I want to sweat. It’s raining and cold and we had an 80 degree day last week, I think. I think, but I’m not sure. It seems like so long ago now. Oh, I miss that 80 degree day. And the sweat.
Author: Chris
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Fickle Baby Law
5th century:
Mommy, where do unbaptized babies go?
Hell.
Last week:
Mommy, where do unbaptized babies go?
Limbo.
This week:
Mommy, where do unbaptized babies go?
Heaven.
(If I was a newborn, I would be happy.)
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Best President of My Life
The other day someone asked me how I would rank the US Presidents during my lifetime? At first, it seemed like an easy question. Only four guys to put in order. But the more I thought about it, the more disoriented I became. Look at who I have to choose from: Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush. Although all four of these men are deserving of the respect that should be granted to a president, they are by no means great presidents. Not like Washington, Lincoln, or even Roosevelt.
Further clouding my decision is the fact that I don’t remember a single thing Reagan or the elder Bush did. I was far more interested in Cheeze Whiz and Voltron than politics. And Clinton, I couldn’t vote for. Although he was entertaining and the economy did well during his terms (more likely a coincidence than a causation). And while the current president has had a lot to deal with, he’s brought some of it on himself.
There is no clear winner, but here is my list from best to worst:
1. Reagan
2. Bush I
3. Clinton
4. Bush II -
OneWord: Unprotected
My feet are unprotected today because I wore sandals. Although it is unlikely that they will get smashed by something heaving falling from a great height, I reminded myself before leaving the house this morning to be extra careful and to lookout for falling objects.
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Spring Fever
Spring fever is coming late this year due to the Nor’easter NH was blessed with last week. I’ve been waiting to sit inside studying and wish I was outside playing Frisbee. However, I’m finding it easier to tolerate here because there are less people enjoying the nice weather. During my days at the University of Michigan, simply walking to class was excruciating. It seemed like half of the school population was on the “Diag” playing, tanning, and laughing while I had to go sit in an economics class touching on the finer points of antitrust policy in the basement of an un-air conditioned building.
I’m whining, I know. And I apologize for that. But here is where I redeem myself…
My spring fever is only mild to medium this year, and this is oddly satisfying.
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China: Cleaning Their Internet
CNN reports (link):
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday launched a campaign to rid the country’s sprawling Internet of “unhealthy” content and make it a springboard for Communist Party doctrine…
I will be studying intellectual property in China over the summer. The idea of censoring the content so that it better conforms with a doctrine seems to run against the principles of free thought, imagination, and entrepreneurship that I regularly associate with cutting edge technology.
I’m beginning to think I have big issues with such an approach. However, I’m keeping an open mind as to the possibilities and hope to be surprised when I’m actually there.
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Personal Public Timeline
The title seems to contradict itself right? Well, there was a time last year when I wanted to compile all of my personal communications into a general timeline. I’m talkin’ email, IMs, texts messages, pictures, blogs, bookmarks, etc.
I didn’t do it. Partially because I don’t have the technical ability to do it, which is a lame excuse. And partially because after voicing the idea to a few people, privacy became a concern. Not wanting to cut my ties, or at least my digital communications with anyone, I let the idea go.
Then Twitter.com came rambling ’round the corner. It’s like IMing with no one in particular. You just post what you’re doing for the world to see. You can subscribe to friends timelines, and they yours. But it isn’t direct either way.
You can check out my twitter timeline here.
While twitter is great, you tend to mutter to yourself, what’s the point of all this? Who cares? (Turns out a lot of peolpe.) I don’t have an exact answer. It’s like instant blogging without worrying too much about content. Twitter gives you something to do when you have nothing else to do. And it’s a way of contacting a lot of people at once – without ever really trying.
Just this morning I found a similar site called Jaiku.com. Jaiku is a lot like twitter – you post what you’re currently doing and you can see what your friends or strangers are doing. The base is almost exactly like Twitter.
But Jaiku allows you to add feeds to our timeline. In my case, I added my flickr account (photos), my del.icio.us account (links), and my blog posts from here.
Very cool.