May 28, 2003
Happy My Birthday to everyone!
Yesterday I got older.
Not a lot older, but enough to warrant the statement.
At least I got some sweet swag out of it.
The lovely Micki Krimmel bought me the acoustic guitar I've been pining away for (heh, heh) lo the past four or so years. It's a Taylor 314. It's the most beautiful thing in the whole world. Sitka Spruce sound board, Mahogany Neck and Ebony Fretboard. Inlays of mother of pearl and Indian Rosewood. It's just awesome. I've never owned an acoustic guitar before. This is a hell of a way to start.
I also got a sweet 50 Cent tee shirt from Juice. I'm wearing it right now. I look good.
May 26, 2003
Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day because it was a time set aside to honor the nation's Civil War dead by decorating their graves. It was first widely observed on May 30,1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former sailors and soldiers. On May 5, 1868, Logan declared in General Order No. 11 that:
The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit. |
During the first celebration of Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.
Source: The History Channel
May 24, 2003
Well, now it's definite.
Amazon currently has free shipping on all Super Soakers, making Spring's arrival official.
We weren't too sure for a little while about just which season this was. I seem to remember a few warmer days and a slightly different hue to my forearms in the weeks past, but that seems like a distant dream now. One I can't quite recall through a grey haze of shitty New England mist. We have nothing to go by but the calendar as far as the season goes... and the calendar's got it out for all of us.
Enter Amazon to set it all straight.
Most Super Soakers are roundabout the $10 mark, but if you have any pride at all, you'll be spending a few extra bucks on the ESS Turbine Super Soaker. It has blinking lights.
In all honesty, it really looks like the Hasbro Super Soakers are real pieces of crap nowadays. I read some reviews and people are pissed. People who take Super Soakers very seriously. They're ugly, anyways. Dead ugly. Basketball shoe ugly.
UPDATE: I guess I spelled the word 'definite' wrong in the title of this blog. My mother was kind enough to let me know. I promptly righted my wrong only to be met with a wave of guilt. It's not honest of me to just go around edited my words after they've left my IP. So I added this update. I hope my mother's proud of me.
May 23, 2003
Destination: Elsewhere.
Well, we finally set a date. On July 1st, Micki and I are Californian.
We were really excited at first. "Yay! We're finally in a situation to set a date and go about this like real grownups!" "Now we can start planning our lives around the move instead of planning the move around our lives!"
Now, that date we so happy to concoct is bearing down on me like a freakin' freight train.
In a last ditch attempt at an efficient move, we're selling everything we own. Come buy it. This is the part wherein I use my new blog to advertise our yard sale. Maybe I won't bother. Soon enough I'll have a little web page up with photos and or descriptions of many of our fine wares. For now, love the banner ad:
UPDATE: I have used the crazy Photoshop automatic web gallery feature to make a very ugly catalogue of some of our goods for sale.
Feel free to peruse.
[5-27-03]
May 22, 2003
Elbow: Pushing the boundries of internet music marketing
Elbow is one of the most wonderful bands in the world. I blew the chance to play with them and South a couple years ago when we took another gig at the same club a few weeks earlier. Jesse and Stacy from my band got to do an acoustic opening set for the show, though. Broke my little heart.
Anyhoo, they're finally working on a new album and have decided to give this 'online single' thing a shot. On May 26th (the day before my birthday), they'll release a new single called "Ribcage" available only at their web site, elbow.co.uk. You can go there now to 'pre-request the online single.'
Really curious? You can hear clips of the song by viewing Elbow's e-Card, or the song's promo video and audio clips on the site.
In keeping with Elbow's hopeful experiments in current eMusic trends, they've released an 'intelligent screensaver.'
"Why," you ask? "I thought screensavers were obsolete unless you're running a ten year old monitor?"
Well, they are. That is, unless they give you concert tickets.
Elbow is planning a one-off concert with general admission tickets only available through the screensaver. The program will also offer advance news, info, tour dates and audio samples. Heck, I'll try it.
By the way... anyone familiar with my photography will understand my fasciation with Elbow's single cover artwork. It's just amazing.
The screensaver is available at elbow.co.uk/screensaver.
Ugh...
I just got a call from PSG (Professional Staffing Group). I spent the day yesterday walking around in the rain interviewing and testing at temp firms. Not many things are more depressing for someone who was was making quite a good living in the field of his choice. Now I'm schlepping around begging for jobs that I can't believe exist for slightly less than 1/3 what I used to make back when I enjoyed work.
Private web jobs are fun, but they aren't paying the bills. Since I've got a big move to LA coming up in a month or so, I'm starting to worry a bit about money. Speaking of, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get ourselves and our stuff to LA? I've never moved out of state. Shipping, flying, renting, driveway cars... it's all too much. Have you done it before? Did you and your things get there with a minimum of missing pieces? Lemme know.
Yeah.
One more nerd tip and that's it
...I swear.
I have a gigantic music collection. My friend has an even more gigantic music collection, only his is backed up almost entirely on a 100GB external USB 2.0 drive. I happened to be assembling a computer at his house once when he walked over with the drive and said "Hey! You want some music?!" In a matter of minutes, I had effectively doubled my music collection.
But how does one keep track of so many mp3s? Everyone knows iTunes is the way to go if you're on a Mac. It's very simply the best MP3 player and cataloging program on earth. When Apple made their iPod for Windows last year, they had to consider which software to integrate. Either port iTunes to Windows, or find a decent company to partner with on the project. They ended up helping MusicMatch 7.1 to become a better product and give it some very effective MP3 tagging and ID3 lookup features. It can research, retag, and rename files in batches and on the fly. Pretty hot.
So I got that far, but what if I want a list of all my music? That's a pain. We've all seen alternate explorers with features that may or may not help, but I don't really want an explorer, nor do I want to pay for one.
PrintFolder 1.3 is a freeware program that does just what I wanted. Point this little 266k app at a directory and tell it what to list: subfolders, paths, files, dates, info... In a few seconds it created a complete text list of my almost 16 thousand mp3 files and folders.
May 19, 2003
AnandTech's new Real-Time Nerd Engine
This is pretty cool.
Anyone who's ever built, upgraded, or even shopped for a PC or PC parts has probably entered that routine of constantly shopping around, reading all the nerdy overclocker rags, or even going as far as I did and subscribing to the print editions of a few (read: three) of these magazines. I, personally, spent about 4 months constantly reading about PC parts and then going from one site to another comparing their price guides. Well, our boy Anand Lal Shimpi at AnandTech has finally gone and put an end to the price guide wars by giving the world the first Real-Time Price Guide Engine.
AnandTech was already my defacto choice for the most respectable, comprehensive, and trustworthy tech site on the map. They research and all but vouch for the vendors on the guide. Very cool. If you're in the market for anything nerdy, give them a shout.
AnandTech Real-Time Price Engine
PS - stay tuned for a photo gallery featuring some pics of the rig I just assembled. It's my first baby and daddy got a little camera-happy.
I got new shoes.
This is what qualifies for news on a one day old blog.
Eat it up you lapdogs.
I was up all night trying to get into this blog design thing. At 3:30 in the morning, I was all set except for a name. What did I come up with? Media Diet. "Maybe it's just because I've been awake for 22 hours and spent most of them at this computer, but that's not so bad. I feel like I may have seen it somewhere, though... I'll sleep on it and take another look in the morning."
Sure enough, I realized the next morning that Media Diet is the name of the blog done by the ever elusive Heath Row. I don't know Heath personally, but he's a friend of my buddy Brad and Media Diet is linked off the front page of Bradley's Almanac. So, that's where my little clepto-mind nabbed the name from. Oops.
This ties in to an email my friend Meghan sent me last week. It contained a link to a collection of 'found photos'. Honestly. People just find weird pictures and send them to this collection for general consumption. Pretty brilliant. All things considered, I think this is one of the better uses for the massive intellectual resource that is the World Wide Web.
Guess what? The link was to Heath's site.
BTW: Cardhouse is no longer taking submissions. They pointed us to www.royaljournal.com, where found art has become a full time job. This is the best stuff on earth.
Maybe that sounded sarcastic; let me try again:
It's the absurd, obtuse, and unusable daily minutia that makes important things important and everything else fall aside. It's the bizarre goings on in the lives of passers by that give any meaning whatsoever to anything at all that any of us may hope to accomplish. Finding creepy photos of half-made sandwiches is important. Showing them to the world is imperitive. Please, if you have anything to add to this collection, get in touch.