Jay Furr's LiveJournal

First bike ride of the year

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:32:36 GMT

We did our first bicycle ride of the year today; it was finally warm enough, not raining, AND neither Carole nor I had to put in hours at work on the weekend.

We drove in to Carole's office in Williston, left the car there, and biked six miles to our dive shop on the Burlington waterfront -- which, if you know the area, means going down one heck of a steep hill toward the end. Since every fifty yards there was another cross street, we did a lot of "accelerate downhill, WHOA STOP, accelerate downhill, WHOA STOP" until we were finally there. Once there we bought a new pair of dive boots to replace the ones Carole somehow managed to return from Florida without, then poked around the waterfront for a while before retracing our path back up the hill. Carole insisted she be rewarded with a stop at Al's French Frys in South Burlington; she got the strawberry shortcake and I had a cone of their orange soft serve ("creemee", in Vermont parlance) dipped in their butterscotch dip. Then we went on back to the office and put our bikes back on the car and so to home. Round trip, 13.6 miles. Not much in serious biking terms but it was a nice little ride anyway. Hopefully it'll be the first of many more.

News you can use

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:28:51 GMT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3883198.ece

Frink frink frink frinkety ptang!

If You Could Change One Thing About Your Metabolism, What Would It Be?

Sun, 04 May 2008 02:47:37 GMT

Me, I think I'd like to have back the tolerance to caffeine I had when I was in college. I could drink a gallon of sweet iced tea and sleep like a baby that night. These days I have to be careful about even having a diet coke with dinner if I want to avoid insomnia.

Audio stream of the All Things Considered story I was in today

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:57:02 GMT

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90160617

I didn't get as much airtime as I expected; my half hour of interview was edited down to, oh, 45 seconds? I dunno. Part of that was my fault; when they asked me for suggestions of who else they should talk to, I recommended a few other people, and they DID interview those people, and hey-presto, I was just one of several voices. And they edited out the part that actually linked my quasi-amusing anecdote to how I came to actually *apply* the term 'spam' to mass posting via discussion group and email, but hey, I doubt anyone at home really cared that much. It was fun anyway.

BBC link

Sat, 03 May 2008 03:16:33 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7380788.stm

All Things Considered

Fri, 02 May 2008 15:22:13 GMT

If anyone cares:

I will be part of a segment on the history of Internet spam this Saturday on the NPR radio program, "All Things Considered" (which generally airs around 5 pm local time on your local public radio station).

http://www.npr.org/templates/stations/schedule/index.php?prgId=2&showNav=1 takes you to a website where you can look up your local NPR station.

I may get a decent chunk of time. The interviewer told me the story would be presented in a "let the subjects tell the story in their own voices" format, as opposed to a Q&A format.

Hopefully I won't sound like a nut; they produce their programs to take out a lot of the ers, ums, and long-winded rambling, so with any luck I'll sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Okay, I Suck

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:56:29 GMT

No more memes for me. I post an ask-me-questions meme and NO ONE responds. Probably no one's reading this. I should go away and eat worms.

Seven Questions of Cibola

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:46:26 GMT

From saxikath:

Ask me seven questions. Not just any seven questions though. No, to keep it interesting, use the seven questions as per below - just copy and paste the following, replace the blanks with something you want to know/ask (e.g. 3. Donkeys or sandcastles and why?), anything you want, personal, silly, surreal or deep, comment away and I'll answer honestly as I can! Then post this in your own LJ and see what kind of things people want to ask you!

1. What do you think of _____________ ?

2. When did you last ____________?

3. __________ or ___________ and why?

4. What did you ______________?

5. What's your favorite ______________?

6. How would you ______________?

7. Who would you most like to ________ ?

Bahston

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:00:52 GMT

I'm in Boston, back at our offices at 116 Huntington. Flew in yesterday. Annoyingly, there are no longer any any direct flights from Burlington to Boston.

When I started at IDX (before we were bought by GE) ten years ago there were two competing airlines, US Airways and Business Express (which got bought by Delta) that BOTH offered about eight flights daily to Boston, and they were always pretty full.

Post September 11th, we've generally only had one airline offering direct flights, and recently whichever airline had been doing it shrugged and said "oh, forget it, not worth our trouble." I don't know if the fuel prices have made it unprofitable for airlines to do Burlington-Boston flights. I do know that the passengers were there; the last time I flew the flight routinely they were always packed and people were waiting on the standby list.

So I flew Burlington-to-La Guardia on a tiny little US Airways prop plane that was just loads of fun to be on in a thunderstorm, then La Guardia-to-Boston on the US Airways shuttle. I would have gotten here far faster if I'd just driven, but I hate driving in Boston traffic. And I hate paying $48 a night for parking. Even if I can expense it. Sigh.

And then I realized that when I'd hastily packed on Sunday night that I hadn't packed a rain jacket. Meaning that a vigorous cross-Boston walk for 3-Day training purposes would have to be conducted in a short-sleeved t-shirt. Stupid me. I've packed for so many trips that once in a while I just plain forget something.

Then I had an idea. There's a great Eastern Mountain Sports store a block away from our office, on Boylston Avenue, and you can shop their website and then have them hold your order for you. I looked and found that they were having a sale on Techwick wicking shirts, so I ordered a couple long-sleeved, good for a brisk outdoor hike in chilly weather, and one short-sleeved (the sale was best if you bought three) and picked 'em up last night. Provided it's not pouring tonight I'll go out anyway.

Maybe I'll walk from the Marriott at Copley Place, where I'm staying, over to Faneuil Hall for dinner or something. Round-trip, that'd be a hair over four miles. I used to do that sort of thing all the time when I was in Boston but then it got old and I started doing a lot of "oh, maybe I'll do that tomorrow night." (And that's why I'm overweight these days.)

If It Was Any More Fun, It'd Be Illegal

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:43:32 GMT

We went to the 2008 Vermont Maple Festival on Saturday (and walked eight miles afterwards to work it off).

Manatees!

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:03:16 GMT

A month ago Carole and I went snorkeling with manatees.

Whee! It's finally out. Of course, my Livejournal userpic has been me swimming with a manatee for the last month so the secret's not been kept all that well, but nonetheless, we've been in that ugly state of mind where we've done something really neat-o but don't want to post about it until we can select from the hundreds of photos and dozens of short video clips we took and put up a page summarizing how awesome the experience was.

I think I'd have probably had it all up lang syne, but I had that wretched cold that lasted for two weeks.

Anyway, we went down to the west coast of Florida, to the town of Brooksville, for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. While we were there we went drift diving in the Rainbow River near the town of Dunnellon. We'd been told by the most-recommended local dive operator that his manatee snorkeling tours were all full up for the days we'd be in the area, but happily, after we got back from the drift dive it turned out that they'd had a couple spots open up and we got to go manatee snorkeing after all.

Manatees, it turns out, are like big kitties. They love having their bellies scritched. Carole wanted to take one home.

See the photos here:

The drift dive: http://www.furrs.org/images/rainbowriver/default.htm

The manatee snorkel: http://www.furrs.org/images/crystalriver/default.htm

I'm sure Carole's going to have a lot more to say, so I'm going to let her read this and comment.

3-Day

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:36:51 GMT

I started my Breast Cancer 3-Day training, such as it was, yesterday with a 2.5 mile walk. I'd meant to do more this past weekend but I was still battling the aftereffects of that horrible cold, and so was Carole. So no walking.

Be that as it may, I doubt that many casual readers of my livejournal are really going to be all that interested in daily or thrice-weekly posts about my training log. (And besides, I still feel a bit silly about 'training' to walk sixty miles when I have co-workers 'training' to run a marathon on Memorial Day. Always deprecate my own efforts, that's me!)

So I've created a custom friends group that all subsequent (or most, anyway) training-relating postings will be posted under. If you want to be in that group, let me know and I'll add you and you'll be able to see them. Casual readers, however, won't.

Lake Champlain Is Rising, Man, and I Don't Wanna Swim

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:15:26 GMT

With apologies to the Tragically Hip.

Lake Champlain is past flood stage and is still rising, albeit slowly. If we'd had our usual April rains, we'd be looking at some serious high waters and closed local roads. As it is, the Burlington waterfront is awash in lots of places. Carole and I felt well enough (we're both almost completely over our horrible, yucky, persistent colds) to go out today in the nice unseasonably warm 80-degree weather to get some sun and take some photos of the flooding.

See 'em here: http://www.furrs.org/images/risingwater2008/default.htm

Catboy

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:34:52 GMT

Here're a couple shots of our current boy cat, Huckleberry.

One was taken at sunset a few days ago and the other was taken tonight while we were putting away laundry (well, I'd finished and Carole was still doing hers.) I think Huck was hoping to be put away in the sock drawer with the other laundry.

Click 'em to enlarge. Click 'em twice to REALLY enlarge.

Argh

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:23:10 GMT

I hate being sick.

Came down with this on Thursday. Felt awful all day yesterday. Felt awful all day today. At 8:00 PM, took my temperature: 100 degrees.

I don't think I'm on the mend.

Sigh.

What I'm Currently Reading

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:19:54 GMT

Our Man In Havana, by Graham Greene

Link of the MONTH

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:13:32 GMT

Sweet holy pumpkins-in-a-cannon, but this is hysterical AND safe for work.

http://www.russiablog.org/2008/03/the_red_army_choir_sweet_home.php

Someone got the Russian Red Army Choir to back up a Finnish rock band called the Leningrad Cowboys on a performance of "Sweet Home Alabama."

The Greatest "New Yorker" Cartoon Of All Time

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:40:43 GMT

Carole and I love this cartoon and quote it to each other routinely. It's by the legendary cartoonist George Booth

(Click the image, then click it again, to make it larger.)

Relay For Life

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:42:11 GMT

I'm trying to raise a few dollars for the American Cancer Society's "Relay For Life" as part of the Demosthenian team down at the University of Georgia. I won't be able to be at the Relay proper, work schedules being work schedules, but I support the team and hope some of y'all can send a few dollars in for the cause.

You can donate here.

As y'all know, every dollar makes a difference. I've been very fortunate to not have any members of my family succumb to cancer (heart disease is another matter), but many people I know have not been so lucky.

More from the BBC

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:33:33 GMT

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/03/spam_spam_lovely_spam.html

15th Anniversary of Me 'Coining' The Term 'Spam'

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:56:11 GMT

I got interviewed by the BBC today.

Twice.

Once by their news division's website and once by a reporter for BBC Radio Five Live. The BBC Radio Five Live interview was sort of preparatory, not-for-airing stuff, and I'll be getting interviewed a third time, live, tonight at 6:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time (just before midnight in the UK).

Whee!

Anyway, here's a link to the article that appeared on the BBC news website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7322615.stm

Cheese Weasel Day

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:14:20 GMT

Cheese Weasel Day is April 3.

Y'all know the song, right?

"Who brings the cheese on April 3rd?
The Cheese Weasel
He's not a silly bunny or a raindeer or a bird,
He's the Cheese Weasel
He's got a cute black tail
And tiny buck teeth
He doesn't bring fish, and he
Doesn't bring beef
So you'd better be good if you wanna get some cheese
From the Cheese Weasel."

Maple-a-go-go

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:27:34 GMT

We all but bathed in maple syrup today.

Details here.

Skype

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:19:36 GMT

Does anyone out there use Skype? My parents, for some odd reason, are all enthusiastic about it. It's not a financial boon for Carole and me since we pay a flat minimum fee to our localtelco for long distance and only pay additional charges if we exceed 400 minutes, which we never do.

But my parents use it to talk to my sister and her family in Germany (where my brother in law is doing his Fulbright scholarship) and by extension I could use it for the same purpose if I really felt like talking trans-Atlantic. Since Skype users don't pay for calls to other Skype users, calls to my sister in Germany would be free.

To make my parents happy I ordered a Logitech USB headset and signed up for Skype and talked to them briefly this afternoon. If they want to call me via Skype I guess that's fine; I have no idea what their long distance plan looks like so it might be cheaper for them to call me that way.

Happy March Freakin' 17th

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:45:12 GMT

Happy March 17th, everyone!