kuniform

So, da wife and I have bought a new joint recently, and we have moved in. We’ve unpacked all the boxes, and my folks stopped down again recently (they helped us move in) with some furniture from their antique store.

While they were visiting, the light went out in the bathroom. Not the bulb, but either the switch, the wiring, or the fixture. My dad, a retired machinist, volunteers to fix it. So, da wife and I split for work. We come back home, the light is still out b/c the wiring is fairly crappy in the bathroom—the house was built in 1919, and 80 years of bathroom moisture have taken their toll on them. In any event, to do the checking on the wires, he had to flip off the circuit breaker, thus reseting the house’s alarm clocks to blinkin 12:00’s.

When I come home, the alarm clock in their bedroom is set. Frankly, I am somewhat amazed, given my parents’ abilities to manipulate devices with microchips in them. Heck, they couldn’t find the battery pack for the cordless drill, though both items were in easy reach of each other. Further, my mom has never touched a digital alarm clock in 20 years without someone screwing it up.

At midnight, their alarm goes off. I was still awake, so I hear it faintly bleating in their room. Ten minutes later, it does it again. Ten minutes later, again. Finally, I hear my Dad cursing and the sound of a cord being yanked from a wall and falling to the floor.

I chuckled quietly (didn’t want to wake Lora), and thought about it. From their point of view, the fact that they must interact with these objects, with their hidden states of digital being and tiny buttons to interact with are terrible hurdles to jump through. Their little analog alarm clock, with its visible indication of alarm clock time (the 3rd, and smallest, hand) and little flywheel on the back to set it never befuddled them like this. In this way, and so many others, I find myself longing for the analog world when immersed in the digital because of the greater quality of its artifacts. Analog devices never contained so much hidden danger. The advantage of digital in terms of manufacturing, etc., are immense, and the promise of digital is great (otherwise the consumers wouldn’t keep consuming), but the trade off in complexity is a great hurdle, especially for the seniors crowd. Lora will be giving birth to our child soon, and I wonder how s/he will perceive these same objects, and their interfaces. Will an analog alarm clock from her/his grandparents’ antique store baffle him? Or will it seem simple in comparison to an iPod?

As an aside, why would an alarm clock maker default the alarm for midnight? This seems like so much laziness and disregard for their customers. Why not default for 6 a.m., which is still rude but more realistic.

Everyone should go to the PNAC, The Project for the New American Century, which predicts the need for a “Pearl Harbor-like” catastrophic event to generate enthusiasm for building death machines. Good thing the Bushes, Cheneys, Bin Ladens, etc., are all invested in oil and military machinery via the Carlyle Group. Convenient.

My other favorite item, also found in the “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” pdf file, is that it blatantly says Saddam must be toppled. The VP must be soooo happy we Americans are so stupid as not to read these docs, so they can then play us on TV w/fake references to nuclear materials and hiding references to American companies like Bechtel who helped Saddam get his bio/chem/nuclear programs running.

So, I was riding home on the train last night, and thinking about these folks, and I just don’t get the agenda. What do they end up with that no one else has? More money? They already have tons. More power? Again, tons. I had two options left in my little brain: The first is that they have no answer; they are running so fast they forget they have no goal other than to dominate and run the game even faster. Either that, or they are truly so marred in their souls as to believe in a holy justification for their actions, that they are fighting a war of good versus evil in which any evil action by them is justified by the ‘rightness’ of their side.

What is the hole in their hearts they are trying to fill? Were they not loved as children? Well, in the case of GW, that may be true. I don’t see GH as being the touchy-feely type. Who knows. Either way you slice it, they scare the hell out of me.

whereisthemoney.org is a website which can show you neat things, such as the fact that there is ONE TRILLION dollars which goes unaccounted for each year by the Pentagon.

The older I get, the less I trust politicians. And I am not talking about almost-President Bush. I am talking about Howard “Bush in Dem’s Clothing” Dean, Bill Clinton and all the rest of the power grabbing money grubbing rich. I can respect Clinton b/c he came from nothing, unlike those who are handed power like Bush. However, both these men are amoralists who play a dirty game of pool with the lives of our citizens and our planet, and fund their games with our money.

My only hope for when the planet eventually super-novas because of these greedy, ego driven jackasses is that some remnant of humanity will be left to carry on and learn from it.. Let me amend that.. some remnant OTHER THAN THEM.

Finally, since I seem to be on a political bent, let’s see what the money-poor (donate now!) Center for Cooperative Research has to say ‘bout Bushie’s whereabouts on 9/11. Ummmm.. yeah..

Finally, who shorted our “free” market’s stocks? Ah, who cares.. We’re missing ONE TRILLION DOLLARS! Those pot smokling liberals in San Fran will tell you all about it: airline stock short selling.

Have a great day, once you call/email/write/fax your senators and congressmen today, to complain. Or heck, walk instead of drive for a day, and hit them where it hurts.

I’ve been reading about Flash MX 2004, seeing if I really need to buy it, since I don’t do much in Flash anymore. It seems very nifty, but my initial impression is that they’ve coded it up to make it compete with Java or, more accurately, Microsoft .NET. You can read all about it over here.

This feels a bit intimidating as well as promising. We shall see if I can get it on the academic discount. Hmm.. Maybe SVG is the way to go? Hmm.. we’ll see what happens once I have pieces of this re-design done on my site.

Also, this is Central, a new means of distributing applications via the internet. Macromedia, tryin’ to play with the big boys.. I like it!

new year, new house, new arrival on the way.. hopefully the new year is treating you well. The Packers have won their last five games, the new house is shaping up, and the new job at newly public Orbitz is still minty fresh.

Take the time to do something kind for a stranger today; it’s a great day to do it. Especially in Chicago, where it is snowing. Snow-shovelling is one aspect of home ownership I don’t mind, but was blind-sided by. I never bought a shovel when we owned a condo. So, I did not snow-shovel, I snow-swept. It was ugly.

Anyhoo, do take the time, and here’s my final good Samaritan comment (rapidly running out of good cheer in ‘04, better use it all up in this commentary): operation hero miles needs your miles to send soldiers home cheaper.. give some today!