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October 1, 2008

Robert Sapolsky - Documentary on Stress

I've mentioned Robert Sapolsky before, and just saw a post on BB about an upcoming documentary of his work/research. I was so wowed by the original lecture, and cannot, cannot, CANNOT recommend this enough. It's fascinating, eye-opening stuff and I'm reminded again to review my own attitudes and reactions [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 1, 2008 7:37 AM | | Comments (0)

New Swoopo.com Auction Site: A Little Ingenious, A Little Evil

Ok. I came across swoopo.com near the end of the work day, and nearly an hour later... my mind is still reeling from the underlying business model. I'm AWED. On the one hand, it's an ingenious variation on the traditional online auction... and on the other hand, I feel [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 1, 2008 11:20 PM | | Comments (6)

October 2, 2008

Hoshi Saga 3: Deceptively Simple, Rewarding Flash Game

By the same creator who created the fantastic Cursor*10 game, Yoshio Ishii recently released a third game in his Hoshi Saga series. In Hoshi Saga 3, as in all the other versions, the objective itself is deceptively simple: find the star. It's not so much an overall game is [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 2, 2008 6:30 AM | | Comments (1)

October 3, 2008

Liz and I on WTTW's Chicago Tonight (Sorta)

So last night Justin was watching WTTW, just a few minutets prior to the VP debates. Apparently, Chicago Tonight was wrapping up when he saw this: I guess we were on screen for a split second, but Justin was able to rewind and snapped a photo with his camera. This [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 3, 2008 2:01 PM | | Comments (0)

The Slide Technique: Time-Saving Trick for Opening a Bottle of Wine

Why... why did I never try this before now? [via] [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 3, 2008 2:05 PM | | Comments (1)

October 4, 2008

New Project, Nearing Completion

Quick sneak peek of a project I've got in the works. I made a lot of progress this weekend - just one more major bit of functionality to iron out, and then I think I'm pretty close to launching this guy. Maybe another week, fingers crossed. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 4, 2008 12:47 PM | | Comments (0)

October 5, 2008

This American Life Podcast: Another Frightening Show About the Economy

A while back I heard a pretty great This American Life episode, entitled The Giant Pool of Money. IF you, like me, don't quite have a handle on just what's up with the housing and subprime mortgage crisis... this episode was a great overview on just what led to [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 5, 2008 10:51 PM | | Comments (0)

October 6, 2008

Take on Me: Literal Version

This had my nearly crying. Too good, and had to share. [via] [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 6, 2008 3:32 PM | | Comments (2)

Everyone... Meet Justin. Again!

It's with great pleasure that I get to say that Justin is back with us at Emmis Interactive. His new role with the company will be on the planning side of things, and he comes on board as a Product Desginer. After heading off to India for many months, [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 6, 2008 5:57 PM | | Comments (5)

October 7, 2008

Post-Work Client Party in the Office

All week this week, we've had a ton of visitors in the office. With an upcoming meeting tomorrow, a ton of our clients were in town, and gathered for a post-work party in the office. Around 4:30PM or so, people started setting up tables, a DJ arrived, the caterers [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 7, 2008 5:58 PM | | Comments (1)

October 8, 2008

Naked Man Dives into Tokyo's Imperial Palace Moat

On seeing this, I just busted out laughing. This is such a great photo. Purportedly, the man dove in to the moat around Tokyo's Imperial Palace to retrieve a bag that had been dropped. I'm not sure if the removal of clothing took place before or after diving in. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 8, 2008 7:02 AM | | Comments (0)

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament: Final Battle, AJ vs. Eddie

Shortly before 11AM today, this graphic went out to everyone at work. Today, after a lengthy and long-drawn-out process... we determined the winner for the First Ever Double Elimination Rock Paper Scissors Tournament. Many months ago, the process got started... then it dropped off. And very recently, we had [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 8, 2008 11:06 AM | | Comments (0)

October 9, 2008

Days

by Billy Collins Each one is a gift, no doubt mysteriously placed in your waking hand or set upon your forehead moments before you open your eyes. Today begins cold and bright, the ground heavy with snow and the thick masonry of ice, the sun glinting off the turrets of [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 9, 2008 6:37 AM | | Comments (0)

The Early Bird

by Ted Kooser Still dark, and raining hard on a cold May morning and yet the early bird is out there chirping, chirping its sweet-sour wooden-pulley notes, pleased, it would seem, to be given work, hauling the heavy bucket of dawn up from the darkness, note over note, and letting [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 9, 2008 6:39 AM | | Comments (2)

October 10, 2008

We Have 100 Clients: A Small Story About a Small Company That's Slowly Becoming Not-So-Small

At the start of this year, some 10+ months ago, I was in a very different mindset. At work, we were in the transitional phase between being a small company with a limited client list (Emmis)... to a rapidly growing company, taking on an ever-growing number of clients. During that [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 10, 2008 7:54 PM | | Comments (0)

October 11, 2008

What Tina Fey Would Do for a SoyJoy: Product Placement in Movies and TV

Similar to the 72-Hour Party People article and the White Lobster article, I came across What Tina Fey Would Do for a SoyJoy and simply could not stop reading. I'm not all that familiar with Tina Fey, nor have I ever watched an episode of 30 Rock. But the [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 11, 2008 10:43 PM | | Comments (0)

October 12, 2008

Personal Venting Session: Amazon Simple Storage Service

So. A little venting on my part here. Feel free to totally ignore this. I'm writing this more for myself, really. When this project is all said and done, I'd like to be able to look back to this weekend, and remember these particular moments of frustration. Again, these are [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 12, 2008 11:07 PM | | Comments (1)

October 13, 2008

JCVD

Bryan, this trailer is for you. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 13, 2008 1:14 PM | | Comments (1)

October 14, 2008

Request for Encouragement: Liz's Upcoming Cumulative Exam

For the past 3-4 weeks, Liz had been studying pretty much nonstop for an upcoming cumulative exam. It covers much of the stuff she's learned in grad school to date (she's studying Statistics), and it's one of those pass-or-you-don't-graduate kind of exams. Needless to say, she's been experiencing a little [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 14, 2008 11:30 PM | | Comments (14)

October 15, 2008

Typolution: Type-Based Animation

Stumbled across a great little animation a few days ago. Forgot to get around to posting this until now. [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 15, 2008 12:24 PM | | Comments (0)

Man Plays 36 World of Warcraft Accounts Simultaneously, Raids By Himself

Wow, oh WoW. I like World of Warcraft just as much as the next guy, but this is just lunacy. Related: Wasting Real Time in Imaginary Places (1, 2, 3) [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 15, 2008 10:26 PM | | Comments (5)

October 16, 2008

Training Session

A quick shot of the Design Team, in a training session led by Phil (far right). Though we're all intimately involved with the site launch portion of our business (the design and html/css part of it), there have been significant changes to the BaseStation tools since we first opened [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 16, 2008 10:34 AM | | Comments (0)

Possible Jury Duty: Calling to Check Status

A few weeks back, I got another notice that I was called for Jury Duty. I'm not sure what this "Summons for Standby Jury Service" is all about. I don't know if I'm just a potential or, worse, if I might get sucked into one of those multi-week, sequestered trials [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 16, 2008 6:07 PM | | Comments (0)

October 17, 2008

The Final Countdown, Played on a Baby-Piano/Kazoo/Ukulele

Internet, you are the gift that keeps on giving. What kind of world would this be, if we all were denied access to gems such as this? I'm betting this video is getting passed around, all over the US. And Europe, too. See what I did there? [via] [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 17, 2008 12:01 AM | | Comments (0)

October 18, 2008

Mastermind: World Conquerer, Flash Game

Mastermind: World Conquerer is a pretty ginormous game (it's a 17MB Flash file), but the gameplay and dialogue are pretty worth it. I had a blast with this, and lost more time than I really care to admit. I have to say, there were parts of the game that [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 18, 2008 1:24 PM | | Comments (0)

October 19, 2008

Latest Project: Colourful Echo - Music Visualizer Displaying Data and Colors Behind Your MP3's

I'm incredibly excited and proud to announce the launch of my latest site/project. Colourful Echo is a music visualizer that provides motion and color to any mp3 you upload. Using data from Echo Nest to determine both pitch and loudness, along with data from Colour Lovers for color palettes... [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 19, 2008 11:55 PM | | Comments (7)

October 20, 2008

Post-Launch Daze

Pretty beat today. Spent most of it recovering from a humongo day of work yesterday, trying to get my latest project up and running. In addition to sending out announcements and all that jazz, I also spent some time tweaking the overall code. Thanks to some good advice from Adam [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 20, 2008 11:16 PM | | Comments (0)

October 21, 2008

The Body is Willing Unwilling to Change

Apparently, I don't know how to sleep in anymore. My body is still wired to pop out of bed right at about 5 AM, which I did again this morning. Mucked around more with the recent uploads page, and got it working alot better/smoother. Additionally, I realized I was only [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 21, 2008 7:45 AM | | Comments (2)

Paul Stanley + ColourfulEcho.com: An Unlikely and Delightful Combination

A long while back, Jane introduced me to a lesser-known album by KISS frontman Paul Stanley. Actually, it's of Paul Stanley, but not really by him. It's a fan-made bootleg CD entitled "People, Let Me Get This Off My Chest: The Very Best of Paul Stanley's On Stage Banter" [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 21, 2008 11:28 PM | | Comments (4)

October 22, 2008

Colourful Echo Featured on Echo Nest

Some exciting news - my latest project, Colourful Echo, got a nice nod from the folks over at Echo Nest. They added my project to their showcase, and it's sitting next to MoreCowbell - a site they created in-house, and one of the early inspirations for me. Additionally, I [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 22, 2008 7:17 AM | | Comments (3)

October 23, 2008

Tontie, Revisited: Addictive Flash Numberpad Game

I had good intentions of waking up early to do some work, and to post something here... but I ended up sleeping in, and not quite having enough time to do either. Body's catching up to me, I suppose. To tide you over, here's a link to a fantastic game [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 23, 2008 7:25 AM | | Comments (0)

October 24, 2008

60's Psychedelic Band "Love" and Arthur Lee: Everybody's Gotta Live

I first learned about Love with Arthur Lee nearly two years ago, thanks to my friend Ben. The track "Everybody's Gotta Live" is still among my favorites, and just a great, great tune overall. I happened across a video on Pitchfork, a snippet of an upcoming documentary on the group [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 24, 2008 10:46 PM | | Comments (0)

October 25, 2008

One Less Cavity, One Half Less of a Tooth

Well, what started nearly 5 months ago has now (finally) come to a close. After avoiding a dentist for 6 years, I had a large enough cavity that warranted a root canal. After the root canal, I had a temporary crown put on... and really made a point to chew [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 25, 2008 10:52 AM | | Comments (2)

October 26, 2008

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Went out and purchased a copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Ages ago, I got to play the very first version of this game in 2003 (thanks to Mike). And this was back when I owned a PC, mind you. I purchased a cop of COD2 for [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 26, 2008 1:13 PM | | Comments (0)

October 27, 2008

Remember When MTV Used to Play Music?

If you miss the good old days of when MTV actually played music, this is the site for you. MTvM - MTV Music has a large assortment of videos, sorted by all manner of categories. And looking at some of the view counts, the site just launched. It's odd [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 27, 2008 11:39 PM | | Comments (0)

October 28, 2008

Aaron Huey: Amazing Photos, Amazing Photojournalist

Aaron Huey is a photojournalist for National Geographic, and takes some pretty stunning photographs. The image above is part of a series called "Afghanistan Drug War" and is in the section entitled "Features 1." A portion of the images document his time with the Afghan Eradication Forces, accompanying a [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 28, 2008 10:47 PM | | Comments (0)

October 29, 2008

5:00 AM Breakfast at Work: Emmis Interactive Deployment Team

Over a period of about 6 weeks or so (what we dub a "sprint"), our developers see the culmination of their work as a "Push" to our Production servers. We take all the code and development work that's been done, and move it from our Staging environment over to our [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 29, 2008 6:54 AM | | Comments (6)

October 30, 2008

A Little Halloween, A Little Sushi

Post-work, I headed over to Wicker Park with Justin and Ben to meet up with a few friends. Turns out, Stu was in town for one night (he's working for us, doing a few photoshoots in multiple cities)... and so our dinner plans got even better. On walking from Damen [read more...]

Posted by avoision on October 30, 2008 8:38 PM | |