Ken vs. the City

New York sucks if you have no money.

I went running yesterday morning from Newkirk Avenue to the Prospect Park station on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. It’s a little over two miles. If I run this route, I usually take the train back, but not yesterday.

I got to the station, ready for a nice air-conditioned ride back, and swiped my metro card. “Insufficient Fare” Great, my card expired during the night. Of course I didn’t have my wallet with me, so I had no money to buy a new one.

I didn’t want to be one of those card-swipe beggars, so I had to walk/jog back the way I had come. I was prepared for a two-mile run, but not a four-mile.

Fortunately I had a few hours before I had to go to work. It took me almost twice as long to hobble back, even with a shortcut through the park.

I certainly felt well-exercised afterwards, but now I know that if you find yourself out and about, and you suddenly have no money and no cell phone, New York can be a real pain.

Adam Savage of Discovery Channel fame names seven technology annoyances, such as proprietary rechargable battery packs, incompatible connectors and promotional junk on new computers.

The American Presidency Project has the text of every State of the Union address given since George Washington. It's interesting to see how the language used by Presidents has changed, which ones get right down to business, and which appeal to God.

Today I wish I were a robot.

I just discovered that woman I’ve really liked for about a year, and who I had finally gathered up the courage to ask on a date, has started seeing someone else.

You snooze you lose, sucker.

I’m always afraid of letting people, especially women, how I feel. I know that we fellas are supposed to grab the bull by the horns, so to speak, and express undying affections obviously and openly. However, in my experience, women respond to that kind of openness in two ways: They brush me off as sweet, but irrelevant acquaintance, or they refuse to return my phone calls and give me funny looks.

So if I jump into the fire right away, I get burned. But if, as in this instance, I exercise caution and bide my time, I get burned as well. Ladies, please understand that everything on this end hurts.

Robots never have to worry about fire, or emotions, or the opinions of others. Unlike us human beings who have been given galaxy-spanning freedom and responsibility, robots only need to follow three simple rules:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

If God had made me a robot, I wouldn’t worry about women. I would have no heart in my chest, just a positronic brain behind resolute steel. No love for anything, just programming.

I don’t want to be a robot tomorrow or three weeks from now, but today I wish I could just do the things I’m supposed to do and not feel anything.

One Packer fan nearly had his four tickets to Sunday's championship game between the Packers and the Giants shredded into tiny bits. Luckily a quick-eyed friend was able to save three. The Packers will honor the fourth, whose bits are in a blastic bag.

An inside tale about the anti-piracy company's long struggle against media pirates. Conde Nast Portfolio interviews black-hat hacker "Ethan" who cracked the company's system and published internal emails detailing its technical and social tactics.

The Commons is a new project to put the library's huge photographic collection online. Add your own descriptions and tags. The depression-era color photos are great. Best of all, I believe they're in the public domain, so you can use 'em if you want.

Mediabistro's FishbowlLA blog published a photo of the aged sci fi writer (one of my favorites) picketing FOX.

I bought the Scrivener writing software for Mac a while ago. It's got a lot of neat features, but I've found that I still have trouble operating a plain old piece of paper.

A french man shows the technical glass-forming skills you need to build electronics Edison-style.