Ploafmaster General

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6-8, ESV

Earlier today Trey wondered why Readernaut didn't get more props. It happens that I've been working through some thoughts on said website and others.

I consider Readernaut, along with Cork'd and 97 Bottles, to fit into a category of websites that I'll call (for want of a simple and short descriptor) "activity trackers". These web apps represent social networks built around common consumption, be it reading books or drinking wine. Members discuss, rate, and list what they have individually consumed. There may be a few extra bells and whistles specific to each activity (a "cellar" for Cork'd, for example), but the basic structure is the same.

The three websites I've specified are all pretty sweet - most everything seems to work as described and there are detailed methods for sharing the specifics of your intake without overwhelming the user. The problem I have with each of them, however, is that they all seem to make clerical work out of my leisure time. If I want to make good use of these websites, I can't simply read my book. I have to pull up Readernaut and enter the last page number when I'm finished. And when I'm done, there's the compulsion to render an opinion, or at least remember to rate the book. And no longer can I just try a new beer at Capital Ale House (heaven help my taste buds' memory if it's the first of a few). I have to recall the name, taste, aroma, color, and so on. Should I whip out my Moleskine and jot down tasting notes for later? How reliable will my notes be after beer number three?

Maybe some iPhone apps would help, but then I'm still that guy pulling out my doodad to take notes or post a rating. And I still have to add routine to my leisure time.

All of this probably indicates little other than me not being the target audience of these web apps. But maybe the reason Readernaut doesn't get much attention is because I'm in the majority. That doesn't make these web apps bad; I'm simply suggesting that they're likely to be relegated to a niche market.

And now, on a lighter note (or a series of lighter notes), here's Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond performing a sweetly simple version of "The Gentlest Gentleman":

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3744221&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1
My Brightest Diamond - The Gentlest Gentleman from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

So I'm sitting up late at night on a Wednesday trying to kill time while my first attempt at duck confit to finish. I figured I'd check out Jimmy Fallon's take on Late Night, and...well, ugh.

Yeah, he's still kinda wet behind the ears when it comes to this talk show gig, but it's pretty telling that the majority of the audience isn't laughing. I mean, he just spent 10 minutes on this too-long bit that involved feeding 300 lbs of baked beans into the "volcano under the stairs." I would have felt bad for him if I didn't already have trouble laughing at Fallon from his SNL days. The timing was off, the gags were cheap, and the audience seemed to be waiting as long as I was for the sketch to end.

Dang, and I thought Carson Daly was lame.

I'm a nerd and a snob rolled into one unfortunate clump, so it should come as no surprise that I have strong feelings about something so trivial as April Fools Day.

I think it's the result of one too many lame April Fools gags...I can remember in high school one year that I was getting ready to drive off in the car on an errand for my parents, and it wouldn't start. After asking for help, my step-dad came outside with the ignition fuse in his hand, and happily declared, "April Fools!" It was a great practical joke. But was I fooled? They set up a situation over which I had no control, and my only conclusion was that the car wouldn't start. It's not like I was lead to believe it wouldn't start when it was really okay. The car actually couldn't start because it had been tampered with.

There was also a prank in college where several girls from Intervarsity Christian Fellowship decided to raid the medicine cabinets of a number of guys' apartments, purloining our toothbrushes. They left notes behind, or something similar, to indicate that it was some big April Fools gag. Harmless, clever, and fun, but I still don't think anybody was fooled here. Maybe a bunch of guys felt as if they'd lost their toothbrushes, but they weren't really fooled in the sense that they believed a lie told to them.

When did April Fools day become a day for general pranks? Or has it always been that way? Maybe I need to get some history on this...I think I just miss people actually trying to trick one another in good-natured ways. Only when you convince somebody that some absurd story is true should you be able to declare, triumphantly, "April Fools!"

So I don't mean to spoil anybody's fun - by all means, joke away. Try to fool me. Play tricks on me. I try to trick people as well. Just don't do something to me that's a practical joke and try to claim that you fooled me. That's just bad form.

Today was rough.

From the moment I sat down at my desk, feet still aching from the 10k, I was busy. Request after request seemed to pile up with seemingly little time to dig myself from the fast-growing pile of work in my queue. There were deadlines, questions, confusion from co-workers, and a general sense that today's pressure greatly out-paced that of my day-to-day. As 4:30 loomed I started to feel like I needed a dramatic break from the mentally cramped environment of the day but I wasn't sure how I'd accomplish that without going straight-away to bed. Not one to call it a night early, I recalled that Can Can has a weekly cocktail tasting that I had yet to attend.

I'm not going to say that I needed a drink but the prospect of good mixology lifted my spirits, so Val and I headed to Carytown for some light fare, cocktails, and atmosphere.

Can Can's cocktail tastings work thusly: from 6-7 on Tuesday nights they mix up free (!) tasting portions of the evenings tipple while the full size is a special price all night. Tonight's sampler was a Gin Rickey (theirs had Bombay, lime, soda, and simple syrup on the rocks) mixed up right, and weighed in at $6.50 if you went for a full dose. Pair that with the Fontina Fondue (which we had at our first dinner there) at $4 bucks and you have a reasonably inexpensive night out with a cocktail and a fancy snack in a classy atmosphere. This evening, however, we had a few other drinks - London Pride on tap, for example - and couldn't resist dessert.

I also crossed a gustatory threshold; I tried, for the first time, oysters on the half shell.



I chose to have my first oyster at Can Can for two reasons. First of all, I'm pretty comfortable with the freshness and quality of this restaurant's food. More importantly, I was able to snag oysters one-at-a-time for $2.50. Steep? I don't know yet. But I do know that I didn't have to commit to a plate of bivalves with the possibility of hating them.

It turned out, however, that raw oysters aren't scary or slimy. They taste...well, they taste like the sea. Nether fishy nor smelly, the oysters and their liquor (the briny liquid in the shell) went down the hatch easily with a quick burst of flavor. The bartender, hearing it was my first experience with oysters, helped me out. I was first served a little guy which was a bit more intense in flavor. I ate this small serving unadulterated since it was my maiden voyage, and the experience was good enough for me to order a second. My next oyster was considerably larger and I spiked him with a squeeze of lemon for a touch more brightness that worked well against the ocean flavor.

All told we were in and out of Can Can in about an hour with some quality eats in between. It was the perfect week night diversion to take my mind off a brutal day in the cubicle farm.

The engine may be a little anemic, but the Bullet 500 Military from Royal Enfield is a purely beautiful motorcycle.
(via uncrate)

One of my favorite bands, Sigur Rós, performing "Við spilum endalaust" off of their latest studio album, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (put together by the always excellent La Blogotheque):

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3814849&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1
Sigur Ros - Við spilum endalaust - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Today Valerie and I participated in the Monument Avenue 10k Run/Walk. Those familiar with my portly physique can probably guess that I walked. Val walked with me and that made all the difference, I believe. I managed to finish the whole thing in less than two hours, averaging just over 3 mph, and now I think I'll relax for the remainder of the weekend :-)

Pints at Penny Lane this evening sound about right!

Okay - so there's this new company, Boxed Water Is Better LLC, and their product is...Boxed Water. Coming in a pleasantly designed milk-carton-style container, it sounds nice enough on the surface: Flat packed empty packaging is easier to transport, made of 90% renewable and recyclable materials, and the whole operation is focused on sustainability. I could see how it would be perceived as a better choice than plastic bottles...

But they're still selling packaged water.

Once the containers are filled they still have to be transported, and with every 1,000 gallons weighing over 4 tons (when you include the weight of packaging) that's a lot of fuel to burn. And recyclable or not, all those containers must be manufactured. The only major advantage I see here, in fact, is that Boxed Water may break down more easily in a landfill when non-recycling types just toss them in the trash - except they're probably coated in wax since they have to hold liquid, so scratch that idea.

I'm not an advocate for bottling companies but I think there are advantages to bottles over boxes, the first of which is strength. I can't see a paper-based container holding up to the rigors of a mostly-filled backpack, for example. Based on the pictures of Boxed Water, I also don't see a cap (which makes sense if they cartons start out flat-packed) which means once it's open, it's open until it's done. Make sure you keep it upright!

Look, just buy a few good reusable bottles, and a filter pitcher or something. Boxed Water sounds like mild greenwashing to me.

BBC News is carrying a flabbergasting story about Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a 93-year-old Japanese man who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs at the end of World War II.

Photographer Marc Silber got a hold of some rare footage of Ansel Adams describing what he meant by the "visualization" of photographs. This clip was a real thrill for me, seeing and hearing the great Adams speak about one of his fundamental concepts.
(via kottke)

Rosecrans Baldwin made me crack up with his survey of accents around the English-speaking world and how to impersonate them in a jam. I think this was my clear favorite:

Accent: Irish

Scenario: After a short Dublin breakfast, it’s time for a drink. You find a pub suitably Irish without an obvious thing for tourists. Local contractors on their coffee break watch your entrance. The bartender nods and asks what you’d like.

Tips & Tricks: The Irish accent is one of the world’s most beautiful, and nobody knows it better than the Irish. Frankly, you don’t stand a chance of sliding by. Your best bet is to impersonate Colin Farrell on a bender and punch out the whole crowd.

Response: Don’t even try it. They will kill you.

I decided today that I'm going to embark on a photo project moderately larger than previously attempted. This project will be a bit academic in nature as well, uniting photography with historical and cultural research to provide more than just a visual picture.

I plan to catalog the various geographical regions of my fair city, Richmond, VA.

Periodically (I have no set interval starting out. Weekly? Monthly?) I'll post an entry about a specific part of Richmond city that includes some geography, background, landmarks, and whatever other relevant and interesting tidbits I can uncover. All of this will be accompanied by photographs I take while visiting these neighborhoods/districts, and its my hope that these pictures will reflect well the character of each locale.

I'm not sure where I'll start yet, but it certainly won't be one of the major sections like The Fan or Shockoe Bottom. I'll hit those, too, but they'll take more time to plan, because I have to find a happy medium between educating the uninitiated and shying away from too-heavily-tread ground.

Keep an eye out!

UPDATE: I believe I'm going to start with Union Hill.

Maybe this is totally old news, but I just discovered that you can embed photo slide shows from Flickr on any web page. When you're viewing a slide show on the Flickr website, there's a "Share" link in the top right corner (if you only see the picture, move the mouse a touch, and you'll see the controls). After clicking "Share" you can either directly copy the link or embed code, or you can choose to customize the HTML which essentially allows you to customize the slide show size, like this:

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=67348

And there you have a quick and easy Flash-based photo slide show with a fairly clean and useful interface. I know it's not quite the customized solution that some professional photographers want for their own sites, but Flickr's tool is free and looks pretty nice, too. Great for starting out, or at the least for most other circumstances where a Flash-based slide show is desired. And because you can create a slide show from nearly any collection of photos on Flickr (search results, sets, pools, etc.), I think it's pretty flexible.

I finally got an opportunity to take some nice shots with the D90 today. Check 'em out if you get a chance.

This week's AVQ&A over at A.V. Club was all about music rendered unlistenable by emotionally tragic times in our lives - times ranging from the death of loved ones to heartbreak.

If I had to think of a song that even approaches having such an effect on me it would be "That Song" by the now disbanded Big Wreck (I've posted this video before, but it's relevant again):

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtvmusic.com:46306

For me this song came to describe, line by line, a seriously screwy relationship I had with a girl during high school. We never dated or anything - she was already involved with the man she'd eventually marry - but there was a great deal of emotional intimacy developed during my last two years at home. These first three stanzas aptly sum up the mental flotsam that lingered for, quite seriously, years after I moved away:

So I always get nostalgic with that song.
But in my room it's forced. It has to be in some car across the street.

And I always catch the back of your head in a crowd.
Just don't turn around. It's never you and you'll ruin those memories.

And those photos are great if I catch em with the side of my eye.
But if I stare, it just turns into you and me. We're just standing there

You know what, though? It's now nearly ten years since I left Lunenburg County, and in those years I've never stopped loving this song. The baggage is gone and I experienced closure ages ago, but I enjoyed this track even in media res. The same goes for a number of other songs associated with my sadder memories, from the Allman Brothers' "Melissa" to "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" by Traffic.

I acknowledge that individual personalities and experiences are likely influencers here. Maybe I haven't yet experienced something heart-rending enough to spoil some previously beloved music. For my part, however, I prefer to revel in the songs themselves than pretend they didn't exist just because they might be connected to some sour recollections.

So you crank that song, and it might sound doomed.
So just leave the room while I sit'n stare, 'cause yeah that's rare.
I really love that tune.
Man I love that song...
I love that song...
I love that song...

Tonight I'm watching my VCU Rams take on the UCLA Bruins in round 1 of the NCAA tournament. We're seeded 11 to UCLA's 6, but a good variety of fans and commentators (not to mention the POTUS) have picked VCU for an upset in this round.

Tip-off is tonight at 9:50 on CBS.

Few things drive me crazier than companies making up their own stupid buzzwords. Are they trying to come with catchy terms that they hope will provide free advertising as they theoretically worm their way into colloquial language? Regardless of intent, here is a short list of made-up words/phrases born out of ill-conceived advertising programs:

Fourth Meal
Threeconomics
Nougatocity (or any of Snickers' terrible terms)
Comcastic
People Ready

You get the point. If you have any others you've seen/heard in any form of advertising, put it in the comments.

Nate tries to avoid photographs as much as possible, but I think I caught his good side here.

So I returned from the Outer Banks this evening, and while it rained almost the entire time (as was expected) it was fantastic to be away with good friends. We had plenty of laughs, craziness, and tom-foolery to carry my spirits for a while, and I think this will sufficiently tide me over until my vacation in May.

I'm heading down to Corolla, NC, in the Outer Banks for the weekend with Valerie. We're staying with some friends in some glorious rental house, and while it's expected to be cold and rainy the entire time, I'm not terribly worried. We'll be out of town and near the ocean, so it's bound to be an awesome time.

Oh yeah, and I'll have the camera and laptop with me, so there may be some pictures along the way.