Thanland

Add this to your podcast subscriptions, aspiring jazz lover, you. George State’s Dr. Gordon Vernick’s History of Jazz podcast is a breezy listen that really whets the appetite for the quintessential American music, and at the end you’ll know the difference between hard bop, bebop, and post bop; modal, free and cool jazz.

You hear this song while:

A) In front of the mirror

B) Coming out of the shower

C) Wearing expensive sunglasses

D) Flexing

Who's going camping?

(via Abduzeedo)

∗ Fantastic story and photos: Escaping North Korea

∗ Fun stuff: Pick One The top and bottom 10 things lists are also amusing. When I looked, Lil’ Wayne was at #9, sandwiched between Hell and Ugg Boots.

∗ Now you know: Magenta Ain’t a Colour

∗ Put this on the someday list: The Doomsday Rule lets you calculate the day of the week for any date.

∗ Old but good: Whose fish?

"I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of telling lies to be free."

- Roxana Saberi interviewed on NPR

Emily and I are gearing up for a weekend full of wedding invitations, so I whipped up these maps to help folks get to where they ought to be on August 22nd.

Naturally, they are going up on emilyandthan.com as well.

∗ Amusingly Defaced Street Signs

∗ Inside Steve Jobs’ dilapidated mansion

∗ …which reminded me of Steve Jobs at home in 1982

∗ Jurassic Park, anyone?

∗ “He offered to put it on the television, you know, the internet… What do you call that thing?

Have you received a phone call asking if you’ve gotten an email recently? Let me describe a recent scenario.

My well-worn 1995 Honda Accord is getting to the point where I should probably have a contingency plan in case it suddenly refuses to roll past any further 250,000 miles. My mother, bless her, heard of a friend who was selling his vehicle and sent me a Facebook message to let me me know. Being that I don’t check my Facebook account during work (much) I didn’t see the message until later that evening.

In the meantime, Mom 1) sent me a text message to tell me to check my Facebook messages, 2) left a voicemail to see if I got the text message about checking my Facebook inbox, and as far as I can remember, 3) talked to Emily about checking with me to see if I got the voicemail, text message and/or Facebook message.

I’m not the only one who’s had this experience. Prudie just answered a letter to that effect. (FYI, Mom, I’m not insinuating that you’re hovering, just that the extra messages to check the one message was overkill.)

Perhaps this is a consequence of living for years now with the delightful sense of instant communication gratification, and to that I say, “Chill out.” Or you might just get a postcard from me asking if you got the email I sent you about the voicemail I’d left regarding the text message about the package I’d sent you.