# Thu Jun 29 08:32:07
Possible Merge Ahead; Things You May Have Missed
Hello, dear reader(s)! I have been quiet here lately, but noisy elsewhere. I've been chatting it up over at my blog on Vox. So if you are reading this in RSS land, here is the feed you should add to your reader:

http://mikepop.vox.com/library/posts/atom.xml

and for all you old-fashioned click-and-link browser types:

http://mikepop.vox.com/

Besides rambling on, I have even made a couple of things that may contain traces of amusement:

The seemingly-obvious (but I didn't see it anywhere else) Little Prince / Katamari Damacy mashup

And, the Web 2.0 / bike sticker mashup, that you can actually order and hold in your hands (or, stick to your bike/car):

I forget what we used to call these things before "mashups", but obviously mashup is the more fun term, so it has taken over.

I'm considering making the Vox blog my main blog, and archiving this one. On the plus side, it is just easier to blog there - uploading and including pics, sounds, even books/movies/albums to reference in posts is trivial - so I blog there more often. I can also post from my cameraphone easily. There are privacy levels, so in case strangers ever start reading my blog I can hide embaressing pictures from them. There is a sense of community among all users, for now. I suspect this will fade as more people sign on. They have a "Question of the Day" feature that can kick-start your brain if you can't come up with anything to write about, and it prompts stories that might otherwise not be told (I don't think I would have thought to share the time I was mistaken for Andy Dick otherwise). On the minus side, I lose the complete control over the backend I have here. There will probably be ads displayed or something. And, I lose continuity, unless I can import all these old entries. But, a clean break now and then is a good thing.

So that's what I am pondering. Keep an eye on the other blog in the meantime while I continue experimenting.

# Wed Jun 07 07:07:59
Playing with Vox
I've been playing around/blogging a bit at Vox, kicking the tires and such. It has some fun features and tools built in. http://mikepop.vox.com/ if you care to check it out. I also have some "starter" invites if anyone wants one.

# Thu Jun 01 12:50:29
Back on the Bike
Back when I moved to California, I didn't have a car for a couple of weeks, or furniture for that matter. I had a rental car for two days after I arrived to start working, and I made two purchases: a futon and a bicycle. I had not been on a bicycle with any regularity since I was eleven or twelve or so. I tried to get riding again in high school but after a few rides and much frustration (this used to be easy! why is this not easy anymore?), the bike went into the basement and stayed there.

But with my new bike, a Marin Larkspur (1998 hybrid sort of bike), I biked to work almost everyday. Helpfully, I had geography on my side: my commute was just four miles, remarkably flat, and aside from some sporadic rain (and one day of light snow) the weather was very Californian^*. I put a lot of mileage on the bike, riding it around Redwood City, Menlo Park and Palo Alto.

The bike saw a decline in use once we moved to San Francisco. It saw a further decline in use when we moved to Maine, but then a slight uptick as I took it out to the beach a few times. Once we moved to the Portland area, the bike once again ended up in the basement. I did take Zoe out for a few rides on Paula's bike, but they were short hops to the store, usually.

And I meant to get it out last summer. Last fall I got it out for one ride and determined it needed a tuneup. So, this spring that finally happened. Then it rained for a couple of weeks.

But as of a couple of weeks ago, I am back to commuting by bike at least some of the time. The route is a bit more challenging - 6 miles instead of 4, hills instead of flat, traffic instead of trees. But I have made it so far without being run off the road.

It cost $35 to get my bike tuned up, and I am on track to make that back in saved gas/bus fare in less than a month. It saves me fifteen minutes each morning compared to the bus ride, and only takes about ten minutes longer than the average car ride home. Plus, I get exercise and a bit more flexibility in my travel schedule.

I am tracking my miles at We Endure, a sort of social training log. I'm hoping to log a lot of miles before the snow sets in :)

# Mon Apr 24 11:08:53
Lobster Shack West
This article talks about a restaurant that brings a little of my current home (Maine) to my old home (Redwood City, CA):

New Englander Russell Deutsch, who spent 11 years exporting lobsters from Portland, Maine, opened Old Port Lobster Shack, on Veterans Boulevard near the courthouse, in January. It's decorated in a slightly kitschy, but mostly fun, seaside decor. A lighthouse with a rotating beam stands in the back corner, and diners eat from lacquered picnic benches next to fishing floats and maps of Maine's coast.

Hop off the train and grab a lobster roll, my bay area reader(s)!

# Fri Apr 21 08:05:53
The Fixer, Now on DVD
Working from an excellent premise suggested by Leonard, I wrote up some thoughts for a 5-season 24-esque series based around voting machine fraud. I await your phone call, FOX executive producer.

# Thu Mar 30 11:48:07
Pets.com Cannot Be Put Down
I put some random Pets.com stickers I found up on eBay. Was surprised to find almost two dozen other Pets.com swag auctions. I think if they had more time to develop the sock puppet franchise, they could have kept the pet food component afloat.

# Wed Mar 22 12:16:53
Tom's of Maine Sell-off Reaction Roundup
Following up on my previous Tom's of Maine post, some reactions gathered via Technorati today:

• "Frankly a blow not only for family-owned companies, but for the quality of life for ToM workers as well. Colgate, if I recall correctly, was one of the companies whose cheating of the rank-and-file in order to pay executives crazy-ass-high wages was so egregious that it actually made the news a couple years ago"
• "Tom's of Maine just sold to Colgate-Palmolive. For One Hundred, Million Dollars (Dr. Evil laugh)."
• "Recently two of my fav favorite companies were bought out by mega-corporations I'd rather not support"
• "colgate just bought tom's of maine. this sucks. all the respectable companies are being bought out by these huge, animal-torturing mega-companies!"
• "Tom's of Maine and The Body Shop: Sell-outs?"
• "it sucks that companies like tom's of maine feel that they need to be bought by mega corps in order to stay afloat."
• "Colgate will buy Tom's of Maine Selling Out, or Infiltrating?"
• "I bought ToM because it was NOT Colgate. So much for voting with one's dollars. This news sucks, in other words."
• "Tom's of McWorld"
• "Tom's of Maine has been bought by Colgate. Crap!"
• "Another one falls to the man. Tom's of Maine to be bought by Colgate."
• "Tom's of Maine- sellout"
• "I buy a LOT of Tom's of Maine products. I'd better start shopping for other small, homemade brands, now"

On a side note: who would have guessed so many Tom's of Maine users had LiveJournals? :)

# Tue Mar 21 18:31:31
An Unlikely Post About Toothpaste
I used to work at Tom's of Maine. They make toothpaste (and other stuff, but they are mostly known for their toothpaste) with all-natural ingredients, no animal testing, etc. While I was there it was often stressed how different they were from companies such as, say, Colgate-Palmolive. Their innovative business practices would never work in such a corporation, it was claimed.

So I was greatly surprised to hear that Colgate is buying Tom's for 100 million. No doubt many of their customers who hate dealing with large corporations will be just as surprised. Of course everything will continue to be run the same way, and so on. For now.

I can't even imagine the force of spin in Kennebunk today. The press release has the language you'd expect:

"Just as importantly, we see Colgate as an excellent fit with our own cultural values. Colgate has a commitment to product excellence, to global efforts to promote oral health and has a 200-year history of caring for consumers and for giving back to the community. We are excited by Colgate's desire to continue Tom's of Maine leadership and heritage in natural care"

Of course they are so excited about this excellent fit that according to the Associated Press:

"Packaging of Tom's of Maine products will not identify the company as a Colgate subsidiary"

Tom Chappell once wrote:

"I wondered why all toothpastes were full of complex abrasives, dyes, artificial flavors, preservatives, binders, fluoride, and worst of all, saccharin, long suspected as a cause of cancer. Why were Americans consuming seven hundred million tubes of toothpaste every year and spending more than a billion dollars filling their mouths every day with chemicals?"

I guess he can ask them directly now.

# Wed Mar 08 06:00:02
"Furry Lobsters" discovered

But how do they taste?

# Wed Feb 22 12:40:48
I Fail the Turing Test
My AIM screen name comes up high in searches for those looking for info on hiptops (especially for the phrase "via Hiptop"), and for whatever reasons people often assume I am an AIMbot. Most people believe it when I tell them otherwise, but some are not so easily convinced. From last night:

mdmatt43: you obviously are a computer because no 1 would type with perfect english on aim nevermind a cellular device