= Such Stupid Things =

Check this out: new transbay bus service from AC Transit. Route 800 is the one that interests me...

New "Owl" late night line will operate from San Francisco to all stations along BART's Richmond line after BART service ends each night at midnight. Picking up in San Francisco on Market St. ... accross the Bay Bridge and to ... BART stations on the Richmond Line in Oakland, Berkeley, El Cerrito and Richmond. Hourly service on weekdays until 5:00 a.m., with 30 minute service on weekends to 7:00 a.m.

Apparently this improvement was brough about by Measure 2 from the last election. This is the first time one of California's myriad ballot initiatives has directly affected my life for the better... hurray for our state's irrational fear of elected legislature!

Posted by Jeff at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

but I'm listening to this band Ladytron, and I love it.

Posted by Jeff at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"By naming her album 'I Am Me', [Ashlee Simpson] has turned a tautology into a lie."

Posted by Jeff at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've mentioned this to some of you, but Marie and I are moving in together in early January. I've got craigslist on my RSS reader, but if anyone knows of any marvelously amazing vacancies, let me know.

Posted by Jeff at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A first here at jeffnye.org: an invite from the Po'lice into one of the many "tag" games that float around the blogging world. Though I have previously expressed my displeasure with the word "meme", (I've been pronouncing it wrong for years), the the premise is enjoyable enough. So I'll embrace my hypocracy. Here's my junk:

1. Of all the books that you have eventually finished after many starts & stops, which one took you the longest and how long did it eventually take?

I really disliked the Fountainhead, and finishing it took me almost a year. Someday, though, I'll actually complete de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. I've read the first ten pages five or six times since it was given to me at an educational event in early 1998.

2. What great band (or album or song) have you heard so often, you wouldn't mind never hearing again even though you still think the band (or album or song) is great?

I've spent many an evening with Marie and her roommates playing board games, and every time Johno chimes in with, "it's been a while since I listened to Guns and Roses!" As a result, we've often listened to Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusions 1 and 2 back-to-back-to-back multiple times in a week. I love G n'f'n R, but their Rock has been so indelibly etched into my mind, I could probably last a while on memories alone.

3. Which cliché or often cited quote needs to be placed in quarantine for a few decades?

Nanotechnology would get my vote. The science world is thankfully starting to accept its cliché status, but the fearful masses have yet to catch on. The only trouble is that the fearful masses are in charge of the dolla dolla bills.

4. During the 1990s "Compassion Fatigue" received a lot of press, now the media is giddy with "Donation Fatigue". What will be the next trendy fatigue?

I watch a lot of Food Network. I have Rachel Ray fatigue.

5. What percentage of respondents will answer "meme fatigue" to question #4?

92% would have if question #5 hadn't made them feel lame for doing so.

Eat it, Tommy and Catherine. Who comes up with these questions anyway? Maybe I'll offer up a salvo of my own... We've all wondered about Kevin Drum's favorite element. I'm guessing it's selenium.

Posted by Jeff at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Something odd happened to me this afternoon. I was riding the elevator from the basement of Tan hall to the fourth floor, as I often do, and somewhere between floors 1 and 2, the elevator shook up and down for a few seconds and then stopped. After five minutes of futile button pushing, I gave up and pushed for the "emergency call", which immediably connected me to the university's 911 service. I explained my situation and the guy said he would call the other guy and get things sorted out. So far so good.

Flash forward a half hour: nothing has happened so far. I tried and was able to pry the door open, revealing a few feet of the outter doors of the first floor, but those guys wouldn't budge. I would have been more patient, perhaps, if I hadn't of course finished a large cup of coffee immediately beforehand. So I call the 911 guy again, asking for something of an update. He seemed a little annoyed and brusquely told me he would call the electrician again, as though I'm a jerk for wanting to get out of this potential death trap.

Ten minutes pass and the electrician shows up, prys open the first floor doors and I hop out. Crisis averted. So he asks me how long I've been in there, and when I tell him "about forty-five minutes" he says "huh. I only got the call ten minutes ago."

So I ax you, to whom do I direct my rage? 911 guy or electrician guy?

Posted by Jeff at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We Californians have our special election coming up and one of the more interesting props on the ballot is regarding legislative districting. Yesterdays editorial in the Washington Post comes down in favor of the measure, but it's their phrasing in the second paragraph that caught my eye...

"Modern redistricting is a travesty. Politicians, using powerful computers, design districts that all but guarantee victory to one side or another."

That's right, people. Who do you want drawing your congressional districts: retired judges, or Skynet?

Posted by Jeff at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a dream last night where Gob Bluth was somehow on board the Serenity. I'll leave you to fill in the details.

Posted by Jeff at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You have to wonder sometimes how college faculty can be so clueless... last night the College of Chemistry organized an alumni octoberfest event at Pyramid. The Dean, wanting to be nice, asks grad student point man Matt Bush, "do you think the graduate students would want to come?" Of course they would, so all the graduate students in the college receive an invitation with the words, "complimentary octoberfest".

So the story goes, the Dean told Pyramid he expected approximately thirty graduate students to attend. I must ask, Dr. Harris, what's going through your head? Don't you understand the motivational power behind the mere insunation that there might be free beer? Graduate students are driven to free beer like moths to flame, and you're guessing only thirty of us with show up? Are you high?

Pyrmaid, understandably, was a little perturbed when well over a hundred thirsty students showed up and had to start turning people away halfway into the event. That's about when I showed up. So it goes.

Posted by Jeff at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If someone would find me some mp3s of these girls, I would be much obliged. I'm ironically curious, but afraid of what the relevant internet search strings would bring up.

Posted by Jeff at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For the record, with David Cross involved I am infinitely more enthusiastic about the enduring future of the Colbert Report. That is all.

Posted by Jeff at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Each year, a thursday in mid-October is designated as Zinck's Night, the largest Cornell alumni event of the year. All over the world, alumni meet up in Cornellian-owned bars and restaurants and (I presume) talk about hockey and other Ithaca-related miscellanies.

I have been a college gradute for four Octobers now. Every year I fully intend to attend Zinck's Night in Berkeley with a few other grads from around the Cal campus, and every time we all bail out two to three hours before the thing begins. Tonight was no exception.

Next year, though. I anticipate a resurgence of school spirit in six months or so.

Posted by Jeff at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sure this sentiment has been expressed before, but how does a man go through his entire professional life still being called "Scooter"? Isn't that something you get people to stop calling you once you graduate from, like, elementary school?

Posted by Jeff at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A man must be firm in his convictions and there is no conviction I hold more strongly and dearly than this: I hate the Rolling Stones. I think Mic Jagger's voice is obnoxious and the music does little to compensate. And that's how it is. When I mention this at parties I'm usually met with various degrees of indignation. None, however, have been more indignant than Marie's labmate, Pat, who seems to regard my view as a personal insult. He responds with a look of absolute dejection, as though I had just told him for the first time that he was adopted. Most of our conversations these days begin with him saying, "I know you hate the Rolling Stones, but...".

Several times now Pat's promised to create a mix CD that will turn me around on this hotbed issue. After one listen, he assures, I'll be happily willing to shell out the one-hundred-whatever dollars with him and his 70-year-old boss to see the Stones in concert. I'm not sure from what magical ether he will conjure these "good songs", but I'm anxious to see what he has in store.

I thought these were just idle promises until last night, when I bumped into Pat on the BART back from the city and he proceeded (rather loudly) to walk me through each track that he had in mind, explaining their significance within the complete Stones discography. The art of the mixtape is not something to be entered into lightly, so I'm flattered he's putting so much thought into this. But I fully expect the mix to only reafirm my stance, rather than reverse it. Because seriously... the Rolling Stones kind of... you know... suck.

Posted by Jeff at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Any Nye historians out there will recognize the "title" of this blog as my old moniker from my days on the Cornell Daily Sun's op-ed pages. I haven't decided if I really want to associate these ramblings with my old column, as I fear my writing skillz have atrophied over the years, (not that they were that good to begin with). But hell if I have any better ideas for a blog name, so we'll just run with it for the time being.

Posted by Jeff at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're nearing mid-season, and I know exactly what's on your mind: how's Jeff's fantasy football team going? Well, I'm pleased to report that things are going quite well. I'd like to claim that my success is due to my deft assembly of the perfectly balanced team, but in truth I owe it all to a single player. Shaun Alexander is as unstoppable as the tides.

I will use this opportunity to attempt this "extended entry" thing for the first time. See the league below the cut.

Many thanks to Ben for draft day help. Though the Bills' defense hasn't lived up to your expectations, I'm afraid.

Posted by Jeff at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes, I still (and probably always will) laugh at headlines like this.

Note: the story is originally from Science Magazine's news site, ScienceNow. The full text being published without subscription on this Korean website is a tad questionable.

Posted by Jeff at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just watched the premiere of the Colbert Report. It was highly enjoyable, but I have concerns for its future as a daily program. It seems to me that the show's format severely limits the pool of potential guests. It takes a journalistically-respected but sharp-witted individual to stand up to Colbert's ridiculousness. Stone Phillips did a dynamite job but I can't imagine that there are too many people like him within Comedy Central's reach. The format is fertile ground for comedy, but can envision the Report quickly becoming as redundant as the disposable news magazines it's meant to spoof. I guess it will all depend on who they can book in the coming weeks and months, but I won't be surprised if we see Fareed Zakaria become a weekly visitor.

Posted by Jeff at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

At some point in the past six years the internet really got away from me. Freshman year of college I was the guy people would turn to with computer questions when the Asian guy was away (which was seldom), but sheesh how times have changed.

I sort of came to this realization when I originally set up this here website, but installing Movable Type of the weekend really drove the point home. I sat down saturday fully prepared to follow a cookbook-style list of instructions to go from not using Movable Type to the opposite, but saddly such documents are hard to find. Hard for me, at least. I'm sorry, mister readme file, I do not and do not wish to understand what MySQL is or does. Nor am I at all cognisant of my runtime environment or my Perl kernel, so please don't ask. I just want to stop using notepad to updated my website. Is that so hard?

Apparently, it is. At least, that's how it felt working out the final kinks. The ratio of installation steps I understood to steps I didn't understand is rapidly approaching zero, but as you can see, it's working. We're bigtime now, baby -- and all without resorting to using Blogger.

Posted by Jeff at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to the internet, my friend. More specifically, welcome to the new, remodeled jeffnye.org multimedia nyestravaganza. I assure you it's as different as it possibly can be while looking pretty much the same.

Posted by Jeff at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)