December 2004 Entries
After all the Christmas dinners were finished, I met up with some high school friends for some local Connecticut bar wind-down drinks. My friend Jared and I decided that we ought to stop by and play some paddle afterwards. About 2:45AM and about 21 degrees out.For those unfamiliar with paddle, officially known as “platform tennis”, is specifically designed to be played in cold weather — the snow and ice. More from from the APTA (American Platform Tennis Association):The Court: The game is played on an elevated aluminum deck 1/4 the size of a regulation tennis court … The court is...
Make your own here: Don’t eat yellow snow. [via Snowgo]
Long ago I had a popular post about CaptainHoof/Rance. It is a supposed celebrity writing the blog and generated a blip of interest for a while there. I kept my RSS subscription, but haven’t really been reading or thinking about it since.
Then out of nowhere I get this email today: Rance a Hoax No, a Stalker Yes.
Here’s just a sampling of the madness.
My name is Victoria (Vicki) Rum, and you need to know the truth about Rance, who he is and what he has done.
[…]I have recently written to the FBI, FCC and DOJ regarding my matter in hopes...
Liz Lawley re-reminded me today about last.fm. I’ve been using Audioscrobbler for a while, but hadn’t really turned it into something useful because I was ignoring last.fm because I didn’t really get how it worked. Well, it does work. Works great. Thanks Liz. Once you get above 250 songs profiled in audioscrobbler, it will stream personalized selections to you. Free and legal of course. And how do I know the selection engine works? It was suggested to me recently (in real life) that I should check...
vs I enjoy MSNBC’s week in pictures. Each week you are given the option to vote for your favorite. This year they do a 2004 Year in Pictures flash movie set to music featuring the Editors’ Choice and the Readers’ Choice top picks of the year. Let’s just say the two vary widely. Soldiers-on-fire or kitten-on-skateboard. There is almost no overlap between the two.
I put my name on the car-free central park list two summers ago and while their email letter is poorly designed and slightly annoying they managed to get some concessions from the city. Cars will only be allowed in the park 7 to 10 am and 3 to 7 pm Five entrances permanently closed to cars and reclaimed 25 mph speed limit on park drives (formerly 30 mph) High Occupancy Vehicle restriction during the morning rush hour on the Park's West Drive It doesn’t solve my main problem of cars in the park because I would like to be running...
Vinod sent me this from Hong Kong. Click to see a closeup of what the ad is for.
Now I know this is the wrong time of year for this for my cold-winter readers, but gift season is here. Freeboard: It is a skateboard with central pivot wheels in the middle which act like the smooth base of a snowboard allowing snowboard like sliding for speed control to skateboarding. It requires some lightweight bindings too. The website has some amazing videos of dudes cruising down hills on these things — and I mean fast — but since you can slide like a snowboard (sortof hockey-stop) style you are able to control the speed better than the typical skateboard “jump off and hope...
I am a big fan of Aesop Rock. This online flash movie ft. Evil Nine and Aesop Rock is perfect for a first time listener, much catchier. I hadn’t heard of Evil Nine before and given this, I’d really want the album, but it is listed as being available March 29, 2005 at Amazon. WTF? I don’t want to wait 4.5 months. It seems copies are available on Ebay for big bucks ($91) or via the UK which isn’t real attractive. [via Resy]
Time Magazine How Safe Are Our Troops? Why the Pentagon ended up with a shortage of armored vehicles for U.S. soldiers in Iraq: The Army originally thought it needed 235 armored humvees to help bring peace to Iraq. But shortly after Bush declared major combat over in May 2003, the need for armored humvees took off like a rocket. Five months later, commanders in Iraq wanted 3,100. By early this year, the requirement was 4,000. Last month the total quietly doubled to 8,105. The Army, in other words, needs 35 times as many of these vital vehicles as its war...
I am tempted to quote the entire thing since it is so right on. Michael Kinsley: My contention: Social Security privatization is not just unlikely to succeed, for various reasons that are subject to discussion. It is mathematically certain to fail. Discussion is pointless. [read the rest on tpm] Since you are interested, and I know you are. Paul Krugman took time out from his NYTimes sabbatical to write these two editorials on the subject. Very good intro to the subject. 12/6: Contrary to what the privatizers are saying, we don't have to destroy Social Security in order to fix it. 12/9:...
If I was going to be in town I would totally go to this. TINKLE PRE- NEW YEAR'S EVE SHOW 2004THURSDAY, DEC 308PM HOSTED BYDAVID CROSSTODD BARRYJON BENJAMINGUESTS PAUL F. TOMPKINSFRED ARMISENMORE ACTS TBA.@ Pianos, NYC Lower East SideI’ll be in Vermont, Mt. Snow, again this year for those that care.
Here’s a weird trait o’ mine: (I wonder if I am the only one)
I do a lot of product recommendations for people. Computers, home electronics, phones, pdas, gadgets, whatever.
Now these things eventually get old and fail to perform to current standards. Sometimes I get follow-up calls from people like “yeah, you know that computer you recommended for me four years ago? Well, it isn’t working real good now and I need another one.” And what happens? I feel tremendous guilt/sadness for having made the suggestion and that person being out real money for something that I said to buy...
Announcing my friend Rob’s new blog.
http://chienandalou.blogspot.com/
I encouraged Rob to start the blog. I know he’ll be excellent at it.
He’s still working on the /. aspects of it (as he says). [brb] Okay, I just bought a new copy of Blogjet for him. That’ll help.
And here’s the XML feed for subscribing:
F1 News - Sauber unveil new 'supercomputer.'Sauber has continued its offensive in the field of aerodynamics, as only nine months after the launch of its ultra-modern wind tunnel, the Swiss team has now unveiled a new supercomputer for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) at its headquarters in Hinwil. ‘Albert', as the machine has been christened, is one of the most powerful in Formula One as well as the automotive industry as a whole and is some 30 times more powerful than any one used in the past by the team. The supercomputer was built by the Swiss company DALCO and has...
Okay, now everyone was impressed by the original google search.
Gmail has got everyone’s attention. (I have invites available btw)
Here’s the newest absolutely killer addition to search from Google:
(image linked)
[via BetaNews]
Proof that I completed the November Beard Club Challenge. Notes: A) I took this picture first thing in the morning right before I shaved it off — that’s why I look so tired/high B) Clever snoops will notice in the EXIF data that the picture was taken on 11/25. I had my ten year high school reunion a couple days later and I didn’t want to show up with my beard and have to explain the whole November Beard Club thing and be remembered for the next ten years as “Corey: oh yeah, the guy with the beard.”Our office is...
Somebody named Honeybchickie posted a comment to an old post of mine regarding Megatouch and EPH (Erotic Photo Hunt). Hey! What was the highest you ever got at Photo Hunt??? I am on the same mission in my town and am trying to find somewhere online where everyone can compare there scores across the US. Help! ;) Thanks! So I am taking matters into my own hands. I created an EPH high score Wiki here on Coreyh.com. Feel free to edit the page as needed and mess with the formatting. Link to EPH High Score WikiWhat is a Wiki?
Just one quick thought on the Jesus sandwich — which sold for for $28,000 — or the latest x-ray image.Didn’t Time magazine run a photo put together by some scientists (yes I know, how silly to reference Science) recreating what Jesus probably looked like? I couldn’t find the image I remember, but CNN links to a similar effort that appeared in Popular Mechanics. Now, if you were Jesus, and you chose to mess with us Earthlings by placing your face on grilled cheese sandwiches and in dental x-rays, would you choose to go with the effeminate renaissance artists-rendering version? I mean,...
Anytime anyone asks me where I live in NY, I flash my West-Side gang sign. At least I'm doing it right. Here's a handy guide to throwin down signs. Also quite funny is this re-imagined sign language instructional manual. The dirty ones at the bottom are especially good. [Both via Screenhead]
I bought a pair of Etymotic ER-6i earphones for my ipod. $129 @ J&R. These guys jam all the way into your ear canal. Getting them in takes practice and lubrication. Essentially I give myself a wet-willie. Is it all worth it? I'm not sure yet. Here's the thing: for those of us who ride the subway these are great. Because they plug the ear it isolates nearly all outside noise. It turns a thirty year old #3 train hurtling along at 45 mph into some kind of silent-futuristic-monorail subway. (Doing the research for top speeds somebody quoted the downtown 3 train...
Last night, my friend Lori and I went to the Canal Room to see Swayzak and Matthew Dear perform. Matthew Dear did a short warm up DJ set for the room as it filled. Swayzak was interesting; I had never seen them before. The group is two dudes, but four guys came out on stage. One guy had essentially half an electric drum set that was wired through the mixers onstage so guy #2 could control the sound of the guy drumming. Guy #2 was working the knobs of a couple sound machines (couldn't get behind him to see exactly...