PPD 14

Yay wine! This is what happens when you start drinking and have a camera lying around - you take 30 pictures of wineglasses. Just be glad I didn't post the other 29 ;)

Edits: None
Taken: Saturday, August 5th

War Against Weeds

As I wrote about a month ago, I've had some problems with the postage stamp of dirt that I sometimes call a lawn. I spent a bunch of time weeding it all out. I assumed that after removing all competition, the grass would take the opportunity to solidify it's hold on the yard. But no, evidently I have heretofore unheard of species of Surrender Grass. Pretty much any weed seems to be able to push that grass around like it's a scrawny eight year old.

Within a week the weeds were back. Within two weeks they were stronger than before I had weeded them. By week three the grass had rolled over like a whipped puppy, and I figured I should intervene again. So I got a product called "Weed and Feed", which is supposed to feed the lawn while killing the weeds.

Perhaps I have mutant strains of weeds. Maybe the stars are against me. Perhaps a tragic mistake at the factory led to me buying a bag of "Feed the Weeds". Whatever the cause, my lawn has completely given up. The closest thing to grass is the crabgrass, and even that isn't doing all that well. Any day now I expect

Given that the weedkiller has proven ineffective, I've started to daydream about some more drastic measures. For instance, paving over the front lawn. Perhaps buying some surplus Agent Orange and covering the lawn to a depth of six inches. But what I really think I need is something more. More effective, more drastic, more final. I think I need a dirty bomb. If it's good enough for the terrorists, it's good enough for my lawn!

Then again, I'd probably just end up with a giant anthropomorphic vegetable to growing in the front lawn and eating small dogs.

PPD 13

A fine question indeed...

To be fair, this was actually taken by a coworker, but I still like it.

Edits: Cropped
Taken: Thursday, August 3rd

PPD 12

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

I kinda like this one. It's a little artsy, but still ok, and I just like rain in general. Probably has something to do with growing up in Wisconsin, which is pretty close to being the polar opposite of Denver in the sunshine department. I'm also happy anytime I can get a halfway decent depth-of-field shot out of my little compact camera with no manual focus or aperture settings.

Edits: Cropped
Taken: Thursday, August 3rd

PPD 11

Today's PPD is dedicated to the incredible ingenuity of Newsgator's newly appointed, in-house mini golf course creator, who shall remain nameless in accordance with the blogging policy which he himself wrote.

Using little more than office supplies, a lot of beverage containers and few rocks (where'd he get those anyway?) he built an entertainment extravaganza for us all. Thanks nameless blogging policy author!

Personally I think this is one of the better holes from the course (certainly one of the easiest to photograph!)
Edits: None (I'm lazy today)
Taken: Thursday, August 3rd

PS, I would like to take this opportunity to recite the following of my own free will, and certainly not to "tow the company line." Please picture as toneless a voice as possible:

“The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.”

God's Debris (book review)

God's Debris is a different kind of book than anything I remember reading recently. It's a work of fiction, but it reads more like a eclectic combination of theology, science, self-help and philosophy. It certainly doesn't read anything like what you might expect from the creator of Dilbert.

There is no plot to speak of in the book. Instead it is broken into a series of miniscule chapters, each of which captures a fragment of the Socratic dialogue between the only two characters. The chapters are typically very tightly written, comprising only a couple pages tightly focused on a single concept or idea. This keeps the book moving along nicely and even makes it a surprising page turner. Despite the high idea density I made it through the book's 135 pages in just about three hours.

As I mentioned earlier the book covers an extreme range of topics. Although they mostly hang together well on the overarching topic (the nature of God and the universe), some seem a little tacked on, notably the chapter about relationships. It's also true that what the book has in breadth, it lacks in depth. Very little real information is presented, and each topic is handled so briefly that some readers may be left wanting. Personally I found the pacing to be acceptable, although that may be because I've already seen many of the concepts elsewhere. For example, the discussion about the subconscious as a probability machine is straight out of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. Another, "Willpower", is strinkingly similar to a one of Adams' recent blog posts (though I think the book came first).

I should also note (as Adams does in the introduction) that this book deals heavily with the nature of God, free will and religions in general, and therefore could be rather offensive to some people. Nonetheless, I think anyone with even a moderately open mind would enjoy it.

Unique is binary

There are many abuses of the english language in our times. Too many really to list, but tonight I'd just like to talk about one in particular that bothers me to no end, the abuse of the poor word "unique."

If something is unique that means there is exactly one. Not two, not three, not "a few", just one. Uniqueness also does not allow degrees. There is no such thing as "a little bit unique", "somewhat unique", "very unique", nor even "extremely unique". These phrases are like "being a little bit pregnant" or having "large values of 1." It's just nonsensical.

Sadly, this particular transgression against the language is increasingly common. Even professional wordsmiths such as writer and television personalities misuse the term. So I suppose it's unreasonable of me to expect more of anyone else.

But it still pisses me off.

PS, I will grant one exemption, for John at Newsgator. Anyone who's talked to him for more than five minutes knows that he's got his very own language, with very different rules of grammar than what anyone is used to. Therefore the above rant doesn't apply to anyone speaking Johnish. ;)

PPD 10

I know MADD is an organization that does good things in the world, but I just find this billboard humorous.

For starters, the phone number 877-MADD-HELP. Is it just me or does that sound like a halfassed whiteguy impression of ebonics? I picture Vanilla Ice answerring phones... "Yo dog this phone line be MAD HELPFUL!"

I also like the tagline "MADD Victim Services". Exactly what services do they offer to mad victims? Assassination for hire?

Edits: None
Taken: Wednesday, August 2nd

PS, I'd like to dedicate this "picture I took while walking home from the bar" to Ronnie. Hi Ronnie! :)

Damn Pennies

I've got a slightly unusual habit of picking up pennies. Not a lot of people bother anymore, presumably because they're practically worthless anymore. Perhaps you could say that's a bit miserly, but I prefer to think that I'm non-prejudiced¹. I'll take free money regardless of color. Heck, I'll even pick up the ones that aren't heads-up. It's surprising how many you find around. I probably average about 5 a week. In fact, I picked up two pennies earlier today. (I also picked up a quarter, but that was only because Nick dropped it for me to pick it up.)


So perhaps this habit of mine is why on the way home I happened across this particular penny. I figured I was just having a good day, so I went to snag it. But no, this particular penny is actually embedded into the asphalt of the street, mocking me with it's unobtainability. Damn you penny!

[1] Which is not to say that I don't discriminate. Despite the bad rap that poor word has recieved for the last few decades, the ability to discriminate is essential. Don't believe me? Then I've got a lot of pennies I'd be happy to trade you for some twenties.

PPD 9

This is one of my favorite downtown scenes. I like the contrast of all the detail and classical architecture of the church contrasted against the flat modernism of the skyscraper behind it. Plus there's a lot of symbolism in the giant faceless tower with dark clouds behind it looming over the church. Not that I necessarily agree with that symbolism, but whatever :)

This is actually a picture I've taken a number of times, but it's surprisingly difficult to make it work out satisfactorily. I actually had to climb into the basement window well of the building across the street to get the angle.

Edits: Vertical stitch of three shots
Taken: Tuesday, August 1st