Category: Just mumbling along

Ride up grades or buy upgrades?

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 13 Comments
Doing my part to get the global economy back on its aching feet.
Doing my part to get the global economy back on its aching feet.

Well, since I can’t do the former (too much snow, not enough fingers), I did the latter — went straight to the Apple Store and came home with a smoking Visa card and a brand-new 21.5-inch 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, the model with the ATI Radeon HD 4670 video card.

Now I’m rearranging the office technology, which is a hodgepodge of ancient hardware and software. The G4 AGP Graphics Power Mac has been relegated to a corner near the drawing board, since I need its Classic mode and copy of Photoshop 4 (yeah, 4) to digitize and color cartoons. The Intel Core Duo MacBook will be relocated to the living room and dedicated to streaming video, a la the Pelkey Entertainment Network.

And the iMac will occupy the place of honor on my desk, hooked to a 22-inch ViewSonic VX2235wm monitor for greatly augmented pixel-pushing purposes. Fat city. More as it develops.

Meanwhile, I see Tiger Woods is taking a break from pro golf, triggering a spasm of shit-fits among the various parasites attached to him. I picture him taking his dick out for a long walk on some Floridian beach, letting it air out, cool down and dry off, all the while trailed by a weeping battalion of lawyers, flacks and other toadies driving golf carts. It will make Sherman’s march to the sea look like a cakewalk.

The forever war?

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 10 Comments

Well, there you have it: More meat for the grinder, says the prez (video here). Can’t say I’m happy about it, especially the caveat about withdrawals beginning in July 2001 to be dependent upon “conditions on the ground,” the ground in that part of the world being unstable in more ways than one (earthquakes and crazy mean bastards). Here’s the CIA World FactBook rundown on the joint for those of you who, like me, have never been there.

I like the idea of a deadline: “You have this long to help us kick the bad guys’ ass or you can fight them by yourselves.” Ditto the diversion of American money from the mayor of Kabul — a.k.a. President Hamid Karzai, a gent who by all accounts is so crooked that he can meet himself coming around a corner — to local officials in the boondocks.

I also like the long-overdue recognition of the financial toll here at home: “Um, yes, wars cost money, just like everything else, only more so. This one will be in the budget; we don’t care how the last guy did it. Will there be anything else? May I interest you in some health care, environmental action and jobs, perhaps?”

The fact that the Repuglicans are lining up against the prez should be encouraging, but is not, given their behavior to date. It’s not hard to get a dumb dog to bark.

Dexter Filkins, author of “The Forever War,” appears to have his doubts. So do I. I just don’t articulate them as well.

• Late update: Looks like Steve Benen at Political Animal shares my skepticism.

I’d rather push my Toyota than . . .

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 6 Comments
Twenty-six years old and it still starts — if one knows which demons to invoke.
Twenty-six years old and it still starts — if one knows which demons to invoke.

It must be International Try to Start Your Piece of Shit Truck Day.

I needed to haul the Voodoo down to Old Town for transformation into a flat-bar bike with thumbshifter (courtesy of Paul’s Thumbies) so I can get back to riding the road sometime soon (I hope). Toward that end, I was trying to fire up the White Tornado, my neglected and carbureted 1983 Toyota 4WD longbed pickup, ’cause it’s easier to slide a bike into its 6-foot bed one-handed than it is to park one on the Subaru Forester’s roof rack.

The 2005 Subie, on the other hand, is easier to start. Twist the key and off you go. The Toyota … not so much, especially if it’s been nestled up to the curb for a few weeks of wintry weather.

As I was cranking away, stomping rhythmically on the accelerator while mumbling various incantations and imprecations, I heard some other vehicle trying to harmonize with mine. Down the block, with its hood up, sat a Ford 100 Custom Cab of indeterminate age, its owner, like me, betting against the ravages of time, neglect and weather.

I eventually got my beater going, so I guess I win. But his has a better paint job, and collector’s plates, too, so it looks much niftier sitting immobile against the curb.

Happy Thanksgiving (hold the turkey, please)

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 7 Comments
Miss Mia Sopaipilla's no turkey — when it's chilly, she likes to toast her po-po on the DSL modem.
Miss Mia Sopaipilla's no turkey — when it's chilly, she likes to toast her po-po on the DSL modem.

Thanksgiving is always a tad offbeat around the DogHaus. Turkey is rarely on the menu, though as an omnivore I have nothing against consuming them. As Freewheeling Franklin once said during an argument between Phineas and Fat Freddy, “Naw, it’s okay to eat turkeys. That’s just God’s way of punishing them for being so stupid.”

I’m just naturally contrary, I suppose. If everyone else is going that way, well, I’m going this way. Nothing personal. It just looks less crowded over there.

So today Herself and I, joined by the Sis and Bro’-in Law, will enjoy chicken cacciatore over fettuccine with sides of arugula with roasted red pepper, green beans in a soy-sesame seed-garlic sauce, and ciabatta with dipping oil. Raspberry cobbler for dessert.

And wine, of course. Not Italian (there he goes again).  We have a French white (Domaine du Tariquet 2008), a Spanish rosé (Protocolo 2007) and a couple of French reds (Domaine des Rozets Coteaux du Tricastin 2007 and Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2009).

Here’s hoping you and yours have lots to be thankful for today. Miss Mia Sopaipilla certainly does. For starters, she’s thankful to have a fine Motorola DSL modem to sit upon on chilly November mornings.

Giant steps

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 22 Comments

OK, I’m a week into my disfigurement (disfingerment?) and I can see it’s gonna be a long healing process, just like the time I dislocated the thumb — which, ironically, shares a hand with the splinted middle finger and met its fate a long stone’s throw from where the birdie bit the dust, on a technical bit of trail near Lazy Land in Palmer Park.

My choice of stationary-trainer tunes has come in for some light criticism, so I’m turning to you, my small, deeply disturbed following, for your advice on a soundtrack for an extended Tour de Living Room. I did 70 minutes on the Giant Tempo yesterday and will probably be ramping that up to two hours, so I need a shitload of music and it can’t all be redneck rock, though I have some Charlie Daniels in reserve for emergencies.

Meanwhile, the wizards at VeloNews.com are still stomping bugs at the new digs. Seems IE6 doesn’t like the new site’s calendar and we have a significant number of prehistoric readers who insist on logging on via abacus, smoke signal or log drum. Christ, what’s next? “Optimized for Mosaic?”