Most people have paperwork they have to keep but don’t need to have immediately at hand. I guess it’s part of this “adult life” thing I keep hearing so much hype about. Thus, the invention of the filing cabinet. Steph and I have one, of course, and we keep all our boring paperwork in there.

Recently we were thinking about death (we really have fun on the weekends, don’t we?) and Steph told me that if she died, there would be certain places I would have to call in order to get life insurance stuff and other details squared away. I told her I would never remember such a thing in that event, and wished there was an easy way to store and recall it later, come the need.

So she took the information, went to the filing cabinet, and put it in the “Warranties” folder.

Sometimes I get the greatest answering machine messages. Usually it’s in reaction to the oddball outgoing message our machine has recorded, and today’s message is no exception to that.

In honor of the Gilmore Girls, our outgoing message simply states, “This is the answering machine. You know what to do. (BEEP)” This is how my parents responded:

Click, Hear (621 KB)

If you ever wondered where I get it, now you know. The way my dad semi-echoes my mom (she’s in the background) just gives it the right surreal, bizarre quality.

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, Stephanie’s birthday is exactly three weeks from today, and she does have a gift list online. Two, actually. They’re on her blog, on the right side.

For my 27th birthday last month (almost exactly one month ago, actually) Steph made cool little party favors, one of which was a “Wooly Joshy.” I wanted to write about it then, but didn’t have time. Now I’ve got a tiny bit of time (mostly because I’m deciding that I do), so here’s a picture of one! Enjoy.

Awhile back Mike Matas (of Delicious Monster fame) came up with the idea of a “Life Poster” and posted instructions on how to make one. Then Jim Heid automated the process, and I can’t resist good automation.

Here’s a small version of mine made with images from just the last year or so. Don’t feel bad if you’re not in the poster. It just means I don’t have a recent, high-resolution picture of you.

Steph and I had a sort of build-your-own baked potato dinner this evening, wherein one takes the potato and puts any number of other toppings on it to create one’s “dream potato”. This idea is not new. Once the potatoes were out on the table, one of the ingredients I wanted on mine was shredded cheddar cheese. So I was putting the cheese on the potato, and the potato had already started to cool a bit, and the cheese just wasn’t melting correctly.

Most people would suggest a short trip to the microwave, but I insisted upon something possibly faster, more exciting, much more wasteful, and potentially more destructive for my potato.

You see, just last Christmas Steph’s mom got her a creme brulee set a lot like this little beauty. And as any creme brulee lover knows, the most important part of that whole thing is the handheld butane torch. That’s the “brulee” part! Steph had just gotten some butane to fill it today, and it was sitting out, so…

Pffffffffssshhhhhhhh……

The cheese was excellent. Really evenly melted. It actually kept melting after I removed the torch. I didn’t scorch the plate or the potato at all, and I didn’t even have to get out of my seat. I think I might try the butane torch on some old-fashioned cheese ‘n chips this week. Steph and I wondered what would happen if I started bringing the torch to restaurants. “Sir, do you need me to warm that up?” “Oh, no thanks, I’ve got it. (Pfffffsssshhhhhhhhh)”

Next week: arc welding prime rib!

Each year, during the WWDC Conference, Apple invites the thousands of attending developers back to its main campus (otherwise known as “Infinite Loop”) for a little food, drink, and music. I took a few pictures.

Around 6:30 in the evening Bus after bus of developers arrive from the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, where the conference is held. Here, they’re heading out into the central courtyard from the lobby of IL1.

The crowd grabbed some food and sat in the grass to watch the band, which was…

… The Wallflowers! The lead singer is Bob Dylan’s son. I’m sure that had some small effect on their being invited, since Steve loves Bob Dylan.

A few people came over to my place afterwards. Starting from the left, that’s Dan Schimpf, me, and Mike Zornek. There was this other guy named Joe Howard who was here, but he’s not in the picture because he wasn’t cool enough. Or he left early. One of those. I don’t remember which.

My first entry involving audio was done almost two years ago and it was only my 12th entry. My 14th and 15th entries were mostly audio, and then my 16th entry was the post where I admitted that I was learning how boring audio can be if it’s done incorrectly. And this all predates the term “podcasting” by about 7 months. (My entries weren’t technically podcasting since I wasn’t using RSS enclosures, but you get the idea.) I’ve been doing audio on the ‘Net since 1997 or 1998 for Mission Control, a college radio show I co-hosted with my buddy Kevin Hendricks, and it’s a topic near and dear to my heart.

Well, Steve Jobs just announced at the 2005 WWDC Keynote (from 6:55 – 12:22) that the next version of iTunes will support direct podcast downloading, and that the iTunes Music Store (which apparently now has an 82% market share of online downloads) will contain an entire section dedicated to finding and subscribing to podcasts. These aren’t necessarily professionals we’re talking about here. They’re people living in farmhouses in Wisconsin. As Steve put it, it’s “Wayne’s World for radio”.

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile, and I think it’s time for a little announcement of my own. Stephanie and I will soon be doing our own podcast on a very regular basis. Yes, Stephanie and I, not just me. I was shocked to find that she was fairly excited about the idea, so I figured it could only help things to have someone to play off of and give a different perspective to the issues we discuss. Heck, I figure she’ll be at least half the reason people listen! Or the whole reason half the people listen. Or… something. The show will probably be filled with our critiques and discussions of whatever issues we’ve had on our minds, but I think we’ll be able to bring a little structure to it so it’s not hard to follow. Just trust me on this one. It’s something I’m working out.

So there you have it. More news to follow. I’d love to know what you think we should call the show.