Seventeen years ago, I spent a month in the People’s Republic of China on a youth tour. There were 40 Western teens — mostly from the United States — and 20 Chinese teens on the tour. We travelled together for a month, from Beijing down through Shandong Province; we climbed Tai Shan, drifted along the Huang He by boat, stayed in Wuhan for a few days, and finally wound up in Shanghai. It was an amazing experience. ...
My lovely sweetheart is going to be in Boston from January 20th to January 30th or so; the first weekend we’ll be mostly down on the Cape, but other than that we’re free. I’m still gonna be working that week, which means offers of daytime company would certainly be appreciated. Also we probably oughta do a dinner Monday night or something like that. Who’s in?
Someone in my family who will remain nameless for soon to be apparent reasons got me a T-shirt for Christmas. Kinda. It looks a lot like this. Except he didn’t buy it from threadless.com. He downloaded the image, printed it onto transfer paper, and ironed it onto a blank T-shirt. So I’m horrified, right? Intellectual property, the ability to profit from creativity, etc. I’d buy one except that design is sold out. But I’m also tremendously amused. Talk about your remix culture. This particular family member is like fifteen years old. He didn’t even think twice about getting the T-shirt that way. Immediate satisfaction, no wait time. ...
With the arrival of the Doctor Demento Show Archive (original), I can now point to show #91-19, from May 12th, 1991. The number one song on the Doctor Demento Funny Five that day was “Give Peaks A Chance,” from DJ Glazed Donut and The Knotted Cherry Stems. “Give Peaks A Chance” was on the Funny Five for four weeks straight, beginning the week after it was played for the first time. It was #12 on the year-end rankings. ...
Long distance relationships have gotten a lot easier since I was in college. It’s all technology, right? But I cast my mind back, and I remember when phone calls were a huge deal. You had to ration them, because there’s nothing you want more than to talk to your girlfriend for a long, long time, but an hour of phone conversation is awfully expensive. Ramen or voice contact. Hard choice. So you get a call a week, maybe two, and you have to keep it reasonably short, and letters are very nice but not quite the same. ...
Huh.
More gratuitous photos of my vacation follow. Follow links for bigger versions, etc. Warning: warm blue water ahead.
For the record, this is the front door of my villa: This is the view from the deck: And this is the beach. Follow the links for bigger pictures. Having a great time; wish you were here!
My drive to work today took three and a half hours. This snow…
I admit it: the lure of a free Mac mini led me to take a peek at Freeminimacs.com (original). The deal is that you sign up for one of several offers via their site, and you get ten of your friends to do the same thing, and you get a free Mac mini out of it. Presumably your friends go out and do the same, and so on. The economics of this seem to make sense — it’s your basic pyramid scheme, but less objectionable because the upfront cost of getting involved is minimized. The percentage of people who complete the offer is fairly low (original), while the people behind it are making money on everyone who starts the process. So, sure, for a free Mac mini I was willing to give ‘em my email address. My spam filter is mighty. ...