Fri, 27 Apr 2007
Email, spam y alfajores
Sometimes I hate dealing with email. No, tot getting it, reading it, cleaning out my inbox, reading about GTD, and sending it, reading about how that Rubel guy does fancy tricks with his gmail/emails, and then sending more of my own. But the administration of it gets to me now and then. I've been an email admin (or co-admin) at an ISP. I've helped people set up domains and email accounts. I have my own accounts on at least 20-something different systems. I currently work at a market research software company that relies heavily on email administration and deliverability. It's part of my job to make sure our product complies with various rules and the email gets delivered (and to keep the complaint rates lowwwwww). Most of my friends are in the same boat. Well, maybe not *all* of them run various versions of spamassassin from their bedrooms, recommend/re-write akismet plugins or start their own companies to deal with spam and network security, or even start and run the ISP that hosts this site, but you get the drift. We're all a bunch of high-minded geeks and we know our stuff. But this week, I was trying to help my dad with a problem, and I was dealing with a similar problem at work.
... there's more to read here ...
27 Apr 22:10 | /tech | 0 comment(s)
Thu, 26 Apr 2007
Caron Butler and Straws
I orginally sent this to the DMWT list, but thought it should be on the blog. This is weird- I used to do this all the time and had to wean myself *off* chewing straws. Everyone knew I would keep at least 20 "good" straws in the left inside pocket of my denim jacket. (via True Hoops)
Regular readers of TrueHoop or the D.C. Sports Bog will know that Caron Butler has a weird addiction: chewing straws. It has been mentioned in passing a jillion times. But now the Bog's Dan Steinberg has taken the game to a whole new level, with an investigation culminating in a full-fledged, sit-down, 60 Minutes-style face-to-straw interview. link 1 link 2 (w/ video) Comments from Adam & Angie:
Let's not forget how many plastic key chains you chewed. I think Adam had to drive the Meer-curry (prounounced Schwartzman style) with that gnawed up green key chain many times.Weird. I still sneak a chew now and then . . . 26 Apr 13:27 | /humor | 1 comment(s)
And all my little plastic green army men. "Quit crying...Just pretend his arms, head, and legs got blown off"
"That's good quality straws"
Wed, 25 Apr 2007
Ebert
Just a short note- I don't feel like a long post on this. But I like Ebert a lot. Good to see he's still up and kicking despite the recent illness. story
25 Apr 20:56 | /movies | 2 comment(s)
Calling All Artists
As you may or may not know, Angie is taking artists' submissions for her Robot Mural project.
From her blog:being that i think robots are cute and we all know my boy loves those robots in disguise, i consoled my friend by telling him that i would get a robot mural and he could trot over to visit whenever he liked. the more i thought about this idea, the more i LOVED it. our basement vision is a 12-year old boy's fantasy land replete with pinball machine, every video console imaginable, foosball, and the biggest flat screen tv we can find to fit the space. this is the perfect place for a robot mural, right?!As you can see from the comments on her post, some people are not so kind to the idea. But I figured we could help out. So fire up your photoshop kids! 25 Apr 12:09 | /humor | 2 comment(s)
Mon, 23 Apr 2007
The May 2007 Challenge
Lately I've felt like I've been in a rut. It's been going on for quite a while. (a loooong while). No, don't worry, not a depressive rut- nothing is "wrong" - work's great, life's great, but yet there's that stuck-in-a-rut feeling I get now and then. Without making this too long an article, something I want to try is a month long challenge. I was going to keep it to myself, but I figured if I blogged about it, most of you would harass the ever living crap out of me and I may be able to use that fear as a motivating factor. Here's what I was thinking... and let me know what you think. My challenge for the month of May is to ride my bike to work (and home). One thing though- this would not count for on-call "emergencies" where I may need to get to work earlier than expected, or in the middle of the night. I think I need to set some more rules, so your comments will help. May 1st is next week. There are 22 business days in May. What do you think? Decent goal? Not thought out enough (as in what about rain days)? Updated- I know it's only 4.5-4.8 miles. But it is a difficult ride. Hell, sometimes it's a difficult walk, and I do that at least once a week when it's nice out. In fact, I did it today on the way home. The plan is to go sweatless on the way in to work (no showers). There's one hard hill near Japantown on the route I ride in. The way home is hard because when going West, you're going into the wind, and there are more hills. And yes, I do have the kick ass SF Bike Org's map with color coded streets indicating the steepness of the hills. I bought that when I got the bike because I'm lazy. And yes, I do think it's weird/funny that the SF bike map is color coded using shades of pink. Yes, I still hate Critical Massholes. They've delayed many of my commutes home -- since I moved here in 99 and drove, til now, blocking my bus. Uggh 23 Apr 22:31 | /general | 10 comment(s)
Fri, 20 Apr 2007
Friday Fun
Your Friday Fun Link, Vagina Power 20 Apr 16:27 | /humor | 1 comment(s)
Dumb name, but quite tasty
This is a dumb name for a cocktail, but it's quite good:
Mel's Manhandler -
maker's mark, Stewart's ginger beer,
splash of orange juice, brandied cherry
20 Apr 14:17 | /food_and_drink | 1 comment(s)
Thu, 19 Apr 2007
Cho and Violent K-film
Chuck C. pointed me to an article about the Virginia Tech killer (Cho Seung-Hui) may have been copying parts of Oldboy.
Officers believe he repeatedly watched Oldboy as part of his preparation for the killing spree.I'm not so sure about that. I'd need to see the video he sent to NBC to make that comparison. Plus, I'm not sure that the themes from Oldboy mirror what Cho did. Maybe I'm just writing this as a gut reaction for those who blame movies and videogames for real-life violence. My answer to that has always been that TV should show more boobs, fewer murders. Instead of CSI:Miami, which is grusome not just for the deaths, but everyone's acting, the show should be CSI:WP or CSI:itb (they're halfway there on CSI:Miami with the White Pants thing . . .)
...
[in the video he sent to NBC] appears to include photographs of Cho re-enacting scenes from the film.
He is shown holding a gun to his head and wielding a hammer, images that appear in the movie.
19 Apr 12:05 | /movies | 7 comment(s)
Tue, 17 Apr 2007
Quick DVD Roundup 4/17
Slither - **
Slither was a loaner from a coworker. It was deep in my queue on Netflix, but the coworker found out I liked certain movies and read various movie sites. Quite nice for him to loan it to me.
... there's more to read here ...
17 Apr 22:50 | /movies | 4 comment(s)
Crawford
You know, I hadn't blogged about the absolute BS technical foul call on Tim Duncan . . . but I saw a link to a Crawford wikipedia entry and laughed.
"Joe developed a reputation early in his NBA career for being "the guy handing out all the technical fouls, throwing guys out of games, a hothead, a real red-ass."A real red-ass? Lolz. What the hell are you talking about Kenneth? Update via email from Chuck F.:
NBA Referee Joey Crawford Suspended
NBA Referee Joey Crawford Suspended17 Apr 13:14 | /rants_and_raves | 0 comment(s)
Crawford's suspension will cover at least the remainder of the 2006-07 season, including the NBA Playoffs and Finals. link
Mon, 16 Apr 2007
Wrigley's
I just saw this on fark.com, which is odd as I'm chewing the gum in question as I read the article. . . .
From "Watchdog Group Nobody's Ever Heard Of" comes sharp criticism of a Wrigley Gum flavor named for an alcoholic drink no child has ever heard of-16 Apr 18:58 | /links | 0 comment(s)
Wrigley Taken to Task for Mojito-Flavored Gum
CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Is Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.'s new mojito-flavored gum a harbinger of Tanqueray-and-Tonic Tic-Tacs, Jack Daniels Jolly Ranchers and Smirnoff Skittles?
link
Sun, 15 Apr 2007
Audiobooks Are Lame
Or so I thought. I have a friend who goes on and on about them at times. He listens to a ton of them. So much so that it led him to using Rockbox for better pausing on his ipod/whatever-audio-player. While I never put rockbox on my ipod, I did notice that there is a setting in iTunes for setting the pauses in your files, and decided to give an audiobook a try on the way to work Friday morning. Well, that and I haven't been in the mood to read on the bus lately. Granted, I had been up way too late Thursday night for an upgrade at work (not really that late, but I couldn't fall asleep once I got home in at 1am) so that put my mind in a putty state on Friday morning. Well, you know what? I liked it. I'm a convert now. Sure, they can have some drawbacks if they're not produced well. And if your busride has just one shithead talking loudly on his cellphone, like the 38L Geary did Friday night (thanks surfer dude, you cock, you ruined a few people's hearing talking about "hey, let's hook up later at Swig- but I gotta hit the OB to see if the swell came in". Are you deaf? Do you have to shout while you talk? ftw?) your comprehension will drop. But if you aren't too distracted, which is hard for me, I admit, a decent audiobook isn't a bad thing. Oh, what am I listening to? Patrick Suskind's Perfume. So far, so good. 15 Apr 11:00 | /rants_and_raves | 1 comment(s)
Sat, 14 Apr 2007
Weekend Links and Ramblings
Derek has a great post up about his Marathon experience. No, not like an athletic event. I thought this was lame at first, but then liked it:
via Ldopa.net
Real Estate Roller Coaster OMG can blogging make me rich?!
via ModernLife I'm tempted to write a full rant about this due to what I saw last Sunday night. Stupid DPT. So far I don't see what the big deal is with all of these tubes/funnels/aggregator sites. Sure they're useful at times, but not worth a fuss (it must be that buzz from Mac users). I've been using Google Reader recently. I still use My Yahoo. And I see more and more NetVibes referrers in my web logs. You Netvibers out there- tell me why you like it. Do you like it more than the personalized Google Home? Maybe I'm still loopy from a lot of late-nights this week, but I think Tim O'Reilly has diarrhea of the mouth (or keyboard?). 14 Apr 16:43 | /links | 0 comment(s)
Fri, 13 Apr 2007
Boxing?
Are any of my SA peeps going to the Pacquaio - Solis fight? Just curious. I have some family coming in to SA who are going. I didn't realize how big a deal the fight was until recently when I heard some Filipino people talking about it as well as on the infamous channel 32, aka, the rabbit-ear only channel I watch for international news that people make fun of. 13 Apr 13:08 | /general | 1 comment(s)
Thu, 12 Apr 2007
Stefania Wines In Stock
Well, I got in my first shipment of wines from Paul and Stef. Release notes about the Syrah are here. I thought I'd be one of the first people to enter the shipment in on CellarTracker, but surprisingly enough, about 20 other people already had all of the info in there (thanks Dave Tong!).
12 Apr 19:08 | /food_and_drink | 0 comment(s)
Sat, 07 Apr 2007
Cronin Pinot
Last week I went to K&L Wines with Angie to pick up maybe "one or two" bottles of white wine. Of course, I was on track to pick up about half a case when I noticed that the staff had put out a bunch of boxes of wine in the $9.99-$14.99 range. They were all older Cronin wines.
What I wanted to do though was to taste the stuff pretty quickly and then perhaps buy a lot more of the ones I liked- $9.99 is too good to pass up. Of course it takes me forever to open things though. I emailed some of my "crew" hoping that Pak at least would go get some and breeze through giving me his descriptions/likes/dislikes. He's much more descriptive than I am and tastes many more bottles- hopefully name-dropping him will get him to comment on this post. See previous post for examples. I also thought I had emailed Paul and Stef, but I realized last night that I messed up their addresses in a separate email. Stef can pick up a lot of nuances (and describe them).
I'm sure you're asking - "who cares?". But like I said- finding something great for $10 is key for me as my cost-per-bottle hobby has increased over the past few years. Plus it's fun, so stfu.
ANYway . . .I opened the 1998 Cronin Pinot and while my "tasting notes" are a frequent source of embarrassment for me here they are:
Slight sour-candy and good fruit taste. Like a home-made jelly/jam without a lot of sugar in it, cherry&strawberry or rasberry combo jelly at that, but more subtle than jam. Slight tang at the end of the taste, but the finish is smooth. Bit of wood and just a bit of what I call "is that dirty glass, or is it alcohol" smell on the nose. A bit scary when opened (see pics).Later I wrote:
it has just a bare hint of the "euro-bret" or prehaps something else. I'll know tomorrow morning if I have a migraine (some stuff triggers my headaches). NOTE: I didn't get one, and if I did, it'd be from today's rain.I'd recommend it. It's much better than the recent pinot cheapies I've had (Lulu? meh). I'm now more anxious to try the blends.
The only weird thing was the way the bottle looked on the inside when I opened it. There wasn't much of the "cloud" inside the glass, but as I don't open a lot of older stuff it did give me pause at first and made me wonder if the wine had gone bad. All in all a nice wine.
07 Apr 14:04 | /food_and_drink | 3 comment(s)
Fri, 06 Apr 2007
Friday Fun Links
Yeah I know, I haven't had any real updates in a while. Work's been busy. Winter keeps trying to make a comeback. Insert other excuse here. I'm gonna eat those pillows
Scary Baby illustration Christine asked me are pancakes the new cocktails? Hey, let's meet for pancakes! 06 Apr 13:16 | /links | 3 comment(s)
Wed, 04 Apr 2007
Happy Passover
Happy Passover. Be sure to eat the bloody peeps. That's what we do right? I forgot. Peeps on
Mmmmm
04 Apr 16:00 | /humor | 2 comment(s)
Mon, 02 Apr 2007
Super
Super Titi 33! No, I have no idea what this is, it was near some dried shrimp kinda thing and a bag of some tuna thing at the New May Wah grocery store on Clement. It reads Super Titi 33. I happen to think that all Titi are super!
02 Apr 16:17 | /food_and_drink | 2 comment(s)
