2005

My Wired article can be read here.

Photo by: Sarmad Ali January 4, 2005 Cyrus on the Capitol Corridor, somewhere between Emeryville, Calif. and Sacramento, Calif., working on a piece for The New York Times.

I’m usually the first to have zero fashion sense and one who favors comfort over style and I generally don’t care about what I, or other people wear. But I will say, that this piece in the WashPost says a lot about our attitude towards the world. The vice president, however, was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower. Cheney stood out in a sea of black-coated world leaders because he was wearing…

Got three freelance assignments to work on, not to mention my classes. Yikes. It’s good to be busy. Oh, and that silly little thesis to worry about as well. Not to mention Estonia! Speaking of which, I did my first interview for that today and I found out that one of the key bits in this piece is fundamentally wrong. Estonia never declared Internet access as a human right. It’s so prevalent that it’s practically a human right, but people…

So, I was looking at my calendar, and I realized that as I’d set it up I was only going to have four business days which is sorta short for going across the Atlantic. I called up American, and so for about $40 more in taxes and longer travel time, I have six full business days in Tallinn. Sounds like a fair deal to me. Depending on what can be achieved on the weekend in Tallinn, I may take a…

Argh. I’m listening to Bush on the radio, and he DOESN’T ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS! I point you now to this gem from Matt Loker of The Daily Californian: The simple fact is this: Kerry spent record amounts of money, collected the endorsements of basically everyone except Chuck Norris and still lost to a guy who talks like heÕs giving a sixth grade report on something he didnÕt study. ÒMr. President, how do you feel about Indonesian President YudhoyonoÕs recent actions…

Holy crap. It’s really happening. The Wanderlust Geek in me is finally getting satisfied. I’m going to Estonia (!!!) to for a week in March to do some research for my book writing class. Best part? I have enough frequent flier miles to do it and so I only pay taxes. Final flight cost? $50 Wow, (not counting Canada) I haven’t been out of the country since I came back from Senegal in May 2003. Tallinn, here I come! (Anyone…

Is the hed of my latest article for Wired, on page 48 of the Feb. 2005 issue. It’s about Toland Grinnell, an NYC artist. I just got back from Hartford, and had to take the real Chinese bus, and not the one I’d paid for, which had been cancelled. I was at the Hartford train/bus station and saw all these Chinese people scrambling into a van. About 15 minutes of broken English, $22, and a few hours later, I found…

LA Times: SACRAMENTO Ñ As a Ventura County public defender, Liana Johnsson has handled many life-changing cases, but her biggest public crusade these days has been going topless. For months, Johnsson has been fighting to allow topless women at California beaches and parks, and now the issue has made its way to the Capitol. A group of lawyers, at Johnsson’s request, has asked the Legislature to make topless sunbathing legal, saying the ban is the last criminal sanction that treats…

I’m back in Hartford for the weekend — Heidi returns on Sunday. It’s supposed to drop a ton (read: 1-2 feet) of snow up and down the East Coast this weekend, from Boston to NYC and perhaps further. That should be interesting to say the least. I’m not taking too well to the cold, but over break I did score this really nice coat of my Dad’s from 30 years ago when he lived in England. He’s worn it only…