The porch

Not to brag... well actually, yeah I will brag.

The porch at Broadway (which will be sorely missed next year when we move on to our new digs) has reached a whole new level of awesomeness; I slept there last night. It was nice out and my room was still warm from the day so I grabbed my sheets and made a bed on the hammock. It was great. I recommend it.

Going neutral

So this is just a great site, and I can't begin to take any credit for stumbling upon it. cheatneutral.com is a service that claims to let you "offset" your infidelities by contributing to a fund that supports monogamous relationships. In reality, it's satire that goes after the idea of being carbon neutral and purchasing carbon offsets. I think the analogy is perfect.


Poke around the site a little bit to find out about the supposed benefit of being "cheat neutral." For someone who can't help but cheat on their significant other, they can simply contribute to a fund that supports someone else who's able to stay committed. Of course it's a little bit ludicrous to condone cheating. The site points out that carbon offsetting is equally irresponsible. When a business claims to be carbon neutral by paying someone to plant some trees somewhere, they're giving up on conservation (or fidelity in the case of this analogy).

I really think that being able to make an eye-opening analogy is the sign of true intelligence. You're able to draw parallels and make someone understand a topic they might not otherwise comprehend. In this case cheatneutral has made a brilliant analogy.

Long Weekend

Happy 4th of July weekend. I hope you're getting some time off from whatever you're up to.

De Niro / Pacino

Saw this old school movie poster plastered to a wall for an upcoming cop movie with De Niro and Pacino. That seems pretty serious to me. These two guys are responsible for big time characters in some pretty big movies. Getting them together for a film? Very cool. I don't know anything about the movie, but the trailer's available here.

*POKE*

The Facebook party happened Friday night. In my biased opinion, it was a big success. Everyone had a good time, people became friends (hopefully real life friends), people played Scrabulous, people wrote on our walls (we put butcher paper up), people added photos (plenty of Polaroids), and other stuff I can't think of.

We've had a couple (eccentrically) themed parties. In each case I feel like we supplied the canvas and all our invited friends made some spectacular masterpieces. This past party was certainly no exception. To return to the "Web 2.0" talk that I mention in a post below, this party was all about what The People brought to the party. The entire party centered on "User Generated Content," another buzzword of "Web 2.0," and as a result, we had some cool stuff going on at the party that we hadn't necessarily planned but were thrilled to see.

So a pat on the back to us for coming up with the theme, but a bigger pat on the back to all the friends who made for a cool party. Pics should be up soon. (On Facebook, of course.)

You're Invited

We're throwing a party at our place Friday.  I like to think of it as more than a party.  People talk about "Web 2.0" and how all this networking and the current social aspect of the web is bringing the internet to the next level.  Well clearly parties are inherently social things.  And I think our "Party 2.0" will bring the medium to the next level.  I don't want to set expectations unreasonably high, but I think it'll be cool.

In the mountains

Just got back from a weekend in the Adirondacks at a small family-owned camp called The Waldheim. It was nice to be in the country for a few days and see some wildlife. In addition the kitchen there makes some killer meals.

It's around 5.5 hours from Boston up to Big Moose Lake, NY where the camp is located. The way back I had to drive solo. My voice is sore from singing along with my tunes. And I think I might be getting old, because driving for that long was kind of taxing. I feel like desperately long roadtrips used to be a piece of cake for me. I guess not anymore.

Also, Wednesday's my half birthday. More proof I'm getting older.

Quick Pics

More from The Alley.

An artistic stencil job of the early 90's rap group "Tribe Called Quest"

And a more recent success in the rap world. Kanye West rocking the "shutter shades" that he's singlehandedly made cool.

Magnolia's

Today's the final day of business for Magnolias in Inman Square. The chef is retiring after running the place for 23 years. Cambridge is losing a great place, and though I don't think Magnolias enjoyed huge notoriety, the lines to get a table there over the past couple weeks since the closing was announced definitely speak to the restaurant's great food.

I had the chance to eat there one last time last night and really enjoyed everything from the New Orleans-style menu that I ordered (plus everything that I sampled from everyone at my table). I'll leave the food analysis to food critics. But I will say that the amazing seafood, specials, sides, hospitality, and homemade pies will be missed.

On tap

I recently read about a site called Tappening.com which urges people to drink tap water and forgo bottled water.  The substance of the site isn't amazing, but the idea is definitely something I find timely.  It certainly fits into the current conversation about buying locally and reducing one's carbon footprint.  So I definitely support the concept and the attention this movement (I don't know that it can be called a "movement" yet) has focused on something as simple as this.  

I've started to wonder, however, whether people can really change their habits, rather than making small adjustments to their routine.  I wonder if this will be a fad like the Atkins diet was a few years back.  That was a cause that was taken up by the media and business, just like current green campaigns.  People made serious commitments and changed their ways in the name of cutting carbs.  But now, a few years later, that's mostly gone.  

So can people make changes -- to their commutes, to their buying habits, to their water-drinking practices -- that become a permanent part of their lives?

Mint

I read about a free online financial tool (I can't recall where) called Mint.com and decided to give it a try. The premise (and I don't think it's a novel one) is to have all the user's financials in one place.  What a cool idea.  Seriously.  

So it aggregates all the activity from my bank account (and all the deposits and withdrawals, etc.) with my credit card balance (and all the purchases I've made) and my 401(k) and my online high-yield bank account.

Here's the pretty screenshot...

My initial reaction is that it's pretty cool but not revolutionary. At least not for me. The interface is relatively easy to navigate, there's plenty of cool forecasting features (that sadly I'll probably never use.) I think in general I have never been overwhelmed by the task of tracking my finances, so this service isn't filling a huge gap for me.  It might not become part of my routine, but again, it's pretty cool and I think I'll use it for a while to see if it grows on me.

Zimbabwe

This would be amusing if it weren't so tragic.  I read this article from the BBC a few days back which said Zimbabwe recently started printing a 500 million Zimbabwe dollar note.  At the time of the article's publication, one of these bills for Z$500,000,000 was worth US$2.