Stretch

3.2.2k9

I got to read some of a letter from St. John to the Phillipians in front of a bunch of sad peeps yesterday. The planet Earth lost a good man and we said goodbye to him. RIP James Francis Herold III.

Here's one of the myriad stories of him:

We were in Phoenix for some event in 1998 or so, and we were taking the edge off something at a watering hole near the hotels we were staying at.



Jimi, for reasons we didn't know then and now will never know, wore a construction helmet festooned with decals of SAC/NORAD's 90th Strategic Missle Wing. Where and why he got it are also lost to the ages.



He was, as usual, very gregarious and convivial that night. He approached every table and offered greetings and salutations.



He saluted and toasted all, but when it came time for clinkeys, he'd bow his protected cranium and offer up his helmet for cheers. Steins, highball glasses, beer cans, beer bottles, knuckles and the like would clunk, clink, clank, clang, peal and thunk. All would laugh.



That was our man. That was our Jimi.

We have one meeelion great memories of him. The only thing that sucks is that there will be no more coming.

... but there's a lot in the tank. We love you, brother.

Tonight - Club Deluxe.

Five buck-cover for them minsky peelers burlesque gals tonight. Go.

bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!

Smoke the world.

3.1.2k9

The world's a mess, it's in my Venue Announcemt! Wow but Lee Lee the Musical Bee and I had a goooooood time at HOB on the Sunset Strip with our old pals Helmet and Fu Manchu last night! What were you puppies and kitties up to?

Go get bleu cheese-covered fries here!

Tonight - Irish Bank.

citysearch blows

bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!

Rosey

2.4.2k9

I don't really give a damn that I don't know my way around LA very well. I don't intend on staying here long enough to become an expert. So, like many of you, I bust out Google Maps to light my way when I'm going somewhere I ain't been before. This is usually a so-called "slam dunk," but when Goog starts telling me to "Flip a bitch," or, "make a U-turn" as some of you call it, I call bullshit. I had to take Ez to the vet ... er ... pediatrician ... and while I knew the back way to it, I wanted to know the fastest way.

So into Google Maps goes the starting point and the destination. It spits out the predictable route (the same way with a slight mod for my place to MY doc) but it says to take a right at Manchester, flip a bitch and continue the opposite way down Manchester - all this in the place of taking a LEFT at Manchester, a traffic maneuver I know can be legally made.

It took some fucking with the little blue line on the Google Map, but I found the magic zone that let the Google route take the left turn, so I knew that the Google Map robot was quick to suggest the U-turn.

Forward a few weeks and I'm going to my doc at his Marina office and as I haven't been to it before, I Google Map out a route. Sure enough, the route orders a U-turn at Mindinao. "Crap!" I declare and shrug off the suggestion, deciding to circle around west of the office, turn left and left again and thereby approach from the south. Sounded pretty good and worked up to the point that there was ... uh ... NO LEFT TURN onto Lincoln (my northerly left turn). On through the light I needed to turn at I went, and wound around the hospital complex and found another NO LEFT TURN. Farther and farther on before I could turn North. I had to then go pretty far west and eventually found myself on Google's suggested path ... to the point that I got to it's suggested U-turn ... which was clearly marked as a left-turn lane with U-turn privileges. One tire-squealing U-turn later and I'm right where I should be. At this point I felt not unlike the turd that had been circling the fuckin' drain for a while. Dammit.

Tonight - Homestead.


bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!

Fenestratio !

2.3.2k9

Fer better or worse, computers are quite crucial to my life. Communication, entertainment, research, news, "relaxation," and my CAREER have computers as the key component. I'm really happy with my home computer setup. I got a slick, fast, feature-rich PowerBook that runs a fantastic operating system. I got a huge storage drive that currently has about 50 days-worth of music. And I got a phone, a camera and another gadget that play nicely with the computer.

I'm not having the same joy with my work computer. Sure it's fast and the applications work as they're intended to, but dealing with the Windows OS has always bummed me out. Recently there's one particular thing about the Windows experience that kills me: The "Windows Button."

If you don't know of the "Windows Button," it's fairly simply explained. One button to the left and to the right of the spacebar is the "Windows Button." Pressing it one gets booted out of the application they are in and presented with the "Start Menu" that contains shortcuts to applications. Ok, on the surface it's a fine idea. A hard-wired shortcut that MS knows by god that its customers NEED. Realistically, though, it sucks. It sucks because when one augments their primary input device (in my case a Wacom pressure-sensitive graphics tablet and stylus) with the keyboard to quickly change tools, the "Windows Button" is strategically located to get in the way. My work demands attention, concentration, focus and precision. I cannot afford to break concentration by looking down at my keyboard, let alone be totally derailed by accidentally touching the "Windows Button" when trying to press CTL or ALT and being presented with a shortcut to MY DOCUMENTS. It's retarded. It needs to go.

So I'm putting a call out to a List Member. I can't remember who it was but they had a kid. A clever kid. A young lad that will be going places in his life. This kid modified his daddy's computer's keyboard. And I'm talkin' CUSTOM mod. And with a non-standard tool: His SHOE! This kid extracted the Z key from his dad's computer with his shoe. I need to rent that kid and his shoe to get over here and rid me of this "Windows Button."

Will no one rid me of this meddlesome button?

Tonight - The Attic.

Lori... that's in your 'hood!!

Here's tonight's: Find the Reference!

BART-friendly!

bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!