My cat Mole and Cindy’s cat Vespa have become inseperable these past weeks, as they have become comfortable around each other. I caught Mole licking Vespa’s face the other day, and they love to chase each other all over the house. Now we have to worry about what is going to happen when Cindy returns…
Ciao, Belli (Off to Italy)
I will be travelling in Italy for the next week with my girl Cindy. Cin is already there studying Italian in Florence, already near fluent I’m sure. Read her blog if you want to hear about skeevy Italian men and embarassing American students abroad. Don’t know how much internet access I will have. But I…
Chinese hyper-nationalism in virtual worlds
Global Voices Online highlighted today a fascinating controversy in China that arose out of the image of a rising sun appearing in the Chinese multi-player online game “The Fantasy of the Journey West”. Appearing in the Blog East South North West, the blogger reports that there was a mob scene of cursing players at the…
World Cup 06: Second Life armchair athletes unite!
Cool dude Nobody Fugazi offered up his house in Second Life to hang out and chat during the 2006 World Cup match today. Not as good as watching in a crowded bar of football fans, but better than watching alone. Unfortunately no one got the rights to re-broadcast the World Cup in-world, like the simultaneous…
My birthday jam (video)
Here is a brief video of my birthday jam at a swing dance on July 6. Birthday jams are a tradition of various social dance communities, including salsa, West Coast Swing and lindy hop. It’s a very sweet way of celebrating someone’s birthday where a bunch of people line up to dance with the birthday…
Linden Lab announces first virtual DMV
With the introduction last month of the depressingly dystopian Suffugium sim, residents have been asking what other unpleasant experiences can be rezzed into Second Life. Linden Lab CEO Philip Linden and US Department of Transportation secretary Norman Mineta issued a joint press release today announcing the launch of the first Second Life branch of the…
Broadcast radio in the age of the iPod
My friend Swifty pointed me to a sad story about the change in format of WBEZ, the last jazz radio station in Chicago, from music to news / talk. This is particularly poignent as Chicago is one of the great centers of jazz in America. Some loyal listeners have started an online petition to get…
“Do not colonize Philippines”?
Can anyone on the series of tubes of the internet explain to me what this sign means? If you are colonizing the Philippines, I’d like a piece of the action. Thanks. (Spotted on the R train a couple of weeks ago.)
“And the rockets red glare…”: Fireworks as America
I just got home from seeing the Macy’s fireworks display for the 4th of July. My roommate and I found the perfect vantage point near the end of the South Street Seaport. It was an awesome spectacle witnessed by thousands of New Yorkers crowded around the East River. Few things in this world make me…
Why I blog: thoughts on my birthday
Today I turned 37 years old. It’s a number that has almost no significance to me whatsoever. As chance would have it, my girl Cindy is away in Italy, my family is in Cali, and most of my friends are on holiday away from the city. Not that I mind: for me birthdays are a…