this is where i enter text

20090225

Slapchop?

I'm terrified, and yet I cannot look away:

Slapchop!

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douglas adams

xkcd

keeps making me link to it

by linking to my brain.

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20090207

Droptop Moon

There is nothing quite like driving somewhere tropical in a very fast car with no top.

Daysun feels lovely on skull as the warm breeze leads on. The constantsun tempered by the windtunnel between ears. The profile of your idea(l)s hardened by the onslaught of the quickfastnopause acceleration at your toetips.

Permeating Helios imposes his high unrelenting arc of heat upon all. Accept this rush of power and push on for immortality in the infinitude of infinitely divisible/multiplied moments. PushPush Past Zeno's eternally shrinkingnose-leading Tortoise.

[Achilles] ain't got shit on me.

And then, the night. Moonlight through the permeable non-roof: Refreshilvernly. Contemplative reflection of immolating fire, Artemis pierces straight T hr O ugh the soul. Fear of her full glory leaves only glimmering glimpses. Easily unseen in the absence of the burning daylight, a calm consumes. The need for speed subsumed slowly by the need for beauty.

The Sea on this side. The Mountain on that. Poseidon and Gaia lit right by the moonlight. Appreciative views of muted chiaroscuro images provide relief from existence. Brightbeauty now subsumed into glowing radiantbeauty. The rainbow of [intense color]flavors washed out to study how beauty is a [gleaming] one [color]note.

Writ right by the moonlight:
Thank you beauty on and ever anon again

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20090203

SW dispatch

It's (all) about the coffee

Finally, a superb breakfast and a great cup of coffee.

Breakfast was an omelet with an actual fruit cup instead of a leftover canned fruit cup. The omelet was light and airy and yet full of the fillings I asked for. The coffee was a light-roast S.American (my favorite!) picked from 4 real selections and 2 fakey-decaf selections.

Finally. For the past couple of weeks, I've been up early in Vegas and various parts of Arizona only to find that all breakfasts are crappy. Which is not too much of a surprise, but you know what? Somewhere there should be a solution. (Admittedly, the $5 steak-n-eggs breakfast at Bill's in Vegas was perfect after the night of $1 margaritas, but that's unusual breakfast. Same with the In-n-Out burger second breakfast on Sunday of New Year Fest.) There is at least one more place in Vegas to check out, and I'll be in LA for at least one early breakfast, but really? I've got to work to track down a place for a great breakfast? And why can't anyone make coffee? Anywhere? This is what drives folks to Starbucks (that and the ubiquity of Starbucks as an "alternative".) Their coffee is way above average, but it pales in comparison to a true coffeeshop. (That said, I've not tried the Clover yet. Anyone up for a fieldtrip to Boston? Oh wait... since the Starbucks TakeClover denies the existence of non-Starbucks Clovers, we have to sleuth to be reminded of places like Cafe Grumpy in my own pseudo-backyard.)

Anyway, the point is that coffee, with or without this Crazy Clover Machine (or the other Crazy Machine) has complex flavors and the notion of "coffee-flavored" is reductionist at best. Like all else, variation is beauty. The normalization that we humans put into the process (witness our mass-produced, easily palatable but ultimately non-distinct food-products at any (non-)local chain restaurant.) is artifice. Manifestation of the human need for an illusion of control over the future (much like cellphones used to call folks when you arrive at a destination and find yourself GASP! All Alone for a minute or two. Instead of accepting divergence, we ask our gadgets to verify the veracity of that patently false [equa/assump]tion: all=alright). The preference for the known over the undiscovered country (if you don't know that reference, I'm not pointing it out for you. Go to school, read a book or get flagellated with a folio until it passes through your extra-thick skull) pervades even our selection of food.

Oh, and the cinnamon rolls are really good with a Stout Coffee rather than a regular cup.

Lesson: Take pride in your work, whatever it is. Encourage others to do the same. As Atmosphere tells us in "Guarantees" The only guarantee in life is life worth dying for." Or take the wisdom that k-os lays out for us in "Valhalla":

"The life you've been looking for is the one that you've led."

So... stop giving me compromised coffee, assholes.

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me

"He's just this guy, you know?"