I drift in a sea of emotion...but's a pretty small sea, kind of more like a biggish lake of emotion

Nothing much here today...just links...

• The next 8 tallest skyscrapers - take that Burj Dubai
• Amazing Alphabet Illustrations - so many that deserve to be highlighted
• 69 Love Songs Illustrated - the web address is solidly (insert chili pepper here) but the actual content is pretty much not so
• Photos by Bunnyrel - Again with the action figures
• 40 Ways to Download Free Music Legally - You don't have to steal...it's just easier and gives a better selection

And, seriously, Serena?  Over Justine?

That's just sad...

No real theme today...just, you know...

Longer version of something I've posted before...














Seriously, I'm not sure I could tell the difference between this and the clips from last week...

Checking the new site and bowing out

So we're up and new and live here at Princeton High School's new website...

We've been live and on the web since Friday of last week, and I'm still trying to get all of the content on the new website.  It's been a hectic few weeks since the initial training just before Winter Break when I was given initial access to start mucking about with the pages, but the beast is out of the cage at this point and there's nothing to be done but to deal with what it is.

I've been living with the website for a month now, and there are a number of things that I really like about the site...

• There's a searchable staff directory.  This is something that I've wanted to have for the past couple of years and that I simply didn't have any clue how to code.  A few years back, our AP computer programming teacher sent out an email asking if we had any projects that his kids could work on, and this was my one request 'cause I knew I was probably never going to be able to put the thing together on my own.
• There's a massive and nicely complete site map.  This is also something that I think could be really helpful for anybody using the website in case they want to find a specific page.
• There's the nicely integrated search function for the whole website (up in the top right corner) of each page - probably something that more people will use than the sitemap.
• The whole thing looks awesomely professional and pretty slick.
• The rotating photos on the front page of each school webpage can really be a nice addition
• And the way that the website is updated is so easy for anybody to use that people from every club, every team, every whatever can make their own page with absolutely no formal, in depth training.

It's a far more professional site than I likely ever would have created, particularly because it was designed by people who have skills far above my level.

And I just send in my three-line letter of resignation from managing the high school portion of it.

I loved the old site.  I took it over from a friend and saw how much it could be useful to the parents and students of Princeton and how much ownership they could take of the site if they were allowed to interact with it.

For three years, the website was my personal sandbox, and I'd like to think that I at least entertained a bunch of students and parents and maybe made finding some information a little easier for them.

But the new direction that the website is taking is toward more uniformity within the entire district.  Each school's pages are to look as identical as possible, and the links are to be as uniform as they could be, and that just isn't what I wanted to be involved in creating.

My goal was always to have people think that my site - and I know it wasn't really my site - was the best in the district, that it offered something that the other schools didn't because of the time that I  - and at least a few other students - put into it.

That wasn't the goal of the new site design, so I'm stepping out before it becomes too hard for me to do so.

I remember when Bob Knight went on his final probation at Indiana University.  We all knew that Coach Knight was a man who wasn't cut out to live under a zero-tolerance policy, that it was just a matter of time before he was removed from his position.  "Why doesn't he just resign," I remember wondering at the time.

In this case, I decided to simply step away rather than to continue in a situation in which I was fighting to hold onto any smallest scrap of the job and the product that I enjoyed so much simply didn't exist any more.

So, hopefully I'll have more time to do the things that I do enjoy the hell out of - blogging, taking photos of school events - and might have a new project in the works to showcase the second of those things in the near future.

To those of you in the Princeton community, I thank you for any kind words or thoughts that you might have passed along to me in the past few years regarding the website, and I hope that you - and I - end up with a website that someone else loves creating.

Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist

I initially found Penelope Trunk's blog from her post about Asperger Syndrome in which she explained how she deals with her own sensory integration disfunction at her office.

Rarely do I find a blog that is actually useful, but this one does a marvelous job of actually providing usable pieces of information that could help all of us in the workplace.

I hate Kroger and Wal-Mart...and don't know how I feel about Sprint

Some days, man...some days...

The campaign started today, the Pasta for Pennies campaign, that is.  We had students collecting at four or five stores around town - Krogers and a Sam's Club this weekend.  It would've been at a Wal-Mart, too, but the only one that had allowed us to collect canceled on us not even thirty hours before our first collections at that store were to begin.

Then I got news today that at least one of the Kroger stores at which we had scheduled store collections notified our kids that they were cancelling our second two weeks of collecting - because of the frickin' Girl Scouts.

It doesn't matter that I have a form signed by one of the store's customer service folks saying that PHS students are allowed to collect for the LLS on all the dates listed (Saturdays and Sundays from today through Valentine's Day).  Nope, the Girl Scouts decided to get started a little early this year, so our kids are going to get chucked.

And if one store is forced into letting the Girl Scouts in at the start of February, then I'm guessing that there are a bunch of Krogers that are going to kick our kids out - nothing to do about that tonight, though.

Of course, calling the Forest Park Kroger and effectively yelling over the phone at the manager on duty didn't help my mood, leading me to close the conversation and send my cell phone buzzing across the room into the sliding doors where it flew apart into a half dozen pieces - two major ones and a bunch of smaller ones.

So, off to the Tri-County Sprint store because the cell phone has become a necessity in my life - particularly as I'm likely to be getting more and more phone calls on the next few weekends.

"Nope, you aren't eligible for an upgrade yet.  Not 'til June.  Let me see what I can do."

Turns out that with a little creative finageling, the customer service person was able to add a third line to our account - costing us $10 more a month - but then offer us a 15% discount, bringing our previously $80 bill per month down to about $77 per month (before taxes and stuff).  In the process, I got a phone that is supposedly $249 for only $50 - and I can send in a rebate form to get all by $2 bucks back.  The new third line had to have a new phone number, but once the accounts got activated, my new phone was switched so it's on my old phone number.

So, I shattered my phone, got a new phone, (and a third line - 226-5041, in case anybody wanted to know, though the only thing attached to that number is a destroyed cell phone), and will end up paying slightly less money per month than I was beforehand.

The business world - as I have said before - make no sense to me at all, and I want as little to do with it as humanly possible.

Everything is terrible...but fascinating

I dig the Everything is Terrible blog because it's filled with totally entertaining train wrecks from YouTube.

For example, there's these recent posts...

Header issues

I'd forgotten that the headers here were stored on the old PHS website.

Since that website went down for good on Friday, I'm going to have to come back and somehow reload the header images.

Give a few days.  They'll be back and hopefully better than ever.

No Elvis...now it's Highland Heights

Check the week's fun links...

• Jello Rebranding project- so cute, so fun, so gorgeous
• Jesus: Ads of the Worlds - clearly, the ad firm was right
• Iron Man sketch cards - again, so cute...wanna eat the Black Widow right up
• NBA Jam returns - much, much nostalgic joy
• Terraskin - paper, made of rocks...interesting concept that at least doesn't use trees
  
• Pumpkin muffins - want to try these
• 2010 All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Guide - how to maximize your money value at a buffet (a man after my own heart)
• How to Build an Eight Foot Tall Light Bulb of Lego - I don't like the mottled colors, but it is more populist this way.
• What Makes a Great Teacher - I'm thinking that I need to do some more professional reading.  Stupid boss and his ideas.
• Pedisedate - a headset that lets the kids give themselves nitrous...yeah, that's a good idea.
• 10 Clever Kitchen Repurposing Tricks - and it ends with Calen's cooking mancrush
• "If We Ever Meet Again" - darn catchy
• Eggs Baked in Bread Bowls - Sunday breakfast if you ask me
• 
  

In the Limelite

This is why A Mighty Wind hit a little too close to home...





As a later lineup...

Back in a bit

Sorry, folks...swamped by making the new PHS website all ready and stuff (rollout on Friday, check this link on Friday), rocking Pasta for Pennies preparation, getting a new garage door opener, clearing out the fridge that died in the middle of the night, and fearing how bad the repair bill will be for the circular water stain on the basement ceiling under our shower, and grading a whole bunch of tests tonight.

I love being a homeowner, really I do.

In the meantime, let me just say Jenna Kufeldt.

And to hold you over, here's a comic that I found by hitting the magic Stumble! button.

Frickin' cool science - two things

I have two frickin' cool science articles to point out. The first one's simple and elegant. The second one is a little tougher to grasp but kinda awesome once you get it.

First up, a new mug that is designed to keep hot stuff hot - no keeping cool stuff cool here. It's based around the idea that materials hold their temperature during a phase change, and it's the same idea of the cool suits that mascots wear on the hottest days.

They start with something that's a solid at room temp and liquid at something just above cool body temp.  Once they 'freeze' the materials (just the equivalent of a refrigerator temperature), it stays solid near their skin and starts to absorb energy.  Once the material hits melting point - something near a comfortable temperature under the suit, the material will maintain that temperature for a fairly long time.

This group has designed a coffee cup filled with a material that has a melting point near that of comfortably hot coffee.  Once the coffee cools to that temperature, the mug stays at that temperature for a much longer time than would a typical ceramic coffee mug.  They've also worked on similar mugs designed to hold other beverages at cool or even icy temperatures.

Frickin' neat.

But not as neat as this article in which scientists found a way to have an inanimate object make its way through a maze based entirely on chemistry.  No computer chips, no circuits, no robotic doomahitchies.  Just chemistry.

They took an acidified oil drop and placed it in a maze.  The oil drop found its way through the maze toward an acidified gel that was placed at the 'exit' of the maze.  I'll let the article explain the science behind the whole thing as it's frickin' awesome...

Over the course of a minute or so, each droplet found its way to the end of the maze. The reason they move in the right direction has to do with basic chemistry. Acid from the highly acidic gel slowly leaks into the potassium hydroxide solution that fills the maze, creating a gradient: Solution near the exit becomes more acidic, whereas solution near the entrance stays more basic. This basic solution interacts with the acidic droplet, causing the part of the droplet facing the exit to become more acidic than the part of the droplet facing away from the exit. The disparity increases the surface tension of the side of the droplet that faces the exit--and it's this difference in surface tension between the two sides of the droplet that propels it toward the exit of the maze.

It's all impressive and stuff, but getting a droplet through a maze isn't anything to get exited about unless there was some way to make the process useful...like finding cancerous tumors which turn out to be more acidic than the environment around them.

Grzybowski notes that cancers are more acidic than the rest of the body, so--like the maze droplets--one could potentially design drug vehicles to follow the acid-base gradient toward the cancer cells.

Man, every now and again, science blows my mind.

Time waster morning

Today's time waster is an equisite little design of a game.  Simplest possible graphics, but a wonderful mechanism to get you to explore the four or five gorgeous little worlds.

Block off about thirty minutes and give Small Worlds a try.

And I'm not providing a picture because it would give away the joy of the visual style.

And if that one's not for you, give Fragger a try.

These are a few of today's favorite things

Wanna watch basketball...gonna watch Elvis...

• Watch out XKCD - again, from a 15 year old
• The YouTube up top is far better than the version that eventually showed up on a cd
• 6 Tools to Cartoon Yourself - I like the South Park one best
• Celebrity Kung Fu - I particularly enjoy Dave Letterman's missile attack
  
• One hell of a card trick - skip the hand part at the beginning...the trick starts about 1:40 in
  
• Same Sex Marriage and Time - interesting how all the age groups in a state seem to shift together
• Health and Parenting - What the Chinese are using instead of lead...and how much worse it is (specifically one item from Claire's)
• Click! - great Lego idea video
  
• Charge by String - a quick, emergency charger that's awesome for the environment...and your forearms

Jimmy Kimmel FTW

Outstanding...Jimmy Kimmel's looking like he's going to come out the best from the Leno-Conan flap.

I really wonder whether Leno and he got together to go through Kimmel's answers in advance or if Leno just got hit this hard without advanced warning.



And, in case the above gets yanked, here's the same thing...



Or just the highlights...

Alphabet favorite places & times

I didn't think this one would be tough at all, but I'm totally stumped on Y, and I had to kind of cheat on V.

Can anybody think of any place or time that I've raved about that would fit the Y category?

• A - Aberdeen's beach, 1994-1995
• B - Bardstown Road circa 1991
  
• C - Clifty Falls pretty much any summer, especially before they closed under-fall access
  
• D - Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, Phoenix, summer 2006
  
• E - Eagle Ln, 5571, most any time
  
• F - Frontier Restaurant, brunch, Easter Sunday
  
• G - Glendale Square 'round noon on the first Saturday of March
  
• H - Hot tub, Gatlinburg, whichever chalet, Presidents' Day Weekend
  
• I - Iroquois Park Overlook circa 1991
  
• J - Jeff Ruby's (Cincinnati's top steakhouse) after nearly fasting all day long
  
• K - Kaibab Trail, South...'round 5:30 am, just after the sun's come up but before it's toasty and the mules crowd the trail
  
• L - Locust Grove, April 22, 2000
  
• M - Miami University disc golf course any summer day with good weather
  
• N - N'Albany High School's gymnasium, 1990-1992
  
• O - Observation Deck, Willis Tower
  
• P - Princeton, most of the time
  
• Q - Quail Run Dr, after sunset, winter snow storm, 2009
  
• R - Rave Theaters pretty much in the middle of any movie
  
• S - Santa Fe, mid summer
  
• T - Turkey Run State Park, late spring, 1996
  
• U - University of Aberdeen, High St, across from the Auld Toon Cafe, 1994-1995
  
• V - Vacation, pretty much any one
  
• W - Wabash even still but especially during my years there
  
• X - Xavier's arena during Princeton's graduation ceremony, May/June
  
• Y -
• Z - Zoo, Cincinnati, Manatee House, when it's not crowded but when there are manatees

Others in the running

• A - Assembly Hall, late 80's and early 90's and again November 12, 2005
• B - Barnes & Noble, comfy chairs by the graphic novel section
  
• C - Chrysler Arena, Hall of Fame tournament
• D - Dunnottar Castle
• M - Madison, WI - summer, 2007
  
• P - Phantom Ranch, July 4th parade
  
• S - Seymour High School basketball gym, regionals pre-class basketball 
• T - Thornview Dr, early spring when the trees have just flowered
  
• W - Waffle House, Cincinnati-Dayton Road, after the normal dinner time but before late night guests arrive
  

Two things...neither is right

Pat Robertson is a moron...



And Princeton High School now has a Facebook page...

Top Five: The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

I would provide a review of The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, but there's not much to say there.  It's bland, occasionally pretty, but ultimately boring.

Instead...

My five favorite Terry Gilliam-directed films

1. Time Bandits
2. Brazil
3. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
5. Twelve Monkeys

My five favorite Heath Ledger films

1. The Dark Knight
2. Brokeback Mountain
   
3. Lords of Dogtown
4. 10 Things I Hate About You
5. The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

My five favorite Christopher Plummer films

1. Inside Man
2. Up
3. Syriana
4. The Insider
5. Dragnet

My five favorite Tom Waits films

1. Short Cuts
2. Mystery Men
3. Dracula
4. Coffee & Cigarettes
5. Down by Law

My five favorite Colin Farrell films

1. In Bruges
2. Minority Report
3. Intermission (pretty much the last good film here)
   
4. The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus
5. Dardevil
   

My favorite Johnny Depp Films

1. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
2. Donnie Brasco
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
4. Edward Scissorhands
5. Sweeney Todd
   

My favorite Jude Law films

1. Gattaca
2. Road to Perdition
3. Cold Mountain
4. Closer
5. Alfie
   

Check 'em before you buy 'em

I'm leaning toward buy on both of these, but feel free to use NPR to stream the full new, single-word-titled albums from Vampire Weekend (Contra) and Spoon (Transference).

A nice litte ring to it

I'm trying to figure out if I want one of these folks' rings or not.

They're reasonably priced and very attractive.  Kinda digging them...

If I do want one, I have no clue which.one it would be...so many choices...

Update: Continuing the decade

Not necessarily a "best of the decade" but a list of 21 songs about 21st century politics.

I'm partial to the Richard Thompson entry, of course.

I'm thinking that this is the end of the "of the decade" list.