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ABOUT zwarg.blog CATEGORIES MAIN ARCHIVES 1999(14) [+] 2000(3) [+] 2001(4) [+] 2002(18) [+] 2003(159) [+] 2004(108) [+] 2005(129) [+] 2006(38) [+] 2007(23) [+] 2008(8) [+] 2009(3) [+]United States vs. Iraq
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Wednesday, November 28 2007
As will become moot soon, Google has added 'Terrain' to Google Maps. This is cool. I also like the cartography of the shaded relief. I decided to do some spot checking, and it seems their data is more than a few years old. For example: Shoup glacier right outside of Port Valdez, has been receding for years. Look at this flickr photo: Shoup Glacier from above I checked out Earth and Maps, and they both show the glacier at its current position. What is interesting is that the terrain is decades old. Okay, I'm the only one who finds this interesting. I only know because I've been there -- what else is missing? Tuesday, November 27 2007
I kind of lost the steam to keep blogging. I don't know why, I've just been trying to manage my own things, in this big real world. Also, I've been writing in a journal for the past year, and trying to keep it going. It's strange how keeping that going seems to sap any energy I have to write in this space. Or even participate. Nobody wants to hear me pontificate, anyway. Friday, September 28 2007 
One word: Iran Can we please backdafukup for one second here? via nytimes.com Thursday, July 05 2007
Cut Me Off and I'll Blow You Away
Interesting bit of 'science' today, found in the NY Times at "Tying Columbine to Video Games" (incidentally, look at that url ... hm) I think Mr. Block is a little bit off his rocker. This is his big question? "How do you pull them out, without triggering homicidal or suicidal behavior?" Mr. Block, why don't you look at the As mentioned in this post by negatendo (as well as here, here, and here), ROFL! promised to be an evening the most mad of internet madness. It was, indeed. I went with my friend from work, taking the Chinatown bus after work, and hanging out in New York for the night. ROFL! was a collection of the internet's most funny, most odd, and most insightfully hideous items. Think: humiliating videos, memes, and slideshows of Bill Gates saying "uh..." All in good humor, and there were many posteriors separated from bodies. Fun indeed, I suggest hitting up 2.0 when it rolls around. Oh, and if you were wondering what the winner was: "Space Guidos", by Tony Carnevale of channel102.net. Monday, June 18 2007
"they are screwing us, i think"
Today I get this email from our downstairs neighbor:
i have a [NAME OF GAS PROVIDER HERE] question for you- do you have a
[OBSCENE DOLLAR AMOUNT] credit from them?
have your bills been astronomically high this winter? they are
claiming that our meters were switched and now that they have
corrected it and switched them back (meaning that I owe [OBSCENE
DOLLAR AMOUNT]). my
reasoning then tells me that you would have paid all that in the past
year, and would have been given a credit. wondering if that happened.
i need to file an official complaint, but wanted to get some more info first. i am pretty salty about the whole situation. ... Oh, salty indeed. Now I need to pow-wow with our neighbor to figure out what the hell the gas crack heads are thinking now. Sunday, May 20 2007 The pool has recently opened, and I thought I would start the summer early, and resume swimming for the six months out of the year when I have access to a pool. I swam early for the first time early in the morning on Friday, and I tried it again on Saturday, but for a bit longer. The water was indeed freezing. I had figured that if I kept moving, I would keep warm, and it wouldn't really effect me. Boy was I wrong. I swam only about 2,000 yds, and when I got out, I was FUCKING cold. My skin was all red, and my skin felt like leather ... like it didn't belong to my body. I took a shower to warm up, and a COLD shower felt like a warm shower on my skin. I slowly warmed up the temperature of the water until I thought I was acclimated. I got out, and I was still spacey. Sluggish in the brain, and my body was still shaking from shivering, even with all my street clothes on. It took me a good couple hours to feel normal, and today I have some nasty congestion and sneezing. Don't know if they are related, but I'm convinced that I didn't go a good thing by staying in the water for so long. Gotta keep an eye on that. Thursday, May 17 2007
I participated in the Ride Of Silence last night. We gathered together at the steps of the Art Museum in the rain. About 30-40 bicyclists were listening to folks talk about what the Ride Of Silence was all about, and stories about the four bicyclists killed in Philadelphia in the past year. Meanwhile, a bus load of kids were running up and down the steps, pretending to be Rocky. We started following the ghost bike around 7, headed down the parkway, around city hall, and back up the parkway. It was abbreviated due to the inclement weather, but our spirits were the same. Serious and silent, I didn't hear a single bicycle bell or sound of a bicyclists voice the whole ride. We did hear a lot of horns and sirens from our police escort and impatient drivers. I enjoyed it, and I hope that next year's ride isn't all rainy. Monday, May 07 2007 
We just pedaled in Bike New York. Ostensibly, it is a 42 mile bike ride through all 5 boroughs of New York city. In reality, it was a 30 mile bike/walk through 4 boroughs of New York City. We made it our custom ride. We started bright and early on Sunday, waking at 6. We ate some breakfast, then packed up and got ready to go. Then we couldn't find the lock key to one of our bikes. Two of us split off to go into Manhattan and start the ride, and the others stayed behind to look for this key. We took the subway into downtown Manhattan, and got out right next to the start of the ride at Bowling Green. We followed a kazillion other bicycles into the 'queue', and waited. And waited. And waited. There was a cheer now and again, but generally, we just stood there, shaking. It was a chilly May morning, and we were all ready to go, but not going. I was calling and texting our party that stayed behind to look for the key. We were waiting in the line when they found the key, and headed into the city. It took them about 45 minutes to get into the city, and in that time, we had walked about two blocks. I was hoping that this was some kind of planned delay, because it was really frustrating to be told to be in one place and ready to go, then wait for such a long time. When the rest of our party joined up, it was happiness all around. We started walking together, and eventually started riding. We rode all the way up Manhattan to 4-5 blocks south of the park, and stood again. This was a lot of standing and waiting, as the five lanes of bikes narrowed down to two lanes in the park. Merging always sucks, I guess. Once we got into the park, it started moving, but barely fast enough to ride. Finally, when we got out of the park, and up to the Bronx, it was moving like a real bike ride. The ride through the Bronx, and down the FDR was awesome. Crossing the Queensboro bridge was beautiful, and we looped around into Queens, and got a gorgeous view of Manhattan from the ramp. It's amazing how much more you see when you are on a bike. We pedaled through Queens, crossed over to Brooklyn, and worked our way through gentrified factory neighborhoods. We had been grumbling through the ride our frustration with having to walk our bikes at various points. It was as if it was too crowded, or there were too many people. Also, the route instructions told us that if "you join the Tour formation late or ride slowly, you will be directed to a shortened route..." We were going as fast as we could, in the mass of a kabillion riders, and we were shunted off to the shortcut. Boo. We were on time, and riding at a good clip. We got jipped. Boo again. Oh well. We all decided that it would be much more fun to just ride to our host's neighborhood and have a nice lunch. We broke off in Dumbo, and back rode through Brooklyn. We parked and ate a big lunch at Picket Fence. We hydrated and relaxed, then headed back to chill out and clean up. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lovely view of New York. I don't know the mileage, but watch this spot for a map of our route. Sunday, March 11 2007  
This handy technical reference talks to me about culture insensitivity. Please note the culturally insensitive heading links. Talk about insensitive. What, do I look like I'm Russian ... well, maybe I do. Tuesday, February 20 2007
I was waiting at home yesterday.
I played a lot of "Shadow of the Colossus" waiting for So now it's in their court. If they want to stand me up like that, they can call me back and reschedule if it is so important. I have no idea what I have to do to get my meter serviced. Seriously. What needs to be done? I can't trust the monopoly monkeys to figure it out. Thursday, February 15 2007
So predicable!
The gas company serviceman calls me today at the office. "I'm at your
location for your gas service." What a bunch of dufuses. I schedule a time, and they show up whenever. How they assume they can make money, I have no idea. More laughs to come, I'm sure. Monday, February 12 2007 I call this number to get a hold of the gas company to arrange a gas meter reading. "You need gas installed?" Well then. I call this number. "Where'd you get this number?" Good what? I need to have someone wish me good luck?! [whoah, psychic connection!] Great. I'm just pickled now. I call the number. It's some canned voice mailbox greeting with a beep. I leave my number and my hopes, and hang up. "This is never going to happen," I think. Then, the psychic fairies have answered my prayers, and the phone rings while I'm writing this. A call back. An appointment made. My meter will be read soon?! Well, don't hold your breath. This is a saga, after all. I wish it could have been simple. I really do. But you wanted it the hard way. So these are notes of my experience with the gas company here in Philly: I did the normal thing when you move in to an apartment: call the gas company to get gas switched over to your name. I call the gas company, and they switch the account in their 'central office', and tell me I'm all set. "Do I need anyone to come to the house to turn on the gas?" I ask. Okay, so I get home and ... no gas. I call the landlord, and he gives me the lowdown. When he was remodeling, the meter had been physically removed during the remodeling. We needed to have a meter installed. Our landlord was very helpful, and told me that I needed to make an appointment and get a new meter. Also, he noted that the gas company had put a lock on the valve to the gas main. I call. I tell them I need new service. They switch me in their computer, and say I'm all set. I tell them I need to have someone come out the house to install a meter. The conversation goes like this: "I need to have gas installed." So I get an appointment for someone to come out and install the gas. It is the DAY I HAVE JURY DUTY. Fuck. I go to Jury Duty and get home, and nobody has been to the house yet. Stressful day over (I think). I hang out at home, waiting for Mr. Gas Company Serviceman to arrive and hook me up. After a few hours, I get curious, and walk down to our front door to see if there's perhaps a large gaping hole in the planet's crust, keeping gas company vehicles from driving down my street. Oh, a notice. How nice. The gentleman was here 15 minutes ago, and didn't bother to knock, ring the bell, or do anything a normal human being would do if a normal human being had to service a gas meter. Grr.I have to call AGAIN, and take ANOTHER day off of work for these schmucks to install the gas. My landlord, being very cooperative, offered to be available during that time, so that I don't have to take the day off of work. What a swell guy. I go to work the next day, and get home and ... the gas is on! So what that the house smells a little like gas? WHO CARES? I hear later that day that even though we gave explicit instructions to the gas company to call my landlord (and left a note on the front door to that effect), the gas serviceman almost made it away without contacting anyone about his presence, except that my landlord happened to walk around the corner to see him and flag him down. He gets the dufus inside, and (according to my landlord) the guy doesn't know a gas meter from a gaping hole in the wall. He takes a really long time to do whatever he has to do, and he takes a lot of readings around the house, poking around and putzing and doing who knows what. "This guy was an idiot," says the landlord. Anyway...we think "oh, just one of those idiot repairmen." We smell gas for the next couple days, thinking, "oh, they must have bled the lines, and it's just not disappated yet." No, no explosions. Our neighbor comes home, and it smells like a refinery in her apartment, so she calls the gas company emergency line, and they shut off the entire house. Since she lives on the first floor, they are able to check out her apartment and the basement, but NOT our apartment on the top floor. This means they shut off our gas for safety reasons, because they can't get into our place to make sure things are cool. We see our neighbor on the street, get the story, and moan. "Not again." I call the emergency number to get our gas turned on again (perhaps an abuse of the emergency system), and some guys show up and check out the basement and our apartment. Turns out, there's a leak. Why the first idiot turned on the gas in the first place seems to be a mystery, since gas was leaking all over the place when our apartment was turned on. So the guys say, "get a plumber, we can't turn on the gas until it's fixed." ugh. Did I mention our landlord is a plumber? He volunteers to fix the gas line the next day, and the day after, we finally have gas turned on and working. whew. ... Time passes. ... In January, we get a shut off notice from PGW. It says, "you are receiving gas illegally, and will be disconnected." I'll have to pay over $300 if they dig up the street to do so, and a bunch of other threatening language. Naturally, I call the company, and they say, "ignore that notice." Fine. I ignore it. Our gas is not disconnected in three days, and the street is not torn up to discontinue our gas service. ... Time passes. ... I get a telephone call at work, "Hello, this is the gas company, are you home?" Apparently, they thought I disconnected myself and needed to be reconnected to myself. Well, that threw me for a loop. Nobody called me, they just sent out some guy to install gas for a customer that already had gas. Genius. "Did you call to make this appointment?" So he writes a notice down that he was here, and leaves a telephone number to call to make an appointment to read the meter. I'm pissed, so I don't call. Tuesday, February 06 2007
Noted without comment: Dekotora, via street use
The dog urine is frozen like miniature translucent lava flows on the sidewalk. Monday, January 29 2007
Snowed Upon
Here's some interesting links for SOTU. This stuff is cool. I like how it's used to show the relevance and (in the last one) the age of the words chosen. What I noticed is that the SOTU has gone from a reading grade level of 22.4 down to a reading grade level of 10.1. And all signs point down.thanks to m Thursday, January 18 2007 Shout out to my buddy, Brett O'Connor, and his first book, del.icio.us Mashups. Tuesday, January 16 2007 Feuding squirrels chirp, hiss, and squeal as they chase one of their kind around, over, and through Wa Sq trees. |
