Boston Sucks, But Boston Mooninite Terror Victimization Apologists Suck More

More follow-on from this week's Mooninite terror attack dry-run.

Thursday night, I was listening to CBC radio show As It Happens; they were talking with Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory, who was at the press conference/farce/performance art by The Mooninite Two, Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens.

McGrory was somewhat peeved, since the two clowns weren't sufficiently contrite at their press conference to soothe ruffled feathers caused by the ridiculous overreaction of the Bostonian homeland security apparatus.

However, he put this up in Bostonians' defense -- that Boston is particularly sensitive to terror concerns because of what happened on September 11th.

Come again?

Here it is at the 6:29 mark [Real Audio]:

"Before you make fun of us, you've got to remember that two planes on September 11th took off from Boston and we are particularly sensitive about these kinds of things."

Ah, I see -- because two of the 9/11 flights took off from Logan (and one of them was essentially a terrorist lay-over), Boston has been particularly victimized by terror and should get special consideration.

Generally speaking, he seemed to be a reasonable with most of his other points, but he falls off the deep end again with this homer howler (7:50):

"It's a really tough call on whether somebody overreacts or underreacts. Obviously, Boston is the only city that reacted like this, but Boston also has a tough history with terrorism in America."

Unless Boston had some spate of domestic terror in the 60s or 70s that I'm overlooking (or maybe he's counting the Big Dig as terrorism) I would suggest that McGrory and the rest of Boston just take their lumps on this one, instead of trying to play the "9/11 affected us particularly hard" card.

In other words, shut up, you sound like a douchebag:

Tags: aqua teen hunger force, bomb threat, boston sucks, greg mcgrory, mooninite two

My Blog Month -- What My January Entries Say About Me

I don't have a "who am I/what's this all about" entry, and my profile is pretty bare, so I highlight entries I like in my sidebar.

I was going through my January entries for new links, when I started wondering: What kind of story am I'm telling about myself to someone who only saw my January postings?

Except for stupid sci-fi/HTML jokes, I have a sense of humor (or I think I do).

I chew a lot of gum, and I like flashlights and other types of gadgets, since I have a lot of them on on my keychain.

One of the TV shows I watch is '24', and I've been watching it for a while. I don't go to movies too often (though I have a lot of DVDs), but fancy myself somewhat knowledgeable about film.

I think and write a lot about blogging. I even talk about it, though I need some practice, even if I don't have a Philly accent.

I go out in Arlington pretty regularly, and I talk about my local goings-on (including the state of area strip clubs) and participate in the DC blog scene.

I'm most likely a Duke fan.

I carry my camera around a lot, and I take a lot of photos. Some of them don't even suck.

So that was my January.

Tags: monthly summary

The Moon Rulz!! (The Mooninites Pwn Boston)

If I have to explain it, it's not going to be funny:

It's censored out of the photo, but Inignot is flipping the bird as hard as he can.

Well, okay, I'll explain it a little bit; there was a bomb scare in Boston today, due to a couple of "suspicious objects."

They turned out to be magnetized LED signs promoting the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters.

They look pretty cool at night. However, in the daytime, they looked threatening, since terrorist bombmakers today like to use Lite Brite sets to make their bombs as conspicuous as possible.

So, since we live in a state of constant fear, there was a great big hassle, and Boston freaked out (though it turns out that these signs have been in a bunch of cities, for 2-3 weeks.)

Anyway, despite being big ole 'fraidy cats, the stalwart American people will not be deterred!

Remember, there are no false alarms, only terrorist dry runs! The price of liberty is eternal vigilance! We must defend ourselves against terrorist sprinkler parts and animated cartoon characters with five... thousand dimensions.

1-31-07: NEVER FORGET

"1-31-07 Never Forget" Image by Fark user Toonz

Tags: adult swim, aqua teen hunger force, bomb threat, Ignignokt, mooninites, never forget

No strip clubs? What the hell kind of planned community is this?

Forget about the lack of cemeteries; Reston has a couple of big hotels (the Hyatt and the Sheraton come to mind), but no strip clubs (let alone any within easy cabbing distance from said hotels).

Don't see the demand? Au contraire -- here's a referrer from about 10:30pm, Tuesday:

(Reston Sheraton Hotel)
Virginia, Reston, United States, 0 returning visits

Date	Time	WebPage
30th January 2007	22:29:48	www.joelogon.com/blog/labels/auctions.html www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8 &rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS205US205&q=Strip clubs Reston%2c VA

Looks like it's discreetly billed hotel room porn for you, fellow traveler.

Now, if you could get it past the zoning and planning boards, a strip club in Fairfax or Loudoun County would make a fortune. Like that would ever happen. (Though I hear the Board of Supervisors in Loudoun County gets pretty cozy with real estate developers. I sense possibilities.)

As it happens, I guess the closest titty pastie bar would be Crystal City Restaurant (never been, though I have been to the Crystal City Sports Pub a few times, which I am told, is run by the same people). Though from here, and especially given the presence of nipple-coverings, you might as well go the whole hog and into the District.

Nuclear Fallout Causes Boredom

Spoilers ahead for '24', season six, 11AM-12PM
******************************************

• Looks like the country has gotten a lot more relaxed when it comes to the detonation of nuclear weapons on US soil. People were rioting and cougars were attacking after a nuke went off in the middle of the Mojave Desert in season 2. Now, 12,000 people and Magic Mountain get vaporized, and there are a few fender benders and a helicopter crashes.
  
  Oh, and there's some political infighting in the bunker. Geez, maybe people would be more freaked out if the terrorists had a
  
  
  

  Dancing Baby! Never forget.

  
  
• Wow, what a great plan, Mr. FBI-Agent. It only requires that the Confidential Informant that you recruited on-the-fly be a trained pickpocket.
  
  And there's no chance Mr. Cellphone Terrorist-Wannabe would ever check his outgoing call log. Nope. Don't know why cellphone makers even bother to include Call History anymore, since it's such an obscure feature no one uses.
  
  
• "CAUTION: Keep away from babies and small children. The thin film may cling to nose and mouth and prevent breathing. Do not use this bag in cribs, cots, beds, carriages, prams, playpens or field interrogations without proper training. You have to trust us!"
  
  
• Apparently, when the president refuses to accept your resignation, you don't need a two-thirds majority to override him.


• Hrm, Karen Hayes gets military transport to LA. Which means she'll make it inside the blast radius within a few episodes.


• Milo better wipe down Tech One after his menage with Mick Schtoppel and Chloe before he doinks Nadia. Maybe he has some anti-static handi-wipes in his desk.


• Agent Curtis is still dead.
  

Look, I'm not a super-huge stickler when it comes to realism in 24, as long as it's interesting, exciting, or moves the plot around. But post-Visitor-Number-1 has been BORING.

About the only things that would have saved this episode would be McCarthy's bimbo giving him a handjob in the car to reduce his "stress," or Pops Bauer putting the whammy on Rocket Romano's security team with a well-timed "Baa-ram-ewe."

Tags: dancing baby

The Only Person I'm Stalking Is Me

Saturday, I went to my friend Reed's place in Dupont Circle for a party. It was a party for his birthday, though not necessarily a birthday party.

I'm there for about 30 seconds, saying my hellos. As I go to drop off my jacket, I catch a glimpse of someone who looks familiar, but nah, that can't be him. Re-enter the room, and suddenly from behind, there's a pair of hands over my eyes and a voice telling me "Bet you don't know who this is."

My previous glimpse confirmed, I forego the double-arm trap/elbow smash to throat/knee strike sequence (it would have been rude to the host) and say, "Wayan, get your hands off my glasses, you're messing them up."

So that's where the DC Metblogs item ('A small DC blogging world after all') and photo stems from:

Photo by Wayan. Notice the tendrils growing out of my head.

The DC-area Blogging-with-a-Capital-B scene isn't all that big, so I'm not surprised that I've run into Wayan a few times, though the random house party encounter was kind of odd. But am I stalking anyone? Not presently, though if you would like to be considered for stalking, please send me a mail or leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

However, this does give me an excuse to dive into my draft post pile.

Interesting (If You're Me, or Stalking Me)

---

When I do vanity searches, I find that looking for Joe Loong finds me pretty well -- I own the first view of results, with a mix of work and personal stuff.

However, Joseph Loong does considerably worse, in that you can find me, but only in a roundabout way.

The explanation is simple: I really only use Joseph on official documents and such. Since middle school, I've pretty much always gone by Joe, which carried over to my cleverly-constructed online handles ("Hi, I'm Joelogon." "Cool, what's your name?" "Um, Joe."), Web sites, and later my blogs and online profiles.

Of course, my business cards say "Joseph" -- I will have to consider the implications of this.

It's partly because of the proximity of my personal stuff with my work stuff when you search on my name that's got me re-evaluating this whole concept of trying to keep your work stuff separate from your personal stuff online, which is a fading concept that I still cling to.

There are plenty of folks out there, the A-List bloggers and such, who've fully embraced the concept of using their names as brands for everything they do, such that there really isn't a distinction anymore between their work/non-work, or even public/private lives. It's very Hollywood-ish.

Though I've noticed that:

1. Bloggers' transparency always stops at a certain point (even if that point is much further along than the rest of us might hope). It's the blogger equivalent of when a regular celebrity goes into rehab and drags out the "I hope you'll respect my and my family's privacy during this sensitive time."
   
   
2. I'm also not trying to launch any companies.

I should be more used to this, I guess. I've never been particularly difficult to find, even in pre-Internet days -- there just aren't that many Loongs in the phone book in the U.S. -- lots and lots of Leungs, but not many Loongs.

Tags: google, joe loong, seo, vanity searches, wayan

Here We Go, Heat Pump, Here We Go! *Clap-Clap*

I'm watching the Duke-Boston College basketball game right now (Duke's up, we're 4 minutes into the second half), and during a commercial break, I learned that I can get an Affinity heat pump by York in one of 7 custom designer colors, or more importantly, sporting the logo of your favorite NCAA Division 1 college.

They include a handy preview widget:

Operators are standing by.

As it happens, York is now a subsidiary of Johnson Controls -- you may have seen the name on a thermostat somewhere, though they have their fingers in all sorts of pies. A girl in one of my classes back in college grew up in the Marshall Islands -- her parents worked for Johnson Controls, presumably supporting one of the military bases or missile test sites out there.

I always thought it was kind of sinister -- it had that Omni Consumer Products feel to it.

Tags: heat pump, johnson controls, york

Are You an Older/Newer or a Newer/Older? (Or, Proof That the Washington Post Leans Left)

While reading the Washington Post's Express blog, I noticed something annoying:

Their Previous/Next navigation is backwards from what I expect:

Previous 10 Posts [older] | Next 10 Posts [newer]

It bugged me until I figured it out.

Now, since timelines usually start with older dates at the left, moving towards newer dates at right, I guess this makes sense.

However, since we read from left to right, having the newest stuff at the "left" side of the timeline is a more natural and more expected behavior for me.

But if you're going to use metaphors, what about paper diaries? The first entry is the earliest entry...

I think because blogs are reverse chronological anyway (their defining characteristic -- the new stuff goes on top), flipping the timeline so the newest stuff is anchored at left has a certain symmetry to it.

Looking at other blogs, say, Engadget, a Weblogs, Inc. blog that uses Blogsmith:

Previous Page [newer] | Next Page [older]

Over at GawkerMedia blog Wonkette (are they still on Movable Type?) they do the same thing:

Previous [newer] | Next [older]

And you know, those guys don't agree on anything.

Lastly, looking over at Valleywag, even though they're also GawkerMedia, they're so forward-looking, they can't go back:

Next [older]

Taking the opposite point of view, it looks like Wordpress blogs default to

« Previous Page [older] — Next Page [newer] »

I don't think we Blogspot/Blogger users even get a vote in the standard templates.

Anyway, the « [Older] | [Newer] » folks could bring up browser forward/back navigation, and the « [Newer] | [Older] » side could counter with Top 10 lists (editorial top 10 lists should always start at 10 -- to start at 1 is anticlimactic).

Muddying the waters further, I realized that the Gawker & Weblogs blog networks don't really have calendar-based archives -- Gawker's archive pages go « [Newer] | [Older] » within each month, and Weblogs blogs don't do monthly archives. Obviously, calendaring goes from « [Older] | [Newer] », so that's another one for the ONs (making the other side the NOs?).

So basically, it's a big mess, and someone's always going to be annoyed (even though all we right-thinking folk know it should be « [Newer] | [Older]» )

At the very least, I would say the "Previous" and "Next" labels should be replaced with "Older" and "Newer," to take away any ambiguity and remove the misleading linguistic baggage that the Previous | Next labels carry with them.

In the classic new media "make it a user preference" cop-out-to-avoid-tough-but-ultimately-meaningless UI decisions, just label the links clearly and let the blogger choose. That way, people could use whatever scheme they wanted, readers are happy, and I wouldn't have such a headache.

(Oh, and something else irritating about the Gawker blogs? The "Next" link at the top of the page doesn't do the same thing as the "Next" link at the bottom of the page -- the top page link goes to the next entry, while the bottom page link goes to the next page [with multiple entries])

Tags: blog archives, gawker, newer, next, older, previous, reverse chronological, weblogs

Voting Machine Security: I'm All Over It

Back in my entry where I talked about my keychain, I mentioned that I'd Photoshopped the bumps on my house key, so no one would be able to duplicate it from the picture.

Ha-ha: silly, right?

I'm a fricking genius. Or at least, compared to the Diebold people. [link via BoingBoing, who seemed quite gleeful about the whole thing.]

Tags: diebold, locksmithing

The State of the Onion, 24 and the H&R Block Box Bitch

You know, I think the chimp-in-chief didn't do all that bad of a job giving the State of the Union this time around. At least in terms of delivery. Well, except for that whole "assed/asked" thing. And I have mixed feelings about that bit of pandering to the fairer sex when he referred to Pelosi (who, truth be told, does have an incredibly annoying voice.)

Though Dikembe Mutumbo?

The Jim Webb rebuttal was hardcore, though.

Looking over at my catchup viewing of '24', I think the primary takeaway is that Rocket Romano's wife Marilyn is HOT. (She's also apparently wheelchair wife from Heroes, so there's that Monday night connection.) Also, Milo, Chloe and Mick Schtoppel are going to have a three-way in Tech One. And soon.

Finally, if you've seen that H&R Block TaxCut software commercial -- the one where the husband and wife are getting audited because they used Turbotax, and the wife keeps going on about how they should ask the box for advice?

Man, what a bitch.

Tags: sotu, bitch

Fat Penguins and Scenes from the Snow

This no-camera thing is sort of liberating, actually.

I met up with the folks at the Boulevard Woodgrill (the original plan had been to hit up RiRa, but there was a line).

The bar area there is really narrow and crowded (which is a little odd, considering that by the end of the night, the rest of the restaurant is empty.) It makes for lots of incidental contact and some okay people watching -- I had my eye on a large chocolate cake, as well as a trio of young bucks trying to pick up on 2 girls (leading in with the ever-popular, "we got a round of shots for you.")

There was also a comparison of different pickup lines/jokes -- Jenny led with "Fat Penguin," and Scott countered with the Reese Witherspoon stabbing (which is a joke, believe it or not)

We got kicked out at midnight and went to Galaxy Hut (where we met and hung out with a visiting Aussie named Dan); after that closed, we went to Ryan's house (after a brief encounter with an Arlington County fire truck that was blocking my car in).

I didn't get home until around 4am. I also rediscovered that the left travel lane at the intersection of Reston Parkway and Baron Cameron Ave does not trip the roadbed sensors that trigger the traffic light.

Snow Day

---

I woke up this afternoon to the snow. I had some vitally important errands to run, so I blatantly disregarded any suggestion to stay off the road. My ABS kicked in one or twice, but it was generally okay, though I did see:

• A seven-car accident on the toll road (two cars were facing the wrong direction; only a few of them looked smashed up, though)
• A Trans Am driving backwards on Sunrise Valley Drive -- the bit by the golf course is hilly, curvy and surprisingly treacherous; I guess he couldn't make it.
• A couple of cars high-centered on medians or slide off the side of the road, as well as a few just abandoned in turn lanes.

Anyway, I survived. I would prefer to have the unseasonably warm January we had before, though.

Tags: arlington, boulevard woodgrill, fat penguin, galaxy hut, snow, winter driving

My Camera Committed Suicide

Well, I may have helped it along a little bit.

When I turned on my camera today -- an obsolete-when-purchased 3.2 megapixel Canon SD200 (which I got in October 2005) -- the lens extended a bit, then the screen went black, except for an error code in the bottom left corner: "E18"

Doing a search shows that when the lens gets stuck (possibly due to foreign object debris), it throws an E18 error. It happens soften enough that it has its own Web site.

The Web site suggests a few measures, including a few varieties of "helping" the lens along.

I think I may have been a little too helpful.

I may have to take it apart, and I'm not confident -- I think I already damaged one of the connectors.

I like the Canons; heck, if I can get an SD200 cheap, I may just replace it, since I like the form factor. However, I would like something with better low-light performance, since at high ISO settings, the pictures are awful noisy.

So if I can live without a camera for a while, I may poke around and do some more research.

On the plus side, if it's irrevocably broken, it gives me some time to catch up on my backlog of untreated photos.

Tags: cameras, canon, e18

Blogger Meetup Says: Virginia Is for Snipers

I went to the revitalized-for-2007 DC Blogger Meetup on Wednesday at RFD & dragged along my friend Adam (who has a blog, but hadn't been part of the dcblogs.com scene).

It was pretty hopping. I had a few Leffes. I also took this picture of the men's room wall:

"Virginia Is for Snipers" and some other quotes.

Saw a bunch of familiar faces and met a few new folks. I also:

• Called someone a blog groupie (though in actuality, she had a blog but didn't cop to it until afterwards -- a first, I think).
  
• Was reminded by Amber that we first met at a blog happy hour (my first) almost precisely a year ago.
  

Here's my sole other photo from the evening:

Eventually, we got a ride back into Arlington and hung out at Ragtime for a couple. I'd never been before, oddly enough, and had been led to believe the demographics were pretty favorable, though I didn't see much evidence of that.

Tags: dc blogger meetup, rfd

Late Night Shots Kinda Makes Sense to Me Now. Also, Women Are Bitches.

I just finished reading Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins (the other books in that library run were How to Survive a Robot Uprising and The Men Who Stare at Goats, so don't even).

While the book could have used more topless pillowfights (or any topless pillowfights, for that matter), and some of the interpersonal dramas got a little tedious, it was a pretty good read (as long as you define "good read" as "confirming every negative stereotype you ever had about sorority sisters, college girls, and the entire female gender BITCHES BITCHES THEY'REALLBITCHES")

Anyway, the Late Night Shots crue hasn't made it into Wonkette for a while, but reading the book puts the whole "what if a girl was lying about what sorority she was in"-thing into context.

The comments on the book's Amazon listing are also pretty interesting (if by "interesting" you mean "depressing." As with modern American political debate, a viewpoint different than your own = crippling bias.)

My own college experience is pretty irrelevant to this -- other than a few friends who were sisters, my only experience with sororities was walking through the quad during rush and hearing this low murmur, that slowly grew into a hum, then droning buzz, then an overpowering, mind-destroying goose-squawking of a thousand inane conversations going on at once.

There's probably a larger point to be made about slavish adherence to ritual, conformity, conspicuous consumption and political conservatism, but I'm not going to get into it.

Anyway, as long as I'm dipping into the old college memory hole, I do have one mildly amusing anecdote that involves a sorority, but I will have to see if I still have the physical evidence before I can talk about it.

Tags: alexandra robbins, late night shots, pledged

An Amazing New Way to Listen to Your iTunes Collection

Late last week, I discovered a great new way to listen to your iTunes collection (it should also work for most other digital music playing software). It's real easy:

1. Open iTunes
2. Sort by "Artist" (It should automatically group an artist's songs by album -- if not, you may need to choose "Album by Artist" or sort again)
   
3. Uncheck the "Shuffle play" mode
4. Hit the "Play" button and listen to the songs (this is crucial) in sequential order!

This is revolutionary. I may try to submit a patent.

************************

Sadly, this "discovery" is due to the fact that my primary music device has been a 1-gig iPod shuffle for a while, and my portable behavior has affected my desktop listening behavior.

After being on shuffle mode for so long, I also find that I'm a lot more impatient with songs, hitting "next" after only a few seconds.

Forcing myself to listen to songs in album order really helps when I'm trying to stay in the flow of something -- without some smarter song/beat/genre matching, shuffle can be awfully jarring at times.

Tags: itunes, shuffle