I had a dream last night that I was on a long plane ride across Russia. On the plane was a real disaster movie cross section of people – athletes, convicts, nuns etc. At one point we had to land unexpectedly because of a problem on the plane. The airline put us up in a hotel overnight and paid for everyone to have massages. Then when the plane took off the next day, we began to have problems again and it looked like we were going to crash. I thought to myself, “I really don’t want to die, because then I’ll never get another massage.”
Category: words mean things (Page 117 of 223)
Mr. Mosey likes to make fun of me for blogging Salon. But this article by a guest on Phil Donahue’s new cable show has a lot of thoughtful things to say about media, the influence of video games on kids, and why cable talk shows are not the best venue for reasoned debate, even if they are hosted by Donahue. Recommended.
Blue Crush
Great brain candy. Mind-blowing surfing photography. Amiable “plucky heroine” tone. Lots of zero-body-fat nearly-naked people. Michelle Rodriguez. What’s not to like?
Got an e-mail today from a new reader in the UK who stumbled on words mean things by using the query “No, I mean INTERESTING things!!” in Google (try it!). He asked, “do these images [on my photo page] bear any relevance to anything in particular or were you just extremely bored?”
In response, I offer the above, seen on my walk around the neighborhood. Clearly there’s a lot of strange and interesting (if irrelevant) stuff out there if you just look for it. There were a bunch of paint cans around the mannequin, and I wanted to take more pictures, but the owners of the house were on the upstairs porch, and I didn’t want to be discovered.
Dr. Mark Greene Proves I’m a Bad Person, Part II
Dr. Greene is considering a job in another state. To judge how much they want him to stay, he asks his boss about tenure at Cook County General. The boss says, we’ll consider you for tenure in ’02 (this is 1999). Dr. Greene is disappointed.
“Leave town!” I shout at the TV. “You’ll be dead by then!”
Maria: Can you stop watching TV for a minute?
Matthew: No.
Maria: Why?
Matthew: Because. I had a bad day at work. I had to subvert my principles and kow-tow to an idiot. Television makes these daily sacrifices possible. Deadens the inner core of my being.
Maria: Let’s move away then.
Matthew: They have television everywhere, there’s no escape.
From Trust, a fantastically quotable and entertaining movie. Highly, highly recommended.
Memo to self:
Write more posts about country radio.
We’re living in a society!
Supposedly we here in the United States are living in a service economy. Our primary product is service. So why is it so hard to get even decent service, in any circumstances?
I left my previous web host because the tech support, such as it was, was surly and rude. Now I choose a new host, and I’m on the phone with them for three days trying to get them to properly set up the account, which should have been done in the first place.
For example, I called them when I found out that the statistics on the new account weren’t working (just one of many setup problems I’ve had). I was told in a flat affectless voice, “Stats aren’t set up on that account yet.” Why not? “On other servers, the stats are set up automatically.” So on this one, you just assume people don’t need stats? Why should I have to call and specifically ask for you to do something basic like this?
Of course, this lack of service isn’t just in the tech industry. Restaurants, utility companies, financial institutions are all pretty dismal. But I’m amazed that it’s so hard to find a decent web host with support people who don’t treat you like a nasty interruption in their day, and can get an account set up without a ridiculous amount of hand-holding.
(I have to take this opportunity, though, to plug HostingMatters, the fantastic hosting company Xkot works for. They set up both an account for a client and a small account for me so I can fool around with PHP and Movable Type, and they’ve been wonderful. If I didn’t need something they don’t offer (Cold Fusion), I’d move everything over to them in a heartbeat.)
You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs
Whose bright idea was it to change web hosts?
Oh right. It was mine.
Does the phrase “out of the frying pan, into the fire” mean anything to you?
Learning about blasphemy with The Simpsons
Bart: Why do we need church shoes? Jesus wore sandals.
Homer: Well, if he’d had proper arch support, maybe they might not have caught him.