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I’m sending the Ultimate Water Gun to Brunswick, Maine today, so that a sophomore named Matt Cowger can use it for a Bowdoin College beach party. Unfortunately, sometime during the last year, the o-ring that seals the tank has gotten elderly, and needs to be re-greased. Curse of a Meyers-Briggs INTP: I immediately rushed out…

Diffusing Violence in Schools On Sunday, Kate and I went to the Miss Manhattan Scholarship Competition to see my co-worker Alice Bugman compete. I hadn’t realized that “Scholarship Competition” is post-nineties code for “Beauty Pageant.” Anyhow, this was the real beauty pageant deal, you betcha! Nineteen contestants donned swimsuits, sang, performed gymnastics, answered questions drawn…

Ming the Merciless, Darth Vader, and Tintin Have a Posse Saturday was a big shopping day. Here’s what I got, in order of purchse: A grey velour pillow carefully embroidered with an Imperial Walker, from Ssur Plus. Ssur’s store is right under my apartment, and for as long as I’ve lived on Spring street, I’ve…

Krishost, my Web host in Kuala Lumpur, upgraded my box from NT to Windows 2000, with the unfortunate result that all my files after February 16 got lost (cf. the broken images below.) Also, my Webcam is down. Ugh!

You Talkin’ to Me…? The Ultimate Water Gun came back from California today — thanks, Dan’s Mom, you know who you are! Its next destination is Bowdoin College in Maine, then Manhattan, Kansas, then on stage for a show at Six Flags over Mid-America. I’m pretty happy with the quality of the requests for the…

I got my motorcycle permit! I went down to the DMV office at 8:30 AM this morning, answered 20 questions about railroad crossing signs, blood alcohol content, and glare on wet pavement, and came back with a flimsy piece of paper that means I have a new expensive hobby! I signed up for Motorcycle Safety…

There’s no Berlitz course for Manhattan. I get breakfast at the 810 Deli every morning on my way to work. Today there was a cashmere-coated cellphone executive with a leather briefcase at the register. “No, TWO SANDWICHES!” he was saying with an air of exasperation. The Greek clerk behind the register was stonefaced. “Yes, egg…

Cool guy with a hat http://user.tninet.se/~prv247/p/hatt/hatten.swf Click on this link immediately. The translation of the subtitles, as given to me by Nikolas Makelberge (who sits in the cubicle outside my door; you can sometimes see him in my webcam:) The hat is yours / The hat is yours / Lalalalalala / Cool guy with a…

My mom e-mailed me about the picture of her and her brother Bob below. Here’s what she had to say: “After the Japanese invaided Pearl Harbor, my father enlisted in the Army, though he was over 30, and had two children. He was sent to officers’ candidate school (OCS), after which he went to the…

I’m sitting behind the one-way glass of a corporate usability lab, watching people off the street navigate through Web sites (I’m posting this using my Palm and Omnisky modem.) There’s a funny voyeuristic thrill to sitting in the bleachers of the observation room. As odd as the process is, though, it really works – by…