August 2003

The list of places in Boston I haven’t been to since moving to the area from Nebraska in 1994 is embarassingly long. Today I took one of those items off my list: the Mapparium! It’s a three-story stained glass globe of the world that you can walk through (on a glass bridge) located in the Mary Baker Eddy Library near Berklee School of Music and a short walk from Newbury Street. Yes, it’s a Christian Science thing but once you get past that you’ll discover that it’s actually pretty damn cool. Amazing acoustics, too! Unfortunately they don’t allow photography inside the Mapparium but they’ve got great photos on the website and of course the obligatory magnets in the gift shop.

Next up: art museums. This is the really sad part of my list. I haven’t been to any of the art museums in Boston yet.

Late last night Michael and I realized we were out of two important things: toothpaste and contact lens solution. Most everything in Arlington closes by 10pm so we hopped in the car and drove to the CVS in Porter Square. Who knew it would be such a happening place at 1:45am? We were fourth in line. The woman who was second in line told the clerk that she had an emergency and needed to pay for the children’s cough medicine she was holding in her hand. But the guy in front of her was trying to redeem a coupon for a drug test kit and the clerk was having problems with it. Becoming more and more impatient the woman took the bottle out of the box and left the empty box on the counter with a twenty dollar bill. Apparently this didn’t really phase the security guard standing nearby. Two more clerks finally came up to the front to help out. So while the clerk in line one was still trying to figure out the drug test coupon situation, the customer in line three was buying a gallon of bleach and the woman who walked out with the cough medicine came back in to pay for it.

I guess this is the sort of excitement we usually miss out on. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Michael’s BunkoSquad.com website turns five years old this week so he invited everyone to join him on Tuesday, August 12th for a party. Festivities begin at 9pm at Grafton Street Pub & Grille in Harvard Square located at 1230 Massachusetts Avenue.

See you there!

Oooh! D. C. Denison reports in yesterday’s Boston Globe that the city of Somerville is considering setting up an urban hot zone in Davis Square to provide free wi-fi to customers of participating businesses and three parks. The cost to merchants is expected to be approximately $30 per month with no charge to the city for access in the parks.

This is a great idea conceived by Wi-Fi activist Michael Oh of Tech Superpowers (who first setup the NewburyOpen.net hot zone prototype along Newbury Street) and Patrick J. McCormick, the chief information officer for the City of Somerville.

[by way of Wi-Fi Networking News]

Lorissa was a big help with the design of my Free Agent Boston project’s website. I’ve been hosting a lunch for freelancers in the Boston area since December of 1999. I’m working on doing more with the project so it seemed like a good idea to set it up with its own website beyond sooz.com where it called home for the first few years. I’m going through West Civ’s CSS Level 2 self-paced course this weekend. I highly recommend it!

This morning a few people joined me for free wi-fi and brunch at Panera Bread in my neighborhood of Arlington Heights. It would be fun to make that a monthly gathering.

I finally finished a roll of film that had been sitting in my camera for eight months.

To the oodles of people who have been visiting sooz.com lately via search engines looking for flashmob info: visit Brad Searle’s and Shannon Okey’s websites. They attended the Boston flashmob (I wasn’t able to make it) and have a lot of photos, commentary and good summaries on the topic.

To the oodles of people who have been visiting sooz.com lately via search engines looking for Free Shakespeare on the Common info: go! There are only a few more performances of Macbeth through Sunday. Go! It’s outstanding.

I planned to post photos from the day trip around Massachusetts and Rhode Island that Michael and I took last weekend. Unfortunately the photos didn’t turn out so well. But all is not lost because Michael wrote an excellent summary of our adventures on his little website that turns five years old in a few days.

My digital camera is terminally sick so I’m once again making the effort to use my old manual SLR camera. I finally got around to finishing the roll of film that’s been in the camera since December. This is a photo I took in the used department at the Harvard Book Store where Michael works. Click on the image to see a larger photograph.

I attended my first Howard Dean in 2004 Meetup in Cambridge a few hours ago organized by the local Mass for Dean volunteer group. The particular Meetup I RSVP’d for was supposed to be held at TT The Bear’s in Central Square but it moved to Upstairs at the Middle East at the last minute. The Middle East crew was very accomodating and the room worked out very well. When I went to get another soda, I noticed that the bartender had placed a note written on napkins on top of the bar that read “Thank you for tipping.” I asked him if that was a hint for the group and he nodded. I think future Meetups would benefit by having a tip jar that is either passed around or placed in a prominent place. It’s important to take care of the people working at the venues — especially if the space was donated.

The project for the night at Dean Meetups around the country was a letter writing campaign to 40,000 undecided voters in New Hampshire. I was really impressed with the way it was organized. Everyone received a little letter writing kit-of-sorts that had a small leaflet with two names/addresses and instructions, nice quality stationary and matching envelope, two stamps and a business card with the Dean website and wireless alert information. I don’t remember the last time I wrote one letter, let alone two. Especially by hand. Several people around me mentioned that their hands hurt from having to use a pen instead of a computer keyboard. Hopefully the people I wrote to will be able to read the letter I wrote despite my sloppy handwriting.

As trite as this may sound, it really felt like I was part of something tonight. Something that in a few years I can look back on and remember that I participated in a campaign that really mattered. Besides, I don’t want to share my birthday with another George Bush inauguration.

As an added bonus at the Meetup, Brad Searles gave me a music tip: go see British Sea Power at TT The Bear’s on Sunday night. I listened to an MP3 on the band’s website and they sound great. Looks like there’s something to do Sunday night!