Owen Lincoln

Blackout

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 00:02:22 GMT

Remember the huge blackout in the north east? Here are some cool satellite photos from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(Before) and (after)

FYI, If someone sent you this image, it's fake.

.o

I want my robot arm!

Mon, 13 Oct 2003 20:34:45 GMT

Scientists in North Carolina have built a brain implant that lets monkeys control a robotic arm with their thoughts, marking the first time that mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object.
article...

.o

What happened?

Mon, 30 Jun 2003 19:21:43 GMT

Sorry to keep everyone in the dark about what happened with my stuff in New York two weeks ago. I've been really, really busy, flew to New York to deal with my things, got back, immediately headed up to Seattle for a wedding, spent a few days driving back along the Pacific coast highway with my parents, they stayed for a bit, then my sister came to visit this past weekend. Anyway, here is a rough recap of what happened.

First off, I have to say that everything ended up better than I expected. It was still an absolutely miserable experience though.

It started off with a week of hell as I planned everything down to the last minute detail. I knew that I only had one day to deal with this and there were a lot of unknowns. It was not something that I could play by ear. It was sort of like planning a trip and moving out of your apartment in three days with no notice. Not fun.

So, I arrived in NY at 6 am on Thursday after a only few hours of sleep, picked up my rental car and drove to the meeting place. It was on a pier in Red Hook, a sleezy warehouse and dock district in Brooklyn. At around 10 I met with the DOT agent and an FBI agent (/w sidearm!) who was also involved in the case. There was also another guy there who's son's stuff was found too. They took us to the truck they seized which was on the dock, hidden behind an abandoned factory and car junkyard. They got the back door opened and I immediately recognized some of my boxes and furniture. It was very strange to see it after so long, just thrown into the back of a truck like that. It was not as happy an experience as I thought it would be, I felt sort of detached, like I was identifying a body at a police morgue. I didn't know what was actually there, or what condition it was in at that point. I also knew what a long day I had ahead of me and of course, it was raining. The truck was pulled up pretty tight agaist a wall so they called up someone to hotwire it and move it to a better location.

Around 11 my friend Eric showed up, he was visiting family friends in Manahttan and agreed to come help out. We headed out to get a moving truck from the self-storage place. I'd never driven a truck before and taking a 16 foot truck through the heart of downtown Brooklyn in the rain pretty much sucked. I managed to get the truck there in one piece and we started moving all my stuff from one truck to the other. I marked off boxes and furniture as we moved it and was really surprised to find out that everything was there! Not only that, but there was no evidence that anything had been opened. My mood improved considerably at this point. The boxes were pretty beat up though and I was still worried that a lot of things were broken. I didn't have time to open anything there since I was on such a tight schedule.

We drove our truck to FedEx where we repaired the boxes as best we could and mailed them FedEx Ground. They were unhappy with the condition of some of the boxes so I had to drive to UHaul and buy some new ones. We basically just dumped boxes into bigger boxes and shipped them like that. No time to repack. It wasn't cheap, but turned out to be a lot less than I expected. It was 27 boxes in all, 30 to 70 pounds each.

Last, we drove the furniture to a self-storage place and dumped that in a 5x8 unit. My parents are going to pick it up later and my sister will probably take most of it.

Finally, at around 7pm, wet, exhausted, dirty and starving (we didn't have time to eat anything), Eric and I drove into Manhattan to his parent's friends apartment who offered to put me up for the night too. It was really nice to be in a real home instead of a hotel, fed dinner, and decompress in a friendly environment after such a long day. The next morning I returned the car and flew back.

So that was it. It was a very draining experience and I'm still recovering, but in all everything went very smoothly and there were no major problems. Much better than I could have hoped.

FedEx delivered my boxes thursday morning and I've been slowly unpacking since then. There are a few things broken here or there, mostly glass, but I expected that. Nothing seems to have been stolen. It's pretty amazing unpacking these things that I put in boxes amost a year ago.

.o

It's finally over

Wed, 11 Jun 2003 20:39:54 GMT

Last September I watched several men load everything I owned into a moving truck in Cambridge, MA. It was supposed to show up in San Francisco two weeks later. That was the last time I ever saw it.

The company was part of a crime wave that has been slowly taking over the long distance moving industry. Since Congress decided to disband the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1995, the moving industry has been free from government regulation and the number of moving companies has increased exponentially. Unfortunately, many of these companies are run by criminals. The typical scam involves picking up the goods, rooting through the boxes to steal expensive stuff, delay the shipment until the owners get desperate, then show up on their doorstep and demand 2 to 3 times the amount they owe in cash. If you refuse, they threaten to drive off. If you call the police, they can do nothing. It's a cross-state contract dispute and the local police will not get involved. Call the government and you find out that the entire moving industry is regulated by a small office of six people in the Department of Transportation. Six people for the entire country. They will take your name, a brief description, and you will never hear from them again.

I found this out the hard way. Unknown to me, the company I hired was feeling the pressure from people they had ripped off recently. Soon after they picked up everything I owned, they did what any dishonest company would do when the shit starts hitting the fan. They disconnected their phones, closed up shop, and fled. Like many scam moving companies, they would wait a few months for it to blow over and start it up again under a new name. Somewhere in the US, my stuff was sitting in a warehouse.

I did what you are supposed to do. I talked to a lot of people, called various government agencies, filled out forms, sent faxes. I found other people on-line who had been ripped off by the same or similar companies, several of which also had their stuff missing. We talked to each other, did research, contacted people, comforted each other but made very little progress. Many months passed. I decided it was time to move on with my life.

Two months ago, a fellow victim in New Hampshire who I hadn't talked to in a while gave me a new phone number to call. The number was for an agent in the justice division of the New York Department of Transportation. I called it and left a message. He called back a few days later, told me that he was working on a case that might involve me and took my information. He said I should call him back in a few weeks or so and he might have more to tell me.

I called back a month later, we talked a bit and he said he still couldn't say much because the case was not finished. He would call me when it was over, probably in another month. I had mostly put the ordeal behind me at this point so I didn't think much of it. Several more weeks passed and I started to forget about it.

Last week I got the call. He apologized about not being able to tell me what was going on for the past couple of months. My moving company was one of many that were run by a handful of people in New York. They had been running the scam a long time and the NY DOT finally decided to do something about it. Almost 6 months ago they started the investigation, which led to a trial that started in April. The trial ended a few weeks ago and they were found guilty. They are going to jail for 7 years. He then told me the bigger news. He had a key to a truck that was impounded and might have my stuff in it. He said someone would call me back in a couple days from the truck and see if I could identify anything. Two days later I was on the phone with someone who was looking at my belongings.

So, I will be flying to New York next thursday where I will help sort out what is mine and move it to a storage place. It's been 291 days since I last saw it.

I'm not sure what's there or what condition it's in. It's been gone so long I'm assuming it's pretty banged up, stuff stolen, etc. But at this point, I'll be glad to get anything I can. There will eventually be some money in it for me too, not sure how much or when, but hopefully it will be enough to pay for the flight and... the moving company I have to hire now to actually move my stuff again. This time I'm going to hire someone who's been in business for at least 30 years :)

Here is an article about the trial:
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/35318.htm

.o

When animals attack

Tue, 10 Jun 2003 17:42:22 GMT

I saw Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' for the first time last night. There are a lot of classic films I've never seen that I've been knocking off my list thanks to NetFlix. I really liked it, it was creepier than I thought it would be, considering that birds are not high on my list of scary animals (except Emus which are crazy freaky).

Actually, I take that back, I have been attacked by birds before and it was pretty frightening. Some friends and I were walking around one of the Harbor islands out near Boston when all of a sudden several large birds started dive bombing us. There were coming in about an inch above our heads, so low I could feel them. We realized that we had wandered into a nesting area and beat a hasty retreat. I was pretty sure they were just trying to scare us away but it sure felt like they were trying to hit us.

In other news, I just got back from Los Angeles where I was visiting the water they steal from us. Just kidding, I was visiting a bunch of people I know there, two of which just moved from Boston and one who was flying in from Taiwan. If you are ever visiting LA, I highly recommend Huntington Botanical Gardens.

.o

Free at last...

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 17:50:17 GMT

My cat and I decided to move from Boston to San Francisco last year. Or rather, I decided to move and my cat came along. I asked him if he wanted to move and he just stared at me and then started licking himself so I assumed that meant yes. Actually, that's how most people respond when I ask them questions.

I soon discovered that looking for a new tech job here was going to be next to impossible in this economy. Somehow I managed to convince my Boston-based company that allowing me to work remotely from california was a good idea. It helped that there are about 6 other remote employees, mostly field sales though. It took me about a month to get up the courage to approach my boss about it. Every day I'd say, "ok today I'm going to ask!" and then I'd chicken out. I finally did it and they said it was ok.

Anyway, working at home is a new thing for me and it has its pros and cons. The cons mostly relate to spending far too much time in my small apartment during the week. I miss being in an office, seeing people during the day and things like that. It's been about 6 months now and I find myself talking to my cat a little too much to be healthy. Plus, his usual response (see above) doesn't exactly make for stimulating conversation.

Enter my brand new laptop with a 802.11g WiFi card. I am writing this from an internet cafe a few blocks from my apartment, sitting on a couch and sipping a mocha. There are people all around me, making noise, walking around, reading papers, drinking coffee. I am reconnected. Life is good.

.o

Wed, 16 Apr 2003 02:20:39 GMT

So I was in the grocery store, happily wandering down the aisle looking for frozen corn when I felt the cold chill of evil in the air. The muzak that was being piped over the loudspeakers sounded eerily familiar. I stopped to listen and felt the blood drain from my face. They were playing the opening theme song from... Star Trek Enterprise.

Now, for those of you who don't know (and I wish I didn't either) "Enterprise" is the 5th TV show to bear the Star Trek label. For some unfathomable reason, they decided to ditch the usual swelling orchestral music that had accompanied shows 1-4 and replaced it with.... Well, imagine a Bryan Adams wanna-be belting out these lyrics, "I have faiiiith of the heaaaart....I got streeeength of the sooooulllll" and you get the idea. It's really, really bad. If you want, you can listen to it here. It's the first song on the album, called "Where my heart will take me". You have been warned.

Oh dear god, I just did some digging around and discovered that the song was originally written for Rod Stewart on the Patch Adams soundtrack. Let me repeat, Rod Stewart... Patch Adams. Who was the marketing genius that thought this was a good idea for a Star Trek theme song. They really need to let that franchise die.

Incidentally, Muzak has a pretty slick web site. Some of their PR is pretty hilarious too, "Using the powerful tools of intuition, innovation and skill, we create experiences with music that aren't just head, they're felt. We call what we do Audio Architecture... you'll call it amazing." Wow. They even let you listen to audio samples.

.o

All that jazz...

Thu, 27 Mar 2003 21:33:25 GMT

So I finally went to go see Chicago last night and really enjoyed it. I was pretty impressed with Catherine and Renee but I was floored by the scenes that had real dancers. I was wondering last night if they might be from the Broadway show, so I did a little digging around.

Movie cast members straight from Chicago on Broadway:

- Chita Rivera("Nickie"): Played Velma Kelly in the original 1975 Broadway Chicago

- Denise Faye("Annie"): Playing Liz in the current run of Chicago on Broadway

- Sebastian Lacause("Al Lipschitz"): Playing Harry in the current run of Chicago on Broadway

- Mary Ann Lamb("Ensemble"): Playing June in the current run of Chicago on Broadway

- Marc Calamia("Hunyak's Husband"): Playing Doctor and Judge in the current run of Chicago on Broadway

- Taye Diggs("The Bandleader"): Briefly played Billy Flynn in the current run of Chicago on Broadway

Movie cast members who are currently in other Broadway musicals, mostly as dancers:

Robert Montano("Dancer"),Greg Mitchell("Velma's Husband"),Scott Wise("Ezikial Young"),Joey Pizzi("Bernie"),Susan Misner("Liz"),Ken Ard("Wilbur"),Edgar Godineaux("Ensemble"),Cleve Asbury("Reporter"),Rick Negron("Reporter"),Bill Hartung("Ensemble"),Shaun Amyot("Reporter"),Jocelyn Dowling("Ensemble"),Rod Campbell("Jury Foreman")

.o

Tue, 25 Mar 2003 05:09:49 GMT

Something struck me over the past week as I observed the various marches, speeches, protests, and random acts of civil disobedience all over the city. It occurred to me that only 1 in 3 of the people protesting out there voted in the last election.

US voter turnout in the 2002 elections was 39.3 percent (37.6 in 1998). Seven states set record lows; California was one of them with a pathetic 31.5 percent. I'm not going to turn this into a long rant about people who don't vote, so I'll keep it short and sweet. If you are a US citizen and did not vote in 2002, I do not respect your right to protest in the street. Go home, sit on your couch, and shut the hell up. You didn't buy a ticket. You don't get to play.

Ok, one caveat, if you are an anarchist, (a true honest-to-god anarchist, not a 16-year old, punk-ass, "huh, huh, breaking shit is cool" poser), than I respect your right to protest and not vote. Of course, I still think you are a frickin idiot.

Register to Vote here

.o

Yes, I have voted in every election since I turned 18, I'm not a complete hypocrite :)

I'm speechless

Thu, 20 Mar 2003 18:45:01 GMT

So I'll let others speak for me...

"War! When I but think of this word, I feel bewildered, as though they were speaking to me of sorcery, of the Inquisition, of a distant, finished, abominable, monstrous, unnatural thing." - Guy de Maupassant

'War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace." - Thomas Mann

"Only the dead have seen the end of the war." - Plato

"Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?" - Holly Near

"War is not an adventure. It is a disease." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations." - David Friedman

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. " - John F. Kennedy

"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it." - Desiderius Erasmus

Go Owen, It's your birthday...

Mon, 17 Mar 2003 19:36:09 GMT

Yes, I was born on St. Patrick's Day, 28 years ago. It's a good holiday to be born on all things considered. Any holiday where people get drunk and wear funny hats can't be all bad.

Other people who were born today...

1919 Nat King Cole
1951 Kurt Russell
1964 Rob Lowe
1972 Mia Hamm

a play...

Thu, 13 Mar 2003 19:53:43 GMT

America: Moooooommmmm, I want to go to the mall and get a tattoo of a flaming skull on my forehead.

France: No, that's stupid, no son of mine is getting a tattoo.

England: Oh, come on dear, he's almost 18, he can get a tattoo if he wants to. Though perhaps 'on your forehead' is not such a good idea... how about your arm instead?

France: NO! I won't let him get _any_ tattoo, he has no reason to do it and he'll regret it later.

America: *mutter* *mutter* stupid fukin' bitch

France: What was that!?

America: I hate you, I HATE YOU!!!, you never let me do anything fun. I'm going to the mall to get a tattoo right now, just you try and stop me!!!

[stomp, stomp, stomp, slam]

England: He has to learn this the hard way, it's best if we humor him.

France: I swear to god he was adopted...

.o

Order of heroin for table 7...

Wed, 12 Mar 2003 23:27:38 GMT

So, I was making a reservation the other day and it reminded me of a funny thing that happened a while ago. I was trying to make a reservation at Rialto, a really good restaurant in Cambridge. I picked up the phone, dialed the number and had the following conversation...

"Hello?"
"Hello, I'd like to make a reservation"
"What time?"
"This sunday, 6:30 pm"
(sounding a little confused ) "Sunday? Uh, ok... for what?"
"Uh.. for Five"
"Five? Five what?"
"People? For Dinner?"
"Uh.. This is a Methadone treatment clinic, we don't serve dinner"
"Oh! What number is this?"
(laughter) "617-xxx-xxxx
"Oops..."

I would have made for a very different evening...

Random fact of the day:
So I recently found myself saying "Have your cake and eat it too" and I thought, what the hell does that mean? I mean, if you have your cake, what's so special about being able to eat it? So, it turns out that the original phrase, "Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?", was first published in 1546 in John Heywood's "Proverbes". It basically translates to "you cannot eat your cake and have it too" which makes a little more sense. If you only have $10 in your pocket and you use it buy pie, you can no longer say "I have $10 in my pocket". Well, you could, but you'd be lying. Mmmmmm... pie.

.o

The UN

Fri, 07 Mar 2003 20:03:31 GMT

Random observations and thoughts about the UN Security Council meeting this morning:

- First off, the UN, despite it's problems, is really cool. Every time the camera sweeps over the general assembly and you realize that EVERY single country on the entire planet is represented there* I feel good. We are on the right path.

- Very interesting to go from Blix and Farraday speaking, (pure facts, very little opinion or rhetoric) to Council members (quite the opposite)

- So the security council (and today, Iraq) sit on the main floor at a big circular table. Who are the people who are sitting at that long table in the middle of the circle? People who showed up late and couldn't find choice seats way in the back and have to sit in the front where the professor will probably call on them? Photo of what I am talking about.

- Very disconcerting to hear a female translator voice for the male French ambassador. I'd say that this is a deliberate attempt by the US to undermine his speech but I assume they provide their own translator so I'm not sure what to think.

- Powell sounds a lot more confident when he is arguing things he actually believes in (Just my humble opinion that his complete 360 turn around from Dove to Hawk seemed a bit forced)

* Random related fact of the Day #1:
There are 191 members of the United Nations. Every single country on the planet except... Taiwan and The Holy See/Vatican. Mainland China replaced Taiwan in 1971 and maintains that Taiwan is still their province. As silly as this seems today, China will most likely go to war with Taiwan if they join the UN. The don't-ask don't-tell policy regarding Taiwan's statehood keeps the peace in it's strange way. The Vatican choose not to join the UN.

Random related fact of the Day #2:
The US does maintain an embassy in the Vatican, it consists of an Ambassador, the Deputy Chief of Mission and several Marines who double as office staff. Mostly they just go to formal parties, etc. Must be nice!

.o

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 21:35:41 GMT

Roger Ebert pointed out something very interesting about the film "Cradle 2 the Grave" which I originally wan't intending to see in the theaters.

"[Cradle 2 the Grave] will be demographically interesting because it demonstrates that a savvy producer like Silver now believes a white star is completely unnecessary in a mega-budget action picture. At one point, there were only white stars. Then they got to have black buddies. Then they got to have Asian buddies. Then "Rush Hour" proved that black and Asian buddies could haul in the mass audience. Long ago a movie like this used a black character for comic relief. Then an Asian character. Now the white character is the comic relief. May the circle be unbroken."

That's pretty cool actually, I never really saw this movie in that light, but now that I do I think I'll go see it. Anybody want to come with me?

Incidentally, I've always been interested in the popularity asian action stars enjoy within the african american demographic. I think that Jackie Chan and Jet Li's luck in finally breaking into the american market has largely to do with their popularity among blacks.

When I was in college, I ran a club that would occationally screen Hong Kong action movies. One of the best showings I had was when the Black Latino Brotherhood contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a joint showing of classic and new kung fu movies.

Anyway, I don't have a theory, I just think it's neat.

Somewhat related Fact of the Day:
Richard Aoki, one of the founding members of the Black Panthers, was Japanese-American!

.o

How could I leave you without the lyrics to Carl Douglas's masterpiece...
www.thesonglyrics.com/d_artists/lyrics/carldouglas_lyric1.html

Why do you want to read about me?

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 22:31:16 GMT

Here is my first real post to Live Journal.

Why do you want to read about me? The answer is, simply, you don't. I am a thoroughly dull and uninteresting person. Reading this journal will cause excessive drowsiness, boredom, twiddling of thumbs, staring out the window, zoning, spacing out and general malaise. In addition, it may cause heartburn, regurgitation, difficulty swallowing, hair loss, gastric irritation, dark skin patches on your face, nausea, vomiting, headaches, unpleasant taste, dizziness, and increased sensitivity to the sun. You have been warned.

This is a sample of the exciting Journal entries you can expect in the future:

7:30 AM woke up
7:32 AM got out of bed
7:34 AM brushed teeth
7:37 AM turned on shower
7:39 AM stepped into shower

I promise, it will be the worst ever. I shit you not. Welcome to hell.

.o

Test

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 19:48:33 GMT

Ok, my first post. Actually, this is a test post so I can test and set my custom colors. Sorry it's not more interesting.

.o