Subtitle: Sharing a nice music find with my readers (both of you).

So, this weekend I finally got around to hooking up the old stereo and record player to one of my computers. Months and months ago, I’d acquired a very nice M Audio sound card, specifically with the purpose of hooking up the steroe to the computer so I could digitize my wife’s old LPs.

She has a number of old albums from her travels in her youth that simply aren”t available on CD, let alone available for download. Read the rest of this entry »

Pointless Posts | 1 Comment »

Subtitle: Or maybe everyone else is just lazier.

So, I’m almost 2 months into the new job, and like any FNG, I worry about whether I pull my weight. Especially at a job where I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time surfing the net, working on my blog, finding excuses to take long lunches with buddies on flimsy “work related” reasons. Especially when I bill those lunches back to my employer. Read the rest of this entry »

Thinking About My Work | No Comments »

Subtitle: Be afraid… Be very, very, afraid.

So I was chatting (online) with a friend this morning, and we had one of those “random moments” that only occur in type.

Among the many beauties of online chat, (one of the chief ones being that your boss, when they can’t see your monitor, can’t tell the difference between work typing and chat typing), is that fact that every now and then you type something that should, realistically, be meaningless and nonsensical, but for some reason it strikes a chord. Read the rest of this entry »

Online Culture | 1 Comment »

Subtitle: It’s the first Step towards the T-1000.

I really wish I could embed this video, but (so far) it’s only directly available on the manufacturer’s website.

Now, the Army and various individuals in the field in Iraq have been hacking their bomb disposal robots and adding shotguns and machine guns for a bit, and there’s formal army program called SWORD (video link) - to make a packbot with an interchangeable weapon mount, so you can swap out a machine gun, for a grenade launcher, for a rocket launcher, etc. Read the rest of this entry »

The Road to Armageddon | No Comments »

Subtitle: Great new job, and I hate it already.

This could almost be considered a post from the files of someone who’s never satisfied. Or at least from the files of someone who pretty obviously doesn’t know what he wants from life.

Almost 3 months ago, I finally pulled the pin at my job with the Homeless Shelter. There were a number of reasons why I finally screwed up the courage to hand in my notice. First of all, I had achieved what I set out to do at that job. When I got hired on, I set myself two goals.One was to survive it for at least two years. A tougher challenge than you may think, given an industry with an average career life span of under 6 months. It’s a stressful environment to work in, and people just don’t last. My second goal was to work towards gaining a supervisory position. I achieved that when I was promoted to supervising one of their satellite buildings, and I held that position for most of my second year. Read the rest of this entry »

Thinking About My Work | 1 Comment »

Subtitle: “Artist” might be too strong a word…

If you read this blog a lot (all 3 of you out there), you might get the sense that I’m a bit nostalgic for “old stuff.” My ‘76 Impala wagon, the J2W2 Bus (which, I’m slowly bringing my wife around to thinking is a good idea), and some of the other random comments I’ve made in other posts. And if that’s the sense you get, then you’d be right. 3/4 of the shelves in my home office are packed with random old stuff. A turn of the century Underwood typewriter, some old box cameras and an even older accordian front Kodak, an original release 1979 Millenium Falcon , that I know is original because I got it for Christmas in 1979. An old hand crank Singer sewing machine, and my great-grandmother’s complete 8 setting fancy dinner china set. And on and on and on.

I tend to gather up random old stuff without even paying attention, and this has lead to some interesting conversations with my ever so patient wife. I’m not being sarcastic when I say that she’s patient, either. How many women do you know out there who can take the sudden acquisition of a camperized ‘67 Cardinal Coach school bus, complete with shag carpet, and not have an aneurysm?

Anyway, one of the things I’ve been acquiring over the past few years, is a collection of old pop-out storm windows with wood frames. They represent, to me, an era of construction that went away about 50 years ago. Essentially, I think they look kinda neat. I had no clear idea what I was going to do with them, just knew that I wanted to have a half dozen or so kicking around. Read the rest of this entry »

Pointless Posts | No Comments »

Subtitle: No, I’m not getting paid for this plug…

Via Compiler:

I really hate e-cards, for too many reasons to list. But these are damn funny. If you want to send some high quality snark to someone’s inbox, why not leave it to the pros at someecard.com? Do it right, and you can make it hard to track the insult back to you.

Here’s an example:

Humour, Online Culture | No Comments »

Subtitle: Unless you own your domain, you’re a pawn in Web 2.0

First off, before I get into my angry philosophical rant, a quick shout out to the 2507 Troops. Thanks for checking in, and yes, Sis is Ok. ‘Twas just a dream.

Now for the meat of the post.

Rupert Murdoch web property MySpace has just announced a deal to buy out photo storing and sharing site Photobucket. For Joe Average out there, this falls into the category of “Who cares?” Trust me. You care. Read the rest of this entry »

Rant, Online Culture | 1 Comment »

This is kinda weird, and maybe writing about it will get it off my chest…

Normally, I don’t get nightmares. Well, at least not very often. And when I do, they’re usually about zombies. Yeah, I know. I watch too many zombie movies.

Thing about the zombie nightmares is that if they wake me up, it’s not one of those “cold sweat” kind of things. It’s more like “That was weird - maybe I should turn it into a short story. Nah… There’s already enough zombie stories in the world…” and about that quick I fall back to sleep. Read the rest of this entry »

Pointless Posts | 1 Comment »

Just testing a podcast plugin.

In general, I like to risk screwing up my own site before I try and plug it into a site I manage for someone else. Go figure.

Enjoy a bit of “GP Radio” - a podcast for a site within the Green Political Movement.

Online Culture, Pointless Posts | No Comments »