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Archive for November, 2006

First Snow Storm

We got our first almost ice storm yesterday, where all of my car doors froze shut (except the gate which opened easily). Then about 1 or so this afternoon it started snowing heavily and hasn’t really let up. There were about 6 inches on the ground when I left work and the roads weren’t all that clean. Everything is white though and it looks cool.

The Subaru seemed just fine. I could tell that the roads were slick and didn’t go all that fast, but in situations where the Taurus would be less than great in similar road conditions (e.g. accelerating from a stoplight) it seemed just fine. I also experienced what ABS feels like for (I think) the first time, when I tested it out on an empty road.

It would be cool if we had a foot of snow but plowed roads by morning.

New York

I got back from New York City yesterday afternoon. I flew out on Friday and got in around 7pm and had an interesting taxi ride including a shouting match between taxi driver and another motorist. When he dropped me off on the corner two blocks from Andy’s place and sped off before I could even close the passenger door an older gentleman on the corner asked if I was ok, like I had just gotten kicked out.

New York City was fantastic, and Andy and Lindsey were wonderful. There was a lot of eating, including excellent French food on Friday night, great noodles on Saturday, Grimaldi’s pizza on Sunday, and more great stuff on Monday. I dropped so much money and I don’t even care.

Saturday was an exploring day, and Andy and I walked all over, ran across a parade, marching bands from Missouri and Olathe, KS, and the Nintendo World Store, where we beat Sam (Wong) and got Wii gold and silver.

There was a brief adventure in the afternoon as we tried to find the Brooklyn Museum, but that worked out fine. We met Sam (not Wong) out front and viewed exhibitions of sculptor Ron Mueck and photographer Anne Liebovitz. Fantastic stuff. Mueck’s work is amazing and enthralling and thoroughly creepy.

Sam left us for other commitments after failed attempts to get drinks at the Grand Central Terminal, and Andy and I wandered a lot, found food, and then went out for drinks at Motor City. We had a good time there, and then headed back to Queens and had another drink at the bar two blocks from Andy’s place.

Sunday was a little more down since it was raining, but we did walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at night. Despite the weather that was a fantastic experience.

Of course Andy and Lindsey had to work on Monday, but I went into Manhattan anyways and proceeded to get myself lost in Central Park. I’m not kidding about that, I had no idea where I was for several hours. It didn’t really matter, but I came out several miles from where I entered. The colors of the trees and rocks and things were great in the overcast, almost rainy sky. I took a bunch of pictures, some of which are on tagisu and others which need to be developed.

I had briefer adventures to the Apple store and Adorama later. Adorama is a tiny, cute little store, with a huge warehouse I guess. They have to run their online operations somehow.

Monday night’s dinner was at a place called Brick. Andy was afraid he would be stuck at work until 9 or later, so just Lindsey and I headed out. Luckily he managed to get off work around 7 and met us there while we were having drinks. Great food, again.

I had so much fun.

Machine Name

As some of you may know, we are getting a new server to host this and other sites on. It will replace arnor, which has been running for about 18 months. That name gathered a lot of criticism, so now I am charging you with nominating names for the new one. Nominate and vote in the comments.

Also I know some people don’t like the domain fornost.com, so if you want to nominate other possible domains (which would have to be purchased) you can do that too.

Diebold

I just voted in the midterm election, using one of those Diebold touch screen machines. It didn’t do anything obvious like switch my votes to republican candidates, but I still don’t trust it. Why did all these districts switch to the touch screen machines when studies show the optical scanners to be the most reliable? Not only that but with the optical scanner you have the original marked paper ballot saved as a backup.

Rumors on the Internets

Rumor: 90 Nintendo Wiis at my Target on launch day.

Update: get the rumor for yourself with a zip code and google maps.