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Archive for September, 2006

Ze Frank

September 24th, 2006

A few weeks back on NPR’s On the Media there was an interview with Ze Frank (pronounced Zay). Each day Ze produces a short 1-3 minute video ranting or raving about something or other, but I had a tough time finding the link from his regular site..

I happened to find another reference to our man Ze just today pointing to his vidcast, and I must say it’s certainly entertaining.

One of the more recently referenced items in his vidcast is a song written by “Ray.” After doing a little research, I found who this Ray character is.. Supposidly, he wrote this song dedicated to his daughter who had a bad day at work. He recommends listening to it when you’re having a bad day at work (or even sing it to yourself) and you’ll gather the strength to get through the day.

In any event, I think that his vidcast is an amateur masterpiece (much more-so than our friend Lonely girl). He’s an interactive Jon Stewart, often asking his viewers to help out with intros, segments, etc. One of his more well-known antics is the “Earth Sandwich Project” in which he asked his audience to take a slice of bread and coordinate with someone at the exact opposite site of the globe — in effect making an earth sandwich. Clever.

After putzing around with his site for a while, I have to recommend checking out Mr. Frank. His vidcast “The Show” is one-year project that he’s been working on since April. So, tune in — before it goes off the air.

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Posted in Internet

How to get a job at Google

September 21st, 2006

When I read articles like this one posted on InfoWorld on Monday, it really gets me excited about what my future holds.

Most of the articles written surrounding employment at Google tend to be focused on the engineering side (Which makes sense), but it’s still pertinent. October 23rd, baby.

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Posted in Life

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

September 19th, 2006

I had my first autumn seasonal beer of the season last Friday. September 15. Eight full days before the official end of summer and I sold out my second favorite season for the amber glow of a Harpoon Octoberfest draft. I commented to my counterpart, Hardytrain, that drinking that beer was the final nail in the coffin of summertime.

Mid-September can be an odd time. The typical summer paraphernalia are put away and all the harvest season decor is displayed, replete with Halloween costumes at a retailer near you. Yet it was 83 degrees in the Boston area yesterday. I was walking into a supermarket yesterday in the glorious, blazing sun and passing decorated pumpkins and bales of hay on my left and right. For a moment, it made me think that this is how LTJ and Miss Possible will be enjoying the harvest season in 2007 and beyond.

But…for those of us remaining in the Northeast U.S. hinterlands, we’ll enjoy this last week of summer, we’ll delight in the random warm days of Indian Summer in this month and next, and hope that the winter brews don’t roll out too soon. Slainte.

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Posted in Potent Potables

Apartment Hunting in the Valley

September 18th, 2006

Originally when we arrived at the Airport on Friday, apartment schedule in hand, we expected the weekend to be nothing short of a success. While the apartment Gods were smiling, Hermes (The Greek God of Travel) was trying to pick a fight.

We arrived at Newark Airport 2 hours prior to our scheduled departure (7:30AM EST) bound for a layover in Salt Lake City with our final destination being San Jose, CA. About five minutes after we board, the captain informs us that an “Emergency Turbine mysteriously activated itself” over the course of the evening and it was a 2-3 minute repair to fix. The problem, though, was that Delta Airlines no longer has any maintenance crew working out of Newark and needed to have someone drive (in rainy Friday rush hour traffic) from JFK to fix the aircraft. We were able to re-route our flight through Atlanta as well as change our return flight to return at 11:30pm, rather than the previously scheduled 6pm. We also were able to re-schedule all of our appointments as necessary, to be able to see everthing we had planned.

The only problem was that the Atlanta flight didn’t depart until 12:55pm, and we had to wait around the airport for 5 hours. Fun. In this time, though, we noticed that we were not the only Delta Airlines flight to be delayed. The flight at the gate next to us was delayed because the flight crew could not be found. They ended up leaving only an hour or so late, compared to our original SLC flight which was delayed 3+ hours.
» Read more: Apartment Hunting in the Valley

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Posted in Life

My New Friend

September 14th, 2006

As a Red Sox fan, I check out the Boston Dirt Dogs web site (owned by Boston.com) pretty often. That site appears to have an exclusive agreement with cartoonist Frank Galasso. After ranting and raving about his cartoons for over a year, I snapped. His most recent cartoon pushed me over the edge and I decided to let him know about it. What follows is the unabridged transcript of our emails from this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, Frank Galasso is a master. He could be a hostage negotiator. He took all of my virtriol, absorbed it, and shot it back out at me in the form of sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. Read on…

» Read more: My New Friend

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Posted in Complaint Department, Internet

Husky Business

September 14th, 2006

From 1995 – 1999, I was a rabid reader of The Northeastern News‘ weekly Crime Log. It was informative. It was humorous. It was supposed to be a warning, yet somehow new people kept on leaving their wallets, laptops, and backpacks unattended in Snell Library. I was able to catch some issues of TNN at the home of Captain Larby, Dr. Doop, Matty Ballgame, and Terrence until mid-2000. Then, the fun stopped. I would have had to travel all the way to campus to keep up with NU’s crime. But then I discovered their web site a couple of years ago. I fell out of the habit last year, but I’m back into it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the…

Crime Log Entry of the Week
Friday September 8
10 p.m.
An NUPD officer saw a man wearing a shirt but no pants outside Stetson West. The officer asked the 18-year-old male student why he wasn’t wearing any pants, and the student told the officer he was wearing underwear. The student lifted up his shirt to show the officer his underwear. He said his reasoning was that he had just watched the movie “Risky Business” and wanted to emulate it. The student went back inside at the officer’s urging.

Read all the rest here…

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Posted in Boston, Northeastern

The Real Announcement

September 14th, 2006

First off, I have to apologize for faking everyone out a few days ago with the announcement news.. but it was true, there was a big Apple announcement day.. now for a little Announcement about Miss Possible and myself.. We’re off to the big state of California.

Yep, you’ve heard it right folks.. we’re leaving the lovely New Jersey area in favor of a warmer climate and a better way of life.. that’s right, Silicon Valley, CA. And it gets better.. I’ve landed a job at Google. Yes, let me repeat that.. I’m going to work for Google.. wow.

After, what I’ve dubbed ‘The Summer of Stress’ which was in large part caused by the intense Google interview process, we’ve finally shored things up and I received an offer a few days ago. I’m heading off to go work in the AdWords department of Google, to help advertisers optimize their online ads and get their campaigns on the right track.

We’re thrilled to start this new adventure to the west coast, and look forward to the many new things that are to come: a new car, a new job, new way of life, new apartment, and an entirely new coast. Very strange. It hasn’t sunk in completely yet, but.. I’m sure it will over the next few weeks.

Tentatively, we’re planning on heading out in the middle of October, so we’re still around in the New York area for a little while. We also plan on making a final trip back up to “The Bean” and “The Twilight Zone” to bid a fond farewell to our friends and family that reside in Massagoosenuts.