'cause life's too short to drink crappy wine:
I really like
Haut-Médoc. This appelation uses a lot of merlot, and ages in oak to
get a soft, full flavor. It's a subtle, big taste. Good to drink by itself on
a night when you want to make things a little more special. The Chateau d'Arcins
is a nice one, and it's not ridiculously expensive.
"Contadino"
translates to "Farmer" in English. The guys in this picture look more
like vintage dandies, than farmers. Still this big, fruity red is actually a
Barbera del Pimonte. Really good with food, and like "Il Bastardo"
it's a steal. Holds its own with spicy foods.
:::
Well, I've completely read Penner's Programming Macromedia Flash MX cover-to-cover
as if it were a novel, and I'm completely inspired. There's still a lot of work
ahead to actually apply what I've started to understand, but I'd say I'm in
really good shape, not only to apply it affectively, but also to pass the Flash
developer exam. I haven't had the opportunity to take the test yet, because
the folks who were going to sponsor me had a change of plans. Meanwhile, I'm
just working my way through more and more good examples.
I've looked at a lot of animation, and I'm starting to see some striking differences
in the level of quality on different sites. There's a lot of attention that
goes into crreating effective content, and when it has to move or respond, the
challenge is even greater.
To whit:
This
one's just cute. Start clicking around, you'll get it.
nooflat.nu/ features impressive
ActionScript work. Looks like this guy's very much at home with the drawing
API. Some of his pieces even have source code.
This one's got lots of groovy
sauce. Impressive flow and sync.
You can find more like that at Hungry
for Design.
:::
One more reason that AOL sux: One of the nicer new features of
Flash MX, is that you can dynamically load a JPEG image into a Flash movie,
instead of having to import it at author time. This saves the visitor from downloading
images that don't get used, and creates a lot of other efficiencies for the
developer. Interestingly, the Flash player can't handle progressive JPEGs.
That's where AOL comes in... AOL has a nasty habit of compressing
graphics by default. I've seen beautiful images rendered crappy by this tecnology
before, but it turns out that AOL also converts all JPEGs to progressive JPEGs.
That means that if someone visits your Flash movie via AOL, your dynamically
loaded JPEGs will probably break! There is one work-around: leave the ".jpg"
extension off, and AOL won't know that it's dealing with a JPEG, and leaves
it alone.
:::
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without
your accordion."
- Donald Rumsfeld
I can't even begin to tell you how off that is, but before you give Rumsfeld
credit for at least being clever, think about the phrase... sounds a lot like
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" doesn't it? That
brilliant turn of phrase belongs to Irina Dunn, a college student at the time,
who coined
it in 1970 after being inspired by a philosophical text she was reading.
That makes Rummy's comment second-generation clever, at best. I won't get into
all the other aspects of the quote that are just wrong. Then, too, I wonder
if it would make him crazy to know that he was tacitly giving the nod to the
feminist movement?
Sorry about not writing in so long. Things have changed dramatically here.
I started working on a month-long project that involves being in an office in
Manhattan from 9-5 Monday through Friday. It might turn into something longer-term. It's not closest
to my heart, but income is a nice thing to have.
The first week has been a good one. The folks I'm working with are pleased
with my progress.
The one thing about working in a windows-based office is the bad habits I bring
home with me. Moving back and forth between Mac and Windows is generally not
a big thing, but one annoying matter is that after a day of working on a 'dozer,
I have this tendancy to hit the control key when I mean to hit the Command key.
Control-c doesn't copy on the Mac. Command-c is a much more natural-feeling
position too, but there's always that little transition period. Yeah, I sometimes
hit the Alt key in the office, too.
:::
"We seem to think we can destroy a country and then build a democracy...
Democracy at gunpoint isn't democracy."
- Iraqi immigrant Azam Houle in Boise,
Idaho, who said she fled the "suffocating police state" 27 years ago.
The articles about the protests underscore how the numbers
get manipulated, too. The organizers expected about 100,000 protesters in New
York, and think they may have gotten more than three times that amount. Of course,
the NY Police force official number is 100,000.
At the moment, it doesn't seem to matter how many people go out and protest.
If it's not hitting Bush and the Republicans in the polls (the only place they
seem to feel it), they won't respond. If this proves anything, those who would
have voted for Gore but didn't go out to vote 2 years ago, should clearly see
how inaction has consequences, too. If anything good comes out of this, it might
be the reactivation of the political process in this country. Too bad it has
to come to something as heinous as this, before people respond. But, if Bush goes ahead with this, maybe the anger of the "silent majority" will become a mobilizing force.
:::
Sympathy for the Dentist
The mainstream press is working so hard to make it OK that this lady drove over
her husband repeatedly with her Mercedes. She got 20 years, which means she'll
probably be out in 10. I wonder if there could have been any criteria that would
have made this an automatic death penalty case, considering how wantonly Texas
presses to execute the "underpriveleged." Notice how the press makes a point
of referring to her as a dentist? I think there are two reasons for this. One
is to signal that she's gentry/has money. The other is to underscore that this
is someone who's not a threat to general society.
:::
I was also disheartened to see that the AIDS package that Bush touted during the State of the Union address will probably do little. Bush has crafted the assistance package in such a way that money couldn't go to a clinic or organization that provides comprehensive health care coverage including abortion and abortion counseling. This is likely to be the case in many places throughout Africa, so from a practical standpoint, the money isn't really available. Again, the press coverage is likely to understate how this catch-22 makes the offer of assistance a hollow one. Another case where the rhetoric sounds generous, but the reality is much less.
Being someone who was on Unemployment insurance, I found it strangely funny that the puny 6-week extension that only got voted through after coverage lapsed over the holidays, did not apply to me. It also appears that there are thousands in the same boat. We're told that there was an extension of benefits, but there's this nagging issue of eligibility.
Considering all the places where this administration plays fast and loose with "facts," why are so many willing to accept the mainstream interpretation of their sketchy evidence with regard to Iraq?
