Got up to 90 yesterday, but the dewpoint was in the 70s all day, and it was pretty darned hot-feeling out there. Hot enough that I waited until 10pm before hauling out the trash so they could pick it up this morning. Hot enough that the low temp this morning was 72. And no real relief in sight for today either. I’m guessing today will be a day spent mostly in the air-conditioned bliss of my house.
It’s probably just as well the weather is going to keep me close to home today. I’ve got most of the domestic things in order at the moment (aside from a pressing need to do laundry, but that’s a good background task), and need to spend the day concentrating on fixing bugs for a client. I need to earn my keep around here, and I’ve had a reasonably productive week so far, billing hours for four different clients in the past two days, and need to focus on the client with the next looming deadline today. All of the tasks have been achievable, and I’ve been making good progress, and that’s a darned good feeling. If I can maintain that kind of productivity, it’ll make the overworked feelings I’ve had so far in July seem worthwhile.
- It’s probably too late for you if you haven’t already registered, but ADHOC (the conference formerly known as MacHack) begins tonight. For the first time in a bunch of years, I’m not going to be there. I’ll miss it, but there was no way I was going to be ready to head out of town again this soon. It was only yesterday that I finally finished the to-do list I made when I got home from WWDC.
- Here’s a letter on the Current World Situation that purports to be from a father to his sons. It’s been circulating the net for much of July, even though it’s dated in May, with various numbers of footnotes and such (that make me wonder if it was really a father-to-sons email). This seems to be the most complete version, and it’s something worth looking at, I think. Meanwhile, in Another strong ally, sdb says that now that the Philippines have pulled their troops out of Iraq, it’s Japan that’s probably next in the terrorist crosshairs. [sdb]
- Whether you like his politics or not, Lileks sometimes posts cool pictures. He’s just put up a bunch of pictures of the Minneapolis Riverfront, which is the only update to the Minneapolis section this year. Pretty pictures of places I walked past a lot more often when I lived closer to the river. [lileks]
- One of the bigger local news items lately has been the proposed smoking bans in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the newly-enacted ban in Bloomington. Mitch has some commentary in Smoked Out and The Inmates Rule the Cities. My take: I had left California before they put the smoking ban in place there, but within a week of it going into effect, most of the smoky dive-bars I liked had closed. I fear the same thing will happen here, and I’ll be without regular hangouts. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t spend so much time in bars, so maybe it’ll be good for me, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’m pretty sure this sort of nannying from elected officials will be another one of those
if you support this, I’ll never vote for you again
kind of things. [mitch] - Here’s a fine poster that comments on current politics. And as an added bonus, from the comments,
America needs another JFK like it needs a hole in the head.
More seriously, I remembered Bush’s betrayal of us in both the USA-PATRIOT act, and in his support for renewing the AWB. Can’t vote for Bush, won’t vote for Kerry. So do I go with Badnarik, Nader, or start shopping the list of wingnuts again? Hell, with no local elections this year, maybe it’s time to just sit one out, even if voting for Vermin Supreme, the candidate from the Misinformed Citizens of America is tempting. - From Capitol Hill Blue (back in 1999): America’s Criminal Class: The Congress of the United States says it’s first in a series. Me, I don’t see why anyone would make a loan to a candidate given the information in this article (many default on campaign loans, even if they win). Almost one fifth have run at least two failed businesses (proving they don’t learn, either), and there’s a laundry list of other reasons you wouldn’t want to hang out with your elected representatives. Ugh. No indications that things have changed in the past five years, either. [fark!]