2010 June❮❮prevnext❯❯
2010.06.01
--via factlets.info/Bus, who were talking about how now bus drivers in Longxiang have a bowl of water by their side that they are expected to keep unspilled through their day. Factlets seems to be a good interesting-tidbit-a-day, I follow their twitter feed
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
On the "stickiness" of Apple. I'm kind of glad I've shunned iTunes for music, sticking with Amazon MP3s... after being on the "new iPhone!" hype wagon for a while, now with "FroYo" coming out, I'm thinking my next phone should be from whatever carrier will let le me "tether" and use the phone as a portable wifi hotspot-- that way my iPad would be online too.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/423150.html - I'm kind of stunned that there's enough sponsorship to allow "pro gaming" to exist.
Problems with contacting LinkedIn former colleagues due to Non-Compete Agreement...article begs the question of whether the contract was enforceable or possible a "unlawful restraint on trade"...
2010.06.02
--via xoxoxobruce... (who found it here) you know you don't see many sousaphones with the bell pointing up, though I'm not sure why not.
New AT+T Pricing Plans - mixed feelings about this. Looks like I use ~300Mb/mo now. Want tethering, dread having to think about usage -- unlimited data was a HUGE enabling factor when I first started using the iPhone.
A civilian goes to Mars. When he returns to Earth, he's being interviewed on his impressions of Mars. The interviewer asks if the people on Mars are more advanced than people on Earth. The civilian says they are, and the interviewer asks by how much.He says "that was [a routine] that died, but I still love it."
"I would say six, seven weeks," the civilian replies. "When I was up there, they had the disposable razor blades and it was like six or seven weeks after I returned to Earth before we had them."
4 day weeks feel so disjointed- Tuesday feels like Monday so then you overcompensate and Wednesday feels like Thursday.
There once was a man
from Nantucket who could not
fit well in haikus
I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit.OH NO STEVE! DON'T QUIT! PLEASE KEEP MAKING COOL iStuff AND DON'T LET THESE GIZMODO TURKEYS GET YOU DOWN!!!!
Code Monkey say god damned login page not "functional" or "elegant"
2010.06.03
Initially toying with the idea of switching to Android, I decided to try and enumerate the things I really use my iPhone for, stuff I'd need Android to do about as well or better to justify making the switch...
- the Appigo "Todo" app - I've been relying on similar gadgets for this since 1997...
- the Datebook app, with synching to google for the calendar I share with Amber (she thought "relationship 'saver'" was overstating the case, but still it's been good for us.
- a web browser anywhere - plus being able to put links directly from the homepage is great.
- music - figuring out how to do playlists right, and having all of the "good stuff" with me always reinvigorated my relationship with my music collection.
- phone (well, duh- though I dig how easy it is to do tricks like merge calls, and use the speakerphone...)
- SMS txting (maybe the next release of the phone will FINALLY get a character count in there)
- maps with GPS locating, local search, and routing -- admittedly this is mostly as a backup to other things that to do it a bit better
- memo pad
- pocketwatch w/ "wallpaper" - I like seeing that line art of Amber - it looks great on the iPhone.
- clock app with alarm, stopwatch, and timer... surprisingly handy, this
- "Shazam" app to identify music I hear around me-- this one is kind of magical.
- camera -- mostly this would be a backup, though the new "Uploader" app I got lets me do some photoblogging here. (Why the browser doesn't support direct upload is another story.)
- quick weather check
- specialized Twitter app (currently "TweetDeck") along with a link to also put stuff on the "of the Moment" section here.
- the web-based gmail wrapper "iGmail"... a bit faster than always going to the site in mobile Safari
- a doodling program ("ArtStudio"), though admittedly the screen is a bit tiny for this. (Funny how few drawing apps there are that support "flood fill" for coloring.)
- random games, though none have really "stuck" for me.
- Flixster to see what movies are playing in the area
- Kindle reader, I've read a few books on this and it was pretty good-- and easy to hold on to while holding a subway strap.
- On occassion Pandora's music service, the ability to make a voice memo, and the calculator have proven handy
Admittedly at the moment I'm leaning against switching to Droid, mostly because I'm pretty conservative about learning a new UI, and its taken me a while to find "best of class" apps for all of this stuff on the iPhone.
It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.
http://www.slate.com/id/2249562/entry/2255493/ - more from the Internet Sabbatical... how anticipation and synchronicity emerge when off that tap of instant gratification.
2010.06.04
Hello, Mr. Nelson. This is Sam Hennessy, the new guard. Sir, I hate to bother you at home like this on my first night, but, uh, something's come up and it's not covered in the guard's manual... Yeah, I looked in the index, yes, sir. I looked under unauthorized personnel and people without passes and apes and apes' toes...Apes and apes' toes, yes, sir. There's an ape's toe sticking through the window, sir... See, this isn't your standard ape, sir. He's between eighteen and nineteen stories high, depending on whether there is a thirteenth floor or not... Sir, I'm sure there's a rule against apes shaking the building... There is, yes, sir. So I yelled at his feet. I said, "Shoo, ape," and "I'm sorry but you are going to have to leave."... I know how like the new men to think on their feet, so I went to the broom closet and I got out a broom without signing out a requisition on it... I will tomorrow, yes sir... And I started hitting him on the toes with it. It didn't bother him much... See, there are these planes and they are flying around and shooting at him and they only seem to be bothering him a little bit, so I figured I wasn't doing too much good with a broom. Did I try swatting him in the face with it? Well, I was going to take the elevator up to his head, but my jurisdiction only extends to his navel. You don't care what I do... just get the ape off the building. This may complicate things a little--he's carrying a women in his hand, sir... No, I don't think she works in the building, no, sir... As he passed by my floor... she has kind of a negligee on, so I doubt very much she's one of the cleaning women. Well, sir, the first thing I did was I filled out a report on it. Well, I don't want to give the building a bad name either, sir, but I doubt very much if we can cover it up, sir. The planes are shooting at him, and people are going to come to work in the morning and some of them are going to notice the ape in the street and the broken window, and they will start putting two and two together. I think we're safe on that score, sir. I doubt very much if he signed the book downstairs. You don't care what I do... just get the ape off the building. Well, I came up with one idea. I thought maybe I could smear the Chrysler Building with bananas...
Can barely believe the downpour I was caught in last evening. Ran 100 yards and got drenched through. Forgot rain can work like that.
[Books] are sad as zeppelins are sad; they wish to soar, but they are using a technology that is old, largely forgotten, and highly flammable.
My secret unlikely hope for a WWDC announcement: GarageBand for iPad. (I'd be happy for some other roughly equivalent app...)
2010.06.05
--forget where I grabbed this from but I love it
Anti-slack messages I've posted on my monitor: "click like you mean it" "what are you waiting for?" and "is it angst?"
Apartment in Cambridge: Old and Busted. Apartment in Arlington: the New Hotness. Old and Busted, New Hotness. (Pretty easy move at that!)
"Braintree" (whether in mall or city form) doesn't quite live up to the coolness of its name.
2010.06.06
 ...kind of a matched set with yesterday's Spock. (And reminds me why I prefer the old series a bit.) via gifanime |
5 "LAIVA" bookshelves assembled! (cheaper/cooler than BILLY/EXPEDIT) Moving Plus: Reshelving books gets you reacquainted with your library!
Heh, detail of dating a bookseller's daughter: Amber labels boxes of small cheap paperbacks "mm", i.e. "mass-market" -- so cute!
"Want help with that?"
"Nah, I'm like 85% done."
"That's when it's best to offer- you taught me that."
"Hey, not on purpose!"
Amber hammers with stronger blows; fewer blows=fewer chances to mess up. I use more blows, compensate for small errors. This difference probably mirrors how we cope with life in general.
2010.06.07
DALMATIONS:(from the New Yorker collection "Disquiet, Please") I laughed - the other ones in the link are worth reading too.
"Hey look, the truck's stopping."
"Did they take us to the park this time?"
"No--it's a fire. Another horrible fire."
http://www.slate.com/id/2256074/ - on the best Soccer Ad ever - maybe the best sports ad ever?
Note to self: Mickey Rourke and Mickey Rooney are two different people. But it's (amazingly) the same guy in "9 1/2 weeks" and "Iron Man 2"
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
http://www.jimspancakes.com - one of the sweetest sites on the web, even before the syrup is added.
US Military Airfcraft that Never Quite Made It - some really nifty craft there, love the tiny jets.
I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it'll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it.Stephen Fry says this is the most beautiful tweet
Random WWDC thoughts: "curated platform"? Gah, iFarmville? And wait- Farmville is this annoying after only being around for one year?
I may be drinking the kool-aid, but Apples "intersection of Liberal Arts and Technology" resonates with me (the old comp sci/english major)
So my biggest excitement re:iPhone 4 is the camera: hugely refreshing that Jobs says megapixels are great, but less important than photons-- wonder if I can finally retire Canon from pocket to bag.
Last iThought, now iPhone and iPad have appscreen wallpaper - interestingly (err, to me) the default Apple uses to show odd the iPhone is the same one I use on the iPad, that water droplet thing. Weird how there's a bit less homogeneity now, when you see a shot of an iDevice showing its app screen, say, it doesn't necessarily look quite like yours.
2010.06.08
--Brilliant Find by Amber, take off the famous Chat Noir prints. (prints available for purchase!)
"Once you get this flavor of HD, you can't go back" claims never seem to be really true for me. Stuff looks better, but it's not crucial.
Just stumbled over a 2010 "Hot Springs" Quarter. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU, US MINT??
2010.06.09
I've been training Winnie for three days now and I'm ready to kill him. I showed him how the spreadsheets are updated on the network, and he just stared at me with this blank expression. I tried to demonstrate the copy machine, but he somehow got his head stuck in one of the slots. I heard his muffled cry of "Oh, bother!" as five of us worked on getting him out. Honestly, is this the best that recruiting could do?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Runyon -had "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" in my head this AM-Runyon is terrific, more than somewhat.
Hmm, though my current Damon Runyon kick means that my current playlist has a lot of what are technically show tunes.
2010.06.10
--from the Don Kenn Gallery -- guess these are all on Post-Its? Like Daphaknee said it's a bit like Ed Gorey does Where The Wild Things Are... great stuff!
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/08/03/chillax/ defense of new wordisms and against "not a real word" apologia.
I'd like to see a Steve Jobs keynote for, say, a Snickers bar... "Oh, and one more thing: Nougat. An entire layer of pure peanut nougat."
Initial iPhone 4 review and An Android User looks at iPhone 4 news -loved the positive takes on the iPhone vs. Android issue, even with different favorites. I'm so sick of negativity in general.
2010.06.11
--from Marcos' FB... never saw the video for this... don't know if there's a version sans subtitles. Still, I love the sentiment
"Big Wheels" were so cool, like a Mad Max take on a typical kid's tricycle.
"Redoubtable" is one of those dumb words that means about the opposite of what it sounds like, ala "inflammable".
--xkcd.com/752/
Wondered why Steve "No Porn on iPads" Jobs didn't install a rating system on the AppStore. Now I see they have one and "parental locks" on devices- why can't they just rely on that?
Dangerously mixed metaphor: "It's like the pot calling the kettle watched."
Luxuriating in long summer days; haunted by the feeling of not long enough-miss SUPER-long westerly Cleveland days, and the fireflies after.
2010.06.12
Open Photo Gallery
--Sky at Fresh Pond in Cambridge
--Amber at the shore in Ocean Grove NJ
--Raindrops at the Copley T-Station
--Trees after the Medford Twilight
Note to future self: ignore radio shack guy, fuse should be same amps, voltage can increase. (Also: why do subwoofers need fuses?)
2010.06.13
Google weirdness. A search for "tapir", with quotes:~5 million. Without quotes :~1 million... huh? Messing up my search for angriest animal.
Cashback is a cute romantic English film-cross genre. As if Vanilla Sky and Office Space had a mushy baby. W/ skin, but in a lovely art way.
2010.06.14
The results were a bit surprising... out of the 150 or so names I got off a mildly adulterated Wikipedia List of Animal Names, "Angry Manatee"'s percentage was a lowly .013%, putting it about 2/3 of the way down the list.
So for your edification, I present:
Click to see the raw data!
For the record, the least angry animal was the lyrebird. The Internet had no hits for "angry lyrebird" - at least not until this page gets found by Google.
http://www.slate.com/id/2256250/ - USA "51+ Star Flag" toy shows likely patterns for most state counts from 1-100. Patriotic and geeky!
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
With Netflix on Wii upstairs, in HD on Xbox on the basement projector, on laptop or in bed w/ iPad, we can watch Season 2 Office anywheres! (Or once they have the app for iPhone anyway)
http://comixed.com/2010/06/12/4-koma-comic-strip-captains-log/ - sorry, but this Star Trek TNG comic made me laugh and laugh... 2019 UPDATE at least I think it was this Pictures for Sad Children:
Open Photo Gallery
"Believe me, friendship lasts much longer than love."
"Yeah, but it ain't as much fun."
June Blender of Love is here!
2010.06.15
--OK Go's latest video "End Love". Man, these guys have such fun with this stuff. I love how they let the scaffolding show here. A nice counteraction if your day is having its ups and downs.
http://www.slate.com/id/2256915/ - Hitchens on the fundamentalist-friendly piffle of Prince Charles - (I gotta read Hitchens' memoir...)
If you want to have sex, but your partner doesn't feel like it, try saying 'Simon says let's have sex.'
Vuvuzelas at that quantity seem horrendous - though seemed ok at urban New Years (either New York or Boston) a while back.
2010.06.16
--via Bill the Splut-- great little "vs." parody animtions, click on this one to go to its youtube page, there's a ton of 'em.
I was indifferent about the Sound FX style but the way they do the theme music of stuff is just great.
"cherry mart" is a little Japanese grocery on newbury st, good for rice balls and calpico! just heard about and need to try "H-Mart"
Boylston street is *thick* with Children International- I had at least 7 approaches in 3 blocks. "Are you friendly?" is the line they seem to like-- "Yes but I hate kids" is the response I didn't quite have the courage to give.
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html - Comic Sans Rants Back
I was wrong about Apple iPad - the iPad as something that aids immersion, focus, concentration- an anti-"The Shallows" the gadget...
iPad's beauty might be that it's NOT multitasking; you open the app, and the glass plate is aking to a new device, helping you sink into it.
Windows was first a way of running multiple DOS apps at once, and it shows. Mac... it's still not crazy about "full screen mode" even.
Cicero wrote "A room without books is like a body without a soul"...
and I could probably use one more...
2010.06.17
RSA Animate is a cool company that takes talks from intellectuals and animates them. It's a great way to consume content for those of us who are more visually oriented.Daniel Pink talks about what really motivates us:
Which time zone do you live in?
Captivating stuff! I usually hate having to sit through a spoken lecture, rather than being able to skim and skip, but the artist's skills kept my eyes glued.
"An elephant, or maybe flowers." --Three-year-old Toph's response to: "What's your favorite color?"
Dieting, I like repetition-ie the same Wendy's taco salad most days. If lunch is going to be tasty but not "interesting", I can wait for it, and knowing what to expect generally helps with discipline.
"Bluetooth Photoshare" seems to solve my problem of getting doodles off the iPad and onto my website even with no WiFi, via my iPhone.
2010.06.18
I'm always amazed that I can find Youtube videos for all of this. I usually go for original version videos, but accept live when that's all there is. And, crazily enough, here I am, singing "Fat Bottomed Girls" at the sQ! alum show at Tufts' Goddard Chapel...
Err, I'm in the back left, behind the really tall guy, popping out from time to time. The "first generation" Qs sang the first verse, I guess we were supposed to mosey forward but this was crazily under-rehearsed... (though Amber got to hear me listen to sQ's and Queen's version over and over as I tried to learn it on the way back from Cleveland.)
So, in other music... two songs got a 5 star Rating (50 songs out of around 1900)
- Back to Me (Kathleen Edwards) - cmg introduced me to this one- nice innuendo, and I love the dramatic tension between the confidence of the narrator and the scenario implied
- S.M.D.U. (feat. Blur Song 2) (Brock Landers) - I posted this video earlier, took me a while to hunt down the mix it came from
- Casimir Pulaski Day (Sufjan Stevens) - very bittersweet
- The Girl You Lost To Cocaine (Sia) -almost a 5, great sound
- Little Black Sandals (Sia) - Another great song except I keep thinking it's "Little Black Sambo"
- Hey, Soul Sister (Train) - this one keeps popping up random places
- Umbrella (Remix) (Rihanna featuring Lil Mama) - Favorite mix of the 4 or 5 versions Amber inherited.
- Hotel Song (Regina Spektor)
- Samson (Regina Spektor) --Regina has such a sweet sadness, she's one of my new favorite artists.
- Boyz (M.I.A.)
- 5 Years (Bjork) -like how this sounds like an Atari
- Blister In The Sun (Violent Femmes) -kind of a classic
- I Don't Live In A Dream (Jackie Greene)
- Black Swan (Thom Yorke)
- Into Dust (Mazzy Star)
- Fade Into You (Mazzy Star)-I might've heard Mazzy Star a long while back
- Cross Bones Style (Cat Power)
- Close To Me (Closer Mix) (The Cure)
- 1234 (Feist)
- 15 Step (Radiohead)
- Holding Out For A Hero (Bonnie Tyler)
- Holding Out For A Hero (Frou Frou) - Weirdly from the Shrek Soundtrack
- Keys to the City (Album) (The Go! Team)
- Doing It Right (The Go! Team)
- Lollipop [Squeak E. Clean & Desert Eagles Remix] (The Chordettes)
- Jolene (Dolly Parton)
- Tell The Truth (Ray Charles, starting around 2:00)
- Comin' Home Baby (Mel Tormé)
- Local God (2004 Digital Remaster) (Everclear) - Romeo/Juliet
- What's The Attitude (Cut Chemist Featuring Hymnal)
- Sexy Bitch (Featuring Akon;explicit) (David Guetta - Akon) - I think Kjersten showed me this
- Suddenly Last Summer (The Motels) - My UU Group did a "most romantic song" event, this was one of the member's bit of cheesy 80s romance...
- P.I.M.P. [Explicit] (50 Cent) -- Actually I'm still kind of looking for the background mashup in this Penny Arcade drawing video
- Beautiful, Dirty, Rich (Lady Gaga) - I remember hearing this at FYE at Downtown Crossing...
Anyway, this is all some great music. Let me know if you want an MP3 of anything...
I took a city that was known for pornography and licked it to a large extent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNREP5l4xTw - anyone know what version of "P.I.M.P" is playing behind Penny Arcade's Gabe drawing Boba Fett?
Come to think of it, I'm kind of bummed none of the virtual drum sets I encounter have a "marching drumline" soundset with 4 distinct bass drums and quads.
2010.06.19
Amber pointed out there were some stunning blue hydrangeas in the neighbor's yard-- the fullsize version of this is even wicked more lovelier...the colors are just crazy, this looks like something rendered by a computer (err, in a good way)
Couch on a truck, making its way to the big city!
2010.06.20
pnok - source - built with processing
Amber and I caught the last week of the Jim Henson exhibit at the National Heritage Museum - this was one of my favorite doodles there...
2010.06.21
The saddest IMDb page ever: http://imdb.to/aB7D1
If you'll tell me exactly what you're thinking and I tell you exactly what i'm thinking, then we have two minds working together. But most of the time you don't have that, you have bullshit and you have people playing games, and one person thinks life's a fuckin' Sandra Bullock movie and the next guy thinks he's John Wayne, and we're all full of shit. And we all die like that.
Got a blood blister carrying a couch Saturday. You know, sometimes I'm surprised and grateful at how few scars/disfigurations are permanent.
2010.06.22
| --via señor gif. I've always loved animal cyborg vehicles... |
That IKEA cam fastener w/ its special screw is so crazy satisfying, when you twist the cam w/ a screwdriver and it makes the join so secure.
http://www.slate.com/id/2255746/ - remembering that Dick Tracy movie. I liked the limited color palette. Also, "Hanky Panky" by Madonna-- my marching band played that song.
Hot air blowers are incubators and spewers of bacteria and pestilence. Frankly it would be more hygienic if they just had a plague infested gibbon sneeze my hands dry.
Awesome Tribute for Manute Bol
http://kisrael.com/2007/11/04/ - sunset/sunrise plotter I made a while back, after the bittersweet realization that it's the longest days of the year.
http://bit.ly/aaS6Kz :: wow - what a pic :: terribeautiful image of wave carrying oil to alabama coast
--via http://twitter.com/zefrank
Just reread childhood favorite "Danny: The Champion of the World"- what a sweet and subversive story, tho mostly remembered the scary bits.
2010.06.23
My most successful diets are "hobgobln diets" based on Foolish Consistency; currently lunches of Wendys Taco Salad. And atomic fireballs. I think this works for me partially because shutting down choice for lunch stills my novelty (and calorie) seeking behavior the rest of the day.
http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5316494 - Seinfeld vs Lady Gaga. He sounds like an unfunny old-hack crank.
Fire Alarm! Everyone exits the building. All Clear. Elevators will be a madhouse, so we all climb 8 tall stories back up...
http://www.tineye.com/ - pretty good image identification service! (Not just Google and Bing's "Find Similar Images" crap)
First in line at the Apple Store in Boston, around half past noon...
Sometimes I wish I could set Photoshop up with enough levels of Undo to take me back to, say, 1998.
2010.06.24
2010.06.25
--via. So Vuvuzela jokes are really running their course, but "Insistendo quasi le vespe" (roughly "insistently, like a wasp") is a nice touch. I kind of forgot how sheet music tended to have stuff in Italian on it, which seems quaint now. (And I think English instructions are becoming more common.)
Feel somehow validated that the default iOS 4 background is the same one I picked for iPad.
BTW, thanks for the 1AM "Welcome to AT&T!" text, assholes. #att #attsucks #attfail
Did not get an iPhone today. Just drew a 4 on my old one with a Sharpie. Felt better.
CNN headlines, mildly disappointing: "iPhone 4 spurs excitement, beefs" I was kind of hoping the story would be more meat-related.
iPhone, iPad, no Macs -- I'd like to think that I'm less of a "Apple Fanboi" and more of a "Touchscreen Junkie".
If a June night could talk, it would probably boast that it invented romance.
2010.06.26
--Think about getting a sticker or two made of good old alien bill
iPhone wallpaper FTW http://www.madin.jp/diary/graphics/2010/pacwall.png
EB after his 1 year old's birthday party.
Sand in wet denim chafes, he says.
2010.06.27
Open Photo Gallery
Random photos: Arlington's Panera really knows how to make a note of apology:
I really liked the economy of expression in this one:
Also I forgot where I shot this flower:
So it was EB's Baby T's birthday party! Here's the guest of honor:
She had a lot of friends over- they flip for her!
Finally, random closeups at the party:
Bug!
Chickpea!
Another bug! Maybe an out of place water strider?
I've only got one setting, old-timer: 'KERBLAM!'
2010.06.28
Neat to watch the local garbage guys on my walk to work- so deft. One shoved an empty plastic can across the street- how did it not tip??
Surprised the concept "Digital Arts and Crafts" doesn't get more play. There is a Fisher-Price gadget for it, though: http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?e=digitalstudio-product
i'm amused that some white guy referred to the process of americanizing an asian film with white actors and such as 'honking it up'.
The first iPhone couldn't use most headphones without an adapter. (Supposedly for 'shielding' reasons) A weird design faux pas by Apple.
And it's weird that you can edit playlists on the iPhone but it STILL ignores your iTunes folders for playlists- just one big honkin' list.
Or does it? Weird, Playlist Folders are listed as an iOS 4 feature but I'm pretty sure it's ignoring mine...
Don't focus on the one guy who hates you. You don't go to the park and set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog shit.
Wanna go to the basement, beautiful?"
"That's the strangest proposition I've ever had. Well, not really.
There's this special biologist word we use for 'stable.' It's 'dead.'
2010.06.29
On this Thursday, on this particular walk to school, there was an old frog croaking in the stream behind the hedge as we went.What a charming book! Funny how I mostly remember the darker parts of it from way back when- now it's a very quick read, highly recommended.
"Can you hear him, Danny?"
"Yes," I said.
"That is a bullfrog calling to his wife. He does it by blowing out his dewlap and letting it go with a burp."
"What is a dewlap?" I asked.
"It's the loose skin on his throat. He can blow it up just like a little balloon."
"What happens when his wife hears him?"
"She goes hopping over to him. She is very happy to have been invited. But I'll tell you something very funny about the old bullfrog. He often becomes so pleased with the sound of his own voice that his wife has to nudge him several times before he'll stop his burping and turn around to hug her."
That made me laugh.
"Don't laugh too loud," he said, twinkling at me with his eyes. "We men are not so very different from the bullfrog."
Language is convincing. Seeing is believing. Touching is reality.
Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks!
Err, about "Jorts"- are these the same as "denim shorts" from like the early 90s? Or is there an unfortunate bit of 'Daisy Dukes' influence?
It is always dangerous to make assumptions about people's basic philosophies, and those assumptions tend to (quite conveniently) track with the way you, yourself see the world, so maybe I should limit the scope to myself purely for safety. I tend to think of technology as a force. It's not so much a physical object as it is a manifested capability. Having serviced technology, and having loved it for years beyond that, and now utterly dependent on it for both my livelihood and leisure, my relationship with it has an (ironically) pre-industrial quality. When I actually think about it, of all the ways it intersects with my being, I wouldn't know what else to call it but worship. I'm not trying to be a poet. I believe that statement to be accurate.
There's a pragmatism there. If you're going to have a god, you want to be able to call on Him; it stands to reason that you might want to make a call on Him.
http://speedbird.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/what-apple-needs-to-do-now/ on Apple's skeuomorphic sins, giving me a name for that "make it look 'real world'" aesthetic I dislike too.
My favorite least favorite example of terrible skeuomorphic design: drop shadows. They just don't need to exist. (2019 UPDATE: hearing about 'dark mode' on MacOS - something I will never love because light text on dark generally is less pleasant for folks with astigmatism - Gruber et al point out that you lose the ability to see the layering of windows a bit, because they rely on darkening/shadows. So maybe there is at least one place where they are useful.)
HERMAN Miller does chairs. HENRY Miller did books, and Anaïs Nin.
Copley Square via iPhone 4...
In the last 2 hours, 15 minutes I've received 4 calls from recruiters. Does my resume on my site have mad google mojo, or what?
2010.06.30
--via Bill the Splut
Why has agnosticism fallen out of favor? New Atheism offers the glamour of fraudulent rebelliousness, while agnosticism has only the less eye-catching attractions of humility. The willingness to say "I don't know" is less attention-getting than "I know, I know. I know it all."
Oh man, I remember Melanie Hamburg, my Kindergarten (maybe 1st Grade?) fiancee... we were pretty serious about it, none of this just "playing house" stuff... but then Chris wanted to be our son... 'well, I guess we could adopt him...'Jotted down in response to a Friend's FB post about her kid's early marriage plans...
Passive-aggressive voices in my head are urging inefficiency at undesired delegated tasks! A relief from that tiresome 'Kill! KILL!'
Just found out Dice Wars lives on iOS as "Strategery"- simplified "Risk" - so addictive
