Muir Woods. Photograpy by Mr. Kottke.

California Uber Alles

Much to my amazement, bidding on the Flute Has risen above fifty dollars. Seeing as I thought starting the bidding out at $1.75 was a bit steep, it has far exceeded my expectations. I hope I get laid off so I can auction off my last paycheck.

Some people from techies have gotten really pissed off about this:

Subject: RE: Techies on ebay....

That's not funny!!
We all put our heart and soul into that place and now someone's trying to
make money out of it. Really pisses me right the hell off.

uhhh...its just a joke. I mean, I'm gonna buy crank with the money, but its more of a spiritual thing than financial.

"...the morality of a nation is measured not by what occurs in the privacy of our bedrooms but how our society treats its people"

Become part of .com history.

"Be the keeper of the Holy Grail of a .com experience." -R. Elliot

Sadly, the Spam Family Tree closely resembles my own.

I have decide to sell the Motorcycle. I put an ad in the local paper yesterday afternoon:

1990 Yamaha FZR600
18,000 miles. Clean.
612 728-xxxx

When I got home, I proceeded to clean and polish it. Afterwards, I stood there looking at it for over 5 minutes. I was surprised at how good it looked. Then I realized, I don't want to sell it. It's easy to think of selling a motorcycle in Minnesota in the winter, but when the weather turns nice, and you clean up your winter worn bike, its becomes quite difficult. Tam and I took it for a ride, and afterwards we decided I need to get rid of the sport bike. Seeing as I nearly kill myself in the car everyday, the motorcycle probably isn't such a good idea.

I remember the night rider, and I know who you are!

Long day...tired...must leave work...strength diminishing...

After supporting users of web hosting services for a way too long, this is the kind of customer service I can appreciate.

https://secure.virtualwebsite.com/sign_up/

My mother was in town last week, and we went on a little drive. Before she got in the car, she turned to me and said, "No rage please". It would seem I am a bit of a rage full driver.

The 19th Annual International File Festival is abound in Minneapolis until April 21. Tam and I were late for a 7:00 showing at the Heights Theater last night. I nearly burst a main artery while meandering my way down Highway 280 behind a gaggle of slow and decelerating midwest drivers. Needless to say, Tam drove home.

"The Intel-United Devices Cancer Research Project is asking you to volunteer your PC to help process molecular research being conducted by the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford in England and the National Foundation for Cancer Research." - http://members.ud.com/home.htm

Of course, if we find aliens with Seti @ home they will probably be able to cure cancer, so you'd better keep both running...

After a few years of trying to convince Mr. Kottke to grow a mustache (and a few underhanded bets in which I believe he lost and never paid up by growing the aforementioned stache) he goes and grows one himself. I demand to see a photograph!

And the dominoes start falling again here at techies. The sad part is that now we are loosing people we need. The wolves had brought down the sick and the week, but they are still hungry, and they are starting to bring down the healthy bulls (as you can tell, I was watching the discovery channel last night). Attrition assmition...the herd is getting thinner.

Some shots of the bloated Minnesota River.

Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam just north of downtown Minneapolis.

I drove over the Ford Parkway Bridge that crosses the Mississippi river tonight, and the little Island that sits just south of the bridge was no longer there. There were just a few tree tops sticking out of the raging water.

Note: I had to use the mnemonic m-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i to spell Mississippi. I also count with my fingers, and my mouth moves when I read...

This is my favorite so far in the 5k contest

 ****       *     ***                     
*           *       *                     
*      **** ****    *    ***   * *   ***  
 ***  *     *   *   *   *   * * * * *   * 
    * *     *   *   *   *   * * * * *   * 
    * *     *   *   *   *   * * * * *   * 
****   **** *   * *****  ***  * * *  ***  

What do scientist from around the world have to gain from warning us about global warming? What does industry have to gain by denying it?

Dear Mr. President...

I have begun reading The Last Samurai, and there is a passage that has stuck in my craw a bit:

It doesn't make any difference if you are a ditch-digger a librarian or someone who works at a filling station or the President of the United States or whatever, if your doing what you want to do and in some way bringing value to the life of others, then you are a successful human being.

Tony came by with the truck last night. He bought a new radio for it, and wanted help installing it. There was, of course, and awkward silence when I first saw it, and Tony and I made small conversation while skirting around the issue of the truck. He had parked it under the street light, and it looked like it did in the old days, just damp from a recent rain, with the light glistening off its hood. I had to turn away.

Tony was obviously smitten with it by this point. When I first made the suggestion that he take the truck, he gave me a look of disgust as if I had asked to urinate in his living room. Every one has had this initial reaction when first encountering it. It is rusty and a little stinky from years of cafe mochas and coffees with cream spilling into the passenger side floor, but after a brief stint behind the drivers wheel they become enamored. Tony being no exception.

Tam's dad gave us two completely hideous barker loungers for our newly remolded basement a few years back. At first I though he had stole them off of the set of All in the Family, but I soon realized that these were too ugly even for 70s TV. Everyone who sees them for the first time tends to do a double take, and then pretend they aren't looking at them, kind of like the reaction you give to someone with a huge zip on there forehead. That look of I'm not looking at your huge zip, and then a quick glance towards your shoes. One of the aforementioned barkers is missing the handle that allows the barker to transform into its lounging position, but Tam's dad cleverly replaced it with a half inch wrench.

The really odd thing about these two ugly barkers is that they are the most comfortable chairs in the entire universe. If I sit in one, and then make the simple mistake of slipping into the lounging position, I am out in about two minutes snoring and drooling the sleep of kings. I tend not to sit in them most times for fear of instant slumber. I made the simple mistake of a quick rest stop in the half inch wrench barker this evening, and a few hours later Tam was prodding me to come up to bed. I find myself saying, "maybe just half a lounge. I wont recline all the way this time", or, "Just a quick sit, then I'll get up and walk the dog". Is this all just a cry for help? zzzzz

I forgot to mention the new CoWA tagline: It's Cowa Fresh, for those not so fresh days. Its simple, and yet a bit offensive.

My second post sans blogger. I feel like I'm cheating on 'em. Its not you blogger, its me.

It is with a heavy heart that I bid fairwell to blogger. It has been the plan for a while to create a system to publish these blogs (or should I say web logs) without the aid of blogger.

A tip of the hat to blogger and all the people who built a great system. Thanx.

I updated bitter pill to the latest version of CoWA tonight. A bit of new and exciting functionality: the new front end developed by Scott, and a bit of refactoring by yours truly. We are in the process of writing up some docs, and Ben is making it look all perty and such. All in all it has turned out quit nicely. We are gonna set up a demo site so people can play around with it. So tune in next week when Mary says, "Isn't that a CoWA smudge on your lapel Bob?".

Here's a little teaser, the who? page with cowa taglibs:

<%-- --%>
<%@ taglib uri="/cowatag" prefix="cw" %>
<%-- --%>
<cw:CoWA component="bitterpill.head" />
<cw:CoWA component="bitterpill.nav" />
<cw:CoWA component="bitterpill.middle" />

  <p>
bitter pill is an experiment of sorts for 
publishing xml files generated by 
<a href="http://blogger.com" 
target="_top">
blogger.com</a>.
<p> 
It started as a test for a friend, and has 
blown into a mass of 
incoherent writings and blatherings about 
nothing consequential or 
meaningful. It has become, however, a 
great resource for anything 
related to, or created by, 
cheese food products.
<p>

Any cheese inquiries can be made here: 
<a href="mailto:mark@bitterpill.org">
mark@bitterpill.org</a>

<cw:CoWA component="bitterpill.foot" />