BillSaysThis

Well isn’t this exciting! Or not. But only three days before the first birthday of this site, the visit counter scrolled past 10,000:

Visitor 10,000 was, of course, anonymous since I don’t use cookies or logins or other tracking methods but I can tell from the referrer logs that this person came to the site after searching Google for “George Carlin” +quotes. My Carlin page actually gets quite a few hits and ranks fairly high at Google; on this term, this site ranked 21 and for simply “George Carlin” is 48. Cool.

Of course, I missed out on the huge rush of traffic in the first 4.5 months the site was online since I only started tracking visitors on July 27 and since visitors using Netscape Navigator are not recorded (grrrr! Darn Sitemeter) the total is probably somewhat higher than 10,000. Still, a joyous occasion and I will be sure to get an extra coffee at breakfast this morning. Thanks for all you people who come more than once. [Since Blogger was down for a server upgrade, this was written before breakfast but posted a few hours later. At the time I type this, the counter is up to a whopping 10,030.]

You too can express your opposition to the ridiculous and unconstitutional Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, as I did:

Sen. Hollings,

After the firestorm of opposition that emerged when you previously attempted to introduce the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act, I am amazed to read that you are trying to bring this blight on the constitution back to life.

Honestly, how happy are you to be nicknamed the Senator from Disney? And this is one of the nicer things I have read recently about you.

Please reconsider the impact of your proposed legislation on the consumers of this country. Are you really so concerned about the big media companies that you would outlaw Linux and other similar good things?

Thanks for your time and consideration,

Bill Lazar

I also wrote on this abomination of a legislation back in October.

R to the n, where r stands for romance

And n for the imaginary number of love

Gives us an understanding of feelings

That connect us to each other in real time.

Imaginary or infinite, lust makes us grind

Our teeth, upper against lower, for hours

Without even realizing the force expressed

By our painful grimaces, to each other.

Transitively reflecting the momentum

Or the velocity of my affection for you

Against a mirror held up with little more

Than sweetness and the light in your eyes.

Take the intersection of the product above

With the far from quotidian embraces shared

Until you reach the wonderful asymptotic line

Where there is zero distance between our hearts.

Just another oxymoron, I guess, reading Army Official Kept Options on Enron Stock Until January. Thomas White retired from distinguished (so they say) service in the Army as a general and went to work at Enron for over a decade, finishing his tenure there as vice chairman of one of the major subsidiaries and earning many millions in salary and stock options. Last Spring he was tabbed by the Bush Administration to serve as Secretary of the Army and the Senate confirmed his nomination.

Here is the troubling part. White “signed an ethics agreement promising to sell his shares in Enron, as well as his options and his stakes in several Enron retirement plans, within 90 days of joining the government.” But he didn’t do this. In fact, he held on to options in Enron which he didn’t get rid of until they were permanently and obviously worthless in mid-January. White knew they should have been disposed of earlier, as he kept asking for extensions in the deadline which in the end were denied. So he ignored them and acted in his own best interest.

Is Secretary White going to be punished for his rules violation? Apparently not: “The Armed Services Committee will probably not hold hearings into Mr. White’s conduct, one Congressional staff member said, who added that Mr. White’s behavior does not seem to have generated a ‘critical mass’ of opposition.” Sure, just another crumb of distaste and arrogance falling off the Enron table.

Maybe I just miss seeing Vivian. Or it could be the nasty boy who pissed me off in chat. But I saw one of those idiotic FedEx commercials (you know, where the two drones are amazing each other with the way BarfEx comes to the rescue) and I was wondering who to call to put a hit on the advertising genius resposnsible for that campaign. To make matters worse I saw another moronic CapitalOne commercials (the guy loses his wallet in the jungle and the chimps party). I suppose I oughtn’t be too surprised by the general lack of quality in commercials since most of the so-called creative media is not much better. Movie studios are so short of it that they are making any old thing (I just read about another remake of the Lone Ranger today and saw a commercial for the Resident Evil movie). ABC couldn’t even come up with a title for a new comedy show so they are naming it for the timeslot (Wednesdays 9:30) and is so filled with confidence that they ordered all of six (6) episodes. John Grisham tried to stretch with The Painted House and Skipping Christmas but threw it in for the money with his latest retread of all his other legal thrillers, The Summons. Browsing through Costco yesterday I saw that James Patterson, who used to write quality thrillers before degenerating into repetition, has now decided that money talks so loudly that he’s putting his name on what has to be someone else’s work with 2nd Chance (okay, I’m speculating here but this would be typical of big name authors spinning off a series to someone else who has no rep of his own, just look at Tom Clancy). Music, this I can’ talk about because I just don’t really like anything coming out these days except U2. /End of Rant

Vivian and I had the pleasure of sharing Christmas dinner with my friend Nancy, her brother and sister and her mate Jim and his cuter than life daughters. Someone took a picture of the two of us and we finally got it:

In the course of examining the head coaching changes in football this year, I came across a mystery: position coaches being named assistant head coach even though they nominally report to either an offensive or defensive coordinator. I asked Chris Mortensen at ESPN a month ago to explain this and he never did (boo hiss) but now, over at the Sporting News, Dan Pompei answered my question. I expect he and his bosses won’t be too upset if I quote his answer here:

“It doesn’t mean much, really. In most cases, calling someone an assistant head coach is just a way of showing respect to a coach who either has accomplished quite a bit or who is a hot property. In rare instances, the assistant head coach actually is an assistant head coach whose authority is greater than the other head coaches. When Dave Wannstedt was an assistant head coach to Jimmy Johnson in Miami, he was a true assistant head coach.” Of course Wannstedt was the offensive coordinator so this isn’t a perfect example but I get the point. Thanks Dan!

Some people complain there isn’t enough on TV but I am definitely not one of them. And then new shows come on. Like Jeremiah, the cool new post-apocalyptic Showtime series from Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. Opening premise: our world is destroyed as all those people over the age of 13 die when a superbug is released from a lab (or on purpose, this episode doesn’t address the issue and I expect JMS is keeping it in his backpocket) but the kids live. The show opens 20 years later with Luke Perry (Jeremiah) and Malcom Jamal Warner (Kurdy), both all grown up, meeting and finding they need to partner up for survival. Not going to recap the story here further but suffice to say that they find a thriving community living under Cheyenne Mountain, using all the facilities of the NORAD HQ to prepare to relight a tech civilization. The duo take off again at the end, this time as agents of “The end of the world.” The appeal here is that not everything is predictable even when I’ve read dozens of stories with post-apocalyptic premises. The writing is good, the visuals are worth watching, and there’s decent acting. Not surprising for a JMS show, the website is pretty decent, with all the credits, drawings, interviews, and behind the scenes features. Oh yeah, the series is recommended too.

Little Steven Van Zandt has been a musical god of mine since the mid-70s with his work on Born to Run and the first few Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes LPs. Nowadays he splits his time between acting on the Sopranos (yeah, that’s him owning the Badda Bing), his solo career, playing with Springsteen, and leading the revival of Garage Rock. He posted an excellent essay on the history and current status of the genre on his website, which I encourage you to read even if (especially if) you don’t know what kind of music this means. Little Steven writes with a real attitude, the same kind of tone you hear in his music. If you haven’t heard his first solo record, Men Without Women, you don’t know the rock and roll nirvana you’re missing. Anyway, back to the Garage rock, Van Zandt is launching a nationwide weekly radio show called Little Steven’s Underground Garage on April 7, with him spinning favorite tracks and providing commentary. And rumors persist of a new, hard rocking Springsteen/E Street release in the Fall, keep your fingers crossed.

I can’t say that the name of this dish is really that useful but the best we could do on short notice. I was motivated here by seeing the incredible selection of meats at Ditmars Wurst Haus on San Antonio Road the other day when I stopped in for a pastrami sandwich.

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb. ground veal
  

• 3/4 lb. ground pork
  

• 1 bunch baby broccoli
  

• 8 oz oyster mushrooms
  

• 24 oz crushed tomatoes
  

• 8 oz tomato paste
  

• 1 large onion, halved, then the halves quartered and separated into large flat pieces
  

• 5 cloves of garlic crushed and diced
  

• 1 bunch of fresh oregano
  

• 1 bunch of fresh cilantro
  

• 1 bunch of fresh basil
  

• olive oil, salt and pepper

Preparation

• Mix ground meats together in a bowl with salt and pepper
  

• Heat a skillet with oil, brown the meat, set meat aside
  

• Sweat garlic and onion until onion is translucent
  

• Add tomatoes, then tomato paste
  

• Add baby broccoli, a little salt and pepper
  

• Add 3/4 of each the basil, oregano, and cilantro, chopped roughly, stir well and simmer five minutes
  

• Add meat, stir to coat thoroughly, simmer a couple of minutes
  

• Add mushrooms, simmer three minutes
  

• Remove from heat and stir in remaining herbs

Serving suggestion: spoon on top of some thick fresh bread and top with grated parmaggiano cheese.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather here today to see the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. Well, just the first floor, we saved the second for a future visit. The museum is a lovely new building which was reopened in 1999 after closing due to damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The biggest permanent attraction is the Rodin Sculpture Garden which features 20 bronzes by Auguste Rodin, including a stunning piece titled “The Gates of Hell.” The major current exhibit is called “Aerial Muse: The Art of Yvonne Jacquette.” Jacquette is a modern American artist whose distinction, quality of the work aside, is that she flies in small planes or looks at from skyscraper windows and draws or paints what she sees. The works exhibited can be broadly divided into daytime and nighttime scenes and I have to say that the nighttime paintings seemed too much a like for my taste, although I did enjoy the greens of many of the daytime pictures. We took some ordinary film pictures, so I’ll post them once the come back.

There is a neat quote from Rodin in the exhibit: “Art is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there defines the spirit by which Nature herself is animated.”

Hey, how many bands do you know that have been making amazing music for 22 years and can still get it up? Sure Bono may be spending lots of time lobbying the White House and 10 Downing Street for African debt relief. But I’m watching a concert on VH1 taped during their 2001 tour and these guys just blow me away. Especially Edge and who even remembers his real name? Bono said during the band intros that even his mom calls him that now. From the opening ringing tones of “I Will Follow” on Boy to on “Beautiful Day” on All That You Can’t Leave Behind. And their performance at the Super Bowl. Just fucking amazing.

garret points to this CNet article, When a city’s cost is bad for business, which suggests that many companies are considering leaving Silicon Valley due to the high cost of doing business here. Of course, the only source for the article is the head of a company that makes a living helping companies relocate. No conflict of interest there, eh buddy? I would suggest that this article is on the same level of use as the one by Frank Moss, also from CNet, which I discussed in the previous log entry. I can’t find the article online but I did read in the last day or two a similar article in the (still unlinkable) San Jose Mercury News which had other sources of information and refuted Boyd’s claim by pointing out that productivity is far higher here than other areas, more than making up for the difference. Also, there have been a number of articles delving into the Why Sillicon Valley Can’t Be Replicated question and the answer generally comes down to two key factors: top academics (mainly, but not only, Stanford and Cal) and mission critical density of brainpower and money.

This afternoon the Chicago tune was running through my head as I was driving away from the iPlanet/Sun campus in Santa Clara. I was there to have lunch with a couple of buddies and afterwards I wandered the halls (shh, don’t tell Security) saying hi. Hard to believe its been more than a year since I last worked. There or anywhere. Which needs to change but in the meanwhile with the beautiful weather I’m enjoying.

Richard Cohen comments on Why Daniel Pearl Died: “But I don’t think I am being irrational when I say that the hideous murder of Daniel Pearl was not just the work of ‘barbarians’ — the phrase du jour to describe his killers — but the inevitable result of policy. Throughout the once-tolerant Islamic world, anti-Semitism — hatred of Jews — has become both common and acceptable.” More and more, the truth about the Arab world, that the governments, the so-called peaceful moderates, are as much to blame for the hatred of Jews and Americans as the radical Islamists like bin Laden. The biggest difference is that the radicals aren’t two-faced liars. Still bad though.

My father adds his two cents: “This is, indeed, very sad, and perpetuated in large part by those who would keep their populaces in ignorance and poverty, while blaming everything on a convenient scapegoat. What should happen is a program of using Muslim Americans who can carry a different message to those parts of the world. I don’t know if it’s possible, but it can’t hurt a lot to try.”

So yesterday’s power outage was caused, according to the wonderful folks at Pacific Gas & Electric, by a bird flying into a substation. Knocked out power to 11,000 people for over two hours. A bird? How did a bird get inside in a way to create this kind of damage? One would hope that these single points of failure would be designed with the understanding that animals can be intrusive but apparently not.

I was out and about this afternoon, enjoying the beautiful weather that is one of the major reasons I had for moving here six years ago. Actually I was out to see the doctor about the pain my hands, which is apparently caused by compressed ulnar nerves and can be corrected easily (phew!). But still, here we are in late February and the Sun is shining and the sky is blue and I can be comfortable in a shortsleeve shirt. Such a contrast from the last few winters I had in New Jersey before moving here.

I come home, though, to find this rather unpleasant story in my inbox courtesy of a buddy who recently had twin boys: Springtime, Taxes, and the Attack on Iraq. For better or worse, the author has way to much credibility to easily dismiss so regardless of the general pronouncements that nothing will happen soon with Iraq one has to be ready. Not my idea of a beautiful spring day but perhaps necessary nonetheless.

Karl Martino, proprieter of paradox1x, a fellow native New Jerseyan, guitarist, web geek, and Hitchhiker fan, has unveiled the Tri-State Syndicate. I have no idea what he means by this, other than weblogs by people who were born or live in the states of New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, but hey a link is as good as a nod, or so Rod Stewart mean to say 30 odd years ago. And haven’t they been odd years? I would say definitely. Conversely Karl has laid out some good, and not odd, Principals From Programming too.

A case from Ohio reached the US Supreme Court today, a fight between a municipality and the Jehovah’s Witnesses over the right to knock on doors without a permit. The town claims they never turn down applications for the permits (there is no charge for the permits) and the applications are to help protect the residents from conmen and the like. The Jehovah’s Witnesses claim they have a 1st Amendment right to anonymous free speech. They position is that if people do not wish to be solicited all they need do is post a No Soliciting sign out front. I believe in this particular case, the law should be struck down.

I find myself conflicted though. Anyone who knows me understands I have no interest in the Jehovah’s Witnesses and in fact I usually don’t bother to answer the door when they ring. But take this a step further, regardless of the permit requirement’s consitutionality. Their position is essentially equivalent to the opt-out approach espoused by direct marketers: If you don’t want us to come in, you need to do something to tell us; otherwise we have the right to contact you. I would suggest that my home is mine and if I haven’t asked you to knock on the door, you have no right to do it (that is, the opt-in approach). I am a firm believer that privacy overrules free speech and I would extend this to telephone and mail (snail or e) solicitation as well. I truly believe in free speech, anonymous or not, even for causes I despise, but only in a public space. My home, my telephone, my mailboxes are mine and I don’t want you coming in unless I invite you. As one of the comments on MetaFilter says, the right to free speech does not guarantee an audience.