Borough Invasion

How many people did you meet from Brooklyn during inauguration weekend? I met a million.

Hopes and Dreams

Now I am going to see Beyonce for reals. Seriously I am. Inauguration Concert.

Hopefully Will.i.am appears via hologram.



holla-gramYO!

Saturday: Single Ladies

Stuck in our heads all day. "Uh Oh Oh...." on repeat, but no Single Ladies to be heard.

Then, there we were playing grown up - wearing suits, dresses, and dinning with red wine - listening electro-indie pop-all star-fashion darlings MGMT. Transition to Beyonce; Single Ladies; hit it; spontaneous dance party. We shook it.

Unfortunately, I busy enough getting down that I fumbled my phone and lost my opportunity to capture the moment forever on the microSD card in my phone.

Friday: Single Ladies

I listened to Single Ladies twice at work. I watched the music video once. The music video, similar to the song, rules. I wish I could embed it on my blog, but youtube user "beyonce" has disabled embedding. Lame.

Anyways, it was a mad dance party. See below:


Well, and I'm listening to it right now.

That makes four times, and I haven't even made it to Wonkette's Patriotic Inaugural Ball.

This Weekend One Thing is Certain

This is Inauguration Weekend. Social calendars are full with galas, balls, dinner parties, and concerts.

Only one thing is certain: you will hear Single Ladies.

I'm going to learn the dance, and each time I hear it I'll live blog the occasion. Stay tuned. Until then watch the music video over and over and over and over....

Pump it Up

There was a time - a glorious time, in the early 90's before iPods, before small stylish iPod speakers - where loud music blarred, pop, and fuzzed out of boomboxes. With cardboard and a boombox propped on your shoulder spontaneous dance parties could held anywhere: an alley, parking lot, parks, the sidewalk.

The Cheapest Car Insurance

Allstate claims customers who switched save an average of a couple odd hundred dollars. Of course they saved money. Who would switch providers if they didn't save money?

1 person could have saved $318 by switching while 9 were given quotes the same or higher than their current provider. It doesn't quite add up.

Goal Setting to meet a Goal

On Friday, I had a driveway moment with NPR.

On my way back from picking some nerd equipment at Best Buy, I listened to Talk of the Nation: How to Make New Year's Resolutions.

The "self-help, write down goals, do better" camp never really worked for me. The slips of papers containing my life dreams would fall to the wayside or disappear amongst the perpetual clutter on my desk. So I listened; how do people keep their goals?

I swung a left turn between the snowbanks towering over the curb into my driveway. It wasn't quite over, but it was so cold. After nearly staying in the car out in the frigid air, I scurried into the house to finish listening to it in the kitchen with my mom.

In the end, realistic and measurable resolutions were often kept. It gave me an idea. A website that helps you with setting and meeting goals. 43 Things helps you create a list of goals, but often they're unmeasurable. For example, under the category "Money and Wealth" a goal is "Save money" not "Save $500 a month for 6 months." Or they're unrealistic, "find a job I love" rather than "apply to 10 positions at something I'm passionate about."

So, I purpose goal setting website where there is a time frame, a metric, optional reminders, and a final success/unsuccessful statement. Users could share goals, search for similar goals/advice, cheer each other on, but the rules would remain, realistic and measurable.

Feels a little bit like self-help, but hey I've got 10 miles to run in April; so, I better set some goals now.

Deals in the Amazon MP3 Store

DRM perplexes me. It attempts to prevent users from illegally sharing music; however, it just punishes the people who are legally downloading music. The downsides of DRM are well documented:

1. When something better than an iPod comes along, I might not be able to play my songs on it. Sony never made you play Sony Albums on a Sony Record Player.
   
2. What happens if iTunes shuts down its FairPlay servers? I could loose my music that I paid for. Universal decides to are only making movies; demand listeners give back their records.
   
3. Maintaining, implementing, supporting DRM costs money. Someone has to pay for it; the honest user using iTunes Store ends up paying for it, not the college kid downloading music on a torrent.
4. Keeping an honest user honest doesn't do much. Imagine security guards only checking the bags of the people they know aren't shop lifters.
   

Wired has a humorous write up of DRM applied to handbags.

This is why I download music from Amazon's MP3 store. All songs are DRM free. The songs cost less - most songs are 89 cents - and every Friday they have five $5 dollar albums.

Say no to iTunes, say yes to Amazon MP3. Deals deals deals. I love deals.

I'll Still Watch Next Year

This year there was no collapse, no black cat, no Billy Goat, there's just the Cubs. I know I watched play the Cubs play Dodgers this October, but it was not the 97 win best record in the national league Cubs, rather the Cubs - a Cubs team where a gold glove first baseman makes an error that leads to a 5 run second inning; a Cubs team who stranded 9 runners in a 3 - 1 loss; a Cubs team who's game one pitcher walks 7 batters. Now count it, 9 post season losses in a row.

During the regular season, the Cubs thought they could win every game - no matter the score - you could see it in their swagger, their faces in the dugout, they could win. In October, they didn't even show up.

Where to go from here, get better players? This team went into the postseason with no holes: solid pitching, explosive bats. Still here we are. Maybe we can get a player with enough confidence to over come the 100 year weight, to keep the dugout relaxed, and keep the team thinking/playing like they can win ever game. Maybe then the Cubs will forget about how their supposed to win every game.

For now, for another October, the North side is quiet, and I've learned my lesson: I'm not waiting, but I'll still watch next year.

Google and League of Women Voters Team Up

Google Maps and League of Women Voters have created a great website for the election. Enter your address and it gives you links to register, check registration, days left to register, voter hotline for your state, and coming soon your polling place. Vote.

The Elements of Style

I need the Elements of Style by William Stunk Jr. and E.B. White.

It's available for free online or in paperback. The Washington Post has a nice write up from earlier this month; it's a must read for everyone.

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

Chapter 3 part 13, The Elements of Style.

"...every word tell" resonated with me. No surprise, they taught Elements of Style in freshman studies way back when.

Voter Registration

Not every state has day of voter registration like Wisconsin, so check your voter registration, find your polling, or if you haven't registered register.

D.C.

Maryland

Virginia

Other

My first trip to the polling place, I looked over my poster sized ballot 100 times; swing state, no hanging chad, no butterfly mistake, that vote was going to be counted. Best time of the year.

More Books on the Shelf

A while back I finished Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America; after a few moments of introspection and a one over of the afterword, I set it on the shelf, paused, glanced back, stared down the spine of the paperback, pryed open my MacBook, and pecked away at the keys. I was writing a post about the Great American Novel.

Around the third sentence, three or four other windows were open. I was chatting, browsing my RSS feeds, buying pointless stuff; the post died shortly there after. I prefer to think I was mentally drained by the late hour or wanted to give it 100% of my focus; however, in part, it was my suspicion that my future-self three months from now would look back at my amateur attempt in disdain. The post is still coming someday; it could come out when I am dinner, waiting for the Metro, or lounging at a Wine bar - for now I'll keep reading.

Some highlights of what I've read recently:

The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth - What if Lindenburg, a Nazi sympithizer, won the 1940 Presidential Election? After that complicated assuption, the book follows a Jewish American family living in New Jersey trying to find its way in a changing America. It is a chilling, shocking, and dishearting story; I believed every word of the bizarro-1940 America.

The Breif Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Jaun Diaz - A vivid account of a ghetto nerd in 1980's who wants to be the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and can't get laid despite his best efforts. I read this cover to cover on my flight to SF. Oscar Wao deserves a spot next to Holden Caulfield and Scout Finch as a great fictional character.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan: Not a must read like Omnivore's Dilemma, but worth the slender 256 pages. But serious go read Omnivore's Dilemma if you haven't.

This Weekend in DC

Three events this weekend in DC.

Saturday:
On Saturday morning from 8 A.M. to Noon, 17 miles of the District's streets will be closed for BikeDC - a noncompetitive and fun ride for the joy of bicyclying. The ride is an exceptional way to see the city and show your support for cyclists. You can register online before Friday for $35 or day of for $45; proceeds go to Washington Area Bicyclist Association. All ages welcome.

National Book Festival, featuring over 70 authors, also takes place Saturday from 10:30 am to 5:30 P.M. on the mall. Among authors speaking and signing include Salman Rushdie, R.L. Stine, Richard Price, Paul Schieffer, and Michelle Singletary. Metro or bike are the best transit options; not sure if there is a bike vallet.

Sunday:
Crafty Bastards, an arts and crafts festival in Adams Morgan at the Marie Reed Recreational Center, features over 100 vendors hawking handmade items and crafts. Throughout the day, there will be be live music, DJs, breakdancing, workshops, and demos to help you make your own crafts.

Check out booth #59:
Bicycle Safety - The Bike Rack Booth
10am, 2pm Basic Bike Maintenance
12pm Riding Your Bike Safely In The City