Day: April 26, 2003

Last words from William Gibson?

One last post from Gibson at the end of his book tour in Dublin, pondering hyper-branding, the oddity of soba noodles near the Liffey, and…

… winding up where I always eventually do if I’m jetlagged in Dublin: peering throughy the fence at the tiny, deeply strange Huguenot Cemetary on Merrion Row, c. 1693. Grave-markers like Shaker tables carved from stone. Bluebells growing up through boxwood. Litter-spillage from the Merrion Row bus-stop: tall tinnies of Guiness and Linden Village Strong Cider. Deja-vu of soul-delay.

Deja.

Vu.

Man, I’m going to miss hearing new words from that voice every day. But the next novel will be worth it.

Our drinking water filtration system…

…has two cut-off valves. One cuts off water pressure from the main line to the filters. The other cuts off water to the whole sink and faucet assembly—apparently, and to the filters as well, since the two valves are joined for some insane reason. Meaning that if the filter line is cut off, but the faucet is running, pressure will force water through the line to the filter.

And if you’re running the faucet to clean the cups under the filter, which you have removed for this purpose and to replace the filters, the additional back pressure will push water out the top of the filter unit and flood the area under our sink.

Needless to say, this was one of the quickest (and dampest) educations in plumbing I could have gotten. The mess is cleaned up, except for whatever leaked through the bottom of the cabinet and into the unreachable floor space to feed molds and mildews, and I’m onto step three, which is cleaning out the whole system with a mild bleach solution for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Which, by my clock, is enough time to drink a beer and ignore the whole mess.

Blog (or Outline) the Presidential Campaigns

Philip Greenspun discusses things that could be done on the Internet to improve our ability during the next Presidential campaign to understand what the candidates are saying and doing, including distributed outlining and blogging. He suggests that blogging will not help us get a “comprehensive view of any one candidate.” But what if there were a centralized site with a channel for each candidate, like PolState, with a bunch of people having the ability to post information to that channel about the candidate, like BlogCritics?

I invoke LazyWeb. Let’s get a group blog going on this.

Say it ain’t so

Craig spills the beans by pointing to a Washington Post article: Pep Band’s Last Stand. Apparently a rich alum has decided to finally settle the argument over whether the University should have a Pep Band or a bunch of blown-up loonies in uniforms—oops, I mean a marching band.

Chalk up another blow against self determination and for those who lack senses of humor. The irony that the gift comes with money for the performing arts center is not lost on me.