Posts from — April 2007

Sometimes I hate dealing with email.

No, tot getting it, reading it, cleaning out my inbox, reading about GTD, and sending it, reading about how that Rubel guy does fancy tricks with his gmail/emails, and then sending more of my own. But the administration of it gets to me now and then.

I’ve been an email admin (or co-admin) at an ISP. I’ve helped people set up domains and email accounts. I have my own accounts on at least 20-something different systems. I currently work at a market research software company that relies heavily on email administration and deliverability. It’s part of my job to make sure our product complies with various rules and the email gets delivered (and to keep the complaint rates lowwwwww).

Most of my friends are in the same boat. Well, maybe not *all* of them run various versions of spamassassin from their bedrooms, recommend/re-write akismet plugins or start their own companies to deal with spam and network security, or even start and run the ISP that hosts this site, but you get the drift. We’re all a bunch of high-minded geeks and we know our stuff.

But this week, I was trying to help my dad with a problem, and I was dealing with a similar problem at work.

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I orginally sent this to the DMWT list, but thought it should be on the blog.

This is weird- I used to do this all the time and had to wean myself *off* chewing straws. Everyone knew I would keep at least 20 “good” straws in the left inside pocket of my denim jacket.

(via True Hoops)

Regular readers of TrueHoop or the D.C. Sports Bog will know that Caron Butler has a weird addiction: chewing straws. It has been mentioned in passing a jillion times. But now the Bog’s Dan Steinberg has taken the game to a whole new level, with an investigation culminating in a full-fledged, sit-down, 60 Minutes-style face-to-straw interview. link 1 link 2 (w/ video)

Comments from Adam & Angie:

Let’s not forget how many plastic key chains you chewed. I think Adam had to drive the Meer-curry (prounounced Schwartzman style) with that gnawed up green key chain many times.
And all my little plastic green army men. “Quit crying…Just pretend his arms, head, and legs got blown off”



“That’s good quality straws”

Weird. I still sneak a chew now and then . . .

Just a short note- I don’t feel like a long post on this. But I like Ebert a lot. Good to see he’s still up and kicking despite the recent illness. story

As you may or may not know, Angie is taking artists’ submissions for her Robot Mural project.

From her blog:

being that i think robots are cute and we all know my boy loves those robots in disguise, i consoled my friend by telling him that i would get a robot mural and he could trot over to visit whenever he liked. the more i thought about this idea, the more i LOVED it. our basement vision is a 12-year old boy’s fantasy land replete with pinball machine, every video console imaginable, foosball, and the biggest flat screen tv we can find to fit the space. this is the perfect place for a robot mural, right?!

As you can see from the comments on her post, some people are not so kind to the idea. But I figured we could help out.

So fire up your photoshop kids!

Lately I’ve felt like I’ve been in a rut. It’s been going on for quite a while. (a loooong while). No, don’t worry, not a depressive rut- nothing is “wrong” – work’s great, life’s great, but yet there’s that stuck-in-a-rut feeling I get now and then.

Without making this too long an article, something I want to try is a month long challenge. I was going to keep it to myself, but I figured if I blogged about it, most of you would harass the ever living crap out of me and I may be able to use that fear as a motivating factor.

Here’s what I was thinking… and let me know what you think. My challenge for the month of May is to ride my bike to work (and home).

One thing though- this would not count for on-call “emergencies” where I may need to get to work earlier than expected, or in the middle of the night. I think I need to set some more rules, so your comments will help.

May 1st is next week. There are 22 business days in May. What do you think? Decent goal? Not thought out enough (as in what about rain days)?

Updated-

I know it’s only 4.5-4.8 miles. But it is a difficult ride. Hell, sometimes it’s a difficult walk, and I do that at least once a week when it’s nice out. In fact, I did it today on the way home.

The plan is to go sweatless on the way in to work (no showers). There’s one hard hill near Japantown on the route I ride in. The way home is hard because when going West, you’re going into the wind, and there are more hills. And yes, I do have the kick ass SF Bike Org’s map with color coded streets indicating the steepness of the hills. I bought that when I got the bike because I’m lazy. And yes, I do think it’s weird/funny that the SF bike map is color coded using shades of pink.

Yes, I still hate Critical Massholes. They’ve delayed many of my commutes home — since I moved here in 99 and drove, til now, blocking my bus. Uggh

Your Friday Fun Link, Vagina Power

This is a dumb name for a cocktail, but it’s quite good:

Mel’s Manhandler –

maker’s mark, Stewart’s ginger beer,

splash of orange juice, brandied cherry

You can get one at 2223 where I ate dinner last night with Angie who is still on her “week of nights out”.

My food was quite nice- the only downside was the pork was a bit tough, but the tamale was surprisingly good- I didn’t notice it on the menu and was glad it came with the meal.

Grilled Double Cut Pork Loin – spicy chorizo tamale, grilled vegetable salsa
cilantro-black bean jus

Chuck C. pointed me to an article about the Virginia Tech killer (Cho Seung-Hui) may have been copying parts of Oldboy.

Officers believe he repeatedly watched Oldboy as part of his preparation for the killing spree.
…

[in the video he sent to NBC] appears to include photographs of Cho re-enacting scenes from the film.

He is shown holding a gun to his head and wielding a hammer, images that appear in the movie.

I’m not so sure about that. I’d need to see the video he sent to NBC to make that comparison. Plus, I’m not sure that the themes from Oldboy mirror what Cho did. Maybe I’m just writing this as a gut reaction for those who blame movies and videogames for real-life violence. My answer to that has always been that TV should show more boobs, fewer murders. Instead of CSI:Miami, which is grusome not just for the deaths, but everyone’s acting, the show should be CSI:WP or CSI:itb (they’re halfway there on CSI:Miami with the White Pants thing . . .)

Slither – **

Slither was a loaner from a coworker. It was deep in my queue on Netflix, but the coworker found out I liked certain movies and read various movie sites. Quite nice for him to loan it to me.

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You know, I hadn’t blogged about the absolute BS technical foul call on Tim Duncan . . . but I saw a link to a Crawford wikipedia entry and laughed.

“Joe developed a reputation early in his NBA career for being “the guy handing out all the technical fouls, throwing guys out of games, a hothead, a real red-ass.”

A real red-ass? Lolz.

What the hell are you talking about Kenneth?

• you tube link
• some blog

Update via email from Chuck F.:

NBA Referee Joey Crawford Suspended

NBA Referee Joey Crawford Suspended

Crawford’s suspension will cover at least the remainder of the 2006-07 season, including the NBA Playoffs and Finals. link