Aside

An LJer from Minnesota had a neat idea: Today a coworker of mine had a thought to send flowers to a random couple waiting in line at SF city hall. He called a florist and they agreed to do it. He told them to deliver to any couple — it didn’t matter who — standing in line to get married, with his blessing. The card will read simply “With love, from Minneapolis, Minnesota.” Once they understood, they were very touched…

Wow! The OCF is back up!

So I forgot — I have an extra free ticket (UCB students [or people who can pass as students, like Maria]) for the event tomorrow night in Zellerbach, with John Carroll (one of the editors at the LA Times) and Michael Krasny, the host of KQED-Forum. 7:30 pm tomorrow night. Any takers?

Lots of things from the blogosphere today that are noteworthy (in the order I read them): Boing Boing posted about a study about free Wi-Fi, confirming what I had suspected, which is that free Wi-Fi leads to more business, and pay Wi-Fi leads to less business. When I lived in Palo Alto over the summer, I used to go to La Crème de Café on Loma Verde and Middlefield Ave. because they had free Wi-Fi (and also pay Wi-Fi, which…

Darpa Offers No Food for Thought: Soldiers’ moms will no doubt be horrified. But the Pentagon is looking into ways for GIs to fight for up to five days — without eating a single meal. During a mission, soldiers in the field typically don’t have the time, or the inclination, to chow down. That lack of food can affect their battlefield performance. So Darpa, the U.S. military’s far-out research arm, wants scientists to figure out if soldiers can operate at…

I’ve been listening to Mozart’s 9th Piano Concerto, and I skipped over the second movement (Andante) because I think that it’s boring, so I have a question to pose to all you music-fans of all stripes: Why is it so difficult to write slow music that is powerful and good without being cheezy and/or boring? The main classical pieces that I can think of that are slow and also good are: “Colonial Song” – Percy Grainger “Amazing Grace” – Traditional…

Wow, two pentaquerys at once, from mifune and from odd_dog, respectively: [If you want your own pentaquery, let me know in comments.]

I’m about to head out for LAX, after having about an hour-long discussion with my parents about my future and present. Basically, what I gather is that they don’t know what I do, and will never be satisfied and so I’ll just continue doing what I’m doing and when I win a Pulitzer, then I’ll laugh at them. Until then, I’ll just keep my own successes to myself. Argh, I know they mean well, but they annoy me to no…

This weekend as a whole has been somewhat quiet and subdued. I woke up around noon and eventually Rachel and I headed out for The Apple Pan for lunch which is always a local favorite. I decided that one thing that would improve their burgers is better buns — like a sesame bun or a whole wheat bun — their buns have about all the flavor of my elementary school cafeteria. Following that we decided to head out to Silver…

Rachel and I made it to LA without a hitch. It’s been sorta cold and quiet so far, though. We walked down Montana Ave. today and popped in a few stores that I only go into when I’m showing people around — one had a large Senegalese woven basket for sale at $79 — you could buy the exact same one in Senegal for about $8. Also, Sunaree pointed out that there are bills forward to resurrect the draft. If…