prod & ponder

1. It’s always nice to see my photos go out in the world and have a life. One just got used in an online story from Philadelphia Weekly. Props to technorati for making such things far easier to track.

2. Could someone explain to me how the Montgomery County Democrats, representing an area wildly dense in folks with graduate degrees, could put out email notices and a website that repeatedly refers to an event speaker as “Dr. Jeffrey Feldman, PhD?” C’mon folks, either Dr or PhD is fine, but not both. Has the party gotten so disconnected from academics that no one was around to spot the error? Ugh! I’ve written to organizers and Feldman about the mistake, so hopefully it’ll get cleared up, because right now it’s just painfully embarrassing. (Just to be clear, Feldman’s likely only mistake is not paying better attention to publicity material others are creating about him. He doesn’t make the same mistake on his own website.)

Tasty food, and lots of it, at Ben’s Chili Bowl.

Is attending back-to-back blogger happy hours excessive? Yes, maybe. However, in my defense, I’ve got some professional rationale for being there, what with the cyberculture course about to start and guest lecturers to round up. That said, these things do ultimately just involve drinking and banter with clever and interesting people–no defense or excuse is really needed.

I didn’t take many photos, for a variety of reasons…
1. I was talking with folks.
2. It was a happy hour AND a pool hall, combining the two subjects that I’ve already spent just way too much time photographing lately.
3. Later on I was busy getting my ass handed to me in pool. Techne not only beat me in two out of three games, but easily nailed the best photo of the night.

But I will offer this one, with the title…
#2 (a) tries harder, (b) failing with that effort, tries to eat your face

It’s Rob, one of DCist’s founders, with Wayan, one of DC Metblogs’ founders. Metblogs frames itself as being comparable or a competitor of DCist, though I’d be surprised if its readership really justified the comparison. But I could be wrong there; we’re lacking good/any data on DC blog readership. And that probably raises a good assignment for student research: surveying daily hits and visits stats for area blogs–keeping it anonymous to avoid invidious comparison and any incentive to inflate the nubmers. Bloggers, write me (here in comments or on email) and let me know, would that data be interesting to you? If it was an anonymous online survey, would you be willing to contribute the stats of your own blog(s)?

Ok, and one other closing shot from the dcist happy hour…

Yep, I went to the blogger happy hour. I didn’t stay very long, but I did catch up with some old blogging friends, met some new folks, and (of course) took pictures. I’ve quickly posted some of my shots here.

My new briefcase recently arrived. It’s a Rawlings bag, made with baseball glove leather (matching my messenger bag), and a has hand-laced handle. It’s turning out to be a quick way to suss out fellow baseball fans.

Speaking of cool stuff, check out this clever online clock. And remember the guy who recently made a million dollars selling pixel-by-pixel ad space on his website? Well another dynamic of digital culture has reared its ugly head in reply to his success: online blackmail.

Classes for the Spring semester start up next week, so this week I’m busily putting together last-minute work on syllabi and readings for the courses I’ll be teaching. There’s not as much time for photography, and lots of asking “what is key?”

Last night was my third time at Buffalo Billiards in about as many weeks. This time it was getting together with fellow FSU model UN alums for drinks.

Some other sights during the evening…