NOTE: this blog is no longer active as of 12/07. New one: http://blog.kirchhof.com
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
Sun, 30 Apr 2006
Colbert Rules
Stephen Colbert just did the White House Correspondents
Dinner. (On CSPAN; it'll air again tomorrow, Sunday, at 11:30 AM Austin
time.)
Amazing. He ripped apart everything, with the President
sitting four feet away and turning very, very red. Poor little Georgie
was not a happy man tonight.
Colbert's shout-out to Scalia alone is worth your time. The
Helen-Thomas-as-Terminator skit is wonderful.
Worth watching. (It'll probably be on the CSPAN site as on-demand
video in a few hours.)
[ UPDATE: It's available on google video now. ]
Posted at 00:03 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Wed, 26 Apr 2006
Everything's (Im)Peachy!
God
Bless Illinois.
The Illinois General Assembly is about to rock the nation. Members of
state legislatures are normally not considered as having the ability
to decide issues with a massive impact to the nation as a
whole. Representative Karen A. Yarbrough of Illinois' 7th District is
about to shatter that perception forever. Representative Yarbrough
stumbled on a little known and never utilized rule of the US House of
Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the
United States House of Representatives, which allows federal
impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state
legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125
(hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was born.
Detailing five specific charges against President Bush including one
that is specified to be a felony, the complete text of HJR0125 is
copied below at the end of this article. One of the interesting points
is that one of the items, the one specified as a felony, that the NSA
was directed by the President to spy on American citizens without
warrant, is not in dispute. That fact should prove an interesting
dilemma for a Republican controlled US House that clearly is not only
loathe to initiate impeachment proceedings, but does not even want to
thoroughly investigate any of the five items brought up by the
Illinois Assembly as high crimes and/or misdemeanors. Should HJR0125
be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the US House will be
forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment as a
privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House
business.
Posted at 13:03 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Sun, 23 Apr 2006
...And Day II
Man. American Graveyard is a great band. If I had to put together
my dream engagement, it would be AG, Back Porch Mary, and Houston
Jones all on the same stage. Of course, the energy would probably
create a spontaneous black hole and swallow the earth...
Fun day. Long day. Hot day. But we were well supplied with liquids
and BBQ; it takes a lot to get me to turn down brisket, but by the end
of the day, I was craving a salad. I think that's what's for dinner
tonight. :)
Posted at 11:12 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Sat, 22 Apr 2006
Nutty Brown Day I
Fun. I am here to tell you that there's a band called Turbo 350 out
there, and verily, they rock. Let's put 'em in the testosterone
psychobilly category, I guess.
I think that they all channel the spirit of Jerry Lee in 1953;
bottle of bourbon in one hand, fourteen year old girl on his lap,
pounding on his axe with the other hand, and singing to some other
girl to shake it.
Exceedingly loud, fast, and fun. Their version of Johnny Cash's
"Cocaine Blues" would be approved by the master. Go see 'em.
Off for round two.
Posted at 12:32 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Fri, 21 Apr 2006
Worst Ever
A good article in Rolling Stone about the worst president ever.
Posted at 12:10 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Thu, 20 Apr 2006
The OVP
Read about the most powerful, the most secretive, and quite
possibly the most criminal Vice President in history.
Posted at 15:45 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
The Audience Is Listening
Ever wonder who did the THX music that we've all heard countless
times at the movies? Well his name is Dr. James "Andy" Moorer, and
the back story of how
it was made on a mainframe is over here. I always thought that it
was a synclavier. Nope.
Posted at 13:46 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Okay, This Is A Neat One
The gas
price temperature map. Right click to see average gas prices in
individual counties; left click to get a local retail price
comparison.
How cool.
Posted at 13:03 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Tue, 18 Apr 2006
Absolutely Magnificent Work
In the frenzy of the previous month, I missed an article over at
the Huffington Post on March 21st. It's by Jane Smiley, and it is
called "Notes
For Converts." It is one of the finest pieces of big-picture
political analysis that I've ever seen, and should be read by every
citizen of this country. It should especially be read by political
conservatives of conscience who currently associate themselves with
the so-called Republican Party.
Posted at 12:21 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
G'wan, Mr. Brooks
David Brooks on Rumsfeld in the Times. (No link, because it's
behind the Times Select wall.) This seems a point that nails
something important quite nicely:
If you just looked at his resume, you might think he was the
best person to lead the Pentagon in time of war, but in reality he was
the worst because his whole life had misprepared him for what was to
come. He was prepared to fight organizations. He was not prepared to
fight enemies.
Posted at 09:43 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Mon, 17 Apr 2006
So You Thought You Were A Contender?
Nope.
David's
group wins the geek contest, once and for all. Sorry. Time to move
on; there'll be other challenges.
(Decode it all here.)
Posted at 09:21 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Sat, 15 Apr 2006
We're Number One!
Again. In the
percentage of our population imprisoned, out of all of the
countries in the world.
Let Freedom Ring.
Posted at 20:42 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Fri, 14 Apr 2006
The Wolves
This comes via Peg in Lockhart, and is too good not to share...
The Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that
goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two
'wolves' inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy,
jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt,
resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."
"The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity,
humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth,
compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his
grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
Happy holiday, my friends.
Posted at 14:51 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Background Music For Perl Programming
In no particular order...
- Fire - Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
- Soul Finger - Bar-Kays
- Ahh, Leah - Donnie Iris
- Raspberry Swirl - Tori Amos
- Harbor Light - The Platters
- Broken Hearted Savior - Big Head Todd & The Monsters
- Humpin' - Gap Band
- Nice, Nice Very Nice - Ambrosia
- Thumbnail Moon - Greezy Wheels
- Lila's Dance - Mahavishnu Orchestra
- Cruise Control - Dixie Dregs
- Da Butt - E.U.
- Freedom 90 - George Michael
- He Stopped Loving Her Today - George Jones
- Right Here Right Now - Jesus Jones
- Livin' It Up Friday Night - Bell & James
- Proclamation - Gentle Giant
- There's A Place In The World For A Gambler - Dan Fogelberg
- You Get What You Give - New Radicals
- Hold On - Yes
- Watching Scotty Grow - Bobby Goldsboro
- Tamarind Farm - Itex
- Hill Where The Lord Hides - Chuck Mangione
- Cherry Hill Park - Billy Joe Royal
- Race Among The Ruins - Gordon Lightfoot
- All The Way Home - Spinal Tap
- Remember - Greg Kihn Band
- Keep On Dancing - No Doubt
- Red Roses For A Blue Lady - Dean Martin
- Changes - Loggins and Messina
- 5446 Was My Number - Toots & The Maytals
- Where Have All The Cowboys Gone - Paula Cole
- Bittersweet Symphony - Verve
- No Matter What Shape - T-Bones
- Why Can't We Live Together - Timmy Thomas
- Family - Joe Higgs
Posted at 03:05 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Thu, 13 Apr 2006
Salsa Remix
Back at Christmas, I put up a recipe for a good salsa I'd worked
out. I've since realized that that one has too much onion and garlic,
and have retooled it to down to a dirt-simple recipe. I've been making
this one as written below for the last month, and it really suits my
taste. I don't think that I'll be changing it much anymore. It's a
very geometric recipe, easy to remember, it is heavenly, and it has so
much vitamin C and other goodnesses that you could probably throw away
the one-a-days.
Here 'tis:
Randy Salsa
(Makes pretty much exactly one quart in these measurements)
600g fresh ripe roma tomatoes (1 1/3 lbs)
150g fresh yellow onion (1/3 lb)
100g fresh jalapeno peppers, stemmed (Or less. I like it hot. 50g is
probably a reasonable Aunt Tillie measurement...)
1 tbsp salt (I use non-iodized kosher)
1 tbsp freshly coarse ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic
Juice of one medium lime
Fresh cilantro leaves to taste (that's coriander or chinese parsley to
you people across the pond; a handful of leaves is about right, probably)
Quarter the tomatoes and put 'em into the food processor. Squeeze
the lime juice on top of them (this keeps the color nice.) Cut the
onion and jalapenos into pieces about the size of the tomatoes, then
put them and everything else in on top of the tomatoes. Process to
desired consistency. Grab chips. Grab bath towel. Grab iced tea. Eat
until happy. Smile contentedly.
Don't worry if it looks cloudy or grayish immediately after
processing; that's just air mixed in, and it'll come back out in a
few minutes and be what you expect.
It'll keep in a jar in the fridge for several days, but mine rarely
makes it to sundown. I eat so much of this stuff that I am
inadvertently turning into a vegetarian. :)
Enjoy.
Posted at 19:33 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Tue, 11 Apr 2006
Now
Busy, busy, strange week. Retooling life from the relationship,
pondering life, doing computer geekery -- lots of computer geekery --
loving life, and spending the bulk of my organic CPU cycles pondering
fundamental quantum
chromodynamic questions that are nibbling at me.
Let's go with the latter first. There's always been a fundamental
question in physics: "Why is the universe mostly matter?" The question
is asked in this context: there's no reason that matter and antimatter
shouldn't have been created in exactly equal parts when the original
deal went down. Each quark has an antiquark, and they annihilate when
they come into contact. I don't want to delve down too far into
esoterica, but it's important in this context to know that one of the
foundational building blocks of chemistry, the neutron, is
unstable. Your friendly neighborhood neutron, upon which you depend
for everything, cannot exist alone for more than about ten
minutes on average. It decays into a proton and an electron and an
antineutrino if left to its own devices. They figured that out a long
time ago. Has to do with the component quarks that make it up; its
rest mass is such that it needs the energy of weak-force binding to
hold together. Anyway, Andre Sakharov -- yeah him -- found this
interesting and addressed the question in 1967 with a bunch of cool
math and a couple of extraordinary insights. The first was that in
order to have a matter/antimatter asymmetry, you had to have thermal
variations in spacetime, and at that early femtosecond in time after
the big bang, there was no logical reason to expect that kind of
asymmetry. Particles were changing identities quadrillions of times a
second in that early moment, when all of the mass and energy in our
entire universe was about the size of a baseball. In exploring this to
its end, though, he finally proved a fundamental fact: that time has
to be able to go both ways mathematically for any of this stuff to
work. It sounds simple in English: an electron going "forward" in time
is the same as a positron going "backward" in time, but it has
ramifications. There are subtleties at the fundamental quark level
that have never been answered.
So, anyway, let's wrap this without writing a physics text. It has
been assumed that there is some difference in the rate of decay
between matter and antimatter - that one of yer basic quarks has a
preference that it's not giving up easily. Even one part in a trillion
of asymmetry could account for the discrepancy between matter and
antimatter that we see today. But the elephant in the room has always
been "why?" This new Meson (which my friend Gunnar has dubbed the
BS_Meson, and opines should have been announced on April Fools Day)
throws a pipe wrench into the whole of the works. What are its
constituent quarks? Does it decay to something stable? Are they
constantly being created, or is our supply left over from the earliest
days? In what way? Is it symmetrical? If not, to what degree? In
what direction? How prevalent are they? The rabbit hole gets deeper,
but infinitely more interesting. If the matter-antimatter asymmetry is
an interesting thing to you, well, they've probably discovered the zen
master particle that knows all of the secrets.
That little hyper scutter could rewrite the first four chapters
of every college physics book, and it is just really fascinating. The
fact that it oscillates between matter and antimatter is a
foundational piece of sleuthing. The fact that it naturally
does it, right here and now, at a rate that gets closer to the origin
than anything else we've seen in our present universe is a different
and interesting mystery.
Anyway, I like it. I'll keep ya posted.
--
On to retooling after a relationship. It seems to me that one has a
couple of choices at these times. You can simply cut every old and
unnecessary habit off at the ground level and bleed. That would be the
normal method. It's certainly always been mine. Kind of an ultimate
rejection of the entire experience. Pretend that it never
happened. Eventually the wounds cauterize themselves and normalcy
returns.
It's different this time. I don't believe that I've ever left a
loved one because they chose to simply shut down and Not Be
There. It's a weird one; no anger, no hate, no judgment, no dreams of
reprisal. More like moving on while your beloved is in a hopelessly
unrecoverable coma or something. Irrelevancy compartmentalized. It
becomes a basic exercise in letting another person be free, not just
letting go of something as one-sided as your feelings if that makes
any sense. An act of love. You just have to let it be done, unburden
them, let them become unbeloved for no good reason that you can
discern other than irrevocable circumstance. And that's okay too, but,
as I said, weird in my experience. A first. Kind of bewildering in
those late night stare-at-the-ceiling moments. Feels like there'll be
wisdom in the end, though.
--
And the geekery; ahh, the geekery. Nothing on the plate is
especially challenging, but it is all precision and minutiae. A huge
stack of things that are well defined and almost all at deadline. Not
unlike pulling all of the brown M&M's out of Van Halen's backstage
bowl shortly before they are scheduled to arrive; it has to be done
right, and done right now. The answer in this case is to stop writing
in the weblog and start working it.
Posts will be slow for a few days.
Cheerio.
Posted at 03:00 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Fri, 07 Apr 2006
And This Saturday....
I'll be mixing Acustyka at
Sullivan's
tomorrow night, Saturday the 8th. 8:00 PM to Midnight. They are a
really good band, and it's going to be a pleasure to see 'em
again. Come on by if you're not up to anything else; say hello, and
listen to to a band that will someday be hard to get tickets to see.
Posted at 14:45 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Gonna Be A Fun Weekend Of Knob Twisting
I've just agreed to take on the audio duties this year at the Nutty Brown Music
Fest, which is a private party that the public gets to come to if
you like. Many of my favorite bands are going to be there, including
American
Graveyard, and it'll be a lazy, fun weekend. I am happy. Starts
Friday the 21st.
Website here.
Posted at 14:33 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Springtime
Woke up this morning about 3:30, wide awake. Made a good cup o'
coffee and went outside and sat & enjoyed being alive. This is one of
my two favorite times of year; spring, when the first new leaves are
coming in, and fall, when the first cold front blows through.
Enjoy your Friday; this is, all in all, a pretty neat planet that
we live on, and it's good to be here.
Posted at 09:23 by Randy Kirchhof [Permalink]
[Reload all]
[E-mail]
Mon, 03 Apr 2006
Ere 'Twas Thus
Brothers and Sisters, today's reading will be from the Book of
Human Relations. We shall muse upon the subject at some length; you
can skip this one if you like. It's nothing that you haven't heard
before in one place or another, and it definitely won't be a part of
the final exam.
I am pleased to report that my son and I have moved out of my
erstwhile-beloved's house. We're enthusiastic, settling ourselves into
the new place; we're more than fine. One must assume that she is okay as
well, or at least secure in acheiving terra cognita. I find it
to be marvelously amusing and wholly appropriate that this phase
ended and a new one began on April Fools Day.
Herewith be it known that I am still a big ol' romantic,
and a stubborn old bastard about it at that. I tried, eyes open and
for much too long, to make something work that probably never really
could have existed in the first place. But it had its rare
moments of intoxicating bliss; it had its stimulating challenges;
there were even fleeting moments when it was a near simulacrum of a
healthy relationship. Sadly, though, in the vast remainder, it merely
proved to be a Sisyphean exercise in imbalance that caused monumental
stresses and monumental reactions to those stresses for all involved.
It's like this: some people have quite changeable aspects when they cross
the threshold of home, and you don't discover it until you are a part
of that home. And it must be said that once you acknowledge this sort
of duality in another person, you own it as
your decision from there forward. No exceptions, no
excuses. But it also seems to me that when we decide to immerse
ourselves in folly, as all humans are occasionally wont to do, we
might as well err on the side of loving, n'est pas? Sometimes
you simply
decide to love someone. In the end, not even the deepest well
of love can be squandered indefinitely in the face of irrational
rudenesses and casual brutalities, but it does have the advantage of
not being a destructive force.
I've learned at least a couple of new things.
For example, I know now that there are some people who think that
it's actually
acceptable to work three thousand hours per year, and to
shoehorn half of those into the five months that include the family
seasons from before Thanksgiving to through near-Easter. Not only do I
think that this is prima facie absurd, debilitating in a wide variety
of ways, but it begs an obvious question: what kind of enterprise
would
allow it to happen? Religious cults spring to mind.
And I can report that, in the hands of a true connoisseur, verbal
abuse and abandonment and cruelty and betrayal comprise a multifaceted
and fertile field of endeavor. The tapestry-like interplay of the four
can be truly mesmerizing, and the variety and richness of the toolset
that is available to the dedicated and practiced cognoscente of the
craft is quite impressive indeed.
Let's see; how to illustrate? We could start with enough mouthy
attitude to intimidate a Camp Pendleton drill instructor. Combine it
with a sense of personal entitlement that would embarrass Marie
Antoinette, and then add in a good measure of the diplomatic skills of
a Leona Helmsley. You'll end up with
something, but that something is not going to be a very good
candidate for a long-term life partner, at least not for a man like
me. With the correct frame of mind, though, it can be entertaining within
the narrow confines of its own terms. Not unlike, say, developing an
affection for a deranged badger.
You just have to have the patience of Job, the empathy of
Ghandi, the foresight of Nostradamus, and the reflexes of a mongoose.
In the end, children, I can peacefully state for the record that I
am not that gifted a man, not by a long shot. But I think that the
person in question knows that she is loved. And it may even be true
that love conquers all; the jury's still out in my opinion, because my
love has not yet been conquered. But sometimes it's got to be some
pretty friggin' big love, and sometimes even big love has to shake off
the debris and simply walk away.
And so a chapter ends. I figure that I've got at least a year's
worth of emotional toxic waste to scrub off, splattered on me like so
much tar, and my bullshit meter has been pegged for so long that I
don't even remember when it went into the red. But it's done. No
lasting damages; certainly no worries. Today is a very, very
good day. Peace of mind futures are up, anesthesia expenditures are
going to be way down. I've written up a personal post-mortem
analysis that runs to 14 pages and around 8000 words, and it
identifies and nails the coffin shut on every twisted, byzantine
little aspect of this thing. On the balance, I find myself to be maybe
a bit of a wiser man; this has been an unduly stressful but an
ultimately interesting personal journey.
Heh. I'd wager that this thing has been "interesting" enough that
it could provide a research psychologist with a masters thesis.
Finally, to wrap up these insights, I now know that it is often
possible to predict the moods of a chronically absent and highly
variable loved one, to near 100% accuracy, by observing the behavior
of their pet cats. And I have discovered a new and favored condiment, too.
C'est la vie. Just thought that I'd share; we can all go
back to our happy place now and have a group hug. There's no story
here that hasn't been told over and over by billions of souls since
the dawn of human history. The only reason that this one is
interesting at all lies in the strength and the tenacity of the
players. She has my respect for her superb levels of both strategic
fluidity and tactical innovation in her frantic campaign to counteract
benevolence and lovingkindness. A worthy adversary, she's truly earned
her hard-won irrelevance. But she has not managed to murder my
affection for her, and thusly I win on points.
So neener, neener.
Time to close the book on this one. The Old Bachelor and his young
protégé now embark upon the craft of living well, to
reference half of a cliché. The reserves of the heart are again
refilled to overflowing, and no one over here has been
injured. There's life and lightheartedness and loving, and health and
beauty and honesty and kindnesses to be lived. Any of you who are of
the same mind, come on along in spirit or fact, and by all means bring
along the children.
