Aces Full of Links

The Pour Farm Tavern

Yesterday was an odd day, but ultimately a good one.

The highlight was a visit to “The Pour Farm Tavern” (**WARNING: link has music**) which instantly became my favorite bar in New Bedford, MA.

At the end of the workday, I revealed to my coworkers that I’d heard “Pour Farm” was serving Sam Adams Chocolate Bock on tap. We decided it was imperative we experience this, and I was ready for a beer after having finished my main task of the day and following a run-in with the office building manager¹.

We headed off to Purchase St. I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is: Yes! The same Purchase St. where No Problemo is located. In fact, The Pour Farm Tavern is essentially across the street from No Problemo. (see Map)

Derek went ahead and gave our order for pints of Chocolate Bock all around. It’s as good as it is in the bottle, but even more smooth on tap.

The place is like a monument to good craft beer, and very un-like the bars of New Bedford I’m used to where you were lucky not to get a black eye if you didn’t like the fact that they only had PBR and Bud Light. The place is covered with craft beer logos, and many of your favorites are there, quite a few are on tap. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. Harpoon and Sam Adams Seasonals. Double Bastard. Wachusett. Dogfish Head. You should be getting the idea. This is a place you want to be if you actually like beer.

When we had to leave, we were told there was a Dewar’s Scotch tasting about to happen. But I had to hop across the street to get tacos to bring home, and my tummy was already growling.

Let my just say this. You can’t go wrong on that stretch of Purchase Street. If you have any excuse to go to New Bedford, you’ll want to visit Pour Farm and No Problemo. Now that I think of it, you DO have an excuse, now.

Sleepy Stealy-Guy

I had to make a stop at Cardoza’s in Fall River to pick up a few bottles they were holding for me, and when I got there the employees were all excited. Apparently, a guy had stolen some un specified bottle of liquor, which they did not notice until they saw it on the cameras.

A customer later told them that someone was sleeping in the parking lot in a running car, and it turned out to be the thief. The manager woke him up to argue with him about the stolen bottle, and apparently they had a bit of an argument before the sleepy guy realized he could just drive away.

I don’t know why they didn’t just let him rest while the police arrived. They still hadn’t called in the authorities by the time I left the store. Weird!

I stopped

¹ Essentially, I got frustrated with the building manager after he interrupted our meeting to scold us about the state of the kitchen area. My approach to the discussion became heated when he ignored my point about people coming in here and using our equipment without permission, and he tried to backtrack from his unfocused lecture on microwave cleanliness.

Technorati : beer, drink, food, new bedford, taco

Best Beef Stew

I’ve been working on new crock-pot recipes, and I have perfected my beef stew to the point where I’m happy with it. I post it here for your use and enjoyment, but also because I’m afraid I will lose the two little slips of paper I’ve written my notes on.

The goal of this recipe is to get a good tasting stew that can be cooked in the crock-pot without having to brown the beef. This makes it much easier to assemble. I took a basic recipe and fiddled with it to replace the flavor that browning adds. That’s why it has a longish ingredients list.

Dr. Momentum Beef Stew

Ingredients:

• 2 lb stew meat (preferably chuck) cut in 1 inch cubes
• 8 oz carrots cut to baby-carrot size
• 12 oz potatoes cut in 1 to 2 inch cubes
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 or 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp corn starch
• 1 heaping Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 1/4 Tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 tsp Simply Organic All-Purpose Seasoning . (or substitute, below)
• 2 tsp Kitchen Bouquet. (or Gravy Master)
• 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup sherry
• 1/2 tsp MSG (optional) ( Ac’cent is the brand I use)
• 3/4 tsp black pepper, fresh ground
• seasoning salt to taste (or, celery salt)

Dump the whole thing in a crock-pot. Carrots on bottom, then potatoes, onions, meat. Sprinkle the flour over the mean, then dump everything else on top, except the sherry. As you add the sherry, try to get the liquid level approx 2/3 the way to the top of the ingredients. This will help give you a thick stew, and not too wet.

Set your crock-pot on low for 10 hours, until the meat can be cut with a fork. Chuck is very forgiving, but I find stew meat from the round to get dry if it’s cooked too long, because it has less connective tissue.

Serve with your favorite blended red wine and a crusty sick bread.

If you don’t have “Simply Organic” All-Purpose Seasoning, substitute 1 tsp parsley, 1 tsp celery seed, 2 tsp of mixed “Italian spices” and 1/2 tsp sage. Or, you can make a substitute “all purpose” mix which is great for stews, soups, and sauces.

All-Purpose Salt-Free Seasoning

• 2 parts onion powder
• 2 parts garlic powder
• 2 parts parsley
• 2 parts celery seed
• 1 part black pepper
• 1 part basil
• 1 part ground thyme
• 1 part oregano
• 1 part sage
• 1 part coriander

Place in a spice jar and use liberally as needed.

I can’t upload the stew, or the wonderful aroma, but I can show you a pic of what it looks like as leftovers on a paper plate at work. I know I’ll never be a food photographer:

Technorati : beef, food, recipes, stew

Qwitters Never Win?

I’m fascinated by social networks. I don’t consider myself the social type, but the dynamics of networks are fascinating.

I define “social network” as any system of connection between people, and “social network software” as software that supports or constitutes a system by which people manage their relationships with other people. In the loose definition, this blog and its comments system are social network software, because my friends use it to manage this small part of our social network.

“Twitter” (for those of you who do not use it) is a popular way for people to strengthen and grow their social networks. By following people (and by being followed) connections are made, relationships grow. The mutually beneficial nature of networking happens via Twitter, as people put valuable information into the hands of their friends and contacts, or just connect in emotional ways. When someone follows your feed on Twitter, whenever your social network grows, you get an email notification — reinforcement.

On the heels of the success of Twitter, a new application has arrived. “Qwitter” allows you to know when a person has un-followed you. Twitter will already notify you when a person adds you to their network, but you don’t get a notification that they have dropped you unless you use Qwitter. Qwitter also reports the last thing you tweeted before they left.

Is Qwitter is a bad thing? Does it erode social networks?

Here’s a good blog post on Qwitter, articulating an argument against needing it: “The Fallacy of Qwitter.”

The author, Amber, makes a good point. I agree that just because someone dropped you after a particular tweet does not mean that the specific tweet had anything to do with it. That is, indeed, a fallacy reinforced by Qwitter. But this post is interesting because there is so much going on with Twitter that is outside of my network. Now I understand why some people saw Qwitter as a bad thing — dropping people out of spite is erosive.

But I have a confession to make. I follow a lot more people on Twitter than I can really “follow.” I have followed some of those folks simply because they followed me and their feed looked decent. But my connection to them varies. Sometimes I’m interested in their tweets, but sometimes it’s just too much and I’d rather see the core of my network which consists of my close personal friends and a few local Twitterers who are recent network additions that I feel a connection with.

So, when one of those people on the fringe drops me, I sometimes see it as a relief, and I drop them back. That’s not out of spite, but out of recognition that the connection wasn’t there. I appreciate Qwitter for letting me know it was mutual.

I guess I need to get over my reluctance to drop other people if I don’t like their feed: if I don’t see value in it. Then I will only have valuable follows, and I will miss them when certain of them leave. When I drop someone, I don’t care if they drop me back. It’s not the numbers that concern me, I just feel guilty that I am not reciprocating. Weird, eh?

So I’ll continue to use Qwitter because it’s of value to me. But I see why it means something different to other people.

Technorati : qwitter, social networks, twitter

Fearless Wine

I’ve been benefiting from a friend’s birthday gift, and I thought I’d mention it so that other interested folks might also benefit.

Sara bought me a book called “The Wine Trials.” The author is Robin Goldstein and it is published by Fearless Critic Media.

The point of the book is to report the results of an experiment regarding how cheap wines stack up against more expensive bottles when the labels are obscured with a brown bag. What they found was that you can drink some really great wines and not spend a heck of a lot of money in the process. Check out the book itself for details, including the experimental design.

Of special interest, however, are the rankings of the many wines they included in the trials. It is within those lists (and more detailed descriptions of favorites) that you will find your possible shopping list of wines.

They’ve steered me right thus far. I’m someone not looking to become a wine expert, nor spend a ton of money. I just want a nice glass of wine now and again. This book is exactly what I wanted, and I thank Sara for digging it up. Are you looking for affordable imbibing? Then I recommend this book. Christmas shoppers, take note.

Technorati : awesomeness, booze, cheap, wine

Crooked Night

Last night, my favorite alternative-bluegrass group Crooked Still played the Narrows Center in Fall River and it was a blast.

The doors were scheduled to open at 7PM, with the show starting at 8. Younger daughter M agreed to accompany me early to wait out in front of the door, in the cold. We bundled up and got there at 6:15. We were first in line by about 5 seconds. (Technically, we were second in line, but a young lady and her mother fled to the Waterstreet Cafe for a drink after finding out the doors were closed.

The folks behind us were not dressed for the slight chill in the air, and there was a lot of goodhearted joking about talking our way into the venue early.

Ryan and Shanna arrived with a friend (whose name I sadly cannot recall) followed by Maggie and K soon after. When the doors opened and we all tromped up to the third floor stage.

We occupied a couple of tables off the corner at stage right, which were about the best tables that were not reserved. (There was one smack dab in the middle — but only one table, so that was no good).

As soon as we got settled in, we unpacked a bounty of wines, cheese, bread, popcorn, and beer. Maggie got the girls hot chocolate from the concession as Ryan and crew tucked into the subs they’d brought.

The show was simulcast on WMVY and streamed online as well. It might be available there eventually in the archives, but I don’t see it there now.

Here are my impressions of the performance: Most notably, Brittany Haas, their recently-added fiddle player, is amazing. Switching between a four-string and five-string instrument, she is a fiddle-playing powerhouse and a crowd pleaser. A perfect compliment to the group, I did not realize that she’d contributed to a couple of the songs on Hop High (you can hear some of her fiddle playing here and I learned that her fiddle can be heard in the PlayStation game Karaoke Revolution Vol. 4 on the song “Dust in the Wind”). In any case, we all agreed that she’s a crowd-pleaser. And it was amazing how steady she held her fiddle as her bow seemed to fly.

Sitting off stage right, it was interesting to see her interact and coordinate with the new cellist, Tristan Clarridge. Tristan is used to working closely with a fiddle; you can hear his work as part of the brother-and-sister duo of “Tristan and Tashina Clarridge.” Beautiful stuff. Turns out Tristan is also a kick-ass fiddle player himself. See (and listen) here.

On Tuesday, the group performed (somewhat lubricated by tequila) under the name “Solid Steel” at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge. A fellow who books gigs for the band in Europe insists that “Solid Steel” is their name, so i guess they decided to embrace it for a night.

As last time, the band was great fun to watch, relaxed and cheerful during what must be a pretty busy time, right after Thanksgiving. Aoife O’Donovan’s voice is almost like an instrument itself when we hear the band live. It’s so ethereal, it’s often difficult to make out the lyrics, but she punctuates the performance with emotion, from sorrow to excitement.

Ryan mentioned that he liked them better in person than he does on the recordings, and I have to agree. While I love the recordings, their live performances are energizing. I think Dr. Gregory Liszt’s banjo playing is more enjoyable live. And the addition of Brittany and Tristan have improved the songs I already loved from Shaken By a Low Sound.

I was glad to hear “Little Sadie” this time, since Maggie was there and both K and Maggie named it as a favorite. They finished up with my favorite “Come On In My Kitchen” and the night was complete, but for one encore of “Baby, What’s Wrong With You?” because when they exited stage right, they found themselves trapped in the corner amid a standing ovation.

If I had more free time, and fewer responsibilities, I’d try to catch more of their shows when they’re around Massachusetts.

Beverage Report:

• Ryan brought a bottle of the Newport Storm ‘08 that we found when we were in Sturbridge. He even brought it in the STEM conference bag.
• • Tasting Notes: We were told not to expect much from this year’s offering. WRONG! It was definitely a departure from the usual special releases, I thought I tasted fermented honey. It was unusual, but not unpleasant. We’ll compare it to ‘05, ‘06, and ‘07 in December. Yes, I still have 4 years of the stuff in my beer cellar. I only have one bottle of ‘08 and ‘07, though, so there may be some disruption of the tradition next year. We liked the ‘07 so much at last year’s party that I think I opened too many bottles of it.
• I brought a bottle of the new release of Sam Adams Chocolate Bock.
• • Tasting Notes: Sweeter and slightly more noticeably chocolate-flavored than the previous release. They’ve changed the type of chocolate, according to the label. It’s noticeable. Also, I felt it had slightly less body than the original release. It might actually be more drinkable this way, although slightly less interesting? I certainly enjoyed it.
• I brought a bottle of House Wine (red)
• • Tasting Notes: I like a red wine that you can open up and drink right away. This one was just that. I found it a little more interesting than the Red Truck Red I’ve been drinking lately. At around $10 per bottle, this stuff is cheap and a good accompaniment to the sharp cheddar and spicy jalapeno cheese that Maggie brought.

Technorati : Crooked Still, Fall River, Narrows Center, music

Financial Finger-Pointing for the Holidays

I had a very nice Thanksgiving. I hope you did, too. The kids got to see their cousins, I made some extremely buttery mashed potatoes for the feast, and we all enjoyed turkey and the rest of the usual.

At some point in the afternoon, discussion turned to the financial crisis, and there was some disagreement about where to place the blame for our current predicament. Two popular targets were Clinton and Bush.

If you are all political, or have relatives who are at all political, you will be having this discussion with friends and relatives, and there will be disagreement. Why not arm yourself in advance?

This financial crisis is one of “layered responsibility” according to Economist.com. FactCheck.org has written a response to those who would lay the blame completely at the feet of Democrats or Republicans. Home Buyers, Wall Street Firms, the Bush and Clinton administrations, Congress, the Fed, Alan Greenspan, and mark-to-market (but not Marky Mark, oddly enough).

Check out the FactCheck article “Who Caused the Economic Crisis?” for a debunking of the Clinton blame game (and also an explanation that financial institution deregulation was a bipartisan effort), and for a list of many of the contributing factors. Their list of references is a good place to go for details on the crisis.

For example, here in some of Clinton’s own words, is a defense of some of his policies, along with an admission of some contribution to the problem:

“There are some people who believe that that bill enabled them to somehow participate in some of the riskier housing investments,” Clinton said. “I disagree with that. That bill primarily enabled them to, like the Bank of America, to buy Merrill Lynch here without a hitch. And I think that helped to stabilize the situation.”

Clinton, however, said that Democrats weren’t entirely blameless, stating that they should have highlighted problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and “tried more aggressively to regulate derivatives.”

He also acknowledged that there was possible danger in his administration’s policy of pressing Fannie Mae, the mortgage company, to lower its credit standards for lower- and middle-income families seeking homes.

“I think, through the lens of this, it looks like that was true,” Clinton said. “But let’s go back to where we were at the time. At the time, they had lots of money, were making lots of money, and I thought too much of the money was being given out in value to the shareholders and compensation to the executives. And, at the time, we had a balanced budget and a surplus and a rapidly growing economy in other areas.”

You can avoid many arguments by simply insisting upon one or two facts that let the hot air out of any purely partisan theory. You can also point out, as the former president does, that he was looking at a different world at the time — one of growing prosperity and shrinking deficits surpluses. But whichever way your party-goers are pointing the finger, note that there is plenty of finger-pointing to go around. Change the subject to a hope for a better future.

And hopefully, this leaves you with more time to enjoy the holiday cheer.

Technorati : blame game, bush, clinton, financial crisis

Thanks!

Thanks to all my readers, who keep visiting through the boom and bust weeks. Even as I get busy and my blog posting waxes and wanes, I’ll try to keep things interesting.

As you reflect this Thanksgiving, I hope you find much to be thankful for. And I hope you think of ways to return the favor to people who deserve thanks, and to make the most of opportunities for which you are grateful, to the benefit of yourself and others.

Chocolate Surprise

I ran into a Sam Adams (Boston Beer Company) representative at the liquor store yesterday. Apparently, the local radio station was doing its afternoon show from Yankee Spirits in Swansea (they were striking the audio equipment when I walked through the door) as a promotional event.

I usually avoid the free sample people at the liquor store because I feel strange tasting free liquor samples in public. My taste buds don’t work right standing awkwardly in a store aisle with a company rep and other customers watching me. So I didn’t notice that he was from Sam Adams, or that he had Chocolate Bock. But I overheard him talking about one of their seasonal offerings, and came around the corner to see a bottle of my beloved bock.

A couple was pondering which of the winter beers they’d like to taste, and he was chatting them up. At the first break in the conversation, as they were staring at the bottles, I broke in.

“When is the Chocolate Bock available?” I asked.

“Right now,” he said. “I’ve got all ten bottles in the store right here. Fifteen dollars each.”

“Oh, good. I’m prepared to take all ten.” The couple looked put out that I was interrupting their tasting. See? It’s awkward.

The rep recovered from a momentary surprise and told me that they were only selling one to a customer. I explained to him my predicament, being down to only a handful of bottles, and asked him how I could get a case.

“I work for the company, and even I don’t have a case,” he explained. I assure you, this isn’t going to stop me. “I guess you could go from store to store.”

“I’ll take the one, then,” I replied, and he handed me a bottle-opener ornament along with my bottle of Bock.

I allowed the couple to return to their beer-tasting dilemma, and recommended to them the Old Fezziwig, if they had hearty taste buds. Otherwise, the Winter Lager is tasty. The woman mentioned Oktoberfest, and I told her she needed to try the Doppelbock (Sam Adams Double Bock) which the rep called a “secret seasonal.” He was dubious of my recommending the double bock to the lady, and I explained that it’s because she liked apparently malty beers. He referred to it as “boozy.” I told him that I saw that as a good thing. then I wandered off, having made enough of a nuisance of myself.

Two rumors:

• Doppelbock may become a year-round offering
• Chocolate Bock may become a semi-annual biennial offering, alternating every-other-year with Utopias. I never tried Utopias because, well check out the prices on eBay. I think the prices started at $100 and kept going up.

Spam Explosion

Sorry, folks — I’m fighting a heavy wave of blogspam this last week or so. I’m having trouble keeping up with deleting it and it’s getting past my antiquated blog software. So if you see some rude comments, I’m sorry and know that I’m doing what I can to remove them as soon as I find them. Unfortunately, this is a real pain in the neck and a drain on other, more productive activities.

If it gets bad enough, I may have to take the blog down temporarily and move to a new blog platform. But we’ll see. It’s not as though I have a lot of time for that, either. But I may have some forced vacation coming, so you never know.

Again, I apologize for any rude spam you see here.

Get on the Boat! Lessons from Team Fortress 2

So, I found myself munching on hardtack and playing Team Fortress 2 last night.

For those of you unfamiliar with hardtack, it’s a simple, near-flavorless, tough biscuit that used to be a staple of travelers and war-fighters for its durability and ability to remain reasonably edible for long periods of time. G.H. Bent, A company in Milton, MA, still makes ‘em, and my sister was nice enough to get me some so I could try them. That was last year, and they still taste the same, as far as I can tell. I was eating them because Maggie cleaned off part of my desk, which is where I was keeping them, and suddenly they were in reach and visible.

For those of you unfamiliar with Team Fortress 2, it’s a multi-player on-line action game. Basically, it’s a shoot-‘em-up with different classes of characters and an element of teamwork (sometimes). Oh, and really cartoony-looking art.

I have a scheduled game going, where the same people play. But I also play now and again to try to increase my marginal skills so that I might be an asset to a team, rather than a liability.

There are different game scenarios, with various goals, most of which are variations of “capture the flag.” But one unique map offers what they call a “Balloon Race.” And playing the Balloon Race got me thinking. But I need to briefly explain “Balloon Race.”

In “Balloon Race” the object is to be the first team to move a balloon-suspended boat around a course and return to your base, which is right next to the enemy base. When the game begins, combatants stream out of the bases and onto the boat. Standing at the bow of the boat propels the balloon forward. You have to basically be right on top of the helm, which causes the boat to grudgingly gain speed. If you leave the helm, the boat will slow to a stop. This happens, for example, when the guy at the helm is shot repeatedly with a chain gun. The boat driver(s) are horribly exposed.

In the back of the boat is a protective cabin, within which you can heal and refuel. If you’re out on the helm and run out of ammo, a quick trip to the cabin is needed. You can also snipe from the relative protection of the cabin.

If you are killed, you will soon “re-spawn” back at the base, and teleporters can send you back to the boat. So the consequences of dying are basically a 10 second cooling off period.

If you have 24 people playing, then each team has 12 people. It’s very easy to get a few people to drive the boat at any given time, and the boat will quickly reach max speed. But things are different with teams of 3 or 4 people each.

I want to preface my next comments by explaining that I don’t care if I win or lose balloon race. I like to win, but a close race is just as much fun. What’s not a good time? If your boat is not moving and you cannot engage the enemy at all, that sucks.

So, here’s something I’ve noticed. I teleported onto a boat the other day and saw two of my three teammates hiding in the cabin (they were snipers) trying to shoot at the rapidly disappearing enemy boat.

As I struggled to stay at the helm, and keep the boat going at a paltry 2/5 speed, getting picked off by enemy snipers because I was the only target, I had lots of time to think about the situation. I had type to type “Please — someone take the helm!” while I was waiting to re-spawn, watching the boat slow to a crawl and stop.

Some people are more “mavericky” than others. These players say “I’m good at X, so I’m going to help the team out by doing X as well as I can!” This has a better chance of working within a large group where the basics are already covered and a stand-out player can put a team over the edge. But in smaller groups, the bases are harder to cover. You need a lot more cooperation, and people who ask “What does the team need right now, and is it something I can provide?” I think that this question shoes better team behavior.

The two questions are about taking initiative, but they’re very different in the type of initiative.

A Team Fortress 2 team represents how teams work together in a very light management environment. Unless an unofficial leader takes control, each fighter is acting on his own with a common goal, but not strict assignments. Real life teams can sometimes be like this, especially if a manager is overburdened.

You’re more valuable to a team if you ask what the team needs, in lieu of any guidance from management, and then try to fill that role, whether it fits your skill-set or not. If you have absolutely horrible management, you might get your hand slapped for taking initiative; but all but the worst management will find your efforts useful. Even if you suck at the role, identifying a need is something managers benefit from. If you just don’t have that sort of leeway in your job, you can use your judgment to work within your boundaries. Your initiative might be to plan as if you were going to do this needed job, and then take your plan to the manager. This is an approach that works better in a strict management environment, but I imagine any manager reacts better if you come to him with “I have a solution for a problem I noticed” rather than the “We have a problem.”

If I’m going to spend time playing Team Fortress 2, I figure I had better try to get life lessons out of it.

Technorati : balloon race, gaming, management, tf2

Awards!

I am grateful to have been recognized by a fellow blogger¹ at Cthulhu Family Restaurant with the Superior Scribbler Award. The first reaction I would like to communicate is that I appreciate the recognition. These proliferating blog awards are by no means rare, but I assure you that I value them more than if I had received one of the high-profile name-recognized awards. Web awards, generally, are not about awarding anything, but rather increasing the hits of the award granter and the award creator². Thus, the awards come with strict rules, like requiring you to post links back to the creator, for example.

I’m not always good at following rules, though. One of the rules for this award is to post the rules for the award. I’m not going to do that. It’s up to the award creator if they want to disqualify me.

Another of the rules is to tag 5 more people. I’m not going to do that, either (I’ll tell you why later).

Of course, this doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the sentiment (I do!) and have a little fun with it. You know I will.

As I mentioned, the rules tell me to tag 5 people. Let’s assume that not everyone tagged complies. Let’s assume that two don’t want to comply and one can’t find an untagged blog they like. So, only two people comply, but they tag five people. As you probably have guessed, it is an exponential function, although the formula I came up with did not use exponents, because it has to account for recipients only spreading the “awards virus” once, to five people. In any case, the question is: how fast does this thing grow?

Wow. At day 22, over 10 million blogs have been awarded this honor. And a bunch of them are scrambling to find non-awarded blogs! On day 23, the count would be over 20 million blogs. Why did I stop it at day 23? Because estimates put the number of active blogs at somewhere around 15.5 million. So, the blogosphere would be blanketed. And that’s if only 2 of the 5 tagged people participated. If 3 of the 5 participated, day 15 is the day when the Internet is nearly completely blanketed.

The spreadsheet, if you’d like to see it, is here. You can see the comparison graph of 3 compliant recipients vs. 2 there as well.

But, think of that. What quicker way to get links back to your website than create an award like this? Instant link love. I’m not talking about the friends who award this to other friends. I’m talking about the original creators, who made it a rule to link back to them. I don’t consider this a scam, but I do consider the much higher profile web awards to be on the verge of scammery; just there as marketing opportunities. I’ll link back to my friend’s blog, thankyouverymuch.

Final word: I appreciate getting this award because I appreciate being thought of by my friends. Sincerely, that’s the true award, being appreciated and in your friends’ thoughts. If you feel like recognizing me in these awards, I don’t mind it at all. I will return the favor in my own sincere way, by linking to your blogs now and again and by commenting there, too. I think that’s what bloggers really like best (unless they’re A-listers, and then they get so many posts they don’t care anymore and have to invent Webstravaganza awards).

So, thank you very much for the appreciation. I am not an awards Scrooge; my appreciation is sincere. I’m a marketing and pyramid Scrooge. In return, I’m going to actually try to dig up some of my most weird and amusing scribbles and post them at some later date. Might be worth a laugh, especially if I try to explain them.

[1] And cousin, and friend.

[2] Someday I will post more at length on this, but I generally disdain the more organized awards on line, including the popularity contests which require voting, and periodically cause blog authors to lean on their readers to “Vote for me! Vote for me!!!!” As Richard P. Feynman’s dad would say: “epaulets.”

Downturn Shotgun

In the wake of the election, it starts to sink in just how bad a legacy Bush will be passing on to the next president, and i have to admit I’m getting depressed just thinking about it.

Instability is terribly worrying, especially when you’ve got a family.

The important thing, however, is to stick together with your family and friends, and keep doing the things that make life enjoyable. Like goofy links:

• SUPER OBAMA WORLD (game,politics,fun)
  • Just what it sounds like. Mario is nowhere to be seen.
• The Stupidest Exercise Machine Ever? (wtf)
  • A treadmill… with a twist.
• Robokill - Rock Solid Arcade (flash,game)
  • Exciting robot shoot-em-up
• MAKE: Blog: The astrometry pool on Flickr automatically adds labels to the astronomy photos you upload (astronomy,astrometry,photography,photos)
  • Just what it says. A robot for finding stars in your photos.

Chin up!

Idaho Say What?

I admit that over here in Massachusetts, being a teen in the 80’s, we got a very strange picture of Idaho. First, there were those “Hey, ho, I’m from Idaho!” commercials to push Idaho potatoes. Later, somebody at Keebler invented “O’Boisies.” Remember them? They were O’boisterous! Presumably from the magical elves of Boise, Idaho.

Well, this isn’t helping:

Students chant ‘Assassinate Obama’ on school bus

Whoolery and his wife couldn’t believe it when their second and third graders got off the bus last week and told them what other students were saying.

“They just hadn’t heard anything like this before,” said Whoolery. “They were chanting on the bus, ‘Assassinate Obama. Assassinate Obama.’ Then adding in a name sometimes of a classmate on the bus, ‘Assassinate Obama and Kate.’”

My thoughts went to “what the hell are these kids hearing around their community?” Kids are great repeaters. They’re also amplifiers, to the embarrassment of the adults around them. Many kids will carry their imprinted attitudes into adulthood. This is upsetting on so very many levels (including the obvious bullying of ‘Kate.’)

Beyond the obvious, this part of the story really struck me:

Matthew Whoolery and his wife aren’t blaming the school district for what happened on the bus but they do think all parents need to be careful about what they say and teach their children. […]

It’s not that the Whoolery’s are big Obama fans they just don’t like people joking about a serious matter concerning any leader of the country.

“I’m assuming if it were, ‘Assassinate McCain’ you’d feel the same way?” asked reporter Nate Eaton.

“No question about it,” replied Whoolery.

So, wait - this reporter in Idaho thought that it was important to clarify (for his readers) that the parents’ complaint about the chanting wasn’t motivated by partisanship? The reporter felt the need to (defend?) clarify the Whoolerys as not being “big Obama fans?”

What does that imply to you about the atmosphere in this part of Idaho?

Here’s my suggestion to this community: According to this Time article, your statewide standardized test scores are much less rigorous than national standardized math tests. As a state, you’re not alone in that, but your tests are among the least rigorous. Focus more on improving education and less on… whatever it is that you are doing in your public schools. Unbelievable.

Technorati : idaho insane

Wingnut Redux

Remember when I wrote about the conservative writer who was imagining that Barack Obama’s mother might have aborted him if she’d had the chance, and was wishing that this would make Obama think “more carefully” about the issue?

Looks like Mr. Whelan, whom I mentioned in my Wingnut Parade post, read this blog, then whined about it to folks. I found this because another blogger wrote to Whelan and he sent her a response, including a reference to this blog. I guess he didn’t like my thought experiment as much as I didn’t like his.

Apparently, when people emailed him with complaints about his post, instead of giving them a thoughtful answer, he complained about my reaction, and the reactions of all the other big, bad liberals.

Weak.

Ed: You implied that Obama’s stance on abortion was the result of careless thinking, but you didn’t offer any evidence that this was the case. Instead, you sought to make some strange “what if” comment. You deserved all of the criticism you got, and I’d say speculation about your motives is natural when you decide to take such a bizarre approach.

That Song Must Die! 9

You’re going to wish you’d visited somebody else’s blog. I have no idea whether you’re going to find it easy to determine which of these songs must die, but I’m fairly certain that you’re going to curse me for asking you to listen to these tracks which take the phrase “gift of hearing” and turn it into a cruel joke.

Today we have “Hollaback Girl” (Gwen Stefani) vs. “Rico Suave” (Gerardo). These songs are so bad that if Sarah Palin had blamed them on Obama, John McCain would have won the election.

But… WHICH SONG MUST DIE??? That’s for you to decide.