December 28: Glaringly obviousAnyone who has a job to do needs to keep up with a basic picture of what's going on, even when all is well. Too often leaders -- whether in business, academia, religion, or politics -- forge ahead with their agendas, relying entirely on others to tell them what they think they should know, only to discover after the dust of some destructive event settles that they knew far to little to lead effectively. Steven Few, Information Dashboard Design, January 2006, O'Reilly When even the tech people know you're incompetent, it's time to get out of Dodge, er, Washington. December 20: We don't do perky in this houseRachel Ray hates unicorns. No, really. December 18Dec 15: Doctor Who - Harry PotterZoe Wanamaker: Cassandra ("The end of the World", "New Earth") and Madame Hooch Sarah Stewart: voice of the computer ("The End of the World") was Martha Wayne in Batman Begins, which also starred Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) Imelda Staunton: Delores Umbridge, was also in Little Britain, which stars Tom Baker, Anthony Head ("School Reunion", also in Monarch of the Glen, with Sarah Stewart) The Canturbury Tales had: And I think everyone has guested on The Bill December 11: 20th Reunion PhotosWilliam Tennent Class of 1986. Yeah, I went, I'm not wasting this skinniness. I even hugged a woman who couldn't stand me in elementary school. Painless, but moderately boring. I missed Donna, James, Michelle, Liesel, Leslie Smith, and others. December 8: Hot and notWhat's hot (and what's not) here in the Land of Susan (motto: you won't see the exit coming!).
December 7: Lalla Ward married to Richard DawkinsThat is all. December 6: I was in tearsToddlers were made for video cameras and uncles with too much computing power. It's better than the laughing baby even. The stomping feet are best. (Just realized where I'd seen Arlo's mom's name -- Jen Niederst -- before. She wrote Web Design in a Nutshell, which I'm still using.) November 28: Jim's father does not have a re-occurrance of cancerYesss!!! Sorry, didn't hear me? Let me say it again: Fsck yeah!A merry early Christmas to the whole family! (Mom now really horrified at my language.) November 8: Santorum gets his butt handed to himYesss!!! Sorry, didn't hear me? Let me say it again: Fsck yeah!I hope he's figured out that poverty isn't a moral failing. But somehow I doubt that. (Mom now horrified at my language.) October 27: New toy
A weekend with Omi and then in Rickett's Glen I am about to be radically more viscious in deleting photos. I had 9,000 after importing those two roles, but managed to delete over 200. I am taking one night a week off (usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays). This means Jake gets a night of daddy-time. Let me know if you want to do anything! This week was photo editing. I've been making applesauce from Jorj's aunt's recipe. Anne is wonderfully direct. She's a professional food writer; anything by Anne Mendelson is worth your time.
My favorite apple for sauce so far are Johnagold. Quite sweet, but with a strong apple flavor. Some find them too sweet, but anyone raised on grocery store apple sauce won't be surprised by the sweetness. (Gala for baking.) Finally, I am trying to eliminate the word also from my writing. Sept. 26: more for my peepsSept. 24: Prosaic or Prozac?Inspired by gr, what's in iTunes (some comps not marked as comps, mea culpa):
1000 Homo DJs
Supernaut_Apathy
13 Engines
A Blur To Me Now
Aertze, die
Planet Punk
Agustin Anievas, piano with New Philharmonia Orchestra, Moshe Atzmon cond_
Rachmaninov
Allegro
P.D.Q. Bach_ An Hysteric Return - P.D.Q. Bach At Carnegie Hall
Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters Collection, Vol. 1
The Andrews Sisters Collection, Vol. 2
Andrews Sisters & Bing Crosby
The Andrews Sisters Collection, Vol. 2
Annie Lennox
Bare
Ave Maria
Weinachten Zu Haus
B.B. King
Live At The Regal
Belly
Star
Ben Harper
Diamonds On The Inside
Berlin
Pleasure Victim
Big Black
Pig Pile
Bill Evans & Toots THielmans
Unknown Album
Bing Crosby
Merry Christmas
The Holiday Album
White Christmas
Bobby Helms
Greatest Christmas Hits
Bonfiglio
Noel
Bootsy Collins
Back in the Day_ Best of Bootsy
Bootsy's Rubber Band
Back in the Day_ Best of Bootsy
Bryan Ferry
Bête Noire
Buckethead
Monsters & Robots
Burl Ives
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
Bush
The Science Of Things
Chris Isaak
Chris Isaak
Coldplay
Parachutes
Compilations
A Classic Cartoon Christmas
A Conshohocken Christmas
A Conshohocken Christmas - Volume Three
A Conshohocken Christmas - Volume Two
A Conshohocken KITSCH-mas
A Conshohoken Christmas
A Mess Of Blues
All The Best From Germany - 20 Great Favorites
Animaniacs
Before You Were Punk
Before You Were Punk 2
Best of Tchaikovsky
Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey
Blame It On Christmas Volume 1
Brandenburg Concertos, Excelsior Classic Gold
Cashing In On Christmas
Christmas Time
Count Basie Orchestra
Dead Parrot Society
Echt Schwäbisch Nr. 4_ _Ja, so was!_
Fall '93 Sampler
For the kids too
Geminiani, Concerti Grossi (after Corelli, Op. 5)
Greatest Christmas Hits
Gute Nacht - Happy Baby
I Asked For Whisky
Illi-Noise
In Defense Of Animals
Incredible Christmas
Incredible Christmas Album
Jimi Hendrix_ Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Live At The World Cafe, Vol. 9
M3 Holiday Edition
Merry Christmas From Motown
Mozart_ Concerti No. 17 In G Major K. 453, No. 18 In B-Flat Major K. 456
Outer Limits Vol.One
Repo Man
Rock n Roll Christmas
Rockin' Little Christmas
Say Anything
Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue
Serenity Now
Shopping
Symphonies #100 - #101 - #55
The Best of Beethoven
The Crow
The Edge Of Christmas
The Essential Pee Wee Crayton Blues After Hours
The Planet Sleeps_ Work
The Ultimate Christmas Album V
This Is Techno Volume 4
Vol. I Symphonies Nos. 1-4 (Disc 1)
Zydeco Barnyard
Corrosion Of Conformity
Animosity
Das Thaddäus-Troll-Program mit Bernhard Hurm und Uwe Zellmer
Kenner trinker Württemberger
Dean Shostak
Crystal Carols
Depeche Mode
Black Celebration
Dirty Vegas
Dirty Vegas
Dizzy Gillespie
The Jazz Masters Series-Groovin' High
Duke Ellington
The Best Of Duke Ellington_ Centennial Edition
Duke Ellington Orchestra & Count Basie Orchestra
Duke Ellington Meets Count Basie; First Time! []
Dweezil Zappa
Confessions
EDF
Aquatic Enchantment
EMF
Schubert Dip
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas
Elvis Presley
Christmas Classics
Entrain
Can U Get It
Etta James
Blues To The Bone
Eurythmics
Acoustic Eurythmics
Savage
Sweet Dreams
Touch
Unknown Album
Evil Beaver
Still...Smells Like Christmas Spirit
Fettes Brot
Am Wasser gebaut
Fine Young Cannibals
The Raw And The Cooked
Fiona Apple
When The Pawn...
Frank Sinatra
Swinging Sinatra
Fred Schneider
Fred Schneider
Fred's Niece on piano
Unknown Album
George S. Clinton
Greatest Funkin' Hits
George Winston
December
Glenn Miller
In The Christmas Mood
Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Houseguests
Back in the Day_ Best of Bootsy
Iggy Pop
Lust For Life
Millenium Edition
Isle of Q
Isle of Q
James Cotton,Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Billy Branch
Harp Attack
Janice Robinson
Dreamer (Remixed)
Jeff Beck
There And Back
Jim Jackson
Vol. 2-(1928-30)
Jimmy Reed
Blues Masters Vol.4 Harmonica
Unknown Album
John Denver & The Muppets
A Christmas Together
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker Plays And Sings The Blues
K.M.F.D.M_
Don't Blow Your Top
Liane & Boheme Bar Trio
Cabaret Songs Of Berlin & Vienna
Little Walter
The Essential Little Walter (Disc 1)
The Essential Little Walter (Disc 2)
Lo-Fidelity Allstars
How To Operate With A Blown Mind
London Festival Orchestra, Alfred Scholz
Brahms_ Hungarian Dances #1-21
London Symphony Orchestra
The Nutcracker Suite
Looney Tunes
Leave It To Fever
Louis Armstrong
Christmas Through the Years
Swing That Music
Louis Armstrong & Bing Crosby
Christmas Through the Years
Louis Prima
Collector's Series
Louis Prima & Keely Smith
Collector's Series
Love and Rockets
Love and Rockets (Special Swing Edition)
Swing!
Mahalia Jackson
Greatest Hits
Mahalia Jackson Sings Songs Of Christmas
Silent Night Christmas With Mahalia Jackson
Mannheim Steamroller
Christmas In The Aire
Multiple
In Munchen Steht Ein Hofbrauhaus
Nat King Cole
The Holiday Album
Nirvana
Nevermind
P.D.Q. Bach
A Little Nightmare Music
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Blues Brothers 2000
Penny Loafers
Nabot
Queen
Live Killers (Disc 1)
Live Killers (Disc 2)
R.E.M.
Eponymous
Out Of Time
Rage
Reflections Of A Shadow
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Roger Whittaker
Christmas With Roger Whittaker
Rollins Band
Weight
Romanze II
P.D.Q. Bach_ An Hysteric Return - P.D.Q. Bach At Carnegie Hall
Romeo Void
Warm, In Your Coat
Roxy Music
Roxy Music
S Terry, B McGhee, B Broonzy
The Bluesmen
SKRÄPP METTLE
Sensitive
Sandi Patti
Celebrate Christmas!
Santana
0184 Santana (Disc 3)
Early Magic
Santana 2
Scorpions
Crazy World
Shines, Johnny and Snooky Pryo
Back To The Country
Shriekback
Big Night Music
The Y Records Years
Siouxsie & the Banshees
Fear (of the unknown)
The Scream
Tinderbox
Skatenigs
Stupid People Shouldn't Breed
Slovak National Philharmonic Orchestra
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Snooky Pryor
Blues Masters Volume 04- Harmonica Classics
Chicago Blues harmonicas
Shake My Hand
Soundgarden
Louder Than Love
Superunknown
Sparks
Now That Want I Own The BBC
Spin Doctors
Pocket Full of Kryptonite
Spiritual Thunder
Peace_In My Soul EP
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Christmas Caravan
Steve Martin
Let's Get Small
Sting
All This Time (Single)
Nothing Like The Sun
The Dream Of The Blue Turtles
Stone Temple Pilots
Purple
Suicidal Tendencies
Lights... Camera... Revolution!
Lovely
Still Cyco After All These Years
Supergrass
In It For the Money
Suzanne Vega
99.9 F Degrees
99.9 F°
Talking Heads
Naked
Talking Heads_ 77
Technohead
I Wanna Be A Hippy (Single)
Temple Of The Dog
Temple Of The Dog
The American Percussion Ensemble
Magnificent Bells, Organs & Chimes
The Beastie Boys
Licensed To Ill
The Blind Boys Of Alabama
Spirit Of The Century
The Cars
Candy-O
The Charlie Daniels Band
A Decade Of Hits
The Offspring
Smash
The Police
Every Breath You Take_ The Singles
Ghost In The Machine
Synchronicity
The Psychedelic Furs
Should God Forget_ A Retrospective (Disc 1)
Should God Forget_ A Retrospective (Disc 2)
World Outside
The Ramones
Hey! Ho! Let's Go_ The Anthology (Disc 1)
Hey! Ho! Let's Go_ The Anthology (Disc 2)
The Regency Orchestra
Christmas Treasures
The Replacements
Let It Be
The Rolling Stones
Emotional Rescue
Sticky Fingers
The Simpsons
The Simpsons Sing The Blues
The Sisters Of Mercy
Floodland
The Smiths
Singles
The Strokes
Is This It
The Subdudes
Any Cure
Tin Machine
Tin Machine II
Tom Jones
Reloaded
Tom Waits
Small Change
Tones On Tail
Tones On Tail
U2
Achtung Baby
Unknown
GiuseppeTartini - Violin Concertos
Holst - The Planets Suite, St Paul's Suite
Unknown Artist
Sabre PC sounds
The 9 Symphonies
Unknown Album
Untitled - New CD
Various
Weinachten Zu Haus
Various Artists
Blues Masters Volume 04- Harmo
Blues Masters Volume 06 _ Blue
Blues Masters Volume 07_ Blues
Super Blues Bo Diddly Muddy Wa
Vince Guaraldi
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
Why Do Birds Sing
Weird Al Yankovic
Off The Deep End
Wuppentaler Kurrende
Jauchzet dem Herren_ Motetten und Orgelmusik im Kirchenjahr
_The Seasonings_ (S. ½ tsp.)
P.D.Q. Bach_ An Hysteric Return - P.D.Q. Bach At Carnegie Hall
artist
title
lazy lester
all over you
You can guess what's Jorj's and was ripped hurredly to get the CDs out of the living room. I'm missing a bunch of stuff that was ripped pre-Mac and is on the basement server. I'll be dragging those CDs out of the basement, I guess. (Easier than syncing from the basement.) Sept 22: My peeps people! My peeps!Weird Al understands my peeps! This means you. And did you see the O'Reilly reference? Weird Al rocks my world! June 8: Tori Anne Sarah: All is right with the worldYesterday, the world got a bit back on course with the birth of Tori Anne Sarah, daughter of Cecily and Charlie. It was a long, scary journey, but she's here. Cecily got her birth plan ("live baby"), but missed having a child born on 6/6/6. Tori is 6 lbs, 4 oz and looks like her mom. June 5: Michael Bloomberg rocks my worldBloomberg's speech to Johns Hopkins graduates. May 14: The Doctor is in da house!As much as I've missed Doctor Who since it was cancelled in 1989, the long hiatus was perhaps the best thing for the series. We're so grateful for any Doctor Who that even the most trivia-oriented fans will accept a series that is based more on the spirit of the originals than the minor details (like which generation of Daleks is being battled). So many things have been improved upon since Sylvester McCoy -- effects, writing, directing, acting, cinematography -- but the real change is what has been restored: subtlety. The humor doesn't hit you over the head as it did with McCoy and Colin Baker (let us never speak of him again). Tom Baker's humor might have been broad, but it wasn't the only element of the stories. Now, like any good drama, there is humor, but it is incidental to the plot, yet natural. Billie Piper's selection as the latest companion engendered rampant hand-wringing on the Interweb. She's a pop star! She won't be able to act! Hah! Before becoming a teen pop star, Piper studied at a prestigious drama school, and she knows how to do more than scream. (In fact, in a scene where screaming is appropriate, she never reaches the ear-shattering registers of Mel -- Bonnie Langford.) Her character, Rose, is of the party-girl groupof companions (best example: Jo Grant and Tegan) rather than the scientist/professional companions (Liz Shaw, Romana, Leela, Sarah Jane), but she takes no, er, guff, from the Doctor. "When he gets frightened he insults species." She may acknowledge his technical superiority, but that doesn't give him any moral superiority. Although Mel was ostensibly a computer specialist from the "near" future, she was a complete ditz. Of course, we can't blame Langford for that, it's how the character was written. Piper's Rose has scenes of bravery, cleverness and resourcefulness (her use of the energy gun in "The Doctor Dances" to save herself, the Doctor and Captain Jack). Even the episode-only characters are brave, clever and resourceful (Nancy, again, "the Doctor Dances"). May 10Cecily is one of the strongest women I know. And some days I'm so glad I don't have a daughter. May 4: The first of our friendsThe first friends to do anything always inspire a "wow, are we at that stage already?" from me. The first of our friends to get married (Simon on Jorj's side, Suzy on mine). The first to have children (Simon again, and Rodney on my side). The first to buy a house (us, I think). The first divorce. The first to die. Jorj's friend Phil OD'd Monday. Jorj and Phil knew each other from infancy. Jorj remembers Phil's sister Krissy being born. They lived next door to each other, then Jorj's parents divorced and moved, and they reconnected in high school, graduating in 1990. Jorj stayed with Phil's family one summer when things were tough at home. Phil found pot in high school, heroin shortly after that. He'd been through re-hab a couple times. Krissy said he was tapering off the methadone, returning more and more to his old self. But ... for some reason he couldn't go without that high, and there's been some deadly heroin going around the area lately. Cecily and Sarah are recovering addicts and two of the strongest people I know. I can't stay away from chocolate for more than three months, and only with a threat to the baby. Knowing it will kill her is what keeps Cecily off her addictions, she says. She has a great story of the night she almost died from an overdose on her site. Go, read it. And Tommy Barbarella said she goes to meetings to remind herself of this. The she knows, but she stops knowing that drinking again will kill her. I guess Phil forgot. Things were good: a girlfriend of two years, talk of moving in together, talk of visiting his old friend Jorj, a life on track. Phil's friends haven't forgotten that the heroin was killing him, slowly, for years, destroying his personality. When he got off it, Jorj said he was more like himself before but ... Each year, he was more like himself, but still not the same. I told Jorj today that Phil was a neat guy (as in neato-keano). He said "he'd been neater." Tobi has asked how we can talk to Jake about drugs without every having tried them. Jorj and I are the perfect argument that life can be fun and cool without drugs. And there is always Cecily, Sarah, Tommy B. and Ross to scare the living daylights out of him. And now Phil. I hope you've found what you were looking for Phil. April 25: Please welcom Nate Micheal H******!!!(Parents S&L more privacy concerned than I.) 2:46 p.m., 22 inches, 9 pounds. Everybody say Wooooooooo! (Cecily still pregnant.) March 21: Sharing alreadyWe think my camera -- the one I dropped on the terrazzo floor at Greg and Anne's wedding -- may be dying, so no obligatory photos of snow drops or crocusses. In good news, the daffodils and hyacinths I thought had died last year seem to be returning. Must have been that global warming that doesn't exist. I read this essay from the Council on Foreign Affairs, discussing Saddam's paranoia, equating of disagreement with disloyalty, and refusal to hear bad news and thought, gee, that sounds really familiar.
We now return to our regularly-scheduled absurdity. It's pledge time for Public TV again (Public Radio has finished, but my membership is good for another few months), so, finally, they realized that special cooking programs during the usual block of weekend cooking shows might pull more pledges than yet another money lecture. I was so thrilled to see Julia Child on TV again that I went a little crazy and pledged ... a lot ... to get six DVDs of her first two seasons. Of course, you could buy the Julia Child DVDs for a lot less and still support public TV. Now, when the Simpsons have been recorded again rather than my beloved Good Eats, and I can't stand to watch another talking head with a frying pan, I can whip out some Julia and whip up some cream. I just need a DVD player in the kitchen. Parenthood is still exhausting. Name for an obscure Christian death metal band: Death Milk. That is all. February 19: Pictures!I've been cooking: apple-onion cream soup, and Turkish meatballs in yogurt sauce. Both are recipes from Anne. Both are very good. Both have left my kitchen a disaster. January 29, 2006Latest project for the web site has been converting the recipes to XML. This will make changing the style of the pages easier, and allow me to make metric versions of all the recipes without hand-converting. Plus, it's just plain geeky fun. Each XML file must still be validated, but I'm pretty proud of it. Each validates to the RecipeML spec, with some XHTML thrown in for paragraphs and images. An XSLT stylesheet converts it all to XHMTL, which is made pretty by CSS. Although its creators claim otherwise, CSS is not capable of rendering XML, unless you want the document displayed in the order written, which I didn't. Some elements appear twice (title), some get moved around (date). CSS has no conditionals, no loops. XSLT is just plain cool. The CSS will change as I show more info on the pages, and have better ideas for sidebar placements.
Philly photo-bloggers meeting today. Only two of the four actually have a photoblog, and one of those two was Jake, so I'm not sure that counts. Jorj (with Jake and me in tow) met good friend Steve Boj at three-bear park in old city -- near St. Paul's Church. Can't wait to see Steve's pictures, if he ever gets a site. Jorj suggested we have a game night, so now he and I spend Friday nights with a beer and a deck of cards or pair of dice. It beats spending Friday nights with a beer and a computer (that's what Saturdays and Sundays are for!). Gena and Steve joined us after Christmas for "Shadows Over Camelot." Lots of fun! "Shadows" is a co-operative game, where everyone wins or loses. We lost two of three, and that was playing with the easy rules. Co-operative gaming sounds odd, you say? Jorj is still trying to counter the insidious influence of my only-childhood. Tentatively, Jake's first trip to Germany will be in July, if airfare prices come out of the stratosphere. Tickets are $1,200 per seat (including taxes and fees). We now need three seats. Sure, we could not book a seat and hope to find an empty seat for the carrier, but the kid's got luggage! Jorj and I have both uploaded pictures of Jake recently. Go and coo in wonder! August, September, October & November 2005 January & February 2007 |
What I'm reading
What I'm listening toGermans -- because I could by German rap on iTunes. Jorj appropriately horrified.
Things that make me happy (in no particular order)
|
I have a new toy, a 
This is my applesauce recipe: Throw out the Golden Delicious (unless
they're unusually good for that kind). Do not even think about
applesauce earlier in the year than October. Then go buy some locally
grown, very juicy sweet-tart apples at the peak of crispness and
flavor. Many of the good kinds are finished by December, but Winesaps
or Stayman Winesaps probably are still good. (Around New York my
October choice would be Jonathan, which are mushy or gone by November.
Northern Spies are wonderful here but also a short-lived phenomenon. )![[Want to drive Rick Santorum out of office?]](images/Plate_468x60.gif)
