(See the previous (early October 2006) Homepage Writings/Rants HERE)
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(UPDATE) Tuesday October 31st, 2006--Nerves
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Ok, it's Halloween, but what really has me nervous is this upcoming election--we are so damn close from getting rid of a whole bunch of Right-Wing Authoritarians in congress and actually having a majority in (maybe) both houses. It's making me crazy. I feel like it could happen, but I've been let down so bad before and the Repubs could possibly "steal" this election with voting irregularities and such.
So, what are you going to do to help? I have exceeding amounts of work to do, but I plan on participating in Move On's call campaign--I'm not sure of all the details yet, but the basic premise is that you call voters who register "Independent," and you convince them to vote Democratic. Sounds like an annoying thing to do, but they (the strategists) say it works, so I'm going to give it a try. There's not too much stuff I can do locally... oh wait, I could dress up like Arnold and tell people not to vote for me, but that buffoon has a huge lead on Angelides (who has hardly put up a fight--what's up with that?).
My Halloween treat would be to see the Repubs booted out of congress.
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Tuesday October 31st, 2006--Glenn Danzig, please stop singing to me...
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Is it weird that I woke up this morning with the Misfits' "Halloween" in my head? Why does this always happen? I wonder if this is something that might affect the quality of my sleep... I always have a song in my head when I wake up.
It is Halloween and we had some fun over the weekend--I'll put pictures up later because I have a lot of work to do here at school. Like gettin' an edumacation.
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Just read this great article on the Inc dot com page describing one businessman's epiphany--he was a good, old-fashioned dude making millions only making his company as "green" as the law required and then one day, he decided he was going to make the company entirely sustainable. Check it out here and think of his company Interface if you're looking for carpet.
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Sunday October 29th, 2006--
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Stupid daylight savings... I hate it! Although, it was kinda nice to sleep in and still get to the farmer's market relatively "early".
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One of the best resources on the web for climate science is Real Climate and they have an article discussing the lyrics to the Clash's "London Calling." You know, with the "Ice age is coming, the suns zooming in..." here.
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I'm in an anti-prafterdotcom mood lately---there's plenty of things to do on the site like put up photos from my Yosemite expedition (there are a lot more photos) or re-do all the buttons or something, but I don't feel like it. All the staff has been hired by a multi-dimensional non-profit NGO Co-op and I'm all alone in this huge building. Well, it's just me, my soon-to-be-wifey, the wavepool, the vintage skateboard collection and this laptop/squidbox. Not really that bad actually.
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I've been busy too, I just made two spreadsheets that contain all my sediment and nitrate data--this is a huge accomplishment since previously all my data could be found on over 20 spreadsheets! Life is going to be so much easier and I have a much better control over quality assurance / quality control. I've been telling every young scientist I know to do this too--link all your original data to whatever new plots you want to make. You've developed a better correction scheme? Change it and everything changes with it? Constructed a better age model? Go ahead and adjust because everything will change with it.
I can see that you don't care.
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The first rule in keeping viewers to your blog is to make sure you add photos every chance you get. Let me see what I have in the data files...
Emmitt Herron Shredding!! He taught me how to punch and kick people when I was in high school. Here's the Herron family dudes posing for the camera (thanks to Joanne for sending this)
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Friday October 27th, 2006--My Friend Scott
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I know this site is threatening to turn into a You Tube site, but I finally found this video showing the making of a movie ("Secret Machine") my friend Scott filmed by Globe. The surf footage is amazing and beautiful and it's worth buying the movie here. Now, watch the making of below:
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Wednesday October 25th, 2006--The World is Insane
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First, we have Rush Limbaugh (an admitted drug-adict) making fun of Michael J. Fox's recent political ads (see below)... and I thank him for it!
That fat, jackass has given this campaign commercial so much free press it's amazing! All over the crappy gossip TV shows like Pat Chapman's "The Insider" and the Today Show, Good Morning America, etc.
Here's a story about the uproar and if you want to see what he had to say:
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Also, I thought the trailer for this film (sent to me by Brian Herron) was going to be horrible, but it actually looks like a really cool film:
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Tuesday October 24th, 2006--
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I was just writing my friend Kim a message via "Her Space" and this is what it said:
I was just thinking to myself, "Self, wouldn't you like to know how Chris Carroll is? I should give him a call, who do I know that would have his number? Why don't I write Kim a message and ask her how life is and what Chris' phone number is." That was my entire thought. Nothing else. Oh wait, after that thought, I thought to myself, "Self, I think that we have a new soundtrack to our lives and it's found on a couple albums by this guy named Sufjan. Even though our religious views don't mesh, his happy, quirky, yet complicated tunes fit right into my everyday rhythm." That thought was followed by this one, "What was my soundtrack before Sufjan (early grad. school)? Probably Minus the Bear. Before that (post-college, pre-grad. school)? Probably Engine Down. Before that (post-college)? Elliott. Before that (end of college)? Twelve Hour Turn." then, my final though (right now) is, "I hope my grammar is good because Kim wrote on her myspace page something about how she likes good grammar." |
That letter was too weird to not be posted here at prafterdotcom.
I should have detailed that I do not use Sufjan's Enjoy Your Rabbit LP as a soundtrack--that record is not very good in my opinion and (in fact) it extremely irritates me (I should delete it from my Itunes so it will stop playing!!!). The best album (in my opinion) is the Come On Feel the Illinoise LP. Good stuff. The Seven Swans album also has some hits on it.
As for all the other soundtracks to my life--there's an interesting progression from the angry, mathy 12 Hour Turn to the emo-I really need someone to love (but still angry) Elliott, to the WTF feel-goodness-these-songs-don't-really-mean-anything of Minus the Bear, and etc.
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Oh yeah, I gave some small paintings away for this event called, "Artists for Transformation." It sounds very fancy (and it was), but I was only in it because my friend Nicole was basically running the event. I didn't expect much from the two paintings I gave (see above for example of 2 paintings and 1 Gimp puzzling over them).
But, get this, I actually sold one, which means all the money went to benefit the Barrio Logan Elementary School (in the south part of San Diego). I was pretty stoked that it sold and it was the one I thought least likely to sell (the painting to the left). Here's some other stuff:
Here's a better picture and proof that at least one person bid on this painting.
So, it wasn't for that much, so what? What have you done lately, eh?
I wanted to buy lots of stuff at this art show, but none of the "artist" stuff--all the kids water colors were amazing. Here's one:
It says, "When I go the beach I will take a bath." That is awesome. I wanted to buy this one so bad, but it wasn't to be--they went back to the school to hang in the hallway. Just as well, but I'm sure the student would have been happy that they raised some money for their school.
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Sunday October 22nd, 2006--Count Down...
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To all the participants in the Prafterdotcom community, the time is running out... there are merely a few days until November 7th and we can take back the House and the Senate! The House of Representatives looks pretty solid for the Dems, but the Senate has some tough seats.
Now, you probably have not been keeping up to date with who did what to what and where, but if you want some good information on the worst of the worst (albeit from a partisan source--who isn't nowadays) check out Rolling Stone magazine's article on the Worst Congress Ever (a follow up to the Worst President Ever article in which I received no royalties--I should have copyrighted that name...). Of course, all but one of the congresspeople are Republicans (the one Dem being that loser Will Jefferson). Read that to see how the Repubs have used their power to personally profit. Go!
Next, take a look at the "competitive" races. There are surprisingly few House seats up for grabs because a lot of states have re-drawn their congressional districts to concentrate "their" types of voters in one area--imagine my area where Brian Bilbray's (ex-Randy "Douche" Cunningham) district bends right around the UCSD area--what? You can't handle the supposedly liberal college-type people voting in your district?
Anyway, the place for some pretty graphics is Slate Magazine's site here.
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Friday October 20th, 2006--Crap
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Dookie. Turd.
Turd Ferguson.
The Prafterdotcom editor-in-chief / Presidente is irritated and he's typing for the website... watch out!
It's been a long time since I've blogged some political stuff, but I'm still scanning the newspapers, the magazines, and the blogs for any new information that will let me sleep at night. What am I looking for?
Hope.
And sometimes I find little pieces of it, stuck in the corners of our democracy like a quarter stuck under the cushion of your couch. And like that quarter you found, you're happy to have it, but it ain't going to pay off your student loans--you need more.
One (slightly) hopeful sign is that there are some in the evangelical / fundamentalist / born-again Christian community that are interested in something besides a woman's reproductive organs and prayer in school--see this Washington Post article on "The Greening of the Evangelicals".
There are also lots of great ads for democrats challenging the Rubber Stamp Repubs across the nation and I'll probably start bringing them to the prafterdotcom audience more and more in the next coming weeks. Here's an excellent advertisement for Claire McCaskill in Missouri:
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Wednesday October 18th, 2006--A Good Day
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No, it was a great day. I got some good work done, I received some hand-me-down sediment samples from an old SIO student and I am now watching the episode of Lost that I've been waiting all summer for... the one that tells you what happened to Locke, Echo, and Desmond (?). Actually, I'm not sure if it will tell us anything about Desmond, but who cares, I want to know how Echo is doing!!!
I love a lot of things about this show, but I really love how the beach camp is at the first place I ever surfed in Hawaii and that the "airport" that is supposedly in Sydney, is actually the Honolulu Convention Center where I gave my first public science talk (not counting my Wetlands Institute days..).
For those who really want to get into the details of Lost, check out this website Lostpedia (I go there after every episode to see what details I missed).
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Tuesday October 17th, 2006--Chris and Emily's wedding photos (non-film based camera)
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Hey, don't just sit there, go over to this link right here and marvel at the good times that were had at the marriage of Chris White and Emily Lattimore (sp?).
I don't have much else to say, here's a phot that didn't make it on the page, but hey, there's Bob
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Here's another photo of my sister Ashley. Maybe she will actually like this one:
Oh yeah, and that's your editor for prafterdotcom wearing a shirt that I gave to Chris White.
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There are so many photos sitting in the prafterdotcom archive tower that I should just go ahead and put some up on the site:
Like this one... if you are driving on the I-8 between Arizona and San Diego make sure to stop at the Dateland restaurant. It's hard to miss... there is literally nothing but sand and tumbleweeds for 30 miles in any direction. They advertise their great "Date Shakes" and I (being the great Date connoiseur (sp?)) had to stop by and purchase one.
It was really good. I want to drive back to get another, except I don't really want to drive back to get another.
Here's the sign:
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Monday October 16th, 2006--
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I think I just invented something that will change the world as we know it. I could make millions off of this invention, but I am giving it to the world for free--my contribution to humanity.
Is it some kind of weapon? (c'mon, you know me better than that)
Perhaps a device that peels bananas for you? (I saw that on Sponge Bob)
Is it some thing that will keep your car clean, you will never have to clean your car again? (I wish--I hate cleaning the car)
Is it that house paint that acts as a solar panel--providing energy for your house and your neighbors? (I thought of this some time back and I just heard someone on NPR talk about it. Sadly, this is not yet invented by me or anyone else)
No, no, no, you silly dirt monkey. It is much more fundamental to our happiness than any of those things... think, think! What is the most necessential (I just invented that word too) thing all humans desire? Well, if you said, "hey Prafterdotcom editor, I think you are talking about water," you'd be absolutely friggin' right. I haven't invented water (of course), but I have made it slightly better... I heat the water in a tea kettle, then I pour it in a cup with a Green Tea bag, then I remove the bag of tea, and add HOT CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
Ahhh!!! YEAHHH!!!!!!
I have invented HOT GREEN CHOCOLATE TEA!!!!
or maybe,
HOT CHOCO-GREEN!!!!
(that's a much catchier title)
You heard it hear first, now go forth and enjoy your hot beverages while our tilted Earth spins the northern hemisphere away from the sun (i.e. Winter). Watch out for Starbucks and Port City Java and The Living Room and other coffee shops that I don't (hardly) ever enter to adopt this as their new drink this winter.
Too bad for them, that this is the official drink of the Prafterdotcom headquarters. All employees are free to drink what they want--as long as it is HOT CHOCO-GREEN!!!
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I suggest that you find some way to listen to the song, "Postcards from Italy, " by the band Beirut. The sound is Eastern European (think accordians and the like) combined with one of those really cool bands from Montreal like Broken Social Scene or (maybe) even a mariachi band (lots of horns--trumpets mostly). In fact, the Mexican dudes walking around my house mowing the lawn would probably dig it the most--I should burn them a copy. It's fun, likable, music that even your mom might like.
It makes my half-Polish wifey-to-be grow Eastern European chin hairs (don't hit me Brookie!!!).
Perhaps you would like to "pirate" it from some file sharing site or you may purchase it through the likes of ITunes or eMusic (like my friend Evan does).
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I am extremely hesitant to recommend this You Tube video, because of the incredibly inane teenage girl chatter ("like, I was, like, thinking, like, maybe we should, like, volunteer for this, like, surf contest, like for cancer."). That's right, these two tourist girls (my sister Lauren probably knows them) made a video about how they volunteered for the Brendan Borek surf contest. I think I am going to regret this, but here's the link (I'm not going to provide a direct video of it on this site). You can see Lorrie Logan (nee Carroll) walk by the camera in one instance--pretty funny because she is giving these girls a mean look).
(See the previous (early October 2006) Homepage Writings/Rants HERE)
