High Security

List of passwords for accounts that I struggle to remember or just leave logged in all the time because I check them regularly: 

1. Gmail (this is the one where the rest get reset when I click 'Forgot your password?')
2. Bank
3. Cable bill
4. Power bill
5. Phone bill
6. Numerous hyperspecific special interest forums, e.g.
7. Main work login
8. Work web shit
9. Other work web shit (2 layers of protection)
10. Rent payment info
11. NFLX
12. Savings Bank
13. Work payroll account
14. Work travel request
15. Work expenses
16. Amazon
17. Zappos
18. Backup personal email accounts (x3)
19. Xbox Live
20. Credit Card account
21. iTunes

Of the above 20+ passwords I can think of maybe four offhand. But there's another list that shows my priorities are in the proper order.

SUPER IMPORTANT PASSWORDS that I remember under any and all circumstances: 
1. Friends HBOGo account
2. My local wireless network

So I might not have ready access to any of the shit from the first list, but I can definitely watch True Blood as soon as the latest episode is available.

Muppet Time

Just an amazing picture of Beaker I found on the internet. Beaker is my favorite Muppet. In order:

1. Beaker
2. Cookie Monster
3. Swedish Chef
4. Kermit
5. (Tie) Dr. Honeydew and Animal

Weekend activities were dampened somewhat when I went out to my car on Sunday morning and discovered that my passenger side mirror was smashed off. Thanks to whatever drunken fuckwit took the opportunity to make me spend $250 getting it fixed. That's what I get for living in a shitty neighborhood. Although in November of 2011 someone did a hit and run on my car in a very, very expensive neighborhood. Scumbags come in all tax brackets.

It's in the Argument

This was on Alligator Sunglasses as "The Best GIF Ever".
It's the top 5, easy. I dare you not to smile.

This and That

Fewer updates this week because my back has been bothering me so I switched to a standing desk. Best thing is to switch back and forth from sitting to standing throughout the day but my current setup doesn't make that very easy. It's a work in progress. As a result I'm either working standing or giving the wheels a short break. Come evenings I'm not much keen on more computer time.

Anyway, this song is old. And this version of the song is old, but it's new to me. Apparently the public's appetite for choir covers of pop songs is infinite, because these girls are a cottage industry. But still: it's a great cover.

Fun activity planned for this weekend. More on that early next week.

What are you reading?

We always want more, he thought, we always take our past successes for granted and assume they but point the way to future triumphs. But the universe does not have our own best interests at heart, and to assume for a moment that it does, ever did or ever might is to make the most calamitous and hubristic of mistakes.

That's from Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks, published in 2000. It's a theme that comes up often in his work, but the sentences above summarize it explicitly.

He wrote the first Culture novel in the late 80's and they have held up very well since then. SciFi books often don't. The Culture novels make for very good light reading - they are broad in scope and populated with a wonderfully well imagined group of people/places/things. The stories can be quite violent, but: the universe is a cruel and unforgiving place.

Banks isn't writing any more. He announced that he had gall bladder cancer on 3 April 2013, and died on 9 June 2013. He was 59.

Anniversaries

I wrote a long, self-indulgent, navel-gazing post but spiked it. Plenty accurate but it didn't make for very fun reading. Not even for me, and I love the sound of my own words.

Here's the short version: I said goodbye to Reese six months ago today. I have missed her every day since then.

Flow Like Water

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.
-Heraclitus


Truth? Truth.
More on this later in the week.

Summer Jamz

This song is so new I'm not even sure it's out yet. The version posted here was lifted from a live set posted on soundcloud a couple weeks ago. It probably won't be as big a smash as Sovereign Light Cafe (a favorite), but it's a good summer jam.

Okay then. 

Makes Sense

Had to start over on this one because my cool linked photo didn't work.

You'll have to go direct.

IT'S COOL I GOT THIS

HAI!

Ahh, hello. Whatcha doin?

NUFFIN.

How's the room in the front?

BIT CRAMPED, SINCE YOU ASKED.

Any snacks?

NONE SO FAR. 

Try the back?

GOOD IDEA.

Here I'll get the door.

IT'S OKAY I GOT IT.

I see...

NO SNACKS BACK HERE. BIT MORE ROOMY THOUGH.

Ahh...

KTHXBAI!!

/hat tip to Deadspin

Let's Make Some Noise

Sometimes I try and watch a tv show and the gun handling is so bad that I can't deal and have to turn it off. This happened most recently with Wallander, an otherwise fairly well done detective show available for streaming on your local Netflix.

The main character draws his gun just about every episode (which is itself unusual/ridiculous for a cop, but whatever) and he makes a complete hash of it every... single... time. It's down to the actor not knowing dick about guns. I can make allowances at first but after three or four times it's very distracting. Sometimes the grip will change from one camera shot to the next. Continuity fail. And, after a few episodes (and seasons, which amounts to years of real life time) it is willful ignorance on the part of the actor. It's not super hard to get it right - it only takes 10 minutes to learn a proper grip. Yeah it might take some additional practice time but that's your job so figure it out.

No doubt the guy in the video above feels the same way every time he watches a sword fight on Game of Thrones. Bummer for him. I know they're super theatrical and bullshit but usually the fights are brief enough you can get back to intrigue.

My favorite fight choreography is the big two handed overhead smash followed by a slice to the midsection. Works every time! Apparently the sidestep and lunge hasn't made any headway in Westeros fencing schools. Neither has the ability to link a parry (i.e. such as may be required to deflect a two-handed overhead smash) to an attack. For f's sake. Whoever figures it out will have an easy path to the Iron Throne.

Next time you watch GoT notice how much noise there is every time they draw swords. Then imagine it as a bunch of very quiet rattles and subtle whispers. How would you know that there's about to be a fight without the aural cues? CHIIIING!