Google Maps was already a very nice website, but Google just can't leave a good product alone. They've always got to go improving it (thanks for the second GB of email space, by the way). Now they've added satellite images to their map service. The integration is seamless. The image quality is striking. For example, want to stalk my brother? This should get you started. Or take a tour of our nation's capitol. If you try to zoom all the way into the capitol building you'll find it blurred out (I assume to thwart terrorists who are too lazy to acquire their own areal photos). The White house is fair game, however. If you find anything cool, copy the link from "Link to this page" and post it as a comment.

The school board election was yesterday. Here are the results:

STEVE L. LEWIS 306
VANESSA TALLMAN 259
STEVE COOPER 207

MONTY JOHNSON 204
KELLIE CASE 176
JIM HESTER 175

Three spots were open, so the top three have been elected. Official results are available here.

Tomorrow, I go back to school. I fly out at 1pm Pacific time, and land at 8 central time. I hope I don't get stuck anywhere like last time.

Oh well, my new RAM is on backorder, all 512Mbs of goodness. Hopefully my computer won't be slow so that I can actually play a full game of Battle For Middle Earth.

Brendoman told people to bug me, so yes please do that. I get very bored very fast, so yes I could be bugged. Maybe he just wants more posts, I want more friends.

This week's lunch concert was a faculty recital full of Debussy. While listening it occurred to me that Debussy seems like the beginning of the end of the style of classical music I prefer.


His songs are soft and "pretty" and have a smooth flow, but they are also made up of a lot of unusual chords and a weird mix of dissonant chords that manage not to sound too dissonant when all placed together in one musical piece. Sitting there in the music hall, I couldn't help that recognize I didn't like it and liked it at the same time.


It's really strange. I seem to have a cut-off point in history when literature and classical music stop appealing to me, and that's sometime around the early 1900s. Not that I don't enjoy ANY of it, but it just isn't as appealing. Yet with art (painting, etc.), my tolerance level goes through to around the 1960s and then tapers off.


With music, I think it's the lack of an identifiable "theme" or melody, and the addition of too many dissonant sounds and odd rhythms. With literature, I feel like authors either imitate too much or have an inflated sense of self-importance ... and they're either too wordy or too succinct, but hardly ever just right. I'm learning to enjoy a few authors post-1950: Bradbury, Carver, Dubus.


I'm trying to identify what it is that makes me shut off after a certain point. Perhaps it's just the freedom that comes with new discoveries and movements in the arts, which results in what I see as too much of a lack of structure. I'm not sure. I've got to think about this more.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Vintage Contemporaries) by Mark Haddon

Between enjoying my time here in San Diego, transferring our domain name, and moving to our new host, I don't really have any time to post anything. Sorry about that. In the meantime, go check out all our friends' blogs. The links are on the right. Or go bug Smiles.