VP Debate '08

The Riverview Theater aired the debate on the big-screen last night, which made for quite an event. Obama/Biden stickers and shirts were everywhere, people were dressed like birds - Oh, WAIT! They were roosters. Holding signs that said WAKE UP AMERICA. ...just put that together. Anyway, while the VP debate may not end up deciding very much this election, there sure was a lot of excitement in the air - some of which has lingered on into today, at least. The following is an email response that I wrote to a friend that was supposed to meet us at the theater, but couldn't get in!

Yeah, the debate is definitely the topic of conversation here at work today... surprised (or maybe not really) how much support she still has amongst the conservatives, in my office and across the nation. I hate that it casts me and other liberals I know as elitists when I/we say that Palin is dumbing down politics to appeal to the masses. On purpose. But that's exactly what I think. I don't know how to not be a jerk, but still ask for the credit and respect that I deserve as an (at least somewhat) informed member of society... again I'm already implying that I'm better than others.

What to do? Anyway, the theater was definitely a great venue to watch, however biased. I am always most interested in knowing what people on the other side of the spectrum think during these nationally televised political events. But it's fun to get carried away too. (Carried towards the left.) :)

You're right that the Truth was hard to find though. Both candidates dodged questions. Biden was just a bit slicker about it. Palin was straightforward with her evasion. So Biden looked more like old Washington in some ways. A distant intellectual politician. (Gore? Kerry?) Palin was like W., without the jittery fear. (Although she did look more nervous than usual.) In any case, The People will take away from it what they're inclined to.

Fortunately Obama has been gaining ground, and Biden did nothing to hurt that, and the little that Palin helped McCain (by showing up, not falling on her face) won't add much to the equation. That's all that really matters.

Lastly, what was with all of the winking? It's like she's hitting on the country. Seriously. Stop winking at me Sarah.

What did you think?

Oh, is THAT who we're voting for?

Are we really that confused in this country? This ad popped up next to my email today, begging the question.

Veep of the Hill

I didn't make this connection, but I thought it apt/funny.

The McCain Veep mission: find the real life Peggy Hill. Slam dunk.

Geekin' out about Dropbox.

Finally! DropBox, an online backup and synchronization application, went public today, so I got my copy after months of waiting for a beta invitation. I don't see any reason why a person wouldn't sign up for their free service, where you get 2 GBs of storage that you can access from any computer that you have activated with the service. That means not only instant backups, but universal access to your files.

Other services have a similar feature-set (Mozy, which I currently use), but Dropbox's more complete service features and tasty UI puts it way ahead in my book.

The way Dropbox works, is that it makes a folder that acts the same as any other folder on your computer, but now when you add a file to the designated folder, you'll be able to open it on from the Dropbox folders you have on any other machines. Like magic :), Dropbox copies the files first to the web, and then down to you other machines so they're local always & everywhere. Crazy.

So I'm really excited about Dropbox.

Drivin' to CA

In 10 days Änna and I get to take a little vacation and drive Jeff's car out to sunny Palo Alto, CA! For those that don't already know, Jeff is Änna's dad, and he's starting as the VP of Development (or something like that) at a solar energy company called Ausra this month, which we're all very excited about.

We're planning our route right now, so if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them.


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The Great Wall : Summer '08

DSC00079
Originally uploaded by hagstrbh

Not THAT Great Wall. But still a great wall.

Regrettably, I never took any pics of our construction of the Hagstrom-Great-Wall-in-St.Paul last year. Hopefully these pics of the 2nd installment will serve as enough of a reminder... to never do this again?

No, it was fun really. And hopefully Änna likes what I've done when she returns home tomorrow. :) Photos on flickr (username: hagstrbh).

Threadless Shirt

So I thought I'd try to submit a shirt to Threadless.com to see how that all worked. Turns out, if enough users vote that they like a shirt, and Threadless prints it, I can get paid. So vote early, and often. Even if you think my shirt is dumb. Image below should link to my shirt, titled "Kevin" bacon.

Tune Up Media

I was just using this awesome piece of software from Tune Up Media that helps clean up your iTunes music library, and I guess that I was impressed enough to recommend it to you here. (At least the Free Version that I'm demoing tonight.) Super easy, drag-and-drop interface, with something like 90% accuracy (they claim) in renaming/cleaning files. If your music folder was as messy as mine, from the old days of college file sharing, I'm sure you'll find this helpful. If I were still using Limewire, Bittorent, etc, I would definitely be buying the lifetime subsription for TuneUp, but for now I'll see how far I can stretch the 500 free cleans.

Leopard vs. Crocodile

Leopard wins.

Hamburglar?

No. Regular burglar.

Some of you may have heard, but our garage was broken into the other week. Which blows. Both our bikes, my drums, the power saw, the cordless drill, a Bucket Boss FULL of tools, all gone. Plus they screwed up our garage door in the process. Insurance will pay for some, but we have to spend quite a bit to make paying the deductible worthwhile.

Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy, but advice. I'm thinking of getting an electronic drum set to replace the old, "traditional" one. Mostly for the quiet factor, but also to save space. And I've always thought them pretty rad. Does anyone out there have experience with these sets? Unfounded opinions? Either will do, really.

I'm off, probably to buy some new tools.

More Reverse Graffiti

http://www.reversegraffitiproject.com/

Kickin' Off Summer Right.

The Hagstroms are kickin' off summer right. Seems like we've packed in a whole season's worth of fun in to the last two weekends...

We did this...

and went here...

and did this...

and saw this...

and went to this...

and did lots of this...

and even started one of these...

Thank goodness the work week is here so we can relax...

Wife Chart

How does your wife rank?

This is the first page of a 1930s chart used to give couples "feedback" on their marriages. I wish they had the whole list up... but I'm sure my wife would rank as "Very Superior" regardless. [full story]

Another blog that's just way way way better than mine.

manbabies.com

Just photos of dads with their babies -- with their heads swapped.

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

Simply genius.

Give a Man a Fish.

Something a commenter posted on the Freakonomics blog the other day struck a chord... He referenced the popular saying:
Give a man a fish, he'll live for a day.
Teach a man to fish, he'll live forever.

The post got me thinking more about the analogy as it could be applied during all this Recession talk, and prompted me to try a Haiku Redux of that same saying...
Give a man a fish...
because he was just laid off.
Was a fisherman.

Maybe one of you more skilled in the ways of Haikus, limericks, etc., will come up with something better. :)

Boomerangs to Babies.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=81490

But how would the babies drop, in space!?

"Boomerangs In Space!"

So how does a boomerang work? Should this be confusing? An airfoil can produce lift without air? (Bjorn feels like an idiot as Lou points out that the dude is INSIDE the spaceship, so there IS air... Bjorn finds spaceman's boomeranging skills impressive nonetheless.) Discuss.

The Lord's Prayer Redux : Leet Speak

[source link]

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I didn't know what 'leet' was before reading this, or at least I didn't know the specific term for typing with symbols instead of standard alphanumerics... but I found portions of this |-|!££@R!0$.

Amazing Clock Design

http://www.christiaanpostma.nl/
--
Simply one of the coolest clock designs I've ever seen... as long as you're ok with only having a general idea of what time it is. (I am.) :)

On the clock page, link "3" shows a fast-forward illustration of what the clock looks like in action.

$1000 from Shirt.Woot.com

Shirt.Woot is paying designers $1000 for first run shirt designs!