Pure Imagination

Over a year ago, I started working on a website project, and I’ve kind of let it lapse. I’m going to begin working on it again. I’d appreciate readers suggestions and help beta testing the website. It’s located here.

It’s a website for marching band enthusiasts (that is, geeks) and although there are some similar discussion/article-oriented websites existing now, I think this one can stand out from the crowd.

In case you’re wondering, it doesn’t use Movable Type. Maybe it should, but I’d lose some functionality.

I’ll have to find a copy of the paper talked about here. Peter Lynds, a broadcasting school tutor, decided to write a paper on Quantum Mechanics with an idea that seems so obvious in retrospect. He purports that Einstein and Zeno were on the right track.

To simplify Lynds’ point: There can never be a solitary moment in time due to the infinitessimal reduction of time intervals, therefore a moving object can never have a precise location. Conversely, there is no precise moment of time a moving object will exist at a particular point.

Following this further, if precise moments of time and precise locations do not exist, neither can velocity. As you can imagine, his work has been highly controversial.

The world has turned against me. Tonight I have plans to see the New York Philhamonic in Central Park, followed by fireworks, and yet again it is supposed to rain. If the concert gets rained out, I’ll have another chance Thursday, I suppose.

Tonight Denise and I went on a short drive and I found myself directing the car towards an old high school “hang out” site. We used to call the place Chamberlin & Barclay, after the words on a huge billboard that we normally couldn’t see anyway since it was always dark when we made the trip. In fact it was so dark, Bryan lost his keys there once… I think.

Anyway, to get there, you go on a couple of back roads in H—town and head towards what used to be called Cranbury Station (the defunct train station, not the restaurant). We took the road as I remembered it, but discovered it does not go the entire distance any longer. Since they added the H—town Bypass, the road to Chamberlin & Barclay comes to a dead end. In fact, the field itself seems to be mostly replaced by the freeway.

Since the world wide web didn’t exist while I was in high school, I took the opportunity to do some quick research on C&B. Apparently the location I’ve visited in the past is listed as a superfund site with the Environmental Protection Agency, which obviously means an area of land that contains unsafe levels of toxic waste.

Some might say, “That explains a lot.”

Thanks to so many great people, I had a great time in Texas the past few days.

A while ago, I decided with Denise that we needed to get away. Shortly thereafter, we received a sign from the airline gods: a low fare from Philadelphia to Dallas/Fort Worth.

After arriving and picking up our rental car, we met Bryan and Lyn for sight-seeing. A bunch of D/FW area bloggers met up with us at a bar later on. I met many people I’ve read about over the last couple years, and they were all very friendly. It seems like a nice little community. Unfortunately I would be leaving Texas before their next get-together.

That night, Denise and I headed over to Becca‘s new apartment. She has a nice place, and it will be even nicer when more of the boxes are unpacked.

The next few days involved lots of Mexican food including Taco Bueno (for tacos) and Freebirds (for burritos), the standard JFK tour (including a trip to the Conspiracy Museum (note: not worth it)), Studio Movie Grill (where we ate dinner while watching The Italian Job (note: worth it)), the Dallas Museum of Art, and Krispy Kreme (had hot and now). I also met several of Denise’s friends from the time she spent in Texas. More great people.

Good food, good culture and good friends. In my opinion, those make a good vacation great. Thank you to everyone who helped make it great. Also, thanks to M-D who delivered us to the airport and Darren who risked the top part of his van by picking us up.

I think I need to move somewhere on this planet where it is relatively sunny throughout the entire year. I’ve experienced over a week of cloudy skies and almost continuous rain, and it doesn’t seem to be ending until next week. The bad weather is starting to affect my spiritual equilibrium. I need sunlight right now.

Checking the ten-day weather forecast, the most sun I’ll be getting (both in Newark and L’ville) is “partly cloudy” next Monday and Tuesday. This will be followed by storms, cloudiness, and even more rain.

I guess it could be worse. The ten-day forecast for Bermuda contains 8 days of storms and 2 of clouds. Dallas has storms six out of the ten days. It seems San Francisco is the place to go, with eight days of “partly cloudy” and two of “mostly sunny.”

Clay or Ruben? Yeah, I know. But I had to see who pulled out on top. They were the only two half-talented people on the show, anyway.

D: He’s got the whole Kevin Bacon thing going for him.
S: Who, Ruben?
M: No, Ruben’s got the whole I Ate Kevin Bacon thing.

Mmm bacon.

Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.

It’s hard to be angry when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes, I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and I can’t take it. My heart swells up like a balloon that’s about to burst. But then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it. And then, it flows through me like rain and I feel nothing but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry. You will someday.

(From American Beauty)

Now presenting, for your slight entertainment, my weekend wrap-up in iambic pentameter quatrains, with ABAB form.

FRIDAY
We went to see the movie X-Men II
Denise, M-D and Ali and her man.
Much better than the first one was the new
We all agreed it’s good to be a fan.

SATURDAY
Computer shopping was the morning date
Then out to dinner for a special day.
Brought home the food left over from my plate
And helped install some programs, you could say.

SUNDAY
To Great Adventure we declared to go
With Ashlee, she’s a cute one I just met.
Denise’s “cousin” is how she is known.
Too bad she’s only hardly sixteen yet.

That last part is a bit of humor, there.
From California she has come this week.
If she were old like me I wouldn’t care
Because she’s not my type and plus I’m happy with the way things are for now. Also, I think she has a crush on Denise’s brother. I can’t think of a good word that rhymes with week that fits in with the story, so that’s what you get.

All-reality TV, all the time
The television executive who helped create the E! Entertainment cable network is planning to launch an all-reality TV cable channel as well, according to a published report Monday.

So, what happens to this station when the world gets over the “Reality TV” fad? Comedy channels are good because comedy doesn’t go out of style. Music channels are good because as music tastes change, the channel can change along with them. Making a Reality TV network would be like making an all improv comedy channel. It’s just too specific, too limiting.