InfoTart » friends http://www.infotart.com/blog Musings of a Mobile UI Designer Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:34:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Lost in a Corn Maze http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/09/21/lost-in-a-corn-maze/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/09/21/lost-in-a-corn-maze/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:27:00 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/?p=164 Some friends and I joined up with the Chiltern Outdoors group to enjoy the giant corn maze in Sterling, MA, yesterday. It turns out that this farm does it every year and their “Mega Maze” is very well known throughout Massachusetts! Who knew?

www.davisfarmland.com

There were about 15 people who showed up for the Chiltern event altogether. We broke up into smaller groups to go through the maze; 5 of us in my group.

Oh boy, did we get lost! Our group kept tracing and retracing our steps. Finally, after an hour and a half we asked the kids working there for help to at least get onto a new path and into a different section of the maze.

Another hour and half after that, we literally stumbled onto the way out. Thank goodness! We were all becoming a bit stir crazy by then. And hot. And hungry!

Here’s a picture of our group at the exit. Notice the relief on our faces!

Our Corn Maze Team - Happy to be Done!

(Thanks for the picture, Thom!)

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/09/21/lost-in-a-corn-maze/feed/ 0 Autism Speaks: Walk Now for Autism http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/09/14/autism-speaks-walk-now-for-autism/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/09/14/autism-speaks-walk-now-for-autism/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:00:51 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/?p=162 In Westfield, MA, yesterday for the autism walk. My friends, Patrick & Kathy, have beautiful son, Ryan, with autism. Every year, more than a dozen family show their support by walking for their team called “For the Love of Ryan.” Learn more at:

www.walknowforautism.org/site/c.kpILKVOCJoG/b.3618169/

The organizers put a nice video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmrdHJa1-Yc

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/09/14/autism-speaks-walk-now-for-autism/feed/ 0 North Shore Day Trip http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/07/18/north-shore-day-trip/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/07/18/north-shore-day-trip/#comments Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:28:11 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/?p=146 An old friend of mine whom I originally met about 16 years ago recently got in touch with me through Facebook. We had lost touch with each other about 10 years ago.

Mark was planning a visit to New England to visit some family, so he stopped by Boston for a couple of days. I love to go sightseeing with friends from out of town. With the gorgeous weather, Mark rented a Seabreeze convertible and we headed up the North Shore for a nice drive.

What’s really cool is that Mark has one of those super cool digital SLR cameras. (They also cost a small fortune…) He let me borrow it to snap pictures all day. I’m totally in love with that camera! Time to start saving up some spare cash…

Check out the pictures I took in my online picture gallery:

www.handaweb.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3193

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/07/18/north-shore-day-trip/feed/ 0 Newburyport Music Festival http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/07/14/newburyport-music-festival/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/07/14/newburyport-music-festival/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:34:45 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/?p=147 Some friends and I went to the Newburyport, MA, Music Festival on the 12th.

While walking to Newburyport Center, we came across a papier mache bird that had been thrown out and abandoned on the street. Carl took an immediate liking to the bird. We named him Ruffles and he became our mascot for the day! We snapped quite a few pictures with people in our group plus random strangers with Ruffles.

Check out the pictures on Flickr:

www.flickr.com/photos/56758117@N00/sets/72157606141786732/

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/07/14/newburyport-music-festival/feed/ 0 I’ve Joined the Twitterati! http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/06/01/ive-joined-the-twitterati/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/06/01/ive-joined-the-twitterati/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:44:26 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/06/01/ive-joined-the-twitterati/ It turns out that many of my friends have accounts with Twitter, this fun little “micro-blogging” service that seems to have captured the hearts and minds of the digerati. I first heard about it after the South By Southwest conference last year when it burst onto the scene, but resisted creating my own account at the time.

Well, I finally took the plunge and created my own account on Twitter yesterday. So far so good — two days into it and I’m still doing it! Look me up at: www.twitter.com/AnthonyHand

If you’re on Twitter already, let’s be friends! My ID is AnthonyHand.

I’m hoping that my fascination with this shiny new toy lasts a bit longer than a month…

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/06/01/ive-joined-the-twitterati/feed/ 0 Joanna & Me http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/04/13/joanna-me/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/04/13/joanna-me/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:02:45 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/04/13/joanna-me/ Tonight I finally went to the Kowloon on Route 1 in Saugus for dinner. With its big tiki tacky, I’ve been wanting to go for years, but never actually got off my tush to go.

This afternoon I met up with my friends Tim & Joanna to hang out and get dinner. They live in Melrose a hop, skip, and a jump from Rte. 1, so instead of the same old place we love (Turner’s Seafood), I suggested something different. Something cornier. Something tiki-er — the Kowloon!

Kowloon Restaurant on Rte 1 in Saugus

Well, I skipped the Scorpion Bowl because I wanted to be able to drive home tonight, but otherwise it was a fun visit. That place really is over the top, even on the inside!

At some point during dinner, Joanna grabbed Tim’s Nokia N95 and took this great picture of us. Isn’t she adorable?

Joanna and Anthony

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/04/13/joanna-me/feed/ 0 Good Reads http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/20/good-reads/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/20/good-reads/#comments Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:36:03 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/20/good-reads/ I have several friends who are avid readers. While I may read a book or two a month (in between my gazillion magazine subscriptions), they tend to read many times more than that, it seems.

So my friend, JP, told me about this social networking site called Good Reads. The point of the site is to share reviews and ratings of the books you’ve read with your friends. Based on what you’ve read, the site will also recommend books that others who’ve read it have also read. (I think it uses Amazon’s recommendation engine for that. The site is an Amazon affiliate and makes some money off presenting links to Amazon for purchases.)

Now, I’m actually pretty tired of the social networking phenomenon in general. May I never join another MySpace/Facebook/Tribe/Bebo clone!!

That being said, I’m okay with joining websites which offer tightly focused communities where social networking isn’t the end all/be all of the offering, but rather enhances the offering. For example, there have been other websites before allowed you to enter the books you’ve read into virtual bookshelves. As a standalone offering, that’s kind of boring. But add the social networking effect where I can see the books my friend JP likes (we have a lot of overlap in the fantasy genre), and it becomes much more compelling.

It’s also fun that the web site offers a “gadget” which can be easily added to your blog so you can share the books you’ve been reading with the world. I just added my Good Reads gadget to this web site. (It’s on the right hand sidebar.) We’ll see how much I like having it there over time, but right now it’s okay.

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/20/good-reads/feed/ 0 A Night With Jacqueline http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/08/a-night-with-jacqueline/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/08/a-night-with-jacqueline/#comments Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:11:46 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/08/a-night-with-jacqueline/ I visited my former office yesterday, iSkoot, and snapped a few last pics with my former co-worker, Jacqueline. Then last night, my friend, Dave, and I went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. After dinner, we went to Atwoods and met up with Jacqueline and a few of her friends.

Isn’t Jacqueline a cutie? And now she’s moving off to San Fran next month! I’m going to miss that girl… :-(

(Click on a thumbnail to view it full size) 

Jacqueline kissing Anthony’s cheek

Anthony kissing Jacqueline’s cheek

Jacqueline and Anthony at Atwood’s

Dave, Jacqueline and Anthony

Dave and Anthony at Atwood’s

Anthony enjoying a beer at Atwood’s

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2008/03/08/a-night-with-jacqueline/feed/ 0 Peter Donnelly – Musician http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/12/08/peter-donnelly-musician/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/12/08/peter-donnelly-musician/#comments Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:27:33 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/12/10/peter-donnelly-musician/ A friend of mine lives in Provincetown and has been dating this guy named Peter Donnelly. I’ve met Peter a few times and he’s a wicked cool guy. (Plus handsome! What a good catch…)

Peter had invited me to a concert in Boston earlier this summer, but unfortunately, that was the week I was going to Provincetown. In fact, most unfortunately I’ve missed all of his Boston-area concerts for one reason or another.

I found out today that Peter has a web site to promote his two CDs of original music so I checked it out. He offers a few downloads of his songs and a concert schedule. Plus, he writes on his web site that another new CD is dropping in February 2007. Cool…

Peter has a great voice! He’s actually a good songwriter, too. I’m not sure how to categorize his music. Maybe folk? Anyways, I didn’t realize that he was so good. Now I know what to ask my P-town friend for Christmas…

Peter Donnelly’s web site: www.peterdonnelly.com

]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/12/08/peter-donnelly-musician/feed/ 0 A Painting a Day http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/11/24/a-painting-a-day/ http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/11/24/a-painting-a-day/#comments Fri, 24 Nov 2006 21:57:47 +0000 anthony.hand http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/11/24/a-painting-a-day/ My friend Jeff Hayes is an aspiring artist. Well, he’s not just “aspiring” — he’s doing! And not only is he just doing — he’s painting a picture every day.

Yes, you read that correctly: every day!

How cool is that?

Visit his web site and see what’s he’s been up to. Click on the “Painting a Day” link to view thumbnails of the paintings for each day.

I should also mention that he has a show coming up in Boston. If you’re in the Boston area, stop by his studio during the next First Friday Open House:

450 Harrison First Friday Opening
450 Harrison Ave, Studio 201, Boston, MA 02118
Friday, December 1, 2006 from 5pm to 9pm

For more information, visit Jeff’s web site: www.jeffhayes.com ]]> http://www.infotart.com/blog/2006/11/24/a-painting-a-day/feed/ 0