March 2004 Archives

New videogame released recently, Battlefield: Vietnam . A glorification of landmines and napalm, punji sticks and attack helicopters. The even more disturbing part: It's a lot of fun.

Went to a party with some friends from work tonight. What a weird scene that is.

Didn't get home from work and gym tonight till after midnight, so I'm copping out a bit. I just want to make a recommendation to check out last week's "This American Life". I could probably make that recommendation safely every week, because its the most consistently excellent and astounding radio program I know, easily shifting gears from politics and culture to food and Holidays, using drama and comedy and every shade in between.

Last week's episode was about pets, and was especially notable for the first and last acts. First was an essay from David Sedaris (an incredibly brilliant and fucked up and painfully funny writer) on the pets of his childhood that will move you, disturb you, make you laugh a lot, and make you embarrassed about how much you are laughing. That's really what Sedaris does best. But its the last story that really makes it. A bizaare (fictional) story of our responsibility to our pets and their responsibility to us, of autism and finding a normal life, and armadillos. If you're at all like me it will absolutely knock you out.

Also, Ira Glass has a cool voice, so you should try to check out the show every week. I've never been dissapointed, even when I thought before it started that I didn't care at all about their topic. And with that I leave you.

Note:

More ThisLife episodes in case you've got an extra 5 hours this week
First Day (Squirrel Cop)
Fiasco
Telephone
Cruelty of Children

Does getting to work at 8 and putting everything in the right pile really make the world go 'round, or is there still room for big ideas?

The only problem: You have to prove (or disprove) a decades-old mathematical conjecture that has stumped professional mathemeticians.

The music for March is Things in Herds.

NASA announced today, that we will NOT be hit with an asteroid
at 5PM. Given NASA and other astronomers' previous record with asteroid prediction(here, and here, and here), I'm sufficiently nervous. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if they said it would hit us, anyway.

A quick one, just to say, Happy St. Patrick's Day to you, and enjoy a Guinness or three on my behalf, but keep it under 39, as even Dylan Thomas eschews that kind of extravagance.

Slainte!

Caught Randy Newman on The Connection tonight. I hope I can manage to kick that much ass in my life, but I've got a lot of catching up to do.

A quick thought on the state of technology. In many areas, technical sophistication of machines and software is already better than the corresponding human systems. But the performance is considerably less, which leaves lots of room for improvement.

In the interest of keeping myself busy, I've created a new site, which is actually a continuation of something I did on my webpage at Tech so many years ago. Its called, "Reasons to Wake Up in the Morning". So maybe its a list, or a page of links, or just something to look at.

Wake Up

In which Ish obsesses in self-absorbed navel-comtemplation to the delight of all...

Let me start with this: I'm no fan of President Bush II. Personally I find him about as fulfilling as any malformed Hollywood sequel, which is particularly disturbing to me as he's in charge of the largest economy and military in the world (and the history of the world). And I didn't like the first movie. But the prospect of President John Kerry is about as inspiring to me as cold Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and all the ketchup in the world won't fix it up.

I've made it back. There was much sunshine and drinks with umbrellas in them. I do expect some items on Mr. Kerry soon. I did NOT catch the garter, in fact I was luckily spared the whole enterprise, meaning I didn't have to hide.

One quick comment: Kaua'i is full of chickens. That was the single weirdest thing for me. It was the first thing I noticed taking the shuttle from the airport, and it was definitely the first thing I noticed every morning. (In case you were of the same city boy impression as I, roosters don't crow a couple times at dawn and then quit. The don't ever quit. )

I heard several different stories (bordering on legend) as to why this is. The simplest one is that Kaua'i is the only island without mongoose. They were brought into Hawaii to kill the rats, but as mongoose are diurnal and rats nocturnal it didn't work. The legend has it that when they were taking the mongoose to Kaua'i, one of them bit the captain of the ship and he threw them overboard. So chickens flourish on Kaua'i, and run wild everywhere on the island (but especially in places that have tourists with Cheerios).

More coming soon, however, at the moment I have been awake and on airplanes for far too long.