Happy Thanksgiving 2003

It is once again time to post all the links I've been saving up! Also it happens to be Thanksgiving and i have plenty to be thankful for. Of course I'll be more thankful once my girlfriend gets back from her trip to Chicago, but that won't be too long.

First lets give a nod to the open source movement with a link to the TheOpenCD project which is working towards a more wider adoption of open source applications. The slides into another little project called Opsound - Open Sound Resource which provides music that can be used by anyone for mixing or whatever. A few other music sites with an open slant are loca records, magnatune, and the berklee shares project for free music education.

On a lighter note here is a page giving a funny yet not all together wrong picture of students from Texas universities. As a matter of public safety here's an article on What Should I Do If The Internet Goes Down? For any of you interested in the worlds created by a company called Cyan (think Myst), they have a new world to explore called Uru.

Hey all you Dr. Who fans! Did you know that the BBC has been producing online flash animated webcasts of our dear doctor, including Shada and Scream of the Shalka. I even came across an article on the old shows music.

Links to Keep

Thought I'd write up something the show off some links I found. First is the Public Library of Science, which is a science journal publishing house dedicated to the free distribution of information to the public. Their journals are made available online for free. The first journal to be published is PLoS Biology and the first issue is available now.

For all you web page kiddies out there who think that font tags are cool, think again. Cascading Style Sheets is the way to go. If you don't believe me then check out the Zen Garden and take note that all the different designs available there are created by only changing the style sheets. The main HTML doesn't change. How's that for the separation of style and content!?!

Now for a few miscellaneous links... How about learning Esperanto!?! Then you could learn about that hilarious comedy called Red Dwarf. I also love finding freeware! Post a few pictures using your cell phone on Buzznet.

Musical Diatribe

The world moves to a beat. Sometimes that beat is at a quick tempo, others slow and steady. Often there is an undercurrent of music, sometimes sinister and other times serene.

Each day carries it own score. Eyes open and the beat begins. Sometimes the merry tunes of dreamland come with us as we begin our day, other times those fanciful notes from the mind's foggy regions are cut off abruptly leaving only the sounds of the harsh world. Many times the mind is flooded with the thoughts of the day's duties, which like a group of musicians warming up before a performance spoils any previous mood with confusing noise.

Music frees the mind. It can reset the beat which we work and play by. Calming and soothing at times, or perhaps agitating at others. Music is meant to be heard, as it is the heart's expression of the mind's thoughts. Without music this world would lose its heart and be a place vacant of joy.

Dad's Birthday

Today is my Dad's birthday and I took the day off to spend my day with him. We wore our feet out in Fort Worth! Not only did we go to the zoo (half price on Wednesdays), but we also stopped at the japanese garden in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. I took 299 photos with my olympus digital camera (to be posted some time in the future).

A Taste of Anime

I thought I write down for posterity about some anime that I've taken a liking too. The first is a neat little DVD entitled R.O.D. (Read or Die) [amazon.com], and I have found a nice review [popmatters.com] that explains it rather well. I'll sum it up though: Its about a superhero librarian! :-)

The short name for the other amazingly exceptional (ok weird would be a better term) anime is FLCL (Fooly Cooly) [amazon.com]! You can catch it on adult swim [adultswim.com] if your TV happens to carry the cartoon network [cartoonnetwork.com]. I even found the official [gainax.co.jp] web site! This one is odd, but also very cool.

Friendster

Here's an all call for those friends of mine who aren't my Friendster friends yet to go ahead and do so! It is really neat and lets me learn more about you and who you know. In a way I'm trying to piece together names and faces of people I've known only in passing through friends. This service is a great way to give it a try, so come on people! Join up!

PS: Use FlipSide3@aol.com to find me on Friendster!

"Weird" Al Yankovic

I saw "Weird" Al Yankovic LIVE in concert just last Wednesday! It was at the Bronco Bowl, which is a that puts on pretty darn good concerts. Unfortunately I hear it is soon to be turned into a Home Depot, which is just a crime.

I'm just happy, because by seeing Al in concert I've actually accomplished one of my life's ambitions! Who knew that could ever happen!

Work in progress!

So, I finally did something with my website! Yes, its true I have redone the entire site! Okay, maybe not all of it yet.

Don't be surprised if you find a few holes here and there. Now that the new version is where everyone can see, I think it'll motivate me to finish it up quickly. At least now the world can see what I've been up to!

There's new pictures out with even more to come, so take a peak! If there's anything you'd like to see, or you just have a question feel free to drop me a line. Also if you find some holes that you think I've missed, let me know.

Self Flying Kite

Major revision ahead, but then you'll see it when its happens. Here's some articles, links, etc... stuff I've been collecting and meaning to post all along.

X-Box Hacking Book

Website Prototyping Tool: Denim

$2

U.S. Banknotes

Open Spectrum Resource Page

The spirit of Unix

Embedded Linux powers "first hand-held software radio"

LiNRADiO - WiNRADiO for Linux

Blood for Books

When copy protection backfires

CLEAR CHANNEL

Media Ownership

Lawrence Lessig

Einstein

How does Dyson make water go uphill?

William Gibson's Blog

Alchemy with light shocks physicists

Random Design by StrangeBanana

Syndic8.com Newsfeeds

AC3 Decoder

Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

KnoppiXMAME 1.0 Released

The evil of business-method patents!

QuickTime JavaScript Support

Library Humor

Darla's Pictures

That 70s Show

BrainJar

Atom Films

and Aimee Major
claims to have some updates

On a side note I saw some magic last night. I was walking down to check the mail last night and I looked over at the moon (which isn't uncommon for me to do). For a second I thought there was a giant bird flying in the sky, but then I realized it was a kite. I'm fond of kites.

This one was floating above the apartment building across the way. When I went to see who was flying it, I discovered it was flying itself. It seems the string got caught on a nearby telephone line. Today it seems to have crash landed on a roof, but perhaps it will find a way to take flight once more. I hope so!

Buffy is over

Buffy is over. The final episode was very good, and I think it ended it well. Now all those intellectuals spending their time with Buffy Studies have a finished work to analyze.

Now there are some good sites out there if you've missed out on this phenomena. Some are pure evilness while others act as a full episode guide. Guess what!?! There's even a biography available about the creator of Buffy: Joss Whedon. If you've missed this last (and final) season there's even a novelized version.

On an unrelated topic... I bought my poodle hat today. Don't forget to buy yours!

Amber Graduated

Got my sister Amber all graduated from college today. She was studying at Abilene Christian University to become a school teacher. I guess she's succeeded!

What was interesting is all the people that came for the event. Family from both sides showed up, and even some friends of the family. This is interesting because all these folks are rarely in the same room together.

At any rate, it was fun and I'm very proud of my sister for sticking it all the way through. I took quite a few pictures, and I may post some if they came out well enough. Now I am tired and must sleep, since I drove 6+ hours round trip to Abilene and back.

Here are some interesting links I've come across lately.

AngelikaFilmCenter.com

Anything into Oil *Uber Cool*

Aussies Face Jail Over MP3s

Futurist Fears End of Innovation

The Scoop on George Dubya, by Molly Ivins

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm 26 years old now.

Today was the last day of class for the spring semester. If you didn't know I've been pursuing a master's degree in information systems up at unt. It was kind of sad walking off campus tonight, knowing I wouldn't be back for a while.

I'm not planning on taking summer classes; actually I have no plans whatsoever. I imagine I'll start up again in the fall, which will be here soon enough. Who knows maybe I'll tack on a class at the end of summer if I get motivated. I am not exactly in a hurry though. The master's thing is mostly an entertainment thing, since I really still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Year 25 was an interesting one upon reflection. I've grown in many ways... even a beard (think Dante from Clerks). I did the whole going back to school thing. At work, I changed cubicles and moved back to a former building. Made a few new friends, and lost track of some. More people I know got married, though the weddings are starting to blur in my memory.

I just wish I could win the lottery so I can redefine my life, for better or worse. It may seem silly pin hope on such an improbable thing, but that's seems to be what I need to make something happen in my life. Something has to shake my foundation, and the lotto would be the most benign. Anything else would more than likely have worse consequences. Really I'm just looking for security, like most people.

The web site is going through revisions again. Changed the style for the underlying pages, so now things are light instead of dark. No real color to speak of, since I'm more comfortable with grays. Expect the homepage to change soon, as I want all the pages to be more cohesive. Just trying to put my creative energies somewhere. I hope someone finds it entertaining.

:-)

God's Blog

I stumbled across God's blog, which really puts things into perspective.

Ice and Stuff

It got all nasty with ice and stuff, so I didn't go to work. I took pictures instead!

Magic!

Its magic!!! http://www.cyberglass.co.uk/assets/Flash/psychic.swf