In Colorado
I'm in Colorado this week - doing GOTV stuff in Arapahoe County (East of Denver) Monday and Tuesday, hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park on Wednesday and maybe, just maybe getting some work done on Thursday - not looking likely, though.
The tensions are high here, for sure. Canvassing yesterday didn't involve trying to change any votes, just going to registered Dems and reminding them to vote today or telling them where they can drop off a mail-in ballot if they requested one and haven't mailed it in yet. In CO, you can't drop a mail-in ballot at a polling place, so I may get to drive a few folks to drop theirs off. Also, I'm allowed to take up to 5 mail-ins and drop them off myself. Then again, almost everyone I spoke with yesterday had already sent it in.
Bailout
It's been too long... maybe this bailout will see me working less and blogging more... or things will be just as sporadic as ever
It's weird, I've never found myself agreeing with republicans more than in the last week or two... The current economic situation is really helping me see the difference between politicians who are out for personal gain, like Gramm, vs. those who actually care about their country. And it would appear that there are actually a few on the other side of the aisle who do the latter. Don't get me wrong. I'm wearing an Obama '08 shirt.
Bush's speech last night had this choice quote: "...I faced a choice, to step in with dramatic government action or to stand back and allow the irresponsible actions of some to undermine the financial security of all."
It's funny that when the irresponsible actions of some were making some insanely wealthy that wasn't seen as affecting everyone else or undermining anyone else's financial security... only when those some are getting poor.
Google's CalDAV support
Google starting offering CalDAV support yesterday, which means that I might actually be able to have my Google Calendar be fully synced by both Outlook (available for the last few months) and iCal (new yesterday).
My nerdy excitement was abated when I found that I was in the small percentage of users affected by one of the known issues (see below). Hopefully Jobs gets this resolved so that I can get things done... wait... I probably could have gotten a lot done by just not bothering to type this up.
Known Issue
Google Calendar events don't appear in iCal
For a small percentage of Google Calendars, a certain iCal bug will prevent your events from appearing inside the iCal application. We've notified Apple of the issue, and hope that they'll fix it soon.
Update
It just started working a few days ago - no idea why, but now the syncing is completely automatic between Blackberry, Outlook, iCal and Google Calendar. Now if they can just get my contacts to sync between phone, Outlook, Gmail and Address Book I'll be overjoyed.
The Ting Tings: like a Brit Pop version of Viva Voce - Photo: http://bkite.com/011kt
Greg
Some people go to shows to hear the album. If the band sounds any different, they're disappointed. I tend to look for something else when I see a band live - switching instruments, guests, covers, etc. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't be there if I didn't like their album and I'm fine with hearing it, but there's something left to be desired if I just end up hearing the CD at a higher volume than the neighbors would allow me to play at home.
The Ting Tings show last night sounded like a CD - and likely this is because there are only two band members, but I could distinctly pick out at least 4 different instruments most of the time. What this means is that there's a loop somewhere that's being controlled by someone. Where's the spontaneity in that?
At one point, the drummer did play the guitar and drum and sing at the same time. But there was still a mysterious bass guitar sound going on that I never saw, loads of handclaps and even an invisible steel drum/xylophone. I trust that they birthed all the music themselves at some point in the studio - so I don't deny their talent. I just wish they would have thrown a DJ up on stage to put a face to the loops and make me believe that those loops could stop and start at any time.
Their boy-girl pairing reminded me of back in the day when I saw Viva Voce. They also have a male drummer and female guitarist and both sing. The only difference (besides general musical style) is that Viva Voce's guitarist whips ass by playing a double-neck and the drummer actually controls the various loops that they have on a sweet little trigger setup that he hits with his feet and drumsticks. No mystery man behind a curtain for them.
Picture Post
From the set Here
Where Hans Christian Andersen is buried
The courtyard outside of a library (it was quite quiet)
The meal that requires a shot of peppermint schnapps. Delightful!
Part of an exhibition at the Danish Design Center
Waiting at the train station for R - I've probably spent a good 5 hours of my life waiting at that station in the two times I've been to CPH
Copenhagen 2
We spent another long day wandering around with some other folks that we met who are coming to the wedding on Saturday.
We were able to buy a SIM card yesterday for 100K (~$20) that gave us a local number and makes it infinitely easier to keep up with those that we meet. I'm glad I got the phones unlocked a few months ago.
In the morning we went to Illum to pick up our wedding present for the couple. I managed to completely misunderstand where R had remembered it being from our trip to Copenhagen last summer - but after a little extra walking we found our way.
We brought the gift back to our flat and then headed over to Christanshavn to meet with new friends and be horrible tourists by investigating Freetown Christiania, a separate community within Copenhagen that is basically a commune where people go to buy and smoke pot. To put it plainly, it was interesting, but I wouldn't eat there. Definitely read up on the Wikipedia article as it's interesting. It's a place that was allowed to declare its independence and build its own society. What depresses me is that whenever people are allowed to self govern, they seem to to lean towards drugs and bad hair cuts (i.e. rat tails).
After our exploration, we hit up lunch on a little dock along the main canal in Christianshavn. I experimented with a Smorgasbord of pickled herring that, according to our waiter "must bet taken with Schnapps because it's quite fatty". He told me this as he produced a bottle of Schnapps, poured me a shot and explained how to create the ideal bite. This gave me my million dollar idea of creating a Schnapps diet to help people lost weight. Ask me about "Six Minute Schnapps" sometime. I'm sure I'll be able to convince you that you'll look younger and drunker.
Post-lunch, I took a jet-lag nap back at the flat before R headed out to the bachelorette party. After she left, I caught up on bloggery and such before wandering around and grabbing dinner with K who is another "significant other of girl involved in wedding nonsense".
I've noticed some very interesting things about Denmark in my second visit here:
- People are really good looking here
- No, really. Even the cops are hot
- Everyone rides bicycles all the time. I feel weird walking around as there are very few pedestrians. Tomorrow, I rent a bike.
- Everything closes at 6pm, but everyone stays outside until the sun goes down at 10pm
- Jaywalking is a big no-no. No one does it. You can be at a stop light with no cars (or bikes) in sight and the three people with you on the corner will wait patiently for the walk symbol for two minutes. Bikes also stop at stoplights (unheard of in DC)
- Everyone speaks English and probably has better grammar... than you... do.
- Sweden is to Denmark as Canada is to the US
All for now - hopefully some pictures tomorrow when R gets back with the camera.
Copenhagen
R and I are in Copenhagen this week for our friends' wedding. I brought the machine and have found an open Wi-Fi connection to steal from our flat - so hopefully my updates will be more frequent than when I'm on normal trips... but then, who am I kidding. I'm going to start going out at night with other wedding guests and completely ignoring the computer in a few hours.
Right now we're off to a cemetery (http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Assistens_Cemetery) and then across town to Christiania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania).
What I've been up to lately
I was originally just going to complain about how I've been spending far too much time on web development stuff, but now I realize that the time would be better spent describing the things that I'm doing outside of work. Let's see here:
- Kickball season started up again.
- I tried hashing the other week, which is loads of fun. The dc group is here and a wikipedia entry on what it's all about can be found here
- I went to see Hot Chip the other week - good show
- skipping the gym due to illness
- checking out twittearth
- various other shenanigans
Projects
- Tweeple You May Know - a javaScript app for finding people you may know on twitter based on who you already follow and who they follow.
- Twitter For Netflix - an app that allows you to add movies to your Netflix queue from Twitter
- Twittermeter - a proof-of-concept (sort-of) for measuring word occurrence on Twitter. out of commissions because I'm too cheap for databases and the fire-hose feed from Twitter is turned off.
Micro-blog
elgreg: Dad and stepmom called. After years trying to ignore my advice, they are finally switching to mac. This must be how proud parents feel.
elgreg: @LeHalfrican #beerme?
elgreg: @incanus77 Effffffing slick, dude!
elgreg: Must. Leave. Office. For. Beverage.
elgreg: @bsem80 @emulch #cheapBeerYou
elgreg: @crowls Wish I could say the same re: my Veronica Mars addiction...
elgreg: @crowls If you're going to insult Veronica Mars, you'll catch hell from me, @robodc, @Jeff_Poops_on_U and at least a dozen other fans.
elgreg: @bartknows Ha! was just watching this Google Tech Talk today: http://is.gd/f1fFM
elgreg: @netflix #dontarguejustacceptit: The Three Amigos is the greatest movie ever made.
elgreg: @corbett3000 It's totes the best hun-cal fro-yo.