Tuesday, June 26, 2007
moving
That's right folks... my blog is moving. All new content is on my fancy-dancy website, brappy.com! I'll try to update as often as I can as I head to Beijing in the morning!
Friday, June 22, 2007
very old map
I took a ferry ride today, and got some nice shots... but this map confused me. Click the photo and mouse-over it in flickr to see my notes...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Survey shows Fox news airs less war news than others
This is a pretty unsurprising story - everyone knows that Fox News Channel is far from "fair and balanced" but a new study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism says it's even worse.
On a winter day when bomb blasts at an Iraqi university killeddozens and the United Nations estimated that 34,000 civilians in Iraqhad died in 2006, MSNBC spent nearly nine minutes on the stories duringthe 1 p.m. hour. A CNN correspondent in Iraq did a three-minute reportabout the bombings.
Neither story merited a mention on Fox News Channel that hour.
But the kicker? That's at the end:
So with less on-air attention being paid to Iraq during the first fewmonths of the year, what filled the void for Fox? PEJ's report said thenetwork gave the death of Anna Nicole Smith significantly more air timethan its rivals.
technorati tags:fnc, fox news channel
Blogged with Flock
Limbo
I'm in limbo. Between the busy time at the end of the last school term and the giant stress of a trip to another continent. I have a million things running through my head, and for some reason, when I lay in bed, all I can think about is this documentary I saw on HBO about lesbian moms and their kids on a cruise.
I have nothing to do during the day until 6 p.m., so I'm free, but at the same time, I want to wake up early and be productive. But here I am, 4.15 a.m., looking at the light grow brighter outside and wondering "why do I feel guilty that I"m not asleep?"
I have nothing to do during the day until 6 p.m., so I'm free, but at the same time, I want to wake up early and be productive. But here I am, 4.15 a.m., looking at the light grow brighter outside and wondering "why do I feel guilty that I"m not asleep?"
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Oh, Ed Jew....
This is a brilliantly worded AP story on the travails of SF city supervisor Ed Jew.
It includes such quotes as... "There are politicians who during their first time around make mistakes and are not ready for prime time"...
and "San Francisco, a place that masks its provincialism with a cachet of sophistication"... wow. What a line!
Blogged with Flock
Friday, June 15, 2007
the most relaxing in-flight safety video ever...
I always liked watching this video when flying Thai. It's so calm. They also handle the two languages well.
Old Airline Commercials
These are usually a little bit hilarious, as evidenced by the following:
Apparently Southwest Airline's LUV had a different meaning in the 1970s. Yikes!
First day on the job at UA:
The world's NEWEST jet plane - a DC-10! Catch the Economy class lounge on the Friendship Plane... I like their little jingle at the end...
"Some of our best businessmen... are women!"
Apparently Southwest Airline's LUV had a different meaning in the 1970s. Yikes!
First day on the job at UA:
The world's NEWEST jet plane - a DC-10! Catch the Economy class lounge on the Friendship Plane... I like their little jingle at the end...
"Some of our best businessmen... are women!"
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Seaboard Building
Pimping my own photos out on my blog (why not?)...
I took this with Kodak BW400CN, a funny black-and-white film that is processed the same as regular color film.
I took this with Kodak BW400CN, a funny black-and-white film that is processed the same as regular color film.
Response Bias
and online reviews. Kind of a dull subject, but what does a 5-star rating really mean? Salon looks into it today...
Why a five-star restaurant serves one-star food....
technorati tags:salon, response bias
Blogged with Flock
UW Graduation goes awry (again)
Yet again, the University of Washington graduation went poorly. Does it really take a college degree to convince people it's a bad idea to put a ceremony outdoors in Seattle in any time of the year, especially rainy June.
On the other hand, Al Gore was supposed to go. Who knew?
technorati tags:university of washington, rainy day, al gore
Blogged with Flock
Sunday, June 10, 2007
BCWW
The other day, I was playing around with the OnDemand service and found a pretty bizarre music video that has been stuck in my head ever since. Who knew?
and their main site...
and their main site...
Friday, June 8, 2007
dragon boat festival
So, I'm still at Pacific Place and it's cold, cold, cold up where I am. There's a cold air vent blowing on me and it's rather chilly. Grrar. I've been keeping myself busy by doing such fun stuff as looking up old reviews of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which I only got to see a few weeks ago, as it premiered when I was away. It's vaguely entertaining, but the reviews aren't that fascinating...
While checking my email, I was amused to notice that there was an e-card from EVA Airlines wishing me a Happy Dragon Boat festival... just an hour left. I'm freezing.
While checking my email, I was amused to notice that there was an e-card from EVA Airlines wishing me a Happy Dragon Boat festival... just an hour left. I'm freezing.
"dep't of time wasters"
I'm pretty entertained by this little item from Wonkette:
Make Your Own Virginia Customized LOL PLATEZ!!!1!
Highly funny.Volunteering
I'm in the fourth floor of Seattle's Pacific Place, one of those shiny, breezy "urban lifestyle" malls that have sprung up in American cities in the past ten years. Every city seems to have one - Spokane has its infamous RiverPark Square, Portland has Pioneer Place, and even San Francisco has the eponymous San Francisco Shopping Center, complete with a Nordstrom store! These malls are kind of unreal spaces and slightly bizarre. You can't do any functional shopping here, but you can do destination shopping. The hardware store has no real hardware, the restaurants are for a special occasion, and everything is slightly inconvenient, in a weird way.
Why am I in this weird no-space? Well, I'm volunteering for the Seattle International Film Festival, and this requires that I sit at a computer, doing not much of anything for most of the afternoon. Occasionally, someone asks me how much the festival guide is (free), if there are half-price tickets on sale (no, that's the Ticket Window booth to your right) and lots of people walk past, staring at the posters for such upcoming classics as Resident Evil: Extinction, 1408 and The Guardian's Son. Right now, some guy is staring at the Residient Evil: Extinction poster, hollering "Oh my God! I want to kill myself!"
It's kinda entertaining. A minute ago, a gaggle (yes, a gaggle) of kids came running out of an elevator toward the theatre box office and one of them tripped and fell, hard, against the floor. The suburban parents following the gaggle just sort of smiled and laughed as the kid limped away, apparently not seriously damaged.
One of the upsides to volunteering at SIFF is that you get lots of free passes to see movies, which is pretty handy. I like to see movies and not only do you often get to see the films playing during your shift, you get one voucher for every two hours you volunteer. And volunteering at SIFF is way easy.
Plus, the craziest people volunteer. Every time I volunteer, there's someone weird, who, naturally, gravitates toward me. Of course. I'm a weird magnet (being odd myself...). A couple days ago, at the venerable Harvard Exit theatre, this lady started questioning me on why I wasn't interested in watching the three-hour abortion documentary Red Without Blue. As if it's not obvious. So without going into the whole "I'm a gay man and I don't passionately care about women's issues" schtick, I just kind of shrugged my shoulders.
This simply wouldn't do, apparently. This woman seemed to want to debate abortion with whomever didn't share her viewpoint. I started to wonder if she picked me out to debate with because I'm male and might possibly give her a reason for her soapbox. I didn't bite.
Although, she did get huffy when I talked about "young girls" who have to trek to New York to have an abortion performed, because there are no providers in their local area and for some reason or another, it's easier for them to go to NYC. She took umbrage that I used the term "girls", seemingly implying that I was being disrespectful because I didn't call them "young women", although I think it's still perfectly okay to refer to someone who is underage as a girl or a boy. Like most self righteous people, she wasn't about to see nuance or change her mind.
Later, she provided some entertainment as we were cleaning up from a private event that was catered. One of the other volunteers remarked "yeah, they wouldn't want the food left out cannibalizing sales at the concession stand".
The weird lady perked up. "Cannibalizing?!? What does this have to do with eating human beings?"
I tried to explain that there was more than one meaning to that term, but she seemed to understand there was only one.
High drama indeed.
Why am I in this weird no-space? Well, I'm volunteering for the Seattle International Film Festival, and this requires that I sit at a computer, doing not much of anything for most of the afternoon. Occasionally, someone asks me how much the festival guide is (free), if there are half-price tickets on sale (no, that's the Ticket Window booth to your right) and lots of people walk past, staring at the posters for such upcoming classics as Resident Evil: Extinction, 1408 and The Guardian's Son. Right now, some guy is staring at the Residient Evil: Extinction poster, hollering "Oh my God! I want to kill myself!"
It's kinda entertaining. A minute ago, a gaggle (yes, a gaggle) of kids came running out of an elevator toward the theatre box office and one of them tripped and fell, hard, against the floor. The suburban parents following the gaggle just sort of smiled and laughed as the kid limped away, apparently not seriously damaged.
One of the upsides to volunteering at SIFF is that you get lots of free passes to see movies, which is pretty handy. I like to see movies and not only do you often get to see the films playing during your shift, you get one voucher for every two hours you volunteer. And volunteering at SIFF is way easy.
Plus, the craziest people volunteer. Every time I volunteer, there's someone weird, who, naturally, gravitates toward me. Of course. I'm a weird magnet (being odd myself...). A couple days ago, at the venerable Harvard Exit theatre, this lady started questioning me on why I wasn't interested in watching the three-hour abortion documentary Red Without Blue. As if it's not obvious. So without going into the whole "I'm a gay man and I don't passionately care about women's issues" schtick, I just kind of shrugged my shoulders.
This simply wouldn't do, apparently. This woman seemed to want to debate abortion with whomever didn't share her viewpoint. I started to wonder if she picked me out to debate with because I'm male and might possibly give her a reason for her soapbox. I didn't bite.
Although, she did get huffy when I talked about "young girls" who have to trek to New York to have an abortion performed, because there are no providers in their local area and for some reason or another, it's easier for them to go to NYC. She took umbrage that I used the term "girls", seemingly implying that I was being disrespectful because I didn't call them "young women", although I think it's still perfectly okay to refer to someone who is underage as a girl or a boy. Like most self righteous people, she wasn't about to see nuance or change her mind.
Later, she provided some entertainment as we were cleaning up from a private event that was catered. One of the other volunteers remarked "yeah, they wouldn't want the food left out cannibalizing sales at the concession stand".
The weird lady perked up. "Cannibalizing?!? What does this have to do with eating human beings?"
I tried to explain that there was more than one meaning to that term, but she seemed to understand there was only one.
High drama indeed.
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