It's not your fault.

This is crazy. Issues of LIFE magazine on Google Books full of...

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:12:00 -0500

This is crazy. Issues of LIFE magazine on Google Books full of delicious old ads and useful info, just sitting there for you to flip through.

Saw this in the latest issue of The New Yorker (The Mail,...

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:04:00 -0500

Saw this in the latest issue of The New Yorker (The Mail, January 18, 2010):

James Surowiecki, in writing about Tiger Woods, states that “by most accounts” athletes started endorsing products in 1905, when Honus Wagner put his name on the Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Professional and amateur cyclists had been endorsing products for at least a decade before that. In 1894, for example, my great-grandaunt, Annie Kopchovsky, carried a placard advertising Londonderry Lithia Spring Water on the first of two bicycles she used in an around-the-world bicycle trip, and the company used her image in at least one newspaper ad in Denver when she passed through, the following year. Indeed, she travelled under the name Annie Londonderry and also appeared in advertisements for Sterling bicycles, the brand of the second bike she used on the journey. And she wasn’t the only Annie to endorse Sterling cycles: Annie Oakley, the sharpshooter, did as well.

Peter Zheutlin / Needham, Mass.

I was curious and consulted with Google. Turned out that Peter Zheutlin wrote a book about his greatgrandaunt, and that book appears to be the only source people refer to on the internet (including the Wikipedia entry for Kopchovsky). The above advertisement is taken from the Annie Londonderry site (set up by Peter Zheutlin).

My last eye exam was in August of 2008. My contacts are running...

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:08:27 -0500

My last eye exam was in August of 2008. My contacts are running out and I finally dragged myself to the LensCrafters nearby today. I had to take my contacts off right away and I was blind like a bat inside the store (my eyes are bad).

Two things I know about bats:

They’re not really blind but rely mostly on their hearing to, uh, get around.
Bats are mysteriously dying in mass, and it has something to do with a fungus that causes the white nose syndrome. Frogs, too. That much I remember from a New Yorker article.

Without contacts, I can’t see shit, and my hearing isn’t so good these days either – I blame it on extensive headphone use and subway noise.

It was a full day of interviews and we picked up Indian Food...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:40:22 -0500

It was a full day of interviews and we picked up Indian Food today. Danny checked in via Foursquare for a free drink, the dude behind the counter studied the message on the phone for a while and then offer both of us hot chai.

You’ll find these floating hats at the R train 23rd Street...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:37:05 -0500

You’ll find these floating hats at the R train 23rd Street Station. This particular hat belongs to Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). There’s an interesting story behind the hats.

I have always been fascinated by the mosaic at each subway...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:51:09 -0500

I have always been fascinated by the mosaic at each subway station, but I don’t think I’ve ever taken pictures of them… until this evening. The 6 train Spring Street station is convenient but very loud.

My awesome teammates were here in the city last week, and now...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:49:15 -0500

My awesome teammates were here in the city last week, and now they’re all back home. I’m going to start posting some pictures of New York City, just to keep them updated. It was a little harder than I expected to lug around my massive D80 and snap photos while rushing to and from work. This one was taken this morning.

Our last week in Taipei. I miss New York! In no particular...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:18:31 -0400

Our last week in Taipei. I miss New York! In no particular order, I miss:

My friends.
Our (quiet) home.
My office.
WNYC.
Soho.
Brooklyn.
Cafe Grumpy.
Indian food.
Farmer’s market at Union Square.
All the great book stores – 192 Books, Three Lives, St. Marks Bookstore, Strand.
NY Times.
The High Line.
Author talks and random events.
MoMA & MoMA Cafe.
The morning air.

Ah, New York, how I miss you.

"… histories of technology should usefully identify not only when a particular innovation was..."

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:46:24 -0400

“… histories of technology should usefully identify not only when a
particular innovation was introduced, but also, and more
interestingly, when it was forgotten – when it disappeared from
collective consciousness through familiarity, becoming as commonplace
and unremarkable as a pebble or a cloud.”

- Alain de Botton, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

We were walking in Tianmu and Judy told me to look at the little...

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:33:00 -0400

We were walking in Tianmu and Judy told me to look at the little animal across the street. She told me it was a pig and I thought she was crazy. I wasn’t convinced until I went across the street and saw the little fellow’s face up close – it was a pig! The owner was nice enough to let me take a picture of it. The fur on the pig is beautiful, and it was so dignified. We thought about having a pet pig, but I fear our pork-eating past would haunt the relationship.

U.S. Veteran Returns Iwo Jima Relic to Daughter of Japanese Soldier

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:26:34 -0400

U.S. Veteran Returns Iwo Jima Relic to Daughter of Japanese Soldier:

A touching and incredible story about how a U.S. soldier found a photo and drawing from the pocket of a deceased Japanese soldier, and, 50 something years later, returned them to the soldier’s family.

We went out after lunch today and saw an incredibly long line...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:41:59 -0400

We went out after lunch today and saw an incredibly long line out of 89 Degrees Celsius (a cafe chain in Taiwan). What for? Apparently there was a promotion going on: ice coffee for $1 NT (which is about 3 cents in U.S. Dollars). We noticed a lot of people leaving with not only the nearly free coffee, but also with a full-priced pastry or two.

"You can’t make lemonade out of this lemon."

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:34:37 -0400

“You can’t make lemonade out of this lemon.”

- Mr. Danny Wen

AFS is one of Iridesco’s earliest clients, and one of the...

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:50:00 -0400

AFS is one of Iridesco’s earliest clients, and one of the best things the came out of working with them is our friendship with Norm. Last week, Norm left to study for an MBA in Amsterdam, and I stopped by the office to say goodbye. I have not been to AFS since we stopped taking on consulting projects and this will probably be my last visit for a long time.

"I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many..."

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:00:37 -0400

“I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many things as possible.”

- Sean O’Casey

"A touch of vin triste today as we realize that the final mouse in the control group has passed on...."

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:37:58 -0500

“A touch of vin triste today as we realize that the final mouse in the control group has passed on. Louis tore the little fellow’s head off in a paranoid rage. Thirty-five bottles of red followed by crystal meth seems to have diminishing returns. Or so says the rabbit.”

- Mouse au Vin by Noah Baumback (who directed The Squid and The Whale, in which, Miles of Lost plays a school counselor of some sort).

"And who the fuck is Josh Groban, and, why am I such a dick? Hard questions."

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:43:03 -0500

“And who the fuck is Josh Groban, and, why am I such a dick? Hard questions.”

- Aaron Draplin. Who else?

Website (blog?) with pictures of pretty living spaces. Time...

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:07:19 -0500

Website (blog?) with pictures of pretty living spaces. Time sucker!

This is not a good video, but the only one I can find. We rented...

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:59:00 -0500

This is not a good video, but the only one I can find.

We rented Tropic Thunder off of iTunes last night, and it was vulgar, politically incorrect, and bleeping hilarious. It would’ve taken me awhile to realize it, had I not heard about it everywhere - Tom Cruise had a small, surprising role in TT and he played it up. I didn’t know Mr. Cruise had it in him, and I couldn’t have imagined him dancing like that.

$3.99 to rent on iTunes, it was worth the money, and time.

"If you’re a battery you’re either working or you’re dead. That’s a shit..."

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:51:29 -0500

“If you’re a battery you’re either working or you’re dead. That’s a shit life.”

- Dmitri Martin