Cool New Facebook Feature

Image via CrunchBase

I joined Facebook when it was “The Facebook” and you needed an approved school’s .edu email address to join. I’m talking around six months before it was opened up to all colleges, and then opened up to the public.

I’m not trying to be all hipster on you. I’m making a point. Bear with me.

Back then I only joined because my classmates all joined in a frenzy when our school’s .edu address became accessible in one of that last waves of schools to be added. If I didn’t join, I would have missed out on all the sharing of assignment tips and whatnot on there. Being that I went to an art school, we weren’t sharing answers (since most of our grades were from projects). We really were sharing tips on how to get the uncooperative gouache to work right, or reminders about what the professor would be looking for in the finished project.

Then I quit going to school, Facebook opened up to the public, and I started having problems with Facebook. So I quit using it. In fact, I deleted my account and stayed off the site for two years. Then my coworkers wanted me on there, so I joined up again and resolved to keep it simple. No applications, no “friends” I didn’t really know… I thought I had it figured out (and for the most part, I did).

Though I still doubted whether I really needed it.

Then I did an experiment to see if I really needed my Facebook account and friends. Eventually, I concluded that I could (and should) live without Facebook (mostly for simplicity’s sake).

So these days I watch Facebook (and people on Facebook) with a bemused detachment.

Boy did I have a good laugh at their latest feature: Groups for Schools.

HA! At first I thought it was some sort of joke. But a quick Google search revealed that this is for real. Facebook is actually introducing an exclusivity angle for .edu addresses, rolled out to groups of schools in waves, as though it’s something new. So let me get this straight:

1. Introduce exclusive social network for schools.
2. Realize everyone wants in and open it up to the whole world.
3. Attempt to sell idea of exclusivity again.
4. ???
5. PROFIT EVEN MORE? Yeah right.

Wow. Are they just trolling college students?

Rhino Skull Troll-Face: U MAD?

Actually, I’ve seen something like this before. I read about it on the New York Times website a while back. It was a really neat article about how marketing companies pry into our private lives and use psychology to get us to buy and use their products.

When they first got started, it seems Febreze had problems selling a product that eliminated odors. They were actually doing very poorly as a business. However, their researchers (or someone) stumbled upon a woman who actually used their product. When they visited her, they found that she was using it as a finishing touch in her household chores, not to eliminate odors as it was intended to be used.

This crazy lady would make the bed with fresh bedding, then spray some Febreze on it. She’d wash and fold her laundry, then spray some Febreze on it. The bottle said, “eliminates odors!” Yet she was spraying things that already smelled good.

Rather than asking the lady from what height she was dropped on her head as a baby, they asked why she did it. Of course she wasn’t all that sure, but she knew she liked the way it smelled. So the Febreze guys looked at each other in disbelief, returned to the lab, and increased the perfume in their product. Then they turned around and marketed it again.

This time it wasn’t marketed as a product that eliminates odors; it was marketed as a product to make clean things smell nicer: Like a spray-on liquid air freshener that makes things smell pretty. Their commercials showed people doing what that crazy lady was doing: spraying it on things that were already clean.

Eventually the product really took off. This baffles me to no end. But the funny part is, once they were selling really well and making a ton of cash, they changed their advertisements again. They started telling people, “Oh yeah, and our product eliminates odors too.” They actually never removed that feature, but people didn’t care about it at first. After Febreze got big and made that announcement though, people were going, “oh cool.”

Sheesh.

Anyhow, perhaps what Facebook is doing isn’t all that different from what Febreze had to do. Maybe Facebook is trying to get back to its roots.

Or maybe they are just crazy.

And Now for Something Lighter

After the last two completely serious posts on here, I thought I’d share something that made me smile today.

I subscribe to an RSS feed for a website with a less than nice title, but the animated GIF images they share are generally fun.

The post I saw in my reader today was awesome. You can click the link to see it at the website, or behold it here:

I love it!

It’s like that little monkey was determined to murder that guy, but the dumb glass wall stood in his way. I’d pay real money to see a version of this where the glass was not there.

The whole thing is so perfect. At first I thought it might be a CGI hoax. But after doing a little research, I found the YouTube video from which the GIF was ripped.

A little further research uncovered that this awesome guy (the monkey, not the human) lives at the Memphis Zoo (in the China exhibit area). He’s actually a gibbon, which is somewhere between monkey and great ape (but closer to monkey, so I’ll call him a monkey).

According to this post that I found, the gibbon is close friends with a cook who works at the zoo, and he might be getting a little defensive about the spot where his friend usually interacts with him.

The YouTube video comments I read seem to indicate something else (having to do with an employee at the zoo who taunts and teases the monkey), but I find YouTube comments to be less than reliable most of the time.

I looked on the zoo’s website to see if they had anything official to say about this particular gibbon, but I couldn’t find anything.

There are several other videos of this happening on YouTube, but most of them are from a distance and outside. Most of the time the monkey dances around angrily after slamming into the glass, which (to me) indicates that at least some people are taunting him.

If anyone knows more about the background of this particular incident, I’d love to hear it in the comments! Also, if you live close to Memphis, go say hi to this monkey for me!

And until I know the monkey’s gender and name, I shall call him Epic Ninja Monkey of Doom.

This is Funny

I found this cruising around the Internet one day and just had to repost it. Really, I’m usually pretty good about sharing a link to where I find things, but in this case I think it just came off imgur.com or something.

Anyhow, this is awesome:

I often feel like that poor fork – contorted and twisted nearly beyond recognizability. However, I’d like to think that my deformities lend me some redeeming usefulness that poor fork will never offer.

That’s what I’d like to think, anyhow…

On Electronic Chain-Letters

I’ve been sick, and I’ve felt like writing, but I didn’t know what to write. Funny thing about inspiration though, it can hit you at any time, and in any text box. I just happened to get the urge to write while responding to an email, and the result was something I wanted to share with everyone.

I'm not fat - I'm puffing my cheeks.

Hey there. I’m sick today, and I lack the will to do anything except sleep, sit at the computer or at the couch, and do almost nothing. I’ve been thinking for quite some time that I’d like to write an unnecessarily lengthy letter to someone in my immediate or extended family, and since you’re my father-in-law and we haven’t exchanged words in a while, you win the prize.

So, when you forwarded that “touching true story” I thought I’d take a look at it rather than AUA it (Archive Upon Arrival).

The fact of the matter is, that I don’t care for forwards. I’ve got one friend (that’s one person, in the whole of my 200+ email contacts) that has ever forwarded me anything I thought was interesting. Most of the forwards I receive are silly “touching stories” that really don’t mean much to me. I’ve had too much experience with fabricated and embellished stories on the Internet, I suppose.

Anyhow, a really good friend of mine introduced me to snopes.com last year, and ever since then I have used it when faced with something on the Internet that seems outlandish. A quick query on snopes.com revealed a most interesting article written specifically about the email you passed along today. Interestingly, this particular story actually has quite a few true elements in it (most of the stories I have seen circulated in email forwards are so exaggerated and embellished that they are rarely representative of any truth that may have served as their premise). However, several key facts were changed and exaggerated.

The story took place in the early eighties, the boy’s name was Frank, and the Make-a-Wish foundation actually granted this as a wish (along with a ride in a hot-air balloon, and a trip to Disneyland). The most touching part of the real story doesn’t even appear in the email, and to make it worse, the email is copied nearly word for word from one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. The night that the boy died, it was five firemen that climbed into his room, not sixteen.

Here’s the link to the true account (along with the version of the email that the author saw, which is slightly different still from the one you sent me):

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/fireman.asp

So, yes. The story is touching, but I hate reading these stories in email forwards because they are almost all full of embellishment and twisted truths. I find it much more satisfying to scour the news for heartwarming articles that are presented as a collection of facts with the purpose of informing the reader. That way I’m getting completely true stories, which are better than the big, bold, colorful words (usually in the Comic Sans font) that have been changed or invented to elicit an “oh, how darling” response and usually wrap up with a self-righteous plea from the author to get me to say a prayer for some cause (usually, something I don’t care about).

In my view, the Internet is only good for six things, and half of them I don’t want any part of (pornography, gambling and robbery). The only three things I use it for are (presented in order of the value I place on them):

1. Humor/Entertainment
2. Communication (keeping in touch with close friends and family)
3. Access to accounts and services (banking, on-demand-self-publishing services, etc.)

Even getting factual news on the Internet can be a challenge. My father runs the Internet arm of a newspaper corporation in Arizona, and this is a problem they deal with on a regular basis. Sure, there are news sources on the Internet that can be trusted, but they are drowned out by all the chatter and clutter from sources like the mysterious writer of that email you sent me (who, again, did little more than poorly copy another “touching” email, which was nearly a direct copy of a segment of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book).

So, I just use the Internet to look at fun stuff, like this article and clip from Robert Downey Jr.’s acceptance speech. Occasionally there is some interesting news at those trusted sites, like this article about a group of apes that had never had human contact before. Mostly, the Internet loves things that are silly and irreverent, like this historical look at a group of entertainers known throughout history as fartistes, among other names.
The main reason I love the Internet, though, is because of people like David Thorne. I really can’t explain all that well what it is that I love about his work, but I would encourage you to read this email exchange he had with his renters, and this exchange he had with a Blockbuster employee. He is extremely irreverent and at times a tad inappropriate. However, he is a comedic genius. After one of his earliest email exchanges went viral a coworker told David that he would never be able to do it again. David bet him his Christmas bonus that he could, and two weeks later he had another email exchange that went viral.

Essentially, what I love about David Thorne is that he embodies the idea that the Internet is not to be taken seriously. He is quoted as saying, “the Internet is a playground.” I agree, and that is why I don’t like coming across stories that are supposed to be “touching” on the Internet, unless they come directly from trusted news sources. If they don’t come from a trusted news site, then I’m a sucker for believing them until I’ve researched the facts myself.

As you can see, between David Thorne, funny/interesting stuff that comes to me in my feed reader, and finding funny videos like these ones, the Internet provides me with far more entertainment than I even have time for. It barely even leaves me time to read email, especially forwards. However, next time I get a forward from you that claims to tell a “true” story, I’ll check the facts on fark.com and tell you what they say. Sometimes the truth is better than the lies that circulate in chain-emails.

I hope you enjoy the links I’ve provided you with, and we all here love and appreciate the effort you make to maintain a presence in our life. Your daughter and grandchildren send their love, as do I.

Love,

-Brian

Mean vs. Nice

Have you ever noticed that when people see a “lane closed” sign, a bunch of people change lanes right away to get out of the closed lane, and the rest ignore the sign until they can’t stay in their lane any longer? That’s because all the nice people scoot over immediately, and all the mean people don’t. Next time you see a “lane closed ahead” sign, watch. You’ll see what I mean.

Fun YouTube and Others

From Cell Phone Photos

So, this is for my friends. Specifically, I was talking to someone tonight about some fun stuff on YouTube and I decided to make a list of some of my recent favorite songs, videos and artists to share.

I’ve spent the last few minutes reviewing most of these videos because I tend to forget the presence of little offensive words here or there. For the most part, these songs or videos will be marked to warn you if you might want to watch before showing your children. However, my kids have seen most of these, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

All links open in a new window, so click away!

Robots

This song is by Flight of the Conchords, and as such has a curse word in it (wrong word for donkey/butt) so you may not want to show it to your kids. However, if you don’t mind them hearing that one word a few times in the chorus, this is a really funny song/performance. Check it out on YouTube.

Star Wars Rap

This song has a few mature elements that are reference but not explicitly talked about, and they use one word that you may not want your child repeating (a less than kind word for urine). To check it out, click through to Atom.com and watch this hilarious Star Wars themed rap. Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, you should enjoy this.

Tighty Whities

Next I’ll share a song that may not be your style if you generally only listen to country music or classical, but the theme is too funny not to share the song. Plus, it’s completely clean as far as language and themes are concerned. It’s part of the “Pull ‘em Up Campaign” aimed at getting people to pull their pants up and quit showing us their underwear. Even if you generally can’t stand rap, you’ve GOT to listen to this song. I didn’t let my son hear this one, but not because of the content.

OK, the rest should be fine for your children. Well, this first one might not be if you don’t want your children watching animals answer nature’s call. It’s completely natural though! This is Rhett and Link doing an “inappropriate” commercial for a small zoo.

Inappropriate Zoo Commercial

For a direct link, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszzbkfJ-5Q

Jonathan Coulton

Jonathan Coulton is a musical comedic genius in my book, and here are two completely kid friendly songs (unless you strictly don’t expose them to violent themes, then the second one about zombies killing people probably won’t be good). These are both live performances (where you get to see his funny interactions with the audience) but he does studio recordings as well that are better sounding.

Skullcrusher Mountain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IBewKuV9BQ

Re: Your Brains

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e3gngvFdxg

For more about Jonathan Coulton, please visit his website.

This one may only appeal to your children (or the child in you), but it’s a cute stop motion animation that I recently got a chuckle out of.

8-Bit Water Slide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkYVazguJCY

Also for the children, a few near-Pixar quality animations that are funny, entertaining and good for adults also!

Pigeon: Impossible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEjUAnPc2VA

The Passenger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGW0aQSgyxQ

The Magic Box

(Ultra sensitive parents be warned: This video contains partial nudity – butt cheeks.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC7rIZ5dOPY

A Little More Fun and Then We’re Done

OK. I’ve embedded way too many videos, so the final four videos will just be links. They are all funny, so make sure you watch them, but the last two you might want to watch without your kids the first time you watch them. I’ll mark them with an asterisk (*) to remind you that you need to review them before showing them to your children.

Laughing Kids (very cute)

Kid Singing Britney Spears Scared to Death by his Mom (watch all the way through to the end)

“No. No! NO!!!” – The Greatest Scare Prank *

Gun Scare Prank *

I know there is a lot here, but I don’t see how you couldn’t love most of these. Of course, if you don’t love them, I won’t be offended, but I do ask that you at least check them all out when you find the time.

Enjoy!

Profanity Offends Me

Found this. Thought it was funny. Thought I’d share.

Profanity Offends Me

(View full size.)

I don’t usually like stuff with this much text, but it’s worth the read. ‘Till later.

Across the US: Our Great Adventure: Conclusion

We finally have some new photos to show you. There is a new album we may add to in the future called Washington DC. It will be a collection of photos we take while visiting the Capitol. There aren’t many photos for the moment, but below you can see one of a few we uploaded.

From Washington DC

Most of you probably didn’t see the last photos we added to our Across the US album. Make sure you go look through the album (you also may have missed some of the captions we wrote).

From Across the US

Oh, and I didn’t tell everyone when I made a special Google Map to show off all the places we spent the night on our trip across the US. That map can be found here.

There is a lot to tell, and there is also a lot to do still. There is and has been plenty of work around the house ever since we arrived. I wish I could have had more time to write in the last few weeks so I could have told you about when Sophie started saying “no” to everything, or to post a video of her walking backward for the first time. If I had more time now to write I would tell you all about what we’ve been up to and who we’ve seen and visited since we arrived.

I wish there weren’t any more boxes to unpack, so I could sit here and detail all of the fun that we’ve had and all of the plans that we’ve made. It has been an adventure, it really has. Oh well, maybe another time. Quickly though, here are a few things about each of us.

Wacom Graphire3 USB Tablet

As for me, I’m still working on transitioning to my new workplace and getting problems with my pay resolved. I’ve loved using Ubuntu on my laptop (for any of you who remember when I installed it) and we recently picked up a used Wacom Graphire 3 Tablet that will be fun to play with. The image at left shows a mouse on it that works with the tablet, but mine is used and the mouse was missing. It’s OK though, I already had a mouse for my computer. The tablet works pretty well (already got it doing awesome pressure sensitive brush strokes in Photoshop) and I look forward to having more time soon to play with it.

Rochelle also has some neat things going on. She has found a friend in one of my old High School aquaintences that happened to be living in the area when we moved here. They go occasionally to a book club and other girly things, and they can even hang out during the day while I’m at work from time to time.

Not that she’s terribly excited about it, but we finally got a vacuum to keep our floor from looking like the ground in the Amazon rain forrest. In more exciting news, she’s geting a new phone (a nicer one than mine). Her old phone was so crummy that she only had around ten minutes worth of talk time when the battery was full, so she’s really looking forward to the new phone coming at the end of the week.

Rochelle's New Phone

Micah has been a Pokémon fanatic lately. We got a couple of used Gameboy Advance systems for cheap and found two old Pokémon game cartridges (the ones I played when I was little) on eBay and Micah has been working hard on raising a team of Pokémon that can defeat mine. I let him win once, and ever since then he’s been determined to do it again. He has been playing Pokémon Yellow version (see the wikipedia.org article for the first generation Pokémon games) and I’ve been reliving my first time through the game playing Pokémon Red version (the very first one I got when it came out in the US). My brother and I created many fond memories playing Pokémon, a game that completely surprised me (I honestly thought it was going to be lame until my brother talked me into it and I started playing).

There is just too much to tell about Sophie. She is proving every day that she is smart, cute, funny and completely independant of her parents. She walks, she runs (swinging just one of her stubby little arms violently off to the side) and she tries to jump (though she never gets both feet off the ground at the same time).

Her speaking skills are accellerating. Just the other day she said, “up, please” super clearly, and has been using it to be held ever since. She started saying “No” a few weeks ago and that has become her most frequently used word. Also a couple of weeks ago she was starving and watching her mom make a sandwich for her. In a fit of hunger pains she pleaded, “pleeeeeeease, sand-wich.” The “sandwich” part was ultra clear and deliberate.

While we were figuring out the cell phone thing for Rochelle at the Verizon store, Sophie decided to pretend to be a dog. She had never done it before, and nobody had ever shown her how to do it (that I’ve seen). There she was, though, crawling around in circles on the floor making barking noises. It was pretty cute.

Sophie’s main obsession is bothering her brother. Micah used to pick on her a lot when she was a helpless little infant, but lately he’s been leaving her alone (for the most part). We warned him that if he picked on her when she was little she might pick on him back when she got big, but he just scoffed at us. Now, though, she won’t leave him alone. He likes to sit out in the family room to read on the couch, and she is pretty good about playing with toys on her own. I’ll leave them like that for two minutes to use the restroom, and when I get back I find that Sophie has climbed up on the couch and is whacking Micah on the head (sometimes with her hands, sometimes with a turkey baster or other random implement).

He tackles him when he’s on the floor, she pushes and hits him the rest of the time. I always make sure to tell Sophie to be nice and leave Micah alone when he asks her nicely to stop, but I also like reminding Micah that he had it coming.

I think that’s pretty much the best stuff I can remember right now. There really is just too much to tell. I’ll have to force myself to make time to sit and write this stuff more often. I really do have to go get some things done now though. Thank you all for your love and support (if you’re a friend or family member – otherwise, thanks for reading).

New Updates & Videos

Yesterday I shared something fun and wrote about a side project of mine and mentioned a few other updates all in one post.  If you haven’t read it yet, you probably should (use the link at the end of that last sentence).

Late last night I uploaded the videos I promised and I’ll embed them here.  One is long (nearly six minutes long) and the other is short but cute.  Also, there’s a great video about not being proud or showy…  The family web album also has new photos under Family Stuff.

Meet the "Scan Toaster"

First, though, a quick look at a product that isn’t for sale and we want it!  It uses innovations on existing technology to burn images and text onto bread.  It is only a working prototype for now, a finalist in a design competition.  Hopefully, if it wins, we’ll begin seeing them in stores before I get tired of eating toast.

Another great reason we’re tempted to hold our breath for this one has to do with Micah.  He loves toast, but doesn’t realize it.  Every time we give him toast he picks at it and takes forever to eat it.  We figure that if we had a toaster that could burn images and text onto the toast we could make it more interesting for him.  His toast could have “Eat Me” burnt right into the surface, or it could have a big picture of something he enjoys eating, like a doughnut or a cookie.  As you can see, the possibilities are endless, and even though we don’t seriously expect the gimmick would actually achieve anything for Micah, we like the idea.

Clicking on the image takes you to the article where I read about it, and clicking on the same image at that article takes you to yet another article with even more information and a diagram of how it works (for if you’re interested).

It sure is a nice looking little appliance though, isn’t it?

Sophie has begun trying to use simple sounds and words to communicate, but so far her efforts have been only sporadically successful.  She can say “dada” though it usually comes out “dadada” or “dadadadadadadada” and we discovered this morning that half the time she says it she is really referring to her mother.  When she gets upset she will often call out to her mother in no uncertain terms with “MA!” or “maaaam.”  This morning we spent a few minutes trying to set her straight that I am “dadadada” and my wife is “mam.”  I think we made some progress, but in the end she still went crawling off in mom’s direction chanting “dadadadada.”

When eating something she likes she will say “yum” and while playing with her big brother, Micah, she will call out “aiga,” which is close enough (and it tickles Micah to histeria).  Many times, when we ask her if she needs a new diaper, if she’s hungry or if she want’s to be picked up, she responds with a loud and enthusiastic “YEAH!”

She will also say “Hi” occasionally and “will you kindly cease all personal activity and pick me up before I make your life miserable.”  Well, it sounds something like that anyhow.  Sometimes her babblings do seem to make little phrases (like “I like that” or “I did that”), but I’m sure that’s just our imagination.

Even without words she is very expressive, as I am sure you will see in this video titled “Almost Six Minutes of Heaven” starring Sophie, Rochelle and Micah.

Sophie is also doing some serious practice for walking, pulling herself up and getting up on her feet.  The first time this happened we didn’t have the camera ready.  We rushed to get it going and in my hurry I forgot that only photos should be shot in portrait mode (with the camera turned on its side) – videos shot on their side are no fun to watch.  So, later she pulled herself up onto a short box and I got it recorded.  The box isn’t is tall as the other things she was pulling herself up onto, but you can see how good she’s getting at being on her feet.

The only problem is, she’s got pretty sweaty feet most of the time, and those don’t stick to wood floors very well.

Finally, a lesson in pride.  I was going to embed this video like the other ones, but it is hosted from a site whose embed code doesn’t work here as well as YouTube’s does.  If you need a good laugh and a reason not to show off, click here.  Parental guidance recommended, video contains an act of violence (but no blood or cursing) that may not be suitable for children who will not understand the context.

Side Project & Had to Share…

I started a side project that I want you all to know about, but first I got a chuckle out of something that I wanted to share with you.

You may or may not have heard about the new Microsoft ad campaign.  They hired Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates (remember Gates doesn’t work for Microsoft any more, he’s retired) to do an ad campaign aimed at erasing the bad image Microsoft has of being the devil.  The first ad was released earlier this month and I thought it was a good first step but I felt like they should have done a lot more with it (I didn’t laugh even once, which left me wondering why they hired Seinfeld at all).  The second ad came out last week and I just got around to watching it today.  I laughed out loud at this one and you just have to watch it yourself.  I watched it embedded at Engadget, but here it is if you don’t want to click through to their site:

I think it’s an interesting concept and was well executed.  I look forward to seeing more of these ads in the future.

Now, for the project I started.  I linked to it from here sometime last week and even inserted the feed (you may have noticed it if you visit my page often) in the side bar.  The project is called My Favorite Quotes.  If you are subscribed to my feed in a reader, I recommend that you subscribe to this new feed at http://ilikethesequotes.wordpress.com/feed/ and if you just stop by my site every once and a while to read what I have written lately, be sure to look at the My Favorite Quotes feed toward the bottom of my side bar.

Here’s the deal: the feed only displays the quotes, not what I write about the quote.  What I am not trying to do is start a “quote of the week” service (once I’ve got a few more quotes up, I’ll start doing it once a week or so but over the last few days I have written commentary on four different quotes).  The feed only serves up the quotes, but the whole point of the project is that I write my thoughts and commentary about each quote.  Thus, if you see a quote that interests you, be sure to click through to the site to see it in context where you can read what I wrote about it and (please) leave your own comments.

Also, the new site has an About this Project page where you can leave quotes you like in the comments and, if I like the quote too, I’ll do a commentary on it.

I hope you at least enjoy the quotes.  Many of them are humorous and most of them contain a great deal of wisdom.  I also hope you read my comments on the quotes and share your own comments.  As always, I am listening and would love to hear your thoughts.

In other news I have rearranged most of the side bar here (at the Mediocre Renaissance Man site) to remove some of the clutter and make the new features easier to notice.  I shall have to do more if it is ever going to be a truly efficient place to interact with me, but this is a good step forward.

Work on my game project has slowed, no screeched to a halt.  I intend to pick it back up a bit this weekend, but my wife’s patience was wearing thin so I decided to give it a rest.  It has been difficult for me, and I am worried that this break may prevent me from ever completing the project.  I need momentum to get projects like that one finished, and my momentum is all gone.  I will still upload the project even if I never finish it, so you will get a chance to check it out even in its unfinished form.  No time frame on that though, it’s just going to happen when it happens.

Also this weekend I plan on writing a more in-depth review of Google Chrome since I have had a while to test it out and gather my feelings.  I may not actually get around to writing the whole review this weekend, but expect it by next weekend at the latest.

For all you family readers out there, we have new videos to upload, but we’ll just add that to an already bursting list of “todo” items.  Maybe I can start the upload now and let it run while I do other things…

Finally, I have added a page to this site called About You.  I recommend you check it out (not a lot of text, I promise).

All in all, I really just plan on relaxing and playing some games with my family this weekend.  There’s always a list of at least ten things I’d love to do in a day, and if I get around to just one of them I’m happy.  I’m going to go play some SSBB.  Later.