Saturday, February 26, 2005

Well, that's a relief

I'm glad to hear that my brain doesn't have a gender-identity disorder...

Your Brain is 40.00% Female, 60.00% Male

You have a total boy brain Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts And while your emotions do sway you sometimes... You never like to get feelings too involved

(Link from my blogmother.)

posted at 10:21 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Validation—not fun

I have spent most of the day trying to clean up my blog's templates, which had become a bit, um, dilapidated after more than two and a half years of piecemeal modifications. I ran the main index page through the W3C Markup Validation Service to check out how bad it was; the first time through it had slightly over 950 errors (yikes). After six hours of work, I've got it down to 72 errors, some of which are due to the validator not recognizing apostophes in my most recent entry. However, most of the rest of the errors are going to have to stay, because I have no clue how to fix them. XHTML Transitional is more forgiving than other standards, but it's still extraordinarily difficult to achieve compliance with something as complex as an MT-based blog.

posted at 10:06 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

The Saturday Ten?

1. What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies, preferably still warm from the oven.

2. Who is America’s most overrated actor?

Parker Posey. I just don't get the whole "indie movie" thing, and while I have no personal beef with Ms. Posey, I don't understand her appeal to the culture club.

3. Name a guilty pleasure.

Cheesy Glenn Larson TV shows on DVD. I already own Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (the entire series for each were boxed sets), and when the Hardy Days/Nancy Drew Mysteries are released in March, I will buy them as well. (I have almost 70 box sets of TV shows, dating from 1966 (Star Trek) to last year (Season Four of CSI.

4. “Scrubs” or “Everybody Loves Raymond”?

Neither. I believe I have seen two episodes of each. I stopped watching TV in 1994 (when I transferred to Japan for two years), and didn't start watching again until 2003, when my roommate got me hooked on TLC. I find myself watching less TV again, since Trading Spaces has jumped the shark this past year.

5. Name two things you can’t live without.

Coca-Cola (or C2) and an internet connection.

6. Your first pet’s name + your mother’s maiden name = your porn star name.

No. My first two pets were both females, with ultra-feminine names, so we'll not go there.

7. What song are you listening to right now?

Fantasy by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Oops, just changed to Annie's Song by John Denver. My Itunes playlist is a bit schizophrenic; of the 45 songs I've bought and downloaded, I have Pat Metheny, Concrete Blonde, Petula Clark, They Might Be Giants, and Dolly Parton, among others.

8. Name your celebrity crush.

<goofy grin>My first crush was on Daphne, from Scooby-Doo. I was a little kid in the seventies...

9. Favorite punchline from a joke.

Only one, but the light bulb has to WANT to change.

10. Who do you want to pass this meme off to?

I can think of several bloggers, none of whom are likely to do so.

(Got this from Andrea Harris, who sounds just about as ennui-ridden as I feel right now.)

posted at 01:52 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Only in California...

...will you find the bizarre confluence that produces drugged-out health nuts.

The Associated Press reports that pot growers in Mendocino County wish to have their marijuana certified as "organic", indicating that it was not treated with synthetic pesticides. A formal request was filed with the state Department of Food and Agriculture, by the Mendocino County Agricultural Commissioner, on behalf of two pot growers who are concerned for their clients. Even more distrubing is the fact that a department spokesman said that the secretary is studying the request, instead of circular-filing it, which would be the proper response to such an asinine request.

Look, I'm all for legalizing marijuana, and would take a look at some other drugs (as long as the penalties for crimes committed while under their influence were radically increased). However, the fact remains that marijuana is illegal under federal law, despite what the state of California wants (hey lefties, you're the ones who wanted a strong federal government; deal with the consequences). Until those laws are repealed, marijuana growers should be prosecuted, not aided and abetted by elected officials. Of course, in Mendocino County, it's likely that all the county officials are a bunch of potheads too, since the county is filled with "vegans, vintners, libertarians and aging hippies", who vote accordingly.

I won't even go into the whole issue of organic certifications for drugs with known dangers. Organic wine and organic beer exist, but there does not appear to be much of a market for organic tobacco, for example. This article from a magazine called "Natural Life", briefly discusses "Organic vices", such as the three I listed (plus sucrose, another pariah amongst the granola cognoscenti). What's next, organic coca leaves? Organic poppies? I can just see farmers in Colombia and Afghanistan rushing to fill those particular niches.

posted at 12:52 PM | permalink | Comments (0)