Happy August
Happy August! This is my favorite month of the year. The weather is usually great and it's also my birth month. One week from today I will be half as old as my dad. I remember being little and trying to make sense of how that would ever be possible.
Anyway, on to other matters. Yesterday I noticed that the Communication Arts 2004 Photography Annual has finally hit the shelves. The photos contained within are quite inspiring and also VERY humbling. Looking through the issue makes me dream of spending weeks at a time on the road doing nothing but taking pictures of small towns, big cities, people, things and nature. Someday...
I start my new job tomorrow. Am I nervous? Yes. Check back tomorrow night to see how it went. For now, I'm going to forget about real life and enjoy my Sunday evening by watching Six Feet Under and Da Ali G Show.
I almost foroet to mention that Webmonkey is back and appears to be part of Wired.
Short post, short Monday
As promised, I am here to report on my new job. So far, everything about it seems great. All of the people in the office (all 5 of them) seem really cool and are extremely accommodating. I have my own office with a window. This is a first for me and I'm stoked.
My morning started off with a competitive game of foosball against my boss. I then got to pick out my own email address and user name. How cool is that?
I'm not fully sure about what I'll be doing just yet, but it sounds like it will involve interface design and some backend coding. To say that I'm excited is an understatement. For a Monday, the time seemed to fly by.
Scary Shiznit
Okay, this Google hack is damn scary. Ouch.
Work is still going well. Today was really fun. I got my first assignment, which is to add a dynamic news system to the corporate website. I was told that I could do pretty much whatever I wanted, so I quickly installed PHP and MySql on the web server. This was my first time installing or configuring either on a Windows box.
I was surprised to find that PHP 5 doesn't support MySql by default and ended up reverting back to version 4.3.8 so that I could get started right away.
If anyone has any tips for getting MySql support in PHP 5, let me know. Also, I'm interested in finding out the best practices for configuring PHP/MySql security on Windows Server 2000. I know I can do some Googling for this stuff, but if any of you have good links to share I'd appreciate it.
Late Night Frights
I forgot that DOOM 3 was coming out this week and didn't really have that much interest in it, but I've always had a need to stay current with what's hot, so I picked it up. The graphics are amazing and it's scary as H. I hate haunted houses and this game gives me that same feeling. I've even gotten chills while playing and I'm not even through the first level. I normally don't play video games more than a few hours a month, but I think that this month might be an exception.
Random Finds
I found a great photoblog today via my referrer logs. Check out Matthew Pearson's work. He's good. Really good.
Cameron Moll has published "Eight things I wish I'd known when I started" in print and screen-friendly formats.
The first issue of Design In-Flight is ready for takeoff. I've already got my copy.
I found this official unofficial feature of FeedDemon that lets you use Mozilla or Firefox instead of IE as the integrated browser. Sweet.
These web design applications I've been living without look pretty cool (if you are a Windows user). The Mozilla Web Developer Toolbar is great. I started using it today and am already addicted to some of the features.
Finally, did anyone else see this story?
HBB2M
Happy belated birthday to me! Yesterday was the big day. For those interested, I'm 32.
It was a pretty relaxed day. I just hung out at home most of the day and then went to dinner at Mojito. The food was really good and I got some good gifts. The two non-monetary items that I'm excited about are the 512mb CF card for my camera and a new iron. Mom hooked me up with the Rowenta Commercial Pro Iron. It's awesome.
On Saturday I went to Super Size Me, which was great. There were no real surprises in it, but as far as documentaries go, it was very entertaining and well done.
Oh, if you're into Will Ferrell you need to check out White House West. Funny stuff.
Updates
Last night everyone from work went out to Tonic in Minneapolis. They have rooftop seating with a great view of Uptown and the downtown skyline. We ate, drank and I even danced. One girl was talking to me on the dance floor, but I don't know what she was saying. It was so loud that I couldn't hear her. I have no idea how people hook up in bars like that. At about midnight the fire alarm went off and we left.
Back to my comfort zone...
It's time to update Panther to 10.3.5, unless you use Pro Tools. The update is not yet qualified by Digidesign. Other software may be affected as well.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 has officially hit the streets. You can download it from Microsoft or wait for it to hit Windows Update on Monday. My advice is to not install it right away. Let others be the test subjects. Oh, and if there are still any Internet Explorer users, here are the changes to expect in the browser.
Miscellaneous
Take a look at the Web Standards Checklist put out by Max Design. Nice.
I want a modular home.
Bluejake is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites. Congratulations on his wedding this weekend.
Has Craigslist jumped the shark? Read what Craig Newmark has to say about eBay Acquiring an Interest in Craigslist.
Skooter Du 5
Yesterday I went with Jeremy to Skooter Du 5, a yearly scooter rally in Minneapolis. He was filming all of the action and I tagged along to take pictures. I met a lot of great people and came home with a handful of pictures that I'm proud of. I spent almost 15 hours away from home and am still exhausted from the day.
Next year I hope to have a scooter of my own to take to the event. Currently, I think I want a gray Stella. I love the vintage ones, but don't really have the interest, time or money to put into rebuilding one.
You'll find some of the photos that I took at photo.neongreen.com over the next few days and the rest will show up in a gallery shortly. I downloaded the trial version of iView Media Pro and have been playing around with the web galleries that it creates. I'm impressed. Even without the web galleries, iView seems to be the best media management software that I've come across. What's really cool is that buying it gets you two licenses, so I'll be able to use it on my mac and pc.
Oh, one last thing. I stumbled across the new Bjork video and noticed that she has a new cd coming out in a couple of weeks. I can't wait. You can get more info and watch the video at her site.
The 20D Lives!
I can't believe that this one slipped by me. Canon has announced the EOS 20D (thanks for the tip, Brian), which is rapidly becoming a need. You can get all the dirt at DP Review and then check out some sample shots at the Canon site.
Once this comes out and I get my hands on one, I'll have a Digital Rebel for sale. If you're interested, let me know. I'll post again when it's up for sale.
No Scrubs
I saw Garden State last night. The film was amazing and I officially have a crush on Natalie Portman's character. I haven't had a movie crush since I saw Thora Birch in Ghost World.
On the web:
I don't know if I've ever mentioned Web Talk Radio here, but I listen to the show almost every weekend. This week they have a great interview with Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation.
Google released a beta of Gmail Notifier last week. I've yet to try it, but might give it a whirl tomorrow.
Skooter Du 5 Photo Gallery
I put together a bunch of photos from Skooter Du 5 and made a gallery with iView. Most of the shots needed to be enhanced in Photoshop and I really regret not getting more pictures of the people that were there. Next year I hope I can do a better job.
Anyway, here are the photos. If you were there, or even if you weren't, and want hi-res versions of any of the shots, just let me know.
Miscellaneous
Screenshots of Delicious Library have been posted. It looks incredible. I can't wait to try it out. This may finally be the answer to cataloging my media collection. Man, it looks so cool!
Oh, I like monkeys.
Goin' Back to Cali
Next weekend I'm heading to Sacramento to visit my aunt and uncle. I'll also be going to San Francisco for the first time and can't wait. I'm hoping to get some good photos while I'm there, but I don't want to get so caught up with taking photos that I can't enjoy my vacation. Plus, I'll be with my aunt and uncle the whole time and won't have the freedom to walk around the city snapping shots like I would if I were alone or with a friend.
I was originally going to bring all of my camera gear, but that can be a burden. I decided that I'm just going to bring my Digital Rebel with the kit lens, since it has a pretty flexible range. I'm also going to bring my Lomo for those times that I want to be less conspicuous.
My hope is that bringing a simpler set of equipment will allow me to take more photos and not be so self conscious about trying to be a "photographer" while I'm supposed to be having fun.
In related news, I'm on the list at the local photo store to be one of the first to get the Canon 20D when it comes out in a few weeks.
If you're still reading this and want a Gmail account, it's your lucky day. I got 11 invites yesterday. Just contact me and I'll set you up. Be sure to include your name and an active email address.
Three Things
Three things:
One
I've decided against bringing the kit lens to California. I took it out this morning and wasn't impressed. I guess I'll just put my EF 16-35mm f/2.8L on and deal with not being able to do much zooming.
Two
I have a confession to make. The "listening" and "watching" links in the right column have been static html that I've manually updated each week...until today.
I created a database and quick management application so I can update them more easily and more frequently. I've created a few other categories that may make an appearance over there as well.
Having all of this in a database now allows me to keep a history, which I may post somewhere for your my reference.
Three
In case you missed it yesterday, I still have Gmail invites that I need to get rid of. Contact me and I'll set you up. Be sure to include your name and an active email address that I can send the invite to.
