For some odd reason, I've gotten re-addicted to the web here recently. I have just found a lot of cool things to mess around with and am spending crazy amounts of time online.
Besides the aforementioned excitement over Firefox 3, I've also discovered Greasemonkey, which is a Firefox add-on that allows you to run custom scripts. Through bumbling around Greasemonkey scripts, I kept seeing references to "Travian". So naturally I Googled Travian and found out it's a "browser game featuring a world with thousands of other real players. One begins the game acting as a chief of a tiny village." I am now full-blown addicted. I am overseeing two villages and check them multiple times per day.
I recently gave this place a makeover and was very happy to have figured out how to have a "Share This" link automatically added to the end of every posting. This undoubtedly means nothing to you, as any blogging software includes this. Since this blog is 100% home-grown, I had to code for it. I will be attempting to add an RSS feed soon.
Some other current online time-wasters include:
- AudioJungle - A stock music website that I have been uploading audio tracks to. Amazingly enough, I've done $45 in sales in a few weeeks.
- Co-Authoring the guitar/bass blog LoudStrings with Juan (and maybe Ronnie?). If this thing starts to take off, we're moving it out of Ning and will run our own ads. I'm sure we'll all be rich from ad revenue soon. Ha ha.
- Loaded some family photos to my Flickr.
- Joined Mixx, a social bookmarking thing that's pretty cool.
I read a very interesting article about bananas.
That bananas have long been the cheapest fruit at the grocery store is astonishing. They’re grown thousands of miles away, they must be transported in cooled containers and even then they survive no more than two weeks after they’re cut off the tree. Apples, in contrast, are typically grown within a few hundred miles of the store and keep for months in a basket out in the garage. Yet apples traditionally have cost at least twice as much per pound as bananas.The article then goes on to make me feel like a jack-ass for enjoying bananas as much as I do. Besides the obvious environmental toll involved, there's been a pretty substantial human toll as well.
Once bananas had become widely popular, the companies kept costs low by exercising iron-fisted control over the Latin American countries where the fruit was grown. Workers could not be allowed such basic rights as health care, decent wages or the right to congregate. (In 1929, Colombian troops shot down banana workers and their families who were gathered in a town square after church.)And now, the one variety of banana we all eat - the Cavendish, is being threatened by some super-disease. Greeeeaaaat.
NYT - Yes, We Will Have No Bananas
See also: Freakonomics - The Economics of Bananas
And if you're really interested, the author's book: Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
Firefox 3 came out last week and I am loving it. My only real complaint over the years has been its load time. This version seems to load faster. It's also supposedly a lot more secure than 2.x. (and IE for that matter) It's got some other cool features as well, like one click bookmarking, bookmark tags, the smart location address bar.
Here is some more info on FF3:
So click above and download Firefox 3. I get points if you do."These data provide strong, longitudinal evidence that public schools are at least as effective as private schools in boosting student achievement," said researcher Christopher Lubienski of the University of Illinois.So there you have it, scientific justification for me and Lester not sending our kids to private school. And the sociological implications. And our lack of fundage.
You know that commercial where the guy gives out his social security number, claiming that his company Lifelock will protect his identity? His identity has been successfully stolen.
Tool.
This reminds me of every time I'm on a website that has a little "Hacker free for X days" badge. I always cringe. If they want to hack your site, they will. Why tempt them? It doesn't matter what security system you put on your house, there are people out there that will get in if they realy want to.
Someone bought one of my songs over at FlashDen. Wow. I may quit my job and pursue this. Let's see....The mortgage payment is... My song sold for $6, making my cut $1.25...
Never mind.
And Stephen Colbert's response...
Ice Ice Baby Too Cold
This is web browsing at its best: Reading the comments on that page while listening to the audio of the call.
"Black or Latino?" - Classic.
I went looking around the internets for some a capella tracks to play with. What a pain in the a$$. It's like looking for free anything - takes you forever to weed through the crap. Then I always forget that "royalty-free" does not mean "free". So I stole this cool piece and threw some music to it. I think it's Turkish. If I can remember where I found it, I'll send the chick a copy. I'm sure she'll be underwhelmed.
Enjoy.
The 25 Best Hair Metal Bands
I would have included Warrant also. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a great song.
I just joined Twitter. I decided after reading this article about Zappos employees (CEO included) Tweeting.
More importantly, I just downloaded Drupal. I may be taking on a pretty big web project in the next month that I believe Drupal will serve me quite well with.
Will someone tell me the difference between a) an enema, b) a high colonic, and c) a bad case of diarrhea? Actually, nobody tell me. I really don't want the answer. I just want to ponder. Seems like about the same end result. I could be wrong. And probably am.
If They IM'd: Old Bill Clinton and New Bill Clinton
My back continues to suck. I've spoken to a few people about inversion tables. I did a little research and then took the plunge and bought this one. I don't know if it's helped my back substantially, but it's very relaxing and makes me feel good in general. Hopefully a combination of this and me getting back to my workout routine will help.
I'm coaching two kiddie baseball teams this season - Evan's 3-4 year old TBall team and Emily's 5-6 year old coach pitch team. To my pleasant surprise, Emily is one of the better players on her team. I'm only surprised because she's never played before and was nervous about it. Turns out, most of her teammates have never played before either. She has good coordination and is more athletic than she thinks.
This dual coaching business should be a hoot.
I have begun work on a composition that will bring me much joy when completed. If you'd like, I will share it with you.
I took Emily to an aimed-at-kids symphony featuring the music of Beethoven on Sunday. Beethoven went deaf around age 35. I really can not imagine the hell of being a composer and going deaf. And then continuing to compose masterpieces that you will never hear performed.
Referring to NY Governor Eliot Spitzer doin' the doins' with hookers:
"You know what, the cheating was his decision to repair what's damaged, and to feed himself where he's starving. But, yes, I hold women accountable for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need."
Watch the video of her on the Today Show here.
WHy does Dr. Laura hate the bible?
I went to Evan's school's (pre-K) "Desserts with Dad" the other night. At one point we all sat in a big circle and were about to introduce ourselves, sing songs, etc. So me and Evan sit down and this guy standing in the middle with a camera looks our way and is saying "Smile!". I thought he was someone from the school taking pictures, so I looked at him and gave him a smile. After taking the picture he came over and sat next to the boy beside us - his son. That dad will have an added bonus in that picture - a dork sitting behind his son smiling for the picture.
OK - Besides the obvious little-bodybuilder-person-with-bleach-blonde-hair thing, what's the deal with Mr. Hairy-Black_Socks-Spandex-Porn-Stache?
Long live Diamond Dave!
Gene Simmons sex tape not starring Shannon Tweed.
I swear if this turns into some marketing hoax to sell another crappy product, for the first time ever, I will go against my "no blog deleting" policy" and delete this post.
When did "that's not funny" evolve into "that offends me"? Before my time no doubt. When someone tells a joke that is not funny, to tell them their joke is not funny is to imply that you were offended by the joke. Similarly, to refer to something some public figure said or did as "not funny" means that you and/or others were offended.
I tried using this recently on a co-worker. He made a lame attempt at humor to which I calmly replied "That's not funny". He appeared taken aback - and not that I judged his joke as not funny - but that he thought he had offended me. I explained my comment and theory behind my experiment. Now, this was funny. I had underestimated how uncomfortable this was going to be. I could tell he was still trying to figure out my crack and was coming to the conclusion that it was a dick-ish thing to say. There was no graceful way out of this ridiculous situation, so I exited with the knowledge that at least temporarily, this guy thought I was a dick.
I have concluded that I will leave such frankness to my buddy Coolfed.