RelentlesslyOptimistic

Catblogging Friday: A cat who likes to swim!

Via Flickr Bits: Pepper takes a dip!

Shoeblogging: Did you feed your shoes before going out?

If the platform were taller, you could have a terrarium: BLACK FISH PIMP PLATFORM BOOTS via Fazed

KC News: Westport Flea Market to be torn down and replaced with Hooters

KCBloggers noted the story at BlogKC: the new owners of the Holiday Inn on Westport Road supposedly have bought the Flea Market, and plan to tear it down to put in a Hooters. How much of that part is true remains to be seen, but a commenter at KCSkyscrapers said:

"A team of 9 people from Hooters came to the Plaza/Westport neighborhood meeting tonight [7/13] to discuss their construction and move in plans. They will begin in early fall and have it completed by the end of the year...At the end of the meeting the Hooters lawyer asked a few neighborhood members what the best place to eat in Westport was, to which my wife and another individual answered simultaneously the Westport Flea Market."

Johnny Dare's was bad enough, now this. Suburban franchise chain eateries in Westport is bad enough – all the distinctive, personal restaurants are going away. Westport now has Starbuck's, Chilli's, Moe's and Sonic. But this kind of crap is even worse. No wonder many of the unique stores have moved. Maybe the Flea Market could move over to 39th Street.

Photo from BlogKC

IE still sucks, but....

It turns out my recent problems were a result of my setting up my DNS records incorrectly while trying to direct the RelentlesslyOptimistic domain name here. I'm in the process of recreating those in the hope that it begins to work right. At present, if I turn on the redirection feature in typepad, I get plain text pages.

Sigh. I hate it when I have to learn new stuff so publicly.

Update: Sorry, I wasn't clear. I turned off domain mapping for the moment, so IE looks OK. It only sucks in general now, not specifically because it makes my blog layout screwy right now.

The Secret Swing

Someone put up a swing in a graffiti-covered alley in Toronto. Accordion Guy blogs it, then it gets a mention in BoingBoing which distributes it all over the internets, even to the Flickr Blog, where I found it. This photo comes from Easternblot via the wonderful group of tagged photos.

Whatever they're fer, I'm agin' it!

I didn't post it at the time, but since Joe put this up a couple weeks ago, I've quoted it to half a dozen people, so I decided I had to.

Joe. My. God.: Whatever they're fer, I'm agin' it!
Do you ever get to point of such complete repulsion for someone that you find yourself taking whatever position is the complete opposite of theirs, on any issue, no matter how ridiculous, just because it feels so satisfying?

The way I feel right now, if the Christian right came out against cooking cats, I'd be inviting all of y'all to a kitty barbeque. Where we'd barbeque kitties. And serve kitty-kabobs. And I'd be wearing an apron that said "Kiss The Kitty Cook!"

IE Still sucks

So far, MT support has been unable to solve the IE browser's problem with this blog. Here's some screenshots; if you use IE and see something better than this, or have any ideas, please email me.

Response from London: "you're out of your tiny minds"

A Letter To The Terrorists, From London :: The London News Review

What the fuck do you think you're doing?
This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.
Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.
All you've done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don't get rewarded for this kind of crap.
And if, as your MO indicates, you're an al-Qaeda group, then you're out of your tiny minds.
Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.
And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub.
So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.

Via Sisyphus. Photo from the Flickr pool, by Jim Christian

More than two standard deviations from the norm. Again.

This is a really interesting experiment. Take the tests, post them. See how it spreads, and after it's compiled, see how bloggers may or may not differ from the norm. Kinda makes you want to start that blog you've been thinking of, just so you can participate, doesn't it?

In an updated post Richard says "cognitive scientist Chris of Mixing Memory has kindly volunteered to keep track of the data and analyse the results. (Apparently there are already some interesting correlations beginning to show up, but I won't say more until more data is in." He also say that he needs more data from conservative and women bloggers.

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Overview: This post is a community experiment with two broad purposes. The first is to create publicly accessible data about bloggers' personalities, which may have sociological value in addition to being just plain fun. The second is to track the propagation of this meme through blogspace. Full details and explanation can be found on the original posting: http://pixnaps.blogspot.com/2005/06/meme-worth-spreading.html


Instructions (to join in the experiment):

1) Take the IPIP-NEO personality test and the Political Compass quiz, if you have not done so already.

2) Copy to the clipboard that section of this post that is between the double lines, and paste it into your blog editor. (Blogger users may wish to use 'compose' mode to preserve formatting and hyperlinks. Otherwise, be sure to add hyperlinks as necessary.)

3) Replace the answers in the "survey" section below with your own.

4) Add your blog information to the "track list", in the form: "Linked title - URL - optional GUID".

5) Any additional comments should go outside of the double lines, including the (optional) nomination of bloggers you wish to pass this experimental meme on to.

6) Post it to your blog!


Survey:

Age: 47
Gender: Male
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Religion: agnostic
Occupation: non-profit consultant
Began blogging (dd/mm/yy): 24/07/04

Political Compass results
Left/Right: -5.63
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.26

IPIP-NEO results

EXTRAVERSION: 99
Friendliness 78
Gregariousness 95
Assertiveness 99
Activity Level 64
Excitement-Seeking 99
Cheerfulness 99

AGREEABLENESS: 72
Trust 97
Morality 42
Altruism 82
Cooperation 61
Modesty 3
Sympathy 90

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: 6
Self-Efficacy 80
Orderliness 1
Dutifulness 9
Achievement-Striving 87
Self-Discipline 6
Cautiousness 1

NEUROTICISM: 19
Anxiety 0
Anger 18
Depression 62
Self-Consciousness 2
Immoderation 72
Vulnerability 24

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE: 99
Imagination 79
Artistic Interests 89
Emotionality 82
Adventurousness 98
Intellect 84
Liberalism 99


Track List:
1. Philosophy, et cetera - pixnaps.blogspot.com - pixnaps97a2
2. Majikthise - 6ea37d10-e9b9-11d9-8cd6-0800200c9a66
3. Ezra Klein - http://ezraklein.typepad.com
4. Rox Populi - http://roxanne.typepad.com
5. RelentlesslyOptimistic5473311

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Internet Explorer format troubles

I only recently thought to look at this site in Internet Explorer. Is it just me, or is everyone else getting only half the heading, and ugly bullets on every line and link in both sidebars?

Regardless of what browser you use, please let me know if you see a problem. And email me if you'd like to learn how to switch to Firefox.

Now for men: Wonderbrabriefs!

I remember hearing a feminist comic do a riff back in the 80's on how different the world might be if men had wire in their underwear.

Stay Free! Daily's No, I'm happy to see you reports from a Newsweek story that "taking a page from the Wonderbra, manufacturers are designing men's underwear to give more lift (but presumably not to separate)."

Apparently none of them have underwires yet.

Harper's Index excerpts for June 2005

Compare and contrast: Harper's Index for June 2005

• Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway: $3,870,000,000 [$3.8 billion]
• Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: $4,100,000,000 [$4.1 billion]
• Revenue from Iraqi oil sales that the CPA could not account for, according to a 2005 audit: $8,800,000,000 [$8.8 billion]
• Percentage of Americans who say that driving a fuel-efficient car is an act of patriotism: 66%
• Percentage of NASCAR fans who say this: 67%

Fun with office supplies

Via Flickr Blog

   
   

Happy Fourth of July: "We want to live like everybody"

 
   
   

"This is the wall built by Israel in Abu Dis, an Arab a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. It divides Abu Dis into two...It is about 8 metres (26 feet) high."

"This graffiti is one of many on the wall in Abu Dis. A person living on one side of the wall cannot move to the other side to go to work or school, to visit friends or family, to go to the doctor or just to take a trip somewhere when they feel like it.

In order to do any of these ordinary things they need to get a permit from the Israeli army, which may or may not be given."

The photographer, Bright Tal, is a 27 year-old Tel Aviv resident who has many other terrific photos posted on Flickr, some political, some beautiful, some both.