Chris.Weekly.org - A Web Space

Guest shopping is a new feature at Upromise — the college savings program — where I work. The idea is simple: if you are not a Upromise member, but you want to help me to save money for Abi and Harper’s college funds, you can follow their guest shopping link and earn contributions for them when you shop online. It’s free and there’s no registration. Upromise doesn’t collect any information about you, rather you follow a special link that makes your shopping session behave as if it were me. You also get access to free shipping and other Upromise offers, which benefit you.

So, if you’re not a Upromise member and you feel like helping Abi and Harper as you do your holiday shopping online, please use this link:

Guest Shopping Link for Abi and Harper

Thanks!
=)

P.S. If you do this, I will eventually see some extra contributions to their account, but I will NOT know who was responsible, as the guest shopping service maintains your privacy. So, thanks in advance!

A couple years ago I composed and recorded a custom score for a short film by my good friend Ben Pugh. My music isn’t going to win any awards, but the film is as warm-hearted and funny as its creator and it was a fun and rewarding project. Ben recently posted an edited version (6 min, instead of 11) to youtube, and I’m referencing it here. Some of the audio work I did timed scene cuts and moods precisely, so the audio is a bit rougher in this shortened version… but it is still a great little story told by my good friend and I’m psyched to have been part of it. Let me know what you think!

For my home’s internet connection I used to use Comcast cable. Its connection speed was reasonable for cable but its DNS service was unreliable. For a while I used my company’s DNS servers as I trust the sysadmins there, and it worked fine. Then I switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS (more than quadrupling my connection speed, and costing about $70/month less for the total package of net, phone and tv). I’ve been mostly very happy w/ FIOS, it feels good to have fiber to the house and 802.11N WiFi inside. However a blazing fast connection does you no good at all if negotiating DNS takes a long time; I was consistently unable to connect on the first try to such obscure sites as google and wikipedia. So I did a little research and decided to give OpenDNS a try. This is a free public service for using a 3rd party other than your home ISP for DNS. Well, it works. I haven’t had a problem w/ it yet, and everything is just much faster now that the DNS problems are gone. I don’t know why Comcast and Verizon have such a hard time maintaining their DNS service but I’m grateful OpenDNS exists to make it moot for me.

See http://www.OpenDNS.com for more information.

Enjoy!

YES!!!!!!

AP just called it.

Sipping Caol Ila and toasting President Obama and the huge number of Americans who worked to make this historic moment reality.

With victory in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, it appears to be academic now, and I am VERY PROUD that the next President of the United States will be Barack Obama. After months donating time, money and energy I really didn’t think I could afford, with campaign contributions, phone calls for get out the vote efforts, writing, emailing, talking, hoping and working, it looks like we finally did it. It looks like our country has finally come to its collective senses and decided to chart a different course. I feel an enormous sense of relief.

There are huge challenges ahead but I feel like we’re in a position where it is conceivable that we’ll be able to meet them. Here’s hoping.

That felt good. Just a 5 minute line. Took the girls (and Shawna, of course). I’ve got high hopes for this one but I won’t rest easy until it’s really over.

FYI in MA we also are voting on three initiatives, here is my take:

(1) Halving the state income tax: NO
// We need to invest in our infrastructure and schools etc.

(2) Reducing sentencing for possession of small amounts of pot: YES
// Good start, to end the waste and hypocrisy of modern Prohibition.

(3) Ending dog racing: YES
// Racing dogs leads to institutional animal abuse.

I really enjoyed this
great, brief writeup on major civil liberties issues of our modern times.

Pay attention, people!

“I am a committee, chaired by a hedonist.”

This hilarious but apt statement about psychology is the title of an interesting post on one of my favorite blogs.

The writers at Mind Hacks know their stuff, and select some of the most interesting bits of research and observation about human nature. Makes for interesting and often very funny stuff. Check it out!

Don’t go wobbly, Dems - THE WEEK.

This was my first exposure to “The Week”. I like it.

I have to go out of my way here to plug my all-time favorite magazine, Paste (”Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture”). Every issue comes with a full CD of eclectic but excellent indie music, outstanding writing, cultural insight, reliable reviews of books, film, bands, events and even video games. These guys are neck-deep in the vibrant community of amazing artists who mostly go unnoticed by the increasingly vapid commercial mainstream. I discovered Bon Iver, The National, Beirut and countless other phenomenal artists from this magazine. There’s so much worthless noise in our lives, so finding a strong, clear signal like this is refreshing and affirming. The website is a great companion to the print version too.

I’ve given friends subscriptions and they’ve enjoyed them too. As a “VIP” member I can give away $10 annual subscriptions. Write a comment below, or email me, if you want one and I’ll be glad to oblige.