Drewbert's Poor Excuse for a Blog

testing

2008-06-10T22:18:00.001-05:00

this is merely a test.

Smooth Video

2008-05-27T20:35:00.001-05:00

I'm not a huge fan of either performer, but this mashup of Michael Jackson's
Smooth Criminal with scenes from Fred Astaire's movies is just brilliant. Spotted by Boing Boing, of course.

(I may also have to admit to a sudden crush on Cyd Charisse about 50 years too late.)

When All Else Fails...

2008-05-09T22:53:00.001-05:00

Post a cat picture.

I Wanna Join the Circus

2008-04-30T00:10:00.001-05:00

Ever have one of those days you wish the world would just quit spinning for a few minutes?

Yeah.

Stats and Such

2008-02-19T21:08:00.001-06:00

While looking through the web stats for this site, I've noticed that a lot of people, maybe even the majority of them, have come here from a google search for cheap fisheye lenses made from door peepholes from the hardware store. Just to gratuitously fish for more web hits, here's that picture again:

People from as far away as Thailand, Estonia, and the Philippines have reached here with that search. Isn't the internet cooool?

I'll add another fisheye picture as soon as I remember where I put the lens!

Also, I have to mention that I just saw in my access logs that I have two hits from someone web browsing on a Commodore 64. No lie. I am gratified to have such an honored elder visit this humble site. Glad to see the old fellow keeping up with the times. Such determination! :)

OK, So I Gave In.

2008-02-17T19:16:00.001-06:00

So an entire two posts back (hey, that's over a month!) I declared to the world my dislike and distrust for cable companies. Had I been a slight bit less terse, I might have mentioned that I had no desire for any more television channels to soak up time, and no interest in sending money to yet another monopoly.

However, I've now waited seven years for DSL to become available to this location. There's even a nice, probably non-monopolistic DSL provider in town, but out here in the sticks (three miles south of downtown Nashville) DSL service has yet to appear.

So I gave in. I've now got limited basic cable, and finally broadband at home. Ain't I a little hypocrite! Wheee! Anyway I'll be ditching Earthlink shortly, and then the landline phone, probably.

I Believe Letterman Once Referred To Them As, "Pinheads"

2008-01-02T19:20:00.000-06:00

My previous post was a half-hearted, lame attempt to patch together three links that caught my eye today. Ignore it.

Don't ignore the last link, though. It links to an article by former NBC Dateline reporter John Hockenberry. It's a long, fascinating, and saddening look at what has become of network news.

P.S. Happy Introvert's Day. I plan to celebrate by putting on some headphones and enjoying a cup of tea. Like I do most nights.

[edit 2/24/08: fixed dead link on the introvert story.]

Rabbit Ears

2008-01-02T18:17:00.000-06:00

I dislike cable companies: link

I distrust cable companies: link

Eh, why watch TV anyway? link

Grumble.

Vampire Bat Building

2007-12-17T20:42:00.000-06:00

On the walk home from the bus stop every night I can catch a glimpse of downtown Nashville. Currently most prominent in the skyline is what most locals call the "Bat Building", because its resemblance to Bruce Wayne's alter ego was obvious to everybody except, it seems, the architect.

The building really was called the BellSouth Tower until Bellsouth was assimilated by ~~the Death Star~~ AT&T not too long ago. And it was this past week that the bright blue AT&T logo was lit on the building, replacing the Tennessee tri-star logo, and looking for all the world like a creepy glowing cyclops eye.

Which reminds me, I really oughta stop giving money to those shmucks.

Why Didn't I Think of This Before?

2007-12-12T19:05:00.000-06:00

Today at work I was trying to find a good, high-resolution scan of Isaac Newton's original illustration of his cannon thought experiment from Principia Mathematica. There are a lot of small images, and hardly any big enough for our purposes.

Anyway, on an idle whim I tried just going straight to www.newtonscannon.com only to discover the domain name had not been registered.

Well, I fixed that right away.

No idea what I'm going to do with it yet. Stay tuned.

Unsocially networked

2007-11-28T18:55:00.000-06:00

I was about to post this message to my under-used myspace profile:

On rare occasions I find it more convenient to have a myspace account than not have one. However, I have neither the time nor the inclination to look through all of the ten or so friend requests I get weekly on the remote chance that one of them isn't from an ersatz 22-year old in her underwear. If you are someone I know, then you already have multiple other ways of getting in touch with me that don't involve what may very well be the most poorly designed major web site in existence.

Henceforth, friend requests go to /dev/null. Now get off my lawn.

But at the last minute I decided to cancel the account altogether. I'm going to go be awkwardly old and unsociable on facebook instead.

aaaaand we're back.

2007-11-13T22:32:00.000-06:00

So tonight on NOVA is a 2-hour program about Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the 'Intelligent Design' trial in Pennsylvania which ended just shy of two years ago. I'll have to watch, but this topic almost always gets me irritated. (That said, the judge's ruling on the case is a really good read, considering that it's, well, a court ruling.)

Meanwhile, I came across a new review of the Creation Museum in Kentucky complete with a Flickr photo album. It's an interesting review, if maybe a little long. Really the whole thing boils down to one, highly appropriate, word. I wonder if you can guess which word that might be.

Cool Telescope Kit

2007-01-04T15:39:00.001-06:00

Hey lookee, an actual post after lo these many months!

A few days ago I put together a cool little telescope kit from Japan, given to me by my boss. I've took some pictures while putting it together and have posted them here. It's a surprisingly nice low-power scope, given the tiny little box it came in.

If I Were Only One Inch Tall...

2006-11-13T14:23:00.000-06:00

Another Fark Photoshop contest entry.

The clutter on my desk is 100% genuine.

Broken Links

2006-10-08T22:58:00.000-05:00

When I moved off the dotMac space, all the images I'd stored there went away. Of course, I still have copies of them on my hard drive, but there are plenty of links to them scattered around the web here and there, none of which I can update. The result: dead links. Broken URLs. It's all very sad, really.

OK, nobody's really going to miss my past visual contributions to the web, but once in a while I may post the occasional image here just to have 'em back online. Most of the dead links involve posts at the Straight Dope Message Boards or Fark Photoshop contests.

I'll start with my first Fark Photoshop entry, which was very very late because I got in near the end of the contest, had to register and then wait 24 hours before posting. Hence nobody saw it. The source material was pretty low quality, but it's still one of my favorites.

The theme, inspired by a news story: Terrorists use Google. Photoshop other unlikely groups to use Google.

My entry:

Aside from a better source image, the only other thing I would have done would be to rename the search engine to "Q-gle".

About this Dumb URL

2006-09-26T23:27:00.000-05:00

So here's the story.

It's about time for my dotMac subscription to renew, and I've been thinking for some time that it's not really worth the 99 bucks a year. And this is from me, your favorite Mac freak.

But really, I don't have my very own music to share, I don't have photo albums to share, or movies, or calendars. And if I did, I'm sure I could find much cheaper options.

Meanwhile, I'd like to play with some CGI and some AJAX tech, neither of which I can do with either dotMac or a blog hosted on blogger.com. And for practically the same amount of money, I could have my own web domain and web hosting service, with all sorts of neato toys to play with. Even if I never get around to making this site any less dull, it's a better deal all around.

And so we come to this unfortunate URL I've chosen.

Although the name of this site will probably remain the same, I'm not feeling like 'extending the brand presence' of my old 'drewbert' moniker. A quick google search for drewbert turns up me, along with all sorts of other people I don't feel like sharing with. And a drewbert domain name? Drewbert.com and drewbert.net are already taken and the best I could hope for would be drewbert.info. Not interested.

So what else could I choose for my new home on the web? PoorExcuse.net is available at the moment. It's memorable, if overly self-deprecating.

I spent a good portion of last night trying out random phrases and seeing if anything good was available. Nothing good was available. On a late-night whim of desperation, I actually tried randomphrase.com and found a site that generates, well, random phrases. Not only that, it checks to see if that phrase is registered anywhere as a dot-com.

TouristMuffler.com? Still available.
TrafficMartini.com? Still available.
KingOfTheLosers.com? Taken.
PissyCups.com? Still available.
ObliviousSombreros.com? Still available.
SexBombsEtc.com? Still available.
DentureBoyRacer.com? It's yours for the taking.
PurpleHouses.com? Sorry. Not available.
EndlessErection.com? Astoundingly, still available.

None of these being at all intersting, I settled on a randomly-generated phrase which has been rolling around in my head ever since I got it as the subject line of a spam a year or two ago: Circumspect Fiesta. I can't exactly explain why, but it has an arcane oxymoronic quality that appeals to me. It's utterly meaningless. Kinda like this blog! And with my dotMac subscription about to expire, time was of the essence.

Anyway, if none of this makes sense, don't worry. I don't get it all myself. And I'm sure I'll come to regret this move soon enough. It'll be right after dotMac inevitably lowers its price and adds way cool new features. Which with my luck will occur in about three weeks.

On the move...

2006-09-26T20:58:00.000-05:00

It's finally happened. I've got my own .com domain, and this here blog is moving to it. If I understand correctly, the drewbert.blogspot.com site will retain everything up until this post for at least some time. Therefore, I must direct you to the new site which is, regrettably, known as:

www.circumspectfiesta.com

A rational-sounding explanation will be forthcoming as soon as I'm sure the new site is all working properly. (And by the way, if you click on that link within a day or so of my posting this, the link probably won't work. Patience, my friends.)

Anyway, the migration is about to begin. Cross your fingers, and I'll see you on the other side.

Tracts

2006-08-23T20:08:00.000-05:00

So today I encountered a Chick Tract in the wild, for the very first time. I'd seen online rants about them, parodies of them, and plenty of threads on Straight Dope about them, but hadn't ever seen one in person until I sat down on the bus this morning... and there it was, right next to me.

Normally it's one of my missions in life to grab the nutcase propoganda that people leave around and take it to the nearest trash receptacle post haste, but since this was a genuine publication of Jack Chick, I had to grab it and peruse it later, presumably in order to see how long it would take for my head to explode.

As I was stuffing it into my bag (and I didn't have to be very discreet about it since I was the only one on the bus besides the driver), I noticed another one about two seats ahead of me. This one had a cartoon picture of the Twin Towers on the cover next to the legend "So What?" I figured I'd try to pick that one up on the way off the bus. But at the next stop, the driver got up and retrieved it. I hoped that she was just going to stuff the trash in the little bin next to her seat, but as I got off the bus I saw she was reading it.

I hope she laughed derisively at it, as I plan to mine, shortly before I throw it out.

Get Out Of My Brain!

2006-08-23T19:38:00.000-05:00

I wanted to state for the record, not that it matters, that this was my idea first. Who needs lights on the airplane to tell you when it's OK to smoke when it never is? Why not replace them with lights that tell you when you can use electronic devices? Actually, this article is just about cell phone use, so my idea is better, anyway.

And just while I'm on the topic, Professor Frink stole my idea for mood pants, which I came up with years earlier.

I'm still quite bitter about that one.

Paging Dana Scully...

2006-08-20T15:35:00.000-05:00

So last Saturday there was a star party at Warner Park to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Unfortunately, the site is a little light polluted these days and the weather was a bit hazy, so not many meteors were seen. Lots of people got looks at Jupiter, and I turned my scope on to Albireo just to have something different for people to look at. About 10:00 the fog started to roll in, and by 11 it was getting really bad. But as some people were walking back down the hill, a car with headlights on drove up - and it looked exactly like a scene out of the X-Files - people silhouetted against a mysterious bright light shining through dense fog. One of the astronomy club members had a cell phone camera on hand. It's tiny, but here it is:

Oy.

2006-08-15T20:08:00.000-05:00

I need something fun to blog about instead.

Suggestions happily accepted.

Separation of States and Rights

2006-08-15T19:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I first saw this headline on Fark.com:

Federal court orders San Diego to take down huge cross on public land. President and Theologian-in-Chief Bush signs act into law transferring the park to the Department of Defense control. Suck it, libs

And while I'm waiting for my extra-speedy 56K modem to load up the page and the related news link I'm already thinking about how to get this written up on the blog. I'm about ready to point to the previous post and yell, "See? This is what I'm talking about! Bush isn't even pretending to not be a theocrat wanna-be anymore!"

But I calmed down. I read the article, I read the Fark comments. It's all about a big cross which has been in a park in San Diego in one form or another since 1913. that some people want taken down since it's on public land. Well, I don't think many would be terribly surprised if I said I'd personally be happier without a big honkin' cross in a public park near me. I'd be against using government money to put one up or keep it clean and shiny. If it were up to me, I'd take it down and put in a lovely fountain that everyone can enjoy. But, hey, the thing's old, it's historical, maybe it's really nice looking*... ahh who cares, leave it up. Fine with me. There are bigger fish to fry.

I'm going to skip over the tangle of tricksy maneuverings and court rulings over the years, and pause only to note that it's been found in violation of the California Constitution several times over, and that in late 1989 someone got the bright idea of starting to call it a "war memorial." They even put up a plaque to that effect!

It's really this oh so clever solution that seals it for me. It's not just Bush, but both houses of Congress. Don't leave it up to those pesky state courts, nonono. Just grab an 84-foot radius circle of land around the thing and give it to the Department of Defense to take loving care of. Remember, it's a War Memorial, right? Oh, and an election year, too. Support our troops! (By the way, does making it federal property suddenly make it constitutional?)

So let's see. We've got election year chicanery, Eminent Domain abuse, state-sponsored religion, legislative and executive disregard of the court system, and the continuing decay of states' rights. All in one happy little package. Enjoy!

_{*It's not.}

Separation of Who and What-now?

2006-07-30T15:42:00.000-05:00

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060727-12.html

Sigh.

Sometimes, Science Isn't Pretty

2006-07-12T22:23:00.000-05:00

It's true! It's not always all about the erlenmeyer flasks and the lab coats! And even when it is, scientists don't usually have purple fill lights coming from unusual directions as stunning discoveries are made.

Cheap Fisheye

2006-06-15T20:43:00.000-05:00

So first thing this morning, my RSS reader picks up an aricle from Boing Boing which leads to here, which leads to here. Might as well skip the first two links, and go to the end, which tells you all about how to turn a $10 security peephole from Home Depot into an inexpensive fisheye lens. Real ones go for hundreds of dollars.

So I just had to go to Home Depot after work and try it out. Best picture I have so far:

Hopefully, more to come soon.