Ken vs. the City

I’ve always had a passing interest in language. Learning a second language is something I never really got around to doing. At least I can pretend to be smart by listening to ChinesePod.

Direct from Shanghai, they put out more episodes each week than any podcast I have so far listened to. There are two hosts, an Irish man, and a Chinese woman. They both have a sense of humor, so the show isn’t dry like some I’ve heard. Each episode is a different skill level, from beginner to advanced, and features both instruction and conversation. Even the advanced lessons are interesting to listen to. I have no idea what they’re saying, but it sounds Chinese to me, so it’s all good. I can sometimes pick up little phrases I recognize.

The podcast is free, as all podcasts should be. There’s a corresponding wiki with tips and information. The site has some payed features, like lesson transcripts, a grammar guide, and exercises, if you’re willing to fork over a little green.

The Chronicles of Narnia Rap video from the folks at SNL doesn’t quite describe the experience I had going to see the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but it’s so close, it’s scary.

“The Chronic — WHAT? –cles of Narnia”

Here’s a new web site that lists residential properties for sale in New York City. You can also read what other people are saying about the different buildings. They even have a nifty Google Map interface you can use to browse around the city.

Obviously, if I had a million bucks to buy property, I’d find something like this extremely useful. Too bad they don’t list rentals. As it is, I pass the link on to those in internet land that are looking to buy.

I hear Street Easy will be expanding to cover more cities (isn’t New York big enough?). It looks slick, and it’s an interesting site to just peruse around. Not many users yet, it seems, but once people start signing up, it should be a good source for info on different neighborhoods.

Now that I know a little more about CSS, I decided to improve the template I use for this blog, and make it a little more efficient. It should work fine in Firefox, but I had to use a workaround to get it to work in Internet Explorer. The header, with its 4-column layout is the problem.

I’m getting a little bored with the colors, so I may make some changes in the weeks to come. I still haven’t figured out how to post HTML code in a blog post without Blogger trying to read it. Once I do, though, I’ll be sure to post a generic version of this template so you can use it on your own blog.

The list of Recent Articles is a RSS feed from del.icio.us, displaying my links tagged with “kensarticles.” I’ve been running it through FeedDigest to display it on the site, but I just found out that del.icio.us has their own little Javascript thingamajig that lets you display a list of links on a web site. I want to switch over some time soon, since FeedDigest seems to be a little overloaded sometimes and run slow. Now that del.icio.us has been bought by Yahoo!, I feel a little more confident that the service won’t just crash and die someday.

My friend Dan Texidor, who’s serving aboard a Mercy Ship off the coast of Africa, encountered a little trouble earlier this month in Liberia.

“…our land rover duet encountered a road block, forcing us to take an alternative and unfamiliar route. It was our first indication that something might be wrong. We drove for an hour through noisy crowds and traffic. The roads kept turning, and we had to turn around numerous times. Finally it hit me. We (or at least I) didn’t really know where we were, or how to get back to the ship!”

Luckily, things in that country seem to be calming down.

There’s something abouth Christmas that changes me somehow. No matter how hard-hearted and selfish I’ve been, how many lame Christmas gifts, or how long it’s been since I cracked open a Bible, or prayed for anyone, God reaches down into me at the very last moment and brings to light the very meaning of Christmas. Not that sanitary “be good to people and give them things” mentality that seems to be the message of nearly all Christmas movies these days, but that overarching epiphany that encompases the scope of my entire life, and that envelops all of human history simultaneously.

It’s the epiphany of the birth of Christ, at once the savior of the world, and the one sign, the only sign, that God gave to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loves me. At once I see his birth, his life, and his death wrapped up in one neat little package, tied with a bow of pain, sorrow, and hope that set me free from the dark-hearted nature that I have inherited.

I have been very callous with people lately, and it took a couple of blows of good holiday cheer to soften my heart up a bit. It took a good sledgehammer’s worth to even get my attention, as I suddenly realized that all the things that annoy me about Christmas only annoyed me because they were things that I desperately needed to hear.

Whenever I mention podcasts in a non-internet setting, I inevitably find myself having to explain exactly what podcasts are, in light of its unfortunately non-descriptive and somewhat misleading monkier. “Podcast” sounds more complicated than it is, and you don’t need an iPod.

Short answer: A podcast is like a radio program, except you download each episode off of the internet.

Detailed answer: A podcast is an audio (or video) program, usually created by folks like you and me, where each episode is posted on the internet (usually in mp3 format) and distributed by RSS. Programs that can read those RSS files (AKA “podcatchers”) can download each new show automatically for you as it becomes available. Afterwards you can listen to the episode on your computer, mp3 player (hence the “pod” name), or where ever else you decide to move the file to.

Things you need to listen to a podcasts:

• a computer (If you’re not going anywhere, just listen to it on this)
• a connection to the internet

Things you don’t need to listen to a podcast:

• iPod (an mp3 file can be transferred to any mp3 player, or burned onto a CD)
• a “podcatcher” program (you can download most shows manually by going to the releated web site)

Where to find podcasts:

• Yahoo! Podcasts
• iTunes
• Odeo
• Podcast Alley
• AOL Podcasts

This is an old Usenet text file I found many years ago that classifies every single space drive system in science fiction. It was written by Geoffrey A. Landis, a physicist at the NASA Lewis Research Center. Even though it’s old, it’s still an interesting read, and a useful source of ideas.

I am a river: a winding deluge
that wanders through rocks and over mountains.

I travel through pastures and foreign lands
reaching outward towards the sea.

My fingers entwine the Earth, bringing life to the desert and quenching the thirst
of the undying bitter ends.

My ways are raging, forever slow.
I chisel at rocks and mountains,

carving out ditches made of milleniums, exposing the layers of humankind
for what they’re worth.

Can you tame me with a dam, or block my passages for long
with mere steel and concrete?

I will give you power for a time, but on a whim,
I will break free again.

Free from the turbines and spillways
I will surge over trees, and under caves,

turning the peaceful places white with adamantium foam.
I will erode the very foundations of the Earth.

Your home will plunge into the depths as surely
as the rough and chaotic surfaces of the rocks

will be made smooth and ordered.
And as the last translucent waves of glass

cover your face,
you will hear as a nuclear hum

the naiads singing, “oh, death where is thy sting?”
For there in the depths of my heart

you will not die.
You will be embraced by my arms as a lover.

And there you shall flow forever onward with me,
all the way from the tops of the mountains into the bottomless depths of the sea.

Workers still don’t have a contract, but the 3-day strike is over. Everything should be up and running by tomorrow morning.