Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Why No Sidelinks: Battling Microsoft

Some time ago I got rid of my sidelinks while trying to see if my site would look better on Explorer. No such luck and I have yet to reset the links.

You all are loved and will be linked to again.

Sometime.

Monday, February 27, 2006

"A Meditation on The Speed Limit Around the Perimeter:" Amazing Video

"55 is too slow for anyone in Atlanta."

Truer words have not been spoken. But if people drove the posted speed limit, what would it look like?



It would look like the movie (found here at Google Video) that was made by some local Atlanta hooligans who drove the posted speed limit on all 4 lanes of the perimeter (main loop of highway around the metro area.) Along with footage of the actual event, pre-drive video has the participants talking about the inanity of the speed limits. Watch and enjoy, this is low-level civil disobedience at it's best.

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Picture snagged from Jalopnik's post Oh Man, Bo Darville Would've Dispatched These Guys Right Quick-Like - Jalopnik

And this is Bo Darville.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Motel Palmont: Now Gone

I heard on NPR last night that the Palamont Motor Lodge was getting torn down, and today I managed briefly to stop by and see for myself. I first saw the motel in October and once again in Brook Novak's pictures.


CRW_0870, originally uploaded by brookenovak.




CRW_0871, originally uploaded by brookenovak.



Now it looks to be cleared in an effort to develop Sweet Auburn.

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From the AJC - Historic Palamont Hotel demolished

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Instead of What I Should Be Blogging About: Bad Back = World Travel

One of the easiest work days left me with an aching back. The Arlo Guthrie show on the 18th was a piece of cake: he had minimal music gear, no props, no hanging elements, nada. That left me operating the spotlight for all of two minutes, and then the rest of the show was just watching. After packing up all his gear, it was home for a night in with the sweetie.

Next morning, backache like I haven't had in ages. That was 3 days ago and its just getting better. So while I was living in the bedroom, trying not to move, I started working with Google Earth. Here's a saying that was posted on their BBS...

"Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to use Google Earth and the BBS and he won't bother you for months, if ever, again." - Mighty Pete

So freaking true. I'm in love with swooping through the globe, zooming in and out at various places, and compiling different folders with places of interest. It started out just fine... and then got a little weird...



The folders...

- Friends and Family (well, that's okay)
- Atlanta Arts and Culture (in hopes of posting a list/maps of local places of interest)
- Las Vegas (for when friends visit)
- Rob's List of Places of Interest (mostly places in Ireland, England and France that have been visited)
- Roadside Attraction, Etc... (an increasingly bizarre list, with an eye towards roadtrips from Atlanta)
- Conspiracy Theory Places of Interest (okay, let me explain)

... there are a myriad of conspiracy theories: from alien abduction, various paranormal happening and the machinations of secret societies. The New World Order is major topic with the U.N. takeover of the country, suspension of civil liberties and the creation of internment camps on American soil. Lists of secret bases and concentration camps are circulated on the Internet as proof of sinister happenings. What better way to see what's up then with medium-res satellite imagery.

Now on my map...

Mount Weather - an unacknowledged Continuity of Government (COG) facility operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Completed in 1958, the underground bunker includes a hospital, crematorium, dining and recreation areas, sleeping quarters, reservoirs of drinking and cooling water, an emergency power plant, and a radio and television studio which is part of the Emergency Broadcasting System.

* A supposed concentration camp in El Reno, CA. Cleverly disguised as a water treatment facility.
* A supposed internment camp in the Desoto National Forest of Mississippi. (Infowars Exclusive -- Detention/Training Camps)
* Supposed Fairbanks Mental Institute/Prison - "Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people." (AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS)

So far, kooky conspiricist aren't doing very well in the fact-checking department. Crazy that!

My back is much better now, and soon it will be back to work. And that means that I will have to actually stop playing on the computer. For at least one day.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Work Pictures: Arlo Guthrie + 1

There's a longer post to be written, but in the mean time, a couple of picture. Both from the Ferst Center, and in order...

H.M.S. Pinafore by Atlanta Lyric Theater
Grant Davis Arlo Guthrie, Feb. 18th, 2006

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Thursday, February 16, 2006

Communicating Through Design: Oliver Byrne, 1847 Style

Visual learning is my thing, I wrap my head around things better when I can see them. Way back when, a mathematician named Oliver Byrnes created a version of Euclid's "Elements."

Euclid's book was to clarify and codify the understanding of geometry. Byrne's edition of Euclid was an attempt to further the clarification by adding color. It was an attempt of explaining by design.



All of Byrne's version has been digitized and can be viewed online.

Knowing that a child of mine will be learning geometry in the future, I look to this book as an option to learn in a different way. That's why the whole book is living on my computer.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Pointless Post Powered By Google: Stephen Colbert's Childhood Home

In his interview, Stehpen Colbert said that he grew up in James Island, South Carolina... on Willow Lake Road.

Thanks to the internet, here's the map. If he gave a street number, well, that would have been just weird.

Billions in technology infrastructure investment to find a satellite map of the street a comedian grew up on.

Monday, February 13, 2006

For Your Bettermentness: Stephen Colbert Interview

Salon posted an article about Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, and links to SF Gate's downloadable interview with the man.

From Salon, "Stephen Colbert, as most people know him, is the host of "The Colbert Report," the hilariously deadly satire of cable news talk shows. He is also, less famously, the youngest of 11 children from a dirt road in James Island, S.C., a former philosophy student at the ultraconservative, men-only Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and a practicing Roman Catholic. Between his deadpan comic persona and unusual life story, Colbert makes for a great interview."

Chronicle Podcasts : Podcast special: TV critic Tim Goodman interviews Stephen Colbert (part 1)
Chronicle Podcasts : Podcast special: TV critic Tim Goodman interviews Stephen Colbert (part 2)
Chronicle Podcasts : Podcast special: TV critic Tim Goodman interviews Stephen Colbert (part 3)
Chronicle Podcasts : Podcast special: TV critic Tim Goodman interviews Stephen Colbert (part 4)

Post-Work Post & Miscellaneous Idiocy

My work schedule is ending tonight after a long week and even longer two days at the Ferst Center:

Saturday 8am - 2:30am (14.5 hours worked) Bocca Tango

Sunday 9am-10pm (11 hours worked) Aquila Theatre Company's Hamlet

It is good to see well-done dance and theater to be reminded that they actually merit the attention they often get. The Booca Tango group was Argentinian tango. Beautiful dancing, live backing band. As a person who never felt dancing expressed anything in me more then a severe-whitness problem, I never search out dance for entertainment. But this was great.

Being that I was never an actor, nor incline to be dramatic, I never went to drama on stage. So, seeing Hamlet performed was a bit of a revelation. But being on the side of the stage instead of in front makes a difference, so I didn't get the full impact. But hearing and seeing the language live gave me better insight as to why I should care about William S.

Now that I am on a brief work hiatus, I'm looking forward to some chill time.

And know for something completely different...

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When misspellings in Google searches result in strange results.

Stock Photo of Two women hodling mirror ball



They really look like they are hodling the mirror ball.

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Jellio Design: Retro-tacky furniture and decorating items like this model-car parts piece...



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“Unemployable choreographer and amateur harpist (M, 62) seeks recovering alcoholic with feeble mind. Own tap shoes an advantage.”

“Beneath this hostile museum curator’s exterior, lurks a hostile museum curator’s interior . . . ”

And you thought the Craigslist personals were strange.

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Normally on display at the Smithsonian, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly was not open to the public on our Washington DC trip. Disappointed, but Masonic Robotic George Washington was pretty craptastic.

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Large Book-Sculpture

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Unplanned continuity in this post, shiny objects in pictures.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Atlanta of Old: Panoramic Maps 1871, 1892, and 1919

I've loved the American Memory site from the Library of Congress for years , and NO!... that's not sad!

The following images of Atlanta come from the Panoramic Maps Collection. The collection includes cities from all over the country and the maps combine landmarks, streets and geography in a slanted perspective. As you will see the images go from broad overviews to highly magnified details of specific areas. The specialized .SID file type used by the Library of Congress allows to zoom in and out, and the maps are captured beautifully. For those inclined, links to Windows and OS X .SID viewers can be found here

Birds eye view of the city of Atlanta, the capitol of Georgia 1871. Drawn & published by A. Ruger.






Note the two railroad round houses (top left lower right) they will be pictured in another map below.

Bird's eye view of Atlanta, Fulton Co., State capital, Georgia. Drawn by Aug. Koch. Hughes Litho. Co. c1892






Here the area's around the roundhouses (top left lower right) have been developed, with the addition of the capital building.


My neighborhood, a little changed.


Oakland Cemetery

Foote and Davies Company (Atlanta, Ga.) c1919









Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Under Where?... Underground Underwear

I've found the underwear I want to give my anglophile wife for Valentine's, but hardcore-googling of the internet is not giving me hope.

So, anyone that can help me find this London Underground Map underwear pictured in this not-work-safe post from Sexy UK Girl will have my appreciation.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Tick Tock, Crazy Clocks

I love when there is an intersection of function and art in machines. Three examples, from 1410, the 1870's and one from 1999.



First, is the Orloj Astronomical Clock in Prague.



Secondly, The Historic Engle Clock at The National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, PA.



And lastly, The 10,000 Year Clock from the The Long Now Foundation

"The idea to build a monument scale, multi-millennial, all mechanical clock as an icon to long term thinking came from computer scientist Danny Hillis..."

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Fat Asian Baby's comment (see comments section) got me hunting for the Strausbourg Astronomical Clock.





Gorgeous. Also found while hunting for the Strausgourg Clock...

The astronomical clock of Besancon

Carillon clock with automata, by Isaac Habrecht

Sunday, February 05, 2006

The Daily Routine: My Sites of Interest

My daily wasting of time online includes but is not exclusive to the following websites. They sate my need for:

atlanta blogging
formal news
strange factoids
unsubstantiated conspiracy theories
high-tech gadgets
art and culture happenings
movie news and hollywood gossip
new music
and smut.

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atlbloggers.net

Got to see what the home-town team is talking about.

Salon.com
Google News
memorandum
MemoryBlog
Early Warning by William M. Arkin
Plastic: Politics, Culture, Point Of View
Fortean Times Breaking News
The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe

Salon is news with a liberal slant. Memorandum is political news mashed up with responses from the bloggosphere. Early Warnings is a covers the intelligence and information world of the US government. Often provides details on big stories that major news network omit. The Fortean Times, bizarro and fun paranormal/UFO/conspiratorial magazine with an online news feed. Orlin's site... see Fortean Times and add gratuitous nudity.

New York Times Arts
Arts & Letters Daily
ArtsJournal: Daily Arts News

Makes me feel full of good, healthy, civic-minded culture.

CNET News.com
Wired News
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
BBC NEWS Science/Nature

Being a perpetual 10-year-old geek boy, I like hearing about the latest toys and tech. Being much older I can almost afford them. TUAW is a must for my Apple/Mac/iPod news.

Cool Hunting
Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog
Engadget

Tech/trendy sites covering the latest in what the cool kids are buying. Cool Hunting introduced me to this item which was bought as a Christmas gift for a friend...



The friend being a rocking one bought me this Batman/Christmas-themed shirt (from Threadless T-Shirts) also first seen on Cool Hunting...



Eonline- The Awful Truth
Obscure Store and Reading Room
Daily Rotten: Weird News

Trashy gossip and news stories in poor taste pretty much undoes all the good influence the arts and culture websites do.

Ain't It Cool News
FilmThreat.com

Indie movie news, early info on projects and fanboy rantings about who going to screw up a beloved comic-book to be turned in to a movie.

things magazine

Related/unrelated lists of interesting sites. I wish I could be employed doing what they do.

Pitchfork
Scenestars
stereogum
music (for robots)
ready rock moe rex
Fluxblog
Copy, Right?
largehearted boy: a boy, a girl, and his radio
Basic Hip Digital Oddio

When I was 13, I got my FCC broadcasting license and was a summer DJ at WSUC. My love of music really started with my exposure to their huge record library and it continues to this day. All of these sites point me to bands and songs that I would never have heard. Which explains why I have a bitching cover of Donna Summer "I Feel Love" by Cobra Verde, and why I was listening to Album 88 fav Wolf Parade 9 months ago. The MP3 bloggers are internet DJ's exposing people to great music and acting as advocates to bands that may not be otherwise be heard.

beatnik sidearm

In anticipation of moving to Vegas, online research led me to Geoff Carter. The man was our first contact in the city once we arrived and I'm better off knowing him. He now resides in Seattle and dates a roller-derby girl.

Nerve - Scanner
Viviane's Sex Carnival
Rare Erotica

Smut is hard to find online, but these sites cover the naughty bits quite well.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Food That Will Kill You!.. Right Here in Atlanta

When I was a kid, I would come home from school and sometimes make;

A peanut butter, potato-chip, dill pickle and apple jelly sandwich,
and a glass of half Pepsi/chocolate milk.

Yummm!

Now that I am an adult, I knew I had to change my eating habits. So, when I heard of the Luther Burger, I had to investigate. Luckily for me, I hit paydirt in Atlanta.

First stop, Mulligan's (Google Map), home of the Luther and the Hamdog.



The Luther was the creation of singer Luther Vandross, who when found his kitchen lacking hamburger buns, used donuts instead. Mulligan's started serving Vandross' creation to the people as a public service, and there was much rejoicing. If you have recently watched the The Boondocks on Cartoon Network, the Luther was featured in the Granddad's soulfood restaurant.

The Luther picture above comes from the Texas Burger Guy's Luther Burger and Hamdog Pictures!!!!! post. The site is loaded with burger joint reviews and pictures from around the country.

Mulligan's second contribution was the Hamdog.



The picture says it all. The helpful diagram come from the absolutely Not-Safe-For-Work! site Consumption Junction. Seriously. NWS.

Moving away from Mulligan's, is Ann's Snack Bar, home of the Ghetto Burger.



Ann's is good food served with a heavy hand. She takes no lip and you better know what you want or you will be out on you ass with no food. There 's a list of rules on the wall that are not to be broken. Think I'm joking. here's one review on Citysearch...

"I recently had surgery on my back and couldn't sit down, and all Ann could say was read the rule sign and you should have gone to a place where you could standup. I will never go there again and I will advise all my friends never to go there either."

So, either be ready to take any order given or don't go to Ann's.

So, if anyone local is itching to hit these spots, I'm looking for company to join me. Drop me a line and be ready to push the wheelchair.

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Flickr: Photos tagged with Ann's Snack Bar
Flickr: Atlanta Rollerderby Girl With Hamdog
Texas Burger Guy: Luther Burger and Hamdog Pictures!!!!!
Hamdog and Luther Burger at Scam City version 9.0
Metroblogging Atlanta: Hamdog and Luther Burger
The "Creative Loafing Best Of Atlanta" Caravan
It's a deep-fried train wreck, but I can die happy | ajc.com

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

State of the Union: No Real Thoughts, Just a Picture

While at work last night, a bunch of us crowded into an office to hear what GWB had to say. As John Stewart has said about him, "he has no doubt in his mind," about anything. I'm inclined to track down his speech just to see what he had written for him.

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