This is a pretty awesome way to announce big news to family and friends…
Courtesy of Laughing Squid.
Uncategorized
Archived Posts from this Category
May 7, 2010
Friday YouTube
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: Friday YouTube, Star Wars, twins |Leave a Comment
May 5, 2010
Well, I’ve done it again, although this time it really wasn’t my fault. The old PowerBook, now creeping up on five years old, is going to need Last Rites soon, and I decided to replace it before it had gone completely to hell. So last week I held my breath and jumped into the deep end of the MacBook pool, going in for one of the new 15″ models with an i7 processor and 8 GB of memory. This was with not nearly the joy I had at splurging on the iPad, as that was a toy, and this is necessary. It showed up today, a day ahead of schedule.
So far it’s, um, pretty sweet. I like the feel of this keyboard way better than the old PowerBook, and it’s much lighter (though still plenty heavy). I don’t want to rush things, but I’m already doodling “MichaelBook Pro” on stray bits of paper.
May 5, 2010
Sports Fallout from Arizona Immigration Law
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: "Los Suns", baseball, boycott, immigration, NBA, Phoenix Suns, sports |Leave a Comment
One interesting facet of the debate over Arizona’s new immigration law is that sports figures seem much more willing to speak out about it than most political issues. In a way, I suppose that reflects the role that sports has played in our debates about race. But the ferocity of the outrage from the sports community has been surprising to me: first the Arizona Diamondbacks might lose their status as host of the 2011 All-Star Game, and now the owner of the Phoenix Suns has decided the team will wear “Los Suns” jerseys (which look pretty cool). Trey Kerby does a nice job of summarizing why this is so unusual:
people in the sports world keep their political leanings to themselves. Sure, there are a few guys who regularly speak out on political issues, but for the most part that’s considered bad business. As Michael Jordan put it, “Republicans buy shoes too.”
Baseball probably couldn’t avoid addressing the issue; given the high number of players of Latino heritage, there was bound to be a backlash among the rank-and-file. But it wasn’t as much of a (ahem) slam dunk that the basketball team that relies on plenty of Arizona Republicans for ticket sales would publicly object. I’ll be interested to see if the Arizona Cardinals have anything to say on the matter.
May 3, 2010
Zombie Awareness Month
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: gray ribbon, undead, Zombie Awareness Month, zombies |Leave a Comment
In case you weren’t aware, May is Zombie Awareness Month:
because Spring naturally brings with it a sense of renewal and hopefulness, May is the perfect month to emphasize continued vigilance in the face of the coming Zombie Pandemic.
The Zombie Research Society encourages all of you to wear a gray ribbon as a “small step to acknowledge the coming danger.” Won’t you join the cause?
May 2, 2010
Big Ten (er… Sixteen?) Expansion Update
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: Big Ten, Expansion, Iowa Hawkeyes, Paul Zimmerman, Peter King, sports, Sports Illustrated |Leave a Comment
So Sports Illustrated‘s best NFL guy, Peter King*, tweets this Friday night:
Report: missouri, nebraska, syracuse, pitt and rutgers to join big ten
He follows up with a link, which goes to a story on annarbor.com, which in turn leads to a story on a Michigan an Indiana NBC station, WNDU:
A source in St. Louis familiar with the situation told NewsCenter 16 Thursday afternoon that Missouri will leave the Big XII and soon join the Big 10. Other schools expected to follow the Tigers are Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers and Nebraska.
This, it seems to me, is big news. And yet I can’t find anything referencing the report on the www.sportsillustrated.com, or espn.com, or even www.collegefootballtalk.com. That’s right, even the rumor sites don’t have anything. What’s going on? Is it because there’s nothing to see here?
*Excluding Paul Zimmerman, of course, who’s been out of commission since suffering a stroke.
May 2, 2010
Comedian in Chief
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: humor, Obama, politics |Leave a Comment
Everybody’s gushing about Obama’s performance at the Correspondents’ Dinner the other night, which completely upstaged Jay Leno (who wouldn’t?). And justifiably so! He’s very funny, his jokes were a little sharper than I’d expect from somebody in his position, and it’s absolutely worth watching.
That said, he has some work to do before next year’s dinner, and it doesn’t help to pretend otherwise. I don’t think his comic timing is absolutely down, and he starts smiling before the punchline more than anyone this side of Jimmy Fallon. But still, he far exceeds what a person can reasonably expect for intentional laughs from one’s president.
May 1, 2010
Conversation of the Day
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: conversations |Leave a Comment
With the Boy, who is now five:
Boy: Have you ever climbed a monkey?
Me: Climbed a monkey?
Boy: Yeah.
Me: Uh… no.
Boy: Have you ever showered a monkey?
Me: No.
Boy: Have you ever fighted a monkey?
Me: Have I ever fought a monkey? No.
Boy: Have you ever had a hundred days of summer vacation in a row?
Me: No.
Boy: That would be awesome.
April 29, 2010
Awesome of the Day
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: Exploding Rabbit, geekdom, Newgrounds, Super Mario Crossover, wicked cool |Leave a Comment
If you’re an old-school Nintendo geek, you could do a lot worse with the rest of your day than to go play Super Mario Crossover at Newgrounds. Made by Exploding Rabbit, this is apparently dude’s first game.
April 29, 2010
Hark! A brilliant webcomic
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: books, comics, Hark a Vagrant, Kate Beaton, literature, The Book Bench, The Great Gatsby |Leave a Comment
The Book Bench‘s Lucy Tang has introduced me to the work of Kate Beaton, who writes/draws “Hark! A Vagrant”: comics based on history, literature, art, and sometimes other things. Absolutely flipping brilliant. (Click to enlarge.)
Be sure to check out the series riffing on Gatsby.
April 29, 2010
The iPad: A Review
Posted by Michael under Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, iPad, Mac, Reviews |[3] Comments
As I’ve mentioned a couple times in the past weeks, I got myself an iPad only a couple of days after they hit the shelves. I knew the risks, and decided that I wouldn’t buy one unless I was willing to feel like an idiot if it turned out they are superfluous or badly designed. This was out of character for me; I didn’t run out to get an iPod or iPhone, waiting for second- and third-generations of those devices. Why was the iPad different? It might be my long-standing interest in multi-modal texts, and the idea of a book-like, cross-media device makes it more likely that the future of text might finally get off the drafting board and into the marketplace. Or it might be the bright colors and shiny exterior, I don’t know. At any rate, after having the thing around for a couple of weeks, I’ve come to some tentative conclusions about what it is and isn’t good for. I’ll start with the verdict:
The iPad is very cool. But if you’re on the fence, wait.
