Driving north on I-75, the tundra of Western Ohio is pretty bleak. Rows of harvested corn fight off sticky snow, and the sky already has that gray winter glaze. This is why so many Ohioans move to SC…can you blame them?
Somewhere south of Dayton, a giant red logo caught my eye. LORD. Not just any lord, but LORD in big red uppercase techno typography. I drove on, slightly tickled and more than curious. Turns out to be innocuous, but you always have to keep an eye out…
BTW – how cool is it that they own LORD.COM? Swank.
After reading Dr. Seuss’s “Oh Say Can You Seed” all summer long, we welcomed Fall as a great opportunity to do some collecting. Over a two-week period, my oldest son and I meticulously sought out all the best seed caches for our collection. In the end, it looked pretty cool:
Here are the details (from top left to bottom right):
Unidentified Weed – This bean-like seed came from a head-high weed that produced dozens of pods, each with two seeds in it. They kind of smelled.
Crape Myrtle Tree – We collected these seeds by swatting at our crape myrtle with a plastic baseball bat. The seeds floated down like mini-helicopters and landed on a Frisbee. They are now known as the Frisbee seeds.
Wild Blue Aster – I love this wildflower, and it grows under the power lines near our house. These seeds came from a wildflower bouquet we picked for Jen.
Live Oak Tree – These acorns are abundant in the Lowcountry this time of year. The big surprise was the larvae that crawled out of each of them. One by one, I picked them out of the container and took them outside, where I assume they wanted to burrow into the ground.
Pumpkin – These are the only non-wild seeds we included in our collection. They were so plentiful and unique…we just had to have them.
Unidentified Berry – I should know the name of this shrub, as they are everywhere in Charleston. They have thin, yellowing this time of year, and are covered with red berries.
Palmetto Tree – These seeds are everywhere right now too. It’s so cool thinking that each one of them can grow a giant Palmetto tree.
Unidentified Weed – This weed produces long, slender pods that contain about 25 seeds each. The seeds remind us of the food we feed our Beta fish.
Unidentified Weed – These seeds came from a weed that has 3-inch pods with 8 seeds in each. I like them because they look like tiny Chinese throwing stars.
Redbud Tree – I love redbud trees, so I planted one in our front yard – they remind me of Indiana. Similar to the live oak seeds, each redbud seed had a very small insect larvae living in it. They had all hatched before we started the collection, but we saw them this summer.
Ornamental Grass – Not sure what species this is, but it’s variegated and is about 4 feet tall.
Jelly Palm – These seeds appear on the ground after the fermenting orange fruit decomposes. We like to crack these shells open to get at the three beans inside.
You know, I got out of the habit of actually writing here despite that being one of the objectives for this project. My main focus was to create a repository for 100% original work. Because of this, I’ve been leaning on my photos…which is fine. But I totally forgot to post the 1990 video!
Huh?
Like all passionate skaters, we practiced self-documentation in ritualistic fashion. We filmed and we shot. We developed, edited, and screened. Guys were forever making sponsorship videos, and we analyzed contest films like fiendish hoops coaches. It was all part of the life.
Every year, my friend Todd and I would boil down a years worth of footage into “The Video.” We had two VCRs, one of which miraculously had an audio overdub feature, and we would spend hours getting our dub-on. After the segments were compiled and the hand drawn/written graphics were added, we slapped some tunes over the top.
I’ve been digitizing and posting these on YouTube for the crew…you can see the 1988 video here (Almost 20 years ago…gulp.) I had some flexibility when I worked on the 1990 video, because we hadn’t yet added the audio. I was able to mix the sounds of the skating with a the music, and this gave it a production quality that was unavailable back in the day.
So in writing this painfully long intro and posting a twenty-year-old video testament to skateboarding’s timelessness, I have pushed myself a little farther along. You poor soul. Here’s the video.
We have wet, warm winters down here, and it’s common to see all kinds of celestial activities. On December 2nd, I caught this circumzenithal arc in the late afternoon sky.
Though past it’s peak in the photo, you can still see the tell-tale bending towards the sun, with the red band on the outside. It makes me want to kick back and think about this crazy physics experiment we call home.
Five weeks on crutches changes the way you see things. Everything from architectural accessibility to time management becomes an issue.
Other things are just annoying, like the sore armpits and the loud crutches. My family and coworkers quickly noticed my click-clack as I hobbled around, and I soon found the adjustable bars of my ubiquitous gray crutches were the source.
After some thinking, I realized a quick application of masking tape could solve the problem. Once around at the base, and again at the locking button – then repeat on the other crutch. It worked better than I thought, and remained in use for the duration of my need. A better look could be achieved with duct tape, or perhaps go festive with colored electrical tape.
The important thing is to be creative, and enjoy using your crutches in silence.
I’m in a 4-way battle with some of my co-workers, and here is my volley from round two. I kind of rushed through it, but wanted to get it up here anyway.
When I reviewed my Sony Vaio, I mentioned having to disable the very annoying startup sound that played on the Sony splash screen. Unlike the Windows startup sound, this one has to be disabled in the BIOS.
Yesterday, I got an email from someone asking me how to do this. So in the interest of helping others out, here are some step-by-step instructions should you need to do the same.
To access BIOS and disable the Sony Vaio startup sound, do the following:
When you see that first Sony VAIO startup screen, press the “F2″ key on your keyboard.
On the BIOS setup screen, use the “Right Arrow” key to select “Advanced”.
Use the “Down Arrow” key to select “Speaker Volume”
Press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
Use the arrow keys to select “0″.
Press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
Press the “Right Arrow” key to select “Exit”.
Make sure “Exit (Save Changes)” is selected, which it should be by default.
Press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
On the “Save Configuration Now” screen, select “Yes” and press ‘Enter”
Ever since our son could walk, we’ve had a wide range of chalky goodness on the driveway. He loves the stuff. In fact, we all like adding to the weekly mural. These two characters appeared last week, and then with zen-like timing vanished under an evening rain.
Round 3 of Flashkit.com‘s March Madness Tournament kicked off with some brilliant stock, clearly reflected in the work that followed. My battle with Hybrid Inc. was hard fought, and the closest of all eight pairings. In the end, his piece pulled ahead and rightfully won the round.
My image is posted below, but you should really check out the amazing work in some of the otherpairings.
In a world where photoshopping is acceptable verb usage, transparent photography loses a little bit of its magic. Though I suppose it’s hard to look at some and not think it’s marginally cool.
It’s simple to do. First pick a decent subject – a refrigerator, car hood, computer case – then place your camera in a stationary position. A tripod works best. Then take two photos; one of your subject closed, and one with it open. Some simple layering in PhotoShop will complete the composite. Peek-a-boo!
Rummaging through an attic box, I found this vintage TI-99 BASIC reference card. I spent many an evening hunched over my TI-99 writing lines of code, and I imagine this card was my copilot. It’s well preserved, so check out the full-resolution scans below for details.
After a few weeks of use, I would like to add a few more bullets to my previous review of the Sony Viao S560P:
Things I like:
The comfortable balance of power and portability is just what I needed. I’m happy with it’s weight and handling, and equally impressed with it’s performance (despite only 512MB of RAM.)
I love the wifi. It’s strong, and I’ve been able to use it in many locations without issue.
It feels great in my hand when I’m carrying it, particularly the rounded hinge edge. Smooth!
Things i don’t like:
It runs hot; really hot. It feel like it raises my body temperature, and sometimes it makes me sweat when it’s on my lap.
The touchpad isn’t as consistent as other laptops I’ve owned. I like to click using the pad, and this doesn’t work 100% of the time. Sometimes the mouse movement is sluggish as well.
The headphone levels seem really low, even when everything is maxed out. Listening to Blues Clues on the plane with my son was tricky, but still effective.
I’m writing this 800 miles from home and untethered to the ether…that’s why I love this thing. I still recommend it without question.
During our trip to Target tonight, it seems a small patrol of clone troopers infiltrated the cart. Hiding out among the diapers and place mats, these seven stowaways made it back to the house undetected, only to be captured and photographed for the entire empire to see.
Commander Gree and Commander Bly are very detailed figures – I’m always happy to see favorite characters get a good sculpt. I picked up a Green Clone Commander (previously had red), and a dirty super articulated clone. Target also had the other trooper evolutions pack, which even rebelscum.com hasn’t detailed at the time of this post. Out of the three, the Grey Commander from ROTS is the most menacing (third from the left). All in all a good haul.
My Sony Vaio S560P arrived without issue from the Best Buy warehouse. I unpacked the box, which included only the laptop, power supply, battery, and requisite paperwork – though it didn’t come with a CD of any kind (cool!) I charged it up, turned it on, hopped onto my wifi network, and I was in business.
THE GOOD :: This laptop is very well built, and feels sturdy despite its meager size and weight. The finish is quality, and the screen is amazing – The XBrite technology is as advertised. The simple layout makes it easy to use, as there aren’t buttons and inputs everywhere < -- a complaint I have of my Dell Inspiron which this Vaio is replacing. It feels great when typing, something I was worried about with such a small laptop. The fact that it is only 4.3 pounds is it's biggest selling point (besides the kickin' monitor), and it closes up and carries very easily. The widescreen monitor is crisp and sharp, and very very bright (did I mention that I love the monitor?)
THE BAD :: The screen drains the power very quickly, and I have to turn the brightness way down to expect any kind of longevity. I would like to see a volume control on the body, but the FN key will work fine once I commit it to muscle memory. The VAIO startup screen has a horribly loud audio file associated with it, and I had to go into the BIOS to manually turn it off. I miss the mouse nub, but am already used to the pad. I had to uninstall some seriously knaggy programs, but this is common with most PC purchases, so I can't blame Sony.
TAKEAWAYS :: I did my research, and this laptop provides exactly what I need: A portable, powerful, wireless laptop that makes typing easy. It's going to serve me well as a wireless terminal, not a desktop replacement. It will also work well as a DVD player for the kids when we are traveling. All in all, I am happy happy happy. I've always been a big Sony fanboy, and so far my first experience with a VAIO has been wonderful.
When i opened the mailbox today, a wave of geek-sweats kicked in as I spotted the tiny Hasbro logo on the plain white box. Could it be? Had they arrived? Indeed they had.
My Early Bird Certificate had run its course, and my four throwback Star Wars figures had arrived. I opened the box with the same exuberant excitement I had displayed 25 years ago when my mail-in Boba Fett arrived. R2-D2, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia had come home in all their 2005-sculped glory.
This was a great idea by the Hasbro marketing team – cheers to them for selling us all a piece of cardboard with an attached promise…AGAIN! Genius. I’m off to play…
As my adoring posse has told me, creating the photo below has squarely fallen into the ‘You Have Way Too Much Time On Your Hands’ bucket. But really, this only took about 15 or 20 minutes, I swear!
Not the best example of this trick, as my monitor at work is a CRT (scanlines), and the background is the ever-changing outdoors. However, I still think it turned out OK!
