Blog Master G

We returned late last night from a four-day whirlwind trip to San Francisco, my third and Jen’s second since moving away from the City by the Bay. As usual, we packed a ton into a few quick days, from attending Mollie and Tim’s wedding (the impetus for the trip) to organizing a big happy hour at the Thirsty Bear to hitting many of our favorite establishments and old hangouts (Naan ‘n Curry, burritos, Juan’s, The Ramp, Yancy’s). We crashed at Enoch’s pad on our old home of Treasure Island, enjoying a beautiful walk along Avenue Palm yesterday morning before our flight.

As always, it was awesome seeing everyone, and we miss you all!

View all SF Trip 2005 photos

We woke up this morning to a snow emergency with probably 6 inches on the ground that I just finished plowing, quite the contrast from SF life.

The snow continues to fall.

Think Hotline of the mid-90s or Napster, but legal. And you get paid, too.

That’s the idea behind Peer Impact, a legal peer-to-peer music sharing service that’s quietly making waves in the industry. The concept is simple: Put your legally-owned music online to share with others, someone buys it, the music label gets a cut, you get a cut. The algorithm behind the service matches you with others who share similar characteristics (network type, location, connection speed). Over time you build a reputation and ratings, much like eBay.

Based here in Saratoga Springs, Peer Impact first came on my radar a couple months ago when I had lunch with one of the guys working on the product (part of a local, informal gathering of a few of us techies). The product seems to have a lot of promise and already has deals with all four major record labels.

Why pay 99 cents at iTunes and get only a song in return when you could pay 99 cents at Peer Impact and get a song and some revenue in return? Seems like a no-brainer to me, so I signed up for the beta today. Who knew that that old Color Me Badd CD I’ve held onto all these years had the potential to make me some recurring income, without having to part with it?

Saratogian / Company aims to share and share alike

It was a long and eventful three-day weekend. After Thursday night’s festivities, we took it easy Friday with a chill a dinner at Albany’s Pump Station with Jen’s parents. We waited 45 minutes after our 7:15pm reservation time to be seated. Despite the stupid LED pager thing, popular at so many chain restaurants like the Olive Garden, the host claimed to “forget what (Jen) looked like,” even though she had checked in twice during our wait and stood a few feat from the host’s station. Past experiences at the Pump Station have been better, but with Jerry Seinfeld performing across the street that night, it must’ve thrown them off.

Saturday we spent chillin’ around the house, doing some reading, cleaning up, and preparing for having Alex and Cati over for dinner that night. Jen made her infamous spinach lasagne and we enjoyed several bottles of wine. I got my ass handed to me (yet again) in Hearts by Alex. Playing for 10 cents a point cost me nearly 10 bucks since I was the first loser.

Sunday we went to see a play in the state park, Home Made Theater‘s Picasso at the Lapin Agile, written by Steve Martin. Justin’s dad played Gaston, one of the primary characters. With a relatively small cast, the show took place in a pub in Paris in 1903, shortly before Picasso rose to fame and Einstein introduced his theory of relativity. The two characters spent time in the artists’ bar, telling tales of their own greatness and discussing women. It was one of the funniest plays I’ve seen.

After finishing our taxes (to be sent to our preparer) Sunday afternoon/evening (hallelujah!), I headed over to Joe’s for a bit to play some video games and help celebrate his birthday.

Yesterday rounded off the three-day weekend with some more gaming at Justin’s place and a relaxing evening at home. Well, as relaxing as an evening with 24 can be.

This morning while walking out to the garage to start the car for Jen, I noticed that someone had drawn a driveway flower in the snow for us — either that or I’m better with the snow blower, which I used yesterday, than I realize.

The weekend came early last night as we had some friends over to celebrate Seth’s big 3-0. Niki made chilli and did most of the planning. Jen supplied the Hello Kitty party hats, birthday boy tiara, and Hello Kitty Bingo. Ken made flaming sambuca shots. We took about 125 pictures. Below is but a taste. Email me if you want a link to the entire, unedited collection.

A coffee a day keeps the doctor away. Or at least reduces your chances of developing liver cancer, according to a new study released in Japan.

Coffee Cuts Liver Cancer Risk, Doesn’t Help Colon, Studies Say:

Japanese researchers studying more than 90,000 middle-aged men and women found that the risk of liver cancer for people who almost never drank coffee was about 547 cases per 100,000 people. The risk among those who drank coffee daily was about 215 cases per 100,000, according to the study.

Coincidentally, before I first read this story yesterday, I had recently adjusted my coffee-drinking routine. I used to drink two or sometimes three cups a day, then decided that was too much, so I had cut back to two cups every other day. Only a few days ago, I decided that rather than drinking two every other day, I might as well drink one cup a day. What can I say? I love coffee. Dark, Italian roast from the local shop. Mmm.

I was surprised that the number of Americans who drink at least a cup a day is so high — 49 percent, according to the story. But then again, with a Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner, I suppose it’s not all that surprising.

How much coffee do you drink?

The $683 billion in unpaid American credit card debt is about to look a whole lot uglier, thanks to efforts by Rebpulicans in Congress that will protect wealthy individuals and unscrupulous credit card companies while making it harder for the debt-laden individual to declare bankruptcy.

Not only that, but those with the means will be able to work the system by disguising assets in home values and declaring bankruptcy to wipe out other debt. Where? You guessed it. In the two states with “Bush” written all over them.

washingtonpost.com / Tighter Bankruptcy Law Favored:

The legislation would make it harder for, but would not eliminate the ability of, wealthy people to hide assets during bankruptcy by buying expensive houses in states such as Texas or Florida, which currently provide broad exemptions for homes.

Sure, we live in a $6 trillion spend culture where it’s easier to buy a car than it is to return a DVD you’ve decided you no longer want, so to some degree, it is the responsibility of the individual to curb his or her spending habits, but the credit card companies have way too much leeway. They’re allowed to set whatever rates they want, prey freely on campus to lure in unknowing college students, and take joy in constantly raising credit limits higher than income levels. Case in point: I’ve had a $20,000 credit limit on my Citibank since college. I can guarantee you that I made nowhere near that much money as a college student.

In many cases when individuals are forced to declare bankruptcy, it’s not so much a result of irresponsible spending on credit, but an extreme situation — job loss, injury, medical bills — that might lead one to fall back on credit when there’s no other option. That, of course, points to many bigger problems, such as the faulty American health care system. But that’s a different topic for a different day.

This is a two-way street and it’s time for credit card companies to be held accountable for ethical and responsible behavior that helps drive individuals deeper and deeper into debt.

[ via Jenny and Joe in D.C. ]

Once upon a December day was Jen’s birthday, and all were ready to play. We were to have a romantic in-town getaway and the dogs were scheduled to go away when down from the cellar to our dismay we smelled the most distinct fume of burning wires coming our way. We walked all around with our sniffers aloof, trying to track down what could be loose. We smelled and we smelled and we searched and we searched. Was it a burning goose? Or a wire on fire? Something wasn’t quite right, so we made some calls to the local FD, who brought their big truck and men who weren’t wearing tights. They looked all about with their infrared burning scanner but they couldn’t find what we were goin’ on ’bout. We blushed red with embarrassment for calling them here, but better safe than let it burn till it’s clear. So the plans were cancelled and we did not go out. We stayed home and tried not to pout.

Two months hence I’ve collected some pence and oh, what a coincidence that yesterday was Valentine’s Day. I made some reservations and scheduled the wife, for I was determined to avoid the strife. We walked through the snow and slippery ice to a local eatery that we heard was nice. They took our coats at the door and seated us down where we would dine among others who surely were not a bore. Out came the sparkling water — in Italy “with gas” — but no bread for which we had to ask. Along came the wine, a Honig Sauvignon Blanc, but no ice bucket or any pour beyond the first. It was as if we were cursed. But alas, how lucky we were to be enjoying spicy mussels, king salmon, and sea bass. Here we reach the end of my tale of burning wires and fine cuisine, so you can rest assured that I’ve covered my ass, at least until the next date, which I’m sure will be as equally great.

I couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather yesterday while skiing at Gore. It was sunny with blue skies and the snow was just right — only a few patches of ice here and there. The highlight of the day, however, was discovering my new favorite run at Gore, which must have been closed last time I was there, The Rumor. Much like Run 54 at Homewood, The Rumor features nearly 90-degree steeps and lots of powder that necessitate jump turns, my absolute favorite kind of skiing. Thanks to snow blowing at the top, the visibility was practically zero, but I loved it nonetheless. I felt that I got my money’s worth for the entire afternoon after just one run on The Rumor. I did two. And today I have that good sore feeling.

After some projects around the house, we spent most of Saturday playing the latest edition of Elfin Dressup, Return to Arms, with Justin. Beer, pizza, and video games. The defining characteristics of this winter.

Friday night we drove down south to visit Karen, Sue, Josh, and baby Seamus. Just a few weeks old, Seamus is already so alert. His outfits, from red shirt and blue jeans to polar bear pajamas, were, dare I say, fabulous.

This was one of those weekends that, despite being super-busy, went by in a breeze.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my valentine, and to you and yours!

Hig-end homes, hefty price tags

Want to see a visual representation of all of Bush’s State of the Union speeches? Want to compare and visually map the occurrences of a pair of words? Check out the State of the Union Parsing Tool, which is very cool technology that does exactly this. You can even mouseover your highlighted text to read the word occurrences in context of each speech.

You can see how much Bush loves the concepts of freedom and liberty (54-14). Compare his Saddam favoritism over that other terrorist guy — what’s his name? Oh yes, Osama bin Laden (26-1). Discover the revealing truth that Bush is more concerned with marriage (the “defense” of it because, you know, my marriage feels so threatened lately by other in-love couples wanting to wed) than the environment (12-9). Nuclear (or, in Bush-speak, “nucular”) vs. North Korea (22-7), despite the fact that North Korea openly admits to having nuclear weapons.

Try the tool for yourself. And share any interesting word combos you discover.

[ via Mere Sketches ]

In the lastest American military faux pas to mark the never-ending war in Iraq, American MP women were caught on camera mud wrestling at Camp Bucca, a military prison, the New York Daily News reports: “One female soldier, a prison guard with the 160th Military Police Battalion, was photographed baring her breast and showing off her thong panties.”

Thong panties. Watch out. Time for a court marshal. This country’s going to hell. We wouldn’t want the young men and women putting their lives on the line and serving our country to have a good time, now would we?

I say let them party. Let them wrestle in the mud. Let them show off their thong panties. Who are we to critique the kids we send to risk their lives for wanting to have a little girls gone wild fun? It’s easy to forget that these are college-age kids we send into battle, so how can we blame them for displaying some college-like behavior?

I first saw this story on CNN last night and I actually laughed out loud. I think it’s great if our soldiers want to have a good time. Why not? Oh yes, because this country is so uptight about sex and naked flesh (but war is OK, mind you).

It would be a shame were this to lead to any discharges or prison sentences.

Party on, American military. You deserve at least that for all you do for the rest of us.