Citizen of the World

Everywhere we go in almost every city, there is some graffiti. San Francisco, Berlin, NYC, and DC have some of the best I've seen. Philadelphia is known for their spectacular murals (which are commissioned by neighborhoods), but I wouldn't classify those as graffiti. NYC has phenomenal graffiti. A few weeks ago, we were in the Lower East Side, and I captured a couple of interesting pieces from around Prune on 1st St. & 1st Ave. I noticed - possibly for the first time - that graffiti is now being painted on sidewalks or (as the Eyeworks piece was probably commissioned) on cellar doors, but on the sidewalk nonetheless.

( Some captures of LES graffiti... )

Yesterday, we spent the late afternoon and evening in Brooklyn: Matthew had an appointment there next to the Brooklyn Brewery, so I dropped him off and spent about 30-45 minutes driving around checking out the graffiti in the area. I kinda wanna go back there and find more specimens.

Graffiti holds my interest because it's fleeting and dynamic! You see it, you appreciate it, and you might capture it.  It'll be there once for maybe a week or two, sometimes a month. Then it changes. Someone comes along to add their touch to the item.  Or someone else decides to cover that one with their own thing. The graffiti that is the most exciting is the wall that grows and expands off of one particular tag or image. San Francisco and Berlin graffiti artists, I find, tend to build on others' work, while in NYC, it seems that most artists want to be the ones on top. Perhaps the individual's or collective's cultural expression is coming through the graffiti and its placement - on top of others' work or next to and feeding off of another's.

Here are some examples of Brooklyn graffiti from yesterday's foray; notice the differences between Manhattan and Brooklyn graffiti. It's slight, but interestingly different and both unique.  Also, does a scarf wrap qualify as graffiti? Perhaps. Why not? One of the telephone poles in Brooklyn (below) has a knitted thing around the base, which is covered in graffiti. How about an old, broken, miniature skateboard? It's interesting to see that artists are using stencils and stickers more and more - why not other artistic mediums and materials - like yarn or wood? Enjoy!

( See the Brooklyn graffiti collection... )

In honor of this graffiti post, I even graffiti'd my finger!

Since martini_tim, bigsabu, and I began talking online with Skype earlier this year (prior to their trip to NYC and Bear Week), my computer has been just turning off willy-nilly. We discovered along the way that my CPU was overheating - to temps of 200 degrees F and higher, at which point the computer - to save the CPU - just turns off. There's no blue screen or any warning screen; it just turns off. Today we purchased a no-maintenance, internal "radiator" or "air conditioner" for my CPU, which will arrive on Tuesday.

This morning, I tried taking off the side cover and pointing a Blizzard desk fan at the inside. So far, my machine hasn't turned off in the last two hours (I'm wincing as I type this), but there's no guarantee that when I put the side cover back on it, it won't overheat again without the internal radiator. For the i7 Quad Core processors like we have, this seems to be a common problem. I'm also running the 64-bit Window 7 OS, which is able to use all my 6GB of memory!! Yes, my Photoshop SCREAMS! :-) At least it screams until the whole machine shuts off. :-(

Thing is, there are already four fans in my chassis: One on the back, one on the side, one on top of the CPU, and one built into the video card. The little Blizzard blows into the back, as well! The first time we installed the fourth fan in the back, the temperature reduced to below 174 degrees F, which was acceptable. But now, with Picasa indexing my photos (including the 11.5K+ that we accumulated during our month in Europe, my CPU is working really hard. I've also noticed that when I have a website open displaying multiple adverts that the CPU cores are working much harder as well. If I keep the cores working at a low level across the board, the temp might not rise too high.

But, I cannot wait to install my new mini radiator for my computer. I'll post a review once it's been installed and working for about a month or so.

Matt and I have been listening to Sirius OutQ Radio for the past two months - almost non-stop - when we're working at our computers in the office. Before that, Matt's go-to radio shows on (previously only XM) satellite radio had been the Ron & Fez Show and the Opie & Anthony show. Those are hopelessly straight shows with heavy gay community acceptance and acknowledgements. We actually met Fez and Anthony once at a strip club (not sure if I've posted about this in the past, and I might need to revisit this for everyone...).

On OutQ Radio, we listen to the Derek & Romaine show, the Michelangelo Signorile show, and the Frank DeCaro Show (with Doria - BORING woman). All of these are great, but we tend to laugh most at the D&R Show. I've taken to calling into the shows from time to time on various topics and happily, what I have to say sparks a LOT of conversation from the hosts as well as other callers. Always fun. We also record the show when I'm calling in out of vanity because I get to hear how my voice sounds on the radio.

On the D&R Show, they have a segment called, Desperately Fucking Angry. Callers get to express their anger on any topic at all and D&R respond, feed off the comments, or get into a fun and/or interesting banter with the caller. We just heard about a number on the Opie & Anthony Show on XM/Sirius called the F-U Line. If you just want to call in and tear someone a new asshole, just call the F-U LINE at: 1-866-FU-LINE-1. This is a number you can call and just rant if you want. It's anonymous and your rant might get on satellite radio!

Fun with satellite radio!

Just so you know (this is a geeky link), if you go to this website, you can see if your computer has the Conficker virus. If all the images in the top right box of the chart appear, then you don't have the virus (read the image combos' definitions). Hope you're clean!!

My sister just sent across this search engine we'd never heard of before:

http://www.iknowall.com

It's a combo of Google, Yahoo, and MSN all together - so you're using three different search engines simultaneously. Thought I'd pass it along.

This is very similar to:

http://www.dogpile.com

but the interface is better on http://www.iknowall.com./, especially if you have a very wide screen.

My new town!

http://meisterflop.myminicity.com/

Check it out!