God bless free WiFi

I'm writing this entry from the increasingly cold Pioneer Plaza in Portland. The free Wifi is actually superior in quality to the $10 a day wifi in the Hilton. (This is the second time I've stayed at a Hilton recently, and it's ironic that the thing that has made me notice what hotel I've been staying at is the number of things they try to charge people for (gym, wifi) after charging expensive nightly rates for rooms that are at best average and have crappy towels and wimpy cable.)

Portland's a cool town. Urban, but certainly not New York. Filled with hipsters. And the smell of pot. And homeless people. Last night we found this cool bar called Tube that was a small bar basically encased in a plastic tube. Cheap drinks, good rock DJ. I haven't really done much sightseeing, but Susanne's accounts of her tour of Shanghai Portland (about how drunkards were kidnapped to work as sailors) added a bit of local flavor. I'm still recovering from a tasty big dinner last night (and an equally good veggie burger for lunch). Oh, and the public transit is free in the city center. And there are signs that tell when the next bus is coming. Does life get any better? Wow.

Getting here was an ordeal. American Airlines was in chaos on Saturday. For the second time in as many trips on American, I had to switch terminals at JFK, which requires walking quite a bit in a hurry and getting through security again. Their fancy phone update service called me several times to let me know my flight was getting kicked around, but they weren't so sophisticated as to actually rebook me when I was going to miss my connection. Instead, I had to call them, but at least I beat the poor saps waiting in the hour long line at the terminal in JFK. Absurd. And there was no meal on the flight, even after the rush and the poor food options in the terminal. Jeez. The highlight of the flight was definitely Spanglish.

Yesterday was the CHI Beyond Threaded Conversation Workshop, which was pretty chaotic. The hope of an emergent organization didn't quite materialize and things got too theoretical for my taste with efforts to frame a "design space." When we finally got into breakout groups, we realized we didn't even agree on things like what the purpose of online debate should be or what was best for readers. There were a lot of interesting people and some old friends in the workshop, and we got a pretty good enumeration of issues to consider in designing discussion interfaces and of sites we all thought were fascinating. The workshop wiki should be public soon.

What else? I went for a long run today and got lost several times. There are some very pretty and very slummy areas in Portland. Sadly the Rose Garden was not in bloom. I went to the Doc Martens store, but even they don't make the shoes I liked in my size. Seriously, some day somebody is going to get rich using technology to make custom clothing for guys who are sick of stores that cater to tall and fat people. I hurt my neck doing situps. Am I getting old?

Gotta run.

Ohhh (or, how to use mobile web with Verizon)

For a long time, I was trying to figure out why my stupid phone wouldn't let me create bookmarks or change my home page or what not. I finally figured out that I had to sign up at the msn site. Lame and annoying, but at least my phone is slightly more functional.

Best. Firefox. Extensions. Ever.

Save session, clone window. Ahhh.

Other New York stuff

I've been wondering about the origin of New York's grid. Of course, Wikipedia had the answer. Speaking of wikipedia, it was weird to be reading Wired and come across my name (article eventually here).

I keep running past the weird museum made of shipping containers. Now I know what it's all about.

Goodbye, Gates!

I went and said goodbye to The Gates today. I didn't bring my camera this time. (Which doesn't mean I didn't wish I had it with me. The possessive, disruptive lust is unrelenting.) The place was packed. What else could bring so many people to the Park in winter? I think the Times had it right when it said that it was like everyone was a dignitary on parade. I overheard a few people trying to understand the profit angle (there isn't any). Ah, capitalists. The whole thing is very democratic: it's free, it brings everybody out. I think the iPod is sort of the paid version of this: even insanely rich superstars own iPods (and Sidekicks, apparently ;-) ) because they're hip and best-of-breed, but they're cheap enough that average people can get them and feel connected with folks who are otherwise distant.

Best Gates parody: duh, The Crackers.

I arrived at The Gates by walking up 10th Ave, after discovering that the galleries at 25th and 26th are closed on Sundays. 10th Ave is an adventure in itself. It features unMahatthanlike gas stations, a drive-through McDonald's, rail yards, parking lots. I saw a massive postal truck manuever into a dock with fewer corrections than it takes me to park in an angled spot. ;-) There's also a hideous windowless AT&T equipment building (which has a twin downtown).

All sorts of other exciting things have been going on that I've neglected to write about. Learning to ski, getting better at ice skating, improving marginally at basketball, accidentally running 7 miles, eating at Artisanal and Restaraunt Saul, watching Bend it Like Beckham and Closer, friends getting engaged, finishing Peace War and slogging through The Brothers Karamazov, America's Next Top Model, the family on Wife Swap that lived in a bus.

Passage I've meaning to copy out of Brothers K., of ironic sky-is-falling lonely bowling relevance:

For everyone now strives most of all to separate his person, wishing to experience the fullness of life within himself, and yet what comes of his efforts is not the fullness of life but full suicide, for instead of the fullness of self-definition, they fall into complete isolation. For all men in our age are separated into units, each seeks seclusion in his own hole, each withdraws from the others, hides himself, and hides what he has, and ends by pushing himself away from people and pushing people away from himself. He accumulates wealth in solitude, thinking: how strong, how secue I am now; and does not see, madman as he is, that the more he accumulates, the more he sinks into suicidal impotence. For he is accustomed to relying only on himself, he has separated his unit from the whole, he has accustomed his soul to not believing in people's help, in people or mankind, and now only trembles les his money and acquired privileges persish. Everywhere now the human mind has begun laughably not to understand that a
man's true security lies not in his own solitary effort, but in the general wholeness of humanity.

Cool find: Jonathan Sanfran Foer reading his first chapter.

Another cheap Google plug

We were talking last night about how the next OC episode is another movie homage/rip off, but I couldn't remember the name of the movie where the people are locked in a Target. Enter our snazzy new movie search and a tip from Mihai (thanks Mihai!). locked in a Target brought Career Opportunities right to the top!

Today's fun Google wildcard search

best * ever