raccoon and zebra

11.18.08

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:02:03 -0800 GMT

bethany and i have set up a new "family" blog for sharing baby photos, travel stories, and such. yikes, now i have two blogs to be behind on updating. luckily bethany has already written a bunch of good stuff for the new blog.

11.11.08

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:04:55 -0800 GMT

the other day i finished recording another acoustic guitar instrumental called "saved to memory." it's a pretty good little tune.

10.24.08

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:00:18 -0700 GMT

i just discovered that 20 minute loop, an excellent local band we used to play with, have written and recorded a song about logan.

10.24.08

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:32:07 -0700 GMT

here's a new song called "lorem ipsum." indeed, it is the title track from the forthcoming album, which i need to finish in the next month.

update: i thought it would be fun to add the lyrics to this post...

lorem ipsum
eternum
lorem ipsum
the words i want on my grave
lorem ipsum
forever
ipso facto
the truest thing i could say
lorem ipsum

here's my advice to my younger self now
the lessons garnered from so many days
here's what i see with my eyes closed
that can never be disclosed
here is the wisdom i'm shouting from the mountains
here is the message i'm leaving on your machine
my speeches come out best when written
in a language that no one speaks anymore

repeat chorus

here's my advice to my unborn children
stay in school, eat your vegetables
keep talking when you have nothing to say
to see what comes out of your mouth

repeat chorus

lorem ipsum
that's all i ever say
needlepoint it
put it in a frame
lorem ipsum
the ever apt response
repeat the mantra
until the words decay

7.25.08

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:24:15 -0700 GMT

cmu computer science professor randy pausch just passed away. if you haven't seen his last lecture, which was given when he already knew he was dying of pancreatic cancer, i found it very moving and highly recommend it:

7.21.08

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:22:31 -0700 GMT

if you're not yet familiar with the pookies, you will be soon. i've been following them for a while, but at last it appears that they're meteoric rise to fame is about to begin. the pookies are currently the #1 artist on popcuts.com and they have 2 of this week's hottest songs!

6.29.08

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:15:21 -0700 GMT

the pookies, an eccentric husband and wife band from an obscure desert town in northern nevada, have just a released a new song called "chabot space & science center." a quick trip to google revealed that the title refers to an actual place in oakland, california, which features a planetarium and large telescope.

6.15.08

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:28:09 -0700 GMT

since i actually posted a few things recently, and a few people actually commented, i felt kinda embarrassed with how hard it was to add a comment on this site. i spent a couple hours this morning digging in an old trunk full of code and now we have a new, more canonical, and easily comprehensible commenting ui. just click on the comments link below to get started. let me know if you find any bugs.

6.8.08

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:23:48 -0700 GMT

uhhh, this is pretty weird. there are two videos on youtube that use songs by my old band little tin frog as the soundtrack. this band broke up 8 years ago. i can't imagine the odd things that must happen when one is in an actually popular band these days.

there are also 2 videos that use "song for logan":

6.6.08

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:06:53 -0700 GMT

i don't have time to blog. but if i did have time to blog, here are some of the things i would write about:

great new music that i've been listening to: such as vampire weekend and the dirty projectors
rent control: why i'm at least somewhat opposed to it, whereas i used to be totally for it
10 things i learned in my first year working at google
thoughts on an amazing essay about world war 2 called "losing the war": it's from this book but you can also read it on the author's website
thumb club: an idea i'm going to try out where i distribute thumb drives full of mp3s to friends and ask that they give them back to me at some point with new mp3s
why i cancelled my emusic subscription: emusic sucks
how to talk to people at parties: only someone who was bad at this could possibly write about it. the best tip i ever heard (for nerd parties at least) was from my friend james who suggested asking "what have you been reading lately?"
what it's going to feel like when mr. obama wins: we're going to party like it's 1999 (but this time without the y2k paranoia)
the biggest problems in the world: thoughts on how you might decide which are the biggest problems and get enough focus to work on solving one of them
the most important trends in the world
the iphone: it lives up to the hype (mostly)
watching bethany switch to using a mac: i'm seeing many more usability issues than i was expecting
trivial pop culture things that make me miss logan: the new indiana jones, flight of the conchords, suburban kids with biblical names
our recent trip to santa fe: thousands of words
the new song i just finished: closing credits