Yawn

I woke up around 3:30 this morning. Just woke and couldn't get back to sleep. It's been nicer than it has been -- cool in the evenings, and not blisteringly hot and humid as it has been.

Plane in vain

This is my one shot from the Air & Water Show. My camera's battery died before the Blue Angels appeared! This is kind of a tradition for me -- I wear out my camera's battery so when it's time to try to shoot the planes flying around, the camera's dead. Not like it matters -- I don't have a fancy camera, no telephoto or anything, so it's hard to get killer shots, anyway. Still, I liked the above so you could see just how low that plane got. It has to be fun for the people in the boats out there, getting buzzed (both literally and figuratively).

GoBots

While looking into the loser predecessor of TRANSFORMERS -- the ill-starred GoBots, I stumbled across this gem of a clip from the GoBots show, which is unintentionally hilarious.

Air & Water, Shown

Round 1 of the A&WS, the Blue Angels this year. They alternate with the Thunderbirds. I had the boys downtown, catching "Despicable Me" again (in 3-D). They wanted to see it again, so I obliged them. Gotta love those double-barrel 3-D prices ($35 for the boys and me, good lord -- that's why 3-D is so popular -- lets the theaters ramp their prices skyward). Anyway, it's crazy-hot-n-humid here, still no real relief in sight. The boys had a good time downtown, despite the teeming hordes.

Soundwave

I got my boys the old TRANSFORMERS show on DVD. The show was always conceived as a toy-selling medium, of course, but I remembered watching it in my childhood, so I was watching it with them a bit. I think Soundwave is the spookiest of the Decepticons -- not only does he have that cool synthesizer voice, but he's big and is always lurking about creepily, and lacks any discernible personality -- all terribly creepy. Megatron's a blowhard, and Starscream is a shrill buffoon, but Soundwave is the most inscrutable, and, therefore, the most alien and malevolent-seeming. You don't know fully what Soundwave's up to, only that it's no good. One thing that always bugged me about Soundwave is that formidable-seeming device on his shoulder. I had always wanted him to fire that sucker, which could be a gatling gun-type weapon, or, perhaps, a missile launcher. But he never, ever used it. It irked me as a kid. Even as a type of microphone, it never showed up. I guess they just put it up there on his shoulder to make him appear more badass.

My favorite Decepticon was Shockwave (although Starscream always amused me, with Cobra Commander's voice and all, and his endless scheming against Megatron -- the "Odd Couple" relationship between Megatron and Starscream amuses me). My favorite Autobot was Brawn. B1's favorite Autobot is Optimus Prime ("He's very strong, and he agrees with some stuff and sometimes he doesn't."); his favorite Decepticon is Shockwave (B1 says "He looks interesting and cool, and when he talks, his yellow dot eye flashes"). B2's favorite Autobot is Bumblebee ("Because he's small.") His favorite Decepticon is Thundercracker ("Because he's BLUE!")

Air, Water, Show

The Air & Water Show is this weekend, so the city's full of roaring planes the past few days, as the participants practice, get their dose of airtime, buzzing the city. Jetwash weekend! Shock and awe! I saw a flight of Stealth fighters and a pair of B-1 bombers fly earlier today. Something loud is flying now, an F-15 they trot out. There should be an F-22 flying this year, too, since there wasn't one last year.

Feed the Tree

As you can see, the clementine is doing just fine! In case you were worried.

Zzzzzzzzz

I had insomnia this morning -- work-stress was waking me up, around 3:30 a.m. I couldn't go back to sleep, so, as I usually do when insomnia hits, I just do stuff. In this case, laundry. I got that done in the wee hours, and managed maybe another 25 minutes of sleep between loads. Still, not enough sleep. Gruh.

This morning's going to be crazy-busy. There's a conversion to XML going on, and our IT people have fallen behind on that, so, I'm having to lend a hand to get the wheels of (publishing) industry rolling again. The Editorial Commando strikes again. I'd rather not, but I was "asked" to do so, and so, I add that IT workload to my manuscript mountain range on my desk. I figure I can give them an hour of my day, and hopefully get their stuff done (odds are it'll be an hour of my day, each day, for the next four months. So, that adds up! My success in this endeavor is invariably my doom -- I'll be "rewarded" with more of that stuff, once I demonstrate that it can be effectively done.)

I sent out a query for a different book of mine, in hopes that the agent I sent it to would be amenable to it. We'll see. I truly can't get my hopes up, but it's a good fit for the agent, so we'll see if he goes for it or not. My bet's on not, but one has to try, regardless.

Totally wiped today. Sleep-debt's a bitch. I will try to make it up over the weekend, although we'll see how it goes. I'm invariably the first responder with the boys, so they'll wake up like at 6:30 and be like "Daddy!"

Saw at the Ralph Lauren Rugby store the other day, the obligatory nippled mannequins -- male and female, sportin' the nips. Now, I ask you the aesthetic behind that. Can you imagine the people in charge of the window displays, saying "We need nippled mannequins. Perkily nippled mannequins." I mean, they're mannequins, so realism is kind of beside the point (so to speak) -- nobody's going to look at them and think "OMG! Those people are statues!" They're mannequins. So, why give'em nipples? There's some psycho-sexual undercurrent at work with them, right? Show chick mannequins in bikini tops with perky nipples? Oh, how risqué, Ralphie boy! What sly and elegant subversion! (sarcasm)

Spacing Out

It's kind of humbling to think that, after this fall, once the last couple of Space Shuttle missions are flown, that'll be the end of America's manned space flight program -- we've had that going for something like 50 years, and there won't be anything after that. B1 was asking me what was going to replace the Shuttle (he teared up when I told him it would be the last flights of the Shuttle), and I said "Well, there's nothing made, yet. There are concepts and so forth, but there isn't anything in play, yet, at least for manned flight." He was disappointed.

But in these times, it's hard to imagine a program like that being continued, especially in the absence of, say, a Moon base. Maybe if the US had gone whole-hog on a weaponization of space program, some kind of orbital weapons platform, we'd have a vigorous manned presence up there, but barring that, there's little enthusiasm for it -- we'll go up there for the wrong reasons, dammit -- but exploration? Nah. Barring a weaponizing of space (which we're still likeliest to do), I guess there's the corporatification (sure, why not? A new word!) of space, where private interests go up there and try to establish claims.

Even then, however, the logistics of it are daunting. There's venture capitalism, and there's VENTURE capitalism, and space-prospecting is almost ludicrously difficult to conceive and execute, let alone turn a profit. There's a reason why space programs were historically nationalized. And even the US really only went hard after a space program because it was wary of the Soviets having too much of a lead on them -- so much of the Space Race was a nationalistic/militaristic exercise, not wanting the Russkies to have an edge on us in space. They still thought in terms of the ultimate high ground, whether Earth orbit or even the Moon, before the strategists realized that particularly the Moon was just unrealistic militarily, and ultimately useless. And enthusiasm waned. There is some irony to be found in it, however -- the US does not object to throwing money into money pits -- we did that in Vietnam, we did it (and are doing it) in the Drug War, we have done it in the Middle East. Of course, there are ginned-up justifications for those various money holes, whereas space exploration, I guess the void is just too apparent there for any justification to be accepted.

All the same, this fall will see the end of an era in American history, and it makes me a little sad. Other, more financially solvent (and nationalistically ambitious) nations will pursue their own space programs, and maybe that'll spur another American Space Race, an urge not to be left behind on this. Or maybe we'll just be too busy cutting our own throats to bother looking skyward. Who knows? I kind of think the latter case -- if paving roads, having libraries and public schools, and fixing bridges is somehow controversial, then how can one possibly justify having a space program?

Our astronauts will likely have other, more immediate concerns by then...

Jack's Back

The bulldog was out digging up bricks again. That dog cracks me up -- this husky English Bulldog, mouthing these big bricks, digging them up around one of the city trees. The dog goes wild for'em. I laughed; I can't help it, the dog is funny -- bricks as chew toys! I asked the owner what the dog's name was, and the guy said it was "Jack." Jack's a stitch.

It's frickin' hot, and is slated to be hotter still tomorrow (and more humid).

I'm gonna make something good for dinner tonight. I'm motivated because my lunch kinda sucked today, so I'm hungry.

Bad haircuts and good philosophy

This piece in the NYT amused me...

The Phenomenology of Ugly

Bikini Zeitgeist

I was going to post this the other day, but didn't get around to it...

A Brief History of the Bikini

"Brief."

And then I saw this today...

Bikini Strippers Protest Church in Ohio

And felt I kind of had to post it, now. Some kind of bikini zeitgeist at work, here. But, like with so many things, reality intrudes and then you actually can see the bikini-clad Ohio strippers behind the tantalizing headline (in this video clip) and then it's just plain sad and horrifying, across the board.

Way to go, Portugal!

Once again, Portugal puts itself on the front end of progress (first it was their drug legalization program circa, what, 2001? And now with renewable energy)...

Portugal Gets A Clean-Energy Makeover

[A]ggressive national policies to accelerate renewable energy use are succeeding in Portugal and some other countries, according to a recent report by IHS Emerging Energy Research of Cambridge, Mass., a leading energy consulting firm. By 2025, the report projected, Ireland, Denmark and Britain will also get 40 percent or more of their electricity from renewable sources; if power from large-scale hydroelectric dams, an older type of renewable energy, is included, countries like Canada and Brazil join the list.

The United States, which last year generated less than 5 percent of its power from newer forms of renewable energy, will lag behind at 16 percent (or just over 20 percent, including hydroelectric power), according to IHS. 

Obama's plan has the US getting 20-25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025. Weak. Portugal went from getting 17 percent to 45 percent of its power from renewable sources in 5 years.

At some point, there will be head-scratching here at home, as we watch the rest of the world move forward on this, and we continue to belch about how it can't be done, it's unrealistic, blah blah blah -- the usual propaganda of assimilation lines we hear. At some point, even here, the critical mass will be achieved, right?

If the United States is to catch up to countries like Portugal, energy experts say, it must overcome obstacles like a fragmented, outdated energy grid poorly suited to renewable energy; a historic reliance on plentiful and cheap supplies of fossil fuels, especially coal; powerful oil and coal industries that often oppose incentives for renewable development; and energy policy that is heavily influenced by individual states.

Indeed, the powerful lobbies are likely to be the biggest obstacle, as it's probably always been, once Big Oil and Big Coal got in the driver's seat on our country's energy policy.