A Family Portrait

February 2001
Originally uploaded by SDClark5.

Not much going on, so here's pic from 2001

Tres Hermanos

Tres Hermanos
Originally uploaded by SDClark5.

Now This Is Hilarious!

UK Version of Mac vs. PC

Tip of the Day

So, here's an internet service that works quite well. Teleflip lets you send a text message to a cell phone simply by sending an email.

All you do is address the email to the phone number (xxx-xxx-xxxx) @teleflip.com. Example: 555-555-5555@teleflip.com

It works great, but how in the world are they going to make any money

Field Trip: Children of Men

Carly and I ventured out to see Children of Men yesterday. Excellent movie. It's the oft told tale of the reluctant hero shepherding his flock from point A to point B. The setting, England in the not too distant future when the world has gone to hell in a handbasket, suspense, and numerous explosions not only kept me awake but also entertained me to the point that I never even glanced at my watch to calculate how much longer I would have to remain sitting in the theater. High praise indeed.

Another $10

Son Volt's Okemah of Melody Riot is a CD that's worth a few of your hard earned dollars. I'm looking forward to seeing them at the Belly Up in March.

Cool Pix

Graham Jeffery takes amazing photographs. Check out his colored smoke photos here: Sensitive Light: Colored Smoke

Field Trip: Smokin' Aces

Worst movie ever? Probably not, but close. The Nickster took me to a free preview at State this evening and I guess the most positive thing I can say is the band that played before the movie wasn't half bad.

Annie 2007: The Musical

Yamipod

Ouriel at My Blog writes:

I can finally get rid of iTunes

I love the iPod but i HATE iTunes. Not convenient for synchronizing in multiple computers, slow, heavy in resources for movies you have to convert to their stupid format….

Thanks to Christian from ProCab i have (very lately) discovered YamiPod, a freeware, developped by a student that enables you to manage your music AS YOU WANT. You can for example add music by simple drag and drop from your folder, the software is fast, read all features here. Yamipod

The KILLER feature. You can copy music from iPod to your computer, bye bye stupid DRM rules that do not let me copy music i bought from my iPod to another computer (at work for example) Works on mac/linux/windows

Now i am friend again with my iPod. Christian, you saved my iPod life

Very Last iPhone Post

Here's an example of the depth of the cult of Steve Jobs. Some dude pulled the audio of the ring tone from the iPhone used in Jobs's presentation cleaned out the noise, and posted it on the net.

For your listening pleasure: Steve Jobs's Ring Tone

Worth Ten Bucks

If you have anything left on those Christmas iTune cards Josh Ritter's The Animal Years would be a good way to go.

Ouch!

If you're lusting after the iPhone here's an estimate of your first year's cost:

* $640 Phone - $599 plus tax (~8%)
* $60/mo Voice Plan - cheapest plan with unlimited nights and weekends
* $40/mo MEdia Max 3000 Bundle - includes 3000 texts and unlimited MediaNet
* $8/mo Fees - lovely fees

So doing the math, and looking at a year of usage on this device, the total comes to:

$1936

Dunder-Mifflin Graphics Department

Annie's place of employment, In the Bag Design, has excellent taste in TV programs.

The Office
Originally uploaded by SDClark5.

My Ballpark Ratings

Note: This is a work in progress, but I thought I'd post my fist draft.

In a couple weeks I'll be at a baseball game in Mineapolis which will mark the end (at least for a few months) of my quest of visiting all 30 major league ballparks. So, here are my current rankings of my favorite parks.

But first some background. There are some ballpark ratings out there that try to quantify various ballpark factors in order to come up with an objective list. I prefer a more holistic approach. I try to take in the gestalt of the place and judge accordingly, but I do have three often overlapping criteria.

1) Architecture. I like ballparks with open views over the outfield seats and parks that relect their city.

2) Location, location, location. Urban ballparks that don't sit in the middle of an asphalt parking lots are my preference.

3) Sociology. A ballpark gets extra points if the neighboring restaurants and bars are filled with fans before and after games.

1. PNC -- The perfect ballpark. Unfortunately, the Pirates suck.

2. Wrigley -- Wrigley and Fenway are tough to compare to newer parks because based on pure creature comforts they are sorely lacking, but they get extra credit for being museum pieces.

3. Fenway -- I give Wrigley the nod because of the low outfield bleachers which opens the view, but I like the outside and the surrounding area around Fenway better.

4. AT&T -- They had to squeeze the ballpark into a small area which resulted in some disadvantages like some very narrow concourses, but the relative smallness of the building does focus attention onto the game. And, isn't that the reason why we go the games?

5. Petco -- I'm sure there is some home town bias here, and there are certainly some things I don't like (right field second deck and centerfield batter's eye primarily). But the place is unique, the neighborhood is filling in, and the weather is perfect.

6. Camden Yards
7. Safeco
8. Busch
9. Comerica
10. The Jake
11. Coors Field
12. Dodger Stadium
13. Citizen's Bank
14. Kauffman
15. Turner Field
16. Yankee Stadium
17. Great American Ballpark
18. Ballpark at Arlington
19. Comiskey
20. Anaheim
21. The Bob
22. Juice Box
23. Miller Park
24. Sky Dome
25. Shea
26. Dolphin
27. Tropicana
28. Network Associates
29. RFK

Elementary

I started reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes today. Yes, I realize that reading a book is not exactly earth shaking news, but my method is kinda cool. Daily Lit is sending me a very small chunk of the book everyday via email.

Here's their blurb:

Why read books by email?

Because if you are like us, you spend hours each day reading email but don't find the time to read books. DailyLit brings books right into your inbox in convenient small messages that take less than 5 minutes to read. This works incredibly well not just on your computer but also on a Treo, Blackberry, Sidekick or whatever the PDA of your choice. In the words of Dr. Seuss: Try it, you might like it! (Oops -- it would appear that the actual quote from Green Eggs and Ham is "You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may.")

They do not have a lot of choices, but the process to get started is very simple. Or, as I should say, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

Set Your DVRs (or stay up late)

Letterman is going to have a couple of musical guests of interest in the next week. Josh Ritter will be on Friday and America appears be on Monday.

Normally, I'd have little or no interest watching the rather bland and over-rated America, but they did do something rather smart. For their latest record they teamed up with some folks with talent. Ben Kweller, Ryan Adams, Jim James (MMJ), and others lent a hand, so I'm hopeful the new music is somewhat relevant. Anyway, Adams and Kweller are supposedly joining Ameica on Monday (January 15).

Attention Gadget Geeks

Gadget geeks worldwide are all a flutter over Apple's new iphone (available in June $500). If you want to check out what the commotion is about, Apple has posted some animations Apple's iPhone.

Note: Fans of The Office should make sure you check out the video demo.

When I first heard about the phone today I was sorta ambivalent, but upon further consideration, these things are frakin' (Battlestar Galactica reference) awesome.

Back to Bloggin'

OK my vacation is now over and it's time for me to start working on those pesky New Year's resolutions - exercising, eating healthy, reading more, blogging regularly, posting super cute but slightly embarassing pictures on my kids' MySpace pages, yadda, yadda, yadda. I must say it feels good to have made some progress on the last one.

Looking over my post about seeing My Morning Jacket last Tuesday, I don't think I was clear enough about how good those guys are. MMJ is certainly not a secret. Do a blog search on Google and the most common adjectives are great, best, awesome, holy sh*t etc. etc. I knew all that and was stoked to discover it's all true.

I think it's very cool that a band that sounds like it came out of the 70s is developing an audience in 2007. Jim James confidently takes on the role of the lead singer, but does so with a sense of humor. He told a funny story about playing a gig in San Diego several years ago before a crowd of 10 or so. During their break at that show the band made PB&J sandwiches for the audience as a sort of a bonding experience. So, on Tuesday night they decided to make it a tradition. About an hour into the show they stopped, made a few PB&J sandwiches and threw them out into the crowd.

Their live concert CD/DVD Okonokos is worth a listen/watch.

Tip of the Day

Here's a great resource. Dial 1-800-373-3411 (1-800-free-411) for free directory assistance. They also have a web site Free 411

Field Trip: My Morning Jacket

The Grateful Dead created the genre. After JG's death Phish carried the torch for several years, but the position of the Great American Jam Band has been vacant since their break up. After seeing MMJ tonight I'd hire them for the job.

Here's a taste of One Big Holiday (which if it was the only song they played would be worth the price of admission):

Field Trip: Publix

When Annie arrived in Florida, we asked her what she wanted to do while she was in the Sunshine State. Her response was an unanticipated, "Go to Publix!". It seems that Publix (a grocery chain) is winning rave reviews in design and marketing circles for their packaging designs and our college grad in graphic design wanted to check them out.

So, off to Publix we went. Despite some stares and concerned looks from Publx employees, Anne spent the better part of an hour snapping picture after picture of packaging for everything from feminine products to popcicles

Evidently Annie is not the only one enamored with Publix packaging. Here's a link to a blog that covers nothing but Publix Packaging.