In which I discuss Apple’s announcements of a Podcast-capable iTunes and new and improved iPods.
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Monthly Archives: June 2005
weekend events
After a busy week I was glad to have some of the weekend to spend with my Peter.
We had a nice date on Friday night. I got home from work and we headed out to the movies to see ***Cinderella Man|http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0352248/***. I wasn’t sure that I woud like it…since it was a “boxing” movie and all, but I did! The story was entertaining, even if it was a bit violent and the historical references were slightly forced. I loved having my stereotypes broken. Kudos to the writer/director/whatever that can change my opinion or challenge my preconceived notions.
Saturday was a day spent at home. We did some cleaning and organizing and got some nice productive things done while getting to spend time together.
Falling into the category “Things I probably would not have done/seen had it not been for meeting Peter” was the dvd we watched on Saturday night. It was the second half of the first season of ***The 4400|http://imdb.com/title/tt0389564/***, a USA channel SciFi show. It is an interesting show based on the idea that 4400 people from the 20th century were abducted and then returned in a ‘super human’ form. The plot follows these “returnees” as they attempt to get on with their lives. It is a great SciFi show that has enough plot and human interest to keep my attention.
I had to work on Sunday, but we had a lovely evening as Peter mentioned below.
Sometimes the simple times are the best.
Singin’ in the Rain
As ***I’ve mentioned before|http://prwdot.org/archives/002546.html***, ***Beverly Recreation Department|http://www.bevrec.com/*** is running a ***Summer Movie Program|http://www.bevrec.com/programs/SummerMovies.html*** at ***Lynch Park|http://www.bevrec.com/lynchpark.html***. Becky and I went tonight to see ***Singin’ in the Rain|http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0045152/***, starring Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. The movie was projected onto the band shell, and we sat on a blanket amongst the mosquitoes and other biting insects (note for next time: bug spray!) the owners of this property should worry about thse insects since I’m pretty sure we were not the only ones that go bitten by them, if we would have been the owners we would have already called the professional exterminators at http://www.hubertmooreexterminator.com/, that’s for sure. Aside from the mosquito menace, it was actually a lovely evening. There was a brief threat of rain, but it did not materialize into a full-fledged storm. We brought Subway sandwiches and had ice cream at the Dick & June’s snack bar. Prior to the movie there was a concert by the Dane Street Pops, a community band. They were entertaining, if not always on key or on the beat.
The Lynch Park movies are off for the Fourth of July, but the week after they resume with ***Ferris Bueller’s Day Off|http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0091042/***. Bueller? Bueller? Anybody?
Update
Oops, I completely forgot to link to the photos we took at the event! ***Here ya go!|http://gallery.prwdot.org/singin_in_the_rain***
Photographing Strangers
Becky had to ***work|http://www.historicnewengland.org/visit/homes/otis.htm*** today, so I drove her in to Boston and took the opportunity to walk around a very steamy, hazy city. My objective today was to try and take photos of random people. Now this is something that I don’t have much practice with, and I’m not comfortable doing it yet. Buildings, landscapes, statues, they’re all easy to photograph. They don’t move, and they’re not self-conscious, so they make great subjects for photography. People I’m acquainted with are also fairly easy to photograph… if they’re comfortable enough with me, I can get some really great shots. But photographing people I don’t know, particularly attempting to do it without them being aware, can be very difficult and intimidating. People get weirded out if some stranger points a camera at them. I try my best to snap photos when people aren’t looking at me, or from far away enough that they can’t tell I’m aiming at them – which is made easier by using a zoom lens. But if I try to take the shot too quickly, the camera jitters, and the shot comes out bad. So it’s something I’m working on, and I’d be grateful for any suggestions on taking candid photos in public places.
In any case, ***here’s the gallery|http://gallery.prwdot.org/people_in_boston***. I did my best to stick to the people-only plan, but there were a few non-human subjects that were just so tempting I couldn’t resist.
Also, I thought a fun idea might be to provide your own captions for the people in the photos. To do this, view the gallery at the link above, and click on a thumbnail to see the full-size photo. You will see a comment field under the photo, so just put your name in the Commenter box, and your caption in the Message box, and submit the form. Be imaginative… I wouldn’t expect any less from our readers. 🙂
Interesting New Icon
I saw an interesting new icon in ***ForecastFox|http://forecastfox.mozdev.org/*** today:
ggg|screenshots/forecastfox_hot|Yowza!|ggg
I guess that means it’s gonna be hot! Summer is here, and it’s steamin’ mad that winter and spring hung around so long.
MIT Weblog Survey
Catching Some (J)Z’s
I’m sure someone has made this observation before, but I’ve always been intrigued that three well-known personalities of the internet age share the same first and last initials, JZ:
***Jeremy Zawodny|http://jeremy.zawodny.com/***, a Yahoo! employee since December of 1999. He is currently a MySQL guru on Yahoo!’s platform engineering team.
***Jamie Zawinski|http://www.jwz.org/***, one of the most important contributors to Mozilla and Netscape, and currently proprietor of the ***DNA Lounge|http://www.dnalounge.com/*** in San Francisco.
***Jeffrey Zeldman|http://www.zeldman.com/***, web standards guru and web designer extraordinaire. Founded ***Happy Cog Studios|http://www.happycog.com/***. I received one of his books as a Christmas gift.
I wonder what connections these guys have, if any? I’ve only found ***one page|http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/05/20/defeatingIE5*** so far that has all three names on it. If the three JZ’s got together in one room, would the Internet implode? Perhaps they have been together in one room – anyone know? Am I missing any JZ’s? Will any of the JZ’s actually find this post? We shall see. 🙂
I might be keeping up with your blog.
[David Weinberger](http://www.hyperorg.com/) [recently wrote in his blog](http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/004138.html):
But we’re now well past the point where any of us can keep up with all the blogs worth reading from the people worth keeping up with. Even with an aggregator.
I just can’t do it any more.
I can understand David’s frustrations. I can even identify with them. To wit, I don’t actually read David’s blog at all – I read about this particular [post](http://www.universalhub.com/node/1255) at [Universal Hub](http://www.universalhub.com/), a Boston-area community and news website. But rather than simply giving up, I’ve taken steps to solve the problem.
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Wild Weekend
fff|ggg|canoeing_nashua/P1030042|The GeekMobile With Canoe|ggg
ggg|pillsbury_state_park/P1030165|The Gang at Balance Rock|ggg|fff
We had quite an exciting weekend:
On Saturday, we were in Townsend to attend a graduation party for a friend of Becky’s family. In the morning, Becky and I, along with Ken, Dianne, and Corey, headed out onto the Nashua River to do some ***canoeing and kayaking|http://gallery.prwdot.org/canoeing_nashua***. We had quite a good time, and got to see lots of natural beauty, all while getting a decent upper body workout.
On Sunday, Becky and I drove up to Claremont, NH to visit our friends ***Jeremy and Angela|http://www.thebiggspicture.org/*** at their new house! On the way, we stopped for a quick, mosquito-infested hike up ***Mount Watatic|http://gallery.prwdot.org/mount_watatic*** in Ashburnham, MA. After arriving in Claremont, we got to see all of the work The Biggses have been doing and are planning on doing on ***the house|http://gallery.prwdot.org/grab_bag/P1030197***. After the house tour, the four of us went hiking at ***Pillsbury State Park|http://gallery.prwdot.org/pillsbury_state_park*** in Washington, NH. It was a very nice afternoon for a hike (much better than the day on which the Biggses ***previously hiked|http://thebiggspicture.org/2005/06/we-couldnt-decide-on-title-for-this.html***), and Pillsbury has some really nice scenery… mountains, lakes, and some very nice looking campsites (we’d love to get Site 28 some time, if possible). After the hike, we had all worked up quite an appetite, which we satisfied at the Biggs House with breakfast for dinner… fresh bacon, eggs, French toast, Belgian waffles… yum.
We finally arrived home in Beverly with just enough time to unload our belongings and get some sleep… and now, yet another week of work. Life goes on!
the answers
Well, we gave you the opportunity to ask us anything. We got some good questions, a few that really made us think, and now we’re ready to answer them!
1. “If Jimmy cracks corn and nobody cares, then why does he keep doing it?” -JSB
Becky & Peter: “I would like to think that Jimmy is so self confident in his choice of activity that it doesn’t bother him that no one else cares. He enjoys it and that’s enough for him.”
2. “What is so great about the song My Wild Irish Rose?” -MAL
Becky: “It’s the descant. That’s what makes it cool.”
3. “Have you ever eaten plum puffs?” – MAL
Becky: “Yes!” Peter: “What’s a plum puff?”
4. “How many similarities are there between the Sound of Music and Anne of Avonlea?” – MAL
Becky: “A lot – but you’ll have to come and watch them with me to find out!” Peter: “They’re both movies I most likely would not have watched had I not met Becky.”
5. “Why does Mr. Cleasby wear red pants? Why did Mr. Buddington wear a red jacket?” – MAL
Becky: “One day, in 1974, the suit was on sale at Brickman’s and each could only afford to buy half.”
6. “Do you think the world would be a better place if everyone ate your mother’s (or mother-in-law depending on who’s reading this) carrot cake?” – MAL
Becky: “Definitely!” Peter: “Sadly, I don’t think I’ve ever had it… but I would probably say yes!”
7. “What is the question to the ultimate answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything? (Hint: the answer is 42.)” – AB
Becky & Peter: “We will simply quote from the book itself:” “Forty-two!” yelled Loonquawl. “Is that all you’ve got to show for seven and a half million years’ work?” “I checked it very thoroughly,” said the computer, “and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you’ve never actually known what the question is.”
8. “Why is carpet so expensive?” – AB
Becky: “Perhaps because the carpet makers know that you’re not going to be buying it very often, so they need to make their money on that one-time sale.”
9. “Of all the places you’ve been, and all the places you’d like to visit, what is your favorite place in the world?” – AB
Peter & Becky: “It’s hard to say what our favorite place in the world would be. There are so many wonderful places that we’ve been, or would like to go to. Here is a selection of some of our favorites: Martha’s Vineyard… San Francisco… Oregon… Andalucia… places that we enjoy traveling to and feel comfortable in.
10. “If you could go back to one moment or one day in time and do it all over again, when would it be? If you could go forward?” – AB
Peter & Becky: “This is probably a cheap answer, but we can’t think of anything that we’d want to do over again. We don’t know anything about the future, so we can’t think of any moments we’d want to go forward to.” Peter: “Except maybe for the moment when warp drive is invented. That would be cool. I’d like to meet Zefrem Cochrane, or whoever actually invents it.”
11. “How many electronic gadgets do you own? How many pencils? Do you still have any crayons lying around? Have you ever used a typewriter? How long ago?” – AB
Electronic Gadgets: 7: Apple PowerBook, Apple iPod, Palm V, Handspring Visor Edge, 2x Sanyo cell phones, Panasonic digital camera. Pencils: 12. Crayons: Becky: “Yes, I have a box of 92 colors!” Typewriter: Becky: “Yes – around 2001-2002 at bank jobs” Peter: “Yes – in the late 80’s before we had a computer, I used a typewriter for writing school reports.”
12. “What is your one favorite pastime?” – AB
Becky: “Crafting in general.” Peter: “Computers in general.”
13. “What if the “Hokey Pokey” is really what it’s all about?” – JSB
Becky & Peter: “Hooray! If the Hokey Pokey really is what it’s all about, then we’ve got it easy! Heck, an integral part of the song is the INSTRUCTIONS for doing the Hokey Pokey. So you wouldn’t have to worry about anything ever again.”
14. “If you were able to move to any country in the world, which one would you choose? Once there, would you live in a city? The country? Suburbia? Would you want a house? Apartment? Would you try to find equivalents of your current jobs in your new location or would you try something new?” – JSB
Peter and Becky: “As with many questions, there are many places we might choose… but one example might be Switzerland. (P: I’ve never been there, so I’m taking Becky’s word that it’s as nice as she says.) We would probably like to live in a small town, but not too far from a city. Definitely in a house. Becky would like to find a position as an English-language tour guide, sort of doing what she’s doing now… only in Switzerland. Peter might take the tourist opportunities and start some kind of photography business.”
15: “What is the most powerful evidence of God in your life?” – AB
Peter and Becky: “The fact that we’re able to be content with life, in a world that is filled with discontent.”
Thanks for all of the questions… we hope that you find our answers interesting, or at least amusing. Feel free to add more questions to ***the original post|http://prwdot.org/archives/002592.html***, and we might answer them periodically!