RIP ODB

Wow – first Wesley Willis, now O.D.B has died. At 35 (almost 36) years of age. Wow.

I can understand people’s revulsion by the artist. But he was an artist. And he was capable of some really unique, really amazing stuff. I don’t know what the details of his recent life is, but surely what led up to this point can’t have made for a healthy lifestyle. So kids, stay away from drugs. Seriously.

Oh, Chris, I accidently deleted all my Wesley Willis. Do you still have any?

Darcelle XV

Yesterday was Scott’s sister’s birthday. To celebrate, we went to see Darcelle XV & Co., a mainstay of ~40 year old women’s entertainment. At least, that’s what I gathered from the crowd. It was a lot of fun, and despite our being roughly half the age of most of the other patrons. There was a small part of me that was wondering how Rowdy Roddy Piper was doing with his comic debut just a few blocks away. I’ll just have to assume he was awesome.

I was tempted to buy the Polaroid photo they take as you enter with Darcelle himself because my mom also has a photo with Darcelle and my late, great aunt Irvene. That’s three generations! Alas, it was taken before the entire group was there, and $10 for a Polaroid is a bit steep.

A coworker also told me about the day the both Darcelle and his entourage were visiting Rock Creek campus for one celebration, and members of the Bush cabinent and secret service were also there. He said the mix made for an entertaining picture, especially because the girls in Darcelle’s entourage were taller than the secret service agents.

More Fall Yard Work

I had today off because of Veterans Day. It couldn’t have been a nicer day to have off. After wearing out the dog and helping (watching) my sister get her new iMac, we tackled more yard work. The dry weather meant we could shred leaves. So we raked, Barley played, and I mowed the leaves up. It was nice having things be mostly dry. Spent several hours in the yard, which always feels good for the soul. Gorgeous weather too.

Barley in the leaves

America, the Beautiful

distorted cartogram

This image is a derivative of works by Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, Mark Newman and Robert J. Vanderbei.

I must admit that despite its initial ugliness, it is a beautiful thing to see personally when compared to the typical electoral breakdown. This distorted ugly duckling does two things:

  1. It shows counties in a blend of red to blue rather than just a binary representation of presidential vote winners
  2. Then it does an areal distortion according to population, making areas with larger populations appear larger.

So? Well, it softens the polarized view of our country, so it serves a great propagandic purpose in making me feel better. Plus, it does a slightly better job of representing population than does the typical map of the US.

Also – The map of just the blended results shows an interesting pattern. Areas that are predominantly red are also areas with very little water. Are these people worried about their precious bodily fluids? Or are they hydrophobic? If you’re from the DNC, this might come in useful….

Stove installed

Last night our stove problems were finally finished. Only 3 months after first notifying the landlord of the problem. Woohoo!

Anyway, its nice to have a stove that has more than 1 burner. A burner that doesn’t require you turn it on, then jiggle the element until the connection gets seated. And an oven that stuff fits in to.

Relax

I’ve been having trouble relaxing lately. It may have to do what 51% of Americans see as important, or it may have to do with confusion over what the heck happened. Michelle keeps reminding me to take a break from news, issues, etc. that aggravate me and thus interrupt what she’s doing. But its hard. Especially with hope that some great plot or ruse surfaces before the Monday after the second Wednesday in December.

I guess I should relax and partake in some liberal media.

Happy 1.0

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