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The Particle Zoo:  way better than those stuffed microbes and diseases. They are even stuffed and filled from light to heavy, just like the particles.

in taking pictures recently. Here is another public reminder to myself to not be so shutterbug-shy.

Have you ever bought something intended for consumption, but have held back on, you know, consuming it? I’ve been doing that lately with a movie. Control to be exact. When the movie came through town for a handful of days I missed it. Awhile ago I snagged a good copy of it, but have been hesitant to watch it. Crazy, no? I mean, the movie is about the life (and death) of Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division. If its not clear by now, Joy Division is probably one of my all time favorite bands. Both their music, and the music of their musical descendants New Order, have kept me going for roughly 25 years now.

I wasn’t ready to be disappointed though. Although the reviews that mattered to me were generally favorable, I wasn’t ready to watch a “bad movie” about something so important. I think I feel that way about a lot of things in my life, but thats a matter for another blog post.

Last week, however, I sat down and watched it. Early evening, no later plans, no distractions - just me and the movie. And it broke my heart - in a good way. Maybe it was the timing of my viewing, the fundamental story being told, or my personal relationship to the events being told, but it hit me hard. And while I was thankful that I finally watched it, it didn’t feel right to end it that way.

So, I turned it into a double feature with my well worn copy of 24 Hour Party People. In many ways the same story, at least partially, but told from the semi-autobiographical, semi-fictional viewpoint of Tony Wilson. Plus, this had the added benefit of being a cheerful tale - if you ignore the failed clubs and relationships, drug overdoses, and scene collapse.

One thing that struck me more than anything after watching the two back to back was the fairly complementary (not necessarily complimentary) portrayals of Tony in each flick. Sure, in one he is a supporting character and not as prone to flights of fancy, but both roles definitely felt like the same guy. And they both ring true of what I remember of him.

So of course, I had to cap the night off with this clip from Coachella 2007 (below), when he came out on stage to introduce the Happy Mondays. It was the last time I saw him. He passed away in August, just a few months later. But his message, his enthusiasm, his pure love of the Manchester music was still immediately evident, and hopefully still living on.

(ps. here is a great 2 hour mix of music presented by Pete Tong and Mike Pickering on BBC Radio 1’s Essential Mix - truly gives a sense of the breadth and depth of the music to come out of that time)

You know, had they put up that big of a fight, back in the day, the world might be a different place…

I present the Image Fulgurator. (The site is in German, so the link is wrapped in a Google translation). Basically, this guy created a projection system that senses a camera flash and briefly shines a projected image on a surface. If the camera that took the picture was pointed at that surface, the project image is part of the picture taken. The cool thing is that the image is only momentarily projected, so most people would not notice it until later when looking at the captured image.

For example, here is a picture of the Reichstag in Berlin, with a momentary projection of a fire on it, recalling the Reichstag fire of 1933.

And here is a short video of the device in action, and people’s reaction to it.

This originally came out in 1972 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Words_You_Can%27t_Say_On_TV) on Class Clown. Still relevant, still funny:

I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I think is important. They’re my work, they’re my play, they’re my passion. Words are all we have, really. We have thoughts but thoughts are fluid. Then we assign a word to a thought and we’re stuck with that word for that thought, so be careful with words.

I like to think that the same words that hurt can heal, it is a matter of how you pick them.

There are some people that are not into all the words. There are some that would have you not use certain words. There are 400,000 words in the English language and there are 7 of them you can’t say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to 7. They must really be bad. They’d have to be outrageous to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here,you

7 Bad Words. That’s what they told us they were, remember?

“That’s a bad word!” No bad words, bad thoughts, bad intentions, and words. You know the 7, don’t you, that you can’t say on television?

“Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cock Sucker, Mother Fucker, and Tits”

Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that’ll infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.

“Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cock Sucker, Mother Fucker, and Tits”

Wow! …and Tits doesn’t even belong on the list. That is such a friendly sounding word. It sounds like a nickname, right? “Hey, Tits, come here, man. Hey Tits, meet Toots. Toots, Tits. Tits, Toots.” It sounds like a snack, doesn’t it? Yes, I know, it is a snack. I don’t mean your sexist snack. I mean New Nabisco Tits!, and new Cheese Tits, Corn Tits, Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits, Onion Tits, Tater Tits. “Betcha Can’t Eat Just One.” That’s true. I usually switch off. But I mean, that word does not belong on the list.

Actually none of the words belong on the list, but you can understand why some of them are there. I’m not completely insensitive to people’s feelings. I can understand why some of those words got on the list, like Cock Sucker and Mother Fucker. Those are heavyweight words. There is a lot going on there. Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling.

I mean, they’re just busy words. There’s a lot of syllables to contend with. And those Ks, those are aggressive sounds. They just jump out at you like “coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer. coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer.”

It’s like an assualt on you. We mentioned Shit earlier, and 2 of the other 4-letter Anglo-Saxon words are Piss and Cunt, which go together of course. A little accidental humor there. The reason that Piss and Cunt are on the list is because a long time ago, there were certain ladies that said “Those are the 2 I am not going to say. I don’t mind Fuck and Shit but ‘P’ and ‘C’ are out.”, which led to such stupid sentences as “Okay you fuckers, I’m going to tinkle now.”

And, of course, the word Fuck. I don’t really, well that’s more accidental humor, I don’t wanna get into that now because I think it takes to long. But I do mean that. I think the word Fuck is a very important word. It is the beginning of life, yet it is a word we use to hurt one another quite often. People much wiser than I am said, “I’d rather have my son watch a film with 2 people making love than 2 people trying to kill one another. I, of course, can agree. It is a great sentence. I wish I knew who said it first. I agree with that but I like to take it a step further. I’d like to substitute the word Fuck for the word Kill in all of those movie cliches we grew up with. “Okay, Sherrif, we’re gonna Fuck you now, but we’re gonna Fuck you slow.”

So maybe next year I’ll have a whole fuckin’ ramp on the N word.

I hope so. Those are the 7 you can never say on television, under any circumstances. You just cannot say them ever ever ever. Not even clinically. You cannot weave them in on the panel with Doc, and Ed, and Johnny. I mean, it is just impossible. Forget those 7. They’re out.

But there are some 2-way words, those double-meaning words. Remember the ones you giggled at in sixth grade? “…And the cock CROWED 3 times” “Hey, tha cock CROWED 3 times. ha ha ha ha. Hey, it’s in the bible. ha ha ha ha. There are some 2-way words, like it is okay for Kirk Youdi to say “Roberto Clametti has 2 balls on him.”, but he can’t say “I think he hurt his balls on that play, Tony. Don’t you? He’s holding them. He must’ve hurt them, by God.” and the other 2-way word that goes with that one is Prick. It’s okay if it happens to your finger. You can prick your finger but don’t finger your prik. No, no.

I previously hinted at the fact that I am involved in a side project of sorts. As I finish up today, I thought I would spill the beans.

I was recently engaged by a software development company to act as an expert witness in a lawsuit they are involved in. Now, I’ve never done anything like this before, but I do have a grip of experience in software development and software development methodologies. I also happen to be good friends with a developer at that company and he recommended me for the gig.

To be honest, although I was interested from the jump, I was also a bit hesitant. Having no experience in it, I also had no idea what would be required from me. Nevertheless, I met with the CTO of the company and he explained the finer points of the case. While I won’t go into the specifics of the case, the claims brought by the other party were ridiculous. I figured it would be fairly easy to make this case. So, I accepted the job.

Basically, the work involves going through source code, writing a report to address the technical claims of the lawsuit, and making myself available for deposition and/or testimony.

Now, like I said, I know one of the original authors of the code. We consult each other on technical matters on a weekly basis - sometimes more often. Sometimes simple things - would you do A or B in this case - sometimes more complex - what are the merits of a certain framework - things like that. Even on a good team, it helps to have a bit of an outsider’s perspective. This also helped me to jump into the code and get a fair understanding of it in no time.

So now, three weeks later, I have put the report to bed. Barring any last minute changes requested by council, I get to sit back. Its a nice addition to the corporate bio, right next to the patent and the awards. It does have me thinking though. I wouldn’t mind doing this again. I guess its time to investigate how to go about getting my name out there as a potential witness for other clients. Even a couple times a year would be some nice extra scratch.

When you take this idea and make a million dollar company from it, just remember to give me my vig.

Setup some applescript to do two things:

1. Fire off an audible alarm. delegate to the Alarm Clock app most likely.
2. If script is not killed within 10 minutes or so, start Twittering embarrassing personal info into the ether.

Caught this band of Scots last night with April. First impression: Dave Matthews Band meets The National. Which is kind of a shame. I had high hopes for them based on reviews (i’m looking at you Ezra) and video clips.

The band prior to them, Oxford Collapse, were no prize for me either. Both Ape and I agreed that they sounded like 80’s rock. Not 80’s synth, or 80’s pop, or even 80’s metal but 80’s rock. Maybe a taste of Genesis and The Kinks mixed up in a wrapper. A wrapper of suck.

Oh well. I can think of worse ways to kill a Thursday night.

from a babelfish translation of a recent email to friends:

thanks to my friendly. if you answered \" sí\" or \" I am one niña\" a
ticket was acquired by you. if you answered \" It would prefer to be
in the camping of jesus\" you are outside luck. i
additionaly will be only shouting like a girl if they have much luck.

if you can figure out the original context - bonus points for you!