Citizenship as a privilege

So Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell aired his racist thoughts in Sunday’s N&O story on illegal immigrants, then had to issue an apology. The debate shows that racism is alive and well in the Old North State.

I’ve got this citizenship thing figured out. Since almost everyone calling to deport undocumented immigrants did nothing more to become citizens other than being born here, I propose we make everyone take a citizenship test to be considered a citizen.

Let’s make it mandatory at age 18, like signing up for the draft, and maybe even make it expire like a driver license. If you can’t pass the citizenship test you become undocumented and subject to immediate deportation.

I’ll bet that four out of five forum posters at the N&O and WRAL story sites above would be packing their bags.

(For the record, I took the MSNBC citizenship test and scored a perfect 100%. You kids get off of my country!)

Weekend? What weekend?

You know, when you spend part of your weekend with your kid in the ER, part of it in the office mucking with office network (and failing), part of it at home mucking with the office network (and failing again), and the time in-between desperately trying to sleep but largely failing, you begin to wonder if you had a weekend at all.

All this and I’ve got jury duty this week (and possibly the following two weeks), though I don’t report until Tuesday. Life just doesn’t slow down, does it?

Greg Hatem wide open

I had to come to work this morning to work on the company network. As I walked out of the building to grab some coffee I saw downtown developer Greg Hatem walking south down Fayetteville Street, soaked to the bone. He was wearing his typical white collared shirt and black shorts with sandals, only now his shirt was wind-whipped and completely soaked through.

The remnants of Raleigh Wide Open are scattered around downtown. Vendor tents lie upturned on the sidewalk, partially shredded by the wind. The gusting wind is occasionally punctuated by the metallic bang of another tent pole crashing into the street. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to keep the celebration going after all (though I’m sure the musical acts would’ve been tough to re-book). Its a shame the weather hasn’t cooperated.

Hanna blows in and out again

Tropical storm Hanna came ashore early this morning and has now reached the Raleigh area. It looks like the eye (such as it is) is just to the east of us. There’s a 15 MPH wind and some occasional gusts of around 25 to 30 MPH but not much more. I’m warily eyeing the handful of tall pine trees in the yard of the neighbor across the street, each of which is swaying 30 degrees in opposite directions. They look the most vulnerable of the trees I can see from the house.

We’ve got a flash flood warning here, and a couple of inches of rain have fallen. Our “river” in the back yard has a bit of a small lake at the end, but nothing too serious. I’m also pleased the gutter guards are doing their job. Its also good news that Hurricane Ike is heading farther west and into the Gulf, though I wouldn’t want to meet that storm in a dark alley.

I’ve got to set up my home weather station again sometime soon.

Pandora schwag

When my buddy Ben blogged about how awesome Pandora is, I decided they needed to know about it. They’re sending me some schwag in return! In a week I should have a sweet Pandora T-shirt to show off.

I can’t count how many bands I’ve discovered thanks to Pandora, and many of my friends have, too. That’s a company I don’t mind advertising about!

(And just so you know they’re hooking Ben up, too.)

Raleigh now Wide Open

Raleigh is officially Wide Open now as the city’s festivities have begun. I couldn’t help but notice as Big Mama E and The Cool took the Cherry Bounce stage, 50 yards from my office window. The music is kicking but quite distracting while we’re working to finish up a big project before the weekend starts. Still, its good to see all the people wandering downtown. I think officials made the right call in deciding the show must go on.

Here’s a map of festivities so you can know where to get down with thy bad self.

Atari and the suits in the record industry

My friend Chris O’Donnell linked to a wonderful online history of the Atari company, makers of the first wildly-popular home video games. It tells of how Nolan Bushnell, Silicon Valley legend and founder of Atari, sold the company to Warner Communications and then regretted the move when he was forced out. Warner went on to squeeze billions of dollars out of Atari but also squeezed the creativity out of it too, chiefly by not giving game developers a cut of their creations’ huge profits.
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Lighting Raiders


While I was learning how to stuff video onto our new iPod I practiced with my Raiders Of The Lost Ark DVD. After repeatedly watching the opening sequence, I noticed something I hadn’t appreciated before in the 27 years (!) the film has been out: the lighting is outstanding! In the opening scene, Indiana Jones goes from deep into the jungle and into the dark tomb, then gets chased out by the boulder and races to the river to escape. There are so many scenes here with challenging lighting yet every one is perfect. The lighting practically tells the story itself.

Raiders cinematographer Douglas Slocombe is said to have never used a light meter on the Raiders set. How is it this man never won an Oscar?