Radio Stations on the web

WPFW - Pacifica/Jazz from Washington, DC
KZSU - Stanford University's radio station; very eclectic format
KPFA - Berkeley Pacifica station
C-SPAN radio - from 90.1 in Washington, DC

Online references

Cybertimes Navigator
yourDictionary.com
Columbia Encyclopedia
Babelfish translator
Street Maps:

Weblog:

Monday, October 31 2005

"September" Charity of the Month

Project Open Hand, providing meals and nutrition services to the ill who need them most in San Francisco. Consider giving...

Halloween in the Castro

Once again, around the end of October, I'm getting a lot of hits on my Halloween in the Castro pictures. Most people are hitting the 2003 pics; hopefully they won't miss the 2004 ones.
Strangely enough, I'm now the number 3 hit on Google for "castro halloween" (down from #2 a week ago); but nowhere near the top for "http://www.google.com/search?q=halloween+castro">halloween castro." (Well, my 2004 pics show up as #40 for that latter search.)

Friday, October 28 2005

Sulu: Gay. And Asian-American Poker Players

AP report on George Takei, perhaps best known as Mr. Sulu:

"Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, said he grew up feeling shameful about his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation.
'It's against basic decency and what American values stand for,' he said."

The rise of Asian and Asian-American players on the pro poker circuit:

"'I support 40 people, baby,' says Scotty Nguyen. 'I built the most beautiful house in Nha Trang, six stories, 14 bathrooms, 10 bedrooms, for my mom, my sister and her family. First thing I did when I won the World Series in 1998 was build that house for my mom. Then I built houses for my brothers and my sister. You know, baby, I give to my family, nothing less than three mil. All my winnings, baby.'"

Friday, October 14 2005

Camera Tossing

Hate to jump on a bandwagon/fad, but the pictures people are sharing from camera tossing are pretty fun. If the meme propagates too far and fast, I'll probably get tired of these pictures, but here's the Flickr category.

Tuesday, October 11 2005

we're all going to die

puppy.org

Thursday, October 6 2005

Be Ready to Survive

Rebecca Blood has something to say about being ready for a flu pandemic (the recommended preparations should also help in case of some other breakdown of societal infrastructure, too). Two interesting links: 72 Hours (how long the city says you should be prepared to take care of yourself in case a disaster hits San Francisco) and the OA Guide to Water Purification.
As is the case with computer security, real-life security is often enhanced by being able to deal with the aftermath of a tragedy. Because we can't avoid all the bad things that might befall us, we should be ready to recover or deal when they happen.

Clayton James Cubitt: Operation Eden

Photographer Clayton James Cubitt, aka Siege, has been photographing and describing what's been going on in New Orleans post-Katrina for a while. Cause that's where his Mom is, and where he grew up:

"She asked me if I remembered that big wave that happened last year. It happened on Christmas, she said. She said she cried when that happened, and she knew in her bones that New Orleans was next. She said she was no Bible thumper, but that God was so powerful he just flicked his hand and her family was gone."

Tuesday, October 4 2005

Serenity, the Movie

From Orson Scott Card's review of Serenity:

"Well, guess what.
It's great.
I'm not going to say it's the best science fiction movie, ever.
Oh, wait. Yes I am."

It is a good movie, maybe great. But it's not the best science fiction movie ever.
I didn't like Firefly, the series it's based on (and I did see it on DVD, in the order Joss Whedon intended). I'm still trying to figure out exactly why I didn't like it; I've considered and tossed a number of theories on that. I've especially tried to figure out why I thought Farscape (aside from the ending mini-series) was amazing, but Firefly left me cold. The best way I can put it right now is: Farscape didn't feel like television, and Firefly did. I say this as someone who doesn't watch much TV these days (as I don't own one).
Watching Firefly, I feel like it's got the same general worldview and attitude as a number of other shows; I feel like Whedon grew up with and is still surrounded by the same cultural baggage as I and a lot of U.S. citizens my age did, and never moved beyond it. Life is a certain way, and there's a certain range of emotion and accomplishment that occurs in an hour-long TV show, and that's the way the world is. It's the feeling I get from Andromeda, and much of Star Trek: TNG, and Ally McBeal, and Friends (yes, that's a half-hour show) and many other sitcoms, and Stargate: SG-1, and The Agency, and 2 particular episodes of Farscape that I remember: "I, ET" and "Taking the Stone." I liked episodes of all those shows except Friends (and those 2 part. Farscape episodes); but on a continuing basis, none really kept my interest.
Farscape in general felt different; Oz felt different; Homicide: Life on the Streets felt different; and in a certain way, the Law and Order franchise feels different.
All of which is to say - if you haven't seen the series Firefly, no need to. But if you haven't seen the movie Serenity, it's worth the money and time.

<<Sep 2005

Nov 2005>>

About this site

This is the personal web site for Edward (Ed) Piou. Consisting mainly of a blog (operational since 1999) and various photos.

Some online projects I'm working on

eppi.com : my one-man web development corp. (I'm for hire)
voteprotect.org : I'm helping build the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS), and we could really use some volunteer sysadmins and PHP programmers interested in safeguarding democracy...

Politics

Talking Points Memo
Daily Kos
MoveOn
Contact your elected officials

Charity, Non-profits...

A while ago, I decided to put my money where my mind is on a (roughly) monthly basis and give to:

9/2005: Project Open Hand
8/2005: ACORN
7/2005: KPFA
6/2005: KALW
5/2005: EFF
4/2005: OxFam America
3/2005: ACLU
2/2005: Free the Slaves
1/2005: San Francisco Food Bank
12/2004: Amnesty International
11/2004: FreeBSD Foundation
10/2004: Union of Concerned Scientists
9/2004: Project Open Hand
8/2004: VerifiedVoting.org
7/2004: KPFA radio
6/2004: KALW radio
5/2004: John Kerry for President
4/2004: OxFam America
3/2004: ACLU
2/2004: Electronic Frontier Foundation
1/2004: Amnesty International
12/2003: Alternet/TomPaine.com
11/2003: San Francisco Food Bank
10/2003: MoveOn.org
9/2003: Free the Slaves
8/2003: KPFA radio
7/2003: Union of Concerned Scientists
6/2003: Project Open Hand
5/2003: UNICEF
4/2003: OxFam America
3/2003: ACLU
2/2003: Electronic Frontier Foundation
1/2003: Common Cause

Photos

Public events documented through pictures...

1. Jan. 18, 2003 San Francisco anti-war protest
2. Feb. 16, 2003 San Francisco anti-war protest
3. March 15, 2003 San Francisco anti-war protest
4. Power to the Peaceful Festival, Spearhead's free 2003 concert in Golden Gate Park
5. Oct. 25, 2003 San Francisco bring-the-troops-home rally
6. Halloween in the Castro, 2003
7. Love Parade San Francisco, October 2004
8. Folsom Street Fair 2004
9. Power to the Peaceful 2004
10. Halloween in the Castro, 2004
11. Illusion 3 at the MCCLA
12. Burning Man 2005
13. Halloween in the Castro, 2005

News

Blogs

Other stuff

Comic Strips