I guess we're late to Wicker Park

Coasters made from old street signs

Great review of Umbrellas in Slate

via Kottke

Inconceivable

How is it that Chicago, a city both overcrowded by automobiles and totally reliant on public transportation, can endanger the very usefulness of the CTA because they want to send a message to the Illinois state assembly?

From Crane's Chicago Business:

Pointing a political gun at the Illinois General Assembly, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) board on Wednesday voted to slash service 36% and raise some fares unless lawmakers ride to the rescue by mid-July with a $55 million cash bailout.

The cuts are structured in such a way that they would particularly wallop rush-hour commuters, who would face what officials described as "severe crowding" and waits in many cases of twice as long as today.

Ridiculous. Maybe I am moving to the wrong city.

Tests are silly

Upon receiving grades for my most recent Human Sexuality exam, I was shocked to learn that whether I study for two days or four hours, I'll get the same score.

Why do we bother with this nonsense?

New music

Thanks to Taylor, Michelle and Will, I've been listening to some new music lately:

• Hot Fuss, by the Killers -- The Killers are almost too hip for their own good. Fortunately, they rock pretty hard and have a great lead singer. I only wish there was more variety between songs on this album.


• The Luxury of Time, by David Mead -- Taylor's positive influence continues, this time by way of David Mead. Beautiful singing, well-crafted compositions, and a nice mix of songs make The Luxury of Time a great listen. Can't wait to get to the other albums Taylor gave me :-)


• Guero, by Beck -- To be honest, I haven't given this album the time it deserves yet. But it sounds awesome. Will says it's "characteristic old-school Beck, but more serious," and he's right. This will be a good listen for the car this weekend.

We found an apartment!

If you can believe it.

More bad news from CTA *sigh*

Now that's old money

Now that's old money
Originally uploaded by jazer.

"This certifies that there is on deposit in the Treasury of the United States of America one dollar in silver payable to the bearer on demand."

Or so says the dollar bill I received somewhere in Chicago this weekend. I bet it's not true. And I bet if you check your wallet, you'll find that your money promises nothing of the sort.

That's because this money is from 1957.

FlySketch looks pretty cool

The most clever spam I ever saw

Sometimes I like to read the spam that ends up in my Mail.app Junk folder, just because it's so very funny. Spam must work (someone has to click on it), otherwise they'd stop sending it. But really, who is foolish enough to fall for something that says "The universe expandingWe're gazing out to sea Minds swim in ecstasyClear planet, ever Our hearts are traveling faster,Faster than the speed of love" and then has an image with some prescription drug prices?? It's unbelievable.

But today I found a spam that is so clever, I would actually buy Viagra from them just to reward the excellent effort. See, the names of the drugs AND their prices are "written" in ASCII art. It's a beautiful thing. Bravo to you, spammers!

Unofficial contents of the Oscar attendee 'goodie bags'

Malnutrition

I have an exam tomorrow in Nutritional Science, and of course I am studying right now. I can't remember the last time I was this uninterested in learning something!

Maybe that's a bad sign.

A purse blog, ha!

Blustery day

When walking on campus, how is that the wind seems to come from every direction? This morning, I was walking through a particularly windy area, thinking, "once I round this corner, it won't be so blustery!" But I was wrong. It was windier.

A few minutes later, I approached an area that looked nice and warm, sheltered from the wind but still in the sun. Amazingly, the wind was blasting even in that cove!

And now my ears hurt.

The odd couple

The odd couple
Originally uploaded by jazer.

Wisconsin Governor Doyle and Michael J. Fox (yes, the actor) visit a stem cell research lab on the UW-Madison campus.

What the hell is going on here?

Happy birthday to my glasses

Happy birthday to my glasses
Originally uploaded by jazer.

You'll have to excuse the goofy self-portrait, but I've had my glasses for a year now. Yes, I like my new identity just fine.

Tiny wearable clock

Yes, I deleted a post. Here's why.

A couple of days ago, I made a snarky post about hard-to-explain search requests over on johnzeratsky.com. Anyway, I deleted that post, for three reasons:

1. It wasn't very nice.
2. In the age of Google, nothing goes unnoticed.
3. I am a coward.

Every Super Bowl ad, online

Beware blatant idiocy.

(Actually, there were some rather good ads. But on the whole, they were dumb and even insulting -- especially those Napster ones.)

New neckwear spotted at the 142

My roommate Nick has taken to wearing his new iPod shuffle around his neck, as advertised. When I first saw the ads with people doing this, I thought, "what kind of a nerd wears a gadget around their neck?" but now I have to admit, it looks pretty cool.

(I was also skeptical about the prospects of people wearing the iPod mini on their belts, but they seem to have taken to that okay.)

Also, bonus points for Nick, because not only does he wear the shuffle around his neck -- he drops it in the BP when not in use.

By the way

Since I am a 13-year-old girl, I took this quiz a few minutes ago.

Turns out, I'm Kip (who's surprised?)

What's that look for? You're just jealous cuz I've been chatting with babes on the internet all day long...

Chocolates

My mom gave me a box of chocolates (left over from Christmas) the last time I was home. Foolishly, I put it on my keyboard tray (just to the left of my keyboard) because I couldn't think of a better spot. Warning flags should now be flying for anyone reasonable enough to see the problems with eating at the computer. Let's just say I am well aware of these problems (my sorta-white keyboard gives that away), but haven't learned any lessons.

Anyway, now I eat chocolates at the computer. In fact, I am eating one right now. This is probably having some deformative effect on my dietary habits, but that will be a thing of the past once I finish this box off. Which will be soon.

p.s. no Forrest Gump jokes allowed in the comments!

Wrist band to-do list

My wild and crazy brother

1991 demo of NEXTSTEP by Steve Jobs

It's amazing how much of the Next stuff made it into OS X. Jobs has been plotting this for a long, long time...

Kottke on the tragic loss of public social space

I am with Jason -- portable personal technology is a product of a culture that has devalued public space, but it's not the driving force. This kind of technological determinism has never convincingly explained anything.

I finally bought (and started reading) Revolution in the Valley

All my cool friends use iChat

(Notice the green "audio chat" icons next to my buddies' names.)

Forget the iPod halo effect -- this is the jazer halo effect. People around me can't help but use Macs!

There is no Social Security crisis (zing!)

THE HASSELHOFFIAN RECURSION (brace yourself)

Saved by the Bell history

I can't... I'm mormon

Bill Gates poses for Teen Beat, circa 1983 (my year of birth)

I'm a geek with free time (watch out)

Since I've had free time in the last couple of weeks, I've started to rate my music in iTunes. This sounds like a monumentally boring and stupid waste of time, but I think it's actually going to be really useful.

See, once I've rated (on a scale of 1 to 5 stars) a good deal of my music library, I can start to do cool things with it. Like make a smart playlist that only gives me songs rated 3 stars or above. Or use AutoFill to load an iPod Shuffle (which I don't have yet but will soon) with only my most favorite music. I can listen to all my top-rated jazz, or rock, or hip-hop, or whatever. It's going to be great.

Rating songs in iTunes is easy, and it's a great way to kill time -- think of the fun you'll have while procrastinating at the library this semester! Here's how it works:

1. First, pull up your iTunes Library and make sure you can see the "My Rating" column.


2. If it's not there: Choose the "Edit" menu, then "View Options" from the bottom of that list. Make sure "My Rating" is checked.


3. To rate a song, highlight a song in iTunes and click the number of stars you want in the "My Rating" column.


4. I have been rating songs by playing through all my music on shuffle. When a song comes up I want to rate, I hit Apple-L (that's Control-L for you Windows folks) and iTunes finds the song and highlights it for me.

One of the coolest things to do after you've rated your music is to make smart playlists. This is easy. Here's how:

1. In iTunes, choose the "File" menu, then "New Smart Playlist..."


2. Check "Match the following condition" and select "My Rating" from the left-most drop down.


3. Specify how you want this playlist to choose music -- greater than a certain rating? Less than? Only right at a certain rating?


4. Make sure "Live updating" is checked.


5. Click "OK," and your playlist will appear in the Source column of iTunes. Now any songs that match your criteria will show up in this list, automatically. It's magic!

Have you thought of any other cool ways to use iTunes ratings?

Live from my buddy list

I never thought I'd post AIM away messages on my blog, but I cannot resist.

[Recorded today at 4:50 p.m.]

TinLizzie1111's away message:

chilling out, maxing
and relaxing all cool
and all shooting some b-ball
outside of the school

UWTyrese's away message:

Chillin' out max and relaxin' all cool, and shootin' some b-ball outside of the school.

So, what sort of pop-cultural trend am I missing out on now?

Psychological sizing

Today I found myself in a Tommy Bahama store in Chicago's North Bridge mall (don't ask). After trying a few things on, I noticed it all ran about a size too big. Usually, I'm a 'large' -- but even the 'medium' was a bit baggy there.

So at the register, I mentioned to the cashier that "the sizes run a little big."

"Yeah, about a size big. Tommy Bahama is known for a more... relaxed fit."

I didn't really know what to say to that. "Fit" and "size" are supposed to be independent. For example, my favorite Gap jeans are "low rise boot fit," but they're still the same size I wear everywhere -- 32/34.

Then after some hestitation:

"Well, you know... most of our customers are a bit older," the cashier said. "Some of them are getting bigger than they would like," he said as he placed a hand on his belly.

"So it's a trick?"

"Yeah."

This blog is ALL SPAM

They aren't just spamming the comments -- this is a blog devoted to spam.

Turn any iPod into an iPod Shuffle

Ugh, checks

Today I wrote myself a check to move funds from my Green Lake checking to my Madison checking. This is a rather routine process for me, as my money never seems to be where I need it.

I went to the bank, and handed the check and deposit slip to the teller (who happens to be my roommate Joanne). Checked the receipt -- okay, all good.

When I got home, Joanne said: "John, you deposited a check to yourself today."

"So?"

"Well, it was from your First Federal account, and you just deposited in your First Federal account!"

"Oh."

Gmail has an Atom feed

I just discovered (first time for me, at least) that I can subscribe to an Atom feed that will show new messages in Gmail. That means I could track my entire life in NetNewsWire -- blogs, news, email, Basecamp -- and that is a scary, scary thought.

Just when I thought un-bolding things for a living couldn't get any worse, this discovery threatens to wreak havoc on my ability to live a balanced life.

Short books

I have decided that short books are my favorites. Ones you can read in an afternoon, day or evening. I don't know of any idea or topic that can't be explained in a day, and so it should be with books. It's 2005, the information age is running at full steam (no pun intended) and things should be as brief as possible.

Here are my favorite short books, off the top of my head (most of my books are in Madison; I am not):

• The Old Man and The Sea, Ernest Hemingway. A classic story of struggle and heartbreak, delivered in a beautiful 128 pages. A nice evening read.


• The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier. This book totally altered my outlook on how to persuade using sounds, words and images. A must read for anyone in marketing, advertising, design, publishing, management or... branding.


• Interface Culture, Steven Johnson. Compelling analysis of the interface metaphor, and how it dominates not only modern technology but much of our culture. Not quite "short" at 250 pages, but still manageable in a day.


• Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug. Subtitled "A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability," this book gracefully covers the major points of web usability (and spares us Jakob Nielsen's condescending tone). Since I have two copies, I share this book with nearly everyone I work with.


• In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway. Sorry for the Hemingway overload, but this is great short fiction. It's actually a collection of stories, but it's thematically consistent so it makes for a great afternoon read. Sad, desolate and personal, delivered with uncompromising effectiveness.

If anyone is reading this, what are your favorite short books?

"Obsolescence on line one"

Brad does Brown (Charlie)

I'm listening to Brad Mehldau's new Live in Tokyo, a solo piano tour de force. Around 3:00 into "Monk's Dream," Brad quotes Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" from Charlie Brown! How cool is that?

(Anyone that understands my love for the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack can verify that this is really very cool.)

Derek's virtual Chaunkah

Emotions make decisions (as quoted by Derek Powazek)

Nick is going to teach a class at his house

Titanic in 30 seconds with bunnies

"Dude, it's like Jurassic Park in my backyard!"

I wrote this story back in May, but just discovered it floating around in my archives, unpublished. The original date is May 25, 2004. Enjoy!

If you live in south-central Wisconsin, all this talk of X-Treme Weather is probably getting old. Tough.

It started here with blustery winds and quasi-torrential rains (what does it take to be 'torrential,' anyway?). Trees were flopping, flipping, and flapping and the ground went from soggy to soupy.

As you may know, our backyard is a little jungley already, so imagine the view from John Buchel's room with all this outdoor commotion. He was already excited about the "wild kingdom" noises coming from behind our house, but the thunder, rain and wind really got going. One day he came running downstairs and exclaimed, "Dude, it's like _Jurassic Park_ in my backyard!"

For a few days, Stormapalooza was little more than an interesting distraction. In some ways, it added to the after-school sense of chaos and anarchy that we feed on.

It wasn't enough that two people were living in my tiny bedroom;º it wasn't totally novel being out of school and going out any night of the week; and the ants living with us were mega gross and disconcerting but not really a big deal. But storms — that got us going.

I had been transported from the structured world of classes and finals to the wild and wooly One-Four-Two, complete with muddy backyard, strange animal noises, crashing thunder, and perpetual houseguests.

It's good be home.

º Having sub-leased her apartment, Michelle moved in with me for the week of May 17-23. It's a good thing she's not very big, because her stuff took up all the extra space in my bedroom.