Archive for September, 2010

Miscellany 10

Monday, September 13th, 2010

I’ve got to start keeping better track of where I find things, so that I can give credit properly to the places that lead me places.

The real stuff white people (and black people, and so on) like.

What not to write.

Heart Strings: The Story of Kamaka ‘Ukulele. I own two Kamakas – a 4-string concert and a 6-string tenor.

Interviews with writers. This link goes to J. R. R. Tolkien.

And they said dogs, not cats, were working animals

Monday, September 13th, 2010

You just have to make it fun for them.

I’m not certain about the efficiency, though.

Via Dyspepsia Generation.

Two news stories you may have missed …

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

I know I did.

First, the more recent story: there is a restaurant that has a policy I can appreciate. Indeed, a policy I have fantasized about more than once.

Second, we have a record attempt that fell just a little bit short. Better luck next time.

Never Forget

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

Half-mast flag and burning Trade Center

I was at work when the news came about the WTC being hit by an airplane. When it became obvious that it was a major story, I went home and brought back a small TV, which we watched most of the day. I still remember the images I saw – smoke, flames, people jumping to their deaths, the towers coming down, dust-covered people running and walking away from the scene. I also remember Muslims dancing in the street in celebration. It took me four days to verify that my father had not been in the Pentagon when it was hit, and I thought of those celebrations a lot.

Now we have imam Rauf threatening violence if his victory mosque isn’t built at his proposed site. A few things have become obvious in the last nine years:

There are no moderate Muslims, in the respect that there is no effective Islamic voice opposing the radicals and terrorists. There are a few individuals here and there who denounce the violence, most of whom are under threat of death because of it, but the “Muslim street” acquiesces to or celebrates the vicious acts.

Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of conflict and oppression. How many acts of terrorist and sectarian violence and armed conflicts in the world do not involve Muslims, and how often are they not the aggressors?

Islam demands supremacy over other religions. The very word “Islam” means “submission.” It demands respect it does not give to others, and the political left is cooperating with it. There is currently a flap over a threat to burn some Korans. Consider that Bibles are not allowed into Saudi Arabia, even for personal use, and the US military has burned Bibles that were sent to US troops in Afghanistan. Compare that with “Piss Christ” and “elephant dung Mary” and the left’s reaction to Christian complaints of disrespect.

Sharia courts have been implemented in Europe and Canada, and Muslims are trying to get them here. In Milwaukee, Muslim taxi drivers refused to carry people with dogs or alcohol, until they were told they’d lose their licenses. They do what they want, and don’t back down unless forced.

Islam is more-or-less a totalitarian political ideology masquerading as a religion. It divides the world into Dar Al’ Islam (the House of Islam) and Dar Al’ Harb (the House of War). As such, Islam itself is largely incompatible with Western Civilization. People keep saying that we’re not at war with Islam, but they won’t admit that Islam is at war with us.

If we don’t start to protect our civilization and our society, it could get very bad.

Never forget what happened. Never forget who did it. Never forget that it wasn’t their first attempt. Never believe that it won’t be their last.

A pretty view

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Marion and I went for a walk this evening. The weather was turning cool and damp, with light sprinkling. When we turned around to go back, we saw this double rainbow:

Double Rainbow

A few minutes later, the clouds to the west had cleared a little, and the rainbow was brighter.

Bright Rainbow

Very pretty.

Horrors!

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Need to figure something out?

Monday, September 6th, 2010

This looks useful.

I had a pedal car when I was a boy

Monday, September 6th, 2010

… but it wasn’t stylin’ like this one.

What made this seem like a good idea? In particular, what makes taking this on the street seem like a good idea?

Suffered brain damage?

Monday, September 6th, 2010

I’d say he already had it.

That was the week that was

Monday, September 6th, 2010

… so to speak.

Tuesday was my birthday, and part of my celebration was to get tickets to Tomfoolery at the Denver Victorian Playhouse. I enjoyed it (how can you not enjoy some vintage Tom Lehrer?), but was somewhat disappointed in the performance. Given that the performance we attended was an extension at the end of the run, I did not expect to see performers forget their lines, which happened at least twice.

I was also bothered by the songs not matching the recordings. Some of that may be due to censorship imposed on the LPs by the recording company (I’m thinking specifically of the line from Be Prepared – the LP has “keep that pot well-hidden where you’re sure that it will not be found;” the performance – and the songbook Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer – have the line as “keep those reefers hidden where you’re sure that they will not be found.”). There were other changes that didn’t appear to have that type of historical background, though. The most egregious example was probably The Vatican Rag (which is not included in the songbook, unfortunately), which was performed with an extra verse – I don’t quite remember, but it may have been made by munging parts of the first and second verse together – and altered lyrics where Mr. Lehrer included Latin phrases. That was a bit hard to tell, though, as the performers mumbled the Latin sufficiently that it was hard to make out what they were singing.

I’d seen Tomfoolery once before – back in the 1980s, I’d seen a performance at Hannigan’s Greenhouse, which was an actual working greenhouse. I was mentioning this during intermission when one of the crew (Stan Li) introduced himself to me – he’d also been crew on that production. He said that show ran for eight months, two of which were in Hannigan’s Greenhouse before the humidity became too much for them. The one vivid memory I have of the earlier production was of the performance of the song, Smut. The cast for Tomfoolery consists of two men and two women. In the current production, all of them are involved in this song, moving about the stage while holding pornographic magazines. In the earlier production, one of the women did it as a solo performer, dressed as a little girl and holding a large teddy bear. Much funnier staging, I thought.

My birthday activities finished up with a trip to Keystone Resort to go biking in the mountains. Beautiful area; we biked the trails from Swan Mountain Road through Dillon and into Frisco and back. The 20-30mph winds Sunday were a bit of a problem, though. Saturday would have been a better day for biking, but traffic going into the mountains was bad to the point that we couldn’t have done it. Still, a good time was had by all.