180px1schumpeter
… that Joseph Schumpeter once challenged a librarian to a duel (over his students’ access to books).  He won (after taking a chunk of the librarian’s shoulder out with his sword).  This book looks interesting.

 

I occasionally occupy rooms (bedrooms, living rooms, office rooms, etc.) for years and years with blankBlankwall walls staring down at me.  I enjoy visual art and decor as much as the next person, and while I can procrastinate with the best of them, I’m not that lazy.  My hang-up (pun intended) has to do with what the act of actually putting whatever on that blank spot in the wall implies — that this painting is just that good.  That I like that picture well enough to privilege it above all of the other options.  An indecisiveness, in short, born of an inappropriately exaggerated sense of finality, permanence, completeness, whatever.

I am, I fear, making myself sound insane.  (I’d suggest that the self-awareness here gets me some sanity credits).  And what in the world does this have to do with anything that the 3.2 people who could possibly still have this RSS feed in their aggregators care about?  I mention my decorating tendencies by way of analogy and explanation:  I think I have come to see this blog in the same way. While it’s been over six months since I’ve posted here, I have literally started dozens of posts, written notes about things that interest me, tagged hundreds of URLs, etc.  None of these things are here because none of them are that good, none are worthy of being privileged over the others by an appearance here.

Just as this way of thinking about it is silly and suffering under an inappropriate exaggeration in the context of my walls, so is it here. And so, it comes to this:  I’m either going to stop treating this space quite so gingerly, or I’m going to stop bothering with it altogether.  I’m honestly not sure which it will be, but I’m going to give the former a shot.

 

My friend Mike C from ages and ages ago (with whom I don’t stay in nearly good enough contact) has started blogging his adventures driving a cab in NYC. Mike is one of the most friendly and genuinely nice people I’ve ever encountered, and this view through his lens on humanity is heartwarming, funny, and chock full of advice you’ll use every day, like this:

If you’re a leggy, gorgeous blonde with low self-esteem who just might be spending the rest of the night performing oral sex on a celebrity so you can feel good about yourself and get that little extra inch closer to stardom… your make-up is the last thing you should be worried about.

 

War Room – Salon.com:

“The letter Rep. Jo Ann Emerson sent to one of her constituents read like any other a 20-year-old legislative correspondent might prepare for a member of Congress: Thank you for writing, your concerns are important to me, blah, blah, blah. Then came the kicker: ‘I think you’re an asshole.'”

Following this rather unpolitic sentiment, the representative signed the letter and added a personalized post-script conveying her regrets for the response’s delay! Bwahahahaha… that letter belongs on ebay, or at least a campaign office’s wall.

Blogthings have been quiet here lately, as A and I get settled back into regular life after our long-delayed honeymoon (almost 5 years late is better than never). We had a great two weeks in Italy, and will have photos, etc. – we’re actually hoping to do a travelogue via google earth – up as soon as we can.

 

I really have nothing to add to this:

SonicWALL – Comprehensive Internet Security – SonicWALL Press Releases: “SonicWALL Inc. (NASDAQ: SNWL), a leading provider of integrated network security and productivity solutions, today announced the results of a survey of 941 remote and mobile workers worldwide.”

…snip…

“All respondents were relaxed about their personal habits when working remotely. While about 39% of respondents of both sexes said they wear sweats while working from home, 12% of males and 7% of females wear nothing at all.”

 

asteroid.jpg

Spaceguard UK – Latest News: “The rock, 2004 VD17, is about 500 metres (yards) long and has a mass of nearly a billion tonnes, which — if it were to impact — would deliver 10,000 megatonnes of energy, equivalent to all the world’s nuclear weapons.

Spotted on November 27 2004, VD 17 was swiftly identified as rock that potentially crossed Earth’s orbit, with a 1 in 3,000 risk of collision on May 4 2102.

Further observations and calculations have prompted the risk on that day to be upgraded to ‘a bit less than 1 in 1,000,’ said NASA Near-Earth Object (NEO) expert David Morrison in an emailed circular.”

One in a thousand just isn’t that remote of a chance, given an impact (no pun intended) of that magnitude. The generation currently toddling around may still be alive … heck, if Ray Kurzweil is right, we may still be alive.

(Via Warren Ellis.)

and here’s another (4) thing(s)

 miscellany  Comments Off on and here’s another (4) thing(s)
Feb 282006
 

I’m as surprised as the next that I seem to be the first of Garrett’s tagees to succumb to this chain-bloggery calling itself a meme.

I feel like a hungover conventioneer on a Las Vegas morning when I say “I usually don’t do that sort of thing”, but here goes:

4 jobs I’ve had:

  • illicit chewing gum retail (middle school)
  • subway wage slave (before it had the “sandwich artist” cachet)
  • busboy in a fancy restaurant (a very worthwhile experience)
  • teaching assistant

4 movies I can watch repeatedly:

4 TV shows I enjoy (love is too strong):

  • Twin Peaks (“she’s dead! wrapped in plastic”)
  • The Simpsons (Due to a long period of complete TV ignorance following the Twin Peaks cancellation, I didn’t get on board until around season six, but I’ve made up for it in the intervening decade.)
  • The Sopranos
  • Six Feet Under

4 places I’ve vacationed:

4 of my favorite dishes:
Oh, this is hard. I like eating…

  • seafood stews of most varieties (clam chowder, bouillabaisse, Tutto Pasta‘s spaghetti alla frutti di mare)
  • risotto with sage, gorgonzola, and tomato (this is much more a favorite of Amy’s, but it has grown on me)
  • thanksgiving dinner (the food is pretty unremarkable, but the meal shared with friends is what makes the eating worthwhile)
  • good thin-crust pizza (ideally with tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and pepperoni)

4 sites I visit daily:

4 places I’d rather be right now:

  • graduate school (really? I’m not sure…)
  • Italy (on vacation. soon.)
  • “the hills” (in general. this is the code A and I share for anyplace where this isn’t considered news and this doesn’t pass for entertainment)
  • (I’m actually pretty happy with things, at least those things I could change.)

4 others to join in with their sets o’ four:

  • stealth-blogging Amy (now outed!)
  • Rich (I dare you to answer via dashblog entries…)
  • Josh Friess (ask Josh how I “stopped” him from retiring early on the entrepreneurial brilliance of hosted blogging <grin>)
  • the blogless Matt D. O. (you know who you are. Answer in someone’s comment field…)

if there is any justice, Herb Powell is owed royalties

 miscellany, tech  Comments Off on if there is any justice, Herb Powell is owed royalties
Feb 032006
 

The “Why Cry Baby” crying baby analyzer is mentioned in Salon’s piece on insanely mega-yuppie new parent nutjobs, via Babygadget.

I love kids, gadgets, kids with gadgets, and gadgets for kids. I’ll confess, I did imagine trying to prototype something like this when the little guy was really little. But come on… this needs feedback and some sort of training mechanism to really work…. 😉 [well, at least to be interesting… this thing doesn’t even have a USB interface!].

 

kittysnipe.jpg

“Police shut down a suburban shopping mall for several hours Saturday after screaming fans of the boy band B5 rushed the stage during a free concert.

Five people suffered minor injuries, police said.

More than 2,000 fans, mostly teenage girls, had converged on Brookdale Center mall for the show, sponsored by the local Radio Disney station, KDIZ-AM. The band had only made it to the second song when the chaos broke out and girls began rushing the stage.”

Seventy police responded. Order was restored. Minnesota is safe.

(photo credit due to crazyfrog.org)

 

If you haven’t yet seen it, behold the world’s ugliest dog.

My reaction was “that’s not a dog”, though a co-worker’s impulsive “that’s not alive” seems equally likely. However, this is apparently veritable.

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