People think that Southern California is all hip and young and ahead of the curve and celebrities and SUSHI BARS and stuff. That’s a thin strip along the coast. The rest is like this:

I drove out I-10 to Beaumont, down California 79 to Hemet, and then back on 74 through Perris and over the Ortega Highway to San Juan, finally coming back home via the toll road. An excellent drive, with twisties to keep my skills up, some nice untraveled straightaways for zoomage, and lots of natural beauty. The hot season has just hit (it was over 90 F) but everything is still green, and the birds and insects are making an insane racket.

In the same little strip mall in Perris was the From God Thrift Store and the For Ya Ears Records & Tapes.

Also, there was a church in the San Bernardino area called The Rock: A Church Aflame! but fortunately they were only a couple blocks from HOSE-MART.

The word “hose” is funny. There was a business called HOSE-MAN that Enigma and I used to cackle at on our commute. Try it:

HOSE-FISH
HOSE-COSY
CHOCK FULL O’HOSES
BAD HOSE RISING
ABIE’S IRISH HOSE

etc

She’s brisk. She’s blonde. She’s efficient. She’s the mouthpiece for the world’s most powerful military. She’s dressed like an elementary school principal in 1978. SHE’S VICKY CLARKE!

Sir, the BF-932 Dress has been released for theatre operations and the enemy is in full flight.

http://www.mrcranky.com/movies/iraqwarcoverage.html

I pour oil on a little statue of him every morning! Really!

I’m just griping repetitively here, you have been warned.

I got an email from a high school friend I hadn’t spoken to in 20 years. He is, of course, in Kazakhstan.

Apparently he works for an NGO that is trying to foster democratic institutions, etc.

This is the second time in a month the Internet has coughed up something interesting like this. I also got email from a college friend who was setting up a “Make a CD a month” club with other people I knew then.

How very odd, and interesting.

From the Orange County Register:

LA HABRA – A forklift driver transporting Bibles for a La Habra nonprofit organization was killed Tuesday when the forklift toppled and fell on top of him. Gerardo Gutierrez, 21, of La Habra was taken to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, where he was pronounced dead. A pickup had been towing the forklift up a steep driveway around noon with a load of Bibles when the truck turned and pulled the forklift onto its side, La Habra fire Capt. Bob Lee said. The tow rope was attached to the top of the forklift, which was unable to haul the heavy container of books unaided.

SWEET SHIVA ON A TRIKE RIDING BACKWARDS THROUGH THE HALL OF MIRRORS IN THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES!! WHY THE FUDGE AM I STILL UP???

my job is weird

for those who are also in the tech biz and will understand:

incomplete database maintenance + web caching service complexity + many small content problems + too many functionality changes = ALL NIGHTER FOR ME

as the paper hits the door and the cat starts campaigning for her morning food and people from Italy and Germany return my email I am finally done with work today

blark,

your pal Substitute

http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/docket/2002/march.html#02-102

Grab a pot of coffee and Acrobat reader and have yourself a big bowl of sexual politics. The Amicus Curiae response in favor of the Texas sodomy law are some fine reading, brought to me courtesy the Psychoceramics mailing list.

Personally I’m not interested in having any sodomy in Texas or elsewhere, so it’s academic for me. But I’m fascinated by the loopy reasoning some people have for wanting to prohibit it by law.

Overtime.. i’m making overtime…