December 2003

I survived my all-night-of-packing and even managed to pick up the pace and get more than one box per hour packed. It looks like I may have most everything moved in time to go to Halley’s New Year for America House Party on December 30th. She’s hosting one of the hundreds of similiar house parties hosted by Howard Dean supporters around the country.

It’s too bad my webcam died. If it were alive I would turn it on so that anyone else hanging out at home tonight (who happens upon this website) could partake in the excitement that is slowmotionsoozpacking. I think I need to increase my packing speed. One box per hour is probably not going to cut it.

The last Christmas with Michael and his family.

The first Christmas without my mom who passed away suddenly in March a few weeks before her 56th birthday.

The first time packing and moving in five years.

The last weekend in this apartment.

The first page of a new chapter.

But it’s not the first and probably won’t be the last time I wait until the absolute very last moment to pack. Anyone who sees me online tonight is hereby encouraged to remind me to get back to work.

I’m belatedly posting Sushi Fest #6 photos (thanks in no small part to my upcoming move!). Osushi made a cool printed menu for us, too. I’ll try to get that scanned once I’m settled into my new place. We had two sets of tables with twenty people in attendance. I had never been to Osushi but it seemed like a cool place to try out. I was very impressed with the excellent selection and quality of the sushi and appetizers.

My Exploit Boston! website has been a neglected stepchild the past six weeks but I’m working on some updates this weekend to make it easier to keep up-to-date. First up: Exploit Boston! Radio. I added a bunch of new Boston rock / pop / alternative / indie tunes to the stream including new songs from Sparkola, Loveless, Wheat and Aaron Perino’s new band Dear Leader. The stream is hosted by Live365. To listen you just need to create a free Live365 account. I usually use their browser-based player but you can also tune in with an MP3 player such as Winamp or iTunes. Of course, they have a business to run, so there are ads for users with free accounts but you can also upgrade to a preferred membership account and pay a few dollars to remove the ads (and support an Internet company that has managed to stay alive over the years!). The “now playing” popup will let you know what’s currently playing plus the previous two songs.

Even IRC bots can have a weblog. [Via Gregor.]

MIT News 11/17/2003: “A replica of the Wright brother’s biplane “Flyer” was erected on top of the Great Dome at MIT by student hackers, in honor of the 100th anniversary of human, powered flight.”

The best part?

“The model will be dismantled Thursday morning by Barber and Cunha, the Institute’s hack evaluation and removal team, if the surface is dry and the weather is calm.”

Also: The MIT Gallery of Hacks

Jewelboxing is the brainchild of Coudal Partners, a Chicago design firm. For $49 you get a jewel box kit to package twenty CDs/DVDs including the plastic cases, paper inserts and labels. And of course they have a weblog called “Start Me Up” chronically Jewelboxing’s startup biz adventures. They’re also beta testing PayPal’s new system which lets customers make a credit card purchase without creating/using a PayPal account.

Why Jewelboxing?
We are professional designers who were unsatisfied with cheap-looking jewel cases and we looked everywhere for materials that will put the best face on our presentations. We selected Super Jewel Boxes™ based on quality and design. There are a million places to buy jewel cases but this is the only place you can buy the Jewelboxing System, which pairs the best materials with easy-to-use, professional, software-specific templates. Nothing else compares to it. The Jewelboxing System is simple and affordable for designers and other creative people.

How about a CD Swap?

Oooh! The 4096 Color Wheel is a very useful web tool that includes three columns for the web-safe, web-smart and “unsafe” versions of one of the 4,096 colors you select. [Via What's New at Digital Web Magazine.]