As you may notice if you do the Web thing instead of the RSS thing, the sidebar has changed a bit here at justinrussell.com/blog. Using Automattic’s wonderful Widgets plugin for WordPress. Now you can see recent comments, my latest links from del.icio.us as well as everything else you’ve grown to know and love lately.
I’ve also designated the United Way as the current charity. I personally support them, and I hope you will, too.
Call me obsessed with location, but I really like Groundspeak, the company that manages geocaching.com. Groundspeak has recently come up with a site called waymarking.com; it’s devoted to what Geocaching’s virtual cases used to be. Visitors can log a special or unique place, and then other visitors can visit that site, take pictures, and log their find.
The exciting part of this to me is that this is a giant step forward for a project I’ve wanted to do since I became a developer. I’ve never been a real fan of Groundspeak’s design or usability, but I’m really glad to see that they’re trying this (especially this category!).
Fatboy Slim is known for great music videos (my previous favorite was Christopher Walken in “Weapon of Choice”). The latest – the video for “That Old Pair of Jeans”, off of the forthcoming The Greatest Hits: Why Try Harder is addictive and wonderful overall. It features comedian Chris Bliss interpreting the song through juggling (an awesome concept indeed).
The first time you watch the video, you’ll notice its coolness and smile at the end.
The second time you watch the video, you’ll notice some of the little things you didn’t notice the first time.
The first time you listen to the song while standing, you’re going to dance. Trust me.
The fourth through tenth through x times you watch it, well, that’s your own thing.
Here it is:
A couple more notes about why I think this is such a great idea:
Argh. It’s stuck in my head.
UPDATE: Tor reminded me through a post that I don’t have to send you over to that oh-why-is-it-so-popular site to watch the video. Now you can watch it right here!
Senator Olympia J. Snowe, (R) Maine, in a letter to Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, May 17, 2006:
As a member of Congress and the Senate Intelligence Committee, I understand the urgency and the necessity of using every tool that we have to target the terrorists who wish to do us harm. I likewise have long maintained that we can accomplish this mission without sacrificing or compromising the freedoms that we as Americans hold dear, including the right to be free of illegal searches and seizures.
I’m proud to have Senator Snowe as a representative of our state. For years, I’ve been trying to find a way to say the same thing so concisely. I sent a letter to thank her.
One of my favorite t-shirt makers, Busted Tees, just released a couple fresh ones that are straight out of geek history. Be sure to check out Camp Anawanna and Stewart/Colbert 08.
As previously promised, here are the best shots from my trip down Route 27 on May 7. I think they came out well – I might even put a few through Photoshop to see what I can do with them.
Flickr has apparently begun to use the Greek alphabet as a versioning system. Flickr Gamma (instead of Beta, get it? ha, ha) introduces some cool new features and a nice new look.
In other news, Apple has decided to name its next operating system Mac OS Kappa.Episilon. Or not.
Technorati is an amazing service that acts a lot like a live Google – it searches recent blog posts for whatever you’d like to search for. They really need the equivalent of Google’s “site” modifier. Why?
Well, I missed (read: slept through; I’m getting old) the season finale of Scrubs last night. I wanted to see what the blogosphere was saying about it, but I really could’ve used this:
scrubs finale -site:myspace.com -site:livejournal.com -site:spaces.msn.com
The last thing I want is a “review” from a teenager who’s comparing it to their life or one who feels the need to use more than 10 “OMG”s in their post. I don’t like stereotyping posts at the three sites listed above, but…
I dunno. All I’ve gathered is there’s something with a new girl, and pregnancy, and to tell you the truth it sounds like I just might not be interested anymore after the past couple of episodes. Sad. It was definitely in my top two favorite TV shows, and they had some pretty creative episodes this season.
As a side note, an interesting admission by Bill Lawrence, the executive producer of Scrubs, in the bonus material of the Season 3 DVD:
“Sarah [Chalke]’s transformation came about basically ’cause the network was looking for a promotable girl on the show. The problem that all medical shows run into, which is TV is sold on attractive, young female and male faces…”
Sounds a lot like what happened with Morgan, Megan, Sarah, etc. during the Screen Savers days: all four extremely intelligent and talented actresses sold, as far as the network seemed to be concerned, on how they look. And people wonder why TV doesn’t work anymore.
I’ve just finished the first pass of my successful Sunday drive (spanning well over a degree of latitude during the daylight hours is fun!), and I’m very happy with how the photos look. I just had to put this one up; anyone who knows the culture surrounding Sugarloaf will probably appreciate this sign I saw along Route 16 a few miles from Kingfield.
