I like projects.  More often than not I find myself starting nerdy projects.  A while ago, as some may remember, I started a little site called .digits.   The point of .digits was to make a repository of facts related to numbers.  For example:

556: There are 556 know species of salamanders.

5: Most fire hydrants have 5 sided bolts because they make it much harder for people to undo with regular tools, as most bolts have six sides.

... and so on.  You may have noticed that in the side bar of this site I have a random .digits fact displayed.

The project has been pretty dormant for the last year but recently I picked it up again, worked on a few new features, and added some new facts.  It's a fun little project and it's pretty easy to just let it go unchecked for long periods of time when I have other things to work on, but I like to keep up with it and keep adding things to it.  The site accepts submissions of facts from anybody (though I have to approve them before they go live on the site).  If you haven't checked out the site in a while or ever, go indulge yourself in some math nerdy goodness and maybe submit some new facts: digits.dinosaurseateverybody.com

Ok, so I wrote about Plurk a few weeks ago when I first signed up for it.  At that time I had written it off as just another Twitter clone, but wanted to play with it out of sheer geek curiosity.  Now I've actually been using it and feel like I can provide a little bit more insight into its value (or lack there of).

Plurk is like talking to yourself in a crowded room.

The major difference I've found between Plurk and Twitter is that Plurk seems much more social.  I think this is mainly because of the scrolling timeline interface.  Posts to Plurk (or plurks) feel much more inconsequential because of the way your record of plurks is kept.  For this reason I feel more inclined to post random "I wonder what's for lunch", "I wish I had more coffee" type of posts.  Is this a good thing? Maybe, maybe not.  Is it something to do every once in a while when I get a little bored at work?  Absolutely.  There seems to be more discussion between strangers and for some reason, a large community of knitting enthusiasts.

The format for replying is much more logical than Twitter's.  The replys are kept with the post so that a coherent conversation can form.  Also when you reply to a plurk you see that plurk and all the comment associated with it in your personal timeline.  This way you can keep track of conversations that you are a part of without seeing everything the parent has ever and will ever post.

I think the most interesting thing that Plurk has done is implemented a good horizontal scrolling site.  Often times horizontal scrolling is used as a trick by designers trying to be different but end up falling short due to the loss in function at the cost of rebellious form.  Plurk's scrolling within the page (rather than making the page sroll in the bowser) it was sets it apart.  It maintains logical scroll wheel functionality ( scrolling down scrolls right and visa versa ) and it's use in displaying a timeline works with expected means of data display.

When I first joined Plurk I shared a link to the blog post I wrote here about it.  Someone responded by saying that they felt the same way I did at first but now use Plurk much more than they use Twitter.  To his credit I have been using my Twitter account less lately, but I still find it useful for random comments into a vacuum type brain dumps.

Does Plurk have any real value outside of social time wasting?  It's hard to tell, there are certainly people posting links to their blogs or interesting articles which can be nice but it's value doesn't really matter to me due to it's casual feel.  It's certainly as useful as any other micro-blogging site (which I suppose isn't saying to much)  I don't think I'd really go out of my way to use it if I didn't spend all my time at work (and a good deal of my time at home) in front of a computer, but since I'm here I might as well purk about it.

The phrase "livin' the dream" is thrown around quite a bit these days, but I have to say I'm taking some very positive steps toward this dream with my recent purchase of a way sweet foosball table.  It's a Tornado Storm II table and it plays great.  There's hardly any wear on the field and I got a pretty good deal on it.  Perhaps this fall we should get a foosball night going (in the spirit of Korean night and karaoke night).  Who's in?

In band related news, we've finally booked dates for our next recording session.  We're going into Atlas Studios to work with Matt Allison and Niel Hennessy.  Matt Allison is the guy who produced (among other great records) Goddamnit and From Here To Infirmary by Alkaline Trio and GNV FLA by Less Than Jake.  Niel Hennessy is the drummer for the Lawrence Arms (among other bands) and co-wrote the Rise Against song Swing Life Away.  This is going to be an awesome opportunity for us to do a great recording and get the insight of some people who really know the industry.  We'll be heading into Atlas the 3rd weekend of September, so we're spending our time now getting ready to lay down North and Damen, You're So Speechless, and She Likes The Radio.

Hey! Everybody!  You should probably go check out Mike's web comic today.  He's been on vacation and hired a crack team of guest artists to do comics for him while he was gone. Well, today my comic is up!  I would highly recommend checking out all the other comics on there, then bookmarking/rss subscribing (whatever you crazy kids are doing these days to consume your internets), and checking out his hilarious work from here on out (if you're not already doing so).

August 22nd, 2008|9:41am

Nice comic today!! Also I am famous for being mentioned in your blog woooooo! I will now check it more often :)

Juli

August 23rd, 2008|1:27am

Very appropriate. :-)

Dana

First, to get all dead horses beaten about the Olympics; Michael Phelps is a fish.  He probably uses all those gold metals to keep himself underwater while he chases all sorts of hot mermaid tail (pun intended).  Chinese gymnasts are all 12 years old, nobody is fooled.  Usain Bolt is really fucking fast.

Ok, now that we've gotten that out of the way, down to business.  Why is there no Olympic foosball?  Perhaps this seems like a stupid question posed by someone who just likes playing foosball a lot, but if you think about it, it has its merits.

Is foosball any less of a sport than table tennis?  Certainly in the U.S. the vast majority of people think of them as more of a game than a sport (yes, I know it's taken much more seriously in other countries).  You may say that table tennis requires more physical movement and athletic ability than foosball.  Well, what about shooting events?  These certainly require skill, but they don't require the physical prowess one associates with "sport".  The oldest Olympic metal winner (silver in 1920) was a 72 year old man in "team running deer shooting".

Even chess is an Olympic recognized sport.  Yes, apparently chess is a sport.  I could understand if they were referring to chess boxing, but no they're just talking about regular chess.   To be a recognized sport means that while they may not be included in the Olympic games but are recognized by the IOC and could be included in future games through a recommendation.   Hell, they even had ballooning (yes.. floating around in a hot air balloon) as a demonstration sport in 1900.

So is it ridiculous to ask why there is no Olympic foosball? Sure, but not any more ridiculous that some of the other "sports" already acknowledged by the Olympics.   To make up for this unjustified shunning by the IOC, I guess I will have to hold a big foosball tournament at my apartment this weekend.

So this weekend I started doing my longer runs in training for the Chicago Half Marathon.  On Saturday morning I went out and did about 10 miles with my old man.  I felt really good at the end, certainly able to run another 3.1 miles, so I think if I keep up my training I should be in good shape for this race.

On Sunday The American Autumn had a show in Downers Grove.  It went OK, except for the fact that our whole band fund got stolen.  Yea, that sucked.  I guess it's our own stupid fault for leaving our money unattended during our set.  We just forgot.  I suppose this kind of shit happens and all we can do is learn from the mistake, but it still sucks to loose that money.   Oh well.

On a happier note, I finally worked out the details for buying that foosball table.  By Saturday night (with the help of Chris's Eileen's Dad's truck) I should have a sweet foosball table in my apartment and a life crippling addiction to deal with.  I'm trying to take care of things I know I need to get done (like the back end for a website I'm helping Juli with) before the table shows up because after that nothing will get done.  Anyways... who wants to play foosball Saturday night?!

August 19th, 2008|12:43pm

building the CAT site? I talked with her last night about doing that. all side scrolling. i've never done anything like that... just use anchors? be cool if there was some js that could do sort of a smoother scroll.

bryan

August 19th, 2008|3:14pm

Nope, not the CAT site, just another site she's working on. I think it's for her aunt.

As for the sidescrolling CAT site, I think Juli is just building that herself; yes it would be done with anchors. It would be cool to something like the Plurk site to make the scrolling nicer.

Dave

August 19th, 2008|5:41pm

"and a life crippling addiction to deal with." lol!!! Sorry you lost your money. Buy a safe with an RFID tag to carry around with you.

Dana

August 20th, 2008|12:53pm

With this ring I THEE BLEED! GO!!!

(meal guitar) DUM DUM DUM DUM

Also hooray foosball.

Josh

Well, I'm waiting for the server I need at work to get fixed, so I guess I'll use this downtime for a little blogging.

The American Autumn finally got our shipment of shirts this week.  They turned out really cool (see picture below) and I'm really glad we're getting more merch.   Having the shirts in my hand felt like a big step.  I have never been in a band that ordered shirts and it was a cool milestone to reach.  Obviously anybody can design a shirt and get it printed.  There's really no barrier of entry to buying t-shirts, but this is the first time I've felt like a band could justify ordering them because we'll actually sell them (and not just to our friends and family, who feel obligated to buy them!).  Along with setting up time at Atlas Studios to do our next recording (more on that later when we get all the details worked out), things have been moving forward nicely with this band.  If you really want a shirt, but don't see me (or anyone in the band) regularly you can order them off our online store.  Anyways... here's what they look like:



In other important news I'm working on buying a foosball table.  I've found a nice Tornado table on Craigslist and I just need to figure out a way to haul it from this guys house to my apartment.  I think this will really help fill the void in our furnitureless iguana/dining room.  I am a little concerned that this purchase will consume my life and prevent me from ever getting anything done.  I'm also a little worried that Chris has openly declared himself to be a spinner.  This type of bush league play is totally unacceptable and will need to be dealt with immediately.

Hmm... looks like this server still isn't fixed.  Damn.

August 15th, 2008|12:02pm

Chris is a pud.

Bryan

Through my interent wanderings today I came across a social/microblogging/whatever type site called Plurk.  After wandering through a few peoples pages it felt like a Twitter knock off due to its 140 character limit posts.

But it had a really nice looking interface (the scrolling timeline at the top of the page is really cool) and I like trying out new web stuff, so I figured I'd give it a shot and create an account.   After playing around with it a bit it still seems really useless (kind of like Twitter), but in a different way than Twitter.  Plurk feels much more conversational and there's a better sense of temporal placement of posts.  On Twitter it feels like you're just saying stuff to say stuff.  If people want to respond they can, but it's not really expected.  Plurk has a much more social feel.  People say stuff as if they are talking to people.  I've noticed that a lot of the more prolific Plurkers say "good morning" and "good night" as if they have a sense of time when they're addressing the community.  The conversations/reply system is also much better organized than Twitter.

That being said, I don't think that Plurk will make me give up my Twittering.  It's kind of fun to go in and interact with people on Plurk, but for the most part I'm OK with my microblogging being pretty one sided.  We'll see how long I stick with it.  So, anyway, check it out, play around with it a bit, if you're interested.  The interface alone is worth taking a look at.

So last Friday The American Autumn had a show at a roller rink in Crystal Lake.  We got asked sort of last minute to play this show and figured we'd take it because it was easy to get to and pretty low pressure.  It was very reminisent of shows we all played in high school ( Dane wrote a great post about this on the band blog ).  It was a bit of a rough show due to some technical difficulties (broken PA, broken strings, broken amp) but it was still a fun, relaxed set.   It's also nice to see that we have a draw outside of our friends.

On Saturday night I went out for ( little Asian ) Sarah's birthday.   We went to the most hipstery bar I've ever been to.  It was called the Hideout and it was located in some industrial park.  I'm sure they severed all sorts of beer and liquour but the only thing I saw people drinking was PBR and Old Style.  There were beards, dorky glasses, and bad haircuts everywhere.   The levels of ironic enjoyment where through the roof.  It was actually pretty fun, and it's always nice to see kids from school who I don't see that often.

Sunday and Monday nights I spent playing around more with my new Wacom drawing tablet and learning how to ink stuff on the computer.  Illustrator is a pretty amazing program.  I know I'm just scratching the surface of what it can do, but from just my limited abilities with the program it really makes everything I draw look a lot cleaner.  Here's the first thing I did with Illustrator.



I guess that's me.  It sort of looks like I'm laughing at somebody's misfortune.  Anyways, all this drawing is kind of fun.  I hope I can keep up with it and keep getting better.

August 12th, 2008|11:19am

The Hideout is freaking sweet. Late in the summer, there is the Hideout Blockparty, little music fest, lots of drinking in the street. you should come.

Bryan

I still think Twitter is kind of stupid and pointless, but I like it and use it, so I decided to go through my Twitter page and pick out some of the tweets that amused me the most.  Follow the link for each tweet:

Victory

Coworker Leaving

Tie Snake

The Big Stall

Photosynthesis

Mayonnaise

Job Skills

Shaving

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