Fairly Symmetrical
January 2003 Archives
01/30/2003
Okay, so, various stuff:
- Dar Williams has a new CD coming out on Feb. 18. This completely blindsided me… good thing I'm subscribed to her e-mail list. ;) And she'll be touring St. Louis on April 29…
- Charter Communications is on my shit list right now (and probably forever after). When I went to pick up the kit to install our cable modem, they gave me an empty box. When I brought the empty box back they accused me of stealing the cable modem (because, you know, I have nothing better to do than rip Charter off for a $99 cable modem…) and said they'd have to "investigate" it. The lady at the front desk actually had the audacity to tell me a bold-faced lie, claiming she'd checked to make sure the modem was in the box before she gave it to me. I said, "No, you didn't. I watched you take it out of the cabinet, copy down the number on the outside of the box, and give me the paper to sign. At no time did you open the box." She didn't have much to say to that. So now their warehouse is looking for the cable modem. I have zero confidence that they will actually look for it, or that if they find it, they will tell us so. The kicker is that our last bill included a $250 charge for a cable modem we're supposed to be leasing for $5/mo and which would only have cost us $99 had we bought the fucker outright. We are so going back to DSL when we get a chance. I hear Speakeasy is really great.
- Breakups really suck, even when they're not yours. They're hard enough when you only like one of the people; when you like both of them, it's really unpleasant. I have had this driven home to me twice recently. The worst part is that getting involved is a bad idea, so you can't even act on your feelings really.
- Finally, the museum exhibit William Gibson mentions at the bottom of this post sounds very cool. Too bad we haven't the cash for a jaunt to Barcelona (for oh so many reasons).
01/29/2003
If you're seeing this you're seeing the new site, hosted by Tranquil Hosting. I would like to take this chance to publically applaud their technical support, who solved all of my issues in record time. This server should be quite a bit faster than the older, as well.
Housewarming gifts are welcome. :)
01/22/2003
I present to you the most horrifically awful fantasy short story ever written, period: The Eye of Argon (with MST3K-style comments!)
01/15/2003
Back in September I posted this bit about advertising in the age of DVRs. Today what do I find but a New York Times article entitled 'Skipping Ads? TV Gets Ready to Fight Back', which starts thusly:
A leading television producer and two major advertisers have joined forces to present a live variety show with no commercial interruptions. Instead, the advertising messages will be incorporated into the show.
So the Supreme Court has ruled on the Eldred case. Unfortunately for pretty much everyone, they ruled that the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act stands.
Their arguments seem fairly weak, personally. They make entirely too much of the necessity of bringing our copyright terms in line with Europe's. I don't see why Europe's views on copyrights should trump the intent of the Framers, myself. Both dissenting Justices wrote opinions; of the two, I think Breyer's is the more compelling.
Hopefully this ruling will help to stir up the war over copyright; even the Supreme Court can change its mind.
Lessig has three posts on the subject: start here and scroll down.
01/12/2003
So since we're losing our DSL, I went down to Charter a few days to pick up a cable modem to tide us over till we move. Picked up the self-install kit after about an hour wait in line, brought it home, forgot about it for a few days. Yesterday I went to open it and start looking at installing it… and there is no cable modem in the box. Geniuses. Better yet, when I went to take the box back and demand an actual cable modem today, one of the bad blinkenlights in the Passat started going off. So now I don't know how I'm going to get to Charlie's class tomorrow (probably, I'm just not), and I get to spend my Monday morning getting towed to the dealer.
So rather than going out tonight, Jen and I rented MIB 2 and Goldmember. MIB 2 was merely a pathetic rehash of the original, with some random plot inversions. Goldmember, on the other hand, was actually painful to watch. I'm serious, this one goes on the Movies To Avoid list right below The Velocity Of Gary. :shudder:
Today's only upside is that the apartment is now squeaky clean, top to bottom, as that's pretty much all we did from 10 this morning to about 7 this evening. Though there is still laundry to be done. :(
01/11/2003
Jenny made me homemade bread. I am in heaven.
01/09/2003
According to this story I saw on Google News, frequent drinking 'cuts heart attack risk in men'
More good news for drinkers - frequent tippling of beer, wine or even spirits lowers a man's risk of heart attack, and it appears to be how often, not how much, that is important.
I think that I shall raise a toast to my own health tonight. :)
01/07/2003
I have a problem. I want to add a space on my homepage for a small thumbnail of a photo, and then link it to the larger version—these larger versions being certain of the pictures Jen and I take with that newfangled digital camera. The problem is that I don't know where to put the darned thing… there's just no space. :-P Time to for a mini-redesign on the front page again, perhaps.
Expect some squirreliness and/or site outages around the 16th…
01/06/2003
So I sort of promised a more complete post. Here it is.
About Frisky: Jenny said it better than I would. It made for a rough Christmas. It's strange how many misfortunes seem to fall on that particular day.
My list of loot: the aforementioned digital camera; an away Blues jersey (by which Jenny proved her love for me: she'll let me embarrass her in public ;); a pair of quite good books (Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, and Does God Play Dice? The New Mathematics of Chaos); a complete set of Winnie-the-Pooh office supplies (stapler, business card holder, etc); a rolling pin (yes, I am excited by owning a rolling pin); some nice fleece pullovers and a Get Fuzzy book; the Fellowship of the Ring Extended DVD (love it); the Memento DVD; Tori Amos' Scarlet's Walk; Mahler's 9th Symphony on CD; and a bunch of other stuff I'm either too lazy to type or too forgetful to remember at the moment. :)
It has been brought to my attention that Beyond Balderdash is an excellent party game, especially when you have a creative group of people to play it with. Note that prolonged exposure has been known to cause the complete and sudden collapse of chairs in some cases, however. :-D
Last but not least, through a hook-up I am not at liberty to discuss, I received a copy of Crossroads of Twilight yesterday—one day before the actual street date. Of course, I only got through about 120 pages, which leaves me nearly 9 million to go… not that I'm complaining. Unfortunately, A Feast For Crows doesn't come out till April.
01/01/2003
So we have returned. We had some rough times, and we got lots of great gifts, among which was a digital camera. I'll probably post an actual summation of the trip later. For now, I'll leave you with this: All together now…
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
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