GOODNOTGREAT.INFO

Blogging Pays! (emotionally)

2009-01-09T22:06:00Z

Happy New Year! My 2009 is off to a slow start (e.g., just ate two cookies, have not gotten my Achilles’ MRI follow up news yet, and don’t get me started on my to do list) resolution wise, and we had some annoying family health issues for a few days each, but otherwise things are just fine,. My time off of blogging (which was planned, and though it coincided with a vacation, was really designed to be a rest) has led me to a decently long list of topics to cover in the coming months, and I’m looking forward to it. In other words, my plan is working!

Today’s nominal topic: The Post Office Box

As a younger man, I was always intrigued when someone’s personal address was “Name, POB X, Zip code.” I read it as, “None of your business where I live. I’m too important for you to know my home address.” Note that for a business address I believe this is precisely the opposite, but we’re talking about home addresses right now.

One of the things I decided to do when we knew we were going to move "south" was to get a post office box. Reason one in spirit but not importance was the above. I feel like there’s too much public information right now. I don’t like it when I get in the cab with the family and six suitcases and the driver says super-friendly, “Where you going? How long you gonna be there?” It’s of course innocuous and simply well-mannered; until the one time it isn’t. I hate stopping the mail and the newspaper. “You’ll be gone until exactly when from your home address?” Getting a pob didn’t end or change any of these, and some mail still comes to the house. But it does allow for an immediate mailing address to catalogs, magazines, bills, etc. outside of the home.

Reason two was the knowledge of a forthcoming second move. This is a much better reason, as it will postpone the need for immediate address changing, and either eliminate or postpone, depending on the next destination, the need for mail forwarding.

The cost is usually under $100/year, and I recommend it. For more, you can find a UPS store equivalent which will also sign and accept your packages, call you when something comes in, or even mail you your mail to your Italian villa when you take a few months off between gigs. I have such an arrangement with a local guy for our business mail, which I negotiated for $150 for the first year. He even has a (small, grimy, convenient) bathroom; he once told me it was his biggest selling point.

LRock is not as big a fan for one simple reason: She like the “rhythm of getting the mail every day.” I understand this completely, as I used to care about the daily mail, too. While there are certainly people who pick up from their pob daily, I am unequivocally not one of them. I find the mail to consist solely of magazines (which I enjoy, but won’t read for a few weeks or months anyway), junk mail, and bills. There is almost literally nothing in the mail that has any value, and certainly not any timing value. There are few exceptions, checks being the most prominent, but if I miss a week’s interest, I just don’t care enough. It probably amounts to a few hundred dollars a year, so perhaps I should, but the value of not dealing with the mail is worth it.

So now I get the mail when I get it, sometimes twice a week, sometimes once a month. If alone, I prefer to sort right there in the post office on their long, too-low table, throwing out the obvious junk mail, and separating the magazines. This leaves a much smaller pile of bills and detritus that must be dealt with at home.

One downside to this process is that the P.O. does not have a paper recycling box, which is borderline obscene. When I go through the mail at home, we can recycle nearly every envelope and piece of junk, which adds up enormously. Of course, recycling commodity prices have been trashed worldwide, so who knows what the local sorting station is doing with all this stuff. ZRock’s kindergarten class collects from parents cans on Fridays, brings them to a neighboring business’s recycling spot in the parking lot and puts the money into a field trip fund. So they get all our seltzer cans now, but we still generate and recycle a good amount of newspapers (Thurs-Sun), food containers and mail each Tuesday pickup. I estimate that we have an average of 3x by volume more recycling than trash, and 2x by weight on normal weeks, and far more beyond that during the weeks we are trying to declutter, when the recycling bin barely closes.

With my mindset about the value of getting and opening mail now hopefully clear to you, share with me the surprise and wonder I enjoyed yesterday when I went through a giant pile of mail received during the past five weeks. With it all splashed on to the low table, my eye and hand immediately went towards a small package, really a square manila envelope, which turned out to be from Amazon. Addressed to JRock!

It looked like it must be a CD, but from whom? I felt like Encyclopedia Brown (for the first time in some time, as for a while I was sure I was him). First, I knew it was not from me, whom is by far the most prevalent sender of things from Amazon to me. Second, the address meant it had to be from someone who a) knows me at least at some personal level (while I give out the pob address freely, as that’s the point, it’s not published, per se), and, most important, b) reads this blog.

Point b) ruled out some highly likely candidates, namely my wife and entire family. This led me to quite a short list. E.B. would have made some calls and asked some pointed questions, concluding his investigation and determining the sender before actually opening the package. But about 20 seconds had already elapsed, and I couldn’t wait any further. So I opened it, and found…my number one Hanukkah request, mentioned in passing ONLY VIA A LINK some time ago in my blog, and…NOT actually received during Hanukkah!

Well, this is just great, and after reading the fine print of Amazon’s tiny freight slip (how is that printed, it looks worse than an inkjet; thermal?) I am unsurprised, but quite grateful, to find to whom I owe thanks. I won’t embarrass them, but they know who they are.

Thus, to my first readers that I know of, and for sure my first RSS subscribers, thank you very very much for my lovely present. I am considering it as much a blogging present as a holiday one, and I bet that’s exactly how you meant it to be. As you are such digerati, in your joint honor, please consider the following links as your thank you note:

Great Not Good Song of the Day:

Hold That Train (really clever mashup video by someone; harder than it looks to get it right)
by
Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials (I love that they joined myspace 6 months ago)

(two specific notes on this song: 1) as of this writing, you can download this particular mp3 for free from Amazon’s monthly list of over 500 free songs, and 2) you two from above are to pay no attention whatsoever to the lyrics in this dedication, it’s just a great song from a great band that has obvious meaning).

Great Not Good Science Podcast Site of the Day:

Distinctive Voices at the Beckman

Thanks again!

Weekend Diversions

2008-12-12T22:45:00Z

Not My Job segments from Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR online.

Waste some time reading how to get things done (may not work without signing in); recommending Lifehacker, 43 Folders, and Getting Things Done, all of which I've read carefully while not accomplishing anything.

Two potentially highly useful Internet tools, in a similar vain:

Remember the Milk, a list/reminder tool.

Rescue Time, a time management tool.

Really interesting economics paper, though a bit hard to read, about 'Deception Through Telling the Truth'; also has a poker application.

Podcasts by geniuses at Popcasts.

An amazing segment on 60 Minutes from November which I happened to catch day of, about brainwaves running computer software.

Today's Great Not Good Song of the Day:

Six Day Riot by Go Canada

Metaphysical Warning from America's Future

2008-12-05T19:55:00Z

Warning from ZRock, sent at his request and written verbatim, who must be feeling better after a four day fever that peaked over 104, and no school all week:

"I fart on your gifts, and a penguin eats the little mouse."

You have been warned.

Great not good song of the day:
Romantic Comedy by The Stars

A Blog, A Store, A Contest, A Song

2008-11-25T18:14:00Z

Some related links of interest for today:

Geekdad is a blog on Wired that basically asks, "What can I as a 35-45 year old father of 5-15 year olds read or create that would be fun for both of us, and particularly me?".

Etsy is a fairly well-known amazon-for-crafts site that in these economic times allows you to buy something handmade, different, creative, possibly cheaper, while supporting authentic Main Street American entrepreneurs and artists. (Disclaimer: I truly love corporate America, and aspire to its highest bounties, but it's nice to have balance in your discretionary spending.)

Geekdad brought to my attention today that on Etsy is Two Lovelies, and they are having a very nice raffle for one of their monkeys; raffle expires midnight (Eastern?) Thursday, so sign up now.

Great Not Good Song of the Day:
Human by The Killers
As PRock once said, long ago, when we still spoke, "Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's bad."

My Theory As to Why Economy Is Going Down

2008-11-21T20:09:00Z

Here's the secret: With political news left to basically "who's in the cabinet?", the economy is being driven down by "them" to provide people like myself something to obsess over all day. So long huffingtonpost, politico, the note, etc. Hello, my google finance portfolio page, yahoo stock screening, dealbreaker, footnoted, bronte, etc. All while listening to adam carolla podcasts, of course.

Here's a perfect example of what's happened to political reporting in the past two weeks.

OK, I may occasionally (ok, daily) still check here. I can't commit to memorizing the 2010 Senate races yet, but I can't go fully cold turkey. Can I?

Movie Trivia Question

2008-11-21T19:57:00Z

What actor has appeared in films released in the past five years from this diverse list of A/A+ directors:

Kevin Smith

Terry Gilliam

Martin Scorsese

Robert DeNiro

Steven Soderbergh

Francis Ford Coppola

Kenneth Lonergan

Clint Eastwood

Hint: Listed in chronological order, most recent last.
Bigger Hint: Also, Paul Greengrass.

Answer.

Good news (imo)!

Link to Unusual Business Article

2008-11-20T20:26:00Z

Interesting article about a heavy equipment auction as a data point for the economy.

Today's good not great song of the day from a young WI band that has promise but needs editing and more lead singer vocal range:
Running Away from the Day by Trapper Schoepp Band

Chain Mail

2008-11-11T20:12:00Z

I think it's highly likely that my hypothetical grandchildren will not readily know what a chain letter is. Indeed, I have not gotten one in quite a long time. So when LRock received one the other day and asked me to follow through on it, I was surprised. But, it's from our sister-in-law, who is homebound and having a tough time lately, and it's for, wait for it, paperback books.

The premise is that I am to send one book to the person on the back of the page (who sent it to my sister-in-law, presumably) and I am to send out six copies of the letter with my sister-in-law's enclosed return address labels affixed AND six labels of my own. So, in today's parlance, it's an email forward where the second generation of recipients will actually read the email.

The theory of the letter is that you will receive 36 books back. I find this highly unlikely, even if I pick my six "well." I put the over-under line at 4. But I do want to support my sister-in-law, I am curious about the over-under line, I would be happy to donate any of the paperbacks I get to the local library, and I certainly have a book (or 100) to donate sitting in a box.

And to my readers, an overdue thank you. As I know for a fact that this blog is not read by anyone in my family, including my wife, I am flattered to see that there are 60 hits in the past week and 209 in the past month. If I get zero responses to my chain letter volunteer request, no worries, I will pick six unfortunates myself.

Great Not Good Song of the Day:
Propane Nightmare by Pendulum

Chicago's Next Fully Booked Restaurant

2008-11-10T18:37:00Z

Make your opentable reservation now for Spiaggia, but save up a bit (actually, save a LOT) before you go...Of course, just because 52.6% of the people feel strongly does not mean there won't be detractors. Wow, 52.6% is VERY close to 52.5%, isn't it...?

Margin of Victory

2008-11-07T18:37:00Z

Most votes, large margin of victory, strong electoral college win by flipping some important 04 states. But geographically, the campaign came down to winning fewer counties, but most of the big ones. Fascinating chart here.

Recount

2008-11-05T18:00:00Z

Recount is a pretty good film, certainly worth one late night watch on HBO, primarily based on its casting, which is exceptional. Moves along pretty well, smart in that it stays out of the way of showing the candidates themselves, and Laura Dern is awesome, glad to see her, she's always been in interesting movies. I didn't watch it last night, as I was busy flipping channels, but I saw that it was on last night.

My own recount is as follows:

"Obama." check

"Over 300 electoral, maybe 320." check, sort of, no credit because well under-called, expect it will end up at an official 364 count via NC.

"52.5% of popular vote." check. Did you know that as of this writing votes are still being counted? 3% are missing. With that said, the official count now is 53.1% of the votes cast between them, and 52% of total votes. I'm pleased with myself on this call.

"Most votes in favor ever." check. Beat Bush 08 by a million or so votes. Hard to believe that essentially as many people voted for Bush four years ago as did vote for Obama now.

"Not 60 senators, more like 58." check, sort of. Coleman (by 700 votes out of nearly 3M) and Stevens (how did that happen? This election has opened the eyes to Americans that Alaskans really aren't just like you and me) are going to hang on. Only OR left to call. So the count is probably 57, BUT that includes Lieberman.

"Big pickup in House, +20." check. +18 with 8 undecided.

Today's great not good song of the day:
Lights Camera Action by Mr. Cheeks

12 Hours Later

2008-11-05T01:22:00Z

12.5 hours later, here's an update:

I now think it may be well over 320 electoral; looks like FL, OH, PA all could be wins, and if so, it's a landslide.

I really hope "they" don't call it too soon. I believe in free speech issues around this but the west coast has about 3 hours of useful voting time left.

I practiced (in my head) the beginning of Obama's acceptance speech in Grant Park while I was in the shower this afternoon. We'll see how close I got.

A few weeks back, we registered by mail (which was encouraged by our county registrar over doing so in person), and got back our "you're registered" postcards from the state right away. The polling place printed on the card was a few blocks away at the "X Residence" where X is a girl's first name, or a family last name. We had never heard of this place; my best guess was a small community college dorm, or maybe a park's or school's official building name. Nothing came up on the web searches. But the address did, and it was blocks away, so whatever.

And you know by now what "X Residence" was, right? It was someone's house! The "X's" garage, to be specific, complete with basketball hoop, dog on a leash (not pictured), and their kid politely passing out the "I voted" stickers. For a city slicker in terms of past voting, it was really quite surprising.

For some reason, still unknown, LRock was on the supplemental list (of 3 people) but I was on the main list. It was electric voting, my first experience thereof, but well done. Not a touch screen, but a knob and enter buttons. The screen looked exactly like the sample ballot printed off the web, which was a must considering that there were over a dozen races AND a dozen propositions. I am proud to report that I researched every race, up to and including local water commissioner. I also came to a "no" conclusion, with the analytical assistance of LRock, on the three state propositions I was on the fence on a week ago. Back to the voting machine, it confirms your votes on screen and on a piece of paper built into the machine, giving you a chance to change your mind.

So we brought ZRock to his first voting process with much fanfare. While on line (in the driveway, mind you) I gave him a soaring, inspiring, utterly pompous speech about how representative democracy works and why it is so important. We let him run the machines, gave him our stickers, etc. After literally 8 minutes he was yelling (in the X's garage) "This is SO boring. I HATE voting. I am NEVER going to VOTE again. Let's go." I finish, and say I'll take him outside. "NO! Let's leave NOW! Let's leave without Mommy! [who was still voting]"

Now in the car, driving home the 0.1 mile it takes, I mention casually that since we have voting stickers we're entitled to a free donut, scoop of ice cream and coffee. ZRock is quite attentive, as is LRock and we drive right by the house and off to Krispy Kreme. On the way, ZRock insists that we should have voted for John McCain, by name, and correctly. When asked why, he said happily that McCain was a cool name. His mood strongly enhanced by the prospect of the donut, he proclaimed that he now "loved voting," that he was "just kidding" in the garage, etc.

We got our free donut without any complaint from the store, along with a good number of like-minded citizens, and drove home. After playing cars in the driveway for a while, we went inside and made two pumpkin pies (store bought shells), which are cooking as I finish this entry, awaiting a long night of election results watching. I am comforted by the fact that this election seems likely to be determined solely by the people who voted.

Great not good song for you to listen to while thinking about the Congressional races tonight:
Power to Change by The Black and White Years

V Day

2008-11-04T16:07:00Z

I'm calling the election now, 8 am local time:

Obama. Over 300 electoral, maybe 320. 52.5% of popular vote. Most votes in favor ever.
Not 60 senators, more like 58.
Big pickup in House, +20.

My prayer for our country is that we usher in a period of real and positive change.

Great not good music to vote by:
Say Hey I Love You by Michael Franti and Spearhead
Dedicated to the opponents of CA Proposition 8 - good luck to you.

Vote.

Never Trust a Critic

2008-11-01T17:33:00Z

[Stage direction: Say this in a nasal high pitched voice]

Who's the critical genius who made this film the 5th highest rated film of all time in the KIDS/FAMILY genre?

Looking for (real, as opposed to based-on-TV, like Dora, Blue, Bob, Thomas, and a million others) movies for ZRock to watch. So far he's seen few "real" movies, lifetime:

At Home
Cars
B Movie

At School Recently
Ratatouille
Balto
Chicken Little (half)

and a small handful of others that I'm pretty sure the schools used for babysitting purposes that I'm not fully aware of. He really wants more, so I've been looking through the cable guide for possibilities.

So I've taped in the past few days somewhat randomly from the choices I saw:

Arthur and the Invisibles
Happy Feet
Open Season

and then went looking for reviews, which stated these films were all flat-out poor to terrible.

Think it is time to go to some classics, starting with the Wallace and Gromit series and then Toy Story I. May watch Open Season today, as it is the highest of the 3, and he's been promised a movie. Although I'm sure a third viewing of Cars would be equally acceptable. No ideas yet for what would be his first non-animated feature.

A Few Thoughts for Your Weekend

2008-10-31T16:50:00Z

My endorsements (so far) on the California propositions:

1A - No. Great idea, lousy implementation, totally absurd CBA analysis by proponents.
2 - Yes. I love chickens.
3 - Yes. I love sick children.
4 - No.
5 - Not sure yet. Initial yes, then leaned towards no, leaning back to yes. Most research put into this one so far.
6 - No. Good idea, but no need to mandate it.
7 - No. Silly, semantically based initiative that is unnecessary and expensive.
8 - No. Let's let government protect our borders and food supply, etc., and stay out of our homes.
9 - Not sure yet. Same thoughts as 5.
10 - No. Unnecessary and expensive. Private sector issue.
11 - No. Why would you want unqualified, unelected people making decisions about future elections?
12 - Yes. No brainer.

More electoral college rationales:

- 3000 political appointees who will be generally speaking younger, more centrist and less theological in policymaking

- Foreign audiences will be greatly inspired and allow for possibility of renewal of respect of country from afar

- Qualified VP

- Ability to hear differing points of view and then make best decision in the moment

- Supreme court nominations of at least one and possibly three

Great not good song and video of the day:

31 Today by Aimee Mann

If you think this video is hilarious, as you well should, then check out a prior recommendation, Life and Times of Tim. If not, then definitely not, but the song is great regardless.

Why Marriage Is Hard, Part 243

2008-10-31T15:39:00Z

LRock appears in the hallway early this morning wearing her witch costume for school halloween parade. She looks adorable, not to mention hot. I'm ready to eat her poisoned apple on the spot. So to be helpful, I fake scream, "Oooh, scary witch!"

She replies, sadly, "I'm not a scary witch. I'm a dancing witch!"

Damn.

Michael Goldfarb Revealed

2008-10-31T15:37:00Z

This blog was long in my mind but the inspiration to get actually started was a push from the antics of Michael Goldfarb, a crazy blogger from McCain's official campaign's website. And now we can see that he was likely not a state champion debater, unlike some DnDers I know:

Least Interesting Campaign Promise Yet

2008-10-29T15:38:00Z

From today's NYT:

The McCain campaign has seized on the advertisement as excessive, with Mr. McCain pointing to reports that Mr. Obama’s infomercial would bump back the World Series on Fox by 15 minutes. “No one will delay the World Series with an infomercial when I’m president,” he said, in Hershey, Pa.

(Fox executives have said that they, and not the Obama campaign, had initially asked Major League Baseball to move the start of Wednesday’s game to 8:35 p.m. from 8:20, to make way for his infomercial. But as it turns out, such a delay was not necessary anyway; none of the World Series games has started before 8:30, and two started after 8:35.)

Well, thank goodness for that. I once did a report on every promise made by a governor in a series of speeches to see what the objective view would be of how many promises / pledges were kept. I wonder how this one will be enforced if McCain wins. Note that it applies only to the World Series, so you will be able to buy an infomercial to delay the Stanley Cup or the National Spelling Bee, should you wish.

Since the Executive branch does not, to my knowledge, have direct control over the advertising and scheduling departments of broadcast networks, I presume he will have the new session of Congress pass the "Infomercial Baseball World Series Event Non Delay Act of 2009".

Then, and only then, he'll deal with a worldwide recession, multiple rogue nuclear threats, two outstanding wars, a lack of investment in our national infrastructure and educational systems, Medicare and Social Security reform, China and Russia hegemony (my new favorite issue), and a rise in kidney stones in young children. Children: A warning from personal experience, they really really hurt.

Comedy Podcast by General Patton

2008-10-27T20:53:00Z

One of my all time great not good comics, Patton Oswalt, on a pretty high quality mp3 of an entire great set to a highly appreciative fanboy audience, entirely-deserved. Since it's clear infringement, listen before Patton correctly demands it be taken down. Bonus: Patton's blog, though not often updated, is often very good.

Best Election Video Yet

2008-10-27T19:46:00Z

There have been some clever ones, but this is the best on multiple levels. Well done.
If as you read this post you just see html gibberish instead of an embedded youtube video, click here for the direct link instead.