Big Money

I don't mean to joke about the financial *%$#-storm that we're in, but I have good news. Great news really.

You know that $50 billion dollars that went missing recently? Well I think I found some of it. It's in my 401(k).

Check this out. This is an actual screenshot of my 401(k) account, as reported by Mint.com, a free financial tool that I previously deemed "pretty cool." Now I'm deeming it "amazing beyond belief." Below is exactly how my account is appearing online. I've only edited the image to blur out personal info and to highlight the amount of money that I apparently have in Fidelity's Contrafund.


There's $13 billion in my account? $13 BILLION? Magical. I'm not even joking about this. I'll sign on and show you myself. I have $13 billion in my retirement account. I'll be quitting work immediately.

Stimulus

I've read about plans being put together by the incoming administration for spending on local projects as a way to stimulate the economy. Here's my two cents.

Let's say we're talking about spending $100 billion. One option would be to spend that on a couple really big projects or even one big project in each state. $2 billion spent in each state, for example, could get some great infrastructure projects built. But projects that big could take a while to get going, and from what I've read, some doubt that Congress could resist squabbling over treating their home districts to the best projects.

So how about this; a bunch of projects that are 90% smaller. How much could you build with $200 million? I have no clue, but I'm guessing it's a lot. And with $100 billion in total, you could have 500 of these smaller projects. And guess what? There's about 500 congressional districts! Perfect. One project in each district. Then you could tell Congress that it was all settled and we wouldn't be needing their input, thank you very much. The leave it up to the state/county/local government who will (hopefully) put it to use.

Festival of LEDs

Happy Hannukah!

I lit candles last night as well as this cool menorah Pedro found in
NYC. It's made from a recycled computer motherboard and LEDs.

NYE

New Year's Eve. Last year, a friend and I lamented the amount of pressure riding on that one night every year. People start talking months in advance about plans. It has to be fun, have the perfect group of people, not be too pricey, but maybe kind of nice. It should be different, but not so unknown that it might be a flop.

Instead of the uncertainty, my housemates and I decided to host something at our place. Here's the invite that we made. If you're reading this, you're invited too.


We came up with everything in it, but I should note that we were inspired by this cool video.

Disguises

I don't think I have a future in costume making, but for the record, here's two recent costume making adventures.  The first one was just for fun, the second one was for profit!

We begin with my Halloween costume.  It's based on the main character in the Transformers cartoon.  He's Optimus Prime, an awesome, but boxy-looking dude.  This character was Optimus Sub-Prime who features "FORECLOSED" and "We'll Finance Anyone" signs all over.  Well-received but a bit clumsy at the Halloween party.

The second costume-making effort is a little more easy to recognize.  I ran a road race with some friends Sunday and along with the normal top male and top female divisions, there was also a top Santa division.  I shopped around for a few Santa costumes Saturday, but found they were all pretty expensive.  I opted to make my own out of thrift store clothes.  Here's the result.

I ended up taking first place in the Santa division and a sweet cash prize.  The first I've ever won in a race.  Clearly I should've been running in disguises this whole time.  I got to treat my running buddies (not dressed as Santas) to brunch.

Public Transportation

This morning's commute was my first experience with the T's new "high
capacity cars.". The cars have all the seats pulled out so there's
more room to pack people in (though one guy on my train sat down on
the floor anyways).

I think the concept is a great idea. The very fact that the T tried
something new is great. The cost is relatively cheap compared to
buying new equipment. People who insist on a seat can choose another
car. They even had comment cards for riders to give feedback. I'm
impressed. And the name? PHENOMENAL. But they're in trouble if they
want to expand the program to the orange line.

Escalate Safely

According to this sign, it's National Elevator/Safety Week. I'm kind
of thrown off by the slash (/) in the name. Is it a week for elevators
AND for elevator safety? Or is it National Elevator Week and National
Safety Week at the same time? Who decided it's national?

I do love the directives here: "Hold children and small packages
firmly..." and "Check the direction of the moving steps."

Decorations

The scene in the drug store this afternoon. Seriously guys? Christmas
already? It's only November 13th...

Pretty food

Colorful, healthy, local.

Super Tuesday

Saw this poster and thought this might work on a couple levels. First, a peace sign so that everyone thinks of peace on Tuesday when they vote. A "V" sign for "Victory." Or a "V" for "Vote." And also the message "Don't Let Me Down," because I think you should go vote tomorrow. Otherwise you'd let me down.

And I'm hoping the country doesn't let me down either.

Live from New York

Not really live. But this past weekend, I was down there hanging out. A few pics...

An art installation in Madison Square Park. There were tree houses in the trees in the park. That's the Flatiron Building in the background.


The next season of the reality show Top Chef is coming up in a few weeks and we got to see a cooking demo from a past season's contestants. And we got to pose with them...
Also at the demo, they had an exercise bike rigged to make a food blender blend. Me making a fruit smoothee.

Fall

So many pumpkins. Stacked up at Government Center for a fundraiser.

Getting ready for fall, Halloween, the (temporary) end of daylight savings, the World Series, the election, et cetera.

Garlic!

I'm blown away by the choices of garlic at the supermarket...

"Jumbo Garlic"

"Elephant Garlic"

"Super Colossal Garlic"

That's great, but can I get some Absurdly Massive Mega Garlic that's the size of a grapefruit?  That'd be swell. 

The Celtics trophy comes to work

The Celtic's Championship trophy came to my office. The real trophy. It's solid gold. With fairy dust sprinkled on the top. I know you're probably thinking, "What?? Are you kidding me???? The Celtic's trophy?? HUH????"

That was exactly my reaction:


I'm really not sure how we worked that one out... Definitely very cool.

My sis

An article that pertains to what my sister is up to...

She's off in the wilds of Kenya studying common pool resources and how they are allocated. An article on the Freakonomics blog talks about addressing the water needs of the developing world and how throwing money at developing water resources isn't enough. An excerpt:

"Effective water management requires good institutions — i.e., a framework for the formation and enforcement of local rules and norms that will deliver safe and sustainable local supplies. After all, how useful is a well without a means of allocating its water or maintaining its flow? How safe are pipes when they carry water of unknown quality? How sustainable is supply from an overdrafted aquifer?"

She faces the challenge of how and what to measure when gauging the state of the system. Apologies I can't phrase it as well as she could. The full text of the article can be found here.

Chicken and Barackoli

We heard through the grapevine about a group of twenty-somethings having dinners to raise a bit of money for Obama. The idea started with a group of friends who invited a few people over for dinner and made two requests of their guests.

1. Donate some money to the Obama campaign
2. Host a dinner of their own

That first dinner has spawned many other dinners directly, and many more through word-of-mouth, such as our own. It's definitely not big money, but it does speak to the power of many people contributing. Check out the website here and check out the page for our dinner right here.
(from peta.org)

When life gives you challah...

Make French toast.

I received a loaf of challah Wednesday by airmail (Thanks J and D!).  It was literally bread from the heavens.  And in my excitement Wednesday night I decided to get up fifteen minutes earlier than I normally would on Thursday and make a very quick batch of French toast.  This was a very good life decision and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes themselves.  A vast improvement over my normal bowl of cereal.  French toast took a little bit more effort, but was a GREAT way to begin Thursday.  (At work, I’d call that a very strong ROI.)

**Addendum**

Coincidentally, global anthropologist/thinker/user experience designer Jan Chipchase wrote today about breakfast on the go and how it's destroying our moral fiber.  Well, not entirely.  But I'll take his writing to mean that my morning endeavor with French toast is going to save society.

Chocolate

There's a lot going on with this dessert, but the basic idea is
chocolate. The other flourishes like the caramel and chocolate
drizzled across the plate and the sugar design are because this was a
fancy restaurant.

My love for chocolate comes from all three sides of my family, so the
decision of what to order for dessert generally isn't a mystery. It's
actially quite unfair to the other desserts.

The Big Ticket Weekend

Three big events this past weekend, led by a Sigur Ros concert Friday
night. Check out the confetti during a particularly happy song.

The other two events were fun but less happy: tickets to watch the
Pats get pounded by the Dolphins on Sunday (38-13) and tickets to
watch the Sox lose to the Indians Monday (4-3) and NOT clinch a
playoff spot.

Present

I recently checked out a little happening downtown called Pecha Kucha. The event, held at a small club, invites people to present 20 PowerPoint slides of something. This included an architecture student showing sketches of buildings, a photographer displaying a study he did, and even an entrepreneur talking about his startup. The catch was that each was allowed just 20 seconds per slide. Twenty slides, 20 seconds each.

The format really made me think hard about presenting, as the skill is one that's very necessary in my field. How is information displayed, what does the audience need to see (in 20 seconds), how simple/complex is the layout or idea that's being shown, does the slide tell the story or does the narration, etc. I also thought about some of the presentations I've seen from various leaders at my agency. I'm impressed each time I see them. And I wonder whether being an amazing presenter gets you to the top, or if this is a skill that's learned along the way. Or maybe I'm unnecessarily I'm awe of the people at the top who make these presentations and they're really not that amazing...

The OTHER Bathroom

Here's the setup for the upstairs bathroom. That's a mini-fridge for a
cold glass of water in the middle of the night and a futon for the
heck of it. Weird to have all this? Not when there's space for it.

Unpacking

The empty boxes go in the extra bathroom. Not exactly sure when that
gets addressed...

Bad Driver

A New Yorker's license plate. Is that a confession for past
transgressions? Maybe a preemptive apology?

In NYC

Park Avenue shuts down Saturday morning. Just pedestrians, runners,
and bikers from the park down to the Brooklyn Bridge. Here's the spot
where the road snakes around Grand Central.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

This is not a window...

From a church in Cambridge. A boarded up opening in the old building's brick facade.

Coldplay

Coldplay in Hartford on Saturday. Good concert with a confetti encore
included.

"It's ALL advertising"

Hmmm. A site that proclaims itself the marriage of MTV and QVC... online shopping combined with high quality videos of the products in question presented in a jumpy, raw style that my generation is into. The site's so-called "sizzle reel" says it all;

"It's not another media platform supported by advertising. It's ALL advertising."

Thank goodness, because I was fed up with the last media platform supported by advertising.

Travel site

Another shout-out to a friend building a site. Miguelito's NicheTravelGuide.com offers unique travel ideas for destinations throughout the world and relies on anecdotal travel advice submitted by site visitors. It's gradually building up stories (I've submitted two contributions on there, and mean to write some more.) Check it out.

Viva Espana

Pedro picked a pretty good time to be in Spain for work; Spaniard Carlos Sastre won the Tour de France today in Paris. This adds to what one friend pointed out has been a pretty big summer for Spain. The victories in the sporting world I can count in the past two months:

• Sastre won the Tour today
  
• Spaniard Rafael Nadal won Wimbledon on July 21st in an epic match versus Roger Federer
• Spain beat Germany in the Euro Cup final on June 29th

Sastre claimed the Tour leader's yellow jersey on Wednesday after a huge win at L'Alpe-d'Huez and carried the jersey through today's finish in Paris. Following his victory there in the French Alps on Wednesday, however, he wasn't presented with the yellow jersey by the usual Podium Girls. Instead, Sastre was congratulated on the podium by actor Michael Douglas and the Miami Heat's Pat Riley. Wait, what? Are you kidding me? What are these dudes doing hanging out together at the Tour de France, and why are they presenting awards? I hope Sastre didn't have to exchange bisous (that's the French "kiss-kiss") which is standard for the podium. I'm dumbfounded. And also dumbfounded that these two are not related. They look so similar...

T Shirts

A shout to Matty's new clothing company. I've got one of their shirts and I'm a fan of it. Check out the website at CircularEvolution.com. All the product photos were shot at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

Beers

A couple things about beer.

I had the pleasure of attending a friend's engagement party this weekend (congrats Lewis). Someone brought a case of Coors Light with WIDE MOUTH cans that are now VENTED. I'm not sure how I ever enjoyed beer before the advent of this amazing combination of features. Thanks to the gifted can engineer who came up with that one. I thought those color-changing beer bottle wrappers (you know, the mountains turn blue when the beer's cold) were the pinnacle of excellence, but I now stand corrected.

Also, how about this news release from two years back about the head of the Coors family being pulled over for a DUI and having it reduced to a DWAI (Driving While Ability Impaired). Regardless of the charge, he was over the legal limit and driving. I'd call it ironic, but I don't think that's a strong enough characterization.

Finally, now that Coors is part of MillerCoors (though formerly there was SABMiller and MolsonCoors... now it's merged... I forget...) and Anheuser-Busch InBev have sealed a deal, I've read that Boston's own Sam Adams is now the biggest American-owned brewery in the US per this link. Go Boston.

Surveying the pollution

Following the cancellation of the Donner Lake Triathlon this week, I decided to head up to the mountains anyways to take advantage of a weekend on the left coast.  While up there, I went on a long 3 hour mountain bike ride.  I was tired and sweaty and my clothes smelled vaguely of a campfire from all the haze in the air.  But I couldn't sense any ill effects from the smoke other than a dry throat.  My would-be teammates and I were all a bit frustrated with not being able to compete and we couldn't help but question the race organizers' decision to call-off the race.  What should the criteria be?  What level of smoke would have been OK?  Should they have let it go on and let competitors race at their own risk?  On the one hand, the organizers are "not the boss of me" (I don't want to be told when it's OK to race).  But on the other hand, they definitely are "the boss of me" (they're the ones putting on the race).

Here's a very dim picture of the view above Donner Lake...

Somewhat similar to a picture we took last year from the same spot...

Obviously a bit different from last year to this year.  

The question of competing in bad air quality brings to mind the predicament of thousands of athletes heading to Beijing next month for the Olympics.  An unscientific report from a BBC correspondent showed similar air quality measurements in Beijing to what was seen near Donner Lake.  I'm guessing there won't be any cancellations happening there...

Wildfires and Triathlons

The table below shows shows the air quality for Truckee, CA over the past month as measured at the Truckee Fire Station.  Why's the air quality in Truckee important?  Truckee is where I'm entered in a triathlon this weekend.  (Part of a triathlon relay, so I'm just signed up for the running leg.)  And because of all the wildfires in Northern California, there have been very high levels of "particulate matter" in the air over the past few weeks.  It's easy to see the score rise over the past month since the fires started.  A score under 50 on the chart below is considered "good," above 150 is "unhealthy," and over 200 is considered "very unhealthy."  

It also turns out that a score over 150 is considered "not good for triathlon-ing."  The race has been cancelled.  No refunds or anything.

So that kind of stinks.  But the upside is that I get to hang out in California...

More paint

The art in the alley isn't a covert, middle-of-the-night, guys-in-hooded-sweatshirts operation. Here's some artists putting up some new work in the middle of the day.

Here's one... Political commentary? Maybe an environmentalist message? I think there's a Modest Mouse song with lyrics like that.

More apocalyptic talk...

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.  

More graffiti

More from the alley with all the graffiti. This was up a while back.

Graffiti Alley

On my way to work every morning, I walk down a pedestrian alleyway that runs between two stores. The stores are nothing special; a Citibank and a restaurant called Central Kitchen. Over the past few months, the alleyway been painted over dozens of times by really amazing graffiti. I'm assuming it's sanctioned, as the graffiti is pretty professional-looking and stays up for weeks at a time. The art isn't limited to spray paint. There are posters as well. Here's a sampling from over the past few months:

First it's two images of rich Uncle Pennybags with fake "Community Chest" and "Chance" cards. The "Chance" card here reads "Your hedge fund is up 14%..." Nice.


Next, the boxer "Boom Boom" Mancini, who's somehow related to Pedro, I think...