Signifying nothing

The day and the hour is here (well almost here.) As of 5:00 pm MST today I will not be consulting the Internet for anything. That's right: no email, no last minute looking up stupid facts to impress people, no nothing. I will, however, be posting at Signifying nothing Unplugged by scanning in notebook pages: I've already started, just to get the hang of it. (And yes I know a standard blogger.com template is not the most elegant way to do this, but I don't have the time or the inclination to make something fancy. See you in 20 days!

Or to quote another movie, "What has God done to us now." That's right, I have a new haircut: not quite Marlon Brando baldness of Apocalypse Now, but close. The horror, indeed. Hard to believe I'm giving up the Internet's tubes tomorrow. Here' a sneak preview of Signifying nothing Unplugged !

Here are some holiday music giving recommendations in no particular order and suitable commentary: Art Brut (listen to it before you buy, but once you get past the lead's singing, you'll dig it) Arcade Fire Neon Bible (or Funeral if you don't have it we insist that you must have it and they are Canadian!) M.I.A. OK Go! (You will like these guys) Ghostland Observatory (see Art Brut above) Holy Fuck (only if you want to pay tribute to the now defunct Karlheinz Stockhausen) Hot Chip (if you don't have their work you better!) Iron & Wine (for a bit of laid-back American rockiness) Matt & Kim (there is no way around their infectious personalities) Living Things (if you don't have it) Black Keys (if you don't have it and crave some fried chicken) Broken Social Scene (more Canadians!) Feist (even more Canadian music with a loungey kind of feel) LCD Soundsystem (you must have this if you don't already) The Streets (see Art Brut and Ghostland Observatory) B...

Somebody's party at BestBuy , originally uploaded by Theorris . Since the first two installments of this series have been so successfully commented upon (2 on the first, zero on the second), I've decided to post the next one: 3. It is over there "So you want to end this?" "I think so." "Why? What did I do?" "Its not so much what you did, Jesus! Its, I don't know. Its me. God. Jesus. Grow up!" "Its me? Jesus." "I mean I don't know! What the fuck do you want me to say? Jesus." "What? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" "Christ." "What?!" "You just sit there. You just play those stupid fucking games and drink beer." "Give me a break!" "That's right." "Oh nice." And he accidentally or on purpose kicks two beer cans out of the car that laid at his feet into the gutter as he gets out, slamming the door. "So that...

It is Arthur C Clarke's 90th Birth day! Go wish him well. I think my favorite Clarke work is "Summertime on Icarus," a brilliant story published in 1960 about life and death on a hot, hot asteroid.

Somebody's party at BestBuy , originally uploaded by Theorris . Told you so: 2. Finding it Jim Householder was a real fucker sometimes. We found a couple of beers once that some stupid kids threw out their car by the train station probably to avoid the cops, and he grabbed them and started to run. "You fucker!" I remember yelling as I took off after him. "You fucker! One of those is mine!" Jim was slow cause he had a gimpy leg since he got beat up by a cop, and I caught him pretty easy. I grabbed for the beer but caught his arm instead, causing us both to tumble onto the concrete. It was late so no one was around. The sulfur parking lot lights of the BestBuy lit up the big red gash on his forehead. "You dumb fuck!" he yells trying to free himself and the beer from my grip. I ripped the box out of his dirty hand. "You're the fucker!" I stood up with the beer, and noticed that I'd ripped my fucking pants. Shit. Another...

I really don't think I've seen the Jazz play better than in their loss tonight against the Mavericks. The only, and I will reiterate, ONLY reason they lost was because of horrific officiating. The Jazz were tight and held it together and almost stole it away from the referees. My only consolation is that the point spread really fucked the refs on the Vegas bets. Yeah, that's right: the referees are indeed crooked. You think that one guy was the only one? Pfft.

Somebody's party at BestBuy , originally uploaded by Theorris . This little vignette inspired me to flash fiction, or perhaps it is found fiction. It is no doubt far too racy for my family-friendly blog, and far too sexist. Oh what the hell: We are standing in the BestBuy parking lot, swilling Milwaukee's Best. It is one forty five a.m. and the trains have stopped running. The bars have closed too, but I don't go to bars because I am flat broke. It doesn't matter that I am underage. That never matters. It is all about the cash. "Are you going to kiss me or what?" Nikki says to me out of nowhere. She is leaning back on my rust bucket Ford Escort, her beer can up to her lips all frosted with the brightest red lipstick she could find. She is wearing a low cut tight black dress and I literally feel my eyes darting back and forth over her, not sure where to settle. She is older than me, but not really by much. Maybe 5 years. She bought the beer....

HH has an interesting post about an email interchange with Richard Dawkins that provides me a better understanding of Dawkins's position on conciousness: HH's place: Richard Dawkins... need I say more??? I am really curious why Dawkins can accept such pomo notion as the "meme" but finds the rest of it reprehensible. You will note that he links "meme" to genetic (physical) traits. I think there is a confusion between "software" and "hardware" at this point, as I comment on in the very HH post I reference above.

I want one of these robots so very, very badly. (Thanks again to boingboing.net).

Wikipedia is on the menu, according to J. LeRoy's Evolving Web: Jimmy Wales Grows Them Good and Organic . As I commented, I want to try the "Steam eggs with wikipedia." Sounds positively texty, like a 150-year-old copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Thanks, BoingBoing , you rule.

Ok I spent a good chunk of yesterday watching Richard Dawkins 's 5 1991 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children "Growing up in the Universe" which is now conveniently found on the web. It is full of the sciency goodness that I have loved since I was a child, and, despite the title of the lecture series, is a bit more challenging than one might expect. The material, while presented in a straightforward manner, wasn't exactly 8th grade science, either. I found that quite provocative, actually, since many folks try to dumb stuff down for kids. I think Dawkins deserves credit for making the lectures interesting (with some, at times, dodgy props) yet challenging for the kids in the audience. Through the series of lectures, Dawkins laid out the ideas about the origins of life, the influence of natural selection, designed vs. "designoid" things, how seemingly improbable structures such as the eye can evolve, and how we humans developed such big brain...

National Weather Service - Salt Lake City - Camera

I haven't seen such an enjoyable basketball game since the last time the Jazz thrashed the Lakers. As I kept going on about in a beer-induced polemic: Fesenko is the Jazz's future. They need to stop fucking around by sending him to D-League teams, kick Collins' sorry ass onto the bench, and use this kid's energy and talent to its utmost. In the name of Bill Laimbeer, Amen.