gnooks.com

Ah, gnooks.com. The place on the internet for intelligent discussions about fine literature. Like this discussion about Joseph Heller, the author of "Catch 22"

400 Freeware programs.

400 Freeware programs. Some of these I have blogged before. It's missing at least one good program Ardour a freeware multitrack audio recording program. Now if they just organized this list a little it might actually be useful.

What's Your State Beverage?

OK, so everyone knows their state flower and bird ..... right? Well even if you don't, you must know your state beverage. Here's the exec summary from some mildly trustable website....

18 States claim milk as their state beverage (LAME!). NY claimed it first in 1981, so the rest of you states need to find something else.

2 States claim branded soft drinks. Kool-Aid for Nebraska and Moxie for Maine. MOXIE? Are you serious? Have you ever drank that stuff? Holy crap, this one needs to be overturned by the state supreme court. But apparently Maine has a real "sweet" spot for the stuff.

South Carolina claims "South Carolina Grown Tea". Screw the Chinese.

And the winner... the only state that has the balls to claim an alcoholic beverage... Alabama with "Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey". I wonder what Clyde May paid for that?


And if state beverages don't do it for you, maybe you want to look up your official state dirt. NY's is Honeoye.

Victorinox Goes Off the Deep End

Hey, I'm a big fan of the Swiss Army Knife but I think they are starting to go crazy in Switzerland. Apparently normal metal tools jammed into a knife aren't cutting it anymore (har dee har har). So first, Victorinox comes out with the Swiss Memory knife. Basically a normal knife with a usb memory stick jammed in it. These usb memory thingies are showing up everywhere and I have no idea why, since the whole point of the internet was to stop people from having to put files on a piece of plastic to carry around in your pocket. That's another rant entirely. So with the success of the ipod and the apparent ease of putting an mp3 player in anything, Victorinox decided to stick one in a knife. I don't think they sell them yet, but they are on the way. I stumbled across this on the Victorinox website, when I was thinking of getting a new knife to replace my old one of almost 30 years. The old one has had 30 years of wear and still works but it could probably use a sharpening and it's likely that getting the thing sharpened will cost more than a new knife. Welcome to the disposable society. Anyway back to my 30 year old knife. I don't imagine that any mp3 player is going to last me for the next 30 years since electronic gadgets seem to go obsolete in just 3 years. Also couple with the fact that putting a knife on your mp3 player basically makes it impossible for you to use your mp3 player on a plane. I think the ipod has every company going nuts trying to cash in on a piece of the digital music gold rush. I thought decent, 100 year old companies like this were immune to fads but I guess I'm wrong, and yes, I think mp3 players are a fad. Very soon an mp3 player/recorder/radio is just going to be another feature in something else that you already have, and stand-alone mp3 players are going to seem pretty silly. How many of you buy a stand-alone fax machine and a printer and a scanner? Doesn't that sound silly? When I'm camping and I reach for my knife, mp3 player isn't on the top of my list of survival tools. Sorry Victorinox, cute idea but dumb.

From a notebook on my desk.

You're damn right! Pitman Still Rules!! Pitman! Pitman!

Drawing of the week. (Linda, who doesn't actually exist)

Another practice of drawing women's faces. This isn't based on anyone or any photograph it's just a drawing from nothing. I'm not that great at women's faces, and most of them end up looking effeminate men, so I'm practicing. The holy grail of drawing a woman's face is to draw one that is totally bald. The hair is to much of a visual cue and distracts from real female facial features. This one looked pretty good bald so I added hair. I also got sick of naming files like practice_female_portrait_2, so I named this one Linda. The first name that popped into my head.

How to throw out a computer at 811 10th ave. in NY

FYI, here's the procedure in the minimum number of steps ....

1. have the front desk guard buzz you into the building
2. go to the front desk
3. punch, in your key code
4. verify your identity with a hand scan
5. fork over an id
6. sign in
7. get a key
8. get a second card key
9. get an electronic ticket created to let your truck drivers in.
10. have the front desk guard buzz you into the inner door
11. go to the 16th floor
12. get a piece of paper to allow you to get stuff out of the building.
13. have the 16th floor call the loading dock to get the truck drivers on the list
14. go to the loading dock and show them your paperwork
15. get the guard to open the garage door
16. get your truck driver to park at the loading dock
17. get the security guard to operate the loading dock ramp
18. take your truck driver and or movers to go to the front desk
19. have the truck drivers fork over id's at the front desk
20. have the truck drivers sign the book
21. have the front desk buzz you into the inner door again
22. get a hold of the freight operator
23. take the freight elevator to your floor
24. punch in your key code again
25. scan your hand again and go through the first door
26. use your keycard to get through the second door
27. use the internal floor elevator to get your pallet to floor level.
28. use your key to get into your cage
29. get your computer
30. lock your cage
31. take the pallet down the internal floor elevator
32. call the freight elevator
33. itemize the server that you are taking out on yet another piece of paper
34. sign the trucker release form
35. get the guards to verify your inventory
36. have the truckers load the truck
37. get the guard to operate the loading dock ramp
38. get the guard to open the garage door
39. go back to the front desk and hand in your key
40. hand in your key card
41. sign out
42. get your id back
43. run like hell