As mentioned last week, Presley, Todd, Kim, and other scooterist friends spent the weekend working the Target-Smart Car College Tour 2004 — the eaisest $300 I’ve made in my life. However, it was also the hottest weekend this summer — long-sleeved canvas jump suits in 92° heat is not the most fun.
We did our best to find college kids… not many schools are in session yet, so we shifted to the usual Boston landmarks… Faneuil Hall, Harvard Square, and Castle Island Beach.
It turns out that tourists really love Target and free pens.
Some pics:
Some other pics from the promotion:
30 August 2004
I peed into a plastic cup this morning for the first time since my job application to Wilson Farms convenience store, when I was sixteen years-old.
Why, you ask?
Well, some friends and I are going to spend the weekend driving a SmartCar around Boston, dressed in Target logos from head-to-toe. We’re supposed to make ourselves seen to all of the returning college kids, reminding them that there is a cheap place to dress up that gray-brick dorm room. I’m 26 years-old, so this is a bit embarassing.
But, It’s only 2 days, I’ll be a couple hundred dollars richer, and I get to tear around town in a car that is roughly 1/6 the size of your average SUV. Should be safe…
Last year, they gave my friends Target Vespas — but, there was an accident or two… apparently it’s safer to shill on 4-wheels.
25 August 2004
I just want to point out that I am not always the drunkard in the family… Ocasionally, the lady of the house tips a few too many back.
Thanks to J., who is documenting all of this:
Okay, so I think I need to add that I didn’t actually throw up, because I can handle my booze. but I was thinking about it because I guess someone did actually get sick after leaving my house the other day.
This is probably more the exception than the rule, but oh well. We’re young.
19 August 2004
Earlier this week, I mentioned to my friend Keiko that I wanted to make Zucchini bread, a summer tradition in my family. I suspect the tradition arose from the fact that the only thing that grew well in my father’s garden were Zucchinis… everything else usually failed, or was eaten by the neighborhood fauna.
The next day, she brought in from her garden a couple of the largest Zucchinis I’ve ever seen… so large that I started having visions of eating Zucchini bread for the remainder of the summer.
Anyway, a day or two passed, (work has been all-consuming), and I hadn’t begun my project. Then, yesterday, I came home at a decent hour to find Presley in the kitchen, grating Zucchini, and preparing not only bread, but also a recipe for dinner — Goat Cheese-Stuffed Zucchini Pancakes with Tomato Sauce.
I got to tell you, those little Zucchini pancakes were the most delicious things I’ve had in months. I enjoyed them so much, I didn’t leave any room for the Zucchini bread…
I’m a lucky guy sometimes.
13 August 2004
My boss is Out of Office again this week, so suddenly Project Managers are turning to me in meetings, and asking the tough questions.
It’s been interesting… and gratifying, to know that I can manage to sound articulate and knowledgeable, when called upon.
09 August 2004
I neglected to mention in my post about installing the Airport Express with a 3rd-Party router, that I still couldn’t print wirelessly with the device. My HP PSC-750 All-in-One isn’t supported… it makes sense that you wouldn’t be able to scan wirelessly, but why couldn’t I print?
Well, after a few more hours of searching, I finally found a solution, courtesy William Boddie in the Apple discussions:
When queried for a printer, I selected “edit printer list” from the scroll down menu, clicked on “add” under the printer setup utility-> went to IP Printer -> Printer type “Rendezvous” -> Printer Address scrolled to “HP PSC 900 series” -> Printer Model “HP” ->model “HP PSC 950 Footmatic” -> press “add.”
It worked, however the AX is easily the most frustrating Apple product I’ve encountered… let’s hope that HP’s partnership with Apple to co-brand an HP iPod, will spurn HP to write better OS X printer drivers. My landlord is an architect, and he’s mad that his $2500 plotter was rendered useless with his upgrade to 10.3…
UPDATE… I neglected to mention that I am not using the bloated and shoddy drivers provided by HP.
I would instead recommend the HPIJS Open-source drivers. These drivers allows printing “over any available connection such as USB, AppleTalk, TCP/IP (via LPD and IPP), HP JetDirect, and shared windows printers via SAMBA”. And, you don’t have to install the useless extra HP applications, which are included with the driver package.
08 August 2004
Presley and I were invited out last night with my old boss, who is visiting Boston on holiday from his teaching gig in Japan. It was the usual shitty service at the Enormous Room, and then across the street for a little rock n’ roll Upstairs, courtesy A.M. Stereo and The Glow. A.M. Stereo was fun, Indie post-punk — each member singing in turn, (except the drummer, who looked like something out of Spinal Tap). The Glow was a tighter, keyboard-driven, cross-over ska outfit, which I really enjoyed — their guitarist reminded me of Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse… decide for yourself.
It was good to see Bob — I probably know him the least out of everyone last night, having just been hired a couple of months before he left. But, his stories of teaching English to Japanese kids in a small, remote village, were funny… I can’t imagine communicating, alone, in such a foreign environment. He’s a long way from Tokyo.
But, it was also good to be out with work mates — we work so hard on a daily basis, and we each have our own lives, so it’s rare that we go out for a few drinks. But, having been out with Bob last night, I have the feeling it was a lot more common before he left…
06 August 2004
I was fooling around with this neat New York Times interactive Election Guide, and I inputted my predictions for how the states will vote in November.
This was my worst-case scenario, with Bush winning both Florida and Ohio… the result? TIED.
It’ll be the House of Representatives rather than the Supreme Court, this time around…
30 July 2004
UPDATE: Lame… no celebrity sightings, but we snapped some pictures of the security perimeter, which I will post later.
We’re going to venture into the “protected” zone across the river tonight. Tbone describes his DNC outing last night, spotting Former CA Gov Gray Davis, and the less talented half of the celibrity fomerly known as “Ben-ifer”, Ben Affleck.
We watched a lot of the convention on CNN and C-SPAN last night. I keep waiting to see Wonkette on MTV, but there were Andy Dick re-runs on instead.
I miss Tabitha Soren…
27 July 2004
My commute last night back to Boston was uneventful, (which seems to be the consensus). I think half our population was scared away by the DNC.
Helicopters are buzzing around our house, and since we live near the Charles river, we’ve noticed Coast Guard and Police boats patrolling the river in formation… a strange sight, given that on any given day you’d usually see small sailboats and rowing crews.
Boston is locked-down, but I feel safe. I think it’s unreasonable to expect that an event this size will ever be held again without tight security. Though I understand concerns about civil liberties and free speech, can you imagine how weak the Democrats would look if a terrorist attack happened at their Convention?
The image of State Police in riot gear is primarily a deterrent — the message is, “we’re ready”. If the police actually had to use that outfit, then I’d be worried.
27 July 2004
The Airport Express I ordered last month arrived yesterday.
After 2+ hours of fiddling, googling, plugging and unplugging, I’ve finally got Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs streaming from my Powerbook’s iTunes, to my Onkyo receiver and Cambridge Soundworks speakers.
The problem was to get my $60 Netgear router to recognize the AX — as the documentation makes no promises of connecting to a third-party wireless router, (on a side note, I’ve never understood the pricing of the original Airport Extreme — at $200, what advantages could this model possibly offer over any other IEEE 802.11g router?). Expecting it to plug-in and work, like all my Apple gear, I became increasingly frustrated with that blinking amber light (which tells you there is a problem, but provides no other details).
After searching around in vain, I stumbled across this thread on the Apple forums: AX: Switching between Client and Network ? — and cjb65 points out that all you have to do is place a “$” before the 128-bit WEP key, when you set up the network… and pow! it works… Although, I’ve yet to get it to extend the range of my primary network. The AX is merely acting as a “client” now.
It sounds good, however, there are some “cons” to report:
- AX bypasses my Volume Logic iTunes plugin, (which normally improves the quality of playback quite a bit). I’m not too happy about that, though perhaps this will be ironed out in the future.
- I wish that the AX streamed all audio to my stereo, not merely music from iTunes.
Still, now that is streaming well enough, I’m impressed. I can’t wait to take it on the road, and use it as a portable wireless network. Now, if only my cell phone could browse the web…
17 July 2004
John Kerry made a great choice for his VP running mate — they will make a great team.
If you’re a supporter of Kerry/Edwards, they will give you a free bumper sticker, just for signing up with the campaign.
The downside is, they’ll email you a couple of times a week, (which some may find inundating). I think that’s a fair trade.
UPDATE: Incidentally, I did it, and when I hit submit, a page appeared saying “help us cover the cost of mailing this, won’t you?” So I felt guilty, and sent another $25 contribution.
07 July 2004
Fireworks over the Charles, Boston, Massachusetts
I generally don’t enjoy staying in Boston for two holidays — 4th of July, and New Year’s Eve… This town is a tame place for a party, and the concept of the roof-deck seems to be lost on the landlords here.
Still, I’m not holding fast to my rule this year… we spent the New Year in the South End, and we spent last night BBQ‘ing at our house. It was a short walk down to the Charles River for the fireworks… pretty low-key this year, and we couldn’t hear the Pops, because they apparently decided Cambridge didn’t need speakers this year.
Saturday was spent at the Casa del Jason, Brian, Adam, Dana, & Jaron (whom I shouldn’t even link to, because he’s using a horrible hosting service), drinking beer and eating properly-encased hot dogs. They throw quite a party — no small feat when your house is sandwiched between a primary school and a playground.
At least we’re getting away next weekend— camping in the Finger Lakes… and there will be wine…
05 July 2004
So, what’s going on with Magnetbox? Quite a change from the old site…
02 July 2004
UPDATE: Apparently, Miss Elena wasn’t completely honest… however, I still think it’s a fabulous story.
In April of 1986, I was eight years old, and I have no recollection of the Chernobyl disaster. Yet, it’s hard to imagine any single event more devastating than what happened on April 25-26, 1986. Hundreds of thousands died, and many more were forced out of their homes in an instant, never to return. Radiation flooded the air, land, and water around the site, forming a ‘dead zone’.
Albany Dan pointed out a link on Fark to a first-person account of someone who has ventured back into this ‘dead-zone’. Her name is Elena, and her stories of motorcycle rides to Chernobyl are fascinating.
As I pass through the check point, I feel that I have entered an unreal world. In the dead zone, the silence of the villages, roads, and woods seem to tell something at me….something that I strain to hear….something that attracts and repels me both at the same time. It is divinely eerie - like stepping into that Salvador Dali painting with the dripping clocks.
…
The readings on the asphalt paving is 500 -3000 microroentgens, depending upon where you stand. That is 50 to 300 times the radiation of a normal environment. If I step 10 meters forward, geiger counter will run off the scale. If I walk a few hundred meters towards the reactor, the radiation is 3 roentgens per hour - which is 300,000 times normal. If I was to keep walking all the way to the reactor, I would glow in the dark tonight.
Her photos are incredible. I can’t imagine having the courage to do what she’s done, but I’m glad to have learned more about what happened in those days back in April, 1986.
01 July 2004
Smart-Target, Part II
