Dead Blog, New Blog

Well needless to say I think this blog has died. I just don't have the discipline to update it very often. I am just too busy to worry about it. I have gotten some new time management software though, maybe if I put a weekly reminder in it to update this thing I can revive this.

The whole Fear and Loathing in Lansdale thing is kinda dead too since I dont' live in Lansdale anymore. I actually had someone from the North Penn Reporter (aka the North Penn Distorter) contact me because he wanted to write an article about my blog, then I got another email after he actually READ my blog realizing there wasn't much social commentary about Lansdale in it. What a jack ass. Granted they are a piece of crap local paper but geez no wonder the media in this country is so bad, they dont' even research what they are writing about anymore.

Well anyway, this blog might be in the middle of cardiac arrest , however I am thinking of starting a new blog about my woodworking. Since I moved to DC I haven't had a chance to do much of it since my shop is still in Lansdale. I'm working on finding a way to get some space for a shop down here. In the meantime I have signed up for a woodworking class in Arlington, VA.

A few coworkers and I are participating and we have had one class so far. I don't think I really had to take the intro course but I wanted to do it with my friends, some of whom have not really had much experience in the shop.

I am planning on building a somewhat traditional cabinetmakers work bench. It is quite ambitious of a project and I am only planning on finishing the trestle base for this semester. I'm hoping next semester I can take the advanced class and finish the top. This will probably be the first project I go through on my new blog. Hope you can join me there when I have it up and running.

So long for now.

Attack of the Geek II

Sigh... like normal I can't seem to finish ANYTHING. So I haven't worked on the whole company intranet site in a few weeks. It seems like normal I figured out how most of it all works and as such has lost my interest due to lack of a challenge. I plan on getting back to it and creating something usable but I really don't seem to have enough hours in a day to do all the "projects" I get myself into.

So I've found yet another project to delve into. I've been using this program in all 3 of my jobs so far called Sketchup. I'm a diehard user and often espouse my thoughts on how great it is. Oh... its a 3d modelling program, extremely intuitive interface, simple, fast, all around cool as hell. Another program that I have recently gotten hooked on is Google Earth. I find myself addicted to zooming around the earth looking for wierd places and things too look at from space. Put the two programs together and holy crap is it cool. Sketchup created a google earth plugin which allows you to import the earths terrain straight into sketchup along with the sattelite image mapped to the terrain creating a virtual landscape. It also allows you to export your Sketchup model into Google Earth so you can make a 3d model of your house, shed, skyscraper, and see what it looks like on a google earth map. So apparently in working with @last software, the makers of Sketchup, to develop the plugin, Google thought Sketchup was so cool they decided to buy the company. So I'm sure the plugin will only get better.

As of right now I find some major flaws in it. This made me start getting Geeky and looking for workarounds to make it better. For instance as is, the plugin will only allow b&w images mapped to your terrain. How dumb. I want color! So it prompted me to looking into the plugin itself. Which them prompted me to look into the Sketchup Ruby API. Which in turn got me turned on to all the really cool plugins and scripts that you can write for Sketchup using the Ruby language. So now I'm in full programming geek mode trying to figure out the Google Earth API along with learning Ruby. I've been reading some books on C++ for a while now and it's helping me understand it a bit. So I guess we will see what cool stuff I will come up with. First on the list is a timer function that will record the time spent working on a 3d Sketchup Model. Apparently some guy already wrote this program but he has it on a site that you have to pay for so Fu** that I want free stuff so I'm writing my own.

Anyway, I know this was a boring post but I thought it was time for an update. As soon as I figure out how to get pictures on here (I haven't been trying) I'll post a cool 3d image of what I used these two programs to do at work.

We want the Funk!

So I FINALLY got to see a George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars show last night. It was at the 9:30 club and it was an incredible show. I've been trying to see him for years now and every time I either forget about the show or don't have anyone to go with. The latter was the case last night being a monday night and $40 tickets no one wanted to go with me. So I went by myself and still had a great time. The opening act was Children of Production which is actually a lyric from one of p-funks songs. The keyboardist and most of the singers came back to form the current All Stars. Not too many recognizable old folks except George (he must be like 70 now) and the guy that wheres the diaper, and YES he was wearing it last night too. He must be in his late 60's too. Regardless of age these guys still put on a hell of a show which I was surpised having seen a few older acts before (James Brown) and being sorely dissapointed.

They played all the regular tunes, We Want The Funk, Flashlight, Cosmic Slop, etc. The last song they played was Jerry Lee Lewis' Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On which turned into a whole 50's twist song medly sort of thing that was just rockin with the typical "the roofs is on fire we don't need to water let the motherfucker burn" chant ending the night 15 minutepast the monday night curfew. Of course it took me 15 minutes of waiting on the platform to realize that the trains had stopped running and ran up to the street to get a cab back home. Still made it into work on time too.

Oh and how could I forget in my last post about music two of what could be my favorite bands at the moment.
The bees (as they are known in the UK) or A Band of Bees (as they are known in the US).
Everyone that hears them says they sound old, as in like 60s 70s style rock. I've also heard the typical, these guys sound like the Beatles. Whatever they sound like its flat out good rock and roll. My favorite is this quirky song called Chicken Payback that makes me feel like I should be twisting away at a bon fire surrounded by surf boards stuck in the sand. Check them out.

Dungen
These guys are a Swedish band and when I say guys I should say guy. It's mostly this one guy his name escapes me now but also amazing retro rock/swedish folk sounding stuff. Very psychadelic sounding. The songs are so amazing I really don't even have a problem that I don't understand the swedish lyrics. Their latest is Ta Det Lungt (take it easy) and I recently got Stadsvandringar (thanks Val!) I highly suggest both albums.

Ok well my toothache is acting up again I'm going to numb it with some cold beer and see you all later.

Oops almost forgot to add that I am going to try and post some pics I took with my phone camera of the show once I figure out how too on this thing.

In my iPod...

Ok, this is a quick one. I recently gave my sister the address to this silly page. The result is her sending me an email to update it. Well maybe thats what I need to get myself to updated this thing is have her bug me about it. Anyway...

Since this post was inspired by her, I am going to just talk about the music that I've been listening to lately since this is always one of our favorite subjects to talk about. Oh It's also her birthday tomorow! Happy Birthday Jen!

Here's the latest music:

• New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
• Not bad but I haven't listened to it enough to decide if I like them as much as I like their one song, Use It
  
• Kanye West, Late Registration
• Goldigger is the jam on this one. There are a few other great songs on here. I need to get his College Dropout Album
  
• Common, Be
• Testify, I'm sure you've heard it but the album is good. Many songs feature Kanye too.
  
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
• Just got this one. Tons of chatter and acclaim for them but I don't know if I can get over the lead singers wierd voice. Probably another album I just have to listen to a few more times.
  
• Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine
• What can I say. Anything she puts out is good.
• Blackalicious, The Craft
• Some more hip hop. This could be by far their best album yet and thats saying a lot because their previous stuff is like an unearthed gem. Most people never even heard of them but really, you should check them out.
  
• Supergrass
• I finally got around to getting some of their music. They have been around for quite some time and everyone that knows about them swear they are great.
  
• Hot Hot Heat
• I've been meaning to get some stuff of theirs but there is this one song I don't remember the name, it rocks. Thanks to my friend Stephanie for finally getting me into these guys.
  
• White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
• Again, anythign they do is awesome. I think they are the best thing to happen to rock and roll for a long time. I still love their stripped down music. And come on, who can get the doorbell song out of their head?
  
• The Strokes, First Impressions of Earth
• One of my favorite bands so I had to get their new album. Didn't like it the first time I listened to it, but then like most stuff I really like the more I listened the more I love it. Not sure if its as good as their past albums but I still think its great. You only live once is a great track and I think my favorite of the album is On the other side
  
• Betty Lavette, I've got my own hell to raise
  
• Look her up. She's an amazing singer from the 50-60's I think. She didn't have much commercial succes. Each song from this album is a cover from more contemporary artists like fiona apple. I think its worth a listen.
  
• Brazilian Girls, Brazilian Girls
  
• I want to find their album where they did Bossa-Nova covers of contemporary songs. However this album is still impressive. If you want to listen to something mellow this is it. I might go see them when they are in town soon.
  
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• Another band that's coming to the 9:30 club soon. I'm trying to figure out if I like them enough to go to their show. Why not? The track, Shuffle your feet I really like. They get a little too slow for someone who I'd go see live though. We'll see.
  
• Phantom Planet, Phantom Planet
  
• I FINALLY got their album. My friend had it and I love it. Most people know them from their song California aka the theme song to the show O.C. on Fox. Yeah I know, but trust me, these guys kick ass. Oh and they are young as hell. I think the youngest guy in the band is 17.

Ok this wasn't nearly as short as I thought it would be. I hope your happy Jen. It's late and I have to get up early for a 7:30 meeting tomorow morning. Bleh Peace out

Attack of the Geek

Well I'm back. I don't know how well I'll keep up with this site but I'm going to make a harder effort.

I'm actually looking into moving to another site and using a blogging tool called WordPress to write my blog. This was sparked because I'm looking into creating a new intranet web site for my company. It hasn't been updated in a long time since no one knows much about HTML. So I'm working on using WordPress as a Content Management System that even a monkey could use to update a site. I've also found this cool web server called Uniform Server. Just unzip it and you have a fully functional web server running Apache, MySQL, and PHP along with Perl I think. I'm using that as a test bed for my Wordpress intranet site. I'm thinking about getting a pretty sleek yet simple, easy to update, dynamic intranet site. If I can convince them to use it and get good feedback on it I'm going to try to add some more content like maybe a bulletin board system.

Ok my Minor in Management Information Systems has reared its ugly head in the last week so I apologize for all the nerdy tech talk to you non dorks that actually read this.

Ummm yeah

Ok well as you can see I have not made a post in a while. Tons of stuff has been going on since I moved to DC. I am kept busy enough here that I don't really have time at work to post. Also I like it so much here I don't have anything to complain about. I don't have internet at home yet either. Once I get that hooked up hopefully I can start posting some more. Till then, Peace.

Here I am...

I am here. DC. Finally got some internet access through work. However I actually have real work to do here so I will be limited to using it during my lunch HOUR. Thats right a full hour for lunch like it's supposed to be. I'd like to post a TON of stuff thats been going on since my last post however I'm still wary about my internet usage here at work. So I'm going to keep it short. Things are going well... besides being broke off my ass. My neighbors are cool. My job is cool. OMG the project I'm working on is ridiculous. It's a FLW textile block inspired vacation home in Moab Utah. The imaginary budget is something like 10 million. My coworkers seem cool. Their is a happy hour scheduled for tonight to welcome the new hires. There are quite a few young people around my age and *gasp* even younger than me working here. So far I'm loving it. Anyway I should get going. Oh and Val my email for now is tittlek@gmail.com Shoot me an email because I don't have my address book here at work to send you one.