tikaro.com

You know you’re a nerd if you get the ‘control-Z’ finger-twitch in your driveway. Just because you’re doing your own work on your bike, I’m learning, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to do it better than someone you’re paying to do it for you. The flawed “it’s always better to do it yourself” axiom…

I am proud to announce that I have performed a BidBoy hat trick, with my third eBay auction listed on BidBoy’s site. This auction is for one of my most prized… …er, one of my cherished… …one of my possessions: a software engineering textbook signed by Gary Coleman himself. I got the signature in January…

My attentiveness to work — my composure on the train — yes, my very usefulness as a person has been ruined by Trogdor the Burninator. Please allow me to explain: I recently discovered Fark.com‘s Photoshop contests. What Slashdot is for the programmers in the dimly-lit coding cube, Fark is for the creatives down the hall…

In a weekend that would have gladdened the heart of Winchester from M*A*S*H, Kate and I went to the benefit for the Young Friends of the Philadelphia Antiques Show, where I got to see Antiques Roadshow celebrity Leigh Keno. Saturday, we went to the Brandywine Valley Association‘s point to point race, which is a cross-country…

I just finished reading One Man Caravan, by Robert Edison Fulton, Jr., the grandson of the Fulton credited with inventing the steamboat, and a pretty big go-getter himself. In 1932, after graduating Harvard and spending a year stuying architecture at Vienna, Fulton brags at a dinner party that he’s going to spend a year riding…

Yeah! I r0x0r! I made it in to BidBoy again! This time with a set of “Caution: Radioactive Material” bags. You know, maybe I’ve discovered my true calling in life. Assuming that my calling is to make one dollar every two weeks. Thanks to [My employer]’s very own Samar H. for modeling the bags for…

This is my new blogchalk:United States, Pennsylvania, West Chester, College Park, English, John, Male, 31-35, Motorcycles, Heavy metal music about European history. 🙂

I read Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead last week; it’s a memoir of his time in the First Marine Expeditionary Force during the Gulf War, and also a more general account of how he became a soldier. It’s a good book. Swofford is very honest, both when it reflects well on him (he was an excellent, dedicated…

Between rain showers on Saturday, I changed the oil on my motorcycle. In fact, I changed the oil filter, too, which is a rung up the ladder, and helped me begin to fulfill Airheads Beemer Club Canon number 6: “Airheads maintain their own motorcycles.” An oil filter change is right up at the front of…

We must speak with one voice against Saddam Hussein’s failure to allow opposing voices to be heard. This has been posted many places by now, but I thought I’d mirror this commentary from NPR: “All right, let me see if I understand the logic of this correctly. We are going to ignore the United Nations…