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Project Insomnia

Project Insomnia is many things, but in this context it is simply a "braindump" of whatever I happen to be thinking/reading/watching/doing at the moment. Parental guidance suggested.

Monday, June 30, 2008

The Daily Tweet

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|| Andrew, 12:07 AM || || link ||

Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Daily Tweet

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|| Andrew, 12:11 AM || || link ||

Saturday, June 28, 2008

The Daily Tweet

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|| Andrew, 12:13 AM || || link ||

Friday, June 27, 2008

Dear Disney, if you're going to break my heart at least have the courtesy to do it honestly

Disney to close Pleasure Island's six nightclubs:
The six nightclubs at Pleasure Island will soon shut down, as Walt Disney World redevelops the adult-focused district at Downtown Disney.

BET SoundStage Club, Mannequins Dance Palace, 8Trax and three other nightclubs that have for years catered largely to young, single adults -- rather than to Disney's bread-and-butter family market -- will close after Sept. 27. Over the next couple of years Disney will reopen the Pleasure Island area with a broader mix of restaurants and shops.


Although not mentioned in the Orlando Sentinal story, the list of clubs to be closed does include the Adventurer's Club.

Disney's official statement includes this verbiage:
Based on Guest feedback, the nightclubs will be replaced by an extraordinary mix of dining and shopping - to be announced in the future - that will entertain Guests of all ages.


"Based on Guest feedback".

Right.

Guests told you they wanted you to close the original, exciting, fun, unique experiences and replace them with yet another fucking high-end mall?

Screw you.

We'll make one last trip to the Adventurer's Club, and then I just don't know if I'll be in a mood to give Disney any more of my money.
|| Andrew, 7:30 PM || || link ||

The Daily Tweet

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|| Andrew, 12:12 AM || || link ||

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Of course we eat late. When else are we going to eat?

A common weight management tip, most recently noted by the Wii Fit's Body Test module, is to eat dinner no less than three hours before bed. I just don't get how people with jobs and obligations are supposed to do it. We both get home after 6:00 on weeknights and both want to do our fitness stuff before dinner. Then there's work, MousePlanet stuff, cleaning, maintenance, etc. We usually have dinner around 10:00 and go to bed before midnight. Where is the time for an early dinner?
|| Andrew, 10:11 PM || || link ||

If we lived in San Francisco, I'd vote for it

Satirists hope to toss Bush a gutter ball of a memorial / 'George W. Bush Sewage Plant' - sounds like a joke, draws ire:
They're the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco, but don't let the serious name fool you. The group's intentions are in the gutter: They want to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant come January when the next president is sworn in.

During the inauguration, the group also wants supporters to participate in a 'synchronized flush'- a way to send a gift to the renamed plant, which supporters say, would be a 'fitting monument to this president's work.'


Perfect memorial for the crappiest president ever. I especially like how the chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party is so upset--maybe he should be more concerned with his membership numbers?
|| Andrew, 9:07 AM || || link ||

Friday, June 20, 2008

I Can Haz Simba?

kitty
|| Andrew, 2:07 PM || || link ||

More pictures from the cruise

These are the last photos from the cruise: scanned pictures from the shipboard pro photographers, plus a few scanned hardcopy photos from port stops. Enjoy!

|| Andrew, 1:01 PM || || link ||

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

20 Years Ago Today

The Concert for the Masses. 80,000 fans pack the Rose Bowl for the 101st and final stop on Depeche Mode's "Music for the Masses" tour. The energy, the noise, the food fights, the rain. Opening acts Wire (really, really bad), Thomas Dolby (not bad), OMD (a lot of fun). KROQ deejays onstage, many proving that radio personalities should stay on the radio.

I was there, my future wife, who I didn't meet until eight years later was there in the front row, friends I'd meet years later were there, it seemed like half of Southern California was there. 20 years later, it remains the single best live music experience of my life.

Today, Depeche Mode's Web site commemorates the anniversary of the Concert for the Masses with audio clips from KROQ's day-long on-site broadcast, exclusive backstage footage and more.

I went looking for the concert shirt, but it's gone. I wonder in which move it was lost.
|| Andrew, 6:02 PM || || link ||

Who Needs A Reason?



I love this, but as Christian Finnegan said on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" last night, "You know, I really love the political far left; if only they could be a bit more smug."
|| Andrew, 10:58 AM || || link ||

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The MALM-LACK super hack

We'd had an idea to somehow add under-bed shelving to a MALM king bed using the LACK shelving unit. The original thought was to add legs to the MALM and slide one LACK under each side. The problem came when we couldn't find a way of attaching legs that satisfied both my structural/safety concerns and Jennifer's aesthetic sense; either they'd be attractive but too small or not well-attached, or ugly but bulky and secure.

The beginnings of a solution came from an IKEA Hacker post on headboards which linked to aerialsoul's MALM headboard hack. The main inspiration we took from this is that the best way to add to a MALM bed is to just buy another set. We're using the headboard from one set as the footboard, and our headboard is made from the second headboard sitting atop the two footboards. Everything works together to make a cohesive, connected bed. We couldn't be more pleased!

|| Andrew, 11:31 AM || || link ||

The Hypocrisy Meter is Pegged

Groups ask court to halt gender-neutral marriage licenses:
Meanwhile, a conservative Christian law firm and a church joined in faxing letters to county clerk offices Monday, telling them that they do not have to do work related to same-sex marriages if it violates their religious beliefs.

Murrieta, Calif.-based law firm Advocates for Faith and Freedom and the Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council said clerk employees are protected from discrimination and entitled to accommodations for their religious beliefs. The letters cited the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California's Fair Employment and Housing Act.


Surely this is a sign of the Apocalypse: anti-equality, pro-discrimination haters standing on civil rights?
|| Andrew, 9:41 AM || || link ||

Monday, June 09, 2008

The cruise trip report!

The cruise trip report, sort of, on MousePad. Includes pictures. Andrew & Jennifer - May 7-26, 2008 - POFQ, Disney Magic Westbound Repo, Hyatt Anaheim - MousePad:
I haven't been able to motivate myself to take my trip report notes and rewrite them into a real, legible Trip Report. I have, however, processed and uploaded all of my photos and am working on Jennifer's, and still have to scan and upload the shipboard photographer photos -- should be pretty soon. But since I can't seem to get the real report written, I'm pasting here my in-progress notes, cleaned up a little bit for publication.


|| Andrew, 4:39 PM || || link ||

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Pondering an Obama cabinet

Just some thoughts.

Vice-President: Senator Jim Webb (D-VA).
Secretary of State: Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM).
Attorney General: Former Senator John Edwards.
Secretary of Defense: General Wesley Clark (Ret.).
Secretary of Labor: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles)
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY).
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director and Founder, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
UN Ambassador: Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).
Secretary of Homeland Security: None. Abolish the office and department as a failed remnant of the Bush era. If it can't be abolished: Richard A. Clarke.
EPA Administrator: Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA).
Consumer Product Safety Commission: Ralph Nader, founder, Public Citizen.

There are of course many other appointed positions (cabinet and otherwise) on which I don't have a clear pick. Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, World Bank, FBI, CIA, NSA, FEMA, NASA, NOAA, FCC, OMB, DNI, Science Advisor, Federal Reserve and I'm sure more I can't think of right now. It would be good to get some of the few Democrats who tried to take a stand during the last several years into the Obama administration, but on the other hand we don't want to deplete the Dems in Congress and risk another GOP takeover.
|| Andrew, 3:52 PM || || link ||

Can you tell 'em apart?



Best. Ad. EVAR.
|| Andrew, 1:45 PM || || link ||

Monday, June 02, 2008

Pet Food Companies Agree To $24 Million Settlement Over Killer Pet Food

Settlements: Pet Food Companies Agree To $24 Million Settlement Over Killer Pet Food:
After a two-week delay to make sure the language of the settlement met U.S. and Canadian law, about 30 pet food makers have agreed to pay out $24 million to customers whose pets were killed or injured in the tainted food fiasco a year ago. Victims will be reimbursed for expenses, including vet and burial/cremation bills. Additionally, 'pet owners can request reimbursement for the cost or fair-market value—whichever is higher—of a deceased pet or one purchased in replacement. Owners who don't have documentation of expenses can get as much as $900 each. All claims are subject to review.'

We were very lucky in that none of the food we were buying at the time was contaminated or of any of the contaminated brands -- we'd purchased some of those brands in the past. It seems unusual to me that the settlement actually includes substantial recovery for victims--most of these class-action settlements result in victims being awarded a coupon to buy more of the tainted product, plus millions in legal fees.
|| Andrew, 3:24 PM || || link ||

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Are Wii Fit Yet?

I pre-ordered the Wii Fit from Amazon a month or two ago and then promptly forgot about it. UPS delivered while we were on vacation. We tried it out yesterday. Needless to say, neither of us were exactly pleased with the results of the initial body test, but that's kind of the point, right? We'll see how it goes.
|| Andrew, 2:40 PM || || link ||

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