- the view out my office window

Not the first snowfall here in southern coastal Maine, but the first one that is really sticking. And it is still coming down!

// mikepop via hiptop AIM: drjellyfish

Dragged myself out of my warm bed and into the cold car this morning and went meteorite-watching. Not sure of the exact temperature, but I am in Maine, and it was 5something o'clock, and that was I all needed to know to dress in several layers of warm clothing.

Drove ten minutes out to the Blueberry Barrens, a nice dark piece of public open space. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few other cars in the parking lot.

The skies were clear and I saw about a baker's dozen meteorites in a half hour. This included a couple with really long tails, two that came down simultaneously, one odd one that moved slowly across the top of the sky then sped up and flashed as it approaced the horizon and one spectacular orange firebally one. Stop me if I get too technical in my descriptions (:

A pretty good show considering the full moon on one horizon and the encroaching dawn on the other. I caught a nice bright one as I was leaving and the sky was practically blue, but still dotted with a few stars.

Just before dawn, a flock of geese flew overhead and you could just make out their silhouette against the morning stars and moonlit sky.

// mike
"Astronomy is looking up"

Slate includes the hiptop in their "summary judgment" section and uses Cory Doctorow's timeless quote, "I have a technology boner that could cut glass". They also link directly to Hiptop Nation (thanks Emily).


// mikepop via hiptop AIM: drjellyfish

As winter approaches, I can only hope the mnemonics formed by my new sidekick phone # are not too prophetic:

• Ice I salt
• Ice 4saken
• Ice is all
• I be 4saken

The first time I have a phone # not full of zeroes and ones so I have a shot at spelling something, and this is what I get (:

http://dialabc.com/ for all your phone number fun needs


// mikepop via hiptop AIM: drjellyfish

Looks like a pretty slow Monday. I know I am moving pretty slowly.

Some of you might be wondering "hey, whatever happened to those prizes for the Halloween hunt?" where by "might be" I mean "definitely are". Know that we are working to secure the largest amount of Dangerswag possible and will keep you posted.

Will there be other games? Probably, but they won't all be scavenger hunts. Will any of them take place before the holidays? Probably not :)

I guess everyone is pretty happy with the default colors because I haven't received any alternative themes. Still, I'll whip some up.

A while back there was a post a few considered offensive or NSFW (not safe for work). I just want to say that I personally don't consider the human body offensive, nor is my goal to create a Certified SFW Website. When you invite the whole world to post to just one website, chances are someone at sometime is going to post something that you don't agree with, that is not safe for work, or that makes you mad. In that case just scroll past that entry and enjoy the rest of the site.

That said, I am proud of the strong, fun and overwhelmingly friendly community of users that has formed because of the hiptop (as evidenced on this site and sites like DangerInfo, and by the fact that I've never had to go and pull a post from this site. Just goes to show that even a mob can play well together if they try (:

Lastly, a big thanks to the handful of folks who have clicked the link at the top of the page once they decided to buy a Sidekick. Welcome aboard!

// mikepop AIM: drjellyfish e: mike from bedope ° com

By popular demand, the results of the Hiptop Halloween Hunt are here

I'll have a lot more I want to write about the hunt, but I won't make you wait for me (:

// mikepop via hiptop AIM: drjellyfish

Well, I was mistaken about my district using the old-fashioned lever booths - turns out the booths were just for privacy as you marked up your ballots before inserting them into the AccuVote machine.

Pretty crowded; a volunteer commented that it seemed like a heavy turnout.

Also, I stopped at the library and made good use of the hiptop looking up an author name and publication date online while roaming the stacks. Don't worry I had it on "mute" (:

// mikepop via hiptop AIM: drjellyfish

(photo caption: will casino gambling come to Maine? These folks sure hope not)

Were I grew up, voting consisted of going into the gym down at my old grade school (or the other school across the street), stepping into a booth, setting a bunch of levers, and finally registering them with a satisfying "whirrCHUNK" sound as you pulled back the curtain. I assumed this is how it worked everywhere.

Imagine my surprise when I moved to San Francisco and I found my polling place was some guy's garage down the street, where I made my choices with a magic marker on a card table, with a flimsy three-sided plastic divided provided a minimum of privacy around my ballot, which was then fed like some oversized punchcard into some sort of tabulating machine. It was probably tabulated a lot faster, but i missed the "whirrCHUNK". I think tomorrow it is back to a booth system at town hall.

If you are voting tomorrow, grab a pic of your balloting system, polling place or helpful volunteer so we can compare and contrast voting across the USA, realtime.

Some people have commented on the current color scheme of Hiptop Nation, popularly known as "Hiptop Blue Algae". It could have been worse of course. I could have went with "Sunburnt Zebra" or "Real Green Dress, That's Cruel".

So, in case you didn't notice, Hiptop Nation personal blogs now support themes via custom stylesheets. I will get around to creating some less painful color schemes soon, but the good news is that you don't have to wait for me - you can go ahead and make your own!

Just check out the default style sheet, view the source here to figure out what does what, create something to your liking and email it to me (mike - bedope dot com). Until then, there is always "Pretty in Pink"

You can probably figure out how to create a link to your personal weblog using one of the alternate themes, but I'll whip up a "Personal Weblog Construction Kit" page soon so everything is nice and user-friendly. Hopefully by then we'll have a plethora of themes.

This thing is getting complex (:

// mikepop via hiptop AIM: drjellyfish

missed being post 1000 by just one post! and i didn't even realize we were that as i typed the email (:

Wow, 1000 posts in one month (and that is not even counting the Halloween Hunt posts). Way to go everyone

// mikepop via hiptop AIM: drjellyfish