Been shopping for Christmas gifts for the last 7 days or so. It’s ridiculous how much money I’ve spent already. But hey, money seems so trivial when you can make your loved ones happy no?
I am such a sucker for this whole Holiday season, regardless of all the commercialization and the stress that this time of year can bring… I love how everybody is in such a cheerful mood, everything’s decorated, you hear Christmas carols everywhere…
Have you seen this NBA commercial? There are a couple of different versions, but all have the same music. I love that dreamy piano music so I looked it up - it’s Carly Comando, the song is called Every Day. You can listen to the full version here. So cool.
It seems I may have frontal brain damage. Before I explain why, try the following. In the following picture, can you move a single matchstick to form a valid mathematical equation? No sticks can be discarded, an isolated slanted stick cannot be interpreted as I (one), and a V (five) symbol must always be composed of two slanted sticks.
And now this one:
The first one took me about 3 seconds to solve - it’s pretty friggin obvious I think. The second one had me guessing for a little longer, but after about 10 seconds I had the solution. Well, according to this article, healthy adults are frequently outperformed on the second test by people with frontal brain damage. Huh. Who would’ve thunk it.
In Chicago for a few days… hanging out at the hotel bar after a long day, catching up on emails.
Just re-discovered Outside.in, a neat way to see what’s going on in your neighborhood (or any other place you may happen to find yourself in).
Work and life in general are keeping me plenty busy lately so I’ve neglected pretty much all my hobbies, this blog among them…
Lots of stuff happening around the web in the last few weeks… Microsoft buying a chunk of Facebook… Google getting more active in the mobile industry…
Talking about Google, they’re now the 5th largest company in the US (by market capitalization). Crazy. And they’re trading at $732.94 as of this writing… who would’ve thunk it. Oh and if you simply can’t get enough of Google, soon you’ll find your favorite search monster at your nearest gas station too.
Oh by the way, if you like to stay on top of news when you’re on the go, you’ll surely enjoy the NYTimesRiver. It doesn’t look like much when you open the website, but it makes news a lot more digestible on my Blackberry - I love it.
More later…
Wow has it really been over a month and a half since I last spent some quality time surfing the web? I guess that goes to show how busy a fall this has been. Just got back from Europe, and still feeling a little jet lagged. I’ll have to do some blog maintenance in the next few days, the spam comments are killing me. I’m amazed at how much crap still gets through despite the captcha I built into the comments function. Maybe I’ll have to replace the current with a new, more effective captcha.
Anyways, more rambling to come soon.
Ok, so today was a fairly exciting day if you’re a gadget fan and/or music lover. As expected, Steve Jobs presented a bunch of exciting new products and services at Apple’s “The Beat Goes On” event.
Most noteworthy is probably the iPod Touch. It’s a geek’s dream come true. The only bummer is that the capacity, well, sorta sucks. 16GB is not all that bad, but it just isn’t enough to hold my entire music collection. Which is what I want my iPod to do (for workouts I now use the wonderful little Shuffle). So despite all the cool stuff like Wi-Fi, built-in Safari browser, Cover Flow, and of course the touchscreen, I probably won’t shell out the $399 for the Touch but rather get the new and improved 80GB iPod Classic. It doesn’t look all that different from its predecessor, but neat new features like an enhanced interface and Cover Flow should be fun.
This is a few days old but quite hilarious… Why is one fifth of Americans not able to locate the USA on a map? Miss South Carolina seems to think we need more maps. And South Africa, and Iraq, such as. Or something.
… don’t visit Lake Tawakoni State Park in Texas. You might end up getting caught in that 200 yard spider web.
… but instead of heading out to the store this weekend, I think I’ll be waiting to see what sorts of goodies Apple will announce at their September 5 “special event”.
I bet they’ll announce some neat new gadget. Maybe a touchscreen Ipod? Now that would be cool.
Alright, I’m on a mission. My goal is the 2008 Los Angeles Marathon. I’ve got about six and a half months to get in shape.
I’ve never run a marathon before, and something tells me I might regret this…. 26 miles of non-stop running? Right now 6 miles seems like a lot….
But in a slightly masochistic way, I’m very excited about this. It’s good to put your body to the test.
Many companies have hopped on the web 2.0 bandwagon to market their products or services - via blogs, Second Life, You Tube campaigns, etc. More often than not, their efforts are pretty unimpressive.
There are exceptions though, and they don’t have to be complicated. Here’s one example that I think is a great viral marketing idea, and it seems to be creating plenty of word of mouth on YouTube and blogs: Blendtec, a maker of mixers, blenders, etc. has created a hilarious website where they prove their blenders’ awesome power by blending all sorts of stuff that you shouldn’t, well, blend. They shred Iphones, lighters, golf balls, diamonds, oysters, and much more…
Don’t try this at home.
That Tanqueray Rangpur looks delicious… yum. It’s been out for a while now, but I haven’t had the pleasure. Gotta give it a try sometime soon.
Spent another fun weekend in Sin City… As usual, sleep was a very scarce commodity. And as usual, club Tao didn’t disappoint.
You know you had fun when it’s daylight by the time you leave…
Hmmm I think it’s time for me to replace my boring three-year old Blackberry with a shiny new toy….
The Curve looks super sleek and has all of the usual solid Blackberry functionality, and then some. I don’t think I’ll be able to resist.
Man, Europe sure looked different in 1000 AD…
I think this is the coolest story, on many levels. Can you imagine missing out on 19 years of world history? One day you live in a communist country, you fall into a coma, the next thing you know you wake up 19 years later and your country is a market economy… I just can’t imagine what that must feel like.
Hmmm let’s see… what else did he miss in those 19 years? The Berlin wall came down of course, with Germany reuniting. The Soviet Union breaks up. Then there was the U.S. invasion of Panama. The Dalai Lama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Nelson Mandela is finally freed (and is later elected president of South Africa). Apartheid laws in South Africa are repealed. The Hubble space telescope is launched. The cold war ends. The first Iraq war happens (that one actually being justified). The Warsaw Pact is dissolved. NAFTA comes into effect. The O.J. Simpson story happens. The International Space Station is being built. A new Pope is elected. Mother Teresa dies. The Internet goes from nonexistent to what it is today. Europe adopts the Euro. 9/11 happens. And on and on and on….
Talk about a different world for this guy.
Now, another cool part about this story is his wife - not giving up and taking care of him like that for 19 years? Now that’s true love…
After reading Fooled By Randomness a while back, I’m looking forward to reading Taleb’s new book, The Black Swan. I grabbed a copy of it today and it looks like it will be a good read.
Phew! I guess my love for chess is not all that geeky after all. It’s good to see events like the Hip-Hop, Chess and Life Strategies: II Exhibition being put together by the Hip Hop Chess Federation.
While Hip Hop in its current form can be criticized for various shortcomings, I still believe that anything that promotes the game of kings amongst young people is a worthwhile effort. And events like this, with well-known (at least amongst hip hop aficionados) rappers like the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA (whose lyrics often use chess metaphors), should attract a crowd that may not normally be attracted to the rather bland world of chess.
Here Adisa Banjoko talks about the founding of the Hip Hop Chess Federation, and reveals “Hip-Hop’s intellectual dirty secret” - complete with a long list of chess-playing rappers.
This weekend, the port in my hometown of Hamburg, Germany is celebrating its 818th birthday. Quite well aged I would say!
Wish I could be there, there’s always lots of fun to be had.
It’s a cruel world. My favorite coffee shop is going out of business. It’s a great little place, an independent store with a lot of character that’s a refreshing alternative to Starbucks and the like. It’s literally within walking distance from my home, and offers free wireless internet. They have great people, good music, chess tables, some pretty funky sculptures made of coffee pots, and of course an amazing variety of coffees, teas, and other drinks…
But as the owners put it, they simply “can’t compete with the Seattle team”.
So sad.
… Earth Day. Despite the best intentions, this country still seems to be far, far away from doing anywhere near enough to protect the environment.
Do you know what your ecological footprint looks like?
Hmmm there seems to be no such thing as “going to the store to get some milk”… at least for me. Anytime I try to do that, I end up with at least $100 in groceries… Guess I shouldn’t buy groceries when I’m hungry.
Had a nice and relaxed Easter weekend with friends… I treated myself to a new fairway wood, TaylorMade’s fantastic V Steel 15 degree 3 wood. I had a chance to enjoy it out on the gorgeous Oak Quarry golf club in Riverside. The course has lots of spectacular holes set among huge walls of granite, lakes, and fields of wildflowers. Pure beauty.
And Sunday we all watched the Masters, of course. This was one of the best and closest Masters I’ve ever seen.
Ok, so at first I thought this picture of a wave must have been photoshopped, it just looks too incredible. But then I stumbled upon this site by photographer Tim McKenna, and it turns out the photograph shows Teahupoo in Tahiti. Pretty awesome stuff.
