Sunday, April 20, 2008

Song for Yom Tov

Well I came across a child of God, he was walking along the road
and I asked him tell where are you going, this he told me:
Well, I'm going down to Yasgur's farm, going to join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.

We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon,
and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

Well, then can I walk beside you? I have come to lose the smog.
And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning.
And maybe it's the time of year, yes, and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am but life is for learning.

We are stardust, we are golden, we are caught in the devil's bargain,
and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.

-JM

Friday, April 18, 2008

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Talkin' 'bout My Generation

I wonder what it would be like to be from a generation that wanted to please its parents. I suppose that's the norm, but to a childless boomer everything mentally healthy young people do seems bloodless and shallow, on whatever side. It all seems to be a quest for parental approval, not for creativity or self-actualization.

This may have something to do with why waiting around for youth movements isn't going to amount to much. It's not all roses, but maybe we really are a special generation. Nobody will ever have parents as out of touch as ours were. We were on opposite sides of the Future Shock.

We really had no guidance. This led to many very bad things and many very good things.

Maybe the future is still up to us.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Folk etymology

Now that's one for the books. Spotted online:
Legally Google can not be in kohutz with Yahoo.
heh

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

So Hip It Hurts

Huh.

I bought a Scion xD because it seemed practical and comfortable. I wasn't trying to be brash or act other than my age. I just wanted a car.

Apparently this makes me so hip it hurts. Or so unhip I can be hip by accident. Which is the same thing I guess. Somebody in Chicago was amazed by the thing, wnted to talk about it and figure me out like I was riding Ken Kesey's bus.

The fact is just that apparently I am missing some neurons. It looks exactly the same as any other hatchback to me. I prefer to buy cars from Toyota because their stuff works. I got a silver one because the red color was even uglier.

I like the steering wheel controls of the audio system, but the dash controls of the radio are among the worst user interface designs I have ever seen, and I used to run Windows 3.1 . The roof is too low and the vertical extent of visibility a bit cramped. Everything important works, and it works great for small Ikea runs. City mileage isn't great compared to the Prius but it's really pretty good on the highway.

Update: Luigi refers to its "bug eyes". The headlights are indeed a bit distinctive. I rarely approach the car from the front though and I really hadn't noticed.