Well, the one big one is using my own name and then having Fuck All from high school think I want to read about their kids’ bowel movements as updated at the 5′s, but I got that one covered, sorta, by cleverly not using my real and easily searchable name. But the other one is not wanting to write things of much import…well, more specifically, having an easy way to write about things of little import, and not wanting to spend time on the big ones because it’s a hassle.

That’s why I was able to knock out a few Scribs in the last few weeks: the comic existed at all because I wanted to do some visual humor but didn’t want to be slowed down with the foolishness of drawing something and get straight to the humor. But I got tired of my own programming, as I always do, and then continuing Scribs became yet another exercise in trying to deal with old programs I wrote, and hating them, and then wanting to rewrite them, and hating that. And thus Scribs, like so many other of my questionably bright ideas in the past, fell down the languish hole of my own lack of tenacity.
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Three bits of commentary on Palin’s resignation.

(1, 2, 3)

Also, she put out another statement today to expand on her statement yesterday, which in addition to being some of the most tetchy, self-centered sort of thing I’ve seen from a politician, includes this: “I’ve never thought I needed a title before one’s name to forge progress in America.” If I was an Alaskan resident who’d voted for her, I’d be thinking “well thanks a fuckin’ lot for wasting my time, then.”

There’s some hope for these old bones yet — I see some use in the new-fangled geegaw they’re callin’ The Facebooks. I did it all completely wrong and I still can’t figure out how to bookmark to it properly, but I can at least tell you this goes to the last (and first) thing I’ve posted there. I’m going to try to get into the habit of using that for small updates, as I’m more willing to write things there and less willing to go through the effort of writing a full post here, so we’ll see how it goes.

It’s stuff like this that makes me think I could write good music, if only I had the right interfaces:

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

Also neat because you can copy and paste patterns. (Might be easier to right-click.) They come out as a series of numbers, so you can easily share them, like so:

Note: For formatting reasons, I put each one in an input box so you can click, select all, and copy.

Would be neat if it had some sort of time-based pattern switch. This next three is a series; let the first run a couple times and then paste the next one.

And in fact that last one I would like to be able to alternate one square on and off for alternate passes, and rather than trying to bother describing it I’ll just paste the two sequences here:

Microsoft unveiled (or, according to some videos I saw, unleashed) the Natal Project at E3 yesterday. It’s a game system that doesn’t require controllers, because it has a camera on the tv that detects your movements, has facial recognition, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0IqdRTDJQc

You have to see that to believe it, and whether you think that statement is a compliment or an insult depends on your predisposition towards Microsoft, I suppose. Me, it makes me want to make sure none of those actors ever work in this town again.

Here’s Microsoft Dude presenting it at E3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWnZOseA3Lw

He shows a woman interacting with the TV. The view closes up to the water, and it shows a faint reflection of her, and the water ripples as she moves her hand back and forth. What gets me most about that is the audience being aghast and delighted and bursting into applause at the technology that’s been around for umpteen years.

I wonder if it’s going to work as well as their voice recognition. The videos are old, but…I remember seeing a commercial for that years ago, it was an old actor guy whose name I forget, who had some shakey problem with his hands, presumably unable to write letters, so he was just naturally talking to his computer and the exact correct sentences were naturally flowing out. Yeah.

Obama and Biden go to a local burger place and get burgers. Obama gets a burger with Dijon mustard. I learn this from a “oh-christ-what-is-the-Right-complaining-about-now”-style post on C&L. This leads me to a Media Matters post about Hannity, Ingraham, and Mark Steyn going on about his choice of condiment. I mean, given, it’s generally tongue in cheek, but in some sense you get the impression it’s actually a problem for them. (Like the standard tough guy real man Republican thing, illustrated with Ingraham’s comment: “What kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup but Dijon mustard?” Obama’s just a faggy arugula-loving liberal, clearly.)

It further leads me to a blog called Legal Insurrection by William A. Jacobson, with a post called MSNBC Hides Obama’s Dijon Mustard (aka Dijongate). (incidentally, this page drags down my firefox something awful, for some reason.) The dude goes on with several breathless updates about the Dijongate situation. I start going about the business of writing my own chirst-are-you-kidding-me blog post in my head, but then further reading reveals he was joking. His point was that MSNBC had dutifully reported it as a character piece exactly how the White House wanted them to cover it:
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With pictures! And commentary! In some places!
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Have to make this quick because I’m paying $stupid per minute for an internet kiosk — I thought that Twitter would allow people to reply to messages which would send me text to my phone, which isn’t quite how it works, so blah.

Anyway, hi. Losing money in Vegas. Tell everyone I said hey.

Crooks and Liars has a recurring bit called Mike’s Blog Roundup, with quick links to various blogs in which Mike was interested, presumably. That itself has an occasionally recurring bit called HOLY CRAP, an even quicker list of links to various things about religion or by religious people, generally with the point of showing how fucked up they are. I am always fascinated by this and usually wind up with 20+ tabs in my browser when it’s over, following the long and winding branches of the astonishing human ability to happily hold entirely opposite views in its head and passionately defend each of them, in the same sentence if necessary.

It was through today’s Holy Crap that I came to read Beware of copying the Left by Bruce W. Green, founding dean of the Liberty University School of Law. In style, it reads like it’s written by a pastor. In content, it reads like it’s written by a drunk bully on a corner yelling at “the fags”, but with a better proofreader. Shorter Green: We can’t torture, because torturing would only play into the hands of liberals. So torture is evil and wrong — but torture anyway.

That burnt hair smell you’re getting is because of the sparks my brain is throwing off trying to understand that summary enough to make my point. Seriously, I can feel the mental resistance in typing it. Due to some internal hangups I have about looking foolish in public, I constantly re-evaluate any logic statements I make for correctness, lest someone point out some obvious flaw in my argument. Part of my brain refuses to sign off on my summary of his article, as it simply seems impossible to me that someone can put that forth as a logical argument. But it’s really what he’s saying.
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The whole Tea Party thing. It’s bonus funny because the Boston Tea Party was actually about protesting less taxes.

But whatever. I’ve had this open on my desktop for a while, forget how I got to it, but I’d been wanting to post about it. I love it, it’s such a contemporary American view of social protest. “Wake up, people! They’re taking your money, your homes, your jobs, your life itself! It’s time for you to TAKE ACTION and go stand in a park with a proper demonstration permit for 45 minutes and grouse about it with other people wearing beer hats!”

Started reading more of the comments and it’s just chock fulla angry stupid.

I know I’m getting older. I know that I am dating myself with not caring about some popular things. Like Facebook — not only have I not bothered with it, I don’t much see the point in it. I’m not clear if I should say “I’m not on Facebook” or “I didn’t get a Facebook” or “I’m not plugged in to the Facebook” so I avoided the construction in the previous sentence entirely. This quite clearly separates me from teenagers. Fine.

But I draw the line at Twitter. Not only do I not see the point of it, but I am goddamned tired of people on TV making a big fuss about it. That slight pause, that very slight head turn, that just as slight smirk before saying “tweets”.

All of ‘em need to get off my goddamned lawn.

<Craig> awesome obit — http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=chuck-p-dimmick&pid=126515914
<SeanQ> gahaha craig
<Leth> beheheh nice obit
<Kyol> beheheh
<spinn> wow
<bob> heheh
<bob> they should’ve just said “in lieu of flowers, please take advantage of our 0.9% interest rate”
<SeanQ> “Boy, did this motherfucker like his NASCAR. And saving you money. Oh, yeah, apparently he had a kid, too.”
<SeanQ> “For the next seven days, get a complimentary “We’ll Miss You George” door stencil with any H3.”
<spinn> Come on down for our Lo-Fi for a Dead Guy event!
<bomberman> DEAD DEAD DEAD LOW LOW LOW
<spinn> blinking pictures alternate between a church, kids crying, and a new 2008 Hummer H2
<bob> Great Price! Slightly Used Cadillac, Only Driven Once
<Craig> WE’RE DEAD SERIOUS ABOUT NO MONEY DOWN ON A NEW ESCALADE
<SeanQ> “Speaking of stiffs, they’ve improved the handling and suspension on the new ’09 H3…”
<SeanQ> “This weekend only, put just TWO CENTS DOWN on a new Cadillac. Place one on each of George’s eyes and within the hour, you’ll be driving away in your new El Dorado!”
<Leth> “You’ll love reaping the savings!”
<SeanQ> “For five days only, it’s our Life Is Short and So Are You Savings Event. Get $1,000 cash back on any qualified purchase if you are six feet or under!”

Got myself a bigass iMac; the 20″ would’ve been fine, screen-wise, but the 24″ had double hard drive and memory, so I got that. And man, if you’re not used to a 24″ monitor, this thing is like a wall of video on my desk. I’ve always given thought to what I name my computers — I dunno, geek thing, it’s an important piece of a computer to me somehow — and this one I named Stonehenge.

Got that and a new digital multitrack recorder, which is kinda neat and better than my last one, though it lacks an undo function which is pretty disappointing. Wish I’d considered that while I was fussing about what model I wanted to buy.

Anyway, with those things, my keyboard, and the PC I use for video games, suddenly I have a surprising amount of technology on my desk.

I tested out the recorder with a bit that’s been in my head for a while, it’s an a cappella bit based on Legion by VNV Nation. Unfortunately the sample clips I’ve been able to find don’t have that particular part in them, so if you haven’t heard it you’re lacking context, but oh well.

vnv bit (440k)

Q: What can you say about a Frenchman who pisses his money away?

A: He’s Euro-peein’.

[A] 22-year-old Maryland woman yesterday agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of other defendants in the death of her son under the condition that charges against her be dropped if the child rises from the dead.

Hm, seems like you get the subscription screen for that article if you click it, but you don’t if you copy the url and paste it into your browser. At least for me, anyway.