February 29th

By-the-by, happy Leap Day everyone. Enjoy some random facts.

Quick research shows that the "extra day" added to the calendar every four years (to compensate for the fact that our yearly rotation around the sun takes an actual 365.25 days) has a name: Bissextile Day. Tell that to some sixth graders to make them laugh.

Ask yourself how many people, how many Americans, don't really understand why we have leap years, but assume it's just something that we do.Modern people think they're so smart, but the Romans figured out the need for a "Leap Day" 2054 years ago! Or, to be more correct, they already knew about it then, but that came up with the current system (and calendar) at this point. The old system involved a four-year cycle of years with different lengths: 355 days, 377 days, 355 days, 378 days. Now, repeat that four times (for 16 years elapsed), and then do this: 355 days, 377 days, 355 days. 377 days, 355 days, 377 days, 355 days, 355 days. This was their 24-year cycle, which resulted in a 24 year span where the average length of those years was 365.25.

You can see why the Julius Caesar changed it.

On another note, the Wikipedia entry for today pointed out a legal point I had never considered:

An English law of 1256 decreed that in leap years, the leap day and the day before are to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year has passed. Thus, in England and Wales a person born on February 29 legally reaches the age of 18 or 21 on February 28 of the relevant year.

So forget Groundhog Day, we're literally reliving yesterday again.¹ Or we would be if we were in England.

So if you made any mistakes yesterday, here's your chance to get it right.

[1 - Actually, I think it means that the two days are treated as a combined day, not a repeat, so you get a day with two sunrises, two sunsets, and two nights. More practical, but less poetic. Although, would you get overtime pay for that second day? Hmmm...] ⇪

Beautiful Music

Whoever this man is, he should be selling tracks (or CDs) of his work online, because I would buy them.

At least as long as they weren't those cheeseball kind of arrangements with lame synth orchestral accompaniment.

I love like this not just because of the baroque-style composition, or the beauty of the music, but also because the mechanics are so simple, laid bare for us to see. The resonator is the glass, like the wooden reed of an oboe, the air within a flute, or your lips as you play the trumpet. The water determines the frequency of that resonance through varying water levels, and so allows a particular glass to be a particular note. Tune it by adding or subtracting some water.

Like most instruments, each "key" is laid out according to some design, but in this case, I wonder what trial-and-error led to this arrangement. It's clear he didn't go for a keyboard-style linear layout, as this is far more clustered.

On a side note, check this page on flute acoustics out. Even as a former flutist, I didn't really understand how a flute vibrated, aside from the "it's like playing a jug or bottle" explanation. Wild stuff.

Open Letter to "Lost"

Dear Damon Lindelof, Carleton Cuse, and any Others—

Thank you for making "Lost" good again. Even Tracy, who stopped watching halfway through last season, loved tonight's episode. It got us both very excited. Except for the recent Kate-centric show, each week Season 4 just gets better and better.

Desmond is your best character, or at least your best focal character. He and Penelope have a real emotional core that holds this show together.

Thank you for giving us another superb Desmond episode.

Tonight's show is in my top four. Unranked, they are the Pilot, Locke's first flashback ("Walkabout"), the Season 2 Finale, and now this one.

Thank you for making "Lost" good again.

Thank you.

How Do You Make "Garfield" Better?

By taking Garfield out of the strip.

This guy's mission statement at the top of the page says it all. Once you are willing to go with the conceit, strips can be pretty poignant, as well as damn funny.

The minimized dialogue really makes you focus in on the "performance." Even three panels where nothing changes, that's a bold performance.

Some of my favorites are here, here, here, and here.

[c/o Daring Fireball]

Broken Promises

I have dropped the ball.

With a brief moment to consider it, I can think of three or four "promised" articles, pieces I essentially pre-announced. The Cloverfield reaction piece I spent a lot of mental energy and started research for; a Death Valley writeup and photo post; my reaction to the end of the HD disc format war; my extended thoughts on buying an iPhone in October. These are all pieces I want very much to write, and look forward to the process just as much as the posting. And I want you to read these articles, and (hopefully) enjoy them.

So I made mention of them. I told you that they were coming.

And that was my mistake.

As you may have noticed, not one of those articles has been written yet. I have no real excuse why; I've been busy, sure, but I still have evenings, my lunch break, the weekend. Weekends. As I said, I want very much to write them; I still think about a few of them every day. But still, no actual progress is made.

I think, for me at least, announcing an article dooms it. Saying something is "coming soon" is saying that it's good enough to look forward to, that I intend it to be that good. I'm excited about it myself, to the point I need to say something even before the article is ready. But, once anticipation is set up, then there's pressure. Not in any rational sense, but since a promise has been made, now I have to deliver. If my writing sucks, I've disappointed people.

So I need the time to do it right. I can't just jot this off between projects, or after dinner and before Lost. No, I need to sit down and focus. Now isn't the right time, but Saturday will be... no, now it's Saturday, and I have some other things I want to do right now... oh, hmm, same story for Sunday, well, during the week I'll have time... no, it's Sunday again, shit... And now it's late, so, when it's done, it has to be really good. So I need to really hone in and focus now...

You can see where I'm going with this.

The answer, I think, is simple: no more promises made means no more promises broken. I hate having a lingering promise of "this cool thing will be here tomorrow, so come on back!" I've completely abandoned websites for this exact behavior, repeated enough times. And here I am, after mentally cursing other writers, finding myself doing the same thing.

Not only is this frustrating for me, but I imagine it's frustrating for you. Heck, on a much larger level, I've been voicing my irritation with Josh about how Apple has fallen into the same trap. They pre-announce the new Apple TV software update for two weeks in the future, and it comes out as full four weeks later. Time Capsule is supposed to ship in a few weeks, and six weeks later, my pre-order is still only that. This doesn't spell doom for one of my favorite companies, but it's not a pleasant pattern. It's a poor practice to get into, and it self re-inforces; miss one deadline without consequences, and the next deadlines start to feel more fluid, when they shouldn't be.

It's time to break the cycle.

If I have something I want to address or discuss, I'll goddamn write it before I write about it. I've been missing opportunities and wasting your time with these broken promises. No more.

I'm sorry about the delays. I'm sure this fuss seems melodramatic, but please imagine the amused smile I have on my face; I don't take myself too seriously. Lives aren't lost when I post late (or not at all), but I aspire to be better and more responsible, so hey, if that means calling myself out, then I'm up to the challenge.

Time to get back on the wagon. Let's go.

My Neighborhood

This is where I live.

We just got back from the best movie theater in the world, the Arclight (Hollywood).

I'm eating a piece of toast from a nearby Russian bakery, which Tracy picked up as she walked home from Whole Foods.

There are a lot of people walking their dogs on our street.

Some of them are guys holding hands with guys.

Traffic sucks because the Oscars are held about a mile away, right next to my subway entrance.

Kat Von D's tattoo parlour is a few blocks away.

A Pinkberry just opened five minutes by foot in another direction—

Right next to a good college friend's apartment, where we sometimes catsit.

And, from the other side of our building, comes the silliest, most anthemic, loudest Russian pop music I have ever heard. Sort of klezmer-meets-American Idol, with a healthy helping of Kanye and Britney Spears. Seriously— it could be a Russian wedding medley.

I love West Hollywood.

Happy Birthday Adam!

My former roomate, college pal, film crew member, and all-around good friend Adam is having himself a birthday today.

Which is, of course, a happy opportunity to watch his death scene here.

Everyone, wish him a happy birthday; with luck, we'll get him good and properly tanked tonight.

Space Theatre

My good friend Sherman made a thesis film back when he when he was in college, called "Space Theatre." Checking its IMDb page, I see that it still hasn't garnered enough votes to earn a "User Rating;" a full five people have to have rated it before they're tallied collectively.

I voted on this movie a while back. I'm a big fan, and recently made Sherman a new DVD copy of it for his Christmas present. So, I'm probably biased. And I'd like to show it to you all, but other than a (slow loading) trailer you can find here, there is no online version of it.

Yet.

Herte's my plan. I want you guys to vote on "Space Theatre." I know you haven't seen it yet, and it may be a bit disingenuous but my hope is, if I can get the movie to accumulate a User Rating, I can convince Sherm to host the whole film, either on YouTube, or maybe on his site. And maybe announce that here, on TWGB.

Besides, you can always change your rating after you've seen it.

What have you got to lose?

Go Away Four Four Days... [Updated]

I leave town for a long weekend in Death Valley with Tracy and her parents, where I had spotty phone service and no internet, and look what happens.

I receive 30 e-mails, most of which are marketing junk and automated mailings.

My phone shows 17 missed calls, with one voice mail (Hi Jamie!).

My dad e-mails me with pictures from Guatemala, and I find out he got pneumonia (Get well soon, Dad, love you!).

My RSS subscriptions, which aren't all that many, show 65 (!) unread article; I've gone full weeks with fewer new articles on these subscriptions.

Apple drops the price of the 1 gig iPod shuffle, intros a new 2 gig shuffle at the previous price point, discontinues its Xserve RAID, and releases Xsan 2 with support for tird-party RAID arrays.

And, the big news du jour, Toshiba is discontinuing HD-DVD!! Huge news, and welcome.

Even bigger news, Fidel Castro stepped down.

(More on the End of the Format War tomorrow, as now I must go to bed, or Tracy will kill me)

Radio Silence

I probably won't be posting much this weekend, as Tracy's parents are in town. To fill the void, I bring you this:

Trek Trailer Response

Speaking of Star Trek (yesterday, that is), a while back Will found an interview with Roberto Orci (one of the writers on the new Trek film) that addressed the whole "building the Enterprise on Earth" deal. When asked what the logic behind that decision was, he answered:

Firstly, there is the notion that there is precedent in the novels, etc that components of the ship can be built on Earth and assembled here or there. And the second thing is that the Enterprise is not some flimsy yacht that has to be delicately treated and assembled. The idea that things have to be assembled in space has normally been associated with things that don’t have to be in any kind of pressure situation and don’t ever have to ever enter a gravity well. That is not the case with the Enterprise...

And the final thing, in order to properly balance warp nacelles, they must be created in a gravity well... That comes from our creative license. No one can tell me that it is not possible that in order to create properly balanced warp nacelles they have to be constructed in a gravity well.

Translation: Go fuck yourselves, we're going to write whatever we want to.

Which, at the end of the day, is a freedom the filmmakers will need to do a quality adaptation of the Trek franchise. I don't begrudge them independence, even if Orci is a little rude about it.

However, that's no excuse for coming up with stupid goddamn ideas.

Vanity Fair Does Hitchcock

I meant to post this a week or two ago, when Daniel first told me about it, but the current issue of Vanity Fair has done a really great photo recreation of classic Hitchcock scenes, using current actors.

I love pretty much all of them. Who knew that Seth Rogen was the next Carey Grant?

And is it just me, or does Renée Zellweger look old these days?

It Is A Dark Time For The Rebellion

You've all seen A Christmas Story, right?

Now, do you all remember what happened to the lamp in that movie?

Saldy, the Falcon met with a similar fate last night. She tells me it was an accident, but...

Back to square one, I guess... c'mon Han old buddy, don't let me down...

Indiana Jones Is Back

The big news of today, is of course, the first teaser is out for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

And I have no idea what it's like.

Here's the deal: a while back, I started wondering if I really wanted to see the trailer. I'd seen a production still or three, and love the poster, but was that enough? Was it maybe more than enough? I love trailers as much as the next guy— more, probably. And I'm willing to bet this trailer is good and exciting.

But I think I want to go to the movie and not see a single shot coming.

I mean, it's a freakin' Indiana Jones movie! I know I want to see it, I know I'll be there on opening day, so what is the trailer going to do for me?

Show me stuff I don't know about, so I can be expecting it when I actually watch the film.

So, for the first (and perhaps only) time, I am avoiding all publicity for Indy IV from here on out. No more stills, no more news, no trailers, no nothin'. I have already downloaded the trailer in 1080p, for viewing after I see the movie, because I'll sure as hell want to check it out.

But as this is almost assuredly the last Indy film to be released during my adult life, I want to surprised. I don't want to expect anything.

I don't want to be spoiled.

Will is my accomplice on this mission, as is Josh R. for the time being. Anyone else is welcome to join us. We are not an exclusive club.

For those of you who have seen it, I congratulate you, and I am sure that I would agree that yes, it is awesome, but please understand why I won't be joining you to discuss it.

If any of you want to see it (or want to archive for future viewing, like me), you can find the trailer in QuickTime HD here.

The Final Frontier Has To Wait

The release date for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek has been pushed to Summer 2009.

Paramount is pushing back the release of "Star Trek" from Dec. 25 to May 8, 2009.

Move was part of a major reshuffling to the studio's release calendar, as well as DreamWorks' release calendar.

I was looking forward to watching the movie this Christams with my family. It would be worth missing in the Arclight if my mom and dad were sitting next to me. Bummer.

Well, with an extra six months of post production, those FX shots had better look freaking awesome.

[c/o Josh]

Apple TV "Take 2" Thoughts

Last night, I updated my Apple TV (or is it TV?) to the 2.0 software, and hot damn.

The new interface is a great implementation of "simplify simplify simply." The rotating graphics of the previous version are replaced by two simple (but elegant) columns in a box. The left-hand column is the master list of options; the right-hand one, it's sub menu. Delve in beyond that, and you end up in custom windows as necessary, in a very logical flow. And these submenus are quite tasteful: beyond interface graphics (buttons and such) and the occasional separators, the only graphics are the cover of the song/album/show/movie in question, either as the list itself, or accompanying a details page.

I love it.

The ease with which I can connect to my Flickr page, and through that my friends' pages, is incredible. The same goes for the .Mac Web Gallery connectivity.

The HD rentals blew me away from the start. How do you win over a geek like me? Easy— carry all of the Star Trek films in HD! No, I haven't rented one yet, but Josh has, and he seemed pretty impressed. They may only be 720p, but that's better than the nothing Paramount has released on any kind of HD disc so far.

I do wish the trailers/preview for HD movies were HD themselves, but I suppose that's asking for too much.

A lot of fuss has been made about the 24-hour viewing window (once activated), and I agree, it's a bummer. My guess: within the next year, that gets expanded to two full days, if not three. I have no inside connections to back this up, but it makes sense. Right now, the viewing window is identical to cable T.V.'s video-on-demand timeframe, and until downloads prove themselves as solid a revenue stream as that, the studios won't be cutting Apple any extra slack. I expect this to take off, though, and with existing rental models all favoring two or three days, I expect the digital formats to follow suit.

There are other little fixes here and there, too. Playing videos and slideshows before, I;d often get a little jaggy white line at the extreme bottom edge of my screen. This is the kind of error we'd never notice on SD tube televisions, as that part of the image gets cut off. In HD, on an LCD, a single row of pixels being off shows up. This problem is nowhere to be seen after the new update, which is a site for my sore eyes. Apple also added AirTunes support to the Apple TV. Basically, just like the Airport Express, you can select the Apple Tv as anew speaker set within iTunes. This is a much more elegant solution than linking to a streamed library through the Apple TV interface, all while preserving your ability to control that playback with the Apple TV remote.

Plus they upgraded all of the interface graphics to 1080p. Yes.

What becomes instantly clear to me as I play around with the new features is how limiting the "sync-to-a-central-computer" model is. Here's my utopian dream: that when you buy something, it's hosted on the web. You call it up on any device you own that is registered to your account, and it can only be active on any one device at a time. That way, you aren't responsible for the gigabytes of media you accrue; you just need an internet connection to access stuff. This is probably not appropriate for music, as waiting for it to stream is a drag, but for video... well, a boy can dream, right?

That being said, I am the guy who keeps telling all of my friends that buying HD discs (specifically Blu-ray discs) is a safe bet, because digital downloads are at least 5-8 years from becoming mainstream and ubiquitous. And I still believe that. Until I can get the same kind of selection in 1080p quickly with hi-fidelity 5.1 audio from the internet, in formats I can store and access quickly and painlessly, I will continue to buy the discs I really want. I'm all for digital downloads, I'm just for quality first.

That won't stop me from renting from iTunes; indeed, as a large amount of the HD titles aren't even available on any HD disc yet, it may be my only choice. It just means I'll be buying Blu-rays of the movies I want to own.

Anyone with an iTunes based media library should seriously consider an Apple TV. I've had mine three weeks, and I use it almost every day. With the new update, it'll only become more useful. Check out the "Guided Tour" here, but be warned: about halfway through, she rents Live Free or Die Hard in HD, and the Apple demo video plays the video in the wrong aspect ratio. No joke; instead of letterboxing the movie to preserve the 2.35 image, they stretch it out to fill the 1.78 frame. Amateur hour, even at Apple.

If any of you are curious about picture quality, iLounge has a great comparison up between Blu-ray, HD Cable, DVD, and Apple TV HD rentals. AppleInsider also has a solid in-depth review as well.

22 Hours To Find Earth

Good news, sports fans— unlike other shows caught in the middle of the WGA strike (cough "Lost" cough), "Battlestar: Galactica" will be back for a full season:

There are still some details that will need to be ironed out - actor's deals may need to be renegotiated to get them secured past when their season four contracts end, for example - but the sets in Vancouver were never struck and the behind the camera types are raring to go and finish their epic story.

It isn't all sunshine and rainbows, as earlier rumors pointing towards a fragmented season (played out in two chunks) haven't gone away, but at least we know Ron Moore will have a full 22 episodes to finish the BSG story.

The final season starts April 4th, so don't even think about trying to call me that night.

[c/o Daniel.]

Roy Scheider: 1932-2008

Goddammit.

Roy Scheider died Sunday, February 10th.

I've been mulling over this post for two days now... and at the end of the day, there are plenty of other, better write-ups on the man and his life— try here, here, and here, for starters.

Still, I do have a few things of my own to say.

I don't have a single favorite movie, but when I get asked to name one, I consistently pick Jaws. Along with Aliens, E.T., and (to a lesser degree) Vertigo, watching Jaws was one of the most visceral and influential movie-going experiences—hell, art-going experiences— of my life. I don't remember the exact year I saw it, but I do remember the circumstances. In short: McDonald's was offering a promo with Universal Studios when I was about 10. They had two special cups, one featuring The Terminator (which I wanted badly), the other featuring the Jaws-attack from the Studio Tour. Apparently, I wanted the Terminator cup enough that I was able to convince my father to take me and my siblings to McDonald's, no small feat.

We got the Jaws cups. I, being me, asked my dad all about what the cup was about, and he told me, in general terms, the idea. I probably kept asking questions, so moved on the the best answer: he rented the VHS cassette that night, and we watched it.

Suffice to say that to this day, I have a really hard time swimming in any large body of water without someone swimming farther out that me. Because the shark will get him first.

To be clear, this is one of the best memories of my life, and I'm glad my dad showed me the movie when he did. It was the perfect time to change my life, and is probably one of the reason I'm out in Los Angeles, doing what I do. Getting the shit scared out of me for life was totally worth it.

All of this is to say: I would not be the same person had it not been for Roy Scheider. Chief Brody, the master of the deadpan-understatement, was a hero of mine from a young age, even if i didn't recognize it until late in my teens. If I was able to get back in the water at all, it was ultimately because the chief of police conquered his own fear and shot that son-of-a-bitch right in the air tank.

In other films, I always loved Scheider, even when the product wasn't at his level. He makes 2010 totally watchable for me— aside from a few other performances and a cool concept, he carries that film. "SeaQuest DSV" was never a great show, but he made it worth my while (which is probably why I tuned out of season three, when Michael Ironside took over).

It was only a few months ago that I wished Roy Scheider a happy birthday, and now he's gone.

At least he showed that shark who was boss.

Two Great Games

First up is "Spin The Black Circle," a simple flash game that is simply devious. It starts out easy, has some catchy music, and a simple interface. After the first few levels, you feel good about yourself, and then it gets hard, and you think Screw this, I'm going home... after I finish this level. So you work and work, and eventually finish the level, only to be greeted by another one. Holy fuck, that looks complicated! Well, I just want to see what this one is like...

Say goodbye to five or six hours, friend.

The second game is a little less... abstract. "Off-Road Raptor Safari" features an indestructible jeep, complete with a Triceratops skull and a boulder-sized mace. And a whole mess of feather velociraptors. Featuring a plot right out of Bad Taste, you have to harvest as many 'raptors as you can (to make food in the future) by ramming into them with your jeep, and then hooking them with your spiked ball.

Once you get past the carnage, it is awesome.

The game uses a custom engine you have to install, but it hasn't crashed my system yet, so it seems okay. The graphics and look remind me a lot of Pangea Software's "Nanosaur," a great game that came bundled with a lot of Macs back in the day.

[ Speaking of Bad Taste... enjoy! ]

He's A Man, Not A System

A certain Poughkeepsie man (a real scoundrel, it seems, leading police in a car chase) has what can only be described as the best name ever.

I'm serious; it doesn't get any better than this.

Please note how it's one name; imagine if someone was called Martinluther Phillips, or Georgewashington Baker.

The math works out on this one: L. Butler is 27, making his birthday fall somewhere in 1980-1981, after the May 21st, 1980 release of The Empire Strikes Back.

Productive Saturday

No real update today, despite yesterday's silence. I've been busy cleaning house, getting a haircut, finally sorting my DVD collection with the recent influx of HD titles, building that speaker cabinet, and other chores, along with getting ready to cook some dinner and have some folks over.

So a good day, but not much for the readership. My apologies. To fill the void, check out this fantastic macro-photograph of an insect (c/o kottke). I've never seen water droplets so small.

Stop by Sunday for a post or two.

Bon week-end!

The Weeks Fly By

So it's Thursday.

Again.

I woke up thinking that the weekend was far away, and hating that. Then I realized we were almost there, and I hate that more.

I have a lot of things I want to do. Build a cabinet for my center channel speaker. Finish designing my logo/style guide. Code my website. Start my Podcast. Watch Sunshine. Clean and organize the back room. Hang out with my friends, who I rarely see as much as I want to. Write my Cloverfield reaction (which I promise is still coming!). Write better blog entries.

And I do barely any of these.

Yes, I work a lot— I have a normal 10-hour day, and plenty of people here work more than that, including myself. But that isn't the issue. I like my job, and I have leisure time, but I end up using it for other things— watching the weekly shows I like ("Lost," "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles," "Project Runway," "House"), reading articles on the internet, finishing books, studying graphic design and HTML. Also things I like to do. Things I want to do.

How do we make our priorities work better? How do we balance all of the things a day demands (let alone a week!) with all of the things we want to do? These things... I don't want to see my goals get left behind... but I want to get at least a little sleep, and enjoy the spontaneous things that throw me off schedule.

If I didn't care about a social life, I'd try and start living on a 28-hour day, or something; I'd slowly fall in and out of sync with the world around me, as my "days" would be longer. I'd certainly get more done. No dice, though, as the social life is one of the things I need to make time for.

I don't know what the answer is. I think I'm going to try and take two lunch breaks a week, and write during lunch. Or design. Do something on the list, at least, while still leaving three lunches where I can sit with my coworkers and relax. And maybe wake up earlier on weekends... I tend to let myself sleep in to 10 or so, and that's time I could use. We'll see.

At the end of the day (or week), I think we all have to balance our needs with our goals. I'm not naive. I get that. I just want to do it better. You guys have any strategies that work for you? Any issues that seem particularly hard?

A Lazy Post

I'm not feeling my Muse today, or something, so in lieu of actually writing something, here's a nice assortment of links, videos, and pictures.

• Coolest guitar design ever.


• Ever wondered what a beehive looks like from the inside? Check this out— I love how the bees have a perfect sense of natural symmetry.


• Click here for a neat photographic look at how LEGO bricks are made [c/o Daring Fireball].


• Because everything is better in 30 seconds. I have to say, though, with regards to Pirates of the Caribbean 3, they got it wrong; it should be 25 seconds of people having meetings, followed by some battles. Ah well.


• Looks like Sam's Italian Sandwich Shops have been disposing of extra foodstuffs in the laziest way possible. Didn't these guys see The Host?


• Speaking of doughy blobs of mysterious origin...
  
  
  Yes, that is for real.


• Uh oh, I posted a video. Now I've done it; the floodgates are open. Well, this is far funnier than it has any right being:
  



• And this is for those of you wondering what I mean when I say "For frak's sake..."
  



• This is just way too cool [c/o kottke].
  



• Speaking of kottke, he put up a great post about using a hacked version of Super Mario World that demonstrates quantum mechanics and string theory. Watch that video in his post, and think about it. It could also apply to evolution and natural selection, come to think of it. If you are having trouble understanding what you see, here's the deal: when you see multiple Marios, those are the various attempts he made at surpassing that part of the level. When the surviving Mario pauses for a moment, the player saved the game, allowing more Marios to spawn from that point. Amazing graphic.


• Remember Johnny Chung Lee? Well, turns out he has a web site, with more videos of his Wii hacks and proofs-of-concept. This guy never ceases to amaze me [c/o mouser].


• Also from mouser, more proof as to just how awesome "Flight of the Conchords" is:
  

We're #1!

Good morning, all.

For it is indeed a good morning.

In doing a little internet research, I found myself performing Google searches on a friend of mine. And that made me think hey, I haven't googled myself in a while.

So I did, and lo and behold, wickedgoodblog.blogspot.com was search result number one! In past searches, my IMDb page had been the top hit. (Aside: Also interesting is that my IMDb page is hit three, right after my NYTimes.com bio page. As exciting as it is to be listed on the New York Times, there is zero information there, whereas my IMDb page has lots.)

Next, I decided to search for "wicked good blog" (with the quotation marks); past searches with the words ungrouped had placed my humble blog at hit three, and I wanted to feel better than three. Results: this site makes it to the first hit!

At this point, I was feeling a little excited, and did the same search again, sans quotation marks. The two sites to beat me in the past were "Our Wicked Good Blog," by a store in Salem, MA called "Wicked Goodz," at number two, with number one being a real estate website that had purchased a domain name that I wanted, "wickedgoodblog.com." I ended up with "thewickedgoodblog.com/.net," they stopped updating in January of last year, and now...

The Wicked Good Blog is the number one result!

I don't claim to know how the Google algorithms work; I know it boils down to page ranking, which is based on how many people link to a given site, and that those links are valued higher if they come from a site with a high page rank itself. So it looks like the thanks should go to... you.

To all of my regular readers, I thank you, first and foremost, for your attention and time—I'm writing this to be read, and you're reading it, so you give this site purpose. That being said, the nice links you seem to be adding are a pleasant bonus.

And for all of you new readers, these are the people you get to live up to...

Search rank is not a measure of success; but as I consider The Wicked Good Blog to be my digital home, I'm glad it comes up as the primary place to find me.

iPhone Upped to 16 Gigs

Straight from the horse's mouth.

I'd just like to quickly point out that this is exactly what I predicted back in November. A friend was concerned about getting an iPhone, because of the chance that they'd just come out with a new model at Macworld in January. And I said that the chances of that were small, I figured a true new model wouldn't hit before July, and was more likely for Fall 2008. I said that if we got any update at all before summer, it'd be a storage bump to 16 gigabytes.

Booyah.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My father turns 59 today; I'd wish him a happy birthday over the phone, except he's in Guatemala, building stoves with Pat Manley and the Masons on a Mission organization.

Well done Dad! Hope you're having a good one down there!

Super Bowl: Extended Reaction

Okay, the shock has worn off, so let's go through some specifics.

First off, thanks Will for hosting a great Super Bowl party; plenty of food, beer, and good times.

My overall take on the game: pretty dull, except for an exciting opening drive from each team, and an intense final 30 minutes or so.

Best play of the game: David Tyree's 33-yard catch, using his hand and his helmet, on a throw Eli Manning got off after escaping a near tackle by three Patriots. Well played, boys.

Special shout-out to Wes Welker as, in my opinion, he was the MVP if the game. But the Patriots lost, so no one is really talking about him, aside from the fact that he tied for most Super Bowl catches, with 11 receptions.

Let's talk halftime show; who else liked the vaginal beating heart under Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, which was (inevitably?) penetrated by the sperm- (and penis-) like arrow-guitar? It wasn't at the same level as Nipplegate or Prince's demon phallus, but funny nonetheless.

(Tangentially, something which is like a vaginal is "vaginal," like an ovum (or many ova) is oval (!), or like a phallus is phallic, but something which is like sperm is only "sperm-like." Bullshit.)

Plenty of good ads, and plenty of weak ones. Tops include Tide's "talking stain" ad, and Coca-Cola's "balloon" spot, while parts of both the Budweiser "Rocky/Clydesdale" and the Pepsi "Timberlake" commercials were pretty damn funny. The Doritos "Mousetrap" spot was beyond horrendous, and the two SalesGenie ads ("Panda" and "Double Sales") were offensive and borderline racist.

But my top pick for absolute worst ad goes to Toshiba's HD-DVD spot; not only was it an older spot that's been running for months, not broadcast nationally, and aired during the halftime pre-show recap, but it wasn't even in high definition! That's right, folks; Toshiba's multi-million dollar ploy to convince the country that HD-DVD is viable was a stale and uninspired commericial that was 4x3 letterboxed, small and paltry on the HD sets owned by the very people they're trying to attract as customers.

A heaping portion of Suck, with a healthy dollop of weak sauce.

Frequent readers will know that I love me my Daring Fireball, John Gruber's excellent web site/column. But to his comment on tonight's game, I have only this to say: Bite my ass, Yankees fan.

And for your daily dose of irony: on the Spike website, where I found all of these ads for your viewing pleasure, you occasionally have to watch a hosted advertisement before you can watch the Super Bowl ads. Sweet.

Super Bowl Results

The Giants defeat the Patriots.

Fuck.

Thomas Jefferson's Forged Wine?

Check out Patrick Radden Keefe's "The Jefferson Bottles" over at The New Yorker; the article is from September of last year, but is still damn interesting. Turns out the world of wine collecting has been recently rocked with forgery scandal, in this instance revolving around the "most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at auction."

The bottle came from a collection of wine that had reportedly been discovered behind a bricked-up cellar wall in an old building in Paris. The wines bore the names of top vineyard... and those initials, "Th.J." According to the catalogue, evidence suggested that the wine had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, and that the bottle at auction could "rightly be considered one of the world's greatest rarities."

Strangely enough, it looks like there are two film projects being developed based on this story; one from this article, and another based on an as-yet unpublished book. As intriguing as I found this story to be, I have a hard time imagining it working as a film. Then again, I certainly enjoy The Red Violin, so go ahead and prove me wrong, filmmakers.