Rumor has it I can now compose with HTML. Let's make a test...
So I'm trying cork'd, the new web-based wine-tracker. It's a keen idea, and looks very nice. You enter information about the wines you own, and about the wines you try, and that information is shared with the cork'd community. You can add "drinking buddies" — Rich has already joined me, and maybe Jeremy will someday. (If you want to join, let me know, and I'll e-mail you so that we automatically buddy up.)
But the thing is, cork'd is frustrating to use. It feels like an application where the designers were able to get it to work for them and the way they work with this information, but failed to test it in the real-world. (I'm not saying that this is what occurred; it just feels that way.) It's also an application that's prettier than it is functional. (It's very pretty.)
Here are some specific things that bug me about cork'd. (And this list comes after only entering half a dozen bottles!)
The idea is that this is a social wine site. That is, after one person has entered the data for a particular bottle of wine, anyone else can use that information without having to re-enter it themselves. For example, here's a bottle of two-buck chuck. If you go down to Trader Joe's and pick up a case of this, you don't have to enter the data because it's already in the system.
But what if you find the wine you want and the information is incorrect? That is, what if you find this entry for the exact same bottle of two-buck chuck. What do you do? Well, you probably try to create one of your own. So right away, there's one problem: with a system like that, you're likely to have multiple instances of the same bottle of wine.
So should the designers limit the information that people can enter? That presents problems, too. Speaking from my own experience, here's a bottle of Willamette Valley Vineyards 2003 Pinot Noir that I'd like to add to my wine cellar. The information is basically correct, except for two things:
So what should I do? Create a new entry for this wine? That seems like a poor choice. But I don't want to use the info as-is, either. It's a stalemate, which basically means I don't enter the wine at all, and I write a weblog entry complaining about the website.
There are other problems, too, such as:
Don't get me wrong. I like cork'd and think it's a fun idea. I'm hoping that several friends will join and we can have quite the drinking party. But in its current form, it feels very much like a piece of software in beta.
I like the idea of Cork'd but it still feels very beta to me...
What's the last thing you usually do or think about before you fall asleep?
Because I am an overweight middle-aged man, I have quite the nightly ritual. I would love to read in bed before dozing off, but Kris puts the kibosh on that. (Or tries to.)
Before falling asleep, I set my alarm. I take between 1mg and 3mg of melatonin. I put in a pair of soft foam earplugs. If it's high summer, I don a sleep mask so the light won't bother me in the morning. And then -- then I strap on my C-PAP mask.
I wouldn't have to do any of this crap if I would just lose some weight.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've become quite conditioned over the past 15 months of C-PAP use. As soon as that mask is on and I'm getting good air pressure, I fall asleep. If only I slept well. My current mask fits poorly, and my sleep is fitful.
I have the power to change this situation; I just need to exercise it.
What was the last game you played?
I've played about twenty minutes of World of Warcraft over the past week, but with a friend's account. I'm a big WoW junkie during the falls and winters, but it seems just a little early to be starting. Maybe a month from now. I love building a character from 1st to 40th. In fact, I've never gone beyond level 40, because I just start new characters. It's a hell of a lot of fun. The world is immersive. (To such a degree that I sometimes have dreams about WoW locations. Or, while we were vacationing in California last month, I kept coming upon vistas and thinking, "This looks like such-and-such in WoW.")
But, really, I haven't played games of any sort in months!
I can't use <b>freakin'</b> HTML <i>tags</i> in my <a href="http://www.foldedspace.org/weblog/">posts</a>!
Blogathon 2006 is currently underway. Come visit me at Get Rich Slowly, where I am raising money for First Book, a charity that provides books to needy children. Sponsor me!
]]>What was your favorite candy when you were a kid? How does that compare to now?
My favorite candy? Pop Rocks? Lemonheads? Redhots?
When I was a boy, growing up in the seventies, there was an old-fashioned variety store in our small town. They had a lot of fabric and sewing material, and they had a lot of candy. I mean a lot of candy. They had a vast collection of what I now recognize as "antique" candy -- big pieces of taffy, etc. -- and a large glass counter of custom-made candy, sort of like the Brachs stuff you see nowadays. They had basebal cards and (eventually) Star Wars cards. They had Bottle Caps and Hot Tamales. I was a candy junkie, and I loved this store.
Nowadays I'm still a candy junkie. My belly proves it. Hot Tamales are still a favorite, but my top choice is Red Vines (and not those goddamn Twizzlers).
Mmm. Cocktails. Sometimes I worry that I'm becoming something of a lush. There's nothing better on a hot summer day than a Gin Fizz. In fact, I just finished one!
Here's how I make my Gin Fizz: I put two tablespoons of lemon juice and two tablespoons of lime juice into a cocktail shaker. (I actually use pre-frozen cubes of juice. If you don't do this, you'll need to add a couple of real ice-cubes to the shaker.) I add one tablespoon of superfine sugar. (You could add a tablespoon of simple syrup.) Finally, I add three ounces of gin. Shake vigorously. Pour this mixture over ice and add a few ounces of club soda. Yum. It's like seven-up. With a kick. Delicious.
By the end of the year, I want to write a book. I want to write a personal finance book that's accessible to the average person, one that's not bogged down in gimmicks, one that isn't trying to sell anything, one that doesn't belabor points. Just simple, straightforward, honest personal finance advice gleaned from the information I've accumulated.
On our trip to San Francisco next month, I hope to develop an outline for a book proposal. I hope to complete the book proposal by the end of September. And I hope to write the book during the final three months of the year. Can I do this and maintain three blogs? (Wait: four blogs -- I forgot this one.) Time will tell.
My favorite Muppet? Kermit, of course. It ain't easy being green.
Kermit is smart. He's sensible. He keeps a cool head in the midst of craziness. He has a great sense of humor. He's self-depricating. He's organized. He's talented. And he's a frog.
I guess I love him mostly because he's the first Muppet I remember knowing. I can remember watching Sesame Street in the early seventies. I always hated Big Bird. I liked Oscar okay, and Ernie, but was sort of non-plussed by everyone else besides Kermit. I loved Kermit. And when the Muppet Show came along, I was hooked!
I can remember when my father took me to see The Muppet Movie. I loved it. I made him take me a couple more times that year that I was seven. (Remember: films played much longer then. There were no VCRs, so it wasn't unheard of for a film to stick around in theaters for months, or even a year.)
And don't forget my collection of Sesame Street Video Clips at my main site. Still very popular!
What did I do this weekend?
I biked into Portland.
Wow.
Portland is known as one of the top U.S. bicycling towns. I knew that. I see the cyclists all over the city. For a time in the late nineties I was even a cyclist myself (albeit in Canby, about half an hour south of the city). But I'd never actually bicycled in Portland until today.
Yesterday I got our bikes out of the garage and primed them for action. We've been in this house -- about eight miles south of Porland — for two years now, and we haven't biked once. That's a shame. Today, seizing the beautiful day, I set off for a joyride. "I'm going to go check to see if there's an easy way into Milwaukie," I told Kris. Milwaukie is the city just north of us, about five minutes away by car.
I rode down River Road, cut over on Bluebird, and then cut north on 19th. There the road dead-ends into a bike path behind the Kellogg Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility. The path winds behind the plant, and then up onto 99E in downtown Milwaukie.
"That was quick," I thought. "I wonder how long it takes to get from here to Sellwood." Answer: not long. Underneath the Sellwood Bridge, I stumbled upon the Springwater Corridor, a paved multiuse trail that runs past Oaks Park and along the Oaks Bottom Slough, on the banks of the Willamette River. I followed the path into Portland, through the Central Eastside industrial area, past OMSI, to the Hawthorne Bridge.
There I filled up on water, turned around, and rode home.
Wow.
Why haven't I done this before? Even as a Fat Boy, this was a great ride. Families were out in force, riding together on the path. Everyone seemed to be respectful of the rules, and the traffic flow was easy. (In vast contrast to the Canby Bike Path, which I hated to ride: nobody had any respect for anyone else, often walking four abreast to take up the entire path and then refusing to yield to oncoming cyclists.)
Best of all was the natural world. I saw a great blue heron swooping low over the slough, his vast wings swooshing and swooshing and swooshing. High above the trees along 13th I saw an enormous eagle or hawk -- beautiful white underside with golden wings. It was carrying a limb in its talons, carrying it out to an electrical tower on the river where it appeared to be building a nest. I saw two swallowtail butterflies dancing together, stationary in midair.
It was a great rise, although my tender muscles are now sore.
I'll have to do this again next week. (Wanna go for a ride, Matt?)