Kool Aid Man? More like Pool Aid Man!
I wore this costume today. Although it is not me in it in this clip.
mike sold out at - 22:54
Queens Roads
When I worked in LIC, I gradually got the hang of the Queens street system, as there is an internal logic to it. So I thought I should share this from the NYT's FYI column in the City Section this Sunday.
Q. Some time ago, your column mentioned the Queens Topographical Bureau, in an item about naming Queens streets. What was the Queens Topographical Bureau?
A. Appropriately for a borough known for confusing numbered streets, avenues, boulevards, lanes, crescents and drives, the bureau still exists, at Queens Borough Hall on Queens Boulevard. The bureau supplies maps and various certificates for developers, and issues house numbers. It also puts down benchmarks to permit accurate calculations of property lines; you may have seen its name in the sidewalk.
The bureau’s glory year was 1911, when Charles Underhill Powell, a chief engineer there, designed the numbering system to unify the street grid for the 60 or so villages in Queens. Some historians considered the numbered grid a model of urban planning. Many delivery people and outsiders venturing into the borough don’t.
Mr. Powell liked to help the uninitiated by distributing a verse by the humorist Ellis Parker Butler, who lived in Flushing:
In Queens, to find locations best
Avenues, roads and drives run west;
But ways to north or south ’tis plain
Are street or place or even lane.
mike sold out at - 10:17
7.30.2006
Finally!
NYT: Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock
"When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,” Mr. Boyd preached. “When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”
...
But there were also congregants who thanked Mr. Boyd, telling him they were moved to tears to hear him voice concerns they had been too afraid to share. “Most of my friends are believers,” said Shannon Staiger, a psychotherapist and church member, “and they think if you’re a believer, you’ll vote for Bush. And it’s scary to go against that.”
...
But there were also congregants who thanked Mr. Boyd, telling him they were moved to tears to hear him voice concerns they had been too afraid to share. “Most of my friends are believers,” said Shannon Staiger, a psychotherapist and church member, “and they think if you’re a believer, you’ll vote for Bush. And it’s scary to go against that.”
The original purpose of separating church and state wasn't to save the state from theocracy, but to keep the church from becoming a corrupt temporal power (e.g. Henry VIII, the cult of the Roman Emperor, the Papal States, the Taliban). The idea came out of the Reformation, the ur-event for today's evangelical churches. Look it up sometime, dudes.
mike sold out at - 14:32
7.27.2006
Oh, Omari...
I went to the Staten Island Yankees with Josh, Kristin, Kaitlin and a friend of Kaitlin's on Tuesday. Execept for a really awesome inside-the-park homerun by the SI Yanks, the most entertaining part was the 15-second races/competitions that "Omari" put on. They included little kids in a 6-foot-long crawling race and the inevitable dizzy-bat race.
After one of the races, the announcer got a little cheeky. Out of nowhere, he said in the most Guy Smiley voice imaginable, "Hey Omari! Show me your jazz hands!" Omari then obliged him with a great display of jazz hands.
mike sold out at - 13:49
7.19.2006
Note to GWB: It's called diplomacy... try it sometime.
It is late, my stomach hurts from eating poorly today and I can't sleep yet, so here are some thoughts about why the escalating crisis in the Middle East between Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon is in part worsening because of five years of really crappy policy by the Bush Administration.
1. We can't pressure Syria and Iran to reign in Hezbollah to the extent they might be able to because the US has no relationship with them. The Administration refuses to talk to Iran except about nuclear arms, which makes us dependent on intermediaries like Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to engage Iran. None of these countries have much sway on Iran. And Russia, China, and Pakistan, three countries that might have sway can't do much for us.
2. The U.S. been disengaged from the Israeli-Palestinian peace process so long that we have few people in the Palestinian government to talk to. And we certainly have no credibility to reign in Hamas. Especially since you know, our President called the Palestinian government a bunch of terrorists. Which Hamas is, no doubt, but it certainly doesn't help foster the peace process.
3. The U.S. hasn't given much of a yellow light (let alone a red light) to Israel to curtain its operations in the West Bank and Gaza anytime during the Bush Presidency. Every time Sharon did something hamhanded and overreaching, Bush said "A-OK". So why start saying no now?
4. Finally, and most importantly: Iraq. The U.S. took away the major regional check against Syria and Iran by allowing Iraq to decend into chaos. And because we're bogged down there, we have no credible threat of major force to back up our diplomacy. Despite some neocon's previous agitations to go to Tehran once we're in Baghdad, this is our biggest weakness and forces us to rely on diplomacy backed up by very little else.
mike sold out at - 01:00
7.14.2006
Reality Jumps the Shark: Mr. T Disavows Gold Chains
Believe it or not, it is not an article from The Onion.
mike sold out at - 13:16
Report from the little cousins
A report from my cousin Leah about how hilarious her kids are:
From my daughter, currently watching The Who on some concert special taped before entwhistle's death: "wow! for old guys they really rock!"
from my son: "why are all those cops shaking their fists?"
from my son: "why are all those cops shaking their fists?"
PS- they are also known as "my little cousins" to some of you.
mike sold out at - 13:08
7.13.2006
Um...
So does anyone in the Bush White House want to stand up and admit that based on the events of yesterday and today that maybe the road to peace in Jerusalem doesn't lead through Baghdad?
mike sold out at - 16:50
7.09.2006
Learning PHP
Test it out
mike sold out at - 23:52
Recreation
Last week at the meatwave we played four-square. I will bring chalk next time and it will happen for real.
Josh's photo of his delicious pulled pork
Took a 10 mile bike ride saturday from Ridgewood to Shea Stadium, largely along greenways. Some great bike paths there, especially in Forest Park, which is near Forest Hills and Glendale.
mike sold out at - 02:17
7.04.2006
Sweet, Sweet Can of Liberty
Yesterday, in celebration of American's inherent greatness, I took a big bike ride with Ben and Beth, from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal through Bayonne to Liberty State Park. Quite an adventure, and I emerged only with a slight farmer's sunburn and a fairly-easily-fixed rear flat tire.
Leaving from the Battery
Heading over the bridge from Staten Island to Bayonne
An Oil Barge passing under the bridge. We noticed that the sides of the ship are rubberized and that it has these giant bumpers on the side of the barge.
Looking west from the bridge at the "Kill Van Kull". Staten Island is on the left.
A Polish subsistance fisherman caught some blue crabs in Newark Bay. Gross.
I think this is the Elizabeth Container Port, might be Port Newark, if there is a difference
Caven Point, where car-crushing machines and yuppies peacefully coexist. Kind of.
The view at the end of the ride at Liberty State Park, which I think is one of the best parks in the region.
mike sold out at - 13:23
7.03.2006
Unfrozen Caveman Senator
Several years ago, Kevin went was Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" for Halloween, perhaps one of the greatest costumes of all time.
Now, it appears that Cirroc is not only a lawyer, he's also a U.S. Senator under the name of Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska:
in Wired blog
There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.
But this service isn't going to go through the interent and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.
Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?
I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.
[...]
So you want to talk about the consumer? Let's talk about you and me. We use this internet to communicate and we aren't using it for commercial purposes. We aren't earning anything by going on that internet. Now I'm not saying you have to or you want to discrimnate against those people
[...]
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes.
And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
[...]
Now I think these people are arguing whether they should be able to dump all that stuff on the internet ought to consider if they should develop a system themselves.
Maybe there is a place for a commercial net but it's not using what consumers use every day.
It's not using the messaging service that is essential to small businesses, to our operation of families.
The whole concept is that we should not go into this until someone shows that there is something that has been done that really is a viloation of net neutraility that hits you and me.
Oh, and did I mention that Stevens wants to do away with Net Neutrality? Damn those people sending large files! Damn those people making money off the internets! Unfrozen Caveman Senator to the rescue!
via dailykos
