree" and justifications for racism by lumping people into the worst stereotypes of their class has the same top-down thinking.)
Me, I dunno. I have no knack for observing personal growth in myself or others. People's behaviors or abilities may change for the better - statistical clear improvements - but I never get a sense of when that can safely feel like an internalized improvement. For instance, dieting never becomes easy, it's always a matter of gumption and leading myself way the hell away from temptation, because frankly if the delicious food is right there I'm gonna eat it. New eating habits never form and so constant vigilance is the requirement.
Further thought: On the 2013 post (man I hadn't shut down my comments section because of spammers by then?) an anonymous commenter wrote "And Somewhere in the salvation army, an angel just spit in its soup." Which is funny, because I had been thinking about how The Salvation Army really is about people being redeemed, through the life changing power of Jesus Christ.
I guess it's telling that both they and, say, AA look to a supernatural power as necessary for making a true change.
Given my current skepticism, I'm at least heartened by pondering on how insanely powerful the Placebo effect is in medicine.... It's too bad we don't respect placebos, because a belief in God is a powerful psychological bending thing, and that's true, for good or for ill, regardless of the supernatural truth behind any given belief...
The sun is probably the closest thing we’ll ever have to a true Eldritch Abomination. Hear me out here-
- Older than recorded history; was here longer than any of us and will be here long after we leave. Has a finite beginning and end but is still incomprehensibly ancient
- Burns itself into your vision instantly and can blind you if you look for too long
- Further prolonged exposure can cause cancerous growths
- Non-humanoid shape floating through space; colossal flaming tentacles angrily lash out on occasion
- Sort of just appeared one day and is now surrounded by the corpses of its stillborn children
- People used to sacrifice other people to appease it
- Pretty sure it screams at us sometimes
My sweet Melissa works in the same building as me - in fact her company's "Beer Garden" is an atrium visible from our office area and she left me this message...
2017.03.30
[William] Hamilton died in 2000, after catching malaria on a trip to Africa to investigate the origins of HIV. About a decade before his death, he wrote about how he would like his own burial to go. He wanted his body carried to the forests of Brazil and laid out to be eaten from the inside by an enormous winged Coprophanaeus beetle using his body to nurture its young, who would emerge from him and fly off.
No worm for me nor sordid fly, I will buzz in the dusk like a huge bumble bee. I will be many, buzz even as a swarm of motorbikes, be borne, body by flying body out into the Brazilian wilderness beneath the stars, lofted under those beautiful and un-fused elytra [wing covers] which we will all hold over our backs. So finally I too will shine like a violet ground beetle under a stone.
(Full disclosure: I am making fun of myself here, too. My wife and I have been married for nine years, and in those nine years I have not shared a one-on-one meal with any other women except maybe my mother or sister. That's not because of any principle other than the one that also has prevented me from sharing more than maybe two one-on-one meals with any men in those nine years: I'm an asocial hermit. Also my company is of no value to anyone.)Referencing how disallowing the possibility of men and women dining together for non-pre-pre-sexytime reasons is greatly disempowering to women. Conservatives like to bash Islam for its anti-Feminist ways, and yeah that's more egregious, but this kind of thinking is more insidious.
Man, the dumb-ass crap conservatives will put on the side of a bus. And here I thought "if we didn't spend so much on EU we'd have more money to put into NHS" was the biggest bus lie I'd see.
2016.03.30
The love child of Nietzsche and Pollyanna.
2015.03.30
2014.03.30
2013.03.30
Saying goodbye to 38-year-old-Kirk, forever.
2012.03.30
When civilization falls there will be legends of "Googal" the omniscient oracle, with glowing altars in every home and business.
Conservatives: dumber than ever. Faith over reason is a recipe for bad policy and awful political stances.
http://hint.fm/wind/index.html --awesome map of current prevailing winds all over the USA
It seems kind of insane how almost all of the Panera's pastries are like 2 or 3 Snickers' worth full of calories.
2011.03.30
--via xoBruce. I guess that's a good warning for any hobos who might be asleep on the tracks!
Amber points out this is the last day I can make that joke "Old? No way! It's like I have the power of two 18 year olds stuck together!"
invisible handInvisible AND Opaque?
Had a thing, my neighborhood was really weird, you know, because my mother's a Puerto Rican a little bit. Huh, and my father's colored a lot.
2010.03.30
--Lacunar Vals by "9000" -- Wired had a piece on this artist, check out the photostream on flikr
If I knew the world was going to end tomorrow, I would plant a tree.
My birthday is tomorrow. I was born around 20 past midnight which makes me doubly grateful for Daylight Savings Time: without it my birthday would be "March 30" which you see less often than 31, which is the last day of the first quarter. (Though I guess I'd be making "the 30th is twice the ides of March!" jokes)
You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real
2009.03.30
--via Failblog. This is not quite the tattoo I plan to get.
Beautiful low clouds lit by the city of Boston at night as I drive home on 93.
My Aunt got carded buying me an M-rated (17+) video game for my birthday... ("Mad World". The game. Well, the world too.)
Cool Ranch Doritos are labeled 'Cool American' [in Iceland]To quote Team America, World Police: AMERICA-- F*** YEAH!
2008.03.30
My fault.
Sigh, like Milan Kundera wrote "We never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come."
Japan of the Moment
So one odd series of photograph I took in Japan were manhole covers. Not every one I saw, but I saw a few that caught my eye, either because of design, or with a splash of cover, or because the hole was in grass instead of asphault, etc...
Open Photo Gallery
Kamakura
Hiroshima
Osaka
Ginza
Hakone
Akahabara
Kanazawa
Shim-Matsudo
That last one probably is the one that got me noticing them on one of the first days, but I didn't think to photograph it 'til the end.
2007.03.30
When I found out that was just some stupid decorative pin, I was so deeply disappointed.
Another time he took an airplane trip where, through a series of bumps and rebates and discounts and something to do with PEOPLExpress, the airline ended up paying my dad to fly, much to his amusement.
Link of the Moment
Why a Career in Programming Sucks. Some good points, but it still comes down to how it feels like one of the last bastions of being payed well for making stuff. (via Catherine, but her LJ is mostly for friends only)
2006.03.30
Random thought experiment, how long will it take all the "I have a new email address!" spam to catch up the number of emails that legitmately used that? Maybe a while, since you see that on a lot of business corespondance, but still.
Orgy of the Moment
--I really loved this not TOO explicit orgy scene from the Perry Bible Fellowship "Cupid Mistake". |
Article of the Moment
FoSO fwd'd this article reiterating the idea that more money doesn't equal more happiness, and little details of daily life (like, having a shorter commute) are more important than sheer salary size. I'm not quite sure what the action item on this is for me though.
2005.03.30
Open Photo Gallery
--After the rain yesterday. The first two are from my street in Arlington, the second two are from the parking lot at my office park. I still like wet oil pavement a bit better, but these were kind of fun.
Link of the Moment
When Bad Scenes Happen To Good Movies and then vice versa. (via Bill the Splut)
2004.03.30
It's a good question.
I never would, being a nostalgic kind of guy, but it's a good question.
Selection of the Moment
Lay Your Sleeping head, my love,Always been a favorite of mine, something in last night' movie brought it to mind.
Human on my faithless arm:
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.
Political Jabs of the Moment
Bush/Cheney took down their "sloganator" banner builder, but not after some folks gave them some great ideas.
Site of the Moment
Linked to from boingboing's sidebar, it's Cancergiggles, a site by a man who has about 6-18 months to live from cancer. Written with huge doses of humor and willingness to talk about things head on.
Gratuitous Large Font Use of the Moment
Sweet Jimminy Crickets! This is the last evening of my twenties! And I'm at home cleaning my study and looking for my frickin' checkbook! (And moaning about it in my journal.) Heck, in Europe, I'm already 30!
Ah well. 5-6 years ago, my Y2K-etc fearing self thought I'd be lucky to make to 30. But here I am.
2003.03.30
Quote and Mix CDs of the Moment
If you are a disc jockey, kindly remember that your job is to play records that people will enjoy dancing to and not to impress possible visiting disc jockeys with your esoteric tastes. People generally enjoy dancing to songs that have words and are of a reasonable length. Sixteen-minute instrumentals by West African tribal drummers are frequently the cause of undue amyl nitrate consumption and shirt removal.Previously in the passage she suggest people amyl nitrate should be consumed in one's truck, not in the middle of a crowded dance floor, and that fellow dancers interested in your progress at the gym will not be too shy to ask, one does not have to remove one's shirt, despite the warmth.
So I'm finally learning how to make optimal party dance mix CDs...the watchwords, as that quote reminded me, are A. danceability and B. familiarity. (Mix CDs for cars are a different story, there you can try to introduce people to new music.) Also, I've realized that each new generation of mix CDs can be a refinement of the last. To those ends, I loaded my two new mixes with late 80s/early 90s party hiphop, and a lot of modern covers of new wave songs:
Roaring Twenties Disc One:
Groove Is In The Heart (Kirk party mix neccesity)
Burning Down The House (Tom Jones cover)
Wild Thing
Like a Prayer (deep throated techno-ish cover)
Bad Touch ("like they do on the Discover Channel" song)
The Humpty Dance
Take On Me (Ska cover)
Shake Your Thang (Salt -n- Pepa)
Jump Around
Tained Love (Marilyn Manson cover)
Stress (Jim's Big Ego)
It Takes Two
99 Red Balloons (Modern cover)
Walk This Way (Run DMC/Aerosmith version)
Funky Cold Medina
Tainted Love (original, here by mistake)
Roaring Twenties Disc Two:
Baby Got Back
One Week
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
Slam
Unbelievable
Hungry Like The Wolf (funny lounge cover)
Things That Make You Go Hmmmm
One Way Or Another
Private Idaho
What I Like About You
Walk Like an Egyptian
Ice Ice Baby
My Sharona
I Will Survive
I'm Too Sexy
Smack My Bitch Up
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Vogue
Disc One is a bit stronger than Disc Two. In general, I try to arrange songs in descending order of coolness.
2002.03.30
AOL Chat of the Moment
kirk: what's for lunch?--Maybe you had to be there...oh, wait, John WAS there. Must be just me.
john: whatever
kirk: a big steam plate of indifference it is then
john: sweet!
kirk: sweet, sweet indifference. Where would I be without you? Caring about every damn thing that's what
Link of the Moment
Where do you go for your half-baked ideas? Why, the halfbakery, of course. (Link via a Slashdot article about this NY Times piece with 9 interesting technology ideas.)
2001.03.30
Read the Lies People Tell (the site seems a little disorganized, this seems to be the best starting link.) Kind of cool stuff, the "Lies our Parents Tell Us" was a Cruel Site of the Day recently.
Quote of the Moment
Information wants to be a Socialist... not a Communist or a Republican.
"How about we reenact the resurrection with hand puppets instead?"
--Captain James Israel, when pushed to hold a sunrise Easter service.)
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"Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle. "
--Steinbach
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I've been Jonesing for this $2000 RCA 36", HDTV compatible, SVGA ready tv. That's a lot of money for a television, but you can swing the numbers games a lot of ways. 3 months rent, (2 if we had a nicer place), 3 digitical cameras (and I'll probably use this more), etc etc. Most importantly, for me it represents a part of the 'good life'.
00-3-30
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