Milepost 38 - Biking in Northern Virginia

Part of growing up in Canada is seeing the Queen deliver her Christmas Message to her royal subjects each year. So pretend the Revolutionary War never happened and here's what you'd see on network TV here!

I'm in Iowa with lots of family. There was lots of gift opening.

I got fewer gifts than everyone else... but that's cuz I got one AWESOME gift!

I got a Kindle! WOOT!

I think I mentioned that I'm getting into music lately.

Last night, I tuned up my guitar again and played the three songs I have the chords printed out for. Then I fired up the theremin and played the whole Dark Side of the Moon while accompanying attempting to accompany it. (Boy were my arms sore after that!)

Then, this morning, I went back out to Goodwill to pick up something I saw yesterday and wanted to do more research on. I have a Casio LK-100 complete with stand, and I got it cheap. The power supply was missing so I was concerned that it might not work, but I found a Belkin 2 port KVM power supply that fits it perfectly and it fires right up.

I decided a little while ago, after reading about music theory and chord formation, that I wanted a keyboard. Chords can be really tricky to learn on a guitar, especially if you're working outside the key of C. On a keyboard though, you basically just learn the layout and apply math to form chords. A root, a third a fifth. Boom.

There are some things I've always wanted to be able to play on a piano. Well, that goes for a guitar too, but I'm not sure how realistic some of those things are on a guitar. But on a piano...maybe I'll finally be able to teach myself to play my single all time favorite piece of music; Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. You know, I might even teach myself to read music.

I know what you're thinking...the dog is getting ahead of himself again. Maybe. For me, having a new interest is like having Paul Erdős as a house guest. He shows up, collaborates on some project until he feels like he's done, then leaves. But I was talking to Moira about that last night. If I don't keep investigating the things that interest me, however briefly, just because it may not last forever, then I'm missing out on a great deal of joy and wonder and possibility in my life. So if music is what my brain is pushing me toward right now, music it will be!

Though actually, I'd be in Gary photographing today if it wasn't for the fact that my car really shouldn't go that far right now....

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Just for fun, here's Clementine the Cow, the mascot of the departed Kiddieland amusement park. (I almost wrote Harmilda the Cow, but that's a whole other friendly bovine.)



Clementine the Cow at Kiddieland


It's funny what pictures get views and which don't. One of my favorites from the whole trip, a shot of the little steam locomotive coming around the bend with whistle screaming and blasts of steam rising overhead has one view. Clementine here is up to fifteen already. Not that I begrudge her the popularity; it's just a little inexplicable to me sometimes.

We're in a new golden age of dramatic television. The 2000s has seen a flowering of quality in the world of TV dramas, due to three factors: premium cable channels looking for upscale audiences (AMC, HBO) and the availability of the DVD box set, and the influence of interactive entertainment as show creators have, consciously or not, been influenced by video games and vice versa.

The DVD box set has changed TV's business model, to excellent effect. Think of how shows are sold: An advertiser buys time on a network or cable channel while the show is meant to attract viewers to watch and hopefully see the ads. The business transaction is between advertiser and network. Your eyeballs are the product sold to the advertiser. This is how it works in traditional TV and still does for most shows. But recording a show on a DVR and fast-forwarding the commercials subverts this model, and everyone tivos now. So we get more and more annoying bugs and screen banner ads and weird timeshift interruptions and other hacks designed to foil DVR viewing and preserve the business model.

But then the show's producers package and sell a DVD season box set of a show for anywhere between $35 and $50. All the ads are gone. It's a pure experience you can control. The business transaction now has nothing to do with advertisers, it's between the show's creators and the viewers. It's by far my favorite way to watch a show, just in a few days' worth of total immersion in the show's vision and world. Then you go to the Internet and discuss it with other people. The forums on places like televisionwithoutpity.com have tons of really cogent and perceptive commentary. It prompts re-watching and engagement long after the immersion period. Then the next season comes out and it's time to fall in love with the show all over again. These TV shows are our shared cultural texts, something like Mad Men taps into the zeitgeist in a way that novels used to in the 19th century and movies don't have the length and depth for. A "season" of a TV drama is like a good novel, with enough space on the canvas to really flesh out even minor characters in a way movies can't. You KNOW Lt. McNulty or Tony Soprano or Ben Linus or Don Draper in a way you can't know a movie character.

But dramatic TV shows, even modest ones are expensive and you still need networks to underwrite the initial production expense. The major networks are usually hypnotized by the low production costs and short term profits of a successful reality show - British TV has fallen prey to this bigtime. But the premium American cable networks such as HBO and AMC are competing with each other for viewers and made the commitment to invest in quality dramas - attracting an older, wealthier, more educated set of eyeballs for their advertisers. And then perhaps the DVDs sell better than the show's initial ratings run, and the resultant prestige (and zeitgeist-tapping) increases the value of their network. So HBO and AMC are in this cycle now. For the same reason movie studios will put money into Oscar-winning movies with low box office returns, prestige is valuable.

But there's another important factor - VIDEO GAMES.

Look at the parallels between a modern, major-release video game (for the sake of argument, Batman: Arkham Asylum) and a DVD box set of a season TV show (let's say LOST Season 5). They're in a similar price point, 40 or 50 bucks, less if you buy used. You're looking at around 20 or 30 hours of entertainment from either. Each has special features and value enhancements to wring additional hours of entertainment out of the game or show - (directors commentary, or DLC, or side missions, or hidden puzzles). Each one demands careful viewing and attention. You won't get anything out of LOST being a passive viewer with it on in the background. And Batman is cinematic enough that you can watch someone else play it and be just as engaged. LOST specifically is heavily informed by video games aesthetically, the whole show has much in common with classics like MYST. LOST is full of puzzles and clues and internet forums are ablaze whenever a new episode airs. All that serves to keep viewers engaged and thinking about the show when it's not on, so that when the new season comes out after a year long break they're excited. And the long break between seasons gives new viewers a chance to catch up, because you have to watch most of these shows entirely from the beginning straight through - something very difficult to do without the DVD box set.

It's an interesting time. I think video games and TV shows will keep converging, the story writing of video games will improve as they take their cues from quality dramatic TV, while TV will take the viewer-immersion tactics of video games to its own levels. I'm curious to see what the 2010s hold for all this stuff.

Mechanic Juan looked at Igor the Neon after replacing a ball joint on Posi's car yesterday. Looks like I bent a tie rod pretty badly. The front end is a little lower than it ought to be too, so there may be more issues. The extra play on the wheel is causing something to dig into my tire and there's a gouge all around the outside in one place. He said first I should replace the tie rod, then see if we can figure out what else is up. In the meantime, there's enough play in the wheel facing (maybe an inch) that, as soon as there's any slickness in the road, my steering gets sloppy. The passenger front wheel doesn't always want to swing across that divide from right to left and back right away, and when it does, it does that inch all at once. So, I need another tire before any kind of distance (I guess I'm doing pretty well to have made it all the way back from St. Louis plus in and out of Chicago a few times), and I need a new tie rod pretty soon too.

With the other accumulating issues on the Neon that I won't bore you by listing, I'm thinking it's time to look for a replacement vehicle. I should be able to get the money I lent to my brother for law school books back soon, at which point I'll probably be in a good position.

So, what I'm looking for after talking to Juan is a late nineties VW Golf TDI hatchback. A manual transmission would be nice. Juan is a huge proponent of diesel and I'm beginning to agree with him. He's currently driving a pretty little VW that he got for free (not working of course) and fixed up with a new injection pump. It gets about 50MPG, and this is not atypical for TDI diesels. I want one. (And even if I can't have a Beetle right now, I have a soft spot for VWs.)

I don't need one right away, so I'm going to start watching Craig's List again. I'd also be willing to consider another Aveo, though the mileage isn't as good. But I really want something with a hatchback. If you happen to be aware of anything suitable, please let me know? I think I might consider anything small with good gas mileage and a good price.

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The bumps on my hip are nothing terribly serious. This is good.

I only have another hour or so of being tied to work and plans for the weekend are coming together. Things are pretty ok. I'm excited about seeing all of my extended family again for Christmas Day, and about spending another beautiful Christmas morning with my parents and brothers and near-sister and partner, eating my dad's typical sumptuous breakfast and being a family.

Hray for Festivus! Festivus for the rest of us!

Aww, you poor little electrics can't handle it? Don't worry; let me help out. We were doing this sort of thing when your grand-dad was in diapers.

The UK's first mainline steam locomotive in 50 years saves stranded passengers when cold weather disables the electric rail service.

"If any of the train operators want to modernise their services by using steam trains, I would be happy to give them a quote."
--Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust

Best. Story. Ever.

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Looking more into this, I learned that the engine in question, the Tornado, is actually a brand new, scratch-built engine based on vintage LNER plans, but with modern equipment and electronics. How about that! I'd give a hell of a lot to see a full size, shiny-new vintage steam locomotive in person.

ya bums ;-D

Ahhhh, biblioteque! - A&P add from 1981, from i don't know which market, but it's funny if you have even basic French:



And this one, complements of xydexx, will make your day better. It's in Japanese, but watch it, it's brilliant! :




And, i must say, i'm totally digging the colour-coordinated borders YouTube offers now with the embed feature. :)

Fill your world with awesome.

This is every freelance graphics/web design job ever. EVERY ONE.

Awesome. I've been here less than half an hour and already been told that I'm useless by another employee. Merry Christmas.

This week has been kind of stressful. I'm glad it's a short one. And I wish all these people would just take some PTO and GO HOME! Why are they all here logging tickets??

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to determine the nature of these little bumps above my left hip that have been getting bigger over the past month and are now getting kind of physically uncomfortable. I'm kind of scared about that.

For purposes of illustration, here's how I feel this morning.



Giant Scary Clown Head

There is an interview right now on NPR with Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, a retired Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, about the commercialization of Christmas and the supposed 'war on Christmas'.

I adore this man. Just adore him. He reminds me a lot of Real Live Preacher, who is a liberal Baptist minister who also rocks hardcore.

But this Canadian monk from a monastery in British Columbia has been expounding on how Christmas has always had a secular element dating back to Charles Dickens' time and that that's ok. He's also said that fundamentalism is a birth defect and has talked about it tying in to an overdeveloped instinctive fear response. He described it as Taliban Christianity. He was a particle and quantum physicist before he became a monk. I love him.

People like these two folks remind me of what I've always felt like a priest ought to be. He's tearing down the idea that the nuclear family is the classic family (it arose during the industrial revolution) and even the idea of marriage being limited to one man and one woman, which comes down to secular law that arose much later than Christianity. He's talking about prostitution, and that our first responsibility should be to the health and well being of the women involved, and that they shouldn't be criminalized. That the Western idea of hell is completely off base. Anyway, in short, he's wonderfully informed, articulate, and refreshing. He almost makes me feel good about organized religion, and that's quite a feat. If you get a chance, you might enjoy listening to tonight's program. It should be available for download. Here, here; go check it out.

We really need more people in the world like this.

I need to get to bed. I'm going to take the train from Waukegan tomorrow morning, and then go from there to Posicat's place after work for car fixin'. Whee!

Does anyone want:

An old Terrayon cable modem?

A Timex Sinclair 1000?

A Rollermouse Pro? (On second thought, I may keep this. I dunno. I kind of forgot I had it, and I think I might have a use for it.)

About 100 or 150 foot run of phone line?

Some sets of KVM cables?

Some (about four or five?) old flat panel touchscreens (max res 800x600 with a serial interface touchscreen)?

Four or five small-footprint keyboards that were scavanged from wall mount computers?

A very old desktop calculator (an APF Mark 1) with a neon tube display? Probably from the mid 1970s. (Needs some cleaning of contacts to work well I think.)

Another, smaller, desktop calculator from around 1975, a Calfax 895M. I don't know if it works.

1 110GB/220GB SDLT tape drive?

A ginormous AAC-9000MD hardware RAID quad-channel SCSI controller? (I think this works, but I remember having issues with one so I don't know.)

An Adaptec 29160 SCSI controller?

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Let me know soon!! Most of this will go away with a Freecycler on Wednesday. Maybe not the flat panels quite yet.

Our shoveling efforts on Saturday meant that on Sunday I only had an inch of snow to remove from the walks (not counting what the snow plow threw up.) However, I did leave the car un-touched until the storm was over. Lifted off 20ish inches with a shovel, brushed off the rest. Then I rolled the car forward so I could clean what I had knocked off. There was a light coat of blown-in snow below where the car had sat, and to my surprise, it was covered with little bird footprints. Lots of them. My guess is that several of them took shelter under the car during the storm. Once the snow had risen around the sides, I suspect it was pretty cozy in there.

Would anybody local like a visit from a dog tomorrow evening after work? I can't get to my car in Kenosha until about 6:30, but after that, I'm looking for something to do for three or four hours. Or maybe I'll get some pictures of Kenosha at Christmas if I bring my camera with me. That could be fun.

I would like either this bed or this bed. I think more the 2nd one with the headboard. Considering the price, neither of these will happen. But I love them so much. And I can't decide on what to do as far as bedding in my room.

See, Moira and I have decided that, in our 2 bedroom apartment, we're each going to get our own room. We'll likely be sleeping in the same one ninety-five percent of the time anyway (Most likely hers since she'll have the bigger room with the walk in closet. I don't have a need for closet space, though the big room would be nice.), but each of us having our own space is really appealing to me. Plus, if we have someone over who stays the night, we have minimal disruption to routine. I'm really very excited about this move. I'm happily giving away and trashing lots of crap that's been sitting around forever. Simplifying is lightening to the heart and mind.

I'm looking forward to decorating and designing. I'm leaning toward tapestries on the walls and fairly minimalist furniture, but I don't know. Part of me very much likes the idea of a traditional Japanese futon that I can fold up and put in the closet during the day. Even those are a bit pricy, but doable. And I'd have the whole room to work in when I'm not sleeping. I wish I really had a good sense of how comfortable those are and how workable they are for people with any back problems. I don't want to be inhospitable now....

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I was sleeping so deeply on the train this morning on the way in that the conductor had to wake me up and tell me to get off the train! Oops! At least I missed the rush. The little shops in the concourse are all alive and well these days and the bustle is invigorating and exciting. The weather has been fairly mild most of the time I've had to be down here (with a few exceptions) and I'm grateful.

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jimcyl and I drove out to the portion of Bensenville that's been bought out and shuttered by the city of Chicago to make room for an O'Hare airport expansion. We only got about twenty minutes to walk around and photograph before a police officer drove up and told us we had to leave. I wish I knew whether the area was still public property. I suppose not anymore, but I don't really know.

We drove from there out to Gary, Indiana for more abandoned buildings. It turns out that a number of things we used to go to have been locked up tight since last we were there. But no biggie; eventually, they will be open again. These things are cyclical, and as I wrote about my photography in Washington, if you are patient and calm, the world will arrange itself around you. We visited the Palace Theatre and got a few shots of the sad, crumbling interior, then went back to his place for a little snack before I drove on to Kenosha and home.

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I'll be posting a bunch of Kiddieland pictures to Flickr. All the descriptions have been written, and all the pictures cropped and touched up since my trip home on Amtrak; I just haven't posted them yet. Now that I am, they'll go quickly. This is one of my favorites; that little steam locomotive in action, whistle a-blowin', coming around a bend.

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The Kiddieland Limited Rounds a Curve

One of the fact-check organizations has awarded the "Pants on Fire" Award for the biggest lie of the year to Sarah Palin for her "death panels".
Runners up were Glen Beck (saying that the Administration's top science advisor was proposing to control population with forced abortions and adding sterilization agents to drinking water) and Orly Taitz (claiming that Obama's birth certificate proved he was born in Kenya).

All very deserving of the honor.

We got two feet of snow this weekend. I shoveled out our walk and cars, and chatted with our neighbors, who really are amazingly nice people.