Monkinetic Weblog

Paul Murphy wrote an article for Linuxworld, Take A Mac User To Lunch. Recently he posted some reactions to the article, with some corrections and other good info. Check it out.

Jodi reviews a couple movies we've seen recently, Tron and Dr. Dolittle. We picked up a couple classics at the library - a deal Blockbuster can't touch. -)

Last week, while Jodi was away visiting family, I went up to the Grand Canyon for a couple days. I needed to get away and get some time to reflect and get "centered" - the last month has been pretty tough on Jodi and I. While there, I met up with a Swiss couple, Reto and Daniela, who hail from a small town in Switzerland very near to the one where I spent 3 months in school. We got to talking and reminiscing, had tea Wednesday evening, and decided to hike together Thursday. You can see them in the quicktime movie below. (Assuming I got the object + embed tags right).

Consulting: "If you're not part of the Solution, There's good money to be made prolonging the problem."

I know I've not made a habit of talking politics here - as a non-linear thinker I often have trouble making a "logical" case for my positions. Anyway, I've been thinking lately about the whole tax scheme in these United States, and I think it's time for a flat, single-rate income tax.

Saturday morning, blogging while curled around a bowl of cinnamon cafe-au-lait. Mmmmm.

Jim tells me he's been talking about flat taxes for years on HBWT, and pointed me to fairtax.org. BTW - the "Fair Tax" they support is not an income tax, but a sales tax (overview here). Meaning it's very transparent - you know what you're paying and when. An interesting approach.

Thanks of course to the imdb, I recently discovered that the original M*A*S*H movie was directed by Robert Altman. We recently saw Gosford Park, another Altman movie. It was excellent - see it. Heh - MAS*H makes more sense now than it did at the time, knowing Altman directed it.

OK, you must know by now I am a movie junkie. I love movies. Jodi, my wife, is too. We love to chill in front of a new flick, or an old favorite. I discovered the Internet Movie Database a couple years ago, but since getting our wireless network in place, we hardly watch a movie or television without the TiBook nearby, open to imdb.com. Then we follow stars, co-stars, supporting actors, and cameos from whatever we're watching to wherever we saw them last, and beyond. A movie junkie's dream, indeed!

[Via Aaron] Music video from Royksopp, "You Remind Me". The video is done in classic "infopgraphic" style, following an office worker's day. This is one of the most innovative things I've seen in ages, even if the music is fairly classic euro-techno-pop. (Catchy though).

I'm not the only one...

Doc Searls writes a longish essay on the state of "Big Entertainment v. the populace".

Those who know me know I'm a bit of an experimentalist in the kitchen. This evening while trying to find something interesting to put in an omelet, I tried some Indian ginger pickle. Now I admit this was an odd combination, but you have to admit, you never know unless you try, right?

Oy. It's 3 am, and I can't stop blogging. I channel surfed (old-school surfing, with a remote -)) my way through the last few hours while blogging bits and pieces - I think I've gotten most of it out of my system, but I'm making up for lost time here.

Now that RealPlayer is available for Max OS X, I'm listening to NPR live. Can I just say how cool this is!? I know, I'm late to the game, but this is awesome.

I almost posted something earlier today titled "All blogged out". Sometimes I think I lose my "voice", lose track of why I blog. And just as I'm about to write my farewell post, something in my head clicks, and I think "oh, I've got to blog that..."

After some frustrating circumstances at Macrobyte, this site went off the air for a week, as some of you may have noticed. Sorry about that. Everything is back up now, however, thanks to Seth's hard work.

I heard a great story on NPR today: Making the Perfect Iced Tea. Although I grew up in Virginia, my parents were both from elsewhere - so I didn't grow up with a traditional Southern Ice Tea tradition. However, my mother did turn me onto one great thing: "sun tea".

[via Jim] Poynter.org has anarticle about different kinds of weblogs and the uses they can be put to in the corporate or news world.

As some of you know, and some of you have figured out, and some are about to discover... I've been out of work for about a month now.