How I Waste My Precious Time

Some press on Wired about reducing space allotted to car based transit in major cities. Duh, that makes sense. I’d like to see more of this kind of talk.

I had a really great dream about Dan last night. I was conscious enough during the dream to realize I was dreaming, and to know that he is dead, but also quickly reminded myself that it was still real as well as that this was a true communion with Dan’s consciousness, as far as I’m concerned.

I was surprised at myself that the image of him was of a younger Dan from a photo I’ve seen a lot recently, but it didn’t bother me any. We didn’t speak to each other, I just had an exciting feeling to be with him and an exchange of positive emotions and love for life. It was really beautiful.

I still literally think of him every day, and in an exclusively positive way each time. Love you Dan.

I’m taking a trip to New Orleans between April 29th and May 4th 2009.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pull off New Orleans this year … until I remembered that it is totally mandatory.

ADP 2009.

Check out the video for a slide show of my drinking habits and tastes (in 2008). Not every six I drank at home is included, but most are. A few 4 packs snuck in there, but I left out all the 12 packs and cases for balance. Lots of IPAs this year, especially from big-shot local brewery Goose Island. I’m keeping track of my efforts for 2008 too, of course. Watching this reminds me that I need to score some more Brooklyn Pennant Ale ’55.

Click to pause/play, scroll to scrub through, double-click to replay.

Listed in order of appearance:

Sprecher: Cream Soda

Goose Island: IPA

Dogfish Head: Raison D’Étre

New Belgium: Skinny Dip

Dogfish Head: 60 Minute IPA

New Belgium: Fat Tire

Virgil’s Root Beer

Goose Island: Honker’s Ale

DAB: Original

Shiner: Hefeweizen

Dogfish Head: 60 Minute IPA

Red Hook: Copper Hook – Spring Ale

Cerveza Imperial

Goose Island: IPA

Red Hook: IPA

Capital Brewery: Wisconsin Amber

Blue Moon

Heineken

Goose Island: IPA

Samuel Adams: Octoberfest

Sierra Nevada: Anniversary Ale

New Belgium: 2 Below

Pilsner Urquell

Pacifico

New Belgium: 2 Below

Goose Island: IPA

Goose Island: Honker’s Ale

Bodingtons

Brooklyn Brewery: Pennant Ale ’55

Newcastle Brown Ale

Goose Island: IPA

Brooklyn Brewery: Brooklyn Lager

Two Brothers: Domaine DuPage

Guinness Draught

Blue Point Brewing Company: Hoptical Illusion

I think I forget a lot of the books I read, but if I write them down I can check back.

I just finished the quick but sometimes funny Mike’s Election Guide 2008 that Michael Moore put together. Not too deep, but still probably pretty relevant in the context of this coming election. More than a few funny moments and unique perspectives. The last chunk was just brief recaps of Democratically winnable congressional races coming up.

Previous to that I read Paul Krugman’s The Conscience of a Liberal. It had some nice recent-era history of liberal politics and made the cause of Universal Health Care seem imminently plausible and achievable. It’s great to read stuff like this, especially coming from a main-stream and well respected journalist. However, it did leave me feeling uncertain about how well I understand or could ever understand the perspective of the common man, voting citizen, TV viewer or what have you. Are people into this? Will they be easily tricked against their own interest? Who the fuck knows.

Before that I had read Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance. Fucking eye-opener as usual. You know, you feel like you’re starting to get a good grasp on how the world works in all its nastiness, but I didn’t consider the breadth of the details that this book covered. That is pretty overwhelming, especially when described with the nonchalance that Chomsky must have developed over decades of studying more of the same in this sphere of geopolitics.

Found a great post: How to be Creative

(via Steve Olsen)

Someone else agreeing with me that prizes at work aren’t a good idea:

Carrots, Sticks, and the Paradoxes of Motivation: “output”

(via 43 Folders.)

Whew, a big flutter of chatter in the news last week about some recent scientific findings: the gases let off by shower curtains are bad! That’s right folks: those foul, chemical-smelling, plastic-manufactory odors that you smell when you open the package of a new plastic shower curtain are actually noxious gases. No shit! Thank you again science, I couldn’t have figured it out for myself. 

I do think the way news is reported these days is ridiculous in all its forms, and one of those is definitely the portrayal of really obvious things that have now become verified by science. I admit that there could be some use to it if it helps establish some legal boundaries or something to assist the greater good, but can’t science work on something more important?

I just discovered the best feature of the Virtual Console on the Nintendo Wii: you can leave games paused infinitely just by returning to the Wii Menu. Not such a big deal for the Super Nintendo and later games with Save functionality built-in, but this is huge for NES and other games where you have to play from start to finish in one sitting. It’s like turning the TV off and leaving the NES running all day while you’re at school.

I’ve just started playing through Super Mario Bros. 3, and because of this feature I think I’ll play through the entire game. Should be fun to beat every level instead of just grabbing those Warp Whistles all the time. I’ll let you know how it goes when I finish next year sometime.