Evening, all. Just a quick note about some changes around the site.

I’ve added some links to people I met at Southby to the sidebar, as promised last night. Please frequent their sites, or add them to your RSS reader – whatever floats your boat. (I’m still getting the hang of NetNewsWire myself.) And if you happen to be one of those people I met in Austin, and I neglected to add your link, let me know.

Incidentally, I’m generating an RSS feed as well. Lookit the sidebar.

Also, along with implementing some additional anti-comment-spam measures (that shall go nameless, to avoid circumvention), I have disabled anonymous commenting. I’ve been getting too many odd comments that don’t qualify as spam, but are too insulting/derogatory to be considered ‘valid’ comments. So until further notice, you’ll have to enter your name and e-mail address in order to comment (but your e-mail address won’t be displayed in the comments window). Sorry, but my hand was forced.

I also have another project in the works, inspired in part by my Southby experience, but I’m not quite ready to take the lid off that yet…hopefully soon…

Following up on Stacey’s disturbing Santa pictures, here’s a grainy video record of a local tradition. Ladies and gentlemen, direct from Villa Maria restaurant, here’s M**t**b**ing Santa. (Name edited to keep from getting crawled, but you get the idea.) Keep your eye on his right arm.

I should probably explain why he got this name, seeing as how it’s not overtly apparent from the video. The good folks at Villa Maria have set up this anamatronic Santa in their shop every year for the last 4 or 5 years, at least. The first time Darren and I noticed him, the right arm was moving at about twice the speed you see in the video, and his right hand was empty. And thus, the yuletide legend was born. Enjoy!

When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.

Where’s that damn moon…?

“A piece of art is not a loaf of bread. When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that’s it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it’s just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience. How they perceive your work changes your work.

Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator.”
– Jeff Tweedy, frontman for the band Wilco

Read the whole interview @ Wired.com.

TeeVee.org – Kidz Bop Drives Father to Violence

Just some random things that have popped into my head while watching the Summer Olympics over the last week:

-John Williams needs to start experimenting with tempo a bit more. On Wednesday I found myself humming the Imperial March (from “Star Wars”) over the Williams-penned Olympic theme, the title of which escapes me at the moment.

-Has anyone else noticed that the version of The Star Spangled Banner being used in the medal ceremonies this time out has an almost serene quality to it, as opposed to the bombastic versions used in the past? Hmm…

-McDonalds should just fire their ad agency at this point. I like the spots where they use Ronald McDonald as a competitor – they’re generally 15 second spots, and demonstrate the company’s committment to the Olympic movement. But then there are the other spots, wherein people who are clearly insane defend their chicken strips from imaginary thieves and moochers. These commercials make me feel like my brain is going to fall out. I really don’t understand what the message is here – “Buy our chicken strips and lose your shit”?

There’s more, but that’s all I’ve got time for right now.

In the Middle Ages, chicken soup was considered an aphrodisiac.

Hm.

I guess chicken soup really DOES cure everything.

The Olympics start tonight (well, technically, about 15 minutes from now). I’m something of an Olympic nut – I may not be overly interested in sports on a regular basis, but every 2 years, you can’t tear me away from coverage of the Olympics. That said, while the events are entralling, the opening ceremony has always left something to be desired. So, courtesy of the BBC, here now, as a public service, is “How to enjoy the opening ceremony“.

As in 2002, I’ll be naming an official “Random Thoughts Olympic Babe”. But I’m still working on that.

Where do students from Daytona Beach Community College go on Spring Break?

It’s our nation’s birthday…and I’ve got nowhere to be. I’ve been watching reruns of Ground Force America all day. While I feel fairly confident I can install a water feature without help now, I’m not any less bored.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I don’t normally remember my dreams after I wake up, but for whatever reason, this one stuck in my head this morning. At the start of my dream, I was in New York City (why, I don’t know), and for whatever reason, I didn’t have my truck, and the trains and busses weren’t running. So I was walking in the shoulder of the NJ Turnpike trying to get back home, watching all the cars zoom by. And then I woke up.

I just don’t get it.