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Watching time, the only true currency // A journal from John B. Roberts

Year: 2003

  • Snow

    Tahoe delivered lots of snow. The boy enjoyed playing in the powder, and so did his parents. The girl couldn’t really tell the difference… yet. Northstar was family-friendly and worked well for us, despite two frustrating bottlenecks: their gondola at the bottom of the mountain and their shuttle buses around the resort. I remembered why…

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  • The real origin of the…

    The real origin of the word blog? While I know the real history of the word blog*, I’ve found a word that’s too refreshingly close, in meaning and spelling, to be a total cosmic coincidence: blague. On December 29**, in my Forgotten English calendar, the word of the day was blague, with one definition given…

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  • Time for snow

    The boy is excited for some snow, which we’ll drive to today. He’s seen, and played in, the snow before, but I hope the reality lives up to the anticipation this time, as he’s old enough to really experience it for himself this time.

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  • Bandwidth

    There is never enough bandwidth. I’ve used dial-up as recently as this summer, and I survived. But I can’t say I enjoyed the experience. Earlier today, I had a few interrupted iSight conversations with various family members in New York, and the connection did not hold up. DSL on my end (SBC, not SBC Yahoo,…

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  • Merry Christmas

    Presents are open and the boy is bouncing from present to present playing with each in turn. Amazingly focused on each one, actually. I remember that my younger brother, the youngest of six of us, would always be the last one opening his presents because he — unlike the rest of us — would play…

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  • Stocking is open

    The boy got up early this morning (what would you expect?), but I was able to get him to lie down for another 40 minutes before the fun began. He ripped through his stocking, noting quickly that Santa did indeed eat his three cookies and drink his milk (tasty!). Combination of stickers, trains, and two…

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  • Movie: The Lord of the…

    Just returned from a late-morning matinee showing of Return of the King, the third in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I enjoyed it, and the seige of Minas Tirith is the spectacle it was cracked up to be. The postscript, which in the book feels important, drags on a bit in the movie. I…

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  • Movie: The Last Samurai

    Over two weeks ago, I got out to The Last Samurai, with Tom Cruise as post-Civil War mercenary in rapidly industrializing Japan. I liked it. Only one truly regrettable cliche, where Cruise’s character lives through a suicidal charge that brings down all those around him, sparing him so that he can deliver the moral message…

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  • Favicons in NNW

    I’ve been using NetNewsWire for several months now. I just moved from v1.03 to v1.07, since I haven’t been sure I needed any of the steps in between. I can see that I should have moved earlier, for WebKit among other things, but the part that is the most fun, even though it’s a small…

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  • NYTimes special report on China

    Hope to find time to review this report on China at some point in the future. Only problem is that the link is in the graphic at top right, which my eye skipped over at first. Say it with me… text links work. Don’t depend on graphics only.

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