how now brownpau
I’m told that I came out briefly on PBS: Brief one sentence quote here. This was from an on-the-street interview with someone from Jim Lehrer’s Newshour during the Help the Homeless Walkathon.
(What I did not mention in the TV interview was that I ended up voting for Kerry despite the Street Sense “presidential platforms on homelessness” comparison page, which — inadvertently? — came out in favor of Bush’s more clearly expounded stand on addressing homelessness issues. Heh heh.)
For an astronomy enthusiast, I’ve certainly been lax in keeping track of all the excitement going on in the Solar System the past couple of months. Here’s a quick roundup:
More coverage tomorrow: Huygens will finally land on Titan, the Fuzzy Moon.
I tried the new “Chantico” at Starbucks yesterday. It comes in a tiny, textured 6 oz cup, but there’s enough thick, gooey, concentrated, chocolatey goodness in there for a Venti (or at least a Grande). Exceedingly delicious, but I think I’ve topped up my chocolate quota for the rest of the week. More on the Chantico from Starbucks Gossip. DO NOT GUZZLE OR CHUG THE CHANTICO. You will regret it.
Doc Mic at Antifaust was thankfully able to get a break just after Christmas while I was visiting last week, and he has photos from our day out at Greenhills and Makati. Fantasy, sci-fi, and comic book collectibles, Powerbooks, and gadgets: yes, we’re geeks.
(Note Mic’s layout. I made it for him, with a new 3-column CSS template I’m working on. More on that soon.)
Conspiracy theorists out in force: So it didn’t take long for the nutjobs to come out of the woodwork after the tsunami hit. (I’m especially partial to that specific news story because the guy debunking the woowoos is a Filipino scientist from PHIVOLCS.) Best crackpot sightings yet are from Portland Indymedia: “Was the tsunami caused by a bomb?” and NAZI BUSH REGIME’s ENVIRO/HAARP-REICHSTAG FIRE: seize Aceh oil militarily as ‘rescue.'”
(HAARP is an especially fun culprit for the woowoos, since the auroral research program’s methodology of beaming HF radio waves into the ionosphere — scientists, correct me if I’m wrong on that — fits in so well with their conspiracy theories of an Evil Overlord’s Super Death Ray.)
Just one last note from Dubai Airport: one reason I was in such a rush to get to my plane was because I got lost in the Gate 36-42 area whilst searching for the men’s room. I did not regret the detour, however, when I caught sight of the massive construction grounds for the new airport extension, and the hazy sunrise behind it:
This has not been a good week for me in electronics and technology. In addition to the loss of a webcam, my Palm Zire 31 has suddenly and inexplicably died (a month past end of warranty, of course), my user-unfriendly S/E T300 cellphone has developed a wonky charge socket, my home internet connection has gone from sluggish to near-nonexistent, and my referrer logs are being hammered by referrer spam from multiple open proxies and zombie PCs.
For the handheld/cellphone issue, I’m now angling for combo alternatives to simplify my life, but neither the Nokia 6600 nor the Treo comes cheap around these parts. I may have to settle for a nice, cheap Hipster PDA for now.
For the referrer spam issue, joke’s on them: my referrer log, though public, has a robots exclusion directive to keep it off the search engines. Reffy and Thomas Reece are simply wasting resources on spamming this site.
My webcam, a Unibrain Fire-I, caused a bit of a stir at Dubai Airport security. I’m thinking that with the transparent casing, spinning focus wheel, exposed electronics, and rubber-padded clip, it must have looked like some kind of quick-attach timed detonator. But after plugging the cam into my iBook’s Firewire port and showing the security guy his own image on Evocam, he grinned, gave me a thumbs-up, and waved me along toward my plane.
Now, after unpacking, I find that the webcam is missing. I remember hurriedly stuffing my computer paraphernalia into my carry-on bag before rushing to the gate to catch the final boarding announcement, and it’s entirely possible that I left the webcam lying on the security desk before a bemused Emirates security representative.
I suppose I’ll have to do without a webcam for a while.
What’s up with this weather? I come home expecting ice and snow, and instead it’s almost warm enough for shorts. (It was like this last year, too, though not for as long.) I want some snow.
I’m home, after a journey that, with transfers and trips to and from airports, took about 35 hours, the longest part of which was the fourteen hour stretch from Dubai to New York. This was once again spent in an economy class seat on an Emirates A340-500, only this time beside a friendly but restless Indian student with a very different idea of personal space from mine, bumping not only elbows into me, but also back, feet, and seat belt straps. The tedium was not helped by an entertainment interface which hung every few hours and an SMS credit card swipe which refused to read any of my cards.
(Also, I’m not normally one to wish gross and uncharitable things on people, but to the prissy, pushy Filipina woman who considers a queue to the lavatory important only when she is at the head of it: I hope that the next time you’re in the middle of using an airline lav, the plane hits turbulence so hard that the chemical flush splashes your buttcheeks.)
It was a singular joy, however, to land at JFK and emerge from International Arrivals to see Amy waiting for me, to keep me company for the duration of my transfer to the plane home to DC. Thanks, Amy. That made my trip.