Author: Karel Kerezman

  • It Can Be Over Now

    The only thing worse than a hot day in late summer is feeling too lousy to go to work on a hot day in summer, and thus missing out on the joys of air conditioning at one’s office. I understand that tomorrow the temperature’s supposed to top out at around 80. That’s a big step in the right direction. Huzzah, and stuff.

    In other news, a VHS-to-DVD project I’ve been working on for a few days now will bear its first fruit some time in the next hour or so, if all goes well. Wish me luck, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

  • Not Okay, Okay?

    Sitting peacefully in my chair, then suddenly feeling lightheaded and completely disconnected from my body, is not okay.

    This message brought to you by the “I Hate Summer” Committee. I’m ready for more 70-something high temperatures now, thankyouverymuch…

  • Skip the Spider Genitalia

    Who says science can’t be beautiful? Check out the winners and other contestants in the first annual “Art of Science” competition…

    Art of Science Gallery

  • Today, I love Google.

    This is awesome. Finally there’s a Jabber server that has widespread name recognition and a huge preinstalled userbase.

    Wow.

    If you use Gaim (like I do) and have a Gmail account (like I do, and if you don’t I have invites to spare), check out these instructions. Otherwise, just follow the link below and either get their software (it includes voice chat, which I don’t specifically need) or find out how to configure your multi-IM program of choice.

    Again I say: Wow.

    (Oh, the Gmail account thing? Apparently you won’t need my invites: “Google Talk requires a Gmail username and password, and starting today, Google is making it easier for anyone in the U.S. with access to a mobile phone to sign up for a Gmail account. When users visit http://gmail.com and enter their mobile phone number, they will receive an invitation code via a text message. This code enables them to open an account.” Go figure…)

    Google Talk

  • To Serve Funny.

    I was reminded, thanks to this bit of gaming humor that someone emailed me this evening, that on the way home Sunday the in-train movie was Madagascar. I won’t bore you with a lengthy review (in short: not horrible, occasionally clever, decently animated, minus points for major plot obviousness, and the lemur dance party song is too catchy for its own good) but I had to tell you about the one bit that made me laugh out loud.

    Yes, I get weird looks from people I travel with quite regularly. C’mon, this is me we’re talking about.

    Anyway. At one point the lemurs are in a state of panic, and one random lemur holds up a black book on which is written, “To Serve Lemurs,” and he cries out, “It’s a cookbook!”

    See, it’s funny because it’s a reference to one of the more subtly dark Twilight Zone episodes. I mean the original TZ, not the watered-down nonsense we’ve seen in recent years. Anyway. During this year’s 4th Of July festivities here at the house we caught a lot of TZ (SFC runs a marathon every year), and “To Serve Man” was one of the selections. If you haven’t seen it, well, if you’ve paid attention up to this point you can guess the twist in the story.

    How did I get here from there? Look at entry #8…

  • Other Useful Callings

    In one of the many debates to be found raging in cyberspace about what the Founding Fathers “really intended” by way of separation of Church and State, I found this little chestnut:

    “The clergy, by getting themselves established by law, and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man. They are still so in many countries and even in some of these United States. Even in 1783, we doubted the stability of our recent measures for reducing them to the footing of other useful callings. It now appears that our means were effectual.”

    — Thomas Jefferson, 1800

    I just love that “other useful callings” bit, really. And then, of course, there’s this concise summation:

    “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

    — George Washington, Treaty of Tripoli

    In case anyone was wondering.