What is this fresh hell I am seeing on my weather radar channel?! It sucks! I watched for ten minutes, and I only saw a full state overview of the radar for what? Two seconds?! One three hour loop?! In two seconds?!

What’s really annoying is that as the radar switches around every few seconds to all the sections of the Austin Metro area, my neighborhood — neigh, not even just my neighborhood but my block — is always split on the edge of the map. Except for the brief showing of the Austin overview, during which the streets are so small, even on a 60″ hi-def TV, I can’t tell if that big red blob is going to crawl slowly right over my area, or if it’s going to pass a few miles away. Sometimes, this matters.

And wouldn’t it be nice if I could get a better look at the bigger picture to see if there’s anything developing further out than the end of my city’s nose? Yes, yes it would.

This is freaking upsetting. I want to register my strong disapproval of the new News8 Weather channel. I want my NOAA radar back, please.

A letter from Einstein to a German philosopher is being auctioned in London this week.

“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

“No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this,” he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper.

A lot of people are using this as an Aha Moment to claim that Einstein was, in fact, an atheist. I beg to differ. The word “god” to me, as understood in many Abrahamic religions to mean an entity sitting in a particular place, does seem like a childish idea. My idea of “god” … and I believe Einstein’s idea of “god” … is so much larger than that.

The Vatican has announced it is possible to believe in both God and aliens on other planets. I finally agree with the Vatican on something.

Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom.

And finally…

John Hagee, an influential televangelist who endorsed John McCain, is apologizing to Catholics for referring to the Roman Catholic Church as “the great whore” and calling it “the apostate church.”

It’s not as if he only said it once. This concept, and the further idea of the eradication of the Catholic Church has been an ongoing theme with this guy for a very long time. This makes me wonder why the sudden change and what he’s getting from McCain in “payment” for his sudden and drastic change in tune. Will Hagee be apologizing to Muslims next? Don’t hold your breath. Muslim hate is still very much acceptable in the USA.

I believe my wonderful Revereware non-stick skillet has seen its last days of use. It had started to be not quite so non-stick anymore a few months ago. Last night, it finally just stuck. Everything stuck, and not in the usual way things stick to regular skillets. No, it really, really stuck, as though the whole thing had been coated with Superglue just before I put the pork cutlets into it. I am bummed. I use that skillet for everything, and it will have to be replaced ASAP.

The same size is going to be about $20, which isn’t bad. I used it, really, really used it, for about five years. I may convince Lin I should upgrade to the 10″ or 12″ size. They aren’t much more expensive, and it would be nice to be able to get two large pork chops into the same skillet to cook at the same time … or to have room to stir one-dish meals in the skillet. I’d be happy with just having the same size again though. I just miss my heavy non-stick skillet!!!

At the moment, it’s outside with oven cleaner sprayed on it. I feel fairly certain that’s not going to be anything for it’s lack of non-sticking functionality, but if I could just salvage it to use for panbread, which doesn’t require it to be non-stick, that would be great. It’s just the right size for stove-top cornbread for two. The oven cleaner probably won’t work, but I have tried everything else. I figured it was worth a shot.

As soon as I am done fussing with that, I have to go check on my plants and get the chili started for tonight. Mmmmm. Chili. Alas, unless the oven cleaner works on the skillet, there will be no cornbread. Very sad, but I suppose we will survive. Chili is good with or without cornbread.

“You have to have the time to feel sorry for yourself in order to be a good abstract expressionist.”

American artist, Robert Rauschenberg, died today at the age of 82. I don’t often mention my favorite artists or the ones who have influenced my own work in any way, but Mr. Rauschenberg has always been at the top of a very short list. I am saddened by his passing.

You can see some of his works here and here.

Rauschenberg on YouTube, discussing art and his erasing of DeKooning works:

Some of my favorite Vallejo songs in video format! All the music plus AJ and the guys dancing, playing and singing! Who could ask for more?

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There isn’t going to be a big web site redesign. Yes, this is the sort of thing I decide at 3 am after a rather crappy day.

I always said that one day I would create a site design that I loved so much, I wouldn’t want to change it the next year. The current one has survived two now. It’s not a lack of inspiration. I have done several total site redesigns over those two years, but they never make it to the site, and eventually I wipe out my sandbox and start fresh. It’s a satisfaction with this particular site design.

If I can find the old Photoshop files on my old computer, I would like to update it a little. It never really was finished. There were a few things I meant to add, and I never meant to have that tagline forever. But then I got sick, my cat died, and I got a new computer, and I never got back to it. Such is life.

Anyway … I am about 99.999% certain there will be no big web site redesign any time in the near future.

There will be some changes around here regarding memberships and registrations. There’s going to be a little more vetting of registrations, and a few rules. I know. That sucks. More later when I work it all out in my head and figure out how to make it all function. It’s just that a lot of people who only read my blog or the RSS feed have been missing out on some stuff I wouldn’t mind sharing, but the list of registered members is so huge and so full of people I don’t know at all, I can’t just make it a post for members, I have to filter it. That has been a pain in the butt, and so I don’t do it. I put it over at Livejournal on my friends list, which is significantly smaller than the friends list of my life. I’m not going to ask that everyone who wants to read those posts join LJ. I don’t even want to be over there anymore, really. So things have to change a bit around the blog. I’ll post a FAQ before anything major crazy happens. I do have that communication thing down pretty well.

I need a plugin that gives me the email address for everyone who has ever commented on my blog and is a registered user. I wonder if such a thing exists?

But first, I better get some sleep. I have got to go to the store tomorrow.