Birthdays

It's been a hectic transition from the Bay area to Arizona, where we'll be holed up for the rest of the summer. Not necessarily reducing the hecticity, but definitely adding to the fun, is our new puppy! We haven't settled on a name yet, but you can just call him cute.

Flowers on Emerson

I have a new camera. Anna has graduated from law school. We're going to Guatemala in a week. I finished a draft of my paper. I have the new Grand Theft Auto game.

Life is good.

Digital Fiction

I just came across a post on BoingBoing to some new digital fiction put together by Penguin. I'm excited about this for two reasons. First of all, each of the pieces (there are six in all) experiments with a different digital form. Second, a major publishing house is demonstrating interest in digital literature--great news for someone who's hoping to write, and write about, some digital lit himself one day. Aha: Dan's blogged this too.

(Crossposted from Professional Ed)

What We're Up Against Here

Apologies for any people out there still crazy enough to check this blog (or still have it in their RSS readers). I have my Orals on Tuesday. Life will be better after...hopefully.

Finally

Someone has finally developed an MP3 player that syncs music in time to your workout--in this case, the beating of your heart. I've long been of the opinion that matching up your running pace or other exercise routine with the pace of your music helps motivate you. One of my hare-brained schemes was to start a workout music consultancy with special mix tracks, complete with exhortations from the customer or Mr. T ("run, fool, run!").

Of course, the new Bodibeat does look a BIT like a horrific instrument of torture. But I'm sure it's not that bad once you insert the prongs and constrict the deathbelt around your face. Or whatever it is you're actually supposed to do.

Woe

This is the space where my Xbox normally goes. It's the second time I've had to send mine back to Microsoft since I purchased one about a year ago. This time, at least, the whole process seems to be moving much faster.

After sending me a shipping container that became useless three weeks later (thus requiring a second shipping container--oh, the waste), they upgraded me to overnight service. So instead of waiting about five weeks like last time, the whole process will hopefully take about one week.

Also, to soothe my outrage, they sent me a free camera. Now I can show my tear-streaked face to the tweens who are stomping me on Xbox Live. Video chat, anyone?

Back in Town

We just returned from three weeks of Woden-celebrating, family-visiting, cookie-eating fun and we are ready for a nap. Unfortunately, our return coincided with a major storm and we spent the past 12 hours without power. So here's to home, sweet home, and volts, sweet volts!

ps The photo was taken on a highway south of Tucson.

Efficiency Envy

Last year UPS shaved 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, saving about 3 million tons of gas and reducing CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons. How? Mostly by eliminating left turns on their routes.

I want them to use their "package flow" software on me. And my Christmas presents (please send presents).