My favorite names (a list in progress).

Mario Hilario (a newscaster in Rhode Island)
Will Paradise (an ex-boss)
Henry Vumbaca (honorable mention to his dad, Dino Vumbaca)
Kim Komando (if this were not taken, I'd change my name to it)

I don't choose names for this list just because they're funny-sounding. The Name of the Year blog already does that. The name has to be someone I've known, or that I can personally document. And it has to be a name that one (especially me) would actually like to have. My favorite names are those that make me think that the person having the name must be a really neat person in some way.

That's why I'm torn about Coco Crisp (a Red Sox player). It's an irresistable name, but I'm not sure if I can call it favorite or desirable. Well, I can't get it out of my head. And I think his mom must have been a really neat person for giving it to him, so what the heck...

Coco Crisp
Isabel Kunkle
Tara Roach
Sara Finck
Sue Shein

Geeks' night out.

O'Reilly Media (the company I work for) is holding the first Ignite Boston! at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square on May 31. Ignite Boston is based on the Ignite Seattle events, founded by Brady Forrest (www.igniteseattle.com). The concept behind Ignite is that it's a place for geeks to drink beer, hang out, MAKE something, and learn from each other.

From 6:00-7:00 PM we'll be building bridges! Using only 1000 popsicle sticks and a glue gun, can your team engineer the strongest bridge?

After that, author Scott Berkun (The Myths of Innovation; The Art of Project Management) will kick off the event with a keynote talk on...what else...innovation! Following Scott (until about 10:00 PM), other guest speakers will each have five minutes to tell you about some of the cool, new stuff going on in tech today.

So come and mingle with alpha geeks. And if you're an alpha geek -- or just make something really cool -- you can submit a proposal here: http://ignitenight.thirdeye.railsplayground.net/events/form/ignite_cambridge

Thunderheads.

OK, I took this picture at 3:45 PM. I looked up from my computer and thought I had fallen asleep and woken up at 8:45 PM. It was that dark out. It wasn't raining very hard, just scarily dark. Later, there was thunder, and warnings of possible hail or even a tornado. I love thunder.

We had some crazy weather a few weeks ago, too. I woke up one night and thought I was having an aural hallucination. It sounded like a freight train was passing over the roof of our house. Later, my voice coach, who's from the South, told me that freight train sound is indicative of a tornado. I've never heard anything like it in my life. A totally alien sound to my ears. We don't get many tornadoes in the Northeast.

More fundraising.

The Marathon Mama update: Kristina Pinto met her goal of raising over $7,500 for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. As you'll see if you click the link, a serious knee injury prevented her from completing the 26.2 miles of the race...on race day, anyway. Kristina is determined to finish the course as soon as her knee allows. Amazing.

Here's another local guy, One Food Guy, who's riding 192 miles in the Pan-Mass Challenge in August to raise money for cancer. There's still a lot more work to do, so I encourage you to sponsor Scott if you are able.

More knitting in spirit.

I did eventually finish the prayer shawl I wrote about in an earlier post. I'm going to start another one, but meanwhile here's a perfect and timely project for those looking for a smaller time committment: Hokie Healing. (Hokie is the name for the Virginia Tech athletes.)

Knitters and crocheters are asked to create 8" x 8" squares using the school colors (maroon, orange, white, and black), and mail them by May 31, 2007 to:
Mosaic Yarn Shop
880 University City Blvd.
Blacksburg, VA
24060

The squares will be sewn into blankets given to the victims' families.

Pee and Q.

One late morning recently I saw a well dressed, well groomed young man, complete with cellphone and messenger bag, relieving himself against this column. He was actually standing on the opposite side of this brick wall, and had enough class to face away from the street. Although I could only see his upper body, the posture was unmistakable. I pretended I didn't know what he was doing, and he pretended he didn't know I was walking by. Actually I think he really didn't know I was there.

I wonder what made him think this column was a good place to take a leak. It's adjacent to our office building's parking garage, which leads me to the real Q:

What is it about parking garages that reminds males of bathrooms?