Hockey's Back! Oh Baby!

bubble hockey,
originally uploaded by
richard winchell

Hockey is the greatest sport ever. It has the hand-eye coordination of baseball, the rock'em sock'em action of football, the fancy passing of basketball, the international flavor of soccer, and of course the pomp and majesty of figure skating! It's all of that rolled up into one big ball of excitement, plus it's fast.

That's right, hockey is a twenty-first-century sport. It's figure skaters on meth or tweakers on skates, you decide. This past year hockey fans have had to endure the deep depression of a season with no hockey. I was in Montreal during the lockout of '95 that cut the season in half and let me tell you the French Canadians were about to start burning cars in the streets. While it is true that they'll do that for just about anything, that's beside the point, hockey was missed!

I'm a huge hockey fan. Most people don't know this but hockey was big in the Bronx, okay it wasn't but it did have a dedicated following, especially after 1980. The whole "miracle on ice" thing happened and everyone was lacing up and smashing each other in the face, it's true that Bronxites will do that anyway but trust me hockey was loved! A live game is a beautiful spectacle to behold; a cavalcade of sights, sounds, and smells; a sensual stream of consciousness involving prodigious amounts of blood, swirling bright colors, gut wrenching screams, profane chanting, and mustard-slathered pork byproducts! Okay, I'm ready...Let's go R_A_N_G_E_R_S!!!

Don't Be Afraid of Color!

light sculpture,
originally uploaded by clickykbd.

In fact, you should love the color, become a… color-lover if you will. If you are a "chromaphile" or in desperate need of a color keeyaak! You would be in good hands with COLOURlovers and ColorBlender. COLOURlovers is a social ranking/database of colors and palettes. Some of the names are hilarious! Check out the Michael Jackson palette. ColorBlender is an online color matching toolbox. Both are just colorlicious! I love color!...Love it!

You're Sired!

Happy, my pet sperm,
originally uploaded by zen³.

The title of this post is my punchline to the new Dutch reality show [from the brilliant minds who brought us Big Brother] in which contestants vie to artificially inseminate a woman who goes by the name of Yessica. This post however is about an article I came across in Vanity Fair [disclaimer: I do not subscribe, my wife "found" a copy] about the creators of Skype, the voice over internet protocol [VOIP] software that allows one to place free/low cost phone calls through a broadband connection. These are the same guys who started Kazaa. One is Swedish the other Danish, both have a lazy eye and a good twenty-dollar bet, mild Asperger's. Considering my recent Dungen post, I smell a Scandinavian conspiracy!

Bob Moog R.I.P.

moog,
originally uploaded by chacabuco.

I never owned a Moog. My main instruments are of the stringed/analog variety and any keyboards were of the cheap kind. The worlds of guitars and synths have coexisted (mostly) amicably (think ELO...maybe not.) My interest in synthesizer music can all be summed up in the term "cheesy vinyl," those wonderfully bad albums (example) that featured Mr. Moog's instruments. Bob Moog's contribution to music and music technology is monumental. He will be missed.

Psychedelic Swede Invades My Stereo!

I came across this 21-year-old, Swedish one-man-band called Dungen (pronounced Doon Jen.) The backstory is amazing (even more so if true!) He grew up in rural Sweden where his folk musician dad taught him like 500 instruments and he records in his grandmother's barn (or something like that.) The single Panda features Mitch Mitchell-style drumming; Blue Oyster Cult's...I dunno cowbell?; Boston's vocal and guitar multi-layering, Swedsih folk music's..I've got nuthin'; a country twang/lap steel that slides into infinity; and mid-90's garage band chugging (like Loud Lucy) all rolled up into a massively addicting tune that I can't stop from listening to over and over! Don't you just love when that happens?! Plus, I don't have a clue as to what he's singing about! I do know one thing...Det är bra! (That's good!)

Finding Your Inner Blog

Ok, so far my blogging experience has been centered around...well, my blogging experience. My posts have been on the navel gazing end of the spectrum. Hopefully I've been pointing to some really interesting destinations and once I get comfy, I will "find my voice." (yeah, whatever)

I've been down with the Web since Netscape 1.0 and have been a proffessional surfer for twelve (12!) years. So if I find something cool I will let y'all know. Just letting it flow. I hope you like the graphical additions. I'm going for the 19th century dilettante natural scientist look (think dusty display cases of fossils).

I've added a link to my boss' blog...Gara LaMarche's GaraLog. Here's a link to Mark Schmitt's [The Decembrist] post about posting his [then] boss' blog. It's a great overview of Gara's blog, which is resplendent with travel pics and off-the-beaten-path music and lit. I'm a bit younger than Mark but definitely subscribe to the Hüsker Dü/non-fiction skool that he aligns himself with. Gara's a young baby boomer (snicker) so we'll humor his wide-ranging, eclectic taste.

I've also added Siva Vaidhyanathan's Sivacracy.net. I recently read Siva's The Anarchist in the Library and, as a life-long librarian, I must say biggup to a man like Siva! He definitely knows que hora es! Also, I've added my del.icio.us bookmarks and vox delicii, a great site that gives you near-real-time coverage of what's popular on the del.icio.us-sphere; and I cap it all with my favorite Creative Commons license [attribution/non-commerical/sharealike]

Gift it Yo!

Peace!

Ahoy Pirate Tim!

When I grow my goatee, my wife calls me Pirate Tim. Tim's my middle name. The moniker is just an odd juxstaposition...Pirate Tim, like who could possibly take Pirate Tim seriously? So I made it my flickr handle. Today I log on to and it says , "Ahoy Pirate Tim" It just made me smile! Arrrgghhhh!

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Flickr Bajess

Okay maybe we do. I have a added a lovely flickr badge "montage" slash area rug to the sidebar. It features the whoppin' six photos I have in my flickr account. Maori carving. More will come for sure. For now just watch the pretty pictures transition...it's hypnotizing. ZZZzzzzzz.

Note: If you can't see the flickr badge you need to install the flash plugin or update your browser.

Blogging About My Blog

Okay so I've been kind of slack this summer with the blogging and all, but hey, it's been a rough summer! I've completed Anatomy and Physiology II and an English 101 class that I had to re-do because I was such a slacker back when I was eighteen [twenty years ago, people!] and so I must live the nightmare a la Rodney Dangerfield. A word to the kids...get the best grades you can! They WILL come back to haunt you! [full disclosure--I've maintained a 3.8+ average since grad school.] I also have a VERY full-time job and a kid on the way (queue the violins!) On a positive note, the English class was awesome! It's nice to get back to the basics! I'm a life-long learner and proud of it, yo!

So now I'm blogging essentially about setting up this blog. It's kind of like moving into a new apartment and getting just the right pieces of furniture, a couch here, a coffee table there...
Anyway, I've been updating the sidebar and have added more links and been placing them in topical "buckets." The "utilities" section is where I'm putting essential links which I will probably rename "essential links." It's all over the news (I know) but Flickr and del.icio.us are killer web apps! If you don't know, then act like you know and get with it! These two sites are "de rigueur" right about now, or at least they were five minutes ago (backlash in 4...3...2...1)! Also TinyUrl makes big URLs that wrap around and are unusable totally clickable so you don't have to add the "cut and paste" disclaimer--nice!

On the cybrarian tip I've added ResourceShelf and ResourceShelf's DocuTicker. These are run by Gary Price and Steve Cohen who have been fixtures at the Internet Librarian conferences I go to and are cybrarian "celebs." The info on these two sites is massive! Even if you aren't a librarian you can still get your geek on!

Artsy Schmartsy has my favorite artsy blog Drawn! for now ...more coming soon.
Finally, my profile pic is a Maori carving I snapped at the Auckland War Memorial Museum while honeymooning in New Zealand. Believe me, it's much better looking than I am!

Ode to MST3K

Man I miss this show! Looking at this website of movie posters featured in MST3K got me all weepy-eyed over Servo, Crow, Mike, and the rest of the gang. This show took an old t.v. gag and made it something truly special and it could be enojoyed by all ages. My dad, my nephew, and I cracked up for two glorious hours every Saturday morning (reruns). That's like three generations dude!
Thanks Drawn!