Engagement (2) Dec 16, 2005
On December 15, 2003 at 12:49pm, David Hosier wrote:
Hey Wendy, when you come over to play tomorrow, maybe we can go ice skating in central park.  I know it'll be cold and we will have snots, but I think it'll be a good thing to say we did.  Like, "Yeah I've been ice skating in central park..."  Or maybe at Rockefeller Center.....?
On December 15, 2003 at 12:50pm, Wendy Figner wrote:
yay! that sounds like lots of fun. i will wear my wool socks : ) to keep my toes warm and, hopefully, avoid some blisters. how is everything going today?  u can tell me about it tomorrow...if you like.
The next day, December 16, we went ice skating in Central Park, and that's where we got engaged.  Here's the story: 

It was September of my senior year in college, and I was thinking about "tha fyootcha".  Wendy and I had been dating for almost 2 years, and I felt like marriage was the next step, so I decided to start looking for an engagement ring.  We had walked into a few jewelry stores before and I had asked jokingly, "What kind of engagement ring do you want?"  She gave me a semi-serious answer and we sort of laughed it off, but I remembered what she said.  That was my plan all along.  Eggzelent.  So I went into a few jewelry stores looking for something I could afford.  Then I realized I couldn't afford much, so I lowered my standards quite a bit.  None of those 1 karat rocks.  And none of those flawless stones.  It had to be simple, yet tasteful. 

One Sunday, my dad was driving me back to school after a weekend at home, and I mentioned that I was looking at engagement rings.  I wanted to see how he felt about the whole thing.  He said I couldn't have found a better girl.  I took that the right way, meaning that Wendy was good, not that I wasn't good enough to find anyone else.  At least that's what I think he meant. 

In the middle of November, I made up my mind and decided to get a ring from a certain jewelry store.  I decided on that store because they gave me the best financing offer.  This was the first time I ever financed anything, and it was also my biggest purchase up to that point. 

I was scared to death of having this thing stolen, so I brought it with me during Thanksgiving break.  I told my mom about it, and she leaked the information to some other family members.  This put some more pressure on me to pop the question sooner, because secrets aren't meant to be kept. 

One time I was at a party and heard a guy talking about how he proposed.  He took his girlfriend to her locker in their high school and got down on one knee.  It was the place they first met.  Now that's a memorable thing.  So I knew I had to think of something cool, some sort of memorable experience, so that we could tell people about it for years to come. 

We had gone ice skating a few times before, and the most recent time, I talked to one of the managers of the rink and asked if it would be possible to clear the ice and play a song so I could propose to my girlfriend.  They were opposed to the idea at first, but it was because they thought I meant I wanted to do it right then.  I asked them if I could call them and set up a time on a specific night.  They seemed ok with that, maybe even a little excited.  This was at Mennen Arena in Morristown.  I later decided against the Morristown ice rink in favor of a better location. 

One night in my dorm room, I opened my door to head to the library.  There was a little piece of paper on the ground.  I picked it up and figured out that it was a ticket to either an ice rink in Central Park or the one in Rockefeller Center.  I can't remember.  But this actually happened; I'm not making it up.  This gave me the idea of looking at an ice rink in Central Park, so that's why I originally suggested it. 

Based on the email correspondence shown above, we planned on going ice skating in Central Park.  So Wendy came over and we took a couple trains to the park.  We skated around for a while, but it was pretty cold, so Wendy wanted to leave.  I suggested that we leave after the Zamboni cleared the ice so that we could skate on the newly cleared ice.  She reluctantly agreed.  I went to go talk to one of the ice skating safety people about when the Zamboni would be clearing the ice.  Actually, I went to talk to him about my plan.  I told him I was planning on proposing to my girlfriend that day and asked him what he could do.  He was very receptive and said he could let us go out on the ice right after the Zamboni cleared the ice, before everybody else could.  I agreed to that and went back to skating with Wendy. 

The time came and we sat around as the Zamboni cleared the ice.  My heart was beating hard and I could feel my pulse in my throat.  Just when it looked like they were ready to let people back on the ice, the safety guy came over to me and motioned us to come onto the ice.  Wendy was confused.  We skated out onto the center of the ice and I took Wendy's hand and told her that she was special (this was a stall tactic).  Then I fumbled down onto one knee, pulled the ring out of my pocket, and asked, "Will you marry me?"  I struggled to balance on my knee for what felt like an eternity (try balancing on one knee while wearing ice skates; it's harder than you think) as Wendy just sort of stood there and looked at me and the ring.  I think I might have said, "Well?"  She finally said yes and took the ring.  The people on the side of the rink cheered and clapped. 

They let everyone else on the rink, and Wendy and I skated around for a little while as I explained my utter relief at finally not being in possession of an expensive diamond.  As we got off the ice, some kids on the side told me I was their hero, and everyone congratulated us. #lifestyle
Sugar gliders Dec 15, 2005
A sugar glider "is a small arboreal marsupial that is found in the forests of Australia, as well as in Tasmania, New Guinea, and the neighboring islands of Indonesia. This little creature is a member of the same order that includes kangaroos, opossums, wombats and Tasmanian devils!"  I found out about them from this website.  It said, "What do Sugargliders look like mid-glide in your living room, when you least expect it just as you place your Thanksgiving Turkey on the table? Why this, of course!"
[Image: sugarglider.jpg]
#entertainment
Custom license plates (2) Dec 15, 2005
To get a custom license plate for your car in New Jersey, you have to pay $50, plus the normal registration and other nonsense fees.  So you'd think people would only get custom plates that said something meaningful or worthwhile.  Instead, I see things like "G WIZZZ" and "FRAU".  I'm assuming "Frau" is a reference to Frau Farbissina, the short-haired, fascist lesbian from Austin Powers.  If that's the case, I've made my point. #travel
Yahoo obfuscation Dec 14, 2005
Obfuscation - The activity of obscuring people's understanding, leaving them baffled or bewildered.

I like Yahoo.  And based on Google's frequent downtime (at least for me ... maybe it's a work-related thing), I've been using Yahoo more and more.  In the recent past I used Yahoo for mail, and in the far distant past it was my homepage.  And Yahoo's been in the news lately for buying cool internet things like Konfabulator, Flickr, and del.icio.us. 

But I have one major problem with Yahoo:  Their links are very obfuscated.  For example:  link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4.  You can't really figure out anything meaningful from these links except that they're all somehow part of Yahoo.  The first one changes the default search to search for addresses and places, the second one goes to a movie trailer for King Kong, the third goes to Yahoo movies, and the fourth is a news story about King Kong.  Only the first one gives some sort of indication of where it's taking you.  But it's still overly complicated.  What's that long string of letters and numbers?  It turns out that the second one also tells you something about where it's taking you, but that part comes after about a half-mile of letters, numbers, and symbols. 

I'm a big fan of keeping things simple.  I think it's an essential part of a good user interface.  I like when you can figure out where a certain link is taking you.  For example, if you click on this, you know it'll take you to Google Local.  Or even if you click on this, you can probably figure out that you're searching Google Images for "dave" and the language is English.  Better yet, if you click on this, you know that it'll take you to a post called "puke" on my site from July 25, 2005. 

So, Mr. Yahoo, take my advice and make your site simpler.  It'll make me happy.  And as we all know, this is all about me. #technology
Pulp Fiction wallet Dec 14, 2005
Remember that part from Pulp Fiction where the robber asks Samuel L. Jackson, "Which one is your wallet?"  Badmofowallets.com sells those same exact wallets.  Caution:  This site uses very bad language, of which I am not a proponent.  But it's really funny. #entertainment
Neatorama Dec 14, 2005
Neatorama is a cool website that has links to interesting things found on the web.  Similar to Boing Boing.  It's where I found Freelink skates and Mentos in soda. #technology
Mentos in soda Dec 14, 2005
This weird science guy Steve Spangler does this experiment where he adds Mentos to a bottle of soda.  The resulting explosive jet is what he described as "the Bellagio".  I know what I'm trying when I get home. #technology
Freeline Skates (1) Dec 14, 2005
Freeline Skates are like a skateboard without the board.  Only the wheels.  "To ride up hill, just twist your body from side to side and turn your feet in and out accordingly."  The videos make these things look amazing. #technology
Will Reed effect (2) Dec 13, 2005
Will Reed is a person who went to high school with me.  I'm ok with Will Reed now.  I didn't used to be.  He's one of those people who's very opinionated and likes to share these opinions with other people.  I'm opinionated, but I mostly share my opinions on this website, where they largely fall on deaf ears.  This is a good thing, because otherwise I'd probably get beat up.  Or maybe knifed. 

So anyway, Will had some opinions about music, and specifically about the band Phish.  He used to talk about Phish all the time and go to their concerts and sing their songs in social situations.  Everything revolved around Phish.  You'd be talking to him and he'd suddenly break out into song because you pieced together three words from a Phish song.  Not surprisingly, this annoyed me.  Taking into account the fact that my teen years were comprised of a series of anger problems, I let this annoyance get to me, to the point where Will was the Bain of my existence.  I couldn't stand him.  I hated everything he liked.  I made fun of everything he said.  He was the epitome of stupidity and idiocy in the world.  He was my Newman. 

When I got to college, I was in a different environment.  I didn't have Funkwagon or it's alternate members.  I didn't have Ms. Curcione teaching me physics like I was a 2nd grader.  And most importantly, I didn't have Will to give me guidance on what not to do.  So I found myself trying some new things and finding that they weren't as stupid as they sounded coming out of Will's mouth.  I started liking Phish and found that they were actually really cool and talented, something I still believe to this day.  I started going to concerts and buying t-shirts, going against Will's jab at the Gathering of the Vibes ("Mike, you still buy shirts from the shows you go to?  What a loser.").  And I enjoyed ultimate frisbee, something I wasn't able to do for years. 

Like I mentioned before, I'm ok with Will Reed now.  So Will, if you ever find this site, no hard feelings.  But seriously, you were really annoying in high school. #psychology
Too much good smell Dec 13, 2005
I regularly walk past the room at work right next to mine, and I'm overwhelmed by what would normally be a good smell.  It's some sort of men's cologne.  But of course, like almost all men who wear cologne, the user uses too much.  It's too much of a good smell.  Too much of a good smell is a bad thing.  And it's not like the guy just walked by me and brought a waft of the odor with him.  It's not like there's a fan in the room that's circulating this pungent aroma.  Nope.  It's just all over the place.  And it gets all up in my business.  So hear this, users of cologne:  Stop wearing so much cologne that it makes the people around you sick.  You're no longer doing a good thing.  You're doing a bad thing.  Bad. #psychology