Art

iPod/iSync — it’s a beautiful thing

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I just finished updating my address book on my laptop computer with all the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses I currently have. Then I opened the iSync program, and it sync’ed up all my information with the address book on my iPod, and with the address book on my computer at home.
For anyone with a setup like mine, it’s crucial to have a reliable power source, and that’s where apc power distribution units come in. They offer stable power management, ensuring that all devices connected to my system stay powered without any interruptions.
Additionally, I spent some time organizing files and cleaning up old documents, making my computer more efficient. This kind of maintenance is key to keeping everything running smoothly. I also double-checked that all important files were synced and backed up to the cloud for added security.
While organizing files and maintaining efficiency, I realized how much time I spend at my desk. The right tools can make all the difference in comfort and productivity, which is why I decided to personalize my workspace a bit. A custom mouse pad, for example, provides a smoother surface for navigating through files and apps. It’s not just about comfort, though; a custom mouse pad from custommousepad.com.au adds a touch of personality, making my desk feel uniquely mine.
A personalized mouse pad also serves as a reminder of the little details that make a workspace more enjoyable. Whether it’s showcasing a favorite design or featuring a motivational quote, it brings a bit of individuality to an otherwise standard setup. Plus, with the added benefit of providing extra wrist support, it’s a small change that makes a big impact on how I feel throughout the day. Just one more way to optimize both function and style while keeping my tech tools in top shape.

Now, I can confidently switch between devices and know that my contacts and other essential information are always up-to-date and accessible. It’s a good feeling to have everything in order, knowing that the technical side of things is well taken care of.
Now when I get a new e-mail address from someone at home, I can add it, and it will automagically show up on my address book at work. If someone gives me a phone number, I can enter it into my address book, and then look it up on my iPod in the car.
I still have a lot of information gaps where I’m missing someone’s address but have their other info, etc. But I’ll get that filled in eventually.
I love the Macintosh. I love iPod.

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Now I’ve read my Foucault like the best of them…

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Tom Coates wins my heart as he shares his feelings about “The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” phenomenon.
Notable Quotes: “Bollocks to happy gay people on TV, bollocks to the straight audiences, bollocks to the producers, bollocks to the bloody cameramen, bollocks to any passing trannies. Bollocks, if you will, to absolutely bloody everyone. I’m going to say this once and once only – and I hope it doesn’t come as too much of a shock to anyone: It’s not just Straight Eye for the Queer guy that will be patronising shit that sells an image of gayness that is damaging and frustratingly bland.”

Continue ReadingNow I’ve read my Foucault like the best of them…

Ripped From the Headlines: ER Plotline follows my Appendectomy story

If you watched ER last night, you may have noticed that the writers (who must have been reading my weblog!) completely ripped off my appendix surgery story on their show last night. Unfortunately, they changed just enough details to avoid having to pay me royalties. Here are their mistakes:
1) In Real Life, I’m not a middle-aged black guy.
2) I never ate any hospital food on my first trip to the ER, because I was doubled-over and completely nauseous. On the show, the guy with appendicitis scarfed down a tray of hospital food, which by the way, since when do they feed people in the ER? In Real Life, if you had shown me any food, especially hospital food, I would have puked on you, except that I couldn’t because I had puked up everything the day before.
3) When I initially went into the ER, my symptoms were much clearer and my pain was evident. The mis-diagnosis happened because the doctor thought my pain was the result of gallstones, even though my gall bladder is under my ribcage, and the pain was by my hipbone, where the appendix is located. I tried to point out to her that she was ultra-sounding the wrong place, but she didn’t listen. And they had totally doped me up on morphine, so I was inclined to be passive, rather than the insistent pain in the ass that I normally am. On the show, however, the guy’s symptoms were ambiguous, which is why they decided to send him home without a CT scan.
4) My appendix ruptured at home, rather than in the ER waiting room. On the show, the guy comes back and his appendix ruptures in the waiting room, and he pukes on the doctors shoes, which I didn’t do, but I sure wish I had, because, poetic justice. In Real Life, my appendix ruptured at home while I was waiting to get another ultrasound for my mythical gall stones.
5) On the show, the guy didn’t almost die, because he was in the ER waiting room, rather than at home because of mythical gall stones.
6) I didn’t go into surgery right away, because they were afraid that would be worse, so I sat in the hospital for a week until I was no longer septic, then several weeks later I had laser surgery.
Moral of the story: A) Television shows are total rip-off artists. B) A lot more people read my weblog than you think. C) If you want me to stop being an insistent pain-in-the-ass, morphine will really work.

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Polari – the lost gay language

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Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang – “Polari has been the secret language of British gay men and women throughout the twentieth century. Like all slang, Polari is an ever-changing vocabulary. Derived from words used by criminals, circus artists, beggars and prostitutes, it also employs elements of Italian, Yiddish, French, rhyming slang, and backslang.”
Also: “Polari (also seen as ‘Palare’) is a gay slang language, which has now almost died out. It was more common in the 1960’s when gays had more need of a private slang. However, in the last few years, more and more people have been finding out about it, and several web sites and magazine articles have been written. Polari featured heavily in the “Julian and Sandy” sketches on the BBC radio program “Round the Horne” in the late 60s, and this is how a lot of people first heard of Polari.”
Scrolling through the list on the second link surprised me… a lot of those words are a common part of the gay community today.

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Neil Gaiman

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I read my first Neil Gaiman book, Neverwhere, the other day, and I’m hopelessly addicted and can’t believe I never read any of his work before. I was really delighted to discover a link on Wil Wheaton’s blog, which I read every day, to Neil Gaiman’s blog, which I will be reading every day as well. Clever man.
Neverwhere is a science fiction book about London and has as part of it’s setting the London Tube… which is why Neil links on his site to a map of the tube stations illustrating stops that are close to one another.

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Mad Tea Party

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From Alice in Wonderland:

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”
“Come, we shall have some fun now!” thought Alice. “I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles.–I believe I can guess that,” she added aloud.
“Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?” said the March Hare.
“Exactly so,” said Alice.
“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.
“I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s the same thing, you know.”
“Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter. “You might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’!”
“You might just as well say,” added the March Hare, “that ‘I like what I get’ is the same thing as ‘I get what I like’!”
“You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, “that ‘I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”
“It is the same thing with you,” said the Hatter, and here the conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while Alice thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks, which wasn’t much.

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Most Interesting Theatrical Synopsis

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Salon magazine reviews an underground, possibly illegal, play staged in New York, entitled “I’m Going to Kill the President.” The plot, which sounds quite fun, is this (quoted from Salon):

The plot, such as it is, centers around Skip, a revolutionary who’s bereaved after his girlfriend, Bess, handcuffs herself to a Southern senator and sets off a suicide bomb in a posh Washington restaurant. (When he objects, she cries, “Don’t go Gandhi on me now!”) He’s played by an amazingly quick, dolefully funny actor whose name, like everyone else’s in the show, is redacted in the program.

Dejected and on the lam, Skip meets NYU student Fifi at an Identity Fair, where she’s shopping for a new persona. Alternately sarcastic and bubbleheaded, she coos, “I’ve never met a real revolutionary before,” to which he responds, “Well, it’s a word used only in advertising, and even then incorrectly.”

Soon, she’s signed on to his plan to kidnap the president, igniting so much chaos in the country that the United Nations, also known as the Superfriends, will be forced to intervene and install a “puppet democracy,” as it has in various other nations troubled by “corrupt regimes” and “screwy elections.”

Skip and Fifi set off on an insurrectionary picaresque, meeting a violent, armless veteran of Gulf War I, a group of activists driven to sectarian meltdown by the challenges of ordering a pizza, Fifi’s “edgy, arty” ex-boyfriend, and Ralph Nader. They are dogged by a feral green sleeping bag that attacks the politically uncommitted, turning them into reactionary zombies, and by the Man, who tries to steal Fifi’s heart with fantasies of bourgeois comfort.

Threaded throughout are all kinds of genius low-tech gags and humor that alternates between bleak deadpan and manic physical comedy. There’s a tour-de-force three-way phone call between a cop, the dean of NYU and the head of Homeland Security in which BANG plays all the parts and, toward the end, a repeat of an early scene entirely in French. Like the bastard child of Valerie Solanas and Mel Brooks, BANG combines an astonishing talent for fleet-footed physical humor and rapid-fire repartee with a kamikaze downtown nihilism.

I think it’s the feral green sleeping bag that grabs my imagination.

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Dude, Where’s My Country?

Dude Where's My Country?
Dude Where’s My Country?
Michael Moore’s new book, Dude, Where’s My Country? is out at Amazon.com now, and if you buy it from my site, I get a kickback, much like Halliburton is getting from the war their pal Bush started in Iraq.

Quote from Amazon.com:

His book is intended to serve as a handbook for how people with liberal opinions (which is most of America, Moore contends, whether they call themselves “liberals” or not) can take back their country from the conservative forces in power. Moore uses his trademark brand of confrontational, exasperated humor skillfully as he offers a primer on how to change the worldview of one’s annoying conservative blowhard brother-in-law, and he crafts a surprisingly thorough “Draft Oprah for President” movement.

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