Floozy Speak!

Now playing: Jack Triumph presents Sanctuary - Jan 05 - Hour 02 - D-Frag Guest DJ (frisky R a d i o - feelin' frisky?)

I've just opened up an account on , considering in general i have at least 20 things I want to do any any given time.  In fact..

This weekend I managed to cook a leg of lamb, boil a dozen eggs, heat up some mac n' cheese and.. AND mop the floor all at the same time.  That is getting work done folks.  Multitask everything ya do.  That's what I want.  Anyways go check out my goodness in 43 Things.

Oh ya and those delicious plugins I thought were broken in firefox?  Well they just showed up!!  Yeeehaw!  Ok so now I just gotta export my bookmarks to delicious. 

currently listening to: www.friskyradio.com

Posted by dan at 02:49 PM | Permalink

Forkus hit 40th level this weekend in World of Warcraft.   Game still fun?  Hell ya!  I found six new zones this weekend as well.  Lotta alliance folks taunt me too where ever I go.  I am well loved with the Horde and well hated with the goody goody humans.  For anyone interested what Forkus is like, check out:

Video LoRes: http://jackrabbix.com/FireLo.wmv
Video HiRes: http://jackrabbix.com/FireHi.mpg

Two pretty good videos showing you life at 40+ in WoW for a Warlock.  I'm havin a blast lately. 

Posted by dan at 12:44 PM | Permalink

This weekend I ventured over to Microcenter and gave the Mini Mac a spin.  I dunno... I sat there for about 30mins doodling around with various iLife apps and decided that basically it was too much extra for the current place and time for me.  Extra in the sense that I don't need it right now.  Sure I like to spend spend like any one these days but I have to resist.  I have expenses to tend to a real mini that needs love first. 

It looked nice mind you.  I really did but then in my minds eye i saw myself sitting at the mac for many hours to learn it, to understand it, to play with it... more hours at a pc that i didnt want to spend in general just yet. 

So at the moment lets say "curious but not serious".  However I am seriously curious about wikiness or something to allow me to:

• 1. export my firefox bookmarks to delicious
• 2. a nice firefox delicious connector (i've tried 2 so far, they both seem to have failed)
• 3. get onfolio beta to work in firefox
• 4. figure out wikipad
• 5. pay bills make more green

I also was tempted to get a shuffle which will probably before I get a mini.  I dunno.  The mini really needs to show me it can do Apple Motion on it before I throw it the cash. 

In other news I just got out of a meeting with childhood friend, mentor, technical god and electrical gizmo guru Cedric Zi, and I'm sure i've spelled his name wrong.  Anyways he's a great great man and he's helping us out a few new gizmos we need for research gigs. 

Growing up Cedric was my fathers go to man when it comes to custom and complicated rigs.  Cedric built railroad remote controls, eye tracking headsets, submergible cameras and more.  I always love his creations cause they usually had this crude unfinished unbranded look to them.  A blinking lcd with six switches, or a helmet with 38 spikes that screw into yer skull and infrared eye beam to measure flickering eye movement.  Hilarious props I thought to myself.  The 38 spiked helmet was used on many occasions as a cool rock video video toaster prop.  I loved that stuff.

After our conversation on the current work project I showed him our retail rig that we've used in the field to track consumers thru a retail enviroment.  He liked it, brought back some memories.  And then we started talking fuel cells, I'm always looking for ways to minimize loads, and the retail rig cameras are good but i lighter load would be nice in some instances.  Cedric gave me the run down on the Buckeye Bullet, a few students he knows are currently working on that project and working with all kinds of battery types. 

Posted by dan at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Yes I stole that whole graphic.. hey.. its a cool app, go get it now!!

Posted by dan at 08:16 PM | Permalink

Today I had lunch Matt Lewis aka MattL from flickr.  Matt teaches an assortment of classes at Ohio State University's Advanced Computing Center for the Arts Design aka ACCAD. 

ACCAD in my mind has always been seen as the cool factory of OSU.  I mean the OSU campus is massive right?  Nothing really stands out as amazing over there to me except for ACCAD.  They have thier own space and their own killer cool experimental gear. 

Matt's diving into everything from computer graphics to wearable devices to emerging technology.  Very cool combo of stuff if you ask me.  We met thru flickr and have been meeting up for lunch now and then to dive into each others backgrounds, interests and more. 

So back to lunch.  I have to say Matt's got a better grip on the delicious tag'culture that I do presently.  I need to take another look at really "deliciousl'fying" my life. 

--- Let's see what's next? 

A few ramblin links from the web here, not sure how I got to all of these, I was following something and now I've lost it.. lol but anyways:

mousemiles, soundcube, mathmos (they have a new one!), lately i've been plaqued with, green design (gotta happen) 

I discovered the Near Near Future today.  I love this blog.  I especially like the top banner, the tags grouping.  I'd like something like that for floozy.  I think MT just incorportated tags into the software.. must find a way to bridge that gap and get it past any cognitive blocks I may have :P 

Last night I cleaned out one file folder holder stacks of crap cabinets.  Man I got too much information and all of it is all over the place.  Wiki, I thought to myself I need a Wiki.  That started me on search for knowledge management tools like jotspot, basecamp, onfolio, wikipad, snipsnap, and more.  In fact along with general knowledge management, I need to fix my approach to bookmarks.  I was thinking about this last night actually.  Bookmarks in general are a messed up on browsers.  They really fullfill the need the user wants, least in my view.  Its a halfass way of making a mark.  I'd like to have full access to UI's sometimes.  Take out menu's that dont make sense or never get used or have the app evole to my settings, if I never used "Go, x, y or z" after 30 days or something, the app hides that menu from sight.  I can always hit some "activate all button" that would bring it all back but my everyday use of the app, it'd know.  It'd know what I always do or want to do or learned how to boot strap my way thru. 

Posted by dan at 05:53 PM | Permalink

Remember my ramblings on paparazzi proof devices?  Well HP's on the way with one.  Totally makes sense to me really.  I say bring it!   Except this only gives the devices themselves a way to be controlled.  I still like the idea of a directional EMP type weapon myself.

I'm interested in location-based mobile gaming.  I'm not sure what offerings I can get on the sidekick 2.  There is a sdk out there for it.  But for everyone else, especially you Nokia folks check out In-Duce's list of location based games.

Battle of the Tabletz and Education is unfolding yet again this year.  Bishop Hartley Highschool, Lextant and Ohio State University are teaming up this quarter in OSU's Industrial Design Engineerings 508 class.  Kind of a warm spot for me for a few reasons really. 

My father created the 508 course at OSU long ago when he was a professor there.  The course is aimed at getting the students out into the field and conduct real research with real result.  Teaches students everything from proposal writing, presenting, fielding and research approach methodoliges and more. 

And the other reason why I love this project really is cause I pushed it thru really.  Ever since the tablets debuted I've followed them, seen where they have weeded their way into viable marketplaces.  They have such incredible potential. About a year ago I came across the Bishop Hartley story, and wouldn't ya know it - we're all connected, cause at the time our IT guy was the same guy working for the school getting them all wired up for wifi.  I hooked up with Ken Collura, Technical Director at Bishop Hartley and the talks began.  

I'm amazed with their level of tablet integration.  200+ tablets connected to 200+ kids changing the way every class works.  The sheer number of research questions is mind blogging really. 

• Do kids really learn more, better, etc?
• Do tablets make learning fun?
• Can and will teachers also adopt tablets?
• What are the barriers or inhibitors?
• What about the backend, server and file management?
• Or the apps themselves, which ones, what classes are the tablets most profiecent in?
• What about media types, audio, video?
• And collaboration platfroms?
• What about potential abuses, napster, p2p, bittorrent, skype on the administrations network?
• Ergonomic issues, new postures, new stress loads on the hands, arms, body?
• How bout reading, screen clarification, eye strain?
• Printing, ebooks and availability of enough educational resources in an electronic medium?
• Ethics and standards in the new tablet wireless classroom?  
• Life after Bishop Hartley High school, will college be a step in the right direction or going back in time?
• What does tablet technology teach kids aside from class offerings etc?
• Who gains?  Who loses out?
• Who adopots? Who doesn't?
• Writing styles and note taking, cursive scribe is back, tablet likes, but is it native to the kids? 
• Is the tablet smart enough to keep up? 

and the players in the mix..

• Who's developing pen based software and technology?
• Can Microsoft give us a TRUE pen-based OS?
• Whats a better way to navigate vs existing top drop down file, mouse orientated navigation?  BIGGIE FOR ME
• Who are the players in the core education base?
• What kind of boot strapping is occurring on the back end to make it all stick together? - that is ripe area to find potential killer app development

Who's doing what?  Check it out: GoBinder, DyKnow, SlateGlove?, MathPractice, TabletPcTalk, ArtRage, and more...

In other news, i'm catching up with the Folksonomies.  Readin about Intuitiveness, realizing I really really really need to get it goin here at work to blog, and what is it that attracts me to blogs i cant read but surf anyways? 
Oh and I love this, in fact I wanted to create something like this a long time ago.. i wish i could program... where should I start?  flash?  

Posted by dan at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Hola kittens and floozmongers today is the day we stand proud and claim "We are the future farmers, we are the content cripples, we are the disco kidz of our generation!" and then we go back to whatever we were doin.  So how've you been?  Good? 

Engadget made this nice belt buckle for me.. isn't that sweet?  Awww thx everyone!  I've been hoppin all over the net lately.  I'm still thinkin about:

• gettin an mac mini for apple's motion and iphoto
• figuring out a way to broadcast tunes
• got an excellent idea last nite on a new video for work peeps
• gettin back to talkin crap
• buying upgrade to visual communicator
• world of warcraft.. ha!
• putting together an independent study on emerging technology applied to groovy trends
• finish reading like six books

What I have done...

• killed off my ATT contract, die bastards
• killed my first paladin in world of warcraft, die goody bastards
• got back on the treadmill, fitness oooooooo
• hugged my baby often, and always

Not bad.  So far so good.  And now some random linkage.  This year I really need to kick off a few projects that take advantage of such amazing emergingly awesome tech out there.  Sometimes its a hard battle to get old researchers to approach a problem in a new way.  Folks have a system that works why change it.  I can see that.  Still I feel like software is exploding on the scene lately and is ripe for research implementation.  I'm mainly talking about using Flickr and Netomat.  I think they are waaaay overdue to be used on a project.  I've been given the go ahead to spin up an independent project using both technologies or any others I see fit. 

Lets get folks to talk about pictures.  Ok so what projects in the past have been very qualitative in regards to reaping good data from lots of pics?  Hmmmm well we have...

• a brand study, pick a brand and do a brainstorm on it, etc..
• a product study, pick an object, household or something, journal it, blog it, group brainstorm on it
• an enviromental space, pick a store, or type of store or space, journal it, blog it, photo the heck outa it
• a space in the consumers life, for instance a garage study, how do people organize their garage, photo it, talk about it, use netomat to reorg it,

Ya I like it.  Need to get some questions clear in my head and then...

• ask the questions, what are the answers you wish to find
• who benefits
• methodolgy in place, what you are going to do
• proposal it, write that proposal baby
• recruit it, determine the demographics, create the screener and get the folks
• develop a guide sheet, method to get what we want into flickr, netomat etc,
• field it ( the funnest part )
• analyze it ( use tags in flickr as much as possible, pathfinder it )
• present results

Look at me i'm all bullety today.  Ahhh well.  I like it, I need to start.  Must go! 

Posted by dan at 12:14 PM | Permalink

This past weekend was Ohayocon 5 in downtown columbus at the convention center.  Yer basic anime convention filled with cosplayers dressing up as bad ass elves and hopefully scantily clad girls as wicked mages and what not.  Theres movies, and video game rooms, the dealer room offers deals (sometimes) on cool posters and models, and crap you dont need, ok lemme take that back sometimes the little crap is cool but then it gets lost in yer house and ends up in small boxes or something. 

2005 is the year of use what you need toss everything else btw.

Ok so back to heaven and hell.  What's funny about this anime convention is that its in the convention center along with other various cons as well.  In particular and I dont know how they got them in sync or what not but this year like last year the anime con has run right along another con.. a christian convention.  Can you picture that for a sec?  Picture a 15yr rebelious kid shufflin down the hallway dressed as some goth meets demon hunter magic +10 damage to holy folk.. goes to the food court, snags a bagel, turns and runs smack into a leaflet tossing yer gonna burn in hell christian?  Now I'm christian and I dont think the kid will burn, its all good, but christians that go to cons, well they have agendas ya know.  Anyways I found it highly entertaining last year watching the vampires roam the halls with bible thumpers staring at them.. this year much of the same occured. 

Here's a post from the Ohayocon's website.. an offended anime goer.

"...I'd like to complain about the Christians that were throwing pamplets in our faces,lecturing us, and discriminating us.Did you guys know that there was going to be a Christian convention in the same hotel? If not, then please disregard this, but if you did know that they were going to be there, I'd like to ask why you chose that hotel to have the convention in. Could you possibly avoid doing that next year? I really don't want that happening again. I am 100% sure that I wasn't the only one that was being annoyed by them."

Take that you pagan scumbags!  BURN! 

but wait.. perhaps the christians had planned this all along, what better way to reach the youth of america but at an anime convention, convert them and hundreds could be spared.. or saved or wait a tick what am i tryin to say here.. someone toss me a good dramatic line.... another post please!

"...I hear that Pamplets were being thrown in people's faces, do you think they could have done it on the Ohayocon weekend on purpose? I didn't have a problem with them, but It seems awfully fishy to me. "

Insert scary music here.  Tune in next year.....

Posted by dan at 05:19 PM | Permalink

Check out this nice read on mobile realism....

I guess I was gonna be all witty sci-fi'y and all this morning.. ya know monday and all but hell I got work to do I will say this.  This weekend my sister-in-law-that-gets-me-groovy-things, hit me up with another one- The Hot Diggity Dogger.  Yes I made mention of the HDD awhile back.  I saw it skymall magazine and I just thought.. hell I need one!  I mean I have a George Foreman Lean Mean Grillin Machine, a Contact Roaster, a blender, and a regular toaster.. don't I also need the diggity dogger as well?  I mean look at it...

Yes thats right its a popup hot dog maker.  Now I know right away you want one.  Who wouldn't really.  And yes it does work.  Actually my sister-in-law's Father had one and after hearing my story of wanting one, stuck on a long flight, reading sky mall magazine and such, passed it on to me to try.  It does work.  But you gotta use some caution.  The diggity dog cage gets extremely hot, so use like a fork to get to that and lift it up.  And the buns tend to cook ie burn faster than the dogs so put them in like a min or two after you start heatin the dogs.  Its yummy, it works, its better than the microwave or gah i hate boiling water. 

Why use machine dan?  I know.. I know.. why?  I cant answer that really other to say why not.  I bought my folks a quesdilla maker for xmas as well.

Out of all my gizmos I probably use George Foreman's stuff the most.  The contact roaster makes a juicy delicious pork roast and the grillin machine makes for easy grillin whenever ya need it.  I do reccomend electric grillin indoors though.. i know SOME people that like to use their electric grills outside.. in the cold... on their deck. 

Posted by dan at 09:42 AM | Permalink

Howdi all.. just a few interesting rambles found online lately. 

Ever use the popular site metafilter?  Always a great place to get a taste of what was happening right now ya know, well now theres Ask MetaFilter.  Pretty hilarious but some good stuff in there as well. 

Blogs aren't the only fruit from 2004, a nice read.

I love things like real-sound, last year I made mention of a simmilar device concept also using flash.  Very cool stuff.

Maybe this year i'll finally get into some location based gaming on a mobile device.  Hmmm one blog im currently reading has a best reads of 2004, some of these are great:

• interview with jetblue
• misinterperted movie titles
• buying happiness?

Kodak finally gets on the ball with a winner?  Let's hope so!  Sounds promising, bout time digital cameras came with memory onboard instead of feeding it memory cards.  Outa the bok 256mb ram is nice.  And the wifi-factor.. pretty cool.  Now if they'd just get on board with what Apple is doing with iLife and iPhoto in printing books, thats the serious ease of use money maker i see.  I'm suprised flickr hasnt offered that.. surely its on the way.  Look out apple on that cause flickr will get give it to the massess platfom free! 

are you connected?  i seem like i am.. still not sure how though.. or where.. cool though either way...

Posted by dan at 07:54 PM | Permalink

Now playing: physics - city lights-fsp

Umm remember what i was sayin about that new mac....

Hmmm apple's motion may be much closer than i thought. 

Posted by dan at 02:30 PM | Permalink

And now a World of Warcraft update.  What's new?  Well WoW is different that other RPG's ive played online.  I find while sure at times I can go overboard and play it and what not its still just as easy to pass it by for awhile and dive back in and pay no real pentalty.  One thing WoW does is that the more time you are away and not playing the more of an xp boost you get when you do come back in game.  And that xp boost fades off eventually but its a nice little feature though. 

So anyways I've been playing with my Warlock, Forkus.. all is good..

Lately I've really been getting into PVP.  I dunno why really, but I never liked PVP in AC2 or EQ... but in WoW, its fun.  Sure theres moments of badness, downtime and what not but as a warlock, casting multiple curses on people is a lot of fun.  Other classes have to engage one target at a time.. hell me, I can curse five or so people at a time, its a blast.

Last night I banded together with some fellow horde members and attempted to strike back at the alliance in a fairly newbish town.  Its a dance really, they own you, you own them back and forth.  I just love the little moments. 

At one point the Alliance had taken most of an outpost called Splintree.  They were carefully avoiding the level 55 wind ride master, (an angy bad ass orc).  One of the alliance members carefully walked into the area and attempted to rez a fallen commrade.  I stood there a sec watching all of them.  It was me and a few other horde members.. currently we hadnt engaged them so our PVP tags werent lit meaning they couldn't tag us.. or in that particular case - ganked us.  We were easily outmatched at that moment. 

But then I couldn't resist.  I thought for a sec while the human priest began casting his ressurection spell.  Typically a long spell to cast and what not... I thought.  Hmmm Curse of Demon Tongues would tripple his cast time as he would be forced to speak in demon.. that'd be funny.  Better yet though at the last minute I decided to fear him. 

Fear lands and the priest fails to resist it and runs dead center into Horde town.. in fact runs right by the wind ride master and argos a few other npc orcs... I get time to chuckle about 30seconds before i'm beaten to a pulp for doing that.  The guy trying to get rezzed decides to respawn instead.. lol. 

More PVP action occurs.. this time we got the Alliance on the run, headed back to their side of zone so to speak.  A human rogue vanishs for a split second going into stalk mode, still having in on target lock, i toss a curse while running toward him.  I love insta-cast spells.  I have multiple types.. very fun.  My imp takes him as a target and starts blastin.  A human mage comes up behind me, I curse of demon tongues him while my imp finishes off the rogue... then when the mage is down a bit in health, i curse him twice and life siphon him.. then fear him into the woods argoing mobs on him.  Thats gotta be a nice feeling, cursed with two damage over time curses, life siphoned giving 15hp to me every tick and then being feared into a zone of hostile mobs just waitin for something to come across their path.  Despite dying, its moments like that, that make PVP in WoW so damn fun. 

Oh yah and occasionally I'll play Badcow my Warrior... its hard to go caster and then go sheer melee at times...

Posted by dan at 08:14 PM | Permalink

Now playing: Airbiscut CD 1 - Track-05

Notes From The Hip, words of wisedom and rantdom from the sidekick!  Yes thats right kids its time for another ramble via the sidekick.  This time around its a few notes I wrote up on what a fustrating travel experience i had this past week.  Actually in hindsight it wasnt all that bad but nevertheless..

Logan American Eagle gate 22 to go to 30 find shuttle, messed up, I go to gates to get on planes not shuttles, no rest room at check point written on security tubs that's handy, and no indication yer in right place while u sit and wait and wonder hmmmmmmmm see an agent and the agent says ya somethin will happen

Travel is fustrating, u get tio the airport 2hrs ahead of your flight stare at long ass lines thinkin by the time u get to a counter 45mins will have passed... Or worse yet u get there only to be rerouted to another line,

Its a 60s system of free love good travel stuck in a paralyzed paranoid panic filled world, airports need to be redesigned, the flows are not set in a motion that implies any sense of u will be fine, derobing before flights annoying, rushed thru the cattle progression, shoes off, laptop out, anything with just a minor hint of metal goes..., hmmm watch, it looks plastic, can u afford to be wrong?  Staring back sown the line...

I got picked for paddin down, yeahness, this is after the fact american cancels my flight and redirects me, no forces me to leave the terminal and reticket reenter security to get on a delta flight, all that with 20mins to spare, then just 10mins before shecluded departure there I am at the security gate waiting.. Padded down, sec has no care in the world regarding my time, but they love to comment on the color of my laptop or oooo look how small this camera is... Golly ya that is nice helllooooo I got 3mins to get on a plane here people.. And they wondered why I wouldn't smile

Travel blows, ya gotta do it but it sucks, there's no proper notice, nothing will prepare u, it pays to assume the absolute worst, it can only get better from there

Sitting here staring at 22.... See attendent it says, now a new guy shows up, he's a person, goes right thru the usual metal door that screams no... While I wait and wonder... Now I get up, antendent intercepts me says not yet and I say ummm a joblo just went down there,, no he didn't... Ummmm ok.  Sit back down, now I get to watch again, another customer goes to the metal door denied.... Yells to an attendent, can I get a bus please... Hello... Now customers are hovering ariund the and now attendent lets them go down.... Huh?   I ask, again, sir no one goes down that's not approved... Umm offical people have badges n stuff those guys had bags and hell looked like customers... Nope.  Officals, airline officials, the subclass of we don't talk diectly to u directly guys those are like un marked vans.  They looked like me, the went thru that door, can I really put my self in the hands of the airport to assure me on anything?

Some friends tell me it all sucks dan nothing new, I say no we can do this better, deasign a better experience around travel, and it starts with the airport, then the mindset,

Hmmmm lets think hotels this trip, the winner embassy suites, free happy hour drinks and food, free vegas stle breakfast, and all that for $100 a nite... That's damn spiffy....

Hotel rooms are changing though.  Springhill suites gave a bed bout 6inches from the floor, I kept thinking somethings wrong, and the tv was in the middle almost at a divider, I like to crash, hit the bed typically the only thing u can hit and watch tv, nope, this time its hit the psuedo futon and rearrange the room so u can see the tv...

Cheap phones tooo.. Hotels have these cheap airplane 2, blinking flashing phones, 9000 of them are on ebay I bet... How was yer expwrience sir... Hell only embassy suites asked me that question, maybe only they cared... Who cares, that's the question. Maybe nobody cares.  

In my line of work the reason we work is cause we care.  First part of the week I was in medical institute evaluating better doc tools.  They cared.  Then I go to boston to test users working on a uml programming application, huh... They cared too.   I don't get paid unless some cares.   Wouldn't be in biz if someone didn't care.

In other news via the hiptop er sidekick.. I've totally switched over to it rather successfully this time around.  In fact I have no clue where my nokia is... hmmm.  Anyways it's been good.  I've downloaded a few new apps for it as well and the games have been great too. 

Posted by dan at 04:49 PM | Permalink

I need some new color.

Posted by dan at 03:56 PM | Permalink

I've been debating the Mac lately.  I really want to get my hands on Final Cut Pro and Apple's Motion product.  I suppose it doesn't make sense to buy a pc just for 2 apps you'll just play with a bit and then move on to the next thing.  But still I can't help but wonder.. yes.. a mac.. then you price it out and realize, what the hell am i thinking?!?!  I need to spend that kinda cash on something else first...

Anyways so I'm looking at video production apps lately... i got the itch to produce this month.  Avid just released a new version of its Avid Free DV reccently, if you want a free digital video app, thats a nice way to get started. 

I've ordered the latest update on Serious Magic's Visual Communicator 2... that should be here soon.  And hopefully after that and a much needed light kit, we'll be good to go on more Talkin Crap episodes. 

I kinda wanna play with Poser as well.  In fact I should just get that its been nippin at me for awhile now.  Its a good app to pair up with Xfrog.

Then theres the FlowPod I've been pondering about.  Its like a poormans steadycam.  I'd just like for once to have some video that was nice and steady and smoooooooooth to play with.  We'll see.  We will see. 

Posted by dan at 02:51 PM | Permalink

So lets talk music.  For a few days now I've been thinkin I really need to recap the essential groove tunes of 2004.  At a glance I'd say it was a banner year for breakbeat, nuskool and drum and bass goodness.  Not deep grooves but action grooves, fast forward down right agressive grooves of the year.  While the early months of 2004 were dominated by 8th street lounge classics the last half of year broke out in a fury of agressive beats that kept my head bobbin all day long. 

Lets talk albums first.  Here's my top albums for 2004, and thats discovered and listened to in 2004, not necessarily 2004 cd releases:

Lee Coombs - Breakfast of Champions  - The best breakbeat (though i sorta put it in the nuskool listing as well) cd of year breaks in with solid grooves.  Nothing too wild expect a few killer must have tracks.  I used to hate those tracks, they always cost me money.  I'd have to have them, spare no expense, damn you grooves!!!  Ahhh well, luckily the whole cd is cuck full of groove goodness.  The must haves on this cd are: OakenfoldTime Of Your Life (Lee Coombs Mix) and New OrderCrystal (Lee Coombs Boc Remix).  The remix if New Order's Crystal is especially tasty.  And this a rare treat for would be dantunes fans.. this track has OMG - lyrics!  Yes.. it was the year of lyrics...

One thing I like about posting a best albums of 2004 is the fact I actually bought albums.  In fact for the "sound" i'll spare no expense.  Its the one aspect of spending that I dont care what it costs I need that sound.  Juno Records in the UK fullfilled many of musical goodness desires.  Hell this whole list will probably be cds I picked up from Juno.  Very nice brits btw, fast shipping, always kind on the phone and in email - good folks.  And even better Juno just got a face lift!  Holy CRAP!  Juno Records gets face lift... awesome.  Check it!

Bring on the slow overdrive! 

Ok so on to the next cd, Booty Breaks!  Actually 2 cds.  Booty Breaks Volumes 1 & 2 have some sweet remixed masters on them.  I will say I dig volume 1 a weee bit more than volume 2.  Still there are some must have tracks here.  The music mashup of Madonna is a tasty floor thumper but witchcraft mastery of MoCheba of volume 1 is a must have, one of the best dantune tracks of 2004 indeed.  Sadly Volume 1 is looking pretty bleak to find, so if yer lookin, see me after class.

Faithless - Mass Destruction.  I remember first hearing/seeing the video for Mass Destruction and thinking, damn that is dead on glorious work of art.  The cd doesn't disappoint either.  Initally drawn to the cd just for Mass Destruction's lyrical brilliance, I found some truly beautiful tracks inside:  I Want More & Love Lives on My Street are excellent tracks that hit the mark on how much of the world is focused on the wrong messages. 

If you asked me to pick one one excellent must have cd for 2004 i'd say DieselBoy's DungeonMasters Guide to Drum and Bass.  This cd sparked such inspiration in me that it dragged me back into the editing world (a much needed trip i might add), and forced me to obsess about the amplication of such grooves that they must have a canvas of animation to haunt and attack them as well.  Ok that may have not made any sense there.  I dont care.  This cd caused me to dream, create, paint images in my mind.  Haunting visuals that are sometimes already beautifully painted for you already in some killer japanese animation.  It was my job to mix them together and get a taste of the result.  It made me fall in love with video editing all over again in some ways.  Mmmmm just listening to this makes me wanna deathmatch or edit.. dangerous.. I may not finish this entry if I keep jammin to this cd: Wink, Follow the Leader, Take Me Away From Here, Human, Break, such music.. so nice.  In fact " Decorum - "Cantrax" (Weapon remix)" is the dantunes 2004 track of the year kids!  Yep, thats pretty damn hard to do btw, cause I usually put 20 or so songs all around the top 1.. heh.. but in 2004 this was, is and still resides the best track of 2004 for me. 

What was suprising in 2004 was the merge of trance and drum and bass, now I'm not really up on the scene any more and I know this has been happening for awhile now but it was just nice to find the trance sound i liked mixed into the hard beats of drum and bass.  Trance is one genre you won't find too much of on this list btw, just not into the sound really whether its mutated or i have I dont know.

Next up on the list is Way Out West - Don't Look Now, overdue for a cd for sometime know, this one does not disappoint.  Killa is top pick off this cd, I has a taste of dub/garage in it that I love.  This slow groove build action is wonderful.  In fact I've only heard this kind of dubby bass groove on a few other cds, all of which, and this sound in general seems like a rare find to me.  So once i had a brief taste of Killa, I knew, again like many other tracks, spare no expense - have to own.  Apollo is another awesome track on here as well. 

2004 opened up with a boom when DJ Hyper landed in my hands.  My House was smokin goodness, "thats good shit" I thought to myself.  Then listened a bit further and stumbled upon Infusion Legacy ( the Junkie XL remix )... holy crap that is awesome.  I must of played this track oh... I'd say at least a few hundred times this past year.  I love it. And again kids lyrical goodness! 

Of course this led me back to Junkie XL which is probably the most listened to artist for me this past year.  Yep 2004 was the year of the Junkie.

Rolling in at I'd say #2 for best cd of year in 2004, Junkie XL's A Broadcast from a Computer Hell Cabin is an awesome cd.  Some great tunes on here and again more lyrics folks.. those that know my tastes will be suprised here... Anyways, we kick off this cd with Crusher, Reload, and then we run into Gary Numan... Gary Numan?  This guy has a beautiful voice.  In fact upon hearing Angels, I felt like I relived the memories of Dark Kitty an animated show concept I whipped up while working at ADV in texas many years back.  I used a Gary Numan track back then for a the Dark Kitty trailer.  I love his haunting voice, an almost etheral spookyness to it.  The first lyrical progression of Angels has my ears attempting to merge with the sound, as if I could be one with it.  Powerful magic of sound that takes you places you just can't get to any other way.  Catch Up to My Step with vocal bustin via Solomon Burke screams EDIT ME INTO SOMETHING ME PLEASE!  I like tracks that.. only problem is after about 5 steps.. I'm done on that track.. hah.  Beauty That Never Fades is also on this cd.. which you Matrix fans may take of note, this track also appears in the Animatrix I believe.   Another good thing here about Junkie XL is that I went online and bought the companion cd to this one, an internet only version.  That's the first time i've ever done that. 

Correction: the Dark Kitty trailer track came off the Dark City soundtrack cd- Sleep Now by Hughes Hall is the track.  The Gary Numan cd Exile was the cd I used to inspire and provide me with a kind of soundtrack landscape to animate and create to.... Dead Heaven, Absolution, and several other tracks on Exile we're the base of this dark world I created inside Dark Kitty. 

Most tracks listened to but never knew what cd they came from is Fluke's Puppy.  I had the tracks from various sources but never put them all together to realize they all came from the same source.  Damn web radio!  Anyways, remember the stormin make love to me neo dance track from Matrix Reloaded?  Well its here along with several other killer must have tunes. 

Hmmm that about warps up tonights blog entry folks.  I think thats a pretty good groove sampling of the tracks that attacked my senses this past year.  Of course this listing doesn't include the many lounge cd's I aquired as well.  Thats for another time another thought channel. 

Posted by dan at 09:20 PM | Permalink

Hotel entertainment.  Doesn't really mean anything other that movies to me.  Ok room service, maybe that little stocked fridge of goodies, thats always nice.  This week I caught the flick Paparazzi.  Not bad, pretty standard really, but ya know for the longest time, I dunno I've rehashed this idea in my head, a crazy wonder invention of a paparazzi emp.  Yes thats electro magnetic pulse.  We are crafty inventive people, why hasn't someone come up with a way to disable cameras in a certain radius... ok cause we'd kill more than just cameras i bet.  Still I cant help but wonder if something was possible.  Maybe an emp type device isn't fair, its just a radius from the point of origin, how bout something more directed.  Kinda like cell phone jammers, course those work on a signal sending wave whatever.  I just think man you could make a buttload of cash not to mention save alot of peoples sanity by creating a kind of paparazzi emp device.  Don't want yer picture taken, ok, pick the direction of annoyance, set a cone angle and wham... up to 12 feet, oops, yer camera wont take a picture. 

Course it could also be used for bad guys too.  Expect bad guys typically just break the law anyways.  Its funny really.  I'll sketch up concepts in my head of how it'd work, trying different scenarios, maybe a emp is too much, directed ray of some kind maybe, or what about a spray or mist that shoots into the air and it holds for a sec and makes camera pics come out wrong or something.  Or maybe i can create a distorted aura of anti-photoness that somehow when i have it enables disrupts the images taken of me.   Bodyguard can protect me physically, a cell phone jammer or jammer type of tech can kill signals travelling around me or near me, what can stop a picture from recording me. 

Some of the concepts get really crazy too.  I picture a jacket covered in mini mirror plates that reflects an image back to the camera man, like I'm a walking mirror, or maybe a jacket thats fight flash power with flash power, its not so much that i don't want to be photographed, i don't want the paparazzi to gain from photographing me.  Why should they gain from taking shots of me in my personal space.  Take all the pictures you want cause my jacket/device makes all of them washed out or blurry or hell lets water mark them. 

Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex on Adult Swim is currently in the "laughing man" episodes.  In the future people are part cybernetic etc, a hacker can climb into yer head and hack what you see.  Instead of seeing or capturing the image of someone, the celebrity can block out their face.  Almost like you can stand there and see me but they minute you record me, that picture will always draw a big white box over my face.  Like your device is hacked to do that.  Yer brain is hacked etc. 

A wee bit of fantasy.  - several hours later, forgot to finish up this entry----

Mary asks... Is cooter spelled couter or cooter?  I think its Cooter!  Hey its been a good Sunday.  Ok folks thats this part.. more to follow. 

Posted by dan at 04:12 PM | Permalink

Well I made it folks, hell you made it, yer here probably, maybe ya know I dont know.  Who reads this blog anyways? 

It's Saturday, January 8th 2005.  One week down, many to go.  I've been busy.  Work is well underway into the new year and I've been travelin all over the place as a result of that.  I started out the first part of the week in Cincinatti OH helping out and testing out a new camera rig for a research project involving medical proceedures.  If ya asked me about it last saturday I would told you - Yes I've done it, I've reinvented the camcorder!  Oh wait that exists already... hmmm.  Course well lets go back even further.... 

Xmas was nice, New Years Eve rocked!  My brother Chris had me and Mary and a host of others come over and join him and his wife and family for new years eve festivites.  His wife's folks have cabin across from thier house in Sunbary.  The party was there and the hope for me and Mary was to stay at the cabin over nite.  We've been all bed and breakfast'y lately.  Little get aways are good for the soul ya know.  Not to mention we really like the idea of a fireplace in the bedroom, to ummm zest it up. 

Chris and Sharon make this traditional cubed steak bits and horsradish dinner, it was awesome.  Jen, a gal from work, topped it off with sushi even.  It was feast of sushi, steak and salad.  Damn tasty.  The cabin is awesome, small but so hilariously outdoors'y campy like.  Giant buffalo head above the fireplace, red shag carpet in the bed room, a mini white fluffy bear rug, a stuff coyote on the wall with a stuffed squirel in its mouth, a stuffed bear, like full size medium bear in the corner to stare at you as you watch tv.  BTW, since we had kids at the party, SpongeBob donimated the TV like a drug to retain order amongst the childern.  The main living room was a loft space, you could see the wooden beams above you, with more stuffed critters, a bird here and there.  Upstairs in the open area bedroom there was stuffed racoon complete with lifelike water setting, it was pretty big about 5 feet across in the corner of the room.  The whole cabin screamed fun.  I'd love to stay there again.  Sharons father a surgeon who often travels abroad to distant countries to go to tribes and give people speciality aid, once got a buffalo head as thanks for his services.  It started there.  He started get all kinds of animal heads and hand crafted goods from the people he visited and gave help to. 

So the cabin rocked, the food rocked, the wine was flowing, all was good.  New Years occured and we missed the ball drop, ahh well, its a party ya know.  Folks drifted off to go home and eventually Mary I cuddled up by the fireplace, feet on the mini bear rug, turned off all the lights and watched the fire.  Thats a nice evening.  Eventually we got a little tired and went upstairs to sleep.. and then a scream!  Mary quickly noticed... ummm we had a guest upstairs.. actually in the whole cabin space.  A Bat.  Heh... I guess I missed the conversation earlier in the evening when folks were staring up at something in the rafters.  I figured it was a discussion about the stuffed birds, but in fact, it was about this bat that got into the cabin somehow. It freaked us out a bit.  But with all the wine and all, ahh well, good nite bat.  It is kinda freaky to be in bed and catching a glimpse of a bat flying around your room.  LOL  I think its a good omen for the new year really. 

Posted by dan at 05:20 PM | Permalink