Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Thursday, April 05, 2007

You're Too Old for Frat Hazing!

People, especially people in positions of authority, do some really stupid things. Wow.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Kennedy Elisabeth Dixon

I would be remiss not to post about what has happened in my life almost two weeks ago. Kennedy Elisabeth Dixon was brought into this world on Monday, February 26, 2007. She weighed in at 8 lbs., 4 oz. at a length of 19 3/4". Ashley is doing as well as can be expected post-c-section, and Kennedy continues to amaze me every day. Sleep is harder to come by, but I love what this child has added to my life. I thought I understood the "your life will never be the same" idea before now, but I truly did not, and I expect that my understanding of it will continue to evolve as the days, months, and years come and go. Thanks to all my friends and family for being so supportive and helpful to me and Ashley over the past several months.

For pictures of our little angel, go here.

Ryan vs. Dorkman 2 - What Great Fun!

This is uber-geeky, but it is a wonderful example of what folks are doing with video technology that is available on the consumer level.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Great Quote of the Day from Penn Jillette

"Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course, have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting back and plugging into someone else's vision."

I see four QOTDs every day on Netvibes, courtesy of the QOTD RSS feed.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Amazing HDR Photo of Korean Shipyard

Holy schmoly, this is absolutely incredible.



read more | digg story

Monday, February 05, 2007

Photograph of a Lightbulb Burning Out


Bulb - Unedited
Originally uploaded by LeggNet.

This is too freaking sweet. Go see the entire Flickr set for more cool photos.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Causes Bomb Scare

Are you serious? Really, why on earth people think that this resembles anything approaching a terrorist plot, unless Mooninites are the next terrorist threat. Please.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Cool Web Tools Time

It has come to my attention that some people are not aware of three of the coolest web-based tools ever. But first, what makes a cool web tool? It has to meet three criteria for me to consider it cool:

1.) It must be useful for everyday tasks, such that it will be utilized at least once a week.
2.) It must be simple and easy to understand the application for which it is intended.
3.) The website must respond very quickly without nasty, annoying pop-ups. :)

These may only meet two of the criteria for some of you, but I find all three to be extremely useful on a regular basis. So without further ado...

+Babelfish, everyone's favorite translation tool for short snippets of foreign language or complete (often butchered) translations of websites.

+TinyURL, the absolute bestest thing ever for shortening up those dastardly long eBay auction links, Google search links, and web-based catalog links. My good friend Ken sent me a link today that took up a full 6 lines of text in a normal-sized IM window; Trillian didn't like it and did not consider the entire link to be part of the same text string, so I asked Ken to tinyURL it and voilà! problem solved.

+Windows Alt Key Numeric Codes, an absolutely brilliant page courtesy of Penn State University's "Teaching and Learning With Technology" website. Would you like to know how I figured out how to add the à to voilà above? This site explains it all, including how to add letters with symbols, other foreign characters, currency symbols, math symbols, and other punctuation, such as ©, ®, and §. Sure, you could use character map, but why scour through that annoying chart if you don't have to?

I have all three of these tools listed in my links toolbar in Firefox. I suggest you do the same; there is nothing worse in online life than to get stuck trying to figure out how do something so seemingly simple.

Friday, January 19, 2007

The Most Clever Use of Post-It Notes Ever

This is probably really old news by now, but oh well, I thought it was worth blogging. I have seen some pretty creative things done with office supplies, but very little has been on this scale or had this many co-conspirators involved. Bravo, InPhonic!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ableman/sets/72157594421824427/

Alltel CellTop

Ok, so I am guilty of pimping something for the company I work for, but I think it's pretty cool. All two of you who read this ;) have already seen the CellTop website and have conversed with me about it, but here is a pretty nifty YouTube preview of it done by Phonescoop.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Crave: Thirteen reasons to doubt the iPhone hype

Sorry for the short post, but here is a blog entry giving 13 very good reasons for why owning an iPhone may not be such a good idea.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Saw "Children of Men" Tonight

No spoilers, so don't worry. What a fantastic movie. It really has me lost in thought. I can't stop thinking about the questions posed by it. I also can't stop marveling at the cinematography and set design and overall production; simply outstanding. Be warned though, if you do not like handheld camera action, this probably isn't for you; at no time did I feel as if I were being intentionally distracted or confused by the camera work, but it definitely has a gritty, front-line news camera feel to it. Great stuff.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Choose Your Own Adventure on iPod!

I loved the CYOA books when I was a kid; I think I enjoyed guessing the alternate paths more than the actual stories after awhile--they just became so formulaic. That being said, I will have to download the free one referred to in this iLounge article.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

"Religion is a good thing for good people and a bad thing for bad people."

My education fails me when reading about or discussing political movements in an historical or philosophical context. Damn you, Hendrix College, for only requiring that I take one basic history class and one basic philosophy class (I took logic, which is not very helpful when discussing philosophy :) ).

This interview with Chris Hedges, the author of "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America" gave me a serious case of the heebie jeebies. Hedges does not back away at all from his comparison of the Christian Right to fascism at its worst. I have personally witnessed some of the characteristics of the Christian Right alluded to in the interview, but it is hard to swallow Hedge's entire theory because it so damn scary to me.

Is our nation on the verge of a revolution I do not want? Am I really naïve to think that Democracy is on my side? Is the culture I cherish (good and the bad) in jeopardy? Should I swallow the blue pill or the red pill? The questions continue to erupt in my head.

All of these feelings are becoming more amplified as fatherhood draws nearer. Coincidence? Doubtful.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Articles That Caught My Attention Today

These are seemingly random articles, but they all were on my Netvibes front page today. Netvibes is the coolest RSS web 2.0 ajax-based portal ever. Go sign up and use it now! I command it! Ok, now on to the articles.

Farm worker attacked by herd of pigs. Wow, what a pisser. Seriously, what does one do to prompt a herd of pigs to go all Mike Tyson on one's ass?

The Preteen: Betwixt and Bedeviled. As a father-to-be I am finding myself becoming entirely too interested in every article and study related to babies, childhood, and adolescence. This is a great article, and along with a segment on today's Talk of the Nation about public education, it heightened my awareness of just how early the drive to learn has to be instilled.

In Obesity Fight, Many Fear a Note From School. Repeat after me: "My daughter will not have an eating disorder. My daughter will not have an eating disorder. My daughter will not have an eating disorder."

Why Our Hero Leapt Onto the Tracks and We Might Not. I am still stunned by this story of heroism. I am hopeful that the hero-lauding period ends smoothly and we do not witness some sad backlash story that results from some over-eager journalist digging into Mr. Autrey's past for some mistake. God forbid we crucify the uncommonly common hero.

That's it for today folks. Lots of words from other people that made me feel as if I had learned something today.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Christmas Hibiscus


IMG_0858
Originally uploaded by twd3lr.

Here is a photo of a hibiscus plant blossom I took on Christmas Eve at my in-laws' house. I was surprised with how well the photo turned out, but pleasantly so. Here is a link to the entire set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twd3lr/sets/72157594438876836/

Thursday, January 04, 2007

William Rhenquist: "It's only in my head."

This is the stuff that feeds conspiracy theorists. I love it!

Oh, and Happy New Year and all that shit.