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Last weekend, while camping, I fell and broke my hand. To be exact, I broke the proximal phalanxes of my left index, middle, and ring fingers – right near the knuckle line. Doc says its one of the nastier breaks he’s seen and its good I write code for a living and not wield a hammer or other grip related activity.

The hand specialist said no to surgery, but instead I am doing twice a week therapy. At each session, they are molding a new lightweight splint specifically for where I am in my recovery.

Ongoing pics of the damage/recovery are here at Flickr

tags: hand, injury

Before starting, let me make it clear that a) I don’t own a Kindle and b) I don’t  think it has a plugin architecture. But a) I will eventually (or one of its descendants) and b) it really should.

So, what I want is a plugin similar to the dictionary widget. That one allows you to look up a word in the current text you are reading. In this case, however, it triggers on currency amounts.

Suppose you are reading Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (which, oddly enough, I am) and you see a line of text that reads

For a fare of twenty francs, the vehicle went down Broadway
to Union Square, took Fourth Ave. to its junction with Bowery St.,
turned into Katrin St. and halted at Pier 34.

I want to select twenty francs and have the plugin determine the publish date and tell me what that is in today’s US Dollars. Simple. To the point. And for me, incredibly informative.

Remember, as with all my “prior art” entries, if you make it and sell it, I want my cut.

tags: Amazon Kindle, Jules Verne, plugin

I made a mixtape for you. Well, not you, but the rest of you.

The flow follows a night out for me. Starts off a little slow and cheesy, then gets kind of electro, frenetic, and mashed up, and then finally ends up on a slower tip.

Tracklisting

1. Magic – DJ Agent 86
2. Static – So I’m Jo
3. A Cause Des Garçons – Yelle
4. Fixin The Thrill (Villians remix) – Dragonette
5. Remedy (Crimes Against Disco remix) – Little Boots
6. Groove Is In The Girls – Dunproofin’
7. Phantom On The Bottom – DJ Paul V.
8. Intergalactic Human – DJ Earworm
9. Insight Tricks – Zenit Incompatible
10. Diskow Heartbeat – Celebrity Murder Party
11. Hanging On The Fax Preset – GaraGara
12. Tell Me – Panic Girl
13. Pearl’s Dream (team9 remix) – Bat For Lashes
14. I Like Watching You (Diamond Cut remix) – Cinnamon Chasers
15. I Can’t Tell You Why (revised) – Chromeo

Download it here

tags: electro, mashup, mixtape

Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

via lehanna

tags: vimeo

The Brett Domino Trio performing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” on keyboards (including keytar)

via (AudioPornCentral)

tags: Brett Domino Trio, Michael Jackson

via (Mikero)

tags: change, darwin

I work at a fairly large corporation that feels its necessary to treat their employees as children. To that end, they have installed one of those subscription based proxies/firewalls that blocks internet content based on URLs.

I also read a number of mailing lists everyday and the number of links that are floated my way on a daily basis is staggering. The number of them that will make it through the firewall – not so much.

I am ok with ocassionally hitting the “Bad Dog No Biscuit” page when a request goes through. What I don’t like is hitting that page for the same URL/domain multiple times. Sure, I know that I cant click on certain links, but my tiny brain refuses to remember them all.

So – I would like to see a Firefix plugin that can capture those error pages and if I click a link that would trigger another one, have the plugin alert me before the request goes through.

Get on it plugin developers!

tags: blocked, firewall, internet content

tags: coachella, tickets

…and for once it didn’t involve my clumsiness or LSD. This weekend Aprilla and I had a flavor tripping party. We used my place, and she did most of the prep work. If you haven’t done it before, I highly recommend you try it. Basically, there is a fruit called the Miracle Berry, and it effects the way you experience sour and bitter foods. About 20 of us gathered in my loft to try it out.

At the designated time, I read off the directions and handed out the frozen berries. I felt like I was performing Communion. Basically, you bite into the fruit, avoiding the rather large seed, and swirl the pulp around in your mouth for a couple of minutes. The fruit was fairly bland itself.

After that we hit the food. The list of things we had included citrus fruits, brussels sprouts, stout and bitter beer, tequila, Sourpatch Kids candy, Sriracha (hot cock sauce), vinegars, mustard, and cheeses.

We also threw in some things that were just odd to see what if any effect the berries would have, things like fish oil, unsweetened chocolate, and anchovies.

I, of course, had to start it off with the anchovies. Wrapped around an olive. Two things that I detest. Yep – they were still awful. Next I went for a wedge of grapefruit. And pow! It was like the nectar of the gods. So good. Everyone seemed to have their own particular favorite – except poor Cara. The berries had no effect on her.

The Bridgeport Blackstrap Stout was like an adult milk chocolate and the Redhook ESB had a sweet finish instead of the normal hoppy bite. Although others claimed cheap tequila would go down like a mellow wine, most everyone agreed that it was still kinda ass.

I used the Sourpatch Kids as early warning system. At the beginning of the night, they were simply sweet gummis, but as time went on, they gradually become more and more puckery. After consuming mass quantities, we kept the party going and headed out for more drinks and music.

Thanks to all who came, especially those who traveled from Seattle and Norway. It was a blast.

(more pics at Flickr)

tags: food, miracle berry, party

Oxford University Press is running http://savethewords.org to promote literacy by giving people a chance to adopt older words that have fallen out of use.

I am all for adding meh and wonky and email to the dictionaries, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of older words. It’s not like there is a letter shortage and they need to be repurposed.

So I adopted two words. Yeah, I roll like that. Use them in your daily life, and adopt a couple of your own.

sevedical – speaking cruel or harsh words

and

magistracide – the killing of a master or teacher

tags: dictionary