obfuscated.org

Hola, Amigos. I’ve been periscope down in no-DSL-at-the-new-house land for the last few days. Rough to have to look in a phone book to get numbers, but it’s nice to be home.

The move, for the most part, went off without incident. Well, sort of, I guess. When I went to pick up the truck, I learned that U-Haul’s 26′ trucks are much more manual transmission than I thought they were. I drive a stick maybe once every six or seven years. Though I was due, I (wisely, IMO) decided against and called friends to beg. Thanks, Clancey, for the bail out, and thanks also to Tej for offering to do as much.

(Note: I’m at a coffee shop right now and they’re playing “Hey Ya” on the radio machine. I can’t think of a song that makes me want to smash the speakers with a bat more than this song does.)

Anyway, we got my place loaded up quickly enough. Sorry about the boxes of books. I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody with those. Honest. Stephanie’s place also packed up smoothly enough. Which is braggable.

(Note #2: My text editor doesn’t believe that “braggable” is a real word. Silly text editor.)

(Whatever: It’s playing the Fugees now. A huge step up.)

So now we have the furniture moved in, the kid’s stuff is there, Stephanie and I each have a suitcase or so’s worth of clothing and what have you. Hopefully we’ll get the boxes in the garage unpacked before too long. I estimate that we’ll definitely be done by the end of 2007.

I can’t sufficiently thank the people who came out and schlepped our stuff around the SGV. The move would have been a nightmare without you. It’s comforting to have friends willing to spend a perfectly good Sunday in the back of a U-Haul in order to help out. You guys rock. You’re all welcome over for beers and deck sitting. The same goes for all of you who couldn’t make it on account of prior commitments. Except for Pat, who I know scheduled his family’s vacation months in advance, before I knew that we were going to buy the place even, just to get out of the move.

If the move wasn’t enough excitement, today was The Kid’s first day at his new school. It. Looks. Nice. When he walked in, the desks were all the way stocked with books and colored pencils and glue and what have you. The campus is beautiful, his teacher is cool, parents were swarming everywhere in a good way, and everybody seemed pretty happy to be there. All of these are good signs. One odd observation between this and his last school: there are a lot more parents in ironic t-shirts than before. I don’t know what this means.

(Which reminds me: I still need to call his old school district and let them know that he won’t be there. Crap.)

Anyway, it’s been busy times. The “WTF am I ever going to use this for?” Blackberry has been burning up the airwaves while I sit at home and wait for things to be delivered. Hooray for understanding bosses. We have 1,000,001 things going on again this weekend, but hopefully I’ll get to take another crack at some of the boxes. Who knows, we may be able to put our cars in the garage before the end of the year. ;)

Stephanie, The Kid and I got the keys to our new place today. (Photo Set) Needless to say, we’re both quite tickled about this. The house is in Monrovia, about three blocks from old town. We’re moving this weekend. Woo!

• Wired News: Bob Dylan: Technology Sucks – Noting the music industry’s complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, “Well, why not? It ain’t worth nothing anyway.”
• vi Search: using commands of vi to search – How…. clever? (This was put together by some of the guys at Snap.)
• Osama bin Laden lusts for… : HTTabloid.com – Now we know why “My Perogitive” was playing in Afganastan on 9/11.
• What’s New in Edge Rails: The Ins and Outs of ActiveResource – A good overview of the New World Order in RoR 1.2

• apophenia: Research on Social Network Sites – danah boyd is trying to put together a roundup of social networking papers accepted by refereed journals.
• Autopia – The interesting and unfortunately unsupported tidbit from this piece: One human life = $3,500,000.
• Wired News: This Global Warming Fix Stinks – Wired gets it all wrong. This plan is awesome. How else are we going to create the perma-smoggy sky from all the awesome dystopian future flicks?

• Democratic Underground – Can a jet fuel/hydrocarbon fire collapse a steel structure? An experiment. – This is awesome. I’ll bet that JFK was somehow killed by a rabbit cage as well.
• Google wants people to stop googling | CNET News.com – I’ll take “ships that have sailed” for $1,000, Alex.
• times – How a wingnut sees the NY Times. The “150 Iraqis Killed” article is the best.

Hooray for books. Do I look forward to moving these? I do not.

I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun. Next up: Dishes!

Dear Los Angeles Clippers,

Please stop calling me. I don’t want season tickets. Yes, I know that I went to several games last year, and yes, I agree that it would be exciting to attend a four, eight, or 12-pack of games this year. However, I just don’t have the time.

You’ve probably called me half a dozen times since the Clippers went to the playoffs last season. They were exciting times for everybody, but even that excitment shouldn’t prevent you from getting the hint that no, I’m really not going to buy season tickets on the fifth call if I turned you down on the first, second, third and fourth calls. Please take a hint.

Yours truly,

Corey

P.S.: LA Phil, this goes double for you.

• Rum and Monkey: The Personality Test Generator – I got Yao Ming.
• CNN.com – NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional – Aug 17, 2006 – She declared that the program “violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III.”
• Bowen is final cut as U.S. team set 12-man roster – NBA – Yahoo! Sports – This is a real shame. Bowen is the best lock-down defender in the league. With him on the team, coach K would be able to immediately shut down any opposing player who gets hot. Lacking their #2 wing defender (Kobe) as well, the team will definitely be less good defensively than they could be.

• alexking.org: Blog > I’ve Left FeedLounge – Alex King leaves the feed reader I’ve been using for the last few months. Creative Differences with the other founder. Which is too bad, because despite its sporadic performance problems, it really is a pretty good service.
• New York Daily News – Basketball – The $15 Mar-vels – $15 for shoes that are probably pretty comparable to the $100 version of the same thing.
• Ten CSS tricks you may not know – Hooray for sneaky CSS hacks.
• ZOMBIES! – the ACME Theatre lets ZOMBIES! run amok. Or something.
• Artest defends actions during Detroit community service event – NBA – Yahoo! Sports – Another sound voice comes out in favor of the doctorine of preemption
• Did Humans Evolve? Not Us, Say Americans – New York Times – USA! USA! USA!
• Everybody loves Eric Raymond – Bruce Schneier Facts – Looking for proof that you’re some sort of a nerd? If you find this page funny, you’ve got it.
• YouTube – Colbert Lampoons Ramesh Ponnuru – I went to highschool with this guy. And then he turned in to Anne Coulter. How sad.
• Boing Boing: TATP: about that pyro stuff in alleged plane-bomb plot – From the comments: ” Ultimately, all solutions to terrorism issues are political, not technological, as the origins are political. It took years for the British to figure this out; finally, they sat down with the IRA and said, “What the hell do you want?” The IRA had slowly progressed from blowing up people to blowing up cars to finally calling in bombs that were going to go off at 2 AM when the streets were deserted. “If you don’t mind, please keep this bomb from going off. We found out killing people makes us unpopular. Thanks!”
• Google Analytics Blog: We’re open! Instant access now available – Google Analytics is definitely the coolest web stats application I’ve used so far.

Happy Birthday, Hank.

my computer

"what?" they say, "you got a
computer?"

it's like I have sold out to
the enemy.

I had no idea so many
people were prejudiced
against
computers.

even two editors have
written me letters about
the computer.

one disparaged the
computer in a mild and
superior way.
the other seemed
genuinely
pissed.

I am aware that a
computer can't create
a poem.
but neither can a
typewriter.

yet, still, once or
twice a week
I hear:
"what?
you have a
computer?
you?"

yes, I do
and I sit up here
almost every
night,
sometimes with
beer or
wine,
sometimes
without
and I work the
computer.
the damn thing
even corrects
my spelling.

and the poems
come flying
out,
better than
ever.

I have no
idea what causes
all this
computer
prejudice.

me?
I want to go
the next step
beyond the
computer.
I'm sure it's
there.

and when I get
it,
they'll say,
"hey, you hear,
Chinaski got a
space-biter!"

"what?"

"yes, it's true!"

"I can't believe
it!"

and I'll also have
some beer or
some wine
or maybe nothing
at all
and I'll be
85 years old
driving it home
to
you and me
and to the little girl
who lost her
sheep.
or her
computer.