Basement Office

Customer support

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:26:31 -0500

The squeaky wheel gets the grease? We’ll see.

Maybe Twitter is the ultimate accountability tool.

"The perfect dad band"

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:46:00 -0500

Look, this is not going to come out right but Band of Horses is the perfect dad rock band. Whiskey, cigars, silent trips out to western scenery. This is what dad is listening to while you shut the fuck up in the back and play the license plate game. And then when you get old enough to raid your dad’s record collection, you go see them play at that awesome psychedelic club in Tuscon or wherever that is in this video. Then when you become your dad you show old videos of your youth like in this video. Band of Horses is the male cycle of growth distilled. Just because you have tattoos doesn’t mean you can’t raise a family and just because you’re a dad doesn’t mean you can’t jam.

Of the legacies I’d like to leave for Gus, cultivating a taste in good music is one that is particularly important. I do believe that Band of Horses is part of that plan. Since receiving Infinite Arms for Father’s Day (see?), and after seeing them play in Minneapolis last weekend, my love for the band has been growing, as evidenced by their meteoric rise to the upper tier of my Last.fm library.

(I’d also like for Gus to appreciate good beer and violently oppose all coercion by his future uninformed teen-aged peers to rip it up at a bonfire with a case of Old Miller-Bud Genuine Light 2025 Bull. Yes, I have high hopes for that boy.)

Washington II Washington

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:30:07 -0500

Washington II Washington:

Organized by Found Magazine creator Davy Rothbart, Washington II Washington is a hike organized in memory of Emmanuel Durant, Jr., a friend of Davy’s who was murdered on New Year’s Eve, 2009. It’s a very deserving idea in need of some microfinance to help bring 28 city kids from D.C. and Michigan to the wildnerness of Mt. Washington.

Where the money went

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:49:28 -0500

Where the money went:

Strong Towns:

The wealth of our nation has been squandered, neighborhood by neighborhood, building and maintaining streets such as these. In Brainerd the cost is easily in the tens of millions of dollars for all of the extra wide streets, paved and then not properly maintained. Nationwide the number is easily in the hundreds of billions, probably more. There is no city that has embraced this approach that has the wherewithal financially to maintain this excess.

Stuck amidst a thousand other cars in a traffic jam outside of Minneapolis on Friday night due to construction at a critical choke point in the city’s interstate loop, the profundity of our collective misdirected wealth was almost too much to bear. Here we are, at the probable eve of the American empire, and our last great hope is road resurfacing? “Your tax dollars at work,” indeed. We’ll never catch up.

No fly zone

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:24:17 -0500

Arielle and Gus are in the midst of a daylong trip back home from visiting her grandparents in North Carolina. A day that started at 4 a.m. and, due to a 3 hour delay and then a cancelled flight in Detroit, shows no immediate sign of ending. Thanks Delta.

And thanks, U.S.A., for dumbly following the vapors of air travel to the point that we are left with no serious transcontinental alternatives. The death of the airline industry and resurgence in trains — if indeed we are still financially and socially capable of re-surging anything anymore — can’t come soon enough.

“I did it! I dooed the music! It playing through...

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:17:06 -0500

“I did it! I dooed the music! It playing through Netflix!”

(Last.fm, but still…)

One of the many joys of working from home.

Caught in the oil

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:30:01 -0500

Caught in the oil:

Horrific.

(via)

Oysters: From The Gulf To The Table

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:25:20 -0500

Oysters: From The Gulf To The Table:

Towards the end of the first interview with oyster processor Patrick Fahey, host Michele Norris notes the wearisome tone of his voice; his unguarded, candid reply is touching, and, vegetarian or not, makes me feel for the guy.

If It Was My Home: Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:49:24 -0500

If It Was My Home: Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster:

A Google Maps mashup that gives a personal sense of scale to the debacle.

The Leroy Stick

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:54:49 -0500

@BPGlobalPR is a wonderful use of the internet, via Twitter, to heap some well-deserved abuse at a scoundrel of a recipient. Sometimes the tedium of programming administrative-level web applications is almost too much to bear, but it’s shit like this that keeps me excited about the medium, and about mankind’s potential for disruptive social commentary done through alternate means. Banksy comes to mind.

Anyway, 100,000+ followers can’t be wrong. Satire is honesty without pretension.

I ponied up $25 for the t-shirt. I’ve spent more on far more spurious causes.

Playground tailored for toddlers

Thu, 27 May 2010 11:00:00 -0500

Playground tailored for toddlers:

An apt decision, as it has been a longstanding joke/sad reflection in our house that the dearth of indoor public play spaces around here has led many a parent to view the Burger King Playplace in Fergus Falls, 30 miles away, as a suitable destination for wintertime entertainment.

This is in Fergus Falls too, but at least it shows others recognize this as a problem.

(via)

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on NPR’s Talk of the Nation yesterday: And we...

Thu, 27 May 2010 10:36:45 -0500

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on NPR’s Talk of the Nation yesterday:

And we have decided that in order to really promote our livable and sustainable communities, the way to do it is — we know we’re always going to have streets for people to drive on — but we know that people want to bike and hike and walk. And we want to provide those opportunities for the exercise it provides, for the family opportunities for people to be together, to get outdoors and so many other things that come about as a result of it.

It’s encouraging to hear this kind of talk from such a high level. The Secretary’s comments from atop a table at the National Bike Summit in March were also pretty amazing. Given the demonstrated precariousness of our national energy and environmental situation, we need to seriously consider the alternatives.

(via)

Vantop rendition of this lovely song. Their album is out in the...

Wed, 26 May 2010 11:08:42 -0500

Vantop rendition of this lovely song. Their album is out in the U.S. on 6/1; as a big Hopewell fan, I am waiting for it in eager anticipation.

marmalade mayhem: "You can't have freedom of religion if the government picks one."

Tue, 25 May 2010 16:41:00 -0500

marmalade mayhem: "You can't have freedom of religion if the government picks one.":

Here’s an article in the Fargo Forum that my friend Nicole shared on her facebook page about an atheist who wants “ISNOGOD” on his license plate but was rejected by NDDOT…

I do like it so much when the missus posts her insightful commentary. She’s like me, except with less crazy and more reason.

Oversized tweet: At the restaurant

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:28:12 -0500

I took smug satisfaction in listening to the Fox News cheerleader at the table next to me try, and fail, to come up with the words “carbon dioxide” while debunking “this global warming hoax.” Glad to know the staunchest opponents have a firm grasp of the basics.

Teabonics

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 06:52:55 -0500

Teabonics:

Brillyant.

(via)

marmalade mayhem: ps22 chorus from staten island

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:20:00 -0500

marmalade mayhem: ps22 chorus from staten island:

quite possibly one of the coolest things i’ve seen in a long, long time. gus and i have spent the morning watching so many of these videos. i just had to share some of my favorites. if you’re reading this i hope you find the time to watch them all.

Seconded. This is way more fun and relevant than “Kookaburra” or “If Your Ears Hang Low.” It’s incredible what kids are capable of, given the chance.

Imagine a Minimalist Reality

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:07:00 -0500

Imagine a Minimalist Reality:

While eating lunch on Petrin Hill during our visit to Prague, I tried to convince Arielle that we could sell our house in Pittsburgh, get rid of all that we own, and move there with nary more than a laptop and suitcase of clothes.

“It will be great. I’ll telecommute, and you and the baby can explore the city and learn Czech.”

We ended up in North Dakota with another mortgage, a lawn to mow, and car payments, to boot. But I get to work from home and Gus sees his grandparents almost every day. I guess things turned out different, but all right.

Kunstler, on insurance companies and the new rules of the game: …and we’ll see how...

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:27:00 -0500

Kunstler, on insurance companies and the new rules of the game:

…and we’ll see how they cope with the idea that being alive in a treacherous world is the fundamental pre-existing condition.

A beautiful line, and part of a larger invective against what he terms “the party of cruelty.”

Note to my future tax-filing self (and Google):

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:00:56 -0500

While the Free Fillable Forms service is a wonderful melding of electronic filing without all of the sissy, obfuscating hand-holding offered by products like TurboTax, it needs some polish. Specifically, if you (future self) find yourself submitting your perfectly-prepared taxes repeatedly and still getting rejected with a cryptic “Error Code 0010: This is a general reject condition relating to the data that is in the Form and Field indicated” message, look to the way that you entered your names, especially your middle initial. Is there a period after it? Congratulations. You’ve found the key to bringing our entire trillion-dollar tax recovery system to a grinding halt.

Nobody, not even programmers, should be forced to wade though stuff like this (Section 7.01 Part 1, if you’re a masochist) to determine what is and isn’t an allowable character when filing taxes.

I sure didn’t. I just called the eFile helpdesk: 866-255-0654. But still.