California (and no doubt other states too) won't let you have personalized license plates with "any combination of letters and/or letters and numbers that may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency". No surprise there, we live in a culture that considers it indecent to appear naked in public. But...! There's an exception, certain cars are allowed plates with a certain offensive connotation:
The number '69' is reserved for 1969 year model vehicles.
In response to my comment last week (Feb. 19) about truth, my friend Tyler* said
I wonder if I believe that Truth is always a Good Thing.I'd capitalized Good Thing (partly for emphasis, partly for fun), but not truth (to avoid suggesting that I was referring to some exalted or exotic kind of truth). I should probably lay off on capitalizing nouns in general, it's asking for Trouble.
Anyhow. I may not be able to convince you that truth is always a good thing, but I submit that truth is underrated, people all too often don't give it a chance.
| * well, he was my friend back when I wrote this |
Sunday 02.23.03
Frank Zappa's 1973 Rolls-Royce is for sale on Ebay, noting (among other things)
As an interesting anecdote, it has been said that Frank only allowed the car to be driven with the Rolls Royce flying lady emblem turned backwards, as he said his "ass was always hanging in the wind."I'm not sure what he meant by that.
Friday 02.21.03
A neighbor of mine has a well that's artesian nine months of the year, it spews water without having to run a pump. Excess water drains off into a vacant lot, supporting (among other things) a community of frogs. How the frogs found this little oasis in the desert, I don't know. The nearest water is a half mile away, which I have to imagine is a long walk for a frog to make on a lark.
We've had a mild winter, the frogs are at it now, reep-reep-reep, noise they usually don't make until spring. I don't know what they're saying, although I assume it's male frogs announcing that they'd like the opportunity to entertain lady frogs. If anyone reading this knows what frog noise means, by all means tell me (please).
Some spam I got the other day offered to connect me with
HOT Real Women Looking to Meet & Screw Guys Just Like YOU...If only they knew.
Wednesday 02.19.03
It's the nineteenth. (See 'favorite number' in my stats.)
I love mathematics. No matter whether it's raining or shining, whether the President is an arrogant, belligerent plutocrat or not, whether the market is up or down, it's always true that e to the pi i plus one equals zero. Nothing is as certain or as reliable as mathematics. Nothing else is as clearly true, and surely I don't have to explain why truth is a Good Thing.
Thursday 02.06.03
Robert Fripp has an outstanding online journal. A recent (4 Feb '03) entry mentions one of many struggles he's had with record companies over getting his fair share of royalties. In recent negotiations, a record company suggested he agree to keeping their settlement confidential; Fripp was instead inclined to suggest the company make a press release explaining why they had cheated him over the course of several years.
I'm not a musician, I don't have any equally entertaining story to tell you, and in fact nothing particularly exciting happened here today.
Sunday 02.02.03
I drove back home from the SF bay area on Friday; 450 miles (724 km). I stopped at Tehachapi Loop on the way home to break the trip up and to watch trains pass over themselves. It's only a couple minutes out of my way. Sometimes other people are there, other people who think it's cool to see a railroad train pass over itself, but they've usually made a special trip, the loop is their destination rather than a waypoint. On previous occasions I've run into German and Australian tourists who made a point of seeing the Loop. How lucky I am that I live so close to it, huh.
This time a kid was there, about 16, wearing an Amtrak T-shirt and a cap [with I forget which kind of train on it]. Is it the mark of a misfit when a teenager's baseball cap is facing forwards? He was so into trains, he had a radio that operated on bands the trains used, he used railroad jargon I didn't understand, and he said he wanted to be an engineer when he grew up. By the time my friends and I were 16, the taste of incipient adulthood had made us stop using phrases like "when I grow up". Part of me wondered whether the kid had other interests in life, and part of me thought it was cool that at least there was something that evidently made him very happy. He told me he and a bunch of his friends had celebrated his 14th birthday at the Loop and that it was the best birthday he'd ever had.
On this trip, I saw a billboard (black background, white letters) that said
What part of "Thou Shalt Not..." don't you understand? --GodWhen I got home, I read in the newspaper about John Ashcroft ordering prosecutors to seek the death penalty in a criminal case.
A year ago today, I bolted a climbing route on the rockpile across the street from my house and named it 02-02-02 (pronounced "oh two oh two oh two"). It's an okay route, 5.10a, but I don't want it in any guidebook. I wanted to go climbing today, but it's 38°F and windy.
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