Archive for February, 2008
Friday Puppet Theatre: Episode 2
Introducing Honey Bear, starring Oki the Okapi and, of course, a guest appearance by Sharkie the Shark.
Calling Garp – are you ready for your closeup??
A Little Fame!
:: Schmap Anchorage Fourth Edition: Photo Inclusion
Hi Paul,
I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released
fourth edition of our Schmap Anchorage Guide:
Clarion Suites
http://www.schmap.com/anchorage/lodging_high-end/p=115644/i=115644.jpg
If you like the guide and have a website, blog or personal
page, then please also check out the customizable
widgetized versions of our Schmap Anchorage Guide, complete
with your published photo:
http://www.schmap.com/guidewidgets/p=13246208N00/c=SF2009478
Thanks so much for letting us include your photo - please
enjoy the guide!
Best regards,
Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides
If you click on the link, and hover your mouse over the entry for the Clarion Suites, you’ll see Schlepp and Bea in all their glory.
Friday Video
Except it’s Thursday and I’m too sick to make my own puppet theater this week. Yesterday was the Brit Awards, the UK’s premier pop music award show (and since UK pop is the world’s best, make that the world’s premier pop music award show) and I’ve spent some time digging out clips from YouTube. I am sure these will all soon be deleted due to their undeniable copyright infringement so get them while you can.
I love this one: The Klaxxons and Rhinna do “Umbrella”, cool lasers too.
Mark Ronson won Best Male award or something, despite the fact that he doesn’t do his own stuff:
And in case you didn’t get enough Amy, here she is solo. I love her to death but when she sings live it’s like she sings her own random timing and the band has to be adept at changing tempo to match her. And in both this performance, and the one above, she seems obsessed with the length of her skirt.
Finally, you might be saying “what about Kylie?”. Yeah, she won International artist and performed but frankly she looked horrid and it’s a terrible song (if you can call it that) so I’d rather we just moved along….
Friday Video
I swear, it was just an ordinary evening; no one saw this coming.
My Morning Coffee
Thanks to db, or maybe josh, yesterday I bought a Flip Ultra camcorder so I can join the video blogging craze, or something. Yes, I know I have three perfectly good camcorders at home but none of them are the sweet, easy to carry and use size of the Flip. I figure I will keep it in my bag, whip it out (so to speak) when the mood strikes. Hell, maybe I’ll record some video for the Wailing Cat sometime.
My first impression was a little underwhelming, actually. But the joy is in it’s simplicity. There’s no complicated buttons, just turn it on, point it at something, hit record, hit stop. Then it plugs right into your computer and you can use the supplied software to save/upload or any of your own tools. The video quality ain’t bad for $150. The trick is finding a hosting site that does a decent job of encoding the file but doesn’t take forever to do it.
First, I used good old YouTube which is the de facto standard, I guess. It processes pretty fast but the quality sure ain’t great:
DB tried Vimeo which did a much better job in terms of quality but took a long time to upload and encode. Rather than rehash the same experiment, I tried Viddler which was pretty quick, at least as fast as YouTube, I think, but I’m not sure the quality is improved any.
I’ll probably sit back and let josh and db figure out the best solution, they’re good at that kind of thing. In the meantime, I am pondering registering guapacha.tv for my video blogs, but at $25 a year it makes one think twice.
No iPhone for me, I think
The recent $500 models of the iPhone and iPod Touch have left me feeling a little colder towards the iPhone. My current contract expires in a week so the timing is perfect for a new phone. But, as I’ve said before, it’s crazy to buy an iPhone right now with the 3G models most assuredly coming out in a few months: Apple’s buyer remorse is guaranteed with that plan.
The new models made me realise that any new 3G iPhone is going to be in the same ballpark as these models, almost $500. As mega-fantastic as the iPhone is, my parents didn’t raise me to spend that kind of dough on a phone that requires a two-year contract. It’s insane, insane I tell you. So… I think I am going to get a Blackberry or other internet-friendly phone for free (thanks Wirefly!) and then perhaps in the summer spend some of the annual bonus on the Touch.
Yeah, it’s a little sucky but there are plenty of things in life I’d really really like but just can’t justify buying. Got to make the tough choices, I suppose.
A Little Shake, Rattle and Roll
Late last night we were watching TV when it felt like someone had pushed the house about 20 feet, held it there for a while to build up some energy and then let it go; felt like we were then shaking for a few minutes.
I’m (almost) used to the little shakes we get infrequently (the Valley is on it’s own fault line) but last night’s was quite different in style, and very very noticeable. Turns out that it was a 5.4 magnitude event, about 40 miles or so south of us and from the newspaper this morning I think everyone who was awake felt it. Looks like there were many aftershocks but I didn’t feel those.
Not the Big One yet, but certainly felt it.
Politics as Usual
I don’t know if it’s because I get to vote this time around or if life is just more boring than usual but I’ve taken an extra special interest in this year’s elections. So far I’ve saved you all from my opinions on the current candidates (but I bet you can guess they aren’t pretty) but that may not last. Be warned.
So, yeah, anyway, I voted for the first time today, or rather Teri took my postal ballot in when she voted. So, go me!