Autobots, Blogroll Out

A quick thanks for the link and kind words over at Plastic Manzikert. I recommend checking it out. It's a consistently thoughtful and interesting blog.

Pretty Pictures

I added a slide show of images that were created for this blog to the sidebar and at the foot. Let me know if it slows down your connection to the site.

Oh, and also. If someone ever makes a movie about me or someone I know, I want my part to be played by Lowly Worm from Busytown.


Seriously, though. Dude looks like me.

Few Weeks Off

For those of you wondering where I've been, the answer is I've been sick. Nothing too bad mind you but just bad enough to make me not want to do any extracurriculars.

200th Post

Yes, it's official. Post #200. Let the wide eyed crazy talk continue. And The Bedfordhillsian's 1 year mark is coming up too. This can only mean one thing - it's time for the ultimate cop out, the retrospective. Think of it as the DVD commentary that no one ever asked for but got anyway. Looking back, I must admit that I haven't set out to do anything in particular with this blog (as a quick reading should make evident). I've been using the format as an outlet to practice my writing, record interesting thoughts and facts, and express myself in general. There are a few themes that I seem to be developing that I'd like to share and some links to my favorite posts.

1. Dreams
First off, I've been recording some of my more interesting dreams. I started doing this when I had a particularly crazy dream about Janet Reno.

2. My Glasses
I've tried to keep the personal stuff to a minimum because I don't want my blog to become overrun with stories about my cats. Bad enough that I have so many damn stories about my glasses.

3. History
I love history. The worst thing to ever happen to history is when someone decided to try and teach it but instead developed a subject of intellectual weight best used for crushing the spirit of the young. Whether it's an obscure letter from George Washington to the Continental Congress or the ever popular, the Opium Wars, I spend considerable time digging into the dirty dust bunny corners of history.

4. Science, Politics and the Media
I like to tell people that I don't believe in science but that's only partly true. I've spent many posts exploring issues related to what I don't like to call the philosophy of science. In my mind, I generally lump science, politics and the media together because I usually feel like some kind of old kook when I hear other people talk about these topics. You know the kook I mean. The guy in the movie who thinks outside the box, predicts the imminent disaster, and somehow is the first one to be killed by the rampaging dinosaur/volcano/angry mob. But, I have to call um like I see um.

5. Other Contributors
Some other Bedfordhillsians also post from time to time. My brothers diggs and Premier Keith Kumar and my friend recon have chimed in a few times.

6. Interactive Bits
The caption contests and other attempts at collaboration speak for themselves. Hilarity ensues.

7. Random
Throw in the obligatory Britney rant, a juxtaposition of L Ron Hubbard with Dick Cheney, some futurism, and you've got yourself a blog.

The Right Words from the Right Mouth

Having already wagged my proverbial finger at the dog pile of negative media coverage about Ahmadinejad's visit to New York, I would like to level some criticism his way. Well, not me exactly. I would like to highlight the condemnation of the Iranian president by actual legitimate sources. Who could be a more legitimate source on the subject of Iranian politics than the US media you ask. Why, Iranians of course.

You see, Tom Parker from the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times which includes excerpts from some prominent Iranian blogs. Iran has a thriving community of blogs by the way and they are more aware than anyone of the problems in their own government. Check out the op-ed; It's short.

My favorite quote is from the blog, Until the Polytechnic Students Are Released. It sums up my own feelings about this most recent word crusade/jihad pretty well.

"Last night, before the speech of my knowledgeable Ahmadinejad, I was so worried. O Lord, how are we going to be ridiculed now? How did we become who we are? The year of dialogue between civilizations seems so far away!"

Knowing that Iranians are looking at Ahmadinejad with the same sense of disbelief that I get when looking at Bush makes the world that much more sane.

More Template Changes

I don't mean to confuse everyone with the seaonal changes to my blog template but until I find one that I really like I'm going to keep experimenting.

Down Time

I'm excited to have figured out how to embed sound links in a flash player on my blog. Go ahead and see if it works.



Ah, Devo.

I know that it doesn't seem like I'm doing much blogwise but just so you know I've been laboring behind the scenes just like your favorite sports team does in the off season. Setting up deals, training up key players, stealing the other team's playbooks and such. Let's just say that I've got my proverbial finger in many pies. Let's also just say, I feel like one of those jugglers trying to keep two balls in the air at once. It's hard work.

UPDATE!
Due to space constraints, I've removed the old Odeo flash player and just embedded live version of the song from boomp3.

My First Gif

I love animated gifs. Watching those rhythmic 5 second loops is like having my brain pushed down a series of M C Esheresque stairs. I could look at a funny gif of jedis knocking over babies for hours.

What I'm driving at is that I've finally figured out how to make my own little brain lock inducing visuals. And it's all downhill from here.

I've been waiting to make this little animation for a long time now. I've updated the earlier post with it.

Messin'

Yes, I've been rearranging the layout for the blog. Hope it suites you internet snob bastards.

100th post

S'been a good run so far. That bear never seems to get tired.

Everybody Loves Cheney

Defective Yeti has come up with a very creative analogy worth checking out. Here's a brief quote from the post.

The xenomorph--antagonist of the Alien film series--has a complex lifecycle. After hatching from an egg, the "facehugger" attaches itself to a host organism and implants an embryo deep within its body. Having done so, it seemingly dies. In reality though, the creature lives on, gestating, advancing toward its next stage. Sometime later the parasite violently emerges from its carrier, then rapidly grows to enormous--and lethal--size, a near-perfect killing machine.

This reminds me of nothing so much as Dick Cheney...

Yes, in 2000, Cheney was appointed as head of the committee to find the most qualified Vice President to serve as Bush's running mate. His extensive search revealed that he himself was the most qualified for the job. Literally, a "Dick Maneuver". A lot of people missed that piece of news when it happened because reporting on it was not widespread.

Split the Difference

As you may have noticed, I'm currently helping my friend Recon with his extra super smash hit you-go-crazy-you-like-so-much blog monkeys for helping. I'm not duplicating posts between both the blogs so some of the things that come up here (in my posts and in the comments) show up over there and visa versa. Stylistically, it's easy to decide what belongs where (if you've read both blogs you should agree). In case, you were wondering.

(The picture is a guitar ukulele combo via fretboardjournal.com)

Introduction

At my age, most people have long moved on from the place where they grew up and the friends they had as children. Yet, even though I've lived all over the country, my best friends are the same guys I knew before I could drive. This blog is a kind of dramatic reenactment the atmosphere I get staying up late thinking and talking about almost anything with my friends in Bedford Hills. So, I called it The Bedford Hillsian.