There she goes, my beautiful world
I’ve been wondering lately if my perception of economic realities is colored by a shift in the makeup of the persons running industry; whether once upon a time there were industrialists with great vision and now, those being few and far between, I make decisions as though there aren’t any.
Recently in California we voted to put a lot of public money into a high-speed rail to connect San Francisco with Los Angeles. I’m all for high-speed rail and I … Read the rest
Freedom is the right to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows.
—George Orwell, 1984
Yesterday I spend the latter part of the day in the studio finishing up a pen and ink drawing. Working in pen and ink makes sense to me. There’s a lot I don’t understand, but every thing I learn makes me better at what I do. The world makes sense when I’m putting ink on paper. If I … Read the rest
I received a letter in the mail a couple of weeks ago from AT&T, who has provided my cellphone service for at least six years now with very little trouble. Of course, It’s really three different companies: I was on AT&T before AT&T was bought by Cingular, which was before Cingular bought SBC and started calling itself AT&T. AT&T, it seems, is now offering DSL in my neighborhood. And the prices looked pretty good. Instead of the upwards of seventy … Read the rest
Forgive the technical diversion, but this is a little unsettling. I’ve been stubbornly clinging to the idea that I can get away with using integrated getter/setter methods in my code. I thought it was an elegant solution to the clumsiness of making separate methods for getting and setting values in my objects: simply check to see if there is a value passed to the method, massage the value any way I want, then return it. If no value is sent, … Read the rest
Yesterday I was surprised to see an email from a gentleman at WeRecoverData.com asking to speak with me about the experience I had earlier this year when I sent a hard disk for data recovery. I was surprised mostly because in May I listed them along with Acomdata as a company «not to do business with». The post itself was a bit more nuanced, but suffice it to say I didn’t portray the company in a glowing light. The email … Read the rest
I’m not totally unsympathetic to the proponents of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that would rewrite the California State Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. I understand that my position (which amounts to a «why the hell should I care if gay people want to get married» attitude) is not the only legitimate opinion. Some folks just don’t think that’s the way it oughtta be, and they are entitled to their opinion. I probably should have just left it at … Read the rest
When I heard last night that fires were burning on Angel Island, I cursed myself for selling both my 200mm zoom lenses without ordering the replacement 400mm lens. There being nothing more I could do about it at the moment, I made a decision whether to run out with my 55mm zoom or to go to sleep.
My tripod was at the studio and I was pretty sure that the VR lens wouldn’t compensate for being the dead … Read the rest
Actually, Open Studios goes on all month in San Francisco and this year they’ve even deputized the first weekend of November. But my studio will be open during the third weekend of October, the 18th and the 19th. In addition, at Art Explosion this year as with previous years, there will be an opening reception in the evening of Friday the 17th. New this year is the «preview show» on Thursday the 17th. … Read the rest
It’s been almost a year since my 2002 Triumph Speed Triple was totaled. I miss that bike. The Triple was a fun bike every way you could slice it. It was way more bike than I need, but that’s sort of the point, isn’t it? Believe me, it gives me pause to remember that the 1980 Bonneville that my father sold because it was too damn powerful peaked at about fifty horsepower. The Guzzi, though more than a hundred pounds … Read the rest
Jessica Simpson has released a cover version of Dead or Alive’s 1985 hit Spin Me Round (Like a Record).
OK, Jessica Simpson’s release is from two years ago. If it were to herald the end of the world, we’d be long gone by now.… Read the rest