9:29 AM A few quicky links:

• Cool clocks (via boingboing)
• anyone ever seen a film by Director Shohei Imamura? sounds bizarre and intriguing. (see also Vengence is Mine and {yikes!} Warm Water Under The Red Bridge)
• Drive-to-work, "A gothic, southern to central Indiana horror story told in pictures. Not for the timid." heh, heh.

Had to scrape my windshield a little this morning, suddenly feels like summer never happened. Want more sun.

7:06 AM The LCD album is coming along nicely. I've struggled through a couple tracks over at Reed's studio, and laid down a couple of new ones as well. The stuff Scott's played for me so far sounds really good (though I'll admit I'm biased, of course). And since Scott's got a red kit now, I'll be keeping the shells of ole' whitey in the Top Knot for now. It's not a complete kit on it's own, but we'll see what I can hobble together when the urge takes me.

Sad secret about Ned (see Davey): when I went to the dentist yesterday, the person cleaning my teeth said I was the easiest cleaning she'd had in a while, which made me think two things. a) how can that be, since my dental hygene is poor at best (yes, I'm gross), and b) there's a job I'm not interested in at all.

In other frivilous news, I've been wondering if there's any reason I should care about MS shutting down their free chat services, but so far I can't see any. But then I've never been much for chat rooms that aren't hosted by someone I know. ;)

6:57 AM iCam day on tl. Work/canal-stuff.

Of course, I saved the best for last.

11:01 PM Plep linked to an interesting site recently of photojournalism and it included this photo. But you should take a minute or two and click through all the pix there, I think you'll like them.

Then go back and browse through all the cool stuff plep's consistantly culling from the web.

Recent web-news is as follows: after focusing on the deaths of US soldiers to the detriment of stories about the good things happening in Iraq since the US invaded and occupied, the media is chastised for getting the story wrong: Saddam was bad, on his own, and the US came and made things better. The folks in Iraq suffered, but their suffering came only from Saddam, who acted on his own, without the support of the US. Sanctions were in place to punish Saddam, who twisted them to punish his people instead, and the French profited from this arrangement so their anti-war complaining can be dismissed as self-interested opportunism while the US intentions are pure (or if they're not pure what's it matter so long as this time folks are better off? we can worry about the intent of US foreign policy later). I want things to be better in Iraq too, and I'd even accept the idea of Bush/Ashcroft/et al trashing things here so that daily life gets better there; that's apparently what's going on, as of today, as of this round of spin. So does this mean I'll get to have the same feel-good story when we occupy Columbia or Venezuela? I hope so. (Not that I think we'll occupy any place else anytime soon, thank goodness).

I guess I'm just a bitter liberal when it comes to this. No, wait, I'm one of the petulant America-haters. That was an attempt at sarcasm, even though I'm trying to swear off that rhetorical technique. Do I hate the US of A? I don't think so. But I do suspect the worse worst of our government. Hmm.

Let's take a look at what Saddam did that was bad, and codify it into rules for how not to govern, and let's try to make those things crimes. Let's see who was supporting him while he was doing the things we can agree were bad, and punish them accordingly. Wait, that's too strong. Let's just state what we mean by terrorism. Let's just draw a line and say we won't fund certain activities no matter how expedient it may be to let the killers have their way. Inconvenient? You bet. But that's what I want if I'm supposed to believe that invading Iraq was some sort of humanitarian action.

I'm glad Saddam is gone. It would have been nice if US foriegn policy hadn't allowed supporting him in the first place. I don't think the US created him. But we certainly didn't have any problem working with him while he was gassing Kurds. What's changed?

Otherwhere, The New Women is a hoot, and I've got it on DVD if you're interested in watching a low budget b&w sci-fi flick about a world where all the men have fallen asleep. It's not great cinema, but it stars Mary Woronov of Eating Raoul fame, and it held my interest. And there's an interview with her that was interesting: regarding ER, she says something like, "so you guys are trying to get me to do porn?" when she talks of her misgivings about doing that film. Yeah, she sounds like an interesting lady.

And now, for a short selection from a book I received as a present from a bookstore worker (you know who you are) which was written by another bookstore worker while working said profession, in the vein of Bukowski (so it may offend, natch), and presented here because I happened across it recently and thought I had lost it and got a kick out of it and wanted to type it here (especially since there's talk in the wind of Novel Writing Month, and well, you figure it out)....

The opening of Bookstore by Kitrell Andis (I don't have a link for you since google didn't come up with anything right away and I got bored trying to track anything down just so I could have an "a href=" for you):

It's not easy, trying to get a bite of taco and squeeze into her ass at the same time. Not without slopping sauce on the sheets. Shauna has a thing about cleanliness.

"Ow! Careful."

Her stubborn brown flower. Pursed and dry. Closed. The tongue makes little circles around it and she shivers; she starts moaning as the tongue pushes in. "Oooohhh. Oh, yeah. Like that. Yeah."

That's what we call a teaser. More explicit than what I usually have here, granted, but I think the author means for it to shock and titilate a little. Well, shock anyhow.

Feel free to try to track it down online. I think the author was involved with the literary magazine Ploplop, and the title page refers to GeekSpeak Unique Press, Indianapolis, In, 1996. Though it looks like a vanity press run, it's nicely printed. More importantly (or interestingly, as I doubt this is important to anyone) it's a fun insider's look at working at Borders before it became Walmart. Okay, maybe Borders is better than that. I don't really care. Borders opened up right next to a cool independent bookstore in Bloomington and ran them out of business, so Borders can suck my stubborn brown flower, pardon my USofA-speak. And Bookstore is a fun read.

I think the protagonist of my novel would have to be a dude with all kinds of bad attributes who lives out your fantasies. Can you picture all the stuff you'd do if you could just take advantage of everyone and morality didn't matter? A cad, if you will. A real jerk. With super powers.

7:17 AM Listening to movies on your computer via the web: lab360 via Kaliber10k.

Palast: Bush Resignation Hailed by World Leaders

Iraq-Times (via as): "In contrast, the US spilled the blood of its own people to liberate them from Saddam's tyranny. No matter how bad things are here right now, friends, colleagues and relatives assure me that with the pressure of living under the old regime gone, life is one hundred percent better." [link]

This DNC blog looks interesting (via several). So does Lip Magazine.

JOSE RAMOS HORTA: "Recently, I was in Washington and tried to argue for continued UN presence there [East Timor] and I explained the overall situation in East Timor and they say, is that all, that's all your problem?" [link]. "Jose Ramos Horta has been quoted as saying that in cases where a person is found guilty by a credible court of terrorist acts that kill many people, he would not sign a clemency petition." [link]

Friday comes none too soon. I'm disappointed to hear that some folks won't be coming down this weekend, but c'est la vie. I've been a step behind all week, so an un-scheduled weekend is just what the doctor ordered. And I've got a ton of corn left over from last Sat's market to consume....

2:16 PM The Economist.com notes O'Bannon's condition (prior to his passing away). [link]

6:41 AM From the folks at Naral: Where's Bush?

The army launched a coup in the West Africa country of Guinea-Bissau Sunday, arresting the president and ordering government ministers detained, news reports said. (CIA fact book entry on G-B). I don't think I've ever heard of this country before.

useful map of africa with links to CIA fact book pages.

11:07 AM Got a living will? I realized driving around yesterday that while organ donation is something I'm in favor of, I'm not sure that I've done everything I need to do for that. O'Bannon, in addition to his living will stating not to resuscitate, was an organ donor, and they were able to recover his corneas for someone else.

Folks remembered him in the Senate and the House.

10:03 AM Don't know what was up with mercury.sabren.com (the plucky little server that hosts tanque.org, as well as spablab.com, I believe), but it's back now.

The other day (in the thread that will not die) JimA put up a link to moral-relativism.com. Interesting little site about God and faith and morality and all that. I don't think Jim was linking to them because he agrees with them; I don't agree with them either, but I do find their site a well-laid-out and breezy little interpretation of things.

In particular I got a kick out of the page on Agnosticism (since that's where my beliefs tend). "Can the agnostic know whether or not God exists? Is such knowledge obtainable by mere men? Modern scientific endeavor seems to indicate that such knowledge is obtainable to the objective observer." Hmmm, really? Why yes: "In general, we find 'specified complexity' to be a reliable indicator of the presence of intelligent design. Chance can explain complexity but not specification; a random sequence of letters is complex but not specified (it is meaningless). A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified (it is meaningful). You can't have a Shakespearean sonnet without Shakespeare." I'm not buying it (I think logic is sort of the wrong way to go about resolving spiritual issues anyway), but I think it's a fairly reasonable position.

Made my first lasagna last night. If I'd known it was going to be so easy, I'd have been making this stuff all the time. But maybe I'm still basking in the happy after-glow of a successful baking experience. Flat noodles, big jar of Kroger Spaghetti sauce, a slew of various cheeses, fake meat (I used Boca's; did you know they're owned by Kraft/Phillip-Morris? I didn't), all stacked in a glass pan. Baked at 350 under foil for about an hour, removing foil towards the end to brown the top. Good stuff. I was too lazy to chop up some garlic for the sauce, and I forgot all about the tomatoes I meant to include. Next time.

And now a rather extended quote (excuse the length):

Another interesting thing about the Vietnam War is we have no idea what the costs were to the Vietnamese. I mean, for the United States, we know down to the last person. And the big postware issue is finding the bones of American pilots. But nobody has any idea how many Vietnamese died or are still dying, for that matter. The guesses literally vary within millions. Because, who cares, you don't consider it when you slaughter other people.

Just a couple of weeks ago, there was a front-page story in all the papers. Some scientists have discovered that it would be possible to construct what are called "dirty bombs" -- bombs that would have a lot of radiation but not much destructive impact -- and to put them in New York somewhere. They calculated the effects and they said there wouldn't be many deaths, just a small number, but maybe a lot of disease, and it would certainly cause panic. So it's a horrible story, front-page news.

The same day, there was a conference in Hanoi, in which leading U.S. scientists participated, people who had worked on dioxin, the main poisonous ingredient in Agent Orange. The conference was concerned with the effects of U.S. chemical warfare on South Vietnam, only South Vietnam. The North was spared this terror. And an American scientist at the conference tested dioxin levels in various parts of the country.

Of course, those who had been subjected to crop destruction and other uses of Agent Orange had very high levels, in fact hundreds of times as high as permissible in the United States. And these are also recent cases. Many of them are just from the last few years, children. And they tried to calculate the effects, which would be colosal, probably hundreds of thousands of victims. That news was hardly even mentioned in the press.

I had a friend do a database search. There were a couple of mentions here and there. So, here, a report on our use of chemical weapons, which may have killed maybe hundreds of thousands of people: not a mention. A report that maybe it might be possible to do something in New York that might kill a few people: front-page news.

That's the difference. That's the difference in who counts and who doesn't count.

Let me interrupt here to throw this link out: ... the last three major U.S. attacks have in fact been nuclear in nature ... (via rw). Just came to mind for some reason. Okay, enough digression, back to the quote:

How do you explain it? Journalists like to think of themselves as the champions of the people, investigative journalists revealing the way that things are really working, muck-raking and so forth. And yet, things like that just don't get reported. How is that?

Partly it's the internalization of values. I mean, you don't consider that what you do to other people matters. It's not just journalists. It's true of scholarship, for example. It's true of the general intellectual world.

For example, if you take a poll among U.S. intellectuals, support for bombing Afghanistan is just overwhelming. But how many of them think that you should bomb Washington because of the U.S. war against Nicaragua, let's say, or Cuba or Turkey or anyone else? Now, if one were to suggest this, they would be considered insane. But why? I mean, if one is right, why is the other one wrong?

When you try to get someone to talk about this question, they can't comprehend what you question is. They can't comprehend that we should apply to ourselves the standards you apply to others. That is incomprehensible. There couldn't be a moral principle more elementary. All you have to do is read George Bush's favorite philosopher [Jesus]. There's a famous definition in the Gospels of the hypocrite, and the hypocrite is the person who refuses to apply to himself the standards he applies to others.

By that standard, the entire commentary and discussion of the so-called War on Terror is pure hypocrisy, virtually without exception. Can anybody understand that? No, they can't understand it.

(Chomsky interviewed by John Junkerman, May 21, 2002, for the film Power and Terror, from the book with the same name, copublished by Seven Stories Press and Little More)

Relative morality indeed.

7:16 AM [something interesting goes here]

8:42 AM Johnny Cash passed away this morning.

9:30 AM via spelling mistakes cost lives, sept 11 (may offend, or may make you chuckle).

Does the last two years seem like a long time ago or just last week? Both. ftrain looks at two years out. Words aren't coming for me, though. My frustration and anger at the result of and response to the events of two years ago seem to overshadow my reaction to the events themselves. Which is a really convoluted way of saying that sometimes I feel angrier about what's happened to this country since that day than the carnage itself. And I don't feel very good about that. What a waste.

Back to work.

12:50 AM This story makes me so happy. When Microsoft played hardball with Ernie Ball, Ernie Ball figured out that they don't need Microsoft. At all. [link]

And now, a shameless plug. My pal Steph works for a game magazine that wants you to have a free subscription, no strings attached (you just have to give them your address & email). If you're interested, check it out. [link]

Sigh. And now it's time for Ned to relax and let things go. I've been letting one or two things bother me more than I should, and I've been trying out some of the old standby routines for letting go of the tension: a) reminding myself of perspective, of how insignificant things are in the grand scheme of things. b) reminding myself that we are all bumbling through this life, and that compassion is gold. c) reminding myself that there are things I can change and things that I can't. d) reminding myself that when it comes down to it, this is all a game.

Yeah, I've tried all those and I still feel like ripping someone's throat out.

That's okay.

It suddenly occurs to me that the Impossible Shapes are playing tonight at Vertigo, and I'd considered checking them out, but now it's way too late. It's practically tomorrow for all intents and purposes. I came home tonight and typed away for a bit, and then Jim stopped by to give me a gas can (he had an extra, and I needed one for my new mower). And then, after a trip to the petrol station for some fluid, I pulled out the shiney red grass-cutting machine and laid waste to the front yard. I set the level to quite low, some might even say 'severe', and the front lawn has been beaten into submission (for now, yes, for now).

The backyard, recently trimmed, looks downright lush in comparison.

I mowed around the flag pole. I haven't put a flag up since I took down the stars and strips left behind by the previous owners of Shangri-Top-Knot. When my parents visited recently they expressed pleasure at a flagpole in the front yard, and I sheepishly told them that I didn't feel like flying a flag, since I didn't always agree with my government's policies. They quickly admonished me: the flag isn't about the government, it's about the country. While this didn't make me want to fly the stars and bars anytime soon, it did serve to remind me that every person flying a flag isn't necessarily promoting the current administration or, for that matter, any administration's policy. I didn't take that opportunity to quote fugazi to them. That's a longer conversation, and one that we've had in bits and pieces over several years. The thing about life-long conversations with your parents is that they remember what your first perspectives were, you know, the ones you had before you "matured" and figured out how you really feel. Actually, I hope I never feel like my current perspectives are my "final" perspectives.

Non-seq: If you think the RIAA is going about things all wrong, maybe you should check out this site. I've been meaning to download KazaaLite (available from that site), but to tell the truth I haven't been interested in downloading any tunes recently. I will eventually, though.

Yeah, well, okay. I guess that's that.

7:09 AM Got an email from Ev at Blogger this morning. Seems that many of the features that go into BloggerPro are now going to be added to regular ole' Blogger, which is cool. To thank BloggerPro folks they're giving hoodies out, which is also nice. In fact, I don't see how they can be making any money at all, seeing as how I sent them a small check over a year (2 years?) ago, in return for which I got some stickers and added features. Google must have a ton of cabbage to work with, I guess. In any event, I'm pleased.

I hadn't heard of the term "hoodies", by the way, until just recently. Coincidence?

Seems I had some other examples of recent coincidences under my belt, but I can't remember what they were (he typed, reminding himself to type more often). Oh well.

''So much of our lives involves making decisions that have consequences for the future,'' Loewenstein says. ''And if our decision making is influenced by these transient emotional and psychological states, then we know we're not making decisions with an eye toward future consequences.'' [link] via bordomjockey.

Please refer to the preceding paragraph the next time you feel I'm acting wishy-washy and indecisive about something. I think I've instinctively always known the limits of my ability to judge the future effects of my current actions. I'm working on it, but that's part of why I live in a world of "maybe" much of the time.

I'm also thinking maybe I need to get out of this weblog business altogether and instead get going on my own Graph Narrative. Heh, heh. Hold your breath.

Thanks for the tip on DHMO, Slick Johnny. I'm still checking it out, but I want to ask a couple folks at work what they know about it. Tom, I'm still working on my occupational description. Ned T. Baugh -- procrastinator/dreamer....

7:20 PM I only think I'm a male. Gender Genie is convinced of my feminine nature, so I guess I should be too. That, or I just write like a chick.

(GG even thinks the above paragraph was written by a female; same too with this sentence.)

12:56 PM If you're looking for some interesting browsing, plep has gone on a minor break and left an ocean of interesting links to keep his readers busy.

7:24 AM It was nice to lay down a couple tracks for LCD this weekend, though I'm not sure how much of what I did will be usable. I have a problem with playing to a song that's already put down, which I suppose speaks volumes about my inflexibility as a time-keeper on the drums. If a tempo is just a little off from what I'd choose to play on my own I have a rough time sticking to it. I think there are probably 4 or 5 speeds in my repitoire. Anyhoo, it was fun. Spooge has a shiny new Tama kit with fat shells - a gift from a friend who's kid lost interest in the drums, I believe. Quite nice. The white kit was piled up to the side, alas, no longer the bee's knees. The few songs I've heard so far are good stuff, even if I struggled to get a decent drumtrack down for them.

Two movies about to hit theaters have caught my eye (via website ads, no less): Lost in Translation and Thirteen. I'm a sucker for Bill Murry, and if you're going to throw in Scarlett Johansson you've pretty much sold me sight unseen. But the story of LIT sounds interesting on the surface too (although warning flags went up, I'll admit: is this another old-guy-hooks-up-with-youngster-chick flick?). One of the songs on the website was used in Shallow Hal, and therefore reminds me of that movie, not necessarily a good thing, but it's a light and happy tune.

And Thirteen just sounds like heavy stuff. It's probably a disturbing downer, but I'll check it out anyway. Both of these might be rentals, seeing as how I can't even manage to get to the theater to see Freddie v. Jason, but we'll see.

Longer term, Spab mentioned the upcoming Life Aquatic, which does sound interesting, not only because it's the next Wes Anderson flick, but also because it's co-written by Noah Baumbach, writer/director of Kicking and Screaming, something I liked quite a bit. ("Is that a pajama shirt?" "No. Yes.")

I suppose I should have some comments on Bush's speech Sunday night, but what's to say? I was all set to watch it but it turns out that cable lied to us and told us that it would be aired an hour later than it actually was. Thanks, Insight Communications (bastards!). Just as well, I suppose, since listening to that man speak generates a viceral, pointless anger in me. Reading his pap is bad enough.

I will say that I'm not surprised about the amount of cabbage requested. Figures that high lose meaning to me, except that it just means that much less for the stuff I care about. Since they're apparently doing such a bang-up job in Iraq, maybe we'd be better off letting the marines take over Washington. Or better yet, the whole friggin country. I'm sure you'd see people standing in the streets as the humvees rolled through, giving them a thumbs-up. Makes for an interesting campaign slogan doesn't it? "This term, instead of rebuilding the U.S. we decided to use your children's education money to rebuild Iraq! (Well, sort of, anyway)."

Bleh.

One last movie link: The DecentFilms site liked Being John Malkovich, it just didn't think it was, well, decent.

3:38 PM Indiana's governor was just hospitalized. I heard this on the radio, then we received an email:

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA FRANK O'BANNON GOVERNOR

For immediate release Monday, Sept. 8, 2003 Approx. 1:40 p.m.

Statement from Governor O'Bannon's office

Governor Frank O'Bannon is undergoing surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after being stricken in his hotel room. The governor was in Chicago since Sunday to attend the U.S. Midwest-Japan Conference, and was scheduled to offer welcoming remarks this morning.

The emergency room physician, Patrick Connor, M.D., has issued a prepared statement that said O'Bannon was brought to the hospital's emergency department at about 9:30 a.m. CST. He was unconscious and non-responsive, and was determined to be suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage.

The governor was taken into surgery at approximately 11 a.m. CST, according to hospital spokesperson Kelly Sullivan, and is expected to remain in surgery for the next several hours.

Because the governor is undergoing surgery, his staff and that of Lieutenant Governor Joe Kernan have been researching how Kernan should assume the role of acting governor. Article 5, Section 10, of the Indiana Constitution makes a provision for this to occur if the governor is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

If the governor is not able to voluntarily hand over his authority, the constitution provides that the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tem may give a written statement to the Indiana Supreme Court indicating that the governor is unable to discharge his powers and duties. The high court has 48 hours to determine that the governor is unable to discharge his powers and duties and, if so, the lieutenant governor assumes responsibility as acting governor.

More information will be released as it becomes available.

12:03 PM A couple quick notes, in lieu of any actual content here. Looks like there's a new domain coming online: orangefingers.com (byn's moving?). Shariworld, alas, is offline. I think Shari figured it just wasn't worth it to maintain it when she's not really doing anything with it. I hope to have a webpage for her up on tanque.org soon, but I'm not sure that she's got much blogging in her blood these days. Also, I've been tweaking the links page - still not happy with it, but at least it's a little more functional than it has been. The idea was to make the whole thing a php script that pulled links out of a database, but the spark that got me going down that path has, well, sorta gone out. Have to get back into PHP sometime, just not now.

I'm glad to hear that all's well with Adin, even if things didn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped. He sounds like he's already a tough customer, just like his momma.

7:31 PM Heard a rumor that Adin arrived today! WooHoooo!!