Okay, I am having a love affair with Google, obv. (Am also thinking of getting the MyTouch--thoughts?)
The Image Labeler is like a game and it's pretty fun, except when I got paired with a dumb-ass teammate who would only guess the main color of each image.
You can also check out Google Reader. It has featured reading lists of journalists, foodies, and techies. Once I run out of my go-to sites, my boredom tends to increase seven-fold.
Thomas L. Friedman is The New York Times's foreign-affairs columnist and the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes. He previously served as the Times's chief economic correspondent and chief White House correspondent. His latest book is “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America."
Nicholas D. Kristof has been a columnist for The Times since 2001 and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to more than 140 countries, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island. In 1990 Mr. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, then also a Times journalist, won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement.
I decided to start a new series in order to revive our blog. it's called "Things to do on the Computer When You're Bored". I was going to call it "Things to do at Work When You're Bored", but I know not everyone sits in front of a computer like I do and not everyone is actually bored at work.
You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:
View the same set of images.
Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.
Receive points when your label matches your partner's label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.
See more images until time runs out.
After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session.
Tips:
You may click the "pass" button if you can't think of any more labels for an image. If you and your partner both click "pass," you'll see the next image but receive no points for the passed image
You'll receive more points for matches with more descriptive labels. For example, this image can be described by the labels: sky (50 points), bird (60 points), soaring (120 points), or frigate bird (150 points).
What do you need to participate?
Just an interest in helping Google improve the relevance of image search for users like yourself. If you log in to your Google account, we will keep track of your points for you. You may also enter a nickname, but we do not require either a nickname or a login to use Google Image Labeler.
You can follow me on Twitter, but I wouldn't recommend it.
But, if you're intrigued, you might start with the most popular tweeters (Twitterholic)
And I swore I recently saw some article about the best Twitter accounts, but will have to post that later since I can't seem to find it.
But, I was just recently sent this guy's Twitter link: Shit My Dad Says The tweets are written by Justin: "I'm 28. I live with my 73-year-old dad. He is awesome. I just write down shit that he says"
Like:
"How the fuck should I know if it's still good? Eat it. You get sick, it wasn't good. You people, you think I got microscopic fucking eyes."
"Your mother made a batch of meatballs last night. Some are for you, some are for me, but more are for me. Remember that. More. Me."
"Love this Mrs. Dash. The bitch can make spices... Jesus, Joni (my mom) it's a joke. I was making a joke! Mrs. Dash isn't even real dammit!"
"I didn't live to be 73 years old so I could eat kale. Don't fix me your breakfast and pretend you're fixing mine."
When we lived in Denver, one night we went to a gay bar (Bricks) and there was a drag show. In this show was a drag queen who performed two different Pink (or "P!nk" as she apparently goes by now) songs. This queen had natural cleavage (and I don't mean implants. Man boobs -- moobs) and really knew none of the words except the choruses. I happen to have both of these songs on my iPod. Every single time I hear them, I think of that queen. Well, more specifically I think of the moobs, which were disturbing. In that same show was a drag queen that fancied herself a taller, manlier version (if that's even possible) of Celine Dion. She did what I call "Celine Dion arms". If I wasn't on the train, I'd do a video on my phone and post it to the blog to show you what I mean. But then, I suppose that leaves something for later, doesn't it?
As previously mentioned, P and I are condo shopping. We found what we thought was the perfect condo, and even made an offer. The sellers were in way over their heads and wanted too much -- much more than it was even worth. So, we walked away. In the end, it was a good thing. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath condo, and probably a bit smaller than what we really need. But it was pretty. I tend to focus on the negatives (since we didn't get it), which include:
1. Balcony was off the bedroom, which is awkward for entertaining. 2. Bedrooms were small. In fact, there was only one possible placement of the bedroom in the master, and if you'd shifted the bed just one inch, you'd have blocked the door to the balcony. 3. Did I mention it had only 1 bath?
Our new favorite condo (which we're going to see for a second time on Sunday) is beautiful. Here, I will focus on the positives!
1. 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms -- Lord knows we need 2 bathrooms as that is one of the biggest bicker points of our current apartment. 2. The master is H-U-G-E! My dream is to build a walk-in closet in that bedroom. And doing that, it would still be bigger than what we have now! 3. Laundry room. That's right, a laundry ROOM. In the unit, with storage and everything. 4. Balcony off the kitchen. 5. Very bright. 6. Very modern. 7. 18' x 30' storage unit in the basement. 8. Gas fireplace (only unit in the building with a fireplace).
So, we'll see where this all takes us. We're going to see this unit and a few others on Sunday.
I have been behind some slow people on my commutes to/from work. I didn't think it possible for there to be anyone slower than some of these jokers. Cut to today. This woman almost wasn't moving, she was walking so slow. I wish I had had the guts to take a video for the blog. She wasn't lame or all that old... just lazy, I guess. But I still made my train!
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes out on Wednesday! We are going to see it when my brother comes. We are also going to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry!!
This post would be so much better if I could track down a picture of Jan Hooks as the park ranger at the Alamo from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, but alas--some things simply do not exist on the internets.
So. When P&D and I arrived for our first tour at Mesa Verde, a large crowd had already settled in under the shade of a small awning. The park ranger who would lead our tour could be overheard telling a few fellow tourists of some of the challenges of being a tour guide.
[Picture Marge Gunderon from Fargo in stature, talkativeness and accent.]
"Oh yeaah... I have to be prepared. I've had two people *holding up two fingers* die on me. Oh yeah. DIE. These hikes can be strenuous, you know, especially for people, you know, from out of state. Each time, they came up from the hike and they were GRAY, their skin *touching the skin on her face*, their hands *touching her hands* - gray."
I think I rolled my eyes at one or the other of P&D like, "Look who takes their job a LI-ttle too seriously".
"I carry everything in this here backpack *gesturing to backpack the size of her torso*... first aid *gesturing as if applying ointment, then a bandaid*, water *making sign for water (to be described in more detail in a minute)*, matches *making sign of rubbing 2 sticks together*... you name it."
She then loudly called the group to order. A few people started walking away, so she called out to them. They obviously didn't speak English as their first language, which cause her to call out even louder. It was finally determined that they had purchased tickets for the tour group that had already left and were, most likely, trying to figure out what to do amongst themselves. Luckily, our tour guide told them to come with us, turning to the rest of the group and chuckling as if to say, "Poor, dumb foreigners." ARGH.
She launched into her spiel only to be distracted by a parked car with its engine running nearby. She tried to get the attention of the adult in the car, but since the woman in the car was concentrating on FEEDING HER BABY and she had the windows up bc the AIR CONDITIONER WAS ON (all apparent to anyone who took a second to assess why the car engine was running), she couldn't hear our park ranger. So, Spunky Jo commented, "Jeez, I wish that guy would turn off his engine *gesturing as if turning off car ignition* so you guys could hear me..." A guy from the group went over and turned off the car, leaving his poor wife and child to fend for themselves inside the car in the blistering heat.
Her spiel included warnings of a 3-story ladder we'd all be climbing (*me quickly assessing how many old and fat people were in the group that might be as scared as I was about that*=not many) and the hole "the size of my hat" which we'd all be squeezing through at some point (which was, granted, a pretty large hat).Said 32 foot ladder, original to the cliff dwellings. (No, not really.)
"Are you ready to get started with our tour say yes." She gave the fat, sunburned kids she'd picked out as "special helpers" a cue and the group walked down a path towards the ladder that would take us to the cliff dwellings. We got maybe 50 feet down the path before our tour guide stopped us to educate us on the many uses of the plant life in Mesa Verde.
She gestured at a juniper tree and explained that "THIS is the WalMart and Home Depot of the Ancient Puebloans..." and yucca *gesture* "is the Walgreens". She singled out the men in the group and asked them, "If you needed wood to build your house, what wood would you use say juniper."
Then she said she needed a "young woman" to demonstrate something and singled out a woman of about 60 ("This is my 'young woman', okay? *pause for laughter of which there was none*") and explained that the bark of the juniper tree could be stripped off and used to catch baby droppings (in lieu of a diaper. Because it was like buying diapers at WalMart. Only they didn't have WalMart in 1300. So they had to use bark from juniper trees. Because that was their WalMart. Very educational). I think she also implied "young women" would use it when they had their period, but I think her "volunteer" from the audience had slowly ambled back to her place in the group by then...)
So then we FINALLY (did I mention the temperature was in the 90s with the sun beating down on us?) descended to the cliff dwelling. It was here tha she introduced us to "Grandfather" who was, from what I gathered, a Puebloan (as in, a First American from one of the modern Pueblo tribes).
I should probably interject a bit of history (from what we learned from the brochure from the park, NOT from our tour guide): the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde are believed to have been built by the Ancient Puebloans (formerly known as the Anasazi. I don't know why the term changed. And I can only assume using the term Anasazi would make any modern-day Pueblo Indian (sorry--First American) cringe.) and abandoned by 1300 for unknown reasons. Unexplained markings on a wall of the cliff dwelling. Now we'll never know what made these holes. P, D &I were the only ones of the group to peer through this window and into another entire stretch of cliff dwellings that Spunky Jo never mentioned...
So Grandfather had a lot to say about his ancestors, all of which our tour guide took very seriously. Which is not to imply that I find fault with that. It's just that... old people tend to tell stories. Long, pointless stories. Of dubious veracity. And that how all of Grandfather's stories came off (through our tour guide) to me, at least.
For one thing, she had a lot to say about water *always accompanied by a hand gesture of a 'W' against her chin* It was implied that this hand gesture was taught her by Grandfather. Problem for me is--it's the same sign in American Sign Language (I took a class in college--I can actually sign that sentence). I find it UNCANNY that the Ancient Puebloans used a W to make the sign for water.
Anyways, there was a whole bunch of talk about water *hand gesture*, yucca *hand gesture* and Grandfather. What I found so annoying was (in order): the way she demanded our attention when our eyes would wander to the ACTUAL CLIFF DWELLINGS and how the content of her monologue had NOTHING TO DO with the ACTUAL CLIFF DWELLINGS in which we were standing.
At one point, she cursorily pointed to a hand print believed to be close to 1,000 years old high on the cliff wall. needless to say, it was faded and difficult to see (especially for this sorry squinter). As I was straining to see it, a fellow tourist tried to point it out to me and Spunky Jo yelled at us, telling us we were holding up the tour group. AS IF. Spunky Jenn replied that she was about to have a mutiny on her hands if she didn't let people see the hand print.
Another interjection: the cliff dwellings were impressive. The content of our tour was basically: "These dwellings are old, but we don't know much about them. So, I will compare them to WalMart, Home Depot, and Walgreens and tell you a funny story about a little old brown man who was once on my tour and spoke at length about yucca *hand gesture* and water *hand gesture*, all of which still exist around here and for which we, today, have absolutely no use for. Do you feel like you learned something on this tour say yes."
She wrapped up the tour by relating yet another story about Grandfather, this time about how he blessed the tour (? or maybe Jo?) like this. Okay, not quite, but I did laugh uproariously later when P mimicked this hand gesture as throwing up.
So. I guess the lesson for park rangers and tour guides, if they're to take my post as constructive criticism is to 1. talk about what the good people on your tour came to see; 2. don't answer your own questions; 3. don't assume we think you have cred because Grandfather blessed your tour; 4. don't use hand gestures. At all; 5. don't compare historical uses of natural surroundings to WalMart, Home Depot, Walgreens or any other place that does not make use of our natural surroundings. Thank you.
These are, I assume, smoke marks from the dwelling's ancient inhabitants showing where walls used to reach the cave wall. Also not pointed out or explained by our tour guide.
... that is just hard in the summer. And it's not even particularly nice outside just now. In fact, it's raining. I honestly do have a ton I could write about. We did just get back from a fantastic trip to Colorado. That was quickly followed by our good friend being in town for Pride, our first condo-shopping experience, the Air Conditioning Debacle of Aught-Nine (tm), and Fourth of July! Not to mention our new iPhones! But then again, I guess that's all why I haven't been blogging. We've been busy!
In any event, here goes:
1. New iPhones -- P and I took the Friday preceding our trip to Colorado off. Originally, I had requested that date because I thought we were leaving for Denver in the morning. Come to find out, no. But, it worked out very well because that was the very day the new iPhone came out! We were there at something like 5:30am, and the store didn't open until 7. It was pouring rain at points, but that made for a pretty short line. The Apple people are so nice -- people waiting were offered umbrellas when it starting raining. We were also given water and apple Izzes. For those who have never been, the Apple store on Michigan Ave is two stories, with a very tall staircase running up through the middle of the store (Also, but completely unrelated, there's an apple-shaped window on the front of the store that tourists just LOVE to have their picture taken in front of. I'll be sure to take one of S, L and Carmen when they come to visit in August). There were Apple employees lining the staircase clapping for all us losers when we were let in the store. I felt like a giant nerd. P got his phone and had it activated in like 15 minutes. But the guy couldn't port my old number to my phone, so I had to get a new number. Which is sad because P's current and my old number were only two digits off! We spent the rest of the afternoon not talking and playing with our phones.
2. Trip to Colorado -- we didn't get in to Denver until late in the evening, and then spent the night at J's. She even let us have her bed (which we never let her do when she visits us). The next morning, we met Kelly for breakfast at a place we'd never been. There was a long wait, so we got shit-faced on the sidewalk drinking mimosas and bloody marys. The only complaint: the breakfast burritos (which I did not have, but several of my tablemates did have) smells like BO. But I think that's the chilis or something. It was really good otherwise.
We then went to Cherry Creek Mall (our old stompin' ground) where Jenn bought this hat:
That night, we went to Benny's (our old stompin' ground). We went with the McDowell sisters, Sun-Young, Brad, Art, Veronica, and Veronica's boyfriend. We went to Binny's (our old stompin' ground [now in a new and improved location]) to get some booze, and headed to Art's for a little par-tay. There, many exciting things happened. Among them are, a human pyramid (which I managed to get not a single picture of) and a delightful show feat. J's ta-tas. I'd load the video to the blog, but I'm pretty sure J would kill me. Hopefully this will suffice:
We went to JRs Bar (and grill -- our old stompin' ground) after, and then the details get fuzzy. But I'm pretty sure Clinton Kelly from "What Not to Wear" was there.
The next morning, we continued our tour of Denver breakfast eateries at some lesser-known and lesser-liked place, which shall remain nameless. It's not even worth this many words. We then got in the car and stayed there for the rest of the weekend.
We stopped in Telluride for the night (really pretty). My heart almost stopped in the free gondola, and we ate at a cute Italian restaurant.
We got back in the car the next morning and headed to Mesa Verde National Park. There, we saw cliff dwellings, met the maddeningly annoying Jo S---k (sp) and stayed at a MV Motor Lodge. From the outside, it's exactly what you're thinking, but from the inside, it wasn't so bad.
I'm going to let J post about Jo since she had the strongest reaction to her, but suffice it to say, we learned a LOT about "Grandfather", Home Depot, and stupid hand gestures.
We also had to do a lot of scary climbing up ladders, which J and I hated.
We also learned about sipapus and kivas, both pictured here.
The next morning, we made our way to Durango. We had coffee, did some souvenir shopping and went to a gallery where P found his new favorite photographer.
Then it was (you guessed it!) back in the car and on our way to Eagle! That's where Jill lives. She's married and pregnant. On the way, I had to use one of the things I do NOT miss about CO -- the mountain death hole toilet.
We were back to Denver the next morning, and off to Chicago that night. It was a lot of fun. And Colorado is so pretty!
See? Well, that's all I can bring myself to type right now. More later!
This is our destination. I plan to research things to do along the way next week (at work).
We'll be staying at the Far View Lodge which is IN the park, so we don't have to worry about the two hour drive in and out of the park!
Did You Know? On a snowy December day in 1888, while ranchers Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason searched Mesa Verde’s canyons for stray cattle, they unexpectedly came upon Cliff Palace for the first time. The following year, the Wetherill brothers and Mason explored an additional 182 cliff dwellings.
IF YOU HAVE ONE HALF DAY OR LESS... Plan to spend at least four hours at Mesa Verde. Two hours of this time will be spent driving in and out of the park. •Your first stop should be at the Far View Visitor Center (15 miles from the park entrance) for information and orientation. •Visit the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum and Spruce Tree House-or- drive the Mesa Top Loop Road (six-mile loop).
IF YOU HAVE ONE DAY... •Stop at the Far View Visitor Center to purchase tickets ($3.00) to visit Cliff Palace or Balcony House. •Drive the Cliff Palace/Balcony House Loop Road. If you plan to visit Cliff Palace or Balcony House, be sure to purchase your tickets at the Far View Visitor Center first. •Visit the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum, take a self-guided tour of Spruce Tree House, -and- drive the Mesa Top Loop Road (six-mile loop). •Hike the Far View Sites Complex.
IF YOU HAVE ONE DAY (alternative)... •Stop at the Far View Visitor Center to purchase tickets ($3.00) to visit Long House on Wetherill Mesa. •Take the Wetherill Mesa Drive, hike the trails to the mesa top sites and cliff dwelling overlooks, and enjoy the tram service. •Join a ranger for your ticketed tour to Long House. Be sure to purchase your tickets ($3.00) at the Far View Visitor Center before driving to Wetherill Mesa. •Take a self-guided tour of Step House.
IF YOU HAVE TWO DAYS OR MORE (one day activities plus)... •Stop at the Far View Visitor Center to purchase tickets to visit all three cliff dwellings (Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Long House). •Hike one or more of Mesa Verde's hiking trails.
Not only will I get to catch up with them (and, as a result, get to know them better since I expected to score 100% on their respective "How Well Do You Know" Facebook quizzes), but we'll get to see some gorgeous Colorado scenery, play in Denver, and create life-long memories! AW.
P and I are taking the plunge (we hope)! On Monday night, we met with a Realtor®, which is both exciting and pee-in-my-pants scary. She's lovely, which is nice. She knows the area we want to live in very well, which also happens to be the area we currently live in. The whole process is terribly confusing, and I work with loans all day long. Our next step -- we need to get pre-approved. Also scary, mainly because we both (OK, mostly me) are paranoid that we won't get approved. I'm sure we will, but I wouldn't be me if I wasn't worrying! Also, see my previous post about buying a computer. So much for not making major purchases right before you apply for a mortgage. What can I say? I like pretty things. We'll show pictures of our search. More to come! Unless we don't get approved, in which case I will never write of this again.
I hope that didn't make anyone panic--it's not my birthday--YET! But, it IS this month, so the free stuff is starting to trickle in. Not from my real friends--from my friends at the mall!
I used to be reluctant to sign up for memberships and clubs at stores, but then I started to realize there are some benefits (and MANY more if you shop way more savvier than I). The birthday benefits, though, are ALWAYS the best!
Thusfar, I have a $10 off coupon at DSW (min. purchase $20--that's half off!!) and a $10 gift certificate from Origins. (Thanks, guys!!) The ones I am looking forward to include the one from Aveda (years past have included free product and a custom scent--2 of which I still have!), Banana Republic (I forget what they gave me last year, but I haven't been to Banana in forever which I assume means it will be GOOD!), and I think I get something for having a GAP card.
And I certainly hope my old friend Ann Taylor LOFT remembers my birthday. She emails me every single day, I assume they're all leading up to a really nice gift!
In an effort to better understand what attracts you to our blog, we invite you to comment on this post. There are over 100 hits to our blog between you. Do you find our quaint stories of American Life(tm) exotic and strange (believe it or not, not a single one of the blog's authors drives an SUV, and we don't eat at McDonald's! Well, I guess I can't speak for J, but I presume if she knows what's good for her she doesn't! And get this! We don't own or carry guns, either! And we have health insurance! Don't let that fool you, though. True to form, we don't save nearly enough money, we carry balances on our credit cards [except P, who just paid his cards off {jerk}], and we are definitely as materialistic as they come. In fact, let's go shopping!)? Or is it just fascinating that we don't end all of our words in "e's" and call chips "french fries"?
I should point out that we DO have our similarities. I love hockey, for example, and can sing the entire Canadian national anthem. And my experience with people from Quebec is that they are annoying. (If you are from Quebec and are reading this... oh who am I kidding? By now, since you've realized this site isn't in french, you've given up.) And your blog authors are all of European stock, so we understand what it's like to be pasty and burn, even when it doesn't seem like there was enough sun to cause any sort of problem (except P, who is Italian and does not burn, ever [jerk]). And P and J have been to Europe.
In any event, please... comment. Let us know what you like, what you don't understand, and what we can do to make this a more pleasant experience for you.
