8 Ball, Corner Pocket

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Just got back from Cue and Cushion, a nice pool hall on Shepard. Tonight was especially nice because I actually won. The music was good, thanks to Jaime, and everything was fun. Alex was making some really nice shots, but luck seemed to turn in my favor towards the end of every game. I’ve put some cool pictures from the pool hall, as well as a frog that lives at my house that I see sometimes. I’ve always heard stories about how my grandfather was very good at billiards and played it all throughout college, and part of me wants to emulate him and get really good at it. This night was definitely a big improvement, but I haven’t quite nailed down what I was doing different. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

Guardian on Splogs

Asides, , , ,

The Guardian: Why Google is the service of choice for sploggers examines spam, splogs, Blogger, and WordPress.com. As you may tell from the title, it’s overly harsh on Google, but nonetheless has some interesting commentary and information. Like I said last time someone wrote about this, I would never suggest WP.com is splog-free because I delete too many of them myself, but it is a problem we take very seriously and are ever vigilant against.

Last Pictures

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I just added the last of my SxSW pictures. As many of you know Monday was my last day, so I don’t have any from Tuesday. Also for those that asked it actually turned out the Ethics mid-term wasn’t today, but is on Thursday, which was actually a big relief. Coming back I was utterly exhausted—physically, emontionally, and intellectually—and I crashed for about 6 hours in a very satisfying nap. There’s no bed like home.

I travel back and forth between Japan and the United States, mostly Tokyo and New York and a few other American cities, several times a year. The contrast is jarring. Arriving in the US can feel like rolling back a decade or more, returning to a time when information was scarce, infrastructure was creaky and basic services such as ground transportation were chaotic and unreliable.

Roland Kelts on What the west can learn from Japan’s “lost decades.” This echoes a lot of my experience there recently, and I had the good fortune of meeting Roland as well.

Via Om, I wanted to share this poem Away by James Whitcomb Riley:

I cannot say, and I will not say
That he is dead. He is just away.
With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand,
He has wandered into an unknown land
And left us dreaming how very fair
It needs must be, since he lingers there.
And you—oh you, who the wildest yearn
For an old-time step, and the glad return,
Think of him faring on, as dear
In the love of There as the love of Here.
Think of him still as the same. I say,
He is not dead—he is just away.

Meeting Ben

Asides

While in Florence I had the pleasure of meeting Ben Hammersley who took us to have real Tuscan food, which apparently involves parts of a cow you wouldn’t normally expect to eat. We chatted about a whole range of topics and I learned quite a bit about everything from solo polar expeditions to DNA hacking.