I’ve been dropping some new tracks onto my iPod the last week or so, in anticipation of fitting those beautiful noise canceling QC3 headphones over my ears as soon as I settle into my seat on Qantas next week.

What I’m looking for now is songs that tell stories, a neglected little sub genre that cuts right across all genres.

If you got some you’ll find me….

At the Geek.

Gotta a sitter coming in for the kids tonight because jane has a work function and I’m going into town to meet up with her afterwards.

Was kind of hoping for a grown up night, something like a champagne and string quartet at the art gallery. But this is Brisbane of course, so it’ll probably a cup of greasy chips and coke at the bus stop listening to some crazy man do his tourette’s routine.

Or maybe we’ll just have a quiet dinner somewhere.

I have to pick up a copy of The Watchmen to write an essay on commission, and I have some xmas vouchers that need spending so that’s also a possibility.

Right now though it’s time to cook knock up the kids dinner. Gnocci with tomato and butter sauce.

:: 23-Jan-2009 01:30 GMT (Friday) ::

The CUDA client betas have expired. They will no longer function if you try
to run them. We will be releasing new versions in due course, but I am unable
to estimate at the present time when that will be. We thank you for your
continuing support.

Just got word from my agent that WW has sold into Germany, so huzzah for them.

Prof Boylan was wondering if anyone in the San Francisco area was looking to get in on some yum cha action when I arrive on 31 Jan. I get in about 10 AM and will want to stay awake to wrench my body clock around to your godless heathen time zone.

Later that week there’s a few burgers getting together for a  Mexican feed in New York, probably on the friday night after comicon.

And finally, big thanks to whoever linked the old cheesburger address to this one. I had meant to do it but forgot when the lurgy claimed me.

Last week of the school holidays, but no let up on the kid wrangling front. We had one of Anna’s friends under our wing today, so I decided to drive out to Ipswich to visit the art gallery, where they had a whole puppy themed bit of arty business programmed for the kiddies. A disco with giant screens showing dogs which somehow reacted to dance moves of the kids, a craft cage, and an exhibition on ‘working animals’.

That amused them for a while, then we attempted to find lunch, but being Ipwich there wasn’t much beyond Maccas, and my kids have been trained to think of the Golden Arches as the doorway to Hell.

Finally went to some chain place across the river, a Billy Baxters, where I managed to score a quite decent salmon salad (still taking it easy on the diet front after getting sick). The leaves were amazingly fresh. Perhaps I was the only person who ordered it that day.

Then home for a swim, and down to the dog park, and back to make their own pizzas for dinner.

You’ll notice that no writing got done anywhere in there.

Murph as a fascinating, if rather grim deconstruction of Obama’s speech over his blog, which is worth reading as a corrective to all of the happy, happy joy time coverage. Who knows, eight years might even prove him right. Although as someone who makes a fair chunk of his income from the US I fervently hope he’s wrong.

For me the interesting thing about Obama’s address wasn’t the minimal allusion to his race (everyone else, including rick Warren, was always gonna bang on that drum), it was the tone of hard expectation which underlay the rhetoric. Not America’s expectations of him. But his expectations of America.

So, off to another thinky Instrument.

Depending on who you ask, autoplay is either useful, or annoying. It used to be one of those things you just turned off on a new Windows install, but in recent years I’ve grown to like it (despite the obvious security questions it raises). It’s useful, but a bit flawed, because there’s many ways to disable [...]

I’m under the impression that tipping is endemic in the US. Here you tip cabbies, if they don’t go more than ten miles out of your way to bulk up the fare, and restaurant wait staff, if they don’t spit in your food. But you don’t tip them that much really, and a lot of the time the restaurant tips go into a common fund anyway

And that’s about it. (Except for barbers at the old Gowings store in Sydney, and cheeky fuckers in bars who return your change on a plate, virtually challenging you to scoop it up).

Just wondering who should I be tipping in the US, and how much?

Had my first bit of exercise this morning, although it was only walking the dog down to the river. And decided to do something a little heavier for Blunty, with a few despairing words about Gaza.

Had thought of doing The Inauguration, but that can wait until Thursday. It still has happened as it type this, Tuesday morning my time.

So, explodey badness.

At Blunty.

I have a quick After America related research question. What kind of farming would you do in east Texas, besides running Bedak Whitetail beef cattle (to replace all the longhorns that disappeared in the Wave.)

Specifically what kind crops are you looking at if you had say two hunnert acres somewhere around Limestone or Robertson counties.

Or perhaps I should ask, if you were a small homesteader with that many acres, and you’d been tasked to run a mixed cropping farm under President Kippers resettlement scheme, where would be the land for that in Texas?

And, as a bonus question for everyone else, if not Texas, and if not anywhere within say four or five hundred miles of eastern seaboard, where?

You know the guano is hitting the fan when your boss’s boss comes up to your desk and says: “What’s faster than grep?” It was looking like a boring day. I got in late, almost 11 (B-A-D, I usually work 10:30-18:30), and by 11:30 had nailed all the daily maintenance stuff and was looking at a [...]

smart, but not genius. empathize at will, avoid with animosity. strong ethics, less morals. patient, but aversive. extroverted ... when it suits, or is required. introspective. confidence often mistaken for arrogance. cynical and world weary. tolerant ... to a point. keeps distance. happy and empty. quick on the uptake. current ...

So I have been the Chair of the AUDF now for a few months and the other day I actually saw the fruits of our most beneficial program. I had dinner on Tuesday evening with the folks we are sending to WWDC (developer.apple.com) and I have to say I was impressed.