Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

I discovered yesterday that I could assign separate ring tones to groups of contacts in my cellphone. I'd sort of known this but hadn't ever done much with it. This information lay forgotten until I started fooling around with ring tones on my phone. Family gets "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream. It's sort of a shitty sound - lots of compression - but for Christ's sake, it's only a bloody ring tone. Choosing a ring tone to match a given person (much less a group of people) can be a tricky business. But not always. Easiest decision I ever made? Assigning the Imperial March (Darth Vader theme) to Work calls. Yes, Lord Vader. Speaking of which, the funniest Star Wars related bit of humor I've ever seen is this bit from Robot Chicken (not exactly Work suitable, unless you wear headphones).

Once again it's National Novel Writing Month . The challenge: write 50,000 words in 30 days. It can be done. There's nothing like spending the Thanksgiving break staying up into the wee hours pounding out pages. You won't have time for that second piece of pumpkin pie. Update on my effort in 2004: I've got 20 pages left to revise in the 2nd draft and then I begin the 3rd pass. If I can get this done before the week is out I'll start the next epic (last year's effort fizzled out in an ignoble failure).

Upper management in my unit held an "all-hands" meeting the other day at a nearby hotel conference room. Breakfast at 7:30. Powerpoints promptly at 8:00. Meetings like this are primarily corporate newspeak: lots of words you sort of recognize, but used in ways that have been drained of all meaning. Still, to the expert listener, much can be learned; more indeed than the speakers usually intends. Here's what I learned: "We need to work smarter, better, faster." Translation: more unpaid overtime. "We are a global organization and our internal customers expect us to be available." Translation: more unpaid overtime. "You can telecommute as long as you use it to address customer needs in the the evening and weekends." Translation: more unpaid overtime from home as well as the office.

Bush is hailing global literacy as a weapon against terrorism. He could start by learning to read the Constitution.

When I was nine, I saw a classified ad about "comics for sale." The address was in the same apartment development, so I went over to check this out. I was thinking this would be a cheap way to feed my addiction. Not so. At the time the price of a new comic was 12 cents. This kid (with his dad, natch) pulls out a couple of titles from a box where they were stored and starts quote prices in the range of five and ten bucks. My eyes glazed. I realized I had come to the wrong place. The plastic bags should have been a dead giveaway. I'm not a collector. I don't have file cabinets full of originals encased in archival sleeves. Collectors are interested in the object: the original magazine. For me it's about the content: the drawings, the stories. I'm not a purist, anthologies and reprints are just fine - better in some ways than originals, since I've always liked to pore over the pages, re-reading the balloons, studying the drawings. Brittle newsprint in plasti...

Interesting read on 10 reasons why high definition DVD formats have already failed . Anyway, that's what I told my kids when they clamored for a PS3.

Microsoft announced Bill Gates is going to transition out of his day-to day role at Microsoft to spend more time focusing on his Foundation efforts. The Slashdot crowd (who I love) alternately sneered and cheered . Me, I thought it was just fine. I mean, geez...the guy's been doing the Microsoft thing for (what has it been?) 30 years? He's probably ready to pack it it, buy himself a dual boot MacBook, and enjoy himself and his family for a while. In the meantime, he's going to give a shitload of money away to help improve life for a lot of people. Some have compared him to the Robber Barons of the 19th century who, in their old age turned philanthropist. Who cares? Andrew Carnegie sure did start a bunch of libraries which are still serving communities. Steve Ballmer, now HE'S probably pissed! Have fun, Bill!