Archive for October, 2011

Happy Halloween Y’all. Please don’t burn any cats or people.

Monday, October 31st, 2011
Zach's Halloween pumpkin 2011
My pumpkin came out surprisingly well this year, if I do say so myself. The blood is cut from a roma tomato and pressed into a crevice carved into the surface.

I say “Happy Halloween” today, but back when I was in grade school I remember receiving a different message, which went something like this:

Don’t celebrate Halloween. It’s a celebration of a day on which bad people used to go around burning Jews.

I did a bit of Google searching today and have yet to find any evidence that there was a general practice of burning Jews on Halloween. Communities in Europe did burn people who had been accused of witchcraft with alarming regularity1, but I don’t know if they did so particularly on October 31. There does appear to have been a common practice in which black cats were burned on Halloween, which I don’t condone. Many sermons on the net claim that the predecessor to Halloween was a Celtic feast to celebrate a god of death named “Samhain”, and thus anyone of a religion that doesn’t recognize Samhain as a god should spurn the holiday –but it appears that this god of the dead thing is likely a translation mixup that started in the 18th century and according to academics Samhain is just the name of a festival and not a deity.

So I say as long as you’re not inclined to celebrate the flammability of humans of any stripe, feel free to go out and celebrate Spider Man or whoever your costume is supposed to represent. And if you’re driving, watch out for kids chasing candy into the street, and try not to get too distracted by all the women wearing sexy-whatever costumes2.

  1. but apparently not as often as many believe [↩]
  2. “Sassy” Adult Cookie Monster Costume? WTF! [↩]

Posted in Amusing, Religitousness | No Comments »

Plantronics Voyager 520 for $22.99 is a deal on a great headset

Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Plantronics Voyager 520 For $22.99 At Newegg
My previous favorite bluetooth headset1, the Plantronics 520, is on sale at Newegg until 10/22 for $22.99 with coupon code “EMCJKHK69″2.

This Voyager 520 is great, I’d highly recommend it if you need a headset. I’ve gone through a few 520’s and have gifted a few over the years, but have never seen them priced this low. The 520 is small, has enough power for 180 hours of standby, cancels background noise well enough that in my experience the person on the other end of the line could rarely tell I was using a headset at all, and it has one of those futuristic blue LED lights that’ll properly mark it as very dated tech when your toddler comes of age and finds it in a shoebox in the garage.

I get no personal benefit or kickback from recommending this product, it just happens to be a headset I really like at an exceptional price. Get it here if you need such a thing. The coupon code expires on 10/22.

  1. I’ve since gone on to a fancier, larger, and not necessarily better Plantronics model [↩]
  2. sale price is $29.99 without the code [↩]

Posted in Deals, Geeky | No Comments »

Get yourself into the bone marrow registry, save some lives and stuff

Friday, October 7th, 2011
My brother seems to have developed a habit of saving lives every time he goes to Minneapolis. Earlier in the year he resuscitated an older relative, this past weekend he was in Mpls for my wedding shower and started taking a series of drugs meant to stimulate his bone marrow in preparation for this week’s bone marrow donation.

He doesn’t know who his marrow’s going to, and the recipient won’t know where it came from, it’s all anonymous, and it’s all good. To donate marrow, you’ve gotta be lucky enough to be a match for someone who needs it. –a rare thing. He took some drugs for a few days that stimulated production of stem cells, and then was hooked to a machine that extracted them from his bloodstream. It wasn’t a completely painless process, but in his mind it was well worth it.

Amit Gupta
This is Amit Gupta. He wants your braaains. Actually, he potentially needs your marrow. I stole this photo from his page and posted it here because I figure it’d help motivate potential donors to see a human face. Also, my brother makes facial expressions like this, so it’s relevant to the entire post. Neato.
I hope if one day I come down with leukemia and need a marrow transplant that there’s some similarly generous individual in the registry who’s a match for my marrow. Coincidentally, today I read that Amit Gupta, the man who started Photojojo and Jelly, came down with acute leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. He’s encouraging South Asians to register in bone marrow drives, as their marrow has a better chance of a match for him. He needs help, and I’d urge anyone out there who is South Asian to go register. Registration is super-easy and can be done by mail with a cheek swab. He explains how to register, and tells the story of how he received his diagnosis, in the blog post linked to this sentence. I’d also recommend everyone else, regardless their ethnic origin, to go register. You never know when your marrow might show up as a match for someone in need. I think my brother was in the database for years before his number turned up. I’ve been in the database for probably 15 years.

I hope the best for Amit. I’m proud of my brother, and I’ll be proud of you if you go register with the marrow registry.

Posted in Los Angeles | 1 Comment »