September 2008

Some assembly required

Sep 9 2008

For those of you who don’t keep an eye on solecist.net, here’s my current obsession:

[Original on flickr: ‘Some assembly required’, or see the full photoset]

It’s been a good project; it has been at the far edge of my current skill level, and I know I didn’t get everything right. Luckily, about halfway through the sewing process, I stopped caring, accepted that lines wouldn’t be straight and circles would point off in random directions … and things immediately got a lot calmer.

The quilt’s going to be more idiosyncratic than perfect, but I think I can live with that.

Read the rest »

Lest I forget to plug...

Sep 10 2008

I’ve never actually mentioned the WhatTheCast podcast, which is done by several of my friends.

It is worth noting that they did an episode live at dragon*con. This is notable for multiple reasons:

All four of these men are my friends.
They make me look positively un-nerdy.
They’re telling stories of what it’s like to work on tech staff, and I can vouch that these stories, no matter how outrageous, are true.
I’m heckling in the audience.
I also get shot down by the panelists. (You’ll hear the exchange in the podcast.)
I even took play-by-play photos, which are available on my flickr account and Brian’s flickr account.

Read the rest »

A heartbeat away

Sep 12 2008

For those of us who spent the past eight years muttering that Bush scared us so much we could barely sleep at night, we now know where the sleep deficit went. I present Sarah Palin, who slept through the past eight years straight:

[direct link to YouTube]

I usually save the political stuff for solecist, but I look at her and think, if the Republicans win in November, the only thing keeping this kook from the presidency is the heart of a 70+ year-old man with a spotty health history.

Metaphorically speaking

Sep 22 2008

Via Think Progress:

A senior campaign aide who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity admitted that Palin’s knowledge of Russia may be limited to the way someone from Miami might obtain a general feel for Latin America.

“It is very much being able to look off the tip of Alaska,” the aide said. “Metaphorically, I’m talking about.”

I’m considering nominating my cat for vice-president. He certainly seems qualified now.

turn the radio up, Kevin

Sep 29 2008

Thirteen years later, I keep waiting for a world in which Kevin Gilbert’s lyrics don’t apply.

Look at them now, drawing little lines with their speeches
Each daring the other to cross
It won’t be long now cause one will make a stand he believes in
Believing it’s well worth the cost
Then the other gets angry, refuses to budge
Fueled by some understandable grudge
And now we wait quietly till the missile arrives
There’s no need to shout about the end of our lives

Sure, it’s about nuclear war, but…

So turn the radio up and pass the bottle round
And then we’ll have one more drink before we all fall down
I’ll wear my favorite tie, you can wear your wedding gown
And then we’ll both look real sharp when we all fall down

Read the rest »

Livesnark the debate goes national!

Sep 30 2008

It’s not just the locals … twitter users everywhere are using the service to livesnark debates and other current events.

Current TV (available on Dish Network, DirecTV, and other places) will link up people posting to #current on Twitter during the debate by broadcasting those tweets on-screen.

We were evil enough last time, and it was just the locals. It’s like a live, on-screen, collective drinking game. Then again, we may need it to get through an evening’s worth of Sarah Palin.

(I’m domesticat on twitter, but my updates are protected. I will give serious thought to un-protecting them during the debate.)

[hat tip to Jeff for discovering this program’s existence.]