Peridyd's Progress

I'm in San Diego for a few days, visiting my mom. Things are quite intense here, even in the relative safety of La Mesa. Smoky. Only recently this afternoon did we see any blue sky, despite the fact that it should be crystal clear. There's just been too much smoke to see the sky. I was supposed to get together today with a friend who lives in Lake Elsinore, but his home was surrounded by threatening clouds of reddish smoke. Given the fact that his home might be at risk, his wife (understandably) wanted him to stay close to home. Maybe next trip.

They tell us to stay inside. Not to exercise. From what I'm hearing on the news, it's not that the particulates of the burning wood, brush, etc., are particularly (cough) unhealthy, what we're most at risk from inhaling are the carcinogens from the burnt homes--more than 1600 of them--their construction materials.

The thing that I'm most struck by is how fragile it all is: our cities, our civil order. Yes, this is the worst disaster in the history of California. Nearly 1/4 of San Diego County has been burned. If the pincer of the two fires, one from the south, one in the north, had squeezed the city proper, how could services have coped?

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

World of Warcraft and one of my favorite songs, all in one YouTube video?

Yes, it's pop, but who could hate a song with the lines:

Code Monkey get up, get coffee
Code Monkey go to job.
Code Monkey have boring meeting with boring manager, Rob.
Rob say Code Monkey very diligent, but his output stink.
His code not functional or elegant, what do Code Monkey think?
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write goddamn login page himself
Code Monkey not saying outloud.
Code Monkey not crazy, just proud.

All available, by the way, under a Creative Commons license. Coincidence? I think not.

Thanks to m for finding it.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Democrats are expected to extend wiretap powers for the National Security Agency. For those who wonder why progressives are abandoning the party, this is the reason. Ever fearful of being seen as being soft on the so-called War on Terror, the party is so afraid of its shadow that it casts none.

Ether, pure ether. No substance.

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems that the one thing you can count on these days (in baseball at least) is that the Yankees will choke in October. For the 3rd (?) year in a row, they're out of it in the first round. Rather than blaming it on the fact that he's aggregated too many superstars and their supersized egos (the best teams and the best Yankees teams have few superstars and a bunch of solid players), Mr. Steinbrenner will blame Joe Torre and fire him, probably immediately.

If you love baseball and you aren't a bandwagon fan, the Yankees are the team to hate. They're worse than Microsoft (and I reserve that level of insult for the truly corrosive). Baseball needs revenue sharing and salary caps; the KC Royals need to win a pennant again; the Yankees need to be just another team.

And despite the fact that I categorize them as "inherently evil," I find it very, very difficult to criticize their skipper. He's a fantastic baseball man, and a man of integrity. (Only a fantastic manager could manage those egos, including the boss').

How long will Torre be on the job market before he gets an offer? Let's put it this way: I think it's very likely that someone will get fired just to make room for him. If only he were going to the Mariners (sigh).

But there's no chance of that.

Zero.

Dodgers?

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Go Padres!

(Need I say any more?)

Posted by Dennis Bennett at 03:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)