Tsaiberspace

The Rosemount was followed not long after with a tasting of Ridge Vineyards’ Cabernet in my host’s new townhouse. The Ridge was courtesy of my friend’s participation in the Advanced Tasting Program. I left his residence sans hangover and sans label.

The wine was very Good.

I succumbed to peer vino-pressure from the foodie I was with and ordered a glass of Rosemount Cabernet Sauvignon with my Vietnamese dinner (not the fusion stuff one might expect in Northern California). Just as I expected from my Cabs, it had a nice, smooth, not-overpowering taste. Unlike what I expected, it was very very aromatic, all the way out of the glass and down the gullet.

This wine was Good.

Ian McKellen is back for another installment of Harrison Bergeron rhetoric. The cast is diluted with the introduction of many many more of the comic book characters. But in the end, I simply enjoyed the movie for what it was: a movie to start off the summer blockbuster season.

	Body count: high. Plenty of humans and mutants will not be around for a sequel (if there is one).
	Explosions, cars: 2-for-1 special! Pyro gives us lots of exploding cars.
	Eerie rhetoric from Auschwitz survivor Magneto about anti-mutanism.

I hearby lay claim to coining the new term “Googlesquatting”:

1. Let the record show that this term is not already in published use by anyone else (base form).
2. Googlesquat (gÅ«’gôl’skwŏt). v. goo·gle·squat·ting, v., intr. To publish or maintain a web page that shows up higher in a Google query than other arguably rightfully-higher-ranked pages.

Illustrative uses of “googlesquatting” in a sentence:

• Francis Ford Coppola, sommelier: Dammit! That POS website Tsaiberspace is googlesquatting my winery! This is rich. Beating out the FFC homepage? What’s wrong with Google?
• Boston.com staff: Dammit! This POS website Tsaiberspace is googlesquatting our reviews! Who are those people in the picture?!? And he doesn’t even review the restaurant!

Update: Boston.com has gotten their SEO game together. FFC still has not …

Update (2006-06-19): Lame. Google changes its search results based on whether or not you are signed in (presumably to tailor the results based on your previous search/clickthrough history). I’m not as important as I thought I was …

The Boston Globe came by the office to write a story and take some pictures; I happened to be in the right (wrong) place at the right (wrong) time. The article was accompanied by this photo:

I’ve added Lightbox JS to my Photo Gallery; technical details are described here. Have fun!

We’ve been carrying this ½-bottle for almost 4½ years. Purchased at the St. Supéry Winery in Napa Valley, it has survived a 6-hour plane ride to Atlanta and a 2-day car ride to Boston. It tastes much like any other Chardonnay or Zinfandel, although perhaps a hint sweeter.

This wine was OK.

After a six-year hiatus, the high-flying globe-trotting lip-reading Chinese-speaking master of disguise is back for a third movie.

	Handguns: even the unsuspecting newlywed wife eventually fires one.
	Assault rifles: a disappointing lack of gee-whiz gadgetry here.
	Requisite fancy sports car with hot-chick driver: check.
	Explosions: plenty, by land, by air, and even intra-cranial.
	Body count: plenty, almost boringly so.
	Tom Cruise uncredibly whipping out the compass-and-protractor geometry: check
	Globe-trotting: Berlin, Rome, Virginia, Shanghai. Who knew Tom Cruise could speak Italian and Chinese (no German required; everyone in Berlin is target practice)? For all the globe-trotting, there is an odd lack of subtitles; in fact, most subtitles only appear when Ethan Hunt is lip-reading.

Some fun flash games with stick figures:

• Dungeon Escape: remember Dragon’s Lair?
• Stick Arena: multiplayer deathmatch