crude futures

recognizing rigour in the ones you love

I understand how an architect can be fun, and maybe who my most rigorous friends are. where's rigour in your friendships and what's it like to have a rigorous friend?

Throw money at it

How does one go about choosing among the various agencies accepting contributions for aid to people affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Asia? Do you

• Eliminate the ones with religious affiliations?
• Figure out what you think is more important, e.g. Food, Medical assistance, Toys, etc, and pick the humanitarian organization with that word in its name?
• Just type a bunch of cliches into a search engine like HotBot or Lycos and hope for the best??? "Hope against hope"; "Red Meat For the Base"; "Preternatural"?

ready for all challenges?

heuristic html cricketing

I lost $3500 gambling on cricket online

long after Joe Harriman is elected mayor of Los Angeles

Hello, since A. Journalisme is such red meat for our base, I figured that hey, I could do some remembering too—so Hey, I'm just remembering (too).

Among those who are closest to me, it is a small joke that my memory is a wren's nest packed together of mud (marijuana ash & coffee) and snippets of videos which I watch too loud in the dark, all the time. So anyway: how much of the plot of a movie you saw 2 weeks ago in the dark should I be expected to remember. A couple of weeks ago I watched this movie Underworld U.S.A., which was very good, and was about well-planned, slow-cooked revenge...I think that was it. I am not going to cheat and even follow that link or whatever—I REMEMBER. I couple of months ago I watched, but had to rewatch some parts of Back Street to remember that the movie is framed by this insane brown, rippley-water-effect'd cray-pas drawing which the main character draws during a pivotal stream-side tryst. I used to think that I hated Andrew Sarris, but I guess Iwas just in a hurry or 20 or whatever?

Since Andrew [Journalisme] pushed me into my china cabinet, and I had to pick up the little sharps of broken things and dust a little, I've decided to leave some notes to the caretaker. AFTER ACCESSING EACH MEMORY, PLACE A NEW SECTION OF TEAR-TAPE OVER THE MEMORY ENTRANCE, THEN BLOW MARIJUANA SMOKE TO ENSURE THE SEAL—THIS NEW SYSTEM WILL MAKE RE-TRACING YOUR STEPS A LOT EASIER.

Thanks Guys. The concrete of the acqueduct will last as long as the pyramids of Egypt or the Parthenon of Athens.

Ancient memories of reading the morning's newspaper volume three: EXTREMELY HUNGOVER EDITION

As the mispelling-laden "tiny note" below will attest, I drank etc too much last night. My body is poisoned. Just in time for a special holiday attempt to remember what I read from today's New York Times. I read longer than usual since today is a snow day

There was an earthquake near Indonesia that created huge Tsunamis all over the coastlines of... that coastal line, I forget the geographical term. From Somalia to Sri Lanka to Indonesia. Sri Lanka was the hardest hit?? The death count appears to double every 12 hours or so as new bodies are discovered. Many tourist resorts were hit. I almost cried reading about a... I think Swedish or Danish tourist whose wife was killed. He thinks his infant son saw her die but can't say how because he's an infant. Not clear on how son lived and wife died. The island where Leonardo DiCaprio et al filmed The Beach has been "levelled." A UC Berkeley associate professor of journalism noted that in the old days journalists would write a story and then send photographers to find an image to accompany the story. Nowadays, with so many instant images so readily available, it's the other way around. The disaster was so huge that journalists were overwhelmed by the amount of images -- lots of people filmed the Tsunamis with camcorders and were willing to give their video to newsagencies etc for free. When one newsperson was awoken and told of the disaster (called by scientists the worst natural disaster in recent history) she immediately opened her atlas and looked at the geographical term I've forgotton, realizing how huge a story it was going to be. Bloggers offer a more emotional and immediate take on the disaster. The geographical term I've forgotten doesn't have an earthquake monitoring thing set up like the Pacific Ocean does, because the Indian Ocean has fewer earthquakes? The scientists in Honolulu figured out what was going on pretty late, and warned some countries, who were already being hit by Tsunamis, but they were still two hours ahead of damage in Sri Lanka, but no one had their shit together or something so no one was warned and many many thousands died. There are almost as many children as adults? Over a third of the casualties were children? Mass graves, quick burials, disease spread through contaminated water sources, Aid agencies overwhelmed.

Victor Yushen(v)?ko, he of the poisoned face, won the election in the Ukraine by several million votes. Something like 52%. The other dude is going to contest the shit out of it. People are psyched for him. It is a deeply divided country.

They make Volkswagens in Slovenia.

Israel freed 158 Palestinan prisoners, people who were arrested for harboring criminals, or visiting a city without permission, stuff like that. Palestinians were psyched that the prisoners were freed, but there are thousands more who should also be freed. Abbas... is getting along with Israelis? A Palestinian candidate for president was campaigning in Jerusalem and was arrested because he didn't have permission to be in the city. He was only detained for three hours.

Executives at Fannie Mae are fucked, I'm not really sure why. Their severance packages are insane. Like "you will be paid 1 million dollars every forty-five minutes for the first thousand weekends of the decade beginning in 2010." Barney Frank of Massachussetts was not amused!! I am deeply in love with Barney Frank. I would probably be gay with him if it ever came up.

Stores like Wal-Mart (I almost typed "Wal-Fart"!!!!) are really bad for South and Central American small farmers. They want produce with regularity and uniform size that is impossible for small farms to produce. Small farmers try to band together but it's not working. The situation right now was likened by one man employed by a university to a glass on a table in a train about to fall off the table. Everyone sees the glass, but how many know it's going to fall? The glass is the small farmers. They are going to be forced into poverty, and come to the U.S. or urban areas looking for help... it's an imminent disaster.

A realtor in New York City was about to leave for vacation when a rich woman called her urgently because she wanted to look at apartments that were 6 million dollars instead of her previously quoted 4 million! Why? Because her Wall Street husband got a huge xmas bonus. Some dude at a brokerage firm made 20 million dollars this year, but his salary is only 600,000!! THese numbers are wrong, maybe. The headline was something like "long lines at the ferarri dealership. It's bonus time"

two kids whose dad is a scientist or a teacher started a nonprofit that gives calling cards to soldiers in Iraq. One soldier had racked up almost eight thou in cell phone bills. T Mobile waived most of the bill, but shit man the kids figured they needed to help. The bank they use donated 500 dollars. The USO has a similar program.

Don Cheadle is an awesome actor. He's in a new movie Hotel Rwanda that's based on true events of the Rwandan genocide. He hung out with the hotel owner he portrays before, during, and after production. The hotel owner ("Paul") turned his hotel into a safe haven for many during the genocide. The filmmakers warned Cheadle that if Will Smith or some other bigger star wanted the part they would be compelled to give it to him instead of Cheadle. Cheadle responded that he'd take a smaller part, wanted to be in the movie no matter what. Japanese comic books, or MANGA, are superpopular in the States, and have opened up the comic book market for GIRLS.

People fucking hate the ads that come before coming attractions in movies. People yell at the screen.

There was a... race for... governor?? no... senate? what?? in Washington that's incredibly close. The third recount gave it to the Dem by 150 votes. The republicans are pissed

Retail sales were down overall this xmas season... Walmart freaked out and changed their projected earnings, but ended up near the middle of their revised forecast. Amazon.com is doing fine. They had a record day sometime last week, most sales in one day ever, but THEY WON'T SAY WHICH DAY!!! they sold a lot of books and DVDs and, surprisingly, digital cameras and other electronic devices.

Rats are a really big problem on islands. In Alaska, when the recent oil tanker spill happened, the scientists were panicking about the oil, but some were also panicking about the rats. "Is the ship headed to a rat-free island???? Or to an already rat-infested one???? Fuck!!!" Luckily the ship was headed to an already rat infested island. Rats spread disease and kill birds who are used to living in rat free habitats. Manhattan is an island and has rats. There is a dude in Alaska who drives around killing rats.

The 18th century Italian composer portrayed by F. Murray Abraham in Milos Forman's AMADEUS whose name I forget is having his name cleared by Italians. He wasn't such a bad guy. He has tired eyes in portraits. Biblical relics are sometimes fakes, like the golden pomegranite in an Israeli museum.

David Brooks doled out part two of his Hookie awards for best essays of the year on the op-ed page... a really interesting list, apparently he gives links to all the articles in the online version of his column over at nytimes.com. Malcolm Gladwell's New Yorker piece on prescription drugs was surprising and great, Brooks says. He also lauded essays from the Weekly Standard, Commentary, The New Republic... Also on the op ed page Ron Suskind talked about Bush's Cabinet appointment strategy... didn't read that much of that one. Because I was naseous. Last night I saw MILLION DOLLAR BABY... I supressed tears a lot, and thought about assisted suicide for the first time since high school. It was conceivable to people sitting next to me that I was removing my glasses and touching my eyes because they were itchy, or I was tired.

There is a scientist who writes about the chemistry of baking.

t iny ancient urgent word

tony

I've not been omnicient

an angel's words

angels' greetings have been more urgent than words

I've been learning HTML

I've been urgently worried

If crafstmanship mattered I'd be extremely worried.

If punctuation were a grammatical device

then I'd be a harried

piece of node-smanship and I'd be worried.

An excellent mountain-bike poet. He's a Gramici, Gramsci sort of fellow. Tucker Nichols's worst Sonia Krux -- you nah mean?

Expired Dick Clark-related lightheartedness

I've been in South Bend, Indiana for two days. Before that, I was in Alton, Illinois, where Katie's sister got engaged on Christmas day! I've been online only twice this week, and on dialup. Until I get back to broadband January 3rd, I'll contribute more sporadically than usual.

This past Memorial Day weekend, I saw two identical paper signs hanging in the window of an AMERICAN BANDSTAND airport restaurant: "ALL DICK CLARK MERCHANDISE 50% OFF." I photographed one of the signs, thinking it could make a fun and lighthearted postcard, but I never got around to using it:

Can Dick Clark heal? I have no idea how "bad" he is. All I've heard is three variations on this terse comment: Dick Clark had a stroke; Regis Philbin is going to suck at hosting New Years Rockin' Eve.)

fifth estate tackles cici's

This is intended to be a handy entreé into the world of writing about Cici's [~$3.99 all-you-can-eat pizza buffet franchise which originated in Plano, TX] on the internet. is the ultimate lit-mouse test of a "blog" the opinion it's author[s] takes regarding Cici's Pizza ??? there is a lot of Cici's-related Habermasian chatter out there, a lot of it in livejournals. many young people and families are congregating in cici's pizzas across the country. there are large TV screens in cici's locations which seem to show normally Nickelodeon, CNN, or ESPN.

• fiction? see Ch. 3
• The pizza place was total anarchy!
• 
• intense Boulder Jaycees?
• Norbert Weiner
• ppoor parenting?
• Dville Stoner cannot eat pizza when stoned?. stoney pizza-buffet dovetailing is inevitable.
• cute guyz@cici's vs. guys "who look like they are stoned"?
• Dough Doctor/Tom Lehmann responds to aspiring grass-roots Cici's out-buffet'r: PEOPLE WANT QUALITY! QUALITY IS KEY!

that's what Auden says defines the poet

Kurt Vogel Russell's imDb bio richer than expexted!!! Kurt Russell as Elvis! Overboard. Captain Ron. American Treasure #1 three weeks in a row?! one 2002summer, I watched a VHS of Wild at Heart, then when the movie was over, after "Love Me Tender," → local news was on saying ole Nicholas Cage had gotten married again...to LISA MARIE PRESLEY!