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.