April Fools Day recap

I think April Fools Day should be re-named April Rules Day. This infographic I think makes my point.

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The only way to get lost in pictures

For the most part, I wouldn't call myself “artsy”. After my first (and only) year of architecture school, I realized that I have an engineering mind, rather than an art mind. Even though I'm convinced that I am all-left-brained, I seem to have this emotional connection with some art forms (music & photos). I actually like to look at pictures more than I like to make them. I wouldn't quite call myself a photo connoisseur, more of an enthusiast. I have a ritual that I like to go through every so often: I put on some trance music & stare at hundreds of photos. It sounds so trivial, but it's so much more! You'd be surprised at the emotions that can be triggered with this awesome combination. I'll briefly break it down:
Why trance music?

1. Simply put, trance music doesn't distract. It tunes out the world so you can really look at the pictures as if you had blinders on.
2. It's simple. You're not going to find yourself singing along, possibly looking up the lyrics because you forgot that particular line. Most of the time, there are no words to sing along to.
3. It's energetic. You're not going to find yourself falling asleep or bored. I betcha you'll be tapping your foot before you know it.

Why photography?

1. I enjoy photographs more than any other art-form, aside from music. One simple picture can tell a whole story.
2. It's not a video. Pictures don't have to hold your hand. Video takes your hand & leads you down a path for up to 4hrs! A photograph can tell its story in a measly 2-5 seconds, with the same, or greater impact.
3. High consumption rate. Because of the 2-5 second rule (above), you can experience hundreds of pictures in a matter of a few minutes.

Where can you go to find an endless supply of pictures? There are quite a few sites that have zillions of pics, but I have to say, I prefer Flickr's interface. I especially like their slideshow feature. There's a little bit of up-front work to finding what you like, but it's worth it.
Photo preparation: To do this proper, you should create an account. Take a few days to browse around and find photographers that you like, and add them as a contact. This concludes the prerequisite work.
Music preparation: There are several ways to get good trance music these days. For me, the easiest way is to subscribe to the Trance Around the World podcast on iTunes. There you can download the latest episode for free. (You could also listen live on Trancearoundtheworld.com, but to me, that's too much trouble.) There's minimal talking, and it's 2 hours long -­ plenty of time to get lost in some pictures. A State of Trance is another weekly show that's pretty good. There's also a couple dance/trance internet radio stations that are options, Digitally Imported is an oldy & goody.

So, now go. Put on some music, and look at some awesome pics. It's a great experience.

25 Things you probably don't know (or care to know) about me

1. My first car accident was when I was 16 & 2 weeks old.  I was hit by a drunk driver whilst "borrowing" my mother's car to cruise around with my girlfriend.  It scared the crap out of me.
2. My first job was working in a pizza place.  I lasted 2 months.  I learned a lot: don't work in the food business, & don't complain about everything.
3. I can't decide what my favorite color is.  Sometimes it's blue, sometimes it's green.
4. When I was a kid I longed to work at Lego.  It was my dream job, and I really thought I had the "stuff" to do it.  I later came to the realization that I really wasn't that good. :)
5. When I was 16 I skipped out on the family tradition of going to our church's Christmas Eve service (which I really did enjoy).  Instead I went to my girlfriend's family party (yes, the same one in #1).  It was then that I learned how much my then-girlfriend enjoyed the bottle & the pipe (if you know what I mean).  I vowed to never skip Christmas Eve service again.
6. I love dance music.  About 8-9 years ago my friend played me some Detroit Techno.  I then went to explore other types of electronic music and finally settled on dance (house, club, euro-trance, etc).  Internet radio has been my saving grace in this regard.  I've blogged about Pandora.com many-a-time.
7. I really, really, really, want to travel to Europe and see a huge, spectacular DJ show like Sensation White, Armin Only, Mayday, etc.  See #6.
8. My first car was a 1979 Chevrolet Nova; maroon, inline 6, automatic.  The trunk was rusted shut and the valve cover gasket leaked oil like a gunshot victim on blood thinners.
9. The first time I went to Canada I was 19, dumb, and asked too many questions.  I tried to make chit-chat with the Canadian border patrol.  When they were searching my car (the Nova), they found a couple of my girlfriend's feminine hygiene products in the glove compartment.  They asked me whose it was since she wasn't with me.  I said, "My girlfriend's".  They asked me to open the trunk.  I said I couldn't; it's rusted shut.  I showed the officer and that was good enough for her.  Obviously this was well before 9/11.
10. My first time having a beer cooler was during my trip to Canada (see #9).
11. I've always thought that my life would make a good movie.
12. I’ve lived my entire life in Michigan.  Although some days in the winter I’d like to move someplace warm, I don’t think I’ll ever leave.
13. I married the girl I took to my high school senior prom:

14. When I was a kid (<12), whenever I fell off my bike, I made sure to get up quickly & not make much fuss, because I felt like an idiot when the neighbors would come out to “rescue” me.
15. When I was 13, my friend & I would sneak into a quiet place in the house and listen to Eddie Murphy tapes.
16. About 4 years ago I spent a week in Amsterdam on a short-term mission trip assisting a local church called Zolder50.  Although we were there doing God’s work, it didn’t really feel like we accomplished much.  I loved the city, and want need to take my wife there.
17. I have a serious problem with authority, namely cops.  I have a feeling this is an inherited trait, which strangely, makes me proud.
18. I’m constantly intrigued by people and society.  I often wonder how people cope with their individual life struggles, and who their friends are.
19. I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. I am often jealous of people that are really good at things I am interested in, e.g. photography, Guitar (Hero), home improvement, parenting, etc.
20. I changed my own oil in every car I’ve owned.
21. I love cars like I love dance music (see #6).  I just can’t afford to own anything new(ish).
22. My first computer was a 386 DX20 with a 40MiB HDD.  It was a Christmas present in 1989, & cost about $3400.  When I installed a copy of Windows 3.1, it was 20 floppy discs, & I had to use a Stacker program to bring my HDD to 80MiB.
23. I always complain about not having any friends, but I’m not willing to do all the work to obtain/maintain them.  What to 2 married men talk about anyway, their wives?
24. When I was quite young (<6) I would sometimes play doctor with the girl down the street (per her request).  One day my buddy got busted by her mother for playing the same game, and was banned from seeing her again.  I was too little to really understand what was going on or its ramifications.  I even, often, felt uncomfortable playing that “game” but didn’t have any idea about how to express my feelings.  She & I eventually stopped playing each other when she moved on to Jr. High (she was a few years older than I).
25. Although I’m not a fanatic, I do love movies.  I prefer dramas, but I’m also a sucker for those sappy romantic comedies. 
    
26. (Bonus) I have 2 tattoos.  One on each arm.

Technorati Tags: 25 things, personal, friendfeed

6th photo on the 6th page

IMG_5606, originally uploaded by AmateurX.

From Flickr Meme on Friendfeed:

“It works like this: if you use Flickr, go to the sixth page of your photostream and pick the sixth picture there, then post it to your blog.”

This is my cousin, taken at my late grandmother's house. The extended family was taking pictures that day...will probably be the last time the whole family will get together like that.

Getting up the guts

Inspired by Dmom's post on getting emails to avoid Costco, I am reminded of ThanksNo.com.

I have a few friends/family members that send me email that are meaningless forwards. Ah, the dreaded "FW:" in the subject line. I could just filter them out, but I'd rather not get them in the first place. In fact, recently I received an email that I thought for sure was a personal, (hand) written email straight from the heart. It started off nice, but then melted away into a chain letter! I was flaberghasted.

ThanksNo does a pretty good job of getting the message across. Listen, I like you. You're my friend/relative/loved-one. I just don't want to receive emails like this. Please don't take offense...yadda, yadda, yadda.

The problem I'm having is, I don't want them to be offended. Which is funny, because I just said ThanksNo does a pretty good job of laying it all out. Still, these are good friends/relatives. And, I don't do well in the "too bad they got offended, that's their problem" department. Of course, if these people would read my blog I wouldn't even have to send them the link. :)

Technorati Tags: ThanksNo, friends, relatives, junk-email, etiquette

Nervous...

A while back, I wrote Pandora to make some suggestions to go out with a "bang".  I realize today that I may have jumped the gun.  Obviously they don't want to dissolve, and will be doing whatever they can to avoid closing the doors.  The problem, I realize, is that I'm nervous.  I've had several of my favorite net radio stations close their doors, and I'm paranoid  that it'll happen again.

So basically, I had given up on them.  I guess I hadn't really thought about it, but that's the risk of using start-up, web2.0 companies.  You may be the only one who likes the site.

I have an HDRadio tuner for my car.  I spend probably 1/4 of my time listening to traditional/terrestrial radio.  When I actually do listen to the radio, I have 2 stations that I listen to.  One of those stations plays old hip-hop classics, & the other plays (new) dance music.  The horrific repeating of tracks still exists, but because I only listen once-in-a-while, I can live with it. 

More or less, if terresterial radio dissappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear.  Now, if internet radio left us, I would be very upset.

Technorati Tags: pandora.com, internet radio, music, radio

Music video games (aka Guitar Hero): family friendly?

I was reading a good point-counterpoint over at AnandTech: Parenting And Rock Band 2: Why I'm Not Getting The Game.  Although the wife had some valid points, I still ended up siding with the father. 

For me deciding to buy Guitar Hero III was a no-brainer.  Heck, I didn't even consider the kids until I saw the scantily-clad girl (character) with her thong sticking out of her pants.  Buying the alternate outfit, to cover up the bra-for-a-top, for said character was one of the first things I did.  (I still haven't "unlocked" the devil character for obvious reasons). 

One of the counter-points of the article was about language.  I know, for the most part, they censor the swear words (as a parent, I applaud; as a grown-up, I cringe).  But it's the other words and their respective contexts that I hadn't really thought about.  In fact, even though I had heard 90% of all the songs before, I never payed any attention to the words; heck, I still don't.  So, without dragging this topic on, here's my stance: I'm way too busy trying to hit the notes to pay attention to the words.  I think my kids are the same way.  I'm not worried.

For me Guitar Hero III (and soon to be World Tour) is, or at least should be, part of our homeschool curriculum; hear me out.  I place a great importance on music and film with repsect to our culture.  It is important to me that kids know who Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Rolling Stones, The Doors, Aerosmith, etc, etc, etc are.  Guitar Hero does a pretty good job at exposing my kids to musical culture.  Caveat: I know that there are many, many more genres of music; that's a whole other post. 

So, the bottom line, is that I'm going to let, and even encourage my children to play Guitar Hero Rock Band, et. al.

[Photo by Vracing]

Technorati Tags: music, video games, Guitar Hero, kids, AnandTech, Rock Band,

I knew there was justification for my many hours spent looking at pictures!

TWIP » Improve Your Images - TWIP

Here’s How To Improve Your Photography - Look at lots of pictures!

It all makes sense. The more pictures you study, the better pictures you take.  I am very selective when I favorite photos on Flickr.  I only press that little star when I really like an image.  The suggestion over on TWiP is to not only view, but study tons of images.  This way you can better understand what you like and what you don't; and how it's achieved. 

This is an image by one of my favorite photographers on Flickr.  There's so much about this picture that speaks to me: perfectly sharp eyes; math on the hand; smirk underneath the hand; the framing that puts her eyes toward the top right, her hand toward the middle, and just enough shoulder as to not over-power the shot.  I'm not the only one.  There's ~119 comments on this image alone.  (Her profile says she's 15; I think that might be an old bio.)


Photo by *Zara

If you haven't already, make sure you check out the This Week in Photography podcast. It always has useful information for all skill levels of photography.  It's run by some professional photographers, but is dumbed-down for the amateur like me.

Technorati Tags: TWiP, photography, Flickr

Inspiration...revisited

Flickr: Explore interesting photos from the last 7 days in FlickrLand...



I could hit the reload button for hours... It's amazing how many good pictures there are out there in the world. It kinda makes me feel challenged to improve my picture-taking performance. Now all I need is more hours for post-processing...

Technorati Tags: photography, flickr, pictures, web

Some days I LOVE Pandora. This is one of them.

I've been using Pandora for quite a while now. Most of the time I listen is at work. Lately, I've been quite busy & unable to slap on the headphones. The few times I've had chances to listen, I've been unimpressed. I'm not sure if it's the mood I'm in, or the selections that Pandora has been making...

Today on the other hand, it's as if the big P has been saving up all the good songs! I'm grooving like crazy here at my desk (my colleagues are most certainly snickering at my toe-tapping).

The last time I had such a good listen, I emailed them and they sent me a shirt! I'm not trying to get another shirt (although, that would be pretty righteous), but I just needed to give them props...again.


PandoraScreen by AmateurX on Zooomr
Technorati Tags: Pandora.com, music, web

Thanks. No.

Quite possible the best web-service out there today.

Thanks. No.

(via Lifehacker)

Do you Facebook?

The other day I was at a party and I heard a term I hadn't heard used as a verb: Facebook. Actually, the sentence went like this, "...Facebook me." What the heck does that mean? That's like saying "Myspace me." This does not compute.

I jumped on the Myspace bandwagon, & I now wish I hadn't. I spent too much time, & never really benefited. I really don't want to jump on another bandwagon to have it only be a fad...again.

So, I guess the real question I have is, is joining Facebook worth it? I've been thinking about Twitter, but haven't really explored it.

Many of you may say, why not both? Well, I'd rather spend most of my 'time' in one community, rather than many communities some of the time.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, question, social networks

PAINFUL!

(It is my theory that) for my employer to thwart heavy internet usage they've restricted their pipe to dial-up speeds.  OMG!!  This is so FRUSTRATING!  It took this movie the greater part of an hour to load, making it impossible to watch it on my lunch (half-)hour.





My new plan-of-action is going to have to be to post sites, videos, etc. on my blog (or my shared stuff page) so I can watch them all when I get home.  I think that'll work...


Technorati Tags: car-porn, work, frustration, web, video, mazdaspeed3

More on men & cars

I found my new favorite show: Test Drive. This episode does some psychological analysis on why men like cars, & are women attracted to hot cars...

TWiP...

I recently found a new podcast (netcast) that I thought I'd mention. It's called TWiP aka This Week in Photography. http://www.twipphoto.com is the address. Make a visit; you might learn something!

This money-management thing is hard work!

I recently clicked on an RSS feed I hadn't read in a while. I was astounded at the amount of good articles there were. I picked up a few & posted them to my Shared Stuff page, but I wanted to mention a few here.

This time of year is always pretty tough for me. With the incessantly evil North American International Autoshow that arrives in a little while, I always get the "New Car Buying Urge." This is a result of a combination of things; the first of which is, it's in my blood.
My dad has been known for buying and selling cars like they're going out of style. He almost never is satisfied. But he uses action, where I just do a lot of complaining. He loves cars; as do I.
The weather. S.E. Michigan has the stupidest weather. It's only predictability is that it's going to change. I guess the other mainstay is that winter sucks. It's cold, and ugly with a slushy/mud mix on the ground. Oh, and don't forget the excessive use of salt that eats the cars & the roads alike. And remember, we all can't wait for the spring months when the road crews have to fill all the potholes caused by the salt & shitty weather of months prior.
My 9+ y.o. car. The last week in January marks the anniversary of the week with which I bought my car: a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am. It's a decent car, but is starting to fall apart; and it's getting worse. Here's a quick list:

1. Breaks are having trouble stopping, I'm going to need new ones.
2. Driver's door window mechanism is all screwed up. I'm not going to attempt to fix it. Window falls right down into the door.
3. Power steering pump making a bunch of racket. Going to have to replace it; maybe this fall
4. Have to replace the fuel filter. "every 30k miles." I'm at 82k... that's going to be a messy job.
5. Transmission has trouble shifting on moderate-hard accelerations. It probably only needs a tune-up, but I still have to take the time to take it in to a trans shop. ugh.

And there's more, but I'm not going to list them...

My point? I found this article about "shaking the new car itch" It probably won't work on me once I get out of debt, but he makes some good points. I promised my wife that I wouldn't buy a car until he van was paid off in September. I intend to keep that promise. Plus, after some discussion (and some other articles) I am determined to kill off the 'ol credit card & start an emergency fund. That'll push off the new car until at least 2009. By then who knows, they might discontinue the model I want. 2009 is going to be a tough year for me, I can tell.

The first order of business though, is for me to start & keep a budget, get the car in working order, and pay off the f*cking credit card. I really have my work cut out for me. Oh, I forgot to mention: all the while keeping a happy household (wife and kids), staying true to God's plan for me (whatever that may be), teaching my children the values & eduction they need to be productive in society, keeping food on the table & gas in the tank; no pressure.

Lose the Loose!

Man! The utter neglect of respect to grammar and spelling on the internets is driving me crazy! I was reading this post on the Consumerist, and saw multiple misuses of loose (vs. lose).

If nothing else people, learn the proper usage of these two words!

Lose:
v 1: fail to keep or to maintain; cease to have, either physically or in an abstract sense; "She lost her purse when she left it unattended on her seat"

Loose:
1: not restrained or confined or attached; "a pocket full of loose bills"; "knocked the ball loose"; "got loose from his attacker"

This is not that difficult. Make an effort...sheesh!

Despite current internet radio woes, Pandora.com rocks even harder

Yesterday I was having a good music day. You know, it's kind of like a good hair day, except with music. Anyway, I was listening to Pandora & it was just one awesome song after another. I decided to send Pandora's team an email. It may be a little over-the-top, but I was happy. :)

To my friends at Pandora & the Music Gnome Project,

I have to say, I haven't felt this way for an internet radio station since the days before CARP. You guys are really making my day. :)

I've been using Pandora since I first saw it on digg about a year ago. I have to honestly say that Pandora has been my sole avenue for the discovery of new music. I listen to other stations, but I keep coming back to Pandora. Nobody else can put
together a mix like you guys. And, recently I've noticed there have been a bunch of additions to my Dance channel! I'm glad to see that you guys are still chugging away even with the SoundExchange thing looming overhead (even with the temporary reprieve, I don't feel this is a solution). Thank you. Your efforts are much appreciated.

I need to say that because of Pandora I have purchased many more CDs that I would have without it.

Thanks again, for all your efforts. Keep up the good work.

Mark Nielsen

This was there response:

Hello Mark!

Awesome! We are so happy you are enjoying Pandora. I must admit; I think it's great too!

Our mission is to connect people with music they will love. It's wonderful to hear that we have succeeded with you.

How would you like a complimentary t-shirt or cap? Just reply with:

* Name
* Mailing Address
* Preference (Shirt, Cap)
* Shirt size

and we'll send one right out.

Enjoy the music!

Best regards,


Maggie @ Pandora

I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Thanks Pandora you guys are the tops.