Some nice stuff here:
Cosmotions: timelapse photo animations of the real cosmos
Now playing: Leech – Studer- Van Dam. Dir: Plasson – “Ainsi que la brise légère”
(And so appropriate for the day after we’ve returned from a week away from home…)
(It just keeps cycling, BTW: there’s no way to pause it.)
If I started detailing the number of hardware, software and lifeware glitches I’ve suffered through in the last two weeks, I’d be here all day…and I have a lot of things to catch up on right now: so never mind. …Anyway, just a note to those of you who’re The Big Meow subscribers and may not have seen a mail from me yet: Chapter Four is finally in place (and incidentally about twice the length of previous chapters).
Please use your Chapter Three login info: the chapter 3 gateway page has the links to Chapter Four. If you’ve misplaced your login info (I’ve had mails from a few of you about this), just mail me with the word ACCESS in the subject line and I’ll remail you what you need.
The disruptions of the last couple weeks have meant that the turn-in dates for the next few chapters are going to have to be revamped with an eye to making up the lost time. Please keep an eye on the Big Meow weblog for details of the dates.
Thanks!
Apologies to everyone again. The work-related thing that occupied the middle of last week suddenly (after having apparently been put to bed) reared its ugly head once more early on Friday, and had to be dealt with all over again until late yesterday evening. I’m finishing work now on ch. 4; it should go up late tomorrow night.
(argh) Sorry about that.
For those who’re interested, another challenge grant has just gone up. A kindly donor has pledged $400 toward the completion of the Big Meow project…if subscribers / donors match it.
The last challenge was completed in something like three hours. Let’s see how long this one takes… (And to all of you who’ve already subscribed or donated, thanks again. Chapter Two of the book is running to schedule and — assuming that we hit this chapter’s subscription “break-even point” on time — will be available to the subscribers on April 3.)
My favorite article from the Times this morning…
A free society survives partly because the powerful are mocked, and their pretensions undermined. Religions, which guard their own illusions carefully, are particularly ripe for satire. And they should be…
Orwell once remarked that one reason fascism never took off in Britain was because the sight of a goose-stepping soldier would prompt your average Englishman to giggle. Someone is now silencing the giggles. And our world is a lot creepier because of it.
Tags: cartoons, South Park
This point may take a little time to get to, so bear with me.
Peter and I are getting ready to do an afternoon cooking demonstration at the local hardware store, thus doing something to deserve our local reputation — most easily summed up as “You know, those two crazy people who live just outside of [name of small village omitted], the Americans — ” (at which I roll my eyes, because no American would mistake Peter’s accent as anything USAnian, though everyone here does) — “the ones who’re talking about food all the time, did you hear about the dinner they made for Pat and Mary Courtney… oh, they’re writers? Sure I didn’t know that. What do they write? Anyway, they made this terrific rolled pork loin and this rosemary-smoked lamb…”
— anyway, that reputation. So as part of the prep for this event (which will be happening at Quinns of Baltinglass on Saturday, February 25th, between 1:30 and 4:30, don’t miss it if you’re in the area), I went off to look for some pictures of Baltinglass Abbey to use as part of the promotional handout that Kieran the manager asked us to whip up. (The theme of the afternoon is “Bought in Baltinglass”, and the gist of the demonstration is to show that you can do incredible gourmet things with what’s available in a medium-sized Irish country town these days.)
And while looking around for photos in Google (to see if there was anything better than the pictures I might be taking myself this afternoon), I found — at the bottom of a page of pictures of someone’s megalith-ruin-stone-circle-seeking tour of Ireland, a disclaimer.
JonSullivan.com is not responsible for your own dumb ass. For best results, don’t be a dumb ass.
JonSullivan.com is not recommended for children under 13. Parents should be aware that this site contains: discussion of sex with blow up animals, gratuitous amounts of profanity, and really wacky shit we can’t even classify, much less recommend to little tikes. Expect misrepresentations, false assertions, and malicious deception.
While using JonSullivan.com, please refrain from operating power tools, underwater breathing devices, powered enema machines, or the “Thigh Master”. Failure to comply with this rule may lead unscrupulous types to hack into your web cam and post incriminating pictures of you at “Am I Hot Or Not?”
Improper operation of JonSullivan.com can lead to insomnia, dropsy, toe loss, addiction to yogurt, very small fingernails, rapid eye movements, aversion to French cuisine, and spastic colon. Among other things. Don’t make us list them all. You get the idea. Just be careful. It’s not a toy. You could put an eye out for God’s sake!!!
And there’s much more.
Jon (whoever he may be) has brightened my day. Must send him some recipes as soon as I finish packing up all this eBay stuff to be mailed out…(that being the rest of today’s business, just about. You wouldn’t believe how it can complicate your life when your little local post office shuts down and you gave up your car five years ago).
Re the Rolling Stones’ halftime performance:
About 2,000 volunteers surrounded the stage to give the performance the feel of a “real” concert, even thought it was largely designed for television viewers.
The NFL had originally tried to ban anyone over the age of 45 from dancing near or on the stage, but it backed off after it was pointed out that the average age of the Stones was 62.
Oh, Gods forbid anybody over 45 might be seen dancing. They could be passing themselves off as young: horrors!!
(eyeroll) Yet another reason for me not to bother with US football. Thank heaven spring training will be starting soon…
You won’t be finding this one on eBay any time soon.
Secretly stored in a loft in England since WWI, this 1917 Sopwith Camel #B6291 was discovered by a former Royal Flying Corps Camel pilot with the cooperation of Sir Thomas Sopwith. Carefully restored to flying status by British Aerospace Co., at last it is here now in the U.S.
Nothing compares to this remarkable and historical fighter that once flew over the battlefields of the Western Front in 1917. This is the most desirable Camel existing in the world today.
Additional information at the Vintageaviation.net sales listing area suggests (via recent valuations of the aircraft) a price of somewhere between USD $1,800,000 and $2,600,000.
Sigh…