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I’ve been remiss in fixing the Power Maps for the Bangor Hydro site update (no town names were being displayed). I’m happy to announce that I’ve gotten off my lazy backside and have updated both the Desktop (euicho.com/powermap) and Widescreen TV (euicho.com/powermonitor) versions. Thanks for your patience!
It may seem strange that I haven’t posted anything about our son Gabriel on here since his birth! The reason is that all those updates/posts are being made to a private group on Posterous. I wanted the majority of Gabe’s information to remain private until he’s old enough to decide for himself what he wants online. That said, it’s nearly impossible to stop people posting photos of him on Facebook, and he’s so handsome that I love showing him off too, so you can find photos of him both on Facebook (Amme’s and mine) and my flickr account. If you’re a friend of mine and aren’t part of the Posterous group page but would like to be, please email me! I’m trying to post updates regularly there about our beautiful little boy’s progress.
Flickr user airosche5's EDC
Many people (especially us geeks and outdoors/survival enthusiasts) hate to go anywhere unprepared. Most of us, whether we use the term or not, have what is called an Everyday carry (EDC). To paraphrase Wikipedia, an Everyday carry is a collection of small items carried on one’s person on a daily basis for use in everyday tasks from the mundane to the unexpected. These range from a minimalist but indispensable key-chain, to pouches/packs brimming with gear. Most items in an EDC get used daily/weekly, and others are more for survival situations with occasional mundane uses, e.g. a compact lighter, which a non-smoker might only use in a survival situation, but could also use to seal off the end of his fraying nylon shoelace one day. As one astute author said, “If you’ve ever asked Can I borrow a pen?, Do you have the time?, Do you have a flashlight?, Can I borrow your pocketknife?, May I have a light?, then you need an everyday carry.”
Note: To get an idea of what an EDC looks like, and the incredible variety there is, you should scroll down the fantastic everyday-carry.com real quick and then jump back. There you can see user-submitted EDC photos.
People have carried daily use gadgets/items for waaay longer than the phrase has been around–my uncle Nyrath, for example, has the most excellent hip pouches that used to fascinate me for hours–but I like the widespread adoption of this common term because it facilitates discussions and searches on the internet.
I’d like to share my own everyday carry in this post, then share some resources where you can drool over other people’s EDC (if you’re a gadget geek) or just pick up a handy item or two for your regular-old key-chain.
I should note that most of my everyday carry centers around my key-chain, so a lot of this is specific to it.
The problem with first getting into EDC, or even just buying some tools for your key-chain (led light, bottle opener, pocket multi-tool), is that it’s very easy to load your pockets or key-chain up with all sorts of awesome items to the point that it becomes unmanageable, a pain to carry, or make you look like you’re smuggling doorknobs in your trouser pocket. Indeed this first step is almost a given unless you are very careful from the start about what you want the end-result of your EDC to look like. Sacrifices for bulk and weight vs. usefulness must almost always be made.
I hate having a bulky key-chain and yet I too went through this overdoing-it phase. I used to have the normal wad of keys on a standard split-ring and a carabiner, but disliked the feel of all that weight in my pocket, and hated sounding like a reindeer with them hanging off my belt-loop. Having decided to fix that once an for all, I relentlessly paired my key-chain down to just 4 keys and a remote-starter, and I loved it. Alas, it didn’t last long. Not long after the great key-purge I ran across some photos of really lust-worthy tools and gadgets on other EDC enthusiasts’ key-chains. I caught the bug, and started delving into the everyday carry community. Shortly thereafter, despite having just minimized my keys, my key-chain was loaded with all kinds of useful but heavy and redundant stuff, and it was once again an unwieldy behemoth.
Luckily, my second revision proved much more light and elegant. I found some tools that did the same job of two or three of the previous ones, and experimented with many carrying methods (split rings, carabiners, specialty key-chains/fobs). After a few tweaks here and there I now have my ideal EDC*. I should note that while many people spend hundreds on their EDC items, mine probably cost about $50 over the course of a few years (not counting my phone and designer knife) and almost half of that was in the form of christmas gifts. So fear not–you could easily spend only $15 and still have an indispensable ECD.
So, wanna see what my everyday carry looks like? Here’s an annotated picture, descriptions follow:
My Everyday carry
Update: New photo and consolidated keyring!
I still need a compact lighter. My Zippo is a little big since I don’t smoke, and so don’t need it very often. I’ll probably get something akin to the County Comm Peanut lighter.
I should note some EDC communities have a disproportionate percentage of members with firearms. This could be part of an action-hero complex, but then again perhaps they’re a LEO, guard, etc. At any rate, if you’re licensed to carry a firearm, I’m not going to challenge your constitutional right. More power to you, as long as you’re safe and responsible.
I hope I’ve piqued you’re interest in peparedness and every day carry. You don’t have to use theterm if you’re self concious, but you should still carry some basic items with you. This is very doable for women who carry purses, and many already have most of the basic EDC items. I think everyone should have an everyday carry. It’s not about having the coolest or most expensive gadgets, it’s about being prepared, and not having to ask someone “hey, do you have a…”
* Your everyday carry wont stay the same indefinitely. New better and/or cooler gadgets are always being created, or just coming down in price. For example: how long have you had the same cell phone?
I happened to mention to Winch that (a) I was reading the EDC site and (b) I had finally “scored”, after many years of trying, one of the Atwood Knives multi-use tools and he sent me to this posting. Interesting to see! Have you submitted it to EDC?
nice edc! submit too at http://airc.abzdcorp.com
its great to post your carry to the net!
thanks for sharing!
This morning, while browsing Amazon.com, I was annoyed (not for the first time) that Amazon didn’t have a link to add a book to your Shelfari.com shelf. Amazon has owned Shelfari.com for almost 3 years now, and every shelfari book page has links to but the book on Amazon.com, so this isn’t an unreasonable request.
My first thought was to search userscripts.org to see if there was already a script to do this and sure enough, there was. This is the way these things go. Luckily for me, it was broken and had been abandoned 4 years ago, so I got to do some coding!
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niiiiiiice
Thanks, it’s very helpful! :-)
You’re very welcome Dapeng!
Nice one! I had one little problem with it though. Inserting in before #prodImage can render the shelfari link unusable sometimes (try it here http://www.amazon.com/59-Seconds-Little-Change-Borzoi/dp/B0057DCE7M/?tag=codihorr-20 )
I modified my script to insert the shelfari link before #btAsinTitle
Thanks for the bug find/fix Andrei! I’ve updated the script to include it (and gave you props in the @description).
There’s a good article at LibraryThing about ebooks, ownership rights, and priracy. The article tries to cover a bit too much at once, but it did make me think about the effect of ebook piracy and how to combat it. While the author makes a good point with the figures from the music industry, you must keep in mind that music is very different from books in that whether you get music from a CD or digital, it is always consumed the same–listened to with headphones or speakers. Books on the other hand, until the last 20 or so years, were always read from paper. E-paper has reduced the differences between printed and electronic words, but reading, holding, and displaying paper books is still vastly different from doing so on an e-reader. I think these differences are important to increasing printed and electronic book sales.
Perhaps I’m oversimplifying, but I think one way to combat this downward spiral is to put much more emphasis on the value and worth that physical books have over ebooks. Sure one can build a digital library of thousands of books, and have them all accessible on one’s kindle, but where is thematerial beauty of that? The individuality of trade paperbacks and hardcovers? The beautiful rows of shelves lined with dusty tomes? That is what needs to be emphasized when battling ebook piracy.
The other aspect to battling piracy is to keep ebook prices low enough that someone who does prefer ebooks will buy rather than steal. This encourages would-be piraters to buy, and still makes money by encouraging ebook sales. Dropping the price also sends the message that ebooks have less value than their print counterparts, so ebooks are less likely to overtake printed books.
What is your take on all this? I’d love feedback!
I have to agree with the physical book thing. As much as I love using the kindle app to read, you really can’t beat holding a physical book in your hand. Also, you brought up another interesting point about ebooks. Sure, you can own thousands of ebooks, and ebooks are much easier to amass than physical books, but really is it humanly possible to READ all of those books in ones lifetime.
In essence, I feel there is a cultural thing at play here. We can all imagine in our minds that rich person (think Jay Gatsby) that just owns lots of books that never are read. eBooks allow us to amass a wealth of books, however, no knowledge is gained in owning these books if they are not read. I think the type that may steal books by the hundreds if not thousands is the same type that would only want you to think that they are smart, literate, and well-read.
I digress. I agree that, while I hope ebooks never go away, the need for the physical printed word is far greater, and I would mourn the lose of it long before I would mourn the loss of the ebook. Therefore, if for no other reason than to keep the faux-literates at bay, ebook piracy should, and must be, fought using the written word as you have suggested.
Excellent points Doody, thanks for the in-depth comment!
Our son Gabriel will be here in just over 4 weeks! We’re so excited… and also nervous. I think we’ve prepared all we can, but I can’t help wanting to do more.
Matt, Jesse, and I have been planning our trip to PAX East this year. I’m really excited for it, but it’s going to be hard leaving Amme and Gabriel at home. I wish they could come.
Amme is making sushi tonight. I made some yummy ramen but I may have to steal a piece!
Jesse and I have been playing a lot of minecraft again. We started a new map to try out the latest biome features. We haven’t made any mega-structures yet but I think we will after we save up enough resources and think of something really good.
With the start of a new year I’ve decided to update my theme yet again. This isn’t surprising to my old dorm buddy and close friend Jesse, who would leave our room for class and come home to it completely rearranged–roughly twice a month.
I’m in an “ease of use”/”minimalism with a splash of color” sort of mood, especially with a flood of baby updates, photos, and videos on the way, which leads me to our current theme: P2. This is a wordpress theme I’ve admired, and had installed but not enabled, for quite a while.
I’m hoping it pushes the content to the forefront, and that it’s ease of posting will mean I update it more frequently (a constant battle for me).
The absolute best way to start newyears day: DBZ and breakfast in bed.
I’m a huge fan of how the site looks on a mobile device. Nice job!
Thanks Paul! That was a big “must” for me, with my little iAddiction and all, heh.
woot i dig the new theme
One thing I especially like is that if I’m logged in, I can post right from the front page, without going to the admin section or /wp-admin. It copies a lot from tumblr, but in a good way.
Also a huge fan of the new layout, but you know my feelings of minimalism and web design so my bias may be showing a bit. Probably should cover that up.
Breakfast in bed? You should teach Jesse that trick! I also like to rearrange things but Jesse doesn’t fuss to much. I guess you broke him in for me :)
This Sunday we had some last-minute Xmas shopping to do. We went to Bagel Central for a delicious lunch, then to Burlington Coat Factory where I wanted to get a jacket I’d seen on sale. They didn’t have it but we ended up finding one I liked even better. Doody probably felt a twinge of jealousy for seemingly no reason as I bought it (he’s sort of an addict when it comes to jackets).
After that we went on an epic “winter boots” quest for Amme. It is almost impossible to find decent-looking, affordable winter boots for women (sure L.L. Bean has fantastic boots, but out of our price range). All the boots we found were either too expensive, or weren’t really made for trudging through snow and slush (there were plenty of useless, very fashionable ones ). We finally managed to find some at Target, and Amme managed to talk them into giving her 20% off because they had some scuff marks on the uppers.
We braved the mall to get some presents and pretzels at the newly re-opened pretzel shop. Amme had been super bummed when they closed down last winter because she loves the little pretzel bites. I decided to forgo the caramel macchiato I usually get in the mall, then regretted it later. If you want a seriously amazing caramel macchiato that puts Starbucks to shame, get it at the Bangor Mall—I’m not even kidding.
We stopped at the grocery store before heading home, and I made steak, blanched broccoli, and Welsh Rarebit for supper. All in all, it was a tiring but very nice little Sunday.
Woot, I just realized I got a mention here. No jealousy at all, I will enjoy the fresh smell and feel of the new jacket along with you. Because yeah, I loves me them jackets.
I don’t usually post youtube videos, since that could be an entire blog on it’s own. For that reason I don’t spend much time on youtube in general–I have enough time-sinks as it is. Still, sometimes I come across a video that completely blows my mind. This is one of those videos:
Coolest dog EVER.
All humans have a unique genotype. Your genotype is your genetic makeup, combined from your mother’s and father’s alleles (genes). Your genotype determines what traits you have, called phenotypes. You probably know that things like attached earlobes, freckles, and a widows peak are due to our genotype, but you may have other observable traits you aren’t even aware of.
My favorite trait, and the one I’m quite thankful to have, is what’s know as the photic sneeze reflex. Sometimes called the Peroutka Sneeze Gene or even ACHOO syndrome (how droll), this reflex causes one to sneeze when exposed to bright light. I had always assumed everyone had this ability, but scientists estimate it affects 18 to 35 percent of the population. Try it out: the next time you need to sneeze but are not quite there, look out the window at the sun or at a light-bulb and if it pushes you over the edge then you have the phenotype! The photic sneeze reflex has intrigued great thinkers as far back as Aristotle. We still don’t know which gene is responsible for it, but we do know only one copy is needed, and it isn’t on either the X nor Y chromosome. How it works is still unexplained by science, but many experts now agree that crossed wires in the brain are the cause.
Here’s one you may have tested back in high school biology: The gene that detects the odor of cyanide. Do you remember your teacher passing around a vial and asking if you could detect a sweet almond smell? That’s what cyanide smells like to around 20 to 40 percent of the population. Studies have also found that men are less likely to smell cyanide than woman. About 18%-20% of men are not able to smell cyanide at all, whereas only 5%-10% of woman cannot. The rest of the population is able to detect the smell in significant quantities, but only 40% can smell it in trace amounts.
Quick, clasp your hands together! Now look down at your thumbs. Most people place their left thumb on top of their right one. Try clasping your hands so that the opposite thumb is on top and you’ll notice it doesn’t feel quite right. As random as it may seem, hand clasping with the left thumb on top is a dominant phenotype.
Do you have caveman fingers? Some people have hair on the second (middle) joint of one or more of their fingers. If you have hair on any of these middle joints then you posses the dominant phenotype. I was just kidding about the caveman thing–it doesn’t mean you’re less evolved, the absence of this hair is just based on a recessive allele.
Speaking of digits, next time you’re barefoot or in sandals, look at your second toe. If it’s longer than your big toe you have what is called morton’s toe (or sometimes “Greek foot”). Although this is a dominant genetic trait, it’s part of the genotype of only 10% of the world’s population (and can be a real hassle when sizing Five Fingers)!
There are many other common and observable phenotypes, but these are some of my favorites. To learn more about genetics check out Wikipedia’s series on the subject (be sure to scroll down to Related information at the very bottom).
Sources:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-bright-light-cau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex
http://www.helium.com/items/1532959-human-genetic-traits-with-complete-dominance?page=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton%27s_toe
“Sneeze” by wise.adam
“Green Poison” by ohsoabnormal
“sparkle Toes” by Robert S. Donovan
“Gravestone Sculpture 2″ by fallingribbons
“tiiiiiiiiiny camera, maaaassif lens” by Abulic Monkey
Jesse and I have been playing the still-in-alpha sandbox/building game Minecraft lately. Minecraft is incredibly addictive. I love it because it’s a bootstrapping game. By that I mean you start with the bare basics (your fists and some trees) and from them create something that can then be used to create something better, which in turn can be used to create something still better, etc. It’s like the three-age system compressed down into a survival/building game. The other part of it that’s addicting is that you’re free to build almost anything you can imagine, and I’ve seen some amazing creations.
UPDATE: Our latest creation (Jesse, B, and I).
Jesse and I have been dedicating all of our spare time to it, and recently got Matty B. doing the same. We both started playing single player but after a while wanted some company, so we took the logical step–multiplayer. There’s a major problem with multiplayer in Minecraft however, besides alpha software bugs, and that problem is griefers. Griefers are A-hole sociopaths that derive pleasure from harassing other players, or in the case of Minecraft, demolishing other players’ painstakingly build creations on public servers. We tried creating a cool cave underground and hiding the entrance, but that eventually got discovered, and really who wants to live in fear of someone ruining their hours of work? We decided to just start our own server and prevent anyone else from editing on it except people we know and trust. If you’re someone I know well and want to use our server you’re very welcome, the map is infinitely big (okay, not mathematically so, but it’s as good as) so as long as you don’t harm our creations and agree with our rules, we love the company. I’ll just have to give you build permissions, and you’ll need the full Alpha (paid) version of the game since we run an alpha server.
Something funny happened on Reddit 3 days ago. In this posttalks about how, since Gabe from Penny Arcade has recently started playing Minecraft, we’ll soon see a comic about it. Also, the comments mention that this isn’t good because the influx of new users will surely take down the Minecraft web server.
Lo and behold, the next day we indeed get a Minecraft comic (he’s going to make a huge wang, isn’t he?), and shortly thereafter, the server died:
This is a temporary page.
Minecraft got way too popular for this humble server. I’ve had to disable everything fancy to even get it to run. It went down on Saturday, September 18.
It will probably go back to normal on Monday, September 20.
I’m glad Minecraft is getting so popular, and I don’t mind the downtime, since it means the game will only get much better due to having more players/revenue. It really is a fantastic game, and the retro graphics give it a great nostalgic vibe. If you want better graphics, check out the painterly pack.
If you want to know more about game-play in Minecraft, go here and scroll down to the bottom to “Day 1″. It’s hilarious and gives you a great insight into what the game is like. Also, Minecraft is currently free to play while the server is being updated (it’s up now so you can download, but he’s working on improving it), so go give it a try!
I’ve announced elsewhere, but I’d like to officially announce on my blog that Amme and I have a baby on the way! Can you believe it? It still blows my mind. Amme looks great (so adorable) and is over her nausea, which only bad for a couple of weeks (which was fortunate). We don’t know if it will be a boy or a girl yet, but he/she will be born around February 9th. We still have so much to do, but there is so much else going on right now that we haven’t had any time to prepare.
I just started a new job for the State of Maine Office of Information Technology (OIT). I’m working out of Augusta, which is a decent commute for me, but even after gas I’m making much better money, and the experience so far has been great. I’m just finishing my second week here. The people are really great and there’s no shortage of things to do. I’m working out of a huge office building (1.3 miles circumference), and the state has numerous departments located here. Every day I’m learning how to find my way to a new office and meeting new people there.
As the title suggests, we also have just moved–I told you we were busy! When it rains, it pours, and our lease was up so even though we had lots of other things going on we had to decide whether to stay another year or find a better place. Our old apartment was great but there were lots of little things that were wearing on us, things that can’t really be fixed by maintenance, so we decided to look for greener pastures. We checked out many places but finally found a place, and a landlord, that seem to be a perfect fit. We’re about 15 minutes from our old place, and have most amenities within walking/bicycling distance. There is slightly more square footage and it’s much better distributed. Also, the windows are huge! There is light flooding every part of the house (I love that). If you want our new address just drop me an email.
The cats adjusted quite well, except theres one closet that causes Riley to start whining pitifully whenever he goes in to explore it. I’m not sure if the things in there smell like the old place and confuse him, or if he’s sensing a poltergeist-like portal to another dimension just behind the shoe rack. Bruski, as always, took the move in stride and didn’t seem to mind in the least.
That’s about all the news we have for now, so digest, digest!
ghost ghost ghost closet!
I dunno what his problem is but he is really weirded out by that closet.
Where is the new place?
We took the one you saw us look at. S’nice.
Nice! That was a really cool place–loved the living room. We got a place in Hampden, about 10 minutes south of downtown Bangor. You guys settling in to the new place okay?
Today USA had a match with Algeria that would determine whether they stayed in the FIFA World Cup or not. I’m not usually a big sports person, but I played soccer for a good part of my childhood and it’s probably my favorite team sport, shortly followed by curling (don’t judge… either know curling is awesome, or else you’ve never watched a full match). The reason I’m blogging about this match is that it was one of the most immensely frustrating yet ultimately rewarding matches I’ve seen in a long time. I’ll spare you the play by play, and cut to the meat of it.
Twenty minutes into the first half, USA player Clint Dempsey scored a goal that was nullified because the refs called him for being offside, however instant replay shows it was valid. Over the next 70 minutes, neither side scored a goal, although there were some close calls and the tension was incredible. After the 90 minutes of the match were up, play was extended for stoppage time (time lost during substitutions, injuries, etc). One minute into stoppage time, Landon Donovan took a shot, was blocked, and on the rebound slammed it into the net. The stadium went apeshit, and the game was over. After being robbed a goal, and for the rest of the match feeling like all hope was lost, that one point felt like breathing for the first time.
Go Team USA.
Next USA match is against Ghana tomorrow (25th). If my math is right, it’s at 2:30pm EDT (8:30pm South Africa Time).
The fireflies impacting my windshield are tragically beautiful. Their last earthly moments given to showing me how magical they had been before I snuffed that beauty out.
Very nice. And too true.
Okay, I can’t get this out of my head. According to WNYC Radiolab (the best podcast in the universe–Listen to Lucy and tell me I’m wrong), the thing to do is make you suffer too:
Big-whoop-wanna-fight-about-it?
I know it’s not as fancy as the old one, but I think it’s a much nicer reading/viewing experience (less clutter and fluff, more information density). Lemme know what you think.
FYI: I still need to reimplement mouse gestures. I’ll let you know when they’re back.
Wow, I’m sure I cannot do PAX East justice. This was the first PAX East (as opposed to the original PAX from Seattle, now called PAX Prime) and it was pretty much the greatest thing in the history of gaming and conventions and geekery (and fun).
Since I can barely remember the whole blur of a weekend, I’ll rely on photographs to tell most of the story, with some highlights thrown in along the way. If you’re on a mobile device, take heed; this will be bandwidth intensive.
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I started using Baking Soda shampoo late last year and it’s been going fantastic, so I thought I’d share my experiences.
I’m not exactly sure why I first decided to look up baking soda shampoo, but I think it had to do with the fact that my head gets so oily. I shave my head down to about a half centimeter and I hate exposing my scalp to soaps/shampoos filled with chemicals. I know there are great natural hand-made soaps (Amme uses local handmade soap) but I remembered reading somewhere that you could make your own baking soda shampoo and liked the idea. A quick search online revealed two things: 1. My mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, lots of people make and use it. And 2. It’s dead simple to make!
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B is discussing. 
Matt are discussing. 
Kristin, 
Andrew, and 
B are discussing. 
B 5:13 pm on 8/2/2011 Permalink
Woot!