Is the saying "Beer before liquor, never sicker, liquor before beer, never fear" physiologically accurate?

Awesome! I just knew that the idiots I went to college with were complete idiots!

Ahh, Eminent Domain Rears its Ugly Head Again

Is this the wrong way to engage in civil protest? Sure, it is radical and, from far away, a bit comedic. However, the fact that this action helps bring the issue further into the spotlight, not allowing it to fade away, is positive. People living in areas bordering commercial properties, in particular, should work to ensure that state legislatures try to do the right thing for everyone.

Coffee of the Week...

...for my coffee press at work is Ethiopian Harrar, courtesy (well, not really since I bought it) of River City Coffee and Tea. I made the first pot just after lunch; it was pretty good, definitely the dry-processed variety--pretty dry grounds, very earthy, some chocolate overtones, but not as much as I expected. I think I will chalk that up to the water not being quite hot enough, but I am afraid that the roast is just not dark enough to bring out the best in the coffee. We shall see.

The Quest for Democracy

In tiny Arab state, Web takes on ruling elite | CNET News.com. It is refreshing to see some of the citizens of Bahrain have a go at creating a democratic movement, even in the face of a certain government's hypocrisy.

The RIAA Makes Me Laugh

I was never a Grokster user, but the RIAA's feeble attempt at trying to threaten Grokster users makes me laugh and laugh and laugh some more.

So Wrong It Hurts

Computer Monitor Jacob's Ladder. Good luck with this if you try it.

Wikipedia

Joho has an excellent entry in the discussion regarding how Wikipedia has become the universal dartboard for traditional media in the us vs. them, finger-pointing campaign that some in the traditional media have embarked on lately. It really is sickening; from the reaction to Wikipedia's public statement about self-monitoring and self-correcting and the recent changes it has made to its creation policy, one would think these journalists work for good editors whose publications are monitored by truly honorable ombudsmen. But who are we kidding?

Finally!

I freaking managed to dismantle the thick code that Blogger and Halo Scan conspired to create for my blog and now have everything working. Who cares that the Permalink link is permanently embedded on the page, even the permalinked page itself? Not I, though I could probably obsess about it like I did the Halo Scan commenting not appearing on my Permalinked pages. ARRRGGGGGGGH! I had forgotten how painful it can be to scour through web code. I thank my lucky stars every day that I am not a programmer/architect. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I Love My Coffee...

...but seriously, some people go a bit too far to enjoy a connoisseur's experience. This is just wrong.

Now for some other coffee stuff. Thanks to my wife Ashley for getting me an iPod for Christmas, I have now officially become a podcast addict (I'll have to post on that later), but one of the podcast discoveries I have made is coffeegeek.com's podcast. Mark Prince knows his stuff and is pretty humorous and sarcastic at the same time, even if he is a coffee snob. I am just getting into the accompanying website, so I will let you know, faithful readers, if the snobbery is too much to stand. Right now I am happy with my pre-ground (gasp) Starbucks and my French Press.

Also, another site I will be checking out is coffeereview.com, a self-described "Wine Spectator for coffee lovers". The site is written and edited by Kenneth Davids, one of the pioneers of the specialty coffee industry in North America (I learned that from listening to episode 11 of the Coffee Geek podcast, which contains the first in a three-part series of interviews with Mr. Davids). He is a big proponent of home roasting, which does not really interest me, but the site is really devoted to reviewing different coffees that are commercially available in North America, which does interest me.

Hmm, time to make some coffee!

This Is Only a Test

I changed out the template and forgot to add in Haloscan commenting. Hopefully this has now been resolved...

PCWorld.com - The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

This is a pretty neat list of gadgets. Many of them were introduced during my lifetime, so either I am getting old or all the cool stuff has been created in the last 30 or so years. ;) A few of these are items I had never seen or heard of previously, but many of them are either items I or friends of mine have owned. A good time-killer nostalgia trip.

And the Stockings...

 ...were hung by the chimney with care.
 

Christmas Bliss

  Is there any other way of describing this?
 

Louis...

 
...the Christmas Demon, thinking of bad things to do.
 

Firefox

Love it, until I notice that it gags on things that Internet Explorer digests properly. This one is minor, but the only reason I am posting right now is to add more length to the left side of my blog, so that maybe, maybe, maybe all of the things that are supposed to be on the right side of the page (instead of beneath my last post) will appear correctly. Grr. Bad Firefox, bad.

Christmas Weekend

Good times with both sides of the family, and I didn't have to drive more than a few minutes, to boot (viva la Tom!).

Christmas Eve was spent with my side of the family at our house. I am extremely pleased that we all made it through the serious conversations without getting inappropriately emotional (except for one moment when I started yelling about McCarthyism and "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance). It was amusing seeing my aunt, mom, dad, and grandmother (!) getting schnockered on eggnog. Took lots of candids with my wife's new digital camera (score one for me), and came away with some good memories. Christmas Eve service would have been nice had we not all been packed in like sardines. Some jerkwad sat behind us with his two misbehaving toddlers, one of whom kept kicking the pew and grabbing Ashley. Not a fun time. All in all, though, it was a good day.

On Christmas Day we went over to Ashley's childhood home, all of roughly 5 blocks away from our house. Excellent food was eaten and gifts exchanged. After letting our food settle a bit, Gene (father-in-law) and I went through a storage room in his shop, searching through old boxes and miscellaneous items for two old arm chairs and an all-wood World War II era filing cabinet that Ashley wants to restore for our house. Along the way I saw/handled several pieces of furniture and "stuff" from the Moss and Gipson families' histories. I always get a kick out of this kind of backyard social anthropology.

I am off work for the rest of the week but I fully expect to receive a few phone calls related to a major project that is due for completion the first week of February. I hope I do not get sucked into any lengthy conference calls (ugh).

It's Been Awhile...

...but I am posting once again. At the request of my good friend Ken (he who delisted me from his blog list--jerk! ;) ) I have decided to re-embark (is that a word?) on my quest for enlightenment through this writing exercise known as the blog. Changes shall be made to the blog; new words shall be written in new and exciting sentences. Erm. Hmm. Dunno about that last bit, but I digress.

Ashley and I ate dinner with friends Friday night at the Oyster Bar--good food, but perhaps a little less fried goodness will be better next time. Followed that up with a DVD rental--Batman Begins. I missed it in the theatre so this was my first viewing. It was also the first movie I have watched at full volume on the new stereo--very, very nice, but I really need a new TV--I have my eye on a 32" HDTV; we will see if it can be afforded in the new year.

Last night Ashley and I watched Garden Stateon DISH DVR--it had been recorded in mid-November, so it was about time. Heck, we have about a dozen movies that we DVR'd but have not watched dating back to May. Sheesh, you'd think we had a bigtime social life and never watched TV by looking at the volume of unwatched programming on the DVR. Funny how things work sometimes--

"Yeah, I think that would be good to record so we can watch it at a normal hour."

"Ok, sounds good."

"Hey, you know we still have to watch, right?"

"Yeah, I know, but I really want to see this."

"Ok."

Ahh, technology. Bliss.

Hitting the giant reset button.

The Armstrong Williams NewsHour - New York Times

Frank Rich may be espousing a Doom's Day prophecy in today's column, but it usually takes a little yelling to get people to pay attention.

Fight the good fight.

The Internet Will Eat Us All

I am eating my breakfast (over-easy eggs, toast, coffee), listening to iTunes (party shuffle--old Peter Gabriel song is on at the moment), and reading through my morning's email, which includes my favorite email of the day, every day--New York Times Daily Headlines. My ritual is to read through the different sections' headlines and abstracts, picking the articles I would like to read by clicking on each link, opening new windows for each. Yes, I end up with a crudload of IE windows (no, I cannot bring myself to like the supposedly superior FireFox), but that isn't too bothersome. I sort of consider this to be the equivalent of writing out some goals for myself and then setting out to accomplish them, which is antithetical to how newspapers are/were read. It is amazing how lazy we are compared to my grandparents' generation; they would just pick up the paper and start reading, or so I was led to believe. Maybe they have their own news reader programs to selectively read what really interests them. ;)

But I digress from the original point that I had in mind when I started typing this morning. Why is it that just because more folks have high-speed access, every commercial website out there thinks that their readers want media-rich ad content displayed inline on seemingly every page? Here is what got me going this morning. I'm culling through the NY Times Daily Headlines, grooving to iTunes with a bite of toast in my mouth when I click on a link; within seconds, my groove is disturbed by some awful noise coming from an inline Flash ad for Mamma Mia! the musical, which is also advertising a contest for a trip to Las Vegas. Sure, there is a little stop button that I was able to click to cut the pain short, but the damage was already done.

I do not need this crap destroying my Sunday morning ritual. Dammit.