step over cnn

There's a new totally pathetic news source on the block (or two I guess), or two I guess.

Check out this totally offensive article from wonkette

Yes, that's right - when black people take stuff it's looting, when white folks do it, it's called finding.

I didn't know the gun was loaded awfulsir.

some more swim hole pictures

I'm really pushing Mary to let us go there again this weekend, hopefully I'll get lucky ;)

here are the pics rachel posted.

she's a good photographer actually. and not just of camping.

here are some me-centric highlights:









it should be noted that these pics are all from the "upper" pool, which was where much of the hangin' out was done. In typical Aram fashion I wandered off to the more dangerous to get to pool, which I only convinced two people to go to despite much pleading (mary, ever the trooper, was one) - that's where the picture of me in the water are from (from a few weeks ago) - unfortunately I was equipped only with my phone, plus I'm generally not as good a photographer as Rachel.

In any event, I'm planning on going back this weekend, super hopefully fingers crossed style.

where to find water bottles

from vande velde's vuelta tour diary:

One thing that I did think of today was that if every rider drank 11 bottles and there are 196 riders, that means that there about 2000 empty water bottles scattered across the N67 from Córdoba. I know for a fact there was no one out there, so if you need bottles, you know where to look.

it was 113 degreen farenheit at the top of the climb. ugh.

coffee is good for me in more than one way

apparently, it's got "antioxidants"

on dogs that don't normally bark

yes, person on the other end of the blind lady's phone, the guide dog doesn't normally bark, but then again, the little terrier that followed them to breakfast isn't normally trying to hump the guide dog either. This was one of those situations where you think to yourself maybe you shouldn't interfere, or maybe you should. in any event it was a definite distraction during breakfast at albert's in alameda.

crazy week

wow, family reunion in fresno (which was great) but I got food poisoning only to come home to the open space in our backyard on fire - complete with helicoptors dropping water etc. 15 acres burned but not the house.
then I hear robert moog died!!! woah, and lance finally got busted for doping (duh) and shellac plays (pics coming) and work's been super crazy.

cool pic from the weekend of paul in the upper playground hoodie though:

in celebration of death

specifically the death of Gideon Nieuwoudt, a South African police member (who doesn't deserve the title man or officer) who died too soon and did not die painfully enough. Most famous for beating Steven Biko, driving his car through the house of an alleged guerilla, killing the inhabitants, bombing three policemen and an informer in their car, and having his skull smashed while asking forgiveness from the son of a man he killed.

May his very last moment been one of unbearable pain.

new friend

totally awesome:
Hi Aram I was glancing around friendster and came across your ad and you just jumped out at me, I wanted to know more about you and see if we could hit it off. I havent been on here long and I was hoping to meet new people from the area because I am quite new here. I have been very busy since moving here and I haven't been able to get out and meet many people much less get out at all, I don't even know a good spot to go to do that. I guess that is why I'm here. I figured this would be a good way to meet someone new and hopefully make some friends and maybe more. Well I don't want to say too much here because you may not be interested, but if you are I can talk your ear off!! I think you have an idea of my situation and if you want to know more then just get back to me and ask me anything you want!! You can write me at my email which is lookingforfunn101@hotmail.com I am addicted to checking my email and I will probably get back to you very soon, so if you like what u see and want to know more then get back to me and we can start having some fun!!
cindy

well, that didn't last very long

My NEW FAVORITE WEBSITE:

SWIMHOLES!!!

The thing here is that I've really be fond of swimming holes since I was a wee lad in Oxford. Sure, there were creeks all over the place, but there were only a few proper swimming holes - the one out by the nike site I went to with Josh Beck so many moons ago - near the landmark co-op grain silos off highway 27, and the spillway out at Acton lake (which you could also skate at and slide down on lunch trays) - -- but for me the favorites were always those few spots on four mile creek you could only wade to that were caused by trees falling into the water and creating eddies that would eventually make deep enough to jump in pools.

Right around the age where autonomy got the best of me I discovered the meat puppets and the song swimming ground just fit perfectly with that wonderful misbehaving...

wasn't close to any town, was a little swimming ground and everything just floated around.

ahh yout, sigh...

my new favorite website

metal objects "sucked" into MRIs!!!

slammed but i gotta say

cousin ashod's birthday swimhole bash was awesome!!!! two kinda crappy pics:

cbgbs gets to stay

well, I guess that's a good thing, but not noticing your rent went up four years ago? umm - I guess they still sell dope down in the bowery.

the iranian bourse

Okay, so I was one of those people that thought sadam's most strategic move was requiring payment for oil in euros. I've seen people say it was petty politics but I don't think so and I do believe that in addition to the oil reserves we wanted the petroeuro was a motivating factor. It's simple economics at work and still clearly based on oil - oil becomes more expensive in dollars if the euro becomes stronger and is what oil is denominated in. Sure it happens a layer or two back (think bonds) but it happens nonetheless.

So then I read an article on the Iranian Oil Bourse. Ummm...I'm putting the odds at 30% for war with Iran by Q1 07. Think this issue is far fetched? I've heard rumors the Bush administration pressured bond raters such as Moody's and S&P to refuse to rate the bonds for the Iranian bourse. True? I dunno. Plausible? yup. One thing is clear though, Iran is right behind SA in OPEC and if anyone can do it (a euro-based oil bourse), it's them.

hmmm...

wiser than I previously though

"He makes decisions based upon, you know, facts, not based upon politics."
george, on alan

ebony jet

bummed to see john johnson died yesterday. being a chicagoan for so long I really enjoyed his empire - despite the fact that he didn't want white people to. Had no idea he went to the u of c for a while.

weren't there better reasons to fire him?

CNN Suspends Novak After He Walks Off Set...

all for saying bullshit on live tv and getting up and walking off because carville got a good jab in?

man, something heavy must be weighing on that dude.

in which I get all meta meta

"This is the first time I heard this - I don't know how to pronounce - this meta-meta something," said Hajira Ahmed, whose husband is in jail pending charges that he sold cold medicine and antifreeze at their convenience store on a winding road near the Tennessee border.

from a depressing nytimes article on a bunch of Indian shopkeepers getting busted for selling over the counter cold medicine.

another great quote from the internet

"I've got more culture in my middle finger than you will ever have."

seriously, god hates the boyscouts

Lightning Kills Boy Scout at Utah Camp.

this after:
"Last Thursday, an assistant Scoutmaster and a 13-year-old Scout were killed by lightning in California's Sequoia National Park. And four Scout leaders at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia were electrocuted July 24 in front of several Scouts after they lost control of a metal tent pole and it fell against a power line." (from AP newswire)

barny frank being, well, accurate

"People might cite George Bush as proof that you can be totally impervious to the effects of Harvard and Yale education."

''It felt like a movie''

It's strange to describe a physical event this way. I generally think things look like movies. the quote is from a person on a train that hit a gravel filled dumptruck and derailed. Luckily only the morons in the truck, which drove around a lowered crossing gate, were killed.

i like this picture...of me!!!

from joe and laura's wedding at the quadrangle club (of which I am now a member)

Also note Mary's back and John Greenfield's head.

unwind the remix

so why is it only now I discovered the urban renewal program cd? chocolate industries rocks. clearly I've been out of chicago too long.

it's a bipartisan scandal

From the cincinnati enquirer, in which I was looking for results on the special election:

Bennett blamed the scandal involving the loss of $200 million in investments at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation on both Democrats and Republicans.

Two of the members of the bureau's nine-member advisory board are Democrats, he said.

"It's a bipartisan scandal, and there ought to be a bipartisan solution," Bennett said.


ummmm...yeahh....right.