Yesterday, I stumbled across an article in one of B1's kiddy mags about "numbers stations," something I hadn't known about before. Apparently, they are shortwave radio stations countries covertly use to beam information to spies, using one-time coded number messages. Officially, they aren't acknowledged, but unofficially, they are used all the time, and have been for some time. Shortwave radio buffs tune into them and there's apparently a subculture devoted to listening to them and studying them. They are very odd. Some folks have even YouTubed some of them, made kinda creepy videos to accompany the broadcasts...
Odds are that the coded messages are things like "Don't forget the payoffs, Sven" and so forth (again, every country seems to use these numbers stations), but it's just weird to think of that stuff just floating through the air, undetected, all this cloak and dagger stuff communicated through numerical codes on shortwave.
Maybe it's just the audiophile in me, but there is something about bad signal that horrifies me. Especially bad signal that isn't simply noise, but actually carries information. The blurry photograph of something mysterious, an odd and garbled transmission -- even a telephone ringing in the wee hours of the morning (or night) when there's no reason for it to be ringing -- those things scare me, creep me out, and have even since I was a kid. I don't exactly know why, but I feel it very viscerally, instinctively. I remember, as a boy, drawing pictures of space probes beaming back the last picture of something eating the probe. Something about that just gives me the creeps. And hearing that static-laden broadcast with its seemingly random (but not really random, only encoded) messages on it spooks me!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
"Vampires, zombies... same thing"
I overheard a coworker talking about "I Am Legend" with another coworker, and he said something about the world being overrun by zombies. I said "They're vampires. The (Richard Matheson) story it's based on has it as vampires." and he says "Vampires, zombies, whatever. Same thing." No, they're not. I haven't seen the movie -- maybe they did make them more like zombies? Not sure. But zombies aren't vampires, vampires aren't zombies -- all undead are not created equal!
I've got a bike
My apartment building has a notice that everybody has to lay claim to their bikes in bike storage, otherwise, untagged bikes will end up donated to charity. Well and good -- I mean, that bike storage room looks like Pennywise's Playroom, anyway, and some of those bikes look like they've been there a LONG time. So, it's logical for them to clean house.
I should get my bike tagged before the deadline. In all likelihood, I will. However, at the same time, I'm sorely tempted to let somebody else get that fucking bike. I've had more repairs on that damned bike than any bike I've ever owned. It's a Trek, and I got it for $700 a few years ago -- I actually have lost track of the number of flat tires and broken spokes I've had on it. I think that back tire in particular is shoddy, and will eventually need to be replaced. One week, I got the flat tire fixed, then within that same week, hit something and the tire went flat again!! I said a few choice words then, lemme tellya.
Odds are I'll make the deadline (end of this month) and get my bike registered, will spare it from afflicting some other poor soul, but I am very tempted to just let them have it.
I should get my bike tagged before the deadline. In all likelihood, I will. However, at the same time, I'm sorely tempted to let somebody else get that fucking bike. I've had more repairs on that damned bike than any bike I've ever owned. It's a Trek, and I got it for $700 a few years ago -- I actually have lost track of the number of flat tires and broken spokes I've had on it. I think that back tire in particular is shoddy, and will eventually need to be replaced. One week, I got the flat tire fixed, then within that same week, hit something and the tire went flat again!! I said a few choice words then, lemme tellya.
Odds are I'll make the deadline (end of this month) and get my bike registered, will spare it from afflicting some other poor soul, but I am very tempted to just let them have it.
Boom.
Oh, puke. I just saw a flash ad for a show on NBC: "Boomers: The Epic Story of a Generation" with Tom Brokaw. Like the Baby Boomers haven't patted themselves on the back enough already. Lordy. Cue up gratuitous Boomer narcissism. Best. Generation. Ever.
*eyeroll*
The Boomers killed this country. It was them. And for those who protest that they haven't -- well, they're not DONE with this country, yet. You'll see what happens when they're through with it, and you'll see that I'm right.
*eyeroll*
The Boomers killed this country. It was them. And for those who protest that they haven't -- well, they're not DONE with this country, yet. You'll see what happens when they're through with it, and you'll see that I'm right.
Nipped, Tucked
Watched the "Nip/Tuck" series finale last night. I was half-expecting them to do something lurid in the finale, but, like most of this last season, things were restrained -- Julia taking the kids and settling in London, apparently to get married again. Christian and Sean up Liz (finally) and make her a full partner in the practice, then Christian later axes Sean and sets things up so Sean can go to Bucharest and do do-gooder surgical work that way. Matt takes his daughter and shacks up with Ava, who admits she doesn't love him, but Matt doesn't care (as close to a happy ending as Matt's going to get -- frankly, I'm surprised he survived). Kimber's "ghost" haunts Christian one more time, telling him from beyond the grave that she's finally over him. And it ends with Christian at an airport bar, meeting his next "Kimber," the lessons likely unlearned, although one can always hope. One of the subplots likely shows how Christian wants to go -- you could almost see the lightbulbs going off in Christian's head.
Anyway, they wrapped things up pretty quietly. I was nervous that Sean would snap, that Matt would snap, that Quentin would appear and carve the bejeezus out of everybody. But none of those things happened. Christian was a bit stubbly during the episode at times, uncharacteristically so -- I guess that was to symbolize his conflicts about doing the right thing by Sean, who had robotically embraced his life as it was, although Christian could see through it, telling Sean that "pretending to enjoy" the life he had was still pretending, not enjoying, and he needed to cut him loose.
And so it goes. The end.
Anyway, they wrapped things up pretty quietly. I was nervous that Sean would snap, that Matt would snap, that Quentin would appear and carve the bejeezus out of everybody. But none of those things happened. Christian was a bit stubbly during the episode at times, uncharacteristically so -- I guess that was to symbolize his conflicts about doing the right thing by Sean, who had robotically embraced his life as it was, although Christian could see through it, telling Sean that "pretending to enjoy" the life he had was still pretending, not enjoying, and he needed to cut him loose.
And so it goes. The end.
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