Posted Jan/Feb 2007 pictures
I finally got around to posting the January and February pictures through February 15th. They are... as usual 95% pictures of Madeline. A couple of good ones...
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February 25, 2007
February 24, 2007
Bartering in the 21st century
I was surfing craigslist and happed upon the bartering section. My favorites were ones where someone had though of what would be a fair trade like...
400,000 worth of advertising on a search engine 4 a hair transplant - $4000 pic
Graphic artist in exchange for acupuncture
TRADE LAPTOP FOR POWERED HEAVY DUTY WOOD SPLITTER
February 19, 2007
Autoplow with valentine's candy
On Thursday morning the ground was covered in ice from the stuff that fell from the sky. Sarah’s car got stuck so I used my steel-toed REI Kilimanjaro climbing boots to knock the ice from under her wheels. Afterwards I wandered around the corner to look for some ice melt to help get my car clear and to get the ice in her spot to melt. What I found was a large supply of day old marked down Valentine’s day candy and a new set of more expensive Easter candy. I did not find any ice melting substances. I then went to Stop and Shop and had the same experience. So my conclusion was that someone should make “Ice melting Valentine’s day candy” or the local venues should stock things that are useful in winter despite the predictions of tropical weather and parrots flying through the Boston rain forest until they actually see a passion fruit plant growing in Boston Commons.
On Saturday morning I watched “Good Morning America” since I was already up for three or four hours from the earlier showing that Madeline put on to demonstrate that she was bored at 4 AM that included readying some exciting board books, testing a new farm music CD, munching on blue berries, and playing pick-up quarters from the floor. On the show they featured a guy who had invented a robo-plow out of an old golf cart frame. It was actually not robotic but instead a remote control device that he could either control by looking out his window or control from his television using the cameras and lights mounted on the front of the plow.
That was the interesting thing to me. Maybe the true application of telepresence is to outsource common household tasks like lawn mowing, driveway maintenance, and vacuum cleaning to people living in countries where they can use fast internet access to control household appliances in other countries. I can imagine saying that we outsource our vacuum cleaning to India and our lawn to Africa at some point in 2015. The key is for the manufacturers of these pieces of equipment like Toro and Electrolux or some smart Japanese manufacturers to figure it out and start making these appliances and the service contracts now. They have outsourced the person who takes your order at McDonalds over that intercom so the time is near. Maybe it’s time to get a patent on the whole business model for remote controlled outsourcing of household chores before it is too late. But what will the neighbor’s kids do for cash?
February 08, 2007
Checked out Gari the new sushi restaurant
I had a chance to walk over to Gari, the new sushi fusion restaurant on Harvard Street. I had been imagining something wild because of the description of them as fusion but from what I could tell the food on the menu was mainly just another japanese restaurant. I ate a lunch there which was the sushi lunch special and it was $9 before tax and tip so it was really $11. That was fine and the food was great. I just wish they would do something crazy like put jalapeno peppers and plum sauce onto the sushi somewhere in the menu and highlight some wicked saki drinks.
Their main advantage for me is that they are around the corner so it is a very short walk so they will start to get the business I had been giving to Jae's. They have a liquor license so they can't compete with Tsunami as a BYOB place where you can get good value for your liquor dollar.
It is a good replacement from the Greek place for me. We almost never wanted Greek food while it was there. I remember seeing someone load a dead lamb with the head on into the back of the greek place. I am not opposed to lamb but that is how I'll remember the place. I also remember thinking that the whole family, father, daughter, and mother worked there and that the daughter seemed to want to branch out.