Vacation prep

Tomorrow I'm going back with Gus to the beautiful Lake Anna in Virginia.

I'll be taking lots of pictures to post when I get back, but there'll also be what I post to Flickr from my cameraphone. They'll be posted to my blog, but you can also check out the VA05 tag to see them.

I'll be back in a week, at which point "normal" posting will resume.

Day five: Last day

Names I've been called at work which are not my own:

• Thomas
• Joe
• Daniel
• David
• Girly-man (by the kiddies)

It took a couple of days, but I think I ended this thing with a pretty firm grasp on what I was doing. Overall it was an enjoyable experience. I'm probably going to do this next summer, and the summer after that, until I go to college. Whether or not I do it during college will depend on quite a lot.

Kids are cute sometimes. Sometimes they're evil incarnate. I came across both in my job. I know it's a long, long way off (or at least I hope like hell it is), but I have a feeling this is going to help me when I have kids of my own.

Day four: [Insert caption here]

All right, so. Today I had to help a kid out of a tree. That was sort of fun, since I did it quite successfully.

Tonight I went to the Kimberton Fair with Ben, Alexandra, Camille, Gabo, and Polly. It was a good time. I rode:

• The Gravitron, twice
• The ferris wheel
• The Super-Scrambler

A good time was had by all.

Day three: 99.9°F

I am, of course, making a reference to the Suzanne Vega song 99.9°F

At work today I was split between my class and another of younger kids. Truthfully I was glad to get out of the un-air-conditioned barn and into the cooler office structure.

The temperature got up to 97°F (36.1°C), but with humidity, it felt even worse. I did manage to go into the creek three times, and even got wet. I brought my camera none of them.

I did get a few photos yesterday, but when I uploaded them to iPhoto, I was enraged and utterly depressed to discover that they were crap. I can't explain it. I'll try again, of course.

Day two: In Memoriam

Susan Dawn Shilcock
(June 30, 1949 - July 22, 2005)

At seven the family went to a memorial service for a friend of ours who died Thursday. A lot of people were there, and it was an interesting feeling, to be surrounded by people who you don't know and probably never will, and yet to be united by a single purpose.

Susan made an unquantifiable difference in my life as a child. I dropped out of school in second grade (citing creative differences) and found my way to Open Connections.

Open Connections, or OC for short, was where I made my first friends. I didn't learn anything like the multiplication table or the capital of Alaska, but I learned more important things.

How to relate to people. How to sled down a hill on my knees. The many applications of magnifying glasses on sunny days.

I have only vague, scattered memories of Susan, as I was but a lad when I was around her the most, but looking back I can see much more than I did.

The service was well-done. I think it was a fitting tribute to the memory of one who helped so many and stood fast in the face of insurmountable, spirit-crushing obstacles.

The service ended with this:

Magic Penny

Love is something if you give it away,
Give it away, give it away,
Love is something if you give it away,
You end up having more.

It's just like a magic penny,
Hold it tight and you won't have any.
Lend it, spend it, and you'll have so many
They'll roll all over the floor, for...

Day one of work

The day did not start out favorably; all I had for breakfast was a smoothie, and for who-knows-what reason there was no hot water for a shower. I arrived at Chester Springs Studio five minutes late, but was somehow still there before the teacher.

It's a large group in the mosaics class, a full twenty-four kids. About two-thirds of them are girls, thank god. I don't think I could handle a larger group of ten-year-old boys running around and smashing glass. To help keep them in line were:

• Rhoda, the teacher;
• Regina;
• Alexandra M., a friend of mine whom it was a pleasant surprise to find out I would be working with;
• And Camille, a French exchange student that came with Alex.

With our combined force we were able to keep any major incidents from occurring. A couple of kids got muddy from the creek, and maybe a kid or two got small cuts from glass, but overall it was pretty relaxed.

I neglected to bring my camera when we went wading down the near-by creek, a mistake I do not plan to make again. Scenic? You could say that.

I was miraculously done by four o'clock, at which point I phoned my mom to tell her I was done for the day, and at which point she didn't pick up the phone. Now, it was largely my fault, as I phoned only her cell phone, and not the house phone. I'm just used to nobody picking the house phone up.

Anyway, when Alex's dad saw that I was unable to get a handle on a ride, he insisted on driving me home. He's a cool guy. He also sounds exactly like Fred Willard, and I mean that as a compliment. But I digress.

I was able to navigate the car successfully to my driveway, and I was home by four-thirty.

Work

The movie Chris and I saw was Bad News Bears. I was going to write up a quasi-comprehensive review, but I got tired. In lieu of one, I'm going to just give you a one-sentence review I thought of as the credits were rolling.

Bad News Bears is a feel-good movie that fails on both counts; the "feeling" and the "good."

Amazingly pretentious, while simultaneously quotable, at least in my opinion.

Tomorrow I start work as a teaching assistant at the Chester Springs Studio. It's a mosaics class, something that I don't have a whole lot of experience in, but shouldn't be too difficult

I had the option of getting paid, but it would have only been minimum-wage, so I opted to receive a free class instead. I still have to figure out what class I'm going to take.

My hours are fairly reasonable. 9-5 tomorrow, 9-4 the rest of the week. The area around there is really pretty amazing, so I'm going to bring my camera, a sketchbook, and I might even moblog if I get the chance.

TMBG [1]

TMBG [1],
originally uploaded by dougward.

So, They Might Be Giants' concert was cool. There were a lot of littler kids there, which meant that they didn't do some of their more grown-up songs, but it was still good.

They made me sad when they played Birdhouse in Your Soul. I like the song, but they completely butchered it. Damn Good Times was good, though.

I enjoyed the experience, though. My Flickr photos are under the TMBG tag.

Gus and I are heading over to Ben's for some D&D, and after that I think I'm doing something with Chris.

They Might Be Awesome

They Might Be Giants,
originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

Today Gus is coming over to hang out and par-tay. Later on we're swinging by Gabo's house to pick her and her dad up and take them over to Penn's Landing.

Free. They Might Be Giants. Concert.

So awesome.

According to Penn's Landing's FAQ, only professional cameras are prohibited. I definitely do not count as professional, and neither does my Canon PowerShot S400.

So yeah, I'll be trying to grab a few photos.

Update: Turns out Gabo is gonna be dropped off here some time before the concert.

Jeremy tried to seduce me!

Last night I saw Wedding Crashers.

I liked it. It made me laugh. Owen Wilson was, well, decent and Vince Vaughn was awesome. The highlight of the movie, however, was definitely Todd (played by Keir O'Donnell).

What? He was awesome!

Christopher Walken is also always a treat.

The Amazing Chocolatier

As you may have guessed, tonight I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It's probably the best movie I've seen this year.

Johnny Depp is fantastic. Tim Burton and Danny Elfman are some of the greatest geniuses of our times. The Oompa-Loompa songs are the most fantastic things I've seen, or heard, in a long time.

I'm not being terribly eloquent, so just see the movie, 'kay?

Also, check out How It Should Have Ended. Basically, it replaces flawed movie endings with more appropriate ones.

Braced (for Moon Day)

DSC_0019,
originally uploaded by aoraki.

Yes, I have gotten my braces on. And yes, it is Moon Day.

First, the braces. I have to say, it wasn't that bad getting them on. I actually only got them on the top, I was wrong about needing them top and bottom. Lucky me, eh?

Anyway, the pain was near non-existant. The most painful it got was when the assistant accidentally jabbed me in the cheek with the wire. Otherwise it was more "discomfort" than "pain."

It's suitable that I added to my cyborg attribute today, Moon Day. It was thirty-nine years ago that Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar landscape. Exciting.

For those of you who work on a more visual level, check out the Flickr Moon Day Party 2005 group. Some cool photos.

Oh, and one last thing: my GmailThis! tool got featured on Gmail Tools. Way cool.

Reading

I had to read this at the speed of light...,
originally uploaded by Special.

I recently finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I had gotten the book the night -- morning, I suppose, as midnight technically is -- it came out, but only read a couple of pages. I just picked it up seriously yesterday.

What can I say? It's good. The interesting thing about Rowling, in my opinion, is that she isn't really a particularly distinguishing writer. I mean, she is good, no getting around it, but what she is amazing at is story-telling.

The power of her imagination and story is such that it transcends the page fully. Were she to write in the manner of a writer of higher critical regard, like Henry James, for example, I greatly doubt she would have the mass popularity that she does.

These are just my feelings, of course.

Bastille Day

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Bracing

So, today I had my first orthodontist's appointment today. I got my spacers in, an operation that was fast and painless. Then, one week from now, the braces go on.

I'm very fortunate; it seems I only have to have braces on for a year or so. I'm glad that something is getting done about my teeth, though. It's an important thing.

Yesterday I went to the Pennyslvania Academy of Fine Arts. I brought my camera, but it turns out they have a ban on pictures. I only got two before Security got me. There's some awesome stuff in there, though.

In the beginning

I've seen a lot of movies recently. Today it was Batman Begins.

I don't have a chance to write up an entire post--I'll be spending the night at a hotel due to some stuff going down at home tonight--so I'll just tell you what I thought. 'Twas a good movie.

I will update this to be slightly more in-depth once I get a chance.

War

A fairly busy day for me today. At noon I went over to Polly's house to swim and hang out. Gabo was also there. Good times all round.

At five-thirty I met up with Gus. We got some food (cheese-steak stromboli = good), then we were off to the theater to take in a movie. The movie? War of the Worlds.

I seem to have a review style emerging, so I'm just going to go with that.

Disclaimer: I have read the book, so I am going to be nit-picking like anything. Oh yeah, some spoilers too.

• Morgan Freeman as narrator. Off to a good start.
• Tom Cruise. Worse-getting.
• Why does his daughter have to be so damn creepy?
• The movie is set in America. I can handle this.
• It's been modernized, with EMP's and so on. Again, I can handle this.
• The aliens are riding lighting bolts. Nnnno.
• The Tripods have been buried for a million years or something. Again, nnnno. Why not?
  • Why would you wait until a reasonably intelligent species had dominated the planet to invade?
  • Why not take it while there would not be any (real) resistance?
  • Why wait until after a species has gotten a good ways towards using up a large portion of natural resources (okay, the Tripods seem to run on blood, not oil, but still) and have polluted everything they could?
  • Um, I'm willing to allow that maybe three of the Tripods could be buried under the earth without anybody noticing, but these things are everywhere, under roads, everyplace. Somebody would have seen something.
  • I am willing to allow that maybe when they buried them the bacteria that's so lethal to them hadn't evolved yet, so they didn't notice they were all dying, but it shouldn't even be an issue.
  This is why the book made (more) sense.
• What did you do to my heat-ray, dammit? This is just some sort of sissy cremator laser or something. Sure, leave their clothes intact, that makes sense.
• So, these "vast" intellects haven't advanced past the flashlight stage, huh? No infrared, no x-rays, nothing. Right.
• The aliens look all wrong.
• I really don't need the inter-family drama, the drama of the alien apocalypse really is enough.
• The fire-train is cool. It can stay.
• In their weakened state, the shields of the Tripods fail. Now, it may just be me, but something as vital as a freakin' shield seems like it would have emergency back-up resources and so on, since you'd kind of need them most while weakened. I guess vast intellects think differently, though.
• How the hell does Robbie survive?
• Okay, so a plane crashes into their house, and somehow the van is untouched. Right.
• I hate Tom Cruise.

So, overall, I didn't like it very much. The cinematography was aiight, as were the special effects, but the rest... Just leave well enough alone, okay, Spielberg?

In closing, I have to recommend the eComic, or, y'know, the book, over seeing the movie.

Fourplay

Yesterday I had nothing better to do, so I went over to Chris' house. We played some games... Video games.

I had nothing better to do the next day either, so I stayed over-night. I went to bed at about 4:30, woke up at around 11:00. S'decent.

Then, later today, I went and met up with Chris at GameStop, where I bought a used copy of FFTA to replace my busted one.

Then we saw Fantastic Four, and if you hated my Star Wars post, you'll hate this!

Disclaimer: I've only read a handful of the Fantastic Four comics, so you will be spared my criticism of any deviations that might have occurred in the comic/movie translation.

• The acting starts out not great, but the actors get better as the movie goes on.
• There are a lot of cliches. It's hard to bear at first but eventually you just succumb to it.
• The effects are good, yeah.
• Does Dr. Doom strike you at all like Spiderman's Goblin? Greenish, metallic body/suit, with a mask? Nah, it must just be me...
• Continuity error in one of the final scenes: The Invisible Woman is shown to be bleeding from her nose, then, in the next shot, there's no trace of blood.

Yeah, I'm nit-picking. That's just my way, though.

Overall I did enjoy it. It wasn't as good as Spiderman, but that may be an unfair metric. Not a bad way to spend six bucks and two hours.

More gaming

So, another game I've been playing a lot recently is Katamari Damacy. It's really very addictive, controversy aside.

Now, I'm guessing that most of you have already heard a fair amount of talk about it, so I'm not going to be rambling on too much. I just wanted to mention:

1. It's a fun game.
2. It's only $20.
3. There's already a sequel.

That's right, We Love Katamari has already been released in Japan. I can't wait for it to get ported over.

If you have a PS2, you should try the original out. At only $20, it's hard to go wrong.

GmailThis!

What is GmailThis! ?

GmailThis! is an easy way to make a Gmail email without visiting mail.google.com. Once you add the GmailThis! link to your browser's toolbar, emailing will be a snap. Or rather, a click. Clicking GmailThis! creates a mini-interface to Gmail prepopulated with a link to the web page you are visiting, as well as any text you have highlighted on that page. Add additional text if you wish and then email or save as draft from within GmailThis!

Big, Important News! Recent changes in Gmail have broken GmailThis! in Safari and Firefox (and possibly more, those are all I've tested in). I updated the script, delete the old one and use this new link the same old way!

GmailThis! <-- drag this link to your browser's Links bar, or right-click (ctrl-click on a Mac) and add it as a bookmark that way

The old, somewhat broken version: GmailThis! (Just keep using this if you haven't had any problems with it)

And if you find GmailThis! useful, please donate (uses PayPal)

How to use GmailThis! from dougward on Vimeo.

I created the GmailThis! bookmarklet with heavy, heavy inspiration from the BlogThis! bookmarklet.

Known issues:

• If you aren't already logged into Gmail, the log-in screen is displayed. You must log in and then re-launch GmailThis!.
• May not work properly in Microsoft Internet Explorer. (Thanks, a bunch of people.)
• In Opera, you must right-click and save as bookmark; drag 'n' drop won't work. (Thanks, Wendy.)
• Only Western encoding is supported. (Thanks, Wendy.)
• GmailThis! has a 1000 character limit for selected text. (Thanks, Roy.)

Edit: Thank you for your comments. However, if you're reporting a bug, I do need some more info so that I can be more helpful. Please post relevent info, such as:

1. The browser you're using;
2. The operating systen you're using;
3. Whether or not you have a pop-up blocker in use.

Thank you for using (or trying to use) GmailThis!

Edit Two: If you'd like to link to GmailThis! on your website, copy and paste this code:

<a href="http://contrapants.org/blog/2005/07/gmailthis.html" title="GmailThis!: a JavaScript bookmarklet tool for Gmail"><img src="http://photos23.flickr.com/29699537_df65f68a13_o.png" alt="GmailThis!" /></a>

Derivative works:

• Gianni Amato created YahooThis! for users of Yahoo! Mail.
• Tantrum created a version that supports IE and Chinese.
• Ken made a a version to open a blank compose window.
• Fake made a version designed for bookmarking.
• zZ made a a version meant to fix an encoding problem.
• benvalleck made Swiftlet, a bookmarklet generator

GmailThis! is not endorsed by or in any way affiliated with Google, Inc.

Independence Day

Independence Day (aka Odin's birthday),
originally uploaded by Special.

Happy Fourth o' July, y'all.

Later: Well, I celebrated the true meaning of this day by being forced by my overlords (re: my parents) to sweep the porch. It wasn't that bad, I only worked for about an hour. Compared to the two hours it took me last time, it's good.

We don't have any plans to go look at fireworks or anything. My Uncle Chris is coming over for dinner so I think that about covers the night.

Dinner plans

As some of you may have picked up on, I'm going to be going to my friend Gabo's house for dinner later today.

Maybe I'll take some pictures. It oughta be a good time, though.

Update: So yeah, I had a good time. I ended up not bringing my camera, but you can look at Gabo's photos. Also see Gabo's post.

That was fast

Well, the day after I started using Odeo, iTunes 4.9 came out, with podcasting support.

As cool as Odeo is, I have essentially no reason to use it any more. It's more convenient to use iTunes.

The one thing I regret is that I much prefer Odeo's interface for browsing podcasts. It's faster, for one thing. Plus the site has some truly slick web design going for it.