Jarrett House NorthNow with 80% less politics!

moxie: THE MAGNITUDE………. A visualization of the scale of the tsunami disaster, with one letter X for each of the 141,924 victims (so far) reported dead. Quite sobering.

We had Shel and Erik over last night and inaugurated our second floor guest bedroom, which has been “just” a storage room since we moved in. By “inaugurated” I mean we shoved some boxes in the storage space under the eaves and pushed the others out of the way; it’s not remotely close to being [...]

In the same spirit as Global Voices, Bloggers without Borders, which has found its signal cause with the tsunami disaster. On the site, discussions are forming to coordinate the response. At present the greatest need, according to a man on the ground, is specialist labor—demolitions experts, doctors, even security to prevent medical supplies from being [...]

The heat is fixed, and only one slowly dripping sink drain (plus the disconnected kitchen radiator) remain as proof that there was ever a problem. The sink drain would already be fixed if Jefferson hadn’t spend all day voiding copious quantities of liquid mess from both ends. Sigh and double sigh. On the positive side, [...]

We got back from New Jersey today, to a house that was 29° warm. Apparently our boiler had stopped working sometime while we were gone, as the water level dropped too low and initiated the auto cutoff. As the temperature dropped a radiator cracked in the kitchen. We’re currently working on getting the house back [...]

…we decided to take an extra day in New Jersey after our whirlwind drive back from North Carolina yesterday. Judging from what I read at StephenEsque regarding the snow in Boston (see Stalingrad. We Are Surrounded), it’s probably a good thing we did. Incidentally, Stephen Baldwin may be one of the most original writers in [...]

Following up on my notes from the Day 2 sessions at the VBB conference, here’s the newly drafted Global Voices Covenant, already translated into multiple languages: We believe in free speech: in protecting the right to speak — and the right to listen. We believe in universal access to the tools of speech. To that [...]

Yesterday morning, as we wove our way around Old NC 20 in the pre-dawn light, we clicked on a station that was carrying BBC News and learned about the devastating tsunami. I’m now working my way through my RSS feeds—even though old items automatically roll out of the feeds and no newspaper ever has more [...]

Shades of Gray: Back to Mac. My fellow Sloanblogger is seeing the light. Straz, here are my quick thoughts about life with a Mac: Make sure you check out VersionTracker for software downloads—including Keyword Assistant and other invaluable iPhoto plugins; Mac OS X Hints for tips and tricks for getting more out of your machine; [...]

The second batch of photos from our trip. These include outdoor shots around my dad’s property (and my uncle’s house on the neighboring hill) across several days, from sunrise to sunset. Technical note: the last batch, starting with the wood photos, were shot at twilight, although the exposure makes them look as though it were [...]

I’m not sure I feel moved to write my own Best of the Year list as I did last year… but when looking at these two lists by cartoonists whose musical tastes I respect, I know that there will at least be a lasting guide to what’s good from the year. The more complete of [...]

Continuing to catch up from my posting vacation, here comes the photo flood. This is the art batch. Esta and I went walking in downtown Asheville on the morning of the 22nd. I was looking for textures. I think I found a few. I also found a mystery. The faded lettering in the picture to [...]

From Mathew Gross, GoMainStream.org, an attempt to revitalize the conservation movement. The organization is a partnership between Robert Kennedy, Jr, Gross, and Bobby Sundeen. From Matt’s email: We formed GoMainStream.org because more than 90% of Americans hold our values in common — clean air, clean water, open lands — yet 40% think that ”most environmental [...]

We just got in from our trip back to New Jersey from Asheville. It took 11 and a half hours, which is I think something of a land speed record. On the way, at a rest stop on I-81 in Virginia, I stopped to chat with a nice young man with a microphone and a [...]