So yesterday Andrea called me and left me a message about going to the Daily Grind. This seems like an innocuous phone call, except the Daily Grind is the coffee house from college. I haven’t been there since 2001 and, as far as I knew, it’s almost 900 miles away…
So she called me later in the day to go out that night and I went over to her house. When I got there she was still talking about the Daily Grind. Trying not to sound like a complete ass, “there’s another coffee house called the Daily Grind and it’s in Orlando,” I said. “No,” replied Andrea, “it’s the Daily Grind from college.”
After a little more dialog (which I won’t make more awkward by trying to write it down in a blog post) I finally found out that the guys who started my favorite coffee house in Winchester, VA, had turned their business into a franchise and there was, indeed, one in sunny Orlando.
I recommend everyone go there. The coffee I’ve been drinking for the past seven years is so acidic and bitter. The coffee I had last night was delicious. Check out www.dailygrindunwind.com for more info! Or, just stop by 807 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL.
04/27/2008 at 11:12 ET
Jed
I first did it a few days ago, but tonight I beat Portal. Here’s a screenshot of my accomplishment…
Ya’ll know I’m a computer geek and a music kid, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the part I’m going to absolutely rave about is the closing credits. WOW! For anyone who has a little intellect and a fair amount of patience (call me if you get stuck in one particular part or another), you should play and beat this game just to see the end credits. This kid Jonathan Coulton wrote an amazing song “Still Alive” for the game and I was just…wow. I bought it on iTunes. It was worth $0.99.
04/10/2008 at 22:23 ET
Jed
Today I’m helping a friend of a friend with her computer. As I’m sitting here watching xcopy backup most of her data onto my computer (temporarily) and pondering resizing her hard drive partition (non-techie-types can read that as “hopefully fixing the problem but running the risk of deleting her whole computer”), a thought floats through my mind. Does anyone remember undelete?
I think this is an especially poignant question for me these days as I’ve recently bought a new computer with Windows Vista (crappy Microsoft) and I’m quite sure that I have no idea how I would go about accomplishing an undelete. My friend’s friend’s computer has Windows XP (crappy Microsoft) and I don’t think I’ve ever undeleted a file on XP either. I don’t even know if NTFS (Windows 2000 Professional or later) supports the same kind of un-delete operation that FAT (Windows ME or earlier) did. When was the last time I seriously tried to undelete a file?
Actually, I know the answer to that question. It was when I was working on my website: my webhost runs everything on Debian Linux and I’m not as snazzy with *nix platforms as I am with Windows (crappy Microsoft). I deleted a whole folder by accident and then spent a few hours searching for a way to undo the operation. After a lot of Google research, I decided that even if I knew what I was doing, the files were probably gone, so I gave up.
There’s definitely the command-line factor. Who remembers DOS? That’s when undelete reigned supreme. It was really easy to type something and accidentally delete a file you didn’t mean to. With a graphical interface (thanks Apple, even if you’re overpriced) I think mistakes are a lot less common.
I also think it says a little about the evolution of the relationship of the computer to the operator. As we become more familiar with computers and they become more familiar with us, mistakes requiring undelete are a lot less common. I know, I know, there’s the trash can (or recycle bin — crappy Microsoft), but who really uses that thing, anyway? I think I have it turned off on two-out-of-three computers I regularly use.
So I’m sitting here thinking about the evolution. What would young Jed, writing MS-DOS-based batch files to create boot menus, think of OS X anyway? Would he even know where to start? What does that say about how computing technology has progressed, and more importantly, what does it say about how computing technology has pushed Mankind to progress?
04/05/2008 at 18:15 ET
Jed
Has anyone else been watching Eli Stone? I try hard not to watch too much TV, so I avoid geting hooked-on new shows. There are plenty of good shows that I’m already engaged in — and a few bad ones to boot. This new show, however, Eli Stone is something I’m glad that I took some time to watch.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, the premise is pretty simple: there’s this guy (Eli Stone) who starts experiencing strange, immersive visions. He finds out that he has an inoperable brain aneurysm and seeks help from an acupuncturist who thinks perhaps the visions are more than just random expression of a mishmosh of insignificant imaginations of his subconscious. He calls Eli a prophet (something Eli’s not particularly comfortable with), an through a series of uncanny events, Eli comes to think that maybe, just maybe, something special is happening to him.
And here’s where the show gets compelling, because it really seems like something special is happening. It doesn’t always work out with a happily-ever-after for him, and he can’t keep the faith that he may really be a prophet, but the things that happen to Eli and the ways they link together are too uncanny to be just a brain disease. It really seems like he’s getting some guidance.
There are moments in this show that just reach out and grab me. First, his visions seem to revolve around (although not exclusively) music, something near and dear to my heart. Then there are times when the events in Eli’s life relate directly to the visions he’s having in a way that just makes my heart yearn. I’m guessing it’s been popular because it has that affect on other people too. How great would it be to have someone walk up to you and introduce themselves as the person you were dreaming about helping just last night? How could you ignore a message written in children’s alphabet blocks that seems to be just for you?
So here’s the hitch: even with all the help he’s getting from his visions, things aren’t working out perfectly for Eli. His life has become very, very complicated. At least a third of the time he’s not even sure he believes in what’s happening to him. His relationships keep getting messed up; despite the visions, he keeps making the wrong decisions; his career has basically gone up in smoke; and worst of all, the visions can be a little disturbing. Maybe I wouldn’t want to be Eli after all…
…who am I kidding? I sure would!
As an episode comes to a close, however, I think there’s a bigger point. Watch carefully. What’s so special about Eli, anyway? Is it his disease? Is it his messed-up relationship with his crazy, late father? Is it the fact that he gets special guidance from his visions that make it simple to figure out what to do next?
No, it’s not — none of those things make Eli particularly different from you or I. What’s cool about the show is that it demonstrates the need to pay attention to the signs. We need to look for them and listen to them and trust them. We’re not always going to interpret the omens right — even if they were full-blown, immersive visions we probably wouldn’t get it right all the time. But the signs are there on the road, and you’re going to have a better, safer journey if you mind them.
You and I are prophets too, if we want to be.
04/05/2008 at 13:21 ET
Jed
There is a series on NPR called
This I Believe that I like. I’ve wanted to contribute but have never found the right words. This Sunday I feel like I should have something positive to say. It’s not that I’m feeling down, exactly, just more introspective. Hopefully there is a way to turn my contemplative thoughts into something both interesting and useful?
I think people who don’t know me well would find it curious that the thing I believe in most is spiritual in nature. Sure, I like to break the rules and talk about politics and religion in mixed company as often as I can get away with it, but I think even people that only know me casually understand that I usually take on taboo topics just because they’re taboo. In those conversations I’m almost always the Devil’s advocate, despite my true views and feelings. I know for a fact that, because I’m always playing the flip-side, some of my acquaintances don’t have the faintest clue what I really believe.
Most of the time I think God, too, would find it curious that the thing I believe in most is spiritual in nature. I’m far from the epitome of the stereotypical American Christian. I don’t actually go to church (little c), I don’t read the bible often (with a little b, although it is admittedly one of the many books sitting on a stack for me to read), and I’m a progressive liberal (yes, actually lots of progressive liberals are also Christian.)
I believe, with all of my heart and all of my mind, that there is a reason. I know this is a pretty common thing to think, but not believe, and I know from experience that there are a lot of people who don’t agree and might even say I’m deluding myself. Yet, this is my most important belief and it is at the core of what makes me a religious person despite the fact that I don’t go to church, I don’t read the bible often, and I’m a progressive liberal.
Some days it’s easier than others to believe that there is a reason — we all have good and bad days, I suppose. Some days I see a blue sky, filled with clouds during a sunset that paints the heavens orange and red and pink and purple. Some days I’m surrounded by the love of my friends or my family and we know how wonderful it is to be with each other just by a look across the dinner table. Other days I feel lonely, spending an evening at home. Those days occasionally make me think about sadder times.
Either way, I have a policy I learned from my friend the turtle: slow but steady wins the race. The important part of that moral is “steady.” We have to be steadfast in our journey and remember that the road thus far has brought us to where we are. We must move steadily forward or we are surely doomed to fail in our quest. My friend the turtle didn’t slow, he didn’t falter, and he didn’t look back. I’ve had many a grand daydream imagining what I might do with a time machine, knowing all along that should one be made available I would walk away. The journey is the point — the path behind us is only important in that it brought us here and presented us with the choices we have today. The things on that path had a purpose and are all sacred.
The nay-sayers will tell you that “believing” there is a reason is simply the rationalization of a mythological system to explain those parts of the universe that are either random or that science hasn’t seen fit to explain (yet). I even understand where they were coming from. I think they’re wrong. I actually think that it’s a rationalization to call it a mythological system. Some of the people who don’t believe as I do say this because they think that believing is a choice. I’m a scientist, but that’s the big lie of science, the assertion that it’s a choice to believe; it’s not.
I believe because I have to. I believe because each and every day, the universe conspires to tell me that there is a reason. Sunsets, friends, family, loneliness — the path is set and there’s no going back. The only choice is not to believe. That’s not a choice furnished by science, it’s the one that God gives us and I believe there’s an important reason for that, too.
03/09/2008 at 20:46 ET
Jed
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