Archive for the 'Observations' CategoryPage 2 of 3

Wookiee Yawns

Published
by
Jake
2 years, 1 month ago
in Observations and Story Time
. 0 Comments

Hi, my name is Jake, and I yawn like a wookiee.

This hasn’t always been the case, but for the past couple years my yawns (and still not all of the time, but it seems to be more often than not nowadays) have born an erie similarity to Chewbacca’s throaty growl/howl.

I wish I could claim this as a “talent”, but it only works for me involuntarily. I can recognize the onset of a Chewie yawn and play it up or prolong it a bit, but I cannot for the life of me produce the sound on command. I know there are many people on this planet who can; I’m just not one of them.

It baffles me as much as it amuses my co-workers.

What Would Jesus Mix?

Published
by
Jake
2 years, 3 months ago
in Observations and TuneStuff
. 8 Comments

Matt: what would you put on a mix tape for Jesus?
Matt: first song
Matt: ‘South of Heaven”
Jake: Jesus Built My Hot Rod
Matt: “Spirit in the Sky”
Jake: followed by Satan Is My Motor
Matt: “I saw your mommy and your mommy’s dead”
Jake: last song: Sheep Go to Heaven (Goats Go to Hell)
Matt: nice touch
Matt: I think Super Trouper and Run to the Hills need to be on there somewhwere
Jake: how about a little Faith No More: Surprise! You’re Dead
Matt: thats good
Matt: I think Death Metal is too obvious
Jake: yeah
Matt: but Slayer has a song called ‘Jesus Saves’
Matt: I think jesus would like some Dead Kennedys
Jake: remember the Cardigans? they do a cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Matt: oh yeah, thats good
Matt: I’m thinking ‘God id Dead’ by Crass. Or anything by the punk band the Crucifucks
Jake: we would have vastly different mix tapes for Jesus

Name Game

Published
by
Jake
2 years, 4 months ago
in Observations
. 5 Comments

I think if I was the type of performer who needed a made-up name — like, say, a rollergirl, burlesque dancer, rapper, or pro wrestler — I’d want my name to be Felonious Monk.

I’d wear a porkpie hat and Ray-Ban shades and grow my goatee out long and pointy.

That’d be a trip, daddy-o.

What about you?

Effective Playlist Management

Published
by
Jake
2 years, 4 months ago
in Observations, Puter Junk and TuneStuff
. 4 Comments

Since a lot of you either got iPods last year during this time of year or may be getting one from Santa this year, I thought I’d share my system for song management using iTunes (the ubergeeks out there who think iTunes is teh sux0rs can ignore this, obviously). iTunes does have its deficiencies, but it actually is great at playlist management.

Personally, I have the 20GB fourth generation (click wheel) iPod, but I have about 60GB of music in my iTunes library. Given that, my first step is based on a tip I found somewhere or other (I totally forget where…): I have a normal playlist (the kind you have to physically drag songs into) that I call “_General”. This playlist serves as my iPod library. I fill that playlist up to about 18.5GB, which is the iPods actual capacity — at least that’s what I’ve seen with mine.

Here’s where it gets fun…

The next step is to create some “smart” playlists based on the “_General” playlist. Be sure to set “Match *ALL* of the following rules” for all of them.

Examples:

  • “_Unheard”
    • Playlist is _General
    • Play Count is 0
  • “_Recent & New”
    • Playlist is _General
    • Year is greater than 2004
    • Date Added is in the last 6 months
  • “_Favorites”
    • Playlist is _General
    • My Rating is greater than 3 stars

I also recently started using the Comments meta field (Select a song and do “Get Info” to edit the meta data.) to tag my music a la Flickr, del.icio.us, and all those other Web 2.0 cool kids. The “smart” playlists for those look like this:

  • “_Cool Kids”
    • Playlist is _General
    • Comment contains coolkids

And yes, that’s a real example.

Another modification I’m thinking about trying is to use two “normal” playlists — one for my stand-by stuff that I just have to have on my iPod at all times and another high flux playlist for stuff that might only be on there for a little while — and then have “_General” be a smart playlist that combines the two.

Anyway, once you have the playlists set up, you go into the iPod settings and tell it to only update using your fancy new playlists (including “_General”).

So, yeah, if you’re looking for a better way to organize your music, you might try this method.

—
[Totally off topic, but if you have a blog, I highly recommend checking out Performancing for Firefox... This post was my test run, and it's the bomb. Although, it does make for some hairy markup, now that I look at it...]

Dancin’ in the Slaughterhouse

Published
by
Jake
2 years, 5 months ago
in Colorado Living and Observations
. 4 Comments

People who don’t live in Colorado have a lot of misconceptions about Colorado weather. The fact of the matter is that we have close to 300 days a year with sunshine, the temperature is wildly variable - sometimes we have 70’s in January!, and it actually doesn’t snow that much in the Denver Metro area. On the whole, it’s extremely nice here.

But then there are the windy days.

High wind days in the Colorado Front Range are like an apocalypse.

At the Jefferson County airport, wind speeds up to 90 mph were measured. High winds are expected to continue throughout the day in areas close to the foothills, west of I-25.

For reference, my office building is right next to the JeffCo Airport…

The suburbs become surreal realms of wandering trash bags, garbage can lids, and (if it’s really blowing) garbage cans. Waves of debris (from snow and dust to leaves and tumble weeds to groups of somersaulting children) roll down the streets.

As you move into less populated areas the little “waves” from residential streets grow into ominously huge sheets of dirt, sand, small gravel, tumble weeds the size of Christmas trees (Tumble weeds are everywhere in Colorado, it’s true.), and the occasional Kansas farm house. God forbid you should have to drive by a major construction site.

Even low-profile vehicles shimmy and shake as if about to be lifted into the sky. My way into work was closed this morning — I have to assume somebody got rolled over by a gust. And now that I’m here, I’m realizing just how porous my office building is — the wildly surging water in the toilets are especially disconcerting. And it cuts right through your body, as well (What’s the wind chill when it’s 27 degrees with 90mph gusts?). Your skin turns to dust, and the wind literally takes your breath away.

Like most winter weather, though, I hate dealing with it directly, but I’m glad it happens. It’s kinda cool.

[The post title is for you Tom Waits fans out there.]

CL350 - Progress Marches On

Published
by
Jake
2 years, 6 months ago
in Motorcycles and Observations
. 4 Comments

Last night, Erik and I changed the front tire. Went on easy-peasy.

In the mean while, we’ve taken to calling the bike “Rocket Man” because the Elton John song keeps coming on Erik’s radio while we work on it. Erik is convinced the gas tank need sa pin-up girl on it. Of course we find all of this hilariously ironic, since the CL is A) no rocket and B) not a pin-up worthy chopper.

Good stuff if you ask me. Like a guy on a Vespa with a Hell’s Angels jacket.

——

Side Note: Happy Veterans’ Day. Always keep the men and women of the armed service in your heart.