OK, it has been brought to my attention by my wife (who is always eager to point out my mistakes, she has gloated both times) that I have mis-quoted the Bard. The quotation from the "Scottish Play" is actually "Double, double, toil and trouble." Oh well.

Speaking of that play, Check out the film "Scotland PA." if you haven't already. I enjoyed it. Many people hated it, but I liked it. That's right I liked it. Whaddaya gonna do?

Boil, boil, toil and trouble.

Um, mostly trouble...

Forced perspective is cool. Courtesy Mindles H. Drek.

The window of opportunity was not missed by Opportunity. The second of a pair of NASA rovers is now on its way to Mars. Once there, the pair will search for evidence that there was once (or still is) enough water to sustain life on the red planet. Sprit and Opportunity join Japan's troubled Nozomi (hope) atmospheric probe, and the ESA's Express/Beagle 2 orbiter-rover combo (which is having some problems of its own) in an interplanetary convoy. Lets hope they get past the Martian defense systems.

Envision if you will, Jaqundor upon his steed, sounding the alarm "The Canadians are coming! the Canadians are coming!"

What has 58 million transistors and 400 meters of copper wire? Oh, and its just 118 square millimeters.

Do you ever have that feeling, "Man! I should have just waited a few more months..."

OK, in accordance with the rules of the New Blog showcase, I am voting for at least three other entrants. I say at least three because I am re-reading a few, and may add another one or two if I feel so inclined. I would vote for my own entry, but it wouldn't count anyway. These are in no particular order.

First, Norbizness talks about the smoking ban in bars in Austin. I know the feeling, there are some issues that make my head spin, this is actually one of them. The same thing is happening in towns around Minnesota. I won't get into it any further now, or maybe ever as far as A Blog of His Own goes.

The next entry has to do with the lack of venues for independent film makers. Now that more and more content is being produced thanks to the DV revolution, Brian Flemming wishes that there was a set of graduated venues (filters) for these films, similar to the theatre system for stage. I agree. A friend and I are currently in the development stages for a short. I will be looking into possible outlets in Minnesota, and around the midwest. If you know of anything, let me know. Of course there are always the internet outlets such as AtomFilms.

And lastly at truck808, Robert tells the story of Rex and Angel.

Congratulations are in order for Jaquandor. Today marks the publication of his first paying gig.

I am shocked that A Blog of His Own is the number one result for this search.

Jaquondor the headbanger?

The New Blog Showcase

Well, thanks to relaxed rules this week, I am able to give another shot at the New Blog Showcase at The Truth Laid Bear. The post I have entered this time around is the one directly below, "The French Method." So, if you have a weblog, vote for me! To do this, simply link directly to said post from your blog (general links to A Blog of His Own will not count). The link must be on your main page come Sunday night/Monday morning.

Note: Somehow the link to my entry has gotten screwed-up on TTLB. If you plan on voting for me use this URL: http://ablogofhisown.blogspot.com/2003_06_15_ablogofhisown_archive.html#95773001

Woo Hoo! With some help from N. Z. Bear I have fixed my perma-link problem. He has also fixes the link in the New Blog Showcase. All is well.

The French Method

It is amazing what you find when you move into an new house (about 50 years old, but new to us). Especially when the previous owner lived there for the entire history of the house. We originally found the item in question when we moved in, but we were so amazed by it that we kept it around to show and amaze visitors. We recently came across the bottle of Putnam Dry-Cleaner (The French Method) again while cleaning our basement in preparation for drain-tiling.

When we first came across it we thought, "That's interesting, an old home dry-cleaning solution." As we further examined the box, and the bottle contained within, we thought "That's VERY interesting, and a bit scary."

As you can see, the brief directions on the front of the box instruct the user to dilute one tablespoon of the cleaner in one quart of GASOLINE OR NAPTHA.

The more thorough directions on the back go on to instruct the user to rinse the article with pure clean gasoline. It also advises that kid gloves may be cleaned while ON THE HANDS. I have occasionally dripped gasoline on my shoes, hands or gloves, and that smell is with you for days. Did these people walk around smelling of gasoline? Was this preferable to a slightly soiled garment?

I would have to imagine that working in gasoline, standing that close to an open container for the time it would take to clean your kid gloves, your nose and throat would start to burn. Your hands aren't exactly soaking in Ivory Liquid either.

The box also lists as a tip for successful cleaning to first warm the gasoline. Thankfully the makers saw fit to warn users to keep it away from flame.

As a bonus we get a vocabulary lesson for the day (at least I did). The box warns that both the product and gasoline are very inflammable.

I have always thought (incorrectly) that inflammable meant not-flammable. It in fact means flammable. The "in" is not the negative latin prefix, but instead the intensive latin prefix, related to enflame. Who knew? Maybe The American Heritage Student Dictionary should add inflammable to this list.

Note: Damn permalinks! Fot the information on the vocabulary list go to Collaboratory, it is under the entries for Monday, June 16.

WTF? Courtesy Michael Lopez, via Jaquandor.

When someone has a passion, they can develop an emotional attachment to an object related to that passion. A musician to his instrument, a photographer to his camera, a writer to his pens. But a vacuum cleaner?

Well, here it is at long last. I finally took the time and created the time-lapse of last month's lunar eclipse, as I promised nearly a month ago.

The file is about 1.5 MB, so if you have dial-up it will take some time to load. The poor quality image quality is due to the amount of compression I had to use to get it to a manageable size. It really looks much better uncompressed.

Oh, you will need QuickTime.

Of all the things to bring traffic to this page, I never would have figured that one of them would be this Google search.

He gets down, he gets down,
He gets down all the way.

Excuse me while I gush. The Beck show was out of this world. The concert further cemented one thing in my mind, that Beck has no (current) peer in the world of popular music. He is the truly eclectic musician. He takes Bob Dylan, Prince, James Brown, Beastie Boys, every conceivable genre and niche, bestows upon it his own substantial element, purees the whole damn mess, and serves it up for our delectation.

He also is the latest, in a long line of rockers, to prove one undeniable fact, jumpsuits are cool.

Hitching a ride with the bleeding noses
Come into town with the briefcase blues



Beck concert tomorrow night! WoooHooo!

Atari was so cool.

This very cool link comes to us courtesy Sean.

I want them all!

Another big list of songs

I'm less enthused about this new list from VH1 than I was about the 100 greatest country songs. It lists what it claims are the 100 best songs of the past 25 years. There are only a couple of songs on this list that would crack my top 100, most probably wouldn't make it in to my top 1000. I have no problem with Beastie Boys being on the list, but not for "Fight for Your Right." And what, no Elvis Costello?