Jack’s Old & Busted Blog

Great Flash demonstration of musical composition: (heplaysjazz.btinternet.co.uk).

Not sure if I’d logged this before, but it’s worth a look.

(gapingvoid.com) [mature theme!]: My first year in New York was a transient time for me. Uncertainty about my career and other personal issues meant instead of settling down like a normal person, I was going out a lot. I was drinking way too much. About this time I started doodling on the back of business cards, just to give me something to do while sitting at the bar.

The whole book is online, too. Reading this, I’ve arrived at an epiphany about the differences between Big City life and us country mice: City dwellers always seemed perched on this fence (”tense duality”: see linked story) dividing what they are doing now in their lives and what they idealize themselves doing. So many waitress/actresses and bartender/writers, etc. Out here in the sticks, what we we do is pretty much who we are. The options just aren’t around to make us feel all inadequate or unfulfilled. I think that’s the biggest shock city folks get when they visit here: that they’re suddenly going to cornered and have to face up to what kind of person they really are, right now, right here. This is a recurring theme in fables and movies, where urbanites are transplanted into a rural setting and somehow “find themselves.”

(latimes.com): A Texas woman who said she paid $50,000 to a Northern California biotech company received an 8-week-old clone of her dead cat, Nicky, the first known sale of a cloned pet.

This could be handy if your kitten has a propensity for wandering.

(Newsday.com): “An intrepid reporter worms his way into a week’s worth of holiday bashes.”

(Reuters): Radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA in laboratory conditions, according to a new study majority-funded by the European Union, researchers said on Monday.

From the conversations I’ve overheard recently, I’d say the damage is fairly significant.
* From what I can tell from reading this, it’s the talking on the mobile phone that presents the danger. Phone ownership per se won’t kill you. Thus, I propose that they crank the radiation way up. That way, folks will be less inclined to discuss their root canals next to me in line at the market (although it may be too late for some). Does using a cell phone excessively make you more prone to idiotic conversations?

Often, I hear people say things like, “What in the world would I get [this person]? [He/she] has such idiosyncratic tastes!” When I hear that, I immediately think of the boxed set of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels at Sam’s Club for $50 . . .

I can remember our family receiving these holiday missives from distant acquaintances, highlighting educational achievements, medical procedures, and other printable transitions. In the ’70s, they were carbon copies (you could judge your importance by the “depth” of the carbon). Blogs have largely replaced the family-update letter. The content is basically the same, but at least blogs actually require someone to actively visit and read your blather. And there’s never that guilt of not having sent someone a card (which never seemed to be a deterrent to the family-update letter-writer types).

(themorningnews.org): The only reason relatives want to hear about your family’s achievements is so they can despise you and mock your children.

Do you have a favorite family-update letter experience?