tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-100797692024-03-23T14:30:40.601-04:00Data JanitorDanger: Do not look into laser with remaining eyeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.comBlogger589125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-66528002113349866312018-05-01T05:17:00.001-04:002018-05-01T05:17:46.435-04:00<div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.3pt;font-family:Arial'>good afternoon Dehodge<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.3pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.3pt;font-family:Arial'><a href="https://goo.gl/AGs6ig">https://goo.gl/AGs6ig</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.3pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.3pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.3pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.3pt;font-family:Arial'>Dan Hodge<br>Dan<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-21502464249021706612012-09-10T22:01:00.001-04:002012-09-10T22:01:30.690-04:00Performance Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
John Corbett recently published a nice <a href="http://www.chicagomusic.org/ken-vandermark_john-corbett-pages-138.php">summary</a> of Ken Vandermark's career to date. Section #4 is of the of most interest to me, since it covers the time when I was living in Chicago and discovering both Vandermark's music in particular and free jazz in general. I feel very fortunate to have been there during the so-called "golden age in Chicago", when I had the chance to hear the Vandermark Five and other groups play on a weekly basis, if not more frequently. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Simpatico-Vandermark-5/dp/B00000IR6U">Simpatico</a> is one of my favorite V5 recordings and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I was at the <a href="http://www.emptybottle.com/">Empty Bottle</a> nearly every Tuesday night during the summer of 1998 listening as the songs that were recorded for that album were being rehearsed and developed.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-88074714605393273072012-06-05T21:44:00.003-04:002012-06-05T21:44:32.651-04:00Quality Equality<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Trying to compare two arrays for equality without regard to order in a unit test is often very annoying. In Java, it would generally take four or five lines of code to express this in a test, completely obscuring the aspect of the code that I was trying to test. Ruby's Test::Unit turned that comparison into a one-liner, (<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">expected - actual).empty?</span>, a definite improvement but still a bit ugly. I was testing this in RSpec a couple days ago and figured there had to be a better way, and there <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2978922/rspec-array-should-another-array-but-without-concern-for-order">is</a>: <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">actual.should =~ expected.</span> I probably would have written a custom matcher for this rather than overload <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">=~</span> if I was designing it myself, but either way, it's a big improvement in test expressiveness and readability.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-57840222990498139742012-05-31T22:44:00.002-04:002012-05-31T22:45:42.717-04:00Hi Neighbor!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ever since being thoroughly disappointed by their porter and a <a href="http://datajanitor.blogspot.com/2009/01/cran-tastic.html">limited run cranberry abomination</a>, I've been staying away from Narragansett's craft beer offerings. I gave their Oktoberfest style beer a try last fall and found it pretty tasty, so I figured their <a href="http://www.narragansettbeer.com/products/summer-ale">Summer Ale</a> was worth a try. I had a couple this past holiday weekend and I'm happy to report that it's quite good.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-63619364259200551642012-04-24T22:19:00.001-04:002012-04-24T22:19:49.296-04:00Red Panda<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I avoided zoos for a long time because I figured I'd be spending a lot of time at them once I became a parent and I didn't want to burn out too soon. We are now zoo members and I have already been to the zoo twice in the past month. So far, so good. Here's a shot of an adorable red panda chowing down on some leaves from this past weekend's visit. Did you know while they may look like raccoons and are called pandas, red pandas are not actually related to raccoons or giant pandas?<br />
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<br />
<br />
<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33785116@N00/7111385409/"><img height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8028/7111385409_6138852491.jpg" width="333" /></a></center></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0Roger Williams Park Zoo, 1000 Elmwood Ave, Providence, RI 02907, USA41.7884131 -71.415835841.7765736 -71.435576799999993 41.8002526 -71.3960948tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-39270588670474993652012-04-06T22:19:00.000-04:002012-04-06T22:19:01.761-04:00Under The Sea<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
UNESCO has recently <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/in-deep-water-titanic-needs-protection-20120406-1wh3q.html">moved</a> to protect the wreck of the Titanic from looting and damage. Apparently, its final resting place at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean 12,000 feet below the surface and close to 400 miles away from land is not remote enough to protect it from treasure hunters and tourists who are willing to spend $60,000 a pop to visit the wreckage in a submarine.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-34840169589311635412012-03-20T22:34:00.001-04:002012-03-20T22:35:25.599-04:00MadnessAttention hack business journalists: you are free to write stories every March about how many hours of productivity are lost to the NCAA basketball tournament as long as you balance it out with stories about how many additional hours of productivity are gained throughout the year when employees do extra work after hours and over weekends and holidays for no additional pay.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-28196608667879048792012-03-12T08:24:00.000-04:002012-03-12T08:24:00.217-04:00Deconstructed Baguette<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33785116@N00/6974859329/"><img height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7063/6974859329_2db14defae.jpg" width="333" /></a></center><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-5982807784792149752012-03-07T22:16:00.000-05:002012-03-07T22:16:24.245-05:00Works Every Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This may have been the last mass market malt liquor TV commercial ever produced. If so, they definitely saved the best for last. It was easily my favorite commercial for a few years.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/5apvg18jG_4" width="420"></iframe></div>
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Of course, you can't talk about malt liquor TV commercials without mentioning Coldcock.</div>
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<object height="288" width="512"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/gyWJb5tqHQw1Y3heP8L85Q">
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<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true">
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<embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/gyWJb5tqHQw1Y3heP8L85Q" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="512" height="288" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-37878213672249691832012-03-03T22:39:00.001-05:002012-03-03T22:39:37.236-05:00Avocado Advocacy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Guacamole is obviously one of the greatest foods every created. I whip up a batch of it myself a few times a year, and while it's always good, I feel like it could be better. You really shouldn't need a recipe to make guacamole, but rather than eat mediocre guac, I decided to seek out some expert help before the last time I made it and I'm glad that I did. Here's the <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/guacamole-recipe/index.html">recipe</a>, compliments of Alton Brown. The missing ingredient in my old standby was the half teaspoon of cumin, it really changed things around. Highly recommended.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-74448142100271570352012-02-29T22:47:00.000-05:002012-02-29T22:47:39.823-05:00Working for a Living<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/">StackOverflow</a> has recently been running a bunch of ads for their careers site touting jobs that allow working from home. The ads are all kind of whimsical, none more so than this one:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4Yht-KvMZJE/T07vBUC7VBI/AAAAAAAADFw/ltektbGfpK8/s1600/wfh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4Yht-KvMZJE/T07vBUC7VBI/AAAAAAAADFw/ltektbGfpK8/s1600/wfh.jpg" /></a></div>
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I'm guessing this isn't going to be the most productive home office. Also, does anyone know where I can find one of these combination desk/half open playpens?</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-52457239164869906292012-02-24T22:15:00.000-05:002012-02-24T22:17:03.027-05:00Rails Parameter Filters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Secure programming 101 dictates that you should never write sensitive information to log files, and Rails makes this easy by allowing you to specify a list of sensitive fields in the <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">filter_parameters</span> property of your application configuration object (defined in the config/application.rb file). It's even nice enough to give you a sensible default (:password).<br />
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I got tripped up by this a couple days ago when a non-sensitive parameter that I didn't want to get filtered out of my logs was getting caught by the filter. I struggled with this for a while until I found the <a href="https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/v3.2.1/actionpack/lib/action_dispatch/http/filter_parameters.rb">code</a> responsible for the filtering, which clearly states in its comments that it filters out any parameter whose name matches the regular expression <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">/<filter_param>/i</span>. In other words, any parameter that contains one of your filter parameter strings will get filtered. It doesn't even have to be in the same case. Here's some example code demonstrating what's going on<br />
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<script src="https://gist.github.com/1905471.js">
</script>
The other thing I discovered is that other code that you include in your project (i.e. gems) can modify the list of filter parameters. For example, the <a href="https://github.com/thoughtbot/clearance">clearance</a> gem <a href="https://github.com/thoughtbot/clearance/blob/v0.15.0/lib/clearance/engine.rb">adds</a> :token and :password to the filter parameters. To get the definitive list of all of the filter parameters in your application, launch the rails console and inspect the value of <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><ProjectName>::Application.config.filter_parameters</span>.
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-11545845989539063892012-02-22T22:45:00.000-05:002012-02-22T22:45:46.074-05:00Failing to Plan...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Is planning to fail, as the old saying goes. That's the reason for astronomical decline of Detroit, according to this <a href="http://www.urbanophile.com/2012/02/21/the-reasons-behind-detroits-decline-by-pete-saunders/">piece</a>. While it would be impossible for one person to read every single book or article detailing Detroit's decline, I've read a lot of them, and this is definitely a good one. The comments on this article are amazing as well, nearly 100 so far and almost every single one is as insightful as the article. While I'm on the topic, <a href="http://places.designobserver.com/feature/the-forgetting-machine-a-history-of-detroit/31848/">here's</a> another interesting article about Detroit. I pulled both of these pieces from <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/Richard_Florida">Richard Florida's</a> prolific Twitter feed. Finally, I recently learned that Detroit was in the running to host the 1968 Summer Olympics. Think about that one for a second. There are some good <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9uWSNbHEps">clips</a> up on YouTube from the movies put together for the selection committee.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-74913042067542165972011-11-06T22:58:00.000-05:002011-11-06T22:58:03.625-05:00They're Made Out of Meat<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Prior to today, I had never heard of the author <a href="http://www.terrybisson.com/">Terry Bisson</a>. I heard this <a href="http://www.studio360.org/2011/nov/04/theyre-made-out-of-meat/">dramatization</a> of his short story "<a href="http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html">They're Made Out of Meat</a>" at the end of <a href="http://www.studio360.org/">Studio 360</a> today, and I found it hilarious and poignant. It's certainly piqued my interest in his catalog.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-35832460793547233272011-08-25T22:04:00.000-04:002011-08-25T22:04:52.693-04:00Welcome to Rhode Island. Now Speak English<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
An excerpt from a conversation I recently had with a taxi driver on the way home from the airport.
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<blockquote>
Driver: "Are you from here or just visiting"
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Me: "From here" </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Driver: "Really? But you speak English correctly"
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Me: "Well, I wasn't born here"</blockquote>
For the record, the driver was from Italy and spoke mildly accented English.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-52644337556861650082011-06-05T15:27:00.000-04:002011-06-05T15:27:13.639-04:00Greek Odyssey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GqM0gkAXJ6w/TDPpK7puuBI/AAAAAAAADBE/uPNbMsfwBn0/s1600/Greece_Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GqM0gkAXJ6w/TDPpK7puuBI/AAAAAAAADBE/uPNbMsfwBn0/s400/Greece_Logo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
We went to Greece last year. I recorded a lot of observations during the trip in the hope of writing about it once we got back, but I never got around to it. Now that a year has passed, I've decided to finally follow through.<br />
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June 5-6, 2010<br />
We left Boston on a 6 pm flight to Heathrow. The flight was scheduled to land around 6 am London time, but we made it in 45 minutes ahead of schedule due to a slightly early departure and what I can only assume was a massive tailwind. We took off out of Boston heading south and passed over the port and Castle Island before heading out across the pond. We encountered a lot of turbulence at the start of the flight and overall, it was the most turbulent transoceanic flight I've ever been on. It was also my first time flying British Airways and my first time flying across the Atlantic in a 747.<br />
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I didn't get any sleep on the flight. 6 pm turned out to be a very strange time to depart on a short transatlantic flight, since we landed in London around when I'd normally be going to bed back home. My body was nice and ready for a good night's sleep right as the day was getting started in London. Our flight was so early that hardly anything was even open in T5 upon our arrival. It did make for a very easy trip through immigration.<br />
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I finally got some sleep on the flight to Athens. My initial impression upon arrival was that it was drier and more mountainous than I had imagined. The first signs of Greece's current economic woes were visible before we even deplaned. There was an armada of mothballed Olympic Airways jets parked on the airfield, including four of their flagship Airbus A-343s<br />
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<a href="http://www.airliners.net/photo/Olympic/Airbus-A340-313X/1778324/L/"><img src="http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/4/2/3/1778324.jpg" height="333" width="500"></a><br />
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Given Olympic's long history of ineptitude, I may have been reading too much into this. On the ride into the city on the Metro, I saw a few settlements along the highway that appeared to be shanty towns. I'm guessing that they were Roma settlements, but I may just be perpetuating a stereotype.<br />
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We arrived at our hotel in the mid-afternoon. It was a basic tourist hotel not far from Syndagma Square. In addition to being one of the tourist hubs of Athens, Syndagma Square is also where the Greek Parliament is located and was the site of deadly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–2011_Greek_protests#May_5.2C_2010_strike_and_demonstrations">riots</a> a month before our arrival. When we arrived, it was fortunately playing host to a beach volleyball tournament instead.<br />
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<img src="http://daguerreotype.smugmug.com/photos/i-FTMqpF5/0/L/i-FTMqpF5-L.jpg" height="333" width="500"/><br />
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We were pretty tired by this point so we took a nap. After about an hour, I was still tired but unable to nap any longer, so I ventured out on my own. It was a very nice day, about 23 degrees C with a nice breeze. My first stop was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Panaghia_Kapnikarea">Kapnikarea</a>, an 11th century Byzantine church located a few blocks from our hotel. I guess I was expecting it to be covered it colorful mosaics, so I was somewhat disappointed that this was the only one visible from the outside.<br />
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<img src="http://daguerreotype.smugmug.com/photos/922303583_QxQcP-L.jpg" height="333" width="500"><br />
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I also visited Monastiraki Square <br />
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<img src="http://daguerreotype.smugmug.com/photos/922303618_XJAez-L.jpg" height="333" width="500"><br />
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and Hadrian's Gate. <br />
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<img src="http://daguerreotype.smugmug.com/photos/922303697_HRWhC-L.jpg" height="333" width="500"><br />
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I was surprised by how much the Acropolis looms over this part of Athens. Acropolis literally means "high city", so it shouldn't be much of surprise that it towers over ancient Athens. I was also surprised by the chaotic mix of history, splendor, and squalor in this part of Athens. I really enjoyed all of the tiny streets and alleys.<br />
<br />
Michelle and I visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus before dinner. It was the largest temple in Ancient Greece and is still an impressive sight. <br />
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<img src="http://daguerreotype.smugmug.com/photos/922303821_S3Ryh-L.jpg" height="333" width="500"><br />
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I watched an <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1449612/">episode</a> of Mad Men on the in-flight entertainment system on the way over where Paul Kinsey, in a failed attempt to save Penn Station, noted that most of the great Roman ruins are found outside of Rome. Perhaps the reason that Athens has so many great ancient ruins is because unlike Rome, it languished for millenia as an outpost of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires. Had Athens regained its status as the seat of an empire at some point after its brief golden age, surely more of its now famous ruins would have been destroyed in the name of progress.<br />
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We sat down for dinner at a touristy taverna in the Plaka around 9pm, which is still early by Greek standards. The restaurant was barely occupied when we arrived though a reasonable crowd was starting to develop by the time we left. The food was good and hearty - moussaka, lamb and potato stew, olives, tomato and cucumber salad, and a delicious dessert of yogurt with honey and figs.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-61900864850590806692011-05-19T22:27:00.000-04:002011-05-19T22:27:50.911-04:00Sports' Fans<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Lewis_and_the_News">Huey Lewis and the News</a> were my first favorite band. I hopped onto their band wagon sometime around the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future:_Music_from_the_Motion_Picture_Soundtrack">Back to the Future Soundtrack</a>/<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore!">Fore!</a> days and rode it for a good two years through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_World_%28album%29">Small World</a> album. In retrospect, that doesn't seem like much in the way of devotion, but when you've just barely cracked double-digits in age, giving a single artist two years on the top of your personal billboard chart is pretty significant.<br />
<br />
Huey Lewis and the News were the first band I ever saw live in concert (Meadowbrook, 1988, Small World Tour). I don't remember the first tape that I ever purchased. I doubt it was one of Huey's, but I definitely owned all three of the aforementioned albums as well as their chart-topping 1983 album <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_%28Huey_Lewis_and_the_News_album%29">Sports</a>. If you were never into Huey Lewis and/or the News, you might not get as much enjoyment out of <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/huey-lewis-and-the-news-sports,56121/">this</a> several thousand word dissection of Sports, but you will probably agree that it's the most insightful analysis of Lewis' career since <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/">American Psycho</a>. If all of this hasn't piqued your interest because you never liked Huey Lewis and the News in particular or saxophone-heavy pop music in general, you should appreciate that the only two members of the band, past or present, that have their own Wikipedia pages are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Lewis">Huey Lewis</a>, of course, and saxophonist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Colla">Johnny Colla</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-67254025349690278782011-05-15T21:33:00.000-04:002011-05-15T21:33:50.348-04:00Paradise By The Oven LightI've probably been spending less time cooking since becoming a dad, but it feels like I've been doing it a lot more. That's probably because instead of cooking a couple times a week, I now cook once a week and attempt to make enough food in that one session to last four or five days. <br />
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That usually means making one big dish, though this week I did things differently and grilled some corn and chicken thighs and baked a meatloaf. I'm not entirely sure what happend, but I somehow managed to make the most delicious meatloaf I've ever made. I started with an old recipe and then deviated from it in several places due to a lack of ingredients, but the end result was much better than it would have been had I been able to cook it to spec. I'm going to attempt to transcribe what happened in the kitchen today so I can hopefully make it again.<br />
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1 lb ground turkey (dark meat)<br />
1 lb ground beef (85/15)<br />
1 medium onion, chopped<br />
2 eggs<br />
1/2 cup old fashioned oats<br />
1/2 cup Italian style bread crumbs<br />
1/4 cup pasta sauce (estimated)<br />
1/8 cup chili sauce (estimated)<br />
1-2 tbs barbecue sauce (estimated)<br />
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce<br />
1/2 tbs garlic powder<br />
2 tsp salt<br />
1/2 tsp black pepper<br />
1/8 tsp Sriracha sauce (estimated)<br />
1/2 cup ketchup<br />
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Mix everything (except the ketchup) in a bowl, put it into a loaf pan, cover it with foil, and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take off the foil, reduce the heat to 350 degrees, brush the top of the loaf with the ketchup, and bake another 45-60 minutes.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-68074283377558133952011-03-29T22:01:00.000-04:002011-03-29T22:01:39.152-04:00Take a Swipe<a href="http://www.swipely.com">Swipely</a> was featured on <a href="http://www.turnto10.com">channel 10's</a> Southern New England Spotlight during tonight's edition of the 7 o'clock news. If you look really closely, you can see me hard at work in the background around the 1:06 mark of the video. <br />
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The coverage is definitely more positive than the <a href="http://datajanitor.blogspot.com/2008/01/get-out-of-jail-free.html">last time</a> an employer of mine was featured in the local news.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-58085814839059548842011-03-27T22:19:00.000-04:002011-03-27T22:19:17.258-04:00Francis "Monk" LaValleyMy grandfather, Francis "Monk" LaValley, passed away peacefully on March 13, a few weeks shy of his 91st birthday. My grandfather was a quiet man. For a long time, I assumed that his nickname was a reference to his quiet demeanor. When I finally asked him about it a few years ago, I learned that it was actually a reference to a football star of his childhood, Stanford All-American <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Moscrip">Jim "Monk" Moscrip</a>. He earned the nickname playing backyard football as a boy and it stuck with him for the rest of his life.<br />
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In many ways, his life was the story of America in the 20th century. His parents immigrated to the US from Quebec, and if I remember correctly, his mother never really learned much English. While he wasn't bilingual, he did retain a little bit of French, which he would occasionally interject into conversation. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II. I don't know much about his war experience because I never really asked him about it and he never really talked about it. I know that he went over to Europe aboard the Queen Mary, served as a mechanic, and spent most of his time in England. After coming home, he settled into a solid blue-collar career as a tool & die maker and raised a family. He was a sports fan, a league bowler, an avid fisherman, and a lifelong Ohioan. <br />
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My favorite memories of my grandfather are from summertime visits when my parents would send my brother and me down to Columbus for a few days with Grandma and Grandpa. Their house was a wonderful place full of toys and games that we didn't have at home and the special kind of love and attention that only grandparents can provide. It was during those visits that my grandfather really shared his interests with us. He'd take us fishing and take us to the bowling alley. While I never developed into much of a fisherman and only spent a couple of years in organized bowling, I always enjoyed our trips to the lake and the lanes. <br />
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One interest that my younger self did have in common with him was an interest in drawing. He had an artistic side that he didn't often show, but he could make a pretty mean freehand sketch. He always enjoyed looking at my doodlings and would occasionally pull out his pencil and join in.<br />
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I didn't see him as often in his later years and his declining health made it impossible for him to enjoy most of his old pastimes, but he was always up for a game of cards right to the very end. I'm thankful for all of the time that we got to spend together. He never gave me much in the way of advice or guidance, but he didn't really have to, he just did what needed to be done and let his actions speak for themselves.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-28183281408372757262011-01-03T16:49:00.000-05:002011-01-03T16:49:38.175-05:00Make Room For BabyRepainting is probably the most universal rite of passage for first time homeowners. Nearly four and a half years into home ownership, we've finally managed to make it though that rite thanks to the impending birth of our first child. After several days of work and several coats of paint, here's the finished product.<br />
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<center><img src="http://daguerreotype.smugmug.com/photos/1145935486_fxM68-M.jpg" width="500px"/></center><br />
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I think it came out pretty well. Here's a <a href="http://daguerreotype.smugmug.com/Family/babyroom/15315248_uSL7X">gallery</a> with some more shots from around the room.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-66476566534140250132010-11-14T13:00:00.000-05:002010-11-14T13:00:18.520-05:00Black Bear<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33785116@N00/5173298515/"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/5173298515_00a28c9b8d.jpg" height="333" width="500" /></a></center><br />
September 19, 2010 | 4:06 pm | Great Smoky Mountains National Park - TennesseeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-49428458813516784762010-11-10T23:00:00.000-05:002010-11-10T23:00:25.029-05:00False WitnessI dropped my car off at the shop for some routine maintenance today. While I was settling my bill, the cashier asked if I or my wife had Facebook accounts. I didn't feel like explaining why I didn't want to "friend" or "become a fan" the service station, so I just lied and said no. I used to use this same tactic when a cashier asked if I had an e-mail address, but I've stopped since no one under the age of 75 can believably claim to not have an e-mail address anymore. I don't even know why I feel the need to lie in order to avoid having to politely refuse an offer to receive targeted marketing. I absolutely love declining to share my phone number when asked by a cashier - it makes me feel like I've just vetoed a bill in the UN Security Council.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-2199639854208489662010-10-31T15:23:00.000-04:002010-10-31T15:23:30.298-04:00Happy Halloween<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/33785116@N00/5132323881/"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1102/5132323881_e69dbfb3dd.jpg" height="333" width="500" /></a></center><br />
October 30, 2010 | 8:24 pm | Roger Williams Park Zoo - Providence, RIAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0South Elmwood, Providence, RI, USA41.7884131 -71.415835841.7844131 -71.4231313 41.7924131 -71.4085403tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10079769.post-80494501969065410842010-10-25T21:47:00.000-04:002010-10-25T21:47:14.497-04:00Re: CycleMy 2010 bicycle commuting season came to an end today. Normally, it ends around Columbus Day, but a spate of uncooperative weather in early October prevented me from getting that one last ride in, so I decided to take advantage of today's unseasonably warm conditions and shift my schedule a bit so I could make it back home before sunset. As it turned out, today was a good day to stay off of the main highways since President Obama's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/us/politics/26webobama.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">visit</a> this afternoon caused some major traffic tie-ups. <br />
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I managed to make 55 round trips this season, which eliminated roughly 750 car miles. This was about 150 miles more than <a href="http://datajanitor.blogspot.com/2009/10/commuted-sentence.html">last year</a>, though still quite a bit shy of the 1000 mile <a href="http://datajanitor.blogspot.com/2009/04/back-in-saddle.html">goal</a> that I set prior to last season. I also did a lot more riding for fitness and leisure and turned in just over 1600 total miles, my highest tally since 1997. According to Google Maps' bicycle directions, that's roughly the equivalent of biking from my house in Rhode Island to Omaha, via a route that parallels Interstate 90/80.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00236156272492241767noreply@blogger.com0