I’ll start by saying I don’t mean to imply that all psychedelic experiences are beatific and profound. Trust me, I’m fully aware that sometimes you just lie on the floor for four hours trying to talk a seven-foot bag of Skittles out of stealing your sofa while Abba endlessly sings the theme to Welcome Back Kotter.
Antony Flew, athiest philosophy professor, has had a considerable change of heart about the nature of the Cosmos and the concepts of intelligent design. I don’t think I’ve ever truly considered myself an athiest, perhaps I felt closest to it while rebelling against fundamentalist Christianity as a teen. But I firmly believe something else is going on underneath the surface that we are completely incapable of understanding. We can dance around the edges – occasionally catch a glimpse out of the corner of our eye – but we can never fully grasp It.
How can anyone say that Tenet’s Presidential Medal of Freedom is not a political move? Not that Bush hasn’t cheapened everything, but today’s Medals to Bremer, Franks and Tenet seem to be designed to give stupid people the idea that since the President awarded them Medals, then the President’s ideas about Iraq must have been right. Or something. The Agitator helps us understand this. “They played pivotal roles in great events,” said President Bush. Ohhhh now I get it.
I went out just now and took my car for a drive. You know why? Because it was there.
Now that the break-in period for the engine is over, I can drive it with fewer boundaries. It’s great fun and I am starting to feel like I am getting used to it. The harder I push it, the more comfortable I feel in it. I was a bit disappointed not to be able to take it up to my PopTech meeting in Maine this weekend, but the loaner Corolla from Clair delivered a solid second-place performance. 
Hell, at least I saved a few bucks on gas.
Made my flight and hotel reservations for my New Year’s trip to SC and also received a tentative schedule for the event. I am very much looking forward to the whole thing – seeing some old friends and making new ones. If it’s half as good as Monterey was, I’ll be thrilled.
An extensive R&T review of two great sedans has the C55 winning by one point but the S4 kicking butt on the “subjective ratings”.
Something I can vouch for from the first night I drove mine:
“To the driver, wheeling the S4 is all the more satisfying, thanks to remarkably linear and reassuringly firm steering. It’s unflappable from corner entrance all the way through big power applications on corner exit, so the sensation is one of simply dialing in steering lock as required. This is uncanny when charging, as it feels the S4 will never run out of grip because the steering effort remains unchanged. Of course, the S4′s tires eventually approach their limits, as announced by a distinct notch of understeer magically appearing with Bela Lugosi flair at the stroke of cornering midnight. It’s as if the S4 gives free rein, then flips on the understeer switch just before any unpleasantness unfolds.”
cocky – \’kä-kE\ – adjective : boldly or brashly self-confident
brash – \’brash\ – adjective : heedless of the consequences : audacious
My friend John Perry Barlow has decided to go public with his drug bust story. It is a symptom of a broken system that anyone thinks this is a reasonable use of law enforcement resources. It is a disgusting affront to liberty and an outrage to common sense. I will write more on this – lots more – soon. In the meantime, be agitated and for God’s sake, do something.
On Saturday I had to bring my cable box back to Comcast. They blamed the box for the fact that the whole thing doesn’t work very well. I watch very little TV, so the box has sat there malfunctioning for six months and I just haven’t cared enough to bring it back (or sit around at home and wait for a service guy) – the three channels I actually watch mostly come in fine. It’s that pesky moment when I might want to watch one of the other 200 channels when things get tricky. Anyway, winter’s almost here, and well you get the drift…
So there is this a location in Cambridge down on Sherman Street where Comcast has an outpost sort of thing. A very small office where they take payments, do box swaps, and close for an hour for lunch. (I got there, of course, during said hour. There were people camped out. When they saw me turn to leave they were aghast that I wouldn’t just WAIT – I mean, it’s only 10 more minutes. But I decided to come back when they were open.)
Anyway, it’s a residential part of Cambridge with a park and duplexes and apartments and a very small office building with three or four companies – a tiny pharmaceutical office, a small deli, and this Comcast outpost.
What really started my whole freak-out is when I returned and found myself walking past the front of an apartment and saw three or four other people within a block, all with a cable box under their arm and either wandering toward or away from the little outpost. I realized what an odd neighborhood this would be to live in. Hundreds of people a day walking past your front door or window, lugging cable boxes in and out of this weird place.
I suppose if you’d lived there for years you’d resent it a bit. It’s not exactly like the neighborhood going to hell but the neighborhood permanently transforms into some twisted Space Quest episode 9 hours each day.
Anyway, after all that, she gave me a box that won’t work with my home setup (not the right connections). So this was not an upgrade.
Ok – I received a shipment confirmation for my Treo 650 tonight. I think that means they’ll be handing it over to FedEx tomorrow for a Tuesday delivery. Yayy.. received the same notice from B&H Photo about my new lens, too.
Ok, after listening to the DD album another time I am beginning to think it sucks. A bit too manufactured and unoriginal. Happy-go-lucky, etc. I don’t always like sad albums – and I can take more ear candy than many. Lots of the stuff I loved growing up – from Cure to Boingo to U2 and REM – all shared some roots in the post-punk new-wavey stuff that came to life in the early 80s. Duran Duran never had that same talent or power but I was thinking that after 15 years they might have been able to put something fairly decent together… oh well.
Anyway, moving on to the Evanescence album I grabbed – I like Evanescence. They were the first new band in a long while that I really enjoyed. Too bad the co-founder of the group started shagging Avril Lavigne and basically split the band up after their first album so he could go play with her (literally and figuratively.) This was packaged as a new album but is essentially a music CD of a live performance in Europe (Paris, maybe?) perhaps 18-24 months old and a DVD that I haven’t watched yet. This may be the label’s attempt at getting their money out of a band that went poof too soon, but a bummer nonetheless.
