This is brilliant

Its stuff like this that gets me excited to welcome our robot conquerors.

http://io9.com/5323969/fake-trees-charge-your-car-while-you-park

Fake trees that harness solar power for electricity, while at the same time providing shade for you warm summer car. Also, they could be used to power cells for smart cars. Today, this concept is really hitting home for me, because its really hot. I'm smart enough not to really complain though; by this time last summer, my A/C had already been in use for a solid 5 weeks. This summer, I've used it a whopping 4 times.

Though its been the busiest summer of my life, its been a good one.

I really hope to see something like this, but I've a feeling I never will. Who knows?

End of the Semester Freakout

Now I'm freaked out by how finite my remaining work is!! Waahahaha. Anyway, I haven't checked in here in a while but I'll be doing some more posts this week. This semester has been really tough on me but I really do feel like I learned a great deal.

My next excitement is leaving for Europe on the 3rd!!

We can do this, gang

That's right. We're gonna make it. Just put your heads down and power through. Ignore your friends who call you from the middle of whatever nearby greenspace you have in your town, a waterfront park we'll say, with a case of beer and a wiffle ball set. Just tell yourself "this isn't happening, I have to finish school".

We can do this, guys.

Fast Track was...something. I don't know what. Long? I don't know. It was fine. I ended up driving out there myself from Philly, which isn't too fun, but its no drag either. I like driving fast, and its nice not to worry about anyone else's music taste or bladder. That said, next time, I'll try to work out a carpool arrangement.

Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/15/china-electroshock-t.html

In China, Electric Shock is now being administered to people who are addicted to the Internet. Parents are tricking and forcing their children into enrolling in shock treatment programs. I should be on the lookout next time my wife tells me she's planning a getaway for us.

What are we going to do in Tomer's class in P-burgh? I'm excited. This class has been loads of fun compared to the Search and Seize hell of my other.

Because I love posting YouTubes, this is me playing bass with my friends on a John Lennon song.

Dear Weekend, what did you do to my stomach?

I don't know what happened. I don't think its a stomach bug. I have a dull, sometimes not-so-dull tummyache. Which happens. But usually doesn't last for 3 or more days, which is where we are now.

Anyway. My birthday just ended. Amy and I saw "The Hurt Locker". It was OK. Too long. Also, the couple behind us thought it was HILARIOUS. This is disturbing because the film is very high-tension, and about the Army's bomb detonating team, who deal with IED's in the Iraq war. So the laughter seemed pretty inappropriate.

The top moment that they thought was funny has to be when the soldiers find a dead Iraqi boy with a bomb IN HIS STOMACH. Literally, this moment brought on PEALS of laughter.

Other somber movies that my wife and I feel like they may have ruined with inappropriate laughter in the past:

"Schindler's List"
"The Killing Fields"
"Caddyshack II"

This is me right now:

That's right, I'm doing the Ed Lover dance right now. In my dining room, in front of my computer. BELIEVE IT.

OK, not really, but I'm pretty excited about formatting in HTML and posting it to the web. I didn't even ask for help from my brother, the expert web designer.

Shout outs to:
the Discussion Board.
the wisdom of Timothy Schlak, without which I would have NO CLUE about FTP sites.
the man upstairs (not God, the actual guy who lives above me. He let me borrow an ice tray.)

Do your dance,
Grax

Jeez, Bartleby. Get it together!

So I'm working on my Search and Seize assignment for my 2002 class, tracking down quotes and citing them, and I look at the amount of windows I have open...there are 9 new IE windows I didn't open (all popups about how lucrative "working online from home" is for some fictional creeps), and once every ten search pages or so, I have an earsplitting audio-ad telling me that I've won a WalMart gift cert for $1000.00.

This is academia! What is going on here? I'm trying to work!!!

Dumb post, I know. And, I know how it all works. It just still boggles the mind that I'm using Pitt's SSLVPN to get through to this authoritative, ultra-helpful site, and this is what the site gives me! Can't trust anyone these days!

Anyway, I'll mellow out over here...

Video Cams for iPods forthcoming?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/06/prepare-yourself-for-ipod-video/

Inside sources are saying that, following the iPhone 3GS's video camera success (most people really like them, it seems), Apple's next move will be to include them in future iPods.

I don't know. Does the world need this? Clearly, the answer is YES.

Topical? You be the judge

Sometimes I feel like I'm reaching to make a topical post, since most of my reactions to stuff we're reading or concentrating on in classwork is just "hmmmmm...interesting". That said, I heard this on NPR tonight and it clearly speaks to the importance of the Web in the making of something that I care about. That's music, if you haven't been keeping score at home.

http://www.theworld.org/global-hit/hal-and-the-big-5

This is a really cool story about a band called Hal and the Big 5, comprised of individuals worldwide who have never been in the same room together, but have an album produced by world music dude Bill Laswell (who has made records with Iggy Pop, Eno and David Byrne, and Herbie Hancock) which has just been released. The producers and musicians are in England and Belgium, and the singers on the record are all from South Africa, with guest musicians from Tunisia, France and Morocco. The tool that made their colloboration possible, as the keyboardist and arranger Duncan says in the interview, is the Internet. By mailing individual tracks around, they came up with something that none of the initial trackers could ever have predicted.

This is being done quite a bit now, but it is interesting how unlimited collaborations like this are becoming. Developing cultural understanding, testing the limits of art, etc.

Anyway, its neat. The music is OK from what I heard in the piece, but the concept is more interesting. For the best in cross-cultural summer jams, I would recommend another recent album: Extra Golden's "Hera Ma Nono". Two guys from DC who grew up playing indie rock + a drummer, guitarist and a singer from Kenya all hole up in a house in the Poconos to record a shimmering, joyful cross between Kenyan benga and American rock. Clip:

Big week/big weekend

My Educational Psych course is now officially done...one class down, two to go. Aside from getting my final and final paper done for that class, I don't feel like I've accomplished much in the past week. Got the hang of Koha, despite its annoying tendency to not "get" the ISBN's that I've cut and pasted. Another vexing aspect of Koha is that it doesn't define the errors that are preventing you from moving onto the next screen (move to Virtual Shelf). At least, if it does, the errors were unclear.

Anyway, I'm keeping my head above water. I caught up with a few old friends who now have babies, which is always fun. Gearing up for a visit to Pittsburgh and finally visiting the library there. My wife's best friend's wedding is next weekend, so it'll be a busy time.