meaningless week in tweets for 2010-03-07
- I've been in a Steelcase cube for the past two months (two weeks left). They are pretty nice, but still a cube and no sky. #
- just the bing shining commercial… quite awesome http://bit.ly/6DkRst #
- Having a lot of app crashes and general frustrations with my 3gs. Am I just too hard on it? #
- It's like the wave at a sporting event, but sneezes at the office. I'm refusing to participate so far… #
- GMA on ABC: "baking cookies with the secret ingredients of tenderness and hope…" Way to spoil the surprise ABC… #
- Me thinks a Pogoplug is gonna be in my future… http://www.pogoplug.com #
- Random bald man in hardware had to confess to me that he carries a comb for his facial hair. I love the east side. #
- So I get the "universal" fixture earlier… And it isn't… #
- Samples jackpot today at Costco… #
Podcasts Rule
I’ve never said out loud… I love podcasts. I still haven’t really said it out loud since I wrote it, but that doesn’t make it any less of a sincere statement…
I wouldn’t say I was a late-comer to the podcast party… But I wasn’t an early adopter. Sure, I’ve been watching and listening a few specific programs for years, but lately it’s become a bigger portion of my life that I take with me daily thanks to the wondrous iPhone.
Kinda like having the radio on on the background, but it keeps my mind turning a little better than music at times… It’s especially more effective during longer work outs because they keep my mind on something else and not the fact that I’m trying to do something for an extended period of time. Music is better for shorter workouts. At work I go back and fourth depending on what I have available and what I’m doing.
I don’t actually have enough podcasts to fill the time… So I’m constantly looking for new ones while weeding out the ones that don’t live up to my needs.
Let’s see what’s on the list right now:
- Boagworld
- Diggnation
- Double Feature
- Epic FU
- The /Filmcast
- Know Your Meme
- MacBreak Weekly
- The Nation: The Breakdown
- NSFW
- The Official Lost Podcast
- Pixel Perfect
- PTI
- Science… sort of
- Sitepoint Podcast
- SModcast
- TEDTalks
- Tekzilla
- This Week in Computer Hardware
- This Week in Media
- This Week in Tech
Podcasts that are still on a trial basis: Curiouslty Aroused, Mock the Weak, The Nerdist…
I haven’t found any good local podcasts, but I haven’t been searching that much… should I look hard, or should I not have to look hard?
But let me know if you have any suggestions for podcasts.
RIP personal blogs
Sure, it’s not like I have – or ever had – a online following per se. It’s mostly me talking to my respective screen… But I also use this soapbox, no matter how short, to work through some things that come to mind. Taking the time to write things is something I enjoy.
Yeah, that’s some beauty pageant kind of deep thinking…
Anyway… Get to the point already. Drum roll please…
It seems of late that personal blogs have gone the way of Vanilla Ice. Into the realm of jokes like “oh, you have a blog?” or those that have blogs and think they are some media rock star… Sure, there are notable exceptions… but those aren’t the rule.
Why has this come about? Well, it’s because of Facebook you silly goose. I know many people that had personal blogs, but they’ve gone away thanks to Facebook. And weirder still, I know more than a few that then get pissed at the intrusiveness of Facebook and quit it all when a blog was doing them so well in the first place.
The ability for an individual to create a blog is a great thing. It’s a space that a person can define what they want to express, how they express it, and so many more things. Facebook kinda gave those things with the ease of connecting with a myriad of different people. I’m fine with saying I’m friends with whomever from my grade school and high school misadventures, but it’s gotten to be such a watered down proposition to be friends with someone on Facebook.
I guess the quick and easy communication with an ability to express ones self just steers people more and more towards Facebook to the expense of other communication outlets (both digital and analog).
And don’t get me started on the Farmville crap… Anyway… Refocus…
The funniest thing about it all was that I don’t hear from many friends as much now that we’re “friends” on Facebook. I think it’s because they feel that tabs are being kept just because we all change our status from time to time.
It all saddens me a little. I love the blog as a platform and space to be yourself… Facebook itself started out as a great idea, but it’s become what AOL was at its worst but ten times as powerful.
In the meantime, I’m gonna continue to blog to my invisible audience. I wish more would blog. I realize that it requires more time and effort, but it also means more to me when I can read something that took time and effort… Not just some fleeting link to a story in a feed with a short little rant or plea to join in some weird, crappy little flash app. Not just some status update and people liking something about weather, babies, or politics.
By the way, I want “Dislike” and “I Dont Care” options on my status updates on Facebook. It’d be more helpful than just “like” or comment.
meaningless week in tweets for 2010-02-28
- Why is there no Netflix app for managing a queue? No mobile site, and can't fully use add / queue features via full website while on phone. #
- The ringtone isn't inherently annoying, it's the user that doesn't answer the phone repeatedly. #
- I just wish I could do sounds like that guy in police academy today so I could mess with people… #
- Really enjoyed The Nation: Breakdown podcast this week about the filibuster. What an f-ed up process… #
- Just overheard adjoining cubicle questioning teenage child about their after school activities. Silently laughing… #
- An emergency client call at 7:15 pm is just what my evening needed. Not… #
- Start server… Finish coffee… Get water… Wait for server… Dig in… #
- Office got a supposed brain and is telling me that the copy is not valid… WTF! So pissed… #
- NPR called Rick Rolling an internet scam this morning. Seems a little harsh despite the trauma it causes… #
- http://twitpic.com/15idjr – Unwinding from the week with a picture of a pitcher #
- Reggie Miller vs. The Knicks (@ Conseco Fieldhouse) http://4sq.com/6y8UVU #
- Seems odd that it'd cost you $100 more to buy and activate a jitterbug than a droid. #
- Having problems with both Foursquare and Gowalla. Way to go guys. #
- Great hockey game. It's no miracle on ice by any stretch, but it was pretty damn good… #
Mad Men Theme
Mad Men is easily in my top 5 of television shows currently in production. It’s no Lost, and I’m not sure where it stack up against Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. Definitely top five for me though…
Something has bugged the he’ll outta me since I first saw the show… I recognized the drum loop used in the theme song, and I couldn’t identify where. It bugged the hell outta me every time we saw the intro… Until a few days ago when my iTunes on shuffle hit something…
The drum loop that had been in the back of my head was right there… It’s the same as part of the song Poison from The Prodigy.
Hell, I’ve only found one minor reference to it with a very specific search. Muteboy72 on tumblr posted about it a few weeks ago (here and here).
It had really been gnawing at me for awhile, and now I’m glad I’ve got it figured out.
Since that’s now solved, I guess I can tackle that room-temperature super conductor problem. It’s that or perpetual motion.
New Link – Black and WTF
To the few of you, I’ve got a links section that I use as my personal home page as the links comprise a large portion of where I go as my staples online.
So I’m gonna post anytime I make an addition to that page, because it’s gotta be pretty good for me to put it there.
What got me consider a new link today? A Tumblr photography blog called Black and WTF.
I’m a photographer that likes the weird and funny from time to time as I like things that make me laugh or think WTF for a second…
meaningless week in tweets for 2010-02-21
- Never came across the word simulacrum until today. Synonym for image. #
- Not functioning well on 4 hours of sleep. It's kinda like drinking weird, but cheaper and tedious as all hell. #
- Wondering how Rock You Like A Hurricane got in my head. I'm not even a Scorpions fan at all… #
- Has anyone else specifically not checked into a Foursquare location as to not become its mayor? #
- Quick count… How many apps do you have on your iPhone? Me? 79… #
- Will do the same on the east side… RT @danielincandela Jay Z people…. #hiphoplastday #
- Donato's pizza fail. Took more than twice as long to deliver than promised. Not fresh. #
- Rocked a white wine reduction with mustard. #
- My wife follows traffic signals when playing GTA4… #
Book Review: A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston
So this was the first book I read 100% on my iPhone. Kinda interesting experience… I’m not sure how much of the formatting was changed to suit the delivery mechanism. I’ll have to give the book a look to see next time I’m at a book store.
So apparently, this is the third book in a series by Huston. Oops… That explains the numerous references to backstory that seemed oddly brief.
I read it anyway. I needed something to wash the taste of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road out of my mind.
Good? Sometimes. It’s never bad, but not great either.
It’s a work of fiction that is in the crime drama realm that is entertaining, but not astounding. It’s all first person, and sometimes there’s a little jumping around in time to add an interesting effect to the reader. I can’t quite tell if you were supposed to like the main character or not. There are allusions to some things that make it so you’re supposed to be able to go either way as the reader.
If there was a problem with the book, it’s that I didn’t feel terribly invested in it. I didn’t really care what happened. There was no character that I rooted for. Most of the way through the book, I didn’t feel like I cared in any way how it ended – and the story wasn’t good enough to pull me back in.
As far as reading it on the iPhone, I found that to be fine. It didn’t hurt my eyes, and it was very easy to leave and come back to any point in the book. I’ll really like the iPad if it has the same app (it was recently acquired by Amazon, so we’ll see if they do anything to it).
So, I know that’s not much of a review. I’ve downloaded the other two books from this series (they’re all available for free download right now on the Stanza iPhone app). I love free, but I wonder if it’s a “you get what you pay for” kinda deal. I’m not sure if I’m gonna read them now or if I’m gonna go dig around and do something like re-read the Jack Ryan books or some other good standby that I know I’ll like and enjoy.
That’s what I want right now in my free time. Not the annoyance of The Road, and not the antipathy of A Dangerous Man. I need something that can engage me in those rare times I have to read a few pages.
Initials are so BS
You know what really put me over the edge? Driving to work, I’m on the not so nice side of town. One morning I had to stop and get some coffee at a Starbucks along the way, and across the street there’s a McDonalds. I looked over at just the right time to see this guy getting into his rusted, dented, minivan… He looked like a strung out Chris Elliot wearing sweat shorts, a zip up hoodie not zipped… And… A CK shirt.
It’s been something that’s been growing for awhile, but it really came out in the recent trip to Vegas when seeing everyone and their supposed fashion accessories. CK – LV – MK – D & G
You know what I’m talking about? You may not care, and it’s not that big a deal. I would just think that after a point someone would figure out that these fashion designers are relying too heavily on unoriginal things.
I’ve tried to think about where this may have come from, and I guess Chanel – but that was more of a logotype and not a literal initial since one of the C’s is a horizontal reflection. But after that? I can’t think of another major fashion initial coming along until CK… Then recently it’s just gotten out of freakin’ control.
I’m not sure who was next… Louis Vuitton… Dolce & Gabbana… Some other fashion people… I don’t really care.
While the CK incident may have pushed me over the blogging edge, it was Michael Kors that pushed me over the initial edge. I’ve only seen a few things here and there, and i never thought much about them. But when I went into the Kors store in Vegas, so much had this really bad MK logo that really, really annoyed me. It rubbed me in completely the wrong way. Now when I hear his name, I have an initial bad thought because of poor style choice and unoriginality.
Having a logo consisting of initials is one thing, but overusing it on many products not only devalues your brand, but your long term name in a field that is supposed to value innovation, quality, and originality.
So yeah. Yet another post that really has no audience and is quite inconsequential… So be it.
meaningless week in tweets for 2010-02-14
- I'd love it if the 2012 IRL chassis looked like this… http://bit.ly/a8cAWk #
- Finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Didn't like his writing style nor 90% of the book. Will blog about it later. #
- Not sure what smalls like BO – my cubemate, or his lunch… #
- A little bit of my soul dies when a client instructs you to specifically do things that will look bad despite warning. #
- At starbucks, and I'd have thought they would have gotten the memo not to play "the saints go marching in" in Indy for at least a few weeks #
- Jackie Stewart and Mario Andretti getting trashed in the UK?- http://bit.ly/8XEuKV #
- http://twitpic.com/13aph1 – Yeah. It's valentines day Calhoon style #
- I'm at White Castle. http://4sq.com/aYHc33 #
- Random thought… Does the starship enterprise (or any sci-fi spaceship) have a poop-deck? #
