Chiho Aoshima
I randomly checked Chad's site a while back and followed his link to the work of Chiho Aoshima. I am in awe of the size and detail of her work.
I randomly checked Chad's site a while back and followed his link to the work of Chiho Aoshima. I am in awe of the size and detail of her work.
My friend Matt and I were emailing back and forth today about various things and he sent this article about Microsoft jumping on board with AJAX. For those interested, here's a good AJAX rundown.
Google Maps is worldwide now!
Here's the transcript from Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech. Beats most of the graduation speeches I've read. Except for Jon Stewart's speech at William & Mary, of course.
Apparently the government is looking to pull some of the federal funding for NPR, PBS and local public stations. You can do your small part at MoveOn.org and sign their petition. And just so you know you're not signing something for no reason, here's a Washington Post article outlining all the cutbacks. For me, this is something that I'll probably get around to writing my represenatitives about. It would be nice to still have NPR and Sesame Street around when I have kids.
One billion dollars a day for Iraq and we can't fund PBS?
Why news about the G8 decision to erase $40 billion of worldwide debt isn't making the front pages of US news outlets is beyond me. Now if they could only Make Trade Fair, then the world's poorest countries might actually have a fighting chance. Nevertheless, it's a great thing they've done.
I've started the process of moving in with Amy, so I'm still getting everything settled at my new home in Concord, NC.
I don't plan on having any part of this, but, for those who might care, you can now personalize your Google home page.
Nintendo did their best to keep up with Xbox and Playstation today at E3. While they didn't really need to announce anything huge, I feel like they created the buzz they need to carry them to E3 next year.
Today they made several great announcements. First, they are set to ship the Gameboy Micro. While a bit unnecessary to me, I could see how these could easily take a respectable chunk of the handheld gaming market. Secondly, the Nintendo DS will have WiFi by the end of the year. I'm definitely looking forward to playing Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and any Final Fantasy games online with others on the DS. Lastly, they showed off a prototype of the Nintendo Revolution. Not only will it be 2-3 times the power of the Gamecube, backwards compatible with the Gamecube, WiFi ready, wireless and roughly the size of three DVD cases, it will also have a 512MB Flash drive to download and play any NES, SNES and N64 games! I don't think I could've asked for more.
Long live Nintendo!
It's now 83.4° in our office. We're having AC problems.
I just created a free Flickr account and uploaded a photo set of friends. Obviously, there will be more photos to come, but I just wanted to try it out. Mason even left me a comment already.
I saw part of this on TV, but here's the full transcript from Laura Bush laying into George at a recent White House dinner. Obviously, it was done in jest, but she's vicious. It's worth the couple minutes it takes to read it.
Once again, made the trek to Carrboro, NC to see Prefuse 73 and Battles at the Local 506. Little did I know that the whole membership deal at 506 would actually be a problem. Apparently, if you didn't actually have a membership card in hand, you had to wait in line. Needless to say, those of us unfamiliar with the Local 506 were pretty pissed that even though we bought an advanced ticket we were waiting in line with people who hadn't. Long story short, the owner finally figured it out and let all the ticketed people in, but not until after Battles had started.
Difficulties aside, Battles was amazing. I have no real words to describe them, besides complicated and amazing. Prefuse 73 was good, but I think I expected too much. Scott Heren brought out two DJs, a bass player and a drummer. It was more than him just clicking buttons behind the glow of his laptop. By the time the free form jam encore started, I was done with the show and left before they finished.
Rubber Johnny is the fairly disturbing new short film from Chris Cunningham. At seven minutes in length, there's not a lot to ponder. Nevertheless, what excited me the most is that Cunningham is turning his attention to feature films and developing a film for Warp Films.
Thanks to Scott's post, then Jeremy's post, then UNCC, then a guy who sold me a ticket at the door, I went to see Muse tonight. I read about the 8:00pm show around 7:57pm, hopped in my car and drove to UNCC. Absolutely amazing. For three guys they have the biggest sound I've ever heard.
I just won $80! North Carolina!
How convenient! The Bush team waits until the death of Terry Shiavo and bad news regarding the Pope to actually announce they were 100%, dead wrong on Iraq. Maybe I'm just being a cynic, but that just seems very wrong and little too coincidental.
How blinded to Americans have to be not to notice that this administration operates under the cover of manipulation, smoke screens and fear?
Bush is going to destroy the planet. Hope all of you who voted Republican feel great about your decisions right now. I bet if drilling for oil in a wildlife refuge legalized gay marriage, that shit wouldn't have passed. I love the government.
Who needs Tiger? Konfabulator is all you need.
Pitchfork is wrong yet again. Well, I will say the reviewer described the album well, but they scored it a little off. It ain't amazing, but it's certainly not a 2.0.
Here's a decent interview with Andre "3000" Bejamin (as "the actor" not "the musician") about his role in Be Cool and upcoming projects.
Baby Got Bible Book! I got nothing on this one, you just need to watch it. At least 30 seconds of it. Here's the original article at Okayplayer.com where I snagged the link (forgot to post it before). Their article is much, much funnier than the actual video.
If you haven't been over to Yay Hooray in a while perhaps you should... (more madness from the skinnyCorp crew). Hands down probably the best community site on the internet, in my opinion.
In other news, traveled to Carrboro, NC last night with Jeremy and Sarah to see Autolux and Secret Machines. It was a nice suprise that Scott was there, and I got to meet Margaret from SU and Scott's friend Trent. Aside from having to take an emergency #2 and missing the first part of Autolux, it was a great show that has been described with the adjectives such as "epic" and "noisy." Exactly what a good rock show should be. And this was my first show at a smoke-free Cat's Cradle, which was very nice I might add.
Not that it really matters, but: robbieplayer.com
March 1st. Tiny Showcase.
I like John Mayer. Room For Squares is still mostly pop schlock. Yet, Heavier Things gets better every time I listen to it. I can't explain it. And, it seems as if I'm not alone.
Audioscrobbler is finally getting back on their feet and have actually updated all their users' accounts. Check out mine if you want to see what I've been listening to at home.
Everyone throw an imaginary egg at the motorcade in your mind today.
I signed up for Audioscrobbler last month, but just started using it this week. Seems like it was great timing, as submissions have been disabled for the past two days because of server load. Though, after looking over the forums, it seems like the service has a glitch every other week. No complaints from me though, it is free. Here's my account, which will give you some idea of what I listen to at home.
The past few Neal Pollack blog entries are a decent counter argument to the Southern, red-state backlash. Particularly this one, which mentions Charlotte directly. He's not the most eloquent writer, but he gets his point across.
Go download Firefox 1.0!
Princeton's Purple America report helped me see that the country really isn't as divided as people might think.
Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed in my country and in the election results yesterday. At least, my county went to Kerry. Charlotte knows what's up.
It was Amy's birthday this past weekend. We went to Grandfather Mountain on Saturday morning to look at the Fall colors and brave the wind gusts on the summit.
I have now watched both national conventions, all three debates and attended a John Kerry rally here in Charlotte. I would say I've adequately educated myself on the upcoming presidential election.
After listening to both candidates speak on a long list of issues, my choice is still grounded on the basis of who I relate to more. Of course, the answer is John Kerry. Obviously, I feel this country is headed in the wrong direction. I believe John Kerry has laid out a plan to put America back on a track.
It's coming up on 3:00am here and I'm still working. I just made a bunch of updates to the Nemo website and now I'm working on The Avett Brothers site — the side project of Scott and Seth Avett from Nemo. I can honestly say I love their music and I'm thrilled to play this small role.
Yesterday was filled with images that will never leave my mind for as long as I live. I find myself looking at the photos from Ultradio over and over.
I hope things start to get better soon.
I've decided to jump on the blog bandwagon and start one of my own. Well, it's really only because I can't think of anything else to do.