Posts will be sparse or non-existent over the next few days. Lots of personal stuff going on. Back soon.
Month: June 2002 (Page 2 of 3)
Isn’t it true that just when you really need to sleep, you can’t?
Rhetorical question.
As the time goes on, I’ve been more and more pleased with the name of this weblog, words mean things. It’s multifaceted and fits my style perfectly. And now I’m gearing up to start a weekly free e-mail newsletter on web topics, to promote myself as a web guy. The best name I can come up with it so far for the newsletter is “Web Common Sense.” But this seems too boring for the feeling I want to convey. Anyone have any suggestions?
I’m going tomorrow to be a speaker at Business World in De Pere, the high school business camp I’ve written about before. I’m a little nervous about this, since I’ve never given a talk like this before, especially in front of high school kids. I just hope they don’t pelt me with rocks and garbage, and then drag my unconscious form out into the quad, to be pecked at by passing birds.
See, if you imagine the worst, if it’s anything better than that, you’re pleasantly surprised. My mom taught me that.
Father’s Day
I’m amazed (and pleased) to report that I won first prize in the Father’s Day essay contest at Raising Hell. I told a story that I’ve thought about posting on this weblog in the past. So rather than repeat it here, go on over to Raising Hell (a cool group weblog about parenting) and take a look.
And here are some past posts about my father:
Jabba the Hutt
Bulldogs
On the beach
The Church Street Monster
Interesting art
The Big Lebowski
Collage
I would encourage everyone out there with a weblog to write a Father’s Day post today. Mostly because I’d like to read them.
My Toby Keith post (see below) is now officially the most-commented post ever on words mean things. I figure it’s probably because people were searching for information about the song itself (just like I was). I was looking for the lyrics online, didn’t find them, so I downloaded an MP3 and transcribed the words.
Apparently, all that effort was worth it. And welcome to my new conservative readership. If you hang around, I’m sure you’ll find even more to be outraged about.
UPDATE: Just to give the conservatives a head start, I probably don’t have to say that I agree with Peter Jennings objecting to Keith’s appearance on the ABC Fourth of July special – if it was in fact Jennings’ decision, which seems unclear.
UPDATE Episode II: Some interesting reading on Metafilter about this issue. Especially over the meaning of the word “censorship,” which Keith used to describe his removal from the TV special lineup.
Fascinating article in Salon about John Edward, the “Crossing Over” TV psychic I’ve written about on this page before. The piece basically moves through the stages of (plausibly) debunking Edward as relying on a mixture of probability, reading people’s reactions, and the audience’s need to believe.
I think this is probably true.
But then it ends strangely, with the author acknowledging that if Edward provides some comfort to those grieving over a loss, maybe he’s earned his keep after all.
I think this is true as well.
John Edward postscript: On my walk today, I noticed that I had a small torn seam in my shorts, just below the crotch. (Yes, we’re not above revealing embarrassing personal details to entertain readers here at words mean things.) That made me think of the episode of “Friends” where Phoebe’s boyfriend was prone to unwittingly exposing himself with loose-fitting shorts. Then I went home, turned on the TV, and that exact episode was playing! I may just have to jump on this psychic bandwagon myself.
I wanted to post my review of the Ben Affleck/Morgan Freeman thriller “The Sum of All Fears,” but most of my reactions come from the end of the movie, and it wouldn’t be very nice of me to give away the ending, would it?
But I think it’s interesting that this movie, dealing with a potential worldwide nuclear holocaust brought about by chest-thumping world leaders, is released at the same time as our President’s announcement that he’s itching to strike first.
Sometimes I just don’t know what the hell I’m doing – The Sequel.
Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue
Toby Keith
“This nation that I love has fallen under attack
A mighty sucker punch came flyin’ in from somewhere in the back
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye
Man, we lit up your world like the Fourth of July
Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list
And the Statue of Liberty’s started shakin’ her fist
And the eagle will fly, and it’s gonna be hell
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringin’ her bell
And it’ll feel like the whole wide world is rainin’ down on you
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White & Blue
Justice will be served, and the battle will rage
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
And you’ll be sorry that you messed with the U S of A
‘Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass – it’s the American Way!”
This song is currently in heavy rotation on country radio. Oh my sweet lord. Words mean things.
I hate to say it, but computers really aren’t all that fun any more.
Not to be too much of a curmudgeon, but there was a time when getting a new computer was exciting. Moving from a Commodore 64 to a Macintosh SE was like entering a new world. And then the internet came along, and everything seemed even more exciting.
Now, you get a new computer, and it’s a slightly faster, slightly bigger hard drive version of the same damn box you had before. No new or innovative applications have emerged to use all this speed we love so much. Everything has a drab, Soviet-era feel to it. All cases were beige, until someone decided black was it – now everything’s black. Where’s the innovation? Where’s the fun?
I suppose a lot of it has to do with computers becoming commonplace commodities in American society, like TVs and toasters. When you can sell a million units at Best Buy like so much cordwood, creativity and innovation become unimportant.
Which is too bad.