![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The English drink tea.
One of my cousins, with Majorca's standard ice tea
The French drink wine.
The Finns drink vodka. (Oh yeah, so do the Russians, though not as much :)
Sure, they drink other things, but some places have their endemic drink of choice. In Italy, it's espresso everywhere. When I ordered tea at some restaurants, they gave me strange looks. In Kenya, passion fruit juice is their parallel to our orange juice - the standard juice you can assume will be available.
I'm not sure what Spain's drink is, but on Majorca at least, the ice tea niche is rather odd: Wherever I ordered ice tea, it was always the same. At a fancy hotel's restaurant, or an even fancier one, at a sidewalk cafe or a streetside bar, an expensive restaurant, anywhere - they always gave me a glass bottle of Nestea, and a glass with ice. Always the same Nestea logo, and exactly the same tea. Well, except for one place: they gave me a can of Nestea (same logo, same stuff) and a glass with ice. Apparently, there is no other ice tea on that island.
I'd always associated Germany with beer. But now that I've been to Germany, or at least one part of it, I think it's actually sparkling water. At restaurants and at people's homes, sparkling water is what they pour by default. If you want just water, you have to ask for "still water". Beer is something they might offer, or ask if you want, but plain sparkling water is what they assume you want without asking.
Got any others to add to the list?
One of my cousins, with Majorca's standard ice tea
The French drink wine.
The Finns drink vodka. (Oh yeah, so do the Russians, though not as much :)
Sure, they drink other things, but some places have their endemic drink of choice. In Italy, it's espresso everywhere. When I ordered tea at some restaurants, they gave me strange looks. In Kenya, passion fruit juice is their parallel to our orange juice - the standard juice you can assume will be available.
I'm not sure what Spain's drink is, but on Majorca at least, the ice tea niche is rather odd: Wherever I ordered ice tea, it was always the same. At a fancy hotel's restaurant, or an even fancier one, at a sidewalk cafe or a streetside bar, an expensive restaurant, anywhere - they always gave me a glass bottle of Nestea, and a glass with ice. Always the same Nestea logo, and exactly the same tea. Well, except for one place: they gave me a can of Nestea (same logo, same stuff) and a glass with ice. Apparently, there is no other ice tea on that island.
I'd always associated Germany with beer. But now that I've been to Germany, or at least one part of it, I think it's actually sparkling water. At restaurants and at people's homes, sparkling water is what they pour by default. If you want just water, you have to ask for "still water". Beer is something they might offer, or ask if you want, but plain sparkling water is what they assume you want without asking.
Got any others to add to the list?
Sep. 28th, 2010 11:55
Tasty (con)fusion!
Foreign places have their own styles of tasty food, but even better are their languages. I try to devour them wherever I go, but they can only be eaten slowly - too slowly for me, because there's always more; you can never finish even one.
I pick up scaps of languages and then don't follow up. I can try to learn them when I'm home, and probably really should ... but they're so much different when they're at home. When the announcement on the PA, the signs on stores, the names of things on packages, the snatches of conversation on the street, the names of places, are the kinds of things that let me inbibe the language.
After four days in Cologne last week, and another one & a half now, I'd finally reached the point where I could sometimes understand simple practical sentences. On the train to the airport, when the announcer listed upcoming stations and arrival times, I got most of them, and when he said "nächste Station, Düsseldorf Flughafen" I understood effortlessly (like a lot of German, it's much clearer to English-speakers when written than it is when heard). But now I'm flying home. In 2008 when I got 9 full days in Italy after a week there with the family, I got much further. In both cases, I had help from spending most of my time with someone who spoke both languages -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elfy in Germany, magickalpony in Italy.
Five days in Majorca gave me very little Spanish because I spent all that time with my extended family, but I had forgotten how much my Hebrew vocabulary expands when I'm immersed in that kind of environment! Not the same thing as being in a language's home country, but they do bring along with them a little bubble of shared conversation, including a lot of slang. Most amusing to me were some of the newer English-derived informal words that have been adapted to Hebrew grammar, such as:
Legagel: To Google. As in, "gigalti otach" (I Googled you(f))
Letayeg: To tag, on a social networking site. As in, "hoo tiyeg oti" (he tagged me)
And apparently "le`alter", "to alter", isn't even considered slang, but a fully accepted word.
On the cab ride to my hotel for the last night (I stayed one extra night), my cabbie spoke barely any English - and I have almost no Spanish. Which would've been okay, because I had a map with the name and address of the hotel, and he had a GPS map thing. But he happened to mention knowing French, and we chatted in French the entire ride. By the time I got to the hotel, I nearly spoke to the desk clerk in French.
The next day, I stopped at a little bar to buy a bottle of Spanish Casera beer forelfy, except I had forgotten the word "casera", I only remembered that the Spanish drink a lot of this combination of beer with something like lemon-flavored tonic water. The man behind the bar spoke little English, so I tried to communicate what I wanted with the few Spanish words I could call up - "cerveza", "limon", "botelle". He asked, "casera?" and it took a few times before I realized he was offerring me the very thing I wanted! In my hasted to say yes, what came out was:
At least I didn't add a "ja" and a "kyllä" in there somewhere before I got to Sí :)
I pick up scaps of languages and then don't follow up. I can try to learn them when I'm home, and probably really should ... but they're so much different when they're at home. When the announcement on the PA, the signs on stores, the names of things on packages, the snatches of conversation on the street, the names of places, are the kinds of things that let me inbibe the language.
After four days in Cologne last week, and another one & a half now, I'd finally reached the point where I could sometimes understand simple practical sentences. On the train to the airport, when the announcer listed upcoming stations and arrival times, I got most of them, and when he said "nächste Station, Düsseldorf Flughafen" I understood effortlessly (like a lot of German, it's much clearer to English-speakers when written than it is when heard). But now I'm flying home. In 2008 when I got 9 full days in Italy after a week there with the family, I got much further. In both cases, I had help from spending most of my time with someone who spoke both languages -
elfy in Germany, magickalpony in Italy.Five days in Majorca gave me very little Spanish because I spent all that time with my extended family, but I had forgotten how much my Hebrew vocabulary expands when I'm immersed in that kind of environment! Not the same thing as being in a language's home country, but they do bring along with them a little bubble of shared conversation, including a lot of slang. Most amusing to me were some of the newer English-derived informal words that have been adapted to Hebrew grammar, such as:
Legagel: To Google. As in, "gigalti otach" (I Googled you(f))
Letayeg: To tag, on a social networking site. As in, "hoo tiyeg oti" (he tagged me)
And apparently "le`alter", "to alter", isn't even considered slang, but a fully accepted word.
On the cab ride to my hotel for the last night (I stayed one extra night), my cabbie spoke barely any English - and I have almost no Spanish. Which would've been okay, because I had a map with the name and address of the hotel, and he had a GPS map thing. But he happened to mention knowing French, and we chatted in French the entire ride. By the time I got to the hotel, I nearly spoke to the desk clerk in French.
The next day, I stopped at a little bar to buy a bottle of Spanish Casera beer for
elfy, except I had forgotten the word "casera", I only remembered that the Spanish drink a lot of this combination of beer with something like lemon-flavored tonic water. The man behind the bar spoke little English, so I tried to communicate what I wanted with the few Spanish words I could call up - "cerveza", "limon", "botelle". He asked, "casera?" and it took a few times before I realized he was offerring me the very thing I wanted! In my hasted to say yes, what came out was:- Oui! ... Ken! ... Yes! ... Sí!
At least I didn't add a "ja" and a "kyllä" in there somewhere before I got to Sí :)
Last week I posted about the statewide races in the Democratic primary. Summary:
I also care about, or have opinions on, some other Democratic primary races around the state:
- Guy Glodis, running for Auditor, is a bigot and a sleaze.
- Of the other two, I like Suzanne Bump more than Mike Lake, though I think both are good. Bump also seems to have a much better chance of winning, so vote for her to beat Glodis.
- For Treasurer, Steve Grossman - who I've met in person, who got good endorsements, and who's going to focus on transparency and getting state financial information online.
I also care about, or have opinions on, some other Democratic primary races around the state:
- Please volunteer for Mac D'Alessandro tomorrow! That's where I'll be. He's challening incumbent Stephen Lynch, who's anti-choice, supported the Iraq war & the Patriot Act, voted to intervene with Terry Schiavo, and was the only US Rep from New England to vote against health care reform. Mac disagrees with him on all of these things.
- State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz of Boston, a friend and one of the best legislators in the state, has a primary challenger. We need more of her in the Senate, not fewer.
- In the funny-shaped district that covers parts of Allston/Brighton, Cambridge, Somerville, Charlestown, and the north shore, in the rematch between DiDomenico & Flaherty, I prefer Tim Flaherty. DiDomenico campaigned on how well connected he is, evaded stating his positions, and gave me a bad impression.
- I hadn't much followed the Malden/Melrose/Stoneham/Wakefield/etc. state senate race, but it turns out several friends I've been on other campaigns with, are working or volunteering for Mike Day's campaign. So consider this an indirect recommendation (me trusting their collective judgement because they've got good records of picking good candidates).
- I've tried, and failed, to find out much about the candidates for Governor's Council in the 6th district. But I have gotten several reports from people who saw or met Terrence Kennedy campaigning, and liked him, and he's got a web site telling us a bit about him. His opponent doesn't seem to have one, and I haven't heard of anyone seeing her campaigning.
Tags:
If you live in Massachusetts you may not have heard much about the election this Tuesday, September 14th. We have only two contested statewide races: Treasurer and Auditor, offices that don't usually get much attention. So I'm posting - and I hope you forward this link to others - to ask that you please vote to make sure this racist asshole doesn't get elected.
Guy Glodis is one of three candidates for the Democratic nomination for Auditor. In addition to bigotry and lack of awareness, he's got a record of sleaze and corruption (and at least one hilarious goof-up). However, he's tied for first in the polls, and might win.
I prefer Suzanne Bump. Apparently both the Globe and the Phoenix agree. Mike Lake, the third candidate, seems good too, but Bump's record is a better indicator that she'll do a good job in this office, IMO. With Bump ahead of Lake in polls (and slightly ahead of Glodis), and getting the major newspaper endorsements too, it seems pretty certain that either she'll beat Guy Glodis, or he will win. So if you think Bump and Lake are both fine candidates, and making sure Glodis doesn't get elected is more important than which of them wins, vote for Suzanne Bump.
[ BTW, I've been on unemployment twice, in 2003 and 2009. Suzanne Bump took over the MA Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development in early 2007, and unemployment is one of the departments under that office. Despite 2009 being a much harder and more stressful time for the unemployment office than 2003, I saw dramatic improvement in their service between the two periods, and I think that's partly (mostly?) her doing. ]
Two candidates are running for the Democratic nomination for Treasurer. I like Steve Grossman - which again puts me in agreement with the Globe and the Phoenix. I met Grossman a few times when he was on Howard Dean's campaign for president in 2003/4. His opponent, Steve Murphy, pissed me off with this ad (here's my comment on that ad).
[ Edit: Steve Grossman is hero to LGBT community, by former head of MassEquality ]
Meanwhile, I'll be spending primary day volunteering for Mac D'Alessandro for Congress. He's the most exciting candidate to me this year. If it weren't for him, I'd be volunteering for State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz of Boston, who has a primary challenger. She's one of the best people we have in the state house. If you live in either of those districts, please help Mac or Sonia.
I encourage you to link to this post, and share it with friends in Massachusetts through whatever means you'd like.
P.S. Donate to Mac & Sonia on my fundraising page.
Guy Glodis is one of three candidates for the Democratic nomination for Auditor. In addition to bigotry and lack of awareness, he's got a record of sleaze and corruption (and at least one hilarious goof-up). However, he's tied for first in the polls, and might win.
I prefer Suzanne Bump. Apparently both the Globe and the Phoenix agree. Mike Lake, the third candidate, seems good too, but Bump's record is a better indicator that she'll do a good job in this office, IMO. With Bump ahead of Lake in polls (and slightly ahead of Glodis), and getting the major newspaper endorsements too, it seems pretty certain that either she'll beat Guy Glodis, or he will win. So if you think Bump and Lake are both fine candidates, and making sure Glodis doesn't get elected is more important than which of them wins, vote for Suzanne Bump.
[ BTW, I've been on unemployment twice, in 2003 and 2009. Suzanne Bump took over the MA Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development in early 2007, and unemployment is one of the departments under that office. Despite 2009 being a much harder and more stressful time for the unemployment office than 2003, I saw dramatic improvement in their service between the two periods, and I think that's partly (mostly?) her doing. ]
Two candidates are running for the Democratic nomination for Treasurer. I like Steve Grossman - which again puts me in agreement with the Globe and the Phoenix. I met Grossman a few times when he was on Howard Dean's campaign for president in 2003/4. His opponent, Steve Murphy, pissed me off with this ad (here's my comment on that ad).
[ Edit: Steve Grossman is hero to LGBT community, by former head of MassEquality ]
Meanwhile, I'll be spending primary day volunteering for Mac D'Alessandro for Congress. He's the most exciting candidate to me this year. If it weren't for him, I'd be volunteering for State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz of Boston, who has a primary challenger. She's one of the best people we have in the state house. If you live in either of those districts, please help Mac or Sonia.
I encourage you to link to this post, and share it with friends in Massachusetts through whatever means you'd like.
P.S. Donate to Mac & Sonia on my fundraising page.
Sep. 8th, 2010 09:32
baystate community
Just a reminder that a couple of years ago, I started a new Massachusetts LJ community, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
baystate. My first post explained why I started it, but basically, the existing communities were (and still are) mostly just another place(s) where people post event listings for Boston area events, and their moderators either didn't respond or weren't interested when I asked about having a community that focuses on stuff about or for Massachusetts as a whole. So far, baystate has been very low volume, and I've been posting things there that I don't post anywhere else.
baystate. My first post explained why I started it, but basically, the existing communities were (and still are) mostly just another place(s) where people post event listings for Boston area events, and their moderators either didn't respond or weren't interested when I asked about having a community that focuses on stuff about or for Massachusetts as a whole. So far, baystate has been very low volume, and I've been posting things there that I don't post anywhere else.Tags:
My house needs some masonry and stonework redone on the top part of the foundation in one corner, and new stairs into the basement at that same corner, and a new deck and back stairs on top of that (since the existing deck and back stairs all rest on that portion of the foundation and would have to be torn out). I've never had this kind of work done and don't know much about it. Got any recommendations for general contractors in the vicinity of Cambridge, MA who you like? Any tips on things I might want to read or learn about before I call them, so I can have informed conversations and understand what work they're going to do and how to pick the right one?
Separately, an inspector suggested grading the earth around our house to make it slope outward, since, he said, it's currently directing water towards the foundation (not obviously enough that I would've noticed, but probably true). Nobody's been taking much care of the plants along the side of the house and in the backyard, which has gotten overgrown, so maybe this is a good excuse to get a landscaper?
Separately, an inspector suggested grading the earth around our house to make it slope outward, since, he said, it's currently directing water towards the foundation (not obviously enough that I would've noticed, but probably true). Nobody's been taking much care of the plants along the side of the house and in the backyard, which has gotten overgrown, so maybe this is a good excuse to get a landscaper?
Tags:
Aug. 18th, 2010 22:47
Why do I have this?
This summer I've been slowly unpacking some of my oldest boxes, ones that have gone with me through several moves, and contain stuff from the 90s. Early 90s, in a few cases, as chanaleh has already heard :) Today, inside one of them, I found a small long narrow cardboard box, and inside it, a wooden judge-style gavel. On the decorative metal circling the center of the head is written "In Personal Appreciation of Your Support", followed by an etching of the handwritten signature of Newt Gingrich.
What is this doing in a box full of stuff that is recognizably mine?
P.S. Also in this box: Finnish currency. Which means I packed it no earlier than 2002. Probably when I moved from Somerville to the Hawkes' house in 2003.
chanaleh has already heard :) Today, inside one of them, I found a small long narrow cardboard box, and inside it, a wooden judge-style gavel. On the decorative metal circling the center of the head is written "In Personal Appreciation of Your Support", followed by an etching of the handwritten signature of Newt Gingrich.What is this doing in a box full of stuff that is recognizably mine?
P.S. Also in this box: Finnish currency. Which means I packed it no earlier than 2002. Probably when I moved from Somerville to the Hawkes' house in 2003.
It recently came to my attention that some people have never seen George's Tickets, aka the Chronicles of George, the worst helpdesk technician ever. Every couple of years I remember George's tickets and spend the next hour - or few - laughing. Someone on reddit posed the question, "what's the funniest thing you've ever seen on the Internet" so I was reminded once again.
What is the funniest thing you've seen on the Internet (aside from George's tickets)?
What is the funniest thing you've seen on the Internet (aside from George's tickets)?
Tags:
We hired a couple of people this winter and then paused, but now we're filling a couple more of those positions, and one of them is in my team. We need a new Reservations Operations person - this is the job I described as not really sysadmin, but needs someone with good sysadmin skills. It's also someone I'd work with directly, dealing with those weird airline protocols.
Since Google is supposed to buy ITA as soon as government regulators approve the deal (don't know when that will be, my guess is late fall / early winter of this year), this is also a way to get into Google, in case you happen to want to work for Google.
Wanna? If you have questions leave a comment. Apply here, and for "How were you referred to ITA?" choose "Employee Referral" and put my name in (and also leave a comment or email me), and I'll get someone to look at it quickly.
Edit: "Apply here" link updated from original post.
Since Google is supposed to buy ITA as soon as government regulators approve the deal (don't know when that will be, my guess is late fall / early winter of this year), this is also a way to get into Google, in case you happen to want to work for Google.
Wanna? If you have questions leave a comment. Apply here, and for "How were you referred to ITA?" choose "Employee Referral" and put my name in (and also leave a comment or email me), and I'll get someone to look at it quickly.
Edit: "Apply here" link updated from original post.
Jul. 28th, 2010 10:37
Giant Robot Dance
Michael's been part of our camp at Falcon Ridge for years, and we were excited this year that his contra dance band, Giant Robot Dance, was going to perform there for the first time. What I didn't realize was that that they were stars, apparently one of the newly-hottest contra dance bands around. I don't think they quite realized it either.
Sunday, during their last set of dances, I sat one out so I could get a video:
(Note: at about 1:30 in, video switches to a vantage point where you can see the band clearly, and both trombones are playing)
... and also the waltz they closed their final set with:
I don't have a video of the dance they played Smells Like Teen Spirit, or the Lady Gaga contra dance tune... because I danced those :)
- I mentioned the robots to the girl I gave a ride to Falcon Ridge to, and she told me the people she was camping with had also been telling her about them.
- At one of the dances they played, I danced with a friend who'd never been to Falcon Ridge before. I had no idea she'd heard of giant robot, but it turns out they were the reason she decided to go to the festival.
- Walking through the campground, I heard a group of people I didn't know discussing how awesome this band is.
- In the shower line I was standing next to a guy who dances at Concord, and the girl behind us was also a contra dancer, so we started talking about it, and just as I was pulled away from the line by my campmates for birthday cake (our camp is very close to the showers) they all started extolling Giant Robot Dance. Amusingly unaware that half the band was sitting a few yards away :)
Sunday, during their last set of dances, I sat one out so I could get a video:
(Note: at about 1:30 in, video switches to a vantage point where you can see the band clearly, and both trombones are playing)
... and also the waltz they closed their final set with:
I don't have a video of the dance they played Smells Like Teen Spirit, or the Lady Gaga contra dance tune... because I danced those :)
Jul. 23rd, 2010 12:47
Off to Falcon Ridge
Heading to Falcon Ridge for the rest of the weekend. Are you going?
P.S. Vote online for Mac before Sunday!
P.S. Vote online for Mac before Sunday!
Mac D'Alessandro is friendly, engaging, well-informed, hardworking, smart, personable, bold, and effective. He's the sort of candidate anyone who meets will want to vote for, and he'll be a Representative everyone will want to work with, yet he won't be shy about his values, and he'll fight for them.
Mac is challenging Massachusetts Congressman Stephen Lynch, in the 9th district, which is part of Boston and a bunch of cities and towns south of Boston, including Quincy and Braintree. The contrast between the two of them is big:
- Lynch voted for the Patriot Act, Mac would've voted against it.
- Lynch voted to invade Iraq, Mac would've voted against that
- Lynch voted against health care reform, Mac supported it
- Lynch opposes a woman's right to choose, Mac supports it
- Lynch voted for continued no-strings funding of the Iraq occupation, Mac would've voted against that
- Lynch voted for the Stupak Amendment, Mac opposed it.
Before running for Congress, Mac was the northeast political director of the Service Employees International Union, which represents janitors, healthcare workers, food service workers, and other low income people. Before that, he worked at Greater Boston Legal Services, which provides civil legal assistance to people who can't afford it. I've met Mac several times - the first was when he volunteered going door to door on another campaign I volunteered on. I've had long conversations with him about issues and about his campaign, and I've seen him talk to others. He says the things I keep desperately hoping members of Congress would say.
Election day is September 14th, less than two months away. Although beating an incumbent is always tough, polls show only 1/3 of Democrats in the district think Lynch deserves re-election. With enough resources and support, Mac can win. Wanna help?
- The Really Easy Part - this'll take you less than a minute.
90 candidates competed for Democracy for America's "Grassroots All Star" endorsement, and in the first round of online voting, Mac came in 4th! That's amazing, and it shows he could win the finalist round. DFA will lend a lot of organizational and fundraising support to the winner, and some to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place candidates as well. Voting ends this Sunday, July 25th.
Even if you already voted in the first round, please vote for Mac. - Pass it On - link to this post on Facebook, Twitter, your LJ, ...
- Give Mac a bit of your time or money.
To run an effective campaign in such a short time, Mac needs to pay for: staffers, offices, a web site, a voter contact database, office supplies, phone bills, postage, hiring people to do some internal polls, food for volunteers, some advertising... every little bit helps, and all of it can go to good use. How much is it worth it to you to have a Congressman who'll fight for clean energy, ending wars, fairness for workers and immigrants, to protect civil liberties? Donate at my fundraising link.
And on Saturday, July 31st, I'm going to volunteer on Mac's big Boston canvass and it would be a lot more fun if you joined me! Who's coming?
Theatre@First's Festival@First: Shaken Up Shakespeare was great fun. Puppets, monsters, song & dance... If you're around here, go! A short walk from Davis Square, tonight at 8pm, tomorrow at 3pm, and next weekend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm.
Among the things you'll see: ( Spoilers, but no worse than you'd see from skimming the program... )
Among the things you'll see: ( Spoilers, but no worse than you'd see from skimming the program... )
Jul. 14th, 2010 22:38
LiveJournal's awful plan
In the latest omnibus post on news, LiveJournal writes:
If you've got any friends who have left their LiveJournals, and possibly changed email addresses since then, or just aren't likely to pay prompt attention to an email from LiveJournal, and they've commented on your posts, or you've commented on their posts, LiveJournal wants to delete all of that. Why? So that if someone else maybe wants the username, it can be available. Who cares about existing content - people's past writing - when someone new might possibly someday want that username.
If you think this is as bad an idea as I do, please leave feedback for LJ, and please repost or link to this.
Edit: I think they got a lot of feedback, because they've edited the post to change the definition of an inactive account or community: It's not inactive if it has more than one post.
Edit2: A private response to feedback I left yesterday tells me about the changes and the edited news post, and adds that comments of inactive accounts won't be deleted. I asked them to re-edit the news post to add that.
news, LiveJournal writes:- Purging inactive accounts: ... A journal is defined as inactive if it has not been logged into for 24 consecutive months. A community is defined as inactive if has not been updated for 24 consecutive months. Once an account is eligible to be purged for inactivity, the owner will be sent an email to alert them of the inactive status. The owner will then have two weeks to log into the journal or post to their community to prevent it from being deleted. If the owner does not log in or post, the account will be deleted and treated like any other deleted account ...
If you've got any friends who have left their LiveJournals, and possibly changed email addresses since then, or just aren't likely to pay prompt attention to an email from LiveJournal, and they've commented on your posts, or you've commented on their posts, LiveJournal wants to delete all of that. Why? So that if someone else maybe wants the username, it can be available. Who cares about existing content - people's past writing - when someone new might possibly someday want that username.
If you think this is as bad an idea as I do, please leave feedback for LJ, and please repost or link to this.
Edit: I think they got a lot of feedback, because they've edited the post to change the definition of an inactive account or community: It's not inactive if it has more than one post.
Edit2: A private response to feedback I left yesterday tells me about the changes and the edited news post, and adds that comments of inactive accounts won't be deleted. I asked them to re-edit the news post to add that.
Tags:
Jul. 12th, 2010 13:41
East African rains
In the east African highlands, even during the rainy seasons, it's sunny and clear. You can see a great distance, like you can in Montana, and during the rainy season, you can see the rains slowly meandering across the land. After your first few, you quickly learn to estimate their path, size, and speed. Over the course of an afternoon, it might go like this...
Today at lunchtime I went to the farmers' market, and picked just the wrong time. *boom* the sky opened up, and I hadn't seen it coming. I ducked inside Harvest to get some groceries there, and when I was done, pulled up the weather radar on my phone. I could see the spot of red, a small one right over Camberville, and I could see how fast it was moving, so I waited out it. About ten more minutes 'til it waned, I guessed, and I was about right.
Today's technology makes this almost as easy as East Africa. Pity it can't bring the 60s-to-80s medium humidity air here, too.
- That one's gonna miss me. Off to the left.
Ahh, this one's headed here. It'll be here in about 25 minutes and it looks like it'll last less than 10 minutes before it moves on.
Now there's a big one, looks like a half hour of rain! But it's going to pass to my right, not too far, I'll probably get some peripheral rain, but not the real downpour.
Today at lunchtime I went to the farmers' market, and picked just the wrong time. *boom* the sky opened up, and I hadn't seen it coming. I ducked inside Harvest to get some groceries there, and when I was done, pulled up the weather radar on my phone. I could see the spot of red, a small one right over Camberville, and I could see how fast it was moving, so I waited out it. About ten more minutes 'til it waned, I guessed, and I was about right.
Today's technology makes this almost as easy as East Africa. Pity it can't bring the 60s-to-80s medium humidity air here, too.
I'm planning to drop by Representative Capuano's office near the Galleria tomorrow at lunch, bringing a copy of MoveOn's new pledge to ask him to sign on. The pledge has three points:
I'm also planning to bring along a copy of these polling results from People For the American Away to reinforce the pledge.
Wanna join me? It'd be nice to have a couple of other people along.
- Support a Constitutional Amendment to overturn the Citizens' United ruling that corporations have the same rights as people*.
- Public financing for political campaigns.
- Lobbying reform.
I'm also planning to bring along a copy of these polling results from People For the American Away to reinforce the pledge.
Wanna join me? It'd be nice to have a couple of other people along.
* Actually, that idea has been treated as precedent for over a century, but the pledge states it in terms of overturning the CU decision, and I think that's okay - the goal is the same.
Tags:
A slash: /
A backslash: \
Slashfic is named after the slash: Kirk/Spock
Fractions are written sometimes with slashes: 1/2
When you list alternatives in a sentence, you may say "slash": his/her
There are slashes in URLs: http://cos.livejournal.com/profile
Backslashes appear nowhere in the natural world, aside from a crufty old operating system from Microsoft and some of its descendants. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten half the computing world into saying "backslash" wherever either a slash or a backslash appears. This creates confusion, and wastes syllables. I know syllables aren't such a limited resource and we can always make more, but conservation of syllables seems to be a driving force in the evolution of English, so we should be able to defeat this annoying anomaly.
If in doubt, just say "slash". You'll rarely be wrong (as opposed to being wrong almost all the time if you're in doubt and say "blackslash").
Please pass it on! Thank you :)
A backslash: \
Slashfic is named after the slash: Kirk/Spock
Fractions are written sometimes with slashes: 1/2
When you list alternatives in a sentence, you may say "slash": his/her
There are slashes in URLs: http://cos.livejournal.com/profile
Backslashes appear nowhere in the natural world, aside from a crufty old operating system from Microsoft and some of its descendants. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten half the computing world into saying "backslash" wherever either a slash or a backslash appears. This creates confusion, and wastes syllables. I know syllables aren't such a limited resource and we can always make more, but conservation of syllables seems to be a driving force in the evolution of English, so we should be able to defeat this annoying anomaly.
If in doubt, just say "slash". You'll rarely be wrong (as opposed to being wrong almost all the time if you're in doubt and say "blackslash").
Please pass it on! Thank you :)
Tags:
May. 21st, 2010 10:47
Strike first, question later?
Earlier this week I heard a report on NPR about a new round of general strikes and protests planned in Greece. Two groups that had participated in previous strikes had decided not to participate this time, said the reporter. One of those groups: Journalists. According to the report, the Greek journalists decided that even though striking "showed brotherly solidarity", it might be counterproductive because they recognized that one of the most important things about a protest is publicity.
Ummm... I'm glad they figured that out.
Ummm... I'm glad they figured that out.
Tags:
May. 18th, 2010 14:13
Airport ride, Sun June 6th
Anyone feel like picking me up from Logan on Sunday night, June 6th, a little after midnight, since I'll get in too late to catch the last red line home?
Tags:
Last week at the Brattle, they showed us this trailer for the Japanese horror fantasy film House. Based on the trailer, the movie is probably a lot weirder than that makes it sound. Actually, based on the trailer, I wouldn't be surprised if this film would make Zardoz seem a little mainstream.
The Brattle's artistic director promised "lots of watermelons, killer cats, and pianos that eat people" to those who watch it.
The Brattle's artistic director promised "lots of watermelons, killer cats, and pianos that eat people" to those who watch it.
That's a quotation from the Systems and Communications Reference Manual, which defines several of the airline industry's communications protocols. Or would, if it made any sense. And if the parts that do make some sense were readable.
For example, one protocol it describes has a field called a "TPR". A TPR is an arbitrary 3-20 character string that starts with either P or Q: It starts with P when it's created by the system sending the initial query, Q when it's created by the responding system. Simple enough, right? Too simple for the SCR. Instead, we get a table ( like this... )
This bit of obfuscation is typical of the description of one of the most commonly used message transport protocols in the airline industry, HTH - "Host To Host Protocol". One of the other most common message transport protocols is BATAP, "type B Application To Application Protocol".
Actually, HTH is an application to application protocol, because it handles getting messages to specific applications. (For the networking geeks: HTH actually has separate headers for each of OSI layers 4, 5, 6, 7. Yeah, OSI isn't as dead as I thought :/) BATAP, on the other hand, isn't an application to application protocol, or even a host to host protocol - it has no addressing at all, it's just a point-to-point protocol.
BATAP got its name, I think, from the fact that it's generally used to transport teletype messages, and teletype messages have addresses inside them that can be used to route them to specific applications. So even though BATAP is not at all an application to application protocol, it's usually used for application to application messaging. *sigh*
"Teletype" - huh, you may think, where have I seen that term before? Or if you're old enough, you probably know right away: a teletype was one of these things. Think "telephone", "television", ... "teletypewriter". Early TTYs appeared in the 1920s, and computers and printers made them obsolete around the 1970s.
This is not a coincidence: those "teletype" messages airlines send were designed for actual Teletype machines. They're still in all caps, with lines limited to 69 characters, and a compact format full of few-letter codes that makes them read sort of like newspaper personals. These messages are how airline computers tell each other about availability of seats on flights, communicate schedule changes, make flight reservations on each others' flights, and many other things. Yes, today.
Early airlines designed these messages for humans who handled reservations before they had computers to do it, and they used teletypes to communicate with their booking offices. People at these offices processed computer-like workflows by hand until IBM met American Airlines and automated it. But even now, when most of this stuff is handled by software, there are places in the protocols where it explains under what conditions a human who has just received one of these teletype messages needs to pick up the phone to call some other airline's booking office. Once they relay the information, that other airline's agent will type it in, which may cause a new teletype message to be sent somewhere.
What we have here are messages designed for computers pretending to act like humans who are pretending to act like computers.
For example, one protocol it describes has a field called a "TPR". A TPR is an arbitrary 3-20 character string that starts with either P or Q: It starts with P when it's created by the system sending the initial query, Q when it's created by the responding system. Simple enough, right? Too simple for the SCR. Instead, we get a table ( like this... )
This bit of obfuscation is typical of the description of one of the most commonly used message transport protocols in the airline industry, HTH - "Host To Host Protocol". One of the other most common message transport protocols is BATAP, "type B Application To Application Protocol".
Actually, HTH is an application to application protocol, because it handles getting messages to specific applications. (For the networking geeks: HTH actually has separate headers for each of OSI layers 4, 5, 6, 7. Yeah, OSI isn't as dead as I thought :/) BATAP, on the other hand, isn't an application to application protocol, or even a host to host protocol - it has no addressing at all, it's just a point-to-point protocol.
BATAP got its name, I think, from the fact that it's generally used to transport teletype messages, and teletype messages have addresses inside them that can be used to route them to specific applications. So even though BATAP is not at all an application to application protocol, it's usually used for application to application messaging. *sigh*
"Teletype" - huh, you may think, where have I seen that term before? Or if you're old enough, you probably know right away: a teletype was one of these things. Think "telephone", "television", ... "teletypewriter". Early TTYs appeared in the 1920s, and computers and printers made them obsolete around the 1970s.
This is not a coincidence: those "teletype" messages airlines send were designed for actual Teletype machines. They're still in all caps, with lines limited to 69 characters, and a compact format full of few-letter codes that makes them read sort of like newspaper personals. These messages are how airline computers tell each other about availability of seats on flights, communicate schedule changes, make flight reservations on each others' flights, and many other things. Yes, today.
Early airlines designed these messages for humans who handled reservations before they had computers to do it, and they used teletypes to communicate with their booking offices. People at these offices processed computer-like workflows by hand until IBM met American Airlines and automated it. But even now, when most of this stuff is handled by software, there are places in the protocols where it explains under what conditions a human who has just received one of these teletype messages needs to pick up the phone to call some other airline's booking office. Once they relay the information, that other airline's agent will type it in, which may cause a new teletype message to be sent somewhere.
What we have here are messages designed for computers pretending to act like humans who are pretending to act like computers.
- 1/2 bowl of spicy peanuts from the Green Street Grill1
2/3lb ground beef
3/4lb fresh snow peas
a few mushrooms
frozen edamame, frozen peas
high heat stir fry oil or peanut oil
toasted sesame oil
soy sauce, lemon juice
... some spices ...
Clean and slice the mushrooms.
Wash the snow peas, and cut all the tips off.
Chop up the ground beef.
In a pan, mix stir fry oil (enough to cover the bottom generously) with garlic powder and onion power2, then heat and add mushrooms to saute. Stir quickly.
When mushrooms are all coated in garlicky peanut oil, add ground beef, stir to break up the pieces. Add spicy peanuts.
When beef is about 4 minutes from done, add the snow peas.
Stir in some soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. Keep frying over medium-high heat.
2 minutes before done, sprinkle in some frozen edamame and peas.
Turn off heat, stir in a bit of lemon juice3. Maybe about 2tsp?
1 - I bet this would work quite well with Trader Joe chili-lime cashews, which is what I'm going to try next, because I won't always have gone to the Green Street Grill recently and have leftover spicy peanuts :)
2 - I was unexpectedly out of fresh garlic, and cooking for someone who doesn't like onions, but I bet chopping up some actual garlic and onions to saute would work quite well! Speaking of which, she doesn't like tomatos either, or I probably would've added them somewhere later one.
3 - Lemon juice was a last minute thought, and I wish I'd thought of it earlier and bought a lime. Both test eaters agreed that adding bits of lime would be even better.
Tags:
Tomorrow, Tuesday April 13th, is the primary election to select a Democrat for the state senate district formerly held by former Cambridge City Councilor Anthony Gallucio. It starts in Allston/Brighton, goes through the middle of Cambridge, a bit of east Somerville, then all of Charlestown and Chelsea and parts of Everett, Saugust, and Revere.
Six candidates are running in the Democratic primary. All of them attended a candidates forum in Central Square a few weeks ago.
I went, took notes, and posted about it today. Read if you want to know more about these candidates. And pass it on to people you know in this area.
Six candidates are running in the Democratic primary. All of them attended a candidates forum in Central Square a few weeks ago.
I went, took notes, and posted about it today. Read if you want to know more about these candidates. And pass it on to people you know in this area.
Tags:
I didn't watch the Oscars. Sometimes I see someone say "I give up on the Oscars" after they make some particularly stupid award decision. I really gave up on the Oscars, a long time ago.
Go to this list of Oscars for "Best Costume Design" and scroll down to 1982, where you'll see:
You know what other movie came out that year? This one.
What's the point of an award that doesn't even have a credible pretense of being about merit?
Go to this list of Oscars for "Best Costume Design" and scroll down to 1982, where you'll see:
- 1982: Bhanu Athaiya, Madeline Jones and John Mollo - Gandhi
Albert Wolsky - Sophie's Choice
Piero Tosi - La Traviata
Elois Jenssen and Rosanna Norton - Tron
Patricia Norris - Victor/Victoria
You know what other movie came out that year? This one.
What's the point of an award that doesn't even have a credible pretense of being about merit?
Tags:
