Cheese Sandwich: Beer Can Chicken

Had a pretty pleasant weekend. The weather was just beautiful. Highs about 80, low humidity, nice breeze. Took Bodhi to the dog park Sunday morning and let him run around with the other dogs for an hour or so, and he ran his tail off.

Some friends and I went to the local amusement park yesterday and played a round of miniature golf. I won by a stroke, despite a five stroke penalty on the final hole for putting the ball in the trench. Afterward we took some swings in the batting cages, and I couldn't hit a thing to save my life. Finally, we did a few laps in the go-cart races; though inhaling the exhaust fumes while waiting to start kind of made that something of an ordeal.

The community has a nice barbecue grill by the pool, and one of my friends wanted to prepare some beer can chicken. So after the amusement park, we came home and walked our dogs and then headed over to the pool to make dinner. Along with the chicken we had corn on the cob and some grilled sweet potatoes. I had never grilled sweet potatoes before, but they turned out pretty well, despite the grill being a little too hot. I just washed them, sliced them up, brushed them with olive oil and poured some barbecue seasoning on them, then grilled them till they were soft. Some charred a bit for lack of attention on my part, and too much heat, but they were still good.

Had a great time talking to some of our neighbors by the pool. We were there for hours, and judging by the way my head feels this morning, it's just barely possible I may have had one too many cold, refreshing adult beverages. I brought the iPod HiFi out with us, and was amazed at the sound that thing can put out. We didn't even crank it up, but it could've really rocked the pool if we'd wanted it to. In the apartment, it always sounded loud to me but I thought it was mostly the enclosed space that made it seem so.

Here are a before and after shot of the chicken. I must say, it was a very tasty bird. I'd never had a chicken prepared this way before, but one of my neighbors had done it before and is quite the enthusiast. Having had one now, I can see why. The beer can is a Yuengling, but the beer inside is a porter of some variety that I don't recall just now.

Cheese Sandwich: Do That Again

I've got to take Caitie to school this morning, so I'm loitering here a minute. I liked this shot from yesterday morning too:

I seem to be listing heavily to port.

Cheese Sandwich: Sunrise 4/22

Didn't have any ham this morning, so I made a cheese-and-salsa omelet. I'm down to 190 pounds now, though they're coming off much more slowly now. I may have to buy some 34 inch pants this week, which is a nice problem to have.

Not so nice is the funny sound the Montero is making. I'm going to guess it's the water pump, but I don't really know. A trip to the shop is in order though. Sigh.

Anyway, after walking Bodhi and having breakfast, I headed down to the beach to watch the sun come up. Not spectacular, but it's always a pleasure. I actually had the beach all to myself for a while, which is a very rare occurrence.

Came back from the beach, did three miles on the treadmill then washed the car.

Along with the weight coming off, I'm getting into much better shape physically. I'm testing for my 3rd degree black belt in June and there are still a few moves in my form (poomse in Korean, what you may know as kata in karate) that are challenging for me in terms of balance. It's a dynamic thing, because statically my balance is pretty good. I've been improving, but I want to try to accelerate the improvement. So I think I need to strengthen more of my "core," in a way that will help with my dynamic balance. So I did a little research and it ended up buying a BOSU yesterday. I've got Caitie this weekend, so I haven't had much opportunity to really try it, and when I do I'm a little worried that Bodhi will think it's time to play, but we'll see.

A Reasonable Conversation

Doc Searls asks, perhaps rhetorically, "Is it actually possible to have a reasonable conversation about this stuff?"

The answer is no. At least not in the "blogosphere." Because we're not having a "conversation," we're advancing agendas, marketing ourselves, competing with others and doing everything but enjoying the mutual exchange of attention in the social activity of conversation.

First we had Dave Winer blurting out the truth by quoting Doc's e-mail where he wrote about "using this tragedy to create the phone systems we want, rather than what the carriers are willing to give us." That's an agenda, and "using a tragedy" to advance it is pretty far from "conversational."

Then we discovered the videos, and Doc immediately "knew" the right answer, and it was naturally congruent with his ideological beliefs about the "world" (Whether that's the "real world" or the internet, we're never quite sure. Doc often refers to the internet as the world.), like "We live in a Giant Zero world, where all of us are zero distance from the rest of us, or close enough," which is little more than an opinion that Doc advances as a fact. What, exactly, that had to do with why NBC should or should not have released all the videos completely escapes me; but in this "world" of "fast-food discourse," Doc couldn't take the time to elaborate. It just sounded like something important.

Like a marketing slogan.

How refreshing it would have been to have had "leaders" and "authorities" step forward and say they didn't know what NBC should do, or that they hadn't had time to think about it yet.

But of course, they did know, because the answer wasn't important as a rational response to an irrational event and a horrible problem. It was only important as an opportunity to promote a point of view.

Again, pretty far from "conversational."

And if Doc would take a few moments to actually think about this stuff, instead of just writing the first things that pop into his head, I'm pretty sure he could have figured this out all by himself.

It was Doc who said, in connection with Kurt Vonnegut's death,

"We can help or we can hurt. That's the choice life gives us."

And I said the challenge is knowing the difference.

Too often lately, "helping" is really "hurting." It takes thought to know the difference.

But really, who has the time?

"Nailing" It

I hope to be able to devote some time this weekend to a lengthier examination of the issue of the nature of our new network-enabled, "disintermediated" culture and events like the Virginia Tech tragedy.

But for me, life has recently, and thankfully, trumped blogging. For now, I would like to point to a brief essay that Jonathon Delacour brought to my attention yesterday evening: Click here to disappear: thoughts on images and democracy. A relevant quotation:

Images online are both more ephemeral (in form) and more substantial (in number). They flicker across our eyes and jitter through our minds at incredible speeds. We spend more time collecting and sorting images, but less time looking at any one of them. One can never step into the same data-stream twice. The images from Abu Ghraib suddenly appear and are everywhere, and then just as suddenly they vanish, leaving barely a trace. Photographic images used to be about the trace. Digital images are about the flow.

Doc Searls and Dave Winer exhibit the same rigid, ideological thinking that members of the present administration exhibited when they led this nation into an unnecessary war. They have certain core beliefs that have an emotional basis, and they are the products of a competitive marketplace where time spent in reflection is an advantage ceded to a competitor. As a result, they simply spew whatever their rigid ideological belief systems inform them to spew; and because of their status as "authorities" (with no responsibilities, other than to promote their ideologies), they garner attention far out of proportion to their expertise. Hence, Doc Searls' appearance on NPR.

Because both Doc and Dave are competing in a marketplace of beliefs, they must not cede an advantage to their competitors. So, they don't stop to think. They no doubt believe they've "thought" about the issue, but they really haven't. Thinking takes time. It also takes effort, and often reveals doubt.

I don't know what I think about whether or not these videos should be released. (I mistakenly referred to them as video tapes. I'm an old fart, forgive me.) I suppose if they were to be released, I might wish to have them presented in a format where genuine experts could provide comments and context regarding what we would be observing. On the other hand, I'm not sure this guy deserves a mass audience either. I haven't thought about it enough to have an opinion.

We live in a "shoot from the lip" world of "internet-time." This is not a good thing, despite what the utopians and "optimists" will tell you.

Hardware Department

Speaking of hammers... please turn your sarcasm dials to eleven.

It seems the Virginia Tech mass murderer made some video tapes of himself, attempting to justify or rationalize his actions, or simply to torture the families of his victims.

We've known about these tapes now, I think, for about 24 to 36 hours.

After undoubtedly using all of that time to conduct sober reflection on the ramifications of the existence of these tapes, some of the leading lights of the "blogosphere" have called for them all to be made public.

They do so in cogent, articulate essays in which they carefully consider all sides of the issue, and consider the opinions of others who may have more expertise in these matters.

And so, once again, emotion, competition and technology trump wisdom and thoughtful reflection.

And still they wonder, "Now what?"

Well, this ought to be a huge CLUE.

As if they could get one.

When all you have is a hammer...

...everything looks like a nail.

Ethan Johnson sent me a link to this weblog, with the comment that it seemed to have "me" written all over it. You should follow the link and read the post before proceeding any further. Summarizing it here would merely give it even less context than the original post had, which is little enough. Doc offers a brief rebuttal in the comments. (Update: Doc offers a longer, and even more lame, rebuttal here.)

Now, I happen to think the reaction that prompted that post is the right one, and that the impression that formed that reaction is an accurate one.

The process seems to go like this:

1. Some horrible event occurs.

2. People respond to it emotionally.

3. People want to be more "helpful" than just expressing their emotions.

4. They come up with their own ideas of what might "help."

5. They share these ideas with others.

6. Some of these ideas are good. But most of them are bad. Sturgeon's Law. The bad ideas of high attention-earners will receive a lot of attention.

Doc had two ideas. One had to do with mobile phones. The other had to do with how to use "this tragedy to create the phone systems we want, rather than what the carriers are willing to give us."

I don't have to read Instapundit (and I don't) to know that Glenn Reynolds or one of his many imitators has used the expression, "a pack, not a herd" in connection with this event; and has probably advocated, in some form, arming students, faculty, and probably everyone who isn't a convicted felon, with firearms to "prevent tragedies like this."

So I'm not surprised that Doc wants to use "this tragedy to create the phone systems we want." He's just trying to "help."

We're tool-makers. I happen to think we have more faith in our tools, or our abilities as tool-makers, than we do in our ability to fashion ourselves as we would wish to be. We'd rather make a tool. It's probably easier.

And we're competitive. We've created a marketplace where various tool-based solutions to every conceivable "problem," compete with one another. Mostly at our common expense. I refer again to the discussion I with Scott Reynen I mentioned in the previous post. And competition demands exploiting anything to achieve a competitive advantage, even tragedy.

So, if you're a big believer in tools and marketplaces, then Doc's reaction is totally unsurprising. It's also hideous, but that's who we are now. The question is, is that who we want to be?

I wish I knew. But some people probably ought to hit the "Reset" button on their assumptions and beliefs before they try to "help" much more. Being an "optimist" isn't an excuse, or even necessarily a virtue.

What Can I Say?

I read fewer RSS feeds now.

I comment less often on others' blogs.

I write less stuff here. I haven't put anything into The Cooler since January. (The Cooler is where posts that I thought were a little too vitriolic or angry went. When I cooled off, I could look at them again. Most never made it out.)

I weigh 194 pounds as of this morning. That's 28 pounds since 1 January. They're coming off more slowly now, but they're still coming off. My waistline, however, is shrinking faster than the weight is coming off. My damn near brand new 36-inch Dockers are now positively loose.

I don't give a rat's ass about a blogger "code of conduct." What horseshit.

I went to the movies Sunday night with two of my neighbors. I had one of my neighbors over for Easter dinner with my daughter and I. We played Clue together on Saturday night.

I've left Bodhi at home out of his crate while I've been at work for the last two days, and I think he's good to go. He's been housebroken since the second day I had him, but there were some occasions when he'd chew furniture or molding. I think we're past that now. He's a great dog.

I have some friends I've made online whose friendships I value a great deal. I'm not saying the internet or blogging are bad things, but there are other things in life, and some of them may be better than blogging, or worrying about blogging.

I've stopped reading some of the more asinine attention-seekers. I've never had much luck in checking the growth of their influence as vacuous, brain-dead promoters of dumb ideas. I've had exactly zero effect in changing anyone's mind about anything on the web. Bullshit still prevails. Hopefully, I've made a few people think.

Life's too short to drink domestic beer, and it's too short to worry about the hucksters, the bullshitters, and the drama-queens. They will be with us always. They're hardly worth satirizing, and criticism accomplishes nothing, except creating sides. A little conflict to titillate those with too much time on their hands, and too little imagination to do anything meaningful with it.

I'm not abandoning Groundhog Day, but I am saying that doing less of this crap has had a positive impact in my life. This is probably heresy to those who believe that the internet "changes everything" or that they're here to "change the world."

Today Doc Searls opines, "We can help, or we can hurt. That's the choice life gives us." Well, that may be the choice, but the challenge is knowing the difference. And it isn't always clear, I think. But everyone seems to think it is. We proceed obliviously confident in the virtue and righteousness of our cherished beliefs, without hesitation, let alone humility, to slow us down or make us pause.

Not that I expect that anyone will reflect on that any longer than it took to give it Continuous Partial Attention!

For an interesting exchange of somewhat opposing points of view, I'll direct your attention to this exchange of comments at Scott Reynen's blog. Scott's a good guy, and we usually agree more than we disagree.

And, with that, I'm going to close so I can go walk the dog.

DVD: Cinderella Man

I thought it was great. Your mileage may vary. Very visceral.

Idle Thoughts

I know this is borderline un-American, given our love affair with the automobile, but why don't we think about making "drive-through" anything illegal?

Think about how many cars essentially idle each day as they creep through the drive-through line. Think about how much real estate is given up to even having a drive-through line. We have drive-through liquor stores here. Drive-through pharmaceutical pickup. Drive-through dry cleaning.

Turn all that real estate (not much, I know) into plants and landscaping. It'll help control rainwater runoff, and maybe convert a little bit of CO2. (I know, plants make CO2 at night.)

And maybe if people will park their cars and get off their dead asses and walk into the store they'll burn a couple extra calories in the process, and they won't be peering into their bag to see if they got what they ordered as they try to steer their 4000 pound SUV into traffic.

Just a thought. Seems like low-hanging fruit to me.

Competing Messages: Technorati - Just Another Attention Sump

The usual members of the A-List Mutual Admiration Society have been noting, favorably, Technorati's CEO's latest missive regarding the "State of the Live Web."

Yawn.

Also noted - again, favorably - is Technorati's "credo," supposedly "be of service."

I will note that this "credo," does not appear on either Technorati's home page, nor on the "About Us" page, which now claims to be the "recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web, right now."

Recognized by whom? In what document?

I will note that the Terms of Service page still says:

Technorati makes no representations concerning any content contained in or accessed through the Site, and Technorati will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality or decency of material contained in or accessed through the Site. THE SERVICES, CONTENT, SITE AND ANY SOFTWARE ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

So, still an "authority" with no "responsibility." Makes one wonder just who's "recognizing" them as "the authority" on anything. Again, I think this is pretty much the same thing as "a fraud" where I come from. But what do I know? I'm not a lawyer... or a marketer.

The home page still invites me to "Claim my blog," though I think I recall it originally said "Claim your blog," as if it was just lying around out there in the "blogosphere, and Technorati had simply "found" it and wondered whose it was? (Actually, it still says "Claim your blog" in one of the margin links for "Technorati Tools.") I'm pretty sure the "Claim my blog" construction is rather awkward, grammatically, but it avoids that kind of arrogant implication that Technorati somehow "has" one's blog, and one needs to "claim" it. (In reality, as if I need to explain this again, Technorati wants to "claim" whatever information you care to share with them to suit their own purposes. Remember, they're not responsible to you for anything.)

Their service might be great. Might not, too. I don't know. But their marketing sucks. They gave us the whole "Top 100" thing to exploit the attention-directing authority of high attention-earners. Thanks, that was a great "service." This, with one of the venerated Cluetrain™ authors as a supposed "advisor." More like chief apologist and celebrity spokesmodel.

Disclaimer: I don't like Technorati, and I don't like the disingenuous bullshit that surrounds their supposed corporate culture. They're just another company selling a service. Big deal.

Cheese Sandwich: A Life

My efforts to "get a life," which began with the Groundhog Day party seem to be paying off. A couple of my guests from the party have been regular visitors here at Action Dave's Cool-Guy Bachelor Pad for Saturday Night Monopoly, and one of them invited me to go to see The Lion King with her last Sunday.

We're all dog owners, so we see each other frequently as we're out walking our dogs. I ran into my Lion King neighbor on my way out to the dog park on Sunday morning, and I stopped to ask her if she wanted to go to the park? She said she might meet me there, but she wanted to tell me she had an extra ticket to The Lion King and wondered if I might like to go? That came as a welcome surprise, so I said I'd love to, and then headed on over to the dog park. She came by a little later and we spent some time with a bunch of other dog owners as our pets played with one another.

Later that same evening, the Saturday Night Monopoly gang (minus Caitie, who's won every game so far) got together and played Clue. So Sunday was kind of a busy day, beginning with the dog park at 8:30 and wrapping up around 11:00 p.m. after the last game of Clue.

In the course of the conversation, we've agreed that putt-putt golf is something we'd like to do, and I've got at least one other neighbor who's said she'd go; and we're all going to hit the movies together sometime soon too.

And I also recalled how much fun we had when my TKD school went on a canoe trip down a river a couple of hours south of here, so that's an idea I'm going to propose. That's a bit more demanding than a movie, the theater, Monopoly, Clue or miniature golf, but it was a lot of fun. So we'll see.

But this is great. Get out. Get to know your neighbors. Do some things together. Have fun. Ignore the computer.

Life is good.