Ken vs. The City

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2007-11-06T07:26:00.001-05:00

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This site has moved!

2006-01-26T11:59:00.000-05:00

Yes, that's right. I've finally sprung a few bucks from my wallet and gone and got me some honest-to-goodness webhosting.

My new site is: http://www.kenvsthecity.com. So head on over there.

It's just my blog for now, but I'm working on a new site design that will also display my entire writing portfolio, photos, resume, projects, and anything else I happen to be up to.

I've moved from Blogger to Wordpress, and it's taking me a little time to learn how to design a Wordpress template. (it's a little different from Blogger) But the same content that's here is there now.

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updates

King Kong Lives!

2006-01-22T22:38:00.000-05:00

I finally went to the movies and saw Peter Jackson's King Kong. I must say, I was touched. King Kong, King of the jungle; misunderstood, in love, and put down by machine gun bullets. Love hurts.

What man hasn't felt so deeply for a woman that, despite all his strength, he is brought low? There are few things in life, other than a woman, that will cause a man to do great things. And you can take the beast out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the beast.

While I actually find the idea that a beautiful blonde could fall in love with a giant gorilla (and vice-versa) kind of absurd, I didn't mind because it was fantasy. One of the things I believe that defines good fantasy is not its alienation from reality (escapism), but its connection to it. Good fantasy personifies something in human nature that's present in the real world, and makes you see it in a brand new way. In that way, it's similar to a philosophical allegory, except that philosophical allegories are usually boring, and I doubt anyone would pay $10.75 admission to see Plato's Cave on the silver screen.

As fantasy, Kong was brilliant. The movie has everything: action, adventure, romance, and a 900 lb. gorilla who sits pretty much wherever he wants to. 2/3rds of the movie takes place on Skull Island and features dinosaurs, giant bugs, savage natives, human sacrifice, sailors with tommy guns, and of course Kong. The action here is intense, but it didn't feel drawn out at all. This part of the movie is also filled with discovery. It feels like your right there with the characters, exploring the remains of an ancient jungle civilization that has fallen into savagery and decay.

The second part of the movie takes place back in civilization, and features a breathtaking view of 1920's New York. Digital effects are awesome. I've been reading some short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald and this is his New York. If I get the movie on DVD, I'm going to have to watch it in black and white to see if it looks resembles movies from the period.

It was a very modernistic move, done with 21st century action and digital effects. In addition to the 1920's setting, King Kong explored period themes of society and nature, and classic themes of love and loss.

Actually, I felt the movie was way too long. However, the story is so intreaguing, and the action so non-stop, that I have no idea where in the world where Peter Jackson should cut things out. I hear he actually cut out a whole 45 minutes that will doubtless re-appear in the DVD version.

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Stardust Morning

2006-01-15T14:19:00.000-05:00

This morning at 4:30AM I went to the American Museum of Natural History for their live coverage of the return of NASA's Stardust mission. Stardust was launched in 1999, and then passed by a comet, collecting cometary particles. Scientists hope the that by analyzing the dust they'll be able to find out more about what lies in the outer edge solar system, called the Kuiper Belt. It's the first mission to bring back extra-planetary samples since the Apollo moon landings.

The landing went off without a hitch, and through the fuzzy resolution of the infrared cameras, you could sort of see the return capsule touch down in the Utah desert. It took them a while to find it with the helicopters after it landed, and there was no live video of the actual recovery, but it was interesting to watch. It became one of the brightest objects in the night sky for those on the west coast as it streaked across the sky at 29,000 miles per hour. You got to watch the control room as everyone applauded each successful part of the recovery. The capsule entered the atmosphere on time, and the parachutes deployed properly.The capsule touched down at a lazy 10 miles per hour.

Afterwards we went to the planetarium to experience the museum's very cool Virtual Universe presentation. With the stars overhead, I promptly took a nap.

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space

Stephen King writes like a schizophrenic

2006-01-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

He makes up square details and then hammers them into a round story with a ball peen hammer until they fit. He's extremely long-winded, which explains the length of some of his novels.

For the last year or so I've been reading through Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Currently I'm reading the Song of Susannah. His stories are fun and engaging, and I can see why people like them. But why, oh why, can't he just stick with the story at-hand?

The overarching story in the Dark Tower series chronicles the journey of Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his companions Eddie, Susannah, and Jake of New York on their quest through a wierd fantasy land that's half-western, half-sci-fi, half-Mad Max, and half-horror to a place where all worlds meet called the Dark Tower.

It's a straightforward storyline; the Journey has been the main plot element in hundreds of great stories from the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien to On The Road by Jack Kerouac to the Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. But for some reason, King seems to wander off on random tangents, taking his characters on adventures that have nothing to do with the quest for the Dark Tower. It's extremely annoying. In fact, if it wasn't for his friggin awesome characters, his books would be sitting there, rotting on my shelf.

For instance, 90% of book 4, Wizard and Glass, was a flashback. The flashback would've made an excellent story by itself, but since it was part of a book that was supposed to be part of the search for the Dark Tower, it really got in the way. Wizard and Glass is an 800 page tome. That's a lot of superfluous information. As I read it, I kept yelling at the characters in my mind to get the backstory over-with so they could focus on the journey at-hand.

The Song of Susannah started directly where the last book, the Wolves of the Calla, left off. Susannah had become posessed by one of her multiple personalities, and run away somewhere. I really could've cared less. Where's the forward progress? I just keep wanting them to hurry up, bring her back, and keep journeying towards that tower. That is the gist of the story, isn't it?

It also seems like they keep on finding random mysitcal symbols and magical artifacts that have just been laying around. It's a way to expand the story and keep it moving, but I'm not so sure it's one I like. It's good to make stuff up as you go, but some of the things that King is creating seem to have no relationship with anything that has previously been in the story.

For example, the number 19 suddenly appeared one or two books ago Its presented in such a way that it should have some sort of significance. However, nothing in any of the previous books even mentions that number in any particular way. And also, all of a sudden, every character in the story seemed to have some sort of reverence for the number, but no one has explained to the reader why. The characters seem to get it. Why don't they let me in on the gag?

Luckily (I'm in the middle of the book right now), the characters seem to have gotten their act back together again (it took them three whole books to do it) and regained the path that will lead them to the Tower. Roland Deschain is all hardcore and shooting people again, so that's good. Stephen King just really really needs a good editor to cut some of the fat.

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Silent Hill movie teaser

2006-01-11T23:49:00.000-05:00

Sony has just released a new teaser for their movie adaptation of the Japanese survival horror game Silent Hill. Could this actually be a video game movie that doesn't suck? How hard could it be to make something better than Doom: the movie?

All I know is Silent Hill 2 was one of the few games that made me nearly jump out of my skin. I was so affected by the amazing presentation at one point that whenever I would play it I had to turn on all the lights in the house.

Now if they could put that experience into a movie, it would truly be something worth paying $10.75 to see in a dark theater.

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movies

Astoria Food Review

2006-01-11T23:31:00.000-05:00

tanechigai: Astoria Food Review

My friend Amanda has briefly reviewed some places to eat near where she lives in Astoria, Queens. I haven't spent much time wandering around Astoria, but it's always good to know where to fill my belly in case I ever do.

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Lost is back

2006-01-11T20:05:00.000-05:00

Yay! Lost is back.

Polaris is a triple

2006-01-10T20:42:00.000-05:00

Hubble takes a closer look at the North Star, revealing Polaris A's 2nd companion. Now that's what I call a telescope.

Scientists are going to use the motion of Polaris A's companion stars to calculate its mass.

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space

Winter Garden Holiday

2006-01-10T20:04:00.000-05:00

They've dressed up the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center beautifully for the holiday season. Yeah, the holidays are over. Sue me. I still think it's pretty.

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Podcasts are what they are

2006-01-09T15:10:00.000-05:00

As much as I dislike the term "podcast" for RSS-distrubuted audio, I also dislike lame attempts to redefine words that are already in common usage even more. Creative's Zencast.com website defines "podcast" as a "Personal On Demand broadCast."

Honestly, I don't think it's a big deal. I'm not an iPod person (I'm too cheap), and I'm not a language nazi, but you have to admit, that definition is lame. Even though "podcast" is only about a year old, it's already common jargon among technophiles, and the ageed upon etymology comes from iPod and broadcast.

For mainstream consumption, if I had my way, I'd re-name "podcast" to something descriptive like "audio feed," rather than confusing people by publishing conflicting definitions of already muddled words. English is screwed up enough.

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Short list of Gmail hacks and tricks

2006-01-05T14:27:00.000-05:00

I know a to has been written on the web about how great Google's Gmail is, but I want to add my two bits. I get so frustrated at work with Outlook when I have to find some information in some email I got some time a long time ago. And because Outlook has no way to group emails by "conversation," related emails are scattered all over the place. Not only that, there's no way to tag them, and no handy "archive" button to clean everything up.

Okay... enough complaining. I hate whiners anyway. I've found a ton of cool things you can do with Gmail. Some were listed in the manual, and some weren't.

"+" addressing

Aside from the more than 2 gigs of storage, with Gmail you also get unlimited email addresses. Any email sent to: "yourname+anyword@gmail.com" will go directly to your regular Gmail inbox. "Anyword" can be anything you want.

RSS feed

You can view the contents of your Gmail inbox through your RSS feed reader.

Gmail Drive Extension

This handy little hack makes the 2+ gigs of Gmail storage space available to you just like a regular disk drive in Windows. I installed it to try it out, and it works pretty good. I'm a sucker for nifty little tech tricks, even if I don't really use them at all.

Gspace Firefox Extension

This extension for Firefox acts like an FTP program and lets you transfer files to your Gmail account.

Gmail as a to-do list

Extremetech has an article on how to use Gmail as a to-do list

Gmail spam filtering

I am really impressed with Gmail's spam filtering. My old email address is through fastmail. They're email service is great to, for different reasons, but their spam filtering is abysmal. I clicked on the "report spam" button for years, and never saw any effect. Now I forward all my Fastmail mail to Gmail and Gmail puts that spam where it belongs.

Tags

I must confess that I love tags. It makes organizing and finding things again so much easier. I think it's because tags work the same way people think, unlike file folders.

So that's it for the short list. There's tons more Gmail stuff out there. Some of it is really technical and geeky, but some tricks and hacks are really accessible. One of these days I'll post a long list.

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The Nephew and the Nature of Evil

2006-01-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

For all my susceptibility to it, I don't really understand the nature of evil. It's rather obvious to me that evil can't exist without good. But it's also obvious to me that good can most certainly exist without evil, and evil is most definately not the opposite of good.

I've heard good and evil described as two sides of the same coin (good=George Washington, evil=the state of Delaware or Florida, depending on what quarter you're using) If that were so, then they would actually be made of the same stuff. One can't exist without the other.

I've also heard evil described as the absence of good. Good is the sunlight shining through a window, and evil being the shadow-- the absence of light. If that were the case, then it would mean that good and evil were completely opposite and compartmentalized.

I've come to the conclusion (which is far from final) that evil is not part of good, nor is it the absence of good. It's more like the twisting of good. For example, admiration twisted becomes jealousy, love twisted becomes lust, anger twisted becomes hatred, and charity and mercy twisted become selfishness and people-pandering, depending on the situation.

I just finished reading The Magician's Nephew, and there's a part where Diggory, the boy protagonist, is sent on a mission by Aslan to retrieve a magic apple from a secret garden. While there, an evil witch, who has eaten one of the apples herself, tries to tempt Diggory to disobey Aslan not by telling him many lies, but by telling him mostly the truth. The magic apple will indeed cure his sick and dying mother, she says, if only Diggory will go back to London and give it to her instead of returning it to Aslan.

The only lie she ever tells in this instance is about Aslan. She never says anything untruthful about Diggory, his mother, or even herself. She tries to make him believe that Aslan's motives are selfish. She's trying to twist the love that Diggory has for his mother around and use it against him by telling him the exact truth about her.

It's a fictional case, but the mechanics of it are sound. Had Diggory acted on the witch's argument he would've been serving good things: love, charity, hope, but to evil ends. Evil tries to pull the rug out from under you by making you rely on the truth of things that are good for the sake of disobeying God. It's not compartmentalized like light and darkness, but still without good, evil could not exist.

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Testing tags

2006-01-03T22:54:00.000-05:00

Testing the new tagging system. All systems go.

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South Street: yet another new template

2006-01-03T21:05:00.000-05:00

Every so often I get tired of the same old design. Here's a new one. I call it South Street. Again, unfortunately, I haven't found a way to post pre-formatted text that keeps all the tabs and hard-returns intact.

Once again, though, once I do, I'll be sure to post this template, and DirtPoor, the old one, so people can download it.

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Walkin, walkin, walkin

2006-01-02T16:09:00.000-05:00

When the strike was on, I didn't have to go to work. All my co-workers lived far away, so they just closed down the office for those three days. During that time I decided to walk from downtown to 23rd street up broadway (approximately where my office is), just to see if I could do it.

Aside from being a tiring trek, I was surprised at how little time it actually took. I also got a chance to see how a lot of the neighborhoods that I visit or pass through were connected. I had previously seen Manhattan through the veil of the MTA. You go in one end of the subway, and come out at another, and in your mind the portals from which you emerge, and the neighborhoods that they spill into have no relation to each other whatsoever, save the mighty mass transit system that ties them all together. I think the mind catalogues things disjointedly when all you have to tie them together are maps and tunnels. When you're actually on the streets, you can see how one part merges into another.

The other day I walked from 59th street down to 14th street and got a further down-to-earth view of Manhattan. It suddenly occurred to me that it's not inconceivable for a person to walk the entire length of Manhattan Island in a single day. It may take you 10 hours or so to cross all 200 some streets, but I think a walk like that will cement together the different parts of the island in your mind.

I think it's something I might do, if I have the time. All I need is a good pair of shoes. My feet were killing me after those walks I had.

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Learn Mandarin Chinese with ChinesePod

2005-12-30T13:28:00.000-05:00

I've always had a passing interest in language. Learning a second language is something I never really got around to doing. At least I can pretend to be smart by listening to ChinesePod.

Direct from Shanghai, they put out more episodes each week than any podcast I have so far listened to. There are two hosts, an American man, and a Chinese woman. They both have a sense of humor, so the show isn't dry like some I've heard. Each episode is a different skill level, from beginner to advanced, and features both instruction and conversation. Even the advanced lessons are interesting to listen to. I have no idea what they're saying, but it sounds Chinese to me, so it's all good. I can sometimes pick up little phrases I recognize.

The podcast is free, as all podcasts should be. There's a corresponding wiki with tips and information. The site has some payed features, like lesson transcripts, a grammar guide, and exercises, if you're willing to fork over a little green.

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The Chronic of Narnia Rap

2005-12-29T23:10:00.000-05:00

The Chronicles of Narnia Rap video from the folks at SNL doesn't quite describe the experience I had going to see the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but it's so close, it's scary.

"The Chronic -- WHAT? --cles of Narnia"

Thanks to Raul of Fellowship in the City for the link.

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StreetEasy Real Estate Research

2005-12-29T22:53:00.000-05:00

Here's a new web site that lists residential properties for sale in New York City. You can also read what other people are saying about the different buildings. They even have a nifty Google Map interface you can use to browse around the city.

Obviously, if I had a million bucks to buy property, I'd find something like this extremely useful. Too bad they don't list rentals. As it is, I pass the link on to those in internet land that are looking to buy.

I hear Street Easy will be expanding to cover more cities (isn't New York big enough?). It looks slick, and it's an interesting site to just peruse around. Not many users yet, it seems, but once people start signing up, it should be a good source for info on different neighborhoods.

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reviews

"Improved" design

2005-12-29T20:39:00.000-05:00

Now that I know a little more about CSS, I decided to improve the template I use for this blog, and make it a little more efficient. It should work fine in Firefox, but I had to use a workaround to get it to work in Internet Explorer. The header, with its 4-column layout is the problem.

I'm getting a little bored with the colors, so I may make some changes in the weeks to come. I still haven't figured out how to post HTML code in a blog post without Blogger trying to read it. Once I do, though, I'll be sure to post a generic version of this template so you can use it on your own blog.

The list of Recent Articles is a RSS feed from del.icio.us, displaying my links tagged with "kensarticles." I've been running it through FeedDigest to display it on the site, but I just found out that del.icio.us has their own little Javascript thingamajig that lets you display a list of links on a web site. I want to switch over some time soon, since FeedDigest seems to be a little overloaded sometimes and run slow. Now that del.icio.us has been bought by Yahoo!, I feel a little more confident that the service won't just crash and die someday.

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Dan's Liberian Adventure

2005-12-27T18:34:00.000-05:00

My friend Dan Texidor, who's serving aboard a Mercy Ship off the coast of Africa, encountered a little trouble earlier this month in Liberia.

"...our land rover duet encountered a road block, forcing us to take an alternative and unfamiliar route. It was our first indication that something might be wrong. We drove for an hour through noisy crowds and traffic. The roads kept turning, and we had to turn around numerous times. Finally it hit me. We (or at least I) didn't really know where we were, or how to get back to the ship!"

Luckily, things in that country seem to be calming down.

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A Good Christmas Punch-in-the-Nose

2005-12-26T00:08:00.000-05:00

There's something abouth Christmas that changes me somehow. No matter how hard-hearted and selfish I've been, how many lame Christmas gifts, or how long it's been since I cracked open a Bible, or prayed for anyone, God reaches down into me at the very last moment and brings to light the very meaning of Christmas. Not that sanitary "be good to people and give them things" mentality that seems to be the message of nearly all Christmas movies these days, but that overarching epiphany that encompases the scope of my entire life, and that envelops all of human history simultaneously.

It's the epiphany of the birth of Christ, at once the savior of the world, and the one sign, the only sign, that God gave to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loves me. At once I see his birth, his life, and his death wrapped up in one neat little package, tied with a bow of pain, sorrow, and hope that set me free from the dark-hearted nature that I have inherited.

I have been very callous with people lately, and it took a couple of blows of good holiday cheer to soften my heart up a bit. It took a good sledgehammer's worth to even get my attention, as I suddenly realized that all the things that annoy me about Christmas only annoyed me because they were things that I desperately needed to hear.

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What the heck is a podcast?

2005-12-24T12:47:00.000-05:00

Whenever I mention podcasts in a non-internet setting, I inevitably find myself having to explain exactly what podcasts are, in light of its unfortunately non-descriptive and somewhat misleading monkier. "Podcast" sounds more complicated than it is, and you don't need an iPod.

Short answer: A podcast is like a radio program, except you download each episode off of the internet.

Detailed answer: A podcast is an audio (or video) program, usually created by folks like you and me, where each episode is posted on the internet (usually in mp3 format) and distributed by RSS. Programs that can read those RSS files (AKA "podcatchers") can download each new show automatically for you as it becomes available. Afterwards you can listen to the episode on your computer, mp3 player (hence the "pod" name), or where ever else you decide to move the file to.

Things you need to listen to a podcasts:

a computer (If you're not going anywhere, just listen to it on this)
a connection to the internet

Things you don't need to listen to a podcast:

iPod (an mp3 file can be transferred to any mp3 player, or burned onto a CD)
a "podcatcher" program (you can download most shows manually by going to the releated web site)

Where to find podcasts:

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Star Drive Classification

2005-12-22T20:31:00.000-05:00

This is an old Usenet text file I found many years ago that classifies every single space drive system in science fiction. It was written by Geoffrey A. Landis, a physicist at the NASA Lewis Research Center. Even though it's old, it's still an interesting read, and a useful source of ideas.

The River

2005-12-22T18:07:00.000-05:00

I am a river: a winding deluge
that wanders through rocks and over mountains.

I travel through pastures and foreign lands
reaching outward towards the sea.

My fingers entwine the Earth, bringing life to the desert and quenching the thirst
of the undying bitter ends.

My ways are raging, forever slow.
I chisel at rocks and mountains,

carving out ditches made of milleniums, exposing the layers of humankind
for what they're worth.

Can you tame me with a dam, or block my passages for long
with mere steel and concrete?

I will give you power for a time, but on a whim,
I will break free again.

Free from the turbines and spillways
I will surge over trees, and under caves,

turning the peaceful places white with adamantium foam.
I will erode the very foundations of the Earth.

Your home will plunge into the depths as surely
as the rough and chaotic surfaces of the rocks

will be made smooth and ordered.
And as the last translucent waves of glass

cover your face,
you will hear as a nuclear hum

the naiads singing, "oh, death where is thy sting?"
For there in the depths of my heart

you will not die.
You will be embraced by my arms as a lover.

And there you shall flow forever onward with me,
all the way from the tops of the mountains into the bottomless depths of the sea.

Strike's over. Game on.

2005-12-22T18:05:00.000-05:00

Workers still don't have a contract, but the 3-day strike is over. Everything should be up and running by tomorrow morning.

Closed :(

2005-12-20T22:10:00.000-05:00

Strike is on

2005-12-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

The Transit Workers Union (TWU), in the pursuit of a new contract with the MTA, have gone to the mattresses and declared a city-wide strike. According to Mayor Bloomberg, the strike will cost the city approximately $400 per day.

I appreciate the TWU giving me a day off today, but this strike will give the city a painful black eye. Not only is it tough for folks to get around during the Christmas season, but it's bad for business, and the traffic gridlock could effect people who need access to emergency vehicles. There are several contingencies that I think are a good idea, namely the carpool requirements for vehicles entering Manhattan in the downtown area, and the closing of various streets for emergency vehicles only. The worst part is, no one seems to know how long the strike will last.

I wonder, since the MTA is now a little short-handed, if I can get a job as a scabber?

Craig on Craig's List

2005-12-19T17:24:00.000-05:00

Craig's List founder Craig Newmark describes how Craig's List came to be and why it works in this short PDF.

New Manhattan Apple Store

2005-12-19T17:20:00.000-05:00

Looks like Manhanttan is getting a shiny brand new Apple store right across the street from the Empire State Building. Too bad I can't afford one of those new 20" iMacs. Oh well.

At least I can walk in there and play "stump the Apple guy" by asking them overly complicated questions.

Basic Electronics How-to

2005-12-18T23:52:00.000-05:00

Here's a fascinating tutorial on basic electronics. I haven't read the whole thing, but I'm surprised how easy it is to follow.

I've been curious about what those resistors, capacitors and transistors were ever since I dissected an old ghetto blaster I had in the early 90's . I learned about them in High School physics, but that was a long time ago. (I do remember frying a logic chip because I connected it backwards.)

Bacon

2005-12-18T14:17:00.000-05:00

I just read this comparison on various bacon-cooking methods, and boy am I hungry.

Transit Strike

2005-12-18T13:46:00.000-05:00

The MTA and the TWU (Transport Workers Union) are still talking at each other to come to some sort of agreement and avoid a strike that could cripple city. There will be a limited strike tomorrow, shutting down two private bus lines (Jamaica and Tri-Borough) in Queens. The new deadline for a complete transit meltdown is 12:01am Tuesday morning, unless someone steps in and diffuses the situation.

The Mountain

2005-12-18T13:29:00.000-05:00

I am a mountain: a dream for all to see.
I reach high into the heavens to places beyond

the clouds, pointing beyond the sea
to ancient lands. I have seen cities

and civilizations rise and fall.
I have seen the moments when time stands still,

and those who measure it are confounded.
My roots grow deep into the Earth.

I have been scaled and bored into.
I have been scarred by water, wind, and dynamite, but still

I stand throughout time. My feet planted in the Appalachians
and the Rockies, straddling the lands of lakes and rivers and plains.

None can bring me low save the wind,
whose relentless pummeling smoothes my rocky crags

and lowers my peaks in humility. Don't disturb
my molten heart, and wake the dragon within.

Beware the ancient stirrings of fire long-past,
whose arousal will be your end. For light dwells there

in the deep Earth, and the illumination
from its dark places will blind

the shadowed hearts of men into a great and sorrowful submission.
They will find the gold in their vaults turned

to ashes, and the work of their hands turned
to dust. And the gold that runs through my veins

will be seen as pure and mighty as the scent
of a flower or the breath of an evergreen tree.

Wild Parrots of NYC

2005-12-14T15:24:00.000-05:00

There's a colony of wild monk parrots living in Brooklyn near Brooklyn College. The story I heard was that a crate full of the birds broke open at Kennedy airport in 1960something, and the birds gradually migrated to their current location.

Apparently there's also a colony of parrots living in the Bronx. (pictured at left)

They're beautiful birds, as you can see from this blog dedicated to them.

Mad Christian ranting

2005-12-14T10:46:00.000-05:00

I ran across a heated "discussion" about Christianity, evolution, and Atheism in the comment section of a Digg post of this Michio Kaku article. I normally don't get involved in discussions like that, but I was in a good mood.

I posted this on the spur of the moment, and I really like how I described Justice and Mercy. It also made me feel like a punk, which is pretty cool.

Ah, yes. Mumbojumbo like Mercy, Justice, Charity, Love, Forgiveness, and Peace. They're all out-dated religeous concepts that we should throw away in favor of a morality dicatated by an enlightened humanistic technocracy.

With no God (or Tao-personified, if you prefer), no source of good will, humans are finally free to explore the universe without the guilt that comes from not performing the cumbersome religeous requirements of sacrificing yourself for strangers (mercy), setting right what is wrong (justice), loving despicable criminals, being loved by people you don't particularly care for, or fearing reprisal from any fictitious moral being.

Survival of the fittest, I say. 'cause that's the evolutionary way.

Google engineer on SEO, splogs, & Blogger

2005-12-14T10:40:00.000-05:00

Here's an interesting interview with a Google engineer (and PR person) all about Google blogging stuff. Also has some good info on getting your blog ranked better on Google.

Narwhal tusks are sensors

2005-12-14T10:21:00.000-05:00

The sea holds so many mysteries. Narwhals, also called the unicorns of the sea, are one of my favorite sea creatures. According to researchers, their tusks contain millions of "sensory pathways" (ie: nerves) that are sensitive to salt water content.

Mr. Narwhal: "Bye, Buddy. Hope you find your dad."
Buddy: "Thanks, Mr. Narwhal."

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

2005-12-11T17:52:00.000-05:00

I saw Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on Friday. Here are my thoughts, good and bad:

[warning: spoilers]

Hokay. First off, I'd say it was a good movie. Not great, but worth your $10.75 to see it on the big screen, as long as you don't go alone. The talking animals are not cheesy.

The plot was a little rushed at the beginning, and it seemed as if the director was fumbling a bit to testablish the characters. In the book, Lewis simply says the children were sent away to escape the London blitz, and then moves on to the actual story. The movie actually shows some German bombing action, and it's a cool sequence, but the camera spends a little more time in London than it probably ought to have.

There were a couple of scenes that were altered slightly in order to speed up the action. Some were done well, and some were mediocre. The first, was of course dramatizing C. S. Lewis's brief exposition. Good, exciting, but too long.

Another was how all four children found their way into the wardrobe at the same time. In the book the kids were hiding from a tour group lead by Mrs. MacReady. The professor's house is somewhat historical. In the movie the kids are killing time by playing cricket, and Edmund knocks a ball through one of the estate's windows. They go to retrieve the ball, and hide from the approaching footsteps of Mrs. MacReady. I suspect they changed this because it would just take too long to explain why there are strangers touring the house. I didn't mind.

Another part is the scene where the White Witch's wolves come looking for the children at the house of the beavers. In the book, the children and the beavers have already left for the stone table, but in the movie, the wolves arrive just as they're packing to go. It made it more exciting, but in order to secape from the wolves, the movie introduces a superfluous character that points the wolves in the wrong direction while the children hide in a tree. It did help, for me anyway, that the character was a fox. I'm writing a story right now where the main character is a fox.

Even still, It was a little unbelievable that the wolves, after being sent in the wrong direction, wouldn't realize the fox's treachery, return, and tear them all to pieces. Oh well, it's a kids movie. What do they know.

I absolutely loved the scene towards the beginning where Tumnus is wrestling with kidnapping Lucy, and the snarling visage of Aslan appears in the fireplace, frightening him. Morality with teeth. There were other scenes throughout the movie that they altered to fit both the flow of the drama and the time-constraints, but I won't go into them here.

I was a little disappointed by the scene with Father Christmas. First of all, I never pictured Father Christmas as looking like Santa Clause. But the guy they got to play Father Christmas didn't look like any image of Father Christmas I'd ever seen either. And no one in the entire movie mentions that he is Father Christmas. How is someone who has never read the book supposed to know that this is Mr. Christmas himself? In the movie he's just some wierd guy with a beard that shows up and starts distributing weapons.

The end battle was cool, but cliche. Two big armies line up on opposite sides of a big grassy field, and then charge towards each other. (IMHO, it's poor military tactics. Especially when you're outnumbered like the good guys were. They should've waited in the rocks, or in the forest where there was actually some cover, and picked the important baddies off guerilla-style) Anywho, there were some neat surprises like gryphon and phoenix aerial attacks. Lewis never really described the battle in detail, only the important moments. In the movie it was just candy, and added nothing to the story.

I also wish Aslan was tougher. You never really got the impression that he was the moral judge and ruler of Narnia. He seemed like just a big lion that everyone bowed down to. They should've emphasized the fact that he could rip your head off if he wanted to. And probably would, if you goaded him. That would've made his willing surrender to the White Witch more meaningful. They moved the line "Of course he isn't safe... but he's good." to the end, instead of leaving it at the beavers' house where it outght to be. They also changed it. At the end Tumnus says Aslan isn't tame, but he mentions nothing about Aslan not being safe. It's a nitpick, I know, but I think the word "safe" carries a lot of meaning in the book.

Despite the changes, it's a fun movie. The only moment that I believe absolutely ought to have been cut is after the final battle where everything is in slow motion and Aslan looks at Peter and says, "It is finished." Hokay, Aslan. In case we didn't get it before, you're the Christ-figure. The scene wasn't in the book, and was really cheesy in the movie.

Regardless, It's interesting to see a childhood and adult favorite of mine on the big screen. Also, despite some of the blatant Lord of the Rings moments, it actually impacted me more emotionally than Peter Jackson's movies did.

Haven Nation Podcast now live

2005-12-02T23:52:00.000-05:00

At long-last, Episode 1 of the Haven Nation podcast is now online. Check it out. See my projects page for more details.

Now to record episode 2...

Wisconsin Weekend

2005-11-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

I spent the weekend at home in Stevens Point Wisconsin, visiting folks I haven't seen in a long time, and staying with family. It was good to see my dad, who seems to be better than I have seen him. He's also lost a lot of weight. Probably from the medication he's on.

I enjoyed a nice thatnksgiving dinner with my folks, and some family friends. And I also got to see Harry Potter on the big screen with my sister and her fiance. I like that movie. It's no cinematic masterpiece, but it was good entertainment, especially for the low low price of $8.75.

I got to play Settlers of Catan with my friend Dave of Get out of the Boat. "Settlers" is also called "Settlers of Satan" by some folks I know. Settlers is a wicked fun board game ( I highly recommend it). There's also a "Christian" knock-off called Settlers of Canaan that's played the same way. Of course, it's designed by the same guy, so I don't know if it can really be considered a "knockoff." Also fun. I soundly trounced everybody.

I wanted to play some poker with some of my buddies, but my friend Mike, who would've hosted the poker night, had a baby on Thanksgiving morning. If you follow the link, beware of textured backgrounds and cutesy baby pictures. I stopped by to see Mike and I got to hold the baby, Evan, who was only two days old.

I never drank beer before coming to New York, and having missed out on the brew-ha-ha that is Wisconsin, one of the things I set out to do in Stevens Point was to drink a bottle of Point Special ($1.75). I'm not sorry I missed the whole bar culture, and I'm not a beer connoisseur, but I thought it was quite tasty. A friend that I've met, also from Wisconsin, recommended I try Leinenkugels, which is made in Chippewa Falls, but I didn't really go out of my way to look for beer.

I also got to talk philosophy with my friend Brent of the 8star blog, ate a cheese bagel, drove a car (and parked!), watched cable TV, and, with nary a Starbucks in sight, started re-writing a novel idea I've been tossing around in my head for at least two years (not like that blathering I'm writing for Nano).

I also got to attent my old church, which is packed with so many memories it still feels like home. They added a new chapel onto the building right afetr I left, and now have some wierd sort of triple preaching setup with three services, all staggered 15min apart from one another. I don't know how those pastors do it. Anyway, I also found out the sermons are available as mp3s on the web site. Cool beans.

I left on Monday afternoon. I visited my old university to see the new Fine Arts building, and say hello to some of the faculty earlier in the day, and then through the wonders of modern aviation I found myself riding the subway back in ol' NYC at around midnight. I would've been home at a reasonable hour, but ol' NYC has an ol' transportation system thet left me waiting about an hour for the train.

This is just plain cool

2005-11-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

So I ran into Pat Robertson of the 700 Club while I was at Bat Boone's heavy metal show. I snapped this picture before security quickly ushered me out.

A cold day in NYC

2005-11-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

It's a cold day in the City today. After a long stretch of balmy breezes, the sting of winter is already upon us. No snow flurries yet, but they're somewhere up there.

Yesterday reminded me of how much I miss the cold. I seemed to have formed some of my best memories when it was cold outside. I guess that's one of the consequences coming from Wisconsin, but it's something else too.

It's a good sort of cold; it's not so cold that your ears, nose, and fingers fall off; it's just cold enough to remind you that you are alive. It puts the chilling fire of God into your lungs, and reminds you that there is a fire to go to, and something hot to drink. Maybe the cold outside reminds you of the cold state of the soul when it's alone, and given the light of that truth, it drives you to seek friends and memories that comfort and give warmth.

God is one of them, and like the cold, his little disciplines and reminders can turn the mundane temperate lives into lives of consequence and action. Part of it, I think, is the smell. When the cold comes, it depresses a lot of the heavy artificial smells and leaves most of the light natural ones. Even in the city, the cold can bring out the smell of grass and greenery. Their faintness cuts through the cold, reminding you of fresh-cut grass of summer. And while that smell is only a shadow, it's there. And you can fill your lungs with it. Just don't breathe too deeply, because those artificial smells are still there too.

The cold, like pain, is a call to action. It lets you know that warmth exists and spring is coming. When you experience pain, both physical and emotional, you know that something is wrong. And even death itself is a prelude to resurrection.

Out of necessity, it brings people closer together. It's much easier for several people to stay warm together than one apart. And, of course, some have someone they can snuggle up against, the memory of whom is enough to keep them warm even when they are alone in the cold.

So I say to the great spirit of the North: bring on your cold and icy blasts. Unless my nose, ears, and fingers fall off, I will enjoy them, because I know spring is near.

Firefox alignment problem solved

2005-11-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

I've fixed that wierd alignment problem that Firefox was having displaying my Blooger template. I'm not sure why the header got so discombobulated(?), but it works great now that I did some tweaks.

As I've mentioned before, this template is my first experiment with CSS, and the other day I ran it through one of those CSS validator thingies (to make sure the code was okay), and there are like 100 errors in it.

Next time I'll design it a little better, but until then the template works, and that's what I'm happy about.

The sound of New York

2005-11-07T14:02:00.000-05:00

I've noticed it before, but I've never really paid much attention to it: New York City, or at least Manhattan, has a sort of faint rumbling sound that always exists in the background, even at night. It's similar to the sound of a far off water fall echoing off the walls in a canyon.

You can hear the occasional horn, siren, drunken shout, or the engine of some motorcycle rider who thinks its cool to go really fast over the bridge, but the rumbling noise is always there behind them all. I'm not sure what it is. It could be the sound of a million automobile engines resonating through the city, the sound of the vast network of underground stuff that keeps the city moving, or the sound of a million voices all talking at once at any hour of the day.

I'm sure every city has its own unique sound if you listen hard enough, but I think New York may be one of the few cities that are large enough and have the right geometry to make that sound audible. The tall, flat building faces are probably what carries the sound from place to place. The sound is fainter in the middle of Central Park, and you can't even hear it in parts of the outer boroughs.

Maybe the city is alive, and the rumbling noise is the sound of its breath. In that case, some people would say it's a stone and steel vampire sucking the life out of people.

Despite some of the stories I write, I don't go in much for fantasy.

Firefox template display problems

2005-11-06T12:36:00.000-05:00

There's some problem that keeps the status lists in the header of this template from displaying properly in Firefox. It works fine otside of Blogger, but Blogger adds something funky that causes everything to be a little off-kilter in Firefox.

If it annoys you, use Internet Explorer or Opera (that's what I use) until I can fix the problem.

Dirt Poor Template not yet postable

2005-11-01T23:35:00.000-05:00

I have a generic version of this template, Dirt Poor, but I currently can find no way to post straight HTML code to Blogger without having Blogger try to interpret the HTML itself.

I tried putting the HTML code in a text box, but Blogger automatically puts a <br /> tag at the end of every line break. And I'm not about to make people copy and paste just a mishmash of code. I could turn off Blogger's automatic line break, but that would screw up all the rest of my posts.

I'll definately post it once I find a solution

50,000 words in a month

2005-11-01T07:36:00.000-05:00

This year I'm one of the crazy people that've signed up to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of November in the NanNoWriMo novel-writing event. Starting today, I have to write 1600+ words everyday until the last day of the month. It sounded pretty hardcore to me, so I signed up. I also hope it will help me get to know other writers in the city.

Usually when I start a writing project, I outline the idea first and then start writing, but this time I'll just start writing and see what happenes. After all, it's more of a marathon wrtiting exercise than a serious attempt at a novel. I'm going for quantity, not quality. It's always much easier to edit things after-the-fact.

I'll be keeping tabs on my progress on a project page (see header).

New site design - 100th post

2005-10-28T12:59:00.000-04:00

As you can see, there's a new site design. It's entirely my own, and the template itself uses no images. Finally, I'm free of Blogger's generic templates. I'll post the code of the template online later for anyone who wants to download and use it, but I spent all day yesterday getting it to work, and I don't want to play around with it anymore today.

I taught myself CSS last week, and I'm very happy with the results. There are no tables on the page whatsoever.

New features:

The header on top has a list of the most recent blog posts, but also links to the most recent articles I've written. Most of them are for the online advertising blog 925m, but I hope to do some other work too. I'll also start maintaining some supplementary blogs listing things that I happen to be reading, as well as projects I'm in the middle of. This is mostly for myself, but I think other folks might be interested in what I'm up to.

All the lists, except for the recent blog posts, are compiled through FeedDigest, and the list of recent articles is updated through del.icio.us.

Updates coming

2005-10-25T19:14:00.000-04:00

It's been almost a week since my last post. I've been working on a new site design. I promise all of you you'll see some new stuff in the next week or so.

One-man Star Wars Trilogy

2005-10-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

I went and saw the One Man Star Wars Trilogy yesterday, and it was a hoot. It's one guy performing the whole trilogy (eps. 4, 5, 6) in a little over 60 minutes. It was one of the funniest shows I've seen so far. It's playing at The Lamb's Theater just off of Times Square, and I highly recommend it to anyone. Apparently the show was playing in Wausau in July, and will be in Green Bay in April and June 2006. One prereq. I might mention though. You probably should have seen the original Star Wars Trilogy already, or you might get a little lost. However, seeing a guy spazzing out with a pretend lightsaber should be funny to anyone.

Hiking

2005-10-16T14:25:00.000-04:00

I went hiking all day yesterday with some friends in a place called Cold Spring, which is about an hour from the city by train. The previous day's rain left some spectacular waterfalls.

I missed the main group, so I had time to grab some breakfast, read a little bit (just stared reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis in preparation for the movie) and took the train from Grand Central Terminal alone, but I met up with another guy who also missed the first train. We walked along the train track a couple of miles to the hiking trail at Breakneck Point. I scaled several rocky slopes where small rivulets of water cascaded down the sides, making each hand and foothold a treacherous gamble.

We went quickly, hoping to catch up with our friends, who had an hour's head start. We stayed in the same trail network, but didn't follow the same path they had. The two of us hiked over the rocky peaks until we met an experienced hiker who, unlike us, was responsible and brought a map. We had been going for about three hours without meeting our friends, and were ready for a rest, so we found the way back to town from him.

We backtracked a little ways until we hit another trail which we followed back down to the highway. The second trail had some incredible sights, including some waterfalls, a rivver, swollen by the rain, and some old mining ruins. Next time I go there, I want to check out more of the mining ruins. I talked to another guy who said there was an old two-story carriage house farther up the trail.

Any way, we went back to town where we met up with the rest of our group, had some chow, and took the train back. It only cost ten bucks to get up there. I'll have to go again. Last night I slept like a rock.

Hooray for Gmail

2005-10-14T19:07:00.000-04:00

I'm now the proud owner of a brand shiny new Gmail account. I already have an email address, but Gmail gives you 2.5 gigs of storage for free. Plus you can access your gmail through Atom/RSS and there are cool hacks like this that let you use your Gmail account as an extra hard drive.

Honestly, I don't know how I'm ever going to fill all that space up.

Repair Everything Electronic

2005-10-14T19:04:00.000-04:00

When it comes to hardware, I'm electronically inept. I found this guide to repairing every electronic device you can think of, and filed it away under "Someday Maybe Perhaps."
http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/sammenu.htm

Name Generator

2005-10-14T18:59:00.000-04:00

Typically I like to make up my own character names, but for those of you who have trouble thinking of clever monkiers, I found this name generator that generates any number of names by type: English, Spanish, Egyptian, Arthurian, etc.
http://www.geocities.com/phillipriley/ngmain.html

Dr Tex's blog

2005-10-13T15:01:00.000-04:00

http://drtexidor.blogspot.com/

A friend of mine from Wisconsin, Dan Texidor, will be serving aboard the hospital ship Anastasius as an RN with Mercy Ships off the coast of Liberia in November. He's started a blog about his adventure. Right now he's posting pictures of home and family. It should be a good read, once he gets into the swing of things... hooray for Dan!

Novel writing ebook

2005-10-11T00:33:00.000-04:00

Here's an ebook I found on how to write a novel by someone named Joanne Reid. It's pretty straightforward and offers some good tips. I tried to write a novel once, and I ran out of story about 10,000 words into it. It got to the point where I was just writing words for the sake of writing words-- not an experience I'd care to repeat. Drivel is drivel wherever it comes from. Still, sometimes you just have to keep going. I'm going to try and tackle a novel again soon...

Updike's nostalgic thingamajig

2005-10-02T13:20:00.000-04:00

There's a screenwriter friend of mine who has taught me a lot about the art of story from a screenwriting perspective, and it suddenly occurred to me today that the art of story when writing a screenplay is almost completely different from the art of story when writing a short story. I'm not exactly sure what it is. He would say that it's because you an get inside a person's head and tell the reader what that character is feeling.

I just read a short story by John Updike in a collection of the best American short stories for 2004. For the life of me, I can't figure out what made this story so great. It was emotional, nostalgic, ...and boring. You got inside the characters' heads, and got to see what they were thinking and feeling, but there didn't seem to be any drama in it. There's something about that kind of short story that alienates me from the characters.

At first I thought, "maybe I'm just not that way. Maybe I don't get all sappy and emotional." But then I realized that "of course I do." Maybe it's just other people's thoughts and other people's nostalgia that I can't seem to relate to sometimes. Or maybe I'm just someone who needs to see clear-cut moral decisions like does Spidey save the cable car full of children, or save the woman he loves.

I'm trying to wrap my head around whatever Updike and other writers like him have. Despite how boring I find those kinds of stories, I can definately see the talent behind them. Not only do I find that admirable, but it also attracts that certain kind of discriminating (aka snobby) reader that a lot of literary magazines cater to. And for some reason that seems to make, in the eyes of the (snobby) world, some stories greater than others.

Arthur C. Clarke on Space Elevators

2005-09-29T11:29:00.000-04:00

Last week in The Times (London), Arthur C. Clarker wrote a short article about the possibility of a Space Elevator. He also compares man's exploration of space to the exploration of Antarctica (ie: we went there, let the thing rest for a few decades, and then returned with permenant research teams.)

It's an interesting article. Nothing revolutionary; you'd probably even get more technical data from a publication like Popular Science than an editorial like this. Clarke has written a couple of science fiction stories about space elevator-like things. The one I remember best is the novel 3001: Final Odyssey, where the people of Earth have constructed equatorial skyscrapers that reach all the way into low Earth orbit.

Regardless, I like hearing what he had to say on the subject. Some of Clarke's stories are among my favorites, namely 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Rendezvous with Rama. Oh, and he's also the inventor of the communications satellite. Not bad for a writer.

Google now sponsors Bryant Park hotspot

2005-09-29T00:45:00.000-04:00

Some of you may remember the free NYC wifi hotspot post I did many long months ago. Looks like Google is now a proud sponsor of the Bryant Park hotspot.

There have been rumors that Google is working to set up some sort of free wifi service. Could this be part of it?

The Dude View

2005-09-28T20:23:00.000-04:00

I had this great idea for a TV show: The Dude View. It would be an evening talk show, and have Brett Favre, Tom Hanks, Steve Jobs, Bono, and Donald Trump sitting around a table in front of a live audience chatting about current events, and issues, with occasional special guests like Burt Rutan, inventor of Space Ship One, and discussing how men relate to the world.

Okay, maybe not. But all the "guy" programming on TV these days consists of cheesy Steven Segal movies on Spike. I like a good beat 'em up as much as the next guy, but the list of intensely heart-felt, relevant, and heroic beat 'em ups is incredibly short. And there's so many more things that are relevant to men out there, and media companies don't seem to give them a second glance.

Parties, Models, and Advertising

2005-09-28T00:41:00.000-04:00

I just got done with a long day at a major online advertising conference for work. My main job there was to hang out and meet people. That's a tiring job when you're on your feet from 9-6. But afterwards our company put on a party at a nearby night club. My co-workers refer to that type of gig as a "schmooze party," and it went on 'till midnight. I have to admit; that kind of party is not exactly my bag of chips.

Not to say it wasn't an experience. I met the guy responsible for the popularity of the McDonald's Happy Meal, as well as a couple of CEOs. And for some reason the boss, who used to be a party planner, likes to partner with modelling agencies for his parties, so there were a number of models and photographers there too. All very interesting people.

But, while it's an interesting opportunity to meet people, it's absolutely impossible to really get to know anyone. Everyone puts on their happy face, whips out their business cards, and then moves on to the next person until they get drunk. Then they act like morons, spouting the first things that comes to mind until they're dead tired, and then go home, never having invested anything significant in anyone.

Being a writer, some time things pop into my head and I have to write them down while the writing's good. Here's what I sat down to write right in the middle of the party. It's unedited, and it's so rought I'd hardly call it a poem. I haven't even taken the time to break it down into couplets like I usually do. It's a brief snapshot of my collected thoughts, straight from my notebook, at that particular moment:

I am Gatsby, the great undertow on the tides of fatal misfortune of surface-level Dreams. The peace of the Deep eludes me. The calm of the Hurricane is beyond me, and all I can see is fading foam--here one minute, and gone the next. Who shall sail my shallow ocean? What ship of shallow draft exists on this present Earth can navigate my currents and eddies long enough to reach the steadying shore? For I am the very light of social ambuguity. All who lack substance come and bathe in my bright and glistening waters. All who seek sustenance in my waters will find only meat of sugar and drink of dust. For I am at the very soul of the one who thinks he knows no limits, and yet runs aground. I am the deep ocean's cousin--the prodigal brother who stays at home and dreams of grandure.

Dandelion Wine

2005-09-20T21:52:00.000-04:00

I just recently finished reading Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Even though the summer is over now, I'm convinced that it's a perfect summer book.

It's not really a novel. It's more of a collection of short stories knitted to gether with a common theme, common characters, and a common setting: that of a small midwestern town. I love the way Bradbury writes, and the way he uses words to describe the world. It's as if he has supernatural insight into the world as seen through the eyes of children, complete with wonders, fears, and expectations. Two of the primary characters are kids, experiencing the summer that exists in youth, who kind of remind me of how summer was when I was a kid.

I remember my friends and I would run through the woods, build tree houses, and sneak into places that children were never meant to go. I remember magic: the pulse of God was in everything from the trees to the automobiles. The world was new, and every new day brought something unexpected, whether I found I could make a base hit, or I discovered that Newton's laws of motion really were true. Every piece of fool's gold was real gold, and a demon was hidden behind every shadow.

Something about the way Bradbury writes children helps him write old people just as well. There's something about the two ends of life that gives them a similar perspective. Maybe it's because while children are exploring this world, old people are on the verge of exploring the next.

Even though my favorite Bradbury stories: The Martian Chronicles, and Fahrenheit 451 don't have kids as main characters, the guy's knack for big-eyed description has been unmatched by any other author I have ever read. And for some reason the New York Public Library categorizes Dandelion Wine as Science Fiction, which beats me. There's no space men, no starships. Just folks in the summer. If anything, I'd classify it as borderline fantasy, since there's a part where someone mentions magic. However, I'd argue that the way Bradbury writes, everything is magic.

My favorite news

2005-09-17T13:09:00.000-04:00

At work I trawl through different news sites looking for online ad industry news. I also prefer to get my normal news from the internet, since all CNN is covering on TV is Katrina. Here are some of my favorite sites:

Digg
A geek news site that uses a unique method of gathering news and editing. Users log on to the site, and post links to anything they consider newsworthy. Each post is placed in a queue where other users can "digg" (aka vote) for it. The posts with the most "diggs" are promoted on the main home page.

Slashdot
The tech news site. News is user-submitted. The editor decides what goes up on the site, and what doesn't.

Yahoo! News
I like Yahoo! news, because it combines news from nearly all the major news publications.

Google News
Like Yahoo!, Google also combines news from different sources, but all the links lead to other web sites, which can sometimes cause problems.

Michael Yon: Online Magazine
Definately not hard news. But if you want to find out what's going on in Iraq, hear it from a guy who's actually there, and actually getting shot at.

The Segway Man

2005-09-12T23:44:00.000-04:00

This evening as I was walking home, I came across a guy wandering around on a Segway Human Transporter (AKA goofy scooter thing). He didn't look like the stereotypically nerdy Segway owner, he just looked like an ordinary guy out for a stroll.

We were both waiting at the corner for the light to change, so I leaned over and said, "Hey, nice scooter."

All he did was nod and say, "Yep," like he wasn't really up for a conversation. Maybe he was just a little self-conscious. I know I would be if I was riding on a Segway. In spite of the cool technology behind them, those things really are goofy.

Nevertheless, I still wanted to talk to the Segway man, since I'd never actually seen a Segway in-person, so I asked, "How fast does that thing go?"

I was expecting him to say something in the twenty mile-per-hour range (those Segways are pretty hefty) but he said, "about 12 miles an hour." I was a little disappointed until I realized that was pretty darn quick.

I was going to ask something else, but then the light changed and the Segway Man scooted on thwn the sidewalk. He stopped by some homeless people, and watched them for a few seconds, but then he took off again around the corner.

Where else in the world can a guy just go out for an evening stroll on their goofy 'lectric scooter? In New York you swear you've seen it all, and then along comes a guy on a Segway.

Cooking for Engineers

2005-09-06T22:20:00.000-04:00

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

I found this great cooking blog. It's got food history, tools, recipe charts, all kinds of stuff. It might even get me cooking again if I get grocery store any time soon.

No pirate training today

2005-09-03T09:14:00.000-04:00

Ahh, no training sail today. Oh, well. I'm sure I'll get my chance to test the high seas some time in the next few weeks.

Pirate training

2005-09-02T22:37:00.000-04:00

The first thing every good pirate should know is how to sail. That's why I volunteered at the South Street Seaport Museum to join the crew of the Pioneer, a 19th century schooner. I have my first training sail bright and early Saturday morning. I won't forget my PFD.

She looks like a lot to handle, and who knows, maybe I'll get knocked in the head by one of those big cross-beam thingies. Either way, it will be better tan learning to sail on one of those sissy sunfish.

Charities for Katrina relief

2005-09-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

All eyes are on the Gulf Coast as they pick up the pieces from what some are calling the biggest disaster in U.S. history.

Here's a local charity you can give to:

Wholistic Heath Care
Tutwiler Clinic, Inc.
Tutwiler, MS, 38963
Phone: (662) 345-8334
Fax: (662) 345-8336
Director: Dr. Anne E. Brooks

It's a charity in Mississippi, established 1983, and is currently focused on distributing meds, especially prescription meds. They don't have a web site, but here's some details on the organization. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to accept a check by mail.

--------------

And here's a link to the good 'ol American Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

Subway grime

2005-08-30T23:51:00.000-04:00

It's been muggy out lately, and while the out-doors can be uncomfortable, the subways have turned into a downright unbearable sticky mess. You sweat bullets waiting for that gloriously air-conditioned train.

New York subways aren't known for their cleanliness, and add to that perspiration and body-odor, and you end up not wanting to touch anything. And for those really paranoid, there's this silly little device:

http://www.uncrate.com/men/gear/travel-luggage/transtrap-001351.php

Seventeen bucks and germ obsessed straphangers* never have to touch anything in the subway again.

*straphangers: people who regularly ride the New York City transit system. (they have all sorts of wierd words here)

I'm Jimmy Stewart

2005-08-29T20:04:00.000-04:00

Check me out. According to The Classic Leading Man Test, I'm Jimmy Stewart. Que sera sera, isn't that right, Harvey? Merry Christmas, Building & Loan!

Jimmy Stewart
You scored 23% Tough, 9% Roguish, 42% Friendly, and 23% Charming!

You are the fun and friendly boy next door, the classic nice guy who
still manages to get the girl most of the time. You're every nice
girl's dreamboat, open and kind, nutty and charming, even a little
mischievous at times, but always a real stand up guy. You're dependable
and forthright, and women are drawn to your reliability, even as
they're dazzled by your sense of adventure and fun. You try to be tough
when you need to be, and will gladly stand up for any damsel in
distress, but you'd rather catch a girl with a little bit of flair.
Your leading ladies include Jean Arthur and Donna Reed, those sweet
girl-next-door types.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the
Classic Dames Test.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 46% on Tough
You scored higher than 22% on Roguish
You scored higher than 73% on Friendly
You scored higher than 31% on Charming

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on Ok Cupid

Jaws attacks Bryant Park

2005-08-26T10:16:00.000-04:00

This past Monday was the last free movie show at Bryant Park. I probably wouldn't have gone if not for some friends who decided to go. The movie was Jaws, the movie that made everyone in the 1970's afraid of going into the swimming pool. And I realized it's still as potent as it was when I saw it as a kid. The only difference was, I understood the reason for the fear: ordinary men go out on tiny boat to kill huge aquatic man-eating death machine.

The crusty old veteran hunts them, the educated rich kid studies them, and the poor old sheriff who's afraid of boats is responsible for all of them. In the end what takes ol' Jawsie down is not working-class muscle and experience, or scientific know-how with its technological toys. It's just a man with a rifle and a good old-fashioned exploding tin can.

One thing I though was a little wierd at first was that everyone in the audience cheered whenever someone got torn to shreds by the shark. At first I thought the crowd was messed up, and was reveling in some warped blood-lust. But then I realized they were cheering for the shark, who even though had no lines in the whole movie, is undisputedly one of the main character. He's so famous he even has his own theme music known the world over. And it was the shark that helped propel Spielberg to the top of the movie-making food chain. So cheer away. Go, sharkie, go.

The Lion King musical

2005-08-21T15:33:00.000-04:00

I scored a free ticket to The Lion King yesterday, and it was quite a show. I've been in the city nearly 7 months already and this is the first Broadway show I've been to so far. My editor had an extra ticket that she wasn't going to use, so she gave it to me. I immediately jumped at the oppertunity to see the show. I admire Disney's expansion into musical theater. It was a gutsy move that paid off.

I've heard reviews about the show before, but I really didn't know what to expect. The seat I got couldn't have been more ideal. It was right in the orchestra section, not too close to the stage. The story is just like the Lion King movie, so there were no surprises there. The biggest treat was the choreography and the costumes. For the opening scene, where all the animals gather to pay tribute to Simba, people in ornate animal costumes file down towards the stage throught the audience, each one contains some esence of both the person in the costume, and the animal that particular costume represents.

People audibly gasped when they saw the giraffes, which were actually people on stilts. At first I thought the animal elements of some of the costumes had to be pneumatic (both Mufasa and Scar had lion masks that could be raised and lowered in front of their faces), but then I realized it was all manipulated by cables connected to different limbs that could be manipulated by subtle arm movements.

The dancing was really cool. It was all africanesque, with some cheesy hip-hop and rock n' roll stuff thrown in, and made for an absolutely amazingly artstic spectacle. It's no wonder people are willing to fork out a hundred bucks or more to see the show.

New York City Walk

2005-08-16T16:33:00.000-04:00

I have neither the time, nor the energy to do what this guy did. He walked down every single streen in Manhattan and has the pictures to prove it. The site is chock full o' photos and some interesting historical commentary, along with a few now-and-then pictures.

http://www.newyorkcitywalk.com/

Anit-war protests are scary

2005-08-16T15:58:00.000-04:00

On my way home from work, I catch the subway at Union Square. There's usually someone there with a megaphone, or a lone person giving a speech about something, but yesterday there was a little war protest. There were people carrying signs and everything.

I've never been to an anti-war protest before, so I decided to check it out. The crowd was gathered around a woman who was talking about someone who was soon to be executed in Texas. How that played in to the anti-war movement, I have no idea, but pretty soon the crowd started chanting "Shut the war down; bring the troop home. Shut the war down; bring the troops home..." The woman in the middle would say something, and then the crowd would repeat it back again in a chant that grew louder and louder. And there I was in the middle of a small crowd of loud angry people.

It seemed as if people were giving themselves over to the words, without giving any thought to what they mean, or where they came from. The way the energy built itself up reminded me of a cult, with everyone mindlessly repeating over and over again the slogans the woman in the middle had said, causing the energy to build and build and build. I became immediately afraid for these people who seemed to give themselves over to an unthinking group mentality that can only be described as mob-like.

And I became afraid for myself too. If any of these people should believe I disagreed with the group, would I provoke anger in them? I quickly left. Obviously my fears were unfounded. This small group of people was a long way off from being dangerous, and the energy built by the chants would simmer down as people got hungry or decided to talk about other things. Still, it seemed like the same mindset that led the mobs of ancient Rome to demand free bread and gladitorial games.

I can think of few greater dangers than that this country should devolve into mob rule. A dictatorship only gives you one dictator. Mob rule gives you a million. I wish there was a way to combat this kind of group psychology.

March of the Penguins

2005-08-14T16:43:00.000-04:00

I saw the March of the Penguins on Friday with some friends. That's the first time I've ever gone out to see a documentary in a regular movie theater. You might think it was a big yawn, but oh, no.

It's not what I'd call action packed, but it kept me on the edge of my seat just the same. Can the wobbly little birds find each other across the vast frozen wastes of Antarcitca? Will they defy the bitter cold and hatch the egg? Will the cute little baby penguin chick survive the perils of the icy wind and sub-zero temperatures? Dum dum dum... Stay tuned.

Yep. Emperor Penguins are cute little tuxedo-clad bowling pins that make the march every winter back and forth, to and from their breeding ground across the great ice sheets of the southernmost continent in support of the annual family unit. All to hatch a single egg. The male for the female, the female for the male, and both for the chick.

It kind of makes me wonder why human parents aren't that tough. Instead of braving the cold, with each one worrying about only themselves, they choose to divorce and abandon the growing child, or abort the egg before the little one even gets to see the light of day. And they believe it's okay. At least that's the way they seem in movies or on TV. Sometimes human beings can be real wusses.

Baseball Blues

2005-08-10T19:42:00.000-04:00

I was supposed to go to the Yankees-White Sox game yesterday with some friends, but we weren't able to get tickets. They had some available, but they were beyond the realm of reasonable affordability. I'm a little disappointed. I haven't been to a ball game* yet, but no worries.

I did miss out on seeing this guy though. I would've gotten baseball and entertainment. Just kidding. On a dare he jumped from the upper deck and plumeted 50 feet into the net behind home plate, stopping the game for a few minutes. I guess "jump in the stands" means something completely different in New York than it does in Wisconsin. I'm just glad no one got hurt.

*"ball game" means baseball in New York, whereas "ball game" means football in Wisconsin.

My first New York published article

2005-08-08T19:15:00.000-04:00

It ain't on printed paper, but it counts. Here's an article on search engine optimization (SEO) I wrote for work. I'm actually surprised at how quickly it got published. I thought of an idea. I wrote it. The editor liked it, and it was published in the newsletter. That's it.

If only it were that easy all the time. Or maybe it is..?

I've also written a few things on their editorial web site, where I have to pretend to be an industry insider. Of course, now that I'm an online advertising industry (sort of) journalist, does that make me an insider? Who knows. I'll tell you in a year or so.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: a brief, brief, brief commentary

2005-08-08T17:35:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It was written in the early 30's, but man, is that book scary. It describes a "civilized" world caught up by the shallowest pleasures without pain and suffering; a world I believe serves as a good illustration of the meaninglessness of happiness without any depth of joy.

It's enough to drive a man to his death...

NASA PR commercial

2005-08-05T11:07:00.000-04:00

I've seen this NASA PR commercial several times on NYC TV. I've never seen it anywhere else except on the internet. They've done a fine job of capturing the NASA's spirit of exploration.

Enjoy.

Reach.mpg

The roof. The roof. The roof is on fire.

2005-08-04T22:12:00.000-04:00

My parents, my sister, and her fiance are in town this week. My sister's fiance is a firefighter, and she, he, and I went to visit the New York firefighter's museum this afternoon.

If you ever go to any sort of museum it's always more fun to have an expert with you. With his knowledge of firefighting, my sister's fiance provided the kind of museum experience you can't really get by just looking at exhibits and reading info cards. We looked at the old firefighting equipment, and made fun of the huge, heavy leather hoses. They even had one firehouse's dog, which had saved several lives in the line of duty and had been taxedermed when it was hit by a car.

Actually the museum wasn't that big. I wish it had been bigger. The historical stuff was great, and they had a whole room dedicated to the firefighters that died at the World Trade Center on 9/11. I just wished there was a bit more.

Sometimes I find myself mesmerized by history. I remember several years ago I got hooked on the History Channel. My addiction stopped a few months later when I realized I had seen all the content the History Channel had at that time, and I was seeing the same documentaries over and over again. One of these days I'm going to go into TV production and make them some new stuff.

The long dark hallway

2005-08-02T16:28:00.000-04:00

Last night as I lay in bed, it suddenly occurred to me that the older I get, the more I loose touch with my friends. As the years pass, I move onto other things and meet other people. Those I know well will grow more and more distant, and those I wanted to know better will fade away. And while I will meet new people every day, there's nothing that can replace the connection I have with souls that are no longer in my life.

That's probably something that every adult has to deal with. When we are children, there is no past for us. We have only the future to look to. It's impossible to miss someone you haven't met.

Sometimes I wonder if that separation we feel from one another throught the distance of time is a result of the Fall. Certainly in the here and now people hide themselves by putting up false pretenses, but while time is something over which we have no control, it is something that alienates just as much as sin.

Maybe that's one of the benefits of Heaven: to be reunited with the ones you left lost in time.

The beautiful Cape

2005-08-02T16:21:00.000-04:00

This weekend I took a bus up to Cape Cod to visit my family and some relatives. It was the first time I've seen them since January. I know I'm just at the beginning of the whole career thing, but every time I visit some place beautiful I tell myself "This is the place I want to retire." It's got beaches on both sides, green marshes, and hundred-year-old colonial style houses.

I wish I had my camera with me. I would've posted some pictures, but I was only there for one night, and I had a crummy bus ride there and back again from the crummy Port Authority bus terminal. I decided to travel light.

Another thing that kept popping into my head was "This would make a great level in Halo 3." Maybe it's just me, but running across beautiful vistas with double-wielded SMGs just sounds fun. Which reminds me, I haven't played paintball in nearly six years.

Up the mountain

2005-07-26T19:24:00.000-04:00

As he celebrated his 7th Tour de France victory with a hearty "Vive le Tour," Lance Armstrong ascended to that higher plain of reality they call retirement. The thing I like most about Lance has nothing to do with the fact that he's a cancer survivor (probably the healthiest man in the world right now), from Texas, or so darn good looking. I like Lance because he's a fighter.

While all pro athletes are fighters, Lance fought hard and became the best in the world at what he does. In the annals of sports history, he'll appear up there with Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan. Even if you think sports are a waste of time, you have to admire the poignant illustration of the human struggle. God gives each of us mountains to climb and struggle over. And while the gulf between damnation and salvation is impassable for us save for the mercy of God himself, those mountains are there to train for, to fight over, and ascend.

It's not enough to say "God, deliver me over this mountain." How can that make you strong? God says to gather your strength and fight. He will coach and train you. He will lead you, and he will show you the strength that's already inside you by the Holy Spirit. Without God, trying to climb the mountain is like trying to win a bike race without a bike.

Places to run: Battery Park City

2005-07-23T16:05:00.000-04:00

Sometimes on Saturday mornings, after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I go out running. I've found a few places that are popular with the joggeratti. One of them is where I went today, Battery Park City.

When they dug the foundation for the World Trade Center in the 70's, they needed a place to put all the dirt. So, in proper New York fashion, they dumped it in the river. Actually the landfill now known as Battery Park City was planned out from the beginning as an extension to Manhattan Island, and a fine job they've done too. As you can see from the pictures, the waterfront is very modern and nicely kept. There's a ton of bikers and runners there just about every weekend. There's also some great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Jersey skyline.

Harry Potter Strikes Again

2005-07-18T19:11:00.000-04:00

I bought the latest Harry Potter book yesterday at the Strand for 18 bucks. Sorry. I couldn't resist. Those books are like drugs, but in a good way.

What fascinates me most about Harry Potter is that it's so fun to read. I've been trying to pick apart what exactly makes best sellers best sellers, and Harry Potter is the king. I actually heard from a friend that the two highest selling books in the world right now are Harry Potter and the Bible. Go figure. I think it has something to do with fun and accesibility. Harry Potter uses uncomplicated language (it's a kids book, after all), so anyone can read it. And it's fun.

I don't know how many "literary" novels there are out there right now, but it seems that most of them, in spite of any insights into the human condition, contain highfalootin' language and monotone plots that can only be fully understood, not to mention related to, by a select group of literary snobs.

That said, there's no way that J.K. Rowling can be considered even a small literary genius. As popular as her Harry Potter stories are, they are pure escapism. And while jr. highschoolers of the future may be forced to read her books too, I don't think they will be studying her to learn about literature.

I have always despised the labels of "popular novel" and "literary novel", mainly because it implies that a literary novel can't be popular and a popular novel can't be literary. I see no reason in the world why a novel can't be popular and have lasting literary value at the same time. The principals of good storytelling in no way interfere with the requirements of good literature. Imagine that... stories of value that people actually want to read.

I don't know about anyone else, but that's what I'm shooting for.

On My Own

2005-07-10T15:33:00.000-04:00

Jeremy over at The Wealthy Blogger has written a response to my question about generating income when you're between jobs.

Since I moved to New York, I've had an increasing desire to make my own way without having to rely on "the man" for income. I see the need to stand on my own two feet absolutely essential if I'm to live in the world, and I see it as a way to force myself to rely on God for my daily needs. I find the idea of a steady secure job, complete with medical and dental, nice as a supplementary form of sustinence, and I'm certainly not against having a steady job, but I could easily see myself coming to rely on that job rather than God. The only sure way around that I can see, is to take large unsteady steps, thereby forcing me to rely on something other than myself or my circumstances for survival.

Of course my personality is more like that of mild-mannered Clark Kent than the mighty self-confident Superman. Striking out on my own scares the bejeezus out of me. That's one of the reasons I'm so hesitant to put my money where my mouth is, and I'm trying to reach out to others for moral support. Unfortnately you can't eat moral support, hence the job I have now (which I like, by the way). Slowly but surely, I'm developing my little plans, and every day I pray for courage.

Ken vs. The City up again

2005-07-07T10:29:00.000-04:00

Ken vs. The City went down for a few hours last night. Something screwed up the template I was using. Never fear, it's fixed now. I decided to go with something in green this time.

Go Lance!

2005-07-06T19:07:00.000-04:00

Go Lance!

I do parks, fireworks, and tech

2005-07-05T19:05:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I went to a friend's birthday party in Central Park. It was nice out, and I got to play bocce ball, which was a lot of fun.

Then I went Roosevelt Island with some other folks to watch the fireworks. I'd never been there before, and the neighborhood reminded me of verticle suburbs with no back yards. The fire works display was spectacular and we had an excellent view. There was music simulcasted on both the radio and TV, and during the Marine's Hymn they exploded a few square fireworks, which I had never seen before. Those were a real treat.

Afterwards we hung out, like people tend to do. And then someone asked me the inevitable question, "what do you do?" "I'm a writer" I reply, and then I have to explain exactly what I mean by that: what I write about, what I'd like to write about, that sort of thing. Except this time, to my surprise, when I was asked what kind of writing I was trying to get into, the first thing that popped out of my mouth, before I even had a chance to ponder the question, or second-guess myself, was "technology." I was absolutely astonished.

And then, as the conversation continued I realized that answer was absolutely right. I want to write about technology. Technology is something I get. It's something I have a unique passion for. I find it fun. I could yak about tech stuff all day. I've been looking for freelance work at newspapers, by going (or trying to go) to the main editors, having no luck with the broad approach, but I never even considered specializing. Now that's something I can "leverage," as the business people say.

I'm changing my tactics this week, and I'll let you guys know what happens.

Dancing, Music, and a Movie

2005-07-03T19:38:00.000-04:00

This weekend has been pretty busy. I have Monday off, and I only work up till Wednesday, so I'm in the middle of a whopping 5 day weekend.

There's swing dancing every Friday at the Lincoln Center and I decided to check it out. I met a few people I knew there. One of them is a swing dancing guru and, while I have excellent musical rhythm, my feet don't know a downbeat from a backbeat. On top of that, the whole partner dancing thing still makes me a little nervous. Needless to say, I got owned. But I had a lot of fun. There was a little rain, but nothing a well-timed automatic umbrella couldn't handle. And the music was live and very very "cool," as the kids say.

Speaking of music, I've discovered a new fight song. It's Kamikaze, the first track on one of Five Iron Frenzy's last albums, the Cheeses of Nazareth. It's got me so pumped up this weekend. I've listened to that one song at least twenty times already, and I just bought the album on Friday. It was originally supposed to be released in 2001 on their Electric Boogaloo album, but since "kamikaze" is Japanese for planes flying into stuff, they wisely replaced it.

Speaking of September 11th, I just saw the War of the Worlds yesterday. I read in the paper that it's supposed to be some sort of metaphor for September 11th. There are people running from falling debris and things and one or two mentions of terrorists, but it's more of a straight up disaster movie than a celluloid metaphor. It's not really science fiction either because there's no science in the movie. Spielberg plays on fears of the moment like in Jaws; the cinematographic action and sheer terror are exquisite. However there are a few instances (especially towards the end) where you wonder where Spielberg's story telling marbles went. It's definitely worth seeing on the big screen though. This movie is scary.

Yay! Ken writes more.

2005-07-03T19:34:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post. I promise I have not abandoned you. When I first started writing this blog I dedicated myself to writing one post each day. Then my computer got a major virus and it took about a week to get all the things I needed to retrieve some stories I had been working on and fix the thing. Blog posts were just never the same after that.

I admit some of the posts were really lame, especially the food ones. Any way, I'm doing my best to get my thoughts out there, so you guys might be hearing more from me from now on.

Billy Graham and the Last Crusade?

2005-06-27T18:37:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went down to the Billy Graham Crusade in Flushing Meadow Park in Queens. Yesterday was a scorcher, and the place was packed, but luckily the FDNY shot some water into the air where people could cool down.

The old boy is 86, and some say it's probably his last crusade in New York. I've never actually heard Billy Graham before. He's not a very dynamic speaker, and his message is very plain. But it's the same old gospel we know and love and it's the same one people need to keep hearing because even those of us raised in the church forget it. There were probably 20,000 people there just on Sunday.

It started with music from some spanish guy, the Gaither Vocal Band, the Brooklyn Tab. and Mercy Me. Then Michael W. Smith sang a couple of songs. None of them interested me very much. They're not my style; I was waiting for Billy. Then Billy Graham got up and talked about Noah and the end times and the urgency of repentance. It's all stuff I've heard before, but it's stuff I always need to hear.

There were two lone protesters there saying that Billy Graham is leading people to hell. And he, along with James Dobson and others are evil men. I tried talking to the most flamboyant guy. He just said that God is to be feared, and unless we understand that, we can't be saved. Duh. He can squash you like a bug. That's why Jesus came to save us. I know that. But no matter what questions he was asked he couldn't explain satisfactorally why he was on one side of the protestor-fence and I was on the other. I guess some people get a sense of importance out of protesting something.

Afterwards I ran into some friends of mine and we went out to eat at a fabulous greek restaurant in Astoria. We were going to go to a place called the Stone Cold creamery (or Cold Stone, I forget which) afterward, but we were all too full. I'll have to go back there. Especially if they have anything called a "stunner."

Tower Records

2005-06-21T20:49:00.000-04:00

Things are going well. I'm finding myself busier and busier (which I really like). I have my internship, and I'm helping with a few web sites. I'm still looking for freelance work at one of the papers, which I have to do at the end of the week because I work all day at the beginning.

Today after work I was looking around for a used CD store. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a store that sells cheap used CDs in New York. Eventually I gave up and went to Tower Records. There was some R&B singer giving a mini concert for the release of one of her albums. It was the wierdest thing. I was trawling through the store shopping for all the obscure music that I like and there was this R&B show going on around me. It was like a dream I once had after eating a whole pizza.

Any way, I bought an mp3 player and I've been looking for decent music to fill it up with. I'm cheap and I've mostly been looking online. I fount that Havalina (www.havalinaland.com) has their whole Russian Lullabies album for download on their website. It's an old album, but it's my absolute favorite. I strongly recommend it.

Wasabe Ice Cream

2005-06-17T16:45:00.000-04:00

I went to the Chinatown Ice Cream factory again. I just want to say again how great this place is. They've got all these wicked different flavors, but sometimes things are just wrong. Their flavor of the week is wasabe. Let me tell you that God did not make wasabe ice cream for a reason. Spicy and creamy were never meant to be put in the same bucket.

I encourage anybody to go down there and taste the concoction just for the experience, but keep in mind that spicy ice cream is just not kosher. I ended up getting black sesame and lychee.

I am a Wisconsinite

2005-06-14T20:16:00.000-04:00

"Wisconsinite" I think that's how you say it.

It's wierd. Now that I'm in New York, everything Wisconsin is cool. Cheese curds are cool. Brats are cool. The Packers are cool. Even Polka is cool. It seems like most everyone you meet here is from somewhere else. Someone remarked to me that you identify with your place of origin because it gives you a sense of identity in the city.

I suppose that's true. One of the first questions I ask when I meet someone new is, "Where are you from?" The rest of the conversation proceeds from there. Something like "Oh, that place is neat." or "Oh, I've never been there before, but I hear the fish are great."

For me right now I love talking about Wisconsin and Stevens Point. It would be so cool if there was a Wisconsin restaurant here in the city. It could serve brats, cheese curds, lefse, and Point and Leinenkugel beer. There could be entrees like the Hodag Burger or the Door County Omelette. Around cranberry season there could be a cranberry special or something. And during football season. There could Packer specials and with special discounts if you wear green and gold or something during a Packer game. (which, by the way would be on the big plasma screen) There could be cribbage, sheepshead and euchre nights. Oh, it would be so much fun.

But ok, then. Back to the real world...

I miss my guitar

2005-06-12T20:39:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm listening to a man playing classic rock tunes in the Seaport. It reminds me of how much I miss my guitar.

I'm not that good, but there's something about picking up a guitar any playing that's theraputic. It reminds me of all the times I drove back and forth to work and school in my 1983 LeSabre with the analog radio (with the clicky buttons) turned to the Beatles, LedZep, or Piny Floyd, trying to keep the other drivers from seing my lips move. Dang it, I know the words to all the songs this guy is playing.

It also reminds me of my Christian punk rock phase. I listened to all the crappy little indy and Tooth & Nail punk bands. I wanted so much to be a punk, to be a crappy little rock star. But you can't do that when you're a perfectionist. Unless I've practiced something 'till it's "real good," I hate having people listen to me. Because "real good" meant "perfect" to me, I never played for anyone.

One of the things I'm trying to drill into my head is that nothing I do can be perfect. If I write something, it won't be the greatest story ever written no matter how much I want it to be. I was talking to someone earlier today and I called New York a "meatgrinder." It's actually more of a forge. It's a big place with lots of people, and to be noticed you need to work hard even if you're work isn't "perfect." If you jump into the forge, you will either be tempered and purified or incinerated. Obviously I hope to survive or I wouldn't be here.

When I played the guiter it wasn't perfect, but it was not bad. What I write is not perfect, but it's pretty good. The trick is learning how to press ahead in spite of a lack of perfection. Obviously if I was a poor writer that would be foolish. But I'm not. I'm pretty good.

My sister's Spain blog

2005-06-12T20:31:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't know, my sister is studying in Spain for the summer. She's been sending out long emails to her friends almost daily and I suggested that she start a blog of her own. It's called My Life Is Not My Own, and even has some fabulous pictures of her adventures over there.

I've added her blog to my little collection on the left. If you'd like to visit it, the URL is http://www.kimmaaaaay77.blogspot.com. Right now she's updating it with some stuff from May, but the pictures are really cool.

Internship week 2

2005-06-08T13:03:00.000-04:00

This is the second week of my internship and I love it. I read news articles and press releases all day long. I'm writing short articles about technology, advertising and online business. The company is small, so I also do miscellaneous stuff that keep things from getting boring.

It feels so good to have someone relying on you to get things done. I absolutely hate jobs where people don't really care about your work. Even if you do make "quota", or whatever they happen to call it, it makes you feel like your work has no value. With a smaller business, your work directly influences the success of the company.

Obviously business success doesn't have a ton of value in the scope of eternity, but it does affect people. And having that kind of responsibility just makes you feel good.

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