Woodie

Allow me for a moment to tell you a story about a man named Morris Wood, known as Woodie. He was my father and also my Dad. This picture is of us, on my first day out of the hospital and in the world. Do you notice that I'm wearing a corsage?
He bought me flowers at least once a year, every year of my life until he had a stroke. When I was a freshman in college and it was my birthday, I got a bouquet; I thought it was from my boyfriend. It was from my dad.
I loved him best of all men I ever knew until I met Jim.
I got to the hospice on Saturday night and he was still awake. I held his hand and he grabbed on tight, gave me the OK symbol and went to sleep. He never woke up. He passed away this morning with my brother by his side. I am relieved more than sad; my dad is finally free of this struggle. Our mortal bodies are shitty, hollow vessels for who we really are. I know that now more than ever.
Here is his obituary. He was a handsome fella in his day.

3:00am, the technology hour

Woke up in the middle of the night to write some software. First, I got re-acquainted with an old favorite radio station, radius fm. You can listen to them streaming live out of Belarus at http://www.100fm.co.il (just click the headphones icon).


Then I decided what I want for Christmas: a bluetooth laser virtual keyboard. This thing is tiny and transmits a holograph of a keyboard which you can type on and is picked up by your handheld or pc via bluetooth.




Finally, I started a google calendar for our Thanksgiving trip so everyone knows what the heck we're doing. The iframe below won't do much, so to really see our agenda, please click this link.

Boston taking hold

Hard Evidence that Google is Lying

Google is considered a trusted source by the public, and has been heralded as one of the most upstanding websites for use and dissemination of information in this new age. However, not everything Google says can be proven to be true. Or is true.

Google published "Zeitgeist" year-end statistics for 2006. It clearly states in black & white (well, green and black, anyway) that the "Top Search in 2006" are 1. bebo followed by 2. myspace. There are, of course, eight more, but lets focus on these two.

Google has another tool, called Google Trends. This is a pretty neat tool which allows a user to enter search terms and see how often they were searched for in a period of time. This tool has many shortcomings you can read about on their discussion board. Nevertheless, it still claims to have valid data.

When one enters the terms "sex, bebo, myspace" and views the results, it is clear that "myspace" was a more frequent search term in 2006 than "bebo", and that "sex" was searched for more than both of them.
(Siobhan's Note: Does this surprise anyone?)

These two sets of data, both published by the same author - Google - claim to be correct but are in direct contradiction. I posted a question about this on the tool's discussion board, but no Google representative has stepped forward to address it. Perhaps, as one reader notes, "Googleology is Bad Science."

I await a definitive answer for the folks at Google, or anyone else with insight, for that matter.

Funny pics

The cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. The sign reads: "No tottering on one foot with arms akimbo on the cliff ledge as it crumbles away beneath you." As you can see, that's exactly what I'm doing...










And now, Lulu-Belle the dog, going to a costume party as Carmen Miranda:

Finally, someone she can watch football with

Some of you might remember Joe. Now I'm off the hook for beer & baseball (thank God, did you see the last post ?!)

For Hooker

Sunday Fun Day in Mass.

Rolling Medford-style.
We completed our chores and are now setting out to drink as many champagne supernovas as we can.
Observe my beloved showing how klassee we are.

Friday night in Boston

Finally, after a long week of work,we were able to go out and paint the town (Boston). We went to Chinatown and had some delicious treats, and then strolled around. It was cold, so I bought a $4 hat on the street. We walked around and looked at some fancy-pants apartments and found a pedestrian mall near Tremont.



Oh yes, and we went to a "historical" site where one of Boston's previous four town halls had been turned into a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Also, in the garden, Laura's shadow stole a smooch from mine.....

Finally, we made it to the Hub Pub in a neighborhood called Downtown crossing. Old men with hard hats and college dames talking about playing Beirut made up most of the social atmosphere.

After some beers and a little Jameson we went around the corner to a dive called the Sidebar, which is hooked onto another bar called the Dubliner, where we had some shots of Maker's and some pretty rowdy conversation.

Finally, we wondered around to Faneuil Hall, which was like Georgetown meets Adams Morgan. Needless to say, we didn't stay there long.
LW note: It's amazing to me how a place like the Faneuil Hall area can be so cool during the day and then be filled up to the very brim with douchebags at night.

Bored, so I'll post some interesting pics

Another day in paradise. Want to see what a small town in Belgium is like? Then check these pics. I miss friends to talk to, but I do love these times alone too....


A windmill in Brugge, Belgium. Brugge is the most romantic place on planet Earth.







Amsterdam can be great, and also insane