Bloggin' in the real world

By all accounts, last night's blogger meetup at Governor Stumpy's was a smashing success.

It's so cool to see people that you know through the blogworld in person in the real world. I was amazed and humbled at the combined talent that was gathered around the five or six tables that we commandeered.

I regret that I couldn't stay longer and talk to more people. I particularly missed having longer conversations with Heather, The D, Faith, Eolai and lots of others.

But I did have a good time getting to know KC Sponge and meeting Dan in the flesh. Also had a great discussion with Lee Ingalls, proprietor of the fabulous The New Low Down and the funny/quirky Oddment of Sandwiches. Seriously, if you haven't checked out his stuff, do. You won't be disappointed.

And I can't forget to mention Xavier Onassis. I made good on my promise to deliver a fabulous prize to him for finding an error in this post. Although, technically it was a grammar error, not a spelling one (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Anyway, the photo is of the crazy awesome shirt I gave him as a prize.

Really looking forward to next time. I hope to see some of the newer bloggers there. I'm looking at you Chimpo and muzak.

tagged: Kansas City, blogger, Governor Stumpy's, blog, meetup

Friday Blogthing: I am not an animal

Laney`s Original Inkblot Test Outcome A - The Human. Based on the descriptions you chose, you are practical, reliable, friendly, and fit in with people quite nicely. You probably have a regular family and do well in acedemia. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

tagged: Friday, test, inkblot, human, meme, blog

Movie Mini Review: Beyond the Sea

Title: Beyond the Sea

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, John Goodman

Plot summary:
Late-1950s pop sensation Bobby Darin reviews his life and times from childhood to his death in this musical bio-drama.

My thoughts:
I was pleasantly surprised to see the my Supermodel Wife had DVRd this flick. I remember being interested in it when I saw Kevin Spacey making the late night talk show rounds last year.

Back then, Spacey described Beyond the Sea as an homage to Bobby Darin and his music. And I guess that's one way to describe it.

But the way I would describe it is an homage to Kevin Spacey.

Spacey, who gives himself credit as writer, director and star is never off screen for more than a minute or two. The scenes seem designed not so much to advance the plot, but to showcase Spacey's acting, singing and dancing skills.

It's too bad. I've really enjoyed some of the work Spacey has done. I think his roles in The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil were top notch.

But Beyond the Sea had the look and feel of a Spacey vanity project.

I understand Spacey has been spending a lot of time on stage productions for the last few years as artistic director of the Old Vic theater in London. Some of the stage and musical influence made its way into Beyond the Sea. But in my opinion it didn't translate well.

Many of the scenes were contrived especially to lead to a song and dance number. For example the scene that introduces the title track is only tenuously related to the content of the song.

Hearing some of Darin's best songs took a bit of the edge off of all of the Spaceyness. And even though I was looking at the clock on the DVR to see how soon the movie would be over, I still enjoyed Spacey's rendition of Mack the Knife.

My final rating: meh.

Favorite quote:
"Listen you prick, there are four guys around here who can't be fired. And you're not one of them. "

tagged: movie, Beyond the Sea, film, culture, Bobby Darin, review, Kevin Spacey

Cleaning house

Well that was fun.

I just spent a few hours doing some house cleaning around here. Like most good ideas, it came at the suggestion of my Supermodel Wife who, after reading this digital fish wrap for a few minutes, said "Dude, you really need to figure out how to use the spellcheck function."

Now, I've never claimed to be a great speller. The fact that I'm also a poor typist and tend to bang out posts rather hastily exacerbates the problem. But in the back of my mind I've always sort of subscribed to Andrew Jackson's philosophy on spelling:

"It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word!"

Good point Andy. But, when the wife says correct your spelling, you damn well better correct your spelling.

So over the last few days, I've gone back over all of my posts and ran a quick spell check. That's about 565 posts on this blog (plus a few drafts that haven't been published for various reasons). Through this exercise, I came to realize a few things:

1. I totally missed this blog's blogiversary earlier this month. July 14 marked the end of the second year of my posting. I can forgive you for not noticing, what with all of the Bastille Day celebrations going on.
2. There were an average of about 1.5 spelling errors per post. Some had more, some less. There were even a few posts that didn't have any (woohoo!).
3. Given point 2 above and the current page load number from StatCounter, I guess I owe about 50,000 apologies to everyone who was subjected to my spelling ability (or should I say disability). So please consider this my official mea culpa

But as I say, I've gone through all my previous posts and swept them clean of spelling errors. I make no promises about capitalization and grammar (who really follows the "rules" of those anyway). But I'm confident that there are no more misspellings on this blog.

In fact, I challenge anyone to find a single misspelled word on any previous post. Anyone who does find an example will be rewarded with recognition and a link as well as cash and prizes*.

In closing, thanks to everyone who drops by here on occasion. I hope I haven't offended you to(o) badly, and I promise to try to do better in the future.

*Cash and prizes not included.

tagged: blog, blogging, spelling, Andrew Jackson

YouTube Tuesday: Chad Vader update

Chad Vader discovers blogging:


tagged: movie, YouTube, video, Vader, Star Wars, humor, comedy, culture

Saturday Blogcast I

No real theme here. Just a bunch of my fav songs as I play around with seeqpod.

Perhaps I'll make this a regular feature.


SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

tagged: music, audio, seeqpod, blog, blogcast

You want a border war? YOU GOT IT!!!!

I'm liking the tough words coming from some Kansas legislators regarding the backstabbing Missourians who aren't satisfied with the amount of money Kansans voluntarily bring into their state.

According to The Star, those sneaky bastards in the Missouri statehouse are trying to pick the pockets of innocent, well-meaning, upstanding Kansans who are forced by outrageous fortune to set foot across the state line for their jobs.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill this month providing an income tax break for Missourians who receive Social Security. It contained a little-discussed provision eliminating a deduction for real estate taxes paid outside Missouri.

That’s a $190 ding for the typical Johnson County resident who works in Missouri.

"It's downright unneighborly," said Kansas Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, an Independence Republican. "A little cross-border dialogue would be in order."

That's gratitude for you. We already have to pay that retardiculous 1-percent earnings tax in Kansas City, Mo., but the Show-Me State scumbags weren't satisfied with us Kansans saving their precious Union Station with the bi-tax revenue we provide.

It's not enough that we provide the lion-share of revenue to their mediocre (at best) sports teams. Now they have to try to pick our pockets by eliminating a property tax deduction?

Well, no more Mr. Nice Kansan. I say power to the good and right honorable men and women in the Kansas Legislator who are considering a like response to this effrontery.

One option is to enact a provision similar to Missouri’s, which would increase the tax on Missouri residents working in Kansas, said Joan Wagnon, Kansas secretary of revenue.

Based on commuting patterns, Johnson County’s Economic Research Institute estimates that more than 71,000 residents from eight nearby Missouri counties work in Johnson County. And at least 53,000 Johnson Countians work in those Missouri counties.

tagged: Kansas, Missouri, taxes, Union Station, Kansas City, Johnson County

Friday Blogthing: Bumper crop

I think bumper stickers are about the dumbest think since the live recording.

I mean, what's the point? To advertise how you feel on certain issues? As if I care.

If you want me to ignore you, start writing a blog that I can NOT read. But don't ruin the perfectly good paint job on you 1977 Oldsmobuik with a trite bumper stick slogan.

Unless its something like this:

Your Bumper Sticker Should Be

Give me ambiguity - or give me something else

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

tagged: quiz, meme, bumper sticker, slogan, ambiguity

Eat your heart out Napster

I just discovered SeeQPod the other day. In my considered opinion, this is the coolest thing to happen with music on the Internet since Napster (the original Napster, that is).

The clever minds at SeeQPod have developed technology that scours the interweb for audio files and allows you to search, find and play them in your browser. There's also a "discover" function that (presumably) finds music similar to your tastes based on the search term.

But one of the coolest things is that they've made the songs and playlists embedable, like a YouTube video (also linkable and emailable).

So I've done a quick playlist of some of my favorite songs for your listening pleasure and my playing around with the app.

Check it out and tell me if you think it's as cool as I do.


SeeqPod Music beta - Playable Search

Of course, since the music industry is trying to kill audio on the web (and commit industrial hara-kiri in the process), this service will probably be shut down by a-hole lawyers in a few months. So enjoy it while you can.

tagged: music, audio, seeqpod, Napster, internet

Something is fishy

ganked from El Borak:

AlGore's hypocrisy is showing again, and earning him the ire of the Humane Society International.

ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore's green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter's wedding in Beverly Hills.

Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world's most threatened fish species.

Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks.

Just another in a line of embarrassments ignored by Gore apologists.

I want to be clear, I don't necessarily disagree with Gore's message. Just the hypocrisy of the messenger.

How dare he dine on a threatened fish species. And I thought I was bad for insisting that we serve Spotted Owl at our wedding banquet.

tagged: Al Gore, Chilean sea bass, Patagonian toothfish, Humane Society International, Live Earth, environmentalist