This is an old page from Rod Begbie's blog.
It only exists in an attempt to prevent linkrot. No new content will be added to this site, and links and images are liable to be broken. Check out begbie.com to find where I'm posting stuff these days.
This gels a lot with my expectations for how the television industry is going to evolve over the next few years (ie. Not a great deal, and certainly far less than the folks my age who would love to watch HBO Original Programming without paying $80/month would hope)
Outstanding interview with Barney Frank. Massachusetts and the Democratic Party are going to miss him.
If the Republicans win everything in November, then we’re in for a very bleak period, because they’ll take it as ratification of this anti-government attitude. I think it’s going the other way. I have a bumper sticker for us: “We’re Not Perfect, But They’re Nuts.” And I think the public buys that.
“Romney has won every state that boasts at least one Williams-Sonoma store for every 1 million residents. If the correlation holds, Romney will take the Williams-Sonoma-heavy states of California, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island.”
This year’s GOP primary clusterfuck? Deliberately engineered to make the race more exciting.
Several friends posted this to Facebook with the message, “Please watch this. It’s important.” They are not lying. Please watch this. It’s important.
The first fruit of the purchase of Movity by Trulia: Visualization of the cities in the US where it makes more sense to rent than to purchase (unsurprisingly, SF falls into this category)
Snippet from Bill Carter’s forthcoming book about this year’s Leno/Conan farrago.
Probably the most interesting measure on next week’s ballot. I’m hoping it passes, despite not having had a puff in years.
“If the current ruling survives [the Supreme Court], same-sex marriage will essentially become legal in every state. There was nothing to limit this holding to Prop. 8.”
The one email I’ve received this week from my current house representative, Nancy Pelosi: Pelosi Update
Two emails I’ve received this week from my former house representative, Mike Capuano: March 16th, 2010, March 20th, 2010
I wish Mike Capuano was still my congressman. Cambridge & Somerville: You’re lucky to have him.
NPR piece on Mike Capuano, my old House representative in Somerville, running for Ted Kennedy’s senate seat. MA residents: Please give him your consideration. “He’s not afraid of being seen as a Washington insider. In fact, he tells the crowd of about 70 people, that’s exactly what they should be looking for in a senator.”
Back catalogue of Mike Capuano’s e-update newsletters. Incredibly open, especially in comparison to the PR dreck I get from my current representative, Nancy Pelosi.
This makes me very happy. Mike Capuano was my representative when I lived in Somerville, and always impressed me. I still subscribe to his constituent’s email list, where he openly discusses the way he has voted on House issues. I’d encourage any of my friends in MA to seriously consider him if they vote in the Democratic primary.
…to Wolverine or John McCrirrick, you’re wrong. My inspiration is 21st president, Chester A Arthur.
Useful survey of the quality of 3G cell networks in the US. Now you know that when AT&T’s ads say “America’s fastest 3G network”, you can respond under your breath “Yeah, but you only have a 68% chance of connecting”.
ZOMG Moral Panic! The things that have doomed America over the last 40 years.
Now at five stars.
A beautiful essay by a friend about how important same-sex marriage has proven to be when faced with the unexpected death of his husband.
Grisly snippets of 1930’s Detroit newspapers. Disturbingly gripping.
This is exactly my attitude (which I refer to as “left-wing capitalism”). People should be free to earn as much money as they can, but an increasing amount of it should be taxed.
A scorecard for tracking President Obama’s campaign promises. A great idea.
Portraits of Obama’s transition team. Someone should make a map of these portraits to their fictional “The West Wing” counterpart.
Yes, I know it’s still the honeymoon period, and Obama isn’t even president yet, but still… His appointment of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who has been researching renewable energy to the post of Secretary of Energy is such a great sign. Really excited for the next four years.
Remoulding the US electoral map based upon population, rather than geographic, size.
A genuinely gracious and powerful speech. “I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences, and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.”
How the electoral college of “the world” would vote. Unlike most of the other online polls, this at least has an ounce of statistical rigour to it. Also interesting: Which countries think the US presidential choice will have an effect on them.
“This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus.” I love Hitchens.
The engineers who “designed” these machines, and the civil servants who approved their use, should be named, shamed and banned from ever being involved in electoral process again. Love the way the guy is trying to argue “Well, this would only happen if the machine is misconfigured”, then configures it correctly and it STILL fucks up.
I mostly enjoy FiveThirtyEight for the statistical geekery, but some of the blogessays posted are great too. I really enjoyed this one by Sean Quinn on “The Three Ashleys”
Op-Ed piece encouraging taking “Moneyball” approach to healthcare. Hands up anyone who ever thought they’d see the NYTimes run an article with the byline “By BILLY BEANE, NEWT GINGRICH and JOHN KERRY”.
On Saturday, 24th October 1998, I flew from Glasgow to Boston, with little more than a suitcase of clothes and a credit card with a decently high limit.
It's now 24th October 2008. Ten years have gone by. Time for little personal retrospection. How have I spent these ten years?
WHY was I not aware of this sooner‽ A *THOROUGHLY* splendid satirical weekly podcast featuring John Oliver (off of The Daily Show) and the man who I described as his “erstwhile” UK comedy partner (until I discovered they were doing this podcast together), Andy Zaltzman. Absofuckinglutely fantastic.
Great profile in New York Magazine of Nate Silver and the sterling work he’s been doing at fivethirtyeight.com. Got to love anyone who can make a living from a combination of baseball, politics and obsessive number-crunching.
Unashamed racist waiting in line outside a Sarah Palin rally. McCain/Palin may not be being outwardly racist themselves, but they’re certainly creating an atmosphere where racists feel comfortable sharing their abhorent views.
“30 graphic designers create 30 posters and give you their 30 reasons to vote for Barack Obama on November 4th.”
Another focused attack site funded by the Obama campaign. I wonder how the return-on-investment compares between these and running 30 second commercials.
Another “attack” site from the Obama campaign. Wish there was a bit more hyperlinkage for sources.
The Obama campaign aren’t resting on their current lead in the polls. This shows promise that they intend to keep fighting all the way to election day.
The US political “system” in a nutshell: “According to an eye-opening report released Tuesday, 60 million people whom you would never talk to, would never be in a position to talk to, and wouldn’t even be able to talk to if you tried will be voting for the other candidate in this year’s presidential election, and there is nothing you can do about it.”
A little project that’s been going on here at Current Towers - During the presidential debates, we’ll be diving into Twitter and putting the *real* debate up on national TV in real(ish) time. (And who’s that handsome avatar halfway through the promo…?)
“Years from now presidential historians will look back on Sept. 9 as the day the 2008 campaign got completely and utterly stupid.” I felt massively depressed on Wednesday, as the pig/lipstick and kiddie-sex-ed trains swiftboated on.
The Daily Show digs out the clips proving politicians’ hypocrisy so the grown-up media doesn’t have to.
“Barack Obama will cut taxes for over 95% of American families.”
Taken from a comments thread on Current.com:
I agree, this site is supposed to be in the hands of the people, but it seems to be serving as a liberal propaganda machine. I am liberal but I still think there should be some sort of equality in the way news is reported. I do realize the majority of the people on this site have liberal views and therefore the site would have more liberal stories, but I would still like to see some conservative reporting and then discussed by the rest of the viewers. Also, has anyone noticed the conservatives on this site are borderline retarded?
It’s the last sentence that really gets to the root of the problem, IMO.
Sean Tevis’s xkcd-style request for campaign funds for his attempt at the Kansas legislature ended up bringing in almost $100k. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares in November.
An information architect explains his reasons for running for state office in Kansas, in an xkcd stylee. Worth sending $8.34 to.
One for the Americans: download the “Civics Flash Cards”, and see how well *you’d* do on the Citizenship test.
Preview clip of the US version of Life on Mars. Getting past the generic music and cheesy voiceover, this looks like it has the potential to get the right mix between the original’s storyline and 70s Americana. Looking forward to seeing more.
The state of Alaska, the polio vaccine, and both of Barack Obama’s parents are younger than John McCain.
I have to admit, this commercial made my jaw drop a little. Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson side by side, in a spot for climate change prevention.
Most gloriously offensive Onion headline in a while? Perhaps.
“The path to a more perfect union […] requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.”
The Obama campaign responds to a Clinton press release in a format which highly resembles a snarky follow-up on USENET.
“What’s the picture that emerges from these four impressions?
Smart, normal, curious, not radical, and post-Boomer.
If you were asking me to write a capsule description of what I would look for in the next President of the United States, that would be it.”
Obama t-shirts in a baseball-logo stylee. (Notably lacking in any donation to the campaign, though)
Photos of some of the delightful treats on sale this week at the “Conservative Political Action Conference”. Mmmm… misogynriffic!
Please vote for Barack Obama.
As you may have noticed from my links and tweets, I’m supporting Obama this year. The reasons are many, but primarily it’s because we’ve had eight years of a horribly divisive presidency, and I believe this country (and the world) needs a leader who can bring people together, rather than split them further apart. (Hillary Clinton is a fine person and a skilled politician, and I will support her if she gets the Democratic nomination, but she gathers as much loathing from some people in this country as I feel towards Bush and Cheney)
Every vote counts. All Democratic primaries tomorrow are assigning delegates through proportional-ish representation (unlike the Republicans, whose primaries are mostly first-past-the-post winner-takes-all affairs).
I’m still disenfranchised in the US, despite having lived here since 1998. All I can do is ask others to vote. If you have any reservations about voting for Obama, email or IM me—I’ll see if I can do anything to change your mind.
My application for citizenship is in the mail, and there’s a decent chance that I might be a US citizen in November. Nothing would make me prouder than getting to vote for Obama in my first presidential election.
Thank you.
The Economist has an outstanding US Politics blog. In depth, funny and required reading.
Caroline Kennedy endorses Obama. “I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”
Been putting off joining the EFF? Now might be a bloody good time to break out your chequebook. Anyone know of a link to the original New Yorker article on which this scare-story is based?
Jimmy Carter op-ed piece from The Onion. “You better get down on your hands and knees and kiss Jimmy Carter’s rosy-red Georgia-peach-picking ass and beg me to run your fucking country again, because there’s no way I’m ever gonna come to you fuck-knobs and politely ask you if I might please be a presidential candidate in your precious fuckin’ election.”
electoral-vote.com is back up and running, and tracking polls prior to the primaries. I’m now following it with approximately the intensity I was tracking the AL East in September!
Excellent and timely curmudgeoning by Christopher Hitchens.
“We’ve gone from a country that could not imagine having a black president, to one where people compete to prove their candidate is blacker than the other. Amazing.”
Analyzing the design details of the 2008 political campaign logos.
Cunning — Amazon.com has been told it must start collecting sales tax from New York residents, because it has “salespeople” in NY. Those salespeople? New Yorkers with Amazon affiliate links on their website. Wonder if this will hold…
“The person responsible for administering Copyright law in the US doesn’t own a computer.” This explains a *lot*.
YES! When I was flying on JetBlue last week, I happened upon a Gladiators rerun on “ESPN Classic” and loved it. Not quite as awesome and deliberately campy as the British version, but still ridiculously fun.
“When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat to security”
Apple sent out a couple of employees with bottles of water to keep the line cool.
Today at DevHouseBoston2, Shimon Rura, Jeff Potter and myself started work on creating a local geek-event aggregator/notifier webapp.
With a design sensibility somewhere between Craigslist and Upcoming, it should be live in the next couple of weeks.
Supreme Court judge Justice Antonin Scalia: “Are you going to convict Jack Bauer? Say that criminal law is against him? ‘You have the right to a jury trial?’ Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don’t think so.” No, really. Frightening.
Clearly it considers its current duds a tad dull and lacking in pizazz.
Joy and I "adopted" a Tapir at the zoo last year.
As part of our tour of California, we've been attempting to sample the fast food at the chains that are only found on the west-coast.
The Six Dollar Burger at Carl's Jr, the Double-Double Animal Style at In-N-Out and a Jumpin' Jack at Jack in the Box have all been devoured. Plus shakes and/or malts at each -- The Carl's Jr. Caramel Malt is my favourite so far.
The weight-loss starts when we get back home.
After the show at the Rio.
Words that should never be placed together.
Super-classy!
The largest tree in the world (note: no longer considered the largest living thing in the world -- a field of fungus is)
At the Exploratorium
With a bridge in the background
Joy and I sat on the beach for a while, watching some local dogs frolic in the waves.
In front of Ghirardelli Square. They have chocolate there, you know.
Taken hanging onto the back of a trolley.
24th St and Mission BART station.
One out shy of a no-hitter, Curt Schilling talks to Tina Cervasio of NESN.
This was out number 24 en route to what looked like a no-hitter.
Apparently, in Oakland the crowd need to be *told* to cheer their team.
Peering through a TV camera.
Here's what it looked like from Row 35 in Section 110 of the McAfee Coliseum. The tickets were considerably cheaper (and easier to come-by) than their Fenway equivalents.
Schilling warming up.
At the Jelly Belly factory.
When we arrived, there was someone posing next to the sign and having his photo taken. I'm not that much of a fanboy, so I just took a shot out the car window as I drove by.
(I did end up spending $120 in the Apple Company Store, though!)
One of Sarah Winchester's more interesting architectural features -- the door from the second floor to the garden.
Joy wearing her hard-hat, before we went a-adventuring on the Winchester Mystery House behind-the-scenes tour.
Looking through the list of "Things To Do In San Jose" that was in our hotel, Joy immediately went "Oooh!" when she saw a mini-golf course.
We went to get hot dogs at Pink's, having heard good things about them, but a 45 minute wait in the sun didn't appeal. Maybe another time.
The second flyer I received from Scientologists today. Rather disingenuously, this one doesn't feature the word "scientology" anywhere on it. (It's credited to the "Citizens Commission on Human Rights® International")
It's only because of that whole BBC Panorama farrago from a few weeks that I know that the "An Industry Of Death" thing is anything to do with them.
Most bizarre thing spotted in a Hollywood gift-shop so far.
Flyer from the first time (of three) I was approached by Scientologists on Hollywood Boulevard today. At least this one mentions Scientology.
When Bacon's in the back of the car, and I'm stopped in traffic, he loves sticking his head out the window and getting adoration from the other drivers.
Road testing my new GPS in Cambridge gave this rather bizarre instruction (it's telling me to take a "left on Magazine St", but the illustration is actually taking a right onto Massachusetts Ave).
Proof that the roads of New England are too much for even the smartest of technology to deal with.
The blinding light of the LCD projector, above a pretty full (and frustratingly loud-at-the-back) room.
Spotted on a door at Fenway: The secret instructions for making a footlong hotdog. WIth this recipe, I shall RULE THE WORLD!
Joy and my parents at Fenway Park.
You'll note that my dad (who's never been to a baseball game before) and my mum (who's been once) are both wearing Red Sox jackets. I'd mentioned to them the night before that it can get kind of chilly in the evening, so they should maybe bring a jacket. So when they happened upon Red Sox jackets at Marshall's earlier in the day, they snapped them up.
Classy!
Bez won’t be appearing with the Happy Mondays at Coachella this weekend. What’s the point in seeing them, then? Bez *was* the Happy Mondays.
WEEI and ESPN Radio were both handing out Japanese signs for the crowd to hold up. No idea what they say, though. (Outside the park after the game, the Sully's Tees folks were selling shirts that said "YANKEES SUCK" in Japanese. Some things are universal)
These guys were a couple of rows back from us. Joy & I are totally going to rip off their idea this Hallowe'en.
ZoneTag: Photosphere / About. Owner only: Fix Location / Add Tags / Settings
Handed out outside the park.
First person I saw with a MATSUZAKA 18 shirt on. Saw a fair few people who'd recycled their "DAMON 18" shirts from before he went evil.
First piece of Japanese writing I saw near Fenway, outside the Popeye's Chicken.
Clyde got attacked by another dog at the dog park this evening, and we had to take him to the vet to get the cuts looked at. A few staples later and he should be right as rain.
Thankfully, he's taking it all in his stride -- apart from strongly refusing to be put into one of those headcone things. No amount of snausages would convince him to wear it!
Holy crap, I wish that was true at [RhymesWithNose]. I currently get less than three weeks paid vacation per year, and Joy & I like to take a two-week vacation in the summer. It’s my one major beef with my job, and the American “work ethic” in general. Interesting stat from the story: “One in three Americans doesn’t use all their vacation”. It’s those bastards that ruin it for the rest of us.
Diebold is suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because it chose a competing firm’s voting machines. “Weisberg said the company is not alleging any improprieties by the secretary of state’s office. Instead, it is saying the office acted in good faith but made a mistake in the selection.” Just when you think Diebold can’t get any more evil/corrupt/incompetent, they’re (ab)using the courts to screw with the rolling out of competitors’ technology.
Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA): “Maybe mash-ups are transformative new art that expands the consumers experience and doesn’t compete with what an artist has made available on iTunes or at the CD store. And, I don’t think Sir Paul [McCartney] asked for permission to borrow that bass line, but every time I listen to that song, I’m a little better off for him having done so.”
You can buy and/or rent movies or TV shows from Amazon’s Unbox service, and have them show up on your TiVo. Bigger library than Apple’s movie service — Could this help keep TiVo afloat a smidge longer? (Your first $15 hit is free. I just “bought” The Departed)
John Edwards’s campaign is Twittering his campaign stops.
“Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 even though no evidence linked them to terror activity, a Justice Department audit said Tuesday.”
Al Franken’s announced his senate run for 2008. I’d vote for him.
Joy savours the delight that is the "Berry Smoothie" barium stomach liner, prior to her CT scan today.
The tenth Web Innovators Group meetup. By my guesstimate, there were well over 200 people there this evening, a far cry from the 60 or so crammed into the back room at Tommy Doyle's the first time I went.
Even funnier than “Fake Steve”. “Great. Liz Taylor is endorsing me. Can someone please find a way to shut this old bag up? I mean who’s next? Michael Jackson?”
It just seems right that the first story I pulled up on the new Wii "News Channel" was about the European PS3 launch.
Our Attorney General: “The Constitution doesn’t say, ‘Every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right to habeas.’ It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended”
Somerville changed their Trash pickup policy on the 1st January. Now trash will only be accepted if it's in, or on, a trashcan; you can't just leave the bags on ground level. I forsee my future of creative stacking. (Or, perhaps, going out and buying a second bin.)
Theo, middle child of the multi-talented Cheever brood, shows off his prowess on "the skins".
Bacon, too tired to swat off the ribbon we attached to him.
Clyde guards the brie and meatballs to ensure no unsavoury fate befalls them.
Bacon doing his best Rudolph impression by hiding behind a carnation.
Mac owners attract each other, it seems.
Inappropriate beverage dispensers, spotted in Target.
One of the advantages of working at a location with the street address of "The Mountain"? Getting to see some gorgeous sunsets from the parking lot.
Home, unpacked, and rawkin'! Four hours in the cold? Worth it!
The Wii bundle (the console plus Excite Truck and Zelda, neither of which I really wanted, but which I should be able to sell on eBay no problem), plus Super Monkey Ball and Rayman: Raving Rabbids. In my car boot. Mine!
I'm a happy camper.
Updated to add: Zelda and Excite Truck both sold on half.com in about 10 minutes, recouping my $90. Ace!
Twelfth in line. My Costco had 48 to hand out, and everyone in line at 9am got one. In fact, the manager had to stand around outside with a spare ticket until a family showed up at 9.31am and claimed the final system!
This kind gentleman showed up with a Box of Joe and donuts to share amongst the line.
The line for Wii, outside Costco in Everett MA at about 7.30am.
Originally, I was planning on going to Target, but when I got there about 6.30, they'd already handed out tickets to the line for all the systems they had. (Some students were offering to sell their places in line. I didn't bother asking for how much)
The official word from Costco earlier in the week had been that they weren't stocking Wii's in their retail stores, to avoid lines. This turned out to be untrue, as when I wandered round the corner, there were 11 people waiting, including an off-duty Costco employee who said they had 48 in stock!
Alarmingly prescient story from January 2001. “Much work lies ahead of us: The gap between the rich and the poor may be wide, be there’s much more widening left to do. We must squander our nation’s hard-won budget surplus on tax breaks for the wealthiest 15 percent. And, on the foreign front, we must find an enemy and defeat it.”
I’m a political junkie. Election night is like my Superbowl—Watching the results trickle in, cheering on my “team”.
Which makes it odd that, aged 30, I have only twice in my life cast a vote in a political race, and the only time I did so by visiting a voting booth was in a referendum rather than an election. (In 1997, I was a student in Edinburgh, and cast my vote by proxy for my hometown MP whose seat was more marginal.)
Shortly after moving to the US eight years ago, I attempted to get my name onto the British electoral register as an overseas voter, but due to a screw-up by the registrar in Stirling I failed. Since then I haven’t bothered trying again as the new rules for registering as an overseas voter are too much hassle (involving finding a British citizen to whom I am not related). Besides, overseas voters can only vote in General Elections, not local or Scottish ones, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on much and have just resorted to trundling along as a disenfranchised soul, grumbling occasionally about taxation without representation.
But today, I was looking at the US Immigration Services site, and realised that I will be able to apply for American citizenship in January of 2008. The naturalization process reportedly takes an average of six months so, theoretically, it is possible that I will get to have a say (beyond trying to convince Joy how to vote) in the 2008 presidential election.
(As an aside, only a true child would be amused by the fact that the final page of the official Guide to Naturalization, in an appendix giving examples of the kind of sentence you might have to write in your citizenship test to prove your English-speaking abilities, includes the sentence “The colors of the fag (sic) are red, white and blue.”)
But for now, I’m sat on the sofa with a beer, refreshing CNN.com every so often and cheering as the Democrats steal seats in the Senate, and just enjoying waiting for the victory speech from our new Governor Elect, the splendid Deval Patrick.
UPDATE: And today is my extra innings. The bases are loaded, and Webb‘s at the plate. Fantastic!
Could this year’s election result in a hanging-chad-like farrago which convinces the general public that electronic-voting-without-paper-trail is A Bad Thing? I don’t know whether I should hope it does or doesn’t happen.
Mitch Hurwitz’s new project is a US port of the low-key British political sitcom “The Thick of It”.
“the idea that ever fewer Americans are showing up at the polls should be put to rest. What’s really happening is that the number of people not eligible to vote is rising — making it seem as though turnout is dropping.”
Tucked under my windscreen wiper on Landsdowne St. As I approached my car, I thought I'd got a parking ticket. Instead, I just got redemption. Phew!
The badges being handed out at the Weekly Dig "Dig This" awards party.
My birthday present from my wee sister? 2.5lbs of cheesecake, overnighted from the Carnegie Deli in New York.
I treated Joy to a box of Moo Cards for herself -- each illustrated with a photo of the dogs. Here are two, resting in some dog photo holders I picked up for her at Philadelphia Airport.
This is the pressure-gauge on the outside of our central heating furnace that gave up the ghost over the weekend. You might note that the clear protective plastic shield on it has turned brown, melted and buckled.
This is because the furnace apparently decided that merely heating water into steam and pushing it around our radiators was, shall we say, passé, and instead dived head-first into a mission of heating itself up to a frighteningly hot temperature and dripping boiling water onto the basement floor.
Remind me again why home-ownership is a good idea?
“His campaign style is so completely unhinged that political observers openly speculated in 2004 that the then-73-year-old was suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s … To scotch the rumors, Bunning was forced to hold a press conference and offer up doctor’s reports.”
A mixture of Boston, Bassets and a Bunch of other stuff. They look great, especially considering most of the photos were taken with crappy cameraphones!
Sadly, two of the twenty images I uploaded got printed as "Unavailable photo:" Not sure what caused that, but I'm gonna ping Moo and see what happened.
Someone's been decorating the tree trunks around Union Square.
This is odd. Dunkin Donuts cups currently proclaim that they were awarded a "Best of Boston" award by Boston Magazine this year. However, a search of the Best of Boston site finds no such win.
In fact, it appears that the "award" was merely a corporate agreement to use the cup on the magazine cover.
I love DD as much as the next New Englander, but since the "Best of Boston" usually _means_ something (unlike some other awards, which just rank which business did the best job getting their customers to ballot-stuff), it seems massively lame to whore the title this way.
For our third wedding anniversary, I treated meself and the missus to tickets to see Jon Stewart do standup. He was splendidly entertaining, though it seemed like he hadn't updated his standup act much over the last few years (jokes about Y2K, the Million Man March and Rodney King!)
Tim Westergren of Pandora, talking with a hundred-or-so interested students and other music geeks at MIT.
A subset of the crowd at the Pandora Town Hall.
The light show was really quite stunning, but of course, looks like ass on my cameraphone. Their use of scrolling ticker displays reminded me somewhat of the Blue Man Group!
Clyde isn't spritely enough to hop onto the bed like Bacon, so he's made himself a little nest in the corner of the bedroom.
Clearly the presenter from Traineo had not performed sufficient sacrifices to the god of demos before getting up at the Web Innovators Group. Within 10 seconds of starting, his laptop bluescreened.
And all the Mac fanboys in the crowd smiled to themselves.
The grand finale for the Stones gig, ending at 11pm precisely.
Truly rock'n'roll at its most punctual.
I managed to nab some free tickets to tonight's Stones gig in Foxborough. We were up in the nosebleediest of nosebleeds, but for free, we weren't complaining.
Open-top Double Decker Routemaster London bus driving round the streets of Cambridge, MA.
Predict which shows will be canned by the TV networks, and possibly win some goodies.
Taken during the Bose Cruise (It's like a Booze Cruise, but with less alcohol, and greater noise reduction).
A tanker navigating Boston Harbor with a few tugboats guiding it.
My favourite new piece of architecture in Boston.
Descending to Logan.
Just discovered that when I use ZoneTag with my GPS whilst driving, it not only tags the photo with "driving", but also the speed at which I was going.
Which was 65mph when I took the photo of this road sign, apparently.
Refreshingly honest, but it really feels like the New Hampshire tourist board isn't even trying anymore.
“By reporting this entirely true information, we hope to sap America’s fighting spirit”
AMC apparently has a policy that you are not allowed to take rubber snakes into movie theaters showing Snakes on a Plane. These were the contraband snakes confiscated prior to this evening's showing.
This afternoon, our team at work took a group outing (under the auspices of "team building exercise") to the Davis Mega-Maze, a massive maze through 10-foot-tall corn. It took us an hour to find our way out!
When I got home from work, there was an unexpected package on the doorstep from Petco.com.
"Crap!", thinks I. "Clearly Bacon has got himself a credit card, and entered the murky world of e-commerce."
Luckily, it turned out to be a gift from the lovely folks at Reddit, as thanks to Bacon for appearing in banner ads for them!
As a precaution, though, I've taken away Bacon's pre-authorized credit-card application forms. You can't be too careful.
One of my pet peeves is when I'm trying to find a friend's house, but can't read any of the house numbers on the street.
I just installed this number on our house this week. It's a nifty design -- It's solar-powered, so it charges its battery during the day, then when it gets dark, lights up using a couple of white LEDs.
The things I do to help out our friends. (OK, I'll be honest: Most visitors to our front door are Chinese and Pizza delivery guys).
$20 from ThinkGeek.
My chum Noel and I sample Arrogant Bastard Ale. The bottle warned us "You probably won't like this," and it was right.
Having woken up to a particularly stonking case of bedhead this morning, I inwardly-dialogued "fuck it!" and asked Joy to help me take my beardtrimmer to my head.
Lesson learned? Next time, use a longer setting on the trimmer, cause my blond hair is nearly transparent this short.
Ah, I love the crap they sell at Brookstone. The overpriced junk that gives the air of being vaguely useful, but is too cheap and shoddy to actually solve a problem well.
My favourite one that I saw yesterday was this $50 massive universal remote. Pretend to be a Lilliputian from the comfort of your couch!
Joy bowling at King's. For a crappy cameraphone shot, I think this turned out pretty good!
Some of the bassets relaxing in the shade at the Colonial Basset Hound Rescue Basset Bash.
This adorable little puppy stole everyone's hearts at the Basset Bash.
Joy attacks me on the dodgems at Canobie Lake.
The Puffy AmiYumi Splurge! Splurge! Splurge! tour. They read their on-stage banter off of notebooks. "Thank you. You guys... are.. the.. best?" It only sounded 5% more scripted than when native English-speaking bands do it..
Dems suggest that medical malpractice suits can be avoided by… hey! Reducing the number of times doctors or nurses screw up. That’s just crazy enough to work.
A (year-and-a-half) belated first wedding anniversary gift from our smashing chum, Cheryl: A signed Garry Trudeau print of Mike & JJ from Doonesbury.
Hopefully, our marriage will turn out happier than theirs!
I managed 85%, with only a couple of guesses. Not on there: “We all know the 13 stripes are for good luck. But why does the American flag have precisely 47 stars?”
The lead singer, Chantel, has a helluva lot of energy in her. Especially considering they've cancelled the next four dates in the tour because she's sprained her leg.
Chantel getting the crowd to crouch during "nth Degree". As I took this photo, she was admonishing the Axis security, and telling them to crouch too.
Managed to get a pair of "Standing Room" tickets in the "State Street Pavillion" at Fenway. Since it was a pretty grey day, not everyone had shown up, so we had seats for the whole game. Result!
I bought the DS Lite that I've been craving for so long this morning. Joy's been quite taken with Brain Age.
I'm hoping to get it back off her soon so that I can indulge in a little more Super Mario.
"Pierre Francois from Underscore_ Consulting" (who looked alarmingly similar to Alexis from Reddit) did a great presentation, somewhat reminiscent of Stephen Colbert's "The Word" segment. The video should be up soon.
Geekfood
Spotted on Brian's laptop. Purchasable from GoatseSticker.com
This was right at the start of BarCamp, before it got completely filled for the day.
Tax preparation companies in California are lobbying against simple tax forms. Unbe-fucking-lievable.
I'm playing with a loaned XM Inno radio at the moment. It's considerably shinier than my olde Roady -- Nice colour screen, the ability to save tracks you like, and a reasonably decent UI for browsing stations (better than the one on the competing Sirius player.)
And hey! If they're getting sued by the RIAA, they've got to be doing _something_ right!
“Overall, the findings … show that for young people, no other news source drives cynicism toward the candidates and the political system more than The Daily Show.”
Our basement, with the delightful addition of a couple of inches of floodwater. Every hardware store in the area is sold out of pumps, so we're waiting for the fire department to pop round and help us out. Oh, the joys of homeownership.
Do Stop & Shop lie? Is this really "Extra Light" enough for Shangri-La?
My Brother-(in-law)^2's band. Fine garage-rawk tunes can be found at their MySpace page.
Bacon suffered a back injury this week -- A slipped disc or a pinched nerve, reckons the vet. Poor little bugger has the be kept in his crate (except for "short leashed walks") for two weeks.
Since he's caged and being fed steroids, Keith suggested we should rename him "Veal".
Damnit! Why didn’t I find out about this until I was already at my desk? I could totally have done with pulling a sickie, and pretending it was a political statement.
Joy on the Green Monster. As opposed to next to the green monster.
You know, I often dream about getting this much caffeine.
We had Green Monster tickets for tonight's Sox game. Since our normal seats are way back in right field, this was quite a different view!
Apparently, I have the “Best Job in America”. Can’t say that I disagree with that statement. Good software engineers should be able to find jobs they love, or at the very least, jobs they hate that pay staggeringly well.
Until very recently, there was not a single place in the City of Somerville (population ~77,000) where you could let your dog off-leash. Thankfully this has now changed, with the just-opened dog run on Nunziato Field. Here's some of the cheerful dogs that were gallavanting round there when we took Bacon down this evening.
Or, alternatively, half-a-mug of piss-weak, nastily artifically-sweetened, CoffeeMate-crammed brownwater. The rather disappointing result of trying a HomeCafe "frothy cappuccino" pod.
I got the coffee machine for free from BzzAgent, but I still feel ripped-off. I'll stick with my Senseo, thanks.
Intel is for wussies. The 100Mhz PowerPC 603e is where it's at.
This laptop was unceremoniously dumped in the random-crap-pile outside my cube. It's ten years old, running System 7.5, has a staggering 24Mb of RAM, and a whopping 500Mb hard drive. Anyone got suggestions for what I can use it for?
Hardcore Three-way Roomba-on-Roomba Action.
Two remote-control Roombas battle it out at Makefest.
"Branded Lanyard" would be a great name for a rock band.
Bacon's tail: Too fast for the LED flash on the camphone.
“Simply pour in your coffee or any hot beverage and watch the painstaking work of the founding fathers vanish before your eyes.” Genius!
‘A representative for Nickelodeon was quoted as confirming “Yes, his scrotum falls out of his shorts”.’
The 139-page ruling. My favourite bit starts on page 31, and explains how “Of Pandas And People” (the “textbook” that kids in Dover were supposed to read as part of their biology class) had the word “creationism” search-n-replaced to “intelligent design” after the 1987 ruling saying teaching “creationism” was unconstitutional. These fundamentalist fuckwits are shameless.
Find out what the “prevailing wage” is for your job. Apropos of nothing, obviously.
BoA campaign which rounds up your debit card purchase to the nearest dollar, and deposits the “change” in your savings account. Smart plan for them, since it’ll encourage people to use their debit cards for “small” purchases (see the example of “cup of coffee”). Pain in the arse for me, if it means that I’m stuck in the queue behind said person paying for a sodding cup of coffee with a debit card.
Excellent article by Malcolm Gladwell explaining just how horrendously fucked-up the US health industry is. “Because the uninsured are sicker than the rest of us, they can’t get better jobs, and because they can’t get better jobs they can’t afford health insurance, and because they can’t afford health insurance they get even sicker.”
This is an archive of groovmother.com, the old blog run by Rod Begbie — A Scottish geek who lives in San Francisco, CA.
I'm the co-founder of Sōsh, your handy-dandy guide for things to do in San Francisco this weekend.
