| I don't mean to always be schilling for good causes, but Sonny Rhodes, the guy who did such a good job singing the theme song to Firefly, has apparently fallen on hard times and is appealing to the Firefly fanbase for support. So if you still got that tune stuck in your head, you can read more about his troubles here:
http://whedonesque.com/comments/18644
(learning my lesson from my last fundraising post, I've made this public)
And now we return to your regularly scheduled silence... | comments: Leave a comment   |
| As excited as I am about the new administration coming in, it's important to not forget that the Bush administration is still trying to do a lot of last-minute wrangling to pay back their supporters and leave their mark, probably quite different than the legacy they want to be known for.
One example of this is auctioning off a lot of national park land at the last minute. Many people protested this, but one college student went further and fraudulently bid on nearby land from the Utah's Arches and Canyonlands National Park, to drive up the bidding price. He ended up winning 22,0000 acres, at about $57 an acre. Of course he doesn't have the money to pay for it. Luckily the story got out, and people helped raised $10,000+ for a legal team to keep him out of jail.
It turns out you pay in installments, and the first installment of $45,000 is due January 9th. He's raised $37,000 already. The idea is that if he can hold onto the rights until the Obama administration, hopefully he can work out something with them to keep the land from being mined and drilled. So if you want to support an act of civil disobedience (and a lot of chutzpah), please consider donating to his fund.
You can find more info here:
http://www.bidder70.org/ | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | For privacy reasons this journal is friends only. If you would like to join, please post a comment in this thread. Thanks! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I got my first paycheck yesterday, which is always a good thing. On the flip side my boss just posted a huge list of programs for me to finish in the next two weeks, so I certainly have my work cut out for me. I'm working hard, and yet not hard enough, it's an odd paradox. Mostly learning how not to waste time on stupid bugs can go a long way towards improving my productivity.
In other news, I'm flying back to Boston this weekend to help the parents set up two brand new computers. Of course they're looking forward to seeing me, and it will be fun to visit. Otherwise things are going well. I'd post more, but right now I only have internet access at work. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Things were going reasonably well, but I'm having a rough weekend. Yesterday, driving to work, I got rear-ended. The good news is that the car only suffered minor damage and no one was hurt. But I still had to handle lots of worried phonecalls from reletives and deal with getting the car inspected and talking to the insurance people. The good news is that her insurnace company should pay for everything, and will even give me a rental for free while my bumped is being repaired. So I thought I had dealth with my one disaster for the week.
Then today I go to the local organic co-op which is having a member appreciation day with lots of specials and free samples. And while muching on some grass-fead steak and sourdough bread I feel a crack and I chip my front tooth! And worst of all my dental insurance through work was just about to kick in on August 1st. Instead I'll have to pay for this all myself. I work hard to take care of my teeth, you think they could repay the kindness a bit? Argh.
I'm going to work to have some fun this weekend, but I feel bad that I'm going to have to take time off of work next week to A: take my car to the mechanic's to get fixed and B: go to the dentist to get a teeth repaired. Looks like it's going to be another week of long evenings at work. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| In France the documentary "March of the Penguins" was titled "March of the Emporer". Here is a hilarious french ad about the movie. It illustrates exactly why movies should be seen and not told. Another YouTube gem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_mlwnAmr0
(In other news, I'm getting pretty good at hopping over to Canada and back without being freaked out by the customs officials. And the Canadian coastline of Lake Erie is really beautiful.) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| July is going pretty well. Surprisingly Buffalo has avoided the heat wave plaguing the north-east. I think it's the cool winds off the lake. There's nothing like working 9-10 hours a day to make your weeks go by fast, I've been going to a lot of local festivals on the weekends. There are all kinds of fairs in Buffalo during the summer, music concerts, the "Tastes of Buffalo" food fair, the Italian festival, and so on. I've also been making some progress finding a place to live for this fall. Maybe the summer isn't quite as exciting as I had hoped, but I'm reasonably content. Still working on the "meeting people" thing, I've been having trouble figuring out where the geeks/gamers/sci-fi fans congregate. But I'm definitely improving at work, which is the most important thing, because it's my primary meal ticket. I'm very grateful that my coworkers are so nice and they all seem to like me, it makes things much more enjoyable.
Hope everyone else is having a fun summer! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Sorry, I've been so busy settling in, and exploring the surrounding area, I haven't had time to post. Actually until today, I just had internet access at work, which severely curtailed my leisure browsing.
By pure luck I ended up in the student haven of downtown Buffalo, right near Buffalo State. The area reminds me a lot of Northfield, and it's great to have so much within walking distance. Art galleries, organic co-op's, coffee shops, independent bookstores, bars, and a comic books/games store, it's yuppie heaven. But being Buffalo, the standard of living is definitely cheaper than Boston. Buffalo in the summer is beautiful, I even walked over the Peace Bridge to Canada last weekend, just for fun. Canada is nice.
Actually, I'm working harder than I probably have since college, which is a good thing. My coworkers are really nice, and we get along very well, which is important because I'm spending so much time at work. Work has me getting up at 6:45 am, much earlier than when I wasn't working, which is also good. I'm surprised how much I can get done before 9 in the morning. So I should be going to sleep. In general, I feel that I have just scratched the surface of Buffalo and am trying hard to find out about local clubs and organizations around the area. Wish me luck. I have moments of uncertainty and miss people sometimes, but I gotta be optimistic. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| In the first big news is what seems like a long time:
I'm going to be moving to Buffalo, New York. Yes, Buffalo, home to Niagara Falls and inventor of the Buffalo Wing. I've just accepted a programming position with a small company that makes database software for manufacturing companies. I'm going to be driving out there next week, after spending two years living in Newton, this will be a big change. The good news is that my supervisor is a really cool guy, he's a sci-fi geek and we get along really well. Having good co-workers makes work a lot more enjoyable. We're working on building a graphical user interface for their main app, which hasn't had the interface updated since 1990. (it still uses a text based menu interface like emacs or pico) I'm going to be learning PICK, a language that I had heard about at all until three weeks ago, luckily they're willing to train me. It's a great opportunity.
I've managed to get living arrangements and car arrangements figured out, at least for the short term, so this week is mostly just packing. I'll have to find out if there are any gaming or science fiction clubs around Buffalo. It's a reasonably large city, though of course much smaller than Boston. Work is going to be pushing my pretty hard for the next six months, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. After temping on ans off for several years, it is really going to be nice to have the peace of mind of a salaried position.
In related news, June 26th is my 25th birthday, this change is the best birthday present I could have gotten. It's made me really happy. It's nice to have something to look forward to. | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| If you see one documentary this year, see "An Inconvenient Truth". Even if you already know everything about global warming. Even if you think documentaries are boring. It's a very powerful movie, and very well done. I love the mix between clips of AL Gore's actual slideshow presentation, and behind the scenes montages of his travels. Al Gore is actually a surprisingly good public speaker. They also did a nice job of discussing the most important moments in his life and how that affected him and his outlook on the world. The world is changing, and a time is soon coming when we will not be able to ignore it. Even I, who think Global Warming is one of the most important environmental issues facing us today, have often wondered how much I, as a single person, could really do. The oceans are warming, and the arctic ice is melting. What scares me is that very quickly, in as little as five to ten years, Greenland, the Arctic and Antarctica could melt enough to raise the ocean levels 20 feet. The effect this would have on seaside metropolises would be catastrophic. We all know such things could happen eventually, but it's really scary to think they could happen tomorrow.
If you can, go watch this movie. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I saw this post on boingboing.net about a pizza delivery man who happens to dress up as a superhero as part of his job, and also caught a thief who was trying to steal a women's purse. Although the story is rather humorous, you see many such stange stories on the news. What got me excited was that this all happened right in the neighborhood where I lived in Minneapolis. The women victim was coming out of "The Wedge" a organic co-op that I shopped at all the time. This news story was filmed right around the co-op, which happened to be only a few blocks from my apartment. It's funny to see your old stomping grounds on a news segment. Ah, the wedge was a great part of Minneapolis to live in. I'm getting all nostalgic...
Here's a link to the blog post, which links to the news video:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/06/08/caped_pizza_delivera.html | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Okay, this is driving me mad. I was just watching a trailer for the mac version of Civilization IV, and the voice doing the narration was hauntingly familiar. It sounds exactly like a famous movie actor, I just can't remember who. Can someone recognize the voice?
You can watch the trailer here: http://www.apple.com/games/trailers/civ4/ | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| I grew up listening to NPR (National Public Radio) and one of my favorite shows was "A Prairie Home Companion". Hosted by Garrison Keillor since 1974, it's an old time variety show that plays on Saturday nights. I still listen to it on occasion, especially since you can listen to the show anytime on their website via realplayer. It's an old fashioned show, but I really enjoy the mix of stories, comedy routines and music.
Well for everyone who doesn't listen to radio, you can now get a good idea of what the show is like by watching "A Prairie Home Companion", a new movie by Robert Altman starring Garrison Keillor which is a fictionalized homage to the actual show. The movie is about a radio show called "A Prairie Home Companion", which is virtually the same as the real thing, except that this is it's final concert. Like many Altman films it contains an ensemble of great actors including such names as: Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, and (ulp) Lindsay Lohan.
It's being opened in a limited released on June 9th. If you like Altman's other films (like Nashville or Gosford Park) or old-fashioned folk comedies I enocurage you to check it out.
Here's a link to the trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/picturehouse/prairiehomecompanion/
And a link to the movie website: http://www.aprairiehomecompanionmovie.com/ | | comments: Leave a comment |
| A month or two ago, all of a sudden my computer went mute when playing flash films, realplayer movies, youtube, even some computer games. Basically everything except quicktime and audio files went silent. I have no idea what caused this. I suddenly realized how many flicks I watched that weren't in quicktime, and eventually I got used to the silence.
Just as suddenly, yesterday I suddenly got sound back again. After being silent for so long you have no idea how cool it is to be able to hear. To celebrate I'm embracing my inner geek and listening to some realplayer music videos I have from the old TV show Square One. I know that most websites are silent, but you don't realize how much sound there is on the internet until you lose it. I suppose I could learn a life lesson from this, but I'm too busy discovering all the films that have been put up on YouTube in the last month or two. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I have recently become a fan of the former band "Splashdown". They disbanded in 2001, but they decided to release all their music online, for free. Apparently they got the rights back from the record company. Their first full length album "Blueshift" was never released, although the EP preview "Redshift" was very popular. I've been listening to "Blueshift" and am really enjoying it. The wikipedia entry on the band is a pretty good summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splashdown_%28band%29
You can download their music here:
http://bandicoot.merseine.nu/splashdown/
Enjoy. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| It's getting warmer, I think spring is definitely here. I do like these 60-70 degree days.
I found a short story online yesterday that I really enjoyed. It's about a young boy in the future who's rather embaressing dreams gets put in the internet for his entire school to watch. The story is faimilar, but the characters are well done and the futuristic technology keeps it interesting. It's entitled: 'Eyelid Movies" by Will McIntosh.
http://www.futurismic.com/2006/05/new_fiction_from_will_mcintosh_2.html
Also a hilarious list of "Harry Potter fanfic we'd rather not see", with entries such as:
Harry Potter and the Uneventful Year When No One Tried to Kill Him
Harry Potter and the New Love Interest Who Happens to Have the Same Name as the 15-Year-Old Girl Writing this Fanfic
Harry Potter and the shameless Tom Clancy Crossover
and more...
http://www.capnwacky.com/lists/list43.html
Enjoy! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I have posted in a while, so I want people to know I'm doing well.
I've been hanging out with friends more, which is good.
With the help of a local temp agency I am slowly clawing my way up out of the lethargy of unemployment. I have two job offers on the table which I am considering. One is to work from 5am-10am writing daily reports for an energy market intelligence company. Getting to work so early is problematic, but the work seems interesting. The other is to work 8 hours a day for a switchboard / call center than handles all the Longwood area hospitals. It could be interesting and has the advantage of being 15 minutes from my house. Has anyone had experiences working at a call center? I tried contacting Denise from Carleton, but the e-mail address that is listed in the Carleton alumni database is out of date.
With the warmer weather, I've been going running at a nearby park. I'm not sure how I'll keep this up if I start working a full time job again, but it's nice to feel more in shape. I'm also working to wear some of those nice clothes that have been languishing in my closet. Looking snazzy is good for your self-esteem!
That's all for now. Hope everyone else is having a fun April. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Apple just released software to boot Windows XP on Mac-Intel machines. (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/)
This is huge. I'm thinking of all the businesses that might consider buying macs so they can dual boot OS X and Windows XP. On the flip side as a gamer I wonder what will happen to mac game porting companies like Aspyr that make their money porting Windows games over to OS X. Will game companies in general still port games over to OS X if gamers can just run Windows XP instead?
I for one won't install Windows on my mac, there are no Windows apps I desperately want to use and I'd like to avoid all the virus/conflict problems Windows has. But I wonder if this will increase or decrease the amount of people using OS X? | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
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