Evangelical kids on State Street

There was some group conducting "faith surveys" on State Street yesterday. If that thinly veiled proselytizing wasn't enough, they actually used children who appeared to be ages 10-12 to conduct the "surveys." It was awful to hear their meek, quivering voices asking for participation and their furtive glances to see if their 14 year-old handlers were noting their efforts. I heard several of them complaining that they wanted to stop. I just wanted to buy all of them Popsicles and set them free. They were wearing "Future Leaders" shirts or something like that. It reminded me of the post below from JesusIsJustAlrightWithMe:

I’m EXTREMELY excited about this election. I’ve long since realized that the odds of any candidate from any party striking me as “good” are extremely slim. So all I look for in an election is comedy. Let’s face it, every election is hilarious. You have two A-hole millionaires pretending they give a shit about things they clearly don’t give a shit about, everyone lies, everyone criticizes their opponents for doing the same crap they did two weeks ago, and all of America gets up in arms about shit they don’t understand. In short, elections are hilarious. And this one will be more hilarious than most. Here are 10 reasons why:

1) There are three guys running that DON’T BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION! You can’t make this shit up! Grown men that wear suits to work and everything!

2) There is a 72 year old gynecologist from Texas that is approximately a libertarian that is running for the Republican ticket and he’s trying a crazy strategy: telling the truth. If you watched the 2nd debate and saw Rudi’s reaction to it, and then Sean Hannity’s response to it, and WOW. Classic shit. And then to top it off, this feisty tell-it-like-it-is OBGN won Hannity’s debate poll!!! And Hannity was salty as hell about it. I hope to see more of Ron Paul just for the response he gets from the Faux News Network.

3) There is a mor[m]on running. A grown man that believes the native Americans killed the lost tribe of Israel because a known con man red it on some gold tablets he found in the wood using a magic rock! But what’s super awesome about this is that as this crap progresses, all the other republicans, who believe that a magic dead guy rose from a grave and walked on water and who perform quasi-cannibalistic rituals every Sunday, are going to put his religion under a microscope. Which will provide ample opportunity for us to put everyone’s religion under a microscope. And what’s funnier than religious belief?

4) It is at least a possibility that Bloomberg is going to throw his hat in the ring. If election history has taught us anything, it’s that a third party candidate increases the humor ten-fold. Fifteen-fold if that candidate has billions of dollars.

5) There’s a Clinton running, which means that another Clinton will be running around. And that Clinton stuck a cigar in a chubby intern’s snatch. You can’t make this shit up!

6) Al Gore went out and got himself one of those “personalities” and is a viable candidate right now. And Al Gore once said he invented the internet, has won an Oscar, and lost an election to a retard.

7) A black guy may be running against one of several racists. Only funny things can come from that.

8) There is a strong possibility that the race will be a Senator from New York vs. the Mayor of New York vs. the former Mayor of New York. Shit, it’s even possible that the Governor of New York could run. Nothing’s funnier than confused New Yorker, right?

9) Dennis Kucinich (who, by the way has a pretty hot British hippie wife) will be there advocating the policies that sounded reasonable to me when I was like ten.

10) All these people, deep down, are exactly the same. And in like 6 months, they will all hate each other with the fire of a thousand suns and they will bring up every bit of dirt that exists about each other (and there is some good dirt down there. Remember all of the retarded ass stuff Tommy Thompson said when he was Governor? Imagine what we’ll here about all these other assholes!).

What's Fitchburg missing?

Though I only live four miles from the Capitol, Fitchburg can seem quite far from Madison sometimes. I'm glad that my neighbors are concerned about sprawl though and that in-fill development was a strong priority on the last city survey. I hope that additional green space is added along the way as the sections of the city that feature the bike path and chains of parks are not only beautiful, but very practical for getting around. After all, who wants to bike on Fish Hatchery Road? I also would like for permanent badminton and bocce courts (minimal equipment and upkeep needed, and fun for all ages), but I'll pick my battles.

A call for more independent ethnic restaurants was also high on the city survey. Apparently Fitchburg residents have one of the highest levels of disposable income in the state so you would think more restaurateurs would be drawn to the area. The Russian restaurant Arbat is an especially welcome addition. Apparently a Cordon Blue-trained chef will soon open a New Orleans/Creole restaurant near PD & Triverton Pike. I wish Curry in the Box would just focus on executing a few dishes very well. It could then expand the menu once the place had a critical mass of customers. What I would really like is a sushi restaurant with a bar (hear me Muramoto-san?). Like Eno Vino, but with an Asian theme. In the meantime, the tuna tataki at the Great Dane will have to suffice.

The density in my neighborhood is actually pretty good, so I spoke with the city administrator a few months ago about piloting public wi-fi; he said that it's something the city is looking into but it would probably be a little while yet.

Your thoughts?

Music you should know: Stars and Kelis

I'm surprised that the group Stars, a Canadian band, doesn't get much play. The songs When?, Elevator Love Letter and the cover of This Charming Man are great wake-up-and-get-your- day-going or driving songs.

Kelis' Like You is currently my favorite workout song.

The only photo most people have of the iPhone

Given that there is only one picture of the iPhone that most people are using/have access to, the picture I call "hand holding iPhone," one would think that Apple would have the sense to show hands of different races and women holding it, at least from time to time. I sent a message to Apple today suggesting just that. Isn't there something about technology that's supposed to be bringing us together? Perhaps that's why the unofficial iphonenewyork ad resonates so well. It will be interesting to see how the company localizes the advertising for foreign markets when the iPhone goes abroad this fall.

Update: Apple updated the iPhone landing page that shows the iPhone without any hand holding it - I'm not taking any credit for this though.

iPhone countdown: More announcements?

As can be seen on the iPhone landing page, there seems to be space open for several additional product features/attributes. Given yesterday's announcement regarding battery and screen improvements, there is a good chance more news will be coming from Cupertino by next Friday. Below are my thoughts on what those might be:

1. There hasn't been much mention of the camera since the January Stevenote. I think it's likely that Apple has incorporated a higher megapixel camera and/other camera features in the past few months.
2. The Bluetooth Headset also has had minimal exposure.
   
3. A universal remote feature that would allow the iPhone to interact with Front Row-equipped computers and other products such as Apple TV. I'd love to use it as a presentation remote in the classroom and to control my iMac at home. I don't think it will be long before Apple gets into the home automation space anyway.

Also, I would love for the phone to have OCR software that allows the user to take a picture of a business card and have the data automatically added to Address Book. The software exists for other PDAs already.