Blog / 2008

What Bugs Me About All the Damn Bailouts

2008-12-08

What if Americans aren’t buying American cars because they aren’t buying any cars? What if no one else on Earth is buying cars either? What...

Clean

2008-11-17

I spent the whole weekend cleaning. I mean like the whole weekend because I got up at 6:00 each day and fell into bed exhausted...

The Event Horizon of Memory, In Honor of the Ten Surviving Veterans of the Great War

2008-11-11

...who are: Claude Stanly Choules, Australia John Campbell Ross, Australia Fernand Goux, France Pierre Picault, France Henry William Allingham, United Kingdom Netherwood Hughes, United Kingdom...

Thoughts About Material Possessions Occasioned by the Purchase of Our New Refrigerator

2008-11-10

Of the two big life changes we’ve made in the last year — buying a house and having a baby — the really stressful one...

奥巴马 2008!

2008-10-28

Courtesy of James Fallows, I learned that the Mandarin transcription of “Obama” is 奥巴马. I’ve written previously about the danger of “translating” foreign words from...

Excitement Potential of Bicycle-Related Purchases

2008-10-27

in ascending order

God’s Reputation

2008-10-14

I’ve been watching this video of the convocation at a mccain/palin rally with a certain degree of ... fascination. like so many things happening in...

Nebraska’s New State Motto

2008-10-10

Just now a coworker and I were discussing Nebraska’s surprising status as a potential swing state in the presidential election. I was trying to describe...

Bands That Have Free Lifetime Passes, and the Albums that Bought it for Them

2008-10-04

Björk: Post Boards of Canada: Music Has the Right to Children Kraftwerk: Radio-Activity Mono: Under the Pipal Tree Neko Case: Blacklisted R.E.M.: Document Sonic Youth:...

Shorter Vice Presidential Debate

2008-10-03

Sen. Joe Biden: I’m not gonna be the only person in this race without a compelling personal history.Gov. Sarah Palin: I’m a human firehose of...

Seasons: Pacific Northwest vs. Midwest

2008-10-03

The rains have started.I like this. This is why I moved to Oregon. I moved here for the cool and gray and damp and peaceful....

My Proudest Piece of Writing Ever

2008-10-02

On Stumptown Coffee’s Facebook Page:I traveled back in time from the 28th century and constructed an elaborate cover life solely for the purpose of reviewing...

And Now: Politics!

2008-09-25

I watched some of Katie Couric’s recent interview with Sarah Palin just now, and I had a sudden aha moment. I had previously seen some...

Namesake

2008-09-06

While dumping a bucket of compost at 5am this morning I looked to the southeast and saw my son’s namesake rising ahead of the sun.Orion...

Hometown Songs

2008-08-26

Two of my most surprising favorite songs are Jonathan Richman’s “New England:” I have been out west to Californ’ But I miss the land where...

Why Our New Garbage Can Has Instructions on the Goddamned Lid

2008-08-22

How to Improve Open Source User Interfaces♥

2008-08-08

Programmer Michael Thomas revisits an old theme: Why Free Software has poor usability, and how to improve it. This was a theme I heard a...

Nine Women

2008-08-06

...can’t have a baby in one month.The software and management world has known this since 1975 and yet, what happens every time I’m on a...

The Hill

2008-07-31

Every day I ride my bike over the Hill. Well, almost every day. About one day in ten I don’t ride the bike at all...

Some Random Thoughts About Star Wars

2008-07-29

This video (thanks, Scott) set me to thinking a little bit about Star Wars:I first saw Star Wars 31 years ago. A friend of the...

An Open Letter to Producers of Epic Fantasy Movies

2008-07-18

This past Saturday, Jenny and I saw Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian at the Kennedy School’s “Family Matinee.”1 It was a good-enough movie I suppose,...

(Re) Reading

2008-07-16

Last week, I finished reading the entire Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin series. (Yes, these are the books that Charlton Heston described as his favorites. I’m probably...

Technique and Technology♥

2008-07-11

You can use a Swiss Army knife to cut your fingernails in two different ways: with the scissors, or with the knife blade.

Outside

2008-07-09

I remember an ad for outdoorsy-type shoes (by Nike?) from some years ago (1995?) that claimed “Americans spend 1% of their lives outdoors.” I’m also...

I Have Had Some Momentary Interactions With Certain Famous People, Mostly Musicians

2008-06-23

I almost ran into Sarah Jessica Parker in West Hollywood. She was coming out of a boutique. As she walked past me I said to...

I Used to Think About This All the Time♥

2008-06-18

You can’t learn to plow by reading books

Sonic Life

2008-06-04

One of the weird and awesome side effects of the imminent Digitalization of All Things is the ease with which I can become an obsessive...

The Cost of Things

2008-06-03

As a society we have traded about 70% of our kids’ literal freedom (in the sense of “freedom of movement”) for a five-fold increase in their ability to accumulate STUFF

Paul Souders vs. a 2008 Subaru Forester

2008-06-02

(A Quick Back-of-the-Envelope Calculation) Pm = price of a gallon of Alpenrose 2% milk at New Seasons = $3.89 Pr = price of a gallon...

Something I Just Learned...

2008-05-30

The traffic dangers of cycling fatalities are offset at least 10 to 1 by the cardiovascular health benefits.From John Pucher, via this video (around minute...

I Love This Town

2008-05-30

A little sun today, finally, after what feels like the longest winter evar. Broken clouds, cool, wind smells like ocean. The wet winter makes for...

The Beach, Reached

2008-05-18

First of course: a hearty thank you to everyone who contributed to my Reach the Beach effort. I raised $125 for the American Lung Association,...

China Earthquake and Digging Ditches

2008-05-14

Sometimes I say things like “web design isn’t like digging ditches.” Meaning: more time ≠ better design The past week at Mercy Corps has proven...

Mercy Corps’ Response to Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar

2008-05-09

Some of my friends are asking about Mercy Corps’ response to the Cyclone that’s affecting Myanmar. The short version is: Mercy Corps is mobilizing. The...

I Used to Be an Archaeologist♥

2008-04-21

Why I left, and what I miss

The Automobile Pollutant Exposure Theory of Bicycling Avoidance

2008-04-19

I have a few pet issues. Some people would call these pet peeves, but pretty much the only pet peeve I have is “beliefs that...

Free Range Kids

2008-04-17

With a kid on the way I’ve been thinking a lot about my own childhood and the way I was raised. In particular, I’m kind...

I always want to get a new...

2008-04-07

messenger bag minitool content management system pair of socks pocket knife wrist watch ballpoint pen backpack rain coat text editor ...no matter how many I...

Eight Miles

2008-04-06

I changed my clipless pedal cleats today. I remembered doing this last autumn, right around the time I rolled my odometer over 6666.6 miles. I...

Giving Away UI Design

2008-04-04

Jeff Atwood blogged recently about UI-first software development. I’m a UI designer primarily so this is the only kind of development I ever do, really,...

New R.E.M. Albums

2008-04-02

I stood outside the door of Pickles Records, waiting for opening time, on the day of Document’s release in 1987. (It was also, coincidentally, the...

Spring Break and the Power of Preference

2008-03-26

Jenny is on Spring Break this week which means I’m kind of on Spring Break. My usual morning routine gets me up at about 5:00...

“Bicycles won’t solve any of the world’s problems...”

2008-03-20

“...but they’ll make some of them better and none of them worse.”(I thought of this on my ride into work this morning.)

Perspective

2008-02-25

In the past 3 years I’ve totally remade my productivity habits. The key is that I don’t keep “to do” items hanging around. I either...

Buh-Bye Lake Oswego

2008-01-28

After our first week in the new house I am — and whoa, where did this come from — missing Lake Oswego?Well, objectively, here’s what...

The Way They Drink Their Coffee...

2008-01-06

in Malaysia and Singapore: not very hot from a very fine ground in a pot that brews all day, deadly bitter, poured carefully over a...

“People who love this country can change it.”

2008-01-04

Last night, the guy said, in almost perfect words, the thing I’ve felt my entire life. I’m the kind of cheesy patriot who can get...

The Stupidest Investment Decision I Never Made

2008-01-02

I ran across this tidbit today and it made me pause: If you held the $10,000 of [Apple] shares bought in 1997, your investment would...