the time has come to finally move beyond the old logo to a new one that doesn't say (logO). with that in mind, i'm inaugurating the first annual dredwerkz logo contest. the rules are simple: suggest a unicode or latin character code that refers to a logo. for instance you could use the codes "☣" , "★" , "�" , "㊯" and "堡" to represent:
to see more unicode symbols and how to code them, go to the unicode charts page and just download the appropriate pdf to see your codes. then e-mail them to the e-mail address at the bottom of the main page. i'll gather together the suggestions and narrow them down based on my own priorities and then we'll vote for the best one. got it? get going!

i returned from west virginia yesterday...a nice place to vist, but not where i'd want to live. for the past three days though, the weather has (here and in wv) been incredible, the sort of blue-skied eighty-degrees-highed light-breeze-dried weather that makes you feel good for no reason whatsoever. but there are plenty of good reasons anyway, like dc suspending its huge 10% sales tax for many purchases. or the the latest from jmm about the bushies' incompetency. plus, my credit card company raised my credit limit last month to almost two times my after-tax monthly income. why do i need such a high rate? who cares! maybe i want to corner the tesla coil market...

i'm off to west virginia, my left contact has been replaced by an older one and i'm super tired from a bonking cycling ride yesterday. be seeing you!

my left eye is preventing me from wearing my contact lens at the moment, which of course means i can't wear my right one or things will get funny looking. so i'm awol for the moment. check out the new review of signs that i posted pre-blindness.

first: go see m. night shyamalan's signs.

back yet? good. for those of you too lazy to get up and go see this movie without reading an extensive review manging to connect time, space and dick clark together, follow along. in your typical movie, there is a smidgen of foreshadowing, a few plot points, a title moment, some key scenes, perhaps a climax, and maybe a denouement. really good movies tend to throw in some cinematography, more foreshadowing, good dialogue and sometimes a plot twist or two. great movies, like milton's paradise lost, tend to generate strange numerology rants so that each time you watch you discover another hidden moment revealing that the movie must have taken years to write, direct and edit until it became a seamless whole. a really great movie doesn't simply sand over the welding marks, it appears instead to have been forged from a solid piece of metal.

the amusing part of all of this is that cinema, unlike life, can actually be edited to the point where everything makes sense. watch memento and revel in the nature of a highly-edited film. life, unlike art, doesn't tend to make sense at the end, or at any point in between. instead clues tend to lead to dead ends, and death simply open voids instead of providing meaningful insights. (as anyone who has ever experienced pain learns, often a tough experience doesn't end up being rewarding in any character-building sense...it just leaves scars). how strange then, that the entire concept of coincidences, of life handing us clues, would become fodder for m. night shyamalan's latest work: signs.

although signs is ostensibly the story of some crop circles in a farmer's field, the story revolves around the idea of coincidences, and whether things happen for a reason. when i thought the movie was simply a thriller about crop circles, i was more excited than when reviews came pouring in mentioning 'god' and 'faith'. i held my breath, mainly because the god behind unbreakable and the sixth sense was fairly ambiguous. good and evil mixed together, bad things happening, etc. the strong point between both movies though was that everything happened for a reason. watching either of those two movies felt natural, because movies tend to operate in this manner. yet in signs, mel gibson as a fallen reverend divides the world into two groups: those who see random occurences as signs, and those who merely see them as happenstance. where the movie comes down on this rather thorny issue is nicely resolved. both believers and non-believers alike should enjoy the prospect of an alien invasion, coupled with some of the best thrills available this summer. far from being a campy remake of a tired concept, shyamalan manages to keep the tension mounted from beginning to end. watching the film as a mere fright-fest would still be entertainment. coupled with a thought-provoking idea though, the movie shines.

about the only negative i could think of would be if a viewer had recently lost someone, if only because the ending of the movie might catch them off-guard. in attempting to paint an even picture, shyamalan manages to move one side in a direction that implies a moral ambiguity. while this is well and good, strict moralists may take offense at the implication...the rest of the movie though, deals with death in a fairly reverent way, so it wouldn't prevent one from enjoying the film. art, like life, seeks to find answers to the ordinary questions that plague us. signs manages to put a new spin on those old questions.

Washington Post: Metro

• Plan for Tax Increase Fuels Va. Senate Race

• Leaders to Set Emergency Protocol

• Arundel Schools' Man of Change

• Williams Spends Weekend on Stump

• When Immigrants Wed, Language of Their Vows Is Too Often Unfamiliar

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Moreover - moreover...

• New Avenues Offer Shortcuts to Principal's Office

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:19AM ET

• For Tibetans, an Inspiration Emerges

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:19AM ET

• When Immigrants Wed, Language of Their Vows Is Too Often Unfamiliar: Need for Spanish Speakers to Perform Cere

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:19AM ET

• Plan for Tax Increase Fuels Va. Senate Race: Road, School Funds Top Fairfax Issues

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:19AM ET

• Housing Vouchers No Magic Key

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:19AM ET

• Leaders to Set Emergency Protocol: D.C., Md., Va. Officials to Sign Pact Addressing Weaknesses Exposed Sept. 1

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:18AM ET

• Tight Times for States Improve Gambling's Odds

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:18AM ET

• World

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

• Ex-King Returns to Palace

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

• Ukraine Resolves to Integrate With Europe

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

• Bolivia's Ex-President Regains Post

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

• Difficult Times For a Key Ally In Terror War

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

• Forest Service Sued Over Backfire

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

• Stevens Advises Judges to Hold Their Fire

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

• Chemical Plants Face Oversight

  Washington Post Aug 5 2002 7:12AM ET

tapped is back online, thanks to editor chris mooney's triumphal return. okay, no elephants or carthaginian slaves for him this time. speaking of absurd practicies, the often idiotic saudis have gone and tried to screw israel over by boycotting firms and items made by firms in said country. what's a better way to help those palestinians out after a bus-bombing? well, an israeli boycott isn't the way to do it, especially since most over countries have simply allowed this idea to die a slow death...on the positive side, read this great article by the man who brought you dubya's first presidentiary book. this time kevin neatly skewers the idiots over at sony and the today show. his partner is crime is notably absent, but if one has never been introduced to the governor of virginia's evil doppleganger, this brilliant piece will serve well as a substitute. remember to eat slowly and chew between bites. better, yet, scarf it down and read this masterpiece. by kevin for dessert. I can't help myself! it's all too tasty to resist!!

read this. who knew that a judge could do something like this? in other less threatening news, waferbaby, the first site to be scooped up into my news net, is now displaying this message "waferbaby.com spilt milk on its pants, and will be back after the laundry is done." grr. finally, in the "something good happened last night" department, brad managed to post a new japa-philiac review of kawasaki, one of the better sushi places in the city. it's like a little slice of japan here in the heart of the district.

yeah, the new pool rocks. i didn't get a chance to see the underwater lights in action, but otherwise a solid deal all around. why am i writing this? well, mainly because i had wanted to polish up the coding on the news section but instead wasted it reading smutty elftor comic strips. yeah, i know, i'm ashamed. i'll go back to penance now...

since it's the weekend, i feel that no blogging is in order. however, testing out a certain close relative's brand new pool definitely is. ed out.