"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."—Scott Adams, of all people
|W|P|109233494167075916|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comHey, my Hotmail account suddenly says I have 2GB of storage. Hmmm. I suppose Gmail's 1GB limit forced their hand. But they didn't make an announcement; they just quietly upped the limit. Hmmm.
The joke's on the them, I suppose. I didn't jump to Gmail because of the extra storage. I jumped because of the greater reliability, threading, labeling, shortcuts, etc. Usability. That's something Microsoft has never valued.
|W|P|109181905254677079|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
It's been beautiful here lately, with moderate temperatures and lots of sunshine, so we hiked through a local park on Saturday. It's funny, I grew up in Washington D.C. and I've now lived north, west and south of that area, and North Carolina has strikingly different weather. D.C. was basically built in a swamp, which means humid summers and snowy winters. North Carolina has the occasional ice storm, but it also has long, moderate springs and falls and lots of sun, which makes a big difference in my mood, I'm finding.
Also, as Sharon's stamina improves we're going on longer walks, which is great. There's a lot of pretty country around here; I hope we can see more of it.
|W|P|109010726612781626|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comEpitaphs, proposed by their owners:
- Mel Blanc: "That's all, folks!"
- Jack Lemmon: "In"
- Jackie Gleason: "And away we go!"
- Spike Milligan: "I told you I was ill."
- Peter Ustinov: "Do not walk on the grass."
Tonight we revisited Three Kings, David O. Russell's comedy/action/drama about the Persian Gulf War. It's surprising�and dismaying�to see how well it applies to the current situation in Iraq:
Troy Barlow: Are we shooting?
Soldier: What?
Troy Barlow: Are we shooting people or what?
Soldier: Are we shooting?
Troy Barlow: That's what I'm asking you!
Soldier: What's the answer?
Troy Barlow: I don't know the answer! That's what I'm trying to find out!
Near the end of the DVD commentary track, Russell mentions that he screened it at the White House, but he doesn't say which president watched it. The film came out in 1999, so I'm guessing it was Clinton. I would really love to know what Bush would think of this—the whole film deals in nuance and moral complexity that I think would drive the current administration batty.
|W|P|109196740121262537|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comA note to my nonexistent Republican readers. You wonder why liberals complain about Iraq. Surely the Iraqi people are better off with Saddam gone, you say. The world is a better place. How can anyone disagree with that?
You're right. Iraqis are better off, and they'll be even more so as they learn a free democratic way of life, put down the insurgency and improve their economy. Their future is bright, and it couldn't have happened without our invasion.
But here's the thing. Bush disregarded the world's entreaties not to invade. He acted almost unilaterally, alienating our allies and ignoring even his own people's protests. He admits now that his justifications were not valid: There's no link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and there are no weapons of mass destruction.
The point is, Bush's stubbornness led him to make a huge mistake despite the whole world's warnings. He doesn't listen, learn, discuss, cooperate or build consensus. Liberals don't want Bush out because Iraq is "going badly." They want him out because they fear what he might do in a second term.
|W|P|109059360696416399|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com
The search for music continues. Generally I like last.fm more in theory than in practice. I love the idea of ad-free online radio, and I don't mind listening to other people's music, as I'm always looking for new stuff. But too much of their stuff is just lame three-chord bad rock; and there's no real depth in the genres. I think perhaps their catalog just isn't big enough; this week audioscrobbler posted a note asking for recommendations; "we're expanding it every day."
Last night I went through my own music collection, which I hadn't done in a while, and found it's just miles better than the streaming stuff online. The trouble is that the stuff I love is very hard to find—the Flower Kings and Mike Keneally, lately. It's not old, it's just obscure. I've just used up the catalogs of the few good bands I know, and I don't know how to find reliable recommendations for new stuff. Usenet, maybe.
|W|P|108836168960471291|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com"How do you govern a country that has 246 different kinds of cheese?"—Charles de Gaulle
|W|P|109166884430075403|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comFilmgoing necrophiliacs rejoice! Cinemorgue offers a continuously updated list of actresses who have been killed onscreen.
|W|P|109144419720946254|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.comThe Los Angeles Times now refuses to print Johnny Hart's long-running comic strip B.C. when it gets blatantly Christian. Good for them; he's been getting so preachy lately that he's rarely funny. Not that that matters, apparently. "I've turned the strip into a ministry," he says. "I was almost beginning to get tired of my work until that happened."
None of it makes any sense. The letters B.C. stand for Before Christ, you stupid nimrod. How can a caveman love Jesus? In fact, all these characters are now burning alive in infinite pain because the messiah came too late to save them. Right? Isn't that what your infinitely good God told us? They're in good company: Buddha, Socrates, Confucius, Gandhi, Pythagoras, Plato and Spinoza are also writhing in indescribable agony for eternity. Good thing we know God loves us. Otherwise it might be kind of hard to tell.
|W|P|109148647760586556|W|P||W|P|greg.ross@gmail.com