Hugh’s Notebook

First, a confession: I love the taste of Lobster. I really do. However, after reading this article from Gourmet magazine, I am not sure if I will be eating any more of it.

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / @aside

This year was a pretty boring year for me, at least as far as travel goes. Below is a list of cities I slept in this year. This is the first year I have documented it online, but I think in previous years the list would have been longer.

Byhalia, MS
Asheville, NC (actually, a small rest area on the outskirts of Asheville, during a snowstorm)
Interstate 75 (in a Greyhound Bus)
Cincinatti, OH
Raleigh, NC

Like I said, I went a lot more places than this, but to make the list, I had to spend the night there.

(got the idea from Kottke)

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / @me

Just sitting out, being quiet for a few days. I will be largely offline as well. A lot of thinking, planning and so on, preparing for the new year. Be patient if I do not email you back immediatly.

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / @aside

At least, it looks like that is what we are saying.  The UN passed a resolution on “the right to food”. The vote passed 180 (everyone else) to 1 (that would be us).

The money quote is:

By a vote of 180 in favour to 1 against (United States) and no abstentions, the Committee also approved a resolution on the right to food, by which the Assembly would “consider it intolerable” that more than 6 million children still died every year from hunger-related illness before their fifth birthday, and that the number of undernourished people had grown to about 923 million worldwide, at the same time that the planet could produce enough food to feed 12 billion people, or twice the world’s present population.

2 Comments » Posted by Hugh / @me

The first time I saw this, I put it down to a simple typo. But I have seen it often now, and I have NO idea what this is about. Let me explain.

I was on a friend’s website, where she wrote something to the effect of “I am about to eat and apple.” [Sentence changed to keep you from Googling it. Nosy.]

AND apple? I think you mean an apple. You do, right? I mean, you went to college and everything. You graduated from a real school in a state that did not end in a vowel. How can you not know this?

I thought it was a typo the first time I saw it on this friends site. But since then, I see it everywhere. If you want to cry, look at the results on this Google search.  Hell, this site maintained by the great free state of North Carolina encourages you to make an “Eat and Apple a Day” chart.

A whole generation does not know how to use the word “an”.  Can this be?

Shortly before I wrote this, I saw another post, by yet another educated person, who wrote that someone wanted “to borrow are snowblower”.  ARRRRGH! [Bangs head on desk].

The only thing I can think of is these people are writing the words the way they sound (said quickly, an sounds like and and our sounds like are). Maybe these people do not read and so have no idea that they are, in fact, different words?

I am sooooo going to grow old and be that guy that talks about kids these days.

3 Comments » Posted by Hugh / @me

Carrey is one of the funniest actors we have right now, yet he does not turn away from serious work. I think a lot of him.

YouTube

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / @Video

Son,

One day, you will walk into a Dollar Tree (probably a Five Dollar Tree by then) and see a 10 pack of razors for a dollar.  You will be amazed at how inexpensive this is, and, because you are my son, you will have an overwhelming, near irresistible, urge to buy and use these razors.

Because I love you, it is imperative that you listen to me as I tell you, with all of the urgency I can summon, to resist this urge with all of your power.

Trust me on this.

Dad

2 Comments » Posted by Hugh / @me

Hedviga Golik disappeared in 1966. She just vanished. Or did she? Turns out, she has been sitting , quite dead, in front of her television in her own living room for the last 42 years.  I swear, I could not make this stuff up.

2 Comments » Posted by Hugh / @aside

Great story in Wired about how fragile the tech underlying the web really is, and how we narrowly avoided disaster from hackers.

2 Comments » Posted by Hugh / @aside

They are doing a re-make of the musical movie Fame. Is this really something that needs to be done, or are they just out of new ideas?

No Comments » Posted by Hugh / @aside