so DCist reported that the Going Out Gurus have started a blog. The GoGs (as they are called on the Washington Post's website) are a bunch of Post staffers who do a weekly chat called "Got Plans?" about entertainment stuff in the DC area, it's pretty useful. They talk about bars, restaurants, concerts, day-trips, etc. I usually read it, and sometimes they take my tips, which is cool. I'll be reading the blog.
And also, thanks to Kyle of Information Leafblower for linking to this here site. Check out his blog: music, basketball, etc. Sounds familiar, eh?
2/16/2005
2/15/2005
so here are some interesting geography-related news bits I've found recently.
I wrote about Google Maps a little while ago. Right on cue, Microsoft came out with their own competing product, called Mappoint. However, Mappoint has some problems. You'd think that if the directions "take the Channel Tunnel to England" pop up in directions for Norway, Microsoft people might be concerned.
And in other news, it looks like some Alaskans are thinking of moving their capital from Juneau to somewhere more centrally located. I guess this makes some sense, since Juneau is really remote and is inaccessible by car, as a lot people learned in school. Interestingly, the capital of Alaska was already moved once, from Sitka to Juneau in 1906 because the whale trade in Sitka was drying up (according to Wikipedia). Today, Juneau is very far from the main population concentrations in Fairbanks and Anchorage. Some people like this isolation, though, because it at least symbolically separates the government from big business interests in the large cities. Lots of other states have their capitals located outside the main cities, like Missouri, New York, and Illinois, where their capitals aren't in St. Louis, New York City, or Chicago. However, those state capitals (Jefferson City, Albany, and Springfield) are a lot more centrally located than Juneau is. So I guess it's hit or miss. I think the idea of moving the legislature to somewhere more accesible but keeping the rest in Juneau is interesting. Like in Bolivia!
And a few days ago, DCist wrote a piece on the "American Meridian." Back in the 1800s, instead of using the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England (where 0 degrees longitude is), the U.S. made their own meridian 24th St NW in DC. Thus, DC was at 0 degrees longitude. The DCist piece talks about a plaque that the George Washington University put at 24th and H to memorialize the meridian. I used to walk past that plaque a lot because my dorm was on the same corner. And in a weird little related factoid, Xi'an, an ancient capital of China, is exactly halfway around the world (180 degrees longitude) from DC, and at the exact same latitude (north-south location) as DC. Kooky.
I wrote about Google Maps a little while ago. Right on cue, Microsoft came out with their own competing product, called Mappoint. However, Mappoint has some problems. You'd think that if the directions "take the Channel Tunnel to England" pop up in directions for Norway, Microsoft people might be concerned.
And in other news, it looks like some Alaskans are thinking of moving their capital from Juneau to somewhere more centrally located. I guess this makes some sense, since Juneau is really remote and is inaccessible by car, as a lot people learned in school. Interestingly, the capital of Alaska was already moved once, from Sitka to Juneau in 1906 because the whale trade in Sitka was drying up (according to Wikipedia). Today, Juneau is very far from the main population concentrations in Fairbanks and Anchorage. Some people like this isolation, though, because it at least symbolically separates the government from big business interests in the large cities. Lots of other states have their capitals located outside the main cities, like Missouri, New York, and Illinois, where their capitals aren't in St. Louis, New York City, or Chicago. However, those state capitals (Jefferson City, Albany, and Springfield) are a lot more centrally located than Juneau is. So I guess it's hit or miss. I think the idea of moving the legislature to somewhere more accesible but keeping the rest in Juneau is interesting. Like in Bolivia!
And a few days ago, DCist wrote a piece on the "American Meridian." Back in the 1800s, instead of using the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England (where 0 degrees longitude is), the U.S. made their own meridian 24th St NW in DC. Thus, DC was at 0 degrees longitude. The DCist piece talks about a plaque that the George Washington University put at 24th and H to memorialize the meridian. I used to walk past that plaque a lot because my dorm was on the same corner. And in a weird little related factoid, Xi'an, an ancient capital of China, is exactly halfway around the world (180 degrees longitude) from DC, and at the exact same latitude (north-south location) as DC. Kooky.
2/14/2005
jumbo2
so it looks like one of the Jumbo Slices in Adams Morgan was closed down for a day for health code violations. It says debris and unclean surfaces. Here's my guess, and I've seen this happen: There was a fight on the sidewalk that pushed its way into the store. An employee jumped up on the counter and started yelling at the brawlers. Thus, there is debris (stuff knocked over by fighting people) and dirty surfaces (shoe prints on counter.) I think that the jumbo slice is an automatically dirty food, so I'm not worrying and will still eat it. Plus, I only know them as the "Real," "Original," and "Real Original" Jumbo Slices, not as Pizza Mart, Pizza Bolis, and the other one.
In the meantime, why not be friends with Jumbo Slice on Friendster? This guy likes it.
In the meantime, why not be friends with Jumbo Slice on Friendster? This guy likes it.
Tailgating at the GW game
so I went to the GW-Richmond men's game this Saturday, it was great, GW won 80-68. I also tailgated with some friends before the game, something I'd never done before, and that was a lot of fun too. We met up about two hours before tipoff accross the street from the Smith Center, GW's home court. (We were on the steps of Funger Hall, if anybody knows GW). Unfortunately, I forgot the nozzle that attaches the gas canister to the grill, so we had to get charcoal and do it that way instead. And it was tough getting the charcoal going, so every 20 minutes or so I'd squirt on lighter fluid and light it, so there'd be a big burst of flames on the steps of this classroom building. No one noticed though, and we proceeded to cook up some tasty brats and burgers. We were tailgating across the street from where the students line up to get in, and being a sell-out, the lines stretched around the corner, which was pretty cool and was something I'd never seen before. And since the game was on ESPN, the cameras would come by occassionally to show the crowd and they'd all yell. While cooking and eating, we made a bunch of ridiculous signs, like "Good Sportsmanship," "Wolf Blitzer, be my Valentine," (Wolf Blitzer comes to a lot of GW games), "nWo" (the wrestling thing), "GWAR," which is just stupid, "GW 3:16," also stupid, and one that spells out "Richmond" and makes no sense:
Roy
Is
Constantly
Hoarding
My
Ornamental
Notthingham
Dioramas.
It means nothing, but still makes me laugh. We sat opposite the Richmond section and I'd hold the sign up every now and then, they must have been confused. One of the guys cooking out with us said he went to a hockey game once with a bunch of signs like "Both teams are evenly matched" and "We appreciate your athletic ability," which I thought was pretty funny. Needless to say, we also brought Coke bottles with lots of Jim Bean added. Anyway, the game was a good one. GW played pretty good defense and there were lots of awesome dunks and nice plays, mostly by GW. Towards the end of the game, I grabbed the "Wolf Blitzer, be my Valentine" sign and got Big George, one of the mascots, and went over to where Wolf was sitting and held up the sign. I thought it was pretty funny, and Wolf and the folks sitting around him all laughed, but unfortunately I didn't get on ESPN or even the Jumbotron. Oh well. But I was on ESPN once a couple years ago, my roommate and I were wearing basketballs on our heads and had a sign that said spelled out ESPN:
chris monroE
Should
Play in the
NBA
Monroe, the leading scorer in GW history, was a senior then. So that was cool. But anyway, it was a very good time, and hopefully we'll cook out next week as well. I may post some more photos from the game later.
Roy
Is
Constantly
Hoarding
My
Ornamental
Notthingham
Dioramas.
It means nothing, but still makes me laugh. We sat opposite the Richmond section and I'd hold the sign up every now and then, they must have been confused. One of the guys cooking out with us said he went to a hockey game once with a bunch of signs like "Both teams are evenly matched" and "We appreciate your athletic ability," which I thought was pretty funny. Needless to say, we also brought Coke bottles with lots of Jim Bean added. Anyway, the game was a good one. GW played pretty good defense and there were lots of awesome dunks and nice plays, mostly by GW. Towards the end of the game, I grabbed the "Wolf Blitzer, be my Valentine" sign and got Big George, one of the mascots, and went over to where Wolf was sitting and held up the sign. I thought it was pretty funny, and Wolf and the folks sitting around him all laughed, but unfortunately I didn't get on ESPN or even the Jumbotron. Oh well. But I was on ESPN once a couple years ago, my roommate and I were wearing basketballs on our heads and had a sign that said spelled out ESPN:
chris monroE
Should
Play in the
NBA
Monroe, the leading scorer in GW history, was a senior then. So that was cool. But anyway, it was a very good time, and hopefully we'll cook out next week as well. I may post some more photos from the game later.
so I think Valentine's Day is a dumb holiday. I'm not one of those people who are bitter because they're single, because I don't really care that I'm single, I just think it's stupid. It's a made-up holiday to make people buy crap for the people they're dating and take them out to fancy restaurants for no good reason. And anyway, it's only fun for maybe 50% of people (assuming 50% are dating/married), but even then I bet not all of them have fun, since everything seems very forced. "Oh honey, I have to say I love you and stuff today, as opposed to other days when I don't tell you that, and I have to take you to a restaurant, as opposed to all the other days we do things together, and I have to buy roses and presents because that's what commercials are telling me to do." Maybe it's because I have been getting pissed off at jewelry commercials recently because they're stupid. They're trying to tell you that you have to buy something to show somebody you love them, and the more expensive, the more you love them. How wack is that? Plus jewelry commercials are terrible anyway. "Straaaight from the heart, Shaw's Jewelers." "Every kiss begins with Kay." Killer and Kamikaze also start with K, but you don't hear that on the commercial. The implication is ridiculous too, you won't get no booty unless you buy some jewelry. And then there are those horrible ones with the annoying kid, "hey mommy, daddy said he likes you." "Well I like daddy too. See? Check out this big ass necklace he bought me, that means he loves me," or whatever.
Holidays are supposed to be fun for everyone, like Halloween, not fun for only a portion of the populace. And they're definitely not supposed to make some people feel bad, like lonely folks or people who just got dumped. Why is the implication that people have to be in relationships? Who cares? If you want to be single, go ahead. I wish people would just boycott Valentine's Day, because they're single, if they want, but a better reason is because it's just dumb.
Holidays are supposed to be fun for everyone, like Halloween, not fun for only a portion of the populace. And they're definitely not supposed to make some people feel bad, like lonely folks or people who just got dumped. Why is the implication that people have to be in relationships? Who cares? If you want to be single, go ahead. I wish people would just boycott Valentine's Day, because they're single, if they want, but a better reason is because it's just dumb.
2/11/2005
yankees
so i saw this the other day in my neighborhood, pretty funny. My guess is the person who owns this car hates himself, or maybe it's a couple who could be archenemies during the baseball season. Either way, those are two stickers you don't often see in the same place. I also hear that Matthew Lesko (the guy from the infomercial with the question mark jacket who yells "DO YOU WANT MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT!") lives in my neighborhood, so I'm going to try to get photos of him next.
so sometimes I think that my office would collapse if it weren't for me. Not that I am a great worker or Mr. Invaluable or whatever, I'm talking about non-work related stuff. For example, the candy vending machine in the break room broke, and for like a week it's as if people would say "oh, the machine's broken, but rather than call somebody to fix it, I think we should all just go downstairs and use that machine, which is more expensive." So I called the people and they came out and fixed it. That's hardly difficult to figure out or to do. I don't get it. And the same thing with the water cooler, people never put the jug on it when it's empty, so people go downstairs and fill up at the water fountain. It's not that hard to lift a jug of water. This stuff is not that difficult, ya know?
But that stuff aside, I found a cool site called 09h09. It's a guy in France who takes a picture of himself every day at 9:09 am (French time, of course) with his digital camera. He has been doing it for 2 years apparently. I tried to do this once with my webcam, but that lasted about 3 days until I forgot. But the site is neat, worth wasting some time on.
But that stuff aside, I found a cool site called 09h09. It's a guy in France who takes a picture of himself every day at 9:09 am (French time, of course) with his digital camera. He has been doing it for 2 years apparently. I tried to do this once with my webcam, but that lasted about 3 days until I forgot. But the site is neat, worth wasting some time on.
2/10/2005
so there's a new Beck video out, for a decent song called Black Tambourine. Check it out. From stereogum.
And here are some more miscellaneous cool sites i've found recently.
Google Maps- Google has continued their world domination with a new site. It's a bit faster and more powerful than Yahoo Yellow Pages or Mapquest, but the directions are a bit suspect. It gave me a real convoluted way to get to work. But the maps are good looking.
The Implicit Associations Test- a set of tests from Harvard seeing if you can differentiate between old and young people, for example, and thus your preferences for older or younger folks. Pretty interesting.
Band to Band- a six-degrees type thing where you can see how one band links to another. I'm trying to get bands that are totally different, like Slayer and They Might Be Giants. And if you're really bored, you can add bands.
Matthew Lesko's blog- Just what it says, the blog of the guy who wears the question mark jacket and screams about "GETTING MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT!!!" I think he lives in my neighborhood too.
Gizoogle- speaking of Google, here's a page that turns your site into Snoop Dogg-ese, or gangsta slang, or whatever you want to call it. Here's a little sample from my blog:
"He's Australian n has some F-U-Double-Nizzy shiznit on tha page, like a poll of whizzich animal would you gangsta see him fizzight: a crocodizzles a kangaroo, a dingo, or a koala . Slap your mutha fuckin self. I voted fo' tha koala . One, two three and to tha four."
And here are some more miscellaneous cool sites i've found recently.
Google Maps- Google has continued their world domination with a new site. It's a bit faster and more powerful than Yahoo Yellow Pages or Mapquest, but the directions are a bit suspect. It gave me a real convoluted way to get to work. But the maps are good looking.
The Implicit Associations Test- a set of tests from Harvard seeing if you can differentiate between old and young people, for example, and thus your preferences for older or younger folks. Pretty interesting.
Band to Band- a six-degrees type thing where you can see how one band links to another. I'm trying to get bands that are totally different, like Slayer and They Might Be Giants. And if you're really bored, you can add bands.
Matthew Lesko's blog- Just what it says, the blog of the guy who wears the question mark jacket and screams about "GETTING MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT!!!" I think he lives in my neighborhood too.
Gizoogle- speaking of Google, here's a page that turns your site into Snoop Dogg-ese, or gangsta slang, or whatever you want to call it. Here's a little sample from my blog:
"He's Australian n has some F-U-Double-Nizzy shiznit on tha page, like a poll of whizzich animal would you gangsta see him fizzight: a crocodizzles a kangaroo, a dingo, or a koala . Slap your mutha fuckin self. I voted fo' tha koala . One, two three and to tha four."
2/09/2005
arch
so I got the cd "Fingers Crossed" by Architecture in Helsinki. They're an octet (that means 8) from Australia, and I'd heard some good things about them and heard a couple new mp3s off of an upcoming cd, and I really liked the 30 second samples at Amazon.com. They're kind of like an electronic Belle and Sebastian, but with even more of the randomness and inconsistency that people complain about with Belle and Sebastian.
So I was pretty disappointed. The songs don't live up to the promise of those Amazon samples, as most of the songs are really only good for thirty seconds, then I'd realize that they don't go anywhere. It seems like the band has good ideas, but they never seem to get fleshed out or realize their potential, kind of like me in college. I'm just speculating, but the band kind of sounds like it's a bunch of friends who got together to make a record and goof around. Or maybe they got a lot of money to make a record based on potential and slacked off for awhile, then had to rush to get it finished. Maybe they were trying to make the record sound minimalistic, but it really just sounds barren and incomplete. Or maybe they just get bored with their songs, most of which are around 2 minutes, because a lot of them stop and start again, sometimes with an entirely different melody, making the album sound even more disjointed.
Some songs sound like incidental music in a movie or background music. The rest are just unrealized. I'm easily distracted or tune out when I listen to this CD. Another problem is that the male singer's voice is pretty annoying, it's supposed to sound quiet and whispery, but really just sounds strained. Not to sound mean, but it reminds me of getting a random friend to sing a song quietly, and that friend is just an average singer. Sometimes the annoyingness dominates the song, as on "Where You've Been Hiding", where he repeats "pictures" and it makes me want to skip the track. I'm not sure exactly who the guy is, as the liner notes and website don't list them separately.
The last two songs, "City Calm Down" and "Vanishing" have the most promise (and are also among the longer songs on the album,) but even they aren't that great. The rest are unremarkable, in that they all sound like they could be good, but then collapse or disappear.
It's possible that I just need to listen to this CD more to appreciate it. We'll see.
But I think this band does have promise, as the mp3 of "Do the Whirlwind" (from Rae, via Stereogum), off their upcoming CD is much better.
So I was pretty disappointed. The songs don't live up to the promise of those Amazon samples, as most of the songs are really only good for thirty seconds, then I'd realize that they don't go anywhere. It seems like the band has good ideas, but they never seem to get fleshed out or realize their potential, kind of like me in college. I'm just speculating, but the band kind of sounds like it's a bunch of friends who got together to make a record and goof around. Or maybe they got a lot of money to make a record based on potential and slacked off for awhile, then had to rush to get it finished. Maybe they were trying to make the record sound minimalistic, but it really just sounds barren and incomplete. Or maybe they just get bored with their songs, most of which are around 2 minutes, because a lot of them stop and start again, sometimes with an entirely different melody, making the album sound even more disjointed.
Some songs sound like incidental music in a movie or background music. The rest are just unrealized. I'm easily distracted or tune out when I listen to this CD. Another problem is that the male singer's voice is pretty annoying, it's supposed to sound quiet and whispery, but really just sounds strained. Not to sound mean, but it reminds me of getting a random friend to sing a song quietly, and that friend is just an average singer. Sometimes the annoyingness dominates the song, as on "Where You've Been Hiding", where he repeats "pictures" and it makes me want to skip the track. I'm not sure exactly who the guy is, as the liner notes and website don't list them separately.
The last two songs, "City Calm Down" and "Vanishing" have the most promise (and are also among the longer songs on the album,) but even they aren't that great. The rest are unremarkable, in that they all sound like they could be good, but then collapse or disappear.
It's possible that I just need to listen to this CD more to appreciate it. We'll see.
But I think this band does have promise, as the mp3 of "Do the Whirlwind" (from Rae, via Stereogum), off their upcoming CD is much better.
2/08/2005
so my friend erin told me about the radio station WOXY awhile ago (and I posted a bit about it below), but I just started listening to it, it's really good. It's what radio ought to be, good old songs, good new songs, b-sides, etc. It's obvious the DJ picks things that are good, whether or not they're what the big record companies are pushing or not. Plus I emailed a request and he played it a minute later, which was cool. So I recommend.
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