I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have MTV, or I don’t have my ear to the streets of current top-40 music, but for some reason I have never heard of Gnarls Barkley. But now that I have witnessed the following video, I have gained a deep respect for him/her/it/them. Check it out:
Powers of 10
I remember seeing this movie first in a middle school science class. I saw it again in my Math for Liberal Arts course when attending Warren Wilson College. I’m glad to see it has surfaced on the internet, and is free to view.
The film is a 10 minute journey that boggles the mind. I’d love for someone to make an updated version that reflects discoveries made since the original was made. Still, this is totally worth your next 10 minutes of life.
I want a ____ to ____
Need some free software to get something done? Check out I want a freeware utility to… where the list of over 400 applications keeps growing. Many of these I use often.
Now you can double your pleasure with “I want a Firefox extension to…”. A great way to learn why the world’s best web browser keeps getting better.
With many of the applications and extensions on those two sites you can then carry your life on a thumb drive or ipod, which is always cool.
Think about it.
Links For You
An update for Firefox was released today, bringing it to version 1.5.0.4. I suggest you go get it if you don’t use Firefox, or use the auto-update feature (Help > Check For Updates) in Firefox if you do.
Harvest is a really frigging cool web-based time tracking application. I have been toying with the free demo account and am going to set up a full account when I am done writing this. If you do any sort of freelancing you should check it out.
Today I launched a site I have been working on for a publisher called Enlightened Ink. Glad to see it get out of the starting gate.
After seeing my golf balls slice off to the right every time I hit them last week, I started wondering about The Perfect Swing: Reality or Myth?. Check out all the links to tips at the bottom of the page.
Former AFCCC co-worker Jason seems to have latched onto the wonderful world of blogging quite nicely, putting together a great site for his family.
For you web developers, Vitamin seems to be coming along quite nicely, with great articles from some of the web’s leading minds. And it looks cool too.
Dell has started shipping their higher resolution laptops using a default 120dpi setting for the display. While this helps the readability of text on these systems, it makes an awful bug in Internet Explorer 6 rear its head. What happens is that IE tries to upscale gif images in addition to fonts, thus rendering them very pixellated and jagged. This frustrated me for about a week recently, until I learned the reasoning. If you want to remain at 120dpi but not have the problem, there is a registry hack you can use.
Man, oh man, I want one of these USB turntables so I can finally convert my record collection to digital format. Actually, just to be able to hear some of my old records on a nice system would be great in and of itself.
Adios.
May 2006
We are back from our week at the beach. Gray turned 3 while we were there, and Dax had a ball with all the family members passing him around. The weather was mild, the trips down there and back were pretty good with the kids in the car, and we ate a lot of good food.
Ben and I were privy to go out for an exciting game of golf at Pawleys Plantation, an Arnold Palmer course, thanks to Amy’s friend Dave. I shot a 115, which I was pleased with considering the difficulty of the course.
To top it all off and make you wish you were there, I have posted some pics of the beach trip and other happenings in May to the photo gallery. Check em out.
Three
Gray turned three at the beach today.
Wrapping paper flew.
A pool was swum in.
Sand was castle-ized.
Waves were jumped.
Cake was devoured.
Bubbles were blown.
Relatives were wrestled.
Naps were taken.
Play-doh was piled.
Magic wands were waved.
Cameras were clicked.
And time has flown.
What’s Going On?
I’ve been working a whole lot.
That’s about it, really. I like working. I really like the fact that the current work I am doing is challenging, stimulating, and educational. I really, really like the fact that I am working for myself and am better off than ever before.
Workaholic?
Perhaps.
Is that bad?
Only if it leads me to neglect my family, which it doesn’t. I work because I love my family and want to enjoy them more.
What’s my end goal?
Well, of course it would be nice to retire at 45 and vacation the rest of my life, but that ain’t gonna happen. I think I’ll settle for working less, playing golf more, and enjoying my family even more than that.
Is this the weirdest blog entry I have ever made?
Probably. I am interviewing myself. That’s what happens when I start writing after having worked about 50 hours this week. Sheesh.
I did find time to make my first venture into electronic music. It ain’t much, but check out this:
Greebo – by Me (mp3)
Click the arrow to start playing it, right click and Save As to download it.
Tell me what you think. I think it needs more.
Searching For Songs
My search party has returned on their Taun-Tauns empty handed. It’s time to close the shield door on the South Wing as Chewbacca moans in agony.
Pretty much since the original Napster was ever worth a darn I have been searching for two songs, but have always come up empty handed.
The first song, which should be easier to find, is called Nothing Special by Bastro. The song was originally done by My Dad is Dead. This song was one of my favorites, but the only copy I ever had was a tape I made from Paul Oldham’s split 7″ of Bastro and My Dad is Dead. That tape is long gone, but my need to hear the song has only grown stronger over the years. The drumming on it was stellar.
The second song was from a mixed tape originally given to my brother when he was in 9th grade at the Brown School in Louisville (which would put me in 5th grade at the time). I think he got the tape from Brian McMahon or Britt Walford. On the first side was the seminal Flex Your Head LP from Dischord Records (I have that on vinyl still), but on the other side were a bunch of random songs.
There were no liner notes or anything, so I don’t know who sang it, but the song i think was called Refrigerator Kid, and was about a kid getting stuck inside of a refrigerator and suffocating. Morbid, yes, but it stuck with me all these years, and I’d love to hear it again.
That tape I inherited from my brother pretty much steered me away from Def Leppard and Nena, altering my musical tastes forever.
Anyone know anything about these songs, where I might obtain a free MP3, or even buy them?
An update to the pics
I just added an April 2006 section to Ye Olde Photo Gallery. Get yer fix on. Some of the pictures are old and from my cell phone, which I tend to forget about downloading to my PC. Some are from Easter weekend in Columbia, some are from An Event Apart in Atlanta, and some are from our trip out to Brevard today. We went to see our friends Jenni and Jay and their daughter Lilah. Our friends Dave and Celeste were there with their son Frank too.
After looking at these, I realize I need to take more pictures of Dax. It’s kinda easy to forget about him because all he does is sit there.