stockholm syndrome

One might think that if someone drops their shirt necksize from 16 1/2" to 16" to 15 1/2" over the course of a couple of years that this person has probably shed a lot of weight. Especially since necks aren't known to foster large fat deposits.

This is exactly what I have done. Except I haven't lost any weight. I've merely become more used to having my blood circulation choked off from my brain.

When I first moved to Wall Street the least attractive aspect of my job was wearing a tie. Nothing seems more confining and unproductive than wearing a noose around one's neck. Especially when moving from a company that literally had no dress policy. But over the course of the last two years I've grown so accustomed to wearing a tie that I almost feel naked without one. Coincident with this, my ability to deal with a shirt collar that actually fits properly has gone up. Contrast this with the gaping collars I originally purchased in an attempt feel like I wasn't wearing a tie at all. Nils Bejerot really knew what he was talking about.

cookie monster and thirst

I was watching Elmo with my daughter today when Cookie Monster comes on and does his usual schtick. I always had a problem with Cookie Monster as a little kid. The guy loves cookies. No doubt. But then he proceeded to jam the cookies into his mouth so quickly that he was clearly leaving a lot of it on the floor. Of course he was leaving it all on the floor but as a small boy I wasn't quite aware that a puppet with an esophagus was a rare thing.

Which leads me to acting. Does every actor take their cue from Cookie Monster when it comes to playing a thirsty character? They all use the same "drink so quickly it all goes on the floor" approach. They try to drain it so quickly that it comes out their mouth and all over their body. Dramatic? No. It irks me in the same way Cookie Monster did. Maybe I'm wrong here but if I was thirsty I would be drinking as carefully as possible to make sure it all goes in. Don't waste a drop! I'm sure I'm thinking too much about this.

bad recipes

Why do so many recipes that require some kind of smoked pork product (bacon, pancetta, prosciutto, etc.) tell you to render the bacon down and then remove all but 1 or 2 tablespoons of the fat? Are you recipe writers insane? Why would I ever remove a single drop of pork fat. Ever. Has anyone ever said, "this is too bacon-y"? No. Never. That is just crazy talk. When it comes to pork fat, more is more.

i'm an idiot

Is it just me or do other people have trouble entering those human verification alphanumeric strings that some sites require when registering or posting? You know, the ones where it says, "Please enter the phrase in the box below" and the box below has something like "xhw76s" but it's all Alice-in-Wonderland, acid-tripped out.

I don't know about other people but I have a 50% hit rate on entering these things correctly.

room with a view

For most of my working career I've been relegated to some miserable offices. I've never had to deal with Dilbertville cubicles but things weren't exactly pretty.

My first job offered a gorgeous view of downtown Chicago via the 24th floor of a building in the center of the loop with a Japanese style interior. It was awesome. Problem was I was a consultant spending 90% of my working time at clients. Clients tend to not give you great office space. Rooms used for excess storage, hallways, and even closets were the location of choice.

My next job was with a startup. We ran a tight ship. You could technically call that situation cubicle hell but we didn't even have money for dividers to create cubicles.

My next job was at a company with a shitload of cash. None of it went to office space as far as I could tell. I was doubled and even tripled up with people in 'my' office for about 80% of my 3 year stay. All of that time spent in a windowless office.

My current job started out fine. A nice spacious office. No windows but I also didn't have to share it with anyone. I was happy. Last week that all changed. The office admin came by and told me they were moving me. "Oh god here we go", I assumed. She led me down the hallway. "Were they going to try that closet thing on me?", I wondered. She stopped in front of an office and said, "You'll be moving here." Turns out it wasn't a closet. It was a bigger and windowed office overlooking Central Park. I am officially never leaving this job.

relief

Well the subways are back up this morning in New York. A lot of people were severely inconvenienced by the stoppage but on the whole it was kind of fun. I finally went to work on Wednesday and ended up walking the full 5 miles or so to get there. It was amazing how busy the bridges were at 6 am in the morning. 6th Avenue was packed by the time I reached it. And walking back home 5th Avenue was insane with both commuters and shoppers vying for sidewalk space.

But it was a chance to see areas of the city I haven't been to yet and to finally walk across the Manhattan Bridge (I always favor the Brooklyn Bridge when I get the chance).

People were all smiles this morning on the subway. It's the opposite effect of thinking you've won the lottery but you looked at the numbers incorrectly. It would depress you. Finally getting your subway service back after losing it makes you so happy. This city is unmanageable without the subway and buses.

snow day

Well not exactly. Bus and subway workers went on strike today. For those that haven't been to New York this is transportation for most of the people within Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Taxi, car service, and your legs are about all that's left. Me? I'm hanging at home. No point in trying to fight that craziness.

While I'm here Squash is a great new site I've been reading. Some might say it's a cynical take (he describes himself as part cynical) on Web 2.0 but I would say it's decidedly reality based. One of the few voices out there with some perspective on this thing.

you don't say

Supermodel admits cocaine use.

In other news...

Rockstar admits heroine use
Hippy admits marijuana use
Baseball player admits steroid use
3 month old admits milk use

schoolyard fights by way of the web

The rise of blogging has had some unusual results. The one I've been noticing more and more lately is the seemingly endless rounds of catfighting that go on in the tech community. I'm sure you've seen them before - Mac vs. Microsoft, Microsoft vs. open source, RSS vs. Atom, etc. I won't mention names or point to blogs. I think the writers tend to get off on those kind of referrals.

If you read a number of tech blogs you've probably come across this catfighting that is reminiscent of high school. It usually involves lots of name calling, taunts, whining, enlisting friends (sympathetic bloggers) to your cause, and an attempt at intellectual one-up-manship by way of fact distortion. This in turn creates a set of catfights in the comments sections. And it all plays out in slow motion compared to the high school versions I was witness to.

Even journalists are getting more involved in this kind of thing - in this case those at the tech rags (cnet, zdnet, the register, etc.) Many of these sites have 'blogs' and it's almost as if the name blog allows these writers to become more whiny and more taunting and more personal.

It does get tiresome but on some level these guys (and it is largely guys) are showing you a lot more leg by doing this. When it was just professional journalism, attacks and cuts at technology or people were more veiled. Now they're more like a slap in the face. You know exactly where everyone stands.

It was like the journalists were standing around minding their manners, behaving properly, and getting to class on time. And then the bloggers stormed into the school smoking cigarettes, cranking AC/DC, and starting foodfights. The first response of the journalists was to call them a bunch of hooligans and make fun of their Pink Floyd t-shirts and long hair. But after getting hit in the face one too many times with soy burgers or beef stroganoff, the journalists have decided to take off their argyle sweaters and put up their dukes. They are starting to toss overcooked brocolli back at the bloggers.

The other benefit of this is the really good writers stand out. The ones who bring well thought out ideas and facts shine in comparison to this melee going on in the background. It's like the cool brave kid who comes in and stops the fight.

I guess this kind of thing must have been going on for years but through other channels the masses didn't see. For better or worse the rise of blogs has brought this kind of catfighting to the masses. It's like Ultimate Fighting Championship with tech geeks.

miracles can happen

I don't think I've won anything in my entire life. Which makes this all the more surprising - "The Results Are In". It's a little surprising given my previous post on how out of touch I was with music.

What's interesting is actually how I did it. I knew about half of the album covers. Not bad. But you need all of them correct. So given the half I knew had a semi-common theme I used Amazon to suggest other music to me. That got me another set of covers. And then I did a search using a few band titles and found Pitchfork (which ironically I subscribe to) and that got me the rest. I didn't win much - just a mixed CD but I'll take all the help I can.

news for nerds or comedy for nerds

What has happened to Slashdot? It's always been a biased website from day one but lately it seems the articles are just plain weird. I cite this and this. One which comes off as a weird plug for a friend and the second one of the most sloppy pieces of 'blogging' around. I used to go there to get interesting tech and science news a la arstechnica but it hasn't been that serious in quite a while. But these two articles struck me as decidedly poor in quality. Even more strange, the poster was Commander Taco - isn't he the guy who actually started the site? What has happened?

One commenter remarked that it seemed Slashdot had become a comedy site and I'm apt to agree. I, and I assume others, mainly go to read the funny comments now. And there is some talent in those commenters.

move along - nothing to see

I'm married now. No real impact on my life except I have to say
'this is my wife' instead of 'this is my girlfriend'. Harder to do than you'd think.

Honeymoon was fun. Reef diving is bloody awesome. It's like being at a zoo. No actually it's like being in a zoo in the cages.

Coolest wedding present? Nikon D70

I avoid reading the news like the plague now. I just can't bear to read anything more about Iraq. It's too depressing. The time for being depressed and to wear only black was during my college years. I'm married now. Therefore no news.

Work is ridiculous. I spend 90% of my day working on things that are completely irrelevant to this company's bottom line. If our entire group was fired I guarantee nothing would happen. It would go completely unnoticed. At least I get to leave work early. Thank God I'm interviewing next Monday.

still need to find that summer cd though

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus

shizzle my nizzle

Hmm. The Shizzolator. Language is such a interesting thing. It's one of the few institutions that lives off of change, for better or worse. And people take such diametrically opposed stands on it. Those who think there is a proper way to use language and another than thumbs it's nose at it. The social aspects of this are not hidden. Clearly there is a theme of those outside of 'normal society' wanting to bend language. Whether it's gays co-opting the word 'queer' or African Americans (and now suburban white kids) creating unique personal names and entirely new words, language can be used as both a way of liberating your 'group' and at the same time cloistering it by creating a members only club (I defy my mom to tell me what Snoop's That Shiznit is about). I find myself on both sides of this equation. "I could care less" and "He played good" drive me crazy and "getting jiggy with it" - well, enough said. But at the same time the ability for language to be so dynamic and rich is incredibly exciting. Yes exciting. Given that ability for language to morph, it makes the inability to express a thought purely a personal problem.