When it's time to either find one with, or celebrate the life we all share, there are plenty of religions for that.  Too many reasons to count that you and I don't resonate with the religions of our great-great-great grandparents.  But that's not to say we can't re-link -- connect -- as was always the purpose of religion… in our own way, in whatever way we like, really.

One way I have found this recently is in a relationship between two songs.  Both about relationships, neither supposed to be about the other (just like in any relationship, … the one isn't supposed to 'be about the other,' as much as relate to it).  I don't know to what extent the artists conceived a relationships between these two songs in particular as I have found one. But I don't think that mattters.  I don't think you should either.   Just listen

Feist - The Bad in Each Other  (Metals)

Feist - The Circle Married the Line (Metals)

(it turns out you can stream at least part of the album here ... the rest can be found on Rdio, iTunes or Amazon mp3 I'd guess (though I only know Rdio for sure).

I saw Senna today at the Broadway theater in Salt Lake.  What an amazing movie.  It was composed entirely of archival footage (including Senna-family home movies, as well as ESPN and Formula One archive clips) and told the story of a true hero, in a fast-paced, brilliantly composed film that no fictional thriller could ever come close to matching.  It debuted in Brazil, and has seen theatrical release there, and in Japan. (And now in the U.S. at Sundance).  I hope, for the forces of good, that Universal Studios gives this film a broad theatrical release in the U.S.  It will go to DVD/Blu-Ray, but it would be an amazing shame if it went to DVD/Blu-Ray without first being in theaters, on a big screen, with big surround-sound speakers.  Ayrton Senna's story deserves nothing less than to be told in hundreds of theaters nationwide, and this movie is the only way it should be done (not through a dramatic recreation … which, the director Asif Kapadia told us in the post-screening Q&A, once almost came about.  Apparently Antonio Banderas was quite keen on playing Senna).

So, please, contact Universal and tell them that you want to see Senna in a U.S. theater.  Then, go see it when it is released and feel good about having done a part in bringing what is truly a masterpiece to the public.

By the way, the music was amazing.  Way to go Antio Pinto (who may or may not just happen to be another native son of Brasil).

It seems to me that knowing that you're doing something to help people makes one feel good, even if there isn't a lot of effort one has to exert to be helpful.  It's quite a boon to be able to contribute to society on an ongoing basis, without having to do anything more than a quick one-time action.

You can find just that kind of opportunity with the World Community Grid (WGC).  It's a project sponsored by IBM, with heavy contributions from Stanford.  Here's how it works:

• You follow this link and download the software -- it's called "BOINC" (PC, Mac, or Linux)
• You install the software, somewhere along the way creating an account by just giving your e-mail and creating a password
• then,
  • Option A (for people who like to fiddle around):  edit whatever options you'd like in BOINC, including deciding which specific projects you'd like your computer to work on (e.g., curing AIDS or Cancer; creating clean energy; increasing access to clean water), if you don't want it to do a little bit of all of them
  • Option B (for people who want to just install the software and forget about it): move on to the next step
• Now, BOINC will do its thing.  Namely, the central server sends it a big math problem to work on, and it starts crunching numbers (though never at the expense of your computer's performance while you're using it -- unless you're an Option A person and set it to purposefully use resources even when you're at your computer).  When it's done, it sends the results back to the main server where it uses that information to solve a much bigger math problem.  
• This is called 'Distributed Computing' because the task is distributed among numerous computers, and the result is then assembled.  It's nice because your computer spends a lot of the day just spinning, with the processor literally wasting process cycles.  With BOINC installed, those otherwise wasted cycles go to very good use.

Now, I should mention one thing:  That link up there?  if you follow it, by default WCG will ask you if you want to join the "XtremeSystems" WCG team.  I'm a member of that team, and would love it if you'd join even if you aren't an XtremeSystems community member (XtremeSystems is a community for computer hardware enthusiasts, and specifically those who like to tweak and / or overclock their computers).  But, even if you find another team, or don't join a team at all -- I just know you'll be happy when you check BOINC once every day or so, and see the progress that you've contributed to various projects.

P.S.  There's no money in this for anyone -- points are just for keeping track and motivating people.  And team affiliations can be changed at your whim.

[The post titled "Two things that usually don't make me happy, combined make me happy", which was the original post, ends right before the "Update!" text.  As you might expect.]

Screaming.  Meanness.  I don't like either of these things.  So it's a tad poetic that the solution to a now year+ old problem would be something called the Screaming Meanie. 

After over a year of complete inability to wake up unless physically shaken by someone (and even then—and I'm not joking—it got to the point where I had to pre-authorize the use of ice-water dousing as a threat … and in many cases, actual device … for getting me out of bed once semi-lucid), despite trying what I thought was everything (a VERY LOUD alarm clock, as advertised, and as experienced by me while awake), a computer-based alarm that would play a sound file I had recorded saying "WAKE UP, GET OUT OF BED NOW. YOU NEED TO WAKE UP, GET OUT OF BED …" peppered with sounds from the "Annoying Ringtones" and also "Alarms" sections of Ringtone Feeder (I had one with a little girl saying "Wake up.  If you don't wake up right now I'm going to scream. One, two, three, [little girl screaming]".  None of this worked.  Recently I was facing a period of time when I would not have anyone around to physically wake me (no, wake-up call services, even when set to ring several phones, even when those phones are right by the bed, didn't work), so I set out to find something to save me from days of waking up at some variable time between 2 and 6PM. 

Luckily, I found the Screaming Meanie 220.  (And I'm glad I got the 220, which stands for 220dB, the loudest setting on the clock. The 220 model allows you to select between low, medium, and loud, with loud being 220dB, and medium being 110dB, with 110dB being the maximum setting of the "standard" Screaming Meanie.  More on why I'm glad I got the 220 in a moment).  

It worked!

With one hitch:  when I had it next to my bed, I heard it, clumsily turned it off without opening my eyes, and fell back asleep.  I was now concerned:  If I moved it away from me, so that I'd have to get out of bed to turn it off, would it still be loud enough to wake me? Yes! Yes it was. Even this morning, when I had fallen asleep with closed-end headphones on; the alarm was audible through the headphones and woke me up.  Quite a miracle.  I'm not sure if my cohabitants enjoy the shrill 220dB alarm, so maybe this will be reserved for special occasions.  

I'm particularly glad that even though I was initially on the fence, I went for the 220 instead of the 110, because testing the alarm on 110dB mode proved that it was not loud enough for me.

Maybe, even if you're usually ok but sometimes sleep through the alarm, the $35 the alarm costs would be worth it. Even if only for the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you'll be awake when you need to be, if there's something important to be awake for. :D  

Update! After a series of sleep studies I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea. The best part is that I get to wear a mask that makes me feel like a fighter pilot when I go to sleep.

 The second best part is that I can sound like Darth Vader if I want to, and that's closely tied for 2nd place with the fact that I can actually SLEEP now (it turns out I was getting close to no REM sleep in the "normal" condition — that is, without any O2 or airway pressure), and wake up feeling more rested (did you notice the "wake up" part in there? yup, I can wake up easily now too. For the first time in my entire LIFE).  I feel incredibly fortunate to (a) have had this diagnosed; (b) live in a country where the standard of living is such that "(a)" is possible; c) have found an excellent doctor; (d) have health insurance, so the 2 sleep studies (at $2.5K/pop) were actually affordable, and (e) ditto goes for the CPAP machine, which is what I'll be wearing to bed from now on to make sure my airway stays open and I keep breathing.

I am not fond of hippies, long-hairs, dopie fiends or alcoholics.  I suggest each and every person in a supervisory category (from driller up to me) eliminate these people.

Not sure I've ever seen "long-hairs" used non-sarcastically before, but there you go.  From the many, hilarious, "Texas Oil Memos", courtesy of the wonderfully horrible boss Mr. — excuse me, OWNER — Edward Mike Davis. 

The first one's free.  The rest are over at Letters of Note. (found at BoingBoing via Fever [which will also make you happy]).

There's Gdgt for gadgets, Google stalking for general information, but where are your stalkers to go if they want to know what books you like, what topics you ponder, and (ahem) what site you might spend too much time using to tell people what books you like and what topics you ponder?  As I found out recently, it's GetGlue (that link will take you to my profile).  You can integrate your profile with Twitter and Facebook (though I found out the hard way that if you're not careful, you can tweet some seemingly random stuff, way too frequently); there's a "sticker" / badge reward system to keep you coming back for your pats on the back, and a "Guru" feature that leaves you clamoring to be the annointed expert on your area of choice (or sometimes, not your area of choice.  I found out that since I was the first person to write a more-than-a-few-sentences review of the Long Trail in Vermont, GetGlue automatically made me the Guru, even though I hadn't asked.  With the topic of Monopoly Pricing, a simple one-sentence post on the topic was enough to qualify me as a Guru.  I can assure you I'm a guru on neither of these topics).  

In addition to the badge/sticker system, this GetGlue shares even more with Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt Star:  you can "check in" to tell people that you're reading a particular book, watching a TV show, pondering a topic, watching a movie, etc.  In the vein of Gdgt, there's also a big component where you tell GetGlue what you do or don't like in a particular subject area (for instance, "Topics / Web Apps").  And in addition to "liking" and "disliking" things like TV shows, you can vote on the usefulness of other users' reviews or comments.

One interesting hitch to the auto-Guru feature is that it will only make you a Guru when you "like" a particular item.  I "disliked" Google Checkout, wrote a lengthy, fact-based review and history of the service, and then asked Glue to put me up for a manual vote of users to appoint me as a Guru.  Then on a lark, sensing it might work, I changed my "dislike" to "like," and bingo: I was the new Guru.

I found GetGlue through the iPhone app, but the web platform is much more robust and gives you a lot more flexibility.

A cute feature is that once you've accumulated 7 stickers, you can order meatspace stickers to be sent to you via mail.  I did so.  And in the process, gave them my address.  And they have a ton of my personal taste info.  A marketer's dream.  They *did* promise to only use my address to send me the stickers, and I put an identifying variable in the address I provided them, so it'll be very clear if I ever receive mail as a result of having given them my info.

GetGlue is fun.  The Suggestion engine, which attempts to tell you what you might like based on what you've already told it, doesn't work very well, and is lightyears from Netflixs', for example.  And since there's such a broad array of topics, and since users easily wander from one area to another, rating items, you don't get the "expertise" that you do on a more focused site like Gdgt.  But, GetGlue is fun.  And that might be enough to keep it churning for quite some time.

My GetGlue home screen:

Update Jan 9 2011:  It turns out that the "This content is no longer available" notice above is both indicative of my having linked to an off-site image that was apparently killed, and also an apropos eulogy to Glue's presence in my life.  I haven't touched the app or site in quite a while.  You may very well get a kick out of it, so by all means give it a try if what I wrote above sounds fun to you.  But I can't say that I'll bet you'll be a long-term user.  

I took a course in college on Microfinance (the practice of giving relatively--in the terms of the lender--small loans to poverty-stricken people, with the understanding that the money will be used directly to finance a revenue-generating activity).  A microloan might, for example, go to a poor person who has the ability to make trade-worthy clothing, but does not have any capital to purchase textiles or a loom.

For years, microlending was the stuff of academia, or at best, practised directly by NGOs with presences in local impoverished areas.

But much as sites like Prosper.com changed personal lending in the U.S., the web has led to the flourishing of microlending sites that work with regional NGOs to distribute loans to capital-starved entrepreneurs. 

The first site that gained signficiant press was Kiva.com.  It works with dozens if not hundreds of local NGOs to allow individual lenders like you and me to make loans to specific entrepreneurs or groups of entrepreneurs all over the world.  One catch with Kiva is that the lender earns no interest (interest is paid by the borrower to the NGO, but the NGO keeps it for future operating budgeting), yet bears risk of default.  Think of it as a donation, with the possibility of zero out of pocket expense.  (click on image for larger, readable version)

As you see, I lost 13.05% of my "investment," but this is a far from typical experience.  A glance oer to the "Average" column shows that the typical loss rate is 1.73%.  The entirety of my loss was from a basket of loans that were sent through BRAC Tanzania, an NGO that apparently ran into problems sending money back to Kiva. 

Lenders do see the NGO rating, and at the time I lent, BRAC Tanzania was 4/5 stars.  This goes to show that you should treat a healthy percentage of your microloans as donations, and not expect to get them back.  I would certainly not lend any money that I couldn't afford to lose. 

By the way, notice that "Donations" tab" underrneath "My Portfolio"?  That's a way for you to donate money directly to Kiva itself, so it can continue its operation of running the site, and coordinating with NGOs.  Kiva will hit you up for donations at numerous points in the cycle, including the time at which you make a loan, and the time when you withdraw any repaid money to PayPal. 

At some point (I'm sure the information is out there and easy to find), another Microfinance site Microplace (that does pay a bit of interest back to lenders) was acquired by eBay.  With eBay's capital and savvy, they have room to really get off the ground.  At some point a number of months ago, I made a $20 loan through Microplace, and was astounded when I saw the following statistics when I checked the site yesterday:

(click on image for larger, readable version)

As you see, Microplace is claiming an average amount of $843 invested per user.  I'm not sure if they have a small user base and a few gigantic benefactos (eBay, for instance?) who have humungous portfolios and that's scewing the mean amount invested, but $843 per lender is quite remarkable compared to Kiva's $200 per lender.  One factor might be that Kiva users can very easily give gift certificates (I've done this myself a numer of times), and the recipients of these gift certificates can visit the site and use the amonut of the certificate to choose a borrower, and make a loan.  Maybe those kinds of users only loan the amount gifted through the certificate, and aren't as deeply invested in the process (no pun intended).

In any case, I can, with enthusiasm, say that if you have some money to spend, and you get a warm and fuzzy feeling from helping a specific person that you can choose from among dozens, take a look at Kiva and Microplace, and consider making a loan. youllbehappy you did. 

Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) is a company I hadn't heard of until I saw their Zeppelin in an Apple store one day.  I dug a bit and found out that they make cream of the crop, audiophile-appeasing equipment of all types.  The Zeppelin is an iPod dock that also takes USB-in, and will fill a huge room with beautiful sound.  As with all B&W products, you don't want to play MP3's through the Zeppelin, though, as the Zeppelin produces music so true to the recording that you will hear and be distracted by the MP3's inherent compression-related imperfections.  Instead, use HD-AAC or other lossless formats like FLAC or ALAC.  

B&W just released their P-5 headphones, as well as their MM-1 near-field computer speakers.  When Wired magazine reviewed the P-5s, they for the first time ever said that their $200 rule should be broken (i.e., that even though these headphones cost more than $200, they were an excellent buy).  Both the P-5 and MM-1 are works of art as well as the best headphones and computer speakers I've ever used, respectively.  The same warning applies about playing MP3s through these beauties.  B&W has a "Society of Sound" through which you can download lossless (24-bit FLAC or 16-bit ALAC) versions of a wide variety of interesting music, and you get a complimentary 3 months of membership with each B&W device you purchase. After you hear 24-bit music through the P-5s, it'll be hard to go back.  You will probably want to go back through your old CD collection and re-encode all of your music in lossless (instead of MP3) format.