“Time can’t just disappear. It’s a universal invariant.”
-Dana Scully, X-Files pilot episode

Scully obviously forgot about Daylight Saving Time. As I took my walk this morning, I was struck by seeing all the municipal clocks around the neighborhood that hadn’t been adjusted, since the time change always takes place over a weekend. It still amazes me that we can all decide, with dubious benefit, that no, it’s not 2 a.m., it’s actually 1 a.m. And poof! So it becomes. Group hallucination. My grandmother was a travel agent in Arizona, and suffered through a double whammy – Arizona doesn’t go on DST, but the Navajo reservation does (!). So dealing with travel times was complicated to say the least. I always feel disoriented and crappy at every time change, and I really wish we would just pick a time and stick with it. This tinkering with reality has got to have some long-term consequences.

P.S. Watching the pilot episode of the X-Files is a great way to be both incredibly entertained and upset about the sad state of TV these days.

P.P.S. Anyone who’s read Einstein’s Dreams (a masterpiece) knows that time is not a universal invariant anyway.

Overheard on the Cluetrain e-mail list:

“I can’t escape the notion that freedoms are more easy to surrender than they are to win back.”

The proof of this is all around us. (Go Russ!)

Do you collect domain names? I’m sure a lot of webheads have registered more URLs than I have, by a long shot. But I recently got two that I really like, even if I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do with them:

mightyforces.net (after I saw “Almost Famous”)
authenticvoices.net (influenced by reading The Cluetrain Manifesto)

I was thinking that I might call my e-mail newsletter “Mighty Forces,” since all the other names I’ve come up with sound too corporate and boring (“Web Success” etc.). And the weblog directory might fit well under “Authentic Voices.” I’m still mulling it over. What cool URLs have you registered?

I live amongst these people every day.

Watched Ellen Degeneres’ new sitcom last week. I have to tell you, I would rather watch her old show at its most strident than this watered-down, let’s-not-offend-anyone-with-a-heartbeat piece of committee-created junk. It’s so mild, it barely registers on your synapses before dissolving into the ether. I especially like the “she’s gay but not in any way a sexual being, please don’t boycott us” stance of the show, which seems to align with way a lot of Americans think of gay people: it’s OK to be gay, sort of, in principle, as long as there’s absolutely no outward sign whatsoever.

To get a new show, Ellen’s given up her voice. And that’s sad.

Brutality smeared in peanut butter. Read this. Please. (via Arthur)

I definitely have not been mentioning Osama Bin Laden (aka the Head Evildoer) on my weblog enough lately. Osama, Osama, Osama. When I heard the rumor that you were dead, I thought, “I hope Bert is OK.” I was not nearly as concerned with the welfare of Mary-Kate and Ashley, however.

And to whoever made that stupid Flash movie with George Bush playing the bongo drums: is that all you have to do with your time? How long did that thing take you? Why must you torment us so? Oh my sweet lord.

As I revealed recently, I’m a freelance web designer. And I just redesigned my main page. Before, it sort of looked like a vanity site, not a business site. With lessons from the estimable Mr. Tufte and others, I hope this one has more useful information and lets more of my personality come through. Let me know what you think. (And I could use some work, too.)

The Boy Who Cried “Blogger”
Let me just get this straight right at the beginning: I love Blogger, and I love Ev. He and his former colleagues created a revolutionary web application that has allowed thousands of people to publish easily on the web. For this, he is to be commended highly. Highly.

But come on. Blogger hasn’t added a useful feature since I started using it, 18 months ago. First there was the vaporware of Blogger Pro, where the hundreds or thousands of people eagerly willing to support the app by paying a small amount for it were thwarted. And since then, quite often Ev will come on his blog or on the main page of Blogger and say something like, “Big stuff coming. Not sure when, but soon.”

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

I realize that he’s just one guy, and he can’t spend a lot of time developing if he’s just trying to keep the thing running, which from recent evidence is a job in itself. But then, please Ev, don’t drop vague hints about “great new stuff” that won’t happen. It’s just mean. If there really is something coming, tell your loyal subjects what and when. These vague announcements are incredibly frustrating, and I bet I’m not the only one who feels this way. For all his greatness, Ev has squandered more goodwill than George Bush Sr. after the Gulf War.

I’m still amazed that there aren’t any real challengers to Blogger. Hard-to-install, techie server apps like Greymatter and Movable Type are fantastic, but they don’t pick up the mantle of easy publishing for everyone. I for one would like to see Ev keep that award. But it doesn’t look good. Prove me wrong, Ev.

Simpsons Quote of the Day:
“How many gazebos do you she-males need?”
-Chief Wiggum