Aside

Instapundit points to this piece in FP, basically pointing out that, gee, Arabs aren’t culturally backwards. People of Arab descent living in the United States are doing far better than the average American. That is the surprising conclusion drawn from data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000 and released last March. The census found that U.S. residents who report having Arab ancestors are better educated and wealthier than average Americans. Whereas 24 percent of Americans hold college degrees,…

Greetings from the Hudson Bay CafŽ, a reliable source of WiFi, on the corner of Hudson and College in North Oakland. This will be my new Internet fix until my Internet gets going by next week. Their hot chocolate leaves something to be desired. But this nabe is really fantastic. Pendragon’s and Diesel Books are within walking distance, as is George & Walt’s, a local bar I want to try out. The house is getting set up, bit by bit.…

I’m back in B-town. Or rather, technically, Oaktown, at my new digs in North Oakland, which are totally sweet. For the record, Maria and Lauren are awesome for coming to pick me up and Rich and Boyk are awesome for helping me move my brother’s stuff the other night. I won a pair of free tickets from KALX to this show at 12 Galaxies in the Mission on Wednesday night. First person who emails me who wants them can have…

Contrary to popular belief, I actually do like New York. But, as I’ve said many times, I’m not in love with it. Here, my mind has been on California pretty much the whole time since I’ve been here. A California Republic flag hung over my bed, a large state map hung on the opposite wall, and a photo of the San Francisco skyline adorns my laptop background. Since the time that I left, I’ve always said that unless I had…

This is the big university graduation, where we wear caps and gowns. The J-schoolers traditionally wave/throw torn up newspaper. (SIPA students wave foreign flags. Business students wave money. Public Health students throw condoms.) The girl next to me is my good friend Jennifer Weiss. She almost didn’t go to graduation. She also plays a mean piano down at The Underground. 🙂

I thought I’d spread this through my circle of friends. I saw this somewhere else, but was reminded of it from MeFi. 1. The person (or persons) who passed the baton to them. 2. Total volume of music files on their computer. 3. The title and artist of the last CD they bought. 4. Song playing at the moment of writing. 5. Five songs they have been listening to of late (or all-time favorites, or particularly personally meaningful songs) 6.…

Jim Leff (the Alpha Hound of Chowhound) — has just compiled a new book of great chow in the Bay Area! There will be a signing at Cody’s Telegraph on May 23 (Monday) at 7:30 pm! Come one! Come all! Apparently Boyk and I are in it, on page 293, but I haven’t seen it yet. 🙂

Dear Mr. Farivar, I had just said to a friend, “How do I get into pod-casting?” when I opened MacWorld magazine and found your article! BRAVO! I was up and running in a heartbeat. As a former radio broadcasting, I am excited that I don’t have to write a treatment for my show, just turn on the Imac and I’m off and running. Do you have an article about getting sound from your old cassettes (airchecks) onto your computer so…

Hi Cyrus: Was just looking at your April 21 Macworld article about Audacity (http://www.macworld.com/2005/04/secrets/junecreateside/index.php), in which you state that Audacity doesnÕt export directly to MP3. In my experience, however, version 1.2.3 of the program does! (Try ÒFile/Export As MP3Ó). I use this feature to convert files for my podcast directly from .aup format to MP3, which IÕve found gives me better results than iTunes. That said, I also read your piece in the June 2005 Macworld and think it does…

I’ll be home in 48 hrs. I can’t wait! 🙂