Saturday, October 27, 2007

Words that are easy to spell on your phone



When you're spelling words on your phone keypad, you have to press the same button multiple times to get most of the letters. Like you have to press the "1" button 3 times to get a "c".

When i lived in Matawan, i noticed that you could spell the word "Matawan" on your phone pressing each button only once, right up until the last letter, "n", which was the 6 button twice. I thought, "there's an interesting property of a word".

So, i ran a simple program to figure out all the words that have the property of being easy to spell on the phone keypad.

Here's the script, and the longest few words.

cat words | grep -i '^[a,d,g,j,m,p,t,w]*$' | awk '//{print length($0),$0}' | sort -rn

pawpaw Tampa papaw mamma magma madam gamma adapt Watt watt tamp papa Matt matt mama data damp Dada Adam

If i extend the criteria to include words that are good up until the last letter (like "Matawan"), i get

cat words | grep -i '^[a,d,g,j,m,p,t,w]*.$' | awk '//{print length($0),$0}' | sort -n

Matawan wattage pawpaws pajamas Tampax papaws pampas mammas mammal mammae madman madams madame Jamaal gammas damage Addams adapts

It's surprising to me that Matawan is one of the longest of such words. I really did stumble onto an interesting word.

Last Beach Trip this summer



We went to the beach about a month ago now with Sydney and Maria and Isaac, their 2 year old son. It was our last day at the beach for this summer. I took this picture with my cellphone camera of Gan with Syd and Isaac with the Atlantic Ocean in the background. I was pleased with the picture. It almost looks like one of those pictures they use to sell frames.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

dilated to meet you

This music video captures our feelings as we wait for our baby girl to arrive.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

New Tattoo





Well, it's only a temporary tattoo, but i think it looks pretty cool. It came as an ad in a magazine, so i gave it a shot. Man, temporary tattoo technology has really improved since i was a kid. I dampened my arm and put this thing on for 10 seconds with a wet paper towel behind it, and damn, it turned out pretty good. I remember always being disappointed by those things when i was a kid. I guess my daughter's going to have a lot to be thankful for being born in this day and age.

I thought i'd capture it before i have to take a shower. Gan thinks it looks stupid...i thought she'd have gone for it.

Friday, October 19, 2007

New Bicycle



I bought a new bike, made by a company called Breezer. It took me a while to find the bike i was looking for. I guess that most people want a bike that's good for riding on a nice day, but not worried about riding at night, or in the rain. So most bikes don't have a light, or fenders. This one's even got a bell and a rack, which i love.

It's called a "commuter bike", which is exactly what i use it for. I am fortunate to be able to ride to work, so i am taking advantage of that, while Gan can use the car.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Playing by ear



I've been trying to figure out how to play the piano by ear. I tried for years when i was a teenager, with absolutely no success.

But lately i have been poking around at it and surprisingly, without really trying too hard, i am improving. Normally what i do is play along with whatever's playing on the stereo. My goal is to figure out what key the song is in. If i can do that, i'm happy. Now i can usually figure that out before the song is over. (In the last couple of years, Bob Dylan in concert seems to be using all the black keys, maybe that's why he's playing the piano instead of the guitar).

Today, i was playing around with chords. Chords are hard for me to figure out. Too much going on. But as i was stumbling around, i figured out the main riff in Tom Petty's "Freefalling". Just like that..then i put it on and it was even in the right key. That could have been luck, i suppose. But it sounded perfect. That was a major breakthrough for me. Maybe i'll figure out more stuff one of these years.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Visiting Kerouac's Grave

I was visiting a friend near Lowell, Mass and i wanted to visit Kerouac's grave. I'd seen it in this movie with Dylan and Ginsberg.
Anyway, we went there. It took a while to find, even though we had a map. The place is HUGE. When we got there, it was like a shrine. There was a grass-worn-off area around it...That's a real honor. And there were all these little "offerings"...flowers, pens, shoes, and there was a little metal box (like an Altoids tin) with a note that read "The contents of this belong to whoever finds it" or something like that. I shook it and it sounded like something inside. i figured it was some weed or something. I opened it up and there was a poem and a brand new $100 bill! I knew that it wasnt intended for me, so i didn't take it though. It was meant for some kid desparate for busfare. So i added what i had in my pocket, about $20, and left it there. I hope whoever found it was as happy as i was when i found it.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Hi Speed train September 19, 2007, 02:22 PM

Here's a train that passed by the platform while i was filming with my phone. It was really moving pretty fast.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Gan at 7 months pregnant in the apartment

Gan climbing the stairs and sitting on the couch at 7 months pregnant.

Gan in the garden

Here's a view of Gan at 7 months pregnant in the garden outside our apartments, with me playing the role of the stupid interviewer.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Mike's Melbourne Metro Map


My friend Mike in Melbourne must have ridden every train and tram in the city, and carefully put together this map of the system. Every city he visits, he checks out the public transit system, and compares all the details (ticket machines, maps, and of course trains, trams...). This map seems to be the best of all the maps he's seen, and maybe some tricks of his own, applied to his home town. It looks pretty official, too.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

isaac with soccer ball

Our friend's 2 year old is pretty agile with a soccer ball.

isaac imitating animals (in spanish)

Isaac is asked by Maria how the different animals sound, and he's doing his best to answer.

camping trip

We went camping in the Delaware Water Gap on the NJ, PA border. This was a quick tour of the campground, with Syd, Maria and Isaac there. Isaac is very cute following me around with the camera.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

More bootleg folding howtos

Who'd have thought? There's a web page showing many cd envelope folding youTube videos. Mine was called "Diaper bag" method. I think mine's the best, because it holds 2 CD's, and i show the tracklist on the outside, but hey, i could be biased.

Friday, September 7, 2007

Improved bootleg CD envelope folding howto video

A new and improved bootleg folding howto, with all sorts of fancy effects.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Eddie playing piano


This is a video of our nephew, Edward, playing the piano. He's actually really great, but this isn't his best performance. Just the one i happenned to capture on tape.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

YAAT



Yet another tour of the apartment, just to bore our subscriber(s).

This time, the place is more lived-in, plus i've seen a bunch of other apartment tours on youTube, so i'm getting the hang of it. I recommend the apartment tour of the 2 young mormon missionaries.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Tour of the apartment


Take a tour of our new apartment. We had just recently moved in, so there's a lot of boxes around. The place looks much better now.

Visitors in New Providence



Enjoy the music by Crocketts Kentucky Mountaineers.