Monthly Archives: July 2007

I had to renew a domain recently and figured I’d check again to see if a taverna domain was available. As I expected they are all taken. What is new this year is that not one of them (com, org, net, us) hosts an actual website. They are all just squatted. It used to be the com, net, and org domains actually had websites on them and just the us one was a squatter-den. But now all four of them are non-legitimate. This practice should be illegal. The one that really gets me is the us domain, it redirects to a com domain that is up for sale by a German company. This German company should never have even been able to get a US domain.
I did a look up on who owns these domains and perhaps the org domain will have content on it soon, since it seems to be owned by a person. However the other ones are held by various domain resellers as they call themselves or filthy fucking cybersquatters as I call them. And the registrar I used to search is no better than these slime balls since it offered to assist me in purchasing these illicitly held domains for $59.99 + commission. How can this be a legitimate business model??

However, since I was searching I noticed that taverna.name was available, so I grabbed it before some squatter did. So now http://christopher.taverna.name will be redirected to this page. This will also give me some flexibility in securing domain space for my family, just not in a top level I had hoped for.

I’ve mentioned before that I am originally from the “forgotten borough of NYC” Staten Island. Although I am happier in my chosen rural setting I still feel bad for my hometown. I have been following Anil Dash‘s posts on How to Visit New York City and was glad he mentioned that there is more to NYC than just Manhattan. However I was disappointed, but not surprised, that Staten Island made his list of places you can skip on your visit. It seems whenever SI makes the news it is in a negative light. Most recently was the so-called “peacock pummeler.” There are historic/tourist things to do on the Island, most notably Historic Richmond Town and Sailor’s Snug Harbor. Historic sites can be a huge draw, as exampled by Old Fort Niagara in New York or Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. SI doesn’t seem to be doing much to promote or attract their share of the NYC tourist trade. However, as a counter-point to the brief reason not to visit SI, I found an article on Visiting Staten Island.

Today was a rainy and gray 4th, but Karen and I had a wonderful day together. Since the girls are away we went for a drive today. We went to Midway Park to play some skee-ball and eat junk food, then we went to the Chautauqua Institute for a bit. Then after we had a fun day we went out for dinner and came home. It’s weird being without the girls for so long. But we got to go into shops we normally would avoid if the girls were with us and we had a nice relaxed meal.

We needed the rain here, so I’m glad it rained. I did feel bad for all the kids at the park who had a very wet day ahead of them. But it did clear up in the afternoon. We didn’t get enough rain to add water to our pool though. That has been a frustrating experience getting our pool open this season.

The ironic thing for the day was on the radio they played a “Patriotic 3-in-a-row for the 4th” which they lead off with Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA. As soon as they announced the patriotic theme I thought to myself wouldn’t it be funny if they played Born in the USA, and then they did. Not as ironic as Ronald Regan using it for his campaign, but still it made me chuckle. If you are not familiar with the song it is a look at the shameful way in which Vietnam Veterans were treated after returning home, but the upbeat repetitive chorus of “born in the USA” makes it one of the most misinterpreted songs ever.

I read an interesting article on the water bottling industry on FastCompany.com. (link via Anil Dash and The Knowledge For Thirst)

I drink a lot of water. Probably between 5-8 liters a day. However, I use a polycarbonate bottle that I fill from the tap at home or the water fountain at work. I do drink bottled water, usually when traveling (I buy the gallon jugs and fill my bottle from that) or when it is provided at events. I particularly dislike venues that prohibit outside water and then charge you $3 for a tiny bottle. But that is not really the point of this article. I never really thought about the global impact bottled water had. I have well water that is filtered for drinking now, but everywhere else I have lived I had city water. The tap water was always fine to drink. It is hard for me to imagine places in the world that don’t have good tap water readily available. It really makes you think about buying a bottle of water. Especially when “24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi.” I’ve never heard of Fiji water, but apparently that is a high-end bottled water. Another quote from the article “Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water” is interesting to me since it makes the point that we are importing water from a place that does not have reliable water. It is also mentioned that the company is piping water to some villages, but obviously not to all of them. Water is something we tend to take for granted, so it is hard sometimes to remember that it is a finite resource and we are lucky to have readily available clean water to drink.

I went on a long drive today for my birthday. Not out of any kind of soul searching see the world experience or anything. My mom is taking the girls for the week, and since we live about 500 miles apart we each drove about 250 miles and met halfway. We had a nice lunch and then turned around and went home. I drove most of the way on Rt. 17, which is also know as the Souther Tier Expressway since it cuts along the southern tier of NY. It is actually a very nice drive. The scenery is beautiful along the road. When people think of NY they often think of NYC, specifically Manhattan. It is easy to forget, or not even realize, how rural most of NY is. The rolling hills, the farmlands, the creeks and rivers. It is very relaxing. Of course I moved to a very rural part of the state, so it isn’t a surprise to me, but I know from experience that a lot of people do not realize there is more to NY than Manhattan. It is worth the drive just to experience some of it. It was interesting to me to see how in a rush people were. I usually drive no more than 5 miles above the speed limit, I guess I got all of my rushing out of the way 10 years or so ago. So in the construction zone I was actually doing the posted 45 MPH, much to the chagrin of the people behind me I’m sure. But really, do you really need to do 65 on a tight one lane section of highway? Even with going “slow” I made it home in about the time that google maps estimated. What would speeding have gotten me? An expensive ticket? An accident? Not worth the risk to get home 5 minutes sooner if you ask me. Thoughts like that make me feel old, but then I realize it’s just practical. And maybe that’s the same thing. Being a little wiser, being more practical. It’s all a part of being older.
It’s not that I feel old, but it’s hard to imagine that I’m well into my 30′s already. Karen mentioned she’s seen all of my birthdays since my 22nd. That’s what is hard for me to believe. 10 years. It went by so fast. I spent up until 21 in school, so although classes were different and locations changed it was really all the same stuff for 17 years of my life. Then all of a sudden the real world comes along. And it’s hard to believe how much has been packed into the last 10 years. So many different experiences. It is truly amazing.