Ow

Weather in Boston is notoriously unpredictable. Last year it was around 75F in December, and the year before it snowed in August. So I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that two weeks of unseasonably cold September were followed immediately by a two-day heatwave, but I was. The SCA event I went to on Saturday was fraught with heatstroke, dehydration, and sunburn. Add to that my spending much of the day playing Hurling (Irish field hockey, the most violent sport involving a ball), and you'll begin to see why I feel just a bit trampled. At least it was fun :-)

Who needs the internet...

... when you've got google? Having methodically replaced Altavista, Dejanews, and Yahoo, it seems google is now taking on CNN. What I want to know is, how can they possibly be making money? With the amount of content they serve, they must have amazing servers, and ungodly bandwidth. But they have no ads, and as far as I know aren't taking bribes for better placement, so where do they get revenue? The only thing I can think of is the sponsored links they provide to ebay, TicketsNow, etc. The irony of that as their main source of revenue (if indeed it is) is that they are getting paid huge amounts by companies with marginal business models to provide a service their users already want!
google is my new god.

Zen fashion

So I looked at the t-shirt I am wearing, and it is forest green with white lettering on the left lapel which reads WHERE THE MONEY IS. I have no idea what that means. Now, I own many t-shirts, and a large percentage of them have been acquired by means other than purchase: free as corporate advertising, given in recognition of some volunteer work, or even occasionally given by a friend. This t-shirt, however, is unique. I found it in a lecture hall at Brandeis, clean, folded, and thoroughly lacking an owner. The point being that I have no idea where it came from, so I can't even trace its origin to some kind of meaning. It's like a tangible koan. Perceivable, but inherently undecipherable.