Thu Jan 1, 2009 @ 7:36 pm
I had a pretty amazingly good 2008, all things considered. I traveled a lot: this was the first year of my life where I can say that I spoke four languages—even if my Dutch is still consistently horrible.
I finally made it to Spain (a long unfulfilled “wish”, since high school Spanish classes) and Scotland. Plus a wedding in Boston, house-sitting in London, a return to Berlin with Liz’s Mom, and a brief visit to Toronto. We made it back to Essen for Spiel (a giant games fair), and two trips to the Köln/Bonn area for the Christmas markets.
The best thing I saw this year was The Wire (and I’m re-watching it again now, with Liz this time). I have the fondest memories of a meal I had at Zur letzten instanz in Berlin with Liz and her mom. Best fiction was probably The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. Best non-fiction would have to be The Black Swan) by Nassim Taleb.
We’ve had regular, near-weekly game nights almost all year long, playing an insanely wide range of board, card and role-playing games—of which Dominion is probably my favorite.
Mostly, I feel extremely, ridiculously lucky to have so many wonderful friends, now literally all over the world.
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Tue Dec 30, 2008 @ 11:12 am
The American media got all hyperventilated when “The Dark Knight” came out there back in July, but there was comparatively less enthusiasm when it was finally released in the Netherlands around September or so. Still, when I saw it was scheduled …
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Wed Dec 24, 2008 @ 11:43 am
I think Clay Shirky is easily one of the smartest people researching and writing about the modern media age. I really like his answers in a two part interview with CJR, this part especially:
Or look what happened right when Mac came out. Remember when …
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Tue Dec 16, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
CJR has a fantastic interview with Michael Hudson on the origins of the financial crisis, and his background reporting on poverty issues becomes extremely relevant. It’s one of the best resources I’ve seen, with about a dozen links to background …
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Mon Nov 17, 2008 @ 10:03 am
So, we’ve had blogs and the intarwebs for some time now, but it still feels a bit like the wild-west frontier at times. It’s fun to see people exploring the medium, trying to find new ways to connect, or just make a buck.
In an interview …
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Mon Nov 3, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
‘Tis the season for mixing horror and chocolate, with frighteningly delicious results!
Would you believe that H.P. Lovecraft used to write copy for Whitman’s Sampler? (McSweeney’s) Like the following:
Chocolate Cherry Cordial…
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Sun Oct 19, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
Salon.com interviews Berkley Breathed about the end of his long-running, oft-revived cartoon character & strip. I thought this quote was touching, in a melancholy sort of way:
The very, absolute last comic strip characters destined to become true …
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Fri Oct 17, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
An excellent editorial by the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland sums things up nicely:
Until now, anti-Americanism has been exaggerated and much misunderstood: outside a leftist hardcore, it has mostly been anti-Bushism, opposition to this specific …
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Thu Oct 16, 2008 @ 12:10 pm
I’m drooling over the new MacBooks Apple announced this week. I’ve wanted to upgrade my MacBook to a MacBook Pro for some time (every time I run rspec or try to watch video on YouTube, the fan turns the box into a miniature jet engine) but …
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Wed Oct 15, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
Michael Pollan, author of the very well-written The Omnivore's Dilemna, has penned a timely and flat-out brilliant op-ed for the NYT. Though a tad long-ish, the whole thing is well worth reading.
This, in brief, is the bad news: the food and agriculture …
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