September 2008 Archives

September 30, 2008

Tonight Liz had some family visiting from out of town, and we were hosting a small dinner party to celebrate. Liz's Aunt Jenny (who's in Chicago) came over with Aunt Debbie, Aunt Nancy and Liz's cousin Ali. I met everyone for the first time when Liz and I visited Texas... (read more)

Working on a New Flash Project (Albeit Slowly)

September 29, 2008

Lately, most of my free computer time has been spent working on my next Flash-based project. Currently, I'm fairly close - I've got maybe 85% of it all done, and the remainder has to do with some small bits of functionality... and contending with the overall upload process. I'm building... (read more)

Survive the Outbreak: Decision-Based Zombie Storyline

September 28, 2008

It's like a big, video-based version of a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Survive the Outbreak presents you a zombie storyline where you've got to make decisions at every turn. [via]... (read more)

Annapurna: Memories in Sound - Superb Audio Documentary

September 27, 2008

While driving back from a dentist appointment in Frankfort (I was visiting Dr. Heath, and getting the first part of my crown set up). I've been in and out of the dentist chair so much lately, the Novocaine shots aren't quite freaking me out as much as they used to.... (read more)

Apologies

September 26, 2008

Busy tail end of the week, and didn't get around to posting anything for today. It's been a long while since I've made a non-post post, but here it is. I'm Whitney Houston here - I've got nothing.... (read more)

Rachel Papo, Serial No. 3817131: Photos of Women in the Israeli Army

September 25, 2008

Named after the serial number she was given while serving in the Israeli army, Rachel Papo's Serial No. 3817131 is a series of great images. This made the rounds about a month ago, but at the time I originally wanted to post it... the site was down, due to... (read more)

CNN Concatenated: Amazingly Edited Video, by Omer Fast

September 24, 2008

A while back, I came across an art piece by Omer Fast entitled "CNN Concatenated." It's a stitchwork of different anchors on CNN, each speaking one word snippets. The overall effect is both mesmerizing and super-creepy, in an Orwellian Fortune Teller sort of way. It's a bit like found poetry,... (read more)

Crappy Cat: Fun, Exploratory Flash Game

September 23, 2008

This is the first time I've encountered Crappy Cat, and I have to say I lost a lot more time here than I expected. Head to the "Interactive Theater" and just roam around. Delightful and diverting. And it definitely reminded me of that old, Internet classic Fly Guy.... (read more)

Ark: Dark Animation About the End of the World

Ark is a dark and wonderful film by Grzegorz Jonkajtys. Here's the premise: An unknown virus has destroyed almost the entire human population. Oblivious to the true nature of the disease, the only remaining survivors escape to the sea. In great ships, they set off in search of uninhabited... (read more)

Thoughts on Marketing While at the Dermatologist

September 22, 2008

Had an appointment this afternoon to see a Dermatologist. I have two moles I was sort of worried about (one on my left forearm and one on my right ear), and decided to get them checked out. I'd never been to see a skin doctor before, so the whole experience... (read more)

On the Way to Work

Thought about titling this post "Maximum Ogre-Drive," but then thought better of it. Spotted this guy on the way to work, near the California Blue Line stop.... (read more)

Jury Duty, Revisited

September 21, 2008

So nice... I get to do it twice! Got this fun letter over the weekend. Interestingly, this time around I guess I only have to call once (as opposed to calling for an entire week). I figured one only has to do Jury Duty once a year at the... (read more)

Bugs, Daffy and Elmer: Saturday Morning Cartoon Nostalgia

September 20, 2008

56 years ago today, the classic cartoon Rabbit Seasoning ran for the first time in movie theaters. I was delighted to stumble across this wonderful MetaFilter post, and happy to see Bugs, Daffy and Elmer once more on my screen. As I mentioned in a comment in the post, I'm... (read more)

Chicago Wedding Reception: Caterer Recommendations?

September 19, 2008

Planning for the wedding question: anyone have any Chicago-based caterers they recommend? I've asked around at work, and posted a question over at MetaFilter and figured I'd also post here for kicks. Right now, we're closing in on Maxim's for our reception. We'll be bringing in our own alcohol, so... (read more)

Rooftop View of Chicago Skyline, Lincoln Park

September 18, 2008

Liz and I went to go hang out with Justin a few days ago, and got to see his pretty fantastic rooftop view of the Chicago skyline. We met up with Howard and Chris over there, and all made our way up via an access point in the storage room... (read more)

Bottled Water Trucks in Winter: Do the Bottles Freeze?

September 17, 2008

This is Byron. We met on the way up the elevator this morning. He was dropping off our monthly bottled water supply, and I let him in through the hallway door, which had a more direct route to the kitchen area. As we were walking together, a question sort... (read more)

Air Traffic Controller Felix

September 16, 2008

So a long while ago, Deb decided to use the metaphor of planes and airports to convey the current number of existing and potential clients we have, as a company. Each plane represented another media company, and each would have X number of stations associated with it. Planes that had... (read more)

Noticing Patterns

September 15, 2008

Whenever I start tinkering with things as potential projects, sometimes I get down a good path, othertimes they're dead ends. Typically, a few of the same things tend to recur, everytime a project begins to take shape, moving away from the "tinkering" stage and more towards an actual, structured experiment.... (read more)

Exploring the Echo Nest API

September 14, 2008

I've spent all day today geeking out on APIs. Still mucking around with The Echo Nest API, and testing things out bit by bit. I've got a handle on pretty much how to go about getting data and such... but some of the particulars are eluding me. While I understand... (read more)

Renegade Craft Fair

September 13, 2008

Liz and I woke up early to make our way down to Division for the annual Renegade Craft Fair. Little did we know that we'd be in for a day of downpours and contstant getting-wet-edness. Well, we had some clue that there would be rain. But by the time we... (read more)

Chinese Foot Chart

September 12, 2008

by Kay Ryan Every part of us alerts another part. Press a spot in the tender arch and feel the scalp twitch. We are no match for ourselves but our own release. Each touch uncatches some remote lock. Look, boats of mercy embark from our heart at the oddest knock.... (read more)

9/11 and I Love You

September 11, 2008

Earlier this week at work, I was talking with Mike and trying to schedule a meeting for today (Thursday, September 11th). As he was looking at his calendar, he paused. And then he told me that he had often thought we should get 9/11 as an official day off. But... (read more)

More Cowbell: Add Christopher Walken + Cowbell to Any MP3

September 10, 2008

This entry is a little silly, and a little serious. Starting off with the silly: the folks that brought you The Jingler (a fantastic project that came out late last year) have recently unveiled MoreCowbell.dj. The site's premise is short and sweet: Upload a song, set the level of cowbell... (read more)

Pretzel Dog Vs. Hot Dog: The Unfinished Commercial

September 9, 2008

So last week, folks on the Design Team pitched in to create a video for a Pretzel Dog vs. Hot Dog contest. Sadly, there wasn't enough time for Chris to finish out the commercial... and it seemed like things were also pushing too close to the 2:00 mark. Just... (read more)

It Seems I Have More Than One Dopplegänger

September 8, 2008

Over the weekend, I was getting coffee at the local Starbucks and a random stranger asked me if my name was "Wellington." We chatted for a while, and I ended up finding out that this "Wellington" chap was someone the guy knew from about 10 or 15 years ago. "Dead... (read more)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Paige!

September 7, 2008

Today there was a party for Paige's 2nd birthday over at Tricia and Darryl's. Prior to heading over, I took a few photos of Liz's gift (and handiwork). On first glance, it's just a regular half carton of eggs. Inside, just some eggs. Although a few eggs that seem happier... (read more)

Justin Returns to Chicago: New Apartment

September 6, 2008

After a long hiatus (including a trek to India), Justin officially returned to Chicago this week and secured a fantastic apartment over in Lincoln Park. Today, I headed over to help out a bit with moving some items that he had over in storage. A quick peek over into one... (read more)

Pretzel Dog Versus Hot Dog: Video Contest

September 5, 2008

Stumbling across this in the kitchen... led to this in the meeting room... and this. There were rumblings a while back about a possible attempt to enter a pretzeldog video contest... and a Chris even drafted up a script. Today, thought was put into action and a lot of... (read more)

Frenzic: Addictive Tetris-Like Pattern Game

September 4, 2008

Last week, Justin and I were talking about games at work. He mentioned a particular game that he downloaded (and ended up liking so much he purchased): Frenzic. The gameplay is fairly straightforward, and it's definitely addictive. Comparable to Tetris the game is all about patterns, and placing the... (read more)

Apple Picking Season Begins: Heinz Orchard

September 3, 2008

My friend and former coworker Anthony left the rigors of the desk and keyboard (he was formerly the webmaster over at q101.com). Instead of working with his fingers, he works with his back and hands, spending his days outside working the land over at Heinz Orchard. I got an... (read more)

Two Cute Squirrels That... Wait, What Are They Doing?

While walking to work this morning, Liz and I heard some rustling in a nearby neighbor's yard. At first glance, two squirrels seemed to be fighting/playingfighting with one another. One would try to climb while the other one tried to pull. I pulled out my camera to record a bit... (read more)

RIP Jerry Reed (1937 - 2008)

September 2, 2008

I mentioned Jerry Reed's East Bound and Down on the last Friday Collective Mixtape. But it seems only appropriate to share the story here as well. Back in 2000, I was fresh out of grad school and landed a job in Barrington, IL working as a Flash desginer. I had... (read more)

Coding Coding Coding...

September 1, 2008

After running errands in the morning, I spent most of my afternoon in front of the computer. I've been dabbling with a redesign for the blog, and started coding out a few things. While this current design is based off of a Movable Type theme, I'm trying to write out... (read more)