November 7, 2008

There were 5 posts published on November 7, 2008 (this is page 1 of 1).

Chalkman

On my walk around downtown yesterday I found a message on the sidewalk on the east side of the Capitol. Written in neat pink chalk were the words “Hi from Chalkman.” A smaller “good morning” was written on the northern sidewalk, too.

I look forward to more messages from Chalkman, whoever he is.

Barack Obama can lost President’s Chair!

Got this spam in the ol’ Inbox today. Its so convincing!

From: “Election News”
To:
Subject: Video: Obama post-resignation speech

McCain Lawyer Impeach Obama!
McCain has reached an agreement with the Obama lawyers that makes Obama
resignation effective November 11.
Barack Obama can lost President’s Chair.
McCain video report 7 November:

Proceed to the election results news page>>

2008 USA Government Official Web Site.

Suddenly, it may be cool to be an American again

VIENNA, Austria – She was a stranger, and she kissed me. Just for being an American.

It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning, a few hours after compatriots clamoring for change swept Barack Obama to his historic victory. I was on the phone, and the 20-something Austrian woman seated in front of me overheard me speaking English.

Without a word, she turned, pecked me on the cheek and stepped off at the next stop.

Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans.

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Channel Master CM-7000: Stunning digital TV

I hooked up our new Channel Master CM-7000 digital TV converter last night and was I amazed. The picture is stunning! It makes the picture we got with analog cable look like total crap! In fact, it may even be better than digital cable as digital cable takes an already-compressed MPEG signal (the ATSC broadcast signal) and recompresses it with QAM. Compressing the same data with two different algorithms always diminishes the quality of the data.

Setup was a snap, too. I simply hooked up the antenna cable, the SVGA cable, and a patch cable for stereo audio. Then a few clicks on the on-screen display and it automatically searched for and added all the available digital channels. It was a total breeze. The antenna I used was an old “rabbit-ears” antenna, too. I haven’t even hooked up the big honking attic antenna to it yet.
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Update on jazz musician Mark Turner

Aaron Parks passes along info that jazz musician Mark Turner’s hand surgery went as well as could be hoped for:

Hey everyone,

The show of support for Mark over the last few days has been incredible. Please keep the positivity flowing in.

A lot of people have been asking for an update, so I wanted to pass along the little bit of information that I know. The surgery was this morning, with one of the best hand surgeons in the country, and it apparently went as well as could be hoped for. It’ll take some time to know whether the procedure will ultimately be successful in restoring the full use of his hand, but everyone is hoping for the best. Mark is, of course, inspiringly Zen about the whole thing, already accepting things however they turn out. We’ll just have to wait: time will tell, I guess.

In the meantime, keep all the support coming. Many people have asked if there’s a way they could help financially, since he’s basically lost his main source of income for the next 6 months at least. I’ll look into it to see if he’s receptive to that kind of thing. Will let you know.

Thanks again for all the love you’ve shown towards him and his family…

Again, I hope he has a speedy recovery.

[Update 19 Jan 2009]: Good news! Mark’s apparently healing well.