Check out World66, which has a neat way to make a map of the places you have been.



create your own visited states map

Both Florida and Washington, were only briefs visits to the airport on my way to or from somewhere else. I also may have been to Missouri, but I’m still thinking about it. (P.S. Feb 6th, I’ve decided I’ve been to Missouri.)

You can see from my map I am missing a lot of western states and almost all of New England, except MA, where I have gone on business.

I found a really nice essay on donavanhall.net entitled,“Realism and Subjectivity”.

It’s an interesting essay about the notion of modern art, although I suspect the author may mean abstract modern art. It leads the author to the breakthrough moment of understanding of why exactly modern art annoys him.

For the same reasons the author of the essay is annoyed with modern art, I find myself enjoying modern art . I enjoy standing back and just being enraptured by the sheer confusion and utter nonsense of a Jackson Pollock piece.

Finally last night we managed to put away all the Christmas decorations and the tree. Next stop, finish the Christmas Cards!

Again via boing^2 Merlin’s List’s of Five Things

where can timbu.org get venture capital for his kooky idea?

Or should it be more like this …

neoteny funds talentless hack

We’ll see if this google bombing works. It might help if more people posted this meme around.

I have a laptop that has had a flaky screen for over a year. Finally today I had enough, and I took out the set of tiny screwdrivers. I ended up with 6 extra screws, one brass stand-off, and the defective microswitch, which had been causing all my problems, left over when I re-assembled it. Whenever I have had the pleasure of taking electronics apart I am struck by how many different sized screws are used in the design. While I understand different length screws I am not sure I understand why one would want screws of a different pitch or width. It seems to unnecesarily complicate assembly and repair.

Via boing^2, a man ruins his health by eating at McDonalds every day, three meals a day, for a month.

I can’t wait to get down to the St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palace. I plan to scope it out this weekend and then take the kids down there. I think the kids will be blown away by a castle made of ice.

I was talking about coinage/numismatics with a friend the other day. We spent a little time discussing the new dollar coin, aka “The Golden Dollar”.

Here is my personal complaints about the new dollar, in no special order. Now, these complaints don’t reflect incompentence on the mint’s part, as some important design specs were codified by Congress.

• It’s not quite golden enough. This is especially irksome if you get a new one that hasn’t gotten much circulation. In the right light it reflects about the same way a quarter does. A bi-color approach would have been preferable in my way of thinking.
• It’s too close to the same size as a quarter.
• I associate the lack of reeding on the edges with lower denomination coins, like pennies and nickels. It seems odd that this doesn’t have reeding.
• I prefer presidents on my money. I know this might preclude women in the short run, but is it that cool to be on a one dollar coin which will probably only be slightly more successful than the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin? A Theodore Roosevelt coin would suit me just fine.
• It weighs close to the same amount as a quarter, so it’s hard to tell without looking whether you grabbed a quarter or a dollar out of your pocket. (I know one has reeding and the other doesn’t, but I’m talking about heft right now.)

What do I like?

• Although I know this in tension with my previous comment, I like Sacagawea on the coin. I have always been fascinated by the Lewis and Clark expedition, and she get’s high marks for carrying a baby the whole way and making other contributions to the trip.
• I like dollar coins in general. It works in Canada just fine. I think the U.S. just needs to stop making dollar bills.

In the next month I am going to experiment paying for most small purchases with dollar coins. So far I have to say it brought an unexpected smile to the face of the cafeteria workers at my company and the barista at my local espresso shop.

I am the only health person in my family at the moment. The kids are shedding germs like white long hair cats at a black angora sweater factory. So far I have managed to stay healthy by washing my hands every three minutes. I have managed not to get the last few illnesses so I am crossing my fingers this time as well.