Tuesday, April 26, 2005

the religious right and a balanced view of the world

is there a more disturbing bunch? i've yet to hear one say anything that wasn't laced with absurdity and rhetoric. at what point does a resonably intelligent child, who hasn't been brain-washed by parents abandon their own sense of self discovery and fall in line, like sheep, to the christian conservative pulpit? this 'proud' group is responsible, believe it or not, for public schools shying away from teaching evolution and science museums rejecting scientifically sound documentaries that may offend christian fundamentalists. i quote:

"Volcanoes," released in 2003 and sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and Rutgers University, has been turned down at about a dozen science centers, mostly in the South, said Dr. Richard Lutz, the Rutgers oceanographer who was chief scientist for the film. He said theater officials rejected the film because of its brief references to evolution, in particular to the possibility that life on Earth originated at the undersea vents.

these people aren't happy with anything that doesn't agree with the bible. the big bang, evolution, -very rational-

yes, sure. the earth was physically made in six days (gotta need that day off after all that) and is only 4,000 years old.

i'm sorry. i'm from a different country (england) i thought that this country (america) was founded by those that desired to keep church and state separate. seems that mr. frist and his cohorts would have us believe otherwise and urge the present 'faith-based" administration to abandon all checks and balances, turning the country's back on decades of first amendment law and civil rights protections. did i hear anyone say women's rights?

it's 2005. effective birth-control and aids prevention isn't viewed with the compassionate realism that's needed. these problems aren't going away, no matter how much abstinence the conservatives preach from their safe vantage points. this is, quite frankly, incredible.

the american media would much rather focus on a new pope and a roman catholic church that was quick to condemn the removal of terry schiavo's feeding tube, but stopped short of condemning the war in iraq when g.w. went over to kiss a hand. how many more hundreds of innocent civilian iraqis are going to die before this country and those that put george back in office has had enough of american lives lost. because if i want an update on the war in iraq from any of the major networks, it's the american dead that take top billing. each day this ugly tally is updated. how about one for the iraqis alongside or underneath, or don't we care about them?

Sunday, April 24, 2005

formula 1

wow. haven't seen an f1 race in ages and i get to see a corker at imola. was flicking through the remote looking for the baseball and caught cbs broadcasting the grand prix. baseball took a very distant second place. great race. good to see schuey face some real opposition.
baltimore won. 'phone's working again. very mysterious. hope records get here tomorrow.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

saturday

not going out tonight. rebecca needs a quiet weekend to get her head around the next four weeks. next weekend is campbell's wedding reception party, so that rules out saturday evening.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

thursday

turns out our very annoyingly intermittent internet is a comcast problem. they're sending a techie out tomorrow to try and fix it. meanwhile, we have no home phone. the orioles can't seem to buy a run at the moment and it was a quiet night at blue last night.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

wednesday

it's hot. feels like summer. went over to see if i could coax tiernan's computer into existence. looks pretty dead to me. we're having a few internet woes with ours, but i have no idea why. no virus is being reported and no spyware is being found...

going out to blue later on. be good to see some smiling social faces. it feels a quiet week.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

environmental disaster...

it's rebecca's birthday today. happy birthday, honey :)
she's supposed to be helping with an outreach environmental clean-up program for the anacostia river. she announced that instead she's going to bag it and instead clean out her closet. i responded that "well, one's an environmental disaster, and two is also an environmental disaster.."

it's cold outside. 40f. outrageous. need some tea. see ya later.

Friday, April 15, 2005

design within reach

last night lasted forever. the good news is that the orange bookcase (sorry, cubes) from design within reach arrived. it's about the only thing we can afford from their catalogue - not a particularly appropiately named company. unpacking everything took a while. orange piece followed by orange piece, followed by more orange piesces. then came the instructions. think ikea gone mad and that's what it looked like. configuration a and configuration b diagrams, except that there was nothing labeled a or b......luckily, we managed to put it together a lot quicker than we thought possible. result.

felt too ill to go out to five to see john tejada, which was a bummer. at least the construction has finished outside, which has been going on for the best part of a year..

Thursday, April 14, 2005

flu

can't shake this flu bug. probably have an infection and will need to get some antibiotics. very nasty. no energy.

Monday, April 11, 2005

records

got my records and cd's today.

cd: dj db - the secret art of science mix
cd: fabio/grooverider - drum & bass arena
vinyl: nu tone - brave new world lp
vinyl subfocus - x-ray/scarecrow (floor pleaser)

nice :)

Saturday, April 09, 2005

playing again

playing at mantis tonight. haven't played out in what seems like a long time. rebecca is going to play the first hour, which will be good for her and me. she's very good to start off the evening. no beats, no mixing, just funk and soul. going to play some d&b later in the set. we'll see how the mantis crowd likes drum 'n' bass.....

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

records

ordered some records from breakbeat science and they came the next day on a standard delivery!
great, great service. only thing i'm not too happy about is the size of the sample files. 7- 12 seconds is not a sample, guys. if you know the track you want, then this is a great site.

high society - high society album (great buy)
calibre - drop it down/bleep
calibre - bluetop/gemini

after the wmc, i'm finding it very hard to play any deep house. this means that i probably won't be buying much more of the stuff i've always played out. can definitely see myself getting more into the d&b. interestingly, my first session on the decks last night i found i was already mixing differently....i blame t.dickens for all of this.......

Monday, April 04, 2005

science table

our science table got delivered today. now we can both have our own workspace; one in the bedroom with the computer and the other out in the main living room. the table works out much better than i thought. the room hasn't lost it's feel.

ordered more records from breakbeat science...

Sunday, April 03, 2005

sunday movie

gangs of new york. the opening 5 mins had the promise of a dracula-type style film with a fast-paced story line. alas no. this film, which comes in 2 dvd's from netflix is a terrible waste of time. think "titanic" and you'll know what i mean. by the end of disc 1, neither rebecca or myself could take any more and disc 2 will never be seen - nutty rating UG ( ugly coyote)

Saturday, April 02, 2005

no way are we having any fun... Posted by Hello

saturday

flu still beating me up. got photos back from cvs. will post a few if i can work out how...
it's a miserable day here in dc. had to get up at 7am as the plasterer was coming to finish the wall. 'phone call at 7:45am let us know he wasn't coming... great.
rebecca in miami Posted by Hello

Friday, April 01, 2005

i'm alive....

friday, april 1st.

picked up a nasty flu bug and have felt crap for a couple of days now. we got back from miami on tuesday evening, around 8:45pm. total mileage for trip 2351 miles. made it back in 2 days as opposed to 3 on the way down. don't feel like writing anything right now, but will do once i feel a bit more alive. winter music conference is a must go to 'event'. the ultra music festival is the culmination of the whole week. incredible experience. should get some photos back tomorrow and i'll post a few of the trip.