The next big thing

Yo, digital artists! You want to go here. 3D fractal rendering. Fantastic landscapes, objects and surfaces.

Happy Halloween

Creature Features on WGN Sunday nights was one of the greatest forbidden pleasures of my youth. Forbidden because it came on an hour after my bedtime and I had to be reeeaally sneaky to see it. The music is by Henry Mancini from An Experiment in Terror from 1962.

Why I always vote

Recently I received a notice from my 401K plan for an upcoming proxy vote. I used to throw those away because they wanted my vote on board members I never heard of and procedures I didn't understand. But if the maladministration of George W. Bush and the continuing nefarious influence of large corporations in my own financial health have taught me anything, it's to check up on everything they do and use what little power I have to the most.

It's amazing what 15 minutes of teh Google can tell me. I quickly found this:

There was a shareholder proposal made recently requesting the board to “institute procedures to prevent holding investments in companies that, in the judgment of the board, substantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity, the most egrigious violations of human rights.”

...First, there was a list of very boring-sounding proposals about electing trustees, updating this, approving that, blah blah blah. The shareholder proposal request came LAST, and it was #8. What came FIRST was this:
“The board of directors/trustees recommends that you vote ‘for’ proposals 1-7 and ‘against’ proposal 8.”

Naturally, proposal 8 was the one urging divestment from companies that do business with the genocidal government of Sudan. If I had thrown this notice away, my vote would have been recorded as agreeing with the board recommendations.

This shareholder proposal was brought about by the efforts of Investors Against Genocide.

My vote may be just a drop in the bucket, but it was last year as well, and enough drops joined me to kick the corporations square in the nuts. If you have money invested in a big mutual fund, check out IAG's website and help bring about the change we need.

The Karcherhaus fight song

I got this on a sound-chip card from my cousin and his family. We play it in the morning to motivate us for the work day. It's called the Polonäse Blankenese, a 1982 German hit by Werner Böhm, under the name Gottlieb Wendehals.

1 Die Kellner hamm jetzt Pause,
wir rollen das Buffet von hinten auf;
die Post geht ab, wir mach’n jetzt ’ne Sause;
der Bier ist los, heut’ wackelt hier DIE WAND!!
Los, Vater kommt in die Sock’n,
und Mutter schlurft in ihre roten Pamps.
Hier geht was los, da bleibt kein Auge trocken,
Klaus-Dieter, setz’n Halben ab:
JETZT KOMMT’S!

Hier fliegen gleich die Löcher aus dem Kase,
denn nun geht sie los, uns’re Polonase
von Blankenese bis hinter Wuppertal.
Wir ziehen los mit ganz groaen Schritten,
und Erwin faat de Heidi
von hinten an die … Schulter,
das hebt die Stimmung,
ja da kommt Freude auf.
(Los, Oma: hak ein!)

2 Das Orchester auf der Bahne packt der Wahnsinn;
der Pianist reiat alle Tasten ’raus;
die Tuba blast den Trommler, das tut weh, weh;
der Dirigent weint eins und schreit: »LICHT AUS!«
Unten tobt das Volk bereits im Laufschritt,
die Banke fliegen tief, die Tische auch;
der Wirt schmeiat sich schatzend
aberÂ’m Aufschnitt; das Chaos tobt —
WIR AUCH!
Der ganze Saal soll heute abend brodeln,
laat jucken, Jungs, die Nacht ist viel zu kurz!
Bis morgen frah soll hier die Elke jodeln —
was danach kommt, ist uns jetzt ganz schnurz.

Hier fliegen gleich die Lacher aus dem Kase,
denn nun geht sie los, uns’re Polonase
von Blankenese bis hinter Wuppertal.
Wir ziehen los mit ganz groaen Schritten,
und Erwin faat de Heidi
von hinten an die … Schulter,
das hebt die Stimmung,
ja da kommt Freude auf.
(Los, Oma: hak ein!)

50 years ago today

I drew my first breath. I'm half a century old. I showed up in a busy year. Some people think that year changed everything. It certainly did for me. My mom is out here celebrating it with me and we both can't believe how time has gone by.

Who lies?

The douchebag who called Obama a liar during his speech last night is a major recipient of health insurance industry lobby money. What a surprise. It's a classic Rovian tactic to accuse the other side of what you are doing. Fight back here.

Family values

From the OC Weekly:

SACRAMENTO--Freshmen legislators arriving in Sacramento receive advice from veteran
 politicians about the intricacies of working in California's capital. One of those tips is to remember that microphones broadcasting legislative debates can also capture embarrassing, career-ending personal admissions if a politician isn't careful. Michael D. Duvall, Orange County's 72nd Assembly
District representative, must have forgotten the warning.

In July--two days after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Republican leader Sam Blakeslee put Duvall on the Rules Committee that oversees member ethics--the second-term, conservative, Republican assemblyman sat in a public hearing and vividly described lewd details about his trysts with a female lobbyist whose clients had business before another committee on which
 Duvall sits.


Duvall, speaking to a relatively mum Republican colleague seated to his left, apparently had no idea his dais microphone became live beginning about a minute before the start of a cable-televised committee hearing. He was captured in the middle of recounting portions of an affair.


"She wears little eye-patch underwear," said Duvall, who is married with two children. "So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And
 so, we had made love Wednesday--a lot! And so she'll, she's all, 'I am going 
up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me!' So messy!"

He's also cheating on his girlfriend with another woman. He's anti-gay, too. Apparently hypocrisy is a family value.

Update: Buh-bye!