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I whipped together a quick podcast tonight featuring black and white video that I shot with my Fischer-Price PXL-2000 camcorder. It could film several minutes of video on a standard audio cassette. I transferred the videos I shot to VHS tape so the first transfer technically happened 18 years ago. Wow! Click the image below to watch seven mildly funny moments that I've excised from the over two hours of video. There's some cursing here and there in the video, so if you're under 17 years old please wear ear muffs.
prepare for landing
2006.10.22 20.47
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (MSP) to Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) on Fri., Nov. 17, 2006 Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) to Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (MSP) on Sun., Nov. 26, 2006
Flight:
CO616
Aircraft: Boeing 737-500 Fare Class: Economy (H)
Meal:
Snack or Brunch No Special Meal Offered.
it's alive!
2006.10.22 13.36
I was fumbling in my drawer trying to locate the only pair of scissors that I own. I made eye contact with my Matrix phone for a moment and thought I'd plug it in one more time just to see if anything would happen. I plugged it in. Nothing. That was several hours ago. Just now, however, I heard the phone make the familar CLACK! sound it makes when you plug it and it starts charging up. I literally yelled, ''NO WAY!'' I'm going to give that sucker a chance to recover for 30 minutes before I try to actually turn it on. ''Charging...'' So excited! In the meantime, more TeamTrack items to work on. So much HTML. So little time.
UPDATE! I should have left it plugged it in. Crap. Dead again.
that 70's show
2006.10.16 21.26
I've got an entire trough of photographs to scan into the computer. Today's round of scans comes from some old 110 film that my parents shot of me in 1971. The horse thing in the first photo had a spring that used to pinch my leg and make me mad. This photo must've been taken when I wasn't getting pinched. The second photo is older and I'm showing off my stylin' Halloween costume at my parent's old house off Bevlyn somewhere around 1973. Next up I'm playing with a cat that we didn't own. In the same series you can next see my grandfather on my dad's side. On the bottom row is my hot mom at my second birthday party August 27, 1971. Wow! And last but not least is my yellow bowl suit. Not sure what my plan was there. Good times.
85 hour work week
2006.10.14 23.31
I don't know if I've ever worked this much in 6 days... ever! Okay, well, there was this one time when I had to grade two weeks of papers for my 7th grade Biology class. I was having grading paper nightmares for weeks thereafter. I was twitching also, but I think that was just me. I am thisclose to launching three sites for the project I've been working on since March. Two more sites launch shortly thereafter plus a few other spin-offs at year's end. I'm the Technical Lead for the project, so I'm putting in extra super genius time and effort to make sure our kick ass code is pushed live and without a hitch. I've worked with the director and VP that I'm reporting to for the last five years so it's just like old times. This is our third ''once-in-a-lifetime'' project. I'm still quite pleased even though I used up a beautiful Saturday in Minneapolis working at the office. My work is so fun for me. That totally prevents me from going crazy or insane. Beer also helps. Mmmmm. Beer.
I got home around midnight tonight and immediately walked Chewsterama around the block. He's been slightly annoyed by the aforementioned 85 hours. I met two girls while I was walking on Lake Street while rounding the block. Jessie and Nicole. Me likey the Jessie. Nicole was nice. Ummm. :-D There was some Russian dude there already so I can see that my competition is already predetermined. Bleah. I don't care. I've still got to get this project launched before I can have my life back. Is there really a fourth-in-a-lifetime project around the corner?
I got a Yahoo blog alert that my old high school friend Carl Manning and his wife Kristin are having their second baby on Monday. It's been exciting following the pregnancy. The internets! YAH!!!! They've got 3D photos of their adorable unborn son posted on their blogspot site. 3D ultrasound is so cool! I wonder what's inside of me that I can look at in 3D? Maybe if I drank a bunch of water and ate some Twizzlers. Hmmm....
This is Gary Numan performing ''Are Friends Electric?'' at the show my ex-girlfriend Christina and I attended in Minneapolis.
upon receiving misdirected email...
2006.10.10 17.50
From: [name omitted]
To: supergenius; [name omitted]; [name omitted]; [name omitted];
Hey guys,
I have a question for you. For the meeting - we discussed it being those
people who had raced the minimum to qualify for the race team. that is who
I sent the invite to. I just got a request from Barry to invite butch. He
feels that it will be a motivation for butch to race and that butch will be
a huge asset to a master's team next year.
At first glance, I had thought okay, but then I thought a little more.
That is why I want your input. Should we invite Butch? I first thought it
wouldn't harm anything, but then I thought that Butch has repeatedly told
me he was coming to a particular race this year. Each time - no Butch. I
thought back and I doubt that he has raced 10 races in the 3 years I have
been actively racing. I know he will have ball at least half a year next
year and not be able to race or train until June. Will inviting him really
change things?
Am I making more out of this that I should? I know we may also speak about
what to do with sponsorship money. In the past that has been awkward to
discuss around those who will not be getting the goods.
Your thoughts will guide my decision. I tend to be spiteful lately, just
can't help myself.
From: [name omitted]
To: supergenius; [name omitted]; [name omitted]; [name omitted];
He would be an asset if he raced with you guys.....IF.....I mean if he has
been busy this year, he will certainly be busy again next year. I say 'NO'
to the A squad and yes to the B squad. He can come to the next 'full' CBR
meeting to get his motivation.
Thank you.
From: supergenius
To: [name omitted]; [name omitted]; [name omitted]; [name omitted];
Butch can BURN IN FIERY HELLFIRE for all eternity!!!!!!!! BURN BUTCHY BOY!!!!! BURNNNN!N!!!!!!!!! No, but seriously, I think that inviting Butch will only help Butch. It won't help us. I'm not .... oh wait... I have to do it again.... BUTCH!!!! BUTCHBUTCHBUTCHBUTCH!!!!!! AAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHA! Oh. Okay, okay. I'm done with that, but for real, if we invite him then we are really sort of lowering our standards, aren't we? I mean, I'm all for giving someone some motivation, but he really didn't race enough to get on the A squad.
shake it like a polaroid picture
2006.10.08 12.44
It's a learning day for me as I'm installing MovableType 3.31 for my high school friend Dawn. I was originally going to install MovableType 2.661 -- which is what I'm using to post this entry -- but I figured now was the best time to experiment. Well, technically college is the best time to experiment, but I digress. Ummm. Dawn has been living abroad in Amsterdam for the last year or so and she's set to expand her horizons on the internets. I'm playing the part of technical guru. Rob Schneider will be playing the part of Deuce Bigalow, of course.
In other news, I've been passively scanning in a cache of photographs that I brought in from Houston two weeks ago. I'm about thisclose to deciding that my printer scanner combo is a better printer than it is a scanner. Take a look for yourself and you can decide if shelling out $79 of your hard-earned cash for the HP PSC 1401v All-In-One Printer Scanner Copier is worth it. I bought it from K-Mart, no less. Yeah, $79 seems cheap. It is cheap. These images have been despeckled and auto color corrected with Adobe Photoshop 7.0. It is fairly evident that the auto color correction feature in Photoshop is by no means an exact science. I tend to think it always adds too much green. I cropped off the non-photo parts of the Polaroid so you won't see the traditional off-set border that distinguishes a polaroid from any other photograph. As far as what these pictures are of? I had an extra couple packs of unused polaroid film lying around one evening when a friend of my sister's came by. I must've also had a couple extra six-packs of beer lying around next to the polaroids. So, ahem, you put two and two together and you get a photo set that features my obnoxious bedroom from the 1990 region of temporal space and two people drinking beer. Yay for beer and polaroids.
i'm the dead zone fan of the week
2006.10.02 19.26
Shut up! No, you shut up! That's right. I'm the USA Network Dead Zone Fan of the Week! Kick arse, man! Yeah! I loves me my Dead Zone. The show got renewed recently for its sixth season. If you haven't been watching the show religiously then you've been missing out on Stephen King inspired awesome goodness for the last 5 years. I wrote my email to the Dead Zone staff a while back and never expected to make it to the home page. So, yeah, I was really surprised to see my mug on the Dead Zone Home Page. I was jumping up and down in my chair and scaring the neighbors in the adjoining apartments, I'm sure. YEAH!!!! WOO HOO!
Okay. Rejoicing over. Time to walk the Chew'ster.
tell them I ain't comin' back
2006.10.01 17.18
I stayed up past my bedtime last night to attend a midnight screening of the film SERENITY. It was playing only one block away at the Uptown Theater so there was no excuse not to go. SERENITY was released in theaters exactly one year ago to the day. Don't be too impressed because I didn't realize this until just now when I was brushing up IMDB.
SERENITY is based on a short-lived television series called Firefly. Fox canceled the show after only airing 11 of the 14 produced episodes. Fox executives that didn't ''get'' the show are mostly to blame. Figures. The show proved so tremendeously popular during its DVD afterlife that Fox ordered up the film based on fan support alone.
I'd never seen SERENITY in a real theater until last night and this was my third viewing in total. Accompanying me was my coworker Aaron. Also in attendance were several Browncoats. Browncoats are to Firefly as Trekkers are to Star Trek. I did a quick check of blogsearch.google.com and found a few other bloggers planning to attend the screening. The Browncoats would occasionally break into song by making attempts at singing ''The Ballad of Jayne.'' This is a song from a Firefly episode called Jaynesville. I cringed. A lot. I prefer singing along karaoke style over the random a capella treatment.
Firefly creator Joss Whedon was also the creative mind behind the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I never got into either but my good friend QueenBeth assures me they are both entertaining. I do realize that Western + Sci-Fi may seem like an unlikely mix -- but it totally works. Did you know Star Trek was originally intended as a Wagon Train in the stars? What's that? What's Wagon Train? Uh, Wagon Train was a western in the 60's. And no, I don't remember the 60's. I just know that part. So, what else? Whedon is currently working on a big screen adaptation of WONDER WOMAN. That's gonna be good. I have the feeling he isn't going to go campy like the Linda Carter Wonder Woman of the 1970s. I'll survive, I guess.
I stayed up past my bedtime last night to attend a midnight screening of the film 
