Speaking in parentheses

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I don’t think I used enough parenthetical remarks (like these [which I tend to use a lot when writing {or even speaking (see?)}]) in that last post, so this one should fill my quota for the week.

Linky love

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After getting a comment from Iki about the Homeland Security Chokers, I wandered over to her site (er…his site? I think Iki’s a ‘she’, though, this being the ‘net, Iki could be a secret super-evolved marmoset [which, incidentally, would probably be really cute] and I’d never know) and noticed that I’d been chosen as Iki’s Aortal site of the week (you can see the link midway down the sidebar)!

I thought that was fairly cool, and, never being one to let a good deed go unpunished, I wanted to promote sending a little traffic Iki’s way, too. So, here you go Iki — with my readership, you might get, oh, three or four more hits from this! ;)

And for what it’s worth, I think Entertainment Weekly temporary tattoos could be the new trend for the summer season.

Harry Potter Uno

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Ooers — there’s a Harry Potter Uno game that looks really cool! I found this review from sirriamnis:

Game Review: Harry Potter Uno is more vicious and high-scoring than the normal Uno game. This is due in part to:

Draw 2s are now Draw 3s.

There are two new cards, the Howler which is wild and will let you see all of another player’s hand (Ok, technically they’re supposed to shout out their entire hand, but with the sizes of the hands we were accumulating last night, not really practical) and the Invisibility Cloak card, also wild, which lets you cancel the action of any card played on you like Draw 3s, Draw 4 Wilds, Reverses, Skips, what have you.

I think the Howler contributes most to this. As it was used multiple times to let us see what an Uno-ed player’s remaining card was, and then we heaped on the new cards with glee.

We had some massively big scoring hands last night. But a good time was had by all.

I’m ordering one for me right now…

4th of July, Gas Works Park, Seattle

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Flying kites at Gas Works Park

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day — clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-80’s — so after enjoying being able to sleep in on a day off of work, I caught a bus over to Gas Works Park to go play in the sun and watch the fireworks.

I got to the park about 5:30pm or so, and walked in just behind the big hill that is apparently one of the prime kite-flying spots in Seattle. The downwind side of the hill was filled with kids and adults flying kites. Amusingly, the kids homemade paper kites often seemed to be far more successful than the fancy store-bought kites that the adults were trying to fly!

I wandered around for a while peoplewatching (and oh, the people that were there to be watched — have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy summertime in Seattle?) and snapping pictures. Earlier in the day I’d talked to Rick on the phone, and he’d told me that he’d probably find me at the park. At the time I laughed, as there tend to be thousands of people wandering around, but suddenly he popped up beside me, with a simple “Told ya so!” for a hello.

How does he do that?

Anyway, I joined Rick and Heather at the spot they’d picked out, and just kicked back with them for the rest of the evening. We were sitting right by the water, and as things got later and later, we had a blast listening to the police boats try to keep all the private boats from cruising through the restricted area of the lake. Apparently the huge floating orange sign alerting boat owners of the closed off area of the lake wasn’t working too well, as the police boats were constantly having to chase people down and shoo them back to the north end of Lake Union (“No! Not that north! Your other north!”).

Fireworks go BOOM!

The sun eventually went down, and as the sky got darker and darker, more and more people stopped their games and found places to sit and watch the show. Round about 10pm the festivities got started. We were treated to the usual über-schmaltzy rendition of the national anthem, a performance by a brass band of some sort (we weren’t in the right area to actually see what was going on, and I don’t remember exactly what the announcer said they were). Then, after a couple moments of quiet, the explosions started.

I’ve heard from a couple people that this is one of the better fireworks displays in the northwest, and having seen it from the park twice now, I’d certainly believe it! All the fireworks are launched off of a barge in the middle of the lake, and by watching from the park, you’re actually close enough to feel the concussion from the explosions. Absolutely huge bursts of color and light filling the sky, and the echoes of the explosions rebounding throughout the natural amphitheater around the lake — it’s quite an experience!

Once the show was done Rick, Heather and I worked our way out of the park. I was going to catch a ride with them, but then noticed that I was right next to a bus stop as the bus I needed to catch was coming down the street, so I said my goodbyes and let them head on their way. Jumped on the bus just in time, too — the stop I was at only had about fifteen people at it, but the next stop had enough to fill the bus to capacity and necessitate leaving a good-sized group behind! Traffic, of course, made the ride home take forever, but I made it eventually, and fell into bed.

All in all, a good 4^th^ of July day. Many more pictures of the day are posted in my photo gallery — enjoy!

Government Information Awareness

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The Government Information Awareness website just might be one of the coolest things I’ve stumbled across recently, thanks to this article from Wired News.

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness , or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and numerous online sources. Currently the database contains information on more than 3,000 public figures.

The premise of GIA is that if the government has a right to know personal details about citizens, then citizens have a right to similar information about the government.

GIA was inspired by the federal government’s Terrorist Information Awareness, or TIA, program.

[…]

GIA allows people to explore data, track events, find patterns and build profiles related to specific government officials or political issues. Information about campaign finance, corporate ties and even religion and schooling can be accessed easily. Real-time alerts can be generated when news of interest is breaking.

“History shows that when information is concentrated in the hands of an elite, democracy suffers,” said Csikszentmihályi. “The writers of the Constitution told us that if people mean to be their own governors, they must arm themselves with information. This project brings that American spirit of self-governance into the era of networked information technology.”

GIA site users can submit information about public figures and government programs anonymously. In an attempt to ensure the accuracy of submitted data, the system automatically contacts the appropriate government officials and offers them an opportunity to confirm or deny submitted data.

But like an FBI file, information is not purged if the subject denies its veracity; the denial is simply added to the file. McKinley wryly added that those government officials who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear from GIA.

I spent a few minutes poking around on the GIA website, and I’ve gotta say, this is an impressive, and potentially extremely useful site. For examples, take a look at their pages for Seattle Representative Jim McDermott, or Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Unfortunately, their page for President George Bush leaves a bit to be desired just yet.

Anyway, good stuff, and a great project.

America starts to wake up

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Public opinion of the war in Iraq is starting to shift — most prominently at the military bases that have supplied the troops currently stationed in Iraq.

“I want my husband home,” Ms. Leija, a mother of three children, said. “I am so on edge. When they first left, I thought yeah, this will be bad, but war is what they trained for. But they are not fighting a war. They are not doing what they trained for. They have become police in a place they’re not welcome.”

Military families, so often the ones to put a cheery face on war, are growing vocal. Since major combat for the 150,000 troops in Iraq was declared over on May 1, more than 60 Americans, including 25 killed in hostile encounters, have died in Iraq, about half the number of deaths in the two months of the initial campaign.

Frustrations became so bad recently at Fort Stewart, Ga., that a colonel, meeting with 800 seething spouses, most of them wives, had to be escorted from the session.

“They were crying, cussing, yelling and screaming for their men to come back,” said Lucia Braxton, director of community services at Fort Stewart.

The signs of discomfort seem to be growing beyond the military bases. According to a Gallup poll published on Tuesday, the percentage of the public who think the war is going badly has risen to 42 percent, from 13 percent in May. Likewise, the number of respondents who think the war is going well has dropped, from 86 percent in May to 70 percent a month ago to 56 percent.

(via xowie)

BlogShares (what's the point?)

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I just got an e-mail from Blogshares telling me that I’d been given 50 shares of The Book of FSCK as Jonas empties his portfolio. This gives me a cash balance of \$1,106.43, and my portfolio totals \$152,415.64 with shares in four blogs (two of which are mine). The funny thing is, I really haven’t got the faintest clue what all that means.

I signed up for BlogShares a few months ago, when it first appeared on the weblog scene. At the time, I didn’t bother making any sort of announcement about it — I just added the BlogShares button to my site, figuring that I’d come back to it later and figure it all out. The thing is, since then, I’ve more or less just ignored it — I’ve stopped in a time or two and poked around at my statistics, but little to none of them ever made much sense to me. So, I just kept ignoring it.

End result? Not the foggiest! My share price seems to have been fairly stable, though my valuation has been bouncing up and down drastically. Why? Beats me. It’s all voodoo, as far as I can tell. Kirsten and D have both given me a bit of advice from time to time, but none of it ever really sunk into my head. Guess it’s a good thing I don’t try to play the real stock market, huh? ;)

Jonas seems to be pulling out due to the introduction of artefacts. What they are or what they do to the game, though, I can’t tell you, the explanation made just as much sense to me as the rest of this whole thing.

I guess for now, I’ll just keep ignoring it. It doesn’t seem to be helping or hurting me — it’s all funny money, anyway — and it gives me something to poke at when I’m bored.

Hm.

\<poke>

\<poke>

Nope. Still clueless.