this morning after class i needed to get an oil change for my car and have it's check engine light shut off. so i drove over to my local shop and parked my car. as begin to get out the owner of the shop, a family friend, yells at me "Roll down that window! It's going to get too hot in there and leave the keys in the car!" I did as I said and got out, he then told me to "Get in, we're going for a ride" while motioning towards his car. At this point it's important to note that I am unannounced and I hadn't even said a word when i was getting out of my car.#

So we're driving around a bit, he needs to get his mail and drive around town a bit. I should give a little background on Mr. West. Eddie West was a relatively famous racer in his day. For a summary look at this article and this entry in the New England Racing Hall of Fame. A few key points: "He won more New England Super-Modified Racing Association season championships than anybody, six: In 1969, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975 and '80. He ranks second in all time NESMRA feature wins with 106."#

So he's this really funny old guy who runs my town's shop and he's kind of like a Town hero. He's been pretty good friends with my family forever so when I go get work done on my car I normally sit around and shoot the shit for a bit. So back to the matter at hand, we're driving around in his battered up old car with no license plate and no registration. He tells me that he has no registration because no one is stupid enough to pull him over, he'll just beat them up. Plus he's got a lot of clout.#

While we're driving along this back road there's a VW Minibus behind us. He turns to me and says "Do you like those cars?" "Yea, a bit" "Bah! The Germans made those to get back at us! Let's freak this guy out!" And he starts to slow will the car towards the right side of the road and almost went completely off before slamming back into the road. It was a riot.#

When we got back to the shop, the minibus stopped and Dr. Jennings got out. He's this guy who is a Ph.D of Psychology from Harvard who works at the shop on Fridays for "fun" and helps out needy people everywhere. I actually don't know everything about this guy but he's a cool, smart guy. And in the office we all talked politics and philosophy and stuff.#

It was a good deal, although Dr. Jennings mentioned to me a philosopher I had a never heard of, Karl Popper. Whom you too can read about via his Google Directory. It seems like the main reason he was mentioned was for his ideas about the inability for solid, successful plans to exist in governments. He doesn't believe in a set Utopia that will eventually be discovered to solve all problems and "His anti utopianism in politics matches his fallibilism in epistemology and leads him to ask not how should we rule or manage but how can we best avoid misrule, and mismanagement in order to minimise harm. " (quote link)#

I enjoy philosophy, politics, and talking with my elders and people who are smarter than me. After all, I am just a bear of little brain.#

over at boxes and arrows there's a really interesting list of "Quotable Moments" in discussing the challenges of being an outside ui designer for a software team. all of them are pretty enlightening, both in the ways some users think and the ways some designers think. #

poor little moxie has a hurt back. the poor dear. read the comments for a little bit of flaming over moxiepop, offers for massaging, and cures for a bad back if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.#

i wish i were like tony pierce and got to goto adam sandler's wedding and lie to my boss about, but shit a new movie with sandler and barrymore - sweeet!#

so i was comparing tony pierce's platform for governor of california and jello biafra's platform for mayor of san francisco. i think that would be a good team, picture it: nude people running around throwing pies at business men wearing clown suits. rich!#

i love reading all about the weirdness and hysteria around all the different things the google bots will do. i'm always intrigued by the ways people will notice these things, compare notes, and suddenly there are these great theories for everything inane in the world on the internet. not that this is completely inane, because how google works is not only technically interesting but it also has some social impact on how "INTERNET CULTURE" works - meh?#

the whole bit about apple misleading consumers about the power of powermac g5 is funny. but really, who is surprised? A company, lying about their products to sell more, noooo way!#

philip greenspun explains how the current seemingly two-sided market can exist and also talks about the increased trend of public property to be put in private hands. make sure you check out the comments.
philip greenspun also talks about his opinion of affirmative action with a nice logical treatment. whether you agree, disagree, or have no opinion: it's an insightful read to know what other's care about.#

such a perfect way of reviewing what went on at wwdc through hilariously short sentences.#