Madd Hatter

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:46:36 GMT

Well, I seem to be creating a baby announcement email list so if you want on it, ya know let me know your email address...

Sledding!

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:27:06 GMT

4:30pm, Hospital Hill, come join the fun!

Ron Howard's Call to Action

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:17:17 GMT

John McCain & The Making of a Financial Crisis

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:31:02 GMT

I'm not much for attack ads but this seemed worth reposting:
(Thanks Bratling)

Travling Gnome

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:27:24 GMT

CNN Video of someone that stolen a garden gnome, traveled around the world with it and then returned it to its owner with pictures.

Bad Day

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:50:48 GMT

IMG_0079
Originally uploaded by hadd_matter

Well, that was our backup internet connection at work...

Cut It Out!

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:45:25 GMT

Well, I've picked a picture (#9) then printed and mounted myself on Friday. Today I got my bike tweaked at the bike store (it was locking up the chain now and then) and then biked to work in the most perfect weather. Now I'm going to sit at a picnic table under a 100 year old copper beach and cut out my cardboard self. I really couldn't complain at all...

Well, ok, I could complain. The house closing was supposed to be the 7th but got pushed off to the 14th and now the selling bank/lawyer thinks they'll have to put it off again... grrr... I really have a bunch of stuff that needs to be done before winter and would really like to close soon!

But, besides that, life is good. :)

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:42:43 GMT

I know, I know, I'm really bad at LJ and I should post about all the big huge important things going on in my life. I'll try to do that sometime soon, but anyway onto even more important things!

View Poll: #1236262

Crap, I forgot Pict 11 and it won't let me edit the poll!

Google Wuz Here!

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:40:29 GMT

Google recently street viewed a lot of the pioneer valley. Northampton isn't as covered as South Hadley but definitely interesting...

Nasty Long Link

EDIT: The photos seem to be from mid-October 2007. I looked at my old house and I can see the Prius in the driveway but the new door is already installed.

w00t!

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:25:30 GMT

Biked to work this morning. Got up at 7am, figure I'd get to work by 8:30am. I primed my bike last night and figured I'd be fine. Front tire was not only flat but the tube and the valve stem had totally separated. I guess the 110psi overnight caused a blow-out. Changed the tire half asleep and was on the road by 7:30. Didn't get to work until 8:45. Pretty bad time for 13ish miles (trip commuter battery also needs replacing). It was a bit cold, but still I feel pretty good. :)

I passed a peddle person on the bike trail. She gave a kind but condescending look, I figure I probably looked pretty frozen at that point because I hadn't warmed up. I think she was saying yeah its cold, but this is nothing, I work year round.

Rockwall Climbing?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:28:09 GMT

So, I finally broke down and got a membership at NAC. Anyone interested in being my rock climbing buddy on their rock wall? Definitely no experience required, I went several years ago before Kiwi moved :( but never got better then doing the easy ones. Probably due to my total lack of upper-body strength... Anyway, I always found it lots of fun even if I'm too weak to be very good...

Saturday Afternoon....

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:50:10 GMT

It so nice an snowy out today! Anyone up for Sledding?

Mega Update

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:53:03 GMT

Thanks to a lot of help from friends, we moved our stuff over the last two weekend and now live in Florence! We haven't had much time to actually unpack much but the new place is nice. Linus is settling in nicely, Chasey not so much. She spends a lot of the day (and night) whining and is so far refusing to use the litter box. I'm not sure what to do about this yet. I really think rt9 is too busy a road to let her out but she seems very unhappy and the neighbors cat seems fine outside. I guess we lived on rt7 growing up which was even more busy and had outdoor cats. Anyway, I think we'll just try to give her more time to adjust for now.

The house closed today. That was unfortunately exciting. The buyers real estate agent took it upon herself to charge us an extra $500 (well, it started at $800) for cleaning. Her arguments were mostly extremely silly. I'm not sure in whose world leaving a plate of cat food, a few bottles in the town owned recycling container and not having moped the kitchen floor are worth $500, nor were they required by the sale seems that said "broom clean". I took pictures of the house before I left and everyone who saw them says it looks fine. Heck a cleaning service wouldn't charge anything close to $500 to list of complaints she had. Anyway, it seems somehow my lawyer and the buyers real estate agent hate each other and were just looking to fight. This story has a lot more details, none of them that interesting. Long story short, I'm out $500, everyone seems upset about it and is blaming everyone else but yet I'm still the one paying. Oh well, gotta keep it in perspective with the big picture. House sold for a decent price in a short period of time in a bad market, got check and it cleared.

On the buying front, we did a home inspection on the place in Northampton. We still really like it but it has major problems, knob and tube electrical, asbestos, etc. We ended up revising our offer and offering less then he owes the bank. Its likely a dead deal but I guess he is still interested in selling if he can talk the bank into covering part of the loss (he is close to foreclosure I suspect). Even so, we are basically assuming this deal is dead, because otherwise we'd get our hopes up.

What else? Work as been fairly busy, so has classes. I'm really looking forward to things slowing down for a little bit. I was really excited to see Jen's belly dancing last night but I was so tired I could barely stay awake... Anyway, thats enough for one post I think I'll take a nap and then try to do some unpacking.

Pictures from the road.

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:43:22 GMT

IMG_0014
Originally uploaded by hadd_matter

I'm trying out this whole Flickr thing. One day I'll be as good at this as Jen. I really should take more pictures...

Moving! Part I & II

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:01:57 GMT

I think Jen and I are going to try to move over the next two Saturdays (10/20 and 10/27), probably something like 10am-4pm. Its only about 13 miles, South Hadley Center to Florence Center. If you are interested in helping either day send me an email or show up! If not, thats cool too but please don't post, I'm really not interested in a thread of conversation about moving yourself vs professionals, etc...

B Movie!

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:12:16 GMT

It looks like bees built a hive on my webcam housing:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/webcams/10914.shtml

When will HyperColor t-shirts coming back in style?

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:15:07 GMT

If you get the chance, see the documentary film King of Kong. One of the best films I've seen this year.

Save the Enviroment, Buy a SUV?

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:36:41 GMT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270161208439

On the one side it makes some sense, "After performing at Live Earth and realizing everyone has a role to play in protecting the environment, Fergie decided to sell her HUMMER and donate all the proceeds to Global Green USA. Auction Cause is also donating carbon emission credits for 10 years to help offset the impact."

On the other side, um, thats odd... Its a little like buying cigarettes to help kids stop smoking since cigarette companies pay for those don't smoke ads...

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:13:18 GMT

Music Genome Project

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:38:46 GMT

I've been playing a bit with: http://www.pandora.com/

Its pretty cool. You create "radio stations" of groups you like and it plays other songs it thinks you'd probably like. In one test I told it I liked "Arrogant Worms" and it played me a good worms song and then played a Moxy Fruvous song. I told it I liked Soul Coughing and it played a crappy Death Cab for Cutie song so I said I didn't like it and it poofed it away and picked a pretty cool song from Cornershop.

But this seems to be a really cool music stream of good songs for me. You can also have it mix up different "radio stations" for variety...

Shameless Plugs.

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:37:48 GMT

So, I'm trying to sell some stuff... I figured I'd add a shameless plug here.

1995 Acura Integra on eBay:
5 speed, red, power windows, power locks, moonroof, a few small problems
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=150135977431&rd=1&rd=1

1975 Mercedes-Benz 300D with GreaseCar Kit:
http://www.greasecar.com/clasi_view.cfm?adID=6158
http://moocow.jennylisa.com/merc300d

Oh yeah, and a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1197sq ft house on .3 acres in South Hadley, MA.
No webpage yet but let me know if you are interested, I'd love to avoid realtor fees... :)

Huh? What? Where am I? What time is it?

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:11:54 GMT

I'm physically back from China. Jet-lag and sleep deprivation have made me very mentally spacey. Hopefully I'll still make it to work tomorrow as planned.

China was absolutely amazing! I was extremely lucky to have a great group of people to travel with and an amazing guide. We managed to see a lot of very different and cool areas, companies and nightlife. I'll try to include a more detailed write-up with pictures when I figure out where my brains went...

I logged into my email for the first time in 2 weeks. 5000 unread email. I'll probably be slow to respond to that too...

Haven't actually read any LJ either. I'll try to go back at some point and read it but if I missed anything important let me know...

Books!

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:42:54 GMT

When I was a child I read much slower then my brother or mother who were always reading. As such I developed some sort of odd childhood thing where I kept every book I read as a trophy of accomplishment. After moving around a lot in college I realized this was a really silly (and heavy) idea. But for whatever reason I still continue to buy a lot of books and they slowly accumulate on my shelfs. Last night makaer was suggesting setting up some sort of friends inter-person loan and review website which in my slightly drunk state sounded like a really cool idea. But while cleaning today I figured the more practical thing to do was a combination of Makaer's idea and what rumorofrain has been doing. I've decided to write a book review of five books on live journal each week and then give the book to whomever writes a comment asking for it first. I'm mostly hoping I'll be able to just give them to people I see in person, but if you ask really nicely I might mail it to you.

So, here we go:

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner - This book has gotten a lot of well deserved press. As a econ major in college I always loved looking at economic theory from different angles. Part economics, part statistics and part pop culture this book is fabulous. This book isn't written for the academic and doesn't spend a lot of time in the nitty details but it puts forth some interesting and controversial hypotheses about abortion, sumo wrestling, cheating on standardized tests and the economics of crack dealing in some very interesting was and tries to back them up with economic analysis. Definitely a must read if you haven't read it.

How to be invisible by J. J. Luna - Luna has spent his life hiding from people and has tried to write a practical guide to making yourself anonymous in todays world. I'm not sure I'd recommend doing anything this guy says. A lot of it involves how to get a mailing location not attached to your real identity, how to create shell corporations to register cars and buy houses, and how to bank anonymously. Its a silly book written by someone who is truly overly paranoid for people that are paranoid. Most of the things recommend take a fair bit of work and while not illegal are a bit shady, if you loose your shell corporation paperwork, how do you prove you own your house/car? Anyway, its a quick read and somewhat interesting if you have an odd fascination with how people can be tracked and found which for some reason I do.

Dianetics by L.Ron Hubbard - Horrible book. I can't actually recommend this to anyone. Well, actually I guess I can, in only that I like to try to learn about odd things and Scientology is definitely odd. I tried really hard to read this book. I got a good way through it. It is mind numbingly stupid. But I think if I hadn't tried to read it I couldn't defend my arguments about how scientology is just silly. I think its worth trying to read only to really fully understand the extent of the silliness...

Denial and Deception, an insider's view of the CIA from iran-contra to 9/11 by Melissa Boyle Mahle - Mahle was fired from the CIA and it comes through very clearly in her somewhat one sided personal "tell all" about the CIA. Only it isn't a "tell all" because the CIA had to review and censor everything she wrote before it was printed. The book definitely gives you some perspective into the real life of a CIA agent and some ideas of what happened to the agency over time as politics and the world shade its mission and goals. Most of it isn't really that shocking. Although I found it interesting to read about the eb and flow of how much power and how agents operated changed so dramatically depending on who was in charge and how much influence the acting president had at times and how little at others. It gives you a different perspective on how Regan, Bush, Clinton and Bush used the CIA and the inside politics involved.

Franklin and Winston by Jon Meacham - Not sure who else on my friends list would like this one besides makaer. Before W. and Blair there was Franklin and Winston. Meacham does a decent job of analyzing the relationship between these two leaders. I found it to be a really interesting perspective of WWII which concentrated more on the personalities and interactions of world leaders then the politics or military actions. As interesting as it is, its not a page turner. Meacham does a good job of covering the subject but I think you really have to be interested in history otherwise you might find it a bit boring.

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:43:31 GMT

dr_fritz posted a link to the TED Talks. I highly recommend them. A few aren't very good and a few are amazing. Yesterday I ran into this one that I found very interesting: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/97

A few other good ones:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/31
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/49
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/53

Unfortunately I've only had time to watch a few dozen of these so please if you check it out and watch one you really liked comment with the URL so I can watch it too!

Acres of screen real estate!

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:52:58 GMT

So, I try not to post too much geek stuff here but...

My work desktop machines haven't been upgraded since 2002. My linux one died in January and I decided it was time to get a Vista capable machine and then make my old windows machine my new linux machine (because linux uses a lot less horsepower). Anyway, as part of this purchase I got new monitors (my old one was a first generation 17" LCD). I'm now running dual 20" 1600x1200 displays. Holy crap. I'm lost on my own screen! This is amazing!