Friday, March 29, 02002
Here are some pictures from the kite battle royal at last Sunday's festival. It was either too windy or I got there too late to see any of the really beautiful, handcrafted kites. There were a lot of Mallrats out flying normal kites though. I suspect the Smithsonian may have been selling them cheap earlier in the day, since there only seemed to be four or five different models in the air. I saw a few people almost get taken out by falling kites and I got caught in their string more than a couple of times as I was out taking pictures.
Watch out, red kite !
Loudmouth going after American Gothic.
Ouch !! See you next year, Loudmouth.
The fighting kites are pretty huge.
It looked like they needed a team of at least two to fly.
No kites, but it's not everyday you see monks amongst the Mallrats.
Posted at 11:32 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Thursday, March 28, 02002
Been a while since I've posted a song-of-the-day. Today's is Lori Carson's Train, from the album "Everything I touch runs wild". A rather uneventful album, this song aside. "Stars" is much, much better. But anyway, on to the lyric snippet...
I'm going to make myself a tin-foil hat
Keep the currents from driving me batty
Posted at 02:28 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Wednesday, March 27, 02002
How do you make a slimy situation ever more disgusting ? Call in the PR industry.
If that was the most amazing day of his life, what a sad, sorry life he must have.
Posted at 01:11 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Don't look to Paine Webber brokers for honest advice. All you'll get is the corporate line:
UBS PaineWebber brokers around the country are allowed to give financial advice contrary to the firm's recommendations, Sutton said in his letter. After Wu's firing, however, a new policy was instituted in Houston stating that "financial advisors should, rather than give their personal opinion, refer their clients to any relevant [company] analyst's report."
Maybe the Paine Webber brokers should join their Anderson brothers in protest.
Posted at 09:09 AM EST [Link][Comment]
Tuesday, March 26, 02002
I went 34 years without having to be exposed to it, and I was hoping to go another 68 years without bothering with it, but alas, I've been attacked by the cult of vi.
That's me in the cartoon, getting my ass kicked.
(Stumbled on this page looking for snakehead content ? Too bad. Too sad.
Go read about the Tar Baby Jesus instead.
The Tar Baby Jesus kicks snakehead's puny little fish ass every time.)
Posted at 02:30 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Sunday, March 24, 02002
I spent about an hour today tossing books into a dumpter.
A message had been sent to the UUCA environmental activism mailing list that left over books from their book sale would be trashed unless they could be donated somewhere or recycled, and that volunteers would be needed to weed out the books that could still be used somehow.
So I volunteered, and when I got there, I became an Afghanistan book donation filterer. They were looking for books suitable for Afghani schools and colleges, nothing too outdated, mind you. I found some old math texts, some bicycle repair guides, and a civics textbook. The picking were really pretty slim. Other people were looking for books the suitable for kids to be donated to shelters, and that could be used for ESL texts
Well, anyway after the filtering phase, there was still a huge amount of books left over. The Arlington library wasn't accepting books until after April 8th because of their own book sale, and there was no room to store the nonsellers anymore. The storage space for filled so books could be dropped off at the library after the 8th, and the then the remainders were sorted based on hardcover or paperback. Paperbacks were recycled, and the hardbooks were just thrown out. Lots of people were making comments about at least not having to see the books burn. There were even a couple references to people feeling like Nazis.
Granted for the most part these where books in very bad condition, and were very outdated and irrelevent. They were, after all, the leftovers of many seasons of book sales, including the last day "buck-a-bag" specials. They were a lot of tell-all books from people I never heard of, or had forgotten about. Lots of economics and physcology books from the fifties, and lots of Red Scare political books. There were also tons of marketing and advertising texts, which I have to admit I didn't mind tossing. After all, I had deemed these subjects unsuitable for Afghani youth !
Soooooo if you're in the Virginia area, and have a need for crappy old books, and you don't mind a little dumpster diving, check out the dumpster at the UUCA. I don't know when the dumpster is emptied, but you may have a day or so. You actually won't need to dive much - the dumpster was pretty close to overflowing when I left. Please don't mess up the area if you visit. Note that there's some sort of military installation across the street that appears to still be on high alert, so you probably don't want to look too suspicious hile you're doing your business. A map is available.
This got me to thinking. If your flag gets old and ratty, there's a very elaborate cermony for disposing of it. I suggest a similar ceremony for the disposal of old books of any kind. At least then people could dispose of books without feeling like a good little brown shit. Oops. Sorry. I meant "shirt". Typo.
It should happen on Book Day, at dusk. In the weeks before the ceremony, the Boy and Girl Scouts would earn merit badges by trying to find a home for all the unwanted books. During the ceremony there would be some sort of "speak now or forever hold your piece" bit, where anyone could claim any of the books they wanted for free which I image would occur during a reading of all the titles about to be destroyed. And then in some sort of suitably somber way the unclaimed books would be destroyed, preferably without a bonfire.
Posted at 08:11 PM EST [Link][Comment]
