To cycle, or not to cycle

...that is the question.

Especially when a bunch of stuff you sort of like having is on this box, and it lives a couple of hundred miles from you.

The Grey Lady Shows Herself for the Slut She Is (Symlink)

This is just ridiculous. Note that Bolton is identified as the 'UN Ambassador 205-2006' with no mention of the fact that he was recalled because Congress wouldn't confirm him. Note that John Yoo is identified as 'a deputy attorney general' with no mention of the torture memos. Note that both these men, who whored for an administration more contemptuous of Congressional oversight than any in recent memory if not ever, are now suddenly whining that the Obama administration will 'bind America' to those hideous foreign diplomatic agreements without garnering proper Congressional approval - despite the fact that that Administration isn't even in office yet.

This is what is called brazen revisionism and image repair spin. The fact that the Times doesn't call them on it anywhere in the headers or footers is just unforgivable.

Poetry Break (Words)

I quite like Wilfred Owen, having been fortunate enough to have been exposed to his work in a college course. After having spent a couple of weeks thinking about weapon systems, I was reminded of one of his poems and thought it appropriate to post here to keep myself oriented.

On Seeing A Piece Of Our Heavy Artillery Brought Into Action

Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm,
Great Gun towering towards Heaven, about to curse;
Sway steep against them, and for years rehearse
Huge imprecations like a blasting charm!
Reach at that Arrogance which needs thy harm,
And beat it down before its sins grow worse.
Spend our resentment, cannon, -- yea, disburse
Our gold in shapes of flame, our breaths in storm.

Yet, for men's sakes whom thy vast malison
Must wither innocent of enmity,
Be not withdrawn, dark arm, thy spoilure done,
Safe to the bosom of our prosperity.
But when thy spell be cast complete and whole,
May God curse thee, and cut thee from our soul!

- Wilfred Owen, May 1918

Macworld Expo (Gear)

I am, of course, looking forward to Macworld. Because I'm one of 'those people.' Inveterate Apple gear fanatic. The company? Meh. The gear? Drool.

I dunno what to make of the whole Steve-is-dying-no-he-isn't-he's-just-clever rumorfests. No real opinion. I care more about the gear.

I'm hoping for the new Mac Mini with HD-capable chippies in it. Blu-Ray would be nice, but His Steveness pretty much slapped that one down a while ago, and I don't see how they could fit it in at the Mini's price point (which has already ballooned).

One thing I'm hoping is not true is the rumors of the new 17-inch MacBook Pro - specifically, the part that says it has a non-removable battery. For fuck's sake, Apple, if you're going to advertise the machine as the 'media professional's portable workstation' then why the hell would you cripple it that way? I don't care how sexz0r your new battery tech might be, telling a sound tech or video professional that they can't bring two or three batteries to a location shoot is just...stupid. Stupid stupid stupid. I'm hoping this is a stupid rumor and not the truth.

Not that I want a 17 inch. I just hate seeing cool gear get kneecapped.

7-9 inch Touch? Hm. Interesting. I won't care unless I can load some decent terminal software, a word processor, and all the other toys I need in a road machine onto it. If it's just an iPod touch with a 7-inch screen, well...I'll carry my laptop to watch movies. The App store is great for cell phones, which are a bear to load software onto in the first place, but it's too restrictive for me to call whatever uses it a 'computer'. I know, I know, if Apple releases this they'll have some cool new market segment name for it, but for fuck's sake Apple, I want something that will prevent me from having to lug my Macbook Pro to work *every day*. Something I can...oh, all right, I want my MessagePad 2100 back, okay? Just get on that, chop-chop.

The End of 2008 (Personal)

I don't know why I feel the need to recap, here, except maybe to convince myself that the year is actually ending. It's been a shitkicker, has 2008. I'll be glad to see the back of it. I don't know what to expect in 2009 - in some ways, such as economically, I can see the news getting worse for at least the first half of the year if not more. Everyday life hasn't yet really been slammed by the collapse of the financial pyramids. I'm guessing that here in NYC it's because businesses which are marginal have been desperately holding on until the end of the year to either try to survive via the holidays or to at least collect what takings they can before calling it a game.

Either way, I think a whole lot of businesses are going to close down in 1Q '09, with concomitant unemployment and gloom. Here in the City, where we all live in each other's pockets, that ripple happens fast and hard. I hope it doesn't happen, because i don't want to see anyone hurt, but realistically it's already happening. I'm concerned that NYC will fall back to early 1980s or 1970s status - high unemployment, low civic spending, crappy conditions. I think I'm the only person who watches early Sesame Street episodes and is depressed as fuck because I remember when what felt like the whole damn city looked like the grim-ass projects you always saw in those shows.

On a personal level - well, 2008 sucked too. Nothing really good happened, except that I finally moved back to NYC - but even that wasn't without all kinds of PITA side effects. Lots of bad crap happened that I'm still dealing with. I'm another year older (I really feel that on New Years' rather than my birthday, probably because it's easy to ignore my birthday) and still have no fucking idea what I want to do when I grow up - rather, I should say, that I realistically can do. I know what I'd like to do, but the government has pretty clearly told me I'm not going to get to do that. Another reason to find George Bush in a bar in ten years and kick his scrawny ass.

Well. Baconfest is coming up. Hopefully that will provide enough of a lift to get me through January and some of February. It usually does.