On Thursday, Robbie Greenberger passed away. The son of longtime DC Comics editor Bob Greenberger, Robbie had been battling leukemia since January. Thursday, Robbie’s battle came to an end. He was twenty. I wrote, Friday morning, a tribute to Robbie, and I never posted it. Looking at tributes better written than mine, more personal thanContinue reading “On Robbie Greenberger and Farpoint”
Monthly Archives: August 2008
On Conversations with my Grandmother
Sometimes, conversations with my grandmother are amusing. Sometimes, the conversations are frustrating. Today, the conversations have been the frustrating ones. It began this morning over coffee. “I’m going home today,” she said. “Home?” I said. “You are home.” “I know that,” she hissed. “I’m going home.” I changed the subject quickly. It seemed prudent. IContinue reading “On Conversations with my Grandmother”
On the End of the Week
The week is over. The week is done. May it never come back. *sigh* I’ll explain more tomorrow, when I have more energy. Right now, I’m bushed. I’ll put in the Young Dubliners. I’ll crack open a Sam Adams and propose a silent toast to absent friends. The week is over.
On Copy Machine Follies
On the sixth floor there is a copy machine. The sixth floor is built around a central elevator quad. If you step off the elevator, my cubicle is on the eastern side of the building. The copy machine is on the western side of the building. Think of the sixth floor as being like aContinue reading “On Copy Machine Follies”
On Massive Storms
A summer storm, sudden its oncoming, furious in its energy, moved in. Rain lashes against the windows of the office. I look out my cubicle, and rivulets of rain flows down the tinted blue glass. It’s dismal. But somehow, it’s also fascinating to watch. I love the rain.
On the View From the Sixth Floor
My cubicle is on the building’s sixth floor. The building is glass. Blue glass. Windows run from floor to ceiling. At a guess, I’m sixty-five, maybe seventy feet off the ground. Could be a little higher; the ground floor isn’t quite level with the ground. Birds fly by. Clouds look amazing from up here. IContinue reading “On the View From the Sixth Floor”
On Ridiculous Measures
I received recently an e-mail, purporting to contain a list of spurious weights and measures. Bizarre scales. Never, ever, possibly used scales. Nothing like furlongs per fortnight or anything like that. But the “sheppey,” defined as “the closest distance at which sheep remain picturesque,” or roughly 7/8 of a mile. (Note to self: Use theContinue reading “On Ridiculous Measures”
On Obama and Space Policy
For some time, I’ve had one great reservation with Barack Obama as a potential President. Obama wanted to gut NASA, taking the funds for Constellation, the successor to the space shuttle, and channel them into funding education. One analysis of Obama’s education plan likened it to Hernando Cortez burning his boats when he landed inContinue reading “On Obama and Space Policy”
On WordPress Bugs, Not Features
“It’s a feature, not a bug!” It’s a classic line. A Microsoft line. About how bugs in software aren’t really bugs, they’re undocumented features. WordPress 2.6 has a new feature called “Post Revisions.” Basically, every time you edit a post, you can “roll back” the post and undo changes, as users can with Wikipedia. ItContinue reading “On WordPress Bugs, Not Features”
On Rating the Fictional Presidents
Historians like to create lists. Which presidents were best? Which were worst? So on, and so forth. My brother called. He mentioned that a television station was showing Dave, that wonderful film about a man called upon to impersonate the president when he suffered a stroke, and his transformation from the tool of the imperiousContinue reading “On Rating the Fictional Presidents”