This just looks too fucking cool. It’s a new product from Adobe called AlterCast, and it basically uses database/scripts/server-side-whatever to generate dynamic images for your website. I know that PHP already has GD available for making dynamic images, but I just can’t help but think that something Adobe puts together would be easier to use and install. Too bad it’s only currently available for Windows and Solaris. As soon as MacOS X or Linux is supported, I’m on it.
Recently here at work, someone sent around a picture of American and United Airlines airplanes announcing new, non-stop flights to Afghanistan. The planes pictured were, in fact, B-52 bombers, and they were carpet bombing the ground beneath them. It raised a giggle, of which I quickly became ashamed, but raised some very real concerns as well.
I feel uneasy at even the suggestion that we begin carpet bombing Afghanistan. In times like this, it’s important that we look at all the ramifications of any action we might take. Carpet bombing anyone right now is a bad idea. Especially with all the hardwood floors currently being used in new home construction, particularly here in Denver. These kind of things go in and out of style all the time, and then where will we be? Out of badly needed carpet, that’s where.
As well, I have to ask how much good carpet bombing would really do. How much could that hurt? At best your going to have some really angry rug-burned Afghans with freshly carpeted homes, planning revenge. And that’s if we use a short berber. Don’t even get me started on shag…
I seriously can’t help it but… Listening to The Smiths gives the irrestistable urge to go and aggresively read Oscar Wilde. Don’t ask me why.
My previous post titled “Must see.” had problems for some people loading the images. Anyway, this link is a consolidation of those pictures and more.
It’s funny, but it’s not. All at the same time.
Here it is, the official list of non ‘patriot friendly’ radio songs. Some fuckers at Clear Channel seem to think that censorship is the way to keep america patriotic. Do they really think that if we dont hear this music right now we are better off? As far as I’m concerned, that attitude is one of the problems in this country.
Drowning Pool “Bodies”
Mudvayne “Death Blooms”
Megadeth “Dread and the Fugitive”
Megadeth “Sweating Bullets”
Saliva “Click Click Boom”
P.O.D. “Boom”
Metallica “Seek and Destroy”
Metallica “Harvester or Sorrow”
Metallica “Enter Sandman”
Metallica “Fade to Black”
All Rage Against The Machine songs
Nine Inch Nails “Head Like a Hole”
Godsmack “Bad Religion”
Tool “Intolerance”
Soundgarden “Blow Up the Outside World”
AC/DC “Shot Down in Flames”
AC/DC “Shoot to Thrill”
AC/DC “Dirty Deeds”
AC/DC “Highway to Hell”
AC/DC “Safe in New York City”
AC/DC “TNT”
AC/DC “Hell’s Bells”
Black Sabbath “War Pigs”
Black Sabbath “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”
Black Sabbath “Suicide Solution”
Dio “Holy Diver”
Steve Miller “Jet Airliner”
Van Halen “Jump”
Queen “Another One Bites the Dust”
Queen “Killer Queen”
Pat Benatar “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”
Pat Benatar “Love is a Battlefield”
Oingo Boingo “Dead Man’s Party”
REM “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”
Talking Heads “Burning Down the House”
Judas Priest “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll”
Pink Floyd “Run Like Hell”
Pink Floyd “Mother”
Savage Garden “Crash and Burn”
Dave Matthews Band “Crash Into Me”
Bangles “Walk Like an Egyptian”
Pretenders “My City Was Gone”
Alanis Morissette “Ironic”
Barenaked Ladies “Falling for the First Time”
Fuel “Bad Day”
John Parr “St. Elmo’s Fire”
Peter Gabriel “When You’re Falling”
Kansas “Dust in the Wind”
Led Zeppelin “Stairway to Heaven”
The Beatles “A Day in the Life”
The Beatles “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
The Beatles “Ticket To Ride”
The Beatles “Obla Di, Obla Da”
Bob Dylan/Guns N Roses “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
Arthur Brown “Fire”
Blue Oyster Cult “Burnin’ For You”
Paul McCartney and Wings “Live and Let Die”
Jimmy Hendrix “Hey Joe”
Jackson Brown “Doctor My Eyes”
John Mellencamp “Crumbling Down”
John Mellencamp “I’m On Fire”
U2 “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
Boston “Smokin”
Billy Joel “Only the Good Die Young”
Barry McGuire “Eve of Destruction”
Steam “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey”
Drifters “On Broadway”
Shelly Fabares “Johnny Angel”
Los Bravos “Black is Black”
Peter and Gordon “I Go To Pieces”
Peter and Gordon “A World Without Love”
Elvis “(You’re the) Devil in Disguise”
Zombies “She’s Not There”
Elton John “Benny & The Jets”
Elton John “Daniel”
Elton John “Rocket Man”
Jerry Lee Lewis “Great Balls of Fire”
Santana “Evil Ways”
Louis Armstrong “What A Wonderful World”
Youngbloods “Get Together”
Ad Libs “The Boy from New York City”
Peter Paul and Mary “Blowin’ in the Wind”
Peter Paul and Mary “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane”
Rolling Stones “Ruby Tuesday”
Simon And Garfunkel “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
Happenings “See You in Septemeber”
Carole King “I Feel the Earth Move”
Yager and Evans “In the Year 2525”
Norman Greenbaum “Spirit in the Sky”
Brooklyn Bridge “Worst That Could Happen”
Three Degrees “When Will I See You Again”
Cat Stevens “Peace Train”
Cat Stevens “Morning Has Broken”
Jan and Dean “Dead Man’s Curve”
Martha & the Vandellas “Nowhere to Run”
Martha and the Vandellas/Van Halen “Dancing in the Streets”
Hollies “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”
San Cooke Herman Hermits, “Wonder World”
Petula Clark “A Sign of the Times”
Don McLean “American Pie”
J. Frank Wilson “Last Kiss”
Buddy Holly and the Crickets “That’ll Be the Day”
John Lennon “Imagine”
Bobby Darin “Mack the Knife”
The Clash “Rock the Casbah”
Surfaris “Wipeout”
Blood Sweat and Tears “And When I Die”
Dave Clark Five “Bits and Pieces”
Tramps “Disco Inferno”
Paper Lace “The Night Chicago Died”
Frank Sinatra “New York, New York”
Creedence Clearwater Revival “Travelin’ Band”
The Gap Band “You Dropped a Bomb On Me”
Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal”
3 Doors Down “Duck and Run”
The Doors “The End”
Third Eye Blind “Jumper”
Neil Diamond “America”
Lenny Kravitz “Fly Away”
Tom Petty “Free Fallin'”
Bruce Springsteen “I’m On Fire”
Bruce Springsteen “Goin’ Down”
Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight”
Alice in Chains “Rooster”
Alice in Chains “Sea of Sorrow”
Alice in Chains “Down in a Hole”
Alice in Chains “Them Bone”
Beastie Boys “Sure Shot”
Beastie Boys “Sabotage”
The Cult “Fire Woman”
Everclear “Santa Monica”
Filter “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
Foo Fighters “Learn to Fly”
Korn “Falling Away From Me”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Aeroplane”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Under the Bridge”
Smashing Pumpkins “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
System of a Down “Chop Suey!”
Skeeter Davis “End of the World”
Rickey Nelson “Travelin’ Man”
Chi-Lites “Have You Seen Her”
Animals “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”
Fontella Bass “Rescue Me”
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels “Devil with the Blue Dress”
James Taylor “Fire and Rain”
Edwin Starr/Bruce Springstein “War”
Lynyrd Skynyrd “Tuesday’s Gone”
Limp Bizkit “Break Stuff”
Green Day “Brain Stew”
Temple of the Dog “Say Hello to Heaven”
Sugar Ray “Fly”
Local H “Bound for the Floor”
Slipknot “Left Behind, Wait and Bleed”
Bush “Speed Kills”
311 “Down”
Stone Temple Pilots “Big Bang Baby,” Dead and Bloated”
Soundgarden “Fell on Black Days,” Black Hole Sun”
Nina “99 Luft Balloons/99 Red Balloons”
Some notes on my recent trip to California:
1. San Diego has fucking great sushi.
2. Don’t buy a stunt kite and fly it at mission bay all day without sunscreen. I acquired probable second degree burns due to sunburn.. my feet and calves swelling again for the second time this year. Sucks ass.
3. IKEA is fucking rad. I spent 200 bucks on like 20 things and they all fit in my little Corolla’s trunk for the drive home.
4. Thinking about moving back to San Diego in February. We’ll see.
5. Playing ‘Taboo’ while drunk with 8 other equally drunk and like-minded people is the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
6. The Paris hotel in Las Vegas is actually very nice and not that expensive. It’s not the Las Vegas-y type of place I tend to hate and the $23 buffet was to die for.
7. Las Vegas, New Mexico is a shithole.
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest tresures.
There is no greater misfortune
than underestimating your enemy.
Underestimating your enemy
means thinking he is evil.
Thus you destroy your three treasures
and become an enemy yourself.
There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.
When rich speculators prosper
while farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn-
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.
When a country obtains great power,
it becomes like the sea:
all streams run downward into it.
The more powerful it grows,
the greater the need for humility.
Humility means trusting balance,
thus never needing to be defensive.
A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admited it, he correscts it.
He considers those who point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
as the shadow that he casts himself.
If a nation is centered in the Tao,
if it nourishes its own people
and doesn’t meddle in the affairs of others,
it will be a light to all nations in the world.
People are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.
Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.
The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.
Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.
The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.
Therefor the master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
-Lao Tsu circa 500BC
“The Taliban may suddenly be the dream regime of our own war drug war zealots, but in the end this alliance will prove a costly failure. Our long sad history of signing up dictators in the war on drugs demonstrates the futility of building a foreign policy on a domestic obsession.”
This article was written in May but seems very appropriate now. We have sent money and support to nations that have turned around and bit us in the ass in the past and then in retrospect realized what a mistake it was. Afghanistan treats human rights like mere suggestions, they harbor bin Laden and yet we send them $43 million because they outlawed growing Opium. There is so little logic in that.
