the year and night that was; the databases that will be

Had a long, lovely evening at the Merc with rigel_p. It kills me that she lives so far away.

---

My phone is dead, Jim. I was in the middle of unlocking it last night after I got home when the phone refused to believe that I'd stopped pressing one of the numbers on the screen. Then it refused to respond to any touch at all. I'm draining the battery in the desperate hope that a reboot will fix it. I do not want to lose what on that phone, mainly pics.

ETA: Popping the battery out did the trick duh. Nibs had to remind me to try that. I'm so used to iPods, which don't let you do that.

---

Gonna be a PTA DB monkey in 20 minutes. Mabye gonna be a Lambert House DB monkey again this weekend. Ook!

---

2011 was arguably the best year of my life. I'm left wondering if I'll ever improve on it. I've got some gnarly life problems to deal with in the near future, but I think there's plenty of room for improvement. It's even possible that my solutions to the gnarly stuff can be part of that improvement.

my rockin' New Year's Eve

So I, uh, spent New Year's Eve watching Triumph of the Will with my son. Observations:

• Yes, Leni Riefenstahl had a first rate visual sense.
• But seriously? This worked as propaganda? Way too much time spent on parades and creepy-looking guys shouting at microphones.
• The summary of the film? "Hitler's a god, you people are cute little peons who should obey him, and everybody loves him."
• Gotta love the homoeroticism in the Hitler youth segment.
• Did you know the Nazis had their own version of the CCC? Its name, translated, was the National Labor Service. Guys in spiffy uniforms with shovels and pickaxes. Their insignia was a spade with a swastika crossed by two wheat ears. Hilarious.
• Boy, did they milk World War I for all it was worth and then some.

Why watch it with the kid? Well, I wanted to show him how propaganda works, and he's also a history buff with a keen interest in the Nazis.