Friday, March 31, 2006

Street Signs: No Pee Zone

I've been meaning to do a series like this for a long time...

I think the iconography in signs is fascinating. As I travel, I run into signs that try to communicate something in iconic form -- something that will make sense to everyone regardless of the language you speak. Sometimes they are quite successful, other times they can be interpreted in a number of interesting ways. As a new feature on Duffergeek, I will be posting some of the pictures I run across and, when appropriate, trying to decipher their intention.

This time, it is pretty obvious.


Street Signs: No Pee Zone

I was in Amsterdam a couple of years ago and saw this sign. I only saw one in the entire city but it seemed to work because I had to walk a whole block away to find a guy actually peeing on the wall.

So I'm pretty sure this sign means you're not supposed to pee here but it could have some other meanings...
1) Don't drop stones
2) Stand up straight when peeing (no swayback urination)
3) No peeing on ants

Other thoughts on what this could mean?

On the plane back from Tokyo

I'm returning from Tokyo this morning. It's a long flight on what ends up being a 41 hour day. As we near North America the sun starts to come up for the second time today and I'm thinking "Here comes Friday again..."

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Golf at the Plateau

It's been a long time since I last actually posted about a round of golf. Nutty given that the duffer part is about golf but here I go again. Paul and I played a round at the Plateau Club today and just to mix it up we played from the white tees. At nearly 900 yards shorter than the golds where we usually play it was a pretty big change and, for me, it actaully made the Plat fun again.

It wasn't about trying to hit heroic shot after heroic shot at this insanely unforgiving course. It was about playing with all of the clubs in the bag and just focusing on excuting makeable shots. Oh sure, I had some crappy ones. Like on 11 - a long par 5 - where hitting my driver went through the main part of the fairway and into the junk that I've never contemplated hitting before. Oops - next time I wouldn't start with that. Or just thinning the approach shot into the crap on 9. But each shot was within my capabilities even with only playing once in the past 5 months and I was able to come away with an 86. Not my greatest score there, and less impressive that it was from the whites, but it was actually a lot of fun to play. The high point was hitting the greens on all four of the par 3 holes and walking away with four pars.

I'm doubt I'll play from the white tees each time I play there but we should for a while, and it will certainly make the game much more fun. Heh - golf... fun... how likely is that??

Sunday, March 05, 2006

It Must be Springtime

Cuz I'm eating a Thin Mint.

Ben Folds - Still Rockin' the Suburbs

Hillel and I saw Ben Folds tonight at the Paramount in Seattle. I've probably seen Ben Folds (including Ben Folds Five) about 8 or 9 times and tonight's show was one of the best. He was with a band again and while the solo piano thing is cool, his songs are just better with bass and drums.

Tonight was opening night of his new tour and his new band was really good. The vocals in particular were amazingly tight. While the bass didn't have the "blur my vision on Narcolepsy" effect like in the final BFF show we saw, it was still really good and the bass player looks something like Cal from the movie the 40-Year-Old Virgin.

Ben Folds Five songs, solo songs, newer songs, audience sing-along, oh and a rousing rendition of Dr Dre's B*****s Ain't S**t - or at least that's what iTunes Music Store calls the song.

Great show!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

C'est la même meme

Well, I got tagged by Skippy to provide a meme post -- an 8x4 list of all about me :)

Four Jobs I’ve Had in My Life:
1. Software Engineer
2. Recording Engineer
3. Guitar Player
4. Roofer
then there was that time I painted air conditioners for the summer...

Four Movies I Could (and I do) Watch Over and Over:
1. Star Wars
2. Twister - Really? Yep...
3. The Philadephia Story
4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Zey belong here, more zan we

Four Places I’ve Lived:
1. Dayton, OH
2. Ann Arbor, MI
3. Concord, MA
4. Sammamish, WA
I left out that whole California thing...

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. 24 - just started watching this season
2. The West Wing - Yeah, it has gone downhill but I still love the dialog when it is sharp
3. The Daily Show / The Colbert Report - OK, it's two shows, but I watch them as one
4. My Name Is Earl

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:
1. Cape Cod, MA - for my honeymoon <3
2. Rome, Italy
3. Cairo, Egypt
4. Disney Theme Parks - more times than I can remember

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Excite - still my home page. How 90s!
2. Thottbot - when I'm WoW'ing
3. MyFamily.com - keeping up with the family
4. MSN - my homepage for machines that I haven't changed to excite.
Geez. I need to read more blogs.

Four of My Favorite Foods:
1. Cheese - Oh I just love cheese. Really I do.
2. Curry - A good Massaman, or something with Major Grey's Chutney
3. Sushi - The Lauren roll at Nishino in particular but others are great as well
4. Leslie's Thai peanut noodles. - YUM!

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. Sitting on the beach in Cape Cod
2. Golfing at Pebble Beach
3. Taking pictures in Europe
4. Skiing at Whistler (sans the falling at Whistler)

Four Tags to Continue this Meme:
Time to pass it on!
1. Leslie - Go Go Meme Master!
2. Katie - Time to update your blog
3. David - Where are you going to put something that isn't with photos?
4. Rick It is ON