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A Streak Of Fog

… makes its way from the riverbend all the way to the horizon, blanketing the Marigny and Treme in its path. Lake Pontchartrain in the distance looks like someone hastily ran a dirty eraser over it to make new plans. Will the lake be blue, green, or grey later today? Bridges and antennae poke their heads out above the fray as if it to proclaim that they will be seen. Funny that the mysterious mist avoids the French Quarter altogether and keeps its business to the other side of Esplanade and beyond. Silly buildings, the fog can drown, you cannot.

Smokestacks in fog-muted light can be very alluring.

And I think of Ray Davies of The Kinks who was recently shot in the leg somewhere between the Quarter and the Marigny.

Gorgeous changing town. Unstoppable crime. Invincible locals.

I don’t know when and how, but I wish you could sit here and observe this morning world with me some time.

Whoever you are.

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From Misleader.org

In the most famous picture from his trip to Baghdad, President Bush had himself artfully photographed to look like he was serving turkey to the troops. The image was emblazoned on front pages throughout the country – and now appears to be an entirely false depiction.

According to the Washington Post, Bush was actually holding “a decoration, not a serving plate.” In other words, he was holding a prop, not real food, and thus only pretending for the cameras to be serving up the holiday meal.

There is also the sob story going around the web about how Bush started to cry when he saw the gathered troops cheering for him. (“You like me, you really, really like me.”) LBJ and Nixon are rumored to have experienced heavy hearts as they prolonged the situation in Vietnam as well. The man is not devoid of all emotion, just the important ones.

SJT on the topic:

“What disgusts me is not the inherent Axis Of Dishonesty of the Bush administration but their ham-handed and incompetent manner of doing it.”

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LSU is #1 college football team in the country and going to the Sucrose Bowl. God help me as they are going to be over the top, out of control, stomping mudholes, etc in and around Looiziana.

I have an umbilical hernia, which does not need to be operated on unless I go back to the hospital with a horrible belly ache. Quit yer belly achin, Maitri (harharhar). Have no bloody clue how it happened; wait, actually I do, I think it’s from my weights class. Walking is the key to strengthening those muscles and helping them regrow, apparently. So here I am with an aborted hernia.

Aborted hernia … sounds like a scene from Total Recall or Alien, doesn’t it? Aaah, aliens!

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That’s What I Am Tolkien About!

Things not to try when seeing Lord Of The Rings. Someone HOLD ME BACK!

1. Stand up halfway through the movie and yell loudly, “Wait … where the hell is Harry Potter?”

2. Block the entrance to the theater while screaming: “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” – After the movie, say “Lucas could have done it better.”

3. Play a drinking game where you have to take a sip every time someone says: “The Ring.”

4. Point and laugh whenever someone dies.

5. Ask everyone around you if they think Gandalf went to Hogwarts.

6. Finish off every one of Elrond’s lines with “Mr. Anderson.”

7. When Aragorn is crowned king, stand up and at the top of your lungs sing, “And I did it … MY way …!”

8. Talk like Gollum all through the movie. At the end, bite off someone’s finger and fall down the stairs.

9. Dress up as old ladies and reenact “The Battle of Helm’s Deep” Monty Python style.

10. When Denethor lights the fire, shout “Barbecue!”

11. In TTT when the Ents decide to march to war, stand up and shout “RUN FOREST, RUN!”

12. Every time someone kills an Orc, yell: “That’s what I’m Tolkien about!” See how long it takes before you get kicked out of the theatre.

13. During a wide shot of a battle, inquire, “Where’s Waldo?”

14. Talk loudly about how you heard that there is a single frame of a nude Elf hidden somewhere in the movie.

15. Start an Orc sing-a-long.

16. Come to the premiere dressed as Frankenfurter and wander around looking terribly confused.

17. When they go in the paths of the dead, wait for tense moment and shout, “I see dead people!”

18. Imitate what you think a conversation between Gollum, Dobby and Yoda would be like.

19. Release a jar of daddy-long-legs into the theater during the Shelob scene.

20. Wonder out loud if Aragorn is going to run for governor of California.

21. When Shelob comes on, exclaim, “Man! Charlotte’s really let herself go!”

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From New Scientist and NewsScan.

N.B.: Mersenne primes take the form of 2-to-the-power-of-P-minus-1, to be precise.

Michigan State University grad student Michael Shafer has succeeded in identifying the largest known prime number to date, using a distributed computer network of more than 200,000 computers located around the world. The new number is 6,320,430 digits long and is only the 40th Mersenne prime to have ever been discovered (Mersenne primes are an especially rare breed that take the form of 2-to-the-power-of-P, where P is also a prime number). Shafer was taking part in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project, when the new number popped up. “I had just finished meeting with my advisor when I saw the computer had found a new prime. After a short victory dance, I called up my wife and friends involved with GIMPS to share the great news,” said Shafer.

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