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Lost in Seattle

  • Mariners Fire GM Bavasi

    Whew. It's about time. Mariners: $117M payroll = 24-45 record Oakland A's: $47M payroll = 38-31 record Now maybe we can start playing some Moneyball.... [...]
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    Posted: June 17, 2008, 10:40pm EDT

  • Vital Organs

    I had a dentist appointment today, which, because of this experience, always causes me to get a little anxious. But I like my new dentist and she hasn't hurt me (yet) so my psyche wasn't in too bad of shape. It was time for my annual X rays, so the [...]
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    Posted: June 17, 2008, 9:43pm EDT

  • The Universe is Not Designed for Us

    I don't know where astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has been all my life, but he's teh awesome! Watch "Stupid Design." (via Metafilter)... [...]
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    Posted: June 15, 2008, 9:33am EDT

  • Proximity and Productivity

    Members of my new organization at the UW are currently spread out over five different buildings all across the campus. My boss and I are the only ones on central campus, and even we are in separate buildings. A little over 1.5 miles as the crow flies separates the furthermost [...]
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    Posted: June 09, 2008, 8:26am EDT

  • Me and the Reverend

    Ladies and gentlemen, the almost-first African-American U.S. Presidential candidate (1988), the Reverend Jesse Jackson. My leadership program group ran into him at O'Hare in Chicago and he was gracious enough to pose for a picture with my friend Tony and me.... [...]
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    Posted: June 08, 2008, 3:09pm EDT

  • Blog Comment Overload

    I'm sometimes frustrated about the low comment traffic on this blog. Of course, it'd help if I actually posted relevant, interesting stuff. But then I might end up with the huge problem of information overload. Take, for example, one of my favorite lefty political blogs, Daily Kos, whereupon, just this [...]
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    Posted: June 07, 2008, 3:01pm EDT

  • If Music Could Talk

    This one's from my friend Holly over at Self-Portrait As. I got this from McCutcheon's Squishy Thoughts. Here's how it works: you take the questions, get your itunes ready, and hit "next." Each song that comes up is the answer to the question before you. OK, let's try it: 1. [...]
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    Posted: May 19, 2008, 9:07pm EDT

  • Ball Of Fire

    I did a guest lecture gig for an Information School class on Saturday. The topic was "online information delivery." I started out by talking about my film studies background and how my hobby is thinking about ways in which screenwriters have to deal with the problem of "magic" technology (to [...]
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    Posted: May 14, 2008, 6:52pm EDT

  • Language Acquisition

    Ray's school sometimes hosts "Parent Education Evenings" whereupon the mommies and daddies assemble to discuss topics or listen to lectures about some aspect of child education. Last night's event was fascinating. It featured Dr. Patricia Kuhl who is the Co-Director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the [...]
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    Posted: May 14, 2008, 9:07pm EDT

  • Drinkability

    The family ventured downtown the other day to check out the Umi Sake House (happy hour every day!). I spotted a billboard for something like Bud Light, which proclaimed the beer's "drinkability." Me: What does it mean for a beer to be "drinkable"? Does that mean it's close to being [...]
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    Posted: May 12, 2008, 7:32pm EDT

  • Manliness

    I've never been particularly "manly." It's not that I'm feminine; I'm just not what one would call a "man's man." In fact, at various points of my life, I've actively made choices to avoid doing the "masculine thing." I once, for example, opted to go shopping with a group of [...]
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    Posted: May 12, 2008, 11:42pm EDT

  • Evil Floating Head

    I'm speechless... (via Boing Boing)... ' [...]
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    Posted: May 10, 2008, 8:50pm EDT

  • PEHDTSCKJMBA

    Sadly, Tom Waits isn't coming to the Pacific Northwest during his recently-announced summer tour, but here he is at a press conference in which he explains the astronomical and alphabetic significance of his tour schedule. Enjoy, and make sure to watch to the end.... [...]
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    Posted: May 08, 2008, 10:17pm EDT

  • You Can't Do That!

    This has got to be one of the most brain-dead Windows XP error messages I've seen (click to enlarge). It reads: You cannot drop an item onto a button on the taskbar. However, if you drag the item over a button without releasing the mouse button, the window will open' [...]
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    Posted: May 07, 2008, 5:49pm EDT

  • The God Theory

    It wasn't really until years after I rejected the discipline known as "film theory" in graduate school that I recognized the parallel to the other great rejection of my life -- that of god. Fair warning: What follows is a long and rambling post that takes roughly forever to make' [...]
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    Posted: May 06, 2008, 8:03pm EDT

  • Field Office in Detroit

    I just randomly stumbled across this story while I was eating lunch: FBI Searches Office of Special Counsel Building As a Detroit native, one paragraph jumped out at me. One of [Special Counsel Scott J.] Bloch's first official actions was to refuse to investigate any claims of discrimination based on' [...]
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    Posted: May 06, 2008, 2:36pm EDT

  • Ray is Not a Crook

    The family went to the Museum of Flight in Tukwila (south of Seattle) yesterday, which was a pretty cool place. My favorite shot of the day is this one of Ray adopting a famous presidential pose as he boards Air Force One. You can see the rest of the photo [...]
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    Posted: May 04, 2008, 6:25pm EDT

  • Young at Heart

    Hmmm. According to the Life Expectancy Calculator, I'll live to be 95 and I currently have a "virtual age" of 17.6. I guess that explains why my face is breaking out and I'm nervous about asking Amy to the prom...... [...]
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    Posted: May 04, 2008, 9:46am EDT

  • In the Weeds

    I have two pet peeves when it comes to screenwriting: expository dialog and character-development dialog. As Amy and I are watching the DVD's of the Showtime series "Weeds" (the one about the middle-class suburban pot-dealing single mom), both types come up frequently enough that they are starting to turn me [...]
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    Posted: April 19, 2008, 4:52pm EDT

  • Helvetica: The Perfume of the City

    Amy and I saw the documentary Helvetica the other night. "You're expecting me to spend an hour-and-a-half watching a movie about a font?" Amy asked in her typically charming manner. "It's not a font," I explained. "It's a typeface." And it wasn't an hour-and-a-half either -- it was 80 minutes, [...]
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    Posted: April 19, 2008, 9:12pm EDT

  • Les Dogs

    When I was a teenager, MTV showed British TV shows on Sunday nights starting at 11:00 pm. Even then, I was an early riser and an early-to-bedder, so staying up until midnight on a school night was always a challenge, and I frequently wouldn't make it. But when I did, [...]
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    Posted: April 15, 2008, 5:11pm EDT

  • Expelled Exposed

    I love this summation of the non-controversy around "intelligent design" -- otherwise known as creationism -- from an article by Valerie Tarico at The Huffington Post. Biblical creationism, repositioned as creation science and most recently intelligent design has lost the contest of ideas on all counts: the rules, the criteria [...]
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    Posted: April 14, 2008, 7:35pm EDT

  • Dancing Walrus

    It's Friday. I can't think of anything to write about. So here's a walrus dancing to "Smooth Criminal." (via Metafilter)... [...]
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    Posted: April 11, 2008, 5:17pm EDT

  • The Tower

    The University of Washington recently purchased and took possession of the 22-story former Safeco Tower near the UW campus. My organization, which currently has its staff scattered across campus in five different locations, is planning to move into the newly-dubbed "UW Tower" this summer. Or, rather, we are moving into [...]
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    Posted: April 10, 2008, 10:04pm EDT

  • The Little People

    Somewhere around Pier 39 in San Francisco is the Musée Mécanique, one of the world's largest collections of antique coin-operated arcade machines. Within those machines lurks a veritable army of the most horrifying miniature creatures I have ever encountered. I have previously written about my fear of clowns, which some [...]
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    Posted: April 03, 2008, 8:31pm EDT

  • I Am the Ugliest

    The other night, I showed Amy's extended family my infamous ugly baby photo (see also "Ugliest Baby Picture"). After they got over their initial shock and awe, someone asked if this was, indeed, the ugliest baby picture. What better way to determine that than to search Google? It turns out, [...]
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    Posted: March 30, 2008, 11:37am EDT

  • Academic Prose

    A friend of mine forwarded along the following snippet of bad academic prose from a communications department announcement: Technologies & Organizing Contexts | Configurations | Contradictions | Contingencies Technology mediated organizing processes have particular contexts with specific configurations, and always entail contradictions and contingencies. Yet these nuanced aspects of information [...]
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    Posted: March 29, 2008, 9:01pm EDT

  • Garbage Truck Crash!

    My morning bus was re-routed this morning because NW 85th St. was closed off by a hoard of police and fire vehicles. As we looped around to the north and came back down Greenwood Ave., I could see what appeared to be a garbage truck up on the sidewalk. Judging [...]
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    Posted: March 26, 2008, 8:26pm EDT

  • Blog Facelift: What Do You Think?

    Posting has been rather light lately because I've been working on a new design for this blog. Well, here it is! What do you think? Please post a comment and let me know. First of all, you'll notice that it's wider. And width is more important than length, right ladies? [...]
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    Posted: March 21, 2008, 8:54am EDT

  • I'm Michael Clayton

    Ever since I took my new job, it's been hard to explain to people what I do. I don't run any systems, I don't write code, I don't manage projects -- I develop relationships and partnerships with members of the community. I put people in touch with other people. I [...]
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    Posted: March 19, 2008, 7:16pm EDT

  • 2008 Mariners Commercials

    The 2008 Seattle Mariners TV commercials are available at MLB.com and are discussed here and here. My favorite is "Fullness and Sheen."... [...]
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    Posted: March 14, 2008, 10:38pm EDT

  • Transactive Memory

    If they'd had GPS's back when I lived in Detroit, I would have been known as, er ... the Human GPS. Or something more clever, maybe. Anyway, the point is, I had an awesome sense of direction, and could get from any point in the metropolis to any other in [...]
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    Posted: March 14, 2008, 10:00pm EDT

  • Tears in Rain

    A few years ago, I took an architectural walking tour of Chicago. I particularly recall the guide explaining how the distinctive style of Mies van der Rohe emerged partly because of the city's building codes. It seems that in downtown Chicago there had been a height limit on buildings that [...]
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    Posted: March 13, 2008, 8:37am EDT

  • Meat for Sale

    Twice in the last couple weeks now we've had door-to-door meat salesmen come to our house. Meat salesmen. WTF? Both times they claimed to have "missed some deliveries" in the area and offered me a "great deal" on meat, and then seemed utterly shocked when I told them I wasn't [...]
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    Posted: March 06, 2008, 8:52pm EST

  • Artisanal Manhattans

    After years of being a gin martini man, the Manhattan has become my New Favorite Cocktail. Recently, I tried my hand at crafting my own "house" versions of Manhattan mixin's -- sweet vermouth and the requisite cocktail cherry. For the vermouth, I followed the guidance offered at the "Art of [...]
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    Posted: March 06, 2008, 9:50pm EST

  • Presidential Video Duel

    At first, I decided to support Obama because I really liked him, not because I had anything against Hillary. Over the last few weeks, however, as Hillary has become more desperate, I have started to actively dislike her. Take, for example, her fear-mongering new ad that begins "It's 3 am [...]
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    Posted: March 01, 2008, 8:58pm EST

  • Friday Bookmarks: February 29, 2008 (Video Edition)

    So, there's this web site called YouTube and they have all these cool videos, OMG! Friday Bookmarks: February 29, 2008 (Video Edition)... [...]
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    Posted: February 29, 2008, 12:21pm EST

  • Bark on This

    Holy crap. I just called the cops on a neighbor's barking dog. What's next? Where are some kids I can yell at to get off my lawn? What the hell is happening to me? OK, seriously, this is (and has been) an annoying fucking dog. I should rephrase that: it [...]
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    Posted: February 28, 2008, 7:25pm EST

  • Wait Wait, It's Barack Obama

    A couple years ago, I heard Barack Obama on NPR's amusing news quiz/comedy show, "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me" and I recall at the time thinking "Man, this guy is so funny, it'd be awesome if he were President!" So, if that ends up happening, you have me to [...]
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    Posted: February 27, 2008, 6:56pm EST

  • 2008 Oscar Postmortem

    Consistent with the overall downward trajectory of my Oscar-picking abilities, the accuracy of my predictions was pretty pathetic this year. On the "Correct" side, we have: Best Picture Best Actor Best Director(s) Best Adapted Screenplay Best Original Screenplay Best Animated Film Best Score Best Short Animated Film Best Short Live [...]
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    Posted: February 25, 2008, 7:18am EST

  • Friday Bookmarks: February 22, 2008

    A random sampling of interesting web sites I found this week. Friday Bookmarks... [...]
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    Posted: February 22, 2008, 7:13am EST

  • The Songs in My Head

    Most every morning I wake up with a song in my head. It's rarely something that I've heard recently, and I don't always remember it after I get going, but lately I've been making an effort to pay attention. Here are the last five songs my brain has inexplicably greeted [...]
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    Posted: February 21, 2008, 5:06pm EST

  • Lunar Eclipse

    Ray and I drove around Seattle tonight looking for the best vantage point from which to view the lunar eclipse. Only after we got home did we discover that the best view was from our driveway, which is from where this photo was taken. Of course, I explained to Ray [...]
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    Posted: February 20, 2008, 8:00pm EST

  • 2008 Oscar Predictions

    Man, those Academy Awards are right around the corner -- the curtain goes up this Sunday at 5 PT/8 ET. I thought I had a little more time to fully contemplate the Oscar Buzz™ but, alas, I fear I had to make some hasty picks. Nonetheless, here they are (after [...]
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    Posted: February 20, 2008, 6:21pm EST

  • Stating the Opposite

    There's a new catchphrase of sorts circulating throughout the hallowed halls of my workplace. In the context of organizational planning and its related activities (development of mission statements, guiding principles, etc.) the popular axiom goes something like: Take the opposite of your statement, and if it's absurd, then the original [...]
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    Posted: February 18, 2008, 8:15am EST

  • Friday Bookmarks

    A random sampling of interesting web sites I found this week. Friday Bookmarks NOTE: 2008-02-15 15:21 -- I'm having trouble connecting to del.icio.us so the Friday Bookmarks aren't showing up for me. Maybe it's just me. But if there's nothing listed above, try again later. The problem seems to have [...]
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    Posted: February 15, 2008, 10:56am EST

  • My Nephew

    This is a hilarious clip of my 10-month-old nephew, Kevin, whom I have not met yet. Thanks to my sister for sharing it. There's nothing more hilarious than a baby laughing.... [...]
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    Posted: February 14, 2008, 8:49pm EST

  • Alternative Candy-Eating Practices

    Yesterday, I discovered a kindred spirit on Craigslist. No, it wasn't in the "Dating" or "Casual Encounters" section. It was under "Best of Craigslist" (who knew Craigslist has a "Best of" section?!). The author of this post describes his/her method of eating M&M's: Whenever I get a package of plain [...]
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    Posted: February 14, 2008, 5:54pm EST

  • Casting Stones

    One story in the bible that I always wondered about is the one in which Jesus saves a woman from being stoned by telling the crowd: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:3-11). I always wondered (somewhat snarkily) why Jesus [...]
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    Posted: February 12, 2008, 6:37pm EST

  • My Retirement Options

    Friday night, we were driving back from dinner and there was a brief lull in the conversation. After a moment, Ray announced from the backseat: "Daddy, when you retire, you can do the work of reporting broken street lights to the city." The background on this is that we have [...]
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    Posted: February 10, 2008, 10:15am EST

  • 2008 Washington Caucus Report

    An estimated 700 people turned out to our local caucus at Whittier Elementary School this afternoon. From the reports of folks I talked to who have caucused here in the past, the turnout was amazingly high. I have no idea how many they expected, but they clearly were not prepared [...]
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    Posted: February 09, 2008, 7:16pm EST

  • Obama-rama

    Every year, I take my birthday off from work. Since it falls on a Saturday this year (today!), I took yesterday off, and planned a series of excursions with Amy. Then Obama announced he was coming to Seattle. Amy's a big fan of Obama, and has been for a while [...]
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    Posted: February 09, 2008, 9:43am EST

  • Quiz Answer

    The answer to the FridayQuiz is: They were all born on February 9. February 9 has to be one of the most inauspicious days of the 365.25 we enjoy each year. In addition to Ms. Miranda, Mr. Veeck, and President Harrison, I could have listed newscaster Roger Mudd, singer Ernest [...]
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    Posted: February 09, 2008, 6:03am EST

  • Friday Bookmarks

    A random sampling of interesting web sites I found this week. Friday Bookmarks... [...]
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    Posted: February 08, 2008, 2:39pm EST

  • Friday Quiz

    What do the following people have in common? Carmen Miranda Brazilian samba singer and motion picture star from the 1940's. Bill Veeck Flamboyant owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns, and Chicago White Sox. William Henry Harrison Ninth president of the United States. Died after 31 days in office. [...]
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    Posted: February 08, 2008, 6:15am EST

  • Washington Democratic Caucus

    In many ways, Washington state is unique in the Republic, and the way we handle our presidential primaries is no exception. We have both a caucus (coming up this Saturday, February 9) and a ballot-based primary election (February 19). The Republicans (boo! hiss!) will count the results from both. The [...]
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    Posted: February 07, 2008, 9:06am EST

  • No Consequences

    During my first year as a graduate student, I encountered the book Against Theory, which includes the eponymous 1982 essay by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels as well as an array of responses to their pragmatist screed. For those of you lucky enough to have escaped the intellectual vortex [...]
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    Posted: February 07, 2008, 9:31pm EST

  • Friday Bookmarks

    A random sampling of interesting web sites I found this week. Friday Bookmarks... [...]
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    Posted: February 01, 2008, 9:03am EST

  • Lego Taxonomy

    According to the LEGO web site January 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the patent filed for LEGO blocks. Ray got his first "real" (i.e. not Duplo) Lego set for Christmas, and we've since added on a couple sets and some open-stock blocks from the LEGO store in Bellevue Mall [...]
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    Posted: January 28, 2008, 5:24pm EST

  • Friday Bookmarks

    A random sampling of interesting web sites I found this week. Friday Bookmarks... [...]
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    Posted: January 25, 2008, 10:10am EST

  • And the Nominees Are... (Oscar 2008)

    I was awakened at 4:30 this morning by a call from the 562 area code — Los Angeles! I didn’t answer the phone, but maybe it was someone from the Academy trying to get me down to the nomination ceremony at the last minute. Or maybe it was a devastated [...]
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    Posted: January 22, 2008, 8:17am EST

  • 2008 Oscar Nominations

    For the uninitiated: In the late nineties and early part of the oughts, I annually hosted a lavish party for the Academy Awards, the centerpiece of which was a contest to predict the winners (I know; this is not terribly original, but it was fun). I traditionally have been quite [...]
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    Posted: January 21, 2008, 7:22pm EST

  • The New Old Phone Handset

    Of all the things my AT&T 8525 is good at -- email, text messaging, task management, game playing, photo taking (well, it kinda sucks at photo taking) -- it's really not very good at actually being a phone. It's not just the silly on-screen dialpad, which is less than responsive [...]
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    Posted: January 15, 2008, 6:42pm EST

  • Treaty of Tripoli

    Huh. I had never heard of this before. [Via Lacrimae Rerum.] From Treaty of Tripoli - Wikipedia The Treaty of Tripoli ... was a 1796 peace treaty between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary. [snip] Article 11 reads: As the Government of [...]
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    Posted: January 04, 2008, 4:40pm EST

  • Winter Solstice

    For the last two years, we've taken Ray to a Winter Solstice festival at Seattle Center (by the Space Needle). The event celebrates the end of long winter nights and the beginning of the gradual re-emergence of the sun. There are a couple dozen performers, including four female dancers who [...]
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    Posted: January 04, 2008, 9:43pm EST

  • Tied Up

    Over the years of working in IT, I have developed a phobia about cords. USB cables, power cords, headphones ... whatever. My heart starts racing and my breathing becomes labored whenever I have to deal with them. Why? Because they always end up tangled in ways that seem to defy [...]
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    Posted: December 31, 2007, 2:36pm EST

  • Hummingbirds in Winter

    One of the main reasons Amy and I moved to Seattle was for the climate of the Pacific Northwest. I had never known a life without four seasons before relocating, and I am constantly amazed at the difference a more temperate environment makes in overall quality of life. Not everyone [...]
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    Posted: December 21, 2007, 7:14am EST

  • Book Fetish

    [B]ooks have been turned into databases. They are no longer texts to be read, understood, pondered, and possibly enjoyed, meditated upon, or discussed but files containing data. As texts are turned into pixels, books have become simultaneously images and index: collections of photographs of pages and of disconnected units that [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2007, 8:19pm EST

  • Hassle Free

    Every now and then, Amy's not paying attention and I'm able to jimmy the lock she keeps on the basement door, get a hold of some tools, and start working on a "simple" home improvement project. Sometimes everything works out OK, like the other day's wall sconce project. But more [...]
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    Posted: December 01, 2007, 7:41pm EST

  • No Smarter Than a Hippie

    My parents tell this story about me when I was probably four or five. One day, John the Hippie who lived next door was out in his backyard trying to repair a blown bicycle tube on his 10-speed. I went over there to "help" as I enjoyed talking to John [...]
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    Posted: November 28, 2007, 8:06am EST

  • What's He Building in There?

    Here is Ray's new favorite song, Tom Waits' "What's He Building in There?" OK, so it's borderline (or maybe wholly) inappropriate for a four-year-old, but he requests it and he doesn't seem at all disturbed by it. Today he called it "a funny song" so maybe he gets the humor.... [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2007, 9:19am EST

  • Bah, Humbug

    One of my first assignments on my high school newspaper ("The Tower Tribune") was to write a review of "Santa Claus: The Movie," which I passionately hated and gave a 3 out of 10 following a snide and scathing dressing down. Apart from "A Christmas Story" and the Alastair Sim [...]
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    Posted: November 12, 2007, 7:22am EST

  • Quite Handy with the Ladies

    Amy went to a fund-raising auction at Ray's school last night. It was apparently quite a scene. She won a color consultation and six hours of professional painting services, so it looks like our bedroom will finally be getting painted. Other items we had our eyes on, such as mosaic [...]
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    Posted: November 11, 2007, 10:08am EST

  • Losing My Mind

    For the last several years, I have been gradually building up this inordinately complex, highly sophisticated Excel spreadsheet to track every last aspect of my personal finances. All my investments, all my expenses, all my tax liabilities, even projections into the next couple years ... everything. With one keystroke, I [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2007, 6:09pm EST

  • Chopping Celery

    Today, Ray and I made some hors d'oeuvre for an auction happening at his school tonight. We mixed up mayonnaise and buttermilk, added chopped up sun-dried tomatoes and grated smoked gouda cheese, threw in some paprika and spread the mixture into some celery sticks. Yum. It occurred to me afterward [...]
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    Posted: November 10, 2007, 1:03pm EST

  • Movie Madness

    My friend Kate recently alerted me to a campaign organized by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (no, I'm not linking to them) to boycott/protest the upcoming fantasy film "The Golden Compass" because -- according to them -- it has an "objective to bash Christianity and promote atheism. [...]
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    Posted: November 08, 2007, 7:55am EST

  • Stung

    The Police's "Synchronicity II" cycled up on one of my car CD's the other day, which caused both me and Ray to seriously rock out (Ray: "He just said 'Dark Scottish lake!'"). After the CD ended, I toggled over to the radio where I heard a few bars of Sting's [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2007, 8:38am EST

  • Cloud Nine

    Some co-workers of mine and I went to see a production of the play "Cloud 9" at the Balagan Theatre in Capitol Hill last night. It happens to star an insanely talented woman named Juniper, who I've been happily getting to know lately. It's always fun to see a friend [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2007, 11:45pm EDT

  • Amateur Security

    I was pretty excited to get to see Bruce Schneier at the Educause 2007 conference here in Seattle a couple weeks ago. I've been a regular reader of his blog for a couple years now and I respect his broad-minded view on both information technology and general security. A couple [...]
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    Posted: November 04, 2007, 9:11pm EDT

  • Emmy

    My strictly self-rationed TV consumption is up to three shows now: The Office, 30 Rock, and, of course, America's Next Top Model. I am disappointed that 30 Rock is pre-empted tonight by something called Earl so I'm watching 30 Rock clips on NBC.com in protest. From last week: if Alec [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2007, 9:57pm EDT

  • The Millihelen

    Ray and I are paving the area next to our driveway. Yesterday and today, we dug out the trench; tomorrow, we go get the bricks and set them in. He's really into this, and was actually quite a big help today with his little shovel and his willingness to do [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2007, 9:49pm EDT

  • The Final Cut

    The "Final Cut" edition of my favorite movie, Blade Runner, is playing at the Seattle Cinerama, and I was there to behold it last night on the Very Big Screen in all its digitally remastered and directorially tweaked glory. I first encountered the movie on cable. I didn't see it [...]
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    Posted: October 31, 2007, 2:12pm EDT

  • Childbirth

    Last week, at a leadership workshop, I got up in front of a room full of people to discuss my "leadership journey." I related one point I was trying to make to the experience of watching Ray being born, and I couldn't even get through the damn sentence before I [...]
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    Posted: October 23, 2007, 8:37pm EDT

  • Jim is Bothered by Facebook

    I've been getting more and more into Facebook lately. A growing number of my friends and colleagues are on it, and I've gotten to know some people better, I think, as a result of observing their online activities and periodic status updates. I also realize that my ass wasn't getting [...]
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    Posted: October 23, 2007, 11:00pm EDT

  • I Mean, You Know

    Lately, I've been observing more and more people using the punctuating phrase "I mean" with increasing frequency. It was particularly notable during a workshop I just attended; the "I mean" speakers hailed from all parts of the country and included both native and non-native English speakers. I don't recall having [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2007, 10:17am EDT

  • I Think I'd Rather Misbehave

    I'm obsessed with this song right now. "Dirty Laundry" by Bitter:Sweet. (The video is static; just listen to it.)... [...]
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    Posted: October 19, 2007, 2:06pm EDT

  • Blade Runner: The Musical

    With so many of my favorite movies getting turned into lavish stage productions ("Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Young Frankenstein," "The Producers"), I figure it's only a matter of time until the American musical theater apparatus sucks more fine films into its downward spiral. I might as well try [...]
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    Posted: October 15, 2007, 8:40am EDT

  • Chef Jim

    After I finished college, I stood at a veritable crossroads. The path I took led to graduate school in film studies at the University of Iowa; the other -- the path not traveled -- to the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. Last night, from a stool at the bar [...]
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    Posted: October 14, 2007, 10:55am EDT

  • Baby Food

    We were lucky in that we avoided most packaged "baby food" with Ray. He seemed to like actual people food pretty early on, so apart from the occasional jar of Earth's Best mushed-up lentils, we dealt mostly with avocados, fruit, beans, and fish. Therefore, I had absolutely no context for [...]
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    Posted: October 13, 2007, 2:30pm EDT

  • Emotional Inventory

    A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.Hannibel Lecter, Silence of the Lambs If there's one thing I hate worse than getting "quantified" by some personality test, it's the personality test getting me right. Over the years, I've [...]
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    Posted: October 13, 2007, 9:24pm EDT

  • Lenses

    Leadership textbooks talk about the need to apply three different "lenses" when analyzing or interacting with aspects of an organization. Typically, the lenses are described as "strategic," "cultural," and "political." I keep getting encouraged to "pull out the political lens." My glass-is-half-full interpretation of that is that I seem to [...]
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    Posted: October 12, 2007, 3:10pm EDT

  • Luxury!

    When I was a lad, one of my family's favorite Monty Python skits was "The Four Yorkshiremen," which the troupe only performed as part of their live show. In it, four wealthy men sit around and reminisce about the good old days when they were poor, and each tries to [...]
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    Posted: October 11, 2007, 10:31pm EDT

  • Happy Butt

    My Herman Miller Mirra chair arrived today. My butt is so happy. I don't want to stand up. This chair kicks the Aeron's ass.... [...]
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    Posted: October 10, 2007, 1:37pm EDT

  • Are Smart People Overrated?

    Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone."But which is the stone that supports the bridge?" Kublai Khan asks."The bridge is not supported by one stone or another," Marco answers, "but by the line of the arch that they form."Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: "Why do you [...]
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    Posted: October 07, 2007, 11:51am EDT

  • My Cranky Sub-Culture

    Sam Harris recently spoke to the Atheist Alliance in which he argued that using the term "atheist" is a mistake. I think that “atheist” is a term that we do not need, in the same way that we don’t need a word for someone who rejects astrology. We simply do [...]
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    Posted: October 06, 2007, 9:14am EDT

  • Iron and Sugar

    Amy and I never got married because we're all counter-cultural and stuff. But, six years ago tomorrow, we held a "commitment celebration" with family and friends in Capitola, CA. Our friend Adele says that doing so made us "honorary lesbians." And so, October 6 is the closest thing we have [...]
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    Posted: October 05, 2007, 9:50am EDT

  • Minty Dilemma

    Let's assume I have a roll of breath mints -- the ones with Retsin. I offer you one. Do I say "Would you like a Cert?" or "Would you like a Certs?" Discuss.... [...]
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    Posted: October 05, 2007, 8:51am EDT

  • Or Some Shit

    Overheard on campus: Dude 1: Have you heard of Cen-Par?Dude 2:What?Dude 1: Center for Nuclear Particle Research, or some shit. Is it just me, or is the phrase "or some shit" misplaced when referring to a national nuclear research lab? I can understand: "She was talkin' to me all about [...]
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    Posted: October 04, 2007, 3:02pm EDT

  • I've Seen Things You People Wouldn't Believe

    Throughout my life I have striven to avoid becoming a cliché. I haven't always been successful (black-haired, eye-linered, pierced-ear goth phase, anyone?) but I am always mindful of the forces in my life that seek to pull me into categories that allow a simplistic definition or label. I'd rather be [...]
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    Posted: October 01, 2007, 9:41pm EDT

  • Salumi Salami

    Amy loves pigs. Just adores them. She'd have a pet pig if she were any less practical-minded (or if we had a fenced-in back yard). As a direct result of her porcine preferences, we, as a family, don't eat pork. Never touch the stuff. It really wasn't too hard for [...]
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    Posted: September 30, 2007, 3:39pm EDT
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