Two things
Awesome: YouTube - Crazy Multi-Input Touch Screen
Funny/Sad: Anonymous Lawyer blog.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
Memorial Day = Political Opportunity
Bush says U.S. must honor war dead by continuing to try to "defeat the terrorists"
Saying that continuing to fight against this unpalpable enemy will justify or avenge the deaths of those that he was speaking around at Arlington National Cemetery only increases my disdain for Bush. This is an endless war against an ideology that cannot be beaten with weapons.
Thoughts
Had some interesting revelations last night:
(1) It's a common stereotype that drummers are usually the least intelligent members of a band. Wondering why this was, I decided that it's because only unintelligent parents would think it was a good idea to buy their children a drum set. Those things are loud. This is a general statement. Of the drummers that I know personally, all are smart and have smart parents... except one.
(2) Be wary of people who are very particular about unimportant things. It's usually a sign that they are only trying to seem like they know what they're talking about.
The connection between these two? None whatsoever.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Burgled!
R and I had our condo burglarized a few weeks ago. I'm only getting the time to write about it now due to a hellish work schedule and lack of creative spark.
Let's see... where to begin.
The bathroom window was unlocked. Hence, point of entry. I was at a Nationals vs. Pirates game for a work "teambuilding" thing. R was still at work helping out after her real shift had ended. We arrived home at the same time around 10pm after picking up some food. I'd left home at 7pm, so whoever came in must have done so between 7 and 10. Jerks.
The door was closed, but I noticed when unlocking it that the knob lock was locked and the deadbolt wasn't.
"That's odd," I thought.
Once inside it didn't take long to figure out what had happened. The playstation was on the floor and the TV looked a bit askew. At first thinking that the cat must have dragged a bunch of wires around, we were mistaken, given that the DVD player was gone. R's jewelry box was rummaged through and she now has several single earrings for which the matching one was taken. In addition, my shoulderbag with my camera, glasses and work laptop was taken.
It could all have been far, far worse. The intruder closed the door behind them preventing the cat from escaping. We weren't home; preventing a confrontation. My Mac is still sitting pretty with all my music, pictures and everything else (oh shit, I should really back this thing up, huh?).
We called the police and an officer showed up after about an hour. He looked around for a while and then called for a crime scene unit. Two hours later there was blue finger printing dust all over my Playstation, R's jewelry box and the bathroom window; not the easiest stuff to vacuum up.
I'm surprised I'm not more freaked out by the whole thing. The police did a good job of making us realize how normal this is in downtown DC (great?) and telling us stories of much, much, much worse things that they had seen. That helped.
The worst things about being burgled:
(1) Knowing that someone you don't know has been in your place.
(2) Not being sure if shit you can't seem to find was stolen or if you just misplaced it again (ie. My watch).
(3) Dealing with filing a homeowner's insurance claim.
(4) Calling up a company to put bars on your windows when you can distinctly remember saying, "we don't need bars on the windows. We need to trust people. Bars cause more crime than they prevent because they make the neighborhood look dangerous and attract dangerous people."
(5) They took my camera! I loved my Canon S500! F*#@!
The best part about being burgled:
(1) Getting to use the (transitive) verb "burgle" and all of its many conjugations. Yes!
(2) A new work computer that's way, way better than the last one.
(3) R already replaced my awesome shoulderbag. She rules.
(4) It's a good excuse to get a new camera. I'm eyeying up the Leica Digi-Lux 2
I've been keeping a little too busy and ignoring el blog... but I suppose that's both good and bad. As the president of the condo association, I've found that the position is more than a title and is also a big time-hole. Talking with contractors about repairing things that the association doesn't have money for sucks. I can't wait to rent again. Working 90 hours in a week doesn't aid in blogging ability either. In fact, my lack of recent entries consisting of something other than quick posts about news appears to have hindered my ability to write in anything other than short disjointed thoughts.
Recentness:
Last Sunday: Got back from a wedding in Miami. Was sick on the plane. Great wedding! No pictures. Thanks burglar!
Monday: Work.
Tuesday: Went to a lecture by Edward Tufte on "Presenting Data and Information" that was fan-freaking-tastic. I'd recommend
Wednesday: Work, then played in my second kickball game of the season... also the last regular-season kickball game. I missed all the other ones because my team normally has some "work product" due to the "client" every Thursday. Thank God that project is over... for now.
Thursday: Work, then home a little early (5 is early, right?), cleaned the house a bit, went to DC9 to see a show put on by DCist. Quite good.
Today: Will be working from home tomorrow and hopefully managing to do laundry and reorganize the songs that synch to my iPod in the meantime.
This coming Saturday: barbecue at the boss' house at 4pm, barbecue at R's parents at 6?
This coming Sunday: Another barbecue at 6. I will be oh-so-fat. I love Memorial Day weekend.
This coming Monday: No work and all play makes Greg happy.
Monday, May 22, 2006
AIDS
The Post has an article with this headline today: "AIDS Vaccine Testing Goes Overseas"
AIDS testing has been going on overseas for some time. A must read on the subject is this article by Celia Farber from the April 7th issue of Harper's magazine.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Washington Babylon
I hadn't followed any of the fallout from Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Press Correspondents Dinnter, but Ken Silverstein, Washington Editor for Harper's Magazine did on his blog, Washington Babylon in his post "Richard Cohen: a Scientific Inquiry" (Richard Cohen being the Op-Ed Columnist for the Washington Post who wrote the article "So Not Funny" and the follow-up article "Digital Lynch Mob" regarding the Colbert speech.)
Monday, May 15, 2006
Bush's speech
Looks like the folks over at USEnglish have Bush's ear:
From his speech this evening on immigration:
Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly, and an ability to speak and write the English language. English is also the key to unlocking the opportunity of America. English allows newcomers to go from picking crops to opening a grocery from cleaning offices to running offices from a life of low-paying jobs to a diploma, a career, and a home of their own. When immigrants assimilate and advance in our society, they realize their dreams, they renew our spirit and they add to the unity of America.
[Speech Text]I'm still not sure where I stand on the English-as-an-official-language debate. I like that a famous linguist, S.I. Hayakawa, founded US English, but I don't like the idea of trying to force a "common"language on America as being official. There are plenty of arguments for and against the idea.
Doesn't having foreign languages around make our culture more diverse and interesting?
Where does the "official" version of English being and end? Do we start with the way "normal" people talk? Who is normal?
What about black English? That's it's own dialect entirely and is spoken by a significant percentage of Americans. Should that dialect and its various colloquialisms be considered part of the "official" version of English?
Will the government provide classes in English for those that don't speak it?
President Bush specifically mentioned writing and reading in his speech. Is he proposing programs to rid this country of illiteracy? Remember, Cuba has a better literacy rate than the US.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Thursday, May 11, 2006
DC People, listen up!
DC is getting more wired:
DCist on May 9th (like, a few days ago) announced: LastCall
and another friend just pointed me traincheck.com
These sites both allow for checking on DC metro train times via SMS.
Last call offers even more features, like concert times, restaurant table availability, movie times, and more.
Friday, May 05, 2006
MySpace - Backwater of the Internet
I was discussing MySpace with some coworkers the other day and how much I hate it. Then, this afternoon, I read an article at wired.com about committing "MySpacecide" and decided to do it myself. I am no longer listed on MySpace. I am quite happy about it.
I was even more elated when I read further through the article and learned about MyDeathSpace.com, which links to the MySpace pages of people who have died. It's one of the saddest web sites I've ever seen (beyond postsecret).
I never liked MySpace. It seemed tacky... like the Atlantic City of social networking sites. That's not to say that Friendster is fantastic, but at least it doesn't feature any sites "pimped" by MySpacePimper.com.
So that's it. No more MySpace.com for me. I'm done. I bow out.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Savant
I'm trying to remember the last time that I could draw a panorama of Rome from memory... Hrm... nothing comes to mind.
The Forecast
R and I are going to India in July. New Delhi for 10 days. Today's forecast: High of 103 and widespread dust. Imagining that this link will be oudated soon, I've put the image to the right.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Exploring Online Video
You can see:
Russian Freerunners, Quardruplets Laughing, And Juggling to the Beatles (really quite amazing) all in Google's Top 100
Videos of cats acting dumb are always good, too: One, Two
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