&c.

Non blogging friday

Up at the lake for a couple of days. Working on the new website project, and helping a new web development client.

Also got to go out kayak paddling tonight. When I got back from paddling, Gone East pal MGA was waiting. He was passing through the area and stopped by to say hi.

Now we're waiting for the baseball game to start. In a rain delay now, but they claim we're gonna get to play soon.

Survivor All-Stars Notes - Ep #14

[Complete set of my Survivor All Star Notes]

Posted after Ep #14, April 29, 2004. This post, and its comments, may contain spoilers....

Notes written while watching the episode:
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>> Rupert being grabby about "his" fish

>> Jenna bitching about Rupert... has she been this way all along and we didn't see it?

>> Family Visits/Icky Food reward challenge

Rupert and his wife have sex on the beach

"Indiginous Items" from all past Survivors Seasons

My money's on Big Tom's kid.

Chicken or Egg?

A new Walmart SuperCenter opened in Epping NH recently, near the lake house. Today I visited it for the first time.

Ever since it's opened, when I've asked friends what they thought of the place, they all said, "It's huge!"

They were right. It's huge.

I think I'm not exaggerating when I say, that the inside of this Walmart in Epping NH, is larger than downtown Epping NH.

Whenever I visit a Walmart I get the same feeling. There's something simultaneously comforting and sinister about these places.

Walmart is a microcosm of America. It has all the products that we need in our everyday lives. Groceries, clothes, sporting goods, car stuff, toys, CDs, eyeglasses, photo studios, fast food, more, you name it and it's there.

The price is right too, and that's very American.

But it's become controversial that Walmart has accumulated so much clout in merchandise buying. Kinda like the Texas school book thing. Walmart effectively dictates many of the products that get manufactured for retail sale, and they drive what the pricing will be.

Many think that Walmart is cheapening the American retail experience. But I wonder, does Walmart define us, or do we define Walmart.

The Walmart folks are no fools. It seems to me that the only agenda they have is to sell us as much stuff as they can. They know their audience, and the things they demand for their stores are the things they're pretty sure we will buy. And that's the sinister part I guess.

If I'm disappointed in the quality of the stuff I see in a Walmart, then I have no choice but to be disappointed in the values and tastes of the average American.

Well that's kind of depressing.

It seems there must be a more positive moral to this. I need to think about it some more. In the meantime, tell me what you think.

No Bugs!

I'm up in NH for a couple days. It was a beautiful day today. I spent most of the morning and afternoon doing business, but later in the afternoon I got to spend some time outside. I went for a kayak paddle across the lake to the public beach, then back across the wide part of the lake. Very nice.

Not only was the temp really pleasant, but surprisingly, the bugs haven't started yet. I was outside in shorts and short sleaves (is that how you spell that?) and was not bothered at all.

Just now I stepped outside and it's still mild and bugless.

Light Bulb

Gone East pal RobH sent along a bunch of "...change a light bulb" jokes. Here are the one's I liked best:

How many Zen masters does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to change it, and one not to change it.

How many jugglers does it take to change a light bulb? One, but it takes three bulbs.

How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to hold the giraffe, and one to put the clocks in the bathtub.

How many women with PMS does it take to change a light bulb? Six. Why? IT JUST DOES, OKAY??!!

The Buntings

Ed Cossette writes about his future minor league team.

So that past two mornings walking the dog I've seen the most spectacular indigo buntings. Without a doubt, they are my favorite song bird. And this got me to thinking … If I owned a minor league ball club, I'd call them The Buntings . And the uniforms would be trimmed in that iridescent indigo the bunting is noted for, and the caps would be entirely indigo.

"Now batting for the Buntings, the third baseman, Butch Watson" [echoing "Watson, Watson, Watson" amid loud cheers].

And get this: the song of the bunting (you can hear it here with Real Audio) is described as sounding like this: "fire-fire, where-where, here-here, seeit-seeit."

Call me crazy, but that would make one heckuva ballpark rally chant, especially if it was done call and response with one half the park going "Fire! Fire!" and the other half responding, "Where? Where?" and so on.

Crash-Boom

We're having our first thunderstorm of the season right now. The Red Sox game is in a rain delay.

One day I'll tell you about some of the great thunderstorns I've seen out on the Great Plains. Awesome! It's no wonder that the native americans built religions around thunder and lightning.

It's impressive enough from inside a car, or the safety of a building. But if you had to weather one of those massive thunder-boomers from inside a tent, or worse, out in the open, well it might even give ME religion.
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Slow today?

I've been seeing, and I've been told by others, that this site is a little sluggish today. I think it's probably a temporary thing. So if you're seeing it too, please be patient while the gremlins get it all out of their system.

Hastings Stanford

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with backup tapes."

-- netflix Hastings Stanford CS professor
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You decide

Posted without comment:

[Via j-walk]

A Good Day

Not only did we beat the Yankee yesterday, but Baltimore lost, so the Red Sox are now in first, half a game ahead of the Orioles. The Yankees are in THIRD, 3 1/2 behind us.

Doing the Red Sox fan happy-dance.

What a way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.

I was just planning on watching the first few innings of today's Red Sox game, and then head out to enjoy the day. But they captured my attention.

We were ahead for awhile, but the Yanks tied it up, and it stayed that way into extra innings.

Last year this time we were cursing our bullpen, but this year they are gods. Over 22 innings now without a run given up by the relievers.

We finally eeked out a small-ball run in the top of the 12th to take the lead. And the pen closed it out for the Win.

Yay Sox!

George Lois

"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by orginality, overcomes everything."

-- George Lois

Survivor All-Stars Notes - Ep #13

[Complete set of my Survivor All Star Notes]

Posted after Ep #13, April 22, 2004. This post, and its comments, may contain spoilers....

Notes written while watching the episode:

>> ShiiAnn thinks she's next to go.

>> The whole gang in the tent talking about ShiiAnn. If she's the one to be voted out tonite, would the editors be this blatent about it in the first 2 mins of the ep?

>> Family Feud/Smash the Mask Reward.

Winner decides who gets big vs small meal.

Wouldn't the winner want to avoid resentment by giving himself the smallest? So wouldn't it make sense to take a dive on this, so you'll at least get a meal bigger than the smallest.

Q1) Who would you trust with your life? Rob.
Q2) Who does not deserve to be an all-star? Tie: ShiiAnn & Alicia
Q3) Who uses sex appeal as a weapon? Amber (unanimous)
Q4) Who is under the false assumption that they are smart? Alica (!!)
Q5) Who is the most honest? Rupert
Q6) Who never shuts up? Jenna

Rupert wins reward.

Who cut who's ropes:

(X) means this was an elimination hit.

Alicia: ShiiAnn-Rob-Amber
Amber: BigTom-Jenna-Alicia-Rob-Rupert
Jenna: BigTom-Amber
ShiiAnn: Alicia-Jenna(X)
Rupert: ShiiAnn-ShiiAnn(X)-Rob(X)-Amber(X)
BigTom: Jenna
Rob: Big Tom(X)-Alicia(X)

Amber got the most right, 5... Rupert eliminated the most, 3... Rob eliminated people on both of his hits... Rupert was the only one to hit the same person more than once, ShiiAnn... Rupert was untouched until the end when he was the only choice.

Notable: They don't like Alicia... Rob is "trusted"... Rupert is loved?

But this really amazes me: Amber gave Rob his second hit when she could have simply given Rupert his first!!! And thus set-up Rob to be eliminated next. This probably changed the whole thing in Rupert's favor. Why is Rob not unhappy with this? Unless Rob WAS trying to throw the thing and had signalled Amber somehow.

>> Alicia pointed the fingers while talking to Jenna!!!

>> Jenna giving Rupert advice on how to assign the meals. What's that about?

>> Rupert lamenting that he won. Why didn't he listen to me!?

>> Rupert: "This adventure is geared toward making hard feelings between people" Well DUH! "I hate being the person who makes them."

Rupert takes the steak... Rupert let them each choose what they wanted. Here's the order he let them choose: Rob chooses the burger... Jenna chooses hotdog... Amber chooses ham sandwich... Alicia chooses salad... Tom picks the potatoes... ShiiAnn gets the rice. No one made a sacrifice and picked a lesser item.

>> They had to sit there and watch Rupert eat when they were finished.... Rupert drank A LOT of beers.

>> Rob: "Alliance of Four" is Rob, Amber, Jenna, Rupert.

>> ShiiAnn trying to turn Rupert against Rob... Alicia campaigning BT to vote off Rupert... Alicia believes the alliance is: BT-Rob-Amber-Alicia... BT telling Rob that Rupert is a danger... ShiiAnn and Alicia talking...

>> Bucket-O-Water Endurance Immunity... This could go LONG!

Amber 4 mins
Jenna 10 mins
BigTom 16 mins
Alicia 38 mins (Jeff got splashed!)

(Jenna to Rupert: "Don't give up.")

Rob 1 hr 24 mins (accidentally lost, or did he?)

(The crowd openly rooting, and helping, Rupert)

Rupert "two hours"

>> ShiiAnn wins, is jubilant, throwing it in the faces of the others, "Take that!" Alicia: "Don't forget you have to go home with us. Be very careful sweetheart."

>> ShiiAnn backpedalling on her taunting them when she won. Trying to apologize and minimize it.

>> ShiiAnn says that the targets are now Alicia, Rob and Rupert. (Personally at this point, I fear for Rupert.) She insults all the others. No wonder she's in such a bad spot.

>> ShiiAnn telling Rupert that they must vote for Rob or Rupert is next... Lots of vulture shots... Rob says his two choices are to go with either Rupert-Jenna or BigTom-Alicia... Rob seeing Rupert and ShiiAnn talking can't be good for Rupert... Amber says to ShiiAnn that it's tween Rupert and Jenna, ShiiAnn says it's Rupert and Rob...

>> Rob reads his letter from home to Amber... look close, it appears that there are some words in the letter blacked out... censored.

>> Rob again appears to be genuinely smitten with Amber. Rob: "I could be the biggest sucker in history."

At Tribal Council:

Rupert: "My number could be up."

Rob: "What are you giving them ideas for Jeff?" When Jeff says maybe he is the one to vote off.

Rob votes for Alicia, does that telegraph the alliance's choice?

Alicia voted out. Was it unanimous? One Rupert vote was from Alicia?

So the strong alliance is Rob-Amber-Rupert-Jenna. Does BigTom realize he's odd-man-out now?

>> Alicia says she had a handshake with Rob and now she feels betrayed. But she doesn't know for sure that Rob voted for her... although I guess they all know that Rob is the puppepmaster.

>>Australia now down to one... None of the seasons have multiple players left... 3 men, 3 women... Alicia is the lowest(worst) original finisher to be voted out yet, 9th...

# Remaining from the Meta-Tribes

Order Out:
1 - Tina 2-Australia 1st (was Saboga)
2 - *Rudy 1-Pulau Tiga 3rd (was Saboga)
3 - Jenna M. 6-Amazon 1st (was Moga)
4 - Rob C. 6-Amazon 3rd (was Chapera)
5 - *Richard 1-Pulau Tiga 1st (was Moga)
6 - *Susan 1-Pulau Tiga 4th (was Chapera)
7 - Colby 2-Australia 2nd (was Moga)
8 - *Ethan 3-Africa 1st (was Saboga->Moga)
9 - Jerri 2-Australia 8th (was Saboga->Moga->Chapera)
--- Jury ---
10 - Lex 3-Africa 3rd (was Moga->Chapera->CBM)
11 - Kathy 4-Marqesas 3rd (was Moga->Chapera->CBM)
12 - Alicia 2-Australia 9th (was Chapera->Moga->CBM)

It's me!

By the way, here's a pic that shows me seated next to Gone East pal Steve Garfield, at last weekend's BloggerCon II.

The pic was shown to me by Betsy Devine and apparently taken by Sooz.

Daniel Burnham

"Make No Little Plans. They Have No Magic to Stir Men's Blood."

-- Daniel Burnham

A Random Walk

RandomPixel is an interesting project that has been a long time in the making. The idea was to "release" disposable cameras into the world, let people pass them around and take pics. When the camera is full it can be dropped in the mail and it will find its way home.

I always thought this was kinda cool, but the added commentary, puzzling out where the pics were taken, is an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

I'm disappointed with the Globe.

When I saw this printed in place of the today's Doonesbury, I thought that Trudeau must have followed up on the series I mentioned yesterday with some sort or scathing social observation. Not really.

From the pages of today's Globe:

The Boston Globe has decided not to publish today's installment of "Doonesbury" because the strip includes language inappropriate for a general readership. The strip's creator declined to change the wording or offer a substitute. "Doonesbury" resumes in tomorrow's comics pages. Today's strip is available online at www.boston.com/ae/comics.

What a bunch of wimps the Globe is. Is this connected to the whole janet jackson/howard stern/free-speech backlash that is going on?

Also interesting that they were willing to put it on the web, but not in the printed paper.

Doonesbury Milestone

Gary Trudeau has on occasion had serious things happen to the characters in the Doonesbury strip, up to and including death. Over the past week he hasn't gone that far yet, but football coach, Guard member, BD has been seriously injured in Baghdad.

Just doing my part

Hey Rick, don't forget that this is Jo Ann's birthweek.

Happy birthweek to you/ Happy birthweek to you/ Happy birthweek dear Jo Ann/ Happy birthweek to you.

Yay Jo Ann!

A bad knot is hard to bind.

Gone East pal GeorgeV sends along this article about nautical knots.

news-press.com:

King Rogers used to take 15 minutes to teach five basic knots to people in the U.S. Power Squadron boater education courses... Boaters and outdoors lovers either know them or they don’t. Even if they know their knots, more are out there to be learned.

Moving Water

The local sports talk station I listen to usually portrays the Mayor of Boston as something of a buffoon. And I've yet to see anything to dispute that. But he likes fountains, and we have that in common.

Boston Globe:

...Mayor Thomas M. Menino says he wants the city's fountains spouting again.

"I'm a nut for fountains,'' he said in a recent interview. "It's part of the beautification of the city."

UPDATE: In comments, AdamG clarifies some things for me about the qualities of Boston Mayor Menino. To the extent that my (very possibly mistaken) attitude is based on the fact that the Mayor has a speech impediment, I regret reinforcing that stereotype. And I'm still with him on the fountain thing.

Red Sox Notes

Here are some misc thoughts on the Red Sox season so far.

Malaska and Jones. I had been planning on writing about how poorly Jones was pitching, and what a pleasant surprise Malaska is. But the mgt. beat me to it, sent Jones away, and have kept Malaska around.

Why are we short on pitchers? I can't figure out why it only takes one extra-inning game for us to exhaust the bullpen. Is Francona using them badly? It's happened two of three times already, and it's taken 2-3 regular games to get them rested again.

Daubach gone :-( I'm sorry about this. But I'm glad that he agreed to go to Pawtucket so he'll almost certainly be back.

Why can't the division standings include the wild card as a 4th meta-division?
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Headed home soon

I've been up at the Lake house for the past few days, working on a project up here (which I'll be announcing real soon), and attending the monthly Prescott Park board meeting.

I continue to be excited by some ideas from BloggerCon. Some were new ideas to me, and others were confirming things I've been playing with for awhile.

I also need to post here soon about the Red Sox. It's an interesting season so far, and it's only just started.
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BloggerCon notes

I've completed my notes from BloggerCon and posted them all over at the tech site TECHPopuli.net.

Pericles

"Just because you take no interest in politics does not mean that politics won't take an interest in you."

-- Pericles

Hi my name is John, and I'm a Home Depot Addict

I mainly post this story cause my Dad is a regular at "the Depot".

Portsmouth Herald:

As Eric Ericson walks through the doors of Home Depot in Portsmouth, it’s tough to decide whether the look on his face bears more resemblance to a child with a credit card in a candy store or a linebacker walking up to a free buffet.

Regardless, the 29-year-old Port City resident is pumped up, and rightfully so. He is at the big kids’ toy store, he has a credit card and he’s not afraid to use it.

my Survivor All-Stars Notes Collection

For future reference, here is a collection of all my Survivor Notes. I'll keep this updated.

Survivor All-Stars

Episode 17 -- Epilog
Episode 16 & Reunion
Episode 15
Episode 14
Episode 13
Episode 12
Episode 11
Episode 10
Episode 9
Episode 8
Episode 7
Episode 6
Episode 5
Episode 4
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1

Survivor All-Stars Notes - Ep #12

[Complete set of my Survivor All Star Notes]

Posted after Ep #12, April 15, 2004. This post, and its comments, may contain spoilers....

Notes written while watching the episode:

>> By the way, as usual I'm watching the ep 3 days after it aired, but this week no one has said, oh you have to see what happens.

>> Boston Rob says Lex accidentally revealed an alliance with Big Tom.

>> Stormy weather

>> Kathy: "I've got an X on my back, so I've got to win Immunity"

>> HDTV in the jungle!

>> Psychological warfare by the producers... physical deprivation, then show them videos of family back home... it works every time.

>> Jenna got her video this time, I'd forgotten that she hadn't back in season one. Jeff did torture her a little though, hinting that it screwed up again.

>> Multi-layerd Reward/Immunity Challenge

>> A swarm of insects in the air behind Jeff

>> Alicia and Rupert random captains. They pick their teams. Rupert-Kathy-Big Tom-Jenna. Alicia-ShiiAnn-Amber Rob. Interesting teams. Boston Rob is definately the strength, but ShiiAnn and Alicia seem like weak links to me. No huge strength on Rupert's team, but on average they seem stronger. Will Rupert yield the important role to Jenna?

Let's see.

>> The board crossing was a Puzzle too!... Rupert & co. went to school on TeamRob's figuring it out, and caught up... I've obviously understimated the strength and toughness of Rob's women... Jenna IS the one who will slide down the rope... Big finish.

>> TeamRob wins Round One! Big Tom falling off the balance bar was probably the weak link.

>> Boston Rob is good at Puzzles too. He wins Reward/Immunity. But he is almost certainly gone the next time he doesn't have Immunity.

>> This was a good Challenge cause it also created two virtual tribes. Four of the players now have a little extra reason to be threatened by Rob.

>> Random question? Has there ever been a Jack on Survivor?

>> Wow. Rob trades his video for all the other's letters. Very unexpected. I take back what I said a moment ago. Rob may have bought himself a "get out if jail free" card for at least one TC.

>> Rob says getting everyone their letters wasn't mostly about strategy and I believe him. He's never shy about bragging about what he thinks is clever strategy and this time he says it wasn't. I think he's telling the truth.

It's interesting how over the past few weeks the editors are letting a sweeter, less conniving Rob show through.

>> Boston Rob: "I have no idea how the vote is gonna go tonight." He's not wheelin' and dealin'???

>> They just showed them scooping a bucket of water out of the "well". I've always wondered whether these "dirty water" wells are faked by the producers. Is it actually safe water, that has been made to look bad? It forces them to boil it, and be uncomfortable, but avoids poisoning anyone, like when Rudy drank it early this season.

>> Kathy working on Tom... Rob-Amber-Jenna caucussing... Alicia working on ShiiAnn... Kathy working on Rupert...

>> Rob: "I think we've got some last minute scrambling going on in Panama today."

>> ShiiAnn working Tom... Tom having doubts (coming to his senses)... Kathy-ShiiAnn-Tom caucussing... Jenna working Rupert... Jenna wonders if she's about to get burned.

You can't tell the alliances without a program!!!

>>Tribal Council: Very impressed that all the players managed to not laugh out loud at Lex's new doo. Looks pretty stupid to me. But maybe Lex is still playing some kind of strategy from the grave?

>> Kathy: "I'm voting for the person who lied to me." And everyone starts searching their memories, is it me?

>> Kathy starts warning them what it's like when it gets down to seven. Is it wise of her to remind everyone that she is the highest-finishing person remaining?

>> Lex looks disgusted with them all.

>> Lex rolls his eyes. He actually looks like he would have preferred to be voted out a week earlier, than to be the first, lone, jury member. Mortified.

>> Kathy voted out. "I wanted that million bucks so much. Cause I got robbed last time." She did!

>> I was mistaken last week. NOW there is only one Final Four left: Big Tom... Australia is the only season with more than one player surviving now... 4 men, 3 women...

# Remaining from the Meta-Tribes

Pula Tiga 1 of 4
Australia 2 of 5
Africa 1 of 3
Marqesas 1 of 2
Thailand 1 of 1
Amazon 0 of 2
Pearl Isl. 1 of 1

# Latest tribe lists

# Chaboga Moga (CBM) (7 members)
Alicia 2-Australia 9th Chapera->Moga->CBM
Amber 2-Australia 6th Chapera->CBM
Jenna L. 1-Pulau Tiga 8th Saboga->Chapera->Moga->CBM
*Boston Rob 4-Marqesas 10th Chapera->Moga->CBM
*Tom 3-Africa 4th Chapera->Moga->CBM
*Rupert 7-Pearl Isl. 8th Saboga->Chapera->Moga->CBM
Shii Ann 5-Thailand 10th Moga->Chapera->CBM

Order Out:
1 - Tina 2-Australia 1st (was Saboga)
2 - *Rudy 1-Pulau Tiga 3rd (was Saboga)
3 - Jenna M. 6-Amazon 1st (was Moga)
4 - Rob C. 6-Amazon 3rd (was Chapera)
5 - *Richard 1-Pulau Tiga 1st (was Moga)
6 - *Susan 1-Pulau Tiga 4th (was Chapera)
7 - Colby 2-Australia 2nd (was Moga)
8 - *Ethan 3-Africa 1st (was Saboga->Moga)
9 - Jerri 2-Australia 8th (was Saboga->Moga->Chapera)
--- Jury ---
10 - Lex 3-Africa 3rd (was Moga->Chapera->CBM)
11 - Kathy 4-Marqesas 3rd (was Moga->Chapera->CBM)

Beat 'Em!

Although they gave us a little scare in the 9th, we managed to beat the Yankees comfortably yesterday afternoon in a game I didn't get to watch til late last evening.

Schilling and the Sox played really well. A-Rod and the Yanks, not so much.

Interesting stat I saw on Yahoo! Sports. Friday night's game was the 50th consecutive game between the Sox and the Yankees where the two teams occupied the top two positions in the AL East standings. A major league baseball record! And ironically, the streak ended Friday when the YANKEES dropped into third!

BTW, after Saturday's loss the Yanks are now in FOURTH PLACE.

Watching the game

I spent the whole day at BloggerCon. I'm gradually posting my notes and reactions over on my technology site, TECHPopuli.

Against all odds, I managed to make it through the whole day without hearing the result of the afternoon Red Sox game against the Yankees. So now I'm watching the TiVo of the game. It's the 7th inning and we're winning 4-1.

It got really warm here today in New England. I spent almost all of it indoors. I haven't checked yet, but rumor has it that we "rang the bell" by reaching 70 degrees up at Pawtuckaway and thus completed the annual Ice-Out contest. I'm avoiding the internet while watching the recorded baseball game, but I'll be confirming that later this evening.

Mario M Cuomo

"You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose."

-- Mario M Cuomo

Is it a Janet thing?

Watching the Red Sox vs the Yankees. It's on national TV, Fox. I'm not really enjoying the Fox announcers.

There are some areas where their knowledge of the Red Sox is obviously lacking. And quite frankly, I like my Red Sox telecasts with a healthy dose of partisanship.

So I turn down the TV sound and turn on the radio. But it quickly becomes obvious that the TV broadcast is delayed by about 3 seconds. That's enough for the radio to reveal what happens before you see it on TV.

I tried to deal with it. Look at it as seeing into the future. But it's too distracting, so I'm back to the mediocre TV sound.

BTW, this animated rules of baseball kids thing, Scooter, sucks. You heard it here first.

It's Blue Out

Halley and her son:

My kid used to call the dawn "blue" and say, "Mom, it's blue out!" when he was little and ready to rock and roll at 5:00am. The sky does begin to glow in a soft, grey blue at dawn, he was right.

Apprentice Finale

Although I'm known for being a big Survivor fan, I never got hooked on Apprentice. I missed the early eps, and never managed to get hooked mid season.

In a way it's a good thing.

I would have recorded last night's final ep to watch it during the day today. And the thing is, I've seen the news about who won in about 10 different places today. No way I could have avoided being spoiled.

I plan to watch the second season of Apprentice from the start.

I do need to sit down and watch last night's Survivor. Apparently Lex has changed his hair.
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I hate it when they do what they say they're gonna do.

Steve G is all a-flutter about Stop & Shop's pricing.

There's a TV commercial where a guy calls UPS to complain cause the package that was promised to be delivered before 10am was ACTUALLY delivered before 10am.

Steve is concerned that S&S's signage for a sale on boxes of cereal said "BUY 3 and SAVE $5" and they wouldn't give him the sale price on only one box.

It seems that Stop & Stop would only apply the sale price to your purchase, if you bought three boxes of Special K .

I don't think that's right.

Better them than us.

The last thing I want to be thinking about now that Spring is finally taking hold, is winter. But RobH pointed us to these pretty amazing pics of an ice sculpture festival in China.

The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both farenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year.  The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away.  So what does one do here every winter?  Hold an outdoor festival, of course!  Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions.  The festival officially runs from January 5 through February 15, but often opens a week early and runs into March, since it's usually still cold enough.  This is the amazing sculpture made of snow greeting visitors to the snow festival in 2003.

Berkman Mtg & HSq

As expected, last night's Berkman bloggers meeting was mostly a final production meeting for BloggerCon which is this weekend. It was very short too.

Although I didn't attend the dinner after I did walk with the group into Harvard Sq. I had a nice talk with Andy Grumet about my (mis)adventure migrating this blog to a new host, and alternate ways to enter and edit items in the blog.

After I left the group I wander HSq for a bit. Nini's Corner, the Coop bookstore, Wordsworth. Although it got cold later in the night, it was still fairly pleasant as I walked around. I really like Harvard Square.

Isaac Asimov

It's ironic, considering the conversation going on in the comments for this message, that this quote should pop up in one of the daily emails I subscribe to:

"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."

-- Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

Blogs are shoes!

Gone East pal MGA offers us this: "It just seemed appropriate..."

It would be much easier if I could just carry around a picture of a blog in my wallet. Well, now I can. I've been all wrong about blogs, too. Blogs, it turns out, are shoes.

Juicy Rule

I wasn't going to post a quote today, but then this one popped up and it's too juicy to pass up.

"Play tight in a loose game, and loose in a tight game."

-- Old Poker Rule
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Anything once

Memery

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.

Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

From "Rupert Murdoch -- The untold story of the world's greatest media wizard."

page 23, sentence 5: "We were negotiating literally twenty-four hours a day."

BTW, my page 23 began with the final two words of the last sentence from page 22. I chose to disregard those, and go with the fifth COMPLETE sentence on the page.

Sherman, SciFi Fan?

I never thought of Sherm as a scifi fan, but I came across this quote from the greatest scifi writer ever, Robert Heinlein:

"Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing."

-- Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Bloggercon Game Face

Spent much of today prepping for attending Bloggercon on Saturday. I've been so busy over the past few weeks on various projects and natural disasters that I've fallen way behind on the numerous blogs I like to read. So today I've been catching up.

So many blogs, so little time.

Luke Spenser

"We find the faults in others that are closest to our own."

-- Luke Spenser

See their "Great Bridges" division too

I saw this site advertised as a Google ad on one of my pages.

Become a Lunar Land Owner today. It is true. You too can become a Lunar land owner by purchasing acres of land on the Moon. THE LUNAR EMBASSY has been selling land on the Moon for the past 22 years. They were THE FIRST and THE ONLY COMPANY in the world to possess a legal basis and copyright for the sale of Lunar and other extraterrestrial property within the confines of our solar system.

Brrrr

When the sun is out, 40 degrees can be pleasant. But when it's gray and rainy, not so much.

Dingus Day

The Monday after Easter.

Online Buffalo:

Started in Poland as a way to provide merriment after the seriousness of Lent comes to an end. The tradition began when farm boys in Poland wanted to attract notice from the girls of their choice. It was custom to throw water and hit the girls on their legs with twigs or pussywillows.

Well that sounds like fun on so many levels.

Great Aviation Mystery Solved

AvWeb reports that French Aviation authorities have announced that they have positively identified the wreckage of the P-38 Lightning that was being flown by legendary aviation writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery on the 1944 mission when he disappeared. The wreckage is at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea just off the south coast of France. No human remains were found.

The Pure Software Act of 2006

TechnologyReview.com

Spyware is the scourge of desktop computing, says columnist Simson Garfinkel. To beat back this menace, he proposes borrowing an idea from 100 years ago. Congress, he says, should pass legislation requiring that software come with product labels that would reveal to consumers specific functions built into the programs. Such legislation would likely have the same kind of pro-consumer results as the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906—the legislation that is responsible for today’s labels on food and drugs.

Thanks jjdaley

The past couple weeks have been kinda crazy here in Gone East land. I've fallen behind on some things I would normally include here in the blog. I'm slowly catching up. Here's one.

Last week jjdaley picked up on the Clay Shirky piece I had linked to. Thanks for the linkage John.

Coming soon, some Red Sox comments.

Will he remember us when he's big and famous?

Gone East pal Steve Garfield is the lead subect in an article in this week's Time Magazine about video blogging.

Check it out here.

Did it work?

Due to popular demand I've either moved the sidebar column over to the right, or I've really screwed up the look of the page.

I admit that I also like it better this way. But the CSS black-magic that Movable Type uses to layout this page can be tricky, so I only hope it looks OK on everyone's computers.

I'd appreciate it if the regulars would check in on Comments and let me know if it looks OK. No text overlapping, or things like that.

Happy birthweek to me

Today is the the beginning of my birthweek.

Thirty-something years ago this week I was born in Melrose Massachusetts. The building I was born in is gone now, but I have a brick from it. Someday I'm gonna put a brass plaque on it, and give it to the Smithsonian.

Please send cash in lieu of gifts, my paypal is jack@da4.com.
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Clay Shirky

Another interesting piece about Clay Shirky. I'm becoming a fan.

I was coming home in a cab from LGA in the pouring rain a few months ago, and sliding through a pool of water, we rear-ended the cab ahead of us. Both drivers got out, furious, and, before saying a word to one another, took out their phones and photographed each other's license plates.

Pleasure Island

I found this while surfing one of SteveG's site. It's filled with old photos and memorabilia of the long gone, greater Boston amusement park, Pleasure Island.

[BTW, My mom may attempt to tell an embarrassing story about a childhood trauma associated with PI. It's lies, all lies.]

Exorcist remake

This is not for everyone. A 30-second remake of The Exorcist, performed by bunnies.

Peter Medhurst

"I was much happier before I found out that ignorance is bliss."

-- Peter Medhurst

Holiday Festivities

Easter Dinner was a lot of fun. 3/5ths of the sibs were present plus kids and spouse. We had baked ham, mashed potatoes, carrots, str beans, rolls. Yummy. I did most of the cooking with a valuable assist from sister Beth, and Mom.

I also made world-famous pancakes for breakfast, so it's been a full day of cooking, and eating. I'm pretty full now, but there's lots of good leftovers calling for my attention.

Tomorrow, it looks like I'm headed back the NH for a couple days, then back here on Wed for bmac and BloggerCon later in the week. I'm working on an exciting new website that I hope to announce later this week.

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George Washington

"Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

-- George Washington, first U.S. President
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Life Cycles

The Yearly Life Cycles:

Did you ever notice that things evolve in the same manner, every year at about the same time? Did you know that you go through 7 cycles every year?

You can help yourself by working with your cycles...instead of against them!

Survivor All-Stars Notes - Ep#11

Posted after Ep #11, April 8, 2004. This post, and its comments, may contain spoilers....

Notes written while watching the episode:

>> What's up with the use of background music this season? First we had schmaltzy romantic piano music for Rob and Amber, and now the start of this ep has soaring symphonic score as we fly over the treetops. In the past it seemed that they stuck with the tribal/jungle beat stuff.

>> Rob-Alicia Alliance "I will never write your name at Tribal Council."

>> Looked like Jenna was gonna cry when she first saw Amber return safely with her new tribe.

>> The Non-Merge-Merge Reward. Did they merge without telling us.

>> Amber gives Rupert a big kiss and hug when he wins Reward.

>> So Rupert picks Amber and Jenna to go on Reward with him. "The Babes" he calls them. Hasn't there been sort of a tradition that you take the challenge runners-up on this sort of thing? Will this cause jealousy against Rupert? Or is he just clueless to how he's playing the game these days?

>> Watching the women brush their teeth while on the Reward. Who knew that it could be an erotic activity?

>> Rupert said, "ready for the final 13 days..." more on this later.

>> Finally the merge. On Saboga beach.

>> I'm not convinced that Amber is as devoted to Rob as he appears to be to her. Is she just working him?

>> Hold-your-breath Immunity Challenge.

>> Amber chokes, Kathy wins immunity.

>> Rob comes from behind again. He's obviously just good at untieing knots.

>> They name the new tribe Chaboga Moga. OK, well....

>> Rob has "the talk" with Lex, and Lex is pissed.

>> Lex got some of his own medicine. He turned on Ethan and now it's payback. Now he knows how Ethan felt.

>> But Kathy is gonna throw herself on the grenade to save Lex!

>> Tonight's castoff is the first member of the Jury.

>> Rob gives a big speech about how sorry he is at who is getting voted out, while looking at Lex. Is he ever gonna be shocked when Kathy reveals that she's giving Lex immunity...

... She changed her mind! And Lex is STUNNED. He was counting on being saved. Was this all a Kathy ploy, to keep Lex from scheming with the other players to save himself? Did she do this to lull Lex into feeling secure? So he would be voted off?

>> Jeff says there are 12 days left. So we have 12 days to get from 8 down to 2. At one off every three days that only gets us to 4. Are there going to be some double vote offs?

>> Africa was strong for so long, but is down to one remaining now. Marquesas is still untouched, Rob and Kathy. Is there a Marquesas alliance going on that we haven't seen? That would be consistent with Kathy "double-crossing" Lex.

>> Remaining: 5 women, 3 men... Only final-four remaining: Kathy

# Remaining from the Meta-Tribes

Order Out:
1 - Tina 2-Australia 1st (was Saboga)
2 - *Rudy 1-Pulau Tiga 3rd (was Saboga)
3 - Jenna M. 6-Amazon 1st (was Moga)
4 - Rob C. 6-Amazon 3rd (was Chapera)
5 - *Richard 1-Pulau Tiga 1st (was Moga)
6 - *Susan 1-Pulau Tiga 4th (was Chapera)
7 - Colby 2-Australia 2nd (was Moga)
8 - *Ethan 3-Africa 1st (was Saboga->Moga)
9 - Jerri 2-Australia 8th (was Saboga->Moga->Chapera)
--- Jury ---
10 - Lex 3-Africa 3rd (was Moga->Chapera->CBM)

I won!

Today I got a diet pepsi that had a free iTunes song inside the cap. I mean, it didn't have a song inside the cap, it had a code for getting a song free next time I visit the Apple Music Store.

Cool.

Are these things still good?

Bumper sticker

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
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You Go Burt!

Tahoo! News:

For the first time the government has cleared a commercial aviator to fly to the edge of Earth's orbit in an experimental aircraft that could become the model for taking tourists into space, regulators said on Wednesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued the license for a commercially sponsored suborbital manned flight to Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites group of Mojave, California.

I love ballparks.

Surfing for info about the new NH Fisher Cats AA minor-league team, I came across this really nice site with a lot of info about ballparks all over the country.

Meetings, kayaking, then food

I'm headed off this morning to S. NH for a couple days of meetings and a brief visit to the Lake house.

I have a meeting of the Pawtuckaway Lake Association, and some personal and family business to attend to.

I'm also hoping to get a chance to do my first kayaking of the year, and possibly a quick hike.

I want to be back for the weekend 'cause I'm cooking Easter dinner. A large part of the family will be gathering for my world famous baked ham with all the fixin's.

Situated Software

Pretty interesting article by Clay Shirky about the rise in creation of small applications designed to serve a small group of people.

Casey Stengel

"The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided."

-- Casey Stengel
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Let's hear it for the big city infrastructure

6 Apr 2004 1:33 PM
The power has failed at least twice this morning. Once for about 5 minutes, the other just a blip, but enough to crash my computer -- and trash a nice blog entry I'd been writing, but hadn't saved. My bad.

Broadband for everyone

5 Apr 2004 8:31 PM
Whenever President Bush promotes an idea that makes sense, I get nervous. Like the Moon/Mars thing, I fear he's only promoting these things as a sound bite, and he has no intention of taking real steps. His support will be looked upon as damaging any issue.

Dancing Robots

5 Apr 2004 8:27 PM
Pretty cool, and more than a little spooky. These sony robots have been taught a dance routine. This is a windows media file, sorry.

Pawtuckaway Ice-Out 2004

5 Apr 2004 6:30 PM
Early this afternoon the Pawtuckaway Lake Ice-Out Jury announced that as of 2:30 the Lake has reached 96% Ice Free.
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Snowy, sunny, spring.

5 Apr 2004 1:32 PM
Now the sun is out. New England.

DST is screwing me up

5 Apr 2004 1:27 PM
For some reason the day seems to be zooming by faster than before. I look up and it's already 1:30. The benefit of more daylight, seems offset by the fact that I seem to be losing TWO hours in the morning.

Wonkette Interviewed

5 Apr 2004 1:04 PM
I've been hot and cold on the Wonkette blog. But this is an interesting interview, so I'll put it back on my daily read list for a little while and see if it sticks.

Media Bistro.com quoting Wonkette Ana Marie Cox:

I get tips from journalists and staffers and people who see interesting things in the world. I've been lucky and gotten very few emails from insane people. I must be doing something wrong because I don't get a lot of angry emails. But the angry emails always come from the most surprising things. I'll think something is going to piss someone off, but it doesn't. Yet I got letters when I made an offhand remark about Princeton. I got like half a dozen emails from people who said, "Are you just jealous of Princeton?" I make fun of Harvard, and no one from Harvard writes.

Welcome to Spring

5 Apr 2004 12:33 PM
It's snowing out. The forecast has been predicting this for a few days, but the reality of it is disturbing.

Now is when Sherm will chime in with, "oh it's 80 degrees out here. I wore shorts for the 8,000th consecutive day."
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Temp Blog

5 Apr 2004 12:30 PM
While the changes to jackhodgson.com are taking effect, I find that I'm having a kind of blogging withdrawl pains. So I'm gonna blog here and later consolidate it all back into the main Gone East blog.

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The missing blog items

While Gone East was "off the air" I was going through a sort of withdrawl. So I started blogging off-line.

Here are those missing blog items. The day/time I actually wrote them is at the start of each one.

Cautiously optimistic

Well, it's pretty ugly, but I think I can start blogging again.

I had been hoping that I could just move the existing blog over intact, and pick up where I left off. And you probably can, if you know how, but I tried about 9 different ways and I couldn't figure it out. So I've started from square one, and now I'll gradually add the cool stuff back in.

The most recent entries can be seen here.

Thanks for your patience.
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Is this thing working?

Fighting all day to get things back online. Not there yet...
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