See larger version of this image.
Current status. I think I must be allergic to this bookstore, NO YOU HAVE SOMETHING IN *YOUR* EYE!
The next day, I picked up The Boy from summer camp. Our drive home took us past Annie’s Book Shop again.
Me: “There’s Annie’s…”
The Boy: “That was a good bookstore.”
Me: “You liked it?”
Him: “Yeah. I wish they had some books I liked.”
Me: “Me too. Maybe we can check a different bookstore to see if you find something you’d like there.”
Him, excitedly: “Okay!”
Win some.
Just watch this.
Women of New York, if you see Rep. Anthony Weiner walking down the street, do the right thing and offer that man a friendly blowjob. (via)
On my way to Kew Gardens with kneepads.
The most telling thing about this 2 minute clip (which you should watch if you haven’t already), is that while he is speaking about Republicans who abuse “the process” (to deny medical coverage for 9/11 responders), there is at least one Republican WHO REPEATEDLY INTERRUPTS HIM BY USING THE PROCESS.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the (vast majority of the) current generation of Republican politicians are despicable, and embody everything that everyone hates about politics.
Sadly, (most of the) current Democrats lack a backbone to do anything about it or even call them on it, and so they sit there and let the Republicans run roughshod over them, and the country, and then wonder why everyone doesn’t respect them.
Absofuckinglutely ridiculous. This is the best form of government in the world? We’re fucked. Totally, absolutely fucked.
The Boy and I had some time together today, so I took him to some of my favorite old places. The first was The Spare Time Shop which used to be the comic book store around. I don’t mean “the” as in “it was the best one” I mean “the” as in it was “the only one” back in the days before comics were cool. (Shut up.) If you were looking for comic books, or role playing games, or anything else that had to do with being a teenaged boy (99.9% of the time) with limited prospects of every getting laid, The Spare Time Shop was your place. Think of it like Cheers for nerds.
I’m amazed that it is still in business. Just about everything else in the same strip mall has changed from what it was “back then” except for the liquor store and The Spare Time Shop. I’ve driven past there for years, but it seemed like a good time to take The Boy, who is now 8. Maybe he’d find a comic book that he wanted to buy. Maybe it would become a “thing” for us to do together. At the very least we could try.
I opened the door and my heart sank. The Spare Time Shop is essentially dead, and in its place is a store devoted almost entirely to building models. Model planes, model cars, model whatevers. I built some models as a kid, but it was never something that really excited me.
I walked around the entire store and there was literally nothing that interested me. I let The Boy wander around on his own but he soon called for me, and said that he had looked at some cards (there was a small display of some kind of cards near the front door), but “there was nothing good.” He then added, “This place sure is dusty.”
True enough, son. True enough.
sigh Lose some.
Since we still had some time, I took him to Annie’s Book Stop, a place that I used to frequent when I was a kid. For those who aren’t familiar (e.g. “most people”), Annie’s is a used bookstore. They are centered in New England but have many locations. Personally it’s something I associate with my Dad, who used to be able to walk there — and did, on a regular basis.
Dad loved to read. He was always reading at least one book, sometimes two, and I don’t think he ever missed a day of reading the newspaper. But, unlike most people I know, he didn’t keep books. When he was done reading a book, he’d put it into a brown paper bag from the grocery store, and when the bag started the fill up, he’d carry it to Annie’s. They would buy them — well, sort of; for your used books you’d received store credit towards the purchase of other used books. (Some of the stores are — or used to be — called “Annie’s Book Swap” to indicate this practice. Store credit was fine with Dad. He’d fill the same paper bag to carry home another batch of books, destined to be returned to Annie’s once they were read. He used it sort of like a library where he paid to keep the books for as long as he wanted.
In contrast, I’ve kept most books I’ve owned, and have trouble even thinking of getting rid of them. I know I probably won’t read or refer to most of them… so why am I keeping them? I’m not sure. They seem like little parts of me.
We pulled into Annie’s parking lot and I hoped that it wouldn’t disappoint. I opened the front door and the woman behind the cash register looked up from the book she was reading, smiled, and asked if we were looking for anything in particular. I said we were just looking, and she mentioned that kids books were in the back corner.
You could probably fit this Annie’s in the basement of most houses in the area. It’s small, but neat and clean. As I looked on the shelves I realized that the loose system of organization hadn’t changed much. “Look… Star Trek!” The Boy said, and I knew just which shelf to look at.
The Boy didn’t find anything there. I, of course, did.
Click image below to embiggen.
(aside: please don’t tell Tony or Sniffy that I’ve never read any Vonnegut before now.)
Whereas last week I sat in Borders using their Wi-Fi to check Amazon.com for better prices, I didn’t even hesitate to buy these. Granted even the new ones (yes, it’s a used bookstore, but they sell some new books as well) were 15% off, but more importantly I want there to be places like Annie’s Book Shop around. The Boy may never frequent there, but maybe some other kid will. Maybe some twenty years younger me will find his way to Annie’s and find a way to connect with his Dad over books, even if they don’t always seem to have a lot to talk about.
Academically, The Boy reads very well. He excels at it for his age and seems to enjoy it, but it doesn’t seem to be a habit. I’d like it to be one, but I’m trying to figure out how to make it something he enjoys rather than something I want him to enjoy. He asked me today if I liked to read. That made me sad, because my answer to him was that I love to read, but he obviously doesn’t see it. Of course these days I do most of my reading on the computer screen, not with a book-in-hand. I’ve listened to more audiobooks than read actual paper books in the past 5 years, and most of the “actual books” were for school. Telling him I love to read isn’t enough, I know. I need him to see me enjoying to read. Towards that end, I bought Where the Sidewalk Ends and told him that I thought we could read it together.
While we were there, The Boy saw a Fitness For Dummies book. He said “I bet Lula—” (a character from several of the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich, which he and The Wife have listened to in the car) “—could use that book!” He said with a laugh. Lula is The Boy’s favorite character in all the world. She’s full-figu— no, she’s fat. And she wears too-small clothes. And she swears a lot. And he laughs and laughs. “I don’t know why, but every time Lula says a bad word it just cracks me up,” he recently told The Wife. He loves stories already, even if he’s used to them being delivered to him instead of having to work for them.
“Dad, why do you have one of those ‘Dummies’ books if you’re not a dummy?” he said, without a hint of either sarcasm or insincerity. And I love him for his sweetness and innocence. “Well, they use the word ‘dummies’ to mean ‘someone who doesn’t know a lot about a particular thing’… you can know a lot about some things but not know about other things and want to learn about them, and so people might buy one of those books… but I agree with you that I don’t like the name very much either.”
Win some.
We had planned to meet my mom for lunch, and so we paid for the books and drove towards the restaurant, about 10 minutes away. As we approached, opposing traffic was stopped at a red light. I needed to turn left into a parking lot. The stopped cars had blocked my path. Since the road is only two lanes, this meant I was blocking everyone behind me.
After I was stopped for about 10 seconds, a woman next to me in the other lane saw that I was trying to get through. She pulled ahead so I might have enough room to slip through. It was going to be a tight fit and a sharp angle to get into the driveway, but there was just about enough room if I —
At which point the woman behind her pulled up right behind her, blocking the opening that had been created. She then proceeded to try to pretend she didn’t see me. I looked back over my shoulder to verify that the light was still red. It was. She had pulled ahead to block me from crossing in front of her, so she could sit in a line of traffic at a red light. She looked straight ahead, still acting as if I wasn’t there, now 30 seconds after being stopped next to me.
So I turned the car towards her, stopping when my bumper was about an inch from the side of her car, and my window was less than a foot from hers. “SERIOUSLY?” I yelled. “REALLY? YOU’RE GOING TO PRETEND YOU DON’T SEE ME HERE? YOU’RE JUST GOING TO SIT THERE AND BLOCK TRAFFIC AND PRETEND THAT EVERYONE HERE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT A —” and then I realized that I didn’t really want to finish that sentence with an 8 year old sitting behind me, so I changed it to “ARE YOU KIDDING ME? REALLY?”
She didn’t turn, she didn’t look, she gripped the wheel and stared straight ahead.
“THANK YOU VERY MUCH,” I said as the light changed. The man behind her waved me through and put his hands up as if to say “Whadya gonna do?” I repeated the gesture as if to say “Can you believe that?” and then gave him a thank-you wave.
Mom arrived about 10 minutes later, and I recounted the story to her.
“With your son in the car?” she said.
“I didn’t use any inappropriate words,” I replied.
“Was it scary?” she asked The Boy.
“Nah,” he said.
“See!?” I said.
“Besides,” he continued, both nonchalantly and completely unnecessarily, “I’m used to it…”
“You might have quit while I was ahead,” I said. I pulled his head and neck towards me at a 45º angle, kissed him on the head, and then pushed his head away so he could sit up again. He looked at me and grinned. I rolled my eyes and made an exaggerated “What am I going to do with you?” sigh.
Lose some.
It’s 3 a.m. as I write these words, which won’t be published until 12:15 p.m. in the hopes that someone might read it, even though it’s “tl;dr” territory. I’m leaving the iPad plugged in tonight, and although I probably won’t be awake for too much longer, I’m taking a book with me to bed.
Win some.
http://www.tuaw.com/bloggers/richard-gaywood
Ironically enough, this is how Danielle lists Richard’s status too.
I hate talking on the phone, I really do. I probably use about 100 minutes of my call time each month. What do I hate more than that? Leaving messages or having to listen to mine.
So no, I will not be getting a google voice. And I will not be calling yours.
But I still love you. And if you send me your actual number, I’m usually good for sending inappropriate texts and booby shots.
I feel (mostly) the same way, but I made the opposite decision wrt google voice. Why? Because people are going to leave me messages, so I wanted to control the way that they do it.
Traditional voicemail sucks. For example, to check our voicemail from home, you’d have to dial *98, then I’d have to press a key for who I want to login as, then enter a 6 digit pin, then listen while it tells me how many messages I have, then wait while it reads me the phone number of the person who called (99% chance that number means nothing to me because I don’t remember phone numbers) and then tells me when the message came in. My guess is that it would take me at least 30 seconds to get to the point where I can hear the message begin.
With Google Voice, I get an email, I click the link, and the message starts to play. Yeah the transcriptions are a joke but they often give me at least a sense of what I’m in for.
Previously I had three voicemail systems to check: work, home, and cell phone. Three different places to check, three different sets of logins and prompts, etc.
I hated it.
Google Voice let me drop that to one.
First I shut off my home voicemail. If you have our actually home number, you’d find that you can leave The Wife a message there, but my mailbox says “Call this number if you need to leave me a message” and then disconnects after giving my google voice number (twice, slowly, so people can write it down).
Next I cut off my work voicemail. Well, technically it is still there (it currently tells people I’m on vacation and gives them contact information for others to reach in an emergency and then asks them to call me back after August 8th) but everyone who matters knows to call my Google Voice number.
On the iPhone, Visual Voicemail was a nice step forward, but I even set my iPhone to use Google Voice for messages because we don’t get cell coverage at home. So instead of missing messages people leave on my cell, I get them the same place I get all my other messages: my email. Even with as good as VV is, it still left the information somewhere I couldn’t really use it: my phone.
Think about it, other than “call me back!” messages, most of the time messages have some sort of information that I need. Do I want that only on my phone? Or would it be handier to have it on my computer? Most of the time, for me, it’s better to have it on the computer, especially if it has an address, or phone number, or calendar information.
There are lots of side benefits: I can change cell phone companies whenever I want without having to change my number. I could also set it up so that certain phone numbers immediately go to voicemail and never cause my phone to ring. I can set it to Do Not Disturb and have no interruptions on any phone.
My favorite feature? I can listen to my messages online, any computer, iPhone, iPad, whatever. No more “press 7 to save, press 9 to delete”. Need to rewind because some idiot doesn’t know how to leave a phone number? Easy.
About 50% of the time I can reply to a message via email, meaning I don’t have to talk on the phone or worry about leaving a message. This has also helped condition many people to use email instead of calling me.
I’d argue that Google Voice is made for people who hate the phone and voicemail but who see it as a fact of life. Whether or not you use it is up to you, but my guess is that the reason Google bought it was to move conversations from the phone to email.
Now if only those transcripts worked better.
I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
There’s more. It’s all wonderful. Read it all here.
(I doubt “Wonderful Words” Wednesday will ever be a thing, but I’d love it if it was. “Great Speech Sunday” would also work, but this is Wednesday.)
Marco explained why he’d choose an a Mac Pro over an iMac. Neven explained why he’d choose an iMac over a Mac Pro.
I’m not a developer. I don’t have the high end needs of Marco or Tiffany or Neven or Christa. I have an iMac, but I plan to get another one. I have a MacBook Pro, but I don’t plan to get another one.
I plan to use an iPad instead of a MacBook Pro and a Mac mini instead of an iMac. I wrote about it here.
My guess is that most people’s needs are closer to mine than developers, but really it comes down to personal preference. My biggest drawback to the iMac is one Marco mentioned: you can’t access any of the parts inside, and if the monitor dies, you’re stuck with a mostly useless computer. But since I don’t have the horsepower needs of developers, the mini will probably do just fine. Won’t know until I find out, which I hope won’t be for awhile. My iMac is still doing fine.
steelopus asked:
Sure, Apple can play hardball and state that all jailbreaking immediately voids the warranty, regardless of what type of problems you have (software or hardware). And sure, Apple probably _will_ do that; but I'm not worried about it.
If my jailbroken iOS device starts acting funny and I know it's not a hardware issue, then it's very well likely to be my own damn fault (MODF) and within a few minutes I can simply restore the thing to the factory settings and start from scratch (tip: back up your shsh blobs with Cydia, kids!). If I know it's a hardware failure, then hopefully it's not a piece of hardware that prevents me from restoring to factory settings (dock connector failure is all I can think of that would do that), if it is... well then I'm SOL and it's MODF. No one said jailbreaking wouldn't involve getting your hands a little dirty. All I know is that because I own this device, I should (and now do) have total control - and responsibility - for what I do with, or to, it.
Blah blah blah tl;dr nb;cm.
All good points, also PunkAssJim made some other good points I think were worth easing if you’re interestedt in the topic
She’s officially addicted. If you’re looking for a new game. All I ask are two things:
The first rule of Twitter is that we don’t talk about Twitter
There are no exceptions to rule #1
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC500?mco=OTY2ODE5Mg
It comes fully loaded. And then some.
Each Apple Battery Charger comes with six NiMH batteries — two for your keyboard, two for your mouse or trackpad, and two for charging. (via Apple Battery Charger - Apple Store (U.S.))
Which sounds great right until you remember the Apple Wireless Keyboard uses 3 batteries, not 2.
UPDATE: apparently the NEW wireless keyboards use two AAs. I have the older model. This is news to me, I didn’t realize it had changed.
Owners of the iPhone will be able to legally break electronic locks on their devices in order to download software applications that haven’t been approved by Apple Inc., according to new government rules announced Monday.
And just like that, I no longer feel anxiety about having a jailbroken iPod Touch.
Let me tell you, the independent developers that are making jailbroken apps and hacks for iOS are some extremely talented individuals. Tweaks such as customized swipe gestures to launch specific apps, hidden apps, and custom docks (6 apps!) all provide significantly increased functionality to an already great operating system.
Cheers to the EFF for spearheading this dramatic consumers right change.
This means almost nothing, in practice. Apple still says jailbreaking will void your warranty. If your device is jailbroken and it gets FUBAR’d and you bring it to Apple (even if you have AppleCare), don’t expect them to help you fix it (they may, but their attempts to fix it may be “try to restore it as a new, and not jailbroken, device”.)
I’d be much more excited about the ability to copy and paste out of ebooks. Why isn’t that a right they’ve been fighting for? Probably because Apple just got into ebooks and there hasn’t been a really attractive target for this issue before now, but it’s really annoying that I can’t highlight a passage of text, select it, and email it. (I can take a screenshot, and run that through OCR, which will probably work just fine, but it’s an annoying extra step I shouldn’t have to take: the text is obviously right there.)
I’d rather have this verdict than nothing, but I’m not convinced it’s really meaningful on any practical level for 99% of the people. Now if they did something like Finland did when they said it was OK for anyone to break DVD DRM (which was later undone, despite BoingBoing’s failure to report it), then that would have been something.
As it stands, it’s still illegal for me to take a DVD and convert it into a copy that I can watch on my iPad, or my AppleTV, or to burn onto a DVD without all of the extra menus and crap that I don’t want or need to have to sit through every time we want to watch a movie.
It’s still illegal for me to take the DVD that we buy and make a copy so that if/when The Boy/Wife/Me breaks it or it gets scratched, we’ll have a backup.
It’s still illegal for me to copy those VHS movies that we bought and paid for onto DVD-Rs so they could be useful and wouldn’t wear out.
It’s still not possible for me to buy a TV show on iTunes and then burn it to a video DVD.
There’s still a lot more work we need to do before we can say that we truly own any of these things that we’ve paid for which are encumbered by DRM.
Rather than just importing your Last.fm data, I’d be a lot more interested to hear why you were listening to those songs? Is one of the your favorite “stressed and need music” song? Does one of them let you block out others? Does one band remind you of a time in your life that you like to revisit?
Any of those things would be meaningful.
Just dumping the data every week really isn’t.
Google Analytics enabled
Fun Size Bytes (from @Tj)
Originally posted
I reblogged this post
I reblogged this post
Originally posted