Ploafmaster General

When the First Tier Webnerds (FTW?) grab hold of something, I see it spread around the Interwebs in a hurry. It happened briefly with Field Notes, prime lenses, and gender/ethnic representation in the field of web design.

Today, so far, I've seen two references to Lokesh Dhakar's site. Even though I don't want to be an information also-ran, I figured I'd share my favorite part of the site, particularly for the sake of those two or three readers that don't check out the same 30 websites a day as me and the rest of the tech set.

Back in August, Lokesh created a series of nine coffee infographics that are best view together for comparison. Below is my poison of choice, the cappuccino:



As you can see, the pics indicate the general composition of various espresso-based beverages, and with a heavy dose of style, I say.

Today I got really excited when I discovered that the break room soda machine now carries Mountain Dew.

Is this a sign that I'm so stuck in a work-rut that a change of beverage selection generates excitement? Is the day-to-day so lacking in challenge and verve that I've resorted to seeking out any possible positive event to help me make it through the week? Perhaps I'm facing full-blown adulthood where life-altering events come few and far between the ordinary happenings as I settle into a dull routine.

Nope, it's none of those things :-)

Despite my occasional whining, I'm generally a positive person, and I like to celebrate anything that makes me happy, be it a new gadget or a funny commercial. I hope that's evident from the host of random crap for which I cheer on this blog o' mine. So pardon me while I...ahem...do the Dew.

Duh-duh-duh-dang.

I enjoy a wide variety of electronic music, but dance music doesn't typically strike my fancy (except for my old room mate's video game remixes and originals).

Today, however, I've discovered Muscles - an Aussie chap who's album, Guns Babes Lemonade, has me hooked. You can stream the entire album for free from his Virb page.

Boy, am I happy I stumbled across this today...

The Rentals - band of original Weezer bassist Matt Sharp - released a four track EP called Last Little Life back on August 14th which includes a new version of "Sweetness and Tenderness" from their first album. Even cooler than a new recording, however, are free recordings of reworked versions of the entire thing. My, are they tasty.

You can read about and download the alternate version of the EP as recorded at the Daytrotter Studio on the studio's website.

Holy crap on my face...if this thing works as well as it appears, I FREAKING WANT ONE. Behold:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WetVXbYRfWk&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

The system allows for alternate tunings, self-tensioning of new strings, and even provides for intonation adjustment assistance! Tommy Likey! Tommy want wingey!!!

So back in August I posted a video clip about an iPhone copy and paste concept that looked pretty cool. In my haste, unfortunately, I misspelled the word "paste" in my post's title, so it originally read, "iPhone Copy/Past Concept". I never really noticed because I'd never paid that much attention to it after I posted the clip, and I don't have enough readers (yet) asinine enough to point out every typo...except maybe Mugs :-)

Well that changed this past weekend when I noticed heavy visitation to that specific post by way of a Polish Apple website, MyApple. It wasn't until I visited the forum thread where the link was posted, and saw the address in the link that I realized I'd misspelled part of the title. I then checked my stats and saw that there was a search for "copy/past iphone" shortly before the hits rolled in. Such a spelling error in the search terms are understandable from a non-native English speaker, in my opinion. When I ran that search, amazingly, my site was the first result on Google.

I've since corrected the spelling in the post's title and slug, but it was fun for a while to have so many visitors from overseas. Now I know a bit how Chris must feel :-)

I can has?



I think the Escape/Control combo is my favorite.
(via Uncrate)

So I'm admittedly a bit jealous of my brother Mugs because today he's attending this mini ActionScript conference in New York.

I'm not really jealous that he's going to learn a lot about ActionScript. I'm not really interested in learning ActionScript. I am a little bit jealous that he's spending the day in Manhattan, but that only accounts for a small portion of my envy.

I'm really jealous because he's actually spending the day learning stuff that will further his career, and having fun in the process.

The last time I had any training? About two years ago. That's frustrating. Sure, I could go get some training on my own, and I'd probably be reimbursed...but I'm not going to take a week of my vacation and three grand (or more) of my own money (which I can't really do) to go get some technical skill. I know there's self-study as well, and I already possess a number of useful programming/development texts on subjects I like. For me, though, nothing beats a slightly more formal atmosphere with an experienced professional providing direction.

Of course, Mugs isn't on a company-sponsored training day. As the link explains, he's at a free workshop. He's taken the day off to attend, but the day otherwise only cost him gas and subway fare. He lives in Delaware, but he stayed at my Dad's house in Jersey yesterday which makes his travel today pretty easy.

But here's the kicker - sure, today will be helpful for Mugs. He's a burgeoning web developer, and ActionScript is useful knowledge for him. It's not his primary job skill, however. He's more of a PHP/CSS/XHTML kinda guy (at the moment), and even though ActionScript is a very real skill he can and will add to his "developer's toolbox", this is more ENTERTAINMENT for him. He's in the process of teaching himself, for leisure, everything he can about object oriented programming and associated technologies, so he enjoys this at the core.

I want that - I want some of my day dedicated to learning about something that I enjoy. This notion actually makes me miss certain aspects of college, where I could choose (to a certain extent) what to study and down which path my education traveled.

Maybe I'll just have to sign up for some classes at J-Sarge to get my learnin' fix.

There are no words...only bewilderment...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7595AxeLqc&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

This is so true that it's almost not funny:

Silly Germans...tricks are for...oh, wait. This is actually hilarious:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbrcEAH9Q3U&rel=1&w=425&h=355]

Rebecca, if you're reading this, please let me know if I got the post title correct...

Fellow web nerd Phil Barbato is crafting a fuzzy little creature for each day of his participation in Whiskerino. He calls these mighty creations "Whiskerbears", and you can buy them at his Etsy shop.

They are more awesome than your eyes can handle:

It's no secret that major corporations espouse popular causes in order to a) build social capital and b) sell more product. These causes are generally non-controversial and obvious by the time Corporate America catches on, such as breast cancer awareness and cure research, AIDS prevention in Africa, and global warming remediation (which is still semi-controversial in the USA - but not to this writer).

Unfortunately, in the pursuit of public goodwill and profits, commercial operations tend to smack us in the head worse than their typical ad campaigns. I think that's part of what pisses me off the most, too. The shoddy quality of planning and/or content really seems to cry, "we threw this together" much louder than, "we care about the cause."

Take breast cancer awareness. Have you been able to visit a store over the past few months without seeing a pink version of a product sold "for the cure"? Kitchen Aid has a set of pink appliances. Target carries a special pink Shuffle. The cheerleaders at the Georgia Dome wore pink football jerseys when I was at the MNF game. I believe Delta Airlines slapped up a special pink logo on the big screens between every play.

There's also the (PRODUCT) RED campaign launched by and Bono. Sure, this was an initiative formed with the intention of product sales generating charity dollars. But we still ended up with a host of ridiculous products - or at least a tacky reimagining of existing merchandise with a red hue.

And finally, the business decision that inspi(RED) me to write this post: NBC's "Green Week". You see, Valerie and I watch a fair number of NBC programs: Chuck, Heroes, SVU, and the four comedy shows on Thursday evenings.

Well NBC, which is a component of NBC Universal, which is in turn 80% owned by GE (who manufactures locomotives and jet engines, among other things), really put their imagination to work these past several days, stuffing contrived script and story elements into every major prime time television show. We had Adam Beach's character on SVU admonishing a co-worker about recycling for a mere thirty seconds. We have environmental themes forced into a "scared straight" prison program on My Name is Earl. And Randy has environmental tips on his blog? I already thought character blogs were stupid in the first place, but content that's out of sync with the character is even worse.

I support all of these charitable efforts, and I believe awareness is a key component of furthering any cause. The in-your-face methodology of these corporate campaigns, however, does more to turn me off to their messages than instill motivation.

So I wanted a fuller understanding of how the Bird Feeder Pepper functions in my installation of Mint. Then I read this comment by Inman himself in the Mint Forums, and I thought, "Really? That feed count is the number of unique requests in a given day?"

Here's a screen shot of the Feeds pane as of this writing:



So theoretically, I've had 67 unique subscribers hit my main feed today alone! And what the heck is up with Sunday?!? There's gotta be something off...

But that anomaly aside, it still looks like I'm averaging over 40 unique subscribers a day. If that's true, then I apparently have lurkers on my site. And quite a few.

Okay, so if I really have lurkers, come on out and say something. Or somebody at least explain what's up...

Dan Liebert, occasional verbal cartoonist for McSweeney's, has his own website. And it's hilarious.

Like so:

Every now and again I'm shocked that I neglected to write about a site that I frequent. Today, that site is Aurgasm (and yes, you read that correctly).

Paul Irish's brilliant MP3 blog more often than not proves the truth in its tag line: "your favorite music you've never heard." Here you will find a collection of music from genres multifarious, and more than likely scarcely known in this country. The wide range of international artists probably contributes to their lack of eminence on these shores, but most are worth a listen. Even better than the listening itself, of course, is the download-ability of the featured tracks. And best of all, in my opinion, is that Aurgasm fetches permission from the musicians it features.

You would do well to check it out and spend some time digging through the archives.

A real category on Jeopardy's Tournament of Champions this evening:

"Baby got Bach."

...did you?

Shaving is without a doubt one of the more banal activities in a man's routine. That's why I recommend that every man experience the occasional shave at the hands of a genuine barber. It's truly one of life's great luxuries.

After finishing with my hair cut, the barber reclined my chair and inserted a head rest so I could lean back. He then wrapped my face for the first time in a hot, wet towel to raise the hair on my face. After some facial massage, the towel was removed and some warm shaving lather was applied. A second hot towel was used before another application of warm lather, and the shaving began with a straight razor.

The barber, demonstrating how much more of a craftsman he was than a mere cutter of hair, deftly shaved the fuzz from my face without a single cut, stretching out the skin where necessary and revisiting trouble spots until nearly everything was removed. Then he applied a tonic which smelled quite like Vick's Vapo-Rub or some strong eucalyptus scent before using a third hot towel. When he removed the cloth he checked for and cleaned up any small misses and used a final hot towel to clean up my face. He finished with some after-shave and I tipped him well as I left for the day's errands.

As I walked out into the cool Fall morning, my face felt fresh and comfortable, and is still smooth now. It's a bit too costly to justify more than once-in-a-while, but it's worth it every time.

Typically, I hate those tacky cards that play music our sounds. They just grate on my nerves. Except this one:
(I've added appropriately styled titles in case Val's writing isn't clear enough in the video)

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=372635&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=01AAEA

Proof positive that my wife is cooler than I will every fully comprehend.

P.S. Yes, my middle name is Courtney. Yes, I'm okay with that.

Today is my 26th birthday, and Valerie gifted me a 7.25 quart Round French Oven from Le Creuset.

I christened it tonight by cooking some thin-cut eye round steaks and a nice pan sauce.

I have to say that this is one of the finest pieces of cookware I've ever used. I already own a fine cast-iron skillet, but this pot's heating was perfectly even. The enamel coating was a fantastic cooking surface as well allowing for just enough sticking while the meat seared along with easy release of the fond when I deglazed (using some sweet Marsala wine).

Looks like I'll be braising some beef short ribs again very soon.

Today I saw The Darjeeling Limited with my friend Dave, and I wasn't disappointed at all. Beyond the fact that the short, Hotel Chevalier, was actually included before the feature, the movie itself was outstanding on all fronts.

The acting was quite good with a great subtlety of expressions between the three lead roles. The direction, photography, and writing were what I expect from an Anderson film - far above the average auteur. I particularly resonated with the dysfunctionally fractured relationships between the brothers Whitman, and the touching moments accompanying their emotional healing.

Like most Wes Anderson works, I'd like to see this again that I might fully ingest the cinematic goodies contained therein, but it's safe for me to say this was 5 out of 5, and I'll surely purchase the film on DVD when it releases.

I just finished struggling through Paul Greengrass' United 93. This was Val's latest Netflix selection.

I give this film 3 out of 5, and not because it's horrible. The acting, in fact, is excellent, especially considering that the bulk of the actors were unknown. The film making was decent, reminding me instantly of Greengrass' more notable Bourne films (the last two). The problem was that I felt like a voyeur - spying on somebody else's tragedy. This movie exemplified the worst sort of dramatic irony; we know from the start that none of the real passengers survived, and the nearly two hours of build up to the inevitable tied my stomach in knots.

I'm not going to make any claims about the film appearing too soon after the September 11th attacks because I don't think it's possible to decide such a thing objectively. I think it was difficult for me on a personal level because of the connection to the memories of that day (seeing the footage of the second plane hitting the WTC in the context of the film was particularly hard). Perhaps, for that reason, it bothers me more than any other based-on-a-true-story narrative where people die. Whether this film was a pure tribute or a shameless act of profiteering matters little to me.

I just don't want to watch it again.

Even though I'm not impressed enough with Tumblr to make full use of it in place of my blog, that doesn't mean I'm not playing around with the app.

Today I noticed a really sweet detail, too. Check out this strip of icons below:



Now look really close at the top and bottom edges of each in the line. Do you notice how the top of the leftmost icon and the bottom of the rightmost icon aren't torn? Do you notice how every other torn edge of the seven icons match up with the adjacent icon's edges? The icons appear as if they started out as one thin strip of paper that's been torn into seven pieces.

Pretty clever, huh? I think the icons already look clear enough and nifty, but this extra touch shows me that they were designed with care.

Scoop08 is a political journalism site launching on Sunday, November 4th.

Sure, the political internet landscape is already littered with innumerable blogs and news organizations reporting on the goings-on in American halls of power, but this site purports to be something different. You see, Scoop08 is run by college students and recent graduates. While they have an impressive list of advisors, the entire journalistic team and editorial staff is comprised of young academics with widely varying backgrounds.

According to BBC News and Scoop08's own "trailer" (really?!?!) there will be increased coverage of issues and candidates typically neglected by mainstream media. With two editors each for Republican and Democratic reportage and but one for the over-broad category of Independents, however, the concentration of truly balanced content remains to be seen.

I hope this works out if only to provide an alternative to the major existing news outlets which depend on the sale of entertainment to satisfy shareholder requirements. It'd be nice, for a change to see political news reported for its relevance rather than its effect on ratings.