The Murder by Perjury Park Place Log



if windows xp is smart enough to realize that the device would operate faster if it was plugged into a USB 2.0 port, why isn't it smart enough to realize that there aren't any?


whoso meddles in affairs that are no business of his, will hear truths that will not please him.
    — the arabian nights (lang)


the other day i couldn't remember julianne moore's name; the best i could do was be pretty sure that either the first or last begins with J.  i'll be honest: that made me a little sad inside.


[i]t's surprising how fast you can go downhill when you begin to feel sorry for yourself.
    — my man godfrey


dear people who make electronic devices,
    unless you're shooting for "as small as possible", don't use AAAs.  not only are they far less cost effective than AAs, the latter gives us the option of using lithium for better cold weather performance.  on a related note, use a D in a wall clock instead of a AA.


like a corpse in a shallow grave, corruption rises to the surface.
... the defiled victim mutely screams its outrage.
    — soul reaver: legacy of kain.


i don't care how svelte the spy005 and 007 looks, if you use a nub for the negative contact instead of the ever-popular spring, it's one step shy of a moral imperative that it be long enough not to render any batteries useless.  some lashes in the public square are definitely in order.


The Pride of Authorship Park Place Log



so there i was, sitting at the computer, in between bites of a klondike krunch seeing if there were any more exercises at the body-for-life site that i could perform using my macgyver-esque set-up while the printer was going to town with my twelve weeks of exercise plans.  one of my resolutions is "get in shape by my birthday", which, on the surface, is probably more generic than it should be, but it's not generic enough that it won't be obvious if i don't manage it, so i obviously have my work cut out for me.  (smirk)  doubly so since i'm only taking the nutrition-for-life part as a casual suggestion.


we have many artists about, but no craftsmen.
    — a bucket of blood


not too long ago i noticed that my market pantry bottled water bottle - which is actually filled with well water - reads that the water is "enhanced with minerals for taste".  that's correct: the ingredients are purified water, magnesium sulfate, potassium bicarbonate and potassium chloride.  i wonder how much cheaper bottled water could be if it wasn't enhanced.  or like whole wheat bread, would it be more expensive?


this was perhaps the happiest day of aladdin's life.  he should have been a bit more pessimistic.  he always said, "a pessimist is someone who really knows what's really going on."
    — the arabian nights (lang)


i finally got around to trying elmer's chocolates, and while they rank up there with the best filled chocolates i've had - keeping in mind that i'm not a big chocolate person - they don't strike me as having anything to do with new orleans.  or ponchatoula, for that matter, which is actually where they're located.


most of our problems can be solved.  some of them will take brains, and some of them will take patience, but all of them will have to be wrestled with like an alligator in the swamp.
    — harold washington


granted, i really shouldn't consider the matter closed since the only two fruitcakes i've had are from sun-maid and claxton, but it doesn't seem to be among my favorite desserts.  (which is of course not strictly correct english, since you can only have one favorite per category.)


Why is this string on my finger?



Look at that: a new year.  It's beginning to be that you can almost come to expect them like clockwork.  The nice thing about a new year is that nothing gives people a quick burst of gumption like an artificial delineation between The Past and The Future.  I believe that in some circles it's referred to as the Clean Slate Theory.  Which of course brings us to resolutions, which is a non-threatening way of saying 'goals'.

I haven't come up with mine yet, but that's partially because i've been distrac- busy, and partially because i want to come up with meaningful ones that i can complete (and which stay kept), if only for novelty's sake.  And that's the crux of them, isn't it?  As anyone who's come up with good ones knows, it isn't as simple a task as we were led to believe as children.  They need to be specific enough to be meaningful, yet have enough looseness of wording that you have a bit of slack.  For starters, unless it's 'breathe', i don't recommend you have a daily resolution.  Even weekly ones are dangerous unless they're dead simple.  This one i learned first-hand, and i'm going to have to make some changes to my logs as mondays have been coming up a bit too quickly as of late.

I haven't stamped the list official yet, but i'm going to go with more seasonal than yearly ones this time around.  Giving me a whole year to do something is just a bad idea.  I might as well just call it a December '09 resolution.  I may have monthly and even weekly ones as well, but that granularity would mainly be to help keep me honest.  Of course, some of you reading this didn't get caught off guard by the new year and have already come up with yours, and to you i say 'la tee da'.  The rest of us are going to put some thought into this and be ready to go by the eleventh.



everyone is ready for the future;
it's the present that gives us difficulties.
:: michael malley