Red Elephant

Start Small

So, Kat and I jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. And, I'm pretty impressed. Nice interface, snappy 3G signal here in Madison. Great on WiFi. Great for most trivial internet usage.

What I've been impressed with is how it refocuses experience. Websites that design for the device get stripped down to the bare essentials. Text & thumbnails.

It makes you look at one thing at a time. One photo. One webpage. One email. I like that. I like that a lot. It's helped me start to clean out my inbox, which has sat at about 100 message for a long time. I haven't replied to everyone or sorted everything, but it's coming along.

Likewise, I finally jumped on the twitter bandwagon. Same reason. One thing at a time. One thought. One message. What am I doing right now. No great revelation in the scheme of things. Plenty of other people have had this thought. But it's my turn.

No promises this time. No manifestos. [Am I right, Max?]

Just one word after another. Then one sentence after that.

Keep going.

How I've Been Spending Time

[And How I've Been Keeping Track Of It All]

Right now, we are selling our house, buying a new house in Madison, finishing Kat's graduation plans, and finishing wedding plans -- some of the most stressful things one can do in a life. And we're doing all of them within a couple of months. Things seem to be moving along well, though. I'll have more definite news on the first two things on the list by the end of the week.

To keep track of everything, I've been using Backpack for lists, and Google Calendar for organizing time. Similarly, Kat was looking for a replacement for her current email/calendar setup with Outlook and her school/cox email accounts. She has been thinking about a Gmail account for some time Add Google Calendar [GCal for the rest of this post], and you've got something, at least via web access.

I set up Thunderbird as a replacement for Outlook, at least for email. Thunderchicken [as Kat calls it] just reached version 2.0, which has some new bells & whistles. The trick was finding a way to access Google Calendar when away from internet access. I have tried out Calgoo, a stand-alone application that syncs up with your GCal, and allows you to work offline. I like it pretty well, since I only use web-based email. However, for Kat, we wanted an all-in-one solution.

Then my friend Max chimed in. Max is an award winning comic book creator, diligent reader of Lifehacker, and all around internet resource. He found a post on how to add use your GCal through Thunderbird. The Lifehacker blog post is here, but the actual how-to article is here. Basically, you need to add Lightning, a calender plug-in for Thunderbird. Then you need to add the Google Calender Provider Extension. There are more steps, but the article takes you through them pretty well.

--

Also in the world of the interwebs, I am excited about the new features over at Achewood. Chris Onstad has some pretty rabid fans. Just look at the Great Outdoor Fight fan site, and all the fan-created lore there. Give them a chance to rate & discuss the actual comics, and they're going to go ape wild.

I say "them" but I mean "us."

I admit to being a pretty big Achewood dork. I talk it up whenever I can, and support Mr. Onstad by buying merchandise when I can. I've only gone through the archive once or twice, so I don't know if I qualify for "rabid" status.

That said, I think I'll be revisiting some older favorites, which are much easier to find now. I'm not sure when the archive switched over, but now you can view a month's worth of thumbnails at once. That seems a pretty intuitive way to find a strip. Then again, you can always search for dialogue on the  main page. The search box should be below the comic.

Two for the price of one

<Shameless Self Promotion Follows>

I'm excited to be teaching a new class over at Lighthouse. We've changed up the schedule a bit, so my Monday night class is 7:45pm instead of 7:00pm. It's still Levels 1 & 2, so everyone is welcome. I'm also teaching a new class on Wednesday nights. It's in the early slot 6:00-7:30pm, and it's a Level 2 class.

Will it be that much harder? Well, it depends. We've done a lot of talking around the studio about standardizing our classes a bit more so that when you go to a Level 1, 2, or 3 class that you will get a class appropriate to the label. You always have to teach to the class that's there, but you shouldn't be pushing students farther than the scope of the class. Just because someone has been studying yoga for a long time & is quite flexible, doesn't mean that they want to push their own limits in a Level 1 class.

That said, I am excited to try a class where the bar is a little higher. Basically, Wednesday is for people who've been doing yoga for a little while, and want to take things further. As a teacher, I have to do some more exploration within my own practice. I should only be teaching what I know, so I had better know some more if I'm going to teach this class.

<End Shameless Self Promotion>

Now, on to the technology roundup. The other topic for which I'm usually ready to type a couple of paragraphs, or talk your ear off.

For starters, I'm poised to replace my computer. I've had one of the old 500 mHz white iBooks for about five years now, and it's time for an upgrade. I'm pretty stoked with the new MacBooks, but I'd prefer to wait for the next generation. Usually, newly-released software or hardware still has a few kinks to work out.

As I've told a couple of people, I'm really stoked to try out Delicious Library. It's software to keep and inventory of your books, albums, movies. And it's called Library for a reason. It allows you to "check out" items to your friends, and reminds you who's got when, and whether it's overdue.

Besides that, if you've got an iSight camera, like the one built-in to the new MacBooks, you can scan in the barcode or ISBN on the back of your book, and it will enter all the relevant information for you. Less typing is a good thing when you're talking about entering all of your stuff. Besides that, there's integration with Amazon.com for recommendations for similar items, if you're into that sort of thing. You can also turn on two-click ordering, etc.

I'm also interested in the different ways to run windows, either with BootCamp or Parallels. Jim asked me why I wanted to bother, and I didn't have a good answer ready. Maybe I just want to hack around with it.

So, after going over some finances last night, it will still be a bit before I'm opening a new box. But I'm still pretty excited. Maybe I wait for the new Mac OS to debut at the Developer's Conference. Maybe I figure that I'll use the older software. Leave the new stuff for the fanboys and early adopters.

Tweaks

So, I'm trying some new things on the site. For one, I've signed up for last.fm, which is an interesting service. You can download a plugin for iTunes [and other audio players] that records what you're listening to & then makes recommendations based on what you listen to most often. Kind of how Amazon builds 'The Page You Made' and other recommendations. You can also tag tracks, a la Fickr, and create lists based on those tags.

The other part of this equation is an audio player that you can download. It will make playlists [or 'radio stations'] based on recommendations, tags, or whatever you select. Heck, on their front page, there's a box where you type in a band you like, and it will make recommendations from that. Also notable on the front page is a list of what you get when you sign up. My favorite is at the bottom, "A Pony."

When you're listening to the player, you can tag tracks as ones you love, and you can skip/ban tracks you hate. This is a way to keep track of new music that you don't know, but want to keep an eye on. I'm going to have to file this under my other post on discovering new music. You could also do better to read Pitchfork's more recent article on this subject. There's also the article on Kottke's site that also helped put last.fm on my radar.

It also has some feeds that I've been messing with today, trying to get them to work. Over on your right, I'm featuring the last 10 tracks that I listened to in iTunes. To get it to fit, I've changed the design of the site slightly. I've taken my photo off, but I didn't really need that anyway. I should do one better and update my online albums here, or on my flickr account. The image only updates every five minutes, so it's not going to change while you're reading this. But, if you come back in a couple of hours, and I've been listening to music, then you'll get something else.

I'm always interested in discovering new music, and letting other people know what I'm currently enjoying. Any of my friends will tell you that I'm usually pushing something. During Burgers for MS, Max said that I'd turned him on to his last three albums. I like that.

Mini Me & Mama Mia

It's been one hell of a long time since I used a Macintosh at work. Like maybe five years. It's been tough, die-hard Apple-fan that I am. Well that all changed last week as the new server arrived at work. And by server, I mean Mac Mini & Macintosh Panther Server Software, all of which cost me slightly less than the Microsoft server software alone. Needless to say, I'm pretty freaking stoked.

Look, it's so pretty. That is to say, pretty freaking small. It's as powerful as my desktop, if not moreso, and it's like 1/16 of the size. Granted, there's a lot of air inside my PC, not to mention dust, and that's the main difference. I'm not going to rave too much, because there's not too much difference in the applications I use at work, especially since I've been pushing Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice at work. But there are some subtle differences, like iPhoto, that I'm really enjoying.

Not to mention that I own a much newer legit version of Photoshop than the one that I have on my PC [try Photoshop 5 LE, that came with a scanner], so I can do some pretty powerful stuff. Just moving from the scanner edition to a full version is big, not to mention jumping a couple of generations. Woot. I'll be posting on b3ta in no time!

I mean, not at work. Of course not.

It seems like it's been forever since I've posted. Been to a couple of weddings in the meantime. Mike & Abby's and Ian & Sarah's. Photos will be forthcoming, both in album form here & on my Flickr account. Mike & Abby's wedding was quite the event -- not only because I was in the wedding, but because I spent a week [and around a thousand dollars] whooping it up in the windy city. Gawddamn that was a good time. Put my shiny new digital camera to work.

I also ate ridiculously good food -- large amounts of it -- and returned with lots of new things to cook, some of which I et, and some of which I done just thought up. Yessum I did. Spicy Falafel after having it at Sultan's. Flaming cheese after having it at The Parthenon. And of course, deep dish pizza from Giordano's. Although, Max just told me that you can get UNO pizza at Hy-Vee.

Dat's what I'm talkin' about.

The Long Tail

Just finished this mind-blowing article by Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. How companies like Amazon, or iTunes or Netflix are tapping into niche markets through web interfaces & elimination of physical storefronts in your town. How, faced with unlimited choices, we're more likely to explore back-catalogs, influences, similar movies/books/albums/etc.

He's got a book deal, now based on this idea. He's also blogging about the process.

Wintery

I'll get back to the actual writing soon. I've been mulling over an idea since last Fri/Saturday that I think will be a nice little essay & a bit therapeutic. In the meantime, here's some fun items that I've come across.

First of all, web zen is one of my favorite Friday/weekend indulgences. The lovely folks at chaoskitty cull the best of the web from the dregs and organize it into weekly themes. The last two have been especially good. I've previously posted quite a few of the literary zen from last week, but this week's holiday zen includes it's a wonderful life in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies. Just great.

I'm also loving the macromedia holiday card. It's penguin diving which makes a great companion piece to the penguin baseball. Plenty more where that came from at yeti sports or here.

While I've been emailing myself links so that I can have them at home, the people at del.icio.us  have come up with a much better way of posting links for yourself & others online. So they're always available to you. Think of it like having a webpage for your bookmarks, that you can access anywhere, and better yet, you can search it

Taken me forever to discover new food reviews on mcsweeneys. Lots of things that I love in there including Arizona Tea, Vegemite, and Mi Goreng. Great takes on Swiss Chard, Colorless M&Ms, and Pom. Really, a little nugget of joy.

I'm also thinking about how most of the FCC complaints are coming from one certain group. I think the best thing about this article is the call to action, because here is something people can actually do besides feel bad about the election, or complain about the erosion of their rights and/or civil liberties.

Finally, a blast from the past, more cowbell.

More soon.

Tell Your Friends

I am the proud new owner of www.redelephant.org. I've been messing around with the DNS, network solutions, and typepad for the last couple of days, and everything is finally up. Well, almost. I'm supposed to be able to just type redelephant.org and have it work as well, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, it's all good.

Update -- redelephant.org is re-directing just fine. Woo-yay!

Update 2 -- I was a bit premature before. It works fine in firefox and safari, but not so much in IE-mac. Oh well, at least the main domain works.

Wrap Me In Starch and Treeroots

I found this via boingboing. I've always maintained that I wanted to be cremated, but somehow this seems a bit more natural, in it's own way. I'm not signing up just yet, but I think it's an interesting idea.

Then again, they could always just scan me in and then someday I could get virtually dissected. Oh wait, you can do that now with frogs. Wicked!

Finally, I give you Satan for Bush [.mov link], or just check out his homepage.

I'm Sold [Again]

I was debating on whether to get a new powerbook, but screw that. I'm going to keep my iBook and get me a new G5 iMac.