SeoTaiji And Boys – Hahyoga (Betrayed By You).mp3
extracted from the curiously named Goodbye Best Album

More on SeoTaiji here. "He’s sort of the Korean Michael Jackson as far as level of fame and being not-right-in-the-head goes."
Thanks to Lena for this track.

MercuryNews.com | 04/26/2006 | `Fidelity’ bound for Broadway

American Rhetoric provides links to its 100 top American speeches of all time. Save yourself a trip to the library, spice up your interactive book report, get inspired. If you like the ‘nattering nabobs’ line, check #50.

Link provided courtesy of LHB

Hey, my Burning Man peeps, maybe we should take a Mah Jongg cruise instead this year!

The dog got me up before 7 this morning. The rain yesterday prevented her from getting much of a run. Now today it’s even worse out and she’s going bonky. This is one of my first true tests as a dog owner. Any suggestions on what to do?

I’m enjoying my first true day off for a while. My office shuts down the week after Christmas and now Susie and I will try to knock out a bunch of projects before I am lost to a rather severe-looking January at the office. But now it’s cold and wet and the kind of day you dread in a Northern California winter — just awful enough to be miserable, not quite awful enough to avoid going outside or going into full “blankets by the TV” mode. I’m supposed to drive to Tahoe in my little Jetta, but I’m thinking that might not happen now.

Here is something for a quiet winter day:

[Soundtrack]
Shuttle 358 – Frame.mp3

This is one of the best pictures I’ve found in a long time.

Sorry, no MP3 today. Having my iPod break for the third time in six months is putting a serious crimp in my style.

At least Nintendo may allow me to take the dog-owning experience with me.

Here is a very silly Stranglers song for you to ponder. It appears to have something to do with kangaroos and nuclear arms. Try not to laugh when they get to the chorus.
Stranglers – Nuclear Device.mp3

So I hit my first bout of Bloggers Block. I have, however, a really good excuse. A 19 pound excuse.

Susie and I adopted a shelter dog 10 days ago. (Note: 11 days since last entry.) Ruby’s a blast, but really takes up a whole lot of karmic space. We *think* that she’s a dachshund/beagle mix, but that seems to be possibly too kind. At first when I took her to the dog park, people asked, “Oh, who’s this? What is she?” After seeing her standing next to all the hoity-toity urban purebreds for a while, though, I’ve come to understand that what they’re really saying is “What is she?”

No matter, she’s a sweet girl with a good heart and a taste for belly rubs and sitting on the couch. She’s also got some pretty bizarre behavioral quirks — loves car rides, hates walking more than a block from the house — but we will triumph over these and make her into the lovely lady she deserves to be.

I could go on, but that would make me one of those people that goes on and on about their pets. Suffice to say that at some point in the near future, I will. (More cute pictures to come, too, but my USB hub just quit on me!)

Why “Ruby”? Susie wanted a human name, sort of a tough rocker chick feeling. I reeled off a few names and Ruby was the one that caught on. My friend Rubylicious luckily took that as a compliment, but more on that later this week.

Speak of the devil, somebody just wandered in, finally recovered from her first-ever run-in with a vacuum cleaner. It must be time for me to pay attention.

[Soundtrack]
Boss Hog – Ruby.mp3

The best part of a good rainstorm is the build-up: the sense of foreboding as it gets darker, the birds & animals busily get themselves ready, the people rushing around and sneaking looks up to see When? Will it be now? Will I make it home before it happens? By the time it really starts to come down, it’s more of a relief than a tightening of the suspense. It feels like the sky is relaxing, not giving way.

The first rain is always extra-entertaining and -harrowing because folks don’t quite have it together yet for the season. They forgot their coats at home, they forgot that old drugstore umbrella doesn’t work anymore, the wipers don’t actually wipe. How one responds to inconvenient weather is one of the great personality rohrsach tests.

Let’s say you wake up as the sun is rising in the desert. You’re pretty well narcotized from last night’s activities. You still have the glow, the implications haven’t set in yet. Everything seems to be in a haze, like gauze over the lens. Perhaps there’s been a fire and the smoke is changing the sky and sun into muted oranges instead of the usual intense bright white light. You can’t quite get the energy to open your eyes or raise your head, but you have the dim sense that there are air raid sirens somewhere off in the distance over the mountains. You decide to stay where you are.