Blackmoor Vituperative

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

In the early to mid 1990s, when Military Circle Mall was more well known for the muggings in the parking lot than the upscale shopping (it’s called “The Gallery at Military Circle” now: ooh, aah), Susan and I would go there from time to time to see movies. What can I say: we are fearless. It was on one such occasion that we were roaming the mall, killing some time before the movie started.

We stopped at a dollar store (not “the” Dollar Store — Military Circle was circling the drain at that point, and all it had was a store run by an Indian or Pakistani family that sold pretty much the same things as the Dollar Store) to get some snacks to take into the movie theatre (yes, we do that). Susan saw this mug, and she immediately fell in love with it. It says, “Don’t piss me off! I’m running out of places to hide the bodies.” It’s one of a handful of mugs that we consider “hers”.

I have been saying for years that passwords, as a concept, need to go away. As implemented, passwords don’t work, and the ludicrous “complexity” requirements imposed my many companies are little more than a guarantee that the user will write their password down, which is one of the easiest ways for a system to be compromised.

Here’s a cartoon from xkcd that illustrates why ridiculous password policies don’t even make sense from a security perspective.

The gist of it is this: long passwords (passphrases, actually) are more secure than short ones.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

In August of 2006, Susan and I went on a road trip up to Cedar Point amusement park, “the roller coaster capital of the world”. On the way up, we stopped at Fallingwater, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs. It’s nicer from the outside than from the inside, honestly. On the way back, we visited Harpers Ferry, which was fascinating. I had no inkling of any of Harpers Ferry’s history. We spent an entire day just wandering around, touring buildings, and reading signs.

This mug came from Cedar Point, obviously. Susan and I both love cobalt blue glass.

I have two distinct memories of Cedar Point. One is being on a stairwell leading up to some attraction, looking out over the crowd at the park, and thinking how very, very white everyone was. It was kind of eerie and unsettling, like if you walked into a huge crowd of redheads all of a sudden. It doesn’t matter if you are a redhead: to see only redheads in a huge crowd is still pretty freaking weird.

My other distinct memory is riding the Top Thrill Dragster, which was billed as the tallest and fastest coaster in the world at that time. Like every roller coaster, they give you the standard warnings about securing loose articles and so on. I put my sunglasses in my pocket, assuming they would be safe there (they always had been in the past). The ride was very fast, and very short (well, duh — I guess that’s what “fastest in the world” gives you). As we left the ride, I went to put my sunglasses back on, and discovered they were no longer in my pocket. They were gone. I never even felt them leave my pocket. I hope they didn’t kill anyone in the cars behind us.

I have an update on that poem I was looking for.

I finally found a single reference to this poem, through Google Books, in The Columbia Granger’s guide to poetry anthologies, a book which is itself a listing and review of other books. The poem is called “Where the Neuter Computer Goes Click”, and it was contained in the anthology Of quarks, quasars, and other quirks: Quizzical poems for the supersonic age, edited by Sara Westbrook Brewton, John Edmund Brewton, and Quentin Blake, published in 1977. That’s not where I encountered it: as I mentioned, I read it in a literature textbook.

The anthology is out of print, but used copies are really cheap, so I went ahead and bought one.

Controversy continues to rage over the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District’s unilateral decision to follow in the footsteps of Egypt’s now fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak, by cutting off cell phone services in an attempt to quell protests (in BART’s case, a protest that didn’t actually occur).

The “Anonymous” group has today already hacked BART’s external Web sites in response, and more protests triggered by BART’s actions may be forthcoming.

Is comparing Mubarak and BART unfair? Over the top? After all, various U.S. observers have been supporting BART’s decision, saying that riders really didn’t need cell service at those locations, didn’t have it in those locales a relatively few years ago, and have suggested that pretty much anything was acceptable in the name of proactively preserving “public safety” — even in the face of nonexistent protesters.

And since luckily it appears that no critical phone calls (“Sorry, I can’t reach the doctor’s cell phone!”) were blocked as a result of BART’s action, it’s no harm, no foul, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

[…]

(from BART, Cell Phones, Lenin, and a Steel Cage, Lauren Weinstein’s Blog)

Syrian troops backed by gunboats and tanks expanded their offensive against pro-democracy protesters to the coastal town of Latakia on Sunday, in continued defiance of growing international pressure on the Syrian government to halt the violence and implement reforms.

[…]

The move indicated that the government remains undeterred by the growing chorus of worldwide condemnation of the harsh tactics being used to crush the revolt, in which more than 2,000 people have been killed, at least 300 of them since the military launched a heightened offensive against the protest movement two weeks ago.

(from Syrian gunboats join fresh attack against protesters, Washington Post)

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

Susan and I were married on October 31, 1991. The best man gave us engraved gifts: a lighter for her, and this pewter mug for me. The inscription says,

“Goodbye and hello, as always” is the last line of The Courts Of Chaos, the last book in the (first) Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. I loved the (first) Chronicles of Amber, and if I can be said to be a fan of any author, I am a fan of Roger Zelazny.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

I got this mug in 1995 from McDonald’s. It was one of a series of mugs they were selling to advertise Batman Forever. On the one hand, I did not think Batman Forever was very good. It was entirely too cartoony, Chris O’Donnell was about ten years too old to play Robin, and of course it’s the film that gave the world bat nipples. On the other hand, it’s got a great soundtrack, and it’s better than Batman & Robin.

At the time, I did not like the rest of the mugs in this series, but I did rather like this one, so I bought four. However, we tossed out a lot of junk when we moved to Richmond back in 2005, including three of those four. I kept this one because I think it’s a neat mug. If you want one like it, you can get them on Ebay for 99 cents, plus shipping.

I am going to post a photo of a coffee mug every day in August, and talk a little bit about where we got it and why I like it.

I bought this mug for a friend who is a photographer. He’s been in IT for years and years, and we have shared some of the same anxieties and frustration that can cause. He got a new job about a month ago, and I was so happy for him, so I bought this for him as a gift. I haven’t seen him since then, which is why I still have it.

When I bought it, I thought it was a travel mug, but it’s not. The lid closes tightly: it’s not something you can drink through. Ah, well. I don’t think my friend drinks coffee, so this is just a novelty for him anyway. I hope he likes it.

What I am listening to while I work, at the moment: a podcast from Paul Gilmartin (one of the hosts from Dinner and a Movie), having a conversation with Frank Conniff (most well-known for his work on Mystery Science Theater 3000).

Paul: “Frank, how’re you doing?”
Frank: “Other than my crippling depression, I’m doing great.”