Meet Ryan

Connect

2008-12-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

on the left you will see the space formerly occupied by the "chat" widget has been renamed to "connect" and it should be an improvement. This widget is courtesy of Google's new friendconnect service. In a nutshell, they have this to say about it:

Google Friend Connect means more people engaging more deeply with your website -- and with each other.

That seems like a good thing to me. We'll see what happens.

More on that in video form here

The whole shebang can be found here

If this feature becomes popular, I'll keep it. If you use it, let me know.

Oops

2008-11-21T10:39:00.001-08:00

Sorry blog, I forgot about you. I'll bein Boston for the weekend. Maybe I'll see you on Monday...

Train pouring molten metal down a hill in Russia

2008-10-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

Why?

2008-10-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Why does this generation tattoo and pierce themselves? Is it an existential need to resacralize their corporeality in a "virtual" world, or are they just a bunch of f***ing idiots?

-from that verbal cartoonist over at mcsweeneys

And furthermore

2008-10-09T09:20:00.001-07:00

I strongly feel like we should be bandying about the term "SubPrime Minister" for this guy, and any others in his shoes.

More Statistics

2008-10-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

Some good news. "about 75% of children newly diagnosed with cancer can expect to be long-term survivors." The article goes on to explain why the dramatic change (Less than 10% 10 year survival rate a few decades ago), and it made me feel like what I do professionally may actually be helping to save lives, or will one day. This feels much more "good" than the impending doom of economic markets does "bad."

20k

2008-10-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well folks, it had to happen. 20,000 visits (~31,000 page views) on this ole blog. Thanks dear readers for the good times. It should be noted, that hit # 20,000 came from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK and it was a search result for this blog's dirty little secret: Unicorn pictures. I still don't understand it, but I'll go with it. Again, thank you all.

interesting stat

2008-10-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

1 in 31 Americans lives in Los Angeles County. If you don't believe me, ask Wikipedia.

Deer Tick

2008-09-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

Deer Friends,

Deer Tick, a Rhode Island band, will make your life better, at least in the short term. Outside of the next few months is 100% up to you, here's a taste. I should also note, it kills me that the first song is a cover, and I didn't know until after I'd already fallen in love with it, leaving me with a sense of over achievement for the band. That being said, the rest is still good.

Enjoy,

SeeqPod - Playable Search

David Foster Wallace

2008-09-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

I was very unhappy to hear of David Foster Wallace's suicide.

In a commencement address he delivered at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005 he spoke about, among other things, the mind being a good servant but a terrible master: "This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger."

It is alarming that a thinker of DFW's caliber and ability to communicate ended his life. I will miss his work, most of which I recommend.

He lived and taught near me, and I even had the chance to see him occasionally walking around downtown Claremont.

September 11, 2008

2008-09-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

7 years later, and we're living in the wake of that fateful day. It still makes me sad, and grasping the enormity of it all seems incomprehensible.

"New York, New York" is a song written and performed by American alt-country musician Ryan Adams. It appeared on his 2001 album Gold. The song's music video, showing Adams performing in front of the city's skyline, was filmed four days before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. [Wikipedia]

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Here's the video

Brilliant!

2008-09-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

Knowshon Moreno already has a pretty impressive highlight reel. This latest addition is pretty great.

Google Chrome

2008-09-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

Blazing fast new browser from google is nice. Doesn't work on everything yet, and firefox made me forget how much I liked browsing without ads on web pages. Not ready to switch yet, but not a bad start, herr goog.

Affection and a Naughty Streak

2008-09-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Petco Park in San Diego is one of the coolest ballparks I've ever been to.

Adding to the charm are strangers making out in the background often, and for a long time:

and streakers, who, oddly and thankfully, left their boxers on:

It should be noted that this streaker was significantly faster than any of the security guards. Quite a show!

Fantastic Saturday

2008-08-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Folks, yesterday was pretty fantastic. I woke up in San Francisco (almost always a good thing), drove back to LA (at 6:30) in time to make a bowling tournament in which my team placed first. Followed that up with a great dinner at an unusual restaurant, and about 20 of us went out to karaoke afterward.

I'm going to miss the olympics.

2008-08-14T07:39:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you go fishing with your family and end up catching 32 fish. Sometimes you don't.

my new task

2008-08-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

I fully intend to re purpose the word majuscule. This is a perfectly cromulent quest, I might add.

I'm feeling very olympic today

2008-08-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

The Trip Home

2008-08-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

I had a fun and eventful trip back East. It's always good to see friends and family. The nieces are growing up wonderfully, and give daily soundbites good for retelling. For example, I have a low to medium quantity of chest hair. This turns out to be substantially more than my nieces' father. The middle one observed, "you have lots" when pointing at said chest hair after swimming in the lake. For full comedic effect, I should mention she repeated it several times with varying amounts of affect. Sometimes it seemed more of a passionate statement of conviction, at others an observation, still others, like a nuisance that had to be cleared from the mind by simply verbalizing it.

The new family digs are a little larger than I imagined, and better in other ways, too.

I caught about a dozen pretty big fish, did some water skiing, swimming, jumping off of rocks, etc.

I had the misfortune of accompanying someone to the emergency room when she broke her tibia in a tragic RipStick accident.

Life continues to move on with people having kids. One good thing about having gigantic media outlets or, more accurately, globalized culture, is that old friends can always talk about that youtube video or tv show or movie and feel like they were talking about something they experienced at the same time.

That fact, and an astute observation* from another friend have set me off on a journey of understanding that I may update here. Basically, the quest will go something like this: Instead of engaging only in interactions that can and do happen en masse, I will seek out interactions that come more locally and are more unique.

* The observation, which I cannot fully capture here was something like, "We can't really expect people to be good conversationalists because we don't live in a society that shares information like that anymore." Sadly true.

O w3LLz, peeps. HITCHA upz lata! rofl

the earthquake

2008-07-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

some of you have been asking about the earthquake that happened around noon on Tuesday, so here's the scoop:
I was walking into a sandwich shop that I frequent. The door made an uncustomarily loud noise as it swung shut. Uncustomarily loud enough to cause the clientele to look at the same instant. That's when things really started rocking and rolling for about 5 to 10 seconds. That's pretty much the whole story. The sensation was odd, like standing up too fast. It is not hard to understand how something just a little bit stronger could be cataclysmic as the high rises swayed on the horizon.

Making scents

2008-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

Axe is the new patchouli.

Conference Fun

2008-07-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm at a conference for work right now. There is a woman speaking and a man sitting up front who keeps asking loud simple questions with a really annoyed tone. He's asked about 5 so far. Clearly, this means they used to be lovers and she dumped him.

App Launchers?!?

2008-07-15T11:24:00.001-07:00

Furthermore, I have no idea why people use app launchers. The most common reason I've heard is that it saves time, but I must interject. All the time you could have saved, you just lost defending/blogging/proselytizing for said launchers. If you're silent about them, you lose time configuring them and learning them. Save time, become more efficient: ditch the launcher apps!

Whoa! of the week!

2008-07-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

I got this link from a friend, and it is pretty amazing. I'll let the clip speak for itself.

The Bubble Wrap Calendar

2008-07-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

Get it here.

Wall-E Review

2008-07-07T07:15:00.001-07:00

I saw Wall-E this weekend, and should disclaim that I fell asleep twice while watching it, so any criticism I have may be unfounded based on my likely missing a few crucial plot points.

Here's my short review:
The animation was outstanding and no detail was spared. All of the characters were likable, even the cadre of sedentary humans who were remarkably similar to what we could imagine, given the circumstances. I even liked the jabs at big box retailers. The corporation that ran everything ("BuyNLarge")shamelessly lampoons the biggest chains around to nice effect. One of the most joyful things about Pixar films is that they are made for children, and you get to engage that sensibility in yourself as you watch it, while furthering your respect for the film as you catch the tip of the hat to "grown-ups" too. This, unfortunately was not a child's movie, and that's why I think it fell a little flat. You will see worse movies this year, but you'll probably also see better ones. I say this is just above average, mainly because of how beautifully rendered it is.

Watershed Awareness

2008-07-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Recently I took this quiz about my surroundings. I was proud to have scored about 60%.

Happy Independence Day, America!

Virtuous Cycles

2008-07-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

If I owned a bike shop, one component of my business would be taking people's old bikes and giving them to the underprivileged who would become a customer later once they recognized their love for biking in the insufficiency of older equipment. This phenomena and the shop itself would be called "Virtuous Cycles"

Microsoft Time

2008-06-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

The network time that Windows uses is a full 5 minutes faster than the time used by NIST according to my computer.

Long Now

2008-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Long Now

Oldest Domain Names

2008-06-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

Who picked up the internet first? Here's a list of the 100 oldest domain names.

The oldest? symbolics.com. It appears they haven't changed their web page too much since they registered their domain in 1985. Most of these domains still exist, and look to be mostly large corporations.

The Gentleman Landowner

2008-06-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

Another first for me today: I now own a plot of land.

Yes, on this blue and green speck traveling around the sun, I now own a piece that is forever mine (unless I sell it) on the Isle of Islay, UK.

It's a delightfully verdant location by a river near the Laphroaig distillery. I pay no taxes on it, nor will I be required to. It is my option to charge land rent if I desire, but I think the tax implications of that appear to be prohibitive. I will most likely leave it for future generations, or as some vacation spot should I end up anywhere near the Isle of Islay.

Mood: very happy.

To help you place it, here is some context. Note: The last picture was taken by the RAF for the coordinates of the plot. The other images are from our friends who store my dog's health information online for me.

Taking Stock

2008-06-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Exactly one year ago, I bought some NASDAQ stocks, and today I thought it would be a good time to do a year in review.

The portfolio has grown 22.3%

To put this in context:
in the same time, the NASDAQ index has gone down 2.91%; the DJIA has gone down 7.86%; the S&P 500 index has gone down 7.54%

The money saved on gas from the scooter alone, if used for a year, and invested at this rate would have been worth 3057.50 today.

My current plan is to wait a little while, (as the companies I've invested in likely have some tricks up their sleeve still) to hit a set price, and sell it all and buy a mutual fund. Why a mutual fund? I expect index growth to outstrip the growth of the companies I've invested in because mutual funds are on sale right now. (see below)

Also, I'm leaving the picking up to others. Despite my portfolio outperforming most averages, I think this trough time is a good time to outsource that effort to some sort of expert. I expect the short term growth potential to be less than I could accomplish on my own, but I also want to mitigate some risk. Flying too high above the mean only lasts for so long. Fund managers know that, and work around it in ways I won't (statistically speaking) be able to.

2009 is going to be good for first time home buyers, I think. I suspect the market will continue to decline as subprime and prime ARMs come due and people try to get out of their place before the bank takes it. The government seems likely to be pitching some money in to keep the "foreclosure" numbers low. That could turn into some kind of tax break for me. Who knows?

I am certainly interested to hear your opinion on the matter.

Nut Brown Ale

2008-06-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

I made a nut brown ale last week, and bottled it last night. It smelled pretty good, and at room temperature, before bottling (it carbonates in the bottle, so it is currently flat) it tasted acceptable. My biggest fear is that I over hopped it, which is the tendency of most home brewers. This isn't a bad thing if you like hoppy beer. My hope is that the carbonation, and any air in the headspace will mellow that out a bit.

In other news, I made a shocking discovery that riding the moped to work takes just about 2 hours roundtrip and costs about $2.65 in gas per day. Driving the truck takes about an hour and a half round trip and costs about $12.65 in gas per day. Hmm. At $50 savings per week, that thing will easily pay for itself this year in gas alone. The maintenance costs are super low, and it saves wear and tear on the truck. Spending money to save money, I guess.

Lighnin'

2008-05-22T13:34:00.001-07:00

For the first time in as long as I can remember, today I saw lightning in Southern California.

Google Health

2008-05-20T07:18:00.001-07:00

Google, who by most measures, does a fantastic job at most things, rolled out Google Health yesterday. In their newest beta web app, you can add all sorts of personal health information for future reference.

Somewhere, someone thought this was a good idea, and I can't understand how. I mean, in a way it makes some sense, people are turning over every imaginable type of information to Google (personal journals, email correspondence, banking information, business transactions, etc.) absolutely free and without reservation already. I suppose this happens for two reasons. 1. Google is good at organizing piles of information. 2. People trust Google.

Now, I'm not as big of a privacy nut as a lot of people out there, and I think if someone wants to know something about you, they can get to it eventually regardless of the caution you take.

Currently, though, if someone lets out some information about you (i.e. an insurer or healthcare provider) there's a means of recourse. Users of Google health have waived all of that when choosing to use the service.

The positive part of this, is that I no longer have to wait for the veterinarian.google.com beta to keep an accurate record of my dog's health. The downside would be if I am ever denied healthcare coverage in the future because my race is "Boxer Mix" and I lapsed on my rabies vaccinations.

Lafite

2008-05-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

Through the generosity of a friend, yesterday I had a 1988 Chateau Lafite, and it was pretty outstanding. By that I mean, probably the best wine I've ever had, and most likely the most expensive wine I'll ever drink.

The caveat is that it wasn't the exact bottle depicted here, as it was a second harvest the same year. Still pretty spectacular, and now, I'm spoiled.

Time Machine

2008-05-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

I had some computer problems this week. So, what did I do? I erased my hard drive, and started with a fresh restore from my time machine backup. When I rebooted my computer after the restore had finished, it worked exactly as it had before. Passwords, preferences, everything remained precisely the way it had. 100% wow, and now I honestly believe that the upgrade to the newest version of the OS was worth every penny.

Vino

2008-05-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

I bottled the Italian Pinot Grigio with the help of my roommates last night, and then we had a tasting. We all seemed to think it was pretty good, so it is going to be entered into a contest.

5 gallons=~26 bottles, which means we spilled a lot.

Interesting Japan

2008-04-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Once [Fumio] Kayo teaches children how to make these mud balls, they become absorbed in forming a sphere, and they put all their energy into polishing the ball until it sparkles. The dorodango soon becomes the child's greatest treasure.

Article here It's old news, but I guess things don't really change that much. Something universal about polishing a mud ball.

Return of the Unicorn

2008-04-24T08:18:00.001-07:00

One of this blog's dirty little secrets is that the number one post ever in it's history was this post about unicorns linking to, in my mind, one of the worst web pages ever, Unicorns United. That link has been responsible for literally thousands of hits to this site. It seems that my frequent updating of content has served only to make that particular link more popular (gag). Well, today there is another post about unicorns, but it is more about how they died. It was a combination of obesity and diabetes (I'm calling that "obesietes") resulting from their constant consumption of rainbows. See figure 1 above for proof.

There you have it. They are all dead, and that's why.

Birthday

2008-04-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

I think today is the earth's birthday. A hippy yelled at me after he said something about sustainability and I responded with something about entropy.

Mashup

2008-04-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'd really like to see a mashup of a first person shooter game with a google maps street view. Such a game could be IP address (location) based so one player could actually (or is it virtually?) invite someone from anywhere in the world to their neighborhood for a battle. Also, you could have a shootout at Skywalker Ranch, or any location that hasn't appeared in a videogame if you felt so inclined. A shootout on Britney Spear's front lawn? Now it's possible to do without getting into trouble. Virtual trespassing may become a crime. Some things have to be off limits and forbidden still, no?

The Terror of Immediacy

2008-04-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

I was doing some thinking the other day. Somehow death, war, poverty, hunger, all of those things don't mean a whole lot to me right now. They exist as concepts, but I've rarely had the chance to understand any of them. Then I thought about constructing one of those really clever scenarios to understand the magnitude of unfathomable numbers.

Statistics warning: I'm playing fast and loose with the numbers here, and they come from unverified sources, but for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume they're in the ballpark.

Deaths per minute:
28.5 - Starvation (for 2007)
1.5 - Iraq War (civilians since 2002)

Those are the only 2 factors I'm going to consider for this exercise.

# of Facebook friends I currently have:
~140

So, if only these two problems in the world affected me immediately and directly, every 4.5 hours, all of my facebook friends would die. After about a day and a half, everyone I know would be gone.

Now, that's not to say most of those who died wouldn't have died anyway, or won't eventually, or that the situations surrounding their deaths aren't, in fact, preventing more deaths. It's just a picture of how things change, I guess.

To round this post out on April 15, I suppose I should mention taxes, so we have death and taxes.

An acquaintance of mine who did some accounting died over the weekend. I think that's what got the ball rolling on this post, and there you have it. Death and taxes and a blog post.

Facebook

2008-04-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Do parents make facebook pages for their kids, and friend their kids friends, and create groups like "Katie's mommy makes the best cookies" to join? When the kids are all old enough and responsible enough, the parents give them the password, etc.

New branding for facebook, and it ensures longevity. Jump on that Zuckerberg!

ENTP

2008-04-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

I took a myers-briggs personality test yesterday, and the results (below) seem fairly accurate. What's your type, and do you think the test is accurate?

ENTP

ENTPs are known for their quest of the novel and complex. They have faith in their ability to improvise and to overcome any challenges that they face. They are highly independent, and value adaptability and innovation. They may be several steps ahead of others in encouraging and valuing change. They hate uninspired routine and resist hierarchical and bureaucratic structures that are not functional. They need freedom for action.

Living

ENTPs are lively children who question established truths and norms, dream and scheme, and develop unusual ways of doing traditional childhood things. The ENTP child is oriented toward doing the unique, which may mean taking risks and outwitting parental, school, and societal authority. They enjoy creating projects and following interests that are unusual and different.

ENTP children enjoy inventing new toys, dances, and languages. Because they are outgoing in their personality style, they often engage other children in their projects and assign them particular roles to play. ENTPs rarely accept things just as they are. They like to test or explore to see new meanings and relationships. When things do not go as they want, they use their ingenuity and cleverness to bring people and situations around to their point of view.

As young adults, when ENTPs choose a career for themselves, they tend to set flexible goals that allow them to incorporate new information and accommodate to new circumstances when they come along. It is hard for ENTPs not to be able to explore the road not taken. Their byword is keep your options open. Sometimes this flexibility can look like indecision to outsiders.

As adults, ENTPs take advantage of opportunities. Because of their ability to see relationships and connections between seemingly unrelated things, they are able to realize the potential in many things. When they see and opportunity that others have missed, they set action-oriented strategies that allow them the greatest flexibility to achieve the results they want. The worst job for them is working for someone who demands considerable rule following or tries too often to tell or order, rather than make suggestions to the ENTP. Throughout their careers, ENTPs want their work to be enjoyable, with interesting possibilities for applications. Additionally, having their work widely acclaimed and accepted as a unique contribution would be highly gratifying for ENTPs. They also weave in vacations whenever possible and want a flexible work schedule.

Learning and Working

ENTPs are relentless learners. When the subject matter interests them, they are able to find meaning in whatever they are studying. Knowledge is important to them, but they may not feel the need to show this to their teachers and therefore may be somewhat lackadaisical about assignments and tests.

ENTPs use their enthusiasm and energy to get others involved in their learning. They learn through give-and-take discussions and by questioning and challenging others. They are quick, verbal, and logical, preferring to use their skills in interactions with others. ENTPs look at the logical foundations in others' thinking and build on them to develop their own conceptual systems. They want to be taught concepts rather then facts. Models are important to them. They typically absorb their teacher's material and present it in a framework that ties all of the elements together.

They like to challenge their teachers and classmates and enjoy competitive learning tasks through which they can show their conceptual versatility. They may also enjoy independent study in which they can pursue and area of interest.

ENTPs contribute and innovative, versatile, and enterprising approach to work. They view limitations as challenges to be overcome and look for new ways to do things. They need to find a niche for themselves in order to be free to maneuver. They prefer the start-up phase of a project rather than the followthrough or maintenance phase. Once the project is designed, they prefer to turn it over to someone else. They take initiative and inspire others toward greater accomplishments and challenges.

ENTPs usually find work that involves an analytical, entrepreneurial, and creative focus. They tend to tolerate ambiguity well. They want to be in situations in which they can take intellectual risks and meet challenges. To perform in their best fashion, they prefer flexibility and versatility. While they like status and titles, they ultimately want to be judged on their innovative accomplishments. They take advantage of changing circumstances and work those circumstances into their plans. As a result, they function effectively in chaotic times.

Some occupations seem to be more appealing to ENTPs: actor, chemical engineer, computer analyst, credit investigator, journalist, marketeer, photographer, psychiatrist, public relations worker, sales agent, and other occupations that allow them to be innovative.

Loving

For the ENTP, falling in love occurs when they feel that there is a good fit with the other person. Often within the first meeting, ENTPs will know whether the relationship has any real potential. ENTPs may find it difficult to commit to anyone until the right person comes along. During this period, ENTPs explore the closeness until they can be certain that they have looked at all of the possibilities. Because of this, they are not likely to settle down early. When they do become involved in a relationship, they generally want to maintain as much independence and freedom as their loved one can tolerate. Their mates may need to have high self-esteem and to be independent themselves in order to accept the ENTP need for freedom and novelty.

For ENTPs, falling out of love, which may not always occur, results when their vision of the relationship does not square with reality. Sometimes they will select someone who offers stability and comfort and ENTPs later will become bored with the stability. When scorned, ENTPs use their powerful and broadreaching analysis to explain the reasons why the relationship was not good in the first place; additionally, they may become competitive with their former partner and work hard to win. ENTPs do not like to lose at anything they undertake.

Best of all possible worlds

2008-04-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

In the best of all possible worlds, websites would prompt you for "Loggin" instead of "login" and the appropriate response would be "dangerzone"

Rhianna and your umbrella, why can't I quit you?

2008-04-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Rhianna,

Why can't I stop listening to your "Umbrella" song? It is over a year old and I can't bring myself to skip the track whenever it comes up on the playlist. Maybe the underlying nutrients in this saccharine sweet belie your ability to nurture me, neigh, our whole culture to all responsibility and health. Here's to a better world, lady.

Meetryan

P.S. I know you had to, but in the future, you and Jay-Z could avoid collaborating on hit singles...the whole is not greater than the sum of it's pretty great parts.

Basketball Redux

2008-04-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

I got destroyed in my bracket, but still finished 12 out of 24 entries in theMarch Madness pool I played. Round 1 was spectacular, and it was downhill from there. I suppose there is always next year.

Champagne Supernova in the living room

2008-04-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

A heavily gassed italian pinot grigio in process erupted last night while I was agitating it. Fortunately the towels were handy. That instant was the most likely point of contamination to date.

2 more weeks and that should be in bottles...

Barcode Fun

2008-04-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

The javascript barcode clock is strangely hypnotic. Lots of fun with those ubiquitous retail zebras can be found here and here.

Good News Bad News

2008-04-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well folks, we hit the 10,000 visitor mark earlier than expected. That's the good news. The bad news is that I've got this master plan in place to taper off the number of updates you see here over the next little while until free time permits.

Meanwhile, thank you for your patronage, and let's shoot for 10,000 more some day.

April Fool

2008-04-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

It could be fun to make a repository of great April Fool's websites today. Leave your fave's in the comments section.

the Riches

2008-03-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

I finished watching season 1 of the Riches last night. It is completely intoxicating and Eddie Izzard (brilliant UK standup comic) and Minnie Driver do an incredible job leading their family of gypsies into a normal ("buffer") lifestyle, and conning their way the whole time. The show isn't for everyone, but I really enjoyed the first season.

Basketball

2008-03-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

2 things in this category today:

1. Played in a 3-on-3 tournament today, and our team lost in the finals by two points. I wasn't the most noteworthy contributor, but it felt good to be in the finals. It feels bad to have played basketball that long. I'm going to be sore, without question.

2. My March Madness bracket is terrible. I've picked about 25% correct. If I had just picked the higher seed in every case, I would've done better.

Local Holidays

2008-03-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

In southern California, today is a holiday. Not in Northern California, and not anywhere else celebrates the same holiday. Local holidays are a nice tradition, and they remain non-commercial. Kids don't go to school, and lots of things are closed today. "Knowledge workers" it seems, don't celebrate the holiday by having a day off work, but the commute sure was faster. For more about Cesar Chavez day, see below.

My first exposure to the holiday was about 4 years ago when I was taking a bus to UCLA on a visit to SoCal. The bus was empty except for the prostitute, the drunk, and myself. At one particular stop, the bus was filled with people celebrating Cesar Chavez Day. There were flyers flitting around the bus like tickertape, and the whole atmosphere was very much like a carnival. For the duration of 2 bus stops it was a party, then it was vacated by the partiers, leaving only their fliers behind.

Feel free to mention some local or regional holidays you've become aware of in the comments.

Via Wikipedia: César Estrada Chávez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who with Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union laborers. He is considered a hero for farm laborers, and opposed both legal and illegal immigration to help keep wages higher and improve work safety rules. He is hailed as one of the greatest American civil rights leaders...

Another test post

2008-03-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

I've added a "rate this post" widget below. It is 100% anonymous, and will steer this ship toward better content with your help

The Rack

2008-03-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

The latest specific gravity reading on the pinot leads me to believe tomorrow is the day to dump it to the secondary. Perhaps pictures and more description are in the works.

In vino veritas

2008-03-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

I took a specific gravity reading on the Pinot Grigio yesterday. Everything smelled about right, which is good for contamination suspicions. Of course, measuring something in a bioreactor makes it more likely that you'll contaminate it. Historically, I've had a pretty good track record with "sterile" technique, but history for these sorts of things has little bearing on the situation. The sugars are being converted at a pretty good rate, and I think it's because the yeast is rocking an rolling, as the average temperature in my house is on the upper end of acceptable (75F), and even exceeds acceptable by a few degrees during the warmest parts of the day.

The first specific gravity reading was 1.085 and yesterday's was about 1.050. I think I'll take a few more readings, one today, one tomorrow, and likely move it to the secondary on Friday.

I'll see what I can do about posting some spreadsheet data on this here blog.

Reminder to backup

2008-03-25T13:26:00.000-07:00

Periodically, it is a good idea to backup your data, both personal and work. This is my PSA to you yo do it soon.

I do not like error messages

2008-03-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I do not like them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.

Allergies

2008-03-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

Phew! Boy howdy, I got the allergies bad. Watery puffy eyes, and a nose that's dripping as fast as my NCAA tournament bracket picks.

3/4 of my final four picks can still make it. Duke, who I picked to be in the final against UNC, really let me down. There's always next year, I suppose.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

Wine house

2008-03-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

Last night, someone gave me a pretty serious wine homebrew kit, and today I'm going to start an Italian Pino Grigio batch that should be ready in early May.

I'll let you know how everything goes. Right now, I'm scrambling around to verify that I have everything, and I hope to start the primary fermentation in just a few hours.

UPDATE:

All signs are pointing to "it went well" but we'll have to wait about a week before we know if/how things were contaminated. I'll likely post some specific gravity readings in the future.

Greatest Week Ever (for school teachers)

2008-03-21T05:54:00.001-07:00

If you teach school, this week had to be phenomenal for you. Let's have a rundown...

Math - 3.14 Pi Day
English - 3.15 Ides of March
Social Studies - 3.17 St. Patrick's day
Science - 3.20 First day of Spring

Is there a more eventful week in a standard school year?

Happy 14th, Girl!

2008-03-20T18:01:00.000-07:00

Goonies House

2008-03-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

I just discovered when in Astoria, OR, having gotten lost, we turned around about 400 feet from the Goonies house (filmed in the movie Goonies)

Crap, too bad we missed it.

Angel Oak, South Carolina

2008-03-19T07:42:00.001-07:00

twitter

2008-03-18T09:15:00.001-07:00

who uses it?

Admin.

2008-03-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

1. switched templates. I do this occasionally because if I get bored seeing the same old, you probably do, too
2. dropped Snap preview. Guy Kawasaki and I exchanged some email about it when I first started using it. Mousing over a link and getting a small version of the web page you're about to go to sounds neat, but the functionality interferes with my use of the page I currently want to be on, and a tiny preview of where you're going isn't really that great. Also, not mobile browser compatible, so I gave up on it.
3. elimination of the yelp badge. I used to be coo-coo for yelpie puffs, but now rarely post reviews. It is still a wonderful resource, and I recommend you use it. I just don't think a 2 year old post of what I thought about some cafe that I popped into in a city is worth cluttering up your precious space with.
4. moved some page elements around. If you notice, good for you, if you don't good for me
5. thinking about a custom domain and even switching over to wordpress. If something strikes me as the right move, I may go for it. I feel like I've made that threat before.
6. thanks for coming by every so often.

Piclens

2008-03-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

If you're using Firefox or Safari (and you should be) the piclens plugin is great fun. It is free, takes about 5 seconds to download and install, and it will make your world just a little bit better.

Startling realization about diuretic properties of a morning beverage rebus

2008-03-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Decode if you can. Answer in comments...

The gang's all here

2008-03-15T23:43:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, it was 80 degrees, today, it hailed.

Beware

2008-03-15T02:12:00.001-07:00

The Ides of March

3.14

2008-03-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

March 14 is the day we all get to celebrate the mysterious constant that is Pi.

New Feature/Form

2008-03-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm going to add/create a new form. It is a poem, it is 10 lines long, it is started with a blank slate, and I will give myself no more than 20 seconds per line to think and write. As inspiration for the first word(s) of the first line, I will be using the most popular search from Google Trends. I'm including a screenshot so you believe me. This new form shall be called "Poetrends" Feel free to make your own.

Screenshot:

Poem:
Forbidden Kingdom, how you grow and change
and waltz and glide across the times
when at first a child, you were something else
and as I grew you changed again

through every year and phase of life
you change and move closer and then further
until the only thing about you I know
is that you are still forbidden

and the things you hold are still unknown
and your walls contents may never be shown.

The New Portishead Album

2008-03-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

is deeelicious. It is called 3, and you will probably like it.

Christopher Alexander Redux

2008-03-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm desperately trying to keep this from becoming a blog about the works of Christopher Alexander. Upon finishing "Notes on the Synthesis of Form" I have to say that it is good, but at some times too simple, and at some times too complex. I suppose that's what you get with early works. I've just purchased "A Timeless Way of Building" and a review of that will be in the works.

To convince you of my earnestness to not make this a Christopher Alexander blog, I shall link you to something amusing. Garfield minus Garfield removes Garfield's redundant analysis (and presence even) from the strip to some comical results. Jon Arbuckle becomes a pathetic sociopath. hmm.

Fantastic long weekend

2008-03-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend was great, filled with good food and better times with friends. Now, I'm back to the routine.

Astoria and Portland

2008-03-06T07:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight I leave for a buddy's wedding in Astoria, OR over the weekend. Between now and then I'll be in Portland, with an off chance that I'll do some whale watching. We'll see, but then again, maybe we won't.

Calling all wordsmiths

2008-03-05T08:54:00.000-08:00

What is the term for the use of varied punctuation and white space in document versions to detect leaks?

example: You get a version of a document, and you don't know which of those has been modified, so you must protect it or you will be instantly found out like, "page 283 in agent x's copy has a coordinating conjunction instead of a semicolon in line 24"

Please please please let me know if you know.

Also, happy birthday to you. You know who you are.

Update:
Canary Trap and Steganogaphy could be what I had in mind. More likely the former.

Steampunk

2008-03-04T06:56:00.000-08:00

I'm still undecided on the steampunk aesthetic. Sometimes cool, sometimes overwrought. I'll let you know when I've decided something.

Craigslist

2008-03-03T23:02:00.000-08:00

Craigslist has a "Free" section, and it is pretty incredible. For instance, on Saturday I picked up a free leather couch that was in decent condition. It is huge. 2 long sections that come together in a corner. It also has an ottoman. I may give my bed away and sleep on this beauty for the next few years.

Late to the dance

2008-03-03T05:56:00.001-08:00

I have no idea why it has taken me so long to adopt a good RSS reader. Let me save you some trouble here... if you use the Mac OS (10.4 or later), download NewsFire for free. Pop in RSS feeds of all your favorite sites, and you're on your way to saving a lot of time. Heck, you can even get updates for this site via the RSS reader, and never have to navigate to this page. I'm sure there's something out there for windows users as well, though I haven't looked at any of them specifically.

Happy Leap Year!

2008-02-29T05:12:00.000-08:00

Thus ends my "Month of Blogging"*

*see comments

Talk Show Hosts

2008-02-28T09:19:00.001-08:00

I'm just coming to terms with the fact that when I realize someone is smart, sensible, and at least mildly entertaining to talk to that I've immediately started to typecast them as a radio talk show host. For instance, a few times I've talked to my boss about personal financial planning. Now, he's not certified (that I know of) to be giving such advice, but the things he says make a lot of sense, and it is entertaining to hear. Well, somehow I make the leap to, "He should have a radio show." Not sure why. In fact, I don't even listen to the radio. Not for traffic, not for weather, not for anything.

What would your talk show be about?

Movie to watch (Wednesday's post, 23 minutes early)

2008-02-26T23:26:00.001-08:00

On the recommendation of a few people whose taste I trust, I watched this movie. It was tons of fun. Much better than some of Micheal Mooore's [sic] movies [sic].

Food for thoughts

2008-02-26T23:11:00.000-08:00

The neo-luddite week I mentioned earlier in this month was a crash-and-burn failure. I'm pretty sure I didn't quite make it 24 hours from my post about renouncing all worldly possessions to the time I ordered a VGA cable to connect to my television to have a video conference with a friend. I suppose that's a decent reason to recant, but I thought I'd make it longer.

Tonight I tried instituting a make-dinner-for-the-roommates policy, and that was a success. I think we're going to take turns doing that once a week. Part of this is selfish, part of it pragmatic, and part of it nice and social.

As hoped for, it led to some fun discussion, and it was a nice break from the routine. I made chili in the old crock pot, and it was pretty good except for the fact that I forgot to add a bay leaf or two, and that really made a difference. For you history buffs keeping track, the bay leaf is the cause of our word baccalaureate.

A Monday Rebus!

2008-02-25T09:30:00.001-08:00

What kind of weather warning was my area under this weekend?

+

Sake (Sunday's post, a day late)

2008-02-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

If you're in search of a good Sake, look no further than Dassai. Picture links to information. I had some this weekend, and loved it.

This Game

2008-02-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

This game, Cursor*10, will drive you crazy, but you'll love it.

TGIF?

2008-02-22T07:25:00.000-08:00

My, my, my, this brings back some memories of middle and high school Friday nights...

Exactly one week left in this month of blogging.

This weekend sounds promising. Friday is game night, Saturday is a bon voyage sushi dinner for a former classmate and fellow Georgian. Also, I thought of the perfect late Valentine's Day present for the lady. Also, if I can figure it out, this weekend I may be posting some choice video clips of the Leno excursion. Also, you may find lifehacker.com generally useful. About twice a week they have something related to free software that saves me lots of time and/or money.

Plug for Pecha Kucha

2008-02-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

Regardless of what you like, I think there is something for everybody at Pecha Kucha night. I've gone once, and loved it. Check it out in a city near you by clicking the image. If you live in the LA area, the next one is March 9, 2008. If you live in the Atlanta area, it is also March 9. Basically, it is a free night of presentations that are 20 images long with 20 seconds per image permitted. 6 minutes and 40 seconds on any topic you can imagine. Last time, it ranged from found urban locations, to grandparents photo albums from their childhood, to trips to the west bank, to japanese pop culture. Something for everybody I tell you.

My perennial question

2008-02-20T10:12:00.001-08:00

I might be edging toward an answer here...The question, would you rather know what the biggest fish in the ocean (any ocean) is (and maybe even see it),

or know that two of your good friends who have never met before randomly met and somehow you came up as the connection.

Twice in the last month the latter has happened, and I have to say it is kind of satisfying. First time, a high school friend met a college friend at a bar in New Orleans. Second time, this week I met a friend of a grad school friend in the middle of nowhere randomly. Still, you get to vote, and you may wish to provide an anecdote.

informer

2008-02-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Driving through snow right now.

Happy 200th post!

2008-02-18T07:12:00.000-08:00

If you had told me 3 years ago that my 200th post to this blog would come from a bed and breakfast inn just outside Philadelphia, I would've thought you a mite daft, but you would've been right.

Also, happy president's day, you!

via Chicago

2008-02-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

Blogging from Chicago where it is late and cold

Design

2008-02-16T14:24:00.000-08:00

Cool essay here about the internet being a huge copy machine and the real value creation in all of the free stuff you can find and do on it come from personalization, etc. This is something the Amazon.com's of the world have been doing for a long time, but the more specific something can be, the more valuable. In it, he mentions books and films being edited to suit personal understanding and/or taste. I do have to wonder if depersonalized mass media isn't better for our collective analytical skills or something like that. I should mention that the author is Kevin Kelly who has been pretty close to the forefront of technology in life. He helped found Wired magazine, and he was closely associated with some friends of mine for a little while. I'm excited by the idea behind his new book. And, speaking of books, Notes on the Synthesis of Form came today, and I'll be working on getting a review to you sometime after I finish it, perhaps on a plane this week.

2 Seconds of Fame

2008-02-15T07:38:00.000-08:00

1. Go here, and select the Feb 14 show.
2. When the show starts, I appear in a red shirt at about 43 seconds in
3. Enjoy

The Valentine's Day Plan

2008-02-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

My lady surprised me (a little while ago) with tickets to see a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight. This is exciting because the writer's strike is over and it has been on my So Cal To Do List for about 3 years. Watch it tonight if you can stay up that late. I got us matching red shirts with hearts on them so we'll be easy to spot. I'm very excited.

Unrelated: I recently received an otoscope. If you'd like some highly unqualified medical advice about your ears, nose, and/or throat, feel free to let me know and I can set up an appointment.