Analog by Night

“I was made with a heart of stone
to be broken with one hard blow.

I’ve seen the ocean break on the shore
and come together with no harm done.”

- Peretz Bernstein

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The longest running position of employment I’ve ever had was working for Wildcat Textbooks for roughly three years. I’m reliving it a little right now in a surreal way. I’ve discovered that Delicious Library allows me to use my built-in camera on my lap top to SCAN BOOKS!! It’s so rad.

Update: Stephen Hawking just spoke as a result of scanning  “Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays.” Yeah. So, when you scan any book there’s a computerized female voice that reads back the title aloud to you. Which happened with S.Hawking’s book, but then, a second later a DIFFERENT computerized voice, the authors, says, “Did I tell you about my Hawking radiation? It was named after me. Hawking radiation is emitted when one particle is sucked into a black hole, and the other particle escapes.” I know this is not a figment of my imagination. I had to repeat the process several times to make sure I got the quote right.  My first thought was that I could find this quote on the cover, or somewhere in the book. I have not read the book yet, but it’s not on the cover, and not on page 170-171 where Hawking radiation is discussed.  A short foray into the interwebs proves this not to be an entirely unusual phenomena. It does count as an Easter Egg though.

Those amazing mavens of design at Ideo invented a wicked water pump that is being sold in Africa.  So are a lot of cool technologies, like the Bogo light, and the Hippo Roller. You can invest in Africa, rather than just giving money to Africa by buying some of this stuff.  Check this out for all you Societals: Project H Design

When I was younger I had this idea that when one powerful person died their power was somehow distributed. I mean of course their body is distributed. Ya know the earth get’s all that calcium and iron and 16 essential vitamins back, but I sorta thought their social power was also redistributed, sometimes to one other person. Like the way your brain power gets redistributed if you should lose one of your senses.

It came from thinking about being born in the same year Elvis died. I used to attribute my exceptional luck to that proximity. Elvis was the most powerful person I knew of, and his death seemed to be sort of Earth-shaking.

The problem in that logic is that Elvis was alive for nearly half a year after I was born. And by then he wasn’t the Elvis one would really want to inherit anything from. I digress.

So today when I saw my horoscope, quite possibly the most amazing prediction I’ve ever heard directed at me. I thought to myself, “Thanks Gary.”

Aquarius March 5, 2008:

“Today’s Venus-Neptune alignment falls in your sign, heaping an extra helping of radiance onto your plate. You can be more alluring than you realize, transmitting vibes that capture others in your web of illusion. Your mind is powerful now and can affect physical reality. Wizard-like, you can think yourself stronger, taller or prettier — and magically, that is how you are perceived. Use this special gift wisely.”

My immediate thought was, “well nothing’s happened yet. When is this supposed to start? I’m going to be so critical of my day now.”

I’ve learned three things by this: 1. I don’t know where any of this shit comes from, 2. Clearly I’m still exploring some pretty childish superstitions. 3. I am handsomer, more charming, eloquent, and about four inches taller than I was at five am.

I’m hoping that by mid-afternoon I’ll be able to “see everything” and be teleporting all over the place!

Blink. blink blink. Yep. I just realized that Robert Plant is probably saying “soirées” in the chorus. It’s a song about parties. That’s a realization 15 years in the making. Yes kids it WILL take you 15 years to get Led Zeppelin. Don’t worry, the starting 15, during which you believe all the songs are about what life could be like if we all just believed in love and travel, those are pretty good too.

Wikipedia for “fact” checking: Hot Dog

South Bound Saurez probably is festival of typos. It should be either Southbound Suarez or Southbound Soirées. These little things, and Page’s notoriously sloppy playing are just redeeming proof that Led Zeppelin is just a band. Fortunately for record-store owners they’re the best band ever.