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June 1, 2008

Tweeting with the Birds: Up Early, Working on a New Flash Project

Recently, I signed up and created a Twitter account. Did some exploring around, checking out the API and generally how things work. I've got an idea for a new Flash project, which I'm pretty excited about. I'm maybe 40% through it at the moment, but there's definitely a feeling with [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 1, 2008 6:00 AM | | Comments (0)

June 2, 2008

Tradeoff

Nothing really to post today. Apologies, but at this point... I'm trading in what free time I can scrounge up to work on this new Flash project I've got going on. I'm pretty excited by things, and just wishing for more time. I'm trading in blog entry time, to work [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 2, 2008 6:10 AM | | Comments (0)

June 3, 2008

Google SMS: Your Friend Who's Always at the Computer

I found out about Google SMS through Rachelle Bowden's blog, and ever since... it's fast become a great tool for when I'm out and about, away from a computer. Even though I have a web browser on my Blackberry, it's a bit of a pain to use. With Google [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 3, 2008 7:24 AM | | Comments (1)

June 4, 2008

One Year at State and Jackson

During an all-staff meeting today, it was mentioned that we passed our one-year anniversary for moving in to our new space. Incredible... it's so amazing to me to see what's happened in the past year. When we first arrived, I remember thinking "My God. How will we ever fill all [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 4, 2008 11:07 AM | | Comments (0)

June 5, 2008

Work and Play

I've been trying to wake up at 5AM most mornings, to get a bit of time in on this newest Flash project. Looking to launch on Monday, which I'm pretty excited about. Two hours in the morning sounds like a lot, but it goes by in a blink. Sadly, the [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 5, 2008 8:01 AM | | Comments (0)

June 6, 2008

Wedding Reception Recon: Stan Mansion

In our continuing search for a wedding reception location, yesterday Liz and I had an appointment to take a look around Stan Mansion. Located in Logan Square, it's only a few blocks away from where we live, and based on the photos on the site... looked pretty enticing. We met [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 6, 2008 6:06 PM | | Comments (3)

June 7, 2008

Big Buck Bunny

I downloaded Big Buck Bunny a few days back, but haven't paused long enough to really sit down and watch it. On seeing it mentioned today on BoingBoing... I fired it up before heading out to do some errands with Liz. She came over to my computer, and we [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 7, 2008 12:02 PM | | Comments (1)

June 8, 2008

FlickrTwitterThinker: Flickr + Twitter = Thinking Other People's Thoughts

About a month ago, I came across Twistori, and was really taken by how much rich data there was to be had from Twitter. I'm in love with projects that utilize APIs to such great effect, and things like Twistori and We Feel Fine are right up my alley. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 8, 2008 9:56 PM | | Comments (4)

June 9, 2008

Liz's First Fondant Cake

During our errands last weekend, one of the places we stopped at was Michael's (an arts/crafts chain store). There, Liz picked up a few cake-related items... specificallly: Fondant. I had never really heard of Fondant before, but after seeing what it was (and a few examples), I recognized it. I [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 9, 2008 12:33 PM | | Comments (7)

June 10, 2008

Lucky Seven

Spotted on Fullerton/California. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 10, 2008 7:13 AM | | Comments (0)

June 11, 2008

Post-Work Drinks, Plymouth Bar

Ben sent out an invite last week for some post-work drinks. All of the design crew headed out to the nearby Plymouth to hang out on the rooftop bar to enjoy one another's company, and the view. L to R it's Nick, TJ in back talking with Bryan, Ben [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 11, 2008 8:04 PM | | Comments (0)

June 12, 2008

Driving Miss Allison

Earlier this morning, Allison fell down a few steps at the Damen Blue Line stop, and hurt her ankle. When she came in, she wasn't able to walk all that well and couldn't put any pressure on her foot. Several folks helped get a chair set up for her, so [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 12, 2008 12:04 PM | | Comments (2)

Honey? Honey, Can You Come Home? I've Found Something.

Around 4:45PM, I got a call from Liz saying that she had found a pretty fantastic desk in the alley, behind our apartment. The trouble was - it was too heavy for her to move by herself. She wanted to wait for me, but didn't want to leave the desk [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 12, 2008 4:43 PM | | Comments (2)

June 13, 2008

Ira Glass: Kill, and Enjoy the Killing

A long, long while ago (late March) TJ sent me a link to a 37 Signals post that mentioned Ira Glass talking about being "a killer." It was an intriguing topic, and at the time... I was just too busy to delve into it at work that day. I made [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 13, 2008 11:36 PM | | Comments (1)

June 14, 2008

An Old Vespa in a New Neighborhood

Prior to the weekend, Liz spotted a posting on Craigslist from someone who wanted to sell a Vespa Primavera (circa 1981). Liz has had her eye out for a classic/vintage Vespa for some time, and is currently in the process of trying to sell her 2007 Vespa. We headed out [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 14, 2008 1:41 PM | | Comments (4)

June 15, 2008

Liz's Second Fondant Cake: Father's Day in Frankfort

The first Fondant cake that Liz made was sort of for practice. The main reason she did a trial run was for this weekend, for a cake she was making for Father's Day for Bob. All through the weekend, she was busy mixing and baking and doing a ton of [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 15, 2008 12:07 PM | | Comments (4)

June 16, 2008

HotPads.com: Street-Level Housing and Rental Data Visualization

HotPads.com is a neat site that shows a ton of housing/rental data, with remarkable street-level detail. I found this via MetaFilter, and as a caveat - some of the comments there suggest that the site's data might not be so accurate. Still though, a neat interface nonetheless. As with [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 16, 2008 2:01 PM | | Comments (2)

June 17, 2008

There She Is: Cat and Rabbit Animation Series

For some inexplicable reason, I found myself thinking back to two specific songs/animations that I posted on here, a long while back. In March of 2005, I made a post about SamBakZa.net, and two animations in particular. It took me a while to track them down, but the songs are [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 17, 2008 7:44 AM | | Comments (3)

June 18, 2008

Lunch with Liz @ The Art Institute

Yesterday Liz mentioned going out to lunch, and we decided on spending our lunch hour together at the Art Institute... in the fountain area next to the building. It's a favorite spot of ours, and we were able to sit down right at the spot where I proposed to her. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 18, 2008 1:08 PM | | Comments (0)

June 20, 2008

Two Fantastic Games: Tank Ball 2 and Puzzle Farter

These should be a good resource for finishing out your Friday, if you've got a few spare moments to kill. Tank Ball 2 is a pretty fast-loading and immersive tank game where, you guessed it, you drive around shooting balls at other tanks. The Single player version is loads of [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 20, 2008 6:59 AM | | Comments (0)

June 19, 2008

Dear Tony: Found Letters, California Blue Line Stop

I found a series of photocopied letters, sitting in a group on a bench at the California Blue Line Stop. On walking by, I saw a guy sort of leaning over them, head cocked to one side, reading a few lines. As I approached, he walked away... and naturally, [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 19, 2008 8:31 AM | | Comments (2)

Bryan and the Great "International Male" Prank

Editor's Note: Due to the highly complex and multifaceted nature of this particular prank on Bryan... I've asked Chris to write up a little summary of the events. For now, know that it all began with this: a fake International Male letter. And now... the recap: --------- Bryan was out [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 19, 2008 12:54 PM | | Comments (2)

June 21, 2008

Josh and His Tall Bike, Logan Square

Liz and I met Josh outside the local Starbucks on California and Logan. As we were walking in, I saw his fantastic bike parked up against the fence. On our way out... I saw him standing nearby, smoking a cigarette. I ended up walking by, stopped, turned around, and [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 21, 2008 11:44 AM | | Comments (0)

June 22, 2008

Getting Caught Up on 'Heroes'

For the past week or so, Liz and I have been watching old episodes of Heroes on DVD. Neither one of us had seen it before, and we started with the first disc from Season One. Needless to say, we got sucked in pretty quickly. I known Bryan and [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 22, 2008 7:10 PM | | Comments (8)

June 23, 2008

Heavy Metal Cab Ride

I hopped a cab home from downtown last night, and on getting in... I noticed the "Scorpions" label over the cabbie's radio. At first glance, it looked to me like an old 8-track player. But looking closer, I realized that it was just a detailed CD-cover flap. When I [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 23, 2008 8:49 PM | | Comments (3)

June 24, 2008

Kate Beaton's "History Project" Comics

I came across Kate Beaton's fantastic comics, and lost about a half an hour just browsing around. I'm finding her History Project pretty funny, even though I don't quite get everything that's covered. Similar to how Penny Arcade is... even though I'm not 100% on the subject matter, the [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 24, 2008 11:38 AM | | Comments (0)

June 25, 2008

Honda ASIMO Robot Conducts Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Woah. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 25, 2008 9:13 AM | | Comments (3)

June 26, 2008

Hedgehog Launch: The Goggles, They Do Nothing...

State Assembly of Minovia Cay June 23, 1987 Dear Loyal Citizen: Your background in the physical sciences has more than qualified you to participate in Minovia's space program. Given that we are already nearly half a century behind the rest of th eworld in space exploration it makes sense [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 26, 2008 11:58 PM | | Comments (0)

June 27, 2008

The Parents Meet the Parents

This is a little delayed, but last weekend we had a small party where the parents (both mine and Liz's) got to meet one another for the first time. Up until now, the families hadn't gotten together before, believe it or not. But with our recent engagement, it seemed like [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 27, 2008 12:04 PM | | Comments (0)

June 28, 2008

Liz's Third Fondant Cake: Jake's Birthday

For Jake's birthday, Liz decided to make another fondant cake (her third). This time around, she was working on a two-tiered chocolate cake. All in all, the entire process was a pretty lengthy, multi-day ordeal, as she had to bake the cakes, then apply the frosting, then create (and [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 28, 2008 6:39 PM | | Comments (0)

June 29, 2008

Hello Fun, Goodbye Productivity

A sort-of impulse buy that's been many months in the making. Back in 2005, when I was looking for a new computer... I had a tough decision to make. I had only ever used PCs my entire life, and it was either buy a new PC or a new [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 29, 2008 4:44 PM | | Comments (0)

June 30, 2008

Arguments Against Talking to the Police: Professor James Duane and Officer George Bruch

Videos are from a fascinating post on MetaFilter. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on June 30, 2008 8:50 PM | | Comments (0)

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