I don't get it. I

I don’t get it. I have this compulsion to watch Six Feet Under on HBO now. I don’t have cable (but recently I’ve thought about getting it). I don’t even get local TV stations. My TV is solely for DVD/LD/VHS playback. Last week, I caught about 4 or 5 episodes at hotels I stayed at. Tonight I finagled a TV with HBO just so I could watch the new episode.

At the end of each episode I think to myself “Well that was nice.” That is to say “I don’t think that was great, but it was better than most things I remember from the years when I watched TV regularly.” My compulsion to see it is not driven by the enjoyment I get from the show. A gap exists between my enjoyment and the need to see it. There must be some greater societal drive at work here. Some need to fit in with the masses that have made this show a weekly ritual. That is, to be specific, the masses that HBO tells me watch the show.

I don't get it. I

I don’t get it. I have this compulsion to watch Six Feet Under on HBO now. I don’t have cable (but recently I’ve thought about getting it). I don’t even get local TV stations. My TV is solely for DVD/LD/VHS playback. Last week, I caught about 4 or 5 episodes at hotels I stayed at. Tonight I finagled a TV with HBO just so I could watch the new episode.

At the end of each episode I think to myself “Well that was nice.” That is to say “I don’t think that was great, but it was better than most things I remember from the years when I watched TV regularly.” My compulsion to see it is not driven by the enjoyment I get from the show. A gap exists between my enjoyment and the need to see it. There must be some greater societal drive at work here. Some need to fit in with the masses that have made this show a weekly ritual. That is, to be specific, the masses that HBO tells me watch the show.

I was feeling kinda down

I was feeling kinda down and few things seem to cheer me up like reading about cool technology.

Five Cool Technologies:

• XML Blaster is MOM (Message Oriented Middleware) as they like to call it. It’s XML messaging that works over CORBA, RMI or XML-RPC. It’s a publish/subscribe or point to point MOM server. They have some ideas about how it might be usedideas about how it might be used.
• eXist is my favorite native XML database at the moment. It just keeps getting cooler.
• Cocoon is an oldie but a goodie. I’m still using v1 to run everything on gnumatt.org but I’ve acquired new servers so I planning on putting the latest rev of cocoon on those and going wild.
• Web Entourage has been putting out cool OS X blogging tools like BlogApp and BlogScript.
• Moveable Type is very well designed code wise, and it is a delight to read through Ben’s code. It would be fun to add XSLT support to the template generation routines.

Yeah Emily just showed up! Time to go play.

I was in Carlin, Nevada

I was in Carlin, Nevada this past Easter when I was pulled over by a town policeman. Considering the obscene amount of driving I do this is not really an unusual occurrence for me. What shocked me is that he had a wireless microphone attached to his uniform, tiny video cameras in his car and in general he was every gadgeteers wet dream. Oh and the fact that he didn’t give me a ticket even after telling him twice I did see the speed limit signs and I still didn’t slow down fast enough because my mind was on other things.

I'm in shock. I didn't

New month, new entry

New month, new entry.

I’m back in Dallas for a day before I head off again to Huntsville, Alabama for the weekend to see family. Then no more trips for a little while till apt minds finds its legs.

Here are some highlights:

• Visited my friend Rebecca and stayed at a “floating house” on the Columbia river. Quite a choice location.
• Saw the Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah
• Paid a visit to the Armpit of America. Pictures are forthcoming.
• A AAA spokesperson apparently had some unpleasant comments in a Life magazine article about the Loneliest Road in America.

It’s totally empty. There are no points of interest. We don’t recommend it. We warn all motorists not to drive there unless they’re confident of their survival skills.

Read more...

First day in Portland and

First day in Portland and I want to be cooler than my Texas license plate might suggest to the hip, young Portlanders whizzing by on bicycles or walking quickly past me to go to the next really important event that doesn’t start till they show up. Action item one, go to Everyday Music.

Score one for me, they are playing godspeed you black emperor! and a silver mt. zion in store. I was just listening to those artists in my car. I might gain cool cred with this recognition, but I don’t want to risk it.

A big shout out to

A big shout out to my Internet connection at the moment. I’m in

I made it to Portland. I’ve learned that heavy fog, snow and night time through the Rocky mountains in Wyoming can be a lot of fun. When you get about 1/5th of a mile away from a car you make out their lights. They look like they are just floating because you can’t see anything but their lights. It’s a cool effect. The only way I could distinguish between oncoming and outgoing traffic is the color of the light. Oh and 17 degrees with a wind chill of 1 degree in Wyoming is a helluva lot more comfortable than 35-40 in Portland. I’ll take a “dry” cold any day of the week.

In the immortal words of

In the immortal words of Geddy Lee and a couple of other Canadians “Take off, to the great northwest, take off.”

If you are a movie person then perhaps “A whole new life awaits you off-world in Portland, OR”

While I’m gone I hope this is the one people remember me by “And like that, he’s gone to Portland, OR.”

Woop. I can now put

Woop. I can now put a preamble in any comment area. When you reply to an entry you’ll get to see it on the comments page now.