What’s a Sunkist Shandy? Well, it’s basically:

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And I’m having one right now. It could really be any lemon soda mixed with an average lager-style beer. What you get is something that’s pretty damned refreshing and not terribly high in alcohol content. Oh, and since Sunkist has more caffeine than a coke, you might even get a bit of a boost out of it.

When Jordan and I were in Spain a few years ago, we’d drink these things all day.  Tasted great in Madrid’s constant dry heat. Over there, the Spaniards call them Clara or Clara con Limón.

When we got back, we looked everywhere for a decent lemon soda, and couldn’t find one. We were bummed about not being able to recreate our Claras.

Then, when we were in San Francisco a while back, I picked up a Sunkist Sparkling Lemonade from a convenience store as we waited for a bus. Turns out, they’re available here in Houston, too.

And that’s why I’m having a Sunkist Shandy, and you are not. Get yourself to a store ASAP.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be an eMusic customer. Last month’s price hike already had me reassessing my love for the company. Then came last week’s revelation that eMusic would be imposing a limit on the number of times you can download tracks you’ve already purchased. Furthermore, there’s no way to know what that limit is. The company’s terms of service, updated as of June 16, now read as follows:

6.13 eMusic may allow you to re-download each of your previously purchased tracks a limited number of times for any technical reasons at no additional charge; nonetheless, if you exceed a reasonable number of re-downloads (as deemed by eMusic) on any given track(s), you will be required to re-purchase such track(s).

The new fuzzy limit is probably intended to discourage abuse from people who share their login information with friends. But the language is much broader. It says the only legitimate reason for re-downloading a track is a technical problem, not your convenience as a customer. What’s really creepy is the power the eMusic gives themselves: they can decide how many is too many, and then charge you (retroactively?) for the “extra” downloads.

The ability to re-download all my old tracks came in pretty handy after the great hard drive crash of 2004. I’ve rarely used the feature since then, mostly to download a few tracks at work. Still, as a longtime subscriber, being able to download all my previously purchased tracks is one of the key features that’s kept me around for so long. If my tracks aren’t going to be there the next time I have a hard drive failure, there’s no ongoing reason for me to pay a monthly subscription.

Anyway, I’ll be with eMusic for at least one more month. But after that, I’ve got a decision to make. Here are my downloads for June.

 

After recently uninstalling the Google Toolbar, I've actually been using Bing quite a bit. I've found it's just as good, and in some cases (Image search, product comparison), much better than Google.

That doesn't mean people will start using it though. As this video indicates, Bing will have a serious problem overcoming the search engine that made it's name a verb.

Had a short day at work.

Because I had to go to the dentist.

After that I went to get my hair cut.

I had posted on the Handsup Board because I needed to find a good, cheap place to get chopped. As I said on the board, the lady who does my hairs is great. But I drop $50 every time I go there. And #inthiseconomy that’s not really sustainable. Got a lot of good suggestions, but I ended up going with Times Barber Shop. It turned out great. Not as good as my regular hair ninja, but well worth my $14. Especially considering the nice hot towel and shave treatment on the neck.

Freshly shorn, I went to hang out in Montrose to avoid the traffic on 59 and 610. First stop was Soundwaves, where I like to shop their sale selection of Vans. I was still wearing my shirt and tie when I picked up the Killers edition of Iron Maiden Vans.

They also had branded Vans by Slayer and The Germs. All for $25 a pair. Three years ago I would have been stoked. Now I just felt sort of sad. I am 34 years old and about to have a kid. I’ve developed a formidable beer belly that hangs out over my belt and dress pants. Can I still see myself rocking these Vans on a regular basis?

Apparently the dudes manning the surf shop counter were thinking the same thing. After I put the vans down and began browsing for more sensible options, they started laughing, and one of them said “Look at this guy” (because apparently that’s what you say when you want to make sure the dork in the tie can hear you). It was kind of a sitcom moment.

Now, there was a time when two dude-brahs at the Soundwaves laughing at me might have gotten me down. But there, in a tomb of CDs and other dead media, amongst all those $95 Volcom shirts waiting for markdown, I just kinda had to laugh at myself. I’ve already become a dad, and the kids can sorta tell.

I ended up not buying anything. Because other than Vans-on-sale, there’s absolutely nothing else worth buying at Soundwaves anymore. Instead, I went over to Rudz and dropped $20 on a Rudz burger and two Harps on draft. Probably didn’t do any favors for my gut, but considering the cheaper haircut, I still came out ahead.

Bummed that Texas lost. Astounded at Mark Sanford’s weird press conference meltdown. And impressed as hell that our soccer team beat the #1-ranked Spaniards.

Now I’m going to bed.

I’ve not fallen for either of this year’s earlier hype monsters, highly praised releases from Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective. That’s because I generally don’t need any more monotonous, easy-listening music. Ah, but what about the Dirty Projectors, who are now receiving similar heaps of praise? Bitte Orca is a record I can get behind. Sure there are nods to the chamber pop meme that seems to have taken hold of all indie-dom, but there are also hints of Led Zeppelin and Queen and the complex rhythm guitar-ing of Deerhoof. Add layers upon layers of virtuoso vocals tinged with modern R&B, and you get a record that’s exactly what everyone says it is:

An ambitious and tuneful slab of awesome.

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 6% of the public. You did better than 94% of the general public.

So I took this current events quiz offered by the Pew Research center and got a perfect score. If, like most of my pals, you listen to NPR on a regular basis, you’ll probably do about the same. So, get to answerin’ their questions.

LINK to Quiz

Even the hardest-crusted baseball scouts say Strasburg would be a front-of-the-rotation guy for more than half the big league teams right now. The scouts who have fallen in love with Strasburg -- that's most of them -- say he'd be a front-of-the-rotation guy for everybody. There simply isn't much debate -- he throws 102, he sits at 97-99 over the course of 110 pitches, and his curveball is good enough to make the scouts swoon. He has a 93 mph "one-seamer" -- think Kevin Brown in his prime -- that dives at the back foot of a right-handed hitter. And San Diego State pitching coach Rusty Filter, the man who created the monster, says Strasburg's "plus-plus" changeup couldn't be used in college because the hitters weren't good enough to be fooled by it.

So, if he's a big league-ready talent, why shouldn't he be paid in a manner equal to that talent? If he were a free agent on the open market -- say, a Cuban 20-year-old with Olympic experience, a young arm and a nasty streak -- he wouldn't be able to fend off the suitors. They'd have an auction, and the Yankees would undoubtedly win with a Powerball number.

ESPN's Keown gets it exactly right. If i see one more "Scott Boras is ruining baseball article," I will puke. Because the alternative to paying the kid what he's worth is saying that a kid in college should be subsidizing a bunch of gazillionaire owners.

This isn't some guy who's going to spend 4 years in the minors and MAYBE work out. He's going to start. Immediately. He needs to get paid that way.

In May of 2007, I wrote a long-ish post about why I thought Facebook was great:

Facebook lets you share your life with people you care about while allowing you to easily micro-manage your privacy. Instead of worrying about customizing your crappy looking page, Facebook focuses on your connections with real people. That's why eventually you and everyone you know is going to be on this site. I'm not even going to ask you to join. I don't have to. You, your co-workers, your friends and family will all sign up.  And you will wonder what took you so long.

But I could not then have predicted something like this could one day happen:

Holy crap. Am i excited...Listening to the free mp3 right now.

There's no better introduction to Cohen's brand of songwriting genius. And this is maybe the best live record I've ever heard.

One of my favorite books as a child was the Great Brain series, the story of a family in rural Utah, set in the late 1800s. In these books, there was a strange punishment the parents doled out to their children when they seriously misbehaved. For a period of a week, or longer -- depending on the severity of the misbehavior -- nobody in the family would talk to, acknowledge, or address in any way, that particular boy. It was called "The Silent Treatment". This didn't seem like much of a punishment to me. In fact, as an introverted kid who loved solitary activities like computers and reading more than anything, it seemed kind of like a .. reward. I couldn't reconcile this feeling with the semi-biographical reality depicted in the books. To the Fitzgerald boys, the silent treatment was the worst possible punishment, far worse than a physical beating. They would go to incredible lengths to avoid getting the silent treatment. As punishments go, it must have been a doozy, though I couldn't quite wrap my geeky, socially maladjusted young head around exactly why.

The silent treatment was a punishment I didn't fully understand until years later in life. That's how you change the world. Not by arguing with people. Certainly not by screaming at them. You do it by ignoring them.

Two things.

First, I loved the Great Brain books when I was a kid. Easily my favorite kid fiction from when I was actually that young.

Second, this post is so right about how to shut people up and make them stop being jerks and douches. Just. Don't. Look. Instead of starting a flame war, just shut it down.

Q: Speaking of “Moneyball” and team sports, you recently wrote a piece for The New York Times Magazine about the statistical revolution coming to basketball. And you focused on the Houston Rockets and a player they’ve deemed undervalued by conventional statistics, Shane Battier. My one issue with it, compared to “Moneyball,” was that it was harder for you to make the case because the Rockets wouldn’t share a lot of the statistics they used to back up their assertions about player value. Was that frustrating to you?

A: He gave me enough to do what I wanted to do — which was ask the questions. It would have been nice to know all the secrets, but I got enough. It wasn't going to be a rigorous statistical piece. They genuinely don't want people to know what they’re looking at.

Q: And I guess, since you point out that “Moneyball” contributed to the A’s losing their competitive advantage, the Rockets should be wary.

A: Right. The only reason the A's let me in is that they thought people [cared] so little ... about what they were doing. They couldn't imagine anyone would care about what I wrote.

On the other hand, this was leaking out already. The Red Sox were rapidly becoming what they are in terms of following Sabermetrics. On top of all that, enough of all the intellectual property that they seized upon was in the public domain. The Rockets have created a lot more intellectual property than the A’s ever created.

Q: Are there more Shane Battiers out there in the NBA? And how does studying the exception to the rules of NBA selfishness help us learn things about the vast majority of players who are not exceptions?

A: Yes, there are more of them out there. The Rockets have generated a list of five, six, seven players who they thought were dramatically undervalued. And there's the converse — players who do well in conventional stats who are overvalued. I think the thrust of the story is that what's going to happen in basketball has happened in baseball. A wand will be waved and a new system will be put in place on how to value players. The Rockets will tell you that everyone in the NBA is at least slightly misvalued.

Here's an excerpt from a longer Michael Lewis interview, in which he talks about the Rockets. Choice insight, including the remark about how much "intellectual property" the Rockets have created.

Now that damn near everyone is on Facebook, including high school classmates I’ve not seen in 16 years, I’m really starting to enjoy Facebook quite a bit. Way more than I ever liked Myspace. The reason is simple: I like seeing what people are up to, and everything about Facebook is designed to let you stalk your friends. Quickly. Efficiently. And, hopefully, with love in your heart.

Still, after watching the last six months as the site became incredibly popular, I’ve realized a lot of my pals probably aren’t using all the features Facebook puts at your disposal. Part of it, I’m sure, was the new design that confused so many people. But now that people have finally stopped all the bitching and protesting, it’s time to take a look under the hood. If Facebook is your brain, you might be using only 5% of it. Here’s what you’re missing.

Import your blog
Lots of people I know already have a blog. Whether it’s at Blogspot or Livejournal or Wordpress or Myspace, you’re probably already writing about something somewhere. Unlike Myspace, Facebook doesn’t require you to start all over. Just import your existing blog. On your profile, click settings, then click automatically import activity.

 

You’ll see a menu of choices in front of you, including a bunch of Web site logos you may find familiar. For now, click on the bottom one.

Now copy and paste your site’s RSS Feed. Facebook will automatically import all your new blog posts, including any links and photos. Your friends can read the entire post and leave comments, without ever leaving Facebook.

Import your activity from other sites
You can follow the same steps above to import your activity from other sites. You’ve probably seen this on my Facebook page and in my news feed. When I add photos to Flickr, or share a story in Google Reader, a notification gets added to my Facebook page. Just add your user name or RSS feed from the site you want to import, and you’ll be doing the same.

Customize your privacy settings
Facebook’s getting so popular that you’re probably getting friend requests from people at work or from family members. You might think, “Oh, no! Now I can’t posts those near-pornographic videos to my Facebook account anymore.” Not so!

Facebook allows you to carefully set your privacy settings so that you can screen groups of people, or even individual persons, from seeing the full glory of your Facebook page.

 

 

 

 

There are actually a ton of options. What I do is create lists of people, and then I define what each group of people can see. It might seem difficult at first, but soon you will grow drunk on the power.

Filter your friends
One of the things I like best about the new Facebook design are tabs on the home page that allow you to filter your news feed by clicking one of several tabs at the top of the page. You can choose to read only status updates or photos or items posted by your friends. You can also choose to view a “live” feed where stuff gets added in real time.

 

But to unlock many of Facebook’s best features, you have to click an arrow to reveal hidden extras. Remember those friend lists I was telling you about?  You can filter the news feed to focus only on a particular group. For example, you can choose to see only your high school friends or your friends from work.

But what if there’s one dude who’s always showing up in your news feed and you’d rather not see so much crap from that guy (what? who, me?). Well, you can choose to see fewer news items from that person. Or choose to see more items, if you’re not seeing enough. Just click “options” next to any item shared by that person. Then modify the settings accordingly.

Trick out and expand your profile
You’ve probably noticed that Facebook pages aren’t nearly as obnoxious or grotesque as your average Myspace page. But that doesn’t mean you can’t fix the place up. The redesign altered your profile page to include tabs, including default tabs for your Photos, Info, and your Wall. But you can add other tabs, including full pages for your favorite applications.

Click the “+” sign, and you can add tabs for any of the available applications. There’s also a “Boxes” tab you can add to show applications that don’t have their own tab. For an inkling of what you can do, take a look at my profile. I’ve got lots of tabs.

Note: This post was originally posted on my old Wordpress install at mrshl.net. I’m reposting it, because it’s one of my more useful blogging appearances.

This site asks whether you could pass a 6^th grade sex education test. I did it, but it’s not like I aced it, or anything. I was going to post some of the questions, but instead I want to see how you do. Let me know in the comments or whatever.

Good luck.

I’ve been playing a ton of Tecmo Bowl Kickoff lately on my DS. This port does a decent job capturing what was so enjoyable about Tecmo Super Bowl’s awesome 80s game play. But after you get over the nostalgia-inspiring controls, the TBK becomes an avalanche of diminishing returns. The single biggest issue is the horrible artificial intelligence. In my second full season, I’m undefeated, and the computer can’t come close to me. I win every game by an average of 52 – 7. But even if you don’t mind the lack of difficulty, there are a ton of little things wrong with the game that gradually defeat your interest in playing it. This review from The Video Game Critic accurately sums up the craptacular experience:

The original Tecmo Bowl football game (NES, 1988) was a landmark title that has stood the test of time. So the fact that Tecmo has managed to botch this portable version is astounding to me. Since there's no NFL license, you'll select cities with idiotic names like the Baltimore Bulldozers and the Los Angeles Supercocks (no, really)! At least the core gameplay is solid, with simple controls and easy-to-see 2D players on a side-scrolling field. The action (and clock) move at a torrid pace, lending the game to quick contests. Slick animated cut-scenes punctuate exciting plays such as blocked kicks, sacks, and interceptions. You're treated to ten-yard measurements and even a half-time show with some hot-looking cheerleaders! It would seem hard to mess up this winning formula, but Tecmo found a way. First, you can't switch defenders once a play begins. That was forgivable in the original game, but in 2008 a little more control would be nice. Next, the arrows that indicate selected players are so poorly colored that they blend into the field! The terminology is all wrong, with punts referred to as "turnovers" and two-point conversions hailed as "touchdowns". The CPU makes horrible decisions, like kicking an extra point when down by two points at the end of a game. You can't even pause the game. The user interface for the season mode is atrocious, forcing you to "sim" each game and save them one-by-one. Had a knowledgeable football fan play-tested this (instead of a chimpanzee), these issues would have been easy to catch and rectify. As it is, Tecmo Bowl Kickoff makes a mockery of a storied franchise. Oh well, if you've ever dreamed about taking the Washington Volcanics to the championship, here's your big chance.

The new Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse collab has been bogged down in legal doo-doo, so Danger Mouse has taken matters into his own hand, releasing a 100 page companion book of photographs, complete with a Blank CDR. He’s basically inviting you to find the music through some other, illicit means. Now, Create Digital Music (it’s a blog) tells you how to do it.

And you should. I’ve been jamming it the last few days, and it’s got a sweet collection of noir-ish, easy listening jams, featuring Frank Black (The Pixies), Wayne Coyne, Gruff Rhys, Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Black Francis, Iggy Pop, James Mercer (The Shins), Nina Persson (The Cardigans), Suzanne Vega, and Vic Chesnutt.

Best song I’ve heard all day. I highly recommend the whole record.

Let's try a little (thought) experiment in verbal short-term memory. First, find a friend. Then, find a reasonably complex sentence about 45 words long, expressing a cogent and interesting point about an important issue — say this one from a story in today's New York Times: "But the billions in new proposed American aid, officials acknowledge, could free other money for Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, at a time when Pakistani officials have expressed concern that their nuclear program is facing a budget crunch for the first time, worsened by the global economic downturn."

Now call your friend up on the phone, and have a discussion about the topic of the article. In the course of this conversation, slip in a verbatim performance of the selected sentence. Then ask your friend to write an essay on the topic of the discussion. (OK, this is a thought experiment, right?)

How likely is it that the selected sentence will find its way, word for word, into your friend's essay?

Language log takes a look at the Maureen Dowd plagiarism controversy. It starts with her lame-sounding excuse, and ends with an intriguing peek into the way journalists construct their stories.