The Satin Prison

Lately, the Velvet Prison has lost some it's luster for me, so I'm thinking about a name change. Maybe, henceforth it'll be the Egyptian Broadcloth Prison. Or maybe the Satin Prison.

Anywho, here's a new photo. I've recently grown kinda bored with always taking the same shot of the building, but today the sun rising in the sky and the clouds were just right:

Lewis Black: Appropriate Level of Rage

Today was the second day of the Time Warner-hosted "Politics 2008: The Media Conference on the Election of the President." Of all the panels, this one's, by far, my favorite. It's Anderson Cooper talking to comedian Lewis Black.

It's really long – probably around 30 to 45 mintues – but if you've got the time to kill, it's worth the investment, if for nothing else, for the moment when Black goes off on the guy who suggests the problem with Amtrak is that it's government-run:

And There We Have It.

Life's been pretty busy lately; work hasn't exactly been the happy experience that it's been in the past. That would account, I think, for a lot of the time I've spent doing other than blogging, but today I managed to haul my ass out of bed and take Atticus for a walk in Prospect Park during the off-leash hours. He was, of course, beside himself with joy. He got to run free and frolic with a lot of other dogs, making new friends, renewing old acquaintances.

As the off-leash hour was winding down and I herded Atticus to the park entrance, I was momentarily stopped in my tracks by the way the morning light was striking a couple of trees whose leaves had only just begun to change color.

And suddenly, all the cares – true and manufactured – of the last couple of weeks just melted away and all I could think was, "Jesus Fucking Christ, but life is really good." The realization was awesome in the way that it could just bring everything to a screeching halt. Even Atticus turned around and made eye contact, as though he could sense the sudden change that came over me.

The feeling didn't last very long; those feelings never do, no matter how happy you are. Still, it was a nice moment, and it's a pretty good life when, even through your troubles, you can occasionally be stopped dead in your tracks by it's beauty.

Dude, Stop Interfering With My Navigation

Not long ago, when I was taking a flight somewhere and, upon landing and taxiing to the terminal, suddenly had to listen to a spate of cellphones being turned on and used, I got to thinking about why cell phone use is banned in-flight, and whether – as I've often suspected – the whole thing was some scheme by the airlines to force you to use their in-plane systems, thus raking you for more dough.

A (very) little bit of investigation led me to this interesting post on Wikipedia about the whole thing. The gist of it, basically, is that there's really no proven correlation between cell phone use and interference with avionics, but the social aspects of the ban are more compelling. And frankly, when I think about it, I tend to agree.

If someone's being a loud asshole on a cellphone in a restaurant or a train, you can always ask them to move, or move yourself. But there's nowhere to go on an airplane, so I don't think it's so unreasonable to force people to be a little considerate of the rest of us. It's not freakin' likely they're going to do it on their own.

Why Homosexuality Should Be Banned

Coming Out Against Palin