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November 28, 2005
U.S. Citizenship Test
| You Passed the US Citizenship Test |
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Apparently, I'm fully prepared to be exiled and then immigrate back.
Meme by Dan | Permalink | Comments (2)
November 21, 2005
The Pre-Raphaelites (thank you Wikipedia!!)
I've long been a fan of a collection of painters, of a style really, that is referred to as "the Pre-Raphaelites". The thing that always bothered me was I kept wondering just who this Raphael was. What was it about his art that was so stunning and ground-breaking to mark all the artists who preceded him as not artists in their own right, but merely as his precursors? I found this especially troubling because I'd never heard of this Raphael. I mean, I could understand the Pre-Picasso's or the Pre-Michaelangelo's, but what made this guy so special? What made this even more frustrating was that whenever I posed the question to another Pre-Raphaelite fan, they never knew the answer.
Well, on a lark this morning, I looked them up on Wikipedia, and I finally got my answer. It turns out that it was quite the opposite of what the name implies. The Pre-Raphaelites came after Raphael. They were a reform movement attempting to restore to the art the things they felt that Raphael and his contemporaries had driven out. From Wiki:
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets and critics, founded in 1848 by John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt.
The group's intention was to reform art by rejecting what they considered to be the mechanistic approach adopted by the Mannerist artists who followed Raphael and Michelangelo. They believed that the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on academic teaching of art. Hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite". In particular they objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts. They called him 'Sir Sloshua', believing that his sloppy technique was a formulaic and clichéd form of academic Mannerism. In contrast they wanted to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art.
The Pre-Raphaelites have been considered the first avant-garde movement in art, though they have also been denied that status, because they continued to accept both the concepts of history painting and of 'mimesis', or imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. However, the Pre-Raphaelites undoubtedly defined themselves as a reform movement, created a distinct name for their form of art, and published a periodical, The Germ, to promote their ideas. Their debates were recorded in the "Pre-Raphaelite Journal".
So, ++good for Wiki.
Blog by Dan | Permalink | Comments (1)
November 18, 2005
Netflix
Oh my god, I actually maxxed out my Netflix queue. Apparently, you can't put more than 500 disks in the queue. I went to go add "Altered States", and boom: "You must remove some movies to add this one."
Yes, that's right. My queue is currently sitting at 500 DVDs. Man, I seriously need to stop working so hard, kick back, and just watch movies for a while.
Life in General by Dan | Permalink | Comments (4)
November 16, 2005
NaNoWriMo, Day 15
Actually, it's day 16, but I'm posting the progress as of yesterday. The work schedule has been extreme as of late, typically 12+ hours per day, including Saturday. Sunday is more of a half-day at 4 to 6 hours. Somewhere in there was even an all-nighter. and I'm way too old to be pulling that shit anymore. As such, it's no surprise that I'm behind schedule on NaNoWriMo.
After 15 days, I'm at 17,222 words, or 1148/day. To finish, my daily average needs to be almost twice that at 2185.
Charts below the fold...
As you can see, on the days that I actually get to write, I'm making decent progress. It's the days that I haven't been able to write that have been the problem. Two of these were from a camping trip that I sort of "budgeted" for, but most have been from days wehre the work demand was just too consuming. When you're finishing up work at 11:30, knowing that you need to get up at 6 the next morning, there's not a lot of energy to pile on in.
About the only good news is that I'm actually making good progress when I'm writing, around 1000 words per hour.
At this point, I'm entertaining thoughts of asking MAW to handle the driving at Thanksgiving and just getting in four hours of writing each way.
Two unrelated notes:
- Kilts are great, especially Utilikilts. If you're a guy, get over the whole cross-dressing thing and get one. With the pleats, they move so well. There's nothing chafing, nothing tugging at your skin when you pull one way or another. It's like being naked, but with pockets. However, when the temperature drops into the thirties, well, it's a little brisk.
- It's been twenty days since my last drop of that blessed nectar, Coca-Cola. The Penguin Mints are keeping me sufficiently caffeinated, so I think I'll last until the endoscopy. I will tell the doctor that I was a good boy and did not have any soda whatsoever for the 32 days between his request and the test.
And then I'm going to kill him.
Life in General by Dan | Permalink | Comments (1)
November 15, 2005
Stressed
As mentioned in a previous entry, I've been having some stomach problems. I'm starting to suspect more and more that it's at least partially stress-induced.
More health stuff below the fold...
I say this partly because I've had stress-induced health problems before. About ten years ago I was diagnosed with pleurisy (inflamation of the pleuritic sac around the lungs causing difficulty breathing and severe chest pain), and my doctor determined it was stress induced. Apparently I was pulling in my left shoulder and holding it tight, thereby agitating the pectoral badly enough to irritate the tissues around the ribs all the way down to the pleuritic sac. Ever since then I would always feel my left pectoral start to burn whenever I was stressed.
And now, in the last week or so (as I'm now on my 9th straight 12+ hour day) I've been feeling that burn. At the same time, my stomach has been getting worse and worse.
Blech!
Life in General by Dan | Permalink | Comments (1)
November 11, 2005
Photos from the new Flipside land
As previously mentioned, I went out to the new Flipside land last weekend for the initial survey/work weekend.
Here are some photos I took. I've posted several of the creek area, since it was one of the most attractive features of the land. Look for the people in the distance. It will give you a feeling for the size.
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And of course, no Flipside event would be complete without some FIRE!!
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Photography by Dan | Permalink | Comments (2)
Friday 5: Recent Reading
Today's question comes from Laura:
What are the last five books you've read and what did you think of them?
- A Talent for War, by Jack McDevitt: This was a pretty good one. Most of McDevitt's tales center around some kind of mystery from the past, often via the mechanism of archaeology, except that it's the past as seen from hundreds or often thousands of years from now. This particular tale surrounded a mystery of a historical nature, of a particularly crucial and popular moment of a defining war that took place a few hundred years before, but it looks like that crucial moment didn't happen the way people think it did. It would be as though today in the US an amateur historian came across evidence that Washington did not cross the Delaware with his troops to attack the Hessian mercenaries working for the British, that something else entirely had happened. So, it's about the mystery itself as well as struggling against everyone who wants to preserve the myth, some because they need its cultural legacy and some to protect the secret of what really happened. Highly recommended
- Post Captain, by Patrick O'Brian: This is the second book in the series that led to the recent Russel Crowe film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The story itself is pretty good, but the writing is mediocre at best, IMO. It goes on and on endlessly about the specifics of various sailing issues, and the various bits of dramatic dialog often read more like a laundry list than Shakespeare. And yet, the characters themselves are fairly interesting, and the backdrop and plot and fairly engaging. It's just that it can be a bit painful to read through. As an interesting side note, after reading a couple of these, I am almost positive that this is the origin for David Weber's Honor Harrinton series. The parallels in character and setting are uncanny. I can almost see Weber reading through the first few of these, thinking "Hey, I could do the same thing in SF and make a mint!". At least Weber waited until about book 5 or 6 before the writing quality went south.
- Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk: I suppose I should say something like "the first rule of reading Fight Club is that you do not talk about reading Fight Club," but I won't. This is the same story as the movie, and the book came first. Now, normally when that kind of thing happens everyone says, "Oh, but the book was so much better." In this case, not. The book wasn't bad or anything. In fact, it was very much the same story as the movie, which is very rare considering book movies are often like sausage. Rather, I just thought that the movie was a much better telling of the story.
- Trading in Danger, by Elizabeth Moon: This was billed as a good story for folks who liked the above-mentioned Honor Harrington series. There's some truth to that in that this is also a space opera with a strong, young female lead. Moon delivered on characters, plot, and quality of writing. My only regret in the series is that much like her other SF series (in the Familias universe), the lead character is not an ordinary person. Instead, they are always the son or daughter of privelage, e.g. daughter of a prime minister, or the one who manages the family fortune, etc. Even her swag at the nobody from a backwater planet turns out to be the daughter of one of the ten most important people on her planet. In this book, the lead character is another child of privelage. Her father is the CFO of a major shipping firm, and her uncle is the CEO. It's all family owned, so it's not like they can even be fired. Now, don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the book, and Moon is an excellent writer, but just once I'd like to see her focus on some scrappy underdog, a penniless nobody who climbs her way up.
- Marque and Reprisal, by Elizabeth Moon: Same series, second book. The plot thickens, and some of the real bad guys emerge, and we get a taste of where this is going in the third book. The family fortune is dashed, but it's still a bunch of rich folk (or formerly rich folk) struggling to regain and enhance the family portfolio.
Other Friday Fivers can be found at the used book store here.
Meme by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
Huggy Veterans Day
Today is Veteran's Day here in the US, oringally Armistice Day to celebrate the end of World War I. It's a day that vaccilates between somber ceremonies and joyous parades. But this time, I suggest we all celebrate by hugging a veteran today.
There are almost 25 million veterans in the U.S. Go hug one today.
(Alas, I am likely to be chained to my desk all day and will fail to do this, but we'll see. I might escape yet.)
Blog by Dan | Permalink | Comments (1)
November 10, 2005
The Commandments of Coyote
Freely stolen from Bean, who freely stole it from someone else. Keep stealing!
The Commandments of Coyote
I. Thou Shalt Have As Many Gods and Spirits and Personal Trainers and Gurus As You Like Before Me, But You Shalt Not Let Them Block the Exits, and More, You Shall Not Permit Them To Take the Last Beer, For That Beer Is Mine. Seriously. Don't.
II. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife, But Thou Art Totally Welcome To Admire Her Ass When She Walks By, and If It Happens To Come Out That They Are In An Open Relationship, Dude, Tap That Ass As Much As They Are Willing To Allow. Same Goes For the Ladies. Coveting Is Sort Of Stupid, But Sex Is Just Plain Fun, Unless Thou Art Doing It Entirely Wrong.
III. If Thy Neighbor Says 'Hands Off My Wife, Dude', Thou Shalt Listen and Back Off, Because Otherwise, Thy Neighbor Will Be Totally Justified In Hitting You About the Head and Shoulders With Gardening Tools, and Don't Think That I'm Going To Step In There and Stop Him.
IV. Adultery Is Actually Pretty Fun. Commit It All You Like. Just Make Sure Everyone Is Cool With It, Or I Will Not Help You Out Once the Hitting Gets Started.
V. Thou Shalt Not Eat Poisoned Bait. If You Do, Don't Come Whining To Me About It, Because I Am Very Unlikely To Care. Once It Is In Your Mouth, It Is Your Problem, Not Mine.
VI. Of Course Thou Shalt Kill. Carnivores Do That. Also, Swatting Mosquitoes, Sort Of Instinctive. But All Creatures Are Alive Before You Kill Them, and So Thou Shalt Respect Them In Their Lives and In Their Deaths. Thou Shalt Not Kill Without Reason. Thy Neighbor Tapping Thy Wife's Ass? Is Not A Reason. Don't Make Me Set A Plague Upon Thy Ass. Thou Wouldst Not Enjoy It, I Promise.
VII. Thou Shalt Not Hoard. Seriously, Here. If You Have Enough, Share. Only Asshats Bogart Life.
VIII. Thou Shalt Not Be A Martyr. If You Have One Beer, Drink It. Do Not Give It To Me and Then Expect Adoration. Dude, That Was Your Beer, I Did Not Break Your Arm To Get It. Give What You Can Give, and Expect Neither Praise Nor Worship. You Are Not Being Morally Superior, You Are Being A Decent Human Being. There Is A Difference.
IX. Assume This Is It. Maybe There Is Reincarnation; Maybe Not. Not Only Am I Not Saying, Please Consider the Fact That I Probably Get A Say In Whether You Come Back, and If You Are the Sort Of Person Who Doesn't Do Anything With One Life, Why Should I Waste My Time Giving You Another One? Live Like You Get No Second Chances. You Will Have More Fun.
X. Are You Going To Eat That?
Meme by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
November 09, 2005
You think Bush lied? Try reading this...
Here's an article refuting the various "Bush lied" claims. I won't comment on its accuracy, but I will say it was an interesting read. Now, if you honestly believe that Bush maliciously and with forethought lied to get us into the Iraq war, do read it. It will make your blood boil.
Politics by Dan | Permalink | Comments (4)
Terrel Owens Fired for Being an Asshole
This week, the Philadelphia Eagles are doing the dead-level best to fire Terrel Owens. Apparently, he's a bit of an asshole.
REALLY???
Tinfoil Beanie by Dan | Permalink | Comments (6)
Pointer to abortion essay
Jane Gelt over at Asymmetrical Information is a pretty good political writer (and a Libertarian to boot!), and I thought this short article was a gem of explaining why we continue to need to have the abortion debate in our country and not just settle into the two extreme camps.
The hard-core pro-choice side of the debate could be summed up as saying that right up until Mom shows up at the maternity ward to say "Hey, I'm ready to have this baby", what's in her tummy is a mere bundle of cells, and what happens to it is of no more interest to anyone (except her and her doctor) than what happens to her appendix.
The hard-core pro-life side of the debate could be summed up as saying that the instant sperm meets egg, a baby is created, and that abortion is as much murder as it would be if you met the fruit of that union on the street twenty years hence and shot him.
Most of what passes for "debate" on the issue is simply heated restatement of these core theorems: "Abortion is murder" and "A fetus is not a baby". And yet, almost no one on either side actually believes this.
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Politics by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)
November 08, 2005
Prop 2 headed for passage
With 23% of precincts reporting in, it looks the anti-gay-marriage Proposition 2 is going to pass. It is currently leading by about 77% voting for it. I had actually thought this would happen, but I had hoped it would pass by a smaller margin. We'll see what the rest of the night holds, but I don't expect much change.
Now before some of you on the Democratic side of the aisle paint this as a purely Republican product of hatred, bear in mind that the state is probably at most 61% Republican as evidenced by the 2004 election. (Bush carried the state by 61% to 38%, and as a former governor, he carried the edge of being a favorite son, usually worth about 5%.)
That means that if voter turnout patterns were similar -- and Prop 2 brought people out in droves on each side of the aisle -- then I would conclude that 16 points of that 77% is coming from the Democrats. In other words, it would appear that at least 42% of Texas Democrats voted for the ban. I suspect the number is actually higher, because I know a number of younger Republicans such as myself that voted against the ban, so those more votes had to be coming from the Democrat side.
Now, that's a very fuzzy number since the two sets of voters (2004 vs. 2005) are not necessarily the same, but it is in line with what we saw in other states in 2004 where Democrats voted in favor of state bans on gay marriage in large numbers, between 19% and 65%, at a minimum. [See my 2004 analysis.] I stress that again, those are minimum percentages, assuming that every Republican voted for those bans, which I very much doubt.
As I've said before, I believe this to be an age issue. This was sponsored and supported largely by the older generations, and predominantly opposed by the younger generations. The precincts surrounding UT are apparently rejecting the measure by a 90% to 10% margin. I imagine the retirees in Sun City are doing the opposite.
Have patience, friends, and try not to alienate the Republicans of your own generation. We are not the hateful Nazis you paint us to be.
Politics by Dan | Permalink | Comments (3)
Print on Demand
I ran across a reference to a print-on-demand site this morning, LuLu Publishing. Now, I haven't really researched this area lately, so I don't know if these guys are the best by any means. Still, I'm amazed at how far it's come. About five years ago, I was just becoming aware of this little niche industry, which is becoming far less niche, and at the time, it looked a little iffy on both the price and the quality.
Now, however, it seems that I can have them print me a book, perfect-bound, with my own full-color wrap-around cover design, for not much more than the cost of printing it out at home on my laser printer on standard 8.5x11 paper. It's actually less than the cost of taking the file down to Kinko's and getting it in 8.5x11 spiral bound. And yet it appears to be as good a quality as you'd get from the larger publishing companies.
I begin to see why I hear some authors talking of self-publishing their next books, though I don't know if they'd be using this company. It's not necessarily that they'd make more money this way, though they might, just that many authors quietly talk of how they've been screwed over by publishers, both from bad marketing and how the basic business model of bookstores is frequently fatal to B-list authors.
Of course, the publishing industry isn't all bad. Just like the music industry, it provides a filter which is of at least a modest value, and perhaps more importantly, it provides a good structure for matching authors, editors, artists, and publishing managers. I just wish it didn't abandon the editing process for its A-list authors. (No offense to these fine storytellers, but you phoned in that last book, and your editor should have told you that.) It's just that the business model seems not to be working out that well for many of the authors. It might be ripe for a shift in the next twenty years, but that doesn't mean we'll actually see it or even recognize it until long afterwards.
But I suppose what really prompted this entry is that last year I popped down to Kinko's to get a spiral-bound printout of my NaNoWriMo 2004 output, just to get a printed record of it. (IMO, paper lasts longer than bits.) It cost close to $20. I could have done the LuLu thing for about half that. I'll be remembering that come December 1st.
Blog by Dan | Permalink | Comments (3)
November 06, 2005
Back from Workside
I spent the weekend out at the new land for Flipside. It was a work weekend, and while we wielded no shovels, I'm still quite spent. Mostly it was a group survey, and I helped with the team that was checking out the existing infrastructure and seeing what needed to be repaired or replaced. My quest for adding showers looks a little more feasible, though we're waiting on word from the land owner on some issues, both in terms of permission and also to better understand the fire-suppression requirements.
All in all, the land looks very good. It's big, and it has a real beauty that was lacking at Recreation Plantation. However, it's also dangerous. We're making it a high priority to add some safety features to the land, marking out the danger zones, but I cannot stress enough that this land is dangerous, mostly due to numerous cliffs and other sharp elevation changes. There were perhaps only 100 of us there, and even then we had two injuries: a sprained ankle and a broken wrist. So on that note, some were suggesting that we have found our theme for Flipside 2006: "Culling the Herd"
And on the subject of this odd community, I was sitting around a campfire with someone, and he mentioned that he had a friend living on ten acres nearby. And I was thinking of how conenient that will be for this friend. "Is he a Burner?" I asked. He thought it over for a moment and replied, "No, he's pretty stable."
(Oh, I know I promised NaNoWriMo charts. The first will be on the 10th. At present, I'm a little behind due to work and camping, but it's not really NaNoWriMo unless you've fallen behind in the first week.)
Life in General by Dan | Permalink | Comments (0)