funny animation

check out:
http://www.jibjab.com/
it made me laugh at loud. Who new the presidential candidates could sing? :)-

Clinton rocks

Did anyone get a chance to watch Bill Clinton's speech (transcript) at the Democratic Convention? We all remember Clinton as a great orator, but his address was a rare piece of perfection. He managed to be inspirational and funny while highlighting John Kerry's strengths and showing how Kerry's vision of the future is different from President Bush's (and superior to it, for the average American).

Watching the speech made me realize just how much I miss former President Clinton. He was the kind of President who would make you feel good about your country. It would be nice to have a President like that again.

SOCAN vs. the dentists

Not content with the bad publicity generated by suing teenagers and grannies for distribution of copyrighted songs, the recording industry is now targeting dentists who play music for their patients.

Wine = Food

France might classify wine as a food, so that it can be advertised on tv and stuff, without small print.

Help! I'm moving!

I'm moving on August 21...would people be willing to help me move stuff onto a truck? Or should I hire movers?
Moving specs:
appx. number of boxes: 25 (?)
largest item: mattress & boxspring (double)
heaviest item: dresser (could be abandoned, as was free)
I reserved a 14' truck, which I will drive to MD with my dad. I know some of you have moved recently, what do you think?

Peacekeeper test launch

There will be a test launch of a Peacekeeper ICBM at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the morning of July 21. This may be one of the very last Peacekeeper launches, because all Peacekeeper missiles are to be decommissioned due to the Moscow Treaty of 2002

It would be pretty neat to see. But apparently it can be a bit tricky to see these launches from the Bay Area. (Though it is at least possible to see a night launch if you go down to Santa Cruz.) Even more of an obstacle is the fact that the launch window is six hours long, (01:01 - 07:01 PDT) and includes some of the morning.

Free speech is expensive

The Boston Globe Magazine has an interesting in-depth story about radio censorship and the re-energized post-Nipplegate FCC crusade to purge our nation's airwaves of offensive material. The article brings up the excellent point that entertainment radio is being held to a much higher standard than political talk radio, and that all radio is being held to a much higher standard than television.

We need a good debate here (at least to keep me entertained), so I'll ask the obvious questions. Why should radio be "cleaner" than television? What does the FCC hope to gain from its aggressive fines? If some Americans are offended by the language they hear on Howard Stern's program, why the fuck don't they change the station? And why is it that the same conservatives who ordinarily take the second amendment as sacrosanct have such little respect for the first?

A sad day for chess

Bobby Fischer is being held in Japan and may be extradited to the US. (CBC article) The US revoked his passport, since he was indicted by a grand jury in 1992 for playing a chess match against Spassky in Yugoslavia, which was then under sanctions. Chessbase has an interesting take on the events, concluding that Bobby is not a criminal.

Greetings from Socorro

I'm finally here in New Mexico. The journey took 3 days, but our stuff's journey will take another week. Fortunately I have the items I shipped from the Boston area, and thanks to the magic of free AOL coasters... uh... CDs, I have internet access while we wait for a DSL hookup.

There are stores, two supermarkets, and about 20 restaurants in town, but the nearest Wal-Mart and Home Depot are in Belen and Los Lunas, about 50 miles away (on an interstate whose speed limit is 75 mph). We're getting a refrigerator delivered on Friday, but no one is pleased to deliver to Socorro. The Sears in Anderson, SC will deliver in a 200-mile radius including to remote areas in western NC accessible only by narrow, winding mountain roads, but Home Depot in Los Lunas, NM charges $1.50 per mile after the first 15 (and won't actually bring the refrigerator into the house), while Sears refuses to deliver here at all, despite the excellent quality of the aforementioned road linking all these communities.

We have geese and chickens. Rather, our neighbours have geese and chickens, and they wander into our yard sometimes. It wouldn't be too bad if they wouldn't poop -- or if we were allowed to cook the walking poultry. There isn't any (other) livestock in our subdivision. Supposedly the girl next door is keeping the birds as a 4-H project.

I miss my Canadian satellite dish. I'll try to order one by phone tomorrow. It will be great to have television again, especially since the Olympics start in mid-August. They're not as fun to watch as the winter Olympics, but they're Olympic nonetheless. I'd like to be able to compare coverage on NBC and CBC.

Airline games

Ben, Jacob, Brian and I, all flew on Song (which I guess is a subsidiary of Delta) this weekend to go to Florida. This is for everyone else :)-
So they had this cool thing on the plane where you can play music trivia against the other passengers during the flight. It's pretty neat. I just wish there were other things besides music trivia because I am not so good at that (it's kind of sad when you get beaten by Ben's fast random guess technique!)