Monday Curmudgeon

My inner curmudgeon is our and raving today. Enjoy (or not) at your own risk.

Topic 1 - The Oscars:
Contrary to at least 40% of the blogs I read today, I didn't watch the Oscar show. To my mind, being subjected to the pablum of a self congratulatory award show is right up there with taking nude sun baths at 20 below in a Siberian winter. Just in case you are a little slow on the uptake, that means I think it is a waste of time. To use one of my favorite phrases: "that proves you don't have the brains of a kumquat."


Topic 2 - Twitter:
I actually saw the first intelligent comment ever about Twitter today. Cosmic Variance is one of the best science blogs around and I'm not just saying that because some of the authors are colleagues of my thesis mentor. Anyhow, today Sean expounded on a thought that has been circulating in my head for a month or more:

In the progression from magazines to blogs to Twitter feeds, the tea leaves are clear. I think we need a new social network, on which updates will take the form of nothing more than a single “0″ or “1″.

We can call it “Bitter.”

To which my answer is a heartfelt:

01001000 01000101 01001100 01001100 00100000 10000000 01011001 01000101 01010011 00100001 00100001 00100001

Topic 3 - My First Album:
Tracey over at Sweetney challenged us all to make our first album cover.

(rules courtesy of Best Week Ever):

1. Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band.
2. Then go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Then, go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use Photoshop or some other image editor to add text & spiffify.
5. Post a link to your band's album cover here! SHOW AND TELL TIMEZ NAO.

So I followed the rules and came up with the platimum selling "few people can handle it" from my newly formed group, Eden Log. The production staff came up with this artwork and I must say I like it.

(For the Wikipedia challenged, random is on the left side about three or four down.)



Topic 4 - My Moccasins:
My moccasins have long been past the end of their life. But I keep using a little baling wire and duct tape to keep them up and running for use around the house because the replacement pair hurt my toes. I have a couple of impinged nerves in my big toes that can drop me to my knees in pain without warning. When the nerves are firing up, any pressure in the right place on my toe and I am in agony. My current moccasins have worn to the point where the problem has been solved. (As you can see in the picture.)

Unfortunately, I think that this summer may be the end of these moccasins. That means that I an going to have to start working on getting the replacement pair broken in. I am a firm believer in the "once something is worn enough to be comfortable, it should last forever" school of thought. Look for me to be cranky from time to time.









For the ascii and numerically challenged among you, the hearty response above is "HELL YES!!!" in binary.