08
Nov 05

Gigantic Apes Coexisted with Early Humans

Gigantic Apes Coexisted with Early Humans “A gigantic ape standing 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds lived alongside humans for over a million years, according to a new study. Fortunately for the early humans, the huge primate’s diet consisted mainly of bamboo.”

Gawker Media peeps annoyed with Movable Type Slowness “Ever since I started posting to Lifehacker several times a day, I’ve developed a deep resentment for the software that publishes the site, MovableType. There are days when it takes between 40 and 50 seconds to publish a single post. Fifty seconds probably doesn’t sound like a long time to you, but when you do it a couple of dozen times a day – what with edits and updates – we’re talking about almost half an hour of my life, snatched from me. I’m a perpetual mugging victim.” MT has been in my experience good for sites that don’t update all the time, but bad if you’re constantly rebuilding and adding content. Add to it the license situation and WordPress stands out as the superior alternative.


08
Nov 05

Solid. Solid as a rock.

I had a weird moment of synchronicity just now. That’s been happening a lot lately. This morning after I got out of the shower I started up Winamp to play some music on the computer in the faint, passive-aggressive hope of disturbing my upstairs neighbor, who we’ve dubbed ‘Kid Rock’ due to his unneighborly redneck ways. Kid Rock likes staying up all night with his equally redneck friends who stomp around above and chortle at each other as “Dog” or “Hey, Dog” in their booming oafish voices. I’ve only seen him a few times in passing with his characteristic wife beater and distended beer belly, but I have had plenty of opportunity to study him and his many sounds while laying awake at night praying for his death. Kid Rock is fan of football I surmise because there can be no other explanation for the excited hooting and hollering that comes bouncing through the ceiling each night. He’s also a smoker judging by the noisy traffic in and out of his patio door every five minutes. There is an on and off girlfriend who comes over, or who did. Once she was beat on (so it sounded) and thrown out of the apartment where she laid on the landing along with a smashed PS2 leaning against the wall. Jody and I went outside to intervene and Jody called the cops on him. It looked like she had come over just to get the once unsmashed PS2 because her grey Altima was double-parked in front of the building. She didn’t stay long enough to speak to the cops. She just grabbed the PS2 guts and drove off. Despite their troubles they seem evenly matched, him with his wife beater shirts and her with her squat shape, ankle tattoo, and those ubiquitous black sandals with the foam soles so many squat women wear to look taller.

But I digress. Let’s just say I have a broiling, impotent hatred for Kid Rock and delighted in the opportunity to wake him up or to at least catch him while he drifted off to sleep since I was up earlier than normal and had some spare time. I heard him stomping around until about 4 am because I stayed up to read Deliverance by James Dickey after my marathon nap. Then he slowed down and went quiet around seven. That’s when I started playing Ashford and Simpson’s smooth 1985 soul anthem “Solid“. I’m not sure if it woke him up or not. Let’s hope so.

When I got to work, I started a pot of coffee and cranked up the XM Radio and “Solid” came on the radio again. This seemed weird to me, at least weird enough to mention.


08
Nov 05

I only sleep to dream

Iggy Pop and Tom WaitsWhen I finally made it home from Dallas Sunday night it was two am. I was dog tired and had trouble staying awake and alert. I would have stopped to catch a brief nap, but I was so close to Austin that I just drove the rest of the way fighting sleep and nearly running off the road.

Dallas is close. I didn’t realize how close until I started driving it once a week. I only need three hours to get there, which, after driving six or seven hours to see Jody’s folks, doesn’t seem like far at all. I’ve been driving a lot more lately. Being with Jody I’ve had to get over the weird reluctance I have to drive long distances. I’m an old hand now. I remember the first Christmas I drove up to Coalgate, OK in my blood-clot-red ’87 Crown Victoria hemorrhaging a trail of oil. It was cold and pitch dark this Christmas Eve 2003. The panasonic mp3/cd player thumping random Depeche Mode created an eerie tunnel of dark calm. To keep myself awake I bought a pouch of Backwoods cigars to chew on. This is one of the benefits of driving alone since I don’t know many people who would be okay with loud 80’s cheese and cigar smoke.

Yesterday evening I got home from work and tried to watch Coffee and Cigarettes. I put it on pause because it was too slow, called Jody for a little bit then fell promptly to sleep for a marathon seven hour nap, which has culminated with me writing this entry at three in the morning. I had the usual dramatic dreamery full of hotels, police chases, and homeless people then I woke up with the lights still on and my head throbbing from the heat in the apartment. The loaf of cheap wheat bread and crumby paper plate were still in front of the television where I left them with a frozen black and white scene from Coffee and Cigarettes glowing at the edge of my bed.


07
Nov 05

McRib Challenge

It’s back for a limited time, McRib that is. That means it’s time again for the McRib challenge. This time starring Casey Thorpe who has vowed to eat ten McRib Sandwiches in the span of one hour. I don’t think it’s possible, but I’ll be there for the spectacle trying to take photos.

Not Casey Thorpe

02
Nov 05

asides – 11/2/05

Lot 328: a pair of embarrassing trousers “You are bidding on a mistake. We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.

And we buy leather pants.”


01
Nov 05

Mophoning009.jpg



Mophoning009.jpg, uploaded by letterneversent at 1 Nov ’05, 7.00pm PST with nokia 3220.


01
Nov 05

There is a moral to this story

I beebopped out to my car this fine, crisp like an apple morning and noticed the back right tire was flat on my car. Hey, no problem! I’m an expert at changing tires. It’s one of the five essential manly skills, second only to bug squashing. Ha! I laugh in the face of the whole concept of flatness.

I took all the crap out of my trunk (why are there Christmas lights in there?) and pulled out all the odds and ends necessary to get the job done. Spare… check. Tire tool… check. Dinky scissor jack… check. Then I loosened the lugs and starting jacking that bad boy up. I got the flat tire off and pushed the donut onto the hub. Then I started the lugnuts back on. Wait a minute, that spare looks a little low. Jesus, it’s completely flat. That means I did all this for nothing. Oh, you have won this time, flat tire, but I’ll be back.

The lesson here is always check your spare before you get too excited.


31
Oct 05

Overly simplistic movie review: “Capote”

Capote:

Great movie. Is really less about Capote and more about the events surrounding the writing of In Cold Blood, the true account of the brutal murder of a rural Kansas family. Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal is top notch and the film itself is beautiful and often funny. I left feeling heavy with thought and emotional stillness, which to me is the sign that I have seen something worth seeing. This feeling persisted. Highly recommended.


31
Oct 05

Best Form Letter Ever

Today I received the best form letter ever. I’m thinking about getting it framed because things like this never happen. It was completely unexpected in the sense that I have never heard of this. Read the full letter below.

Dear NTHEA Borrower:

North Texas Higher Education Authority (NTHEA) is a non-profit student loan secondary market. Because of our non-profit status we are able to offer our student loan borrowers benefits that other agencies / lenders may not. One of these benefits is rewarding student loan borrowers by forgiving the remaining balance on their student loan(s).

We are pleased to inform you that the remaining balance on your student loan(s) owned by NTHEA and serviced by Nelnet, Inc. have been forgiven. Your loan(s) are now considered paid in full and will be reported as such to all appropriate parties.

Because this forgiven amount is less than $600.00 you do not have to report this amount as income to the federal government, and you will not be receiving a form 1099 from us.

NTHEA thanks you for your business. If you have future student loan needs we encourage you to choose an NTHEA lending partner.

If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-800-366-4372 or metro 817-461-2333.

Sincerely,

North Texas Higher Education Authority
www.nthea.com

This means I am completely without debt of any sort, which has not been true since I started college almost exactly ten years ago. That’s quite an anniversary present. Thank you, student loan gods. I only had the equivalent of two payments left, but this is a very welcome surprise. I had been doubling and tripling up my payments so much that my next loan payment was not due until June of 2010. The funny part is I just started snowballing on the student loans as soon as they had online payments. Before that I just waited for my statement each month. What’s my secret? I made it a habit to pay a little more each time I thought about it, even if it was only $25. That adds up.

What does this mean for you? Pay off your student loans ahead of time and you’ll pay less in interest and maybe even get a little parting gift at the end of it all.