Jason Griffey

Well, in a response to this post, I decided to be proactive and do something about it. So, announcing: the official opening of the 7 for Graphic Design CafePress store. The name “7 for” is just one that I picked a long time ago for my graphic and other creative endeavors (bonus points if anyone can guess where the name is from…come on all you reference librarians!).

The first things that are offered are T-shirts and other appropriate ephemera with “Suspected Terrorist” in honor of John Gilmore. My favorite is the baby bib….never too young to start the free thinking. I'd love to see what an airline would do with one of those. I will add things as appropriately cynical and smarmy logos and slogans present themselves.

So…do me a favor, and spread the word. Any profits from the sale of the shirts and such will be donated to the ACLU.

Had a wierd blog experience today. Found a guy (Mike) that I don't know who picked up on my post concerning the TSA and the teen who put the note in his luggage. To my knowledge, it's the first time that someone I didn't know referenced one of my posts…very cool. The power of the blogsphere at work, I suppose.

Betsy wanted me to blog about some of the more….mmmm…amusing aspects of my hometown. For instance, CatHair and the midgets.

Yes, you read that right: CatHair and the Midgets.

No, it's not a rock band, or anything of that ilk. CatHair was the nickname of the local tow-truck operater in Olive Hill (my home town). He lived in a section of town called Clark Hill, with a family of midgets (dwarfs…not sure what the appropriate PC term is here).

Did I mention that CatHair was an albino?

So in my home town, we had an albino tow-truck operator named CatHair who lived with a family of midgets. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried. I come from a really, really wierd place.

Here's a Slashdot discussion on a BUNCH of things near and dear to me…the First Amendment, Comic Books, and STUPID legal battles.

Here's an excerpt:

“I've been following the Jesus Castillo case for a while. The case itself is an obscenity charge for selling an adult comic to an adult undercover police officer in Dallas. Recently, the US Supreme Court denied his appeal, with the notion that obscenity is a state-level affair, despite the First Amendment being a Federal law. There's also an interview with the head of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and some good ruminations from Neil Gaiman on the subject. Bad precedents for free speech – the CBDLF donations and giving to the EFF are Good Things. “

I HIGHLY recommend donating to both the EFF and the CBLDF. Great organizations (and in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I'm a member of both).

Great idea from Creative Commons…If I had any video editting experience, I'd be all over this.

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Make a Creative Commons vid, get a dual-G5. Creative Commons is looking for entrants into a contest to produce a short two-minute movie explaining its mission — grand prize is a dual-G5 Mac or an Alienware 2100DV Dual-P4 system.

Create, or mash-up, a moving image that explains Creative Commons mission, using your favorite moving image authoring tool, such as Flash, iMovie, or Final Cut Pro. Entries can contain video, animated images, text, and audio. We welcome and encourage the use of other people's work, provided that you have permission or the work is Creative Commons-licensed or public domain. The entry should be 2 minutes or less. All entries must be licensed under a Creative Commons license of your choosing by time of entry.

Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]

And for those that are interested, it's just 11 days until Freddy VS Jason hit's theaters. Make plans now to see it opening night with me…I'm a sucker for medieval morality plays disguised as softcore porn for the consumption of teens. I mean, I really like 80's horror films (esp the Nightmare on Elm Street series).

I know SOMEONE reading this wants to see it with me! Speak out, fellow horror film fans!

In sad Kentucky news:

In Bardstown, KY today, the Jim Beam distillery was struck by lighting. Millions of gallons of bourbon burning.

Story, and live video.

New idiotic “security” action….17 year old and his family were removed from a flight because the baggage handlers found a note that read:

''[Expletive] you. Stay the [expletive] out of my bag you [expletive] sucker. Have you found a [expletive] bomb yet? No, just clothes. Am I right? Yea, so [expletive] you.''

So, for those who are interested, I've created an easy to use PDF of his note (with the appropriate words where the censors went nuts), so you can download, cut it in half, and have a couple of notes for your own bags. Let's see how long it takes before the TSA learns what sarcasm is.

Story from Boston Globe
Story from BoingBoing

Just returned from KY…so much to blog about. The wonderful Reds game with my folks, the abject poverty of the area I grew up in, the mullets (OH, the mullets). I'll see how much I can get out over the next few days.

Well, we spent today visiting family here in Olive Hill, and taking LOTS of pictures. I decided that since this was our first trip here with the digital camera, we'd just take pics of everything, since I don't really have many pictures of my home town (it's a funny thing that everyone takes pictures of vacations, but no one takes pictures of where they live). I'm sure that I'll put everything together into a photo gallery at some point, but there were several things that I learned from visiting with my grandfather that really touched me:

One: my grandfather visited Yellowstone National Park when he was 17 years old (1937) as part of the Civilian Conservation Core. While he was there, he woke one morning to find a black bear in his tent. The bear left without incident.

Two: he still has, hanging in his hallway, the calendar that was hanging on the wall the day my grandmother died. It still has her doctor's appointment written on it, in her handwriting. That was 1989.