The Brunch Table

According to this article, the NYPD has recently been conducting odd flash mob style military parades that they’re calling “critical force surges”. Check out the similarities to the typical flash mob setup:

The dates, times and locations of these deployments are kept secret until the moment a mobilization is called over division radio frequencies. … Once all units have responded they are given specific instructions to create a presence on the street.

While these exercises do test the response speed of NYPD forces, there’s more to it than that, as described by a supposed NYPD bulletin:

The purpose is to basically intimidate those individuals who would even contemplate any kind of criminal activity and to send a message to potential terrorists that the NYPD can rapidly respond to virtually any situation.

This post, on a SoCal job board, sums up our infrastructure crisis ever so beautifully.

single dad down the street from campus needs RELIABLE person to get two charming children out of bed, fed and out the door to school. one needs to be dropped off, so car is necessary. only two hours in morning and two hours in afternoon. but if you can only do half, I can find someone to do other half. pay is negotiable and contingent on RELIABILITY! qualifications: like or, at least, tolerate eight and 13 year old kids. can make instant oatmeal and/or waffles. can put plates in a dishwasher. can drive a kid to nearby school. BE RELIABLE!!

“What we call problems of culture are usually problems of architecture” –Francisco Perez

Usually, when I get to the point of picking up the phone to call a company, it’s because I’m dealing with a problem that no mere phone robot could possibly help me with. In many cases, pressing “0″ and/or “#” repeatedly or saying “agent” will connect you to a human, but that wasn’t working for me with Citibank today. So when I finally found my way to a person, I asked her if there was any sequence of numbers I could dial to talk directly to a live agent. She said, “sure, just don’t say anything or press any buttons for a while, and you’ll get connected to a person eventually”. When I called back, I actually had to start over because I responded to the prompts without thinking—it’s hard to play dead—but it works!

Here’s an Evangelical minister with, I suspect, a natural gift for good dramatic writing. The Writers Guild’s loss is the Church’s gain.

As time goes on, I’ve found that I’ve been increasingly shifting my internet reading habits from mailing lists (which now get auto-filed into a rarely-visited folder) and random surfing (which is too addictive) to RSS/Atom feed reading (mostly through Somniphobia). There are still a few syndication-less holdouts that I like to read, which is why I was so glad to see Carlo Zottmann’s offer to create a “bootleg” RSS feed for any site, and to maintain it for a year, for the reasonable fee of $2 per feed. Here are two that I paid for:

• Walt Mossberg’s Personal Technology, articles from the respected Wall Street Journal’s tech reviewer’s fiefdom
• Destination: Freedom, the National Corridors Initiative’s weekly update on rail transportation issues

Feel free to subscribe to either if you’d like.

“What is the connection between knitting, computer programming, board games, and candy? All desirable yet highly mathematical, algorithmic, and structured. How can these soft, shiny, entertaining and sweet systems also be encrypted, intangible, programmed, tension-creating objects?”

I just added a bunch of my favorite photos from our recent Italian trip to the photo section of joeandjustina.com. There are also a handful of wedding pictures up, with more coming soon, once we get a chance to sift through the hundreds that we’ve got in digital form (not to mention several rolls of as-yet-undeveloped film). Here’s a taste:

Update: added many more wedding photos and switched to a new photo gallery system

Google shows a lack of English translations of Silvio Rodriguez’ song “Ojalá,” which, in addition to being a famous anti-fascist anthem, is the also best break-up song ever. Ojalá, borrowed from Arabic, means “God willing.” (Let me know if you find a mistake.)

OJALÁ Silvio Rodriguez, 1969

God willing, the leaves won’t touch your body when they fall, Because if they did, they’d turn to crystal. God willing, if rain could fall on you, it would be a miracle God willing, the moon can come out without you God willing, the earth no longer kisses your steps.

God willing, you could stop this constant hallucination With just the right word, the perfect smile, God willing, if something could erase you quickly A blinding light, a snowstorm, God willing–any less would kill me. To stop seeing you so, to stop seeing you forever, In every second, in all these visions, God willing–but I can’t touch you in a song.

God willing, the screams of the morning sun Won’t fall upon my back. God willing, my voice will forget your name. God willing, the walls of these tired streets won’t keep your sounds, God willing, desire will haunt you Till you rule only over the flowers and the dead.

God willing, you could stop this constant hallucination With just the right word, the perfect smile, God willing, if something could erase you quickly A blinding light, a snowstorm, God willing–any less would kill me. To stop seeing you so, to stop seeing you forever, In every second, in all these visions, God willing–but I can’t touch you in a song.

Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie meets Pac-Man.

Even though I got this from Boing Boing, I enjoyed it so much I had to share.

Latest spam finding, the “Bartlett’s Quotations” kind:

“You’re never too old to become younger.”– Mae West “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” — Robert Oppenheimer

I don’t quite know what to make of it.