This is a wormhole to the various points of the content I've created all over the Molloy-verse. Links to everything, including blogs, twitter, Google Reader items, etc. are found below.
It's hard to believe I haven't sent anything, not even a rant, to this blog in six weeks. I'll try to blog more. It also reminds me that maybe I should look at the myriad of blogs I have out there and try to hone them down into one or two, more liberal arts style blogs. Maybe one for the written word, one for photos, and one for something else. I don't know.
We all have ridiculous superpowers that are worth nothing. No practical value at all. One of mine, I apparently inherited from my father. The power to spot minor celebrities every time I leave the house on a trip. I've seen Larry King, Lee Corso, Jon Gruden, etc. Today, I saw Newt Gingrich and his wife in Chicago's O'Hare airport.
We often hear that Made in the USA is a dying thing. Too often this is true, and we end up spending less but getting less. One place where that trend is being bucked is in small-scale manufacturing, especially for luggage and brief cases. In the search for an organizational tool, I found Rickshaw Bags. They have a video that shows what happens when you order a bag and how it gets made. It's worth a look:
I've recently noticed a strong sense of selfishness in America. I understand that when the economy gets bad, people naturally turn to their own self-interests. It's shown up often in the political discourse and how individual citizens talk about the direction our economy and our country is headed. What have you done for me, what will you do for me, and why are you helping those people seem to be more and more common attitudes (though not necessarily in that order all the time). The one place it is popping up and I don't understand it it the case of the freed American hikers, Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer, and Sarah Shourd.
another prime example of people demanding freedom without accountability and or suffering the consequences of their actions
Dear government of Iran, we would really appreciate it if you kept idiots like these. We don't want them back. We are more than happy to have you feed, clothe and house them for the rest of their lives.
For years and years I have loved television. I mean adored it in a way that is probably not healthy. In 1995 and 1996 I can safely say that I watched at least one episode of each and every network show. When I started working I realized that instead of majoring in history and political science, I probably should have gone to school for communications and media studies. I should be the guy they ask about television shows in interviews on television.
We have had the privilege of watching one of the greatest careers in baseball history. Soak it all in now because we likely won't get another like Mo in our lifetimes.
Not much going on around here I guess. I've had some vacation time, been working too hard, and have generally had nothing to say. So what did I do on my summer vacations? Mostly went to western North Carolina (twice) to enjoy the splendor the mountains. While there, I saw:
The hippest, fanciest duck ever.
An Octopus wandering the streets of Asheville
The tallest point (in the United States) east of the Mississippi (Mt. Mitchell)
Grandfather Mountain
A crazy Llama
And a new Sheriff in Town
Overall, the summer of 2011 was a lot of fun. Now, if I can only find a way to make fall that much fun too.
Three short videos that highlight how different, yet how similar people all over the world really are. Take the time to watch them all, they're really beautiful.
There is something about this website of record labels that I find really beautiful. It's part nostalgia, but it's also part of the creativity that used to go into different elements of the music industry. They don't seem to exist anymore. First it was the album cover that vanished, then the liner notes. Now it's the physical artifact altogether.
I wonder if my son will ever actively listen to an album. Will he lay on his bed, reading the lyrics or liner notes and do nothing else. Listening to the music is the main activity, not just acting as a pre-selected soundtrack in the background on a set of white earbuds.
I read a great interview with the author Ann Beattie today from the Paris Review. One of the thoughts on writing that really stuck out for me was the following:
My students make fun of me for saying, I’ve read this carefully now, and you’ve written it carefully—too carefully. The phone never rings, people get to talk for four pages without interruption. We’re used to daily life being the fire truck coming by with its deafening siren. To put that siren in fiction—and not at the convenient moment, but maybe a minute before the convenient moment, or way after the convenient moment—is a kind of acknowledgment to the reader that you’re aware there’s another life out there that’s out of control. As a writer, it’s an advantage to work within open-ended, messy moments.
I've noticed that there is next to nothing worth buying anymore. Either the soul has been sucked out of stuff or the companies that make the things we love have lowered the quality of the goods so much that they're not worth the money. It's all glitter and shiny to get you to notice things, but nothing lives up to the promise.
Monsters are born too tall, too strong, too heavy, that is their tragedy
My wife shared an article recently in her Google Reader that highlighted great last lines of literature. In it was the last line from The Great Gatsby, and I forgot how wonderful it was until I reread it:
I bought another pack of baseball cards today and this Aaron Harang card was included in it. When did they start letting zombies pitch in the NL West?
Jack White once again shows that he's one of the few creative forces in Rock.
Wow, the Mets can't catch a break can they?
I have to admit that my consumption of RSS feeds has fallen off in recent months. I used to read a lot of blogs through RSS, using Google Reader, but that became unwieldy because I have this unhealthy completist compulsion. If there was a bold number next to “All Items,” I had to get it down to 0, even if I didn’t have time to read umpty-million blog posts all saying just about the same thing.
So I unsubscribed from a lot of blogs and moved most of my reading over to Twitter. Since Google+ debuted, I’ve been progressively abandoning Twitter for posts on Plus. But I still kept a few RSS feeds that were so valuable to me that I always wanted to read them. I usually had less than 100 new posts to read a day, so I was generally happy.
But now Google Reader has been redesigned, and I’m very unhappy indeed. When I first heard about this news, I thought it meant better integration with Google+, which could only be a good thing. But this doesn’t seem to be so. The sharing feature that sends Reader items to Google+ is unwieldy to use and the end result is none too elegant. But even worse, Google Reader is now impossible to read. There is so much white space and no clear delineation between posts, making it a chore to read anything. Considering that’s Reader’s main purpose, I’d say the redesign is a massive fail.
So does this mean the much-predicted death of RSS is finally here? Well, it may be here for me. However, RSS is still a fundamentally useful way of keeping up with new content on favorite websites. I just want a friendly way of accessing that content. How do the Kindle and iPad handle feeds?
Here’s an article that captures exactly my feelings on the changes to Google Reader: The Google Reader Redesign is an Ugly, Lonely User Experience – Forbes.
The gentle beauty of Ryan Adams’ new Ashes & Fire belies the personal struggles the singer-songwriter has endured in recent years. After announcing his split from long-time backing band The Cardinals and a prolonged hiatus from music in 2009, Adams spent several months seeking treatment for Ménière’s disease, an inner-ear condition that affected his hearing and overall health during his hard-touring days in the late ’00s. While Adams earned a reputation (and strangely, derision) for being one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation, he stopped making music at this time, focusing instead on getting healthy and ...
If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’re probably aware of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests being organized against the richest 1% of Americans and the fact that they control an extremely disproportionate amount of wealth. It’s been provoking a lot of reactions, and today, War Rocket Ajax’s own Matt Wilson and I have tried to be fair and balanced by reaching out to the richest 1% of comic book characters for their thoughts on the matter. They have opinions, y’all. Opinions.
Long-time friend of Flickr and founder of Photojojo, Amit Gupta has recently been diagnosed with acute leukemia and needs our help.
I have a couple more months of chemo to go, then the next step is a bone marrow transplant. As Jay and Tony describe below, minorities are severely underrepresented in the bone marrow pool, and I need help. – Amit Gupta
There are details on how you can help on Amit’s site – please pass it on.
Photo from swissmiss studio.
An 1870s photo depicting a Tennessee man with a strong resemblance to the Oscar-winning actor is on sale. The seller claims Cage is a vampire.
Do you follow this blog in hopes that I might actually post to it again? If so, follow it at delayedagain.wordpress.com instead of the website. Thanks to Network Solutions attempts at bait and switch, I’ve told them to give me all my money back. If I were you, I would avoid doing business with them too…
I’ve noticed that when I don’t fly for a little while, the next trip is a jolt. The experience seems to regress a little every single day. So if you don’t fly for a month, it’s like coming home and seeing your child grow several inches in a short time period.
Today I was sent through the porno-scanner yet again. As I’m taking my shoes off, the TSA agent starts barking, “remove everything from your pockets, take off your belts…” I commented to one of the agents that the security experience gets worse every time I fly (there was a pilot behind me who agreed). As the supervisor came over and barked I should take it up with the TSA Chief, I finished getting ready for my scan.
The problem isn’t that I’m anti-security, it’s that I get to the line, I’m yelled at, I am now separated from my wallet as well as my shoes. I am essentially cast into the world without anything. It’s also a major break from my routine. Despite what the TSA says, this chaos is bad. It creates confused customers, slows lines down, and result in people like me complaining. A terrorist would LOVE the chaos present at the checkpoint.
So as I take the ten minutes to put myself back together and doublecheck that I had my wallet (which is by far my biggest fear at security now), I realized that I didn’t take my little bag of liquids out of my suitcase and nobody noticed. The agents missed it and could have cared less.
Now tell me the experience is anything more than reactionary security theater.
So I did make it to the Waffle truck as I mentioned yesterday and it was glorious. After a night of Korean BBQ it was the perfect breakfast. Light and airy and tasty.
My friend is going to take me tomorrow for what he claims is the best pizza ever.
I’m in NYC for a few days and at the top of my list to try is the waffle truck: Wafels & Dinges.My plan is to get up early and head uptown to their Tuesday morning location for breakfast with a NY Post sports page. Any other food suggestions while I’m here?
One of the downsides of having a kid is the amount of stuff you have t take when you travel. The worst part about it is the bed. We purchased a Baby Bjorn travel crib and it was the best money we have spent. But what do you do if you fly somewhere? Or when the toddler outgrows it? Well, Marriott may now have you covered!
The new program called Tots Travel Too takes some of the misery out of travelling with young kids by providing an appropriate crib (with laundered cover), a bath toy, baby proofing tools, etc. While it won’t solve all of your travel needs, it sure does mean one less big thing to pack. What a great idea from Marriott!
I spent two nights at the Ace Hotel in Portland, Oregon recently and I’m not sure the best way to review it. The hotel is trying for a younger, cooler vibe. It’s in a great neighborhood of Portland. It’s clean and comfortable and the front desk staff is more than willing to chat it up and tell you how to enjoy the town. The restaurant is very good and the deli next door is to die for. So why can’t I give this hotel a great review? It’s me.
The hotel is too young, too cool, too ultra hip for me. The room was comfortable but the layout was weird. The toilet was on one side and the tub on another. It feels slapped together. The other clients are so hip they’re douchey. This is the original so it’s the concentrated essence of the brand. I think the New York property feels more like what I think a proper hotel should feel like. I want a little predictability in my hotel. I want a quieter lobby. I want a bigger television.
So I can’t say anything bad about the hotel except it might not be right for me. That being said, it’s worth checking out if you’re going to Portland. Just make sure you’re getting what you expect.
First it was bags, then came the best seats, now comes charging a fee for getting on the plane first. American Airline announced this week that they would offer passengers the option to pay a little extra to board first and snatch the overhead space. On the surface this sounds harmless, right? In reality it seems like airlines are gradually raising prices without doing it honestly.
It seems that the airlines need to figure out a new business model. While I don’t enjoy the experience of Southwest, they do have a solid business model and management that allows them to [gasp] make money. Maybe the so-called legacy carriers should look for ways to sharpen their pencils and adapt instead of eroding the quality of service offered to their customers.
It’s been too long since I’ve posted here, but I have a couple of quick thoughts as the summer travel season begins:
First, the TSA has released their summer travel tips. Overall, the tips aren’t very helpful, but they do clarify that the archaic 3-1-1 liquid rules are still being enforced. Recent reports from bloggers led many of us to believe that the TSA had gotten even more lax and inconsistent about the rule. My biggest piece of advice to those of you who don’t travel a lot? Empty your pockets at home. Don’t bring change, extra keys, etc. to the airport. Pack your keys in your carry on bag along with your phone. It will make life easier.
Second, the Travel Gear Blog posted its top ten graduation gifts for the travelling grad. A few of the items, including the bottle kit and shower kit are pretty good, check them out here.
I’ve got some trips coming up. I’ll capture the experiences and pass them along.
First it was the airlines. They charged for snacks. They charged for checking bags. They charged for blankets, pillows, headphones, and carry-ons. It’s frustrating but once you figure out to carry on your luggage and get elite status it all works out okay. Now the hotels are gearing up to charge more fees.
An article in the New York Times highlights how hotel chains are considering adding fees to all kinds of things, including the service of checking your bag for a few hours. They’re also starting to raise internet fees upwards of $20 a day.
While I have little issue with hotels adding fees to items such as room service or minibars, I do have an issue with all of the fees being added for parking, internet, checked luggage, etc. What next, will they charge me if I use two towels instead of one?
It’s time for travelers (especially business travelers) to complain at the front desk every single time they are confronted with additional or new fees for elements that used to be included in the price of the room. Additionally, it’s important to demand that older full-service properties be updated with amenities such as free WiFi in rooms and all public areas. If a discount chain can do it, why can’t Marriott?
I chose this Marriott based on price and my desire for a full service hotel (rather than a Courtyard). It feels like an older property but it’s obvious that it’s well cared for, been renovated recently, and is a good value.
The check in experience was great. I got in late and the staff was helpful, professional, and made me feel very welcome. My room felt like it was a mile away, but once I got there I could tell it had been recently redone. It was clean, had a great bed, plenty of electrical outlets, and a new HDTV. The bathroom while small had a shower with plenty of water pressure (one of my biggest complaints is no water pressure or wimpy rain showers in hotels).
Overall, it’s worth checking out for a night or two. If you want something a little fancier, try the sister property Renaissance just up the street. Check out the Marriott Providence Downtown’s website here.