Level Orange

Since the release of iTunes 4.9, I’ve really gotten into podcasting, probably more than I ever expected to. It’s hard to believe, but I’ve hardly used my iPod for music in the last few weeks. After the iTunes update, I subsequently checked out Podcast Alley, Podcast Pickle and Odeo. Of these, Odeo has probably had the most buzz surrounding it, and while it’s a combination of a website and application, I still don’t think it quite lives up to the full experience of iTunes.

That’s not to say iTunes hasn’t had it’s own share of trouble, with feeds being delayed and missing and just generally feeling a little half-assed. But as I think Adam Curry mentioned recently, Apple is a major player trying to get in near the ground floor, which most giant companies don’t risk doing. Remember when Microsoft underestimated the web browser market and they had to play catch-up for three versions of Internet Explorer? With Apple being the catalyst themselves for “pod”casting, how could they sit back and not jump on the wagon? I can forgive them for the setbacks.

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I finally got around to implementing gravatars on this site. Of course, right after, I read from Jon Hicks about a recent outage that lasted for several days. Still, I decided to add them just as another little doo-dad to dress the place up.

I’ve been playing with a lot of plugins lately, especially for Movable Type and WordPress, for a project I’m working on. So far, I’m very impressed with WordPress’ extensibility, but the PHP is something of a barrier. I like MT’s simple “upload file and insert tag” methodology, and really look forward to MT 3.2, which supposedly includes a better plugin management scheme.

So…to test this thing out, if you have a gravatar, leave a comment and let’s see it!

Movable Type Plugin directory

WordPress Codex – Plugins

WordPress Plugin Repository

Today at lunch, I went out to my car to get something in the trunk. I open it, get what I need and close it. Around 5:30, I start winding down for the day and get ready to leave. I grab my things from my desk and head for the door. As I’m walking out to the car, I go for my keys…

Nothing.

Oh crap. I instantly knew what had happened. It surprised me and it didn’t surprise me. Still, I decided to go back to my desk and check there, just in case.

Nothing.

Now I’m pissed. I mean, I’m right there on the edge. It takes everything I have to keep myself from just grabbing some random item and throwing it across the office. You see, this has happened to me one other time, at the same place, for the same reason. I ended up just kicking myself that time too. Apparently, this is a curse I must live with.

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So here’s the deal. About a few weeks ago at work, before we hit the last deadline, something occurred to me. Something I had actually anticipated happening for a while.

I wasn’t enjoying being at work anymore. All of a sudden, I could see right through everyone, past the jokes, past the gossip, past the petty bickering. I didn’t notice it before, but it had all become a sort of white noise over time, and now here I was stepping back from the TV set. Then I discovered why.

Not only had I become part of it all, trying to make myself a driving force of the department, but I actually made it a daily thing to rattle people’s cages at some point or another. All in good humor, of course, but not everyone saw it that way. That’s when I realized I was becoming a pest. Not a nagging pest, but a constant, driving pest. I was getting in people’s faces at inopportune times, stirring up conversations that no one cared about and just generally making a bunch of noise that no one wanted to hear. After our recent move to a new, crappier office, I had become such a vocal source of complaints and worry around the office that when I started hearing others bounce it back to me, I finally had to shut it up.

And so there was silence.

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In what is probably a somewhat true, but still insensitive review of War of the Worlds, Peter Preston makes light of how much America is still affected by 9/11 and how references in the film won’t resonate overseas. Apparently, since this didn’t happen in England, it’s nothing to be concerned about. In fact, it would seem that the majority of UK press is trashing the film for it’s decidedly American perspective of an alien attack. Tosh…as they say.

From Guardian Unlimited | Popcorn from the 9/11 rubble

Perhaps none of this resonated in my downtown multiplex because 9/11, like George W, was over there, not over here. But perhaps there’s also a dividing line as deep as the Atlantic, a different mix of culture, perception and automatic assumption that makes common action increasingly impossible. Phoney disaster movies starring Bruce Willis are one thing, arty disaster movies full of glib references quite another.

Oh, not to be insensitive or anything, but…well, look what went and happened.

CNN.com – London rocked by explosions

BBC NEWS | UK | London rocked by terror attacks

Four London Blasts Kill 40, Injure 300 – Yahoo! News

“All of our countries have suffered from the impact of terrorism,” he said. “Those responsible have no respect for human life. We are united in our resolve to confront and defeat this terrorism that is not an attack on one nation, but all nations and on civilized people everywhere.”

Last Friday, as I left the house for work, I stopped to get gas a nearby station. While filling the tank, I took a walk around the car and did a quick inspection. It sounds a little nerdy I’m sure, but I got into the habit of doing this a few years ago, especially once there was a child in the car.

Usually I just give everything a quick glance and don’t really worry about it, but this particular morning, I noticed that my right rear tire was low. I had to do a double take, because it was just barely low enough to make it stand out. So I went into my glove compartment and grabbed the tire gauge to measure the air. Before I did that, I pressed against the tire with my hand and that said it all. The tire was pressing inward with minimal force.

All right.

Easy enough, right? Just fill the tires with air…but I had three things standing in my way.

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