November 2008
39 posts
October 2008
51 posts
the big chart →
CICINA (Counter-Intuitive Comparison Institute of North America) tries to find the greatest thing in the world via a NCAA-style tournament bracket. (via kotke)
Monro Update
As some of you may remember from the flat tire incident, the tires of the station wagon were misaligned when I got it serviced in Massachusetts. When I got back to Michigan, I faxed Monro the paperwork from both sets of service. I called them again last week, and Melanie in Northampton said it was “processing.”
Well, today I got a letter from Monro, saying that they were refunding...
“It’s like bread, only tiring!”
– Rachel Maddow, on beer
WatchRives: A 3-minute story of mixed emoticons
“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”
– Marshall McLuhan
Tess: I'm not a huge fan of Florida though... is it always there?
Alaska Senator Is Convicted of Violating Ethics... →
woo?
happythings: I love you... →
…bigger than albatross wings
Living To 100 Life Expectancy Calculator →
Mine worked out to 94, but that was based on how I was living in my own apartment.
The Political Scene: The Insiders: Reporting &... →
Favorite line: a friend of McCain’s calling Palin’s pick “the fucking most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” (via Catherine)
“That’s like shipping bullshit to Washington!”
– Stephen Colbert, on hearing that contractors are shipping sand from Kuwait to Iraq (via The Colbert Report Full Episode | Tuesday Oct 14 2008 | Comedy Central)
U.S. Dollar to Euro Exchange Rate - Yahoo! Finance →
I’m keeping an eye on this as my European tour gets closer
Editorial - Barack Obama - Editorial Board -... →
I haven’t read the WP or LAT endorsements, but this is a well-thought-out list of why they’re choosing him.
WatchThe Colbert Report: Sarah Palin Poses for People | Indecision2008 | Comedy Central
The Smart Set: The Term Paper Artist - October 10,... →
Essay from a writer who used to make ends meet by writing for a term paper mill
Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis... →
Technology Review: The Flaw at the Heart of the... →
Overview of the story of Kaminsky’s DNS cache-poisoning bug
WatchA Shared Culture - Creative Commons
WatchUnbelievable McCain Vs. Obama Dance-Off Video
A Do-It-Yourself Guide to a Romantic and Highly... →
via Catherine’s shared items.
UNIX as Literature →
.: www.youthXchange.net - training kit on... →
Sustainability, directed at young adults.
A Whole Lotta Nothing: How to get my nerd vote →
Even if you’re not a nerd, most of these would be good policies.
Book Examiner: The Book Examiner's ultimate guide... →
As someone who enjoys both alcohol and books, this is a good reference for me.
“The noblest motive is the public good.”
– Virgil
Newaygo, MI
I spent 6 days in Newaygo with Tess and her family, the longest I’d spent
anywhere since leaving our apartment in Massachusetts. After spending 4-12
hours in a car every day for a month it was nice to settle down somewhere, even
for a short period of time.
We played a lot of Scrabble. They’re all quite good at the game as they’ve
been playing for some time now, and it was a...
Back to the Beginning
Tess and I got back to her house in Newaygo around 11pm last night. We spent
the weekend in Madison, WI with my cousin Matt who’s a super-senior at
Wisconsin-Madison.
We got into Madison around dinner-time on Friday night after leaving Gaea and
Jason in Minneapolis. We went out to get dinner at this nice little Nepalese
place in downtown. After going back to his house for a bit, we all...
Books I Read On The Road Trip
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild
Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion
John Muir’s All the World over: Notes from Alaska
Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary: A Novel
Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Jack Kerouac’s On the Road
Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
Jared...
Yellowstone National Park
At Glacier, Gaea was the only one who hadn’t seen a glacier. At
Yellowstone, she was the only one who had seen a
geyser before.
Per usual, we rolled into Yellowstone around 30 minutes before sunset. We
stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs on our way to the campsite. There weren’t any
geysers here though, as the name would indicate. Some of the hot springs
smelled like they’re...
Grizzly Bears
On our way to Yellowstone, we stopped in at Grizzly Bear
Encounters, a place for mistreated
grizzly bears to live out their lives in relative comfort. When they’re born
in captivity, or introduced to people, they can’t be released into the wild.
This place gives them some space (small, but bigger than your average zoo pen)
to run around in, and the entrance fees go towards supporting...
Glacier National Park
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to touch a glacier. The closest one was a 11-mile
round trip hike from the other side of the park, the ranger told us. We
arrived around sunset on the west end of the park and camped at the Apgar
Campground. When we’d packed up and gotten to the visitor’s center, it was
almost 9:30am. With a 2.5 hour drive to the start of the hike, it wasn’t...
Eugene, OR
Our friends Price and Tara moved out to Eugene over the summer; Price is
pursuing a MA in Public Policy with a focus on transportation policy, and Tara
works in a brain lab on campus. After we had a chance to settle for a bit, the
6 of us went on an impromptu tour of the UOregon campus. It’s a nice mix of
older and newer buildings, but they all seem to fit together. One of the
newest is...