rebel with rather too many causes
Bookmarks are one of the simplest things in the world. If I want to mark my place in a book, I can almost always find some random scrap or object which, immediately at hand, is able to serve the purpose.
I was reflecting today on the fact that there are people who make their living making or selling bookmarks. Its true! They make their living selling bookmarks.
There is hope for me yet.
Here’s an addition to my personal list of villains.
Imagine someone who intentionally leaves their mobile phone on — perhaps even on an extra loud "outdoor mode" and with an particularly obnoxious ringtone — during movies, symphonies, plays, or lectures. While this person isn’t so nasty that they would plan or prompt a call, they enjoy the thrill of knowing, at any moment (but especially during the quiet or emotionally charged parts of the performance), that it could all be ruined. And that it would be their fault. Of course, they would act embarrassed and brush it off as an honest mistake.
In my infinite spare time, I think it would be fun to make a parody of an MTV style "documentary" about one day in the life a person with a Hitler mustache to show ridiculous that genre has become.
The video will be done with 15 second cuts and and with a bumping soundtrack by an eclectic selection of artists from the full spectrum of popular music. It will follow around a person for one day as they have a barber chisel out a Hitler mustache and then spend one day in that form. These scenes will, of course, be interspersed up with snippets from interviews with vapid onlookers, fashion gurus, and celebrities weighing in on all sides of the many "issues" that wearing a Hitler mustache raises. These issues might include:
If you would like to donate resources or time to this project, please let me know.
Today I heard someone say, "apparently, it’s not visible.
Clearly, a confused statement.
Something about this museum in Eindhoven made my think of my friend Daf.
I bet Wikipedian SJ Klein one dove that pigeons and doves were one — one and the same that is.
Wikipedia says, "the terms dove and pigeon are used interchangeably." Of course, this picture of a Chequered Rock Dove is what really seals the deal:
As you can guess, Rock Doves are commonly found in city parks and widely known as "feral pigeons."
Because I won, SJ can pay off the debt with a pigeon.
Believe it or not, there is news that is even cooler than the free content and expression definition. The news is that after knowing each other and dating for something like 7 or 8 years — on and off but mostly on — Mika and I are going to be getting married. Here’s a picture of the two of us at a picnic last weekend:
If you read my blog, you’ve probably seen my frequent links to hers. If you hung out with me in Seattle, Boston, or New York, in the last 3 years or have ever visited The Acetarium, you probably already know her.
We’ve told our families and many of close friends and will going ahead with a wedding and parties in the coming months. At the very least, we’ll be having parties in Cambridge (Massachusetts) and in Seattle. Neither of us are particularly traditional and I don’t imagine we’ll make a very traditional married couple. But we are crazy about each other and in it for the long haul. And that’s what counts.
The only bad news it that it means that I won’t be making Debconf this year — for the first time in four years. With a little bit of luck I’ll be back (perhaps with Mika who attended Debconf 4) next year.
If you want to send messages of congratulations. You could make us really happy by sending them in the form of cards or postcards. You can mail those to:
Benjamin Mako Hill and Mika MatsuzakiThe Acetarium1010 Massachusetts Ave, Apt 54Cambridge, MA 02138USA
Stay tuned for information on forthcoming parties and celebrations.
Mika and I are hosting a guest visiting who has decided to do many of the normal tourist things while in Boston. Yesterday he went on the freedom trail and saw Old Ironsides.
Old Ironsides is, of course, the USS Constitution and it is the oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy. Constructed from 2,000 oak trees (!) it is one of the few ships in the US Navy whose sides are not made of iron. In this sense, Old Ironsides is a bit of misnomer. Admittedly, the nickname is catchier than the more accurate Old Sides.
Can graphical representations of asexual reproduction accurately be called “micro-organism porn?”
Binary Fission: Porn or Not? |
Mitosis: Porn or Not? |
Yesterday was St. Patrick’s day. I saw a group of WASP Harvard College students wearing green St. Patrick’s Day sombreros.
In the words of Joe Wenderoth, "This Freak Show is too long."
We often hear about the technical advances that occur at Debconfs. For example, using only Debconf signage, I once invented a portable toilet that was the size of a single sheet of A4 paper.
The picture is a bit blurred but you can get the idea:
I haven’t blogged recently and have been somewhat quiet and out of touch over the last few weeks more generally. I’ve certainly been busy but have also been trying to find words to describe the recent death of my friend and colleague, Push Singh.
Push was a next-door neighbor at the Media Lab, an academic neighbor in the Electronic Publishing research group, and a neighbor in my building at home. If you’ve come to parties at the Acetarium, chances are you met him. Push was an up-and-coming AI researcher and something of a protege of Marvin Minsky. He had recently accepted an appointment to the MIT Faculty starting next year. His loss has come as quite a shock to everyone, to say the very least.
Last Thursday was the last of several organized memorial services for Push and it now seems that its time for those of us effected by his death to get back to our lives.
Rather than poorly summarizing Push and his impact on me here, I can point you some of the things that I and others said about him on a wiki page we have created to collect remembrances and in the obituary published in MIT Tech Talk.
Push will be missed and I will continue to mourn his loss.
I saw an advertisement for PubCon today. It merely listed their name and their slogan/motto/catchphrase: "We start where other conferences finish."
I thought about that for a second until I figured it out. Where do other conferences finish? Obviously, they finish at the pub! Hell, any decent conference will they finish in the pub not just once but every night. What a great idea! Why not just avoid the whole conference bit altogether and just go to the pub in big groups of like-minded people!
It turns out, it’s just some gathering for anyone "involved in the production, marketing, or management of a internet web site."
Very disappointing. I will not go. You shouldn’t either.
If I remember and have time when PubCon is Boston (unlikely, remind me if you like the idea) — April 18-20, 2006 — I will try to organize my own PubCon, which will actually start where other conferences (including PubCon it turns out) finish.
I don’t think I ever blogged about the time I saw an ambulance being jump-started by another ambulance.
I laughed at the time but the situation made me very uneasy. Nobody wants to see something they depend upon in crucial moments in such a pathetic state. In the future, I think they should do these sort of jump-starts indoors.
Of course, it did answer one question. An ambulance’s ambulance is, it turns out, just another ambulance.
I just created a stub in Wikipedia for the Hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica. I will visit the Music Library today for more information on this wonderfuly named instrument. If you have more information already, please contribute to the page.