The Ubiquitous Cell Phone

I found this great story in a San Diego paper about the rise of the cell phone. Found the story via Life Hacker.

How we spent our Sunday afternoon

Leaves we bagged
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

My arms and back haven't been this sore since that day in September when my Dad and I paddled into the wind on Clam Lake in northern Michigan.

The backyard of the house is mostly dirt because of the drought but even sparse grass in a yard of mostly dirt looks better than the leaf covered mess that was out there before.

If Wendell hadn't shown up and helped us bag Melanie and I might still be out there working. It took a lot longer than we anticipated.

The Bloggies

Have you voted for the 2008 Bloggies yet? You haven't? Well, head on over to the site and let your voice be heard. There are many categories you can vote on and it's a good place to find quality blogs that you may not have heard of.

By the way, is anyone having trouble with the playlist on the right sidebar? Is it slowing the page down? Locking up? Are you thinking, "You have a playlist?"

Playlist on the sidebar

I just added something new today to the ole blog. Along the right sidebar you will see a playlist I put together on the website Last.FM Give it a whirl and see if it works. I guarantee it's all good.

Amazon Reviews

I've never asked any of my friends if they post review son Amazon. I do, but not very often. I've been using Amazon for several years and have less than ten reviews. I found a good article on Slate that discusses top Amazon reviewers and the strange limbo in which amateur writers live in.

Hey look, sharing helps artists

Once again, the MPAA and the RIAA are shown to be full of crap when it comes to file sharing. It's all about controlling access, not helping the artists.

The Red Yeti

I think science has finally found the birthplace of bigfoot: Mars.

Free Quality Reading Online

I see a few newspaper and magazine sites that now offer free content online. Some even include archives. I think this is going to be the standard pretty soon. Many news and magazine sites have tried using a subscription service and have seen them go over like lead balloons. Here's a list of what I have found so far.

You can read the NY Times for free back to 1987

The Atlantic magazine is offering free back issues to 1995

Time magazine has an archive you can search and read back to 1923. I've done some searching and if it's not a complete archive it's pretty big.

The Boston Globe has a free archive back to 2003.

Discover magazine goes back to 1993.

The Paris Review is building an archive of the interviews.

A little Youtube fun

Alice Cooper singing "School's Out" on the Muppets.


A raw feed a "a very very bad crash" at Talladega (listen for the word shit)


An all-gal AC/DC tribute band sings "Go Down."


Southern Culture Skids sing one of my favorite songs


The Constantines play in the rain (I love this band)

Golf Video

I check the archives and I found that I did post the video below on this blog before. In fact, I did it back in November. Oops, I apologize for the repetition. Still, it's a funny video, isn't it?

Golf temper tantrum

Below is a video of me mis-hitting a golf. This happens frequently when I am on the golf course. What's the significance of this video? It's been viewed over 8000 times on Youtube. I don't remember if I have posted this before or not. If so, here it is again.

Snow day?

I went to the Harris Teeter at lunch and I noticed that the cold rain is starting to turn to sleet. A couple more degrees in the negative and we'll have us a snow storm. I see from the current predictions at the website of the Charlotte Observer that it should start accumulating just in time to make my drive home adventurous.

Last night I made a huge mistake. I decided to drink whiskey and Coke instead a couple of beers. I had a few drinks and was feeling pretty good and didn't realize until I tried to go to sleep that whiskey keeps me awake. Did I know that already? I don't remember. I do know that when I was a young Marine having the time of his life on Okinawa I drank a lot of whiskey and stayed up 'til dawn more than once. I didn't stay up until the morning light last night but I did lay there awhile, wide awake and dreading how tired I was going to be at work.

Now, I back at the desk and it's still snowing but not accumulating. The help desk just sent out an email announcing that the library will be open its usual hours today. That means several people have called or emailed the help desk to see if the library was going to close early. Library employees can be such candy-asses sometimes. I can say that because I work about 1 mile from home and can walk there if I have to. Those of you that work 45 miles from home are the ones that are screwed.

So long, turkey

Man, I can't wait for Dr. Phil's public flame out. It should be fun.

Jiminy Crickets

Have I mentioned lately that I am not all that fond of Time Warner Cable?

Flickr and the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has opened up a Flicker account. You can read about it here.

People are nuts

I think this article explains why right down the street from my cozy forty year old house with a yard and big oak trees is a subdivision filled with $500,000 ugly ass brick homes with faux Charleston architecture that have been crowbarred so tightly together that they don't even have yards. It's better to look good than to feel good.

Not good

This whole race/female thing has gotten to be pretty bad for the Democrats. They better not screw this election up and allow one of those monkeys from the Republican side get in the White House. I know the right is going gaga over this brouhaha because Drudge is all over it. I know he's sitting in his bunker rubbing himself furiously over this Clinton/Obama fight.

Obama quote

"This president may occupy the White House - but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open."

Java drawing program

If you gots some free time check out this neat little drawing program with gravity physics.

Retirement

I've decided not to retire until my name is at the top of the routing slip for the New York Times Book Review. Once Mrs Hogan and that person at the Belmont Center branch retire I will be top dog in this queue.

Today we did some switching around of furniture in the fiction/young adult area. We took the newspaper shelf and moved it into the adult reading area and that opened up a bunch of space down in the young adult area. We put a table and some chairs in there along with four large bean bags. We now have a Teen Reading Area. We are very excited about this and there were already some teens down there lounging this morning. They weren't playing hooky, they were here with their school. You can see pictures of our improvements here.

Have you met Isaac?

IMG_4163
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Isaac is a miniature dachshund and he is having more fun in the new house than anybody else. He is constantly bounding up and down the stairs and he is left alone a lot less than he used to be. In fact, because of Chris' work schedule, he and Isaac get to hang out all day each Monday and Tuesday.

Isaac's has more hobbies than anyone else in the house. His hobbies include napping, chasing squirrels in the backyard, stealing and hiding socks, barking at cats and licking his housemates' legs and feet. All of these things he does with an enthusiasm of which we are all envious.

More pictures of the little bugger are available here.

Debate Over

It seems that even though Radiohead started out selling their new album for almost nothing on their website it still has hit #1 on the charts. I guess the RIAA can finally go suck it now. Anything they say about not being able to make money due to online downloads can now be attributed to bad business and not their "thieving" customers.

New thang

Because this page wasn't busy enough I added a Google search bar to the page. It's a tool bar I made for myself. I like to watch a movie and then read Ebert's take on it. Reading a review by Ebert after viewing a movie is an education and adds substance to the experience. I just thought I'd share the tool bar.

Good Writing

From the November 11, 2007 New York Times Book Review: "The (Gary) Hart scandal wasn't just a climactic moment in Cramer's book; it turned out to be a turning point for the country, one that changed the nature of politics and demolished the walls between private lives and public service. By declaring "character" (now understood to refer to sex and personal hypocrisy rather than the more complex inner self Cramer had tried to capture) as a crucial element of any campaign, the press had lit a fuse in American politics - one that would explode, with disastrous consequences, during the last years of the Clinton presidency."

Kicking butt as a librarian

Today a high schooler came up to the reference desk looking for some information on Harper Lee. In something she had read she was referred to a 1964 interview of Lee by someone called Roy Newquist. The Wikipedia entry on Harper Lee linked to an online version of the interview. Unfortunately the link the was dead. This was a problem because this interview is one of the very few in depth interviews that Harper Lee ever gave. After some searching I was able to determine that the interview is included in a book called Counterpoint and that the book was currently available at the Queens University library. The student was, of course, thrilled and I could tell she thought I was the best librarian ever. I'm not but I can see where she might think so.

Thought for the day

I've never seen a squirrel go poop.

Countdown to the Super Bowl