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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
three pounds of spices acquired
http://oneredspeaker.com/2010/01/07/three-pounds-of-spices-acquired/
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January 8 2010, 2:35am
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
i married christian and stephanie
http://oneredspeaker.com/2010/01/03/i-married-christian-and-stephanie/
This year, we kicked off our New Year’s Eve celebration with a wedding.
Meet Stephanie. We’ve been the best of friends for sixteen years. For the last few years, she’s been working in Stockholm, Sweden, where she met Christian, her now-husband. They’d been engaged for awhile, and we were all making plans to go to Stockholm in June for the wedding. Well, a few months ago, Steph applied for a job in New York. One month ago, she received a great offer with a summer start date. All of a sudden, it became imperative that her and Christian get married so he could move here with her and start looking for work. They’d already planned to come to New York to celebrate the New Year, so they asked if we’d come to the city clerk’s office with them when they get married. Rather than go the courthouse, I offered to get ordained and become an officiant so there could be a real wedding. Anit offered to host it in his apartment. That’s all it took to get the train moving.
Pooja did an amazing job preparing Anit’s apartment. I couldn’t believe it when I walked in. She bought flowers, lit candles, put up beautiful arrangements of lighted tree branches, and prepared delicious food. It was so elegant and so perfect for a wedding. As for my part, I spent a good chunk of my time in Alabama making notes on scraps of paper until I had everything I wanted to say. The day before the wedding I edited the notes down to the final ceremony on my computer. At the last minute, realizing that I couldn’t perform the ceremony off the screen, I hurriedly transcribed it into my notebook. Officiating Stephanie’s wedding was an absolute honor. I’m really proud of the final product. Steph was on the verge of tears, but she didn’t cry, and her parents loved it. I’d say that’s a win. Here’s the ceremony straight out of my notebook. You can click each image to view it full-size. Congratulations, Steph and Christian! I love you both so much!
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January 4 2010, 4:03am
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
pooja straightened my hair. emo anoop is sad.
http://oneredspeaker.com/2010/01/02/pooja-straightened-my-hair-emo-anoop-is-sad/
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January 3 2010, 12:36am
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
good morning, tennessee
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/12/29/good-morning-tennessee/
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December 29 2009, 12:34pm
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
ketchup and mustard
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/12/28/ketchup-and-mustard/
The Sears Portrait Studio was everything I had hoped for. Click the image for the high-res version. It’s worth it.
I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s start with the look on my face. Exercising all my willpower, that’s the best I could do at not cracking up. Even before the shutter was released, I knew exactly how epically awesome it was going to be. Let’s review the facts:
We’re at the Sears Portrait Studio. I am thirty-one years old. My brother is twenty. Our clothes were picked for us from my dad’s wardrobe. These shirts are entirely too large for us. Especially for me. We are non-ironically wearing inverted shirt/tie colors.
The end result is legendary. Look at our faces! And the colors! And the bunching around our shoulders! So amazing. Seriously, we look like we’re straight out of a Bollywood version of Dick in a Box. Of course, our mother absolutely adores it. The things we do for her. Love you, Mom!
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December 29 2009, 4:57am
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
and of course I don’t have appropriate shoes. note the too short cuffed pant legs. so awesome.
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December 28 2009, 10:29pm
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
sears portrait studio
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/12/28/sears-portrait-studio/
So after getting home, my parents informed us that for the first time in over a decade, we’re going to have a family portrait taken. Of course, it didn’t occur to them to tell me and my brother this before we’d packed. All we brought down were hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans. “No problem,” says my dad. He’s got plenty of clothes that should fit us.
Shiny yellow twill oxford a couple sizes too big? Check. Heavily pleated gray wool pants also too big? Check. Abstract red and gold tie? Check. This is going to be awesome. Addendum: They gave my brother a shiny red shirt with a yellow tie. This is going to be seriously awesome.
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December 28 2009, 10:10pm
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
what’s mine is mine
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/12/27/whats-mine-is-mine/
Some of you may have noticed my test activity here on one red speaker and Twitter. Sorry about the noise. I’ve been posting more pictures from my iPhone to Twitter that I had expected. Tweetie just makes it too easy to push to their built-in image services. Here’s a screenshot of my last upload:
You can click on the screenshot to see it full-size. My succulent ribs are sharing the screen with some T&A courtesy of Hot Clips and a list of top Yfrog users including The Jonas Brothers. Gross. So, I looked at the the other image services that Tweetie offers, and it was more of the same. The last option, though, is a custom image service. You can give it any URL, and as long as it mimics the TwitPic API, you’re good to go. I whipped up a PHP script that does the following:
Accepts the image upload from Tweetie Uploads the image to one red speaker’s media library Creates a new post titled with the tweet and containing just the image Gets the permalink for the post Shortens the permalink with bit.ly
Tweetie gets back the shortened URL and appends it to the tweet just as it does with every other service. The only downside I see is that you don’t get the preview thumbnail that you get with the built-in services when viewing it within Tweetie. The benefits, however, are awesome: I get to control the presentation of my content, andone red speaker gets a few more posts. Let me know if you’re interested in the script. I’ll clean it up and push it to Github. Now I’m wondering if I should run my own URL shortener…
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December 27 2009, 10:43pm
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
the silence of the bricks
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/12/21/the-silence-of-the-bricks/
“The details are not the details. They make the design”-Charles Eames Right now, the details are driving me crazy. I have one exposed brick wall in my apartment. A 66″ portion of is raised one brick’s width from the rest of the wall. I’ve fastened 2×4s to the sides of the brick on either side of the raised portion as part of a picture hanging situation that I’ve been dreaming up in my head since I moved in. I learned a few things. First, the brick wall is not level. In fact, in a room with no right angles, what does level even mean? I decided to just let the bricks define level. Second, the brick wall is not flat. The wood is definitely bowed out in places and rotated out in others.
One of the holes I drilled isn’t exactly centered and the wood pulls away from the wall a few millimeters more than I would like. Even worse, the top is fine. The bottom is the issue.
Next I need to put nails into the wood. I figured I’d used the bricks as a guide and put a nail in at the midpoint of every other brick. Lo and behold, the spacing of the bricks is not at all consistent. I can choose between having equidistantly spaced nails looking a bit off center relative to the bricks next to them or nails that line up with the bricks but are not equidistant. It’s at this point that the madness sets in. The wooden overhang taunts me. I can hear my name echoing in the bowed out gaps. The bricks themselves are screaming at me.
I know I should ignore them. I know when it’s all said and done, eyes will be drawn to the photographs, and this framing will disappear. If anything I should embrace the imperfections. I really should not give it any thought. But seriously, how can I not?
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December 22 2009, 12:24am
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
costco post-mortem
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/11/07/costco-post-mortem/
I love Costco. Costco is one of my top three favorite corporations (along with Southwest Airlines and American Express). I’ve lived in New York for six months now, but it wasn’t until today that I made it out to one of the local Costco stores. I went to the one in Queens, and it was awesome. It’s funny. No matter what’s on my list, I always end up spending the same amount plus or minus twenty dollars. Today was no different. I bought sixty bottles of beer, a case of organic chocolate milk, two and a half pounds of lobster bisque, a take and bake sausage and mushroom pizza, six pounds of edamame, ten toothbrushes, two bottles of ibuprofen, two bottles of face lotion / sunscreen, a four pound leg of lamb, four pairs of wool socks, eight boxes of contact lenses, seven pounds of chicken tenderloins, a handle of vodka, a bottle of Maker’s Mark, five seven dollar bottles of wine, and fifteen bars of soap. As always, I had my questionable purchase and my splurge. The questionable purchase was three pounds of Kirkland Signature Meatball Bakes described as “Hand-rolled crust stuffed with Kirkland Signature Italian-style meatballs, shredded cheese, and a tangy sweet red sauce.” I’m concerned about the sauce being described as “red” rather than tomato or marinara. My splurge was four pounds of USDA Prime New York strip steaks at $13/pound. Given that Prime generally sells for over $30/pound, though, I’m pretty thrilled. Here’s my fridge. You’re looking at beer, eggs, prepackaged soup, leftover black beans, chocolate milk, beef, and a lot of hot sauces. I know. I’m working on it.
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November 8 2009, 1:37am
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
blocks that time forgot
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/10/12/blocks-that-time-forgot/
Reason I love walking in New York #37: If you stand at the right spot, look up at the right angle, and wear the right set of blinders, you’ll see a block that hasn’t changed in decades.
You just can’t turn around… behind me is a gigantic fluorescently lit parking lot and advertisements for Charles Schwab and Calvin Klein painted on the sides of buildings.
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October 12 2009, 12:27pm
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I posted to oneredspeaker.com
perfect day over brooklyn
http://oneredspeaker.com/2009/10/08/perfect-day-over-brooklyn/
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October 8 2009, 12:30pm