noinput.net | plug it in

Teamed with a busy week at work I’ve had even a busier one at home. With Val studing every night for her series six test next week and the mere fact I just went grocerey shopping for my bi-monthly trip, I’ve been couped up here on the computer more then imaginable. Brings back the memories of my days of trying to run a business and actaully sleep. I’ve been working a 9-6 weekdays and then coming home to spend the rest of my evening, about 7-2, finishing things up. Funny, because normally I just kill the time on the computer, but the fact I’ve actually been productive is astonishing.

Now that I’m close to caught up again, I’m going to take another stab on re-designing my photo site. I’ve had this half idea how I want to rock it for a while now.. and i think it’s going to work. Just need a little flash advice and some serious think time of how to actaully execute it. With the amount of studio and personal stuff I’ve been shooting, I’ve really been trying to give myself challenges and sofar have been coming thorugh on top. I at least have 2 or 3 more portfolio pieces from last week alone, and that is all I needed to be happy with.

In other news, here’s some stuff I’ve been meaning to blog but either bookmarked and forgot or just decided it was old news but needed to be said anyhow:

• The 1K Project - Oddly Enchanting and set to Moby
• CHEney - Brilliance
• Google Image Labeler - Nothing like a waste of time to do work for them
• Optimus Prime Felt Puppet & DIY Chewbacca Puppet
• the iRosary - I have an issue with this
• Pantone Matching everyday Life - Ohh the thrill of it all
• A Mothers Love - Turn this one up.

Back with more.

Now this is putting your mind to an idea. Brilliance.

IceJackets are molds that fit around vodka and other liquor bottles that you can fill with water and then freeze, producing a vodka bottle that’s encased in a jacket of ice.

Much easier then trying to just freeze your bottle (as you know it won’t happen) but in this case you can wrap your already cold liquor in a jacket of ice to ensure maximum coldness and drink readiness. This really would have come in handy a year+ ago but hey, thats half the fun of blaming it on a lack of ice… right.

So when Apple had they’re whole “It’s Showtime” release, that seemed to have been teamed with a nice price drop on select goodies and new hyper-white ego-equipped toys on the apple store. One of which was their 24inch iMac and the new Core Duo mac-mini.

When I first saw these things on the market I couldn’t believe the fact they fit a computer in a box smaller then my hat, I mean the thing is smaller then my photoprinter and fits under my monitor. It was damn impressive. Now that they have a core duo model that supports the universal binaries, $799 for all that good stuff don’t seem all that bad. The review produced some really great results, and after hearing about deep’s applescripts he pulled for iTunes, I feel like i need one for the purposes of a media center.

We actually just wired our mini at work to a shiny new AKAI 27″ flat pannel that sits ever-so-nicely in the situation room as I call it. By the way, don’t ever bother trying to wire a computer (DVI/VGA) out via HDMI.. it’s a nightmare with the overscan. We found that just going VGA works the best. Overall it’s a nice touch. Watch part of a movie at lunch, throw some YouTube favs on and pull up a site/some files for client meetings. Not to mention I can kick back and read my daily grind with a microwave burrito or left-overs at lunch. Ah yes, it is good.

Ok, this is just money. Talk about a sweet prank/just downright awesome.

Bill celebrated his wedding last weeked in two unusual ways. First, the procession was led by a little girl in a Darth Vader helmet while a “hipster-country” version of the Imperial March played. Then Bill caught hidden-camera footage of his nogoodnik brother planting a camera in his nuptial suite as part of an elaborate “Shivaree” prank, and posted it on the Internet in revenge.

Nothing like a little wedding day fun for tthe bride and grrom right?

By the way, speaking of weddings. Tammy just got some of her photos published in the next issue of The Knot, congrats!

Found this the other day and my favorite part was reading through the comments where this guy noted that when we looked up the movie on IMDB, it had the lowest rating he had ever seen in his life.

Go Arnold.

I was in downtown Boise, Idaho, and I saw a duck, and I knew the duck was lost, ’cause ducks ain’t s’posed to be downtown. There’s nothin’ for ‘em there. So I went to a Subway sandwich shop, I said, “Let me have a bun.” But she wouldn’t sell me just the bun, she said that I had to have something on it. She told me it’s against regulations for Subway to sell just the bun. I guess the two halves ain’t supposed to touch. So I said, “Alright, well, put some lettuce on it,” which she did. She said, “That’ll be $1.75.” I said, “It’s for a duck.” And they said, “All right, well, then it’s free.” See, I did not know that. Ducks eat for free at Subway! Had I known that, I would have ordered a much larger sandwich. “Let me have the Steak Fajita Sub - but don’t bother ringing it up, it’s for a duck! There are six ducks out there, and they all want Sun Chips!

– Mitch Hedberg

What a brilliant man, RIP Mitch.

So looks like the fellas over at hymn havn’t given up the dream. Some early adapters will remember the command line version that was music to your drm-filled ears well over a year ago, but now to make it that much easier, we’ve got a nifty windows app to do just the same.

At the moment, myFairTunes is a pretty young app with room for improvement, but it does allow you to losslessly strip your tunes of Apple’s DRM, and it’s maturing very quickly. Like previously-mentioned FairUse4WM (a PlaysForSure/Windows Media DRM counterpart), use myFairTunes6 at your own risk. Personally, when DRM limits me beyond a certain point, I’m all for stripping - unfortunately the Man might not agree with me. — Adam Pash

I’m all for the digital download revolution, but I have to say with as much music as I digitally purchase every month, I really get sick of having to burn all my new records to CDA just so I can re-rip them to MP3. God-forbid I forget to do this for one MP3 and attepmt to play it on windows media player. Ohh the shame.