Just a Gwai Lo

A history of Vancouver’s love affair with baseball

Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:01:10 +0000

It’s time we had an intervention with the game of baseball

Richard — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:45:07 +0000

On announcers: Watch a game for an inning with no volume. See if you miss anything. [link]

He Would Rather Pay the Taxes in Full

Richard — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:17:47 +0000

Zadie Smith: “Upstairs, Alex picked up the case from his trip and emptied the contents into the bed. The clothes he lifted in one stinking bundle and dropped into the bathroom's washing basket. Books he put on the floor and then kicked into a reasonable pile in a corner. He filed through the paper by hand, throwing every other piece of it into the bin including all receipts, for he had long ago decided that he would rather pay the tax in full than allow himself to be the type of man who remembers a beautiful day by the expenses he ran up on it.”

Gary Wolf of The Quantified Self on the data-driven life

Richard — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:52:21 +0000

Self-tracking can sometimes appear narcissistic, but it also allows people to connect with one another in new ways. [link]

Attending DrupalCon San Francisco April 19th to 21st

Richard — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:00:44 +0000

Starting with the community site Urban Vancouver, then as the support cowboy for Bryght and Raincity Studios and now with an independent practice, I've enjoyed all of my almost 6 years with the Drupal community. In a couple of weeks, I'll fly to San Francisco to attend my first DrupalCon. With my flight and hotel booked, conference ticket registered, and a ticket to a Major League Baseball ballgame ticket received in the mail, I look forward to the 3 full days of sightseeing in the Bay Area, including the plans to take a tour of North Beach and ride San Francisco's historic streetcars.

The conference itself will present me the opportunity to meet many of the people working on the open source CMS that I admire. I'm looking forward to attending sessions and hanging out in the lobby, and in the evenings, drinking some sweet delicious beer with colleagues. Tuesday night sees me riding BART out to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum for the first time in some twenty years where I saw my favourite Blue Jay of all time, Jesse Barfield, sock a dinger. This time, without a team to cheer for, I hope to soak it all in, arriving as early as possible to catch hitting and fielding practice, then taunt and boo the Yankees until my throat is sore. Leaving the conference early means missing some fantastic-looking DrupalCon sessions from Narayan Newton and Greg Knaddison. If the baseball gods get angry and rainout the A's game, you'll see me at one of those two sessions.

Stephen J. McNamee and Robert K. Miller, Jr. summarize their book The Meritocracy Myth

Richard — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 23:48:44 +0000

[link]

The generalist’s dilemma

Richard — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:09:54 +0000

[link]

Ed Smith asks "are we too professional?"

Richard — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:12:47 +0000

At the end of the 19th century, an amateur meant someone who was motivated by the sheer love of doing something; professional was a rare, pejorative term for grubby money-making. [link]

"It is time to look at China, not for what it says, but for what it does, and to judge it accordingly."

Richard — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:25:42 +0000

Although the politics of China remains communist, the economics might be called Advanced Mercantilist. [link]

The Reykjavik Grapevine's Paul Nikolov summarizes the current crisis in Iceland over Icesave

Richard — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 07:01:50 +0000

[link]

10-minute documentary featuring Copenhagen-based street art heroes Lints, Kissmama, and Basco 5

Richard — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:59:46 +0000

[link]

Melissa Goldstein interviews Vancouver photographer Jeff Wall on The Economist's blog

Richard — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:21:51 +0000

[link]

A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart

Richard — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:25:20 +0000

Lockhart argues in part essay, part dialogue between Salviati and Simplicio, that math is an art to be discovered, not to be taught by rote. [link]

Iceland's lost puffins

Richard — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:40:26 +0000

Kids from the Westman Islands gather at night and rescue birds fooled by the town's lights. [link]

The Reverse Geocache Puzzle

Richard — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:34:18 +0000

Using GPS and some scripted logic, Mikal Hart built a box that a newly-married couple could only open at one spot on earth. [link]