"Convergence in 3...2...1..."

For the second time in ten days, I've been contacted by members of the local MSM in regard to posts on the Gazette. They've each wanted my permission to contact the subjects of those posts for the purpose of doing their own stories. In each case, I'll admit that my immediate reaction was along the lines of "Yeah, right...go get your own stuff!" Fortunately, I realized the immaturity of this reaction and set the wheels in motion for both requests to be fulfilled. After all, I've frequently used material from both outlets as the basis for content for Gazette posts; as they say, turnabout is fair play. (Let me add that the requests have come from the two outlets which can arguably be viewed as the Big Dogs in this area in terms of broadcast and print media.)

In fact, I'm greatly heartened by this turn of events. I don't want to read too much into it, but here are some implications that occur to me:

• In both cases, the requests were accompanied by offers of attribution to the Gazette as the source. This is standard operating procedure in the blogosphere (people who "borrow" content without linking are subject to harsh reaction by their fellow bloggers), but I haven't been seen evidence of a similar policy on the MSM side. It appears that for some MSMers, at least, their sensitivity to the importance of blog attribution has been raised.


• I can't help but be impressed that the MSM is recognizing that blogs can be a legitimate source of content. In my case, I didn't do anything special to uncover or create the content, but I was available and accessible, and able to take advantage of a certain sphere of influence, however miniscule. This reporting of "niche news" arising from individual relationships is something that the MSM really can't consistently achieve on its own.


• The very fact that they asked to begin with may be an indication that it is possible for a blog/MSM collaboration to be constructed that works in both directions. It may be an uneasy dance, with neither partner willing to completely accede the leading role to the other, but this should change as we do more of this and begin to trust each other. (Of course, this is much less complicated in my situation where I'm blogging in a non-professional role. However, I'm not aware of anyone in our area who's even attempting to make a living by blogging, so maybe that's not important after all.)

I'd welcome any comments and insights from readers -- particularly from those in the journalism business -- about whether I'm being overly pollyanna-ish in my perception of these issues. I'd also like to hear your opinions about the extent to which blog/MSM collaborations should or can be cultivated in order to proactively generate content that appeals to consumers of both media. That, I suppose, is the real measure of whether convergence has occurred.

Technorati tag: MSM

First Lady makes local connection in Afghanistan

Terry Lowe is a Midlander working for a private security firm in Afghanistan. His assignment is a simple one (yeah, right): guarding the President of Afghanistan. During First Lady Laura Bush's recent visit to the country, she and Terry made connections, and the photo below shows the two Midland high school graduates together at the Presidential Palace. (Feel free to ignore the UT baseball cap. ;-)

Think you can go anywhere in the world without running into a Midlander? Think again, amigo. Very cool.

Technorati tags: War On Terror | Midland, Texas

mimus polyglottos and Terror from Above

Regular Gazette contributer Mr. Freen broached the subject of mockingbirds in a comment on yesterday's post about bluebirds, and it's one that's ripe for further discussion.

I didn't realize that mimus polygottos (one of the best Latin species names ever, btw) ranged so far and wide. According to Mockingbird.org, varieties of the species are found everywhere in the USA, and as far south as the Galapagos Islands and the Netherlands Antilles. I'd always associated the bird with the southern states, and it has indeed been adopted as the state bird by Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Florida (especially ironic considering that the sub-species in question is designated the "Northern Mockingbird." I guess we are, indeed, north of the Carribean Sea.).

Mockingbirds are fascinating, and if one has enough patience, they will engage you in a game of call-and-respond as you throw out a distinctive whistle and they attempt (usually successfully) to mimic it.

I suspect that everyone has a mockingbird story, as the critters are quite, um, colorful in personality and assertive in behavior (as bluebird photographer Brian describes in his comment on the above-referenced post). I'm sure that most would agree that it's appropriate that the mockingbird is designated as the state bird of Texas, given its tendency to be loud-mouthed (we call it "garrulous"), opportunistic (we call it "entrepreneurial"), multi-talented (we call it "having the gift of gab" and pushy (we call it, um, "pushy").

My most memorable mockingbird encounter occurred when we were living in the Dallas suburb of Garland in the late 70s. We were in our first home, and had planted some live oaks in the front yard, one of which a mockingbird family found suitable for a nest.

I was mowing the front yard early that summer and passed close by the oak tree in question, when I received a sudden blow to the top of my head. I touched the point of impact and drew back a bloody fingertip. It seems that the male mockingbird had decided that I and that infernal contraption had come just about close enough to his family's personal perimeter, and had proceeded to divebomb me.

I finished the yard duties, but I'm sure the neighbors drew their curtains just a bit tighter that day as they watched the obviously crazy guy across the street pushing a lawn mower while wearing a black full-faced motorcycle helmet and waving one arm in an attempt to ward off an enraged bird.

Technorati tag: Mockingbird

Bluebirds of Happiness

In response to my grousing (heh) about the springtime nestbuilding onslaught of trailertrash birds in our patio, regular commenter Brian has provided photographic evidence of a kinder, gentler birding experience, straight from his Ohio backyard. I'll let him set the context for the following photos, which he gave me permission to post for your enjoyment:

I don't have any photos of them from this year, but I'm sending you some from last year. This year's female is using more pine needles than grass in the nest. The bluebirds are really a joy to have around. We feed them a few mealworms at dawn and dusk - they hang around our tree waiting on us each time. They are very docile - not aggressive toward us at all, even while nesting. They'll let you approach to within 10 or 15 feet before they take off. No wonder they are such easy targets for the evil house sparrows. (I'm convinced that the birds in Michele Catalano's dream were house sparrows in disguise.) I am amazed at how destructive those things are.

A bluebird egg


A brood of three young bluebirds just before their first flight

Brian adds that these are "Eastern Bluebirds." Apparently, they are recognizable by their lack of a drawl.

I have to admit that these are very cute examples of the avian persuasion, and they're surely better behaved than the sparrowists (or wrens or finches or goldfarbs or whatever they are) that are usurping our property rights. But I'm still not convinced that I'd want them living behind my Bose.

The Score

Those numbers represent lives of innocent individual human beings. Some (most?) died without a name...some were household names. My point? I'm not sure I even know anymore. We've lost our way, somehow, and nothing really seems to make sense.

I'm trying to find comfort in the fact that God knows who each number represents.

Technorati tags: Terri Schiavo | Pro-Life

Yahoo's new Creative Commons Search

Yahoo! has rolled out a beta version of a search engine which indexes only content which is subject to a Creative Commons license.

This is potentially an invaluable tool for anyone who uses the internet to find content which will be included in or repurposed for commercial use. If you've ever "borrowed" an image from another website and felt guilty about possibly violating someone's copyright by using it in your own project (not that I would know about such things ;-), this is the first place you might want to turn to find material that is free from such restrictions, or which has usage restrictions clearly spelled out.

We're likely to see more and more of the Big Guys pile on this bandwagon. As Joi Ito puts it, "Hardware, software and services that support Creative Commons is key for creating the sharing economy. Creative Commons was designed to enable machine readable encoding and this is a great example of why."

Technorati tag: Creative Commons

Interview with NetNewsWire founders

This is almost a month old...ancient in blog terms...but I'm just now getting around to reading it and thought it was worth sharing with my Mac-using readers, especially those who use or are familiar with the Mac-only news aggregator, NetNewsWire. It's an interview with Brent and Sheila Simmons, who are Ranchero Software...in its entirety! (Imagine two people supporting an installed base of 1 million users. Gack.)

The Simmons share their insights on a number of issues, including the future of RSS (rosy), what it's like to develop software for the Mac (cool) and how they manage to work from home as a husband-and-wife team without driving each other crazy ("It's a little bit like farm life -- but modern, urban, digital farm life. We grow software.").

Drunkenblog continues to impress me with the quality and sheer depth of its interviews. Being able to devote time and space in this manner is a luxury that most MSM outlets can't afford.

It was also a little surreal to read the interview via a window in NetNewsWire 2.0b25 (beta). But, what could be more appropriate?

Technorati tags: RSS | NetNewsWire | Apple |

Signs of Spring

It's official, because...

1. The wind is blowing from the west at 28, with gusts to 46 according to The Weather Channel


2. The sparrow-like creatures (do I look like an ornithologist to you? don't answer that.) have returned to their single-minded obsession with building a nest behind one of the Bose speakers mounted high on the inside eave of our patio. I have to trot out every hour or so and knock down the pitiful collection of grass, string and I-don't-want-to-know which they've assembled since the previous clearing. If history is any indication, it will take days of this ridiculous chessmatch before they decide to move on to less hostile environs.

Note: I don't have anything against birds in general. This is simply a case of NIMBY, or, rather, NOMP. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that birds belong in trees, not behind speakers. Not that I blame them, however; I wouldn't want to be sitting in a tree in these winds either.

Tsunami Memorial Sculpture created by Midlander

Much of my time last week was spent getting this website online before departing for vacation. The site features an in-progress sculpture by local artist Jim Hawklee. Once completed, the bronze (which is shown on the site in its current clay maquette form) will be offered as a memorial to victims of the Southeast Asia Tsunami.

The story behind the sculpture is fascinating, as Hawklee, who studied Environmental Design at Texas A&M, actually began planning and working on it almost a year before the catastrophic events that began last December 26. He relates having a vision of what the sculpture would look like, but not having a clear idea of why he was given this particular vision. It was only after the tsunami struck that he felt he understood the real reason for what has become something of an obsession. The sculpture is definitely striking in design, with multiple layers of symbolism.

If things go according to plan, Jim and his wife Kay (who composed the memorial poem displayed on the site) will offer the sculpture -- in monument-sized versions (20' and bigger across) to the governments of the affected countries as the centerpiece in national memorials. Smaller versions may eventually be available to private collectors or corporate sponsors. As noted on the website, Jim will also donate 30% of any profits generated by the commissions of this sculpture to tsunami relief efforts.

An interesting sidenote to all of this is that when I first met with the Hawklees to discuss the website, and specifically its promotion, Jim mentioned his hope that bloggers might pick up on it and generate some buzz. He had no idea that I am a minor participant in that medium, but he was perceptive enough to understand the potential impact of the blogosphere. (So, if you're also a blogger, why not give him a link and prove him right?)

Yesterday's occurrence of a deadly aftershock in the same area is a reminder that the impact of the December tsunami will be felt not just for years, but for generations.

Couple of technical notes about the website. The placement of the model in front of a local university building is the Photoshop magic of John Etheridge, partner in the ad firm of Dominey & Etheridge. The photos themselves were taken by Brian Hendershot, who has one awesome digital camera...and knows how to use it. The low res web versions don't do justice to the originals. I knocked out the backgrounds on the other images, but that was the easy part.

Technorati tag: Tsunami Memorial | Tsunami Relief

Geek Pørn?

Every now and then, I like to pour myself a stiff shot of humility by reading something that's way over my head, just to remind myself that I'm not nearly as smart as my dog thinks I am.

I figure I can go about four years now after reading this. As one commenter put it, "Oh, my head! My head!"

Tip o'the beanie to Bruce Werner's Post Modern Banter Blog

Technorati tag: Apple

Tsunami Relief - "Fleurons of Hope"

Here's a deal that's hard to pass up. Buy a cool font for not-much-money, and all proceeds go to Direct Relief International to assist in Southeast Asia Tsunami relief efforts.

For $20, you can purchase "Fleurons of Hope" from MyFonts.com. This font is comprised of more than 400 glyphs and is available as OpenType or TrueType (works with Macs and Windows PCs). The font is classified as an ornamental or picture font...a dingbat on pheromones, if you will.

The font was designed as a project of FontAid III, a group of designers and foundries from around the world which, under the coordination of The Society of Typographic Afficionados (SOTA), has chosen this means to raise money for tsunami relief. A list of the more than 200 designers who contributed to the creation of this font is found here.

If you love fonts -- and who doesn't? -- this is a great way to expand your collection and provide a bit more assistance to a worthy cause.

Technorati tags: Tsunami Relief | Fonts | Fleurons of Hope | SOTA

Apple fumbles user interface

I bought MLB an iPod shuffle, making us a four 'pod family. She doesn't need a shuffle, but then, who does? That's not even a relevant issue.

She thinks it's just the cutest thing...as do we all...but right out of the box she made an observation that confirms what I've been thinking for a couple of months, since I got my shuffle: Apple fouled up the power switch. Unless you are equipped with gecko-like fingers or perpetually sweaty hands, it's dang near impossible to slide the switch on or off. Kudos to Apple for achieving such close manufacturing tolerances, but the flush-mounted switch provides no traction to operate it.

I suggest that the next generation of the shuffle come with tiny serrations on the surface of the switch, providing the user's finger with some purchase that's sorely lacking on the current smooth and seamless mechanism. Because, frankly, it's a little uncool to have to lick your finger before you can groove to your shuffling tunes, if you know what I mean.

And the shuffle is all about cool.

Technorati tags: Apple | iPod | User Interface

Update from Iraq: Body Armor

Sgt. Will sent a quick update just before I left town last week, and he enclosed an interesting photo which helps to remind us that the soldiers in Iraq are engaged in a high-stakes endeavor. Here's his description of the photograph:

With all the publicity about inadequate protection for our troops (vehicular armor, in particular) it's good to know that there are items that actually exceed specs. I pray that Will never has to put his IBA to an actual test.

Technorati tags: War on Terror | Operation Iraqi Freedom

Easter Hill Country Tour 2005

We're back from our annual pilgrimage to Fredericksburg (hereinafter referred to as "Fburg") and Kerrville ("Kville") to participate in the Easter Hill Country Tour, a series of supported bike rides through the Texas countryside. While there is no theme for each year's event, the 2005 edition can legitimately be labeled as a Wash-Out. This made it a bit of a disappointment in some ways, but overall the long weekend was quite nice.

Due to the early arrival of Easter this year (here's some related trivia; according to this website, Easter has fallen or will fall on March 27th only five times during the 250-year span from 1875 through 2124), the fabled Hill Country wildflowers were a no-show. We saw a mere sprinkling of overachieving bluebonnets scattered about, a far cry from the literal blankets we encountered last year. Judging from the way the flowers were budding, I'd guess that the view will be spectacular in about two weeks. Lord knows they've gotten enough rain.

Which brings us to the literal washout, which occurred on Saturday...which is the big riding day of the tour. The weather forecasts had been predicting the arrival of a cool front and a chance of rain and when we arose on Saturday morning the skies were threatening. We had to make a decision: take a chance and head to Kville for the formal ride, stick closer to home and ride around Fburg in order to bailout if the weather turned really nasty, or just call off the whole thing. I always hate canceling a ride, especially when we've come so far, but I hate riding in bad weather even more, so we decided not to chance it. Perhaps we could get in an afternoon ride, since the front was supposed to be moving fast.

Good call. About 10:00 the skies opened up, first with rain, then with hail, then with really heavy rain. We'd have been miserable, if not in actual pain, if we'd taken a chance. It continued to sprinkle on and off throughout the day, the wind stayed up, and the temps never got past the mid-50s. It was a good day to walk around town and generally veg out.

We did manage to get in a self-paced 30 mile ride on Thursday, before the formal tour began, and we had a very enjoyable 47 miler on Friday, over various ranch roads north of Kville. Seems like there was more interest than usual in our 10' dual-lounge chair bicycle; we spent a lot of time at the rest stops answering questions about it.

Since there weren't any wildflowers to speak of (other than blanketing the countryside for a solid 90 miles from Midland to Iraan, of all places! I'll provide some photographic evidence in another post.), I have no breathtaking photos to share with you. However, here are a couple of pics that capture some of the flavor of the weekend. The first one is a view from the front porch of our B&B. If you look closely, you can make out the layer of mist into which the dirt road disappears. Very spooky. The second photo is taken from an ant's eye level...a fire ant, to be exact. That's a fire ant mound in the foreground, probably 10" tall. MLB is astride the longbike in the background, along with the south end of a north-facing cow who was, apparently, a bit camera-shy.

This will not go into the history books as our best EHCT ever, but we stayed safe and healthy, and the countryside was still beautiful even without the wildflowers. (Never underestimate...or take for granted...the blessing of the color of green in the Texas landscape.) We had lots of good food (dinner at the Herb Farm in Fburg was a highlight), although it remains a mystery to me why you can't get any decent TexMex in a town that's only 60 miles from San Antonio. Abbye got to play like a farm dog (which is OK except for those blasted falling leaves!), we lingered in the hot tub under clear blue Texas skies on Friday, and we got to spend some quality time with my parents (who stayed in the Hangar Hotel which is right on the Fburg municipal airstrip). So, in the end, it was a good way to spend an extended Easter weekend.

Technorati tags: Texas Hill Country | EHCT | Bicycle Tours

"He is not here."

The Gazette will be on holiday (as Rachel would say) for the next five days as we enjoy the beauty of God's creation as it's gloriously manifested in the Texas Hill Country. So I want to leave you with an early Easter greeting, and my wishes that you and your family will have a safe, healthy and blessed time.

I also hope that you'll find the time to contemplate the incredible implications of the brief phrase that comprises this post's title: "He is not here."

Those words were spoken by a celestial being to two grief-stricken women who made an early morning visit to a hewn rock tomb outside of Jerusalem two centuries ago. They were seeking to honor their friend, their teacher, their Lord, who, three days earlier, had been tried in a kangaroo court, sentenced to die, beaten and humiliated and finally hung on a wooden cross in a shameful and painful death. This was a tragic end to a life and a cause that seemingly carried all the hope in the world; now all they could do is mourn over his body, and wonder what went wrong.

Although...they also recalled that he kept talking about this being just a temporary situation. He spoke cryptically about the Temple being rebuilt in three days, and how all of this was predicted by the prophets of old. And then there was that thing with Lazarus. Still, they'd seen his torn body, with no spark of life, so their hope was tempered by their human skepticism as they approached the tomb.

But something was amiss...the huge stone that was rolled across the mouth of the tomb was no longer covering it. And where were the guards? And who was this...this...man?...being?...with a countenance so bright as to be blinding? The women trembled, with fear and expectation, and the words he spoke cut right through their hearts and their doubts:

"He is not here; he has risen."

And life changed...for eternity. For all of us. For each of us.

What will you do with this gift, this miracle?

Blessings and peace to you and yours in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who was dead and buried but now lives!

Passage from Matthew 28. Read the whole thing!

Technorati tags: Easter | Christianity

Bet you wish you had friends like this...

...the kind who would travel from Texas to New York City, pick up some of that city's famous bagels, carry them back on the airplane and deliver them to your door as soon as they get back in town.

It's good to have friends like that. Thanks, guys...the bagels are muy delicioso!

Cruising on autopilot

A middle-aged woman drives her late-model sedan through the four-way stop without so much as touching the brake pedal. She's too busy chatting on her cell phone to worry about such details. A teenaged girl slows down but still rolls through another stop sign; her attention is focused on the application of eye makeup. A guy in a jacked-up 4WD pickup rounds the 10-mph curve at four times that speed, apparently anxious to get...somewhere else?

As I see these incidents repeated over and over on a daily basis, it occurs to me that we have "progressed" to the point where driving an automobile is simply an activity which occurs while we're doing something else, physically and/or mentally. If driving was a musical genre, it would be "elevator music," something takes takes place in the background, only dimly perceived in our subconcious, if at all.

How many times have you driven across the town where you live, taking a familiar route, and upon arrival at your destination cannot remember a single detail about the trip?

It's a wonder any of us survive.

[This post has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that my 17-year old niece got her full driver's license last Friday! Absolutely nothing.]

Testing MarsEdit

I'm testing a new (to me) weblog editor called "MarsEdit." It's made by Ranchero Software, the same joint that puts out NetNewsWire , an excellent standalone newsfeed reader.

I don't know that I need a blog editor, but MT isn't always the most user friendly tool for creating posts. And so far, I've been impressed with some of MarsEdit's features, like quick insertion of HTML tags and the ability to create custom tags...and I definitely like the built-in spellchecker (although it's a mystery why the dictionary doesn't recognize "blog"!).

If this post shows up in normal fashion, then I've mastered the basics.

Now, all I need is software that will (1) find interesting topics and (2) automatically write about them in an interesting fashion. Is that too much to ask?

(OK, I just noticed one thing I don't like, and that's the apparent requirement that paragraph breaks must be enclosed by paragraph tags. MT allows the option of a hard return to be treated as a paragraph break, which is much handier. Surely I'm just overlooking this option in MarsEdit...

Free Local Showing - "The Passion of the Christ"

If you live in the Permian Basin, you might be interested in knowing that First Baptist Church of Midland is offering a free showing of "The Passion of the Christ" in its worship center on Thursday evening, March 24. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the movie begins at 7:00. The public is invited to attend.

The movie will be projected on the church's two permanently installed screens. The projectors are new and very high quality; nevertheless, the picture quality and sound will not be equivalent to that in a movie theater. But, then, neither is the admission fee. ;-)

This is the original R-rated version, and parents need to consider this when deciding if their children should attend.

The church is located at the corner of Louisiana and Garfield.

My cousins get a pretty good payday...

Have I mentioned that pro golfers Brad and Bart Bryant are my second cousins? I just discovered that Bart (the younger brother) tied for 8th place and earned a cool $110,000 at the Bay Hill Invitational this weekend, while Brad (in his first year on the Seniors tour) tied for 15th and made $26,000 and change at the Toshiba Tournament. Not a bad family payday for a week of chasing a little white ball around a well-kept lawn.

It's interesting to note that if Bart had shot one stroke better, he'd have made another 70 grand. Can you say "pressure"?

Desert Flowers

Springtime in Texas, following a wet fall and a mild winter, means wildflowers. Now, the Hill Country and parts of central Texas get most of the publicity for those flowers, especially the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush...and rightly so. But I have to say that even in the desert climes of west Texas, under the right conditions, Mother Nature can paint some wonderful pictures. Like this one:

This is a ranch a few miles north of Fort Stockton on Highway 18. (Those white dots are sheep moving across the pasture.) The yellow flowers are known in these parts as antelope clover, according to my plant expert brother. Google doesn't recognize that name and I'm sure there's another more official title for the plant, but that'll do for our purposes. Anyway, the countryside is covered by these flowers for miles on end. I've lived in west Texas for decades and have never seen such a widespread display.

I also understand that the Big Bend region is practically lush with wildflowers thanks to the unusually wet fall and winter. No matter where you live in Texas, you won't be far from a visual feast this spring!

A Texan in Iraq

I don't have time tonight to do a full report, but I know you'll appreciate Sgt. Will's latest photo from Iraq:

If you're a Texan, the mere site of these two flags* flying together will send a chill down your spine. The idea of them flying in Iraq as a clear warning to terrorists just doubles the effect!

*The "Come and Take It" phrase and flag is tied to an actual piece of early Texas (pre-statehood) history.

"Are you gonna eat those tots?"

OK, so I don't usually even notice ads in the newspaper for Dillard's Department Store, but the phrase "tater tots" in a funky font caught my eye on Friday morning, and my astonished response was along the lines of "what the...? Napeoleon Dynamite?!"

That's right, the über-uncool Dillard's is stocking a series of ten t-shirts adorned with lines from the super-groovy movie, including classics like:

• "This is the worst day of my life."
• "I have nunchuck skills.
• "Don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day."
• "Pedro's got your back.
• "If you vote for Pedro, all of your wildest dreams will come true."

What was most interesting about the half-page ad is that nowhere did it mention "Napoleon Dynamite." This is due either to the realization that if you get it, you get it, or to fears about copyright violations. I prefer the former, since, well, I got it.

Next week is our annual trek to the Texas Hill Country for the big bicycle tour, and we also found the perfect matching t-shirts for our tandem team. The shirts are bright red and feature a bike barely clearing a homemade ramp, with these words below it: "You got like, 3 feet of air."

Perfecto! I mean, what else would you wear while riding a green, 10-foot recumbent bicycle built for two? I mean, if you really want to look groovy.

Technorati tag: Napoleon Dynamite

Checking in from FS

This post comes to you from the lively little burg of Fort Stockton, home of $2.28 gasoline, only nobody's complaining because everybody's working...either trying to find more of those elusive hydrocarbons or in support of those doing that work. There's a construction boomlet in progress, both commercial and residential, with a new Hampton Inn, IHOP and multi-screen theater on the drawing board for later this year.

Anyway, we're down here for a quick celebration of my brother's birthday (one of the round-number variety, btw). I also spent several hours trying to troubleshoot an Epson inkjet printer that wasn't playing well with my father-in-law's eMac. The ultimate solution was effective, albeit somewhat unsatisfying: we jacked it up and ran a new one under it. For $79 at Wally World, you can get an HP printer/scanner/copier...and it works just fine. I still want to know why a mainstream Epson printer driver refused to appear in the Printer Setup, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over a non-functioning free printer (which it was -- free, that is -- after the rebate).

If you're ever down in FS, here are two dining recommendations. For dinner, try the Mexican food at Mi Casita's...but get there early on Friday evening or make reservations. It seats only about 50, but every table was full starting at 5:30, and people were lined up out the door when we left. Everything on the menu is good.

For breakfast, we tried a new place called Pepito's. We'd previously eaten lunch there and were impressed. Their breakfast offerings are even better (everything from all-you-can-eat menudo on Saturday mornings to huevos rancheros, from bacon-and-eggs to pancakes and French toast). I had a short stack of 'cakes and un burrito con huevos, chorizo y queso. The chorizo wasn't greasy, and was perfectly spicy. The service was a bit slow due to the demands of the packed house. Pepito's is highly recommended for anyone traveling through town on their way to Big Bend or the Davis Mountains.

Neither place rates very highly on the atmosphere scale, but, then, we tend to be more impressed by the quality of the food. Both restaurants also double as social hotspots for the locals, as everybody knew everybody else, and much conversation took place across tables. If you've never lived or tarried long in a small town, this phenomenon might be unfamiliar, but it's one of the great advantages over metropolitan life. (There are some downsides, too, but we won't dwell on those at this point.)

Good start to the day (not)

I woke up my computer from its blissful slumbering state, and staggered into the kitchen to assemble breakfast (to call it "cooking" would be a gross exaggeration, and you know I never exaggerate). A few seconds later, I heard the "mail received" chime start, um, chiming...and it didn't stop for two minutes. I knew, without looking, what it meant: trackback spam*, and lots of it.

390 pings, to be exact. And, as usual, it was all pøker-related. Fortunately, a few mouse clicks added the offending URLs to the MT-Blacklist, deleted the links and rebuilt the database.

Happy Friday!

*For those of you fortunate enough to have avoided this apparently incurable malady called "blogging," trackbacks are generated when someone links to a blog post, and sends a "ping" (not to be confused with a golf club) -- an electronic notice of the link -- to that post, where it shows up as a link back to the site that linked to said post. Confused? Me too. Anyway, trackback spammers utilize that linking function in an apparent attempt to (1) draw unsuspecting visitors to their own tawdry websites, and (2) take advantage of Google's ranking algorithm that weights incoming links in determing search result placement (although there's some debate about whether or to what extent that's still being done). Trackback spammers use computer programs to send out massive volumes of pings to blogs, just as email spammers automatically generated the garbage that ends up in your mailbox. We hates 'em, we do. However, I use the aforementioned MT-Blacklist plugin to completely erase those trackbacks, and add them to a list of banned URLs so that they cannot repeat this ugly behavior. Unfortunately, the spammers seem to have a limitless budget for registering creative new URLs (such as www.scooby-do-dah-poker-day.com, etc.) The battle rages!

Musing about The Long Tail

The more I think about Dave Sifry's post regarding the distribution and diversity of blogs and implications for Main Stream Media, the less compelling I find the arguments. The data is too incomplete or tainted to support any serious conclusions on way or the other.

OK, so it's the best we have. That's not an excuse for using it as a foundation for a world view. I'm not even sure that it's useful for highlighting trends. And I see absolutely nothing in the data that supports statements like this: "In fact, even though the amount of influence that a single blog may have is less than that of a single blog on the A-list, the aggregate influence of all of the long tail far outstrips even the mainstream media."

What about the "long tail" of the mainstream media? It's there, you know, in the form of thousands of small local or regional dailies or weeklies. It's there in the form of hundreds -- if not thousands -- of niche magazines and journals, some of which are online, many of which aren't. How does one measure the collective impact...the aggregate influence...of those media outlets on the public at-large?

Then there's the problem of properly categorizing the blogs that make up both the A-list and the long tail. As some commenters on Mr. Sifrey's post have observed, some of those blogs really aren't. They're spam and/or porn, or they don't really fit a classification that can be validly compared to an MSM outlet. And according to Michelle Malkin, Mr. Sifrey himself acknowledges that 45% of the 7 million blogs in Technorati's index haven't been updated in six months. Gee, that would seem to be a real damper on the influence of those 3.15 million blogs, wouldn't you think?

And, finally, there's the nagging problem of using links to measure impact, instead of actual readership. I link to scores of blogs which I rarely if ever read. I read many more to which I have no links (Lileks is a good example and I have a hundred others on RSS feed). If you have a blog, I'm sure you do the same thing. How does this factor into the big picture? Beats me, and I suspect no one else knows, either.

The bottom line is that the only thing this Technorati-derived data does is highlight the immense diversity of information sources now available to us. Any other conclusions are a stretch.

"A-List" Bloggers Market Share

Barring a discovery of another Paris Hilton video, this will be the most linked article in the blogosphere today.

It's another article by Technorati's Dave Sifry, this time dealing with the misperception that a few heavy hitting bloggers are somehow drowning out the rest of the blogosphere. It also debunks the theory that blogpower is more "concentrated" (whatever that means) than the MSM. Complete with Flash-based graphs! Read the whole thing.

As a card-carrying member of the Long Tail, this heartens me greatly. Although I'm not sure I completely agree with the use of linking as a proxy for readership. As Scott Chaffin puts it, nobody clicks anymore.

Why I'll always have a soft sport for the MSM in my heart...

...and for the Wall Street Journal, in particular. Where else will you find gripping exposés of crucial topics like this: Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling 'Freebird!' In a Crowded Theater?

This article is a brilliant example of the depths of investigative journalism which few bloggers even dare to contemplate. Yet, in the end, even the combined resources of the MSM can't completely crack this case (but at least the WSJ has the guts to admit it):

Information demands to be free (or at least available upon payment of a reasonable annual subscription fee).

Bad News for Baretta

Robert Blake was found not guilty yesterday of murdering his wife. I understand he may be the first acquitted defendant in history to appeal the verdict.

Technorati tag: Any publicity is good publicity

IE 7.0 to suck less than before

[Apologies to Jasmine for the post title, but some subjects just can't be approached in any other fashion.]

Microsoft Watch reports that the upcoming release of Internet Explorer will contain some breathtakingly cutting-edge features such as (are you sitting down?) tabbed browsing, transparent PNG support and (possibly) an integrated RSS reader. It will also include "security improvements" which presumably will mean that fewer than 9 out of 10 users will have their personal data put at extreme risk by using the browser.

In a shocking surprise, [Ed. -- You're not at your best when you're so sarcastic, you know?] the article reports that Microsoft will not embrace CSS 2 "in its entirety."

<sigh> If this was any other company, the operative phrase would be "too little, too late." Since it's Microsoft, watch for IE's market share to rise again to 95%+ as people continue to settle for "good enough."

But I'm not bitter. I love table-based layouts.

Technorati tag: Browser Wars | IE | CSS

Does it seem crowded in here?

Have you seen this?

*This number is corrected in a later post; it should be "9 months." But the point is still impressive.

That's from Sifry's Alerts, the blog by Dave Sifrey, the CEO and founder of Technorati. He goes on to write...

Regarding posting volume, Technorati yields this...

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number and diversity of blogs, and if you're getting a little oversaturated by media attention focused on the phenomenon, these numbers will help you understand why, even if they won't necessarily make you feel better about it.

At some point, people without blogs will be regarded in a similar light as folks who don't have televisions. They're probably harmless, but, really, how would you have a conversation with them?

Or...the sheer impossibility of being heard amongst a billion other bloggers will cause a backlash that will result in the simultaneous bankruptcy of Movable Type, WordPress, GoogleBlogger and...yes...Technorati, and the former A-List bloggers will be regarded in a similar light as the 17th century Dutch tulip speculators.

Update: Blog Alphamosaic Meme

Ah, the life of a big-time blogger...drop a subtle hint and let my readers scurry off and do all the dirty work. Life is good!

Last night, I put up a post about using photos of individual letters to assemble the name of a blog, and I committed to accomplishing that for the Gazette sometime during this millenium. But regular visitor and commenter Mr. Freen is no such slacker. Mr. Freen is a talented and energetic Red State operative doing covert work in a Blue State, and possibly has too much time on his hands during the endless northeastern winter. Anyway, he quickly assembled a Gazette alphamosaic built from specially selected images he googled up just for the occasion. It's shown below; click on it to see a larger version.

Do I have great readers, or what?

The only problem now is that I can't possibly top this with my own creation. OTOH, my lack of skill has never prevented me from trying other things; the very existence of this blog bears ample witness to that fact. Why should this be any different?

Reading List Redux

Here's what's comprising my reading list, which I attend to religiously for, oh, six or seven minutes a day.

• The Bible (New American Standard), and, specifically, the books of Deuteronomy and Mark. Some people don't enjoy reading the Books of the Law, but I figured God had a reason to include them above and beyond their immediate relevance to their contemporary audience, and far be it from me to have the hubris to decide that I don't have anything to learn from them. (Actually, I, um, religiously attend to this reading 10-15 minutes each day, on average. Can't think of a better way to start the day.)


• "Kiln People" by David Brin -- I know, I know...I've been reading this book for, like, decades. I'm still only about 60% through it, but my lack of progress is not a judgment on the book's quality or my enthusiasm for it.


• "The Zen of CSS Design" by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag -- The ultimate geek coffee table book, taking the reader on a tour of 36 contributions to the legendary CSS Zen Garden website. I've opened pages at random, seeking inspiration and enlightenment, with mixed results that aren't the book's fault.


• "Hold the Enlightenment" by Tim Cahill -- This was a purchase at Collected Works, that little bookstore located a block or two off the square in Santa Fe, where you can't fail to find something that the Big Guys don't carry. This book isn't one of those, however, but it's still got promise. Cahill is one of the best "adventure travel" writers around, and this is another collection in the vein of "Road Fever" and "Pecked to Death by Ducks." Hilariously informative, especially if you're planning to trek across Outer Mongolia wearing your underwear on your head and carrying a dull machete.


• "Kings of Infinite Space" by James Hynes -- Another Santa Fe purchase, from the downtown Borders Bookstore. I have no idea what it's about, but the little blurbs from all the other authors contain the key phrases "funniest, creepiest...," "darkly comic," "dark and funny" and "mordantly incisive satire." I couldn't resist.

New Meme: Your Blog Name in Photos

I think this is too cool not to pass along, even if I can't yet replicate it. Patti over at White Pebble has posted a series of photos showing the letters that spell out the URL of her blog. I think that makes for a great meme.

You can emulate Patti and research Flickr to come up with your pics, although I suspect that's going to lead to some duplicates. Even better, take your own. That's what I'm going to do, with all the spare time I have...um.... Well, I see a flaw in my strategy. OK, here's the link to Flickr.

Think of it as Scrabble® for your blog.

Post Forecast: Light to Non-Existent

I've been blessed with some new clients and new projects from existing clients, which is good in that it helps me pay hosting fees to keep this blog online (not to mention keeping Abbye well-supplied with puppy biscuits), but bad in that it tends to interfere with my ability to post anything. I suppose that O. Henry could make some kind of storyline out of that, were he not dead.

On the other hand, it does help me achieve my continuing goal of making this a content-free publication, so you've got that going for you.

So, in the meantime, please feel free to patronize the fine establishments listed at right until I can rid myself of those pesky obligations to do meaningful things and am able to return to the truly trivial and mundane minutiae we occasionally recognize as "real life."

Smoking in Midland Restaurants

Taking a cue from one of the Letters to the Editor in today's MRT (no link available at the time of this post), here's where I stand on the proposed ban on smoking in Midland restaurants:

1. I am 100% in favor of Midland restaurants becoming smoke-free.


2. I am 100% opposed to any governmental edict, regulation, requirement, ordinance or legislation designed to achieve #1.

Fingered

We and another couple ate tonight for the first time at Mona's Place, the new restaurant specializing in steak fingers. We had heard that the serving sizes were on the generous side, and this was confirmed when we saw the platters emerge from the kitchen holding what looked like a pound of steak fingers, plus french fries, Texas toast and cream gravy. (Wallace, you can't even even think about it, much less eat there, amigo!) Oh...did I mention that it also comes with a trip to the salad bar?

In a rare display of good judgment, each couple decided to split an order (with an extra salad bar added in). Even so, there was still more food than two of us could eat comfortably* (which didn't stop us from eating everything; after all, there are starving children...well, you know).

Let me tell you, if you're a steak finger aficionado, Mona's should be at the top of your list. The reputation is well deserved, and you probably will never again have to drive to Andrews to eat at Buddy's. (Sorry, Buddy.) Just don't tell your cardiologist.

*Nevertheless, I was simply amazed at the number of people who were tackling the platters without backup. 'Course, some of those folks looked like they did that pretty regularly, if you know what I mean, but I suspect that Mona's second most popular request is for a carryout container.

Sunshine Week

"Sunshine Week" starts tomorrow. Never heard of it? Neither had I, until I saw the logo on ArchaeoTexture. Here's the scoop from Sunshine Week's website:

There's more; read the whole thing.

If there's anything that bloggers, MSMers and the general public ought to be able to agree on, it's that government -- at all levels -- should be open and transparent. Whether something like Sunshine Week will be effective in making this happen remains to be seen...but it's a start.

Technorati tags: Freedom of Information | Sunshine Week

Drawn...but not forgotten

Yeah, I don't know what it means, either.

Drawn! is a new (first post: March 4) collaborative blog assembled by a bevy of cartoonists and illustrators. If drawing, art, cartooning or other graphic creativity is your bag, you'll want to make this joint a regular on your drive-by schedule.

And, via this post on said blog, we find "Spamusement," billed as "poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines." Some of the offerings are pretty lame, but others are, well, inspired...like this spoof of an Apple iPod ad.

There was a time when I thought such frivolities were a waste of time. Now I know that it's just the opposite, if you depend on a steady stream of creativity to make a living. The best way to get inspired is to hang out with creative people, even if they're just represented by 0s and 1s.

Technorati tag: Creativity | Cartoons

Chris LeDoux: Vaya con Dios, amigo

Rodeo cowboy-turned-country musician Chris LeDoux died yesterday of complications from liver cancer. He was 56.

LeDoux was perhaps the best country musician you never heard of, unless you were a regular on the rodeo circuit. He recorded more than thirty albums and sold more than 5 million of them. He may have also given away that many, most of them when he was juggling a rodeo career (he was a world champion bareback rider) and a budding music career.

LeDoux's music defies categorization, ranging from Marty Robbins-style ballads to corny hoedown, from western swing to pure rock and roll (but always with a little Texas twang in the wings). He wrote about country fairs, cowboy hats, falling in love, getting drunk and getting saved, but his obvious love was for working cowboys and especially those who dare to follow the call of the rodeo.

Regardless of the style or subject, LeDoux's calling card was sheer joy at making music -- the almost boyish wonderment that people would actually pay him to do that thing he loved to do. His songs were predictably catchy, almost always having a hook, either in tune or lyric, that kept them running through your mind for days.

His music career spanned thirty years, and he was reportedly making dates for another tour. His death caught most people off-guard, even though he'd been battling liver disease for a while.

Chris LeDoux. You got your eight seconds in; you done good, cowboy.

Lyrics from "Riding For a Fall"

Technorati tag: Country Music

Busy Day

We achieved another milestone today in the URP as we reclaimed our master bedroom and bath. Much of the afternoon and evening has been spent reconsolidating everything from furniture to toiletries which had been scattered throughout the rest of the house. Abbye took note of the fact that her crate is back in its traditional spot next to our bed, but she doesn't seem to be anxious to enter it until all the commotion dies down. I refuse to give her a firm commitment as to when that might happen.

All this has reinforced the obvious: it's a lot easier to disassemble a room than to reassemble it.

New family addition

We welcomed a new addition into our little family last night, in the form of a cute little silver colored (well, "pewter," to be technical) Hyundai Santa Fe. That's right, MLB is the happy driver of her very own gas-guzzling SUV. I couldn't be *sniff* prouder.

Fired Google blogger lands on his feet

Remember Mark Jen, the newly-hired Google employee who was fired in January for blogging about his job? He's landed another tech gig, as a "product producer" (thank you, Department of Redundancy, for that enlightening job title) with Plaxo Inc., a company that helps folks manage contacts (uh, networking contacts, not eyeball contacts).

According to this article in InformationWeek, Plaxo is encouraging Jen to start blogging again.

If companies were cats, you could almost feel the claws being unsheathed while Plaxo hissed in Google's general direction. ;-)

Tip o'the hat to Micro Persuasion

Dive Blog

I stumbled across Divester today, a fairly new blog devoted to all things scuba. MLB and I are certified divers and did quite a bit of diving in the Caribbean during the 90s. It's been at least five years since our last dive trip -- a variety of other priorities have surfaced (no pun intended) -- and seeing this blog stirs up some good memories.

It appears that this site is a part of the Weblogs, Inc. Network empire, and as such, is suspect from an objectivity perspective. But posts like this one about a dive trip to Bonaire* alleviate most of my concerns along those lines, as it's brutally honest...something you won't find in most scuba magazines which seem to be in business primarily for the benefit of their advertisers.

If you're a diver, this might be a good addition to your blogroll, bookmarks or de.licio.us links.

*Bonaire happens to be our favorite dive destination. I may have to put up some scuba-related posts, now that the sport is on my mind again.

Technorati tag: SCUBA

Buffaloed by Ruffalo

Jared over at Mysterium Tremendum is one cool guy...that is, until he unexpectedly gets on the phone with actor Mark Ruffalo*.

So...who would turn you into a quivering lump of tongue-tied clichés if you were suddenly thrust into his or her presence? And don't be getting all "I'm too cool for that" on me, because if it can happen to Rod, it can happen to you, amigo.

*More info on Ruffalo from IMDB.com

Implications of the potential Cox Communications divestiture

The potential sale of Cox's West Texas Region cable operations reported in the previous post has some significant read-between-the-lines implications for those of us who live in the affected area.

Besides the obvious impacts such as potential job loss and the complications of individual subscribers finding new cable and internet service providers (not to mention email address changes!), there's a certain fatalistic conclusion about the future availability of advanced data services in this area. The Wall Street Journal reports that "The subscribers Cox is considering selling are considered less valuable because they are in systems that are more spread out, making the offering of new services such as phone and video-on-demand more difficult.

One reading of this is that Cox has given up on the idea of offering those future broadband services to us. And if the third largest cable operator in the nation can't make it work, it's hard to see how anyone else will, either, given the magnitude of infrastructure investment that will be needed.

If that is, indeed, Cox's perspective on West Texas, then I'd just as soon take my chances with another provider. We've got enough challenges in our region without landing permanently on the wrong side of the technology gap.

Cox subscriber in west Texas? Wait for the shoe to drop...

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Cox Communications has retained a team of investment bankers to explore the possibility of selling four cable systems "because they are spread out much more than their densely clustered systems in regions such as San Diego and northern Virginia." [Alternate story source]

These four as-yet-unidentified* systems serve 900,000 subscribers spread across eight states.

I'm trying not to be paranoid, but a quick glance at Cox's regional organization shows the West Texas region as being separate from "Greater Texas." And an uninformed survey of the other regions might easily place our area into the "sparsely populated" category.

Selling "non-core assets." Hmmm. That's certainly something we're familiar with in the Permian Basin, isn't it?

*Update: According to this article in the Miami Herald, the West Texas Region is in the group being considered for sale.

Trudeau on HST

It's been years since I read "Doonesbury," and longer than that since I saw anything amusing in the so-called comic strip. However, since Hunter S. Thompson killed himself, I've been checking in to see how Gary Trudeau would handle the subject.

I assume that most folks realize that the Doonesbury character Uncle Duke, the drunken gun-slinging amoral opportunist who is a regular on the strip, is based (and not loosely) on HST. The observant among you will no doubt recall that "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was published in Rolling Stone Magazine under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, hence Trudeau's appellation for the character. "Uncle Duke" first appeared in Doonesbury in 1974.

Anyway, I got my answer with today's edition of Doonesbury, in which Trudeau gives HST's death the usual kid glove treatment. Subtlety was never his strong point.

Oh no...even the comix?!

I blame Scott Chaffin.

Does H.R. Giger know about this?

Donate your own wisdom teeth and these guys will "grow" you a ring. How utterly romantic...his and her rings made of precious metal combined with each other's bone.

Forget Giger. Angelina and Billy Bob might still be together if they'd had this at their disposal.

Tip o'the skullcap (and I do mean skullcap) to the somewhat squeamish Patti over at White Pebble.

Cox.net Email Spam Filter

I've been testing Cox Communications' email spam filter for about a week and I must say that I'm quite impressed. Cox uses Symantec's BrightMail antispam software which claims an effectiveness of 95% and, more important (to me, anyway), yields false positives on less than 1 message per million. (A false positive means that a valid message is flagged as spam, while a false negative means that a spam message is flagged as a valid message. The former is more troublesome if you're concerned about missing important messages. The combined false positives and negatives yield the measure of effectiveness.) InfoWorld published a review of BrightMail and its competitors; BrightMail had zero false positives in the InfoWorld test, the only product to achieve this result.

I've been reluctant to activate server-based filtering because of the fear of false positives, and the feeling that I've lost control over my mailbox. As with many of you, email isn't just a luxury...it's an integral part of my business, and I can't afford to lose messages.

But the email spam problem has grown to the point where my homegrown spam rules aren't getting the job done and I'm now willing to assume a miniscule risk. Since activating the filter feature that flags potential spam as such without deleting it, I've yet to spot a false positive, and the test has covered almost 2,000 messages. If this trend continues for another week, I'm going to pull the switch all the way and let Cox delete anything flagged as spam before it gets to me.

If you're a Cox customer and you've not investigated this free service, I recommend that you do so. If you're not using Cox as your ISP, your provider may still be using the BrightMail software and you should check it out. A daily time savings of even five minutes adds up to a significant productivity enhancement very quickly.

Scary Movie Update: "The Grudge"

[Update (2/8/05): What's worse than watching a scary movie late at night? Watching a scary movie late at night by yourself in North Dakota with only a "violently shedding" cat for protection.]

A year or so ago I posted a list of my Top 10 All-Time Scary Movies. I now need to update that list by adding a silly little movie called "The Grudge," which MLB and I made the mistake of watching on Netflix DVD late last Saturday night.

"The Grudge" was released last year, and is a remake of a Japanese film entitled "Ju-On." It has a few recognizable actors: Bill Pullman ("Independence Day"), Sarah Michelle Gellar ("Buffy the You-know-What") and Ted Raimi ("Spiderman II"). It was directed by Takaki Shimizu, who, as you no doubt recognize, also directed "Ju-On" (and "Ju-On 2" and "Ju-On 3" and, presumably, Ju-on-and-on). I have no idea how closely the remake tracks the original, but I can tell you that the 2004 version scored a 12 on my 1-10 creep-out scale.

The movie had two things in its favor (under the assumption that really scary things are advantages to a scary movie): (1) it violated a basic tenet of haunted house movies and (b) one of the scarier Evil Presences looked exactly like Michael Jackson. Seriously.

I must elaborate on point #1, so you'll be prepared in case you decide to watch this movie. Haunted house movies can be very frightening ("The Legend of Hell House" took the #7 spot on my list) but there's always been an unwritten rule that allowed the viewer to have a psychological bailout: the bad stuff happens only with the confines of said Haunted House. "The Grudge" shatters this concept like a cheap longneck upside The Rock's head. See, the Evil Presences (think of them as disembodied Howard Deans, if that mental picture isn't too intense for you) latch onto anyone who sets foot in their sprawling Japanese apartment, and they follow them wherever they go, even, presumably, to Minneapolis or San Antonio or some other distinctly non-Japanese destination. That's some bad mojo. And what they do to you once they make their moves is...well, just watch a few weeks' worth of "CSI" on TV and you'll get a flavor of that action.

Anyhow, watch the movie if you dare. If nothing else, it will confirm what you suspected all along about Michael Jackson.

Psst. Hey buddy, wanna buy some computer furniture?

One of the inevitable consequences of remodeling your home is that everything is subject to change. When you strip the walls bare and remove all furniture and knick-knacks, at least one-half of the marital unit views the room as a blank canvas, and in many cases, the old brushstrokes just won't do.

Thus I find myself working through a punchlist of to-do items that will result in the permanent re-location of my office from its years-old spot in our bedroom to our gameroom (where, frankly, I can't recall when we last actually played a game).

I'm not upset about the change. In fact, I like the idea and might have done it sooner had I not been overwhelmed by the thought of relocating all the equipment and wiring. But now that I've been forced by the remodeling project to do it anyway, the resulting setup is not bad...not bad at all.

However, the big issue is what to do with the old computer furniture...a massive hutch and desk that blended well in the bedroom setting but is (I'm told by a Competent Authority) completely inappropriate for the less formal environs of said game room. So, I'm trying to peddle it, hoping to recoup enough investment to afford at least a down payment on new furniture.

If you live in the Midland/Odessa area (I'm not shipping this 400+ pound behemoth) and you're in the market for some really nice computer furniture, take a look at this page (scroll down until you come to the Riverdale Desk & Hutch...that's the one). It'll give you all the specs and dimensions, plus some detailed photos.

I paid a shade over $2,000 for this furniture and would be quite satisfied with $800. I'll help you load it onto a trailer or pickup, and even go with you to unload it if you're within 25 miles.

Questions? Feel free to email me (the link is in the right-hand sidebar) or leave a comment here. And if you have any recommendations for some good casual modular computer furniture as a replacement, I'm open to suggestions. Thanks!

Roger L. Simon whacks Bill Mahrer

Our pastor referred this morning to one of the [many] patently stupid utterances from alleged political humorist (he'd never be convicted in court on that charge) Bill Maher, this one about "religion as a neurological disorder." Our pastor's careful and complete destruction of Maher's arguments is a thing of beauty (I'll try to get an audio clip so you can hear for yourself). (You can listen to the entire sermon here; the deconstruction of Maher's comments about religion starts at about the 3-minute mark.)

However, given the forum, he couldn't really give him the beating that someone like, oh...say, Roger L. Simon can administer. Mr. Simon not only skewers Maher, but gets two turkeys with one rock, throwing Ward Churchill in for free.

"Liposuction in reverse." Heh. Remind me to never be a foolish jerk within writing distance of a gifted novelist.

Tip o'the hat to Isaac Schrödinger, who administers a pretty fair thumping himself to Maher.

Call me anything you like, just spell my URL correctly

The Midland-Reporter Telegram's managing editor, Stewart Doreen, has written a series of articles about blogging with the first installment appearing in today's edition.

Although I was quoted in a couple places, I wasn't interviewed for the article, apparently based on a phone interview with Doreen last August (about which I remember nothing). I previously had my 15 seconds of you-know-what in the MRT a couple of weeks ago and I don't begrudge the other fine local bloggers getting the spotlight this time around. However, I was amused at the spelling of my name: "Eric Sigmeund."

With a fine Irish name like "Siegmund," I long ago grew comfortable with the fact that few people would spell it correctly right out of the chute. But, I must admit that Doreen broke some new territory with his rendition; I can't recall ever seeing that particular variation.

All's well that end's well, of course, as the article did get my web address correct. That address, somewhat ironically, incorporates my name.

Now, if the MRT would only learn how to provide an actual link to web addresses it prints in its online articles...

Yet another new Midland blog

You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a new Midland blogger, but the new kid on the block isn't just any neophyte trying his hand at a faddish endeavor. Jeff McDonald has launched ArchaeoTexture and I have high hopes for what he'll bring to the local blogging scene.

I think I've referred to Jeff in the past as a "journalistic triple threat," because he's been down-and-dirty in broadcast, print and online journalism. He's got a media perspective that's unique to the West Texas blogging community (AFAIK, anyway).

The only question I have for Jeff is...just how long did you think you could keep this a secret, amigo? Anyway, welcome! And thanks a lot for raising the bar... ;-)

Veal and those wacky Europeans

The European Commission is seeking input in order to "harmonize the definition of veal at European Union level in the interest of the consumer."

You can leave your answers to some very detailed questions at the Commission's "Interactive Policy Making" website. Note: I hope that you will give this survey the respect it deserves and not complete it unless you are actually a citizen (resident?) of one of the EU member nations. After all, we wouldn't want to skew the results of this important study.

My favorite question is the last one:

Where's Monty Python when you need 'em?

Tip o'the butcher's hat to the ever perceptive and entertaining North Sea Diaries.

Who says Texians cain't talk good?

Give it a go.

Tip o'the dunce's cap to Jen at Lintefiniel Musing, who got it from Robert the Llama Butcher...

Jewish Haiku

From The Ink-Stained Wretch: poetry even a goy could love.

(What? I can't poke a little fun at my Jewish brethren? What kind of mishegas is that?)

Tip o'the yarmulke to Patti at White Pebble.

Legalized Gambling in Texas is a Sucker's Bet

So begins State Representative Charlie Howard's (R-Sugarland) essay on why legalized Video Lottery Terminals (the geek-speak term for slot machines) is a short-sighted, misguided and even immoral approach to adding money to the state's coffers. Read the whole thing on the Texas Insider's website (free registration required).

Can't ski the forest for the trees?

I'm sure that some will disagree, but I believe the suceess of a ski trip is directly proportional to the frequency of the following type of conversation between you and your skiing partner on the lift:

Later, after another brisk run down the mountain, I again glance over at him while we're riding the lift. He has a small tree branch clinging to the side of his wool ski mask. If ever there was a symbol of a worthy run, it's the taking of part of the forest with you.

OK, I admit it. Tommy and I don't view ski areas the same as most people. Where the majority of skiers see a mountainside of white open spaces separated by scenic but otherwise useless strips of forest, we see hidden challenges bordered by wide avenues of snow. The perception and mindset is as different as the technique needed to master each type of run.

I don't want to read too much into this or get too philosophical about it, but skiing the trees does seem to present some good "life lessons," if you think about it.

• Just because no one else has preceded you doesn't mean you're going the wrong way.
  
  Some of the best runs we've had come when our tracks are the first and only ones through a section of the forest. There's not much to compare to the soft hiss of skis over unpacked snow, especially when contrasted with the frenetic pace of the skiers and boarders hurtling down the marked trails. The thing is, though, we're often initimidated by that unmarked snow in front of us. Is there a reason why no one else seems to have tried this before? Are we really up to the task? What if we get somewhere that we can't get back from?
  
  Sometimes, we do find out why no one else is skiing that line...but more often we find that our minor risk is rewarded with a sense of accomplishment and a joy of simply doing something we weren't sure we could do.


• It's not wise to look too far ahead...or to focus too intently on what's immediately in front of you. But in every case, look to where you want to go.
  
  Skiing through trees requires that you pick a line and commit to it. Indecision or changing your mind at the last second can have disastrous consequences. One needs to always be looking ahead at the next turn; the one you're now in is ancient history. The long term goal -- getting to the end of the run safely and with a smile on your face -- is certainly important, and doing each immediate task well is essential, but it's the grasping of the next step that creates a fulfilling process.


• Patience is a virtue, as is nimbleness.
  
  I daresay that most skiers, especially the guys, are into the sport for the speed. I used to be, and there's still something special about pointing the skis downhill and seeing how high up the curve you can push the intersection of your velocity and your courage. But skiing a fast straight downhill line in the trees is simply a recipe for a quick life insurance settlement for your heirs. Slowing down...sometimes to the point of crawling...is the key to a clean run through the dense forest, and the ability to change direction as conditions dictate is essential. These truths are even reflected in our equipment. Instead of skis that are longer than we are tall, we strap on stubby little sticks with flared tips fore and aft (if you must know, in my case, 171 cm Salomon 1080s are the preferred tools). They're jicky going fast, and you can't carve those wide sweeps, but you can weave a line around trees that makes you look better than you really are. Likewise, in everyday life...in our relationships and our work...we are most successful when we have a plan, but are able to quickly adapt to unexpected conditions and changes beyond our control. And while it's a cliché, it's still true: slowing down gives us the best opportunity to enjoy the small details that make life more than just existing.

At the end of the day, though, it's not worth over-analyzing. The only question to be answered is "did I have fun?" That's a legitimate measure for a ski vacation, but it's not the best way to measure the worth of your life.

Still, I can safely say that with respect to that question as applied to our recently completed trip, the answer is, without a doubt...Oh, yeah!

iPod shuffle: Move music, not data

Jon Gruber over at Daring Fireball explains why he thinks Apple dropped the ball with regard to the iPod shuffle's ability to double as a data drive. (You'll need to scroll down past the post entitled "FireWire Hysteria," unless you want to read his take on Apple's decision to stop including FireWire cables and other assorted peripherals with its new round of iPods. It's an interesting read in itself.)

We're a three 'pod family...one 40 gig, one mini and one shuffle...and none of them have ever been used to transport or transfer data. I'm not saying it won't ever happen, but probably not with the shuffle. I've got a perfectly serviceable 1 gig Cruzer (thanks, Gene!) to handle those duties, so this disk formatting issue just isn't on my radar screen.

Technorati tag: iPod

Got Book?

The best Bible rap video ever! (Not that there's a lot of competition...)

Wave o'the cloth bookmark to A Whole Lotta Nothing.

Another Unocal bidder?

Back in January I pointed to a report that Royal Dutch Shell might have its eye on Unocal Corporation, which could have implications for the large Midland office of Unocal-sub Pure Reso