Walking out of "worship"

My favorite Malaysian blogger, IreneQ, walked out in the middle of her church's worship services yesterday, and has second thoughts today.

As worship services in many churches "evolve" into something that those churches think will appeal to the non-churchgoing majority, believers are likely to be confronted more often with the kind of situation Irene faced. Our reactions will be right if we've come prepared for worship (like Irene), rather than just showing up and hoping for the best.

Sounds like too much trouble on a Sunday morning, doesn't it, with everything else we have to do. OTOH, we wouldn't walk unprepared into a meeting with our company's (or country's) president. Why would we go to meet the Creator and Ruler of the Universe with any less preparation?

Technorati tags: Christianity | worship

Some donks get it

Bull Moose is rooting for a democratic Iraq, even if...

And from my perspective, even if he's wrong about everything else, the one thing he's right about is common ground enough for hope.

Do we need chaperones?

The article related to the interview I posted about on Monday is now up at the Canadian Broadcasting Company's website.

The writer, Georgie Binks, covers a lot of ground and provides men with some tips about how they're perceived nowadays by women in certain situations.

I got two paragraphs and two quotes and Georgie Binks, professional that she is, managed to make me not sound like the doofus I am. My only quibble* is that she refers to me as a website developer, which seems to connote more competence than I can claim; I prefer "a guy who builds websites," even though it makes for an awkward business card.

Well, maybe two quibbles. I guess it's a blogger thing, but had I written an online column in which I mentioned that one of my interviewees had written an online article about the subject, I would have provided a link to said article. Uh, sort of like in this post, for example. But that's just me.

New Midland County hotel tax

The recent vote by the Midland County Commissioners to seek to institute a 3% hotel occupancy tax is predictably provoking hand-wringing ire from some other local bloggers.

I have absolutely no problem with opposition to increased taxes that is based on general principle. "No new taxes" might be a debatable campaign slogan, but it's generally an excellent way to govern, if the other side of the equation is also kept in check.

So I won't argue with my fellow bloggers about feeling a bit of dismay about imposing a new tax.

However...

Arguments that such a tax will hurt Midland's competitive advantage or will reduce tourism or hotel-staying visitors don't appear to have any basis in fact. Nobody is going to alter their travel plans because they've suddenly discovered that they're paying $2.50/night more for a hotel room in Midland. If there's a rigorous study* that proves an inverse correlation between hotel occupancy taxes and hotel occupancy in a non-tourist destination like Midland, I'll gladly recant that statement, but I haven't been able to find such a study.

And if keeping taxes level won't increase city/county revenue, and if raising taxes won't decrease hotel occupancy, and if the tax revenue is earmarked for a legitimate cause (local opinions may vary, but state regulations provide a relevant definition), I see absolutely no problem in letting out-of-towners foot the bill. As a relatively frequent out-of-town traveler myself, well-acquainted with the same taxes in San Antonio, Santa Fe, etc., I say turnabout is fair play.

Statistics, anyone?

*I'm well aware of the theoretical arguments concerning the impact of additional taxes on the demand for goods and services. But theory doesn't always predict actual behavior, which is why we'll always have way too many economists.

A Washingtonian Floridian in Houston

Sure, I occasionally make fun of Houston, but it's my natural born right as a native Texan and a decades-long resident of a city that would out-Houston Houston if it were bigger, smellier and damper (more damp?).

Joel Achenbach has neither of those credentials and thus should stick to disparaging cities in Florida.

I suspect that Kevin and his posse might want to weigh in on this at some point.

Cut costs...buy Apple (?!)

Just ran across this report from CNet News that "database giant" Oracle is switching to Apple's Xserve RAID as a way of cutting costs. When's the last time you heard the term "cutting costs" used as a recommendation for an Apple product?

According to the report:

This move seems to break a couple of stereotypes that have plagued Apple for a long time. The first is that Macs are not compatible with "big corporate IT needs." I've never understood that one.

The second is that Apple products are just too dang expensive. And that may be true in some cases for the initial investment. I've seen a number of studies that indicate that on a "total cost of ownership" basis, Apple competes very well, but that's always hard to compute on an individual basis so most corporations just take the easy way out and focus on the initial purchase cost.

I'm glad to see that a savvy company like Oracle recognizes the value that an Apple solution offers.

Of course, I have no explanation as to why Apple hasn't been using its own RAID product all along.

Tip o'the hat to Jon Gruber at Daring Fireball.

Technorati tags: Apple | Oracle

PETA Gag

Boots & Sabers points out yet another example of how PETA manages to look silly and ineffectual in every conceivable situation. I swear, those guys make the John Birch Society's hunt for Commies look positively rational.

It's kind of ironic that PETA would target a university that's home to one of the most respected veterinary colleges in the world.

Anyway, a story like this can lead to only one logical conclusion: a new button. Gee, I wonder where we can get one? Oh, wait...I just happen to have one; go figure.

Wonder how long I'll have to wait to hear from 'em about this?

Perhaps this is the place where I need to insert a notice about this post being a parody and protected under the US Constitution. Nah; I'm sure they know and respect that already.

And you think you take blogging seriously?

Here's a guy who really gets into blogging.

Despite being a bit on the OCD-side of the blogging fence, Curt has some excellent thoughts on being a husband.

Controlling the del.icio.us Post Popup

I'm trying to get up to speed on the concept and practice of folksonomy. You may have noticed that many of my recent posts have Technorati tags, and I've now signed up with del.icio.us (and most of my bookmarks thereon are related to folksonomy, if you care to read more about it).

One of the things del.icio.us (which, btw, is a real pain in the rear to type) provides is a toolbar script that allows you to quickly add the current website to your bookmark list. It accomplishes this via a Javascript which creates a popup window with a simple form pre-populated with the URL and title of the site. You then add the relevant tags to categorize the entry, and you can also add a short description of the site if the title isn't sufficient.

The default Javascript unfortunately positioned the popup window behind my current browser window, requiring me to either use the Firefox Window menu item to select the popup, or use Exposé (Mac user, remember?) to locate it. Neither approach is my ideal; I just want to click on a visible window.

There's a quick and simple fix: edit the Javascript to specify the position on your screen where the popup window will appear. Simply select "Manage Bookmarks" (Mozilla/Firefox/Netscape...IE users are on your own), select the del.icio.us popup post bookmark and edit it as follows:

Default installed bookmark:

javascript:q=location.href;p=document.title; void(open('http://del.icio.us/yourusername?v=2&noui=yes& jump=close&url='+encodeURIComponent(q)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(p), 'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=250'));

Edit bookmark (emphasis shows added code):

javascript:q=location.href;p=document.title; void(open('http://del.icio.us/yourusername?v=2&noui=yes& jump=close&url='+encodeURIComponent(q)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(p), 'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=250,top=50,left=50'));

This bit of coding will position the popup 50 pixels from the top and left of your screen.

You can also experiment with the popup size by altering the values of the width and height parameters. And, finally, if you want to be able to resize the popup, just add resizable=yes somewhere within those parameters.

Technorati tag: del.icio.us

Jack Rich: "Never Forget"

Jack Rich, whom I hope will someday get the blogospheric recognition he greatly deserves, has written a moving and insightful essay about the Auschwitz death camp, liberated on this date 60 years ago.

He specifically addresses the oft-posed question, "where was God when this was happening?" And, as usual, he's right on target with the answer.

If you don't read anything else about Auschwitz today, read Jack's essay.

Technorati tags: Christianity | Auschwitz

Christian "Junk"

Bryan's exercised over the appropriation of secular logos and slogans as Christian "statements." He feels that the practice is not only in poor taste but may also amount to stealing, and wonders why anyone would buy such products.

I'd like to reply in more detail later, but feel free to weigh in over as AWS as you deem appropriate. But, for now, here's where I come down firmly on the issue:

1. It's fine.


2. It's terrible.


3. It's not important.

And I sincerely mean it.

Technorati tag: Christianity

Bush Cabinet Flash Cards

At the risk of ruining my well-deserved rep as a political naif, I highly recommend the Before You Know It (BYKI) "Proposed Bush Cabinet" flash cards.

BYKI is a program from a company called Transparent Language, which specializes in language learning tools. The preceding link allows you to download a free version of the BYKI flash card viewer software along with 15 "virtual flash cards" containing each of the current and proposed Bush cabinet members (photos, names and positions). The program is more interesting than the subject matter (duh), but I have to admit that there's something sort of satisfying about being able to distinguish a Bodman (Energy) from a Gutierrez (Commerce). [The fact that the software is available for both Mac (OS X only) and Windows is a plus.]

Once I get the cabinet down, I'm going to work on trying to understand Barbara Boxer!

Tip o'the hat to Wonkette, whom, frankly, I rarely ever understand.

Water Conservation: Midland parks don't practice what they preach

A recent article in the MRT detailed a new campaign to educate Texans on the importance of conserving water, our scarcest essential resource. The article quoted a few local officials who claimed that Midland is already proactive in that regard.

According to the article, Kay Snyder, director of utilities for the city of Midland, singled out the City Parks Department for kudos.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a rather significant disconnect between reality and city management's perception of reality.

My neighborhood park is Trinity Park, in the northwest part of town. I don't know how other parks are being handled, but at Trinity the sprinklers run every morning. I know this because Abbye and I have to dodge the water spray over the sidewalks when we make our rounds about 7:45 a.m.

There's no excuse for watering dormant bermuda grass every day. Any lawn expert will tell you that. At most, a good weekly watering is sufficient to keep the root system healthy during the winter.

Also, rain began to fall last night and the forecast is for continued rain today. Nevertheless, this morning the sprinklers were merrily depositing their daily offering onto the already wet turf.

Finally, adding insult to injury is the fact that someone recently decided that the sprinklers should run around sunrise, as I alluded to earlier and which is prime park-walking time for neighborhood residents. This is a recent, highly-annoying change; the only upside is that it's allowed us to observe the problems described above so that we can report them to the city.

Well, theoretically, we can report them. No one seems to be answering the phones at the City Parks Department, and the answering machine gives no clue that you've even reached that department. Instead, it mechanically informs you that [unintelligible] is not at her desk.

And, apparently, neither is anyone at the controls.

Milestone: Today we reclaim the cabinets! (Maybe.)

We've entered our 11th consecutive day without access to our kitchen and dining room, thanks to the URP. What started out as a kind of cool adventure, almost like camping out in our game room, has devolved into a series of increasingly grating annoyances.

For example, we ran out of plastic spoons this morning. If you've been paying attention, you know that an adequate supply of spoons is a critical ingredient in the proper functioning of our household. My motto is "a day without spoons is like a Senate confirmation hearing with Barbara Boxer" so you can see the seriousness of the situation. If nothing else, the phrase "forking fruit into my morning bowl of cereal" (eaten from a styrofoam bowl, of course) just doesn't have the proper ring.

I'm getting tired of washing the few non-disposable dishes we use in the bathroom sink; tired of "cooking" in a toaster oven or toaster; tired of trotting uneaten food out to the dumpster due to lack of a garbage disposer; tired of refilling the water jug a cup at a time because it won't fit under the bathroom tap; and, last but not least, tired of eating out. Or, rather, eating take-out in. I miss vegetables.

But today -- today! -- might mark a turning point. The painter assured me yesterday as he left (after a grueling 4-hour workday) that he should be at a point after today that we can get back into our kitchen cabinets. I've hopefully extrapolated from that statement that we might also gain access to our microwave, stovetop and oven.

However, we've been disappointed before by unfulfilled promises of progress, so I'm not rushing out to restock our crisper. And while I'd like to say that this experience has made me a better person by creating an appreciative awareness of the tender blessings that accrue to the trappings of civilization, I confess that the primary outcome has been to create in me an intense lust for stainless steel eating utensils.

Especially spoons.

Scott Ott Hits the Spot

I rarely link to ScrappleFace, figuring that the other 10,000 daily links it gets are probably sufficient, but maybe I need to reconsider, especially when the proprietor, Scott Ott, is putting out gems like this.

There are many ways to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ, and different people have different gifts for that communication. Scott is the one person who apparently has been given the gift of "satirical evangelism," and I love the way he uses it!

One inane post to replace another

You should know that you dodged a bullet. I was 90% through a post about the weather (yeah, it's come to that) when my MT LameStop© plugin intervened to lock up Firefox. I lost the whole thing and, fortunately for you, I don't have the energy to re-create it.

I have no explanation, however, as to why this post is being allowed to go through.

Dennis Prager on Judeo-Christian Values

Dennis Prager is writing a series of columns on Judeo-Christian values and in his third one, which I just found, he addresses the origin of moral values.

He lists four problems with the belief held by many today (and, indeed, throughout history) that reason alone ("divorced from God") will lead to moral behavior:

1. The first is that reason is amoral. Reason is only a tool and, therefore, can just as easily argue for evil as for good.


2. ...we are incapable of morally functioning on the basis of reason alone. Our passions, psychology, values, beliefs, emotions and experiences all influence the ways in which even the most rational person determines what is moral and whether to act on it.


3. ...the belief in reason alone is itself based on an irrational belief -- that people are basically good. You have to believe that people are basically good in order to believe that human reason will necessarily lead to moral conclusions.


4. ...even when reason does lead to a moral conclusion, it in no way compels acting on that conclusion.

Prager's observation in point #3 ties in especially well with our church's current study of the Biblical truths about spiritual warfare. Dr. D. L. Lowrie's message last night, entitled "Victory Over the Flesh," was taken from Galatians 5:16-25. In this passage, Paul makes the point that apart from "the Spirit," (that is, the Holy Spirit, given to each believer at the point of salvation) the flesh (that is, our tendency to do wrong at every turn) is the dominant force in our lives. We cannot, in our own power and through our own determination, defeat this force. We are ultimately helpless before it.

Thankfully, the story doesn't end there, of course. Every believer has been given victory, and not just the ultimate victory of life in heaven after death, but victory over those powers and influences in life that would otherwise keep us from make morally correct choices.

A tip o'the hat to Isaac Schrödinger for the link to Prager's article.

Technorati tags: Spiritual Warfare; Bible Study; Christianity

Coming soon: Googlevision

According to Wired News, Google is getting ready to roll out a new feature that allows a search for information and images previously broadcast on TV. The article says that the technology works "by scanning through the closed caption text that many programmers offer."

This sounds great...in theory. In reality...well, let's just say that I hope that Google's technology is sophisticated enough to make sense of the jumbled mess that I often see in the broadcast closed captioning realm. (Curse those homonyms!)

An international conversation about chaperones

Update (1/29/05): You can read Georgie Binks' column about chaperones here.

I spent about twenty minutes this morning speaking by phone with Georgie Binks, a freelance writer based in Toronto, Canada. Georgie writes, among many other things, a weekly column on "Gender" for the Canadian Broadcasting Company's website.

It seems that she was doing some research on the topic of chaperones and googled up a post I wrote over a year ago dealing with some common sense things men can do to avoid the perception of -- or temptation to engage in -- improper behavior when meeting with a woman during the course of business. For some reason that escapes me, Georgie wanted to hear my thoughts about whether the concept of chaperones is one whose time has come around again.

Frankly, I was a bit (well, very) skeptical when she first emailed to see if I'd be willing to talk to her. Georgie is a self-proclaimed "feminist," a term that's wide open to interpretation, and her columns reveal a perspective that doesn't mix well with my conservative Bible-based view of the world in general, and gender issues, specifically. But I figured, what the heck...it's just a conversation, and it's not like I haven't been made fun of by intelligent, good-looking women before.

As it turned out, she seemed to have no agenda other than to explore the issue of propriety as it applies to the interaction between men and women. I don't want to go into detail about our discussion; it's her article, after all. But I'll be interested to see if any of our conversation makes it into her column; I do hope she'll find someone more eloquent and informed than me from which to draw some conclusions.

For the record, we were not alone during our phone conversation. The painter was in the next room.

"Spiritual Warfare" - Part 2 is online

Dr. D. L. Lowrie's second message (of five) about spiritual warfare, entitled "Victory over the World," is now available in MP3 format (42 minutes; 5.3 mb).

Technorati tags: Spiritual Warfare; Bible Study; Christianity

U of O Yellow Ribbon "Controversy" - Tempest in a Teapot?

Blogger pal Kevin McCullough is calling for a "blog swarm" to protest the University of Oregon's decision to ban the "Support Our Troops" magnetic stickers from state-owned vehicles.

Much as I respect Kevin and almost always agree with his perspective, I can't get worked up about this specific action. For one thing, I don't agree that a state-owned vehicle should be used as a billboard for the driver's personal or political views, regardless of how popular or non-controversial those views might be.

I also don't think that the lack of a sticker like this implies a lack of support for the troops. I don't have such a sticker on my car, but no one can (rightly) accuse me of not supporting our troops or what they're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, you could fill a room with the things I support but for which I have no corresponding bumper sticker.

The University is obviously caught in the middle of an emotional issue. Implying that it is stifling freedom of speech or is being anti-American certainly won't bring about a reasoned discussion of the issues.

However, get back with me if the University tries to extend the ban to employee-owned vehicles. I'll join you in jumping on 'em like stupid on Boxer.

Technorati tag: Freedom of Speech

Spiritual Warfare

Our church started its annual Winter Bible Conference this morning. Dr. D. L. Lowrie (who is likely familiar to Texas Baptists and especially to those living in Lubbock) will be teaching on the topic of spiritual warfare. Judging by the first two sessions (three services this morning and another service tonight attended by about 1,000 people...despite going up against an NFL playoff game!), it's going to be a great study. Dr. Lowrie is a great Bible scholar, teacher, pastor and preacher.

We're going to put Dr. Lowrie's messages on our church's website in MP3 format for listening or downloading by anyone interested in the topic. The first one, entitled "Meet the Enemy," is up and available via this page. We may create another archive page for all the messages, but you'll still be able to find it via the previous link.

Technorati tags: Spiritual Warfare; Bible Study; Christianity

The National Blog of Texas

If you're from Texas and you own a blog, go check out Texas Bloggers, a new gathering spot for those with dual citizenship (the Lone Star State and the blogosphere). All Texas bloggers can register and, once approved, contribute to the mayhem. I mean, discourse.

And once we get a title tag on that thing, it'll be much easier to bookmark!

Technorati Tags: Texas; Texas Bloggers

Johnny Carson - A class act

It's hard to believe that Johnny Carson is dead. Even though he hosted his last Tonight Show back in 1992, he, like Bob Hope, was a guy you felt would be around forever.

And, like Hope, Carson was a class act...a term that some of his successors don't understand, much less deserve. You can argue all you want about how our society is so much more sophisticated today and that humor from Carson's era is simply too adolescent to "work" anymore, but I defy you to watch tapes of his shows without collapsing in laughter. His humor was never cruel, rarely tasteless or crude (especially when compared to what Leno and SNL and their ilk stoop to for laughter) and yet was just as insightful as anything our more "enlightened" and "sophisticated" comics can dish up.

Watch for great wailing and gnashing of teeth from Hollywood over the loss of a guy who, frankly, could have done without them. Those who've really lost are the regular TV viewers of America, in more ways than one.

Checking in...

We spent the day in Fort Stockton, making a quick trip down and back to perform some tech support services for the family Mac users in the remote outpost.

Not much to report, other than dodging Hyundai-sized tumbleweeds rolling down I-20 between Penwell and Monahans, courtesy of just the right combination of wind speed and direction. It's been a while since I've seen that phenomenon. The heavy fall rains have ensured that we won't be lacking on the tumbleweed front this spring.

We were pleased to see that the springs in Fort Stockton are still flowing, also thanks to the aforementioned rainfall.

Oh, I did find out this bit of quasi-interesting news: I'm related to the guy who wrote, among other things, "Okie From Muskogee." Tommy Collins (born Leonard Raymond Sipes) is (er, was...he died in 2000) my 7th cousin on my mother's side of the family (she's a Sipes). I figure I'll be getting a little more respect around here now that you know this, especially from Scott and Kevin. Oh, and from Charles, who's bound to be a Merle Haggard fan.

Tomorrow will mark one week without a kitchen or dining room, as the Unending Remodeling Project (URP) enters its eight year (not really; it just seems like it). You can mail your sympathy cards and pizza coupons to the address shown somewhere on this website.

Are you smart enough to work for Google?

I've noticed that a lot of you are crowing about your high scores on the Nerd Quiz. Perhaps you'd like to test your skills in a real-life scenario...such as Google's interview process.

Lileks + Barry = Achenbach?

Joel Achenbach of WaPo has a blog, the achenblog (not to be confused with "fahrfenugen").

If James Lileks and Dave Barry were not still among the living (although Barry has ceased to be alive to us in the ways that matter), we might be able to channel their spirits through achenblog.

And, really, that's a Good Thing.

Tip o'the hat to Instapundit. I hope my referral traffic when combined with that from the Instaman doesn't overwhelm poor Joel.

PBA Backlash Swells...Buttons Are Made

My guiding philosophy in life is that anything worth making fun of is worth making a button about, and thus I introduce my reaction to the newly-formed PBA:

I'll wear this badge proudly for the rest of my blogging career, or until someone offers to pay me large sums of money to blog, whichever comes first.

More on the Professional Bloggers Association can be found here

Technorati tags: coalition of unpaid bloggers; professional bloggers association

Streams temporarily dammed up

If you're wondering what happened to Wallace and Julie and their blogs Streams and Yellow Bug News, never fear. Wallace hasn't slipped these surly bonds and traded in his keyboard for a harp.

Let's just say that he's another in a long line of soon-to-be-former Network Solutions clients, and that both blogs should be back online pretty soon, once the DNS transfer has completed.

Hoisted on their own petard

Dan Lovejoy dissects the flawed logic behind this bumper sticker:

Dan identifies this bumper sticker as an intended slam by liberals on, presumably, anyone who was stupid enough to vote for W and the fake war on terrorism:

I agree completely with Dan's analysis, but it did occur to me that there might be a different explanation for the bumper sticker.

Rather than an insult toward conservatives, might it not be a confession by liberals?

"Dan and Angi have something to say" is a blog I've recently discovered and one which I find myself going back to on an increasingly frequent basis. Dan Lovejoy and wife Angi are based in the great state of Oklahoma, and they hold forth on a wide variety of topics, both secular and faith-related. Check 'em out; I think you'll approve.

If you join the PBA do you have to buy your shoes or can you rent them?

Deb Thompson over at Write Lightning alerts us to formation of the inevitable but nevertheless sadly scary Professional Bloggers Association.

Not everyone is impressed.

Add me to the list of those who (1) cringe at the idea of a PBA and (2) regret deeply the fact that I didn't think of it. Obviously, somebody is gonna make some money before this is over.

OTOH, this development is starting to make CUBS look pretty appealing to those of us for whom the appellation "professional blogger" rates right up there with "professional high colonic installer."

Technorati tags: coalition of unpaid bloggers; professional bloggers association

Inaugural Scrooge

Today's presidential inauguration was a uniquely American time of celebration and reassurance that our Constitutional system remains intact and functioning despite the best efforts of those enemies, both external and internal, who would bring it down. The orderly and peaceful transition or continuation of governing power is something that transcends political party agendas and engenders pride and hope in all Americans regardless of their voting records.

Well, maybe not all.

I bought his book, but I'll never buy his POV.

It occurred to me today, watching the President watching the parade in his honor, and seeing him genuinely enjoying the marching bands and other participants, that those who can't stand him must really be chapped by the fact that he's an indisputably all-around nice guy. The cognitive dissonance must be driving those people up the wall.

Technorati tag: Inauguration

Report from Iraq

I got an email this morning from my pal and west Texan Will, who is a Supply Sergeant assigned to the 56th Brigade Combat Team, a Texas National Guard group stationed out of Fort Hood. He's now on the ground in Iraq and involved in the handoff of responsibilities from departing units. Here's an excerpt from his report (edited for privacy concerns):

Will is a Christian and I'm impressed and encouraged that he understands and appreciates the historical and Biblical significance of the region which he's helping to secure.

It's worth noting also that his wife will be giving birth to their first child in March, and it's likely he won't be there when that happens. I know he'd appreciate your prayers for his wife and child, as well as for him and his fellow soldiers in harm's way. He's promised to try to send periodic updates and photos once he gets to a place with a more reliable internet connection.

Technorati tag: War on Terror

Inaugural Music: Someone get the Talking Heads a clue!

Watching "Fox & Friends" inauguration coverage this morning over breakfast, MLB and I shared a laugh at E.D. Hill's assertion that a particular song being played by one of the service bands was the "fight song for the University of Texas." It wasn't.

Then, Pennsylvania Rick Santorum came on and attempted to correct E.D. "That's not the fight song of the University of Texas," he said. "It's actually the fight song of Texas A&M University, and you should know the difference." And, of course, he also was wrong.

The song in question was the old marching band stand-by, March Grandioso. I'm sure it's the fight song for scores of high schools and colleges (and, in fact, the preceding MP3 is the version played by the UT band), but not for the Ags (Aggie War Hymn) or the Horns (Texas Fight).

E.D.'s excuse was that she couldn't hear clearly through her headset. Santorum's a yankee and just doesn't know any better.

Technorati tag: Texas A&M, Inauguration

DVD Format: New proposed "measure of sophistication"

Yesterday's release of "Friday Night Lights" on DVD was big news in the Permian Basin, rating stories on local TV newscasts and a front page article in today's Midland Reporter-Telegram. That's justifiable, I suppose, considering it's a hometown story filmed (mostly) locally, and it was a pretty darn good movie to boot.

But what caught my eye was a throwaway line in the MRT story:

Hmm. The pan-and-scan version of the DVD was outselling the widescreen alternative by more than 4-to-1. I find that extremely odd, and it caused me to wonder about the significance of the statistic.

DVD enthusiasts spit on fullscreen (aka "pan and scan") versions of movies, for the simple reason that picture details are cropped out of every frame in order to force the dimensions of the film to fit on a standard TV screen. DVD afficionados want the entire movie on DVD, not a cropped subset.

The widescreen version shows the film in the same "aspect ratio" (width:height) as it played in the movie theater. This ratio is generally 16:9, while the height-to-width ratio on the typically consumer TV is 4:3...much more square. Filling up a 4:3 box with a 16:9 picture requires trimming the sides of the image to square it up (sometimes one side is trimmed more than the other, giving rise to the term "pan [for moving the camera in a horizontal plane] and scan"). Conversely, showing a widescreen movie in its original aspect on a regular TV leaves black bands at the top and bottom of the screen, and the picture itself, while being theatrically intact, is reduced in size to fit its entire width on the screen.

Anyway, my observation is that the people who don't like those black bands tend to be at the extremes of the age demographic. Folks with small TVs might also prefer the fullscreen version due to the larger image size. And, of course, those who are on the bleeding edge of technology will insist on widescreen because they either have a 16:9 TV or know that they'll eventually get one (or, again, they're purists who want the whole movie).

Now, at least one source of DVD sales statistics shows that widescreen versions generally outsell fullscreen versions, and often by a significant margin. The fact that these stats are found on the Widescreen Advocates website may or may not raise some red flags. That website also states that sales of widescreen formats almost always exceed fullscreen for some period immediately after release of the DVD (perhaps implying that as market saturation occurs, the bargain shoppers tend to buy fullscreen, although it could also mean that fullscreen versions are all that are left).

I'm sure a trained sociologist could draw some conclusions about the level of culture and sophistication of a city by analyzing its DVD sales statistics. If any of those types are reading this post, feel free to weigh in, but this isn't a briar patch I care to hike through. Just raising the issue, is all.

Technorati tag: DVDs

Recordings of NFL Playoffs: A Solution in Search of a Problem?

Am I the only one who fails to see the value or purpose in this*?

I suppose that if you're the parent of one of the players on the participating teams, this might be attractive, but, frankly, I'm not convinced that the iPod generation has much interest in the games, let alone in buying the audio after-the-fact for repeat listenings.

*Quote from this morning's Wall Street Journal

Technorati tag: sports

Jon Gruber on the Mac mini and iPod shuffle

Jon Gruber over at Daring Fireball gives us his take on both of Apple's latest products, neither of which have displays. He explains why this is irrelevant and why Apple has likely hit home runs with both devices.

Mac mini Website: That didn't take long

BYODKM is an acronym for "Bring Your Own Display, Keyboard and Mouse" and was the term Apple CEO and Chief Reality Distortionist Steve Jobs used in his introduction of the Mac mini at MacWorld SF a couple of weeks ago. BYODKM.net is a new "enthusiast site" dedicated to the little feller. Apart from not using the official spelling (Apple insists on lower-casing the word, same as the iPods mini and shuffle), this appears to be your go-to resource for all things Mac mini.

Listen, folks, don't underestimate the cottage industry that will spring up to support Apple's latest offering. For example, there's already a car customizer who is gearing up to offer in-dash installations of the mini for your auto. Having a powerful and tiny modular processor that handles optical disks of all flavors opens up all kinds of integration ideas, from information kiosks to consumer electronics to mobile installations (bicycle-mounted hotspot, anyone?).

I'm tempted to buy one just because it's so dang cool!

Tip o'the hat to A Whole Lotta Nothing for the BYODKM.net heads-up.

Color Coordinated Blood Donor

I stopped by the local exsanguination center to drop off a bag o'blood, today marking 8 weeks since the last draining. I left feeling very Ukrainian, as the stretchy bandage holder thingie they wrapped around my arm is a nice bright orange.

In fact, I was quite amazed to realize that I also was a walking, color-coordinated billboard for Firefox, since I was wearing my not-free Firefox t-shirt and the colors of the logo thereon match my LiveStrong armband and my blood bank stretchy wrap.

I will leave you with a practical tip about donating blood. If you do it regularly enough, you get to answer the short-form version of the Highly Personal Inquiries About Things You Don't Normally Discuss With Strangers. If that's not incentive enough to start donating, I don't know what is. Unless it's the prospect of getting a nice orange stretchy wrap.

[The fact that I've turned this observation into a post can be attributed to the poor judgment that accompanies blood loss (although, technically, I didn't lose it; I know pretty much where it is, or at least where I left it).]

Gazette = MSM?

What's up with this?

I guess I'd better hire someone to throw laptops into front yards each morning.

Tsunami Toll Goes Beyond Loss of Life

The Southern Baptist International Mission Board reports that the fishing industry in Sri Lanka was devastated by the tsunami.

I'm not sure that the analogy to losing computers is the best indicator of the impact of these losses. It might be more meaningful to visualize the losses in terms of the destruction of 80% of the automobiles in suburban Houston, for example, or the loss of 80% of the grocery stores in any city. The impact is on the ability to make a living or to even provide food for your family. Fishing is not a major source of revenue for the country, according to both the CIA World Fact Book and Wikipedia, but it is the intra-community trade that makes it so important.

When Curves Collide: Shell seeking Petroleum Engineers

Today's Financial Times contains a report that Shell is planning to hire 1,000 engineers in an effort to shore up its technical credibility in the wake of last year's massive reserves writedowns.

The obvious question from those who are familiar with the current state of the oil and gas business is "where will Shell find those engineers?" The FT article acknowledges this problem:

This is not a new problem. Many universities have cut back or even abandoned their petroleum engineering departments due to lack of interest on the part of incoming students. From the Houston Chronicle:

The long history of industry boom-and-bust cycles, the challenging curriculum and the prospect of job assignments in some of the least glamorous parts of the world seem to more than offset the appeal of entry level salaries of $50-60K and up.

Even if Shell can find enough engineers, its announcement should be interpreted by potential investors as much for what it did not say. If Shell had announced its intentions to hire 1,000 new geologists and geophysicists, that would have been your cue to sink some money into its stock.

Engineers don't find new reserves; geoscientists do. Engineers can accelerate the production of existing reserves, they can help to extend the limits and life of currently producing fields, and they can make reserves appear on paper via creative use of equations and "judgment" (which is what got Shell into trouble in the first place), but they are just a small part of the process that identifies the exploration prospects that are needed to actually increase the world's supply of oil and gas.

If Shell isn't investing in people to drive its exploration, then it seems to be acknowledging that it will be content with adding reserves by buying them from others, or in trying to squeeze more out of its existing asset base. Neither is a sound strategy for stellar long-term performance in the oil and gas industry.

The Cheese Log

OK, I sense a theme to this day (and it's about freegin' time, too, consider the lateness of the hour), and so I present to you the Andyco "Cheese Log" (aka webFromage), a blog of exquisite nothingness. Up to this point, it's been rarely updated, but the author threatens to do more.

While you're in the neighborhood and waiting for the homies to finish stripping your ride, check out Andyco, which is now lying fallow but even being three years out of date is still funnier than 90% of everything else on the net, and 100% of what you find here. If nothing else, it's a cautionary tale about what you can achieve when you do your dead level best to avoid any meaningful work. Andrew Stoller is my hero!

Oh...I almost forgot to give a hat tip to my pal Norman, who has neither a blog nor a cheese log, but who could be funnier than Andrew Stoller if he'd quit trying to do real work and just let his wife support him.

New Comic (to me, anyway): "PartiallyClips"

OK, this guy's hilarious, in a mildly twisted sort of way. You'll especially like the latest offering, I think. Some of the content is on the, um, mature side but most of it is just plain silly (hence the category).

Tip o'the inkwell to Patti at White Pebble.

[Update: I think you'll find the style of PartiallyClips quite similar to this. Hmmm. They both started within a couple of months of each other. Coincidence? Karma? Irrelevant? Beats me; I report...you decide.]

Monday

Man, is it Monday or what? Don't look for any meaningful content here, even as measured against our standards for a content-free blog. What's less than no content? Negative content? Black hole content? Anti-matter content? Tuesday night primetime broadcast TV received via coat hanger attached to a 13" black-and-white Zenith with missing control knobs content?

Did I mention that it's Monday?

Getting Smaller

We spent the weekend stripping our kitchen and dining room of all external evidences of habitation in preparation for what we hope will be the beginning of Phase 2 of The Unending Remodeling Project ("URP") tomorrow morning.

Our goal was to move everything we needed to survive at least a week into the game room, while getting as many distractions and obstacles as possible out of the painter's path. We would not have access to such luxuries as the kitchen sink, garbage disposer, dishwasher and microwave oven, nor could we get into the cabinets and drawers once they were masked off. This little project required the planning of a major continental battle campaign (think Patton and North Africa) and the execution of a national championship team (think USC dismantling OU). Unfortunately, we could only channel the spirits of the Keystone Kops.

Nevertheless, we've succeeded in transforming said game room into a passable imitation of an efficiency apartment. If it only had a bed and a head, we could actually live there (but, gratefully, we still have access to other rooms in the house for those necessities). We have our refrigerator, dining table, coffeemaker, toaster oven, electric teapot and a good supply of disposable plates, bowls and cups. We've converted a storage cabinet into a temporary pantry (transferring the previous content -- video disks and 45-rpm records -- to moving boxes). We already had a stereo, TV, treadmill, rowing machine and exercise bike. As MLB observed, it's just like being on vacation. [Note to self: Look into future upgrades in our travel destinations.]

We gave it a test run this morning at breakfast and things went smoothly, although we still had access to the stove and oven. Abbye was simultaneously confused and energized by the changes. She's sure we've made the changes on her behalf, but she's still working out precisely what the advantages may be. She keeps wandering back into the kitchen and nosing in the area where her food bowl normally resides, but has apparently decided that as long as we're OK with the setup, she'll play along.

I don't plan to give a blow-by-blow of how this phase of URP plays out, although if it drags on beyond a week, that will definitely change. Until then, just think of future posts as coming from our little vacation hideaway.

Down with Journalists

Bryan over at Arguing With Signposts makes a strong argument that the term "journalist" no longer works and should be discarded in favor of some specific alternatives.

Works for me, although I doubt I'll lose much sleep over it one way or another.

"House of the Flying Daggers" is a cut above

"House of the Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu)" is another masterpiece from director Yimou Zhang, whose last movie, "Hero," was one of the most beautiful films I've ever watched.

Unlike in Hero, where the scenery tended toward the stark-yet-spectacular, and much of the action took place indoors or in manmade settings, Daggers is a visually busy film that's set mostly in the out-of-doors. It's almost as if Zhang was trying to differentiate this movie from the previous one. However, Daggers shares the same convoluted plot twists that marked Hero.

Daggers has plenty of martial arts action, but less of the "wire-fu" variations than either Hero or "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The violence is a little more explicit, although still much less so than just about any American-made action movie. There was also a bit more humor, mostly subtle, but still effective.

Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger; Hero) plays the lead female role and we know her well by now. These parts do nothing to stretch her as an actress; they're essentially all the same character. But she's good at what she does.

I highly recommend House of the Flying Daggers. Try to find a theater with a good Dolby sound system, by the way; the "Echo Game" scene near the beginning of the film will make you glad you did.

NARAL: "We're serious as death"

Update [1/16/05]: Dawn points out that NARAL has removed its entire "I Am Pro-Choice America" photo gallery from its website, presumably due to the attention it attracted in the parodic caption contest proposed by Dawn. Who knew that NARAL was so sensitive? If only it was as sensitive to the innocent victims of its agenda...

Dawn Eden's persistent haranguing of Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other pro-abortion organizations has finally paid off: she got a phone call from NARAL's attorney yesterday.

I can just see Dawn smiling sweetly, unprotestingly complying with the attorney's request, and reloading an even bigger volley. Never underestimate the power of a committed blogger who's right!

Websites that Stink

The latest edition of Digital Web Magazine has an article about designing websites that engage all five of the human senses. The author, Dirk Knemeyer, rightly observes that most websites are designed for only one sense, that of sight, with a relatively few others that also effectively engage the sense of hearing. The other three senses -- touch, taste and smell -- are essentially ignored.

Obviously, the technology of both website design and delivery simply doesn't permit any kind of meaningful content that can be detected by those three senses. However, the means do exist, albeit in expensive form, and are quickly being improved. The latest incarnation of Smell-O-Vision is an example.

But just because we can do something doesn't mean that we should. I don't know about you, but I find the prospect of odiferous websites not at all attractive. We all understand the power of smell; according to the Sense of Smell Institute (really), "People recall smells with a 65% accuracy after a year, while the visual recall of photos sinks to about 50% after only three months." Not all of these recollections are pleasant.

The same odors can cause different people to react in significantly different ways. What's pleasing to you may cause me to wretch, and vice versa. And what about allergies? It's unclear to me whether the molecular structure of digitally generated odors would be similar enough to the naturally-occuring version to trigger allergic reactions. Although, frankly, I'm not sure that it's the odor itself that does that trick, but I tend to believe that there's a psychological component at work that does at least contribute to adverse reactions to such stimuli. I suspect that having one of my "olfactory-enhanced" websites trigger anphylactic shock in a visitor could put a significant dent in my future business prospects!

The bottom line for me is that while there may be some legitimate and pleasing uses for adding smells to websites, it's equally likely that web-delivered odors will be used far too often for unappealing things. In other words, if you think there's a lot of offensive content on the web today...you ain't smelled nothin' yet!

Low Voltage "Elektra"

For a number of reasons, MLB and I haven't seen a movie at the theater since before Thanksgiving (unless we saw something so forgettable that, well, we forgot). So we were pretty excited at the prospect of catching a matinee showing of "Elektra" earlier today.

The popcorn was great.

Don't get me wrong. I could watch Jennifer Garner fold socks for hours at a time and be perfectly content. Her presence alone rescues this movie from stinkiness, but just barely. The writing and plot let her down in a movie that can't decide whether it's a supernatural thriller, a martial arts adventure or a comic book. The action scenes save the film...there just weren't enough of them. And Goran Visnjic's role was totally dispensable, and almost irrelevant. I'm not a big fan anyway, so that wasn't a loss.

It's a dark movie. Not in mood necessarily, but the lighting effects were very odd throughout the film. Rarely were the characters shown in full light...lots of side-lighting that left one side of their faces in shadow.

On the plus side, we saw some intriguing trailers, with "Sin City" being the most eye-catching for its stylized film-noir comic book look and star-studded cast. It opens in April [View trailer]. Another one with potential is the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie version of "True Lies" called "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; it opens in June [View trailer].

Buy a Font; Help a Vic

MyFonts.com is sponsoring Font Aid III to provide funds for the tsunami disaster relief efforts. More than 40 fonts have been designated for Font Aid and the entire proceeds from the sale of any of these fonts will be donated to Direct Relief International.

If you're a font junkie (and who isn't?), this is a great way to expand your collection and lend a helping hand at the same time.

Reading List

For the first time in a very long while, my current reading list contains no books dealing with technical subjects: no CSS, no PHP, no website design...nothing but good old wholesome non-revenue-generating prose.

However, I'm slightly distressed to realize that my list is all blog-related or has some ties to blogging, even if peripheral. Is this evidence of a type of mental illness or unhealthy fixation? Probably.

Anyway, here 'tis, along with the sometimes fuzzy blog origins:

• "Interior Desecrations" by James Lileks - Not since Kramer's coffee table book about coffee tables has there been a tome so expertly focused on a subject that's noteworthy only because it's the subject of a book. I'm talking, of course, about interior design from the 70s. Lileks has an amazing knack of finding the beauty in abject ugliness, and he had plenty of material to work with. But anybody can throw up a photo and write a snappy caption. It takes a real master to fabricate a complete plotline for a novel (or TV series) from that photograph and then distill it into a half-page summary. It goes without saying that James Lileks is a master, and he has the domain to prove it.


• "Blog" by Hugh Hewitt - This is the most anticipated book about blogging since, well...hmm. I guess it's the first book about blogging that has been flogged enough to build an aura of anticipation. (Actually, Biz Stone's's book "Blogging" [we really need some more creative titles in this genre, btw] was the first book on the subject I ever heard of and read, but afaik, it was never anticipated. Anyway, it was a "how to" while Hewitt's is a "why not?") I'm about 50 pages into this one, right at the point where Hugh is going to explain why Martin Luther was the first blogger. It's a pretty good read, but I can't imagine that it would be that interesting to anyone except bloggers and media junkies. I keep looking for the Gazette to be mentioned by name (he drops a lot of blognames). Perhaps I'll score in the chapter entitled "Obscure for a Reason." (I just made that up; don't rush to your copy to try to find out how you missed it.)


• Kiln People by David Brin - At last, we come to a book not written by a blogger. Well, dang. I just googled "David Brin's blog" and guess what? Yep. I didn't know that when I bought the book. However, I learned about the book via Dan Morris over at Behind the Wall of Sleep; he gives me the best tips on sci-fi. But the process was set in motion by none other than Glenn Reynolds in this post where he makes some reading recommendations, including a book called "Old Man's War." Somehow, I ended up back at Dan's place and got "Kiln People" instead of Glenn's recommendation, but the main thing is that I was able to get in a trackback to Instapundit, so I've got that going for me now.
  
  Anyway, I've read 150 pages of KP and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. At its core it's just an old-fashioned murder mystery (although actual murder has yet to be proven), but it's set in an alternate reality where people routinely make copies of themselves and send those copies out into the world to do the mundane tasks (or illegal or illicit or titillating, etc.) of life. It's one of those books where the author makes you guess at the meaning of the jargon of the day (for example, "rox" is a term used to apply to one of those copies, and I presume it's a contraction of "Xerox" as in "Xerox copy"). That can get a bit tiresome, but it's a small nit to pick in an otherwise entertaining novel.

OK, I guess that about sums it up. There's no telling how many pages in the aforementioned books I could have read while I was crafting this work of art, but what's really puzzling is why you've stuck around to this point. Go on; go find a book and read it!

It was a dark and stormy night...

Julie's got the results of this year's Bulwer-Lytton contest, wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel. The results, as always, make this blogger weep with envy.

Biblical Reference to Firefoxes

And, while we're on the subject of Firefox, here's a short quiz for you Bible scholars out there.

• Which Biblical character combined fire with foxes to get revenge on his enemies?


• How did he use these things in exacting his revenge?


• Who were the enemies on which he took revenge?

Now, no googling or yahooing or any other kind of research. This is not an open book quiz. I won't know if you cheat, of course, but since it's a Bible quiz, You-Know-Who is proctoring.

Firefox Fashion

Wallace isn't the only one who's being courted by a bigtime corporation seeking to ride the blog buzz. I, too, have schwag...t-shirt and ball cap...courtesy of my close personal friends over at Mozilla.

OK, there might be one slight difference, in that Wallace got his stuff for free, seeing as how he's a bigtime Hollywood insider and all, and I might have had to, um, pay for mine. But, I've decided that his cap has a decidedly pink caste to it (that's my monitor's story and I'm sticking to it) and so I doubt I'll see him wearing it to IHOP. My manly-man black cap, OTOH, will likely lead to significant increases in Firefox downloads, making the world a safer and nicer place for all.

No need to thank me, really. Just buy some Fire Ant Gazette stuff. I've got to pay off the Mozilla guys somehow.

Tokyo Rose, Reborn

Iraqi "insurgents" (a polite term for "terrorists") have released a video aimed at convincing US soldiers to give up the fight, according to this report from Kevin McCullough.

Hmph. It didn't work 65 years ago and it won't work today.

LST Blogger No More

As you may or may not recall, depending on the level of boredom in your life, last November I announced that I was going to start posting at the Lone Star Times, a Houston talk-radio groupblog. I come before you now, a mere shadow of my former self, to announce that I've resigned from that gig, effective immediately.

There are several reasons for discontinuing my involvement, but suffice it to say that I'm just not cut out to be a multi-blog poster. Even though I'm sure I make this look effortless (albeit in a "if he can do it, how hard could it be?" sort of way), it really is hard work, for me at least. I also found that I didn't like writing for an audience I didn't know, or within editorial guidelines I don't control. That's not intended as a criticism of either the Houston market or the LST management; again, that's just me. In hindsight, I was naive in taking on the project.

Anyway, it's my intention to focus all my blogging efforts from now on right here at the Gazette. You can take that as either reassurance or warning, depending on your POV.

Basketball in Aggieland? For real!

I admit that I haven't been giving the Aggie basketball team much credit for their sterling record this season. Their undefeated record against a creampuff pre-conference lineup didn't impress me; after all, they did almost the same thing last season, then went 0-fer in the Big 12. Even a five point loss to #2 Kansas on the Jayhawks' home court in the Big 12 opener didn't sway me too much (even though the game was even closer than the score indicated). I just figured KU didn't take 'em seriously.

But last night's convincing victory (74-63) over #10 UT is starting to make a believer out of me. The Ags broke an 18-game Big 12 losing streak, and a 10-game home losing streak against the 'horns to run their record to 12-1, and 1-1 in Big 12 play.

I didn't realize that their defense is this good. As the SI.com article points out, they're ranked #1 nationally in field goal percentage, and they've held two top 10 teams to under 70 points each in their last two games.

This might turn out to be an entertaining b-ball season after all. Gig 'em!

Update: I'm not the only one who is starting to believe.

Local guy makes good

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) has been in the news a lot lately, and for good reason as it's providing tremendous support for the Southeast Asian tsunami relief efforts.

But what you may not know is that the commanding officer of this carrier is a west Texas native, from my hometown of Fort Stockton, as a matter of fact. Captain Kendall L. Card was a freshman at Fort Stockton High School the year I and MLB were seniors. He's had quite a distinguished career as a pilot and sailor, and it's fascinating to contemplate how a boy who grew up 500 miles from the nearest beach could end up commanding a nuclear-powered ship with a crew of 5,000 people (and its own zip code!).

Update: Here's an article from the Fort Stockton Pioneer with more information about Card and his current assignment.

Blogging against the wind

The gale-force winds I mentioned here are providing some challenges for blogging and other online activities, as my internet connection is sporadically going down. (Well, actually, it's sporadically coming up...the status quo seems to be "off.")

I suspect that there's a cable somewhere out there that's being blown in just the right way as to break a connection; our neighborhood is old enough to have above-ground utilities. I suppose that Cox could also be having transmission problems.

Anyway, if I seem slow in responding to emails or comments, I'm not ignoring them. I'm just glued to my modem, waiting to see 5-by-5 status (or whatever the operative term is) so I can quickly upload updates, send and check email, etc. before the modem darkens again.

[Dang! The lights went out just as I clicked "Publish" for this puppy. So close...]

Something to sneeze at

As I type this, 30+ mph winds are carrying dust and small animals through the Midland air, aggravating allergies and bringing home the implications of this proposal to ban the sale of Sudafed in Texas.

The reason is laudable. Sudafed is being reprocessed by criminals to make methamphetamine. You can't swing a dead cat in most cities and towns throughout Texas without hitting a meth lab, and the drain on local law enforcement resources is significant.

Texas wouldn't be the first to take this step. Oklahoma has a ban on over-the-counter sale of psuedoephedrine, the active ingredient in Sudafed, and Kansas is considering such a ban (if it hasn't already imposed one).

It's tempting to label moves like this as "nanny-statism," where the government presumes to know better than us what's good for us. But the growing danger of meth, both as a drug and as a hazardous manufacturing process, is undeniable. Restrictions on an otherwise beneficial product (Sudafed happens to be the only medication I take regularly, as it controls my allergies like nothing else I've found) seem to be just another indicator that our society is breaking down in a thousand ways, small and large.

In the meantime, I'm buying stock in Kimberly-Clark.

Well...how will the Chamber of Commerce explain this?

American City Business Journals has published its list of best cities for small business. ACBJ used a four-category formula to rate local climates for small businesses, defined as companies with fewer than 100 employees. The cities are then ranked within three size categories, based on population (small, medium and large markets); all rankings are available for free in Excel spreadsheet format at the preceding link.

It's interesting to note that Odessa is the highest rated Texas city in the medium market (pop. 100-500K), coming in at number 24 (just ahead of Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii...which in itself is surely fodder for another post!). Midland, the supposed entrepreneurial capital of the world, doesn't show up until #92, just ahead of Salina, California, and well behind other Texas SMAs such as College-Station-Bryan (#58), Laredo (#51) and Tyler (#47).

The ACBJ study ranked cities according to these factors:

1. Number of small businesses per 100,000 residents
2. Change in the number of small businesses from 2000 to 2002 (the latest year for which official figures are available)
3. Change in private-sector employment from 2000 to 2002
4. Change in private-sector payrolls from 2000 to 2002

Odessa benefitted greatly from the last factor, change in payrolls. There was no detail regarding how much of that increase in payroll went to massage therapists. (That's an inside joke, for you non-west Texas readers.)

The #1 city in the medium market category was Bend, Oregon.

Tip o'the green eyeshade to Deb Thompson over at Write Lightning.

Asking the wrong questions about education

Our household was one of the lucky sampling to get a questionnaire from newly-reelected Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, Tom Craddick. This 21-question inquiry presumably will give lawmakers some direction about various issues to be considered during the new legislative session.

The last question dealt with potential new sources of funding for education, in the event that the lawmakers reduce property taxes, which currently provide the lion's share of such funding. The question is phrased this way: "Would you support a tax increase or new tax in any of the following areas to replace revenues lost from lowered property tax rates?" The choices are as follows:

• gasoline tax
• amusement ticket surcharge
• newspaper tax
• magazine subscription tax
• casino gambling/slot machines
• increased tobacco tax
• billboard advertising tax

Setting aside the issue of whether adding or increasing taxes in ALL of these areas would come close to replacing the revenue from a statewide reduction in property taxes (other than gasoline; that could be a huge revenue generator, albeit at the risk of a public uprising), it occurs to me that this is really the wrong question to ask.

In light of a story on a local TV newscast last night, where a random poll of Midland citizens indicated that they would support new or increased taxes on all of the activities that they didn't themselves engage in, it's obvious that we're all for someone doing more for the cause of education...as long as it's not me, personally. And that's the root of the problem to begin with.

I wish the last question on the survey had been something like: "Which of the following are you willing to commit to in order to make a real improvement in the effectiveness of education?"

• Spend more time reading to my child
• Spend more time helping my child with his or her homework
• Frequently meet with my child's teachers to discuss my child's progress
• Volunteer more often as a teacher's assistant
• Spending more time talking to my child instead of watching TV with him or her
• Quitting my job to be a stay-at-home mom (or dad)
• Reading and understanding the content in my child's textbooks

I'm not arguing that Texas education can't benefit from the right level of funding; there's a minimum...no, let's say optimal funding level that must be discovered and achieved. I'm just saying that more money doesn't automatically equal better education and more parental involvement and time does.

But, it's really easier just to pay for it, especially if we can get someone else to do it.

Chocolate Shock Treatment

I first heard about Chantico via this post at "A Small Victory" and Michele's rather, um, graphic description about the experience of drinking one piqued my, um, curiosity.

So it was with mixed emotions that I read the email from Starbucks this afternoon to learn of the sampling of the new "beverage" on Thursday, 4:00-5:00 p.m. I mean, I like to swill Hershey's syrup right out of the squeeze bottle as much as the next guy, but there's just something a little, I don't know, Tuh-ray-zah-ish about a cup of "Chantico™ drinking chocolate." I mean, they can't spare a couple of upper case letters to complete the name?

But, what are you gonna do? It's chocolate, for pete's sake. Its call must be heeded!

Update: Here's the bad news. If you're on Atkins, you shouldn't even be reading this post!

We're back (I think)

It appears that our server problems have been fixed and -- I hope -- there won't be anymore glitches with comments, duplicate postings, multiple trackbacks and all the other strange things that I've been dealing with over the past 24 hours.

We only zombieize the ones we love

You know, just last week I was scratching my head, thinking, "man, I wish I knew how to make someone look like a zombie!" So this can be viewed as nothing less than an answer to prayer: Creating a "Dawn of the Dead Effect in Photoshop".

Frankly, this creeps me out. But I haven't been the same since I saw "The Exorcist" back in college.

Tip o'the whole head to WebDeveloper.com

Tsunami Relief: Corporate Involvement

I tend to think of the Southeast Asian tsunami relief efforts in terms of work being done by non-profit and governmental agencies and organizations but the fact is that many corporations are also contributing in ways that cash simply can't provide. Take the example of DSM.

Koninklijke DSM N.V. is a corporation based in the Netherlands that engages in research and manufacturing of a mind-boggling array of products. If you take a look at the popup menus on its Product Finder webpage, you'll see markets listed as diverse as animal nutrition, biocides, bio-armor, dyes and pigments, and pharmaceuticals. DSM is the epitome of the "global conglomerate," albeit one with a very low profile.

In the wake of the tsunami disaster and in addition to donating cash, DSM has stepped up to provide resources in two critical areas: it is donating active ingredients for antibiotics and speeding up plans to install a self-sustaining water purification facility in southern India. The former will be critical in helping ensure that the post-disaster diseases can be effectively fought; one of DSM's subsidiaries is the world’s leading bulk producer of the antibiotics Amoxicillin and Ampicillin, and these ingredients will be donated to local producers of the final product.

DSM is also underwriting research into sustainable local water purification via Water4Life, a longterm research project that is now being accelerated to provide more immediate relief to disaster victims. Once in place, the aforementioned filtration facility will provide safe drinking water to people in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Ultimately, it will make 500 filters available per day; each filter can support 10-15 people in their daily need for safe drinking water.

I'm sure these kinds of stories are being replicated scores of times around the world. They don't get a lot of press, but the efforts by these "uncaring corporate giants" will help save and rebuild countless lives.

The iPod Administration

So, Bush and Cheney are both iPodders.

I'm sure there's a hundred of these already popping up across the blogosphere, but I thought it would be fun to create a fictional playlist for W's pod.

However, I'm in a creative funk -- having a broken blog tends to do that to me; if you see this post at all, you'll never realize what it took to get it online -- and all I can come up with is one song:

Doff o'the Ear Buds to Lileks, as if he really needs it.