Annonce

Presenting the first model-building competition of the band blog.
The rules are as follows:

Contest deadline: The end of May 2006 (no submissions accepted in June 2006 or later for this competition)

Submission guidelines:
- Models must be built in Google Sketchup
- Submissions must be emailed to... me
- Submissions may include the sketchup file, but must at least consist of an appropriately placed .kmz (placed in GE)
- You may build anything you want, but I'd suggest starting with a building or similar structure

Judging: Judging will take place the first week of June. Entries will be evaluated by an independent panel of judges (me and Tom Bell). The winner will receive a free lunch paid for by me at your choice of The University Broiler & Grill, Costa Vida, Gandolfo's, The Mongolian Grill, Golden Jade, or 5 Buck Pizza.

To get y'all started, I've made a sample. You'll need to right-click and Save As. Please note that the geocities hosting I'm using (free) won't upload .kmz files, so after you save you'll need to change the file extension from .doc to .kmz and then open it. If you can't see the extension already (Windows users) then you need to go to Tools > Folder Options > View > uncheck Hide File Extensions for Known File Types > OK.

Thanks for asking

Jon, I am doing great! Its been a rough couple of months, but I came out on top, and conquered some interesting classes, one of wich was a social dance class. Take it everyone you will love it!

Otherwise, I am gearing up for a summer filled with two jobs and house hunting.
Have Great days people!
Batman Out

Change of place

The party tonight is now going to start at 5 pm (sharp - be there by 5 so we can surprise Ramey). I changed the other post to match.

We're combining Aaron's birthday party with a surprise birthday party that Julie formerly-Casperson Lattin is throwing for her hubby, Ramey.

For directions, call me at work. Bring a side dish if you can.

Other good stuff.

Here, everyone! Have a...

...word.

Yes.... it has been a while

And it's good to hear from you, Andrew.

Well, I'm off to go see the Countdown. But before I go, may I just pose this rhetorical question:

What would you do if you were a geek with ten billion dollars?

It's been a looooooooong time.

Hey there, virtual band hall!

It's been far too long since I have visited you all. Just thought I would pop in here and say hello!

I am going slightly homicidal at the moment. I am juggling working, finals, and getting residents checked out. I couldn't be any more busy. Oh, wait......I AM!

On top of that, I have to figure out how, when, and where to move all my stuff for the summer. I am getting ready to attend "Leadershape" which is a conference on, you guessed it, LEADERSHIP at East Canyon the week after commencement. Then, the awesome news......drumroll please......

I will be working on a feature film which is shooting in Filmore, Utah for three weeks at the end of May, beginning of June. I will be working as a gaffer (which is a person who is responsible for assisting with the lighting and electrical, basically a glorified lightbulb changer).

After that, I'm off to glamorous Denver for a week or so to visit my Pop, then it's off to Dallas for a little while to see my Ma and go on a family vacation. Then, it'll be back up here to the U for another year of being a crazy RA.

In other departments, some of you may know that I have found a lady-friend and we are doing quite well. She will be gradumating this semester, and I next year.

Any of you on Myspace and/or Facebook should look me up! I'm almost always on those confounded creations.

Anyway, you are all awesome! I'll see you later.

ps- A question for Aaron: Were you up at the U campus around April 7 in the evening? I thought I might have seen you, but wasn't entirely sure. Strange...

Quote of the day

"the misunderstood powers of the banjo. I mean come on, the thing is half drum half stringed instrument, it was born to groove."
- Bart Olsen, drummer for RS&RB

Instructions for viewing the new video podcast of the DC trip:
-Install iTunes (or update your old version)
-Right-click on the XML icon next to the words "DC Trip Video Podcast"
-Click on Copy Link Location, or Copy Shortcut or whatever (alternately you can just click on teh XML icon and when it shows you the XML file just copy the URL from your browser's Adress bar)
-Open iTunes
-Go to the Advanced menu
-Click Subscribe to Podcast
-Right-click and select Paste (or hit Ctrl+V)
-Click Ok
-Happy Birthday to you

So far I don't have all the videos up. Wait patiently. Thank you.

Also, a funny thing happened to a co-worker of mine the other day. He was parking in the A lot just West of the gym when he saw some guy, apparently fed up with the fact that the orange cones/yellow tape was still cordoning off the curb parking area on the North side of the lot even though there had been no snow for about a month, in the act of taking said cones/tape and chucking them into the bushes/trees on the Northwest corner of the gym so that he could park there legally. (I mean the cones'n'tape just make it illegal to park there, not to move them from there.)

Here's a small hint for any boy/girl relationships: be friends.

By that I don't mean be "just friends" like you shouldn't have any kind of romantic relationship. I mean that any relationship that is more than just friends should still be first and foremost a friendship. If you think about the friendships you have with people that you are good friends with there are certain things in that kind of a friendship. Just make those things the basis of your relationships that are more than just friends and they won't topple. One of those things is to think of the other person's feelings/needs/wants/etc.. Of course if you're all hitched and stuff that aspect becomes more important, but it's the same basic idea.

Just an apostrophe I had today.

Jason, sounds like your techno-adventures are varied and never-ending. I haven't really posted much about my own tech-spoits lately, but suffice it to say that I'm going to be working quite a bit over the next 3 days to try to finish our (my work group) entry for Adobe's Flex 2 application competition. There are some sweet prizes if we take first (don't know what are chances are of that, but you never can tell). I can say, though, that I sympathize with your experience with the different wired faries. The one that visits me most often is the Random Fairy. It makes random things happen in the apps I develop. And the Random Fairy gets the biggest kick out of later on sending over its friend, the Logical Continuity Fairy, to tap our app on the noggin and suddenly make there spring into existence a Reason for why the effects of the Random Fairy's tampering are happening. It's like things 'splode for no good reason and after 3 or 4 hours of digging around we finally find the Reason, which apparently didn't exist until just before we found it.

Woes of coding.

Well, good to hear from you all, including the long-time-no-see BrittChap. How's it be going?

Everybody remember Aaron's party on Friday.

And do your homework.

And don't crash your car.

Or mine.

Thanks.

Hey All

Just thought I would jump on the blog quick as lighning and say hi! to everyone....so
Enaul me @ Britty_in_oz@hotmail.com

Hi!

Batman Out!

Parties Forthcoming

Party the first: Aaron has had a birthday and we need to celebrate it

Time: 5PM Friday April 28th
Place: Julie Lattin's (Casperson) place (so we can celebrate Ramey's birthday, too)

Party the second: School will soon be out for the semester and we need to celebrate that too.

Time: the week after finals, or maybe the friday or saturday after commencement
Place: open for suggestions

Call me with any questions.

What was that?

Okay, I might think that the Monome is cool if I could figure out what it was supposed to do. All I saw was this thing with 64 lights on it connected to an iBook (eyeBook?). It seemed like the thing also controlled the music that was playing, but I can't figure out how. I think the demo could have been better, also, if you could see the lights a little more clearly. For me, I saw lots of reflection off the somewhat shiny top surface. But, if I could tell what the Monome did, I'm sure that I would think that it was cool and I'd probably want one. :)

In other news, the Backup Fairy was averted. I think I might have scared it off. However, I was visited by the Wipe-Out-Your-Server's-DNS-Entries Fairy. That's why my server was behaving the way it was. A simple reset of the DNS entries solved the problem. However, I still have to research the tens of thousands of log entries that the server generated during its soused period.

'kay, bye.

Things to note

Take good notes. There will be a quiz at the end.


Technology is cool.


Any questions? Ok, get out a blank piece of paper and put your name at the top.

Question 1: Wasn't that cool?

Question 2: Sure was.

A visit from the...

...Backup Fairy can be a very disastrous thing. Just ask any of the admins who watch over WebCT Vista. The Backup Fairy makes sure that you have been keeping proper backups of data and settings by causing a need to use the backups to recover. Unfortunately, I seem to be in a bit of a Backup Fairy situation right now with my Linux server, Persephone. Most everything still works on my server, just v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. For instance, it takes about 30 seconds to authenticate when logging in. Rendering web pages can take even longer. And to top it off, it's filling up my web server error logs with thousands of broken pipe errors. So, Backup Fairy? Perhaps. I'll let it be for a day or two and keep researching the problem. I do have current backups of all important files on the system, so I'm not too freaked out by it. It's just kind of a bummer because just when I get my server working just the way I want it, it craps out on me and decides to go on holiday. So far, my Linux server has been an ultra-reliable machine. It works day and night and never complains about anything. It's been up almost constantly since Christmas with only short periods of downtime for maintenance. I think it's only been rebooted three times since Christmas, so if that doesn't say anything, nothing will.

Hasta la Charlie!

DCI Classic Countdown

Thus far it is me and whoever I ask and Jon and whoever he asks going down to the DCI Classic Countdown in my parents van so we can watch Drum Corps videos on the way down. If there is anybody else who wants in, just let me know either on here or just email me at tubaribonephone ~ at ~ hotmail ~ dot ~ com And if you haven't bought your tickets and want to buy some, just click on the link that is a few posts down. Just make sure you buy them for the on in West Jordan at Jordan Landing. later.

Use[ful]less thoughts

Did you know that the Pony Express has a higher bandwidth than a 56K modem? You can transfer a 4.7 GB DVD movie across the country faster on the Pony Express than you can with your common, run-of-the-mill 56K modem. :)

Calvin Klein Eternity for Men costs $1,881.98 per gallon which is still somewhat greater than gasoline. Therefore, we should not convert our cars to run on mens' fragrances. However, gas prices are coming scary close, per gallon, to the cost of mouthwash. So, in the future, we could see some sweet-smelling autos.

Whenever you think of decorating your abode, be sure to contact a gay man. You will end up with the coolest place on the block.

For about $6,000 a sqare foot, you can put TFT LCD windows in your house that can be connected to your computer. These windows can be set to lighten or darken depending on your settings on the computer.

Chao!

I think that is a...

...great idea! Nine weeks, you say! Good grief, that's incredible. That's like a little more than two months. Good on ya, mate!

Anyhow, I really did have a purpose in blogging tonight. Okay, first, I must get up on my perverbial soapbox for a second and speak my mind. I really hope I don't offend anyone and if I do, I sincerely don't mean to. I've just got to say something about this protesting that's been going on lately. If there's one thing that drives me crazy it would have to be people who knowingly break the law. Having served my mission down on the border between Mexico and the United States, I was witness to lots of people illegally immigrating to the States. I dealt with illegal immigrants every single day. The problem that I have is that they work here in the U.S. and they don't pay any taxes. Yet, at the same time, they wish to be beneficiaries of all the blessings provided by this great country. Now, I am all in favor of allowing people to come into this country. We don't need no stinkin' walls. However, if they're going to come to this country, then they need to do it legally. We would be expected to do it in their country. So, until these illegal immigrants (from whatever nation) go through legal means to obtain citizenship, then they are criminals. It's that simple. There doesn't need to be a big protest. There doesn't need to be huge reform. People just need to go through the legal naturalization process, or they can go and have a chat with one of my uniformed friends driving the white and green INS trucks.

Okay, I'm done now. I just had to get that off my back because it's really been bothering me.

So, my purpose in writing this blog tonight is to inform you all of an update to the band photo album. I was browsing through my photos and found the rest of the pictures from the Days of '47 2003 parade in Salt Lake City. I know it's like almost three years ago, but I figured that I should scan the rest of the pictures and post them. They can be found here. Check 'em out!

Speaking of pictures, let's get the D.C. pictures posted for all to enjoy!! :) Dang, I wish I could have gone. Gee, and to top it all off, my brother is in Disneyland right now, and I'm not even there! What's up with that?

Meaningless??? You decide.

I updated my other two blogs, so why not post something here?

A Capitol Idea

Well, the trip has been mucho fun. Tim just growled like a dog and announced that he would be getting in the shower. Odd. But funny.

So far I've seen the Capital building, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln, Korean War, and Vietnam War Memorials, the Senate Office Buildings, the International Spy Museum, the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center (including backstage, which is cool), the National Mall (duh), shaken hands with President Eisenhower, met the First Lady (and the Second), eaten breakfast with the czar, toured the Kremlin, and just this morning some guy sold me the Golden Gate Bridge (the real one! not just that fake replica in San Fran) for only $50! What a bargain.

The flight out here was rough - just the way I like it.

I've been making a video blog on my cam which I will post up when I get back.

Well, it's been real. I'ma go' tell Tim to get his self on the go and we're going to go see the Washington Monument up closer, the Hope Diamond, see some sharks get fed, and check out Arlington.

Peace

Galactic domination is immenent

On a similar note, how about very, very large image files? Go Hubble.

This one's a bit smaller, but also very attractive.

And does anyone else think that if they borrow an hour in the spring that when they return it in the fall they ought to return it with interest? Maybe an extra 1/2 hour?

Finally

You can now by tickets for the DCI Classic Countdown online. Just click all of this.