To Natchitoches Tomorrow

Tomorrow some of the gang from work and I will head to Natchitoches to train a few users on a new product another employee and I have been developing. I'm not sure that we got enough testing in... as I'd always like to spend more time testing the crud out of applications I'm affiliated with, but nonetheless we're giving training a go tomorrow.

It's really rewarding to work on a project that will improve the efficiency of a group of workers. I know I've posted about similar topics previously, but I think the last post was about talking to people who were actually using the products I designed for my last employer. This time around, I'm excited about the product itself, without even seeing a user reaping the benefits of an improved work flow...

Anyway, I'll be gone most of the day, which I think will be a good break from the monotony of office life. In a push to get certain parts of this new product ready, I've been working long hours with little variety in my programming tasks. It's nice to mix things up every once in a while.

Saints vs. Cowboys - Preseason NFL '06

Katie, Taylor and I went to the Saints vs. Cowboys game Monday night at Independence Stadium in Shreveport. We got to witness one of the worst performances by the saints I've seen... though we did get to see Reggie Bush show some talent.

We rode the shuttle from Mall St. Vincent to the stadium, and ended up having to wait about 45 minutes in the parking lot... in retrospect, we should have driven and parked in one of the business parking lots close to the stadium instead. It was very hot out there...

There's not really much to say about the game... but I wanted to post a link to a few of the pictures.

We're in el Casa de Taylor

Katie and I are in Taylor's house. This computer, Katie's computer, got set up and put online at about 7:45 this morning. However, I had to search through a hairy mass of boxes to get to the box that contained the wireless network cards. It was a long road to get to being semi-functional this morning though...

After work Friday Katie and I headed to the Uhaul office across from Barksdale Airforce base to pick up our truck. We knew that we'd be driving a monster truck... a 26 footer... because they were out of the smaller size trucks we'd reserved. So, they gave us "the beast" at the same price as a 17' truck. When we showed up to Uhaul, the lady asked (in a totally preplanned act) "Did they tell you it's a Standard?"... "Uhhh... no, because if they did we would have booked a truck with Ryder *big smile*" (that's what I wanted to say). What she really meant to say was "Oh, did they not tell you it's a standard... because if we tell people it's a standard before-hand they won't rent it?". We thought that It wasn't all that bad though because Katie can drive a stick, so we took our lumps like good boys and girls (though I really wanted to drive the truck).

We got out on the road and Katie had no idea what she was doing in the truck. The gears were placed strangely compared to all other standard cars she'd driven... I drove behind her to be her lead blocker if she needed to get over... starting right in front of barksdale. I got over, slowing rush hour traffic on barksdale to a crawl while I waited for her to realize I was waiting on her to change lanes. She never looked though, so I figured she knew what she was doing and kept on going past her.

I took the right turn onto Airline Drive and I slow down... Where's Katie?... All of the sudden, I see a big Uhaul come lurching around the turn going about 25. My phone rings immediately and I hear Katie yelling at me like the boogeyman himself had her in a headlock "Why the hell did you leave me back there!?". I tried to explain, to no avail... so, I pulled into the turn lane and waited to trail her again. I trailed her all the way home and did my job as I was supposed to...

Katie emerged from the truck at the apartments shaking like a junkie, and sweating like an ice cold glass of water on a hot day - the air conditioner in the truck was broken. Apparently, the gears were all backwards, were hard to find and she couldn't fully reach the clutch. I had to have her sit down and watch tv for a while to calm her down...

Friday night we had to enlist the help of my parents to get the last remaining packing done Friday night. We thought we'd ask them to come over to make the packing go a little faster, so we wouldn't be up until 11 packing. It turned out, though, that it took us all until about 10... so it's a good thing they helped us out.

Saturday morning we woke up at 7 and started moving... everything went well that day. My dad drove the truck, we got everything (except clothes and a phone) packed in about 2 hours, drove over and did the same old song and dance again in about 2 hours (with a break for lunch in there too). It was stinking hot yesterday, by the way.

So, here we are after our first night in Taylor's house. Katie was asleep until just a few minutes ago, and I'm in here making sure the internet was still functioning in my absence. I cannot believe we have to do all this again in 3 months. I seriously think we're going to pay someone to do it... though it will probably be better in December than stinkin' August.

The move before the move

This weekend Katie and I are shedding the skins of the apartment life and will begin our stay with Taylor and Cosmo. We'll be there for a few months until our house is finished, when we will have to put all of our things in old boxes, rent an overpriced truck (.79/mile? come on!) and jam our things into the new house.

So, we've only got one night of packing left. The computer is obviously still up and working as is the tv a printer and a few other electronic items. We've still got the bedroom furniture (bed and plastic drawer sets), the office (shelf system , chairs and various junk) our clothes and another closet to pack... oh, and the food in the fridge and the cabinets. We've got a lot to do after work tomorrow night.

Saturday morning, we'll load everything up into a 26' truck (sweet!) and head on over to Taylor's to spiff the place up with some classy goods. If I never post again, know that I was carrying a box full of katie's shoes when my arms broke from the weight of the boxes and I was crushed... inches from the doorstep of Taylor's house.

The Fantasy Football '06 Draft Is Upon US

Today, the fantasy football league we've had since college is getting back together for a live draft event at my brother's house in Bossier. It'll be the first time to see a lot of the guys again, and should be a good day for drafting as well. Taylor and I moved the futon over to his house, and I moved the home theater system, projector and ps2 over there (for possible guitar hero time).

We're gonna grill a few steaks, some burgers and dogs and enjoy the draft, then most likely get to play some poker later on in the evening.

Other than those details, I'm not really sure how everything's gonna go. I told Taylor that we should have the results of the draft being shown on the projector while it's going on. That should help us understand what's going on with the three people who couldn't make it today (one of them, Sami Brou, even lives in Shreveport, but claims he can't get off work from the business he owns). They will have to draft by phone or by instant message.

If you're still looking around for a place to play, or happen upon this before next year's season, try myfantasyleague.com. We've been extremely happy with them for a few years now, with no plans to ever go back to an espn or yahoo league.

Hendrix's performance at Woodstock

When you have 57 minutes or so to spare, check out this video at google video of Jimi Hendrix's performance at woodstock.

Best High Energy Songs

After reading my brother's latest post where he mentioned using music to get fired up, pumped up, high on the smack, or whatever you choose to call it, I've decided to compile a list of these songs.

So, here are the songs I can think of this late at night, in random order.

• Trapt - Stand Up
• Immigrant song- Led Zeppelin
• Rob Zombie - Superbeast
• Korn - Blind
• Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
• Metallica - Master Of Puppets & Harvesters Of Sorrow & just about anything before the black album
• Pantera - Underground in America (top 10 guitar intro's of all time)
• Rage Against the Machine - Bulls On Parade & Killing in the Name Of
• Guns N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
• Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
• Bush - Everything Zen
• Godsmack - Awake

That's all I have for now... Let me know if you have your own.

Pics of our new house

So, as I've mentioned on here a few times, Katie and I are building a house in North Bossier... almost Benton actually. Last week we drove out to find that our foundation had finally been poured. We didn't think all that much would've been done in just under a week, but we drove out anyway to take some pictures.

When we were heading around the curve into the subdivision we saw a house under construction and quickly realized that it was our house, no more than a slab less than a week ago, now a full frame with all but a small portion of the roof missing.

We got out and walked around inside and walked around for a bit in the backyard and liked what we saw. Things are coming together nicely out there... it's starting to resemble a home instead of this idea we've been stressed out about for so long.

Katie is awesome

Last night we were playing around in the kitchen, and I threatened her with a shaking of my fist in the air (playfully of course). She threw her fists up and said "I'm gonna bust you up, sucker!"... out loud.

I love this girl.

We both laughed for a minute or two at how corny that sounded and went back to whatever it was we were doing in the kitchen.

Say it out loud, and see if it doesn't sound like the whitest thing you've ever heard... and don't say "sucka". That would be cheating... we need a "sucker" for the full effect.

Attn: Mark Cuban - The Movie Business Challenge (late, but necessary)

This afternoon I found Mark Cuban's blog, blogmaverick.com, where he recently posted a challenge to readers to find a way to advertise a movie effectively without spending $60 million per movie.

This is an open challenge. You come up with a solution, you get a job. Seriously... How can you convince 5 million people to give up their weekend and go to a theater to see a specific movie without spending 60mm dollars? ... Its not unusual to spend 8, 10 , 12 dollars PER PERSON that goes to a movie in the opening weekend. Shoot, its not unusual for studios to spend that much per person to get people to go to the theater through a movies entire run ! ... So go for it. Come up with a great idea that i want to use and I will come up with a job for you to make that idea happen.

My response to his challenge is that he's looking for a result that won't be a product of a marketing solution. By this I mean that convincing 5 million people to go see a movie on the weekend without spending $60 million will not be achieved by implementing a new marketing strategy for a particular movie. It will be achieved by correcting the factors that are actually influencing people's decision to stay at home or go elsewhere instead of going to a theater... and a lack of advertising is definitely not a factor in that. The two factors I see are shoddy movies and a terrible "theater experience" (which Mark addressed in his follow-up post to his initial challenge post).

The Shoddy Movie Problem
If the question is really, "How can advertising drive hoardes of people into theaters to see an ill-conceived story with added profanity and nudity to draw an audience?" I don't think there's an answer other than throwing $30 million at the problem. Take snakes on a plane for example... a movie which gained internet popularity for being such a stupid idea. The film makers went back and re-shot scenes to add nudity and profanity, a sign that they realized they had a lemon on their hands - almost too late. Advertisers are dealing with the problem in every way possible, advertising through phone messages (as seen on this blog) , tv spots, trailers... a hard fought campaign.

The Movie Experience Problem
I haven't been back to Tinseltown in Shreveport since the last time (the second time) that a group of 8 or so black kids walked in and sat down at the front of the theater in the middle of the movie. They started being loud, then all ran out of the movie, came back in once more to yell something then left.

That was the final straw... but the whole experience is not pleasant anymore. Too many people, aging theaters (not in a classy way), sticky floors,

What advertisers could possibly do to overcome these factors

As I said before, the only thing that trumps my longing to stay home for a movie is a great review by a trusted source. In years past, I saw a movie every weekend. Now, I'd rather watch a DVD at home unless I have to find out what everyone's talking about.

My first thought is to show dozens of outdoor, low charge sneak previews of a movie which has scored well in order to build up initial theater sales (nation-wide). Movie theaters aren't risking revenue by devoting a screen to a possible lemon, and people who see the movie were already interested, increasing the likelihood that if the movie was between decent and good that they would recommend it (free of charge).

It could be a regular event, for which you would need to buy a projector, inflatable screen and a small amount of local advertising (hardly approaching a substantial amount). Switch up the locations, rinse, repeat.

To wrap up this post, other various money saving approaches include:

1. Stop advertising in print for goodness sake. You can't sway an opinion for a motion picture with a print advertisement... no, not even with a link to the movie's site. I've been to a movie website maybe three times that I can remember... and I never watched the trailer on any of those visits.


2. Focus on internet advertisement and in-movie advertisement. The first for the cost and the second because that's where I decide whether I will watch a movie or not...


3. Don't spend highly on crappy movies. If a movie costs $10 million to make, don't spend $20 million if it isn't any good. Forcing ads down people's throats won't help... unless you're targeting low income individuals I hear. In that case, advertise on ramen noodle packages.


4. Spend less money. Seriously. There has to be a limit of effective spending on a movie (Pirates OTC 2 anyone?) spend some of that $60 million on finding it and set an appropriate, enforceable budget.


5. Vertical integration. Save some millions over the next few movies released.. buy and fix or build better movie theaters, (you've already got the movie studios) and your advertising headaches go away. People will want the experience regardless of the movie... requiring less advertising. The only issue becomes determining which show to see which you could help with in-theater.

All these things (except #5) are simply a substitute for fixing the real problems keeping people from filling the seats, shoddy movies and poor theater experiences. Fix those and you'll find that you will not need to pay people to see movies (advertising's purpose in initial stages).

Ray Stevens, Spike Jones and my youth

I can't help but go back and listen to some of the music my parents and grandparents gave me to listen to when my brother and I were youngsters. We couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 when we were introduced to Spike Jones, a comedian/musician from the 40's and 50's. Songs like "You Always Hurt The Ones You Love" and of course the great "Cocktails For Two". On a side note, I've recently discovered "Der Fuehrer's Face", Spike Jones' song making fun of Hitler (which Hitler supposedly heard at one time).

Shortly after hearing Spike Jones' music, our grandparents let us listen to Ray Stevens, another comedian/musician who was prominent in the 60's and 70's. His songs are definitely more contemporary, well... I say contemporary, but his early stuff sounds beatle-ish and rockish while his later songs sound more country (unfortunately). My favorite song of his has to be "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving, Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills". Its Chorus is filled wheezes, coughs and sneezes. .. all of which were extremely humorous to me at 7 (none so humorous as a fart, mind you). I'm sure my parents didn't enjoy the imitations of the songs, but I know I enjoyed singing "It's guaranteed to be just what you need for quick, fast, speedy relief" in my deepest voice. Plus, he says "Fungus among us" in the song, which is the ultimate rhyme in my opinion... it sounds like it might've been one of Genghis Kahn's brothers (the older, hairy one).

Listening to these songs brings me back to the good ol' days, jumping around on my grandparent's fold out couch bed with Taylor (my brother) during the summers.

On a completely related note, Both artists were predecessors to Weird Al, which Taylor and I both listened to as kids (and adults *no shame*). Is it a bad thing that a lot of people remember where they were when Kennedy was shot, and I remember where I was the first time I heard two seperate weird al songs? I digress...

These songs always evoke good memories for me. They do not, however, have the same effect on Katie. The songs actually are more like Katie repellent... whenever I start playing them she makes herself scarce. I think of Spike Jones, Ray Stevens and even Weird Al as Katie's DEET.

She'll need to buddy up to them though, because when we have kids they're gonna get some more air time... and this time it won't just be me singing the songs...

Build an inexpensive ($10) panoramic tripod head

Worth1000.com has a great tutorial for building a cheap, but fully functional panoramic tripod head. Apparently, some cameras are better than others about taking panoramic pictures simply by swiveling the normal tripod and stitching the pictures together.

The tutorial is based around calculating the "entrance pupil" of your camera, as dumb as it sounds, using a simple test lining up two objects with the camera upright and the camera on its side. The article and its pictures make more sense of the explanation than I do. It's an interesting read, and something I'd like to try.

I tried to take a few panoramics without such a device last Spring and got a fairly nice resulting panoramic pic, using Keeny Hall on the campus of Louisiana Tech as my subject. However, I also got to experience a poor result when trying to photograph the new Hale Hall, also on the campus of Louisiana Tech. This was before I bought my Nikon d50... and I haven't really had good results with panoramics using that camera.

Our New Home's Foundation has been poured

This evening Katie and I went to check on the progress of our new house in North Bossier, Louisiana. Over two weeks ago we were told that within 10-14 days our foundation would be poured and that once that occurs we are guaranteed to be in the house within 120 days.

This is good news folks. Let the countdown to homeownerdom begin.

Send a Snakes on a Plane message!

I found the Snakes on a Plane site this morning that will allow you to create a personalized message using Samuel L. Jackson's voice for someone you know. You fill out a form describing a few things about that person, then choose to send by e-mail or phone and provide the necessary info.

Check out my Snakes on a Plane message to Katie.

If you haven't heard about this movie, it's an ill-conceived idea for a movie that was absolutely ridiculed on the internet for being a bad movie... so much so that it sort of gathered a cult following. The movie makers took note and went back to record more outrageous scenes. What purpose this served - I'm not sure. But the only way they're going to get people to see this movie is by promoting the crap out of it, which will at least get curiosity money.

Disabling quicktime's mp3 player in firefox

If you've been annoyed by the quicktime plugin loading a new page each time a wav file or mp3 file is clicked on, have a look at this video I created. It's a video of me disabling the quicktime plugin and instead having winamp handle the mp3 playing duties.

Go To Tools > Options, then the download tab and click on View & Edit Actions. Find the item in that list with an extension of mp3, or wav or whatever the file extension you're trying to play and click "Change action". This will bring up a dialog that will allow you to use your computer's default program for that file type, let you choose your own program by browing for it on your pc, download the file only, or use a plugin from within firefox.

After installing iTunes or quicktime alone you will have the plugin option selected for mp3, which can be quite annoying when reading a blog that embeds random sounds in entries (like this blog does). It will force you to a new page with a quicktime player just to hear the sound.

So, if you want to disable the plugin's handling of mp3's or other files, your best bet is to use your system default (if different than quicktime).

If all this talk of menu options and file types is scary, just watch the video. It's not as bad as you think.

A new blog design: easy enough to complete?

Well, after years of posting about new projects... ideas that never come to full fruition, I haven't learned. I'm telling the world (actually, the 5 people who wandered here via google looking for video of monkeys) that I plan to redesign the blog again. It's only had 2 designs as far as I know, but with each design quality takes a giant leap.

Of course, the computer is in an epic battle with Katie over the time I spend with each. So, we'll see how much time I can devote to this in relation to other commitments, Katie being the most important.

I hope this project doesn't fall by the wayside (I use cliches frequently) like a few of my other ideas... RIP fantasy football draft program, RIP blogging client. The two projects I think that actually have hope of seeing the light of day will be the blog redesign and the DVD site - the DVD site simply looking for a new style/design and some funds down the road to host a php 5 site (several months out, I believe).

Wish me luck.

Breaking Personal News

This just in. We're moving in with Taylor. Stop. Mel Gibson loves jews. Stop. Israel sends a rocket full of kisses and candy to Lebanese children. Stop.

Does anyone actually understand references to telegrams anymore?

The most interesting bit of news from the homefront lately is that Katie and I will be moving in with Taylor for 3-4 months while our house is being built. Our apartment complex decided to raise prices and charge a month to month fee on top of that. In response, we wrote the apartments a dirty letter and set a bag of flaming poo in the rent drop box. We then decided that to save more money for appliances (fridge, washer, dryer, industrial nose hair clippers...etc) we should probably see about staying with Taylor or the folks for a few months.

Taylor didn't hesitate to accept our request when we called. The only thing he really mentioned was that we would "have to work something out" regarding yard work.

I think the arrangement will work out well for both of us.