Leaving on a jet plane
Posted 09 Jun, 2006 at 11:01 by wendy in /World | Permanent link
Strangely this will be the first time I've been on a trans-atlantic flight all by myself. There's something about the fact that I'm going to spend all night travelling and arrive tomorrow morning at what feels like 4AM and need to negotiate customs all by myself, and then figure out how to get to my hotel, and probably discover that they won't let me check in until after lunch (which is going to feel like breakfast), and then I'm going to have to find something to do for several hours while massively sleep deprived, that kinda freaks me out. Hopefully the hotel lobby will have big comfy chairs and not mind me passing out in one of them...
I guess I'm better off than my roommate. She won't be arriving until 3am. It will be interesting to see whether or not I actually get my room because it's her name on the reservation (they've assured us repeated that this will not be a problem...but then these are the same people who told her to "Call back tomorrow mornign at 9am, so&so will be here for sure then" only to discover that 'tomorrow' was a national holiday...so we'll see). Worst case I've got the address of a hostel around the corner.
I'm probably worrying about this way too much. Time to go get on the plane, once I'm in the air and can no longer actually do anything about the situation I'll stop worrying :)
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The Music Genome
Posted 27 Feb, 2006 at 09:57 by wendy in /Music | Permanent link
I don't think anyone has mentioned Pandora here yet. It's like a radio station where you train it by telling it what you like and don't like, except that instead of basing its recommendations on what other people who like the same songs like, they've actually gone through and classified songs, so you don't just wind up with the most popular stuff.
It's also pretty smart in that it doesn't ask you to register until you've listened to a few songs first. I suspect that more sites will start doing this, suck you in by letting you use their product for a while and then ask for your personal info. Pretty slick actually. Apparently the free version has advertising, but I didn't see any yesterday so maybe they haven't found advertisers yet. Honestly, this is one of the few things I've found on the web that I might consider paying for.
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Because smaller is better
Posted 28 Nov, 2005 at 12:40 by wendy in /Chatter | Permanent link
Check out the new iPod Zepto. Even smaller than the Nano...you may have some trouble locating it. This reminds me of the Onion's article on 5 bladed razors several years ago...
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Bravia commercial
Posted 29 Oct, 2005 at 08:53 by wendy in /MovingPictures | Permanent link
So, usually I don't link videos...but this one is worth it. What happens when you let 250,000 superballs go free, on a hilly street in San Fran? This. Enjoy
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Quiche
Posted 27 Oct, 2005 at 07:56 by wendy in /FoodDrink | Permanent link
As a result of a long series of mishaps, mostly involving a grocery store and their lack of pizza crusts, I wound up making quiche the other day, entirely at random, which turned out really well, so I thought I'd share.
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How do you wake up in the morning?
Posted 25 Oct, 2005 at 09:14 by wendy in /Home | Permanent link
This guy has a really interesting suggestion for using two alarm clocks to wake yourself up, the first one is very quiet and the second is just a backup. Personally I've never really needed the backup alarm, I usually find that a very quiet alarm is enough to wake me, and has the advantage of waking you up slowly if you're very deeply asleep. Sky manages to set his alarm for 30 minutes before he actually wants to get up, goes back to sleep, and then actually wakes up in 30 minutes. This does not work for me...if I go back to sleep after the alarm goes off, I'm asleep for hours. OTOH, he doesn't generally wake up to my really quiet alarm...How do you guys use alarm clocks?
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The Internet is for Porn
Posted 25 Oct, 2005 at 09:04 by wendy in /Chatter | Permanent link
I'm sure that you all already know that The Internet is for Porn. But I'll bet you didn't expect to hear Cookie Monster singing about it! You'll need to have the sound turned on for this...not entirely worksafe (unless your coworkers have a good sense of humor).
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What is Science Fiction anyway?
Posted 22 Oct, 2005 at 08:09 by wendy in /MovingPictures | Permanent link
So there's always been this big question about how to distinguish Science Fiction from Fantasy.
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The commandments of coyote
Posted 08 Oct, 2005 at 08:30 by wendy in /World | Permanent link
Coyote is the trickster of Native American lore. Then someone asked the question "What would the ten commandments look like if they'd been written by Coyote?", and this fellow came up with an absolutely brilliant answer.
I especially like this one:
VIV. Assume This Is It. Maybe There Is Reincarnation; Maybe Not. Not Only Am I Not Saying, Please Consider the Fact That I Probably Get A Say In Whether You Come Back, and If You Are the Sort Of Person Who Doesn't Do Anything With One Life, Why Should I Waste My Time Giving You Another One? Live Like You Get No Second Chances. You Will Have More Fun.
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Modern Fantasy Novels
Posted 08 Oct, 2005 at 08:19 by wendy in /Books | Permanent link
I like Neil Gaiman's description of a lot of modern fantasy:
"When Tolkien published "The Lord of the Rings," those were books, published as books. There weren't "Fantasy" shelves because there was no genre...Once people realized there was a genre, they started "doing" other people, doing Tolkien. They became faint photocopies. You get these great big books which are set in a medieval kingdom that is basically somebody's impression of what they liked about Tolkien, combined with what they enjoyed about playing Dungeons and Dragons as a high schooler. "
The whole interview is on Salon, includes Susanna Clarke, and is quite entertaining.
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Library Thing
Posted 16 Sep, 2005 at 09:33 by wendy in /Books | Permanent link
I know that at least one of you has put together a catalogue of all your books. Now someone has built LibraryThing to let you keep your catalogue online. Even better, instead of entering all the book info manually, you can use search terms and it will search Library of Congress as well as Amazon (and a few others I think), then let you select the book you're referring to from the search results. Or you can enter the info manually. You can set your catalogue to be public or private, so your friends can find out what books you have. Add comments so you know if you liked something or not...or add a comment that it's currently on loan to a friend.
I suspect I'm going to be using this...they let you enter 200 books free, then there's a $10 fee for a lifetime membership which seems really quite reasonable, you'd pay more than that for software which would have less functionality.
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How did New Orleans arrange to be lower than sea level anyway?
Posted 01 Sep, 2005 at 12:20 by wendy in /History | Permanent link
Unsurprisingly this topic came up the other day. It didn't seem very likely that the city has been sinking, and yet, how exactly would you go about building a coastal city that was beneath sea level anyway? And why on earth would you do something like this? Doesn't it just seem insane? And just what is a levee anyway? Turns out that Wikipedia has the answers to these questions and more.
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How NOT to take a picture of your cat
Posted 26 Aug, 2005 at 14:11 by wendy in /Chatter | Permanent link
Warning, this link contains some (apparently accidental) nudity. See how long it takes you to spot it :)
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Books to buy
Posted 22 Aug, 2005 at 12:55 by wendy in /Books | Permanent link
Usually I'm very responsible about buying new books. I mean, mostly I can get whatever I want from the library without spending any money, or needing to find a place to store it after I'm done reading it. So generally speaking, if I read a review of a book that sounds interesting I get a copy from the library...and then if I fall in love with it after having read it, I'll actually buy a copy. Then every so often I read a review like this one of Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out. and just decide that I need this book, as soon as possible, and I really don't want to wait until the library decides whether or not to order it in. I mean, seriously, with a title like that...and the introduction which you can read on the site I've linked, who wouldn't want a copy? Yeah ok, probably most of you aren't interested...but sometimes I need books and I need them now. Plus the fact that I'm trying to cut back on time spent at the keyboard so that my hands will get better might have something to do with impulse buying books...but maybe I shouldn't be doing that over the internet and then blogging about it. Bad Wendy.
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Ask Your Doctor
Posted 14 Aug, 2005 at 14:29 by wendy in /Chatter | Permanent link
You know all those ads they have on TV that show people involved in some activity...and you can't quite figure out what the ad is for (like most of the best ads), and then it ends in "Ask your doctor about (insert name of very expensive drug here)". Well, here is the (hopefully satirical) transcript of the conversation with your doctor.
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26 Things Photographic Scavenger Hunt
Posted 20 Jul, 2005 at 08:59 by wendy in /Arts | Permanent link
Some of you have likely heard of 26 Things before, but just in case you haven't...it looks like it could be quite entertaining. I'm likely too busy at the moment to participate, but if any of you do, please send me a link to your photos!
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Whimsy
Posted 10 Jul, 2005 at 12:51 by wendy in /Arts | Permanent link
Outside my window
Perched on a hilltop - A Crane
Assembling itself
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RocketMan & The WestBound Kid
Posted 04 Jul, 2005 at 10:19 by wendy in /Chatter | Permanent link
This was how our subway driver introduced himself the other night. I think he's working on a standup routine or something because it was pretty funny...and not too over the top.
What's the strangest thing you've ever heard a public transit driver say?
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Life at Low Reynolds number
Posted 26 Jun, 2005 at 10:06 by wendy in /Science | Permanent link
Here'a a lovely transcript of a talk given back in 1976 about how the world works if the medium you're moving through is more like molasses than air or water. Life at low Reynolds number
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Zork Wiki
Posted 12 Jun, 2005 at 21:04 by wendy in /Games | Permanent link
If you've ever played Zork, or any other text based adventure game, these fine folks have created the Zork Wiki. For those unfamiliar with the concepts here, a wiki is a website which is editable by anyone, all you need to do is click a button and you're allowed to modify the text. If you've never played a text based adventure game...this one won't make much sense, but wikis in general are very cool.