My dear mother has made the leap to Apple computing hardware, which I welcome wholeheartedly. Of course, she had to do it whole-hog by getting an iMac and a MacBook, but I can’t begrudge her having her toys. Plus she got a discount through her employer, so she was able to get everything nicely upgraded.
Now I just need to get down there this weekend and install the wireless router I got her for Xmas…
Then we can figure out that crazy screen sharing action in iChat. That’ll be awesome for remote troubleshooting, should it ever be needed.
Some random crap:
My mommy got me a 40″ Sony LCD HDTV for Xmas. I was planning to get something in the 46″ range later in 2008, but 40″ turns out to be plenty big (plus, it’s free, yo!). That mother of mine is pretty cool. Even if she does have a thundering herd of Great Danes at her house (including this one and this one, who will make you cry).
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Did you hear the Lakota have decided to secede from the US? I figure this is roughly equivalent to them going on strike. They’re grabbing some attention and might get some sort fo concession from the US government, but in the end it will amount to nothing. Though, Brozo and I think it’d be fun if they started tolling traffic on I-90 and formed an army. How long do you think it would take for them to be labeled “terrorists” if they did that?
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Did you hear that monkeys are as good at mental mathematics as college kids?
“We had them do math on the fly,” Cantlon said.
The task was to mentally add two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen.
The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. Both monkeys and humans typically answered within 1 second.
And both groups fared about the same.
Great. Just great.
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Maybe they can help economists decide whether there’s going to be a recession or not.
“A lot of the underlying resilience of the U.S. economy seems a bit unappreciated,” says Citigroup economist Steven Wieting. “It’s not clear that this is so large a burden that we can’t muddle through this.”
That’s the best this guy could come up with? Muddle through?
Yay!
Greenman Is Done!
Originally uploaded by Jake Sutton.
In February, I start the next one. Gotta get all the Fish time I can afford while he’s still in Denver.
A few years ago a new development popped up near my own subdivision. It was called Bradburn Village and was part of the latest urban development trend of “New Urbanist” communities. All I knew was that the houses seemed really nice (more than just “little boxes on the hillside”) and that residents would have a pub within staggering distance. Some of the more extravagant houses even had carriage house apartments, which is something that catches my eye since we live with my mother-in-law. Alas, the real estate game in Bradburn is too rich for my blood (assuming we would ever be able to sell our current house — not likely in these economic climes).
That doesn’t keep me from walking through the neighborhood (there’s open space between us and them) or stopping into the aforementioned pub for black & tans with bangers & colcannon. I still like to grab the “for sale” fliers to see what’s going for what and pine wistfully when the answers are “perfect” and “too much”.
Then I run across this: The lucky bastards have near-weekly keggers! And of course, everyone who lives there loves it. I’d really like to get a peak in their Yahoo! Group for some real scuttlebutt, but I’m guessing I’d be mostly disappointed.
That social interaction would be a double-edged sword for me, though. Part of me wants to live in a “village” where everyone knows everyone else in at least a cursory manner. The other part of me wishes everyone else would leave me the hell alone. Forever. Give me a glass of beer, though and that second part tends to get out of the way. 
As it is, I live in a nice neighborhood in my cookie cutter (though mostly well-built) house. Several of my good friends live within a ~5 mile radius. I have nearby open space in which I can make my jogging attempts. I can still take advantage of some of the amenities in Bradburn, too — I just don’t get to stagger home from the pub, so I take it easy and save the staggering for when I get home later.
Mostly I just like to look at the houses anyway.
BTW: Bradburn isn’t the only example of “New Urbanism” in my area. We also have Stapleton (at the location of Denver’s former airport), Belmar (in near-by Lakewood), Arista (coming soon in even-closer Broomfield) and probably several others. Prospect New Town, in Longmont, was the first one to catch my notice. Too bad it’s in Longmont.
I hate the Apple Store. I have from the beginning. I guess some people like it (or did like it), but I’m not one of them.
I like to be able to actually buy things in stores without having to enlist a fulltime escort. Nothing frustrated me more than needing a new iPod, walking into the store, seeing a table loaded with iPods packaged for Christmas joy… BEHIND a friggin’ rope. I stood there frozen, staring at my just out of my reach goal, thinking “How… Do… I… Buy… One…?” until I got frustrated enough to walk out and buy the iPod online from home.
Conversely, I was fine with the expectation of having to talk to someone when I wanted to buy my iMac. That’s a big purchase with options involved. I’m fine talking to someone about that. I shouldn’t need to talk to someone to buy an iPod, though. At least not until my credit card is out.
I suppose if I had to pick one musical artist to call my favorite, Tom Waits would be it. (Last.fm bears me out, too.)
As I remember my childhood, our house was always filled with the music of people like Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, and Townes Van Zandt. These artists are still at the top of my list, but I always remember the similarly frequent times when the Tom Waits records were out. His voice always gave me pause. It was so different, I’d stop and think “What IS this? Why is it so different from everything else? And why do I like it so much?”
And then there was the cover for the Small Change album with its be-pastied stripper… Now THAT was something for my prepubescent mind to ponder!
And that really is the best part about Tom Waits. He makes you think a bit. He tells wonderful stories in his songs. They may be comical, maudlin, tragic or surreal, but they are all wonderful.
Happy birthday, Tom. May you have many more. Thanks for everything so far.
(And thanks to my favorite homebrewer, David, for pointing out the date this morning.)
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Track o’ the Post: Tango Till They’re Sore from Rain Dogs by Tom Waits, because that album was always the most fascinating/baffling to me when I was young.
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