Ploafmaster General

Awesome blend of Daft Punk's "Around the World" with some mighty old-school dance footage:
[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=339ixMtHrVk&w=425&h=350])

I just got Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by the Flaming Lips yesterday. Wow. I freakin' love it.

It turns out I'd heard quite a few of the songs with reasonable frequency such as "Are You a Hypnotist," "In the Morning of the Magicians," and "Flight Test." Having listened through the album several times, though, I'm really starting to groove to some of the other tracks - "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" for instance.

The album in its entirety is spacey and musically cohesive. The vocals are a little on the weak side, but only if taken in isolation. As part of the rich audio landscape present on this disc, they are contributing - no, vital to the overall mood.

More exciting to me are the actual compositions. Catchy rhythm parts coupled with wonderful melodies and themes support the surrealistic vocals and production.

Here is an album I can see growing on me further with time. Big props to my buddy Joel for indtroducing me to this album way back when.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Beer! I finally started enjoying beer a few years ago, and since then I've always enjoyed trying out new ales and lagers at such fine establishments as Capital Ale House, and well, anywhere in Prague :-)

Though much of what's on Wikipedia is of dubious accuracy, I found their entry on beer to be exceptionally informative. Containing links to more info, as well as a thorough categorization or brew types, the entry was an easy entry point into further beer nerdery.

My boss sent this hilarious picture around:

Google Video just go a whole lot cooler by doing something I was eager to see after Google bought YouTube...

You see, I love YouTube, but I HATE their search capabilities. Google, on the other hand, lets you search by phrase and other excellent modifiers. Google Video now includes YouTube videos in the search results.

Thanks, Google, for making my work day THAT MUCH MORE unproductive by making it even easier to find those wacky video clips I crave so much :-)

To all my dog food gangstas:


This delightfully succinct card can help you avoid direct vocal confrontation, and comes to you courtesy of the folks at Orange32.

Ford Motor Company today reported that it lost a record breaking...

TWELVE POINT SEVEN.

BILLION.

DOLLARS.

All this in the course of a year. That's like losing the complete domestic economic output of Jamaica. So lets see...in 2006 Ford loses $12.7 Billion. In 2005, GM lost $10.6 Billion. This year, Toyota is almost unanimously expected to take the No. 1 auto maker spot in the world.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls.

Dang, there really is some cool music coming out of Japan these days. An article in Slate Magazine explains how to sample some of the Asian hotness through iTunes, and after checking some out myself, I agree: it's a real shame that certain elements of the music bidness prevent simple international music distribution - especially in this digital age!

Alright Nintendo, when are you going to open up the floodgates and start shipping more Wii units? I've got a serious craving for some new Legend of Zelda action!

Aight, this is totally nerdy, but even Mugs can get into this one.

Just noticed an announcement on my site's WordPress dashboard that they've upgraded to version 2.1, and fittingly named the juicy new joint after the finest Jazz vocalist ever to push air through vocal cords, Ella Fitzgerald.

Peep the link to see the new features, and perhaps a few of you (Patrick, Chris, Mugs) will understand why this bears mentioning.

Now if only Dreamhost (my hosting company) would update their one-click upgrades so I could do the do here at work :-)

Tonight marks the return of new episodes of Heroes!

I'm totally stoked to see what happens, and what new heroes are discovered.

Woot!

HUZZAH!!!! HUZZAH!!!! HUZZAH!!!!

The Colts staged the largest AFC championship comeback in the history of the NFL! The boys finally beat the Pats, and Peyton Manning finally has a chance to hit the Super Bowl!

I'm so amped right now, I think my head might a splode.

Ladies and gentlemen, for too long the fine art of high-fiving has been relegated to the spontaneous celebration of sports fans and homies.

Today, that changes.

Today, I give you, the League of Competitive High-Fiving. Are you ready to take your high-fives to the next level? Are you ready to train for strength, speed, and "big ups"? Are you ready for the high-pitched slapping sound of palm striking palm and its accompanying glory? Then join us, and raise your hands high.

I just read the most hilarious take on wine selection from a link off of Kottke.org.

I merely hope that someday I can hone my weekly feature into something close to the caliber of "The Non-Expert."

Q: Why is tortellini shaped so strange?

A: Food question! And Italian food, no less! Way to go, Chris. Let's see if I can address this in a coherent manner...

After looking into the matter, I've discovered that there are several vaguely similar theories creating a a basic mythological story. Essentially, a peeping-Tom innkeeper peered through the keyhole to check out a beautiful woman. With only candle light in the room, and his narrow field of vision through the keyhole, he was only able to see her belly button. To the innkeeper, this was still - apparently - so marvelous that he rushed off to the kitchen to create a piece of pasta that would remind him of his voyeuristic escapade.

Not quite the rustic explanation I was expecting :-) Either way, tortellini is my favorite stuffed pasta, and will forever remind me of the finest meal I consumed in Rome - Tortellini alla Panna con Prosciutto Crudo - cheese-filled tortellini in a cream sauce with chopped ham. Wow, it was good.

That's it! Remember to post questions for next week's Ask Dan in the comments section.

Ciao!

You know, a while back, I created a MySpace profile despite many misgivings in a pitiful attempt to drive more traffic here. I haven't done anything to the page because I haven't wanted to mess with that. I just wanted it as a means for people to find me, thereby finding my real website.

Well, MySpace sucks. Spam comments and notes, loud insane profiles, and general vomit.

I'd heard of Facebook, and wanted to join for the sake of all my VCU/Intervarsity friends way back when, but VCU does not do alumni email addies, so at the time I was SOL. They recently opened up to everybody, however, and after some nudging by my sister and law and my buddy Nate (who's decidedly anti-trendy-stuff, incidentally), I caved and created a profile there.

First off, I'll say that the interface is MUCH cleaner than MySpace. Perhaps it's because they don't let you customize your page, but man, "apartment white" never looked so good.

Second, I just discovered something totally sweet about it. You see, I never really wanted to spend too much time maintaining a profile on Facebook, either. I was, again, hoping vainly that such a profile would drive traffic to my site. This, perhaps would increase my readership from six to seven :-) Well I was looking at the "notes" feature, and discovered that I could "import" a blog. What they really meant was that I can link a blog to my profile, so that posting here will automatically show up as a note on my Facebook profile. That means that anybody who cares enough to look at my profile will see my updates to this site, which I think is pretty dope. The whole process was seamless, and involved the simple pasting of my site's URL into the page. Two clicks, and it's ready. Well done, Facebook.

My boss sent this clip around the office this morning, and I thought it looked supremely awesome:
[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sd5G2EcOvQ&w=425&h=350])

Okay, so an update on the last post is in order.

My review ran to about an hour, rather than the half hour for which it was scheduled. This was a good thing.

I have a great boss, and with that the ability to be very open with him about my job satisfaction and career. Aside from receiving a very positive annual appraisal from him and several coworkers, it was suggested that I try for a promotion this coming year. That means a year from today, should I complete the necessary milestones, I could be a Senior Programmer/Analyst. Hopefully, throughout this year ahead I'll work on more analytical tasks coupled with some documentation. We'll see.

Additionally, I was able to speak with my boss about my future in the company. I told him of my desire to start some freelance work on the side. I told him about my difficulties liking my current job responsibilities. He listened, he encouraged. Ultimately, I was reminded why I like so much to work with my team and my manager.

I think I'll be alright for another year :-)

Today I have my annual performance review. I don't know how to feel about it compared to last year. I don't feel as if I have the same rising-star image that I did a year ago - not because I feel that I haven't accomplished much, but because I feel as if I've grown into my job title more appropriately. Stabilized, as it were.

At the same time, I don't feel as if it's time for me to move up the ranks - but again, this isn't because I feel insufficient. For several months, I've heard that a clear line of progression would be laid out by my superiors indicating which steps must be taken for promotion, but I've as yet heard no details. Has this not been finalized? I essentially don't know what it takes to advance in my team. Maybe it's not even that, however...

Perhaps the team is just the right size, and we have to have some lower level folks to do the lower level detail work? The data fixes, the small code changes, the occasional new process. That would REALLY suck, because it would require me to remain in my roll until a) somebody above me moved up or out, or b) we garnered enough new business to justify more entry-level positions, freeing me to move up.

Don't misunderstand me - I don't want to sound like some corporate-ladder-climbing IT guy. I do, however, want to get out of the low-level details, and move up to more broad design and diagnostic work. More analysis. Less coding.

Maybe it's my time, maybe I'm not. Hopefully I'll have a better idea after today.

According to the BBC News website, Illinois junior senator Barack Obama has formed an exploratory committee - the first step towards a presidential run. On February 10th, apparently, he plans to make an official statement regarding the committee.

So...I suppose it's time to start researching this fella more deeply. I'd prefer to have a well-informed opinion of why I would or would not vote for the much-lauded Obama. Since he's a senator, we're in luck! We can go to Project Vote Smart, and review his complete Senate voting record. That should help cut through any hype, emotion, and potential campaign garbage that left-leaning individuals get caught up in around this guy..

Of course, the next presidential election is nearly two years away, but it never hurts to start early :-)

Alright...we have our championship games set...

For the NFC, we have the New Orleans Saints traveling to Soldier Field to take on the Chicago Bears, who won in overtime against the Seattle Seahawks. In the AFC we have a classic match up between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts in Indiana.

Can Peyton Manning finally make it to the Super Bowl? Will the Bears get to their first bowl since the 80s? Or will Tom Brady pull off his usual playoff greatness? Perhaps the Saints will finally make it the big bowl game?

Who knows? We'll find out the line up for Super Bowl XLI next Sunday!

Q: What is the mysterious “hard place” alluded to in one of the overused, overpopular[sic], absolutely nauseating phrase “caught between a rock and a hard place”?

A: I'll ignore the fact the Mugs is making a big deal out of a phrase whose meaning is understood and significance is minimal, and instead attempt to approximate an answer.

I think one might naturally assume that "a hard place" is perhaps another rock, or even a cliff face. How else would you come to be caught 'twixt a rock and a hard place unless a rock fell behind you while examining the boulder in front? And you know what? This brings up a more important question and/or line of thought...How did you get caught between said rock and hard place? I assume nobody dropped you between them from a helicopter. Isn't it really your own fault that you're there? I mean, if you hadn't gone the wrong way in the first place, perhaps you wouldn't have come face to face with a rock wall, pondering its vastness in a dull stupor, only to have a car-sized lith plop down at your back.

In other words, extending the metaphor, didn't you get yourself into this situation?

Do you like that? How I finished up "Ask Dan" with a question?

Anyway, that's it for this week. Post your questions for next week in the comments section, and I'll answer next Friday!

So David Beckham announced that he's signing with American Major League Soccer team, the LA Galaxy.

Will such a high profile world athlete (albeit later in his career) help invigorate the still on-the-fringe sport in America?

Here's hoping. Soccer can be freakin' exciting, and I sure would love to see the same excitement here that I caught in Old Town Square in Prague during the World Cup.

Any Fortune 500 company worth its salt wouldn't rest on its laurels when a competitor unveils a hot new toy, right?

Ladies and gentlemen, the ZunePhone.
[youtube [www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRLRjKCGHek&w=425&h=350])

Well, physically, at least.

Today I moved to the third floor in my building, and I have a window seat! Huzzah!

Gotta celebrate the small victories...that's what I keep telling myself...