Category Archives: silliness

Mini Dreams Fulfilled, Sort Of

Posted in driving, pop culture, seattle, silliness, society on by

On 18 November 2007, I took a Flexcar Mini Cooper out for a spin.

Out of the starting gate, I felt somewhat like a Luddite. The Mini has a push button start accessed by a key fob. What the heck? After fumbling around for a minute or two, my buddy looked up “How to Start the Car” in the manual. Ah ha!

Up and running, we darted off to pick up a couple friends. Somehow, we managed to get a six-foot stocky fellow in the back seat, along with his tiny girlfriend. OK, so she’s not Thumbelina, but considering there’s almost no legroom back there, I had no doubt she’d be comfortable sitting cross-legged behind my six-foot-one buddy in the passenger seat.

We took it out on I-5 up past Northgate Mall and back down to Fremont, where we visited a friend before grabbing some nosh.

Photo by Alex

I think I will take it for a solo outing one of these days. I feel I should experience it with the seat back as far as I can take it and without trying to have a conversation with people in the back seat over some pretty serious road noise.

This Flexcar thing is a pretty good way to test out different vehicles. Maybe on Xmas Day, I’ll take a convertible on my traditional drive up to Snoqualmie Pass. That would be interesting.

Express Yourself!

Posted in pop culture, silliness, society on by

People like to be heard, right? Well, here are some ways you can make your opinions known and possibly make a difference.

Colorado Springs Utility is taking a poll regarding the use of alternative energy sources. Maybe you don’t live in Colorado Springs, but you can have an influence on whether they will invest in wind power instead of more coal power. Or maybe the poll is purely academic, and the city will just do what’s cheapest.

There is only one reality TV show that I watch, and that is Beauty and the Geek. Probably because I really feel for those geeks. This year they have a female geek and a male beauty competing! That’s Sam and Nicole, and they are in the finals. Until 30 Nov, the CW is taking a poll to see who wins. In case you don’t watch the show, please vote for Dave and Jasmine. They have really transformed during their time at the mansion, and that is what the show is all about.

If you just like answering questions in general – and asking them – please feel free to log on to OurQuiz. In case you are not familiar, it is a database of questions and answers about anything and everything. Check it out – it can be addictive.

Me, I’m Not (a Nerd)

Posted in music, pop culture, silliness on by

The title of this post alone solidifies it. I am a big nerd. But there are bigger.

This week, Nine Inch Nails released a remix album of their latest studio album, Year Zero. There was some hubbub surrounding the release of Year Zero. The band is not happy with their label anymore, but are bound to a contract (for now). They let loose flash drives containing the album tracks prior to the official release, to the chagrin of the label.

To add insult to injury, this remix album – halo 25 for those counting – contains a dvd-rom of the multi-track recordings of every song on the original release. The purpose is for anyone and everyone to make their own remixes of the songs and share them with the world. The liner notes suggest the user upload their recreation to remix.nin.com, but in a blog posting from a few days ago, Trent Reznor has advised that website is not yet operational. More roadblocks from the label, it seems.

Now, of course I bought the new cd & dvd-rom on the release date earlier this week. I even bought the vinyl version (remixes only, obviously) this afternoon. It was not until this evening, however, that I ventured to make my own remix. It only took me an hour, but I offer you my pared-down version of the hit (?) single, “Survivalism.”

I made this using Goldwave, which has always been very handy to me when making my own samples. However, if it is made for multi-track mixing, I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. So, I may have to find some other program so I can make some really clever mash-ups or what-have-you. I do own the MTV Music Generator software which I bought years ago, but I’m not sure if it will run on this advanced version of Windows. (I’m only half joking.)

P.S. 11/29/07 remix.nin.com is now up an running. I am a geek and have uploaded my “mix”. This may become my new obsession.