I don’t even look like me
Personal
Buckled Up
Though we are ostensibly in preparation for a trip a third of the way across the country, our major concern today was synching up our respective twin black iPods to our respective computers. I’ve just now finished getting all my 10,984 songs and hundreds of playlists set up how i want them, thirteen hours after i began.
Flying on airplanes inevitably makes me think of seatbelt buckle belts. I covet them, but they don’t really go with my personal style. I wonder if you could trick the attendants into thinking you were strapped in if you wore the airplane-style one?
I don’t know that our St. Louis excursion will be interesting on the same level as my similar trip to California, but expect a few dispatches between now and our return to Philly on Sunday evening.
with a couple of warm beers and watched the fireworks explode in the sky
Despite previous independence highlights, today’s pre-fourth could have been my best. How many other days can you succeed at work, see one of your favorite people engaged, and get rip-roaring drunk with the best of your bestest of friends (actually, family). I love it.
In other notes: A great random-topic blog, Kinkish. Some art, some recipes, some musings. All good.
Also, I don’t completely understand what it’s about (something about gay men, i think), but Ballroom Rockstar is a wonderful name for a magazine.
And (fittingly, though you might not be able to tell by my typing), the 86 Rules of Boozing. Which maybe sounds a little tongue-in-cheek, but if you’re someone who doesn’t go out to bars very often a lot of them will serve you well.
Happy freedom to do whatever it is you’re doing.
Pshaw, I Post All My Secrets
If you blog (or read Time, apparently) you may have already been introduced to the utterly genius Post Secret, wherein random strangers mail in secrets on inventively designed postcards which are subsequently scanned and posted. Combines the always-fun voyeurism angle with art-appreciation. Awesome. Curator Frank Warren now has a book out.
Via a link from PostSecret, John Kerry blogs for Save the Internet. Save the Internet is a site dedicated to keeping Americans informed about “Net Neutrality,” which might be erroded by Telecomm companies in cahoots with Congress soon if us and the flip-flopper don’t do something about it. In short:
Net Neutrality ensures that all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. With Net Neutrality, the network’s only job is to move data – not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service. Net Neutrality prevents the companies that control the wires from discriminating against content based on its source or ownership.
You might not get off your virtual butt for many causes, but this one pretty much makes or breaks what you can do with your virtual butt – it deserves your attention.
What I’ve Been Doing for the Past 14 Hours
A great, simple, javascript chess page that works in Firefox. Allows you to play either side w/three opponent settings. Also, fantastic chess resource Chessville. Taking up chess is one of the summer hobbies i currently have under consideration (as if i need more ways to spend my time).
Chess tends to make me think of X-Men, maybe because Magneto has a board in his plastic cell in the movies. Any mention of X-Men merits a link to the best X-Men site on the face of the internet, UncannyXmen.net. Note that they have issue summaries of the vast majority of a wide-range of X-Men-related comics, and an accompanying character archive for when you encounter someone unfamiliar. Great for detering me from filling in the ten years of X-Men that i’ve missed buying, and also for reading on lunchbreak.
In other superhero news, my co-worker just called to say he won’t be able to see Superman with me today. If you’ve already seen it, or if know the big plot-twist already, you may appreciate Larry Niven’s classic essay Man of Steel, Women of Kleenex.