Stranger than Fiction

This guy should definitely go to jail for knowingly putting so many other people at risk, but this is kind of interesting.

"And in yet another twist to a story that seems to grow murkier with each new revelation, Mr. Speaker’s father-in-law, Robert C. Cooksey, is a tuberculosis researcher who has worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (See the NY Times article.)

Our Neighborhood Bar

The Blue Bonnet in Google Maps street view.

It opens at 6 am!

Found This in My Pile of Old e-mails

AS CALIFORNIA GOES, SO GOES THE BLUE STATE NATION

Dear President Bush:

Congratulations on your victory over all us non-evangelicals. Actually, we're a bit ticked off here in California, so we're leaving. California will now be its own country. And we're taking all the Blue States with us. In case you are not aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and all of the Northeast.

We spoke to God, and She agrees that this split will be beneficial to almost everybody, and especially to us in the new country of California. In fact, God is so excited about it, She's going to shift the whole country at 4:30 pm EST this Friday. Therefore, please let everyone know they need to be back in their states by then.

So you get Texas and all the former slave states. We get the Governator, stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay. (Okay, we have to keep Martha Stewart, we can live with that.) We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ol Miss. We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get all the technological innovation in Alabama.

We get about two-thirds of the tax revenue, and you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms to support, and we know how much you like that. Did I mention we produce about 70% of the nation's veggies? But heck the only greens the Bible-thumpers eat are the pickles on their Big Macs. Oh yeah, another thing, don't plan on serving California wine at
your state dinners. From now on it's imported French wine for you. Ouch, bet that hurts.

Just so we're clear, the country of California will be pro-choice and anti-war. Speaking of war, we're going to want all Blue States citizens back from Iraq. If you need people to fight, just ask your evangelicals. They have tons of kids they're willing to send to their deaths for absolutely no purpose. And they don't care if you don't show pictures of their kids' caskets coming home.

Anyway, we wish you all the best in the next four years and we hope, really hope, you find those missing weapons of mass destruction. Seriously.

Sincerely,
California

Do You Feel Lucky, Punk?

I haven't been a true NPR junkie in a while. These days, I try to stay up-to-date through my 37 RSS feeds in NewsFire. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report would probably keep me informed as well, but I'm way behind on those. I think I've only just watched the March 19th episodes yesterday. Plus, they don't have the Mac-focused tidbits that make me happy.

It's not always easy to read all 37 feeds. In fact, I have a group called "Skippable" for items that are, well, skippable. Some days, it's also disappointing to go through dozens, if not hundreds, of posts to finde nothing exciting. Other days, like today, there are just gem after gem after gem. Check these out:

== Ten Things We Hate about Apple - No, not the one that involved some editor resigning. This is a spoof that any Mac fan can relate to on some level. Me? The distraction and the weak knees.

== The hybrid notepad - I've downloaded my free copy. Can't wait to print!

== The Bevy bottle opener - I don't even have an iPod shuffle and I want one of these. I barely even open bottles, ever. But it's only $15!

False Sense of Security

I posted some stuff for sale on Craig's List in preparation for the westward move. The site's popularity is definitely making things crazy. Instead of one for-sale post, I had to write 4 different posts for 4 different categories. There's gotta be a better way. I can understand how it used to just be someone's pet project. But now that Craig's List is a for-profit company (am I dating myself?), I feel a little better complaining about the site's shortcomings.

Anyway, it took me some time to decide which of my 11 e-mail addresses to use for managing the responses. Whether the spam and privacy concerns are warranted or not, I don't really want to use my main e-mail address when communicating with random Craig's List users.

The first response I got came from a Georgetown address, which felt safe enough. I responded with my Georgetown address, and sold my TV in less than 12 hours. Now I have to find somewhere else to watch American Idol.

The next two responses were from Gmail addresses, followed by a Hotmail address. Guess what I realized? Response content aside, the Gmail users seemed much more credible than the Hotmail user simply because of their e-mail provider. Isn't that interesting? Discrimination based on internet savvy-ness.

Nightmare

I would rather not imagine this happening to me. Although I must say, I am not a fan of the Blackberry wheel, hence not a fan of the Blackberry. Can't wait until I get my hands on an iPhone.

Quicksilver + Yubnub

I decided to check out LifeClever's post about integrating Quicksilver and Yubnub because

(a) It seemed like a cool tool
(b) I'm procrastinating (am I ever not?), and
(c) What's up with the name Yubnub?

Apparently, the guy remembers the phrase from a Star Wars movie (surprise!) and it means "hooray" in Ewok.

Anyway, I love the shortcut!! Try it out.

Life Imitates Art

Coincidence? I think not.

Kryptonite Discovered

The question is, why do we have to follow international naming coventions when everyone knows what kryptonite is? I say we vote on this.

Now This is A Will Ferrell Movie

Just A Friendly Reminder of Who You Are

***********************************************************************
MITCNC Events: Week of April 16 - April 22
***********************************************************************

Check out MITCNC website:

Check out MITCNC Upcoming Events RSS feed:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary of upcoming events for MITCNC (MIT Club of Northern California):
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This week:

Tue 04/17/2007 6:00pm VLAB Event: The Next Wave in Online Ad Distribution Networks

Fri 04/20/2007 8:00pm Nerd Pride Movie Night at Instructables HQ

Sun 04/22/2007 11:00am MITCNC hike: Gerbode Valley and Tennessee Valley, Marin Headlands (N. Bay)

Creativity

I had an interview the other day and was asked about my creativity. That was probably the toughest question for me. I am solidly in the box. I may poke a finger out once in a while, and I do look at all the people outside the box. Some of them look ridiculous, some of them look brilliant. I found this web site via Graceful Flavor. I'd say this is a brilliant way to promote a book.

Professionalism

"I think I hired someone on the spot."

"Who was it that you hired?"

"Victoria**."

"And she was the one trying to take off your jacket?"


**Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Now I Know

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Strawberries Wild? It makes me a better person...until I have to run to the bathroom. It's been a mystery to me because I always get the non-dairy option (sub sorbet.) Yet since the temporary inconvenience does not even compare to the euphoria of consumption, I've let it be.

Well, I came across this post today, and suddenly, I can see clearly.

Careful readers will notice though, that the update includes new claims by Jamba Juice that they don't sell a non-dairy blend.

For now, this is just a hypothetical struggle between Jamba longing and a healthy stomach. It's not too hard to stay away from Jamba out here, but I will need to smoosh this knowledge come May, when I will again be surrounded by Jamba in the land of Cali.

This is How You Do It

Fun Fun Fun

Yes, geeky fun.

Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster was stuck in my head all day, so of course I kept playing it on iTunes. I didn't put it on repeat cuz I didn't want to overdose. So I was pleasantly surprised by Jordis Unga's rendition of Man Who Sold the World, and it made me wonder what happened to her.

Her web site isn't great, but it did point me to a cool site - Frappr!. What fun!! Here's "my" map, though I haven't even signed up yet. We'll see how well this works.

Update: Ok, I signed up. Here's the new map.

In the Words of Others

When I return from an extended overseas trip, I often feel behind on everything regardless of how hard I try to keep up with the news. Part of it is being cut off from the local (US) media and part of it is being away from people. People are generally great, efficient sources of information, hence the simile "spread like wild fire." Accuracy is always questionable, but at least I get a sense of what's going on. I vividly remember missing Britney's debut summer and feeling all confused by this new superstar upon my return.

While we had to deal with slow internet connections and censored content in the Dubai hotels, having access to e-mail and the world wide web while away has been wonderful. I do not feel so disoriented after this last trip. Still, it is a shock to return home and find Sundance Head booted off of American Idol while Sanjaya Malakar is still prancing around on stage. He's not even that cute. And the hair is heinous. It is therefore with great pleasure that I share with you today's Achenblog.

And while we're on this entertainment kick, I must also share with you this rant about Justin Timberlake.

Airport Security

We planned a nice dinner out before our flights to Dubai, but the food did not agree with blogger14. By the time we got to the modern but grim Frankfurt airport, nothing seemed more appealing than some fresh air. The lady at the information desk told us that the only way to get "fresh air" was to go through passport control. I swear, she used air quotes. It's like she was too polite to flat out warn us against the dangers of breathing Germany's polluted air, but still wanted to teach us the advantages of mechanically filtered and ventilated air.

Passport control was a breeze, but then we got stuck in this purgatory-esque room. For some reason, no one was allowed to go out into the pre-security terminal area, yet we had to go through an extremely long x-ray line to return to the gates. People moved back and forth between the two options, getting nowhere, while the room filled up with more unknowing travelers coming through passport control. Some uniformed personnel came through and were accosted by people who wanted to know if we would ever in our life see the outside of the room again. It looks big here, but trust me, it was not a fun place to be with a thousand other people in it.



Plus, doesn't it look more like a danky subway station than Europe's busiest airport?

After we were finally let out of the room, we wandered about looking for a bench outside. We were dressed for balmy Dubai, so I couldn't last too long out in the cold. We ended up going in and out of the terminal every few minutes to both get fresh air and stay warm. Not the most dignified way to spend our 4 hours of transit time, but look what we found!



That's right. An adult novelty store by the baggage claim. You know a country is progressive when the airport has facilities to meet all your needs.

Priorities

Sometimes I feel guilty about the leisurely nature of my blog, and I wonder if I should be writing about more meaningful topics, like education or politics. Or spending my computer time on something good for the community. Then there are days when I wake up to story after story of disturbing news. I could spend all day venting about the many things that are wrong around us, and what we should all be doing to make the world a better place.

Well, I don't have all day. So I will stick to celebrating small wins. Like the fact that Britney seems to still be in rehab. And that not everyone is gleefully watching her self-destruct. And that, according to MyBlogLog, more people have been visiting my blog, and some of them have even clicked on my text ads. Thank you, whoever you are.

Over It

Katharine McPhee's music video for Over It is finally out. (The video will start playing in the upper left hand corner after the MTV clips. I'll update the link to some other site once it's not exclusively on MTV any more. The MTV site is just not user friendly.)

I like that the video has a story line that matches the song, but I don't really get the multiple scenes where she's clicking a remote at the camera. It's unclear if the remote is malfunctioning or if she just enjoys the clicking motion. I also do not understand why she seems so sad to be over this skinny, unattractive guy. Anyhow, take a look. She's very easy on the eyes. So much so that I suspect someone at RCA is trying to sabotage her debut album. Why else would they release the music video more than 3 weeks after the album release? I think a simultaneous release would have totally boosted her first-week sales.

Oh, don't watch it while you're cooking. My soup boiled over because I couldn't resist watching the video twice in a row.

Hygiene

"Why are you such a butt? Do I need to send some toilet paper to wipe you up?"