Hope everyone out there has a happy “spooky” halloween this year! I think my favorite costume so far this year is this guy’s YouTube costume.

My very talented friend MC Hyland is in the Paris Review this month with an apocalyptic, global warming inspired poem. Cheery! You can also find her this month in the Colorado Review and LIT.

So, how about them Red Sox?? Wooo! I have pics from the ALCS (Game 2 in Boston! And Game 7 at Prof Thoms in NYC) and some pics from the bender I like to call Game 2 of the…

It’s one of those get-away places where you really just get away. Pai is far up in the north of Thailand and the road that takes you there has 798 curves up and down the mountains. We being busy Bangkokians that we are, took the path less taken: we flew. The [...]

Details Revealed: Google OpenSocial To Launch Thursday
The comments are great - a lot of excited people and just a few with suspicions.

I had just checked into my hotel in Daly City, CA this evening when my room started shaking. I reflected on it, and was pretty sure the hotel wasn’t above or below train tracks. I was on the phone with someone in Berkeley, and could be heard saying:
“Did you feel that? No way! Oh cool! [...]

This robot Kuka, apparently is a pro at scribing out bibles on “endless rolls of paper.” Rolls of paper, eh?Kuka: Robot Ascetic Inscribes Bible from Boing Boing Gadgets

As in tempered glass. As in safety glass, the material of half of a door that is no longer hanging on the bookshelf pictured here. T as in The menace, which is what Yang Guo aka Clarence aka the Evil Kitten of Doom aka Wingnut is often known as. T as in Toy, which is what the plastic bag that contained a single bottle of beer turned into as The Menace huled it across the floor. T is for projecTile, which is what the Toy became as it crashed into the Tempered glass, creating a perfectly round hole. T as in fracTured, which describes the pattern that emerged on the glass. T is for Trash, where the door is now.

T is for Taubenberger

My students produced a live Internet broadcast with Republican mayoral candidate Al Taubenberger last week. It was very successful.

T is for Typing

Typing and typing and typing away. The ICA deadline is this week, midterm exams, Web site enhancements. All of this has been accomplshed without the benefit of the letter T. Fortunately, I finished the book chapter about a month ago, when I was still with a T. Sometime in the next 10 days I should get a new laptop, with a new T.

And they looked out and saw the scrapers paint the sky. . .

Damien Hirst. . . . bought a share in his own art.

. . . my second week of graduate school, September 2005, I thought it would be really cool to create a miniature projector that could fit in a cell phone. Six months later, a firm in Korea announced they had made one. Last week, Motorola bought in.

It’s bassically a membrane that vibrates when wind passes across it, causing it to move a pair of magnets in a coil, which then generates electricity. Though it doesn’t generate a lot of power, it could be used effectively to power remote sensors or small indicators that currently run on battery power, relatively cheaply.

I was in search of a new dry cleaner because several places were going to charge me $16.00 to just dry clean my coat. I found this site on Citysearch, and just tried Flat Rate Cleaners about a week ago, and they are legit. Everything you want to dryclean is $4.99, except for leather and comforters. But that includes coats, long coats, sweaters, etc. (more details on their site). Shirts laundered just $2.99 for ladies and I think it’s cheaper for men. You can specify how much starch (options for light, medium, and heavy). It really does take 24 hours, doesn’t matter how many items you submit, and they pick it up and deliver free of charge. They picked my bag up later than I thought, but my items were delivered on Saturday. I was skeptical too, but now I’m going to use them. They were recently on Daily Candy and Daily News.

I had 2 long sweaters, 3 long/heavy coats, 3 blazers, 1 pair of pants dry cleaned, and 2 shirts laundered and pressed for $45.90. CHEAP!!!

Dear Valued Guest,
Please be advised that our clocks in the rooms automatically updated the time change and it is the incorrect time.
Unfortunately the time change occurred ahead of schedule and it is not due to change until Sunday November 4th, 2007.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. We appreciate your patience and will [...]

The Jersey City Museum hosted a Stitch-In. It was a well attended event with many women bring their own knitting materials. For newbies like me, there were crochet needles and yarn provided. The speakers were engaging but the best part was just hanging out in the groups chatting.
This event was done in connection with the [...]

Yay! They finally updated my Scrabulous stats on Facebook.

I’ve been consistently playing this game online for 2 months, and I haven’t gotten tired of it. I have multiple one-on-one games open with many different friends. At first, I lost a lot of games, but now I’m starting to understand some strategies of the game, like certain letters command more points or certain tiles will double your points, etc. At one point, they weren’t updating my stats and points because I wanted my wins to reflect, so I wrote to Rajat Agarwalla and Jayant Agarwalla, the game designers, and they apologized because it was some kind of server issue. I would like to explore other games on Facebook, such as chess and poker, but this game really sucks you in.

My advice is never play a copy editor or column editor for money.

I would wait to buy Leopard. Apparently they released it on Friday, and they didn’t have tech support on Saturday.

According to Nick:

Apple:Leopard::Microsoft:Vista

Glad I didn’t buy it and install it. Nick has to reinstall all of his programs again, and reconfigure his Ruby on Rails. Almost a 2 day process. I think they need to realize that people’s time is worth $$$. Wow, I’m becoming disenchanted in with Apple.

Last December I went to the Apple store because I had Apple Care, and I distinctly remember the woman standing next to me who brought her laptop in to get if fixed. She admitted to the “Apple Geniuses” that she might have spilled some coffee on it, and ten minutes later, the Apple Genius voided her Apple Care. Her computer was less than a year old, and she purchased Apple Care at the time of her purchase (learned from her experience to wait to buy Apple Care after the first year). Then the Apple Genius proceeded to go on with a story about how another guy brought his computer in, and they found a whole Dorito chip in the keypad, which I didn’t think was helping his situation with this woman. Then she took out her iPod Shuffle, and asked him to look at it. And he started to ask these questions like “do you use a case when you exercise with this?” because if your sweat affects this Shuffle , he has to void the warranty on that as well. And she said “yes,” but he mentioned there were rust marks. I could tell this lady was getting really irate.

I haven’t bought any Apple products since DVD Studio Pro 4 came out. I had DVD Studio Pro 2, and there was a file that was consistently working until 4.0 came out, and then all of a sudden when I wanted to burn it, that file had an error. When I tested that file on someone who had DVD Studio Pro 4, it worked. I thought it was a sneaky way to force people to buy the new version. Anyway, I think Apple has grown so big that they’re starting to neglect their customers.

Poor Nick, he’s starting to bang his computer.

Above: Home made porridge, Below: Japchae

After visiting doctors’ offices, taking western medicine and taking eastern herb medicine, an acupuncture session and realizing that I’ve lost 10 lbs in a week, I finally decided that it’s a time to take care of myself as if I’m living with another me.
My major problem [...]

Only in New York…

My friends, Cliff and Ziggy called me up early this afternoon to tell me to go to this installation. They wouldn’t tell me anymore details but that it’s on the corner of Delancey and Essex, in Lower East Side… 117 Delancey

So Cliff and Ziggy met me, and decided to go through this installation a second time. First of all, it looked like part of the regular market scene, but there’s a line that you have to wait to sign a release before getting a ticket to go in.

Found out from what of the staff members that it took 10 people in three weeks to set it up, and that everything after the Chinese restaurant is fake.

Tomorrow is the last day. Cliff and Ziggy advise to see it early before there are crowds of people.

Mike Nelson
A Psychic Vacuum

Visit Economy Candy in Lower East Side. One of the oldest candy store, they carry a variety of candies, including salted licorice (located behind the counter). I got hooked on salted licorice when Tom Igoe introduced them to us at the “ITP Arduino Surface Mount Soldering Party.” They also sell giant PEZ candies for $18.00 and really cute sophisticated designs of Hello Kitty and My Melody Pez holders (they have clear heads). I was surprised to see old cigarette packaged bubble gum and Lemonheads.

108 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002

Last year, a performer was turning 40 years old that day was involved in a crazy Evel Kenievel-like stunt. He rode his skateboard and gained momentum to jump over 25 trash barrels (mid-air), and landed on his skateboard. I wish I had my camera back then. Hopefully, I can catch a repeat performance this year.

In the meantime, there were a set of brothers (a guy and his two twin brothers) are performing some fun stunts and comedy routine in Washington Square. They had the most successful act in collecting money, they had almost everyone involved and engaged. They would reward people who offered bigger donations and created a competitive atmosphere rewarding the donors by giving props to their countries (aimed at tourists). Well this year, this guy ran over and jumped over five people and aimed through his brother’s arms.

(Reuters in Second Life)
Yesterday I had the pleasure of catching Nic Fulton speak about the work his team is doing over at Reuters labs. Although I always assumed that Reuters was a news outlet, it turns out their biggest competitor is Bloomberg. They are about finance, everything else is a byproduct of that. [...]

happy halloween weekend! seeing all those half-naked girls in costumes on the (chilly!) street tonight, i couldn’t help but remembering myself and my silly friends who were just like those in old days..
sometimes it is good to see people around you and think/know that “you’ve been there” - not in a snobby way but more [...]

http://www.eartotheworld.org

A group exhibition of art utilizing LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes).

In this interactive exhibit we explore the simple and ubiquitous Light Emitting Diode’s capacity as an expressive object. Artists use the LED to generate light, display images and patterns, respond to our actions, and reflect on our environment. The result is a collection of diverse works that truly celebrate the beauty of the LED.

Exhibit Dates & Times:
November 16th – December 28th 2007
Open Saturdays 1 – 4 p.m. and by appointment.

Opening Reception:
Friday November 16th 2007, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Tonight was a screening of Close to Midnight an independent film. It has been a year or more in the making. I admire anyone who takes an idea and makes into a reality. It was shown at the AMC Empire 25. It was a great night. 
 http://closetomidnight.com/