Perfect Segway Diaster Clip

I don't know when it stopped being fashionable for Youtube videos to feature people killing themselves, but I'm glad this movie shows a nice return to form.

Who's Amung Us to Eventually Offer Pro Edition

To be fair, it's still not released and it doesn't affect the free version at all.

But it seems like eons ago when I first discovered that handy little widget. I can't even remember when it was, really.


What it first looked like


What it looks like now

I guess everything grows up.

Jaguar Baby Born Two Months Old

"Two-month old black Jaguar cub born in captivity at the Huachipa zoo in Lima, Peru."

Hold up, aren't baby Jaguars usually born aged zero? You mean this one is special enough to be born instantly at age two months?

Link Chain
Me -> Stranger Fruit (where I got it) -> Green Expander

How NOT to Send an E-mail

So I got another e-mail from Rome, whatever the heck that is.




I knew why this was a shady internet scheme from the start. This second e-mail only makes it more obvious. Let me break it down for you.



Now, the giant flash ads in an e-mail are NOT recommended under any circumstance. That's just being more than a little obnoxious, right?

But apparently their writing skills suck so much they need you to see two giant ads for their "game" or whatever before you're hooked. I guess it's just poetic justice that the only company willing to advertise with Rome is Rome itself.

Shameful.

Tomorrow it will Finally be 2009

Man, ever since I got Madden 09 and Worldwide Soccer Manager 09, I've been thinking it's 2009 already. So it's reassuring to know that tomorrow, it finally will be.

Additionally, tomorrow it will be 10 years from 1999, a fact that still bothers me. It seems I like thinking of all dates in relation to the year 2000; it's a nice, easy, rounded year. This stops working when I actually start thinking it's 2000.

Time is a tricky concept to master.

Cozier Electronics

Remember back when I made all those videos of myself and ruthlessly posted them on my blog? Oh, those were the days...

So now my friend has the video making blog. But instead of videos of himself, he's making Sims 2 Machinima. Which is alright, as I'm doing the voices.

Near as I can tell, I do the voice of the redhead. So go ahead and watch them.

CoZier Electronics Holiday Special


CoZier Electronics Ep. 3


CoZier Electronics Ep 2


I hope you enjoyed listening to me talk.

From the Wikipedia article for Mobile Web;

"This article was originally created and edited using the Web on mobile devices."

At least those many years of registering on random websites prepared me for applying to colleges...

Hot New Show I'm Loosely Associated With

Looking for that next new interesting show you can't get enough of?

Get a load of Cozier Electronics, the hit new Sims 2 machinima that's sweeping the world by storm.





And if you liked it, why not come visit our page on Facebook® and become our fan?

There's No School Today!

First of all, let me back up and tell you the story.

Alright, so first off, I live in Oregon. It's in the rainy part of the United States. It means we usually get craploads of rain, but never any snow. So when we do get snow, then everything erupts in snow fever.

From this Monday to this Friday, that should have been the week before Winter Break. Winter Break is the long vacation students get for what started as Christmas and ended up as “The Holidays.”

So I got up last Sunday, and I was mostly ready for school. Then 5 pm came, and it frigging snowed. Snowed. Outside. With no warning.

School was cancelled. And that's when the first few thoughts of, “School's out for the week,” started happening. But I was equally quick to think, “Nah, it'll never happen.” It seemed like a pipe dream, after all.

I spent the snow day doing thing, probably the same thing I'd do if it were the first day of Winter Break. I was aided in the fact that I didn't really have any pressing homework to do for Tuesday.

But then it happened. Again.

They canceled school, right at about 5 pm again. It was pretty nice having two days.

But that's when the feelings of grandeur came flowing in. There was snow on the ground, and it would be freezing cold the whole week. Everyone couldn't help but think that school would be canceled for the whole week.

Wednesday came along and there was no school. But this time, Beaverton School District (hereafter referred to as BSD) decided to make things interesting. They didn't immediately cancel school at 5pm, even though there was snow on the ground and it was going to be cold tomorrow. They said those fateful words of

“Good Evening, the Beaverton School District is closely monitoring the national weather forecast and consulting with our local weather service to make a call for Thursday (12/18/2008). No decision has been made at this time. We will decide by 10:00 p.m. tonight or may wait until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. We need more information on the cold weather pattern that may be developing.”

Thankfully, they told us at about 8pm there was no school, but they had me going for a bit.

As it turned out, Thursday was warmer than freezing, which meant all the snow melted and it was sunny. Cold, but sunny. But it left Friday hanging.

And that's where the story really starts. My parents were saying there would be school tomorrow. The weather said it would be freezing. BSD wasn't saying anything. There was nothing to go off of. And it didn't look like it would be an obvious call.

“The Beaverton School District is closely monitoring changing conditions, and consulting with our local and national weather services to make a call for Friday. No decision has been made at this time. We will decide by 10:00 p.m. tonight (Thursday) or may wait until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow (Friday) morning.”

The standard canned response. Things got a bit more frantic as time went on. BSD's website got more and more bogged down as time went on. Then, right at 10pm, my friend in the know tells me,

“Good evening, no decision will be made regarding the status of school operations until Friday morning. Our greatest concern at this time is the possibility of black ice on side roads and at higher elevations. A team will be driving the roads at 3:30 a.m., and a decision will be posted before 5:30 a.m. Thank you again for your patience as we continue to monitor the safety of our students and staff.”

It's not a no, I'll say that.

So I had to debate, do my homework? Get up early to check? I decided to get up at 5am and check.

I checked. Nothing. So I wasted some time, waited around, checked a few more times, and got this;

“Schools Closed to Students and Staff, Friday (12/19/2008). All Activities and Events Cancelled. Administration Facilities Open to Essential Staff”

That's it! We won! We beat BSD! No school for a whole week.

Now I just wish I knew about it ahead of time so I could have put it to good use.

Free Ebook List that isn't Crap

Yeah, there are tons of lists out there that have a million crappy book links. Here's one with a few good links.

This list created with the Sony PRS-505 in mind.

For Almost Anything;
MobileRead - Go to the "Search E-books" tab, and enter in something. While it may be a bit hard to actually find the books, the books you get are inarguably the best on the internet.
Then Feedbooks - This website is for what you can't find on MobileRead. For the most part they're good, but MobileRead's posters go over the book by hand to check for typos and errors in scanning.
Then Manybooks.net - ManyBooks comes last because they don't give a table of contents in their automatically generated ebooks. At least it's a step up from reading Gutenburg .txt files.

Another Helpful Hint
DOWNLOAD CALIBRE! - Calibre is a very important tool for anyone with anyone with an ebook reader. It can manage your ebook library (personally I prefer Sony's stuff because it paginates), it can convert from one format to another, but most importantly, it can download RSS feeds and convert them to eBooks. There are plenty of pre-made "recipes" for English-speakers, and a few in other languages. Definitely check this program out.

More Random Free Stuff
Free Online Novels.com - About half the novels on this page have PDF versions; those are the ones you can use on your Sony Reader. Personally, I convert them to LRF with Calibre.
Free eBooks Just Published - eBooks Just Published is a blog that tells of an eBook each day. This link goes specifically to those eBooks that are free.
Baen Free Library - A bunch of free science fiction novels, all in nice happy LRF format. Perfect.

Should you buy an E-Ink Reader?

Here's my recommendation; If you think you'll be at all interested in getting one, you'll love it.

Just make sure you're okay with either paying for books or reading free books. Know that there are TONS of free books out there.

5 Million Keypresses

This milestone really snuck up on me.