So I spotted this, and am just astounded. It’s the opening crawl from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, done only using HTML & CSS. Caveat, of course: being that it’s bleeding edge CSS stuff, it only works in Safari 4.0.4 or WebKit nightly.
So, I collect desktop backgrounds (wallpaper, to you Windows folks). I have somewhere north of 800 desktop backgrounds, of all different subjects. But I really love the abstract, simple stuff. And then I found Simple Desktops. Just awesome. As they say on their about page “Do you want less, but not boring? Then you want Simple Desktops.” Go check ‘em out, you won’t be disappointed!
My friend Brian Christiansen posted this one at his tumblr, Off The Grid, but I wanted to feature it here as well. Check out our health care spending per person, as compared with other countries of the first world:
Another interesting read on the health care topic is this article, The Rest is Just Noise, at, of all places, The New Republic.
I post here somewhat infrequently, and I’d like to be better about that. So, I’ve committed myself to Project52, which takes its name from the 52 weeks of the year, and the aim of the project is to write at least one blog post every week for a year. I’ll be tagging all of my posts this year “Project52” in an effort to monitor my progress.
We’ll see how I’ve done come this time next year.
Found a new favorite website, courtesy of, of all places, Deus Ex Malcontent. It’s From the Basement, a website set up to showcase live performances from artists in a studio setting. Filmed entirely in HD, sans host and audience, and lovingly produced by Nigel Godrich, the engineer & producer best known for his work with Radiohead. His credits list is impressive even beyond his work with that group, but what I’m really keen on is just how awesome everything looks & sounds in these recordings. The one that sucked me in though, is actually a recording that’s not on the website, but available for purchase as part of a video album on iTunes, In Rainbows — From the Basement. Thankfully, there’s a YouTube version of the video. And so, I present Radiohead’s “All I Need”, From the Basement:
(269): We were playing flip cup on the nice dining room table. Losing team had to shamwow the table in between rounds
(Via TXTS FRM LST NGHT)
So there’s a fun article, Best New Blogs of 2009, over at The Bygone Bureau, and one of the picks is The Awl, which is probably one of the most incisive sets of writing I’ve ever had the delight to come across. It now has a spot in my newsreader, but I want to highlight one of their movie reviews as being hilariously awesome. Full disclosure, the movie in question, The Hangover, is one I enjoyed, but I still find the review to be quite apt.
Now, even better than the review though, are the comments. Oh my lord there’s some serious gold in these comments. My favorite? this one. Seriously, “sanctimonious asshole shark cage” is the most hilariously amazing set of prose I’ve read in a long while. Enjoy.
I had a hell of a time the last few months. Amber, who was living with me, & I broke up in August. That same week, my best friend’s father died very suddenly, and because of how things worked out with my schedule, I couldn’t even take off to support him at the funeral.
And to top it off, I ceased to be an employee of Apple in September. After everything else, I was totally thrown. My initial reaction was fear. What am I going to do? After the shock passed, I sat down & started looking at things, and was overcome with relief. It was like I had been stuck, and was now literally and figuratively cut free. My only remaining fear was in regards to my healthcare, but thankfully there’s a subsidy in place for anyone who’s lost their job since September 2008 that’s helping with that.
I’ve spent the last few months taking a hard look at my expenses & figuring out how it’s all going to work, and have decided to make a go of it as a web developer. Thankfully, I’d already secured steady work from Elative Marketing, and while I’ve had to learn a great deal very quickly, I’m very keen on continuing my relationship with them.
As for my music, it’s been way too long. I’ve been practicing more lately, and I’ve really got the itch. So if anybody needs a bassist, say the word!
