Katherine Hepburn died today.
She was an amazing woman. She was a brilliant actress (see "African Queen" and "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner") and a first-rate comedian (see "Bringing Up Baby"). The world is a little poorer without her.

You know... if by some bizarre twist there actually were Martians, they'd be growing frightened about now what with all the machines hurtling towards them from Earth. Clearly these Earthlings are planning an invasion. *hehe* I mean, that's what we'd think, right? But the truth is that these missions are hard-won struggles for science by academics and scientists. Always two sides... *imagining some Martian writer describing the "beginning of the route of civilisation "* hehe

I should note that I finished the reload and yadda yadda and it wasn't so horrible in the end. I went back to working after really only a day's downtime.
Ummm, lessee, Hef was down last night. Burgers and webtoons and Jay & Silent Bob ensued. We miss him heaps. Glad he's coming back soon. :)

Oh GOD, this has become an ordeal. Mostly... well, mostly because I screwed up a) the machine and b) the backups. Actually the backups went fine, it was my moving of old backups that didn't go so well... as in I spent ages getting them archived and moved off... only to delete them in a rather Jerry Lewis-like moment.
Anyway, I'm almost back to 'good'. The machine is reloaded and has all the updates and stuff and I have a good chunk of my data restored (yay! email! and my blog apps complete with preferences!). I gotta reload a buncha apps... but for now... I need sleep... and my bra is itching... and there are infomercials on TV... yep. Bedtime.
I'd like to thank my gf for understanding what a trying day it's been. *kiss*

I'm stuck at "suffering", right now. I've done something to my main system and it's not been happy with me the past couple of days. I'm a bit of a tweaker and I'm constantly adding stuff and doing weird shit to it (it's my main development platform, so it's running MySQL, Apache/PHP, sendmail, and a plethora [homestar]I might go so far as to say a smorgasbord[/homestar] of other stuff) and I think I finally stuffed it up enough that I should re-load it. It's never been re-loaded (the OS is what came on it, just updated over time), so it can't hurt to give it a fresh start.

I've been doing [redundant] backups all morning and once that's all done I'll decide what I'm gonna do. Send good karma my way. :)

"We're repositioning apples with children as a more exciting eating opportunity"
*can't stop laughing*

Oh dear god I'd forgotten how funny corpspeak was. *rofl*
Bwahaha!!! Assclown! Unfortunately that's the funniest bit. Get's rather dull after that.

Oh, but it has the Wiggles. Story:
Wiggles' Core Support at SMH

So, I had a bit of a finger-wagging session a blog entry or two ago about some things Wil Wheaton said on Your Mac Life about the iTunes music store. I really was at odds with his comments about it and not sure why he'd say them in the first place. Well, bless his heart, it looks like he's changed his mind and is paying penance. :) Sorry about the bad karma day, though, Wil. :/

Speaking of YML, what the hell is going on there?

It gets less and less professional each time I hear it. Calling Sony's flagship MMORPG "Evercrack" repeatedly (saying "Everquest" maybe _once_) like some IRC fanboy (lookatme! lookatme!) right before the Sony guy comes on your show??? Making up cutesy names and showing off your cleverness for your friends is one thing (we've all heard a million different Microsoft variations), but that was totally un-professional and just plain rude. If I were to play along with this juvenile name game, I would start calling it Shawn's Mac Life. Or maybe My Mac Life Get Your Own Damned Show. And then the posturing over the IRC channels and the 'power'. Puh-leaze.

As for the Sony thing, he sure did skirt the issue of segregation like a dancing pro. My friend Steve was in the IRC chat and said Shawn should call him out on the reasonings (The sony line: So Mac users won't be "overwhelmed" playing on the PC servers. Sonyman then went on to say that lots of their Mac players are veteran PC players. So... how the hell will they be 'overwhelmed'? And these experienced PC/Mac players will be there to lend a hand to newbies. What? The players on the PC servers won't?) It's a development and support issue, but Sony has decided to ignore that and claim this 'overwhelming' [non]issue as their reasoning for segregating Mac users. It would be nice if they'd just tell the truth. And all Steve got for his trouble was Shawn telling him to 'chill'.

Why did I even write that last bit? ... I dunno. I guess the whole Shawn thing (Steve calls it Macubation or Macturbation) got me worked up. I probably need to shut up and go do somethign productive... I also think I've been writing about Wil and Andy a bit too much...

I know a lot of you, my friends and former neighbours, are Best Buy customers. There's an email scam out there trying to target Best Buy customers. Don't be fooled. :) Kiss Kiss, love you all.
Read Best Buy's Response Here

Wil Wheaton said he was probably coming to Portland* for a book tour and I emailed him about Powells. Looks like he didn't need any prodding. He's going to OScon and will be at Powell's Technical for a signing on July 10th and at the Beaverton store (my store!) on August 14th. Dammit. :( If anyone goes, pleasepleaseplease get him to sign a book for me? Tell him it's for Maggie/TankGrrl from Australia.
Le Sigh...

And I miss Portland. Terribly. I hope those of you there (who read my blog, of course) will take a second to stop and remind yourself what a wonderful place it is. I miss Portland and I miss you all, as well. But, I would move to Siberia if that's what it took. Love is like that. :)

As for the Orrin part of this...
Apparently Senator Orrin Hatch thinks vigilanteism is cool. Especially if he has a personal stake in the results.Story at Yahoo. He's back-pedaled a bit and said he does "not favor extreme remedies – unless no moderate remedies can be found." He didn't really _mean_ it... unless no other solution is found... then he means it. *rolls eyes*
(Orrin update! This is hilarious! Hatch is a pirate!)

I used to work in the music industry. My next meal was once predicate on artists being able to realise money from their works. And I mean literally 'next meal'. I believe in securing the rights of artists to control their media and to profit from it as the market allows. This "art belongs to the world" stuff is nonsense. It belongs to the one who created it and they then decide if the world gets it or not. But this sort of nonsense from Sen. Hatch is just too ridiculous... It's like something out of the Onion.

Speakin' of Wil, I have some serious difference of opinion with some statements he recently made about music on Your Mac Life. I don't subscribe to the try before you buy idea in the way he seemed to imply (when talking about his dis-like of the iTunes Music Store). And I particularly don't feel its fair of him to disparage artists across the board by saying most albums have 1 or 2 good songs and the rest is 'garbage'. That's a sweeeeeeping and cruel generalisation, Spongebob VegasPants. Do you say that about Radiohead? And how do I 'try' a movie before I go see it? Or a painting before I pay admission to the museum? Do I get to ride a sample ride at Disney before I buy my ticket? If you want to try before you buy, go to a show (which I know you do... sorry, man, you're my whipping boy today hehe). I feel that the iTunes store is a great happy median. You get to preview music and you can buy only what you want (and not the rest of the 'garbage'). Apple is not out to kill file sharing (I'm not sure how you see it this way), they're out to do something that's more amenable to more people in regards to music (music is more than a file). Sorry, Wil, I just can't agree with you here. All these people (politicians, record execs, us plain folk) are out there talking about what they think should be done. And the side of 'good' is often talking about how the artists are screwed over by the record companies. Well, when do we let the artists have their say? Why don't we ask them what they want** instead of presuming to speak for them. If it's about file sharing, fight for file sharing and against restrictive legislation, but don't drag music into the war just because it suits the cause.

And what the hell is up with the name "Orrin/Orin"??? There are two in that story! I've never met one, but this story manages to find two?

* Oregon, USA. I used to live there.
** A lot of them like the idea of the iTunes store cuz it's money they can realise quickly and, it appears, get honest numbers.

Hi, Chuck. Hi, Michael, who I don't know, but that is not important right now. What IS important is that:
A) Chuck got feedster'd by Wil and Andy and had a little comment-fest a while back.
B) Chuck commented to me re: this (in relation to my trackback to Wil... still with me?) and ,finally,
C) Michael 'punked out' Andy about not having trackback after Chuck asked him about it.

So, I'm joining the fray and trackback'ing Chuck and Michael and maybe we can start a revolution (a very small one...) and shame Andy into implementing trackback instead of some feature that makes his life better instead of one that increases our blog whoring pleasure. Join in. Make Andy feel the punkin' he has coming. Suckah!

PS - Michael likes The Clash. That makes him 'aswesome; in my book. Chuck has a cool job and is an awesome photographer. He's 'aswesome' by default.

PPS - Why? Because I want to be able to trackback Andy. *shrug* That's it.

From the SMH:
Australia's premier intelligence analysis agency told the Federal Government that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction threat was not the prime motive for the United States going to war against Iraq, a former intelligence officer said yesterday.

It was regarded as a "secondary issue", less important than regime change and reshaping the Middle East by putting in place a pro-US government in an oil-rich country and introducing democracy to the region.

Wow. What a surprise... *rolls eyes*

It goes on to say:
"In the assessments on the US, it was being made very clear to government all the things which were driving the US on Iraq. WMD wasn't the most important issue. In fact, it was seen as a secondary issue," Mr Wilkie said yesterday.

"It was also about the credibility of the US military. The US sees its military and threat of force as one of its most important foreign policy tools. They had threatened to use force and would lose credibility if they didn't," Mr Wilkie said.

So... 3240+ Iraqi civilians had to die for our arrogance and so we could 'save face'. How noble. How fucking noble of us. Wow. Aren't we a noble bunch. We ought to be so fucking proud of ourselves and how noble our country is right now... America, the America we are taught in school, has been soiled, defiled and abused. It's gone. That America no longer exists. We should all be ashamed we've helped it happen. And we should all learn from this and try to start fixing it. Step one, don't let them wiggle out of this. Bush had no fear going in because he was 100% certain that he would not be held accountable for anything in the end. At worst he wouldn't be re-elected. Whoop-dee-do. Americans leaders won't ever be tried in the Hague. And the new war crimes court? Bush repealed the signature. America doesn't support it, according to the Bush administration, so we are therefore exempt from it. And if you think otherwise and want to try to bring someone up on charges, go ahead and see what happens to your country... Ask Kissinger. Yes, there are those who want to try Kissinger for war crimes. Betcha didn't hear that on Fox News. America has become a bully and it has no remorse about it.

So now it looks like the White House, along with the Republicans in Congress, has managed to rally to troops to squelch the investigations into the allegations of 'rigging' the war. Go team... Yay. We're number one. We killed a lot of people. Go us...

"But you have to expect them to try to save face, to 'wiggle out', Maggie."
Why? Why do we stand idly by and just say "well, that's the way it is". The very fact that we know they will do so and we'll let it happen is indicative of what's wrong. It's not "right". When did right and wrong go out of vogue? These people, these 'hawks', should be held accountable for what they did and they should not be let off the hook with a shake of our collective heads. That just exacerbates the problem. More apathy means more raping of America to come. This is not the time to stand on your party loyalties, either. This is a time for Americans to stand together. It's a time for the people to save the country, not the despots and despoilers who are dragging it through the mud. What can you do? You can speak up in Walmartia and tell the truth. You can write something. You can educate someone. You can write someone. You can correct someone who has learned rhetoric instead of fact. You can start to spread the seeds of truth and try to help them grow so that in 2004 more Americans will know more of the story, not just the soundbites they hear on TV.

Let me put it this way; This point in American history WILL go into the history books your children will read. Would you rather them see that we just let it happen? Or would you rather it said we stood up and put politicians and empire builders back in their place?

Somebody try to fucking justify this war to me one more time. Please. I'm listening. >:| But I warn you, I'm hostile. I'm hostile because people outside the US are saying bad things about America... and I can't defend my birth nation because what they're saying is pretty much true. So I just have to hang my head and say "yes, you're right". Where's the pride in that? Isn't that what we're taught is paramount in our American life? Pride? Truth? Justice? Isn't all that the 'American way'?

The epitomy, IMHO, of a good and decent human being. We should all strive to be like this. Interview Part II at SunSpot.

Part I is here.

PS - I just finished 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'. Oh my god. This book is so amazing and wonderful... go buy it now, if you haven't already!

Sick as the proverbial dog. Randal Scwartz commented in my blog (He's trying to turn Wil into a Perl weenie. Very Noble). The sea-faring nerds are home. I so wanna go next year. Anyway, sick. So freaking sick. My brain even aches. More couch, less glaring powerbook. It's a holiday anyway. Queen's birthday. Cue Monty Python queen voice...

Well... well... well I wrote a cool sendmail handler. So... there! Oh, fine!

Wil and Andy, two of my fave bloggers and geeks, are on the same cruise ship. The lucky bastards are out on the high seas off the Hawaiian islands with Larry Wall, Allison Randall and Randall Schwartz. Not to mention George Takei and Chase Masterson. (My spell-checker understand "Takei"... holy shit!)

See this? This is me flipping you both off. hehe ;)
Maybe I should flip Steve off, as well, since he's working and brain-sharing with Alan Kay (one of the geeks I idolise most) these days. heh ;)

There's a lot to be said for individuality. Most notably, it allows us to be have opinions and get in arguments and point fingers at other people in a way that can never be fully appreciated by some hive mind race living on planet Krelmulon. Yep, individuality is a real party favourite and all around spiffy thing to be endowed with. And if you're also prone to devilry**, as I am, you cherish your individuality because it makes it possible for you to make fun at other peoples' expense.

But, I'm not gonna do that. You feel cheated, don't you? Well, truth be told,the somewhat 4th grade joke was at your expense instead of Microsoft or Ray Romano or George Bush. I led you to believe this was gonna be a typical rant. Sorry about that. Mostly. ;) You understand, these things happen***. This post is actually about music and individuality.

You don't hear a lot, in America, about the vast sea of Canadian bands out there. I guess America just has quite enough, thank you. Sure, the occassional Made-In-LA slot needs to be filled and sometimes they'll pick a Canuck body out of their star freezer, like Avril "what's that word mean?" Lavigne, but most of the Canadian bands out there slugging away don't show up on American music radar. You'd think that, now that the push-button future is upon us, that this would cease to be the case. And maybe it will eventually, but right now I haven't seen it (much. I can't say 'never').

Well, anyway, they do hear about those bands here (in addition to UK, Aussie and US bands). I guess maybe because both countries, Australia and Canada, are beholden to that elderly lady in the UK who appears on the local currency. Somewhere in her jewel encrusted gilded tacky little change purse there's a pawn token for each of these countries and, so it seems, they're sympatheitc to each others musical woes. Or something. All I know is I've seen mention of a lot of Canadian bands in the local music rags.

What's all this got to do with individuality? Hell, I don't know. I was just hoping it would all come together. I had no idea what I was gonna write when I started this. But there is a nugget of relevance in here. But it doesn't involve Canadian, it involves this dude called the 'Governor General' who kind of keeps an eye after the place for the old lady in the UK since it's kind of far for her to do it herself.

So Australia has a Prime Minister (or PM) who's pretty much like a President, but not. He's the head guy and then there are some houses of government who make fun of him or kiss his ass, depending on party. So the Governor General (or GG) keeps an eye out for the Queen and, should things go amiss, can step in at her behest and put things Royal and right. Sweet deal for him. Not much real work to do unless things go ass up. But if London gives the word, the GG can step in and take control. This sounds pretty screwed up to most of you who read my blog, I imagine.

Yes, Australia is a concern of the Crown. A jewel of the Monarchy. One of the last 'colonies' of the once dominant Union Jack****. There have been referendums on declaring soverignty, but they've failed so far. But, lo and behold, the GG has been accused of some heavy shit and stepped down. There's been more than a couple of whispers of re-igniting the debate over becoming a sovereign nation and leaving the fold of the Crown. Personally, I don't see that the country gets a whole lot out of being a commonwealth of the Empire. *shrug* The Brits, when it looked like Australia would be invaded, basically said 'hope you make it through, we're outta here' in WWII. Up and left em to be over-run by the ravenous Axis machine. I dunno. As an outsider, and an American-born one at that, it seems to me that the Aussie people would be hell bent on taking the lot for themselves. But for some reason they have held on to their ties to Queen and Country. Maybe it's too much a part of their national identity. I don't know.

I do know a lot of Aussies want to declare sovereignty, but it looks like it may be a while... unless this nastiness with the GG brings it to a head. The argument being that the PM could have taken a more active role in handling the issue if the GG wasn't the Queen's man. Not that he'd have been there at all, but you get the idea, right? Anyway, there's a lot to be said for individuality. Maybe, in the next 5 or 10 years, we'll see the Aussie people reach out for their own individuality and finally leave the Union Jack to the history books. That's pretty much where I'd place my money. The chances of Sarah and I still being here to see it are sort of low considering the way my wifey feels about the country (she pretty much doesn't like it at all), but when the day come I'll watch it on TV and smile and probably make some very cliched sitcom exclamation. But I'll be proud of these people. I think they deserve and need their individuality. No one understands who they are (and, by extension, they're sometimes not too clear on it either) and being under the thumb of a Governor General and a pawn of the Crown doesn't help that one bit.

OK, I guess I'm done. Seeya.

* - Props to Andy Ihnatko. It's his phrase. I've been remiss in my reading of everyone's favourite "elf-employed" Mac fanatic (he may also qualify for description by another word that ends in "natic", but that's for a trained professional to determine. Only his Dominoes guy knows for sure.).

** - Mischief. Not actual 'being a devil' or any backyard teenage 'speaking latin' satanic stuff.

*** - Most often when initiated by me, but who's keeping a tally?

**** - Once upon a time, there was a prideful phrase that went "The Sun never sets on the Union Jack". Great Britain had holdings all over the globe.