Obama & Biden

August 28th, 2008

I haven’t had a political post, or any post at all for that matter, in a while. I’ve been busy moving, but I found a bit of an update on the whole Obama voting for the FISA bill thing. He did actually respond to the members of the Get FISA Right group, the by far largest group on his social networking site. He actually did this almost 2 months ago, I just missed it. The summary is what you would expect to hear from someone in his position. It espouses the idea that it is a good compromise, that he wouldn’t have drafted the legislation, and that it is important for us to remain activists despite that he’s not listening to us this time. Its basically a lot of pandering, don’t be mad at me and not vote bullshit, but it’s at least somewhat of an improvement over the Bush administration, in that he does actually respond as though he did actually hear us.

Of course, up until he jumped the FISA ship I was hopeful that things would improve by much more than that episode reveals Obama is willing to go. I have since been in a bit of a political funk. It’s been a good time to be in a political funk since not much has been going on anyways. Suffice it to say I have not been watching the convention. I have only one thought on the matter of party unity that is so central to goals of the convention. That idea is to have Hillary Clinton be the one to lay out a good bit of the party platform. Mind you, this is not her platform, but the party platform – over which Obama has much control. I think that all the Hillary-ites, who are so mad, will likely be appeased if it appears that she still has a large say in the party platform (which may well be true). It seems the best way to make it appear that way is to have her say it. Essentially, Obama’s words, filtered through the party, coming out of her mouth. I think that would work much better than repeated calls for unity, which can ring empty.

Finally, I suppose I’ll say a bit about Joe Biden for Vice-President. Of the field of however many candidates there were last fall my three favorites (based on debate coverage alone) were Biden, Dodd, and Obama. I apparently didn’t blog about this, but many of you may have heard me say I liked them. I still like Biden, whose signature campaign idea was the breakup of Iraq into three countries; I still think that may prove to be the best plan. I have since learned that he is not on the right side of the Net Neutrality Debate. I think, however, that he may actually have less power over the way that debate goes as Vice-President than he would as an actual senator. Obama, and the FCC appear to be on the good side, so there is not as much to worry about there as there was in the recent past. Biden did vote to get FISA Right, which is a very large plus for me. I don’t know how/if he helps the electoral votes number game, but I’m happy to have him on the ticket.

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Outer Banks Trip

August 24th, 2008

This year my family’s annual trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with one of my best friends from back home’s family was in August. I got back about a week ago but I’ve been too busy with moving to write up a post. The trip was fun, but I was too busy flying my new kite, watching the Olympics, and playing some Diablo 2 to take out my camera. I did take out the camera during my flights there and back.

First things first, in the Boston airport under some of the seats they now have new electric sockets for charing phones and laptops. They also have usb charging ports, so those of us with the right cable can use those and free up the electric socket for someone else:

Now on to the flight. Cape Cod:

Martha’s Vineyard:

Week of fun at the beach.

On the flight back I got a great view of New York City. The harbor:

Manhattan Panorama:

New Haven, CT:

I didn’t get any nice shots of Boston due to our approach pattern, but I did get a nice one of a lighthouse in Boston Harbor right before we landed:

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Kennebec White Water Rafting

August 9th, 2008

On July 27th a bunch of us from my Wednesday Night Dinner group went white water rafting on the Kennebec River in Maine. It was a great time, we camped, kayaked, rafted, and cooked dinner over a fire. We drove up Saturday, stayed overnight, rafted Sunday morning and then drove home. It was a long trip, we were only ~35 miles from Canada. This was the first time I got to use my tent or otherwise come anywhere close to camping since moving it to Boston. The weather was perfect – it was 70 and partly sunny, although; it did rain a bit during the night, which eliminated the chance to do some star gazing.

Kayaking was on a nearby lake, and included an encounter with a loon. We came upon a what appeared to be a duck, at least until it opened it’s mouth to make a sound – then we knew it was no duck. After a few minutes worth of calling by the first loon, a second arrived. This one had a baby loon on its back. It seemed to be about 1.5 times the size of a baseball. It climbed off, presumably, its mother’s back and into the water. We had two kayaks approaching in on it from different directions, on a line running right through the family’s present location. They made a dash, as fast as the little one could swim in the perpendicular direction. We did not follow, it was very cute.

The surprising thing was that the water was also ~70 degrees. It is a damn controlled river, but they must release from the top of the lake or something to get those temperatures. The river was also strange in some other ways. First, we put in within sight of the damn, maybe only 100 meters downstream. To get to the put in there was a huge stairway to take down fully inflated rafts, carried by us. There were immediately 3 large rapids – two class 3’s and then a class 4. The class 4 was a ~6 foot waterfall. The water was big and it was hard to paddle so hard so close to the start of the run. It was also interesting, going over the waterfall they actually told us not to paddle but instead get the paddle away from us and hold onto some rope in the raft. It was quite the departure from the never stop paddling mantra I’ve learned.

The rest of the river, however, was quite different from the first, say, 30 minutes of it. There were only a handful of class 2 rapids the entire rest of the 4 hour trip. So here we are in these enormous 10 person rafts, which were needed to get through the big water upstream, but which make class 2 rapids super lame. It appears the company was well aware of this problem. After lunch they trucked in a double ducky raft for each raft, so that people could trade in an out of a smaller boat (where the smaller rapids would be more fun). They also let us swim pretty much the entire rest of the river. It was ok, but I would not go back to this river unless I was either in a smaller boat, or only did the top few miles (and did them multiple times).

Also, the lunch on river was simply amazing. A pre-trip choice of chicken, steak, or salmon with rice, pasta salad and cookies. There was also gorp, lemonade, ice tea, and water while we were waiting for the real meal to cook.

Posted in Reviews, Trips, Wednesday Night Dinner | Comments Closed

Google Maps Walking Directions

August 1st, 2008

Maybe this is old news, but I just noticed today that google maps now has walking directions! They did not import properly into the embeddable frame though, but heres a screen shot and a link.

It knows that you can walk through Boston Common, and it knows where the paths are so you don’t just cut across the grass like a hillbilly. It also takes the esplanade and some of the paths near MIT. It did not, however, take the bike path near my house, there’s no faint line for it either, so that does make some sense. They do warn that it is in beta and that one should “use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas.”

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On Principle

July 30th, 2008

I have an amusing anecdote from last Friday to share with you all today. Pre-play-on-the-common I was at target attempting to acquire on of those blue tarp things that you place on the ground to prevent your blanket from getting wet. Alas, I was unable to find any there – blast you target: you and the $5 gift card to you that I’ve been carrying around for more than a year now have failed me again.

On the way back to my car I was met with a question from a man in a red Ford Taurus. “Are you leaving?,” he asked. Now, that’s not too uncommon a thing to hear in a Boston area parking lot, but the parking lot of the Target in East Somerville is not as packed as say, the Shaw’s parking lot in Porter Square; there were plenty of empty spots. But I had just walked out of the store and so there weren’t any open near me, near the store’s door. I figured maybe he needed a good spot cause he had to load something heavy. But then, my spot wasn’t such a good spot; I was just walking past the good spots to get to my normal spot.

I responded, “Yes, but there are…” plenty of spots. I mumbled the second half. I continued walking, without looking back. When I arrive at my car and turned I noticed that the man had put the car in reverse and followed me down the row. He was now blocking me in, I suppose, although; that was not a concern I noticed at the time. He asked, “Can you do me a favor?” Still thinking he wanted my spot I replied, “um, what?” It would, of course, have been rather unorthodox to need a favor for a spot as mediocre as mine in face of such an abundance of open spaces, but that’s what I was going with.

He explained, “I’m $7 short on gas money to get back to New Hampshire. My son was supposed to meet me here…” he trialled off. I am not a generous one; I rarely if ever offer handouts to beggars. But this was a good scam, if it was a scam; I felt bad. However, my rules did not betray me, despite having at least $48 in cash in my pocket I responded, “Sorry, I don’t have any cash on me.” With this the man, in his car, drove away.

It did not hit me until the exchange was over, the irony involved. Here was a man, in a car, driving around a parking lot, using gasoline, which he supposedly needed all (and more) of to get back to New Hampshire. I wonder if he included in his seven dollar estimate the cost of the gas he was burning while trying to come up with the money? If he turned his car off and parked it and then begged, could he move from $7 to $6, maybe? After realizing his wasteful ways, I no longer felt bad about lying to the man. I was in the right to deny his request on principle alone.

Sitting here now I wonder how the conversation would have gone had I actually denied him on principle. Would I have asked to see his figures, or espoused that he could make it home on $4 worth of gas if he drove 55 mph instead of 70 mph? It certainly would have taken more time, and I was in a hurry. I still had to go over to Home Depot to pick up a tarp before heading home and on to the show. Let this be a lesson to you all, if you’re short on gas money, don’t be a dumbass!

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What Have I Been Doing?

July 29th, 2008

Well, on the Saturday after seeing The Dark Knight on my birthday I was invited to go to an all night beach party in Newburyport honoring the full moon with a fire. It was a blast. I met a bunch of new people and got to know a few kids I met on the 4th of July a bit better. One of them even managed to remember my name from then, which made me feel bad that I didn’t remember his. The weather was cloudy so there wasn’t a great view of the moon, but there were professionally done fireworks from a nearby by that we could see. As the night wore on batches of fog rolled in and out as the wind shifted. The wind off the water was quite cold, for about a minute once we could see our breath, but the wind off the land was comfortable. At one point the fog was so tick that you couldn’t see more than 15 feet it seemed. I arrived back home at around 5:30 am, by which time dawn had begun.

Lets see, what else… On Thursday of last week I went to that awards dinner for work, dateless. I wanted to take pictures of the supposedly lovely estate at which it was held, but it was raining quite a lot, as it had a tendency to do last week in Boston, so I just gave up on the idea that I’d get any nice looking pictures. The rain also turned what I was hoping would be an exploration of the land into a social event requiring copious amounts of small talk and pretending to like beer. The food, however, was quite good, so no complaints there.


On Friday of last week I went to see the Free Shakespeare on the Common production of As You Like It. I didn’t know anything about it going in, luckily they summarized the play in the program, which made it easier to follow along. It was really enjoyable, and seemed well done; the music was especially well suited. There were two lights operators, who climbed the towers to man the lights for the show. I really liked the whole idea of having them climb the towers, It seemed like they had really good seats as well (being so high), I wanted to be them. I was surprised to learn that the quote from Civilization 4 for when you discover drama, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts,” is from this play. I must say that the quote is much more enlightened sounding without the rest of the monologue that follows. The play was preceded by a picnic dinner; it was a date actually, but that’s you get to hear about it.

Posted in Around Town, Dating, Panoramas | Comments Closed

The Dark Knight

July 21st, 2008

The Dark NightI saw The Dark Knight on Friday, as part of my birthday celebration, with a group of 16 friends. First and foremost it was a fun time, despite that the group broke up into 3 parts to find seats. I was not disappointed by the movie, but I do have some criticisms, some of which I already aired on Chris’ blog. There are some spoilers below.

My first criticism is that they tried to do too much with one movie. They should have saved Two-Face’s demise for the next film. It was not required to drive home the idea that Batman is a figure that can, and must afford to be hated by the people he serves. That point was beaten into our heads one two many times at the end of the film. I also thought that Two-Face detracted from The Joker. The inclusion of Two-Face cause the plot to contort in unnatural ways, much like what happened in Spiderman 3. Of course, the comparison to that pile of trash stops there; the performances in The Dark Knight are a world apart from Spiderman.

Clearly Heath Ledger’s performance of the Joker ends the Best Actor Oscar race for this year. I’m also willing to give them the actress swap that they pulled with Rachel because of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s stand up job at filling Katie Holmes’ shoes. Her refusal to come back for the second movie is a black mark against Holmes in my book; previously beloved from her Dawson’s Creek days and the string of bad movies that followed. Christopher Nolan has also earned a bit of a scuff on his record with this movie.

The scuff has to do with consistency of setting of the movie. I feel that one of the problems besetting the the original series of Batman movies was an inconsistent feel of the setting. It seemed, in Batman Begins, that they were starting over on this as well. The big feature from this new setting was the monorails centered on Wayne Tower. There are many shots showing what looks like Wayne Tower from Batman Begins, which is in fact, the Chicago Board of Trade Building. But there are not any monorails. This is a huge let down for me, because this story takes place in the same city as the last one plot wise, but it does not setting wise. This is compounded by a shot (that I can’t find a screen capture of) of a Wayne Tower that looks different (sort of black and stocky) like this building. I don’t have a problem mixing and matching buildings from various cities, Gotham is a huge city, so there is certainly room for all of sorts of buildings strewn about it, but to forgo the monorails, which were too big to be removed by any reasonable civic authority.

Posted in Movies | Comments Closed

A Place to Go Back To

July 16th, 2008

This week’s Wednesday Night Dinner definitely qualifies as a place to go back to. In the ~9 months I’ve been in the group I’ve accumulated a long list of places that I have been, but a very short list of places worth going back to. It’s not that we go to bad places, but many of them are not stand out performers. They are the kind of places were it was an interesting and worthwhile trip the first time, when it was a new experience, but without the newness it doesn’t quite make the cut.

This place, which supposedly lacks the concept of a name, but in fact is just named “No Name” is worth going back to. It is everything a little seafood place on a pier should be, loud, busy, unfinished, and packed with Japanese tourists eating lobster. It’s clearly no secret hole in the wall place, but that’s ok. They have a picture of Colonel Sanders chowing down on some fish, which is a nice ironic touch. There are also great big posters of the Boston skyline and the pier, which I enjoy. I had broiled shrimp in a butter sauce with rice; it was very good, if not quite filling enough. I would warn visitors away from the bland, uninspired Seafood Chowder, it wasn’t worth it. If you plan to come visit me be warned I’ll probably drag you to this place.

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New, Must Have Appliance

July 12th, 2008

I get letters, although some of them are junk, some of them I need opened.

This was on digg, but seems worth sharing.

Posted in From the Internet | Comments Closed

The Game is Up: Americans Loose

July 9th, 2008

No, were not trying to play soccer, we’re trying to live normal lives without having our rights infringed, but we can’t, not anymore. The not-at-all a compromise FISA amendment passed the senate today by 69-28. Many thanks to the 28 senators who voted no, including:

  • Hilary Clinton (D-NY)
  • Chris Dodd (D-CT)
  • Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
  • Russ Feingold (D-WI)
  • Joe Biden (D-DE)
  • and one of my senators, whom I did write too on the issue, John Kerry (D-MA)

Of course, senator Ted Kendey, the only currently sitting senator whom I’ve personally voted for did not vote due to his medical problems. And of course, no thanks at all to Obama for throwing all 22,893 of his most loyal supporters under the bus. I am jaded enough to believe that if Senator Clinton was the party nominee she and Obama would be on opposites sides of this issue than they are with this vote. As of yesterday, “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, [had] not made up her mind on the controversial measure.” It’s almost as if she is trying to say I told you so, but had she actually told me so, as Obama did, then things might have been different. Of course, being lied to never leaves a good taste in one’s mouth. I’m now quite glad I never ponied up cash for the Obama campaign, I certainly would want my money back if I had, and I certainly won’t contribute now.

Posted in Politics, Rants | Comments Closed

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