Wednesday, June 29, 2005
In other news
Housekeeping and some random stuff
Blogging, both here and Bellmanwards, will probably be light for awhile. I can't abide dial-up, and haven't yet been able to reliably find time to hang out in wireless hotspots. Also, the best wireless access point in my pops' neighborhood is a Panera Bread franchise which charges nearly $4 for an americano.[1]
In Zwichenzug Culture Watch news, Grind is not nearly as good a skateboard movie as Lords of Dogtown. It's not even as good as a bootleg copy of The Search for Animal Chin with messed up sound. On the other hand, The Third Man is funnier than you'd expect and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, while terrible, isn't as bad as its reviews. Also, I'm not sure how I managed to avoid hearing it all these years, but Solo Monk is a great record with a sound I haven't heard from Monk before.
I like Amtrak well enough, but the delays can get to you. My train rolled into San Antonio at about 11 pm Thursday, just as the Spurs were winning the NBA championship at the arena next to the train station. My connection was supposed to leave the station at 1 am Friday, but didn't arrive until nearly 8 am, and then didn't leave the station for another two hours. The upshot was that I sort of slept on a wooden bench in the train station, which would have been fine except that one woman decided that she didn't want to sleep in the train station and stayed awake by encouraging her three year old daughter to shout and carry on all night long.
Another thing about Amtrak is that you see the ass end of America out the windows. Rusted out factories, the poorest quarter of every town, all kinds of garbage, and junkyards full to bursting with empty shells that used to be mobile homes.
During my layover in Chicago, I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt that read, "January 1995: IBM OS/2 Fiesta Bowl" which I thought was pretty funny. I also thought it was pretty funny when I heard a media critic say, "Bias? I don't need to pay for it."
Last but not least, new book meme entries are up at This Dark Qualm, funferal, and Bionic Octopus. I seem to recall that Safety Neal said he was going to do an entry, but it hasn't made it up yet.
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1 For reasons I can't fathom, the menu doesn't have an americano on it. So if you order one they charge you for a super-duper latte. It blows.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Travlin' man
I understand that these days it's proper to employ a guest blogger, so I've contracted the services of my unreliable friend Tony. He'll be taking care of things for the rest of the week.
Take it away, Tony!
Missed one
Monday, June 20, 2005
panda
A rare bearlike mammal (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) of the mountains of China and Tibet, which has woolly fur with distinctive black and white markings and which eats shoots and leaves.
Dumb joke blogging, love your dictionary edition
"Hey!" the waiter cried after him. "Why did you do that?"
"Look it up," was all the panda said in reply.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Book meme
Number of books I own: This is tough. Eight or nine hundred, probably.
Last book I bought: This is easy. A few weeks ago I dropped three bucks on small stack of used books at the Salvation Army store. They were: The Green Berets by Robin Moore, Presumed Innocent by Scott Thurow, The Summer Game by Roger Angell, Flight of the Old Dog by Dale Brown, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre, and After the Plague and other stories by T. Coraghessan Boyle.
Last book I read: The Green Berets
Books that mean a lot to me: Er, I'm not exactly sure how to answer this. Here's a short list:
1066 by Franklin Hamilton.
Sources of Normativity by Christine Korsgaard, Reconstruction in Philosophy by John Dewey, and What We Owe to Each Other by Thomas Scanlon are all central to my dissertation.
Rights, Restitution, and Risk, a collection of Judith Jarvis Thomson's papers, is probably the book that got me into philosophy.
Kriegie is a book my dad owns that I used to reread whenever I visited him.
Schrodinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace probably belong in my list of important books.
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe had everything to do with convincing me, at nineteen, that psychopharmacological experimentation was a good idea.
Then, of course, there's my dictionary.
Tag: The meme rule is that I'm supposed to ask five more people to complete this. Hmmm. Let's say Washburn, Andrew, Matt, Hannah, and Safety Neal, though just between you and me I'd also really like to see how Dru Blood, Bionic Octopus, and Joshua Norton would answer.
1066...
- 1066 p. 122 & 123
- Wizard of Oz 156 & 157
- Narcotics Pamphlet
- Self Mastery Secrets
- It's Academic 201, 116, 101, &194.
- Book of Spells 116, 121, 118
"The Normans are good fighters," Harold told his troops, "valiant on foot and on horseback, and well used to battle. All is lost if they once penetrate our ranks."
Across the valley now came the Normans in their thousands, an awesome sight. Sunlight flashed from their armor, that Saturday morning in October. High above the Norman ranks fluttered the banner of the pope, as though telling the English that God Himself came to fight against them today.
In Wace's account:As soon as the two armies were in full view of each other, great noise and tumult arose. You might hear the sounds of many trumpets, of bugles, and of horns; and then you might see men ranging themselves in line, lifting their shields, raising their lances, bending their bows, handling their arrows, ready for assault and defense.
The English stood ready to their post, the Normans still moved on; and when they drew near, the English were to be seen stirring to and fro; were going and coming; troops ranging themselves in order; some with their color rising, others turning pale; some making ready their arms, others raising their shields; the brave man rousing himself to fight, the coward trembling at the approach of danger.
In the midst of the Norman host rode Taillefer, the minstrel, poet to the Norman court, Taillefer "who sang right well, riding mounted on a swift horse, before the Duke, singing of Charlemagne and of Roland, of Olivier and the peers who died in Roncevalles." In the tense moment just before the start of the battle that would change English history, Taillefer the minstrel approached his master Duke William.
"A boon, sire!" he cried. "I have long served you, and you owe me for all such service. Today, so please you, you shall repay it. I ask and beseech you earnestly, allow me to strike the first blow in the battle!"
"I grant it, Duke William answered.
So, to the astonishment of the English, a minstrel rode out of the Norman ranks, singing lustily, tossing his sword high in the air and catching it again with a juggler's skill. He spurred his horse to a gallop, up the steep hill toward the English line, and struck an Englishman dead with the first thrust of his lance.
Then he drew his sword back and struck another, crying out, "Come on, come on! What do ye, sirs, lay on, lay on!"
An instant later Taillefer disappeared beneath the blows of English battle-axes and was seen alive no more. The battle had been joined!
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1 Excepting, of course, children's books and biographies.
Friday, June 17, 2005
It's all fun and games until Lord Whorfin pokes your eye out
Word on the street is that 3-D technology has really come of age. If this report is to be believed then James Cameron has pledged to film in 3-D from now on and George Lucas has committed to re-releasing all six Star Wars films in 3-D.
On the off chance that you happen to be a home 3-D hobbiest interested in creating your own ViewMaster reels, you should probably begin by purchasing a stereo camera. Once you've taken some pictures, this company will do the rest.
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1 We arrived at the Harvest Moon to discover that the distributor had earlier in the day taken back TAoSaLi3D and replaced it with Batman. Which was fine, I guess, except that it wasn't in 3-D.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
fissiparous
adj.
1. Reproducing by biological fission.
2. Tending to break up into parts or break away from a main body; factious.
frisson
n.
An almost pleasurable sensation of fright.
Zwichenzug culture watch, reader challenge edition
BONUS CHALLENGE: Find three (3) articles published in Slate which use the term 'frisson' correctly.
Stercoraceous news blogging, mountain edition
The unsanitary conditions created by piles of human feces on Mount McKinley can cause diarrhea among climbers, which can lead to widespread problems when combined with the physical stress of a mountain expedition, according to the report in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
Of 132 climbers interviewed on the 20,320-foot (6,200-meter) peak in the summer of 2002, more than a quarter reported having trouble with diarrhea, said the report, which was conducted by officials with the Alaska Division of Public Health. [source]
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Memo to the Canadian Philosophical Association
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Summer reading update
Doh!
Flag Day
Today is also Pop Goes the Weasel Day.
For what it's worth, here's my list of the top 15 June holidays:
- Juneteenth - June 19
- National Yo-Yo Day - June 10
- Iceland Independence Day - June 17
- World Environment Day - June 5
- Race Unity Day - June 9
- Daniel Boone Die - June 7
- Paul Bunyan Day - June 28
- U.F.O. Day - June 24
- Father's Day - Third Sunday in June
- West Virginia Admission Day - June 20
- International Picnic Day - June 18
- Pop Goes the Weasel Day - June 14
- Doughnut Day - June 1
- Fly a Kite Day - June 15
- National Lobster Day - June 13
Monday, June 13, 2005
Summer reading, books my roommate left in the bathroom edition
Van der Veer believes we're in an age of growing interest in science fiction films. Because of this trend, he is working on a new kind of optical printer that will take a film image, change it into an electronic signal for handling and processing, and then translate it back into film. He sees these technical advances as a way of projecting "the science of today into the science fiction of tomorrow."
carnival
n.
1. A festival marked by merrymaking and processions.
2. A frenetic disorganized (and often comic) disturbance suggestive of a circus or carnival.
3. A traveling show; having sideshows and rides and games of skill etc.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Zwichenzug culture watch, creeping immaturity edition
Being a kid has never been cooler. In fact, it's SO cool, it's not just for the twelve and under set anymore. These days more adults watch the Cartoon Network than CNN, Care Bears are making a comeback, and Scoobie-Doo underpants come in grown-up sizes. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, born-again kids. Also, why being forever young might be robbing society of some of its best virtues – like wisdom and maturity.
So, anyway, I just wanted to mention that the small party we had at my place last week featured kites, model rockets, and dodgeball.