November 2008 Archives

[Moozik: Killing Joke - Love Like Blood]

Back in October, the Rainforest Foundation were kind enough to ask me if they could use my Empire State Building photo. I said yes and as a result they asked me if I liked goodies and to expect a little thank you in the mail.

I was more than a little surprised when I received the delivery. I wasn't expecting anything like that. Also included (but not in the photo) were a t-shirt and a bracelet from the Amazon.

So thank you Rainforest Foundation, you rock.

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Lie To Me (Live Hamburg 1984)]

Tomorrow is the day that America likes to say a little thanks. So today I'd just like to thank America for thanking.

A day off work in which your sole goal is to eat as much food as is humanly possible. I so love this country. Thank you America.

In other news, Obama holds his third press conference in as many days to announce members of his economic team to help address the financial crisis. President Bush pardons a Turkey. I think it's becoming clear which adults are running the country.

[Moozik: Curve - Zoo]

Schmap recently asked if they could place a couple of my photos on the short list for inclusion in the sixth edition of two of their travel guides. Which was nice.

The first one might appear in their Dublin guide.

The second might appear in their Phoenix guide. To be honest, I don't like this photo at all and would be very surprised if this is the best one they could find.

[Moozik: Depeche Mode - Halo (Live 1990)]

Every once in a while I like to gauge just how out of touch I am with "top 40" American music. I already know the answer as "top 40" music isn't exactly my cup o' tea. Still, it's at least a little entertaining to have it reinforced on a regular basis I think. So, tonight we decided to watch part of the American Music Awards on ABC.

Oh. My. God. It was worse than I thought. Is this really what the music industry is betting the farm on? It's no wonder they're in trouble. I mean srsly? Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Kanye West, Mariah?

There were a couple of highlights though. Firstly The Eagles were nominated for a couple of awards. I would imagine this was purely for sheer comedy value for someone behind the scenes. Secondly, and more importantly Annie Lennox received some kind of lifetime achievement award. Nice to see some old Eurythmics flashbacks and even nicer for her to dedicate half of the award to Dave Stewart.

So, award shows. They're really not very good are they. Well, the ones that are shown here on American TV. Which is probably why I only watch them once every three years or so. After that amount of time I have a kind of morbid curiosity and have to watch just one more time.

So, I'm good now until 2011 then.

[Moozik: Snake River Conspiracy - How Soon Is Now?]

I can't even begin to describe how much I dislike calling customer service numbers nowadays. Well, actually I guess I can. When did we all decide we wanted to sound ridiculous and say what we wanted instead of pressing numbers? What was hard about pressing numbers anyway? Back in the good old days you just pressed one for this, two for that, simple right?

Now you call and you get an annoying voice asking you to "tell me what you'd like". Well, what are my choices? Give me a hint. Anything. I don't know if it's my accent or the fact that the software is a bit crap but my answers never seem to be recognized. I always just end up saying "I want to speak to someone" about six times before hanging up in disgust. Of course, I really did need to speak to someone so end up calling back and going through the process one more time anyway.

Now when this happens to other people around me, I find it amusing to know it's not just me. You know, you're sitting there at work and then all of a sudden out of the blue you hear "already have an account" followed by "yes", "yes", "I already bloody said yes", "jesus, could these things suck any more?". I do giggle.

It's the future. And some of it doesn't work as advertised.

[Moozik: Clan Of Xymox - Theme II]

I've lived in Phoenix for a little over ten years now and in that time the freeways have been a good place to practice your acceleration skills. Oh yes, you could quite happily drive along to your hearts content and all you had to do is keep an eye out for your friends at the Highway Patrol.

All of that has changed now of course for Phoenix has finally reached the year 2008 and has installed speed cameras on all the stretches of freeway that I actively use. This saddens me somewhat as it marks an end of an era. Ahem.

It is quite amusing though to witness how the habits of drivers soon adapt to change. In no short space of time, everyone has obviously figured out where the cameras are, hit the accelerator in between then slow down just enough in the right places. Drivers are good like that.

This will all work out well of course until Phoenix implements average speed cameras. Those will be somewhat more challenging to figure out. But I'm sure we won't see those for another decade. Until then, speed up slow down for the win.

[Moozik: White Zombie - I Am Legend]

After hours of fighting through forums, mailing lists, and other internet douchebaggery, I thought I'd post this here in the hope it will be of some use to any poor soul who (like me) suddenly loses sound on their system after upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10.

Long story short, upgrade to Alsa 1.0.18a. Even shorter, read this upgrade guide which includes a painless upgrade script from the user soundcheck. Who incidentally is my new hero by the way.

Why is all this important you ask? Well, in the coming days I will be retiring my Windows "stereo" (i.e plain WinXP box whose sole job was serving up music from iTunes) and move my music to Linux running Banshee. So, you know, having sound that works is kind of important for that project.

I thought we'd passed the days of having to scour the intarwebs in order to get Linux working? Oh well, I guess it appears that Linux nowadays "just works", er, except for when it doesn't.

[Moozik: Pig - Disrupt, Degrade & Devastate]

As I was driving into work this morning I happened to catch the tail end of a story giving "back to school" tips for parents. Some of the advice was really quite sensible and I found myself nodding my head until the topic turned to school dress code.

Parents, it would seem, are really quite crap at deciding if their daughters' clothing choices are a little "adult" and risque. What parents need, we were told, is some kind of guide to help them make those important decisions. And a guide they have, for a local school teacher has come to the rescue and created a website with all kinds of informative tips on appropriate school dress.

Which got me thinking.

If you feel that you have to visit a website to figure out if your daughter is inappropriately dressed for school, you already have your answer surely?

[Moozik:Black Light Burns - I Am Where It Takes Me]

If you're anything like me, before you give someone your iPod, you kind of panic for a second. I mean, what if they see that embarrassing Right Said Fred song? Everyone, and I mean everyone no matter how cool they think their music collection is, has some songs that they'd rather not admit in public that they've listened to.

Of course, with the advent of last.fm, your listening habits can be somewhat more public than they used to be and even if you've now cleaned all evidence of those embarrassing songs from your media player, last.fm still knows all. This morning I was looking at my overall charts and noticed that I've certainly played some, er, interesting songs over the past couple of years. I mean, how did songs by these artists get onto my iPod?

Bee Gees
Bon Jovi
Cher
Kylie Minogue
Mariah Carey
REO Speedwagon
Rod Stewart
Wham

How about you? What skeletons do you have in your iPod closet?

[Moozik: Sonic Youth - Swimsuit Issue]

Turns out the Phoenix metro area has some amazing hiking opportunities. Who knew? Well, loads of people actually, we just didn't take advantage of what the local area has to offer until now. Yesterday marked our second hike in the Dreamy Draw recreation area.

As always, the photos don't do it justice, an amazing workout and breathtaking views. Quite why I spent so long running on a treadmill staring at a TV when I could have been outside taking in the sights is a mystery. Still, better late than never right?

Up early on a Saturday morning, the sun peeks through.

Phoenix is known for its, er, rather poor air quality. Oh yes, checkout the brown ring of doom that surrounds the valley.

Blokes on bikes come flying down the trails with little or no warning. We quickly became really good at diving for cover.

Away from city life, this is the wild west at its finest. The kind of place you can spend hours relaxing enjoying the view.

I swear these blokes were following us.

After a couple of hours, we decided to head back from whence we came.

Obligatory desert close up shot of a cactus.

The end. We're knackered.

[Moozik: Lola Angst - Mr TriseX]

Ok, my last post on the election. The Obama camp has put up some election night behind the scenes photos on Flickr. My fave is this one of Obama somberly watching McCain's concession speech.

[Moozik: Something About Vampires And Sluts - Dancing In Graveyards]

If you love photography as much as I do, these photos...

... are really quite good.

[Moozik: The Cure - Plainsong]

You did good today. Please go have a beer now. You deserve it.

[Moozik: Beastie Boys - Sure Shot]

Today of course is election day here in the US. I'm quite excited about it as we could very well be seeing history in the making. I'm reminding everyone I know to go and vote as I think it's extremely important for everyone to go and make that all important choice.

I, unfortunately, won't be one of them.

To be honest, nothing makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land more than elections here in the US. As an alien of the resident variety, I get to take part in all facets of American life. I work. I pay taxes. I own cars, houses, pets. But I can't vote. I live and breathe America 24 hours a day 7 days a week yet I have absolutely no say in the direction the country goes in.

I've lived in the US for over a decade and to be honest probably should have done the citizenship thing a long time ago. I like living here and after all this time does feel like 'home'. Anyone who has ever had to deal with the INS though knows that it's an experience you never want to have to go through again. The paperwork headaches, the being herded around like cattle, the queuing to see someone who doesn't care about your personal predicament. It's ugly. Perhaps after all these years it's gotten better but I certainly don't look forward to it.

Being in America at election time is really an eye opener for me in many ways. Elections here are so polarizing. In some respects it really brings out the crazy in people. Some really quite sane and intelligent individuals suddenly turn into something completely different. People are so set in their beliefs on social, religious, and economic issues and with fear and negativity coming out in some of the campaigns, it's not surprising that some people lose the plot. I for one, will not miss those attack ads on TV.

So America, on your big day, please go out and do the right thing. Regardless of which way your political pendulum swings, the right thing to do is vote. This is important. Elections matter.

[Moozik: Editors - Lights]

I didn't see Phoenix, AZ mentioned. Shame on us.

Update: Phoenix certainly is mentioned. Thanks Robin. So it turns out I suck and not my city.