NYTimes:
Mr. Stipe said: “We’ve been through some dark times together. But there’s a humor, there’s a camaraderie, there’s an absurdity to the daily ins and outs of what life can throw at you and how well you deal with it. And we happen to be in a very good place right now.”
# 2008 Mar 31
For example, few realize that they’re only singing the refrain — the full song is about a young woman. Its two verses tell the story of baseball-mad Katie Casey, whose beau invites her to the theater. She says “No, I’ll tell you what you can do: Take me out to the ball game” and so on. In the second verse, she yells at the umpire.
# 2008 Mar 31
The Phillies host the Washington Nationals, Brett Myers throws the first real pitch, and I’ll be there.
Naturally, there’s a chance of “showers”, “light showers”, or “few showers” (depending on which weather service I check).
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is throwing the ceremonial first pitch, and will most likely be received better than this.
Photo by Flickr user wallyg used under a Creative Commons license.
The Phillies host the Washington Nationals, Brett Myers throws the first real pitch, and I’ll be there.
Naturally, there’s a chance of “showers”, “light showers”, or “few showers” (depending on which weather service I check).
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is throwing the ceremonial first pitch, and will most likely be received better than this.
Photo by Flickr user wallyg used under a Creative Commons license.
# 2008 Mar 31
This made me laugh:
Eaton allowed 11 hits and six earned runs over 4 2-3 innings yesterday, assuring reporters “The way I feel and the way my stuff is, I’m very happy. I’d take what I had today out there, and I think I’d fare pretty well.” In the meantime, the rest of us look forward to the day when the universe he dwells in realigns with our own dimension.
# 2008 Mar 28
More frequent stops by buses, later weekend service on regional rail and more frequent cleaning of vehicles and stations to make the system more attractive to riders are among initiatives proposed in SEPTA’s $1.08 billion operating budget for fiscal 2009 unveiled Wednesday.
…
Among the proposals are late night Friday and Saturday regional rail service on the R5 Paoli/Thorndale line, the R6 Norristown line and R7 Trenton line, which would run an hour to two hours later than current weekend service.
This is a step in the right direction. I’d be happier if either of the lines close to me (the R3 and R2) were included, but enhanced evening hours on the weekend are good no matter where.
# 2008 Mar 27
Facebook debuted a cool/disturbing new feature, “People You May Know”. It’s function, you may have guessed, is to list people, based on friends of your friends, who you may know:
Clicking through on your feed shows a complete list of people you may know, along with your common friends:
It’s pretty accurate, or when it fails, it’s because all your friends are friends with someone they never bothered introducing to you (and understandably so, you’re a pretty horrible person by most accounts).
Facebook debuted a cool/disturbing new feature, “People You May Know”. It’s function, you may have guessed, is to list people, based on friends of your friends, who you may know:
Clicking through on your feed shows a complete list of people you may know, along with your common friends:
It’s pretty accurate, or when it fails, it’s because all your friends are friends with someone they never bothered introducing to you (and understandably so, you’re a pretty horrible person by most accounts).
# 2008 Mar 27
I’ve seen the date float around several times, but this is official.
Via kottke.
Edited to add: I really, really wish the release was a few weeks earlier in time for my birthday - I have a feeling it’d be a smash hit at the party.
# 2008 Mar 27
Despite reports of its demise, Pete Carroll’s Facebook page is back.
I know you were worried about this.
Despite reports of its demise, Pete Carroll’s Facebook page is back.
I know you were worried about this.
# 2008 Mar 20
Map to the stars.
It’d be a lot more useful if it had a “Locate Me” feature.
# 2008 Mar 13
Wednesday morning, the Clinton campaign sent reporters and bloggers covering the campaign a statement that consisted of questions and comments under the title of “Keystone Test: Obama Losing Ground.”
The Obama campaign’s communications department decided to annotate those questions and comments with some comments of their own… and boy, they held nothing back.
I expect this kind of thing on the Internet, but not from a political campaign. Obama should nominate whoever wrote this to be Secretary of the Bloggery. It’s snarktastic!
# 2008 Mar 13
Research from the University of Southern California shows people prefer stimulus requiring interpretation and that the brain rewards itself for thinking:
When he hooked up volunteers to a brain-scanning machine, the preferred pictures were shown to generate much more brain activity than the unpreferred shots. While researchers don’t yet know what exactly these brain scans signify, a likely possibility involves increased production of the brain’s pleasure-enhancing neurotransmitters called opioids.
Via Boing Boing.
# 2008 Mar 12
Michigan settled a lawsuit over the lack of handicap accessible seating in the Big House by agreeing to add more wheelchair-accessible seats as part of their ongoing renovation. But…
Because wheelchair-accessible seats take up about 12 times as much space as normal seats, the changes will also drop the stadium’s seat capacity from 107,501 to an estimated 106,201 for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. That will make Michigan Stadium the second-largest football stadium in the country after Penn State University’s Beaver Stadium, which holds 107,282.
# 2008 Mar 11
Our long regional nightmare is over:
After a flurry of backroom deals, the Big Ten Network appears poised to land its most significant carriage deal to date, as top executives from Comcast and Fox have agreed on the framework of an agreement, according to sources from both sides.
There’s nothing like agreeing to the framework of an agreement.
# 2008 Mar 11
But the fact that a generation has grown up unaware of pulse dialing and seven-digit numbers seems meaningless when everyone still talks on the phone, constantly — on sidewalks, while riding the bus, in line at the store. That we’ve transferred a lot of office business to e-mail — well, who cares?
I don’t. Here’s my thing with the phone: If I want to talk to you, I like the phone. If I don’t want to talk to you, every second is ear-to-mouth agony.
Email me, text me, Twitter me, just don’t phone me.
Via Matthew Yglesias.
# 2008 Mar 10
Slide six guaranteed to thaw even the coldest hearts.
Via Plunk Chutley.
# 2008 Mar 10
Jack DeYoung on Grooveshark:
As I waited for R.E.M. I began to rethink my decision. The band hadn’t put out an album I’d liked in about 10 years, and I wasn’t sure hearing “Losing My Religion” was worth waiting around in what had now become insufferably cold weather. I’d heard that their new record was a revelation, and despite my misgivings about journalists calling it a “return to form”, I ultimately decided to stick it out. About 10 minutes before show time the tension began to build and I felt that old familiar feeling of excitement that comes with the imminency of a great rock and roll show. When the band took the stage, it was evident that they shared the same feeling. Michael Stipe slowly approached the microphone and methodically counted down from 10 before the band launched into a frenetic version of “What’s The Frequency Kenneth”. It took about 2 more songs for the thousands of people in attendance to fully compose themselves after the suckerpunch of an opener.
# 2008 Mar 10
JFunk:
The worst thing about TNT is that they specialize in airing movies that are schedule wreckers. Movies that, if you happen to catch while flipping through the channels, force you to watch until they end. You know the ones; movies like “The Fugitive,” “Shawshank,” “A Few Good Men,” and “Speed.”
This happened to me last weekend with The Fugitive. Never minding that I own the DVD, I sat down and watched the whole thing.
My time-killers: Back To The Future and, when Comedy Central used to air it seven times a day, PCU.
# 2008 Mar 06
Video pastiche of early computer generated logos. Just gorgeous.
# 2008 Mar 05
These are all the posts on scotttroyan.com during March 2008. Recent posts are listed here.
All contents copyright 1995-2008 by Scott Troyan unless differently noted.
