Archive for May 2005
Meet Krista… my parent’s golden retriever. I shot this when we first got her, when she was probably 10 weeks old. Most parents record and cherish their childs first words, their first steps, first day at school. Well here we got Krista’s first “accident” in the house and first fart. She also learns that when you eat something, it dissapears. Takes her a little while to figure out though.
Enjoy.
To kick off my new video blog, I bring you…. Vanilla Coop. In college, a buddy of mine, Cooper, made a career out of gettin’ funky to Ice, Ice, Baby whenever it happened to be played at parties. One night last fall, it came up next on the playlist, I grabbed my camera, and this is what I got. Enjoy.
Gearing up to start posting my own videos, so figured I’d spend some time checking out all the vlogs out there.
Here was a good one about “The worlds youngest vlogger”
Turns out there is a new kid in town, here is Jordan vlogging his day at the petting zoo. Pretty good stuff.
Also, go check out Phil Hamilton’s blog as it has some pretty good stuff in it. This one cracked me up.
Why am I going to start a video blog? Because I have an existing collection of everything from quality Spring Break clips, to burying a roomates car in snow, to beer tours, to goofy white guys singing Ice, Ice, Baby. So, this should be fun.
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Group seeks ban of 20th Century from Kansas school textbooks
0 Comments | Posted by Derek in Uncategorized
As a resident of Kansas, I find this hilarious.
Group seeks ban of 20th Century from Kansas school textbooks
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This is what makes the internet so great
0 Comments | Posted by Derek in Humor, Uncategorized
Via BoingBoing: Source
“This is a video that apppears to be castmembers from Walt Disney World horsing around in character costumes — Belle performing a striptease, Tweedledee and Tweedledum administering a beatdown to Pooh, and so forth. Pretty mild stuff, and reasonably funny. Mostly notable for the fact that the characters, especially the “head” characters are pretty sacrosanct when they’re onstage. 5MB Quicktime Link.”
Now that I realized how useful it is to code pages for cell phone use, another idea popped into my head. I constantly visit AvantSlash on my cell phone because http://slashdot.org/palm sucks. So why not make another geek favorite site cell-phone-friendly too? I bring you Mobile Bash.org, something that took a whole 5 minutes to code thanks to the great work already done with the Bash.org RSS feed.
Now enjoy the stupidity of IRC chatting at your fingertips wherever you go. So be sure to bookmark it on your phone/PDA for whenever you get bored.
Well, I finally got around to giving Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) a whirl. I wasn’t trying to do anything spectacular, just something functional to wet my appetite. I started out just wanting to allow people to send me text messages via the side bar. I got it all set up using PHP in about 2 minutes, and I thought… “It works, but I hate reloading the page for something so simple.” And then Ajax popped in my head and thought it would be a great first script.
So off I went to grab the latest version of SAJAX (Simple Ajax), and boy were they right about the “simple” part. Within about 30 minutes, I had a functional script that you can now find on the side bar. Before you try it out, please use the demo page, as I don’t need everyone sending me text messages just to see how it works.
Next step, getting my responses to show up. =)
Edit: At first that last comment was a joke, but two hours later…, that was shockingly easy. I’d like to get it integrated into the side bar, but out of time tonight. I’ll post the code when I have a bit more time to work on it. So feel free to send a message or two, as I can respond rather easily. If you get annoying, I can turn it off via my cell phone too. 
Having just finished watching the controversial film, Elephant, I’ll have to say that it was a very good, and also a rather haunting movie in which people will either love or hate. Some say this movie was Gus Van Sant attempting to portray the Columbine shootings, however I believe it is fairly obvious when watching the movie that it is was more inspired by Columbine as well as all the other high school shootings in recent years. Those were events that really engrained the reality and trauma some kids endure throughout high school, and the actions they can sometimes take.
I must say, there was little point or purpose to the film except to take you into an average day of a High School, but it was filmed and depicted in a very artistic and poetic manner. Events and characters in this movie were not meant to be taken literally, but they were more representations which should be taken in a symbolic nature. The characters represented the stereotypes which you find at every high school. The scenes depicted the boredom, the insecurity, and the self-indulgence in high-schoolers lives. High school ended quite a while ago for me, but it is still fresh in my mind that I could easily finds parts of characters to relate to. It was also relieving to see high-schoolers actually play high schoolers, and high school not portrayed as a perfect little world of beautiful people as you commonly find in movies and TV now days.
This movie was needed becuase we don’t need a re-creation or a hollywood-esque movie with a dramatic 30 minute standoff and suicides at the end telling us what exactly happened that day at Columbine, or how to feel about the events that have happened at numerous other high schools. Van Sant rather exposes us to the banality of high school life, and the tragedy that can occur and let’s us make up our own mind and feelings about what is happening. I highly recommend this film, but be warned, it’s not for everyone. You’ll either love it or hate it. If you liked Almost Famous, you’ll like this. If you liked Armegeddon, you’ll hate it. If you liked Garden State, you’ll love this. If you thought Con Air, Coyote Ugly, or Dude Where’s My Car were good movies, you’ll hate this.
Wow… 3 posts in one day, new record.
I just finished watching the documentary Overnight, featuring Troy Duffy’s overnight rise and fall in Hollywood. If you don’t recognize the name, he was writer and director of the cult hit The Boondock Saints. TBS really was an entertaining movie and from what I understand has had rather impressive DVD sales for being a low budget independent film. The sequel has “been in production” for quite some time, but likely won’t ever be made.
It was amazing to see how quickly “the next big thing” to hit Hollywood can crash back down to earth. He had, what appeared to be sure-fire success as he landed a movie deal with Miramax and a record deal with Maverick at the same time. He was convinced he was going to be the biggest thing ever in that town and stated multiple times that no one has ever done what he was about to do in the history of Hollywood. But, he let his ego become the largest in Hollywood (which is quite an accomplishment), and pissed it all away.
How does one blow guaranteed success like that? Easy, make enemies with the most powerful man in Hollywood (Harvey Weinstein, Miramax Chairman), call one of his executives the C word who ended up being a very powerful woman in Hollywood, piss off your band-mates, screw over your friends, get yourself blacklisted, and ultimately sign a crappy movie deal. He told his crew (about 7 longtime friends) that if they played their cards right, they were looking towards at least “20 years of success in the industry” and it turns out they didn’t even have one. He thought there would be a bidding war at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for his movie. “In my opinion, this film will go big at the box office. Real Big. It’s one of the best independent films there ever was, and I am one of the best, and will be the best.” Turns out blacklisting yourself from the industry killed those chances.
My favorite part was when he was speaking to a film theory college course and managed to insult half the classroom by pointing out individuals who he felt weren’t going to succeed and calling others assholes for paying him compliments (which he was too stupid to realize).
Definitely worth checking out. It can really remind you how important staying humble is if given the chance at big time success. It is also a very interesting look at the insides of Hollywood.
The movie ended with the perfect quote…
“No man is really changed by success. What happens is that success works on the man’s personality like a truth drug, bringing him out of the closet and revealing… what was always inside his head.” – Author, Albert Goldman
So I threw down the deposit today for my new pad in downtown Kansas City and can’t wait to move in. It’s the Waltower building at 9th & Walnut. I had the choices between a mid-level 1 bedroom, or a 2 bedroom/2 bath penthouse for $80 more, too good to pass up.
The new place is two blocks away from the new library (which is awesome) and 2 1/2 blocks away from the main building (Library Lofts) which has all my amenities; pool, fitness center, jacuzzi, sauna, tanning bed, clubhouse, pool table, putting green.
So I’m on the top level and the closest 3 of 5 sections are mine.
Unfortunately, Penthouse-polooza doesn’t begin until July 22nd. Gonna be tough to have to wait two months.
It’s amazing how you can waste hours of your day playing around with the brand new Google satellite maps. Here are a few interesting locations I’ve come across…
White Sands Missile range. The middle of the circle is where the first atomic bomb exploded.
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I have no idea what this is. It looks like it has a road and a building leading up to it.
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Mars (No, actually northern Wyoming)
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Gotta be some sort of military missile testing range
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Flock of birds
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The Manicouagan Impact Crater
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Elmendorf Air Force Base. Almost looks like an optical illusion
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Bermuda. Took a while to figure out what this island was. Had no clue it was so far north.
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Over the past week, I had the pleasure of seeing two documentaries exposing two cultures in American society rarely seen up close, Born Rich and Devil’s Playground.
Produced by 21 year old Jamie Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson family, Born Rich was a look into the lives of himself and his peers, a handful of the heirs and heiresses of Americas wealth. By watching, it’s clear that Johnson doesn’t have much experience making films, but that didn’t detract from the film and the courage it took for a kid of his background to make a film solely about the wealth of his peers. In their culture, Jamie’s dad says that money is a taboo subject to be discussed publicly and reiterates over and over that he is not comfortable with his son making a film of this nature. The family lawyer also recommends he not make this film as well. But still… he rounds up a dozen or so of the nations wealthiest youth and grills them on a variety of questions ranging from their aspirations in life to their fears of being cut out of their inheritance.
Only a few come out showing some redeeming qualities (Ivanka Trump being one of them). But there were a few others who fit the stereotype of rich, pompous, and whiny. Not surprising Luke Weil tried (unsuccessfully) to sue Johnson to block the release of this film. Maybe if he hadn’t gloated about his money and said things like… “Fuck you. I’m from New York… My family could buy your family. Piss off.” or talking about only helping beggars just to get them away, he might not have worried about the film being released. The security of being rich is of course attractive, but some of these kids showcase the fact that when you know nothing but money, you are completely oblivious to reality.
On the completely other-side of the cultural spectrum, Devil’s Playground is a look into the Amish lifestyle in America, specifically, the teenagers experience during “Rumspringa.” In brief, the Amish believe that you shouldn’t be born into religion or have it forced on you, rather you should decide to accept it yourself. When an Amish teen turns 16, he/she is free to do whatever they choose, they are free from the confines of a strict Amish lifestyle. Now picture yourself, 15 years old, living in rural Indiana, never having any of the things we take for granted in our busy (sub)urban lives, and boom… you turn 16, free to do whatever you want. Free to experience all the temptations of drugs, alcohol, sex, etc… You might not think it would be easy to find drugs in an Amish community, but this film follows Faron, an 18 year old drug dealer/meth addict struggling in his decision to commit to the church. Basically, the night you turn 16, you have a party and drinks are pushed on you until you puke (not too different from the average 21 year old’s birthday). Because Amish children typically only attend school until 8th grade, at 16, you are living with you parents, with no real responsibilities (unless you work), so them being unleashed and thrown into the world is just like when a home-schooled kid goes off to college. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
The revelation that stuck me from watching these two films is that they really show happiness is only a state of mind and money has nothing to do with it. Both groups, one being poor and having very little material wealth, and the other, being rich and having everything they want, have roughly the same amount of people who are genuinly happy and satisfied with their lives, and those who are miserable, lost, and confused.
I came across these files earlier today and have decided to throw them up here. This is basically what you do with your time living in a college town during the summer, unemployed. I don’t even think at this point 6 years ago I had any idea what MySQL or PHP was, because if I did, it would have made everything a whole lot easier. For my MLS simulator, I was using Java arrays containing about 10,000 items. Something tells me that isn’t the most efficient way to move data. Also this was back in the day when I used Word and Excel to make webpages, how embarrassing! Check it out @ The Java Soccer Page
