BlogOfBenglert

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Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:52 -0400

Last night was the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday...

Mon, 28 May 2012 12:50:05 -0400

Last night was the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday party. It was one of the best fireworks shows I’ve ever seen, largely because it used an iconic landmark as a stage and a prop.

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Mon, 28 May 2012 00:35:07 -0400

autostream: What’d you say about diesel?

Sat, 26 May 2012 13:22:23 -0400

autostream:

What’d you say about diesel?

Audi vs. Toyota at Le Mans this year - my heritage vs. my...

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:51:54 -0400

Audi vs. Toyota at Le Mans this year - my heritage vs. my childhood, which do I choose?

And they’re both hybrids?? Totally insane.

Congrats, Zuck.

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:30:51 -0400

“I wonder how thick the stack of pre nup papers are.”

“I seriously doubt there was a pre-nup. California would shred through it anyway.”

“During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Army anti-aircraft...

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:39:06 -0400

“During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Army anti-aircraft rockets sit, mounted on launchers and pointed out over the Florida Straits in Key West, Florida, on October 27, 1962.”

Surreal. Click through for more pictures from 50 years ago.

“Turns out the state of Delaware doesn’t allow leading slashes in corporation...

Sun, 13 May 2012 03:25:50 -0400

“Turns out the state of Delaware doesn’t allow leading slashes in corporation names”

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Sat, 12 May 2012 13:43:17 -0400

Wow, even BMW uses dubstep now? Sad.

Fri, 11 May 2012 17:04:49 -0400

Wow, even BMW uses dubstep now? Sad.

New music

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:58:29 -0400

I just looked through my library to see what music I’ve added to it this calendar year. From that list, I’ve put together some favorites which you should check out.

Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street - Jon Hassell

Smooth, bizarre, atmospheric electro-jazz. Halfway between Alva Noto and Miles Davis.

Shinrin EP - Archie Pelago

I found these guys through a writeup on their crazy live setup (which I would love to see in action some time), and as it turns out their EP is a free download. Really interesting layering of electronic and acoustic, much more rhythmic and driven than the above but still definitely jazz-inspired.

If… - Tidelands

Being back in the Bay Area I’ve had a chance to attend more Karmacoda shows, and I snagged this CD after I saw Tidelands open for them a few months ago. Tidelands is just a drummer and a guitarist/keyboard player. Both sing and both use a lot of loops on stage to create an incredible, thick texture. Listening to the album is a mellower experience because you can’t see how hard they’re actually working, but very worthwhile still.

Showroom of Compassion - Cake

Not sure if Cake albums are actually getting more bitter and sarcastic, or I’m just getting older. Either way, they’ve messed with a working formula just enough to keep things interesting, and the lyrics are fresh as always.

Le Voyage Dans La Lune - Air

The extended “album version” of Air’s new soundtrack for the freshly restored and remastered color print of Meliés’ film by the same name. Not as good as Pocket Symphony, but a marked improvement over Love 2. Hard to say if it’s good audiophile material because I haven’t heard it on a nice system yet.

Daylight Savings - Goh Nakamura

Bought on iTunes on a whim after seeing the man himself in the movie Surrogate Valentine. The sequel to the film, also called Daylight Savings, came out soon after, and I took my mom to the premiere at Kabuki Sundance Cinemas in SF. Goh and his silver Honda Element (practically its own character in the movies) were both present in person. Nice easygoing local singer-songwriter music.

"You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 18:22:49 -0400

“You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

- President Barack Obama

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Sun, 06 May 2012 19:36:49 -0400

"I am sick and tired of the experience/possession paradigm that infects all consumer happiness..."

Thu, 03 May 2012 13:10:58 -0400

“

I am sick and tired of the experience/possession paradigm that infects all consumer happiness research. Yes, all the evidence so far supports it. But, all the research so far has been looking for ways to support the paradigm.

I don’t buy experiences, and I don’t buy possessions. I buy camping gear, musical instruments and other experiential possessions.

”

- WalterSear on Hacker News

I’ve been prattling on for years about buying possessions that create or support experiences. Never thought to term them as such.

youlikeairplanestoo: 1 of 4 great shots of Space Shuttle...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:35:23 -0400

youlikeairplanestoo:

1 of 4 great shots of Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) as she flew atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft over New York City today (04/27/12). Photo by r0sss.
Full version here.

Off into the sunset. Good night.

Still, a boy can dream…

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:13:47 -0400

Still, a boy can dream…

About that list of goals

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:07:00 -0400

I finally feel like it’s well formed enough in my head that I can start typing it out without falling into musing about how mutable and unpredictably inadequate just having goals can be by itself.

I will include already achieved goals as well to give some sense of progress.

✓ Own and use the heck out of a factory-new, fully loaded Power Mac bought with my own money (since the creation of this goal they renamed it Mac Pro but same thing, essentially)

✓ Work for the very same fruit company in some (non-retail) capacity and know secret things that would send citizens of certain rumor sites into a frothing fanboy frenzy

_ Own my dream car (those of you who read this blog regularly or god forbid actually talk to me are sick of hearing its name, so I won’t mention again)

_ Get a job that allows 2-3 days/wk of working remotely and/or requires occasional travel (Have realized that commuting 5 days/wk to the same desk in the same building makes me absolutely nutso. Even as it fades further into the past I’m increasingly certain that Kalexo, since acquired by Autodesk, was the best job I ever had - “work where you want, when you want”.)

_ Create a low-maintenance source of passive income - don’t particularly care whether it’s stock dividends, interest on savings (if rates ever recover), or some stupid simple addictive app game thing that everyone with an iToy/Mac buys from their friendly local App Store for a dollar or two. Or maybe a recurring licensing fee on some patent or other piece of intellectual property…

_ Re-learn how to play the piano

_ Re-learn how to sing

_ Learn how to fly an airplane - I’d love to get up to twin-engine instrument rating and then own or timeshare an aircraft.

_ Live overseas for a couple of years (probably Europe though I am fond of sunny coasts/islands the world over)

I am somewhat embarrassed by how first-world many of these sound, but as long as I graciously acknowledge and appreciate the privilege of even being in the position to think about this stuff, I sleep just fine. If you are looking for some musings on the many misconceptions about privilege, I will direct you here. And it’s highly unlikely that I will make it through more than 1/3 of these, but it’s nice to have them all written out anyway.

I used to think of things in terms of my one, five, and ten year plans. These days it’s getting harder to prioritize and sequence things such that they fall neatly and evenly into a few arbitrary timeframes. So I’m running less of a “pull” model (where I make specific things happen at specific times according to my master plan) nowadays than a “push” model, where I stay very attuned to my present set of circumstances and opportunities and “strike while the iron is hot” when a favorable situation presents itself.

All this to say, I don’t know whether or when I’ll get to do any of these, but here they are.

"For the first eight years of our marriage, [Michelle and I] were paying more in student loans than..."

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:30:17 -0400

“For the first eight years of our marriage, [Michelle and I] were paying more in student loans than what we were paying for our mortgage. So we know what this is about.

And we were lucky to land good jobs with a steady income. But we only finished paying off our student loans—check this out, all right, I’m the President of the United States—we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago.”

- President Obama in North Carolina today on why Congress has to act to prevent interest rates on student loans from doubling (via barackobama)

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Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:14:28 -0400

youlikeairplanestoo: Can you tell which of these Orbiter...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:36:26 -0400

youlikeairplanestoo:

Can you tell which of these Orbiter Vehicles spent 365 days in space?

Space Shuttles Enterprise, left, and Discovery meet nose-to-nose during the a transfer ceremony at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Thursday, April 19, 2012, in Chantilly, Va. Space shuttle Discovery, the first orbiter retired from NASA’s shuttle fleet, completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles will take the place of Enterprise at the center to commemorate past achievements in space and to educate and inspire future generations of explorers at the center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)
Full version here.