What a Mess

Flickr does videos now.

This is awesome. Assuming wordpress will allow me to embed them at some point.* I’ve been wanting to do short clips of places. Moving photos really. I got the idea after seeing something on someones blog where they just post “soundscapes,” recordings of their surroundings.

This is the exactly what I wanted to do. Hooray.

*Update: Apparently there is already support for embedding Flickr Video and it is incredibly too simple to add them to your post. This is great.

Derek: listen to this news
Me: I CALL BS IN ADVANCE
Derek: Andrew: 1 Derek: 0

I don’t take no nonsense on this day.

A recent question on AskMetaFilter reminded me of a couple ideas for martinis I’ve had. I haven’t worked out the specific measurements, as I lack the time or materials, but maybe it’d be a good project for this summer.

The clamtini. Pretty simple, really. Vodka and clam juice (Snow’s comes to mind), perhaps garnished with a littleneck clam.

The pickletini. I’m sure you can guess what it entails: Vodka and “pickle juice.” It would, of course, be garnished with a kosher baby dill pickle. I fucking love pickle juice. I drink the stuff out of the jar. While the clamtini would be something of a jokey experimental adventure/potential vomit fodder, I imagine the pickletini would be something that I’d actually enjoy. And maybe also potential vomit fodder.

Me: Do you know if my mask thing is at home?
Me: and if not where I could buy one?
Mom: unknown…. I would think so… you used it for your film and left it in the kitchen, I remember seeing it then
Me: Not my gasmask, my balaclava, the one I wore when all those cops came to the house?
Mom: oh… no, you lost that ages ago
Me: Darn, ok thanks.
Mom: k

After almost 20 years, I don’t think anything phases her anymore.

The following is a letter I submitted to my college’s student newspaper in response to this column. He has since written another column which you can find here. If you’re asked to enter an email address, use ghetto bean 3 at cox dot net (no spaces). It’s an old email of mine that I don’t use anymore so I don’t really mind putting it out here.

I must admit that after a solid month and a half of silence, I found myself pondering the absence of the University of Rhode Island’s Grand Old Party from the headlines of the Cigar. I felt a void; I missed their antics in much the same way one misses waking to the soothing melody of jackhammers outside one’s window each morning. When the construction is finished and you wake one morning to discover the cacophony has left you, you almost miss it. Almost.

As I walked across the campus this afternoon, almost as if to answer my ponderings, I noticed something written in chalk in front of the student union. The term “Islamo-Fascism” caught my eye, and beneath that, the URI GOP. I smiled. “Billy Boy” is back.

“Billy Boy” is, of course, my pet name for URI GOP lap dog Ryan Bilodeau. You may remember Mr. Bilodeau from such farces as the “White Heterosexual American Male” scholarship, or perhaps his fundraiser to collect money to “buy guns for underprivileged women in an attempt to end domestic violence.” Classy.

As I mentioned earlier, Bilodeau’s newest act appears to revolve around “Islamo-Fascism.” Islamo-Facism, in laymen’s terms, is used to suggest an association between Islam and Nazis. One need only read Bilodeau’s Thursday’s column in the Cigar to realize that he makes little, if any, distinction between Islam and Islamo-Fascism. His copious use of “skeptic quotes” and (pointed parenthetical asides) while describing Islam, not Islamo-Fascism, to preface his harangue only reinforces this notion.

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I’d like to take a moment out of the entry to say that I unintentionally wrote the title as “Stupid Politics,” so I guess Freud was on to something. Anyway.

There was a post on MetaFilter by KokuRyu about “the ugly side of student politics.” The post sums up how “more than three-quarters of a million dollars in student funds was misspent, a forensic audit of Vancouver’s Kwantlen University College student association finances has found. “It’s been a pretty long process because the financial records from 2006 were ‘lost.’ ” The audit also revealed that $140,000 was paid to former executive members, including former student association chair Aaron Takhar.”

How could I not be interested with scandal like that? So I started reading the article, and it had tidbits like

And that is why she fought in court for two years to get her job on student council reinstated and is now planning to sue over the forensic audit she and her fellow council members ordered when finally back in office.

and

Anderson alleges that he hired a private investigator to spy on rivals, and meddled with ballot boxes during elections.

My college had it’s student senate elections recently. Though only 352 students (that’s about 3% of the total undergraduate population) showed up to vote, one member of the election committee said “That looks good for the fall.”

Of those 352 votes, I saw that Mickey Mouse, Santa Claus, Rudolph, Pigasus, Car Ramrod, Rhody the Ram (the school mascot), Big Bobby C, JWL, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Max the Senate Fish, Buddy Cianci, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Darth Vader, Al Capone, Colonel Sanders, Charlie the Unicorn, Ted Nugent, Bill Clinton, Chuck Norris, The Govenator [sic], Jesus, and Jebus all got one vote a piece (22 votes total).

The most I had heard about the elections before they were over was from a friend who told me to vote for another friend. My response was “vote for her in what?” I had no idea student senate elections were even taking place.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I’m having a hard time comprehending anyone taking student council positions so seriously as to go to court (for two years!) to get a position back, or hiring a private investigator to spy on potential opponents.

In any case, I think that both cases–the situation at Kwantlen University and my college’s recent elections–serve as exemplary models of Democracy In Action.

The following is a customer review I wrote of Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” on the iTunes store.

“Yes I crank it everyday/haterz get mad cuz/I got me some bathin apes” With such lyrical brilliance, it’s not hard to see why this is iTune’s best selling song at the moment.
The song is a breath of fresh air, especially when contrasted with songs in which the artists clearly pronounce their words. I, for one, am sick of that trend. Why annunciate when you can jabber on like you’ve got a mouth full of marbles? Although he sounds like any other uneducated 17-year-old that apparently slept through or skipped every single English class in his entire life, don’t let it fool you; that is a clear sign of TRUE GENIUS.
Another indicator of Soulja Boy’s musical mastery is the fact that he manages to create an almost 4 minute song that contains only TWO (unintentionally hilarious) verses. How so? By repeating his tedious chorus (which itself contains four identical repetitions of the same two lines) a total of 8 times throughout the song. Bravo, Mr. Boy, bravo. The message behind your urbane lyrics will surely live on through the ages, becoming a benchmark against which all songs must be measured.

Went to The Living Room on the 27th to see some friends’ bands.

Pictures after the jump.

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So the photos I had printed at “Winkflash ;)” came in the mail today.

I want to run that by you again. They *just* came in the mail. Today. They’re based in fucking NORTH KINGSTON. In my STATE! York Photo? It’s based in flippin’ MARYLAND and it got here two days sooner. Strike one!

Blech. Flat color, bad contrast… the photos lacked any semblance of “pop” or “pizazz.” The differences between the York Photo prints and the Winkflash prints are super obvious. And they cropped a lot of my pictures off, too. Strike two!

Theiy just replied to the email I sent them telling them about my problems using their interface, and their first bit of advice was to use Internet Explorer. Um. What the hey, Winkflash? Are you new to the internet? What if I owned a Mac? No thanks, I think I’ll use Firefox… Strike three! Get the hell off my internet!

So yeah, won’t be using them in the future. I am much happier with York photo. Woot.

I just got four pictures that I sent in as a test to York Photo. It took them a day to process and ship out my order, and they arrived within two days. Winkflash, on the other hand, just this minute sent me an email informing me that my order had finallybeen processed, even though I placed both orders with both companies within minutes of eachother.

The quality of the prints that York Photo gave me? Kick ass. I’ll let you know how the Winkflash prints came out whenever they show up. But I can tell you already that I’m going to be doing my business with York Photo. I’ve read some pretty awful reviews of Winkflash online, their site’s interface SUCKS (it took me 18 tries to order my prints because of errors on their site), and it takes them three days just to process my order? No thanks. When my prints arrived in the mail they also got a positive review from my mother, who apparently used to send her film in to the company by mail back when I was a kid and was always happy with the quality. Congrats, York, you’ve got another generation’s business.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the prints. I should buy frames or something. Odds are I’ll be buying this neat thing called a Photo Rope. Seems like a fun way to display my photos, and we’ll be lacking a fridge at university, so this is a welcome alternative. But I should still buy frames. Anyone know where I can get stylish yet inexpensive frames for my photos? Nothing fancy, just some wood and glass would work.

This is so cool. I know, I know, I’m freaking out about my photos existing in meat-space, but it’s so cool! Woo!

Our nextdoor neighbors have a few small children, and they always seem to be out in the yard with their friends.

They make a lot of noise.

Today they were apparently all swimming in the pool, and began playing a rousing game of “Marco Polo.” This went on for about twenty minutes until:

Child A: MARCO!
Child B: POLO!
Child A: MARCO!
Child C: POLO!
Child A: MARCO!
Child B: POLO!
My Father: GENGHIS KHAN.

Silence.

(Technically he should have yelled Kublai Khan, but I think he got his point across to the tiny ones all the same.)

Now for something completely different.

I’ve come to terms with the fact that I can’t draw, but I still want to try doing a “comic” for lack of a better term. A visual blog entry, if you will.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, I think.

Click the image to view the full size.

The Ink Spots are the ultimate rainy day music. Seriously.

Verdict: Go see it.

If you are not normally a fan of scary movies, I suggest you go see 1408. Interesting camera angles, terrific plot and character development, it was like watching a book. Rather than attempt to gross you the hell out, 1408 gets into your head and stirs it all around with a big ol’ Creepy-Stick. The whole thing was pretty much a one man act by Cusack, and he pulled it off with flying colors.

My paltry attempt at a movie review cannot possibly do it justice, so just go see it and I promise you’ll be glad you did.

I went to the Rhode Island Air Show in Quonset over the weekend. I got some pretty sweet shots and an awful sunburn. But it was worth it, I think.

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I’ve been kicking an idea around in my head for some time now.

I would like to interview people. Average people. Just to get a feel for what they do every day. A mechanic, construction worker, mailman, butcher, etc. I’d take pictures too. This idea began to gnaw away at my brain a lot more since listening to the MetaFilter podcast with ColdChef. I love stuff like that. People just talking about themselves, what they do. My favorite genres of book are biographies and memoirs. I love documentaries. I’ve even gone so far as to keep a little notepad document full of minibiographies that take place on MetaFilter and MetaChat; anything that reveals a little snippet of who that person is, or what that person has experienced. Here’s a good example.

I think there’s a difference between conducting an interview over the internet and actually approaching someone and asking if you can interview them, and spending time with that person throughout their day. That’s part of the reason I doubt I’ll ever do it. It’s odd. I can barely work up the nerve to make an appointment to get my hair cut, or get a prescription from my doctor. However, I could have sat for hours and interrogated the hell out of Justin if he had actually been allowed to reveal any information, and I’d have no trouble asking someone who’s telling me about themselves more questions. It’s the process of approaching the person and saying “Hey I want to interview you!” that freaks me the hell out.

I guess this is just one of those ideas that will stay in my head and I will regret not doing later in life.