This is a photography site.
This is a nerdy site.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
You know it's sad when American hostages are pleading to Moammar al-Qadhafi:
From cnn's article about Roy Hallum that R pointed me to:
"Hallums, visibly nervous, makes no demands in the 60-second video, but he asks for help "so that I can be released as quickly as possible from this definite death."
"I'm not asking for any help from President Bush, because I know of his selfishness and unconcern for those who have been pushed into this hell hole," he says. "I am asking for help from Arab rulers, especially President Moammar Gadhafi, because he is known for helping those who are suffering."
Hallums also says his "health is in a very bad situation."
And check out how many spellings there are for Moammar's name!
And if you haven't already had this forwarded, you should watch it:
Mastercard Spoof
Saturday, January 22, 2005
The Christian Science monitor has a good sampling of editorials on W's inaugural Freedom-A-Thon from different countries.
I can't say that I disagree with W that it would be nice if there was no more tyranny or oppression, but, that said, I have a few complaints.
(1) We all know that Bush will only ever "bring freedom" (see bombs) to countries that are not our allies and are of some threat or interest to us. Sorry Africa.
(2) Bush has yet to demonstrate an ability to "bring freedom" without bringing bombs and killing people. I understand the whole omelet-making, egg-breaking analogy, but if people are going to die for freedom, they might want to choose to do it themselves.
(3) If Bush really wants to sell freedom, he's going to need to have a better demo to show off at the trade show. I think few can argue that the United States is the most shining example of freedom. We can't build an adequate healthcare system that actually takes care of our own citizens. We can't create a retirement system that takes care of the elderly. Where's freedom when Ashcroft is keeping lists of our library books (then again, when was the last time I went to a library?), Gonzalez is torturing people (personally, I'm sure) and just about anyone can ask me to remove my shoes? These are inconveniences to those of us that do nothing wrong and a real nuisance to terrorists, but nevertheless are an infringement on the "freedom" that Bush touts.
(4) Economic freedom, on the other hand, is something we're a bit closer to being able to show off. Our freedom to be rich or poor is dicatated by nothing other than the class we're born into (wait a second, that's not freedom!) Our version of "freedom" seems fundamentally flawed by its immediate link with capitalism. What is Bush really talking about bringing to these countries? Is it freedom or free trade? Naomi Klein's article in Harper's on the capitalism injection given to Iraq is very telling of why these rich guys suddenly care about spreading "freedom". I have no faith in the neocons that they're actually in this to free the world of tyranny. What possible motive would they have to overthrow tyrannical governments unless it was money? Notice that they're overthrowing governments that don't engage with the US in trade. China? Semi-tyrannical communists, but oh how they love to sell us stuff. They're fine! Saudi Arabia? Entirely tyrannical, terrorist-funding, fundamentalists, but happy to sell us oil. So who's next? We all know. People knew it before the Iraq war even started, especially if they read anything that the neocons had to say at the Project for a New American Century. Say them with me: "Iran and North Korea." It's pretty simple really. The Bush government has people leak little things about these countries to the media all the time. People start to get used to the idea that they're our enemies (remember the axis of evil?) Then, one day, we attack our enemy. This seems entirely natural, I mean, they're our enemy. Granted, they've never really done anything besides trying to be isolationistic with nuclear weapons (remind you of anyone?). Maybe they supported a little terrorism (remind you of anyone?), maybe they invoke God a lot (I won't bother), maybe they really like crappy movies (Kim Jong Il), but either way, we all know who's next.
Ok, where have I gone with this? I'm trying to figure out if there's more to all of this than a Saturday morning rant. I think the real issue I have is that when Bush says "freedom" it means different things to different people. To nationalistic, ethnocentric Americans I think it means their pickup truck and how much they love to buy stuff and how great 'merica is. To some Americans I think it just means a shrug and that George is at it again with his "freedom is on the march" in that weak quavering voice and wondering what Cheney is really up to. To me, it means something that the United States knows little about at the moment. Those who founded this country may have had a good idea what freedom was at some point, but that's been clouded by consumption, greed and politics. You're not free because Wal Mart decided to finally build a store near you and you're not free because you're safe.
Rant over.
The second image on this page is interesting.
And this subservient chicken is oddly receptive.
And this gigantic 2.5billion pixel image is kind of scary. Who knew that someone could take a picture of your license plate from so far away.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Inauguration time is very strange here in DC. There was an article about it in the post the other day and it speaks volumes. I thought the article was exaggerating when it said that there would be limos and rich Texans everywhere. I was wrong. Never before have I seen so many old guys in red ties and women in mink coats than I did walking home from work today. Granted, I pass within five blocks of the white house to get home, but lord if these people weren't the biggest chumps I'd ever seen.
I listened as one guy refused a cab driver, repeating "I'm not gonna get ripped off!" in a thick Texas drawl so that everyone around him could hear and see how city-smart he was.
I watched an elderly couple dressed in the most expensive pajamas I'd ever seen on their way to a theme ball leaving the Holiday Inn on the corner of our block. His robe had a presidential seal. There goes my belief that only presidents get to wear clothes with the seal... unless... maybe... Jimmy Carter? No. Couldn't have been.
There are enough limos driving around to make you think you're in New York and half... wait no... 99.5% of the city has tomorrow off. R and I do not. But don't cry for us. Cry for freedom. Cry for 'murica.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Having lived there for a year, I think I have all of the pictures that can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/barcelona
If you haven't checked out flickr, it's pretty interesting.
Couldn't get the pictures up for a little while, but here are the dark blurry shots that I got at the Razorlight show (The Features opened):
The Features
Razorlight
Red High Tops
Sunday, January 16, 2005
What better way to recover from working waaaaaaaaay too much at an office job that to sit around on a Saturday night using the Stumble button to find odd, but interesting websites, like this.
And this is very amusing as well.
...OH wait this too.
And And this.
And And this.
And this one last thing is very, very amusing.
And I swear, this is the last link.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
This is interesting, not that I do drugs or enjoy them... but I can still think that some of them are harmless.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Show blog
When I bought this device, part of mty thinking was that I woulkd then be able to blog from f'n concerts.
I hadn't considered that I would have to try to hold a beer in my other hand at the same time. Right now it's nestled under my left arm...
Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry
Thievery! Stupid, stupid Thievery!
R borrowed her parents' extra car, commonly referred to as the Geoguar (Geo. Jaguar. Get it?), on Friday and parked it on the street out in front of our building.
On Sunday morning when we went to take the car back to MD, we found this:
Stupid, stupid thieves. Whoever broke in to a 1990-something Geo parked between a BMW and a Land Rover clearly knows his way around a locked door. What amazing object did the thief believe to be inside? Why did the thief decide to leave gross blood?:
Gross! Blood!
We thought that the thief must have:
a) Thought that there was something worth stealing underneath the big grey car cover that he/she only ended up bleeding on or
b) Thought that there was an extra key in the glove compartment, which, apparently, is something a lot of dumb drivers do.
The fact that nothing was missing at all was surprising, but the real slap in the face was that the thief didn't bother to steal the Modest Mouse CD underneath the driver's seat that I thought I'd lost forever. Given that I found it while looking to see if the thief had taken anything, this break-in was actually a gain in terms of items I currently posses.
R and I also gained some awesome droplets of blood left on the center console and car cover! Those are really nice. Thief wiped some on the passenger seat, too! What a crafty, DNA spewing devil.
At least he only broke the tiny back window rather than slitting open his stomach and bleeding on the hood.
The window was covered almost entirely by insurance and nothing was missing, so everything worked out just fine.
If you've been reading this webpage long enough, you're now thinking, "this guy lives in a neighborhood where his neighbor steals his paper, short drunk men in boxer shorts pee in his elevator, and people break into Geo's."
And I can only agree with you that my neighborhood is one of the best ones in DC.
Monday, January 10, 2005
And this flash based site is the bigger part of something I part of something I posted the other day. An excellent time waster... if you have any to waste, please donate.
J brought this to my attention. And you all thought that turduckin was hard to make! See page 213 for details on its ease.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Saturday, January 08, 2005
An Honest, but Important Question
Are men's and women's buttons and zippers on opposite sides to make it easier for us to undress eachother? Or is it just so that we can tell which sex unisex clothing is really for?
I'd appreciate an honest answer from anyone that is action-oriented enough to find this out.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Some very interesting and frustrating stuff in the post today.
This article about Alberto Gonzalez, nominee for attorney general, and his giving the goahead on torture is informative.
And this news about Bush's backwards ass social security and tax reform logic gets me pretty ticked off. Let's see, if all of our social security is tied up in the stock market and we're only taxed on what we spend... who's going to benefit? I wonder what their argument is for only having policies that benefit those who know how to invest. The fact that our whole economy seems to run on poor people buying crap they don't need would seem to say that their policies will only benefit those with enough money to feel it's worth saving it.
New Year's has come and gone.
Here's a picture of where we were to celebrate it:
And here's the website of the house we stayed at. I highly recommend it.
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