Yeah, I totally learned this in college from friends who would bring up things like "so you're not dating anyone?" and I realized that I was perfectly happy and their co-rumination demands and a conversation about it made me unnecessarily anxious. - Lilly Irani
That sucks. Your blog is one of my favourites. And definitely my favourite of all women bloggers. Your voice is strong and uncompromising. Please don't stop blogging. - Mel "VOTE NDP" McB
“Lily Sutton Sjogreen was born at 5:05pm on July 4th. She is 9 pounds 8 ounces and 21.5 inches long. She is of course the cutest little girl in the world. Pics to come!”
Wow, I totally agree, Kevin. What an awesome idea! And now I am wishing for a way to "like" this entry more than once. Thanks for sharing that, Matt. - Ragani Harris
I've been witnessing and loving lots of wedding hacks lately. A friend of mine is having a court ceremony anyone can come to followed by relaxed, fun, informal house parties in 5 cities. - Lilly Irani
Situations like that need a twitter-flash-crowd. Give us the address and we'll have a dozen people walk by innocuously talking about how Twitter changed their lives. - Kevin Fox
This would've been a perfect Annie Hall moment. "Excuse me, you know nothing of my work." - Andy Baio
Trying to remember if we were at whole foods that day talking about twitter. :) - Chris White
"Not really safe for work" says Kevin, from work. - Jim Norris
This post is all fascinating. "Seiji told me much later that dating me made him feel like he was gay, because I was active in bed, and he couldn't connect that with anything except masculinity." Fascinating. - Clare Dibble
I'd 'Like' this article, but I'm afraid that I'll come across as too forward and risk being rejected. - April Buchheit
um, women are supposed to act like tuna fish and only one person moves at a time...? i have to wonder whether this is real and if so, how representative her experience is. - ƃuɐʞ
Not that I have any direct experience, but if the tuna fish is still alive and you tried to have sex with it, I'm betting it would move around regardless of whether you thought you were the dominate one. :) - Chris White
Funny how this conversation is heading towards bestiality...definitely NSFW - April Buchheit
The Japanese have some strange habits and customs (at least from my perspective). I think it is interesting to note that Japanese porn seems to attempt to break most of these rules, for example bukkake (women getting lots of ejaculate on them). - Robert Felty
nsfw? huh? Thats so american.... why is this not safe for work? - minus3
if your boss has laser eyes that can scan text very quickly. or if there is the "ejaculate" word detector on your workcomputer. like, duh. - Lilly Irani
Hooked up to one of those ambient devices to glow red. - Chris White
Even if my boss would see it I don't think she would really mind. - minus3
I saved it as .pdf format. It will be my second head book after Arsene Lupin ; ) - Erhan Erdogan
I can't read it - I'm not authorized :( - James Polley
'“It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years,” Mr. Obama said. “Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy — particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.”' - Bret Taylor
I think it's amazing that the NYT wants us to think that the primary message of this speech was to call the pastor divisive... It was absolutely not about that. It was a frank and necessary (and long overdue) look at race and racism, black and white. We need this man leading our country. - Stephen Foskett
The NYT seems to have two goals: 1) to sell papers, and 2) to support Clinton. I'm not sure which one is more important to them. :) - Chris White
Can't understand why Senator Obama thought this speech was even necessary. He shouldn't have to defend himself for being friends with someone who has views that differ many Americans. Barack's campaign is about diversity and he's said before that he'll be friendly with everyone. - Rob Safuto
If anything, Obama is gaining the confidence of the American people by cutting through the expected political dogma that we've been so used to. I think he made a bold political move by addressing this situation head on by delivering a blunt and direct speech, and did a great job in easing a lot of the consternation we have in his candidacy. The 800-pound gorilla that everyone can clearly see but few have brought up until now is this: can an African-American effectively lead this country? I think so. - grant
Take the time to view the speech--it is incredibly powerful. - Sheila Taylor
I agree with Grant. This guy is making all the right moves. If he doesn't go all the way, it'll be something really unexpected that'll derail him. I remember, though, meeting Dan Balz, journalist at Washington Post. He's covered politics since the 1970s. He says elections rarely go the way you predict. No matter what happens, this is already the most interesting campaign of my life (I'm 43 and started paying attention with Carter in office). - Robert Scoble
I love how honest and realistic he was. Not painting anybody or anything as 100% right or 100% wrong. He doesn't polarize people or issues to cause a stir, get ratings, or sell papers. He doesn't put two people in a reality-tv-like ring and instigate them into fighting. He addresses what opposing sides have in common. It's refreshing. - Bill Bittner
@Robert: more interesting than this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...... Remember when Howard Dean was actually the frontrunner for the Dems? You are right, this thing can go anywhere from here. Here's hoping Obama isn't Client 10. - grant
This has been one of the most well covered, reported on, and talked about speeches to date, and I find it funny that Hillary is stating that she "Hasn't heard it" and "I haven't read it". I find this very hard to believe, especially when you are plotting every move you make based on your opponent's previous move. (http://tinyurl.com/2qs58a) - cmiper
It's important for our presidential candidates to not seem crazy. :) - Chris White
Just another politician trying to save his campaign, nothing more. - Spencer Scott
@Spencer I think it is something more. it's a candidate showing the voters how he'll handle crises. No sending minions out to speak whilst he flies around frantically on AirForceOne, e.g. 9/11. - Carla Thompson
But the pastor is divisive, and Obama is long overdue in calling him that. - Prokofy Neva
One of the most honest and open speeches from a politician I've ever heard. The comments he made today were comments that someone has needed to say for a very long time. There are a lot of real issues that are facing this country and the old guard, both Republican and Democrat, are either unwilling or unable to initiate the changes that are needed. We've got to have something different and I'm grateful that Mr. Obama has at least been able to make me believe that change is possible. - Mike Paul
"...to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time" How very true. - Michelle Lee
There are lots of great things BUT I will just say this is the least *stupid* political speech in a long time. Obama's ability to take insane complexity -- the complicity of the oppressed and oppressors; the structural unities of racism, sexism, xenophobia; the superficial reasonableness of the self-help problem; the problems with welfare -- and make them poetic and listenable. This is a man that is able to express incredible depth without losing people. - Lilly Irani
I predicted his presidency after the 04 dem. convention speech...this speech may be one of the most important of our time. - Marianne
I remember reading a profile of Obama in The New Yorker when he was running for his seat in the Senate. I remember thinking - now THIS is a Presidential candidate I would support. And I do. - Cathy Brooks
I hope this speech has set him apart from the other candidates and can lead him to victory. Unfortunately, I think too many will view it as a political stunt rather than the true honest leadership that it is. - Brandon Titus
very interesting considering the very debate we were having together on myspace. I read the article, but didn't listen to the speech (I know bad me). Still a bit cynical but his open acknowledgement of the statements made by the pastor...makes me think. - Pamela Barnes
I stopped watching CNN when they dropped the every-30-minutes format. (Sports at 19 and 49 minutes past the hour, etc.) I don't miss it one bit. - Brian Johns
I stopped watching CNN after their coverage of the OJ Simpson trial. "And next, for our shoelace expert..." It was really despicable theatre. - Adam Lasnik
when was Linux ever "not suitable for laptops"? I mean,assuming you like Linux in the first place, which apparently you do. Hardware compatibility can be a bear, but not on the models you're talking about - ⓞnor
I run Linux on a Lenovo thinkpad X61s, currently their smallest and lightest, and hardware compatability is a bear. After dozens of hours banging various versions of three different wireless drivers (each of which supposedly works on this hardware), I gave up and have been using an old Orinoco card. I'd probably be even less happy losing two mouse buttons and all the source code, flexibility, and fredom, but the upgrade from my X30 wasn't as up as I'd hoped. You never really know. - seth
vmware is an increasingly viable option. I do all my development on ubuntu vmware on OS X. - Sanjeev Singh
@Sanjeev Singh: I really like NX. I can connect to my Linux server and set up my X environment on the laptop. If I disconnect, everything continues running. I can run the devel web server in the foreground in a terminal instead of in the background + restart scripts + log files. - Amit Patel
@ⓞnor: It's been 3 years but I tried running Fedora and Debian on a Thinkpad and had a very bad experience. I haven't tried more recently but I've heard enough mixed stories on the web that I don't want to spend that much money on a machine that *might* run Linux. Also, it's not just whether it runs, but what runs on it. I still find that Mac and Windows have much better support for things like videos (Quicktime, WMV, etc.) and plugins (like Flash). For my client machine I really want those things. - Amit Patel
These things are quite a lot better now, but I take your point. - ⓞnor
amit, think of vmware as a way to use windows as a device driver for linux. - Sanjeev Singh
have the same thing happening in the Mac's convience stores up her in Canada now - feel like ripping the screens right off the counters - Steven Hodson
I saw this at a gas station in L.A. I was horrified. - Mike Doeff
Considering you pay anywhere from 3-7x the price of a movie ticket, I'd hope at least for better programming, or the ability to choose my own channel. - Louis Gray
actually, i thought this was a great example of when advertising is ok...if I'm going to be advertised to it might as well be when I've got nothing else to do (how productive can you be pumping gas?)....and the movie/tv previews after the ads aren't so bad. (also, what if the ads are successful and help to reduce gas prices?) - Adam Kazwell
Not recommended (!!!), but one person reported squirting some gasoline into the speaker grill, which apparently disabled it nicely. Did I say "not recommended"? - ⓞnor
@ⓞnor: lol. Methinks that would pose a risk of fire. - Voyagerfan5761
This started a while ago at Shell stations, and has been spreading. I absolutely hate this. The first time I remember it was in 1997 in Dublin. If anyone has any ideas how to punish them, I would love to hear them. - Chris White
Seconding Chris's request for punishment ideas. The best one I can come up with is to boycott the stations doing it. - Voyagerfan5761
tape over the speaker grills to muffle them? (like, with packing tape or something) it's not permanent vandalism, but it would send a message and also help your fellow motorist. - ⓞnor
How about taping over the speaker grilles in the middle of the night (if feasible in your neighborhood, e.g. considering crime rates and such) and then boycotting the station, but checking back every day or two to re-tape the grilles? :D - Voyagerfan5761
Simple: don't go to Shell. Tell all your friends not to go to Shell. - Amit Patel
I filled up one late, cold, empty night when the commercial started talking to me. I just about threw the pump in the air and ducked into my car. - Daniel Ha
This kind of reminds me of the Cabs in NYC...they put screens in the back seat that <i>could</i> do useful stuff, but instead blare out mostly Ads. You can turn them off, but they automatically come on when you start your ride. My friends and I have a race to see who can hit the off button first - Nathan Manley
Perhaps the least they can do is make the pump recognize your credit card and target you more effectively. This, along with a mechanism on the touch-screen to opt-out of advertisements, and presto! "You seem to purchase pornography and Skittles when you buy gasoline. May I recommend these products?" - Robert Konigsberg
Wow, I must really be a different breed. I actually intentionally go to Shell when given the opportunity, because I think the TVs at the pumps are actually pretty cool. So, please, all, go ahead and boycott, I'll get to be entertained and have a shorter wait. :) - Rich Bragg
I actually first saw this when I moved to Spencer. I don't typically go to the Crystal Flash (the gas station with the ads), but occasionally it is the closest one. The thing that really bothers me is the volume... I wonder if typical residents are half deaf or something because I have to park a little crooked to tolerate the noise. - Clare Dibble
God forbid you're actually trying to have a conversation with someone while you pump gas. - Chris White
Because you can't hear them over the sound of the advertising. - Chris White
I thought you were saying that was the point of the ads: To prevent people from conversing at the gas pump. :D - Voyagerfan5761
Indeed. I've heard about some discussion regarding adding a flag to television signals that would prevent fast-forwarding through flagged sections of the content. I don't think it's under consideration, it's just a rumor I got somewhere. - Voyagerfan5761
