2004
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Reluctant Activists
Yesterday afternoon, Jonathan, Marlene, Steve and I spend the day ringing doorbells in Plainstow, NH, trying to put in a good word for John Kerry. I think most of us were reluctant activists going into this venture, but by the end of the day we were glad to have done our part. I, for one,…
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Writing like an Ant
in DissertationThe other day I was sitting on our front porch enjoying the mild evening weather, and I began to watch the labors of single ant, hard at work on the wide cement railing. As far as I could tell, his primary task was to move wood shavings from the base of the column where they…
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Unicycle
in BikingThis evening I attended a reading by Naama Goldstein at the Out of the Blue gallery, and as I parked my bike at the rack across the street, I noticed that a unicycle was locked up next to me–the first time I’ve had this happen. Only in Central Square Cambridge would someone ride to Whole…
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A Visit to Red Sox Nation
in CityJoel, Monica, and I took in a Red Sox game against the Orioles tonight, a losing effort for the Sox but a nice evening in Fenway for us nonetheless. Since I find baseball a bit slow, I entertained myself by focusing on other sources of action, such as drunk fans getting thrown out by security…
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The Perfect Storm Revisited
As the rements of hurricane Ivan soaked Boston for most the day on Saturday, Joel and I decided to spend a lazy day around the house, resting up for a week of siteseeing. To prepare for our trip to Cape Ann today, we watched The Perfect Storm last night, a prerequisite that neither of us…
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No Pah Kin
in RegionWhile wandering down one of the back streets of Bearskin Neck, Rockport, I ran across this sign guarding someone’s parking space. Not only is it a phonetically accurate spelling of the Gloucester accent, but also playfully reminds me of pre-pin yin phonetic approximations of Chinese. I’d love to meet the designer. Well done.
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First–and Last–Boston College Football Game
For the next week, I’ll be playing tour guide for a visitor from Fargo, so it gives me an excuse to do some things I haven’t had a chance to do yet as a resident. Despite being at Boston College for numerous years (for my ego’s sake, I prefer not to actully say the number…
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After the Big Dig
in CityLast night I was fortunate enough to have my good friends Ken and Irene visiting from Indiana. Thanks to them, I spent the afternoon seeing my familiar places–my house, Harvard Square, Boston College, Coolidge Corner–through their eyes, a fresh perspective that made me appreciate where I am for this phase of life, however long or…
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Street Music and Pizza in Harvard Square
in CityLast night I spend my third evening in Harvard Square this week, and I was glad to find that the square on a summer evening still has its charms, despite the many changes in recent years. Waiting for my friend Marlene—stuck in traffic on the Mass Ave bus—gave the chance to hear Lisa Bastoni play…
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Bike Route Visualized
I created this map of my Tuesday bike ride to experiment with different ways to visualize gps data (my route is the heavy black line). This time I used GPS Visualizer , a free online application that converts gpx files into svg maps that then can be converted to JPEGs. The process involves too many…