Mike's Archive

Author: james

  • Review seen on Amazon

    Book: Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment
    (3 Stars) The book may placed in some place too long time., September 2, 2005
    Reviewer: Ming Zhong (NJ USA) (REAL NAME)

    The smell of it isn’t good when I open the package.
    I just prepared return it.
    But now (near one month),The smell almost dispear.
    So I change my mind.
    (thanks to Anus)

  • Looting and Finding in the wake of Katrina

    A friend, Tom, observes:

    I was looking through some of the horrible pictures of the hurricane Katrina aftermath and I noticed something: White folks wading through the water carrying food and supplies simply “found” them at a local store. The black folks however, “looted” the local store. Check it out:

    Black people “loot”
    http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/ladm10208301530%3E

    White people “find”
    http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/photos_ts_afp/050830071810_shxwaoma_photo1

    Coincidence? Maybe.

    Update: I noticed today that BoingBoing picked up on this as well. See also: Romenesko & Salon

  • A poem by Scott Holman

    Matchstick

    The artist and the critic

    Must coexist
    On the tip
    Of a matchstick

  • The Joy of Schwag

    • I worked my college summers as a Marlboro Gear Van Representative. My job was to give people schwag after they bought cigarettes and to survey them in the process. What a motherlode of schwag it was, my friends. I still have towels, denim shirts, keychains, umbrellas, sunglass pouches, the works. When I was an exchange student in England I actually sold several “rare” Marlboro Zippos that I had acquired while working “the Van.” The English were way behind on schwag.
    • At Christmas, our family likes to gift each other schwag. I have some awesome golf shirts embroidered with various mutual fund logos and I wear them proudly. I do not believe that my brother owns a single golf ball that is not emblazoned with some 3rd party logo.
    • I used to have schwag giveways at my summer parties. I’d collect as much schwag as I could throughout the year than have an absurd drawing toward the end of the party and give it all away. One year I gave a 7′ (2m) inflatable red-white-and-blue Budweiser rocket (that looked a lot like a penis) to this crazy geek kid that was a busboy where I worked. He was thrilled and every time I saw him he mentioned that gigantic rocket. That is the power of schwag.
    • I worked for Apple one summer as an in-store representative at Circuit City. The job sucked pretty bad but they had these awesome pens and I also got a “Think Different” watch that ran backwards.
    • Getting married generates a lot of schwag. Various businesses such as caterers, DJ’s and florists are eager to press their schwag firmly into the palm of your hand. Accept this token. Unfortunately, the token is too often a spoon with a Hershey’s Kiss tied to it with ribbon or a miniature bubble-blowing toy. But, one of the finest wedding schwags is the food. Taste away, my friend, taste away.
    • After I graduated from “the Van” and entered the big time as a Territory Sales Manager for Phillip Morris, my entire concept of schwag was redefined forever. PM meetings were virtual schwagfests – I recall once they actually set up a faux casino in the hotel for everyone to play with tickets to win schwag, then, they gave away a lot more schwag. After the casino prizes came a leather jacket, hikers (in my size), oxford shirts, umbrellas and duffle bags for the guys and purses for the girls. I still have the leather jacket – it has a bright-blue satin lining with “You’ve Got Merit!” embossed in the fabric. It always makes me feel better when I read that lining; both because of the affirmation and because it’s schwag.

      • Tell the world about your Joy of Schwag. Shout it from the rooftops … or the comments area.

  • My journey to MP3 player bliss (or, Wisdom buys and reviews a gadget)

    Back around January I decided to embark upon listening to the unabridged Atlas Shrugged audiobook. Problem was, I had it in MP3 format and burning it to audio disc would require at least 40 CDR’s plus the time and hassle involved in burning. As a result, I decided it was time to get me an MP3 player.

    Determined to spend less than $100, I shopped around for a long time, getting a feel for price ranges, flash vs. hard-drive players, feature sets, disposable vs. rechargeable batteries, and DRM vs. non-DRM. (more…)

  • Atlas Shrugged

    About 8 years ago I started reading the book Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. I very much enjoyed it until page 698 when I placed the bookmark in it for the last time and was distracted by some other book. Thereafter, the thick, almost-1100pg tome with the ethereal sketch portrait of Ayn Rand sat on my shelf, mocking me. (more…)

  • Travel Tips

    After my recent trip to Montréal, I thought I’d share a few of my travel tips and my basis for them:

    • When travelling abroad, make 2, 2-sided copies of your Birth Certificate and Passport. Keep a copy on your person and one in your luggage. When I somehow misplaced my passport in a flight between England and Portugal in 1994, I had to wait for a relative (my mother, disgruntled as hell for being awakened at the crack of dawn) to fax copies of identity documents to the US Embassy for verification to gain entry into the country. That made for a fun 4 hours of airport-backroom waiting with customs agents. The embassy official I met later that week in Lisbon keyed me in to this tip and I’ve seen it verified numerous other places since. Having the documents handy will expedite the process should you lose or have your documents ripped off. In case you’re wondering, my passport turned up in a trash can in the airport a few days later, even though we carefully searched the plane. I still have no idea how it got there or how someone found it. (more…)

  • Religious Policeman

    Around the time that the Iraq blogs started to get exposure in the MSM and blogosphere, The Religious Policeman popped up. An adult Saudi with enlightened views, he was a true rarity in that he spoke to the frustrations of Saudi everyday life, religion, politics, and the police. Sadly, he’s not posted in over a year. (Update: in an odd serendipitous turn, Alhamedi reappeared on the scene just 2 days after I posted this! Welcome back!) Re-reading his entries in light of King Fahd’s death should raise fresh questions and concerns for anyone paying attention to the source of the juice that runs all our cars (and, apparently, most suicide bombers).

  • Montréal, Quebec

    Just returned from a 5-day trip to Montréal. The wife and I got a really great deal on air/hotel and stayed at the posh Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. Please enjoy these random observations and accept my recommendation of this city as a wonderful place to visit.

    • Local flavor was interesting. I like pistachios, and was pleased to see that Montréal also seems to like pistachios. At the many cremeries (ice-cream shops) I noticed that pistachio was almost always included, a rarity in my area. Of course, crêpes were also widely available both as fast-food and on the menus of more upscale places. While we were at La Ronde, we noticed a woman and her 2-year old eating some french fry concoction I had never seen before and she informed me that it was fries topped with cheese curd and brown gravy (perhaps a distant cousin to the incomprable chips, mushypeas and gravy I had experienced in Northwest England). She informed us enthusiastically “this is a Quebecois meal!” (more…)

  • Times that my chair has failed

    • at brickside, I leaned back and the green plastic lawnchair exploded underneath me in front of many friends who found it quite hilarious
    • at a baseball card convention, the folding grey tube-steel chair gave way and folded in half
    • the plastic adorondack chair on my Aunt and Uncle’s deck over 4th of July in Stone Harbor made a loud snapping noise but did not collapse
    • the kitchen sink faucet at my friend Scott’s posh parent’s house on New Year’s Eve (admittedly, I shouldn’t have been sitting near the kitchen sink)
    • at my friend Chris’ pool party, the webbing of one of those lawn chairs gave way with a horiffic rending shriek and my ass popped through