The Madfunk8 Playing Tonite…
May 16th, 2008
links for 2008-05-16
May 16th, 2008
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This is fantastic, a mash up of Obama and 23 Things along with being a comic - hoorah!
Campaign Comedy…
May 15th, 2008
From our friends at Coudal.com:
What She Means
Campaign Logic
By Steve Delahoyde
We realize that it’s sometimes difficult for the common man to understand the goings-ons in the political landscape. So in the interest of education, we sought to strip down the messages of the Hillary Clinton campaign into short parables, just like how the Bible does it. Thanks very much to Schadenfreude for volunteering to help spread this important political information.
NYTimes Social Network Article…
May 13th, 2008
The article is interesting but some of the comments after the article are more interesting. Here’s a snippet from NYTimes.com:
Steering Between Unsocial Networks and Social Spam
It will be the social event of the season.
My second daughter is the social one.
I worked so hard on this startup, I have no social life.
Let’s check our common-sense understanding of the word social. It’s mostly about people talking to each other. Sometimes it’s about dancing, bowling or doing other stuff with people.
This gets lost in the meaning-destroying repetition of the word by a bunch of Internet companies. Over the last week, I’ve now listened to conference calls with MySpace, Facebook and Google about three different systems meant to extend social networking to sites all over the Internet.
But these companies have a particularly lonely vision of sociability. None of them let users actually talk to each other yet.
Tremont Rezoning Passes…
May 13th, 2008
The crowd at last night’s Upper Arlington City Council meeting was at capacity due to the discussion surrounding the rezoning of two single family home rental units on Tremont Rd. The rezoning will allow for an office building to go up which will help diversify Upper Arlington’s tax base. The evening was interesting and resulted in the vote I was hoping for, 5-2 in approval of the rezoning.
Upper Arlington continues to suffer from a catch-22 syndrome where residents want a more diverse tax base, want better community services and want Upper Arlington to remain a successful community - but they don’t want to pay the small prices necessary for that. In this case 3 resident’s backyards will adjoin this commercial property. These property owners won’t actually have to look at the building thanks to landscaping.
Due to a desire to appease the neighbors the developer has also redesigned the building as a single story office instead of two story. I believe the denser, two story building at the street made more sense but I appreciate the attempt to concede this to promote peace. The building itself is surrounded on its other two sides by office complexes and a main thru-way, Tremont Rd. Click here to see my original post with graphics.
Obviously I believe that UA needs to move forward and that, against the protestation of this vocal minority, this redevelopment does make sense in the context of both the Master Plan and the UDO. These residents have already scheduled a meeting to try a referendum against the rezoning. That is the next step in this process; and I think this is the most important part to consider. This rezoning is a process, set forth in law, and it has been followed by the city as it should be. The primary driver for support against this rezoning has been the idea that because this is happening on Tremont it can happen ANYWHERE. This sort of scare tactic really isn’t conducive to building community, only to playing on divisions within the community and helping to erode the ties that bind us together. If this group of residents really feels this could happen anywhere then they should be working with the city to change the rezoning laws instead of arguing against the rezoning of these two properties which clearly make sense to rezone.
Upper Arlington has lost a significant percentage of its population and city services are being removed because of tax issues. We need to look towards the future, towards sustainable investment and towards innovation. Let’s stop arguing for the status quo, which leads towards ruin, and instead work together to take advantage of our community’s opportunities while they are still presenting themselves.
links for 2008-05-12
May 12th, 2008
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This is hilarious. “the N Times” - “Trickery” - “Must find w” Boy if this is some sort of crazy prophesy I feel terrible for the Russians.
Eventful Weekend…
May 11th, 2008
Here’s a summary of the weekend events so far - and it’s only Sunday morning so there’s still more to come! Friday after work I came across an interesting chair next to a dumpster in Pearl Alley. I thought it might be a Saarinen because I couldn’t remember exactly what the Executive chair looked like; either way though I thought after a re-upholstery job it would make a nice chair so on the bicycle rack it went. This is the second chair to grace the back of my bicycle although this one was definitely more of a challenge.
This chair is very well made, solid wood frame construction. The upholstery on it is hideous but also in terrible condition, no matter as I’ll put something different on it. I’m thinking perhaps a slightly deeper brown finish with a neutral red or a lime green fabric. Either way it’ll have to wait until I’ve got my workshop setup so for the time being it is sitting next to my last shell chair acquisition that also needs refinished. Bringing home a fiberglass shell chair is comparatively easy on a bicycle thanks to the substantial weight difference. I was honestly worried about bending my frame or wheel carrying home this newest chair. I’ll take some better fotos of it because I could use some help identifying the chair’s designer.
Saturday was the Ohioana Book Festival at the State Library. Normally I try to avoid my place of work on the weekends but this was a worthy exception. Jeff (urbaninfill) and I met up there to learn more about copyright law and publishing but also found that Harvey Pekar was in attendance and would be speaking at the end of the day. I sent Tina a message and she brought Sophie down along with my copy of Harvey Pekar’s History of the SDS which is an interesting read. Harvey was nice enough to let us have a photo and sign my book. His talk was very enjoyable and I ran into my friend Miles and his roommate as well. There was an attendee who was asking Harvey all sorts of questions about who Harvey is - the questioner obviously had never heard of Harvey Pekar or American Splendor and it made me wonder why you wouldn’t just listen instead of taking up the author’s time asking such basic questions.
Tina and I (although mostly Tina) got a chance to get some more yard work done in the afternoon and Sophie and I were able to do some playing which is always fun (right now she’s fetching plastic easter eggs for me which is also fun). In the evening I had the opportunity to visit with a friend and make a few new friends at his Martini Party (I enjoyed some Grape Soda myself). As for today I’d like to wish my Mom, Grandma’s, Sister, Mother-in-Law and especially my Wife a Happy Mother’s Day!
