Author: josh

Green

I’m just playing around with colors, and I thought I’d see what this blog looked like with lots of green. The nice thing is that this change took me about 30 seconds to make. I love that. It would take me about 10 seconds to put it back.

I’m considering where I might be able to go with this and what kinds of color schemes I’ve left myself open to. It’s exciting!

Chew the Rainbow

I haven’t posted in over two weeks. This post is a horrible way to come back, but it’s quick and easy, and it’s all I have time for.

I sometimes get excited about candy. I’ve got some kind of super-human sweet tooth, able to eat whole packages full of candy in a single sitting. So the other day I spotted a new confection in the vending machine and I had to try it. It was Skittles Bubble Gum Yeah, it’s a little odd. They look just like skittles (same size, same colors as the classic ones) but they say “gum” on them in the same white font you’ve come to recognize with the “S.” They even taste almost exactly like the Skittles you’ve probably had. But when you eat them, they don’t chew and dissolve, they just keep on chewing and chewing. It’s really odd. They share an Achilles Heel with most other gums by losing flavor quickly.

Try them out and let me know what you think.

Geek Humor

I just can’t get enough of this stuff. So you may have heard that Real has figured out how to make music in their too-little-too-late music store work with the iPod (login required, sorry), and Apple wasn’t thrilled about the idea.

Real is calling the initiative Freedom Of Music Choice. They put up a petition, but it turns out people voiced their actual opinions of Real, and Real didn’t like that, so they made a new petition with comments turned off. Still, after wading through the comments on the first petition, I found this gem:

I thought I would[BUFFERING…10%] voice my opinion using[BUFFERING…12%]the messag[BUFFERING…40%]ing client built into REAL’s[BUFFERING…50%] [BUFFERING…60%]media center[BUFFERING…75%]I think REAL has some[BUFFERING…80%] of the [BUFFERING…82%] [BUFFERING…85%] [BUFFERING…90%] products ever[CONNECTION LOST… REAL_ERROR32XKernel]

To top it off, there’s a counter-petition online now that has far more signatures than Real’s crappy attempt at a grassroots movement. Man, I love geeks.

Nine Emails!

Here’s a glimpse into the mind of Josh Lewis. Read on… if you dare!

I use my email’s Inbox as a to-do list of sorts. If there’s a chore I’ve got to remember to do, or a person I need to contact, I’ll remember to do it if it’s in my Inbox. As soon as an email leaves my Inbox I consider it to be done (or in rare cases, I’m tracking the issue elsewhere) so I pay it no more attention. This means that there are certain emails that I refuse to move from my Inbox even though they’ve been there for… oh, I don’t know… five months.

Seriously, a friend of mine (or at least he used to be my friend) wrote to me and asked how things were going, and I wanted to sit down and write a really nice response because we don’t communicate often at all, so I kept the email there until I had the time. He wrote me on March 30th at 8:18am PST. The email is still there, gathering digital cobwebs. I still want to write you back! Don’t give up on me! Heck, just send me another email.

The good news is that my Inbox is now down to only nine emails. Four of them are on the same subject, and will require several hours of my attention, so I haven’t gotten around to them. One is a reminder to help a friend with a PHP problem. Two (including Mr. March 30th) are letters from college friends. The other two are reminders to do particular chores. And that’s it! I’m excited because I usually have twenty or even fifty of these things hanging around, waiting to get answered. It feels good to be almost down to zero.

What are your email habits? How many are in your Inbox(es)?

Bender and Beck

I’m a little surprised that I was never deeply into Futurama when it was actually on the air and they were making new episodes. I didn’t hate the show, I just wasn’t really excited to see it for one reason or another. It’s odd because the crew who creates it has quite a few overlaps with The Simpsons, and my love of that show has been made quite plain here in the past.

When I discovered that Futurama’s first three seasons were available on NetFlix I was eager to stick them at the front of my queue, and I did just that. I watched them in a matter of weeks, and now I’m a big fan. I should’ve known that satire and sci-fi would be like the peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate of television. Fox didn’t agree with that assessment, unfortunately, but no one’s ever sure what those guys are thinking.

Anyhow, I wanted to share a couple clips (Fair use! Fair use!) from one of the episodes in season three in the hopes that you’ll go and check it out. When I first watched this episode, I was shocked to find that Beck plays a rather large role in it. He’s one of my favorite musicians, and he does quite a lot more than a cameo. Those of you who are fans of Beck’s music will appreciate these jokes much, much more than those who haven’t heard it or aren’t very familiar with it. The thing that really impressed me about this episode was how tightly it was connected to Beck’s work, instead of just being generic music jokes or generic rock star jokes.

So without further ado, I present Bender’s introduction to Beck, and the Becktionary.

Stinson

Josh and Steph on the beach Steph and I had (and are currently having) a great time at Stinson Beach. We spent the day walking about town, hanging out at the beach, and eating at the local restaurants. Tip: when you order the Chili Dog from the snack stand, tell them to give you more dog than chili, or they’ll bury the thing as though the hot dog is a nice surprise to discover after you’ve dug to the bottom of the cheese and beans. Soggy buns are OK after swimming in the Pacific, but no one orders them for dinner.

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