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It's hard to convey just how big the new budget makes the country's immigration enforcement infrastructure.
The Bureau of Prisons? Bigger than that. The FBI? Bigger. The Marine Corps? Bigger even than that, by some estimates.

Pool time with Me, Wren, Chasity,and Little Man Today Melissa and I went to Half Moon Beach in Gloucester's Stage Fort Park. I like the idea that we are fae for animals...

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We should probably stop putting people who are prepping for the rapture in charge of anything.

For even rationality cannot get by without imagination, but neither can imagination without rationality. The marriage of the two is, however, of such a peculiar kind, that they carry on a life and death struggle, and yet it is only together that they are able to accomplish their greatest feats, such as the higher form of conceptualising that we are accustomed to call reason.

(translation by Iain McGilchrist) Still muddling through McGilchrist's "The Master and His Emissary" I'm still stuck on the paradox of assigning imagination and being able to transcend personal experience to the right hemisphere, when learning of other people's experiences, gaining value from happenings without having to experience them ourselves and seeing points of view we didn't come across ourselves, comes to us via written and spoken language, the tool of the left hemisphere.

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It's easy to think of mosquitos and say "look, if we could get rid of them all we should! No redeeming qualities. If humans are responsible for the extinction of so many other species why not them?" here's why not... they are a food source for other creatures, because they breed with very little water and can get protein via non-lethal means.

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via Mitra Farmand, my table-neighbor at the MICE comic convention way back when

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Man, those "zero gravity" patio chairs are great, aren't they? A long time ago I had one on in my living room. Over the years I've scoffed at that as a wacky bachelor boy indulgence, but now... in lounging comfort and back support roles I think they have hammocks beat by a mile.

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More people got laid via mixed drinks than mixtapes.

"When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket."

On the one hand he seem to have a pretty good view of the potential for women's intellectual achievements. On the other hand... eugenics? Bleh. Yesterday I saw today's Doonesbury (it always seems like odd magic when my mom gets the Sunday supplement a day or two early.) "It don't mean nothin" is an interesting fatalistic line, up there with "it is what it is" (as the comic points out) or "this too shall pass". I think it's wise to incorporate that into one's outlook, but to finesse it so that you're still fighting the good fights - don't let some of level of acceptance become apathy, but also don't burn your rage candle at both ends.

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2019 has been the year of tending to my old blog entries, a process about halfway through, since it's early July. Over the years I've been (along side the typical blog-ish writing) collecting quotes, posting links and embedding videos I've come across, putting up little virtual toys and games I've made, and posting photos. This year I'm adding demarcation to the quotes, find replacements for videos that have been taken offline, relinking to the javascript version of old java toys and games, and putting photosets with 4 or more entries into thumbail galleries.

Every morning of 2019 I load up kirk.is/thisday/ and do the necessary for this date over the years I've been running the blog. Of these tasks, the quote thing is the most significant. Somehow it feels just right to me to have a bit of design that concisely says "I'm quoting here, not composing"

My blog, following in the "commonplace book" tradition, is becoming more deeply rewarding to me as I keep at it - now reaching the end of two decades of activity! From seeing glimpses of my past self to being able to find the exact version of almost any quote I remember hearing and liking, it's terrific. I think nearly everyone should keep a journal and a commonplace book, even if it's not public - and they should probably do it in a way not dependent on any one company like facebook, tumblr, or blogspot.

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'we love the sea because it's where we come from we fear it because we left so long ago', I say suddenly, startling myself, and the waitress

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Here's a little embed I made:
Been getting into podcasts, a good substitute for my driving commute where I can't read or hack. It feels like there's a spectrum of "2 or 3 smart people shooting the breeze about a topic" to "polished, edited programs, like (or by) NPR". I find I strongly prefer the former.

Podcasts fans, is there one side of that you prefer?

Also, do you listen at normal speed or sped up?

But come to think of it, maybe I should try audiobooks as well, now that I know I have proof of concepted with podcasts.

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David Sedaris mentioned someone wearing a lavalava. I was sort of amused by the start of the wikipedia entry:

"A lavalava, also known as an 'ie, short for 'ie lavalava"

Hmm. Just back from a lovely vacation with Melissa at my Mom+Aunt's in Ocean Grove.... the one downside to the trip was missing her cat, but here was a photo taken by her neighbor who stepped in for the feeding and light petting duties...

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Oh Great God Gun, you sacred scamp.

The circular wheel of "justifications", where Dallas somehow can "justify" Falcon Heights and Baton Rouge, and vice versa, is going to grind us for a while.

Long hot summer.
Last month's One Second Everyday... visual highlights include Slip and slide on the 7th, Go-Karting and Parasailing on the 16th and 17th, nice ocean splash on the 19th

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We spend our childhood learning to suppress our emotions, we spend our adulthood learning to express them again.

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http://www.wired.com/2015/07/the-pen-is-back/ Always been a fan of the stylus, Steve Jobs throwing shade not withstanding.

I am the color red in a world of black and white.

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The other reality is that every wildland fire put out is a fire put off.

My friend/mentor/collaborator Jeffrey Ventrella implemented an idea I came up with years ago, and now ported it to Javascript: Breeding Gliders in Cellular Automata

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OSX users... one thing I think Windows does better is that its standard File Open and Save dialogs are functional explorer windows - you can do little helpful tasks like creating folders and deleting files. On OSX it seems like I always have to switch to Finder, navigate to the location, and THEN do whatever file stuff-- even though the dialog LOOKS pretty much like a standard Finder window, it's in "read only" mode. Any workarounds for that?

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I en

I really enjoyed this GIF about giving peace a chance in the NHL.

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New Blender of Love
Made another rubber stamp... messed up though, forgot to carve it backwards, so I had to "fix that in post" as they say. Used it for the latest Love Blender...

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"How is fishing competitive? Man vs. fish?"
"No, man vs. man. The weighing, the measuring-- I respect anything that rewards you for silence."

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Lots of windows can distract you--but they can also let in a lot of light.

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The beauty of America is that every idiot gets to have their stupid, wrong-headed beliefs respected.

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July Blender of Love

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http://www.salon.com/2012/07/01/southern_values_revived/ - wow. Seeing the current conservative culture war as Revenge of the Plantation Owners, the Civil War Part Deux... This was one of the 5 days (2011.07.07, 2013.03.16, 2013.05.04, 2013.05.08, 2013.05.13) I missed, as of this site's 5000th entry on Sep 8 2014... So forming an oddly important part of my diet (down 8-10 lbs so far!) are classic "Atomic Fireball" candies... here is an animated GIF of them being packaged:

Cinnamon is thought of as an appetite suppressant and while there might not be any actual cinnamon in these I wonder if the spicy-sweetness might not have about the same effect. I think the flavor is "mouth-interesting enough", and each candy long lasting enough, that 2 or 3 of these during a workday keep from seeking out creamier, fattier sweet treats.

The animation comes from Ferrara Pan's Atomic Fire Ball Virtual Tour, showing the pearl-like process by which these things are made. (It's funny what a late-90s vibe that page has... I wish I could put my finger on what the older aspects are, from a design standpoint.)

Man. "Atomic Fireball" is kind of a scary name now that I stop and think about it.

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Digital glitches are getting me down-the iPhone podcast w/ a FF-busting 00:00 time. the unresumable xbox live download (a helicopter :-( )

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I agree with Slate that Red Remover is a good game.

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Avoidance of embarrassment is the least worthwhile of motives.

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What I recommend is, when life gives you lemons: (1) Buy a bunch of Hefty bags! (2) Fill the Hefty bags with lemons! (3) Lug the bags to the curb! And (4) Call a certified waste-disposal contractor to haul away the piles of lemons now rotting in the sun!

See Also

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http://sexualintelligence.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/july-4-and-your-sexual-freedom/ - an honest word of thanks for sexual freedoms - last 2 paragraphs are great (via cmg)

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http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/02/business/economy/20090705-cycles-graphic.html - oddly soothing NY Times interactive infographics ( via http://twitter.com/littleayun )

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When I was a kid, I used to imagine a form of afterlife of some random moment- mundane or not- of my regular life extended forever. The bad: my iPhone developed a "dead strip", an area of the screen (bottom half of the top half) that wasn't responding to touch.

The worse: this happened a year to the day from my purchase of it, and I thought I read something about a year warranty.

The good: the Apple Store was happy to give me a new one!

The better: I was expecting that only stuff that synched with other programs would be saved, but when I hooked the new device up to my PC, all of my old settings got restored, memos, links, histories, etc etc!

The note of caution: I guess this kind of a known problem with iPhones, and I'm vaguely nervous about the iPod Touch Josh, who is now in Japan, got when he was here on my recommendation. Ah well... we can burn that bridge when we come to it!

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Observation of the Moment

The fly swatter is in fact intended to be useless, at least as far as the destruction of flies is concerned. It is not intended to kill flies. Instead it embodies a gesture of protest, of refusal. Of irritation. It says that this should not be, that this buzzing and droning is pointless. That these creatures are objectionable, insalubrious and stupid. That one must refuse them any quarter, shoo them away. It yells at them that there will no mercy, that they will all end up squashed, flattened, obliterated, without exceptions. Clearly, it has no intention of putting an end to a single one of them. But it flaps and creates a wind, so that they will remove themselves for ever. Which no doubt occasionally happens.

The fly swatter is not a utilitarian object, at least not primarily so. It is pure gesture, nothing more.

Like "Still Life With Woodpecker" or "The Mezzanine", thoughts about inanimate objects, whether or not they're able to return the favor. The structure of this book reminded me a bit of "Einstein's Dreams", but also had a rather unfortunate French feel at times.

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pentomino heh, I was tempted by the "full price" version at Brookstone. Though at least try the other; maybe QA is variable, not just bad?

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Too bad that "Just Do It" is such a bit of corporate speak, it's not a bad mandate for real life. One coworker had "JFDI" over his monitor.

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I've used "What Are You Waiting For?" as a non-Nike version of "Just Do It"; it's a bit deeper but less pointed.

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madonna/a-rod? sheesh. you KNOW she's thinking monroe/dimaggio... Watched the "Transformers" movie last night. It was... oh, OK I guess. Dragged a bit, but the big fight at the end was pretty grand.

The original cartoon really was more of an ensemble piece... the better to sell more toys with... and modern renditions tend to focus more on the human aspect, what it would be like to find these giant robots around, with fewer robot characters. At least in the movie, the "Robots in Disguise" aspect made some kind of sense, the cartoons "well the Ark thought cars were the dominant life form" shtick was kinda silly, and they hardly ever tried to fool anyone.

Interesting quote from Jonathan:

"I always thought Starscream was a girl."

and later, after I pointed out that Starscream had the voice of Cobra Commander...

"I really liked Starscream better a girl... she-- it-- he-- and megatron had that married couple aspect, the bitching and the fighting."

You know, it never occurred to me but but I can kind of see it:


Almost a Destro/Baroness kind of vibe. (Also, this clip plays it out a bit more.) Man, that really was the nadir of animation.

The other cute line from the movie:

Agent Simmons from the shadowy "Sector 7" Agency and the brave solider Captain Lennox are holding guns on each other in a standoff:

Agent Simmons: I'm going to count to 5...
Captain Lennox: I'm going to count to 3.

Whew, that's some action!

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Link of the Moment
Very readable English2American glossary. I'm always fascinated by differences in vocabulary and attitude.

I was surprised to realize that I was kisrael'ing Heelys, those sneakers each with a single wheel in the back, all the way back in 2001 (a few days before 9/11, come to notice it...) And now that they've achieved some popularity with the kids, I have to say, I am insanely jealous, and a bit bitter about how foolish I would look in a pair. (Though come to think of it I haven't worn sneakers when I wasn't actively trying to be athletic for a long, long time.) There is something magical when a kid strolls along and then starts gliding, if they were just a few inches above the ground they would exactly be acting out a recurring dream image I have.

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Quote of the Moment

Look at nature. Nature is one big woodchipper. Sooner or later everything shoots out the other end in a spray of blood, bones, and hair.

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Patents of the Moment
At work they have those little mini stacks of Pringles. Scott at work pointed out how many damn patent numbers are printed on one... 5,464,643, 6,066,353, 6,177,116, 6,235,333, 6,287,622, 6,312,747, 6,461,663, 6,521,281, 6,544,580 and D452,152. Boy, when I'm craving a salty snack product, my first thought is to reach for one that could be spending years in expensive patent litigation.

It's a little interesting figuring out what problems Pringle engineers must face. Most of the patents are for "resulting flakes [that] can be used to prepare a more cohesive, non-adhesive, machineable dough."

Oy, terror in London. I guess what I find most distrubing about it is, in general, London is pretty careful about this stuff, after years of "The Troubles" and the IRA.

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Distraction of the Moment
If you like your nudity tiny, low-rez, and plentiful, BoingBoing linked to 500 nude sunbathers in one 1024*768 shot, ready for use as desktop wallpaper.

Also, here for no other reason than it lightly amuses me, Bush runs his bike into a Scottish policeman.

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Current Events Commentary of the Moment

The natural state of the English is a kind of gloomy diligence, which is why they do so well in hard times. In 1940, Londoners went dutifully on with their business while the Luftwaffe bombed the hell out of them. Today, most of them are doing the same. I was in Washington for 9/11, and the whole city went into a panic. Offices emptied, stores shut, downtown D.C. became a ghost town. But in London today, everyone still has a cell phone clutched to their ear. The delivery vans are still racing about, seeking shortcuts around all the street closures. The Starbucks is packed.

This kind of thing strengthens my distrust and, frankly, hatred of Fundamentalist religion. People who follow the liberal religious outlook think that their meta-belief might encompass pretty much every outlook, but it really doesn't; any belief system that mistakes faith for fact and acts accordingly is the enemy of the Moderates' viewpoint. So, I'm back from Cleveland. I realized that most of the photos I took wouldn't be of such wide interest to most of the kisrael crowd, so I decided to be a little selective.

Now, I almost hesitate to post this in case someone gets the idea that Cleveland is less urban or urbane than it actually is. In general, I guess it runs a bit on the conservative side, at least relative to us here in Taxachussetstan. Still, I was strucky by this Jeep rear window:

Two Irish flag decals plus an American flag with "No Vacancy" over it. Now, I'm more or less ok with a strong devotion to ethnic heritage even though I'm just a WASP-mutt, but do you think this person has a deep understanding of the history of Irish-American immigration, and the way the rest of the country responded to it at the time?

Anyway, in more amusing topics, we threw Mike a birthday party. Here he is wearing a mask with the eyeholes blacked out and his special birthday crown:

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Dialog of the Moment

"I've got a mask on that's duct-taped to my face, I'm wearing a silly hat, I've got a wand in one hand, a beer in the other, and I've got explosives in my pocket."
"That sounds like a perfect evening."

Quote of the Moment

Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win.

I used this on this month's loveblender, and actually I went and got that book...it's pretty frequently quoted in various geek places, so I thought I should give it a whirl.

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Video of the Moment
Making the rounds, hi-larious anti-computer game piracy music video from 1992 reminds kids Don't Copy That Floppy...man, I didn't realize that companies after the 80s still hadn't realized that corporate rap is just a dorky abomination, even if they get a black guy (MC Disk Protector) to do it and have reasonable production values. And the way he's dancing around...wow. (Plus, besides the bad acting, the game the kids are playing against each other is apparently won by slapping random keys on the keyboard as quickly as possible.) You can cut it off after the first few industry talking heads show up, it's pretty repetitive after that. Oy, quick entry, gotta go help Peterman with moving his stuff...

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Quote of the Moment

Adults are just obsolete children, and to hell with them.

Considering I'm programming a dang Atari, maybe I have a difference view of obsolescence than he does.

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Link of the Moment
One of the entries in the 2002 5k web design contest (more on that once they release the results) it's Pixel Ninja... a bit reminscent of the old school game Bruce Lee on the Commodore 64.

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from "There is a Gold Light in Certain Old Paintings"

Orpheus hesitated beside the black river.
With so much to look forward to, he looked back.
We think he sang then, but the song is lost.
At least he had seen once more the beloved back.
      I say the song went this way: O prolong
      Now the sorrow if that is all there is to prolong.

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