...until I absolutely have to

I don't know why this is so resonant for me, but I'm always charmed by the delivery of this phrase by Steven Weber playing Jack Rudolph on Studio 60.

Can I opt to not be a part of this until I absolutely have to?

I think it applies to nearly every piece of administration and management in my life. 

Backing up my Pinterest data

I love Pinterest, but their organization is primitive. I couldn't clean up my board without making major changes and deleting pins. I didn't want to permanently delete them though, because I often go back to research I did years ago. So I made a local backup of my pins.

Here are the commands that worked for me using in a Bash shell on a Mac:

 # where do you want the backup to go?
cd /Users/manducasexta/Documents/Dropbox/computer/backup/pinterest

# what is your Pinterest URL?
a=http://www.pinterest.com/manducasexta/

# Exclude these pinterest directories; we only want our own boards.
excludeList=/popular,/all,/gifts,/terms,/copyright,/categories,/explore,/videos,/places,/_

# Download your home page and your boards
wget --convert-links --exclude-directories=$excludeList --recursive --level=2 --domains=pinimg.com,www.pinterest.com --span-hosts $a 

Watch out for line breaks. The lines that start with "#" are comments. Each comment is followed by text that should all be on one line, so you may need to fix the line if you copy and paste.

I wanted to minimize the effect on Pinterest servers, so I excluded directories and limited my recursion level to limit the download as much as possible to my own pins. The download does include things from other people's directories, but the only thing I saw downloaded from them was index pages (not images).

I have 709 pins. The local backup is 220 MB.

Cafeina in Albany

This is a nice place. There was a steady stream of clients sitting at tables a a few long timers.

It's a pretty small place and they don't seem to have a broad range of drinks. I didn't see any blended options. I had an iced mocha that I enjoyed. The work of the staff seemed kind of effortful rather than effortless and not actively welcoming.

They have no dedicated wifi. It's on the same block as Toy-go-round, which is great.

There is a fair amount of shady parking for free on the street. It wasn't hard to find parking on a Tuesday morning at 10:30. The parking was for 90-120 minutes. After 80 minutes, I checked my

It's not my favorite--I'll keep looking.

Rick and Ann's

Brunch at Rick and Ann's with D and F M and the two dogs. Food was good, especially the almond honey scone. Great to see D and F. We took apple berry pie to go and ate it on D and F's new nearby patio.

Photo from bringfido.com credited to Rick and Ann management

I am not a "PR friendly blogger"

What are the chances I'm going to follow a twitter user whose bio says she's a "PR friendly blogger." That sounds like a synonym for "content free" to me.

In the key of debutante

Having recently read the autobiography of a debutante who joined the circus and generally transgressed the social mores of her upbringing (Still Swinging in Wonderland), this comment about the recently deceased Jean S. Harris struck a chord with me:

The New York Daily News reporter Theo Wilson wrote that she took the stand looking as if she could not “pick up the wrong fork, much less a loaded gun.”
- Lesley Dormen, NYTimes, 1/4/2013

Primitive twig

My favorite thing I saw Sugarloaf craft fair at Montgomery County Fairgrounds last Saturday were these figures by Primitive Twig. Their website didn't really represent the stuff I saw, so I lifted this photo from a google search:

I don't know that I'd want one in my home, but I was entranced.

geometric silver rings

The Artsilver booth at the Sugarloaf craft fair at Montgomery County Fairgrounds (last Saturday) had tons of rings and other jewelry. There was a lot of stuff that wasn't my taste, but I really like the overall sensibility. They have a bunch of rings that can be split in two and flipped, changing the shape.

fine-line printed shirts

I saw these at the Sugarloaf craft fair at Montgomery County Fairgrounds last Saturday. The print designs are really nice. The fabric is soft. It's not as extremely thin as some, but it's still thinner that I would wear without wearing a second shirt under it.

Olympic photography

I was struck by this photo of Olympic show jumping by Alex Livesey. It turns out he's taken quite a few striking pictures of horses, including some skikjoring:

Some other excellent professional photos from the Olympics are being taken with an iPhone.

Olympic fashion - south korea vs norway

I love the fun hats on the female South Korean archers, and the rest of the shooting ladies aren't doing too bad in the fashion department. I'm not sure they're in the same league with the Norweigan curling guys of Vancouver 2010 though.

NIH plays Peck and Bartok

The NIH Philharmonia performed two Concerti for Orchestra by modern composers last night. There was lots to intrigue me: one of my doctors was performing in the orchestra, the distribution of the age of performers (mostly 50+, next largest group was <30), the way my friend and I started itching like mad around the same time, wondering whether performers worry about the effect of peckzicatto on their instruments and the entertaining Nancia D'Alimonte's introductions to the pieces. She was riveting -- she would be a great host for a TV series about classical music. I was curious to what extent she scripted her introductions, because they were very well crafted, and when she lost her place, she seemed to pick up a precise thread, not a fuzzy one. Although they were certainly carefully planned,  the wooden quality nearly always found in scripted speech was absent, making me think they might not be completely scripted.

The first piece was Mozart Escapes the Museum (Peck), and the final piece was Bartok's unnamed Concerto for Orchestra. I enjoyed it and Signs of Life II much less than the first Peck piece, but that may have been due to the itchiness rather than the music. I'd hate to think I'm unable to appreciate the work of someone with the hair in this picture. 

More strange birds

The eastern rivers of Virginia are apparently a gathering place for funny-headed birds. After yesterday's kingfishers, today I saw two types of mergansers. The flock of 14 red-breasted mergansers dove for long times and distances. I only saw one pair of hooded mergansers, but they are even stranger looking to me. The bright white on the side of the male's head is quite striking, and the halo of brown on the female's is also intriguing.

The red-breasted merganser:

by Hilary Chambers via Flickr

The hooded merganser:

by Mr. T in DC via Flickr

Slate breaks my brain

I caught earworms from Slate podcasts today.

Vulture capitalist - It's catchy. Having spent so much time hearing about venture capitalists in silly valley, I am particularly entertained. And, according to the first definition I could find (Investopedia), that's the genesis of the term. I wonder if its application to "agents of creative destruction" signals the breakdown of the support of conservative poor for the financial agenda of the conservative rich (i.e. if presidential candidate Rick Perry believes that breakdown is possible and wants to exploit it by criticizing Mit Romney of being an ally of the wealthy and not the poor).

Brainsicles - A brain on a stick, someone who is unaware or indifferent to their body.

Female belted kingfisher

I saw a belted kingfisher in the late afternoon today on the Chesapeake Bay. I didn't get a photo, but she was kind enough to stay in place for a while. Apparently only the females have the brown on the chest. The mohawk on the one I saw was pretty dramatic, and her head was black all over. Very cool. Photo by Len Blumin

Surprised by fowl longevity

Banding studies show that many species of ducks and geese live to be twenty years old.

http://www.maine.gov/ifw/wildlife/species/waterfowl/index.htm

When yarn attacks

That's aversion therapy, not advertising.

Ill-timed bad news

Is 20 minutes after New Year the time you want to be telling your customers you're likely to decrease the quality of their service?

felted arm warmers

This lady made these excellent arm warmers. Her color and pattern selection is a perfect match with my tastes.

Bicycle tire tube bag

Vaya bags are awesome.