I received a postcard in the mail from Christ Church.

I can't tell if their marketing is genius or mental.

The Gathering What, like Magic? Do I need to bring trading cards?

music. message. dialogue. Like that Pearl Jam : Storytellers show I saw on VH1?

All welcome regardless of beliefs, lifestyle or orientation. Nice folk.

Space limited. That could be a problem if they're mailing postcards to strangers.

June 24 They equate Hamlet with 8 New Places To Have Sex???

July 1 They may lose their target audience here.

July 8 Aren't we all though?

July 15 Yes, and we have many names for it. See June 24.

church differently. new beginnings. They've rewritten Genesis? When did this happen?

Season Two of Extras is fantastic, replete with many a brilliant moment of verbal comedy. Here's but one:

Stephen Merchant asks a player for advice on picking up women. Watch him put it to immediate use.

Player: Just walk straight up to her and say "I've been admiring you from afar for a long time and I haven't said anything but I would love to take you out one night and see if we have as good a time as I think we will. Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?" Bang. Okay? Don't think about it. Just do it. Get over there.

Stephen: "Maggie. Hello. Umm... Just wanted to let you know that I've been watching you secretly without you knowing. And um... Be very keen to spend the night with you and see if you enjoy it as much as I know I will. And umm... Happy to pay for it as well... for dinner, if you eat dinner. Obviously you eat dinner."

The scene is capped off with a slapstick gag that threw me off my couch with laughter. Enjoy.

Sorry, I need to vent here about a total lack of problem solving skills.

If you read the e-mail conversation below you may spot- amongst much jargon- a curious problem solving strategy. Actually there's two problems. You'd have to know one of the programmers to recognize how typical- and lazy- his response is. It's always the other guy's fault. Frustrating as his obstinacy is, that's not what drove me mad here. No, what drove me mad was this problem solving strategy:

Kyle: You've requested a new user. I don't like the name. Can we use this instead?
Jeff: No. Erik has to change his code.
Me: I'm not changing my code. It's between you and Kyle.
Kyle: You've requested a new user. I don't like the name. Can we use this instead?

What the hell is that? Network guy initiates a conversation regarding a service request. He'd like to modify the request. This elicits two responses that conflict with each other. How does the network guy respond? He resends the original question! Oh, he tacks on one extraneous sentence to make it look like he's put more thought into it. But it's the same damn question that caused disagreement in the first place. What's that saying? "Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Wouldn't it be wonderful if the insane approach actually worked? It would make the grunt work of my profession much easier.

Me: I'm having trouble getting this code to work.
Colleague: Did you try erasing that line of code and retyping it?
Me: Whaaa??
Colleague: Just erase the line of code. Like this. Now retype the same code. Like this. Run.
Me: It works! Brilliant!
Colleague: Now you know how to debug code. You're welcome.

I'm glad to have a day off from this madness :)

From:   Kyle (Network Support)
Sent:   Monday, July 02, 2007 9:05 AM
To:     Jeff (Web Developer); Erik (Me, Tech Systems Developer)
Cc:     Network Managers
Subject:        AUTO CENTRAL.

Jeff / Erik,
Would it possible to rename this account to servicecorpAUTOCENTRAL?

Please advise - Thanks,
Kyle
_____________________________________________
From: Jeff
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 12:24 PM
To: Kyle; Erik
Cc: Network Managers
Subject: RE: AUTO CENTRAL.

Kyle,

The name AUTO_CENTRLAL has to match the name of a SAP batch user.  I don't
think you can change the name unless Erik wants to make program changes to
the PDF website to accommodate your proposed naming convention.

Jeff
_____________________________________________ 
From:   Erik  
Sent:   Tuesday, July 03, 2007 1:24 PM
To:     Jeff; Kyle
Cc:     Network Managers
Subject:        RE: AUTO CENTRAL.

Jeff,

Our policy is PDF documents (and our web service) can only be accessed by
AD users. It's up to you and Network Services to agree on a name.

-Erik
_____________________________________________
From: Kyle
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 1:26 PM
To: Erik; Jeff
Cc: Network Managers
Subject: RE: AUTO CENTRAL.

If possible, we would like to rename it to servicecorpAUTOCENTRAL,
although with the understanding that some apps will not support userids
longer than 8 characters.

Thanks,
Kyle
____________________________________________
From: Erik
Sent: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 2:03 PM
To: Kyle; Jeff
Cc: Network Managers
Subject: RE: AUTO CENTRAL.

Kyle,

We're going in circles.  Just so we're clear on the problem:  Tech Systems
has an existing web service and PDF page that return sensitive data
(engineering documents).  Because the data is sensitive we have disabled
anonymous access.  We force the user to authenticate.  That way we know
their identity and can filter the results appropriately.

If the user attempting to access the data is doing so from their IE browser,
no problem, integrated security (NTLM) authenticates the user transparently.
No password involved.  The question is what to do when a batch program needs
to access the data as it's doing work on behalf of many SAP users.  We need
to create a general purpose SAP account in AD.

Jeff's ABAP program is calling an established PDM web service.  The service
has basic security requirements because its data is sensitive.  Jeff
needs to conform to these requirements.  Either you relax your AD naming
standards or Jeff changes his code.  I'm not involved either way.  Please
work this out soon.

Jeff, I realize ABAP code does not support NTLM authentication.  But we're
not requiring it.  We allow basic authentication.  I don't understand
the hold up here.  Once you and Kyle agree on an AD name, pass it in the
HTTP headers.  Can't the AD username / password be a configuration parameter
in your program?

-Erik

[An e-mail to my father in response to David Brooks' essay in Tuesday's N.Y. Times.]

He claims Wilson did the embellishing?! Are Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz held to a lower standard? Their embellishing and misjudgment have placed America's finest in the middle of a religious war in a strategic blunder than has killed 3,500 Americans, wounded 26,000, and weakened our national security. Meanwhile our President presents the American public with one rosy scenario after another, one "we're about to turn the corner" fantasy after another. And Joe Wilson is the embellisher?! Disgraceful!!!

"The farce is over. It has no significance. Nobody but Libby’s family will remember it in a few weeks time."

So we've learned that sycophants are insignificant? Well done, Mr. Brooks. They may be insignificant but the dirty deeds they do for their masters are not. The war he enabled is not over and will not be forgotten by those whose loved ones have been killed or grievously wounded.

I rented Don't Look Back, a documentary of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of London, shot in black & white on a handheld camera. It contains some great footage of Dylan in his hotel room making music with Joan Baez and Alan Price of The Animals. Classic.

Not too long ago I watched V For Vendetta. I was quite skeptical of it, as I am of all films based on comic books, as I find their treatment of the themes of ostracization and revenge unfulfilling, perverse. Comic books and their film brethren often ignore the option of simply not caring. On more than one occassion when watching a comic book film I have asked myself a question, in lieu of the hero. "Who cares? So the world doesn't recognize your talents. And the wrong people are elevated beyond their competence. Tell me something I don't know. How did you get this idea in your head that life would unfold otherwise, that the mass of humanity owes you more gratitude?"

I did not have this problem with V For Vendetta. Watching V for Vendetta is like listening to Metallica's And Justice For All... It's defiant, unforgiving, and without the self-loathing typical to other works in its genre. You don't want to slit your wrists after listening to Metallica or watching this film. On the contrary. You are more in love with life than ever.

V's introductory speech plays like a Kirk Hammett solo over a heavy Hetfield riff: