Blog Master G

It’s been an exhausting past week. We had the entire outside of the house painted all last week (to go with the inside), with finishing touches going on this week. It might not sound tiring since we didn’t do the painting ourselves, but with trying to work and having the dogs barking every time a painter appeared outside any window or door, it was pretty stressful. So I’m glad it’s nearly over with, and the house looks awesome. It’s like having a brand new 80-year-old house. Here are a couple selections of my before and after photos that really show off what a difference some paint makes:

New paint really is a great investment, and the guys we hired did an excellent job.

I recently started reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I’m only about 100 pages into it so far, but it’s a great page-turner — especially for someone like me who loves technology so much and remembers being on AOL back before the dawn of the Internet in 1993 when the first Mac and Windows versions were launched (I was PimpG@aol.com). And before that, I was connecting to home-grown BBSes via my 2400 baud modem. I was an early adopter.

Friedman argues that there are ten factors that have changed the history of the world in recent years — the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9/89, the IPO of Netscape on 8/9/95 (I recall using Netscape Navigator 1 in August 1995), the creation of work flow software and the spreading out of tasks for maximum efficiency around the world (I happen to work for a company that has proven success with this model), the empowering of individuals creating and sharing content via “uploading,” among others — and that we happen to be here when all this happened and is happening.

The uploading, of course, refers to the dawn of self-publishing: blogs, podcasts, and the like. I posted my first blog entry back in 2000 and blogged sporadically that year and in 2001 before beginning regular posting in May 2002. It’s a great feeling to be part of one of the factors that has helped to shape modern times.

And one needn’t even have one’s own blog to self-publish these days. There’s a site called AssociatedContent that aims to create a vast library of quality content on any subject matter you can imagine. The site earns revenue through advertising and encourages individuals to self-pubilsh by paying a one-time fee to the author for each piece he or she submits. My friend Seth has already racked up a nice library of articles on the site, including A Visitor’s Guide to Saratoga Springs, New York and Is Saratoga Springs’ Real Estate Market Finally Cooling?

Through our shared knowledge, experiences, and insights, we’re all helping to build this new and exciting era of mankind.

I’ve had my current camera phone for more than 2 years and have uploaded more than 500 photos in that time, yet I never knew the joy of fun frames until Monday night while I was watching the season finale of 24 and Jen was bored. She stumbled upon this endlessly entertaining feature of the camera phone and we had some good laughs. Now hopefully you will, too.

Friday through Sunday I joined Jen for her work trip to our nation’s capital. The first time I had been was nearly a year ago, following Frances and Andrew’s wedding. Enoch was in town from San Francisco, so we met up with him, his sister Jan, and Maria for drinks in Georgetown along the Potomac. But on that trip I didn’t really get to do the tourist thing. This time was different.

While Jen was working all day Saturday, I became the ultimate tourist, giving myself a self-guided walk around The Mall in Washington, which included the following highlights:

• The White House
• World War II Memorial
• Reflecting Pool
• Lincoln Memorial
• Korean War Veterans’ Memorial
• Washington Monument
• The Smithsonian Castle
• Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum
• The National Archives

At the Air & Space Museum, I saw the likes of the Wright Brothers’ first airplane and other highlights from man’s discovery of air and space travel. It was super-packed, but pretty cool nonetheless. Luckily I didn’t bother waiting in the huge line that wound to the end of the block. Rather, I went right to the front and walked in another door the guard invited me in after confirming that I didn’t have a purse or a bag that needed scanning. What’s funny is that there were probably a number of other people in the long line who didn’t need to be in it, either. It pays not to follow the crowd — and it saves lots of time, too. Inside the museum I saw the IMAX feature Fighter Pilot, which was a pretty cool experience to see behind the scenes at fighter pilot training.

Probably the most moving experience for me was climbing the steep steps of the Lincoln Memorial and seeing the statue of Abe up close and personal. Words can’t describe how huge that thing is. In fact, you can see it pretty clearly from space. The view from the top of the memorial looking back across the mall toward the Washington Monument and the Capitol in the distance is truly amazing. I read both speeches that are engraved on either side of the memorial — the Gettysburg Address on the south side and his second Inaugural Address on the north side — and reflected on what a great man Lincoln obviously was, as evidenced by his unmatched memorial in our nation’s capital. Who else has such a moving and simply awesome tribute to his life and accomplishments?

The larger-than-life soldiers in the Korean War Veterans’ Memorial were also very moving. What took me most by surprise is glancing at the wall alongside and seeing the reflections of the statues looking back at you — not the actual engraved faces in the wall, but the reflections of the statues themselves. For some reason, it caught me off guard with each glance. Haunting.

I did a power trip through the National Archives to catch a glimpse at the sacred documents that define our lives and freedom as Americans: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The security in the Rotunda and around the parchments is pretty much as tight as could be, and the documents reside behind what is surely multiply-reinforced bullet-proof glass with laser beam sensors, tremendous steel casing, and guards keeping a watchful eye on visitors in the crowd-controlled area at all times. Flashes are not, of course, allowed, so I snapped some pictures that came out a bit dark. I wonder if some people don’t turn off their flashes or forget to do so — no doubt they do. I’m sure that helps contribute to the fading of the priceless and important documents, so I’m surprised cameras are even allowed at all.

We stayed in Old Town Alexandria, just outside Washington, and enjoyed some delicious Thai food Friday night at Masaya Thai Cuisine after some excellent martinis at Vermilion, also on King Street. Old Town is a really cool place — almost like a slightly bigger version of Saratoga Springs on the river.

Last, but certainly not least, was a great evening with Joe and Jenny and their rock-star baby, Sylvia. As we told the proud parents, it was like meeting a celebrity baby. As anyone who’s on Jenny’s email list knows, Sylvia is one of the cutest babies I’ve met in a long time, and I’m glad to have had the chance not just to meet her, but to spend some time rockin’ out and catching up with her parents. Joe fired up a mean natural smoke grill and cooked up some veggies and veggie burgers for us, and we enjoyed some Sam Adams White Ale in their very chill backyard. Joe coached us some Spanish curse words in preparation for our trip this summer. Then we did keg stands… OK, not really, but I wanted to spice things up a bit since Joe was worried his BBQ wouldn’t be as wild as the rest of our parties (but that is an actual photo of Jen as a “Bad Habit” from Halloween 2000 in SF).

It was a great weekend get-away, and I love how much is possible in life in the span of just a few days.

View all Washington, DC 2006 Photos

Lately it seems to be taking me until mid-week to write about the weekend that’s just passed, but better later than never. And now it’s Thursday, although I actually started this post yesterday, but then got distracted by posting Mullet Gabe online.

After about two weeks of rain — not good for the outside painting for which we’ve already paid half and only had guys here two days scraping — it looks like today will be a beautiful, sunshiny day with blue skies. Everything has been so green lately. It’s deep spring and hard to believe that summer is just around the corner. During a break in the rain yesterday, I seized the chance to mow the lawn for only the second time this year. It was really overgrown because of all the rain and having it mowed always makes such a huge difference.

At Saturday’s Tulip Fest in Albany, we did see some beautiful tulips with Jack and Kim, but all the vendors were just closing up shop by the time we arrived around 5pm. They Might Be Giants was apparently playing the event, but we arrived just as the show had ended. This was following a visit to Saratoga earlier in the afternoon by Stephanie and baby Ella from western New York. Later that night we enjoyed some late-evening wine and laughs with Alex, Cati, and her mother, in town from Spain.

We celebrated Mother’s Day Sunday at Columbia County’s own Kozel’s Restaurant, where we joined what seemed like half the population of Kinderhook for “dinner” (lunch). We then returned to Alex and Cati the table that we had tried to steal — uh, I mean borrow — that had been in our possession since Jen’s birthday bash in December. The rest of Sunday was spent grocery shopping and making chili.

Monday night we hung out with Justin for the second-to-last episode of 24, followed by four episodes of season two of 24 Tuesday night.

Last night we joined my dad at Longfellow’s for the most excellent half-price appetizer and drink specials, then dropped by Seth and Niki’s place at the lake. We capped the evening with another crazy episode of Lost at Justin’s house. I didn’t yet watch last night’s episode of Alias, but (hopefully) it’s on the DVR.

Next week will be an exciting week for TV fans with 2-hour season finales galore — Desperate Housewives, 24, Alias, and Lost — not to mention tonight’s finale of The OC. I have all these important shows to watch, and I’m still managing to read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, so far a very interesting look at our global economy, the power of the individual (through things like blogs), and outsourcing.

Two years ago yesterday we had just received our mortgage commitment letter and were close to closing on our house.

As anyone who’s been to our house recently knows, we keep this gem prominently displayed on our fridge. Now I’m proud to share the mullet with the world:

I’m not sure about the year — maybe my mom or dad knows — but the back of the photo does say “Nana‘s b-day,” so it would have been August 10, probably 1980-something. And apparently I was aspiring at the time to be a U.S. Marine.

If you haven’t already seen the best music video ever (I Wanna Love You Tender), please do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to watch it. You won’t be sorry.

(Thanks, Justin, for the link.)

Back in February I wrote about my ideas for what should be done with the proposed $100 million High Rock Redevelopment — bring a Trader Joe’s and an independent movie theater — and later that month even had a letter on the topic published in the Saratogian.

As it turns out, I’m not the only one who wants a Trader Joe’s to come here. I talked to a number of people who were incredibly excited at the time (one friend, who shall remain nameless to protect her identity, even said that she would do illegal things to bring TJ’s here!), and, according to a Team Saratoga survey, there are many, many more, as the Times Union wrote about earlier this week:

Newcomers bring new tastes / Survey finds shift in the type of stores Saratoga Springs residents want, with most now hoping for a Trader Joe’s:

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Forget the five-and-dime, residents have told city and community leaders. They want the eclectic offerings of Trader Joe’s, a California-based grocery chain.

A decade ago when the city asked residents what businesses they wanted downtown, they chose a store with cheap notions and household goods. This time, Team Saratoga, the all-volunteer marketing team querying residents, found Trader Joe’s as the selection on more than 50 percent of 1,500 surveys returned.

And that surprised them.

“We have a citizenry in Saratoga that’s very different from even five years ago,” said Jennifer Leidig, who chairs Team Saratoga. “It’s going to show we have a completely different makeup in the city than what other surveys have shown us.”

The last comprehensive survey was completed by the Downtown Business Association, which represents local stores and companies.

“They wanted a Woolworth’s,” said Susan Farnsworth, who markets events on Broadway for the DBA. “And Grand Union was their favorite downtown shopping destination.”

The city’s makeup has changed drastically since that survey was conducted — and F.W. Woolworth, a longtime five-and-dime, shut its doors nationwide in 1997, and The Grand Union Co., once a well-known New Jersey-based supermarket chain, liquidated in 2001.

From 1995 to 2000, 49.9 percent of the city’s residents were newcomers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. New arrivals also were wealthier, bringing more taxable income. From 1996 to 2003 these residents increased Saratoga County’s taxable income base by $227.3 million, according to Internal Revenue Service data cited by the Capital District Regional Planning Commission.

Read more…

Trader Joe’s has no immediate plans to bring a store to Saratoga Springs — and I do worry about the impact it would have on local specialty grocery businesses like Putnam Market and Four Seasons Natural Foods Store & Cafe — but let’s keep voicing our support for one and hopefully the powers that be will listen to the people.

And as for the impact on local businesses, I like to believe that Putnam and Four Seasons would be safe since they cater more to in-and-out foot traffic high-end shopping, and are not places where you can actually do your full grocery shopping or buy 2-buck Chuck or sushi.

Pretty much in line with how I feel:

SFGate.com / Bring On The $6 Gallon Of Gas / It would revolutionize America. It would make us all better humans. But could you handle it?:

Here’s what we could do: Give gas discounts to cab drivers (at least initially) and metro transit systems and low-income folks, those who have to drive their busted-up ’78 Honda Civics to their jobs scrubbing restaurant toilets and flipping burgers and vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV owners. Everyone else, 10 bucks a gallon, across the board. Eleven for premium.

Take it one logical step further. Set up a national system whereby if you want to buy a vehicle that gets less than 20 mpg in the city, you pay a $1,000 Global Warming Surcharge and that money goes straight to a local organic farm, or school, or environmental think tank. And if it gets under 12 mpg, make it three grand, plus a slap to your face from a small, angry child. Got yourself a shiny new Hummer? You pay five grand extra, you can only buy gas once a month and all the truly beautiful women of the world will shun you like Charlie Sheen (oh wait, that already happens). See? Revolution is easy.

…

No, the primary reason such reform won’t happen is because, simply put, we are the most entitled nation in the world, perhaps in the entire galaxy. Americans are trained from birth to believe we deserve as much as we desire of every exploitable resource on the planet, be it water or natural gas or oil, coal or salmon or steaks, Big Macs or diapers or iPods or bizarre varieties of blue ketchup. It is, in a word, perilous. It is also, in another, slightly more devastating word, our downfall.

If you haven’t watched Lost lately, you’ve missed a couple crazy episodes. The last two weeks of Lost have probably seen more happen than in the entire rest of the season combined. And if you happened to speed through last night’s episode on your Tivo or DVR, you might have missed the commercial toward the end that looked almost like a real commercial.

It was for The Hanso Foundation, the mysterious organization whose leaders and logo appears in the hatch, on videos, and on packages of food that drop from the sky. It’s all a big psychological experiment, we learned last night — or is it all more meaningful, as Mr. Ecko is convinced? Regardless, the commercial last night included a URL:

http://sublymonal.com/

Can you decode the message? Heir Apparent indeed! Unlocking the code links to the bio section of The Hanso Foundation.