tweaked people (filler)
sometimes polly esther hits a little close to home.
(Wednesday, August 30, 2000)

xootr (fast company)
I need to start riding my Xootr again. It's fun, and there's a little four stair in the office that would be perfect for trying to do 360s down.
(Tuesday, August 29, 2000)

nullsoft blackout (inside)
another young hacker finds himself disillusioned in the belly of the corporate beast.
(Monday, August 28, 2000)

vindigo
this is rather cool. now all i need to do is get them to integrate sfhipster with this and i can stop reading the local papers altogether. (though the mercury news has an sf edition now, which makes it the best sf paper by far.)
(Sunday, August 27, 2000)

rauchenberg profile (nyt)
"'Everyone was trying to give up European aesthetics then. That was the struggle, and it was reflected in the fear of collectors and critics. John Cage said that fear in life is the fear of change. If I may add to that: nothing can avoid changing. It's the only thing you can count on. Because life doesn't have any other possibility, everyone can be measured by his adaptability to change.'"
(Sunday, August 27, 2000)

lego sculptures
these are beautiful. looking at the older lego sets reminds one that they were a part of that whole pixelated aesthetic from a couple of decades ago.

the older sets were much clumsier in terms of their accuracy, but far more universal than today's lego sets with lots of specialized bricks and shapes. they may as well just sell a 'landspeeder' brick these days.
(Saturday, August 26, 2000)

poise (simon says)
"The only other thing you must acquire before the season arrives is poise. The brittle, ladylike aesthetic that permeates the fall 2000 collections–think Faye Dunaway in Network–demands that you girls re-evaluate your body language, and quickly! Gone is the gamin! The ingenue is dead! Germaine Greer called it "C**t Power"–but c**t ownership doesn’t guarantee C**t Power. If your fashion sensibility was informed by early 90’s "waif" and "grunge," then you may well be afflicted with the kind of apologetic body language which only a crash course in poise can eradicate. If you want C**t Power (C.P. for short)–and I’m assuming you do–you’d better comport yourself as if you deserve it. You must radiate a poised entitlement."
(Thursday, August 24, 2000)

some veronica wisdom
"I think now that there is a difference between hope and love. They feed each other, but they are not the same.

"Hope involves expectations. Hope expands the heart. Hope makes me feel like anything is possible. And that often feels like love.

"When it's pure, hope is so beautiful. But it comes and goes. That's just the way hope is.

"But love is different. Love is always there. It's permanent."
(Thursday, August 24, 2000)

dancing on the dot com grave (la times)
"In Silicon Valley, last year's dot-com frenzy drove up housing prices, depleted the stock of popular new cars and made it impossible to find a reasonably priced plumber.

"'The price of everything went up last year as if people all assumed that everyone here was rolling in money and could be plucked endlessly,' fumed Jakob Nielsen, a Silicon Valley Web site consultant."
(Wednesday, August 23, 2000)

the conde nast cafeteria (nyt)
"The apparition of corporate deities among the plebes has helped democratize the Condé Nast zeitgeist, some say. Consider, for example, a recent watershed moment in the evolution of the New Culture.

"Several titanium dwellers witnessed the fun when an unidentified subordinate asked several lunching junior editors to vacate a coveted window table "because Ms. Wintour is coming down and needs a booth." That would be Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue. The little people, who were having dessert, flat-out refused. They say they are still drawing paychecks."

I wonder if Van would be willing to take me to lunch there...
(Sunday, August 20, 2000)

jakob cookies
time's running out to get yours! i wonder if they taste vaguely lemon flavored, like the carl cookies did. (i didn't want to eat it, but there was literally no other food in the house and i was starving.)
(Sunday, August 20, 2000)

changing austin (nyt)
"The impact of all this new money on Austin is debated endlessly over breakfast tacos and barbecue dinners. Is the laid-back hipster's paradise doomed to become another mess of a big city? People talk a lot about it, but few end up doing anything."

I last went to Austin in early 1995. I'm sure it's nothing like it was then. Which is too bad, perhaps, but I haven;t seen what it's turned into, so I don't know for sure.
(Sunday, August 20, 2000)

what killed lunch? (chronicle)
"The power lunch went out with Gordon Gecko and slicked back hair," says Jennifer Johnson, a Utah-based authority on virtual offices and telecommuting. "More and more, people see lunch as one of those trappings of the traditional bricks-and-mortar environment. It's so restrictive."

This is why all the places I go to lunch at are always jam-packed, obviously.
(Saturday, August 19, 2000)

water at the north pole! (nyt)
"Some folks who pooh-pooh global warming might wake up if shown that even the pole is beginning to melt at least sometimes, as in the Eocene," Dr. McKenna added.

"The Eocene was the geological period when the world's climate grew significantly warmer. Around 55 million years ago, according to sedimentary and fossil evidence, tropical vegetation spread inside the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Water and jungles dominated the polar environments, and in the generally warm world, mammals for the first time grew in number, size and diversity."
(Saturday, August 19, 2000)

battle of brooklyn (nyt)
this film sounds wonderful. i so want to see it.

luckily, i can maybe get it shown out here. maybe.
(Friday, August 18, 2000)

the new yorker's softball team
"His recaps are delightfully adroit and vivid (and casual - i.e., unsullied by second-guessing or spell checking). Even if you have little interest in the sport, you can enjoy his accounts of the suspicious odor wafting from the High Times Bonghitters team bench, or left-handed lawyer Ed "Kalamity" Klaris clumsily wielding a right-handed mitt, or the "lyrical" collision between factchecker Ben "Babyface" McGrath and editorial assistant Will "Canada" Cohen ("a short but sweet Ringling Brothers tableau"), or the time Whitney "Like Totally" Lawson was "unable to harness her own impressively mighty swing and spun wildly unto her rear before grounding out."
(Wednesday, August 16, 2000)

a place for pessimism (nyt)
"A large body of experimental work has elaborated on the pluses of optimism and positive thinking, which appear to have beneficial effects on performance, social adjustment and some aspects of health. But at least some research supports the notion that in some cases, it may be more useful to see the glass as half empty.

"Dr. Julie Norem, a social psychologist at Wellesley College, for example, has studied "defensive pessimism," a coping strategy that involves setting unrealistically low expectations, then mentally playing out all the possible outcomes of a given situation.

"For instance, Dr. Norem explained, a defensive pessimist is likely to approach a coming public speaking engagement with mounting anxiety. But rather than giving herself a pep talk or using positive imagery to calm herself down, the defensive pessimist will picture herself tripping over the microphone cord, dropping her notes and dissolving into a fit of coughing.

"Yet this anxious reverie will also include plans for avoiding such humiliation, like wearing low heeled-shoes or having a glass of water on the lectern.

"This mental rehearsal tends to make defensive pessimists feel less anxious, and so they actually perform better," Dr. Norem said."
(Tuesday, August 15, 2000)

lunar
this is a great sofa. it's comfortable, too. when i have a larger place one of these will serve as the main piece of seating (and guest bed).
(Tuesday, August 15, 2000)

starbucks backlash (tribune)
"Moore and Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th)—whose ward includes Lincoln Square, and who was himself a target of the protesters last weekend—said the best way to oppose Starbucks, if that's what people want to do, is to patronize local businesses.

"Do everything you can to support them. Back them up with dollars," Schulter said. "Small businesses create a kind of charm and atmosphere, and that's something Starbucks doesn't do."
(Tuesday, August 15, 2000)

evanston fights starbucks (tribune)
Every now and then NIMBYism is actually the best thing possible. The increasing rents here (sometimes increasing as much as 1000%) mean that this city will be filled with national chains, each one siphoning 'our' money to other cities.
(Tuesday, August 15, 2000)

tipping
a pretty confused article, in that it covers a lot of ground but doesn't go very deep ito any of it. but then, it's from the chronicle.
(Tuesday, August 15, 2000)

barbelith
linked because it showed up in my referrer logs, and i like what it looks like.
(Tuesday, August 15, 2000)

rotten business (ecompany)
Owen missed a few things, but maybe the lawyers made him take the juicier bits out. Those aside, the level of hostility directed at the San Francisco office was amazing. There were meetings in which my colleagues got spontaneous nose bleeds from the stress. Not to mention how burnt out everyone involved was by the time the site launched.

Funny enough, I met someone who works for Whole Foods at a party last night. She agreed with my characterization of the executive suite as "a bunch of fuckers." Heh.
(Sunday, August 13, 2000)

los angeles power shifts (nyt)
"In the old days there was a real power structure and it was clearly defined and you knew how to access it," said Gordon Davidson, a founder and artistic director of the Center Theater Group at the Performing Arts Center, home to many of the city's most festive and elite fund-raising galas. "The sad thing now is that we don't have it in the same way. It's a healthy sign, but it means you have to work a lot harder."

He added: "Frankly, it's what makes being here still something of an adventure. The question that I don't really have an answer to is, who is setting the pace?"

i think this is more representative of the rest of the country than this article lets on. it also helps explain the decline of arts-related funding in recent years.
(Sunday, August 13, 2000)

MOVE saga never leaves philly (nyt)
"There has been a scandalous epilogue to the disaster. The gleaming brick replacement houses for the 60 innocent homeowners on Osage Avenue and Pine Street turned out to have been built with construction flaws by a corrupt developer. The houses have cost the city a small fortune -- more than $570,000 for each row house, including an endless wave of faulty repairs. Support walls cracked for lack of basic expansion joints."
(Sunday, August 13, 2000)

eatit.com: jakob nielsen in edible format
"Proof that the harshest medicine should be taken with a little sugar, the Jakob Nielsen shortbread cookie is a yummy alternative to sitting around in your pajamas in the wee hours between dinner and bedtime underlining what you've already seen in the TV Guide or bothering the family cat."
(Friday, August 11, 2000)

bob guccione, jr. interview (ironminds)
"Q: You once claimed that at the end of the day, it all 'comes down to who has the courage to say something worthwhile.' Who’s saying anything worthwhile lately?"

"A: There are still magazines that are doing it. I haven’t read much lately. I think we’re still doing it through Gear. Rolling Stone does important stuff. Esquire and GQ have done the occasional piece. In the age of the Internet — which has substituted print media’s delivery of information — a magazine has to have conviction, personality and depth. Spin had its faults under me. But we never had lack of balls. We fought everyone — from Bob Geldof to the NRA."
(Wednesday, August 9, 2000)

help him find a home
this is the first time i've seen this. if judith had something similar, i'd link to that, too.
(Wednesday, August 9, 2000)

star wars gangsta rap
you've seen already, right? good.
(Wednesday, August 9, 2000)

real estate slowdown (nyt)
"These changes reflect a national trend. Fred Flick, the vice president for research at the National Association of Realtors, said the real estate market nationally was down 6 percent in volume; the association estimates that volume will be down 9 percent by the end of the year. And while it still predicts average price increases at 2 percent to 3 percent this year, that is less than last year's 4 percent."

Unfortunately, prices are still rising. There's been so much office space added to the local market that I am dying for the crash to come, so I can get a lot of space for myself, and the Cinematheque, cheap.
(Wednesday, August 9, 2000)

friend-ex sex (filler)
the first girlfriend i had lost her virginity to the guy who'd been my best friend while i was dating her. so that box on life's bingo card was filled early.
(Wednesday, August 9, 2000)

gm gets hummer (nyt)
Hot on the heels of announcing their commitment to fuel economy, General Motors announces that they want to sell 150,000 Hummers a year. (They have been selling 1,000 a year.)

"The current Hummer has 16 inches of ground clearance, half a foot more than any other mass-market sport utility, and is designed to climb over vertical walls up to 22 inches tall. Federal regulations require car bumpers to be 16 to 20 inches high. So the Hummer's height greatly increases the risk in crashes that the vehicle will ride over cars' bumpers and doors sills and slam into the passenger compartment. And because the Hummer is so heavy, it inflicts far more damage in crashes.

"While future Hummer models will have somewhat less ground clearance and weigh somewhat less, they are being designed with a central goal of "unparalleled off-road performance." So they will still be tall and heavy enough to pose problems for safety engineers like Terry Connolly, G.M.'s director of North American vehicle safety, who said that his office had played little role in the company's Hummer planning and design."
(Sunday, August 6, 2000)

how coke beats rivals (nyt)
The interesting thing is that almost every corporation that sells things to consumers through retail channels does the same things that Coke does. Microsoft and Intel have similar agreements with computer companies, and supermarket endcap displays are all bought by the corporations selling products. Some companies, like Procter and Gamble, are more devious with their strategies to push out the competition: P&G made their cake mix boxes more horizontal to take up more shelf space.
(Sunday, August 6, 2000)

matador redesign
i know this has been up for a while now, but i wanted to link to it anyway. this is a great homepage: flash is used in a nice way, and everything is organized. imagine!
(Friday, August 4, 2000)

electrical breakdown (nyt)
"Still, the state was on the verge of imposing rolling blackouts of homes and businesses. That step has been taken only eight times around the country in the last 17 years, usually because of extreme weather or power plant failures, says the North American Electric Reliability Council, which supervises the Canadian and American power grid.

"What disturbs California utility executives and regulators is that this week's crisis has come even though none of the state's power plants or transmission lines have failed and temperatures around the state have been high but hardly extraordinary."

I think it's time to invest in a solar panel for the laptop, and it's time for businesses to start turning off the lights they don't need during the day.
(Thursday, August 3, 2000)

a battle over fuel efficiency (nyt)
"Ford committed itself last week to improve the average mileage of its sport utility vehicles by almost five miles a gallon over the next five years. General Motors announced today that no matter how much Ford improved the energy efficiency of its sport utilities by 2005, G.M.'s sport utilities would average even more miles to the gallon by then."

This is the kind of corporate war that I love to see happening: who can be more responsible? Let's watch to see how the implementation and follow-through go.
(Thursday, August 3, 2000)

bush, the accidental candidate (nyt)
"Mr. Bush is almost an accidental candidate, a cocky and cheerful fellow who drifted through much of his life and who was largely unknown in the United States until he assumed his first political office five and a half years ago. Yet he now leads the polls and will have, if elected, one of the thinnest résumés in public service of any president in the last century.

"Mr. Bush's exceptional trajectory also means that he remains a riddle wrapped in layers of paradox. It would be too much to describe him as the Republican Party's blind date, but there still is a great deal about his beliefs and leadership style -- about the kind of president he would be -- that remains unknown."
(Thursday, August 3, 2000)

most popular names
1970 was the last year for Richard in the top ten male names. Not too surprising, considering what the sitting President was doing in the years immediately afterward. "Richard" was #25 in the 1900s, #17 in the 1910s, #8 in the 1920s, #5 in the 1930s and 1940s, #7 in the 1950s, #8 in the 1960s, #16 in the 1970s, #27 in the 1980s, and #41 in the 1990s. The name rose and fell in the past century. I wonder if it's due for another resurgence in a decade or two. Not that it's turning into an uncommon name or anything.
(Thursday, August 3, 2000)

oh. my. lord.
there's nothing else to say about this. funny.
(Thursday, August 3, 2000)

cell phone rudeness (la times)
Aquarius Records has a great 'no cell phones' sign that someone sent them from Japan. I'm hoping to find a sticker version to plaster the entire city with.
(Tuesday, August 1, 2000)