Family Guy - Soron's Contact

Clip from Family Guy

Too Much Time Part III

This edition starring not only this guy, but you also.

Note: You should click on the "you also" link and try it out for a while before clicking on the "this guy" link and appreciating how much time you wasted.

If you still have time, go to iTunes and check out episode #23 of the Ask A Ninja video podcast (sorry for no direct link - too lazy).

And thanks, Jason and Cory and Katie and all others who've expressed condolences.

Crap Happens

Jon, I feel for you. I know how it is to lose a beloved vehicle due to someone else's negligence. It kind of sucks. I know this all too well:














Y'know what really bites about the whole thing is that your car (like mine above) was probably completely paid off. Now, like me, you'll have to go out onto the market and deal with a car dealer and possibly go into debt for an automobile. I hate buying cars and I've done it enough to have really good reasons not to like it.

Anyway, Jon, from one wreck recipient to another, I totally understand your plight. Good luck on finding another vehicle.

Ta-Ta Ta

Honest.

Last night as I was driving home I thought about how I needed to get a new car sometime. Then I thought to myself that I would just put off buying a new car as long as possible. I thought, "I'm gonna drive this car into the ground." Well, what I meant by that was that I wanted to drive it until it would cost more to fix it when something major went out than it would be to buy a better car - you know, just use the thing right up - and then get a new car.

As it turns out, my car was indeed driven into the ground, although not by me.

It all happened early this morning about 8:30 or so. I was peacefully sleeping through my alarm, so I didn't hear the neighbor across the street ring the doorbell to let us know that some guy had hit my car which had been parked on the street in front of our house.

Spot was the only one in the vehicle at the time. As you can see from the picture, he was traumatized. As far as I know, he hasn't recovered at all. The fact that he has, as long as I've had him, always appeared traumatized doesn't change my opinion that the accident shook him up pretty badly. I'm just glad he didn't sustain any bodily damage.

As you can see here, there is not much hope for the Jingly-mobile. Now I'm minus a set of wheels.

The Parable

Matthew 24:32-33:
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.



Need I say more?

Space Shuttle Atlantis

If you have ever wondered what it looks like to be launched into space, check out this page. To view the super cool launch video, click on the "Video from Atlantis' Left Booster Rocket" and sit back and enjoy a really, really cool ride. They take you from launch, which is surprisingly fast, all the way through SRB jettison through splashdown of the SRB from the point of view of a camera mounted on the SRB itself. Keep in mind that when they jettison the boosters, they have passed through 200,000 feet MSL (Mean Sea Level.) That's over 37 miles in the air. This is seriously one of the coolest videos I've ever seen. I so love the work that NASA does. I don't know about y'all, but I want to fly on the Space Shuttle. That would be so freaking cool!

Too Much Time Part II

Pen spinning.

David Bowie wannabe.

Sand art. (this one isn't really, a "too much time" - more just a talent one)

One mouth band.

And then there's this guy.

Ok, so these links are getting further and further astray from the "Too Much Time" theme (unless you count the time I'm spending to collect them for posting up here), but I thought you'd all enjoy this one.

And how would you like a digital camera that sports a few more megapixels?

Or OLED meets solar cell?

World's Largest Building

In Everett, Washington, there is a little facility we all are quite familiar with. In fact, most of us who read this forum have probably used their products on occasion. The company I am referring to is none other than the Boeing corporation. One of their main production facilities produces the fuselages (bodies) of the 747, 767 and 777 models. The production of these mammoth aircraft (especially the 747) takes place in one building. The building has 472,000,000 square feet of floor space. To put that into perspective, a typicall grocery store is between 40,000 and 60,000 square feet. Wal-Marts tend to go a little over 100,000 sqare feet. The building that produces the 747 could house, within its walls, 4720 Wal-Mart stores. That's what's required when you produce aircraft with 224-foot wingspans, such as the 747.

I was browsing around on the Internet and came across this little photo montage of the interior of the production facility where 747s are made. I found it really interesting and it made me want to visit that place to learn just a bit more about how a fueslage is produced.

Correction: I re-read some of the facts about the Boeing facility and found that it does not have a floor space of 472,000,000 square feet, but an interior volume of 472,000,000 cubic feet. This doesn't really diminish the building that much (though nearly 5,000 Wal-Marts are not going to fit inside.) It does however have the ability to house 911 basketball courts or 47 American football fields. Disneyland would also fit in it along with 12 acres of Disney's California Adventure. So, it is still a pretty impressive structure.

A Fun Game

Takes about 15 minutes.

Ever have just a little too much time on your hands? (Yeah, that second one was stop motion and legos.)

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro"
-Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)

Bureaucratese

Jon, the link in your last post was awesome! In my Engl3100 class, we talked about Bureaucratese, or inside language, that is generally very pointed at a certain group of people. The movie that you linked is a beautiful, shining example of bureaucratese. I sent it to my instructor and she emailed me back and said that she really enjoyed it. So that may be used a few times in class. :)

Also, that time machine with the luminescent droplets was incredible. I would love to see a demonstration of that live. Of course, you'd have to do it in a fairly dark room or it would be ruined. It was very awesome. Thanks for sharing.


New subject...

I was reading this guy's blog the other day and he said that BMW and Mercedes were the only worthy car manufacturers in the world and that Audi was a close second to those. He later blatantly said that the Big 3 U.S. manufacturers (Ford, GM and Chrysler) should cease and desist because their products are not worthy of being produced. Okay, personal gripe here: I really have a fascination with all things American, especially the American automobile. American car models are accessible. For instance, how many folks have been able to purchase a Buick Electa versus how many folks have been able to buy a Mercedes-Benz C Class? BMW and Mercedes are premium cars -- not accessible. And on top of that, the Electra was a nice car. It was comfy and rode smooth and was very well suited for long drives. The last time I rode in one of those Euro-barges, it was nice inside, but not intended for long drives. They're commuter cars. Also, have you ever seen how BMWs and Mercedes rust? It's awful! You'd think with all that German engineering, they could engineer some better rust protection.

Anyhow, I hate to bring that personal sidenote into a public forum, but it's just been bothering me for a couple of days. Americans can make good products. We understand the clientelle that we cater to. I just don't like this "Foreign only" mentality.

Ta Ta!

Today's

...fun vid.

Of course. We understand perfectly.

emiT

That is, Time, but backwards.

Check it out, yo.

And if you like Rube Goldburg machines, you should like this.

Art, anyone?

Fun in the water.

Ahhh

This morning my boss discovered the funniest site on the internet. At least all of us here couldn't stop laughing. The more you read, the funnier it gets.

Please, friend, feel welcome to read the AhhhMuse site. It brings joy to you, now.

Adendum: Defense 2
(Fun mindless game)

And also check this one out: comBOTS

If you want you can pit your skilz agin my bots:
26298AE24FF6B4ACE82746307B97DD82408D1F3D7A03FB0B552

or

092644C9051CF28B613D8A807AB0CA2AE6ACDC88500802177

or

3A2644C9051CF28B61B58D803965F7E2323D7782104CF6895A27031B
Just paste the string into the bot when you're selecting the opponents in compete under the add-a-bot (the one on the end).

I hope they call me...

...on a mishun... Good times, good times.

Being a missionary is awesome! It's sweet because you work hard and you're tired and yet, you feel really good! If I could only be a missionary again: no bills to worry about, no car to worry about, nothing to worry about except my companion, the people in my area, and that pesky neighbor dog that likes to chase bicycles. However, there's nothing quite like being a returned missionary, or as we called it in my mission, the Great Transfer North.

Heather-Marie, good luck on your mission. Please, please keep us posted as to where you go and when your farewell (oops, not supposed to have those anymore) is.

Okay, Jon, I don't know what Zombo.com was supposed to be, but I listened to it all the way through the loop and then, well, it looped. I don't want to sign up for any newzletter. :) Now, I must say that the Pandora site was pretty impressive. I just wish Flash didn't consume so much CPU time on my machine. I typed Weird Al Yankovic into the search and it immediately found a song by him and started to play it. It was cool.

I was also going to ask you about Joomla. Do you use it? If so, how do you use it (or what do you do with it?) Also, have you heard about a new technology called Ruby on Rails? It looks pretty cool.

TTFN

I was going to wait...

...to tell ya'll, but, yeah, Jason...I am going on a mission. :) One more interview and I should be waiting for that all important, life-changing envelope. :) Wa-who! :)

Happy day

:) Reports of my underenthusiasm are greatly exaggerated. I believe my exact words were, "Cool." I was not un-enthusiastic. When, then, is this going to take place and where and what should I bring to eat, etc.? It does sound like fun. Anywhoo.

Also, to everypeoples who care, I had a second interview with a company down south-a-way and it looks like if they can get the budget for a contract position for me that I might have a job. The WSU-place is reclassifying the position I applied for earlier and it will pay more, so if I don't get the first job, I'll still have this one in the worx. Wish me luck.

Also, it is Joomla!'s birthday tomorrow. It will be 1.

And you thought that when Cap'n Whomever-SciFi said, regarding some blurry camera footage, to his Ops Engineer, "Freeze and enhance" that it was impossible! Well, it's not.

Hmmmm. Looks like they finally got the timing down right.

Ok, bye.

More like most repetitive website ever

Jon-thats annoying....so did Beth tell ya about the big "Brittany and Anderson family reunion with Andersons Jon, Beth, and Lauralee (did I spell her name correct?) and Bailey's Brittany?" I hear all you said was "yeah, great!" Curse you and your lackage of enthusiasim!!!!

The very best website EVER

I simply cannot describe the awesomeness of this website. It must be experienced firsthand. This is truly the epitome of Web 2.0.

But if you don't like that, maybe you'd like the second best site ever.

DCI on ESPN2

So everybody should watch the Drum Corps Internation World Championships on Tuesday, Sept. 5th at 6pm local time. It'll be really cool because....well, just cause drum corps is really cool!! I'm not sure where I'll be watching it yet, but I'll probably be at my girlfriends house, unless somebody wants to open up their place for the evening, in which case, I'll probably do that. I'd open up my house but we don't have cable/satellite and with my girlfriend, well her house is a kinda small. Well, talk to ya'll later.

P.S. If you go to my myspace page (yeah, i'm one of those people... anyways) you'll see a funny family guy clip and a small preview of Phantom Regiment's show!!!

Take that!

The good news for today is that polygamous leader Warren Jeffs is now behind bars. He can no longer marry young, innocent girls off to these sick bastards who just want to have some fun. (Pardon the language, but I'm very passionate about this.) He faces charges of sexual misconduct with a minor stemming from marriages he performed. One such marriage is alleged to involve a 13-year-old girl. Now, come on, a sexual encounter between a 13-year-old girl and a middle-aged man can leave the girl injured, both physically and emotionally. Obviously, Mr. Jeffs had absolutely no concern whatsoever for the safety and wellbeing of this girl, and possibly (or probably) many others. I'm absolutely elated to see him finally at the mercy of the long arm of the law.

A Moment of Silence Please

One of my jazz idols has passed away. Maynard Ferguson, the king of the stratosphere, passed away last Wednesday due to complications with an abdominal infection. During the last decade or so, Maynard traveled with the Big Bop Nouveau, a six-piece band that packed a real punch. I had the priviledge of seeing them live at Bountiful High School in 1995.

Listeners desiring to familiarize themselves with Maynard's recordings can start by listening to the Grammy-nominated theme from Rocky: "Gonna Fly Now." Other great charts by this master of faster are "Conquistador" and "Coconut Champagne." I will never forget the many hours I spent in the band room at my high school playing along with recordings of Maynard Ferguson as he belted out the painfully high notes time after time. During those months, I spent so much spare time in the band room that I went for almost six months without getting my hair cut. This guy, I thought, was truly amazing.

Maynard, I'm going to miss you.

Kid's got a set of lungs

Just in case anybody avoids reality TV like me and didn't catch this when it was (apparently) aired, you should really watch this. I can't hold a note half that long to save my life.

Welcome Back!

I just wanted to take a second and welcome you all back to school. I hope the summer was good to you. I know it was pretty good to me. How was band camp for all you folks in marching band? Gol, I miss that!

Anyhow, I just wanted to say welcome and wish y'all a successful semester in school.

Heather-Marie, are you going on a mission or something? What's up with not being present for 3 or 4 semesters?

Chao!

olleH (ole'!)

So, I was sitting the other day and realized that I haven't been to the blog in awhile. It is very true that very few people have made comments on here lately. I think I will help in changing that. :) I hope all have had a most wonderful summer. As some of you (the ones still going to Weber) might notice, I will not be there this semester (or the next 3-4 or so...depending on when I leave). I wish I could tell you where I'll be, but I can't, yet. :) So, with that, I must tell you all that I will miss seeing everyone everyday. Good luck with classes and so on.

I must thank Jason for the much-needed update on the Rootisms. That gave me a good laugh and brought back some fond memories of the VFW thing. :) Keep it up!

With that, I think I will end this blog, er... posting...thing. :)

Best wishes!

G'day to you too

Hi, Batman! It's nice to see some not-so-oft-seen faces (er, postings) on here. I don't have that much to say this time except that I have a couple of new Rootisms. I caught them while I was listening to an Ogden Concert Band concert (...) the other day in the Layton amphitheater. Of course, Dr. Root was conducting most of the concert, which did involve some Tooele Twisters, to use his own words (brief strong wind strong enough to blow away a goodly portion of the music.)

So, without further achoo, here are the new Rootisms.

Keep the Rootisms coming. Send them to jason[dot]schill[at]gmail[dot]com.

Soooo

Hey I was just checking the blog and realized in like the whole last month no one but jon and jason have blogged at all, so I thought I would post and say hi. I saw all you marching band kiddies out the other day whilst I was at work, so far, so good, have fun this year! I miss everyone and I hope that all is well with all y'alls!

Batman Out

Not so sharp

It turned out that the worm exploited three or four different holes in the
system. From this, and the fact that we were able to capture and examine
some of the source code, we realized that we were dealing with someone very
sharp, probably not someone here on campus.
-- Dr. Richard LeBlanc, associate professor of ICS, in
Georgia Tech's campus newspaper after the Internet worm.

Taken from output from the Fortune command on Persephone (schillclan.homelinux.net).

OOoooooh AAaaaaaah

Pretty.

Digg had a link about Kevin Mitnik's site getting hacked. Lawls.

And this is an interesting look at Google's latest endeavor.

And these are some of the bleeding-edge of development robots out there.

Excess

Here's a bit of excess (for all you car audiophiles out there.) If you can figure out how you would install one of those in anything smaller than an Abrams tank, let me know. :)

Party Pending

This Friday evening, my house. My sis, Beth, is hosting it and said to invite everybody.

Also, for those who need a cheer up or just like off-the-wall stuff, this is how a video blog should be done. Sara's friend guest hosts.

Five bundles of fur and teeth

In recent weeks, it has been the pleasure (or misery, depending) of Kristin and me to watch over and raise five little kittens. When we picked them up, they were orphaned on our neighbor's porch and she didn't want them. So, we took them in and started to care for them. They have been a real headache, but they're so cute. We often used to have to get up at midnight to feed them, only to return again at 4 a.m. When we got them, they were only 12 days old and couldn't move very well. Their eyes were mostly still closed as were their ears. However, now, at 6 weeks of age, they are active, energetic and fully aware bundles of joy. They play with each other and roll around on the floor.

Something really strange and awesome happened this morning. We have one Calico kitten that has refused to eat as we have successfully weaned the others from bottles to eating out of a bowl. We have had to continue bottle-feeding this little one for fear of her just not eating. However, this morning, I mixed up the kittens' formula in a bowl and put it in their box. Then, I went and got the regular cat food to feed Psycho, I mean, Orion, our adult cat. The little Calico followed me over to the cat's dish and watched as I poured the food into it. As soon as I got done pouring, she jumped up on the food and started munching away. Just like that! No coaxing, no prodding, no suggestions on my part at all. She just decided that she was done with this baby food crap and took her lumps. Soon, the others came over and started fighting over the food. They all were up on top of the cat's dish (which really pissed off Orion, by the way) munching away at the solid food. So, we have now officially stopped feeding the cats liquid kitten formula and they are now well on their way to eating solid cat food. Now, if we can just get them to realize that the water dish isn't for walking in and choking on...

Anyone want a kitten? I'm posting pictures as soon as I can get the pictures sized for the Web.

So.........................

What does everyone think about a hike either this Saturday or next? Or both?

Suggestions:
- Mt. Ogden
- Mt. Timpanogos

I'd suggest doing the Mt. Timpanogos midnight hike on the 25th. It's a tradition down in Happy Valley to do that the last weekend before school begins in the fall. Last year I went with Aaron and Lena and a girl from orchestra and her ppl. It was a blast. And Mt. Ogden is just a great hike, so whatever is good.

Also, do you want your own wiki? Here you go.

The Uncanny Valley and Other Delights

Have you ever watched a movie, say, like, A.I. or The Polar Express and wondered what it is about CG characters in those films that make them so disturbing? What is it about Aki Ross's character in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within that makes it hard to relate to her? I have this problem from time to time and according to the critics, I'm not alone. I can't say that I don't like any of the aforementioned movies. In fact, I really liked watching The Polar Express. I must admit that I have not seen most of A.I. and if you know me, you'll know that's quite uncharacteristic, seeing as it was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Well, I was doing a bit of research today and discovered the phenomenon known as the uncanny valley, which tries to explain why it is that we have a hard time dealing with photorealistic CG characters. The uncanny valley is an emotional graph that shows our emotional attachment to various types of humanoid characters. The graph starts elevating on the left with highly un-human characters, such as industrial robots and elevates to things like stuffed animals and rag dolls. However, it is at this point that the emotions take a severe negative turn dropping into the valley. Things like corpses and zombies rank at the lowest points on the graph because they are almost human but not quite. This is sort of where those photorealistic CG characters come into play. They're almost human, but not quite. They suffer from some very disturbing "flaws." For instance, subtle eye movements that we consider so natural are often not well duplicated with CG characters. This produces a zombie-like stare. Also, in the case of the Final Fantasy characters, little skin nuances like deformation due to speach and a lack of visible perspiration are to blame for their fall into the uncanny valley. They have a sort of "painted statue" look to them. This is one argument as to why the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within did so poorly at the box office.

Sometimes, the uncanny valley can be used as a tool to create emotional attachment/detachment to a character. This is the case with A.I. where many of the characters are deliberately almost human. The same goes for the film I, Robot, where the new generation of robots come with faces that can move. You see, the further to the right we progress on the uncanny valley chart, the more emotional attachment we have for the character. Also, as we progress to the right, the more human the character is.

There, that concludes my discussion of the uncanny valley. I thought it was a particularly fascinating thing to study this morning. Now, go out and watch a good movie.

R

Rather than clutter this blog with lots of images that ppl on dialup would not appreciate, I hereby refer the reader to my photo blog.

It's a fun game I've been playing after work.

Speaking of...

Well, I just got back from another camping trip to Flaming George with my student ward. What fun. My friend Nate had a 12-man tent (that's 6-man tent in layman's) that we slept in. We stayed at Antelope Flats. For those of you who haven't been there it is basically sagebrush and nothing down to the water's edge. We went up Thursday morning. Tin foil dinners. We played Bang! that everning. Bang! is a fun card game that everyone should try. The next day we went out wakeboarding and tubing. Some guy named Robbie had a huge 4-person tube (about 8 ft. across) and a screamin' fast boat. And he could drive that sucker. I was on the first group to go out. He let the line go tight and then would take off and turn hard so the tube would go skipping sideways over the wake and across the chop. We had to hold on tightly just to keep from being thrown to the... ouch of hitting the water at 30 mph. His boat could go 50 or 60, but I doubt he was taking us that fast. Sometimes the tube would drop 3 or 4 feet off the side of the wake. He would also take you in a big loop which made a big wake and then double back and slide the tube sideways pretty fast across the wake from the first pass. Very jarring and very fun. My knuckles are all bruised from hitting the tube. It was as good as most theme park rides I've been on, and even better since there was more of a chance of being thrown from the ride. We were laughing and screaming the whole time. And today I am quite sore, but I'll still go play ultimate here in a little while. We also played Bocce around camp which, aside from the pavillion and campsites and trails, was very un-level and covered with sagebrush and cacti. One place the marker ball got thrown was near where a couple of rabbits were hiding which got scared up when we started lobbing balls at it (at the marker ball, that is - we didn't know the rabbits were there until we started aiming for the marker). The balls were red, yellow, blue, and green which reminded me of Google Earth. Le Sigh. That's the drawback of being a geek: when you go camping you have tech withdrawl for a while. There was glass on the water most of the time with the exception of a few breif rainstorms. We toasted Starbursts and had great dutch oven and devotionals and a lot of that very important element of camping: sitting around doing nothing in the middle of nowhere. Desiree's boat stripped a gear in the starter, so they only got to take it out once, but there were several other boats to go out on. Nate's had a decent sound system in it and I hooked up my PMP (personal media player) and tape adapter to it for tuneful cruising. I'm sore and tired and happy.

Ricky, sounds like you're having a blast. Although, by the time you read this you will likely be done with finals. I imagine you're looking forward to these finals much more than the finals you have for school each semester. I can't wait to hear stories and watch your show. I wish I could've been here for the Jordan Commons showing.

I got bored at work the other day. Pictures will be posted soon.

Camping delights

Y'know Jon, I just got done reading your blog about your camping trip with your family. Sounds fun. I just got back from camping with Kristin's family a couple of weeks ago and I'm going camping with Kristin this weekend. Of course, I can't give away the location of our camping ventures this weekend for in the [likely] event that Kristin should read this blog, she would find out prematurely where we are going. :)

Camping is a fun venture. Injuries always seem to come as part of the package. Hopefully, however, the injuries sustained are not serious ones but are ones that can be [fairly] easily laughed off. During my last camping trip, I sustained an injury, but not one with any loss of blood or skin. You see, when we go to Ferron for the annual Fink family reunion, we always bring lots and lots of ATV-type vehicles to go exploring on. Well, our family is the only one that brings motorcycles; the rest bring quads or side-by-sides. The motorcycles are more fun to drive than the more car-like quads and side-by-sides, but they do suffer from one drawback: they get stuck in the mud easier. Kristin's dad managed to get our "big" motorcycle mired quite badly in the mud during a long trip. When he and his son got back to camp, they recruited me to drive the smaller motorycle and help them see if they could get the bike unstuck. Well, to make a long story short, we couldn't get the bike unstuck so we decided to leave it on the mountain until morning. On the ride back to camp, I was trailing Kristin's dad and son, driving the small motorcycle. They were both on a quad. When I passed a certain tree, a bee came out and flew straight into my neck and stung me. Let me tell you, there's nothing like going 25 mph on a dirt bike and getting stung by a bee. Not wanting to lose my lead, I decided not to stop to remove the bee, so instead I simply plucked the bee and stinger out of my neck. As I was pulling the stinger out, bolts of pain were shooting up and down my neck. Suddenly, around a bend, a car came towards me. I had to maneuver the bike, remove the stinger and avoid a head-on collision all at the same time. It was fun.

So yeah, camping is a great thing. I can't wait to go again!

Now, I do have to put in a plug for a fairly cool software package. It's the CodeThat suite. It's for making cool JavaScript menu systems for web pages. I'm still trying to figure out how to use it properly, but the concept seems really cool. Caveat: you have to run the program as an administrator. Other user levels will not work with the program. The program is free for personal use on a single web site. Use beyond that scope requires purchasing the program (which can be expensive.)

Fortune: Look! Before our very eyes, the future is becoming the past.

only 5 more days

Hey everybody!! How ya'll doing? I'm still haveing the time of my life although, it's kinda sad cause in 5 days, it'll all be over. That being said, I wanted to let ya'll know that this thursday, DCI quarter finals will be broadcast live down at Jordan Commons and that all ya'll should go!!! Not just to see me (although that is a good bonus!!) but just to see some drum corps, cause it is just plain awesome!!! And we are going to RIP THE PLACE A PART!!! My family and girlfriend will be going so if you go, don't hesitate to say hi, that's if you recognize them.... Well, talk to ya'll in 6 days or so!!!

Ricky
SUTA

Or the man inside the AT-ST... kinda

Go Nipon. For only $300k you can get (only in Japan) a nice robot for you to wear.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

Sup yall?

Jon

Return to GEWar...PLEASE!!!! I NEED HELP!!!

The Open Road

There is very little in this world to rival the feel of the highway whipping by underneath you at 60 miles per hour as you glide over it on a big motorcycle. Seriously. That is an amazing sensation. If you get the chance, do it, but do it as the driver, not a passenger. I'd say it's a rush, but that's not a very good description. The best description of the sensation is intimate. When you're in a car, you're numbed to the sensation of what the road really is. On a bike, you're in the sensation. You become part of it. It's uncut and unadulterated. It's seriously one of those things in life like flying an airplane and going to the seashore that everyone should experience. But, please, experience it safely.

Over, Oveur.

Jason, I like your post title

I haven't seen Ben^2+Hava since the big day. Or lotsa my other friends for long times for that matter. :( A party is in order. Tim'n'Amy have offered their flat as festivities locale.

Free Food Is Good

Cool deal, Heather. I don't remember him, but then if he does remember me, just don't believe a single word of what he says about me. (It's most likely all of it true.)

Invite's away, Elder W. We have so much to catch up on when you return.

I like XSLT. I hate IE.

How to hack a Masterlock.

And the EU GPS system.

rwxrwxrwx

Jarrett, do you mean to say that you don't have write privileges to the Jinglesthula blog? I thought you created that blog. I'm not sure what you mean by inviting you to the blog. ?:)

An Idea

Could someone reinvite me to the Jinglesthula blog? I am starting to get ideas, here and there - number one is, we have to use the "1492 - conquest of paradise" theme by Vangelis somewhere in there.

...and then they made me their Chief.

Yesterday (Saturday), I went with Kristin and her sister to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I'm only here to report that if you want a really fast, action-packed ride with no discernable point, you should go and see this film. I'm not saying that the movie is bad; I'm just saying that it really felt, to me, at least, to be a stopgap between The Curse of the Black Pearl and At World's End. The action was almost nonstop and the monsters and villains under the command of the ultra-baddie, Davy Jones, are a bit scary for younger audiences. This is why the movie is rated PG-13. That's 13, folks, not 1.3. So, please, if you have young brothers, sisters, or cousins, don't take them to see this film. That's a major pet peeve of mine, when folks bring their little babies to see these PG-13-rated films "because it's a Disney movie." There are some things in Dead Man's Chest that, in my opinion, exist solely for the purpose of ramping up the gross-out factor, but they are done tastefully and sometimes, even done humorously. (The effects guys must've had a blast at Mr. Depp's expense in one particular scene. He seems to beg for that kind of treatment in his films - think Sleepy Hollow. Anyhow, it was a pretty enjoyable movie, but I am definitely pumped up to see the third installment of Pirates: At World's End. I just hope they don't add everything you see in this movie to the Disneyland attraction. I know they've done some extensive remodeling since the first film, but I hope they don't use the films as a license to severely revamp a classic ride.

Now, on to the purpose of this blog entry: a movie trailer attached to Dead Man's Chest. The DCI World Championship Quarterfinals are coming to Jordan Landing on August 10. Get your tickets!

Show your true colors

I'm kind of interested on just how accurate this Color Quiz is. I know that things like personality tests and such are often broad and that people change and might score differently on them at different times in their lives, but this one intrigues me.

Everybody (who feels like it) should take the quiz and post here whether they thought the results were accurate - maybe on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being way off and 5 being dead on.

Don't just hurry through it either or be careless. Just click on the colors one at a time until they are all gone in whatever order you want to.

Just curious.

96K ought to be enough for anybody

Big things come in small packages. And the implications are potentially cooler and more impressive than the current example itself.

Holy rusted metal, Batman!!!

An interesting thing I have discovered. There are no rated "R" movies playing at the Tinseltown in the Newgate Mall. Just thought you all should know.

For Jon (since I don't have your email address)

I just wanted to tell you that I met somebody from your mission. He's in my ward here in Dugway. It didn't sound like you two knew each other, but he knew who you were. Anywho. His last name is Gunnell. Thought you might like to hear that. :)
Have a good one!

Web 2.0

Well, kind of. Here's a nice AJAX homepage: NetVibes

Oh, and here's a really funny recording of... well, just listen to it.

Also, check out Box.net

Woa there...

...I didn't think Leopard was supposed to be unveiled until August. Dude! What's up with that? And they have touch-screen iPods? I didn't know that. Well, at least Apple can release their OS on a fairly regular schedule (unlike Windows Longwait, er, I mean, Vista.) Now, Vista Beta 2 isn't too bad, really, but it certainly isn't as slick as Mac OS X.

Geek kool

OSX Leopard Mobile on an iPod? See for yourself.

Conversation Starters

So, I think that I have been a bit callous lately on this forum and I don't really mean to be. I am just really amazed at the condition of the world today. I think that too many people are in too much of a hurry to be nice to each other. It's like society is in the withdrawal from the drug-induced high of the '90s and we're just a bit crabby with each other.

So, to ease the tension of the world just a bit, I introduce a most hilarious website: The Wonderful World of Longmire. Now, please remember to take with Mr. Longmire says with a grain of salt (or maybe a whole mouthful of salt, depending.) My personal favorites of his are his Awkward Conversation Starters and his Longmire Does Romance Novels. This guy is absolutely hilarious, in his own geeky sort of way. He's a guy who pokes fun at just about everything.

So, for some good laughs, check him out.

Feeds on the road

If you want to have access to all your favorite RSS feeds no matter where you are, check out Google Reader. And if you find any cool sites that have a feed worth subscribing to, feel free to link them here so we can all add them to our Readers.

Peekup Trucks and Ess Yoooo Vees

Anyone who says that they bought a pickup or an SUV because "I can see farther and therefore I'm safer" is lying their butt off. I make that bold statement after the idiocy I saw on Highway 89 this afternoon. I saw a lady in a Ford Explosion totally jump out into oncoming traffic and just about get T-boned by a car that was really close to her. The lady was making a left turn from a side street and needed to cross HWY 89. Obviously, the stratospheric height of her SUV made it so that she saw a long ways off but totally missed the car coming close to her. So, out into the road she leaped and were it not for the diligence of the driver of the car, a bad T-bone collision would have occurred.

Now, on to the matter of business. I don't know if you have noticed, but it seems that Utah Power (not really Utah Power) has decided to forcefully lower my power bill this month. Something has brought down power to my apartment two days in a row for about an hour in the afternoon. Yesterday, power went out between 4:02 pm and 4:42 pm. Today, there was a power outage from 5:00 to 5:35 and another from 5:41 to 6:29. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm running a couple of servers at home and I like to be able to get to them from out there in the world. I can't exactly do that when they're down because a power outage took them out.

Anyhow, so yeah, I'm kind of not happy with the power company right now. They not only took out my servers, but they caused me to take an hour to get home because of malfunctioning traffic lights. :) It still blows my mind that people don't know how to do a four-way stop.

Chao!

It's your civic duty...

...to vote, that is.

If you've ever been to a Jazz game, or even seen one on TV, you know that Bear is super cool! So, do your civic duty and vote for the Jazz Bear as this year's mascot in the Mascot Hall of Fame! Something I didn't know about him was that he has his own Utah holiday established by the governor. Now that's cool.

Vote Now!!

Chao!

Here is an update of the other stuff

Ok, so when I said "the scientific method can be fun" what I meant to say was this:

The scientific method can be fun

Oh, and by the way - Canada has finally produced something good other than a Photoshop pro

The chef is quicker than the hammer: Shaolin cooks

If you liked 1 and 2, you'll maybe like 3

Oh, good. I was waiting for these.

Gaming is about to get a whole lot crazier.

And speaking of crazy, here's a fun music video: Weapon of Choice

A thought....

I have to disagree with Jason about the cell phone ban. Yes, they're a distraction in school, but there's no reason they can't take a phone with them to school. I support a rule that requires the phone be OFF in class, and if it's not it may be confiscated or whatever. In my experiance the whole note-from-the-office thing never works. (besides, Jason's a decade out of school, he's a little behind the times) ;) Often, when it came to notes from the office for me, I'd get them an hour or more after my parents called, they'd say call ASAP, and the office wouldn't let me use their phone anyway.

So, in conclusion, I think phones are a distraction, but rather than be banned outright (like guns and knives) they should simply be controlled.

-Kristin

Good on ya!

Congratulations are in order for Ben and Hava for the arrival of their baby! I found out about this the other day and was very happy for the news. Kristin and I send our best wishes!!

Okay, I have to rant about something. It's just not my nature to not find something controversial and exploit it a little bit. :) I am just blown away by the fact that we're only now realizing that cell phones are a distraction. I don't get it. Couldn't the "experts" see this one coming? According to CNN, cell phone ringtones are a distraction in work and school. I just can't believe that it has taken so long for this to catch on. Of course they're a distraction!! I remember being really angry by customers when I worked at the grocery store who would stop conducting business with me and answer their dang phones. Or, what burns me up now is to see a group of supposed friends hanging out together all chit-chatting on cell phones. You know that they're not talking with each other. No, they're talking with other, unseen people. It seems that the ringing cell phone has become more important than the person in whose company you find yourself. I mean, I can get pretty insulted when I'm talking to someone and they brush me off to answer the blasted phone. I can understand if they warn me that they're expecting a call. I won't be annoyed in that case, but when it's just, "Oh, hang on; I have to take this call," then I feel put down. It's as if I am not as important as the person on the phone.

I totally support cell phone bans in schools. I mean, come on, schools are where kids are supposed to learn. My tax dollars are going to support schools. I don't want kids bringing their cell phones and causing distractions "because their parents need to be able to reach them." That's not a very good reason to send a kid to school with a cell phone. For crying in the mud, when I was in school, if my parents needed to get a hold of me, they called the office and they got a message to me. No cell phone distractions in class, no annoying ringtones, nothing. Just a note from the office. What's so wrong with that? I guess people are just too inconvenienced by that. It takes too much time out of their already too-busy days. People should slow down and learn to choose their activities wisely.

Anyway, I don't mean to sound like an old sourpuss, but I don't think cell phones have really helped us THAT much. The few times I really could have used one when there wasn't a regular phone available do not, in my opinion, merit the cost of having one.

And now for a really great show! The Rootisms page has had its first content update in over a year! Thanks Jon! It's awesome. I really liked the stuff from the VFW rehearsals. Visit the Rootisms page now! Dr. Root continues to amaze and entertain with his seemingly endless supply of whimsical, yet wise, statements.

More cool stuff

More urban skilz - this one is kind of long and there's about 30 seconds towards the beginning where it's boring, but after that it's pretty cool

The scientific method can be fun

When worlds collide

Post #901

I just wanted to have post number 901. That's all. It has been one of my goals in life.

Cool stuff, installment 2

Animator vs Animation

Optical Illusion

New movie

Napoleon Skywalker

Hey, Ricky. Good to hear you're having a blast. (pun intended)

Hey, everybody. This is the 900th post on this blog.

Hey, Ben and Hava. Let us know as soon as Junior makes the scene, eh?

If today is 6-6-6...

...and it is supposed to mean bad things happen, I can't wait 'til next year when we have 7-7-7. That's jackpot day. :)

Anyhow, after what Ricky said in his last posting, I'm now looking for a way to get down to San Antonio to see the Regiment. I wish traveling wasn't so blasted expensive. Besides, I really need to get back to San Antonio because it's been, like, seven years since I was last there. :)

Jarrett (and any other interested chaps): the Rootisms page is located here. This is the most recent version that I have. That page has an interesting history to it. I first started hosting it on my ProNetHost site because I thought it would be permanent. But, in January of aught-five, the server went through a metamorphosis, so to speak, and I was locked out of it. At the time, I was learning to set up my own web server so I simply grabbed everything and hosted it myself. The page is still over at ProNetHost, but it's an old version that I can't touch. The current version is on my personal server. So, if anyone has more recent Rootisms, please send them to me. I will post the changes.

Hello from Rockford, IL

So I finally had time to look for a computer here at Rockford College, so I figured I'd drop the virtual band hall a line while I could. So how is everybody doing?? Everything is going great over here, I survived brass boot camp, we have 145 of 150 sets of drill on the field with music, and tomorrow, we move to a place with stadium lights so that we can rehearse from 8am until 11pm until we leave for our first show on June 17th!!! I'm not going to lie, just about every part of my body hurts right now, especailly in the mornin's, but it is some much fun and so worth it, that the pain doesn't even matter. If by some chance you come to a show, stop by and say hi, plus, I might let you touch my tuba, after all, they are the biggest tubas in drum corps!! They have 21 inch bells and are over half as tall as I am!! Well, I hope you all are having a great summer and I'll talk to everybody later!!

a thought

SMS messages...
It's scary to have them held against you in court... but it's scarier to have them read monthly by your mission president.

Where are the rootisms?
toebaai
Elder Kobus

Bad Tech

Recently, PCWorld Magazine published a list of the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. Okay, so it was more like the 25 Worst Tech Products of the Last 25 Years, but in computing terms 25 years _is_ all time. :) I really thought this list was well thought-out and was quite amused at some of the picks listed in the "Hit List."

On top of the list of infamy is the Internet service provider America Online, or AOL for those of you unseasoned young'ins in the crowd. AOL started out well enough. They were an upstart from an old BBS determined to bring content to the masses. They did it, too. Them and Prodigy and CompuServe, as well as some smaller, lesser-known ISPs helped to revolutionize the Internet and begin it on the journey to what it is today. However, it was AOL that almost singlehandedly turned people on to the idea of online content. This was in the ancient times, or about 1993.

That's where it gets bad. After turning people on to the idea of the "interweb" or whatever people called it, AOL had met its match. People will tell stories of how they tried time and time again to connect only to receive a busy signal. Those who were lucky enough to connect were often stifled by AOL's limited content. You see, back in the elder-days of the Internet, each service provider provided a unique subset of Internet content. It was not publicly accessible like it is today. The things that one provider allowed its customers to see was not the same as content provided to another company's customers. And there was no Google, too boot.

Anyhow, AOL became synonymous with bad quality and lack of service. Not only did they provide a lack of service, but they also tried to create a new continent with all the CDs they shipped out. How many AOL CDs have you received?

More recently, AOL has billed itself as not so much a service provider, but a content provider, providing "security" features and parental controls. I mean, let's be serious. How much security do you have when AOL wants you to use the hacker's delight Internet Explorer browser? How about none. I mean, that browser's a piece of crap. But AOLers seem to know of no other way to browse the Internet. That leads me to my final point about AOL: user ignorance.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone who's ever connected to the Internet through AOL is a complete moron. What I am saying is that from a tech support standpoint, my worst clients are AOLers. They often don't know basic things about how to operate their computers. And getting them to give you their email address is like pulling teeth. You ask, "Ma'am, what's your email address so that I can send you this invoice?" They say, "It's ahansen, with an 'e.'" I get the feeling that they don't realize that there are about a gazillion email providers out there. They think that AOL is the only service around.

Anyhow, I just wanted to back up PCWorld's claim that AOL is the worst of the worst. I hope that I didn't offend anyone. That was not the intent. If any of you are AOL subscribers, I hold absolutely nothing against you personally. I just find that AOL is a bit, uh, misguided in their approach to online content. Now, don't even get me started on Microsoft... And, no, I'm not a Mac guy.

Ta Ta!

Yo Ho

Here are some nice 3D rendered vids of how merchant galleons were constructed.

woohoo

check out diego's blog for some percussion ensemble pictures. Woohoo!!!

Capture the Flag

Ricky, you have yourself a fantastic summer. I'm so jealous.

Just in case anyone is interested, I posted up another 11 videos on the DC podcast.

This guy knows a lot about how paper works.

And speaking of flags, I saw a funny bumper sticker: If you must burn our flag, please wrap yourself in it first.

lols + ok, bye

My summer tour contact info.

So as I'm sure most of you know, I'm going to be on tour this summer with the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps of Rockford, IL. I'm very excited cause this is my 1st year marching in drum corps but also a little sad that this is also my age-out year. But my excitement way covers up that!! Anyways, because I'm going to be gone, I won't see many of you (probably all of you) until I get back so if you want to get a hold of me, here are 2 ways:

1) You can send me an email to my hotmail account, tubaribonephone [@] hotmail [dot] com but it could be a long time before I'm able to get to a computer, so believe it or not, this next option is actually the best one and the fastest.

2) You can send me stuff through the mail, be it letters or packages. It really doesn't matter, just nothing to huge. It'd be nice to hear from you people while on the road, if anything to remind me of home (although, I'm not sure how much I'll miss Utah, but whatever... j/k!). You can send me a letter about how your summers been going, about how your day was, about how much you hate your girl/boyfriend or just random thoughts you've been having. It really doesn't matter. You can also send me some pictures so that I can make my bus seat feel a little more like home. Packages are very welcome and things such as cookies are greatly appreciated, especially if they are chocolate or peanut butter, or both!! So, if you choose to send me anything, here is the address:

Phantom Regiment
5050 E. State Street
Rockford, IL 61108
Attn: Ricky Lopez

Click all of this to see our tour schedule, as of 4/25/06 If you are going to be at or around any of our shows, don't hesitate to stop by and say hi.

If there is anything else regarding contact info. that I haven't put on here that you are curious/want to know about, just drop me a line. And if you want me to send you a letter while I'm on tour but don't want to write me 1st, just give me your address. Well, talk to ya'll later, hopefully before I leave, if not, then after tour.

Ricky

Yay!

Free SkypeOut! I'm excited!! Thanks for the heads-up, Jon.

Harvesting Entropy...

Cool stuff

Jason, that's awesome. Ricky that's awesome.

Here's my awesome contribution for the day: tool-assisted run of Mario 64

Update: embedded vids









"As far as we know, this is the first time in history when unlimited calls to a standard telephone network are free without any form of payment or subscription. That’s kind of cool."

Yes, my friends - SkypeOut within the US and Canadee is now free as a bird till the end of the year.

ONLY 11 MORE DAYS!!!

That's right, only 11 more days until I leave for tour with the Phantom Regiment. But more on that later. I wanted to share this pic with ya'll. It's getting to do moves like this (see below), appropriately titled "flying cadet", that are just one of many reasons I love drum corps, both as an art and a sport.

Check out the Soprano (trumpet) player in the front, FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

Well, later everybody.

Birds!

So, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I didn't have much to talk about, until now. So, I'm home for the summer. We have an old, broken-down car in our driveway. The battery is not there and there are many othere problems with it. So, it's just been sitting there for about a year. For the past few days I've noticed some very loud chirping outside, but could never locate where it was coming from. Then, today, I realized that it was coming from this car. I popped the hood and found these 4 little chicks in a lovely nest. All I can say is...clever bird!

Google Universe

Well, not exactly Google Universe, but it's pretty close. It's an app called Celestia and it gives you the ability to survey the solar system the same way Google Earth lets you survey our beautiful planet's surface. You need some pretty powerful, gamer-type hardware to view it on, but even at my crippled, less-than-spectacular level, it's still spectacular. Now, if I could only stop it from rendering every single piece of cosmic dust...

http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Email me.......

Jason,
Email me at Jeffry[dot]s[dot]johnson[at]convergys[dot]com with a number that I can contact you at, and maybe you can help me to understand these things.
See, I recently purchased a Dell and am now connecting through a router and have discovered new things in the tech biz. It's fun to learn.
I'm trying to figure out virtual servers and whatnot to improve performance, and be able to access my comp from anywhere. It could come in useful.
Looking forward to it!
PS Remember that, if you're looking at the radishes from underneath, you're probably visiting a place beyond this world!!

A total waste of time

Gambling, that is. It's a total waste of time and it's way overrated. I remember trying it out in Shreveport, Louisiana once and thinking the same thing. But this weekend we celebrated Kristin's birthday and went to Wendover and tried a bit of gambling there, too. Still, it's a waste of time and I do not understand why someone would get addicted to it.

Anyhow...

So yeah, I would like to participate in the contest, but I don't really know how to use SketchUp. I'm still working my way through the tutorials. I know, I'm a slacker and should have had them done a long time ago, but I was very busy Friday and Saturday. So far, it looks fairly simple to construct a 3D object, though.

Also, Jeff, what do you want to know about web servers/virtual servers/remote connections? I just happen to know quite a bit about them and have set them up successfully. In fact, I have a web server and some remote connections set up on my home network now. My web server is currently running on Red Hat Linux 9 with Apache 2.0.40. I have remote connections via secure shell (SSH) and via Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (Terminal Server) to my Linux box and my Windows machine respectively. I can reach these machines anywhere in the world. Virtual servers are one thing I haven't had much experience with, but I did just learn about them last week, so the information is pretty fresh in my mind. So, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Take it easy, y'all.

Oh, let me enumerate the cool cars I spied on my way back from Bend-over yesterday:

Plenty of Porsche 911s (~$97,000)
A Bentley Continental GT (~$165,000)
A Ferarri F430 (~$199,000)
An Enzo Ferarri (current mkt value approx. $1.2M)
A Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (~$450,000)

HI all........

BOY!!! It's been a long time!!! I miss all you guys!!
Sorry I missed Suzanne's party tonight. Work calls!!!
Marching band for next year is looking great!!
We've hired a new Colorguard advisor, and have already
put together an 8-10 person guard!!
People need to email!!
Also, who knows about web servers/virtual servers/remote connection?
I have questions people!!
Laterz!

Today is the day when superheroes walk openly among us

I saw two walking around campus this morning with their multicolored capes flowing behind. Later on, they congregated in the Dee to confer graduate status on a buncha peoples.

Congrats to all who have worked hard and completed their degrees. And a pat on the back for everyone else who just finished the semester and is looking forward to the day...

I heard some good news today from my boss-man. It looks like our programming team here at work is going to sweep the Flex 2 competition and take home the grand prize of a 42" plasma screen display and an Xbox360. We might even get invited to the conference where the release Flex Builder 2.0 (full version).

Heartened by this news I am eager to start work on the other entry we will hopefully enter. All I can say about it so far is that if you like GEwar, you'll like this.

Everyone send me your DC pix. (Thanks Melissa)

***

I found out that I love racquetball. I only played once when I was a youth, but just the other day Diego/Tiffany/Robyn/Nate invited me to come play and I liked it so much I came and played with them again tonight. I'm thinking I'll build myself a studio appartment that is just a racquetball court with an adjoining bathroom and kitchenette. I'll have a cot in the corner or something. Then if we want to play, I'll just wheel my home entertainment center on a cart out of the room and we'll throw down.

Can I have an iPod, please?

People should add us all to each other's Blingo friends list. And make sure to search at least 10 times a day (keeps the doctor away).

Isn't Snoil fun?

And aren't small-footprint computers cool?

And fake DNA replication?

And building a chocolate printer out of legos?

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.