BunkBlog

Our new Attorney General sure has his priorities straight. Like his predecessor, Gonzales is making indecency a priority. That worked so well for Ashcroft, who was so bent out of shape about dirty pictures that he completely ignored the whole, “stopping bad guys from blowing up buildings” part of his job. Good to see we’ll get more of the same from the new guy.

First it was Kyoto we backed out of, now it’s the Women’s Rights declaration of the UN. We helped to write both the Kyoto Treaty and the Women’s Rights Declaration; now we refuse to support either of them.

It’s a stupid move, and it’s an obvious grandstanding ploy, as the Declaration is a non-binding statement of principles, not a law or treaty. We can’t even say the right thing anymore?

If you have read the whole book, bold it. If you have read part of the book, italicize it. If you own it but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, ** it.
More »

While reading up on CivicSpace, I came across a reference to w.bloggar – a tool I used to update my site when it was a Movable Type blog, but was kind of frustrated by. It seems a lot more polished now, but I can’t help but wonder why I would use this external program to update my site, when I usually am using the “blog this” link on my browser to comment on something I’ve found online anyhow. Oh, and my plugins for LJ synchronization don’t show up in w.bloggar either.

Must ponder more.

That’s what I had in my yard today. On the good side, this should take care of our recurring problems with sewage backups. We had a great tar-and-paper pipe for our sewer, which was apparently commonly used around the time of the Second World War. Our house is probably the last on the block or the city to get it replaced. Joy.

After reading We the Media a few months ago, I came to the realization that San Angelo is most definitely an “underserved” market for local news and views. Like many small cities, we have a couple local television stations (although one is currently in a fight with the major cable provider so almost nobody watches it), and we have one local newspaper. That paper, usually referred to as the SubStandard Times, is so thin on most days it can cause a paper cut with the folded edge. Sunday’s paper is almost the size of the international edition of USA Today. And yet they charge as much or more for that thing as for the Dallas newspaper, also available for local delivery. Our ABC affiliate is from Abilene. So today I read Julie Moos’s article about citizen journalism, and I’m reminded yet again that it would be so easy to set up a site, using a CMS(Content Management System) like CivicSpace to provide a place for all the local people to share information, meet virtually or arrange to meet in reality, and generally recreate the town square of a true small town in this small city.

So, what domain should I use? I’m thinking something with the Concho River in the name, since most of the “San Angelo” URLs are taken. Concho Corral? Concho Online? Hmm…

According to the SciFi Channel, BSG returns this summer for its second season. Hey, if your season is only 13 episodes, it’s not too tough to make two seasons per year, eh?

The “doctor” has left the building.

Finished my homework a day earlier than necessary, played Pirates of the Spanish Main with monkey boy, went to the park until he asked to come home, watched Donnie Darko (brilliantly weird as hell), made barbecued pork loin for all and sundry (a hit), and now off to bed with nekkid woman.

Bonus – tomorrow is a day off.

pointed out something cool, so now I have an Audioscrobbler profile. If you go there, you can see what songs I’ve listened to in WinAmp. Just so ya know, if the songs are listened to during the normal work day, it was some other member of the household playing ’em.

If you woke up and I was in bed with you, what would be your first thought?

And now you’re supposed to post this same question on your blog/journal/bloxsom/whatever and see who responds.

Yet another major study of the world’s oceans has proven yet again something which many people with whom I work refuse to acknowledge: we are causing global warming.

“The debate about whether there is a global warming signal now is over, at least for rational people,” said Tim Barnett, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. “The models got it right. If a politician stands up and says the uncertainty is too great to believe these models, that is no longer tenable.”

Naturally, the luddites will continue to believe whatever they wish, much as they continue to disbelieve evolution is real. Wonder if they disbelieve the theory of gravity or germ theory as well?

I love the Green Day album, “American Idiot” – it’s been on my MP3-playing Clie for the past several months, I have it on the MP3 CD at work, etc. Today is the first time I’ve ever heard the title track on the radio (butchered heavily, of course). They played it on the local “best variety” station (like ClearChannel but lower production values), with no comment. I guess it took winning a Grammy for redneck radio to give ’em a listen. Think they realize that most of the slams made in that track are directed at folks like the majority of this town? Probably not.

Thinkgeek, one of my favorite stores ever, has some entertaining undies – HTTPanties. They have status codes like, “411 length required” for the randy geek boi.

Kyoto Accords go into effect today.

bq. Kyoto comes into force 90 days after Russia’s approval, ensuring the required threshold was met for ratification by countries accounting for 55 percent of emissions. The U.S., the world’s largest producer of the gases, hasn’t accepted the pact.

The experiment du jour was Panini. We made grilled sandwiches containing coppa, sopprasetta, tomatoes, and two kinds of cheese. It was good, definitely a keeper. And oh so difficult (make sandwich, spray with olive oil, grill for three to five minutes)!

Dessert? Why, yes there is – super rich brownies.

Tomorrow is clam chowder. I’ll keep you informed.

If, like me, you’d never played the GTA series when they were new (first one in 1997), Grand Theft Auto is now available for free. Also available, Wild Metal and GTA2. That’s about a gig of shooting and driving badness.

What a time sink this will be…

Today’s epicurean experiment was a cassoulet. This particular recipe called for sausage and chicken, with lima beans and the usual winter veggie stuff (mirepoix?). It got mixed reviews. The chicken was good, the lima beans perhaps overdone, and the sausage definitely overdone. If we make it again, the sausage goes in later and the beans will be dry when we put them in (crockpot meals give you such flexibility).