Staticfree Blog

One of my biggest issues with listening to broadcast radio is that I don't know what I'm listening to. As soon as I find a really neat song/acoustic compilation, it turns out that it's being broadcast from a college radio station with DJs who assumes everyone knows what it is (why else would you listen to such noise?) or who plays 15 tracks in a row.

Radio Sherpa is an attempt to help with that via a snazzy Flash interface. You can currently see what's playing on all the various stations on Boston's FM/AM and HD airwaves. Sadly, the UI is Flash-only and currently broken for the GNU/Linux version of Macromedia's Flash player.

Good luck getting things going, Deva!

That's right, I'm having a party for an IRC channel. Primarily because we have a special guest - xkcd - coming to town, but secondarily because I love having parties.

Who

Pugglewumpers, friends of Pugglewumpers (so, all my immediate friends, even those not "hip" to the "wump"), and such. If you don't know any Pugglewumpers, I suggest you meet one. They tend to be good monkeys.

Where

My dad's house. See the geographic data for this post or contact Steve

When

2006-03-11 @ 19:00 ("next Saturday at 7")

How

RSVP with the evite or just let me know.

If you would like to help out, you can bring your favorite munchies and/or beverages. I'll have my standard-issue supply, but I'm always looking to try new stuff :-)

Update: I had the wrong evite link. Apparently it's possible to link to an invitation such that you can gain editing permissions; this is terrible. When I write an Evite-like system, it won't do that.

That's right, I listen to indie rock. And there will be some tasty music playing this Thursday at the Zeitgeist Gallery. Tina and I will be going to said concert and are looking for some victims companions to join us. $7 cover for a few of Hush Records better known artists, starting at 19:00. contact me if you wish to join us in the fun.

So, I was cleaning out my cellcam yesterday and rediscovered these photos. They were of a piece of art work I found in a Greenline car on the MBTA in lieu of an advertisement. I've seen other bits of this artist's work drawn on parts of the T and have been hoping to find out more about them.

This was originally 3 images and was reconstructed using Autostitch.

You're invited to a party at my dad's house tomorrow (2005-07-23) evening, starting at around 19:00 (7:00pm). Bring friends, conversation, a funny hat if you have one, and good cheer. Please, however, let me know how many guests you'll be bringing so I can scale snacks, etc. There won't be much alcohol, but feel free to bring reasonable quantities of stuff that doesn't suck. (If you just plan on getting trashed, don't bother coming - this party is not for you.)

Contact me if you need directions to my dad's new house. The location is embedded in this post and various map services know how to find it properly.

So, I'm having a party two weeks from today (2005-07-23). It'll be at my dad's new place in Chestnut Hill. There will be people, snacks, and such. It'll go late into the night and there may be room for people to crash - just ask. Who can come?

I'm back in Newton for the summer and will be living in my dad's new place. Tina and I will be living in our own little room in the basement (much bigger than my room in Rochester) for the summer. We'll be working at our jobs at Charlesbridge Publishing and France Telecom R&D, respectively.

The new place is in Chestnut Hill and has quite a bit of old-house character to it - aka. "quirk". The main source of quirk in the house is its seemingly excessive amount of cupboards and assorted small-panels-embedded-in-walls. These panels cover anything from electrical panels to absolutely nothing (see inset). Most of them make sense though, like the ones that cover ugly technology that may need to be serviced. There are just a great deal of them overall. Many years back, a hinge salesman was smiling gleefully.

David and I have discovered a few entropy switches - that is, switches whose sole purpose appears to simply increase the universe's entropy; any other function of such a switch has been lost to time and poor rewiring. I'm hoping to acquire one of those little electrical things that beep obnoxiously in order to trace them someday.

So, again, I'm back for the summer. There will be much much hanging out going on. If you're reading this, are in Boston, and aren't some creepy stalker person, then I want to hang out with you. Tina and I will be working day jobs, so that leaves plenty of nights and weekends to engage in various recreational activities. Don't just leave messages here (even though I get them) contact me or I'll have to contact you.

I am on my winter break. After a successful quarter, I want to get away from Rochester for a bit. So, I'll be visiting Boston/Newton until next Sunday. I'm first going to stop by Amherst and see people there, but will definitely be in Newton by the end of the week.

If you want to meet up or if you'll be around - just contact me. I should be reachable via cell and/or email for most of my trip.

I went to a free show (a monthly "cirque du singe brise") at the Zeitgeist Gallery last night with David. A bunch of local Boston musicians played short sets for a few hours. I primarily went to see James O'Brien and Ari, but left needing to check out Lisa Bastoni, Anna Freitas, and The Kieran Ridge Band.

In addition, Joseph Fogarazzo played some nice Renaissance and Bach guitar solos and Rod Webber shook the stage a bit with his energetic pieces. Joe Bellamy, one of the coordinators for the show, performed some entertaining spoken word. Overall, it was a good show and worth the trudge through the snow.

The party last night was most excellent. A goodly number of people showed up from all across my social circles. Frigames people met old highscool people met gothy, poly people - a wonderful mixing.

I put up some photos taken on my camera. Tashari should hopefully have some up soon as well. Let me know if you have any other photos from the party, so I can link them here.

Thank you all for coming, I had a great end of the summer party. I hope to have more parties when I'm back in the Boston area again. Of course, I should also have some Rochester-based parties coming up soon as well.

I will be having one last summer party this Saturday, 2004-08-28 at my dad's apartment. If you are reading this, you're probably invited. However, if you don't know where that is, you may not yet be invited - so contact me and see what's up.

Festivities start at 19:00, there will be small amounts of alcohol (BYOB), snacks and open WiFi will be provided. Bring your friends, bring your laptop, and bring your conversation. NOTE: an outfit for this event is required. Suggested outfits are:

• Renaissance garb
• any other period costume, 1980 ≤ x ∨ x ≥ 2005
• top hat, monocle, and a long cigarette p_o
• wearable computer / cyborg gear
• fetish formalwear
• kitten
• your favorite [web]comic character
• Jesus, Eris or any other religious figure
• a stylistic impression of your normal outfit

Party updates: the party this Saturday evening, will be held at my dad's appt. This is a fairly small place, so I may attempt to move some of the party outside if it's not rainy. We'll see how things go.

I've got a guestlist here. Let me know if you don't want your name listed here for any reason. If you're not on this list, let me know if you can come or not, and I can put you on it somewhere. It's here primarily so I can stop answering people's incessant, "who's coming that I know?"

confirmed

• spinfire & aelscha
• cole
• dave
• tali
• mink
• tashari
• alex jackson
• sam
• tina
• big john
• amber
• alex butterfly
• care
• katie FL
• ellf
• faboo
• laurie
• celeste
• tetron

most likely

• lisa
• beka
• susannah + boytoy
• sandy
• james

possibly

• b1o
• nick

VIP-Insisting People

• pablo escobar

unconfirmed

• alan

not coming

• kris
• stu
• dyfrgi
• fluffy
• paul
• henry
• m00n
• rachel

Please RSVP ASAP, 0xd00d. Contact me to do such.

Tonight at 19:30, Howard Bloom will be at 38 Cameron in Davis Square, talking about groupthink and mass psychology. I'll be going with Aelscha. Tickets are $5 for students and it looks like it should be pretty interesting. Contact me if you want to meet up beforehand.

2004-07-17 - Party! (vcs). This will be my annual celebration of friends, life, and the number 23. Yes, dear readers, you are invited. Probably.

It begins at 19:00 and ends when I say so — which I probably won't do. There will be food (snacky stuff including one-day-delayed bun-less hot dogs), drinks (H₂O, H₂O + CO₂, CH₃CH₂OH), and of course people.

So, be there and let me know ahead of time if you can make it.

I just got back from seeing The Decemberists with Bludroses. The show kicked ass. There were some technical difficulties with the sound during the show, so they ended with 2 "unplugged" encores. They should play unplugged more often.

During the show, I thought it'd be cute to broadcast it to Tina, who wasn't able to come to the show. So I called her on my cell, after warning her about it with IMs/SMSs. I called her and left my phone in my front shirt pocket for much of the show, taking occasional photos with it, while Tina listened on. She told me later that she was at a Friendly's at the time, so she curled up in a corner and listened.

On the way home, trains near the venue were blocked due to an automobile that managed to make its way onto the tracks. It was smack in the middle, seemingly two wheels on inbound tracks and two on outbound. There was no/little obvious damage to the car, so it was probably just a very stupid driver who made a wrong turn. We took a bus instead and eventually made our way to Kenmore and caught the last train home.

Afterthought: On the way to the concert, I bumped into Susannah on the train. Seeing her is always interesting, as she's in that group of people who I see online more than in real life. It's as though we know each other better than we do, due to Internet-based communication.