My Quiet Life

Amanda just made fun of Jeff Foxworthy and mocked him in a southern accent, saying “you maght be a redneck eiif.. you have a workin tv on top of your not-workin tv”

Sadly, I had exactly this for most of my childhood. We had one TV (black&white, I think) with broken sound, and another with a broken picture. But put together, we had a working TV.

Later, I inherited the TV with no sound, and I used to watch Letterman at night. I had no idea what was going on or what he was saying, but damn it was great to be up late.

Good times.

An interesting out-take from Architectural Digest’s May Issue:

Architectural Digest’s Editor-in-Chief Paige Rense explains the issue’s concept this way: “We’re asking (contemporary designers) to tell us what things — old or new, big or small, rare or ubiquitous — reflect, in their opinions, the fundamental principles of brilliant design.”

The issue’s 356 pages are laced with wonderful examples of homes, furniture, clothing, decorative items… even famous trains and aircraft. But I was both surprised and delighted, considering AD’s normal home-oriented theme, to see how many automobiles were selected by designers and decorators as a favorite design example. Here, for your edification and entertainment, are the vehicles along with the accompanying quotes.

Listed among the automobiles is the BMW 6-series:

“Sleek, refined, graceful, aerodynamically proportioned.”

I couldn’t agree more. Nice to have my preference validated.

In case it isn’t immediately obvious, I have been neglecting this site. This is because I’ve taken a new direction in my career, signing on with CentreSource, Inc, where I am doing small-business IT consulting. We provide a wide array of services, and I’d encourage you to recommend us to all your friends for all your IT/networking/security/you-name-it needs, if you’re in the Nashville area (or even if you’re not!).

In this line of work, I’m thrust into an arena I haven’t previously spent much time in: the world of the small-business and personal technology consumer. On that note, I have a few observations so far:
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about.com has a nice little piece on the history of Printer’s Alley. I’m a bit of a nascent history buff, and Printer’s Alley is an interesting bit of Nashville’s. Also, it says the Brass Stables has been replaced by “The Brass Rail”, which I’ve never seen, so that must be a recent change. The Brass Stables is by far the most disgusting strip club I’ve ever been to. I was afraid to sit down, for fear of catching chlamydia from the seat.

Bush’s foreign policy hard at work, via Juan Cole:

It seems to me very likely that Iran will get a nuclear weapon. Any ruling elite in the global south with bad relations with the US can look at the difference between how the Bush administration dealt with Saddam and how it has dealt with North Korea. The difference seems mainly to be that North Korea already had a couple of nukes, whereas Iraq was not anywhere close. So Khamenei would look at that and decide that his government needs a couple of nukes to avoid being overthrown by the US, especially since Bush telegraphed his intention to do just that. I don’t see how it could be stopped militarily; the US is overstretched and in no position to attack and occupy Iran.

Fan Fair sucks.

There’s nothing like getting stuck in traffic on your way to work … and you’re not in your car.

I am busy, so a smattering of things in my life, very quickly:

Fan Fair is upon us. For me it means I’ll sprout wings and fly before I ever get a parking spot on 2nd Ave. It also provides the amusement of seeing people lined up at 8AM to get into the Wildhorse Saloon. I kid you not.

Where are all the cicadas? I haven’t seen a damn one. What a disappointment.

Public Service Announcement: When a traffic light is out, you treat the intersection as a 4-way stop. (PDF) Evidently everyone at 8th and Wedgewood today missed that day in driving school. What’s incredible to me is not that people would be so rude as to blow through an intersection without stopping for the people going the other direction — what’s incredible is that it doesn’t occur to them that someone going the other way might have the same idiotic idea. Luckily, I know the backroads, so I only gaped for a while. Suckers!

Reagan: It’s sad that he died and had Alzheimer’s. It’s also sad that he was not a very good president that did things I think were bad for the country. But as I was prepubescent for the Reagan presidency, I’ll let those who were actually around speak more authoritatively to that end. To those whining about “politicizing” his death: Reagan’s life and presidency are intimately tied to his legacy and how history remembers it. It’s fair game. It’s important. Get over it.

Oh yeah, and um, I quit my job and have plunged into the world of more general small business IT consulting and product development. In my first two weeks, I’ve learned one thing: after 2 years shielded from it, Microsoft Windows still sucks. Bummer.

Breaking news bulletin: PRESIDENT’S BUDGET CONTAINS LARGE CUTS IN DOMESTIC DISCRETIONARY PROGRAMS.

In other news, water is wet. It’s a good read, though, check it out.

For some reason I’ve seen a lot of movies this week. A quick rundown, with some brief thoughts:
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I have a hard time reconciling calls for living wage legislation with my left-brained common sense and fundamental knowledge of economics. What’s a progressive to do?

In this corner: No Longer Getting By: An Increase in the Minimum Wage Is Long Overdue by EPI.

In the other, the Angry Economist: “You can ignore economics, but economics isn’t going to ignore you.”