moonlee.org » Journal

Mad Men

moon — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:11:52 +0000

Zoe and I have watched the first 3 seasons of Mad Men via iTunes, and have been thoroughly smitten by its excellence. We’re quite excited for the season 4 premier at the end of this month. I just read a fantastic (p)review of the series on Salon (“‘Mad Men’: Stillbirth of the American Dream“) by Heather Havrilesky, which I think quite accurately describes how the show embodies so much of the pathology of trying to live the American Dream:

This is the genius of “Mad Men,” its dramatic reenactment of the disconnect between the dream of dashing heroes and their beautiful wives, living in style among adorable, adoring children, and the much messier reality of struggling to play a predetermined role without an organic relationship to your surroundings or to yourself. We’re drawn to “Mad Men” week after week because each and every episode asks us, What’s missing from this pretty picture? … As absurd as it seems to cobble together a dream around a handful of consumer goods, that’s precisely what the advertising industry did so effectively in the ’50s and ’60s, until we couldn’t distinguish our own desires from the desires ascribed to us by professional manipulators, suggesting antidotes for every real or imagined malady, supplying escapist fantasies to circumvent the supposedly unbearable tedium of ordinary life. In show creator Matthew Weiner’s telling, the birth of the advertising age coincides directly with the birth of our discontent as a nation — and what got lost in the hustle was our souls.

There is no spoon

The summer of visits

moon — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:48:41 +0000

Arlo teaches Paul about the finer points of stoop sitting.

Well, in the last 3 weeks we’ve had a flurry of visits, all involving Colorado folks: Max, Ryn and Paul. And this weekend we’re off to NY to attend Tim and Caroline’s nuptials in CT. It’s been wonderful to see so many friends over the summer, and has made life quite a fun departure from the normal day-to-day routine. Come to think of it, we’ve either had visits or been out-of-town on visits every weekend since June 4. Nice! Who’s next?

Just wanted to thank all you guys coming to visit us and hang out, it means a lot to us and we love that Arlo gets to continue to get to know our family of friends.

Like yesterday. And not.

moon — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:18:37 +0000

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 12 years since we were all last together, and even stranger, that 20 years have gone by since we were teenagers graduating from Milton, casting off into the rough waters of adulthood.

Returning for the 20th high school reunion was a simple experience, not nearly as complicated as I had imagined it to be. People were more or less the same, perhaps a bit more weathered, but at the same time more relaxed and gentle, in the way that water and wind and a lot of time can smooth a rough stone. It was overall an opportunity to reconnect and catch up on the happenings over the last 20 years: the births, marriages, a few deaths. A lot has happened, but we fit together in that old comfortable way we always did — perhaps even better as any reason for discord has long been forgotten and the collective memory only retains the humorous and outrageous moments that good stories are made of.

For myself, I was reminded of the painful journey going from 13-18, and felt a little cognitive dissonance seeing it juxtaposed against the idyllic, privileged campus of Milton Academy. It really hit home how the fear, insecurity, anger, and everything else that governed my life at the time took away what could have really been something incredible.

Something that always applies I suppose…

After few months at the new school

Nice Parking Job

moon — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:48:09 +0000

Over the weekend, while I was out running an errand with Arlo, we both witnessed an impressive feat of driving, performed by a rather elderly woman who perhaps should have turned in her car keys a few years ago.

Having trouble negotiating a turn off the main boulevard onto a side street, she got stuck after making her turning radius too wide. After attempting to straighten out and back up, she must have gotten flustered due to the fact that someone was waiting behind her.

Well, either she mistook the gas for the brake or she experienced the worst case of road rage I’ve ever seen, because, next thing I knew, I heard the squealing of tires and turned around just in time to see her backing up, full throttle, and drive her car up onto the hood and over the roof of the car behind her.

Madness: windows shattering, engine whining as she was still stomping the accelerator flat out, wheels spinning crazily in the air, and occupants of the car underneath throwing themselves out of harms way. Luckily no one was seriously injured.

It was very impressive and a bit freaky. I mean, that’s kind of the last thing you expect the car in front of you to do. Arlo was sure surprised.

It was fairly reminiscent of this gem of a video:

Food allergies update

moon — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:47:03 +0000

We got the results back from the blood test the allergist ordered for Arlo to get a better handle on exactly how allergic he is to certain things. Skin tests were indicating he had allergies to many nuts, soy, and milk. Well surprise, surprise. The blood tests ran indicated a class 2 reaction to some nuts (6 is max), but negative for soy and milk! It was definitely good news, but a bit disorienting; if we can take the blood test as authoritative, if it’s not a allergic response we’re dealing with here, what’s happening to Arlo with these foods?

We’re still maintaining Arlo’s diet as something isn’t quite agreeing with him with these foods, but it definitely takes some of the stress of knowing that should any accidental milk or soy sneak in there, we don’t have to worry about a anaphylactic response and a trip to the ER. Probably the silver lining to all of this is that the whole family is eating much healthier now as we’ve virtually eliminated all processed foods as well as eating out and Zoe is making most things from scratch now (soup bases, breads, crackers, etc.) and it’s definitely made a noticeable difference in our general health. Thanks Zoe!

Happy Autumn

moon — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:14:53 +0000

Paul and I are somewhere in the back

I took a quick break last weekend and flew out to Colorado to see Paul and we spent a good part of a Saturday sitting in a hydrogen peroxide enriched hot pool at 8700ft next to Gold Lake. Looking out over the lake, we could see the distant snow capped peaks, and strong winds would occasionally blow snow over the lake to melt on our faces. I felt a bit like a Japanese Macaque snow monkey. It was bliss.

I’ve returned to a gorgeous Chicago autumn, and I’ve been enjoying it immensely. It’s was even nice raking the ridiculous quantity of leaves dropped by the box elder tree in the front yard today. Yesterday we took Arlo trick-or-treating and were visited by many swarms of costumed children and young adults (some of whom I think should probably have quit trick or treating a few years ago, but I digress), who descended and swarmed our candy bowl like locusts on a field of crops. I actually had to go out and get more candy. We even had people driving in from other neighborhood blocks, forming lines in front of each house. An entertaining and surprising first halloween in the neighborhood.

Wherever you are, I hope you are taking a little time to enjoy the turning of the seasons as we settle down for the coming winter…

Olive Oil Fraud? Who knew.

moon — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:17:37 +0000

As the parent of a child who has developed food allergies to peanuts, treenuts, soy and dairy, we have had to undertake a strict regimen of what foods we buy, cook with and bring into the house. And eating out? Well forget about that.

One of the things we like to cook with is olive oil, given its rich in good fats and generally one of the healthier oils you can eat. Imagine my surprise on finding out that it’s fairly common for the extra virgin olive oil being exported from Sicily and other parts of the Mediterranean being anything but. It turns out olive oil is routinely cut with refined nut and vegetable oils in the interest of profit.

In 1995, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) testing olive oils for purity, conducted a study. Only 4 per cent of the 73 brands of olive oils tested proved to be pure olive oil. Most products were adulterated with vegetable oils, which have been shown to cause, not prevent heart disease. Oils such as canola, corn, cottonseed and soy oils were used with as little as only 10% olive oil in some products.

This is a huge problem for us given that Arlo is allergic to nut oils and soy oil. But it also explains why Arlo would occasionally break out hives on his face during dinner for no discernible reason when eating completely “safe” foods. We had cooked with “extra virgin olive oil”.

While the news of the Italian mafia deep-sixing toxic waste into the Mediterranean is obviously distressing, this level of fraud, while it may seem relatively innocuous, poses huge health risks to people with serious food allergies. Eating by trusting the labeling was challenging enough; now it’s just getting absurd.

Links:

NPR 1, NPR 2, New Yorker, Dr. Weil

American Science & Surplus

moon — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:23:59 +0000

Today I braved the Chicago rush hour to go pay a visit to a store that Paul had tipped me off to a while back: American Science and Surplus. A pretty cool store (with 3 Chicago retail stores) that apparently has had quite a good catalog business for years catering to the science and surplus needs of geeks young and old, and also has a nice website that still preserves some of that old-time catalog feel (note the product pictures that are simple line drawings).

I was in search of a low-voltage solar cell that could drive a small motor for a project I’m working on, and I figured if a store in Chicago had cells, this would be the one. Well, I’m not sure what you would expect from looking at their website (something like a old-time homegrown Radio Shack perhaps?), but when I found the store and walked in, I had to stifle a giggle. Actually, it came out more like a guffaw. It was pure unadulterated adolescent geek madness in there — I felt like I had just walked into some kid’s huge grotty basement that was just stuffed with an incredible array of working and non-working electronic junk, novelty items, and some outdoorsy surplus type equipment that no one had really used or thought about using for years. Yeah, it was pretty cool.

I refer you to the picture, which I am really at a loss to describe as words don’t do it justice. Let me just say that I have no idea why it was hanging in the store, and let me further say that it totally did not seem out of place.

I asked someone about solar cells and they led me to the back, where some dusty window casings were filled with odds and ends. “Here you go,” the kid working the case told me, waving his hand at the case and waiting expectantly for any questions. I peered inside, and saw 3 small plastic bins, for 1V, 2V and 4V cells, each of which was empty save a single 4-volt panel sitting alone in the last bin. I blinked, not sure what to say.

After a few questions and determining that no, they didn’t really have very many cells in stock right now, I thanked them and browsed for a few more minutes and went home. And while I didn’t actually get what I was looking for, seeing the store in itself was well worth it and I wasn’t disappointed at all.

Home at last…

Comcast: hopefully a trend

moon — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:46:03 +0000

I don’t know whether this is an isolated incident that can simply be attributed to luck, or if I’m simply witnessing a slow change in the level of service by the behemoth known as Comcast, but I’m hoping it’s the latter. A few days ago, I noticed a considerable dropoff in my broadband throughput and wasn’t able to figure out the cause. I called Comcast, had a fairly pleasant conversation with a CS tech rep who was able to dispatch a field tech out to me first thing the next morning (not too bad considering I called fairly late in the evening).

Waaaa! Only 3Mb/s?! What is this... DSL?

Now, for those who have had experience with Comcast techs, especially the contractors, you know it’s very hit and miss; usually miss. I’ve dealt with lots of them in various cities, and I was expecting a fairly similar experience, which usually involves some hand-waving and wire-wiggling combined with a BS explanation that doesn’t fix the problem. Well, holy cow, I ran into like the rockstar of techs this morning. Point-by-point, he ran tests on every point of the line, adjusted the signal where necessary to bring it within tolerances, made sure everything was working to spec, and then for good measure he noticed my drop cable from the pole was very old and poorly shielded, so he even ran a new cable to the house. I had been resigned to the reality that I’d probably never be able to get that replaced, but he just shook his head and said, “Why didn’t this get replaced before?” I know, that’s a good question, right?

Eventually, we nailed the cause of the problem, which turned out to be interference on my 802.11n 5ghz wireless band that was killing the throughput beyond 15 or 20 feet from the access point. Ok, so it wasn’t even an issue with the cable. But this guy totally spent a lot of time making sure everything was perfect with the cable regardless. Then for good measure, he left me his direct number and told me not to hesitate to call if I had any other problems. I felt like I was in the twilight zone.

After I complimented him as he was wrapping up for going “above and beyond,” he just shrugged and said, “just doing my job”. While this may be true, it just says something about the other techs and contractors out there, doesn’t it?

After adjusting some properties on my routers I’m happy to report that my download rates are now back to ludicrous speeds:

Back to ludicrous speed

The Beast: Rockin a 3Ghz quad-core hackintosh

moon — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:48:39 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve assembled my own computer; the last was probably somewhere in the vicinity of 2001, before I made the leap (back) into the world of Mac and OS X. But thanks to the thriving Hackintosh community that aims to bring OS X to non-apple branded hardware, putting together a custom machine to run OS X is a possibility once again.

I had already tried building a modified netbook running Mac OS X, which was a lot of fun. But I stayed away from building larger projects as the prospect of modified EFI boot strings, fiddling with drivers, and not having a reliable software upgrade path didn’t excite me. I mean part of the reason we use macs is so we don’t have to do that stuff right?

Recently, however, I read Adam Pash’s build of a “Hack Pro,” a 3Ghz quad-core beast with 8GB of RAM, and a fantastic graphics card, all for under $1000. To put this in perspective, this isn’t that much more than a Mac Mini, and a fraction of the price of the Mac Pro. He even had Snow Leopard running on it, and it was a (relatively) simple install process and looked promising in terms of being able to take point releases without a problem. Well, this was a combination I found too hard to resist.

I ordered the parts, put the beast together, flipped the switch… and nothing. Oops, forgot to plug in a power cable on the motherboard that supplied dedicated power the CPU! (When did they start doing that?) Got everything installed over the course of an evening, and by around midnight was looking at the Finder in all its 64-bit glory. And it did not disappoint: this thing was fast!

Now, just in case you do this, I did encounter a couple of head scratchers, which you should be aware of too. The EFI bootloader defaults to booting Mac OS X with a 64-bit kernel, which is a little unusual — currently all desktop Macs run with 32-bit kernels. So, there were a few incompatibilities I ran into while setting up the machine:

MacFUSE will currently not run in 64-bit
Due to the above, Expandrive will not run either
VMWare Fusion requires a 32-bit kernel and will not run either
Adobe AIR applications (e.g. Tweetdeck) do not seem to run
others?

So, clearly, this would not do. It’s a fairly simple process to boot the kernel into 32-bit mode however. First, tweak your BIOS settings so that in the Power Management Setup screen “HPET Mode” is in 32-bit. Leaving this in 64-bit caused a kernel panic for me. Then at the Chameleon bootup screen, press a key to interrupt the automatic bootup process and simply type ‘-x32′ and then return to boot the 32-bit kernel. That’s all that’s required. There is supposed to be a way to change the default boot mode in a plist file, but I’m still researching the correct string to use and haven’t tried it yet…