The sun today was enough to make me want to go out and take pictures. However, I didn’t get around to doing that. Or much else, for that matter.
So instead, here is a picture I took the other day using Bookdwarf’s new MacBook Pro and the “PhotoBooth” application with the bulge effect:
It sort of reminds me of the movies Delicatessen and Spirited Away. Yeah, sure, it’s creepy-looking, but also quizzical.
I love Slate’s features on obscure economic indicators, and by now I feel like I know a good one when I see it: computer book sales are up.
According to the detailed analysis, I’d better start writing about C# instead of Linux desktops.
It helps to have a sense of humor about marketing writing. For example, Lagunitas Brewing Company has the following written on their promotional beer coasters: “This unique lovely and dlightful adult style beverage can be used directly from the glass to remove stubborn grease stains and it also dobules as a refreshing dessert topping! Any intentional misuse of this product or concentratino and inhaling (“huffing”) of its vapors is dangerous and can lead to permanent health effects.”
I can’t seem to find video of the classic Saturday Night Live commercial about Shimmer, the floor wax/dessert topping, but you get the idea. Brilliant marketing aimed at people staring into their beers in bars.
It’s a shame I don’t actually like India Pale Ale.
Sunday I went to dinner at the lovely home of the lovely Vieve and there was ham, and Bookdwarf made pie. And yesterday for both breakfast and lunch I had ham and pie. I also ran four miles, so I felt that I deserved it.
The work search is humming nicely, and I hope to leave the rolls of the unemployed before the start of May.
I can’t stop listening to Wolf Parade. Specifically the one that goes:
I’ll build a house inside of you
I’ll go in through the mouth
I’ll draw three figures on your heart
One of them will be me as a boy and one of them will be me,
and one of them will be me watching you run
watching you run into the high noon sun
watching you run farther than guns will go
You are a runner with a stolen voice
You are a runner and I am my father’s son.
I think the song is about the decision to honorably stay abd face one’s fate, or flee it.
I had hoped that Boston WTF would be about transport gaffes, confusing local customs, and so forth. Just like The Daily WTF is all about stupid crap done in the name of software development.
But WTF stands for Web Technology Forum, and it’s all about Boston-area web startups and their cool technologies. Kind of a letdown but also worth reading in its own way.
My brother sent me a t-shirt in the mail this week: 
Today, I learned something about parking. You do not need a resident permit to park a motorcycle in Cambridge or Somerville. You do, however, need to park on the street. Parking on the sidewalk will get you a $30 ticket.
Well, look at El Salvador, where some women are currently serving prison sentences of up to 30 years for having abortions.
There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus — the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor’s office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women…
Forensic vagina inspectors?
There are many, many reasons to buy used motorcycles, but the most relevant one today is that I’m neither skilled nor experienced as a rider. I dropped the bike within fifteen minutes. Not crashed, mind you: I was practicing with the clutch in a parking lot, and stalled and dropped it on its side from a standstill. The end of the front brake lever snapped off, which would have been heartbreaking if it were a new bike. As it was, I figure this has to be at least the fourth or fifth brake lever it’s been through. You can see the broken bit in the picture– still plenty left to break off next time.
The SV650 is heavier than Megan’s Suzuki Savage, which has the same size engine. It also carries its weight a little higher, which could be a more significant problem. I suppose I’ll have to get used to it. I certainly am going to have to get used to the amount of power it has– it gets to 70 in 4th gear with almost no effort, never getting even a third of the way to redline.
The only other significant issue is the sound. Because the previous owner put on an aftermarket exhaust, it’s loud. Not criminally loud, but certainly not something I’d want my neighbor to be firing up every morning on his way to work. In the word of the sales-dude, “that v-twin with the yosh exhaust sounds like the balls, dood.”
PS, if you buy a bike at Cycles 128 or Greater Boston Motorsports, tell them we sent you. We get $25 in accessories if you do.
Secretly Ironic 