a while back i said that Rational Rose was the absolute worst piece of commercial software out there.

i was wrong.

microsoft's visual studio (c++ in particular) is actually the worst.

just garbage.

John Zorn - The Gift

just found out that Joe Jackson is reuniting his Look Sharp-era band.

oh ya! i'm ready. bring on that 80's nostalgia.

gees, first it's the music of The Who selling cars and then allergy medication. now it's The Clash in an ad for jaguar.

blech....

overheard conversation in bar harbor (while person is reading menu outside of a seafood restaurant):

anybody know if there's a mcdonalds in this town?

this morning i popped a very squeeky cd into my player at work: The Free Music Quintet. apparently i haven't listened to it here in a while because my new version of cdmax had to go out to freedb.org to snag the info...

the match that came back was Flip Wilson - Live At The Village Gate.

this is nothing knew but...there's a large group of people who seem to think that if we just crank up the wayback machine so that we go back to some past 'better era', you know, the good 'ole days...that things will be set right. crime will vanish ('cause we certainly had none of that back then), kids will respect their elders (that's what i did when i was your age) and everyone will go to church on sunday.

this is what all of this crap about the pledge reminds me of.

let's face it, life is a big, complicated mess. it's not easy now, and it wasn't easy back then^*. and all of those hypocritical guys from dc better take a good long look in the mirror...as soon as they get done folding up those flags they've got wrapped around themselves.


* - for example, way back in 1978, i just loved listening to bands of the day like Bad Company, Ted Nugent, etc....but, i had this girlfriend...and when i went over to her place i had to put up with Shawn Cassidy and the soundtracks from Saturday Night Fever and Grease. so, were things better back then??...;-)

gees, i keep reading these arguments about the pledge of allegiance....what would people say if it said "one nation under allah" or "one nation under buddha".

this may be a small fact but...buddhism is not a theistic religion! of course it could be argued that i'm missing that point (the point being "what if it 'under god' didn't imply a christian god) but to me it just looks like another myopic christian-centered view of the world: that all other religions are like christianity slightly modified.