Postcards from New Jersey

Being the birthplace of the nation it resides in, Philadelphia gets *nuts* around July 4 (Independence Day in America). Now, I like colonial history as much as the next geek, but there's a point at which it's just not worth it to wrestle with the crowds.

Instead, Big M and I did a little crossing of the Delaware ourselves, and spent a few days in New Jersey. July 4th itself was great, we played some mini-putt and went go-kart racing (by the way, The Funplex has 36 holes of miniature golf, spread across two courses).

As fun as it was, The Funplex was plan B. The original schedule had us watching the Transformers movie, and the Google Maps directions to the cinema were pretty representative of some of the moves that need to be made while driving in Jersey:

[ New Jersey: Under no circumstances turn left ]

Ah, the distinctive "jughandles" of Jersey's highways. I find the u-turn needed near the end of the journey shown here to be particularly priceless.

As a hardly related aside. I love Turtle Pops. Turtle Pops are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters made out of ice cream, with gumball eyes. A few weeks ago, while at a picnic (in Babbage Park, New Jersey -- named after the person you probably think it is), Big M chased down an ice cream van to get me a Turtle Pop.

[ Mmm, cherry. Thanks to Will for the photo! ]

That, my friends, is love.

Conference Room C

Over on the ridiculously niche-y team blag I'm on (Bloaves), I posted my last 'Bakery' bloave.

It wasn't my last because I stopped eating breads, or because I decided to boycott the Bakery and really mean it this time. It's my last because they suddenly closed one day, and I happened to still have one of their bars from last week chilling in our office freezer.

They say they'll re-open August 1st, and they're closed for renovations. But HQ has already moved from around the corner to across the city.

We're a smaller company, and while we have a conference table, many minor conferences happen outside. In fact, there was a bit of a joke that outside of the front door was Conference Room A, and beside the parking lot was Conference Room B. Following that logic, the bakery café was Conference Room C. A lot of meetings happened there, running all sorts of gamuts.

However, no love lost. Aside from the magic bars, there isn't a whole lot they made that ever appealed to me. If anyone from the Bakery is reading this, I've got to tell you: You should have lowered your prices or procured better ingredients.

Junto Philadelphia

Last week I got to participate in an institution hundreds of years old... and it wasn't patriarchy!

Junto was started in 1727 by the irresistible Ben Franklin (what, you don't find the guy who invented bifocals and the armonica hot?). As you might imagine, meetings took place in Philadelphia. Meetings filled with discussion on a wide range of topics -- including philosophy, science, and business. Meetings with a purpose of bettering each other. Wikipedia tells me this is exactly my cup of tea.

Naturally, I was very glad to be invited to the modern incarnation of Junto in Philly. P'unk Avenue now hosts the event, and draws a lot of great people to the meeting (they also serve a mean tomato pie). The structure's more laid back -- besides the feature presentation of the evening, there's a focus on getting to know the other community members there. It's a tech-savvy membership, which also means the potential for awesome geek-outs while randomly chatting is high.

Did I long for the questions of Juntos past? A little, I do have a penchant for meetings with curious structures. Did I have a good time? Absolutely. Did I feel better off for having gone? Yes. (Am I starting to sound like Donald Rumsfeld? Err...)

I'm looking forward to the next Junto. It's an event that makes me wonder what took me so long to get back into local tech communities.

Umbrellas vs. Fedoras (or, Can You Tell It Rained Today?)

I don't like umbrellas one bit.

The rain? Totally fine. I don't mind walking in it at all (with the caveat that if it's torrential, I know about it in time to plan accordingly). If it's a moderate amount, I might wear a fedora. A heavy downpour, and I'll wear rain pants and a jacket.

Five reasons why I don't use umbrellas:

1. They're awkward to hold if you're carrying other things.
2. They're lightning rods.
3. The wind blows them out of your grasp.
4. They're easy to forget.
5. Those little plastic tips on the end of the metal rods, they get detached from the fabric that they stretch taut, reducing the effective area of shelter.
   

In short, to me, they're a bigger pain than they're worth.

Although, I do think that these ones at least look cool.

Happy Taffy

I tried salt water taffy this weekend, for the first time. Wow, is it ever delicious.

Fortune Cookies

Affirmations and other statements have no place in "fortune" cookies. For the record.

I'm A Sucker For Zero Gravity

I couldn't resist. This picture from LOLtheorists made me laugh so much, I had to share it.

By the way, there are a bunch of 'LOL macro' pages listed on Laughing Squid, my favorites are LOLbots and LOLpresident.