Monthly Archives: May 2010

(Apologies to anyone who was expecting this over the weekend, but the same reason I’m posting tonight is the same reason it is a shorter update.  I’ll make it up to you, I promise.  How about a full refund?)

– Basketball rims in NYC are unique: “New York is among the few places, and possibly the only one, where municipal rims used at more than 700 public parks are still made by hand.”  One kid describes them as “ghetto rims”.  (McCarthy)

– Blame Kevin Costner for oil spill: Anyone who invests tens of millions of dollars into a company that cleans up oil spills, should definitely be looked at as sketchy.  Say what you want about BP, but they lose money as this oil dumps out.  If Kevin stands to gain from spilled oil, then he’s basically ecstatic that the Gulf ecosystem is getting destroyed.  (Core77)

– What was “little noticed” in the health care bill? Um, just about everything.  I’m sorry, that’s not entirely true.  Most opponents of the bill knew; most backers are surprised.  (Wooten)

– Straight outta Compton: A crazy detector named IceCube, in Antarctica, is finding “shrapnel” from supernovae.  (New Scientist)

– Wine bottle torches: This link will show you how to make one yourself.  Enjoy.  (Core77)

– Speaking of wine bottles: Woo slept on his job again and missed a design out of the UK for a wine bottle that is “188 grams lighter than the average.” (Core77)

– Woman sues Google because she’s an idiot: She used Google Maps for walking directions.  She didn’t use herself for the age-old question: “Should I walk along a highway?”.  (Boing Boing)

– The music collar for deaf people: The collar allows deaf people to feel the music on their skin.  Looks like something out of Fifth Element:  (Gizmodo)

– Ballin’ ass sniper scopes: DARPA wants: a scope that allows snipers to shoot 2000 meters in 40 mph winds, bullets that change trajectory in mid-air, and another scope that makes snipers practically invisible. And what DARPA wants, DARPA gets.  (Wired)

– Let’s do some shooting: Fly to Germany for a sweet, sweet range:  (Gizmodo)

– Want to make a cake in 5 minutes? You can have your cake and eat it too, or make it and eat it.  Or whatever else you like to do with cake when no one is watching.  Except God, he’s always watching you.  But hey, watch this:  (Boing Boing)

– Twitter Update: I had to post this, because I got retweeted this week.  Last year the Giants had two beat writers from the Star-Ledger: Mike Garafolo and Jenny Vrentas.  This week Jenny was tweeting from the Jets OTAs and that was extremely annoying because it meant I was getting updates from the Jets OTAs.  I “tweeted at shorty” asking if she was stuck with the Jets, she replied no, which led to my next tweet, which in turn got retweeted by Garafolo as such:

“I’d be offended if it weren’t true. RT @jblake33: @JennyVrentas that sucks, we know @NJ_Giants can’t do it alone…” – Mike Garafolo

I got no uptick in followers because it wasn’t about Bieber.  Just shows you what an unexplosive online presence I have.

– The Marks’ Financial Update:

• MFL – Draw as straight a line as you can across an unlined piece of paper.  That’s what Mark Lee’s chart looks like these past two (four?) weeks.  He started at $13.70 and closed at $13.73, the only Mark to make us some money these past two weeks.
• MDH – Hey, let’s go for another roller coaster for two weeks.  Why not?  Start at $3.49, plummet down to $2.95 on May 20th, ride back up to $3.39 and add in a short little drop to end the period at $3.10.  Harter, it seems like investors are just unsure if you’ll be following Greece.  Not with the debt crisis, but with the rioting.  I could see Harter rioting by himself in Hoboken.
• MAB – Bunk’s on shaky ground here with a slight decline over this investment period.  He came in at $15.24, dipped baby dipped down to $14.46 on May 25th, then closed out at $14.635.  That nice little pop a couple Fridays ago is just a thing of the past.  And past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

I decided to be nice and post (terribly) a chart of the Marks’ performance over the past 5 years.  Harter is in the biggest hole, but Bunk and Mark Lee are pretty much even.  (I’m too nice, otherwise I would have put the S&P 500’s performance in here.)

Happy Memorial Day.  Remember that there’s some people risking a lot for you, some people who risked a lot for you, and a lot of people who risked it all for you.

– Boxing: Last night Rafael Marquez stopped Israel Vazquez in 3 rounds due to a nasty cut on Vazquez’s eye. How nasty? Um, this nasty:

That’s a lovely trail of blood, no?

– Time lapse of Eyjafjallajökull volcano: In related news, my dumbass finally figured out how to post Vimeo videos: (Wooten)

– Stringer Bell tries rapping: Yes, the man that plays Stringer is British. Deal with it. (Brosnan)

– The Roots new song: “Dear God 2.0” from their upcoming album How I Got Over, coming out June 22nd. Not really the song I’d use to introduce people to The Roots (I mean, the best way would be to take you to a show). Let’s try “How I Got Over“. Ahh, much better. Back to being pumped for this album. (?uestlove’s Twitter)

– Nas & Damian Marley: Distant Relatives. Eh. Very very eh. I wanted this album to be really good, considering it’s Nas and all. “As We Enter” and “Nah Mean” are the only two I’ve been repeating. I’ve never been a huge fan of reggae-rap (I only bought a Bounty Killer album because of that Mobb Deep song “Deadly Zone“) and this album doesn’t help to bring me over. Sorry Nas fans, this one is a pass.

– Fuck it, more rap news: Cam’ron and Jim Jones “squashed their beef” (does anyone still say that?). And according to the article, Cam’ron wants to do another Dipset album. I know Demner and Money hope he really means it. (Demner)

– Harter gets one: Amazon is releasing the Kindle app for phones that use Android’s software, which includes Harter’s prized Droid. (Boy Genius Report)

– Mom, can we use this? My mom wants us to dump her ashes in the ocean (after she dies, not now). Why not put her in a weird coffin that rests at the bottom of the ocean for fishes to swim and play in? You cremate your loved one, stick them in a biodegradable Ziplock bag inside the “coffin”, then toss ’em overboard. That cool, Mom? (Also, I’m assuming my mom won’t figure out how to comment on the website, so I’ll post her email when she replies.) (Gizmodo)

– How movie studios saw California: Basically, as unoriginal. (Boing Boing)

– Speaking of Cali: Pelosi thinks artists should stay out of work, because clearly the only key to achieving your dreams is to have health care. She doesn’t want you to “have to be job locked.” Really? That’s what’s holding these people back? Since when does making money and saving and in your free time focusing on something that you enjoy considered a bad idea? Thanks, Nancy. You’re doing a fantastic job… (Bucheri)

– The best gif ever? According to The World’s Best Ever: (though it’s an old one) (The World’s Best Ever)

– Ever want to know what it’s like to fuck a porn star? And, you know, not get diseased? Turns out the Fleshlight now comes in porn star varieties.

– Bitch piss you off? Then order some crabs that come through the mail so you can afflict her with pubic lice. You sick fuck, you. I believe Carpe Diem would have titled this “Markets in Everything”. (Geekologie)

– Lifelock not so locked up: Do you remember the CEO of Lifelock running commercials that printed his Social Security Number? His goal was to convince you how safe their service, which protects against identity theft, can be. Well, the service works so well that Todd Davis only had his identity stolen 13 times. Whoops. (Wired)

– Nature and electricity: Together at last: (PopSci)

– You like coffee? Then Ces would like you to try True Beans Coffee. I haven’t had a chance to try it, but Ces swears by it and that fucker does love his coffee. Anyone else try this/know about this? Personally I go with the free Starbucks machine we have at work, not to be a dick or anything. (Ces)

– NJ Beer Company launched: All three beers are tasty and come in growlers. You can email me and I’ll put you into touch with McCarthy who will tell you how to purchase a growler of your choice. I kinda like the growler concept, I mean, as long as I can’t get a six-pack at the store. The growlers come in half gallon size. (Enough growlers for you, Harter?)

– Twitter update: Blake has 39 followers (up from 37). No RTs nor mentions, not sure why I bother updating you on this fact. 39 followers is trash, by the way.

– Tweet of the week: Herm Edwards (HermEdwardsESPN) joined Twitter this week. I fell in love with Herm even before his Emmy-worthy performance on Hard Knocks, and would spend Mondays and Tuesdays during the football season reading his press conference transcripts because I loved me some Hermisms. Now I get Herm’s “though of the day” each morning. He had thought spelled correctly the first three times, but that fourth time… well, it’s the Tweet of the week. To wit:

Though of the day ” focus on your pian not the adversity ”

Tough one, Herm. So far he’s also taught us that “you first form your habits then your habits form you” and that “eventually what we do in the dark – comes to the light.” I look forward to my time with Herm.

– What you missed: I’m moving. The good view, the balcony, and the overwhelming-gay gays will all be missed. 8G how I loved thee. I’ll miss Gil, my doorman, the most because he’s the only person I get to talk boxing with on a regular basis. Also Rocking Horse, Flight 151, and Cafeteria when you aren’t serving me horrendous Bloody Mary’s. OK, I’ll just miss the mac’n’cheese spring rolls from Cafeteria. (What, is this what you missed or what I’m going to miss?) So yeah, I guess I wasn’t vocal enough about telling friends I’m moving. Sorry ’bout that. I’m moving two blocks south of Union Square into a bigger apartment with higher ceilings and a bigger kitchen though no balcony. Apologies to my cancer-stick-sucking friends, but there is a nice roof deck. Wednesday is the official move day and so far my weekend has consisted of drinking, packing, Red Dead Redemption, packing, drinking, packing, Red Dead, packing, packing and drinking, drinking and Red Dead, packing. Oh and sleeping and eating at times.

– What I missed: Porn stars on Twitter. I was starting to end my foray into Twitter when a co-worker showed me a, uh, lovely picture. Then he gave me some porn names to start following and well, I guess I’ll be keeping my Twitter account. (I originally had “sticking to Twitter”, but that was the wrong impression.) The best part is when I explained to this married co-worker with four kids that anyone can see who he follows. He claims he can look his wife in the eyes and say “I follow porn stars.” Good luck with that. Especially when Kirsten Price posts pictures like this. (Because you’ll ask, these are the three he suggested: Kirsten_Price, RileySteele, and JesseJane. And yes they tweet pics from the set.)