• @popejephei ?? why is it socially acceptable to apply makeup in public but not anti-fungal cream? (In re non-personal AM train expernce) thx #
• @popejephei hahahahahahaha that’s why southwest keep kicking you off #
• @ScooterGirl I’m in for $5. But I’ll want to add "now in Carlberg-O-Vision" to the end of it. #
• @ScooterGirl $5.75 and not a penny more. i have standards. #
• @scootergirl I’m in for $5. But I’ll want to add "carlberg-o-vision" to the end of it. #

The Roycrofters – The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, originally uploaded by ReidCarlberg.

There are plenty of advertisements about Fox’s new breakout hit New Amsterdam.

Is it a breakout hit? Who knows. But it’s mildly amusing. Why? Well, in a scene in tonight’s post Idol show he’s in bed with his 1941 lover reading — you guessed it — The Rubaiyat. The leather was a different color, but boy did it look like this one I received as a gift my my grandmother. Sp much I had to go out look.

A little research shows me that mine is a McKenna #173. The one from the show is the red one smack dab in the middle of the picture on this page.

And there’s even a site called Rubaiyatica. Who’d a thunk it?

The show, overall, will probably be predictably predictable. We’ll have flashbacks, odd coincidences, great crime solving.

Quirkiness.

Anyway, I don’t remember reading it, so I should probably do that. Right after I finish Hood Rat.

So the Swiss bank dropped its suit against Wikileaks.  You know the suit, the one they brought because of the documents that were posted that proved the Swiss bank in the Cayman Island was helping customer evade taxes.

WHAT?  GASP!  Gimme a break.

Is it just me, or is the whole point of a Cayman Island based bank of any kind, and of a Swiss bank in particular, tax evasion?  Call it whatever you want–wealth preservation–but that’s what it’s for.

Tax evasion.

That would be like me suing someone for suggesting I was–on occasion–a little sarcastic.

Oh: and here’s one about KBR avoiding taxes.  Where?  Cayman Islands.

**AnonymousPoliticalScientist is someone who’s email was forwarded to me by a friend.  In an email to a prominent publication, he produced what is in my opinion a very depressing (and possibly accurate) analysis of the current presidential race.  (It’s not my letter to post, so I’ll leave that to someone else and link if I find it.)  He had a particular bias against Obama.  This was my response.

Here’s our current presidential menu: McCain, Clinton or Obama.  That’s it.  Nader isn’t going to get elected.  And we have a winner take all system.  So, given that, if AnonymousPolicalScientist** is right, where do we go?

Let’s assume no one can beat a republican.  Let’s vote for the worst/only republican in an attempt to bring the country to the point of complete and total failure.  Everyone loses.  (Almost.  A very small percentage will continue to benefit.)  That’s pretty cynical but if we’re convinced that we’re American Idol and VoteForTheWorst.com is our last best hope, that’s what we do.

I voted for Sanjaya.  I do not want to vote for McCain.

Let’s assume, contrary to the experts [including AnonymousPoliticalScientist], Hillary eeks out the smallest of victories.  Will that give her enough strength to effect any significant change that benefits the vast majority of citizens?  Or will she have only a very small amount of clout, just enough to implement improvements that benefit a small number of citizens?  If that’s the case, what one thing will she pick?  Will enough of us benefit to make it worth it?  I’m betting it will be gridlock.

We need some way to change the political dialog in the country.  You and I — we are the country and the government is up to us.  Everyone I’ve talked to is pretty convinced that we’re not where we want to be.  So let’s try something a little different.

One of the great things about an inexperienced candidate — call him vacuous, call him opportunistic  — is that he’s at least a little less encumbered by the known.  So they haven’t released any dogs.  They will against anyone.  Shame on us if we sit here afraid of what they might say.  Maybe we citizens are ready to fight back against such a pessimistic political system.

Optimistic thinking, I know, but why not?  Aren’t we ready to ignore the crazies?

In the best case, he earns a little more political clout during the election than Hillary and can do one or two interesting things.

Worst case, he loses or wins and then totally screws up, and we’re where we are with the other two candidates.

Which is fine.

Obama is the only candidate who provides some uncertainty about how he’ll behave in office.  That at least leaves the opportunity for improvement.  Neither of the other candidates offers that.

If HRC ends up as the candidate, I’ll vote for her only because I can’t stomach McCain.  But I’d rather have her as a senator from NY supporting an opportunistically optimistic chief executive.

Jason pointed me over to whateverland.com this am.  These are great pictures!  Here’s the Flickr feed.

37 Signals is a local media/programming darling who pops on (and off) my radar on a semi regular basis.  I attended their Getting Real seminar a couple of years back and overall think they have some interesting things to say.

Note the emphasis on “some”. Note that I am not among the 85,000 bajillion subscribers to their blog.  Enough said

Anyway, so how did I come across them, twice, in two days?

I ran across their Workplace Experiments post (and had it emailed and found it skyrocketing up Reddit).  It’s interesting, more as a reminder of Good Things To Do than Raw Innovation.

And then I ran across Coding Horror’s Douchebaggery, a reaction to something 37signal’s David HH’s wrote about programmers who don’t use macs (short version: they’re idiots).  “Douchebaggery” is way more true than Workplace Experiments.  And funnier.  At 5:45a, I appreciate funny.

Oh, and for the record: I have PCs and Macs.  I sometimes program on one, sometimes on the other.

PS If you bothered to hit their website, you’d see a quote that appeared in Time — “One of the Net’s rising stars”.  Is it just me, or is displaying a quote from fucking Time magazine on your front page pretty fucking lame if you are in fact a rising star?  It is?  I thought so.  Thank you.