Dangling Conversations

Posted 31 Aug, 2005 at 11:16 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

This is kind of a neat site that lists things overheard in New York...

Do a text search for javelina and read that entry... sometimes this is exactly the sort of approach I would love to take with people harassing me for change.

What about you?

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Posted 31 Aug, 2005 at 08:20 by blue in /World | Permanent link

One of the better video and photo sites up at the moment on Katrina can be found here, at the New York Times.

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Posted 31 Aug, 2005 at 06:03 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

It's an easy enough question to say, and I suppose if you give a flippant answer, it's an easy enough question to answer too.

However, if you put some serious thought behind it, it suddenly becomes a much more difficult and personal question.

Many of us are afraid that by acknowledging out loud what we truly desire out of life, in some ways it will jinx it. Others are simply embarrassed to admit what they want to others, since by admitting they want it implies that they don't have it already. It's a sign of vulnerability. After all... who really wants to admit that they want a pair of pink fuzzy bunny slippers?

Yet again... maybe by saying what you want you would discover either someone who has it and is willing to share... or simply that you aren't alone in your quest. I expect many of us want the same things.

So... what is it that you want from life?

Comment on this post and list your top 5. Feel free to comment on why those 5 or not. And if you are afraid... don't attach your name to the comment.

They could be material goods... (a house, a son, a firetruck with real flashy lights)... intangibles (to be loved, to be famous)... or something inbetween (to be healthy, see my grandchildren graduate).

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Posted 30 Aug, 2005 at 08:09 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

... especially when it's with a butterfly knife.

And I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley either.

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Posted 26 Aug, 2005 at 10:28 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

So I was looking at the dress code for Burleson Consulting. While I found it a bit strict (I worked on Wall street for 7 months... someone getting turned away because of the colour of their shirt wasn't 'white' would be... extreme)... I was fine with most of it until I saw what they said about Ties. That G. Bush is the epitomy of fashion sense scares me.

Shucks... I guess there is a company I won't be joining.

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Posted 25 Aug, 2005 at 11:49 by blue in /Technical | Permanent link

Yet another plug for a Google creation.

I have been using their Google Desktop version 1 for some time. Basically it was a nice little tool that indexed your computer and provided a better search than the built in Windows one for finding stuff on your computer. Doubly handy because it would search the web at the same time. A classic case of killing two birds with one stone.

They have now released Google Desktop version 2... and wow. It's now a full desktop console app.

It has panels for Photos, note, rss/atom feeds, news, favorites, weather, and yes the search is still there. It's also very easy to program and adapt for. Minutes after getting it I had Windows Media player playing my favorite music from the console as well. And yes... Google Talk has a panel too ;) I noticed I could have built a plug in for the Catan game, or several other things too. Very cool.

The interface is nice, and handy if you have a gmail account... which I do for certain select uses.

If you are interested in trying it... you can find it at http://desktop.google.com/

If you do try it, let me know what you think. Or if you develop any new panels for it. Or go to the site and download any of the new panels being released daily for it.

Final plug... for those who are worried Google is the next evil empire (and maybe they are...)... check out their Summer Of Code program for youth. Kind of a neat idea eh?

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Posted 25 Aug, 2005 at 10:58 by blue in /World | Permanent link

And so the U.S. said... let's remake the world in our image.

Well.. maybe not quite, but for those of you interested in world affairs, you may find this link to a translated copy of the new Iraqi constitution interesting.

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Posted 25 Aug, 2005 at 07:38 by blue in /Arts | Permanent link

This is both fascinating, interesting, sickening and neat all at the same time.

It is a portfolio for a retouching studio. You know... the people that go in and airbrush out wrinkles (some of us call them laugh lines) to make supermodels look 'even better'.

Click on one of the images in the gallery and wave your mouse over it to see the original. It's a good (yet sad) commentary on what the population finds attractive and what they find unacceptable.

Bigger breasts. Bigger butts. No frizzy hair. Less clothing (though sometimes more in some of the shots). No body hair. Scars, wrinkles and bags under the eyes... forget it. One side not symetrical with the other... no problem. I will admit that they also adjust the lighting, color depth, shading and remove any objects in the frame that detract from the image as well.

While I can admire the obvious skill he shows in some photos and how subtle some of the changes are... overall I just found it kind of sad that society demands that the photos need to be retouched.

Even so... kind of a neat site to look at.

Hmm... maybe I should have some photos of me done. I always wondered what I'd look like as a blue eyed, bleach blonde, beach bum. Do you think I should get my ass enlarged? ;)

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Posted 24 Aug, 2005 at 06:06 by blue in /Social | Permanent link

Has everyone seen that Google finally has created an IM client. Given how much I like their other products I'm looking forward to seeing if this is as good.

Has anyone used this yet?

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Posted 19 Aug, 2005 at 06:40 by blue in /FoodDrink | Permanent link

Spurred on by a backlash against 'Super Size Me', some people are proving you can lose weight at McDonalds.

While I don't make excuses for 2000 calorie burgers... I do very much like the point these people are making. It is not McDonald's fault someone is fat. People make their own choices, and even in a McDonald's, can still make choices on the menu which are not unhealthy.

Basically... take responsibility for yourself. What a concept eh?

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Posted 16 Aug, 2005 at 07:06 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

So what if we eliminated The Click from user interfaces?

Here is a website dedicated to doing just that.

This is probably far more fascinating for those of you who concern yourself with human-computer interfaces and so on... but it's interesting for the rest of us as well.

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Posted 11 Aug, 2005 at 08:16 by blue in /MovingPictures | Permanent link

While I've seen this done before... being the owner of a digital camera and having played around with a method of doing it... I can appriciate it all the more when it's done well.

(I suppose normal film is nothing more than a collection of fast moving images too, but instead of the 24 frames per second, this is probably about a dozen or less)

I think personally, that it's fast moving things, like flowing water, that look the most different when done using this medium instead of normal 24 fps (or more) film.

You can see what I'm talking about here.

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Posted 08 Aug, 2005 at 07:37 by blue in /MovingPictures | Permanent link

This is a fantastic ad for the Starlight Foundation which won an award in Britian.

You can see it for yourself.

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Posted 04 Aug, 2005 at 08:02 by blue in /Games | Permanent link

Mao is bad enough... this is worse.

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