davidgagne.net

Be Prepared

dvg — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:08:25 +0000

I’m packing for a trip and going through the computer bag I carry with me all day, every day. In addition to five pens and two mechanical pencils, I also have three iPhone AC adapters, five iPhone / iPod / iPad USB cables, three iPhone headsets, three “regular” sets of headphones, six AAA batteries, and two USB automobile adapters.

Why, yes, I was a Boy Scout. Be prepared.

Finding a Box of Family Letters

dvg — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:15:29 +0000

The poem featured in today’s episode of The Writer’s Almanac on NPR is Finding a Box of Family Letters by Dana Gioia. It’s so lovely that, like many of the wonderful things which I find on the web and fear may one day disappear, I’ve decided to copy it here.

Continue reading Finding a Box of Family Letters ...

No Children

dvg — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:04:26 +0000

For a long time I thought How Do You Sleep? by John Lennon was the angriest song I could imagine.

Radio by Alkaline Trio gives it a run for its money, though. And lately No Children by the Mountain Goats is my go-to song when I’m in a bad mood.

And I’m currently in a bad mood.

iTunes + Twitter

dvg — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:50:33 +0000

It seems to me that it would be a no-brainer for Apple to update iTunes so that I could easily post a song to my Twitter account. The app could automatically insert a link to purchase the track in the iTunes store (or not, if it’s a song that doesn’t exist there).

In Memory of Blue

dvg — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:10:10 +0000

[I]f you ever wonder who has the more unconditional love for you, put your spouse and your dog in the trunk of the car for one hour. When you open it, who’s still happy to see you?

I’ve heard variations of this quote many times over the years and it always makes me laugh a little. I still miss Sir Budrick quite a bit. I thought about him several times last night and then this morning (via mefi) I happened upon this touching tribute to a dog named Blue. It’s worth reading if you’ve got a minute.

Caine’s Arcade

dvg — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:35:46 +0000

Oh, man. I love this kid.

pentametron.com

dvg — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:55:02 +0000

How awesome is this? Pentametron scours Twitter looking for tweets that are in iambic pentameter and then combines them into sonnets.

© David Vincent Gagne, 2012. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: English, language, poems, poetry, Shakespeare, twitter

Dollar Shave Club

dvg — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:48:00 +0000

I joined Dollar Shave Club the day their viral ad campaign hit Facebook. I received my first shipment about three weeks ago, but only this week started using their handle and blades. I chose the $1.00/mo level to start and can now confidently tell you that they’re surprisingly terrific. I’m very happy with the service and the product.

Continue reading Dollar Shave Club ...

Just One More Game …

dvg — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:32:03 +0000

There’s a really good article in this week’s New York Times Magazine on the hyperaddictive, time-sucking, relationship-busting, mind-crushing power and allure of silly digital games. (hat tip to @sprokolopolis)

© David Vincent Gagne, 2012. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: addiction, game theory, games, puzzles, video games

f.lux

dvg — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:38:19 +0000

I can’t say enough good things about f.lux. It’s a small and free little app that automatically changes the intensity of your laptop’s screen based on the time of day. If you frequently find yourself using the computer long after you should be asleep, you need this app.

Corn Resin Traffic Cones?

dvg — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:34:48 +0000

Why don’t they make traffic cones from some sort of easily-pulverizable corn resin type material? I see a half dozen of those things on my drive to work every day, usually squeezed into a median barrier or precariously close to the shoulder. If they burst into little pieces — like the special effects shatter glass they use on movie sets — wouldn’t they be much less dangerous to drivers? Boom. There’s your million dollar idea for the day. Someone get working on that.

Driverless Cars

dvg — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:13:29 +0000

Ever since my son was born I have been saying that I don’t think he’ll ever need to “drive” a car. I really think that by the time he’s old enough to drive, the idea of sitting behind the wheel and steering and using the gas pedal will be silly to him. I’m not saying nobody will be driving, but that I think it will be about the same as me riding a horse right now. Yes, if I wanted to ride a horse in 2012 I could do it; but people would look at me like I was a madman if I said that using a horse to get to work made sense.

Across the River and into the Trees

dvg — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 04:26:45 +0000

My son is almost a week into his nineteenth month, and — if I could somehow ignore the times when he has scared the ever-loving [redacted] out of me — I am still awestruck at how much I love him. We’re currently reading Across the River and into the Trees, our fourth Hemingway book, at bedtime. He loves it. Tonight he was so exhausted, from running through the house while yelling and throwing his basketball at anything that might be funny to see fall (i.e. everything), that he fell fast asleep before I had finished reading two pages.

But you always had to count and count fast after the bombardment to know how many shooters you would have. He was hit three times that winter, but they were all gift wounds; small wounds in the flesh of the body without breaking bone, and he had become quite confident in his immortality since he knew he should have been killed in the heavy artillery bombardment that always preceded the attacks. Finally he did get hit properly and for good. No one of his other wounds had ever done to him what the first big one did. I suppose it is just the loss of the immortality, he thought. Well, in a way, that is quite a lot to lose.

Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and into the Trees

I started reading him To Have and Have Not, my favorite, when he was just a few months old. I figured that he had no idea what I was saying, and I was certainly not going to be engaged by Hop on Pop multiple times each night. After teaching him all about Harry Morgan, whose voice I usually read in my best Bogart impression, we read For Whom the Bell Tolls, and then A Moveable Feast. And now we’re on to Across the River and into the Trees. “Reading Hemingway aloud” is a completely different experience from simply “reading Hemingway”. I highly recommend it.

Note: We do read plenty of Dr. Seuss during daytime playtime. But bedtime is reserved for Papa.

A Better Son / Daughter

dvg — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:59:01 +0000

Every now and then a song is just perfect, and it slaps you in the face.
A Better Son / Daughter by Rilo Kiley is that song today. These lyrics … Damn.

Continue reading A Better Son / Daughter ...

Tom Bergin’s on Justified

dvg — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:39:28 +0000

One of the best shows on TV right now is Justified on FX. It stars Timothy Olyphant as the Elmore Leonard character Raylan Givens and it has quite a cult following. If you’re not watching it, you really should be.

The show is set in Harlan County, Kentucky, but — like almost everything you watch — filmed primarily in southern California. One of the recurring characters is State Trooper Tom Bergin, played by Peter Murnik.

What you might not know, and what I find very hard to believe is a complete coincidence, is that just about the best Irish pub in Los Angeles is Tom Bergin’s. So every time Murnik appears my wife and I chuckle a little at what we assume to be an inside joke on the part of the show’s screenwriters.

Federal Student Loan Repayment Change

dvg — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:08:17 +0000

Since 1996 — that’s 16 years! — I have been paying $182.26/mo on my federal student loans. The money is directly debited from my checking account each month. A few years ago the amount changed from $182.26/mo to $182.25/mo, and the Department of Education sent me a letter which I had to sign and return to authorize the change of amount. The message made it very clear that they couldn’t change the amount of the direct debit without my authorization, even though it was only a penny.

At some point in January I visited the federal student loan website (while working on my taxes) and saw that my student loan debt had recently been purchased by a third party, named Mohela and based in Missouri. With no authorization from me — without even a notice until the following month! — the amount deducted from my checking account changed to $204.83/mo.

In February, after the new amount had been debited twice, I received a letter from Mohela indicating that the amount had changed. The actual statement is, “There are several reasons that this change my have occurred, including, but not limited to the following:” Then it lists six possible situations that are all pretty vague and none of which appears to apply to me.

I’m not particularly upset about this. The $20/mo difference isn’t going to kill me at this point in my life. But ten years ago a $20/mo difference would have probably meant ramen noodles instead of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a week. I can imagine there are plenty of people out there that are dramatically affected by a $20/mo change.

It’s also a little annoying that the government sold my loan to a new company, the new company changed the amount I was paying each month, the day of the month it is withdrawn, the routing number and account number of the new account, and the name of the recipient … and Bank of America didn’t care. Not only did my bank not say, “Hold on a second. What’s all this nonsense?” they didn’t even mention it to me. If the amount had changed to $200/mo, it would have had a serious impact on my cash flow. That is not cool.

MacBook Air Fan Noise Issue

dvg — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:26:31 +0000

Have you noticed your MacBook Air fan has suddenly started running continuously, and loudly? You may need an SMC reset.
See also: Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Feed a Fever, Starve a Cold

dvg — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:36:53 +0000

@BabyCenter has a great list of thirteen myths about colds and the flu. Remember: Only a cold virus can give you a cold. Being cold can’t make you sick!

My Favorite Irish Music

dvg — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 09:18:42 +0000

The Dirty Glass – Dropkick Murphys
Goodbye, Mrs. Durkin – The Irish Rovers
Finnegan’s Wake – The Tossers
Seven Drunken Nights – The Kilkenny Brothers
The Unicorn – The Irish Rovers
Black Velvet Band – The Irish Rovers
The Orange and Green – The Irish Rovers
Pat of Mullingar – The Irish Rovers

Hemingway’s Brand

dvg — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 22:05:39 +0000

Nathan Heller’s article Hemingway attempts to explain how the great American novelist became the literary equivalent of the Nike swoosh. (via @bgags)

The Price of Being Connected

dvg — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:25:57 +0000

Let’s take a look at my current connection costs here in Los Angeles:

Service	Purpose	Approximate Monthly Rate
DirecTV	HD Satellite TV + 2 HD DVRs	$135
AT&T	mobile phones + data	$235
Verizon	land line (for alarm system)	$24
Time-Warner Cable	Internet	$50

So I’m paying almost $450.00/mo to stay “connected”. Eek.

© David Vincent Gagne, 2012. | Permalink | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cable, connections, DirecTV, economics, iPhone, Los Angeles, My Life, satellite, technology, television

Twelve Years Ago

dvg — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:58:09 +0000

The domain name davidgagne.net is a little bit older than that. But I consider this date the birthday of my blog because it’s the anniversary of my first blogger post. I am finding it very difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I have been blogging (more or less continuously) for twelve years. Unfortunately I don’t have time right now to write an epic “looking back” post. I did, however, redesign the site over the weekend as a sort of birthday present to myself.

Any old schoolers out there still reading?

Ernest Hemingway’s Favorite Books

dvg — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:48:28 +0000

“In a 1935 piece for Esquire magazine … Ernest Hemingway listed seventeen books that were among his favorites.” — via kottke.org

Venus and Mars / Rock Show

dvg — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:08:09 +0000

They’ve got rock n’ roll / At the Hollywood Bowl
We’ll be there / Oh, yeah!

Here in Los Angeles for the last week, a few of the planets have been putting on one hell of a show. You can read all about the “conjunction” at Universe Today.

The last few nights Venus and Jupiter have been the brightest lights in the night sky, magnificent and hovering above the Pacific. And if you look 90° to the left you can see Mars, too. If you grab the iPhone app Star Walk ($2.99) you can easily find them. The app is very cool. You pan it across the sky and can see all the constellations and stars visible from your current location via a virtual reality overlay.

A New Hope

dvg — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:54:43 +0000

Hey, hey, Hollywood. I’ve got an idea. Instead of re-releasing the craptacular and uninspiring Clash of the Titans in 3D, why not re-release Star Wars: Episode IV in its original format? (i.e. no walking Jabba, no Greedo shooting first) In fact you really should simply do this every five years or so. Get on that, okay?