Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Running with Thieves?

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

After owning an iPhone for only two weeks, I’ve already lost my earphones. Searching for replacements, Google led me to bestofferbuy.com, which I know nothing about. At $3.50 and free shipping, I figured it was too good to be true and went elsewhere.

The interesting part was the “customers also purchased” list:

lockpicks1

Four of the items are related to breaking locks. I wonder if these earphones are popular with people that steal iPhones and iPods.

Carmine’s of Chapel Hill

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

It looks like my (mild) promotion of the term gluten freendly hasn’t caught on, but I have discovered another gluten freendly local restaurant. Carmine’s of Chapel Hill is a new Italian restaurant in the space that used to be Sal’s Pizza. I haven’t eaten in an Italian place since my Celiac diagnosis, but Carmine’s carries gluten-free pasta and even a gluten-free beer.

Both times I’ve been there, the chef-owner came out to assure me the gluten-free noodles would be cooked in fresh water and that my entire entree was gluten-free. I had the Veal Marsala, which was delicious, with a wine sauce made with real cream (no flour thickener!).

Willow 1996 – 2008

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Last week, Willow ended a brave struggle with bone cancer. She stayed active until the end, never failing to remind me when it was time to hit the trails for a walk or a swim any day I was home past 10 a.m. She is missed.

Obama Tie-dye

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

I figured out a folding pattern to make the Obama logo in one pass. After I made the first one for Beth, I made a second batch for other friends, though I think the first one came out better. I keep thinking I know what I’m doing, but it’s hard to reproduce a tie-dye pattern. Here’s the first one on the left and one from the second batch on the right.

Now, if only I had thought of this a year ago, they’d be all over the country…

Unsophisticated Art Review: 10 by 10

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

I imagine a lot of art pieces start with a single good idea and get expanded with supporting content that isn’t as good as the original idea. In the “10 by 10″ format, each of the ten plays is only ten minutes long, so there’s no time for supporting content — you just get the good idea. It seemed like that way at the Ten by Ten in the Triangle show we saw at the Carrboro Arts Center last week.

Technically, most of the plays ran a few minutes more than ten minutes, but no one was complaining as the quality was good throughout. The entire show of ten plays and intermission took 150 minutes. The set changes between plays was very fast, often less than a minute when they just had to move a couple of chairs. The minimal sets did forgo the extra dimension of set design in the presentation.

Speed Mating was probably my favorite. Written by a mathematician, it featured four cicadas in their brief emergence to mate after 17 years underground. The actors made the most of their wings and bug eyes to capture the stages of cicada activity.

Dead Cat was also notable just because it seemed like an exercise in how much can we put into a ten minute play. Narration was mixed with “live” scenes and flashbacks. It all went together seamlessly, but I don’t remember the message.

Misplaced Pirate Apostrophe

Sunday, June 22nd, 2008

A week in Myrtle Beach and the only photo I took was of this misused apostrophe at a miniature golf course. Not quite as interesting as misused quotation marks, but it’s still surprising how many errors like this make in onto signs.
Misused apostrophe

At least someone else got a shot of me riding a wave in. The weather was perfect all week, and early June fell nicely between biker week and high school graduation season.


Parade Cover Quote Out of Context

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

I’ve Got To FightI’m surprised no one has complained about this cover misquote from last week’s Parade Sunday insert. Maybe I’m the only one that actually read the story.

I was interested to find out why this pilot feels she’s got to fight. Turns out she never says she’s got to fight. The full quote in the story is, “If I’ve got to fight, I’ll fight.” Quite a different sentiment. I know headline writing is a different job than journalist, but it seems like somebody in the review process would have taken Journalism 101.

Was it just a gaffe or intentionally misleading?