Ball droppings

This game is oddly satisfying, despite its unfortunate name.

12 Galaxies

Oh em gee, it's a Frank Chu sign generator! And the picture of him is different every time.

What is going on here

First Besha's brother marries a girl named Athena; now my brother is dating a girl who will, after graduation, be....

wait for it...

wait for it....

A PUSSYCAT DOLLS BACKUP DANCER.

Oh yes, oh yes. She has, however, sent me a Facebook message saying she's sorry we haven't met yet, etc etc. Which makes me think that she is very sweet, and that my brother has been going out with her for much longer than he will admit to us.

My mother's reaction to the post-grad plans? "Oh, dear. She just cannot come to any of our big family parties. They will RIP HER APART."

Firefighters

These dudes are hanging around campus, apparently to clear brush and prevent fires later in the season. Word on the street is that they are meat goats, so they are plump. And there are tiny ones! WANT.

Read-Only vs Read/Write

This article does a really good job articulating both my frustration at certain aspects of traditional media and my optimism for its new forms.

Some key pieces:

"The problem for the RO [Read-Only] crowd is that they have it completely backwards. In the age before YouTube, Susan Boyle would have been viewed only by those who actually watched the show (just over 8 million UK viewers). It would have been a water-cooler moment, with people commenting on it. But the fact that it was posted on YouTube and went viral made it a global story, it enhanced the ratings for the show, and in general enhanced ITV's position with advertisers. But all that the RO crowd can think of is loss revenue from those 100 million clicks." (from TechnoLlama)

and

"The only sense of entitlement is coming from the old school players -- the newspapers and the recording industry -- who fail to recognize revolutionary technologies that are changing their markets, and enabling tremendous new opportunities. These old school players seem to feel entitled to their old business models, even as they fail to embrace the new opportunities and fail to provide what consumers clearly desire."

and

"The only sense of entitlement I'm seeing...[is] in the old industries that refuse to admit that new technologies make things more efficient, and it's in pretending that all new efficiencies must be illegal or immoral because money can no longer be made via outdated business models."

I'm pretty sympathetic to the Read-Only guys - I was one while at Godine. But because I care about them, I want them to wake up and get with it, dammit!

Ho shit

Amazon is locking down the mobile reading app market. They bought Stanza!

Greenpeace = Good Cop/Bad Cop

Newsweek on Greenpeace: "It's a little like 'Animal House,' but in grad school."

Go GP! Also, their new director was arrested today, his first day on the job. Does that fall into the Good Cop or Bad Cop category?

You know ___ when...

You know you have been traveling and eating out too much when...

You open your oven to find 3 beets wrapped in aluminum foil, and realize you put them on to roast 2 weeks ago. At least the oven was off.

Think they're still good?

OneMama

This video is just so very Siobhan. As she says, her organization works on women's health issues in Uganda.

Siobhan is a capital-C Character: she swims in the Pacific on the reg, she drives a pink 1950's Oldsmobile, she doesn't drink but is a regular at Fly Bar, and she does a lot of good.

Exhausted, but...

Last night I got to see Dave and Janet and Thea and Meg and Natalie and Ariel and Elise and Maia and Gabe and Chapman Grumbles. I love visits!

Hi, New York

Mike and I took a redeye that got in at 7 this morning. We rode NJ Transit into the city (Northeast Corridor line, what what) and grabbed breakfast at the Goog. I have spent the majority of the day either eating (a high school friend came for lunch) or playing with my bosses' children, who were bored out of their minds by Take Your Child To Work Day. 

Reason #884372 my dad is great: whenever I went to his office for TYCTWD, he called it quits for the day and took me to the Museum of Natural History or Central Park. At the time I thought he just didn't want me to know what he did all day, and in that I was kind of right - he just didn't want me to think that working at an insurance company is dull. Shocking.

Oh, also: I am caffeinated out of my mind, and my fingers are so twitchy that I cannot type for shit. Spellcheck, don't fail me now.

Ebook, shmeebook

It's kind of scary to participate in the ebook debate,  mostly because I'd like to minimize the amount that my 35 or 45 year old self looks back at my 25 year old self and goes, "What were you THINKING?" I'm sure it's going to happen enough about clothes and the amount of booze I consume; I don't need to feel embarrassed by my professional aspirations as well. 

But I still like reading articles about these things, even if it's just so I have something to chitchat about with publishers. And I really like reading articles that flatter my current endeavor. 

So thank you, WSJ. On Amazon and Google digital intitiatives: "As a result, 2009 may well prove to be the most significant year in the evolution of the book since Gutenberg hammered out his original Bible."

Hyperbolic much? Discovery is really key - looking something up online and finding out there's a book that tells you what you need to know is rad.  Having the ability to buy a paper copy of it is, too - or digital version, as I have previously noted.

Also, I meant to post this yesterday, but I forgot - and now the NYT beat me to it. 

Finally: have Maureen Dowd's "technology is scary and will lead to the downfall of humanity" columns been driving anyone else crazy?

Vegan

Vegan baking is all up in my face recently. Saturday night we went to a birthday party where the vegan cupcakes were apparently fantastic; I was too busy sucking down vodka with lemonade to try one. Mike now says he wants to take up vegan baking, and I fully support that - I occasionally bake vegan, but that is when I am craving a warm sweet treat and am too lazy to go to the store to get eggs. Now, behold: vegan ollalieberry pie, from Herbivore on Divis. Scarfed last Tuesday in about 30 seconds. I can't believe it's not butter. Or eggs. Or milk. Or....

Overstimulation

Last Friday: Pirate and Gypsies party, a birthday party for Mike, Greenpeacers, and the head of Pirate Cat Radio.

Saturday: new bed purchase, Kari's party, Besha's birthday at Zeitgeist.

Sunday: Mike's birthday, Beanbag, Zeitgeist, Dolores Park (impromptu slip and slide below), Fly Bar, Bi-Rite ice cream cake.

Monday: Goldman prize, inspiring/amazing/famous people all over the place (blurry Robert Redford below), Holter-Mehren family stories, free food and booze! 

I need a nap.

Oh, come ON