30 blogs in 30 days!...although I'm going to have to keep going another week to be able to honestly say I did it. I've got a couple more left in me, so I'm gonna go for it. After that I'll be able to fully focus on the new Blog. I'm familiarizing myself with Wordpress, so once I get the*******.com (it's a mystery) up and running, I'd be glad to help out those who are looking to start their own Wordpress blog.

After tireless hours in an attempt to revive my iPod, Chuck & Mike were successful. And with minimal loss of blood. Thanks, guys!

The last couple days have been quiet, but today my ears were filled with the renewed life of my old iPod, good times indeed.

 

Unrelated random link: Download the dragon. Print it out, and put it together. Stare at it as you bob and sway back and forth, freaking yourself out.

Windows Live Spaces has been very good to me. I was able to start and keep an active blog with photo albums, music, lists, and a variety of other bells and whistles. My space has grown as they have. I'm thankful for all that they've automated to make their users look good. One can take advantage of these liberties they grant us and make a nice-looking, well-rounded site, as I've seen in so many Live Spaces out there.

But in some areas, it just wasn't enough. *Only comments from users with a Live ID or MSN Passport* *HTML is allowed, but many tags are not* *CSS styles are difficult to incorporate* It seems that while the box they gave us was fun and all, there was no room to venture outside the box. Perhaps that's for the best, though. When you look at sites that offer some way to attain quite a bit of freedom, like MySpace, you may end up with some nicely done spaces, but you also end up with loads more users that completely turn their Space into a digital eyesore. So I suppose the limits placed are for the greater good.

But I know how to design a website. I know how to write a style sheet to carry the design throughout the site. So I'm expanding my boundries. I've set up a website where the bulk of my blog-related activity will be carried out. Right now, I'm still in the design/set-up process with the blog software. While I will miss the convenience of Live Spaces, it will be nice to have full control over the design elements and everything else.

Is this the end of Don't Panic? No. Not for now. I hope to keep this going, if just to have a Live ID to comment with and all that. Hopefully I'll be able to automate the blogging part on this Space through an RSS feed. So there will be no goodbyes, this is not the end. I'll still be around, like usual, and if the whole thing goes in the crapper I'll be back in full force.

 

My trusty iPod has stopped working. It's not completely dead, though, as the above quote might suggest (picture myself speaking to a lifeless piece of my iPod). Think of it like a coma. One day it just stopped working and never recovered since.

 

But there is hope! As it used to say comfortingly at the top of the one-color display: DON'T PANIC. I have the best iPod specialists in the area working on it as we speak, so I feel it's in good hands. If they get it working again, I'll be very happy (I was sure it was a goner). But if not, I've had it for a few years, and it was good while it lasted. I'll hopefully be able to retrieve whatever I can from it and move on.

With only a few days left I'll take some time to collect myself as a kind of review of things that've gone down during this month. Looking back, the month has gone by so quick (it also helped that I started late...), but so much has happened in that short time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I'd better wrap this up before midnight lest the fairy godmother of blogging crashes through my window and pummels me into a bruised and puffy-faced mess.

I've gotten quite a few shirts from Threadless. Shirts about Scrabble, Haikus, grammar, regret, the future...I recently got another one that features a variety of French poetry (click on the picture for a larger image). The guy in the top right corner is Arthur Rimbaud, a French poet. Some of the work on there is his. Thankfully, somebody translated all the work into English. So here they are in both languages.

 

Dear Cold,

 

Sorry to see you leave so soon, I was really enjoying your company. I really wish you would stay for longer than you do, it seems like each year your visits get shorter and less frequent. I know you have lots of work and stuff to do up north, but doesn't Freezing pick up the pace this time of year up there? I know how you don't get along well with Heat or Humidity, but those guys can be so tiring sometimes, I really would prefer your company. Now that you've gone Heat has come back and made me turn my A/C on again...and if you don't come back soon, Humidity is bound to come back for the winter.

How about this, you take a few months off, you need a break anyways. Come down to Florida will Cool until February, you can head back up then, and Cool will stick around for another month or so. You know you like it down here...sure all the old people yell at you for hurting their joints, but you don't have let that get you down. Plus, you'll have the beaches all to yourself.

 

Just think about it, OK? I miss you already.

 

 

As the title declares, I stole a survey. In the sense that I, without asking permission, took a survey off of someone else's Space and used it for my own personal blogging venture.

Anyways, the survey is very Australian...

 

When I was up in Georgia, we bought some watercolor painting supplies as a way to pass some time.

I've always been interested in artistic ventures, but most of my efforts were in sketching and cartooning. I put it to practice during high school on the school newspaper, but I never really pursued anything else beyond doodling here and there on pieces of paper. I guess you can call designing website and stuff in Flash art, but that's kind of a stretch.

So we tried out watercolor painting, myself for the first time. While I wasn't too great at making something that looks like...anything, I did enjoy it. I'm sure with practice (and perhaps some better quality supplies than what's available at WalMart) the blobs will start to take shape. Which is why I chose to blog about it, because talking about it will spur me on to keep at it.

Meanwhile, I've been "painting" on the computer. There was the Eiffel tower photo I colored and posted a couple entries back. Also, I took one of the pictures Chuck took while we were camping and used Adobe Fireworks to turn it into a watercolor painting of sorts. Plus I've recently reinstalled Corel Painter, which is supposed to be a really good painting program, especially if you have a drawing tablet. Anyways, here's the camping picture (click on it for a larger version):

 

   Jonathan     Jay         Me

 

We're like the Fantastic Four, minus one. All we need is Jessica Alba. But don't we all...

Is awesome.

 

 

I never knew acid reflux or nervous vomiting or any gastric trouble could be so funny. You probably didn't either. Here:

 

   

   

   

Should I be worried that I find this highly amusing?

 

The clips are from the Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job!

The other night I heard an NPR report covering the Writer's Guild strike. The story was written and delivered by a writer who was on strike, and I have to say I wasn't too impressed with his writing. He tried to be funny, and his snide humor and lame references seemed to fall flat. From this initial criticism, you may think I'm not in support of the writers, but that isn't true.

 

I believe they do deserve more for their work. Writers are far too often overlooked and underappreciated for what they do. But the more this drags on the more I see the whole lot of writers and producers as a bunch of complaining babies in a fight over money. Sure, the writers get paid a ridiculously small fraction from DVD sales, but this is for nothing that they're getting this for other than the fact that they've written for it. They've written whatever it is, and they get paid. What they've written has been, in a sense, purchased from them by producers or studios. When I buy a tool to use at work, I'm glad I don't have to pay the company every time I use it. I bought it and I'll use it as I wish.

 

It seems more like the writers see how much money the studios are making, and they simply feel they should have some of it. How come nobody is suggesting lowering prices for DVDs? I've seen so many writers griping about their 4 cents residual and trying to appeal to everyone about their poor plight (a DVD sells 1 million copies, 4 cents turns into $40,000, but they want $80,000)...but if they really just thought the studios were making too much money, they'd angle for cheaper DVDs. Cheaper prices means more appeal, more appeal mean bigger sales numbers, bigger sales numbers mean many, many more pennies.

 

My suggestion: Give them their 4 more cents, but apply it to online revenue. Or divide that up into 2 cents for online revenue and 2 more cents for DVD/VHS/whatever else they get residuals for. Or if the issue is studios are making too much money, make that the issue. Not *how much of that can we get?*. Support begets support. If the writers want the average joe behind them, they should try and include their perspective in this crusade.

 

If all else fails, we, the consumers should go strike. Don't buy any DVDs, don't click on ads. No more 4 cents, or 8 cents, or 30 bucks for anyone. 

 

I only have a minute to make this blog...so it'll be short.

 

Matt Damon was named as People's sexiest man alive. Congratulations to him and all the people who've been told they look like him.

If you took all the pieces of the Eiffel Tower and laid them on the ground end to end, you'd probably get tossed straight into prison.

 

 

Deep Thought took over 7 and a half million years to come to the ultimate answer for life, the universe and everything. It took me about 4 years to come up with what I see as the ultimate answer to an almost equally perplexing subject that many people just cannot seem to come with a truly satisfying answer for.

 

 

Before it was always lots of uhhhs and hmmms and plenty of the old standby "all kinds of music" often with it's sidekick "except ...". I never was satisfied with that, though. I sometimes wished I was so close-minded that I only listened to one type of music and so I could easily just say the sole genre I listened to and that would sum up the bulk of my musical tastes. But that's not me. I don't normally like rap or hip hop music but I do like the Jurassic 5, for example. So I find it hard to categorize my musical tastes into a certain genre. And I have a feeling that a lot of people are like that as well. So now I will explain to you, reader with varied musical tastes, how you can find a satisfying answer to the question above.

 

It all starts with Pandora Radio. For those of you unfamiliar with Pandora Radio, here's an excerpt from their website explaining the service they offer:

 

"The Music Genome Project's database is built using a methodology that includes the use of precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redundant analysis, and ongoing quality control to ensure that data integrity remains reliably high... The Music Genome Project is updated on a continual basis with the latest releases, emerging artists, and an ever-deepening collection of catalog titles... By utilizing the wealth of musicological information stored in the Music Genome Project, Pandora recognizes and responds to each individual's tastes. The result is a much more personalized radio experience - stations that play music you'll love - and nothing else."

In a nutshell, you give them a favorite song or artist of yours and they set up a station that only plays music similar to that artist. This is a great way to find new music as well. Along the way, you can give a thumbs up or down to the songs that come up, which will help in choosing future songs that fit better toward your tastes. You can also add specific songs or even artists to that station. Let me explain how this allows you to answer the music question and things will make more and more sense.

Each song they play has certain details and characteristics, a musical DNA, if you will (You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.). The songs that are played in your station share most of the same "DNA". To see exactly what this is, follow these instructions:

On an artist that's playing, click on the menu button -

Then click on "Why did you play this song?"

A tab will come up listing the different features of that particular track. (You can also see the features of a song on the individual song page itself)

The features listed can help you see exactly what kind of music you like. The more songs you check, the more features you'll see. But you will see some more frequently than others. Make a few different stations, using different artists that you like. Check the features of some of the songs played for each station, make a list even. Take the most common ones and you have your answer. It will probably be somewhat like mine (these are just a few examples):

Electric rock & acoustic instrumentation
Folk & Punk influences
Acoustic sonority
Subtle use of vocal harmony
Mild rhythmic syncopation
Mixed minor & major key tonality
Composed melodic style

So when someone asks me what type of music I listen to, I'll say something like, "I like music with Folk and Punk influences, maybe something with vocal harmony or an acoustic sound to it." I can easily elaborate by including some more features from the genome list or simply listing a few examples of songs or artists. I feel much more satisfied saying something like this than some ultra-general like "I like all kinds of music usually". Just make sure you learn the terminology you use so you can explain yourself further if you need to.

If anything, Pandora is a good way to get a conversation going. Explain how you're able to be so specific. Or where you heard about such-and-such new artist/song. One way or another, I hope you enjoy their service as much as I. If you do, leave a comment here or at my Pandora page and share your station.

Yeah. Pennies. Hate em.

Some of you gasped. Some of you are nodding your heads in agreement. Some of you could care less because you don't deal with pennies in your area of the world. To the latter I say I'm jealous. You may not realize how good you have it. You live in a wonderful world of easy, round numbers and normal-smelling hands.

To the ones that are nodding...man...are you still nodding? Settle down, you're in good company.

To the ones that gasped, I apologize if you were eating or drinking something (especially crackers or white powdered doughnuts).

 

I'll give the superficial, barely valid answers first: They're ugly. They smell. Hold one for half a minute. Your hands will smell pennylicious..

Next comes the lazy guy answer: Not having pennies would simplify things greatly. Prices would be easier to figure, easier to calculate.

Now the possibly misinformed (but probably not) logical answer: Pennies are worth less than they cost to make. According to multiple news sources and reports, it costs over $0.01 to make a penny (figures I've seen ranged from .0123 to .014). In the long run, with the amount of pennies produced in a year, it could cost 20 billion dollars or more just to make new pennies.

 

If you owned a business and you had an employee that was costing you a substantial amount of money, odds are you'd send that person packing. So why doesn't the government just phase pennies out, since they seem to be more trouble than good? I realize there are some factors that work against my argument, but the cons outweigh the pros.

 

And how bad would it be if were free from pennies? A move like that would save a huge amount of money. Shopping and paying with cash could be so much simpler. No more ugly brown coins! No more smelly hands!

 

So roll up what pennies you've got, and keep walking next time you see a dull brown glow on the sidewalk. Or just get yourself a shirt and represent the penny-haters of the world. I made a graphic, and am working on some more...just for all the other penny-haters (new or old) out there.

 

 

 

Throughout the month, as I think of things to write about, I add them to a list of topics that I keep on my computer. Otherwise, there's a good chance I'll forget and be left scrambling for ideas of what to write about. It's all about preparedness and pace. Fittingly, this post has to do with those very things: preparedness and pace.

 

 

A few months back, I signed up for the 2008 Disney World Half Marathon. This will be my second marathon (you can read about my first one, in 2006, here and here). In October I started focusing more on training for the marathon. Last time I finished in a little under 3 hours (13min./mile), and I hope to make some improvement on that.

 

I'm excited about this one because the marathon takes you through Disney World (Map - PDF). We'll start at Epcot, and then it's 5 miles to the Magic Kingdom. We'll run for a mile through the park and then the run back to Epcot is 6 miles, and our last mile is through Epcot.

 

The marathon is Saturday, January 12, 2008, so I've got 2 months of training ahead of me. I'll definitely post the results/aftermath, and maybe a few updates in between. 

 

 

The feature presentation will begin after these previews: