dead men tell no tales...

No, this wasn't "passed" to me, as the meme is supposedly supposed to be. I found it via VoteLaw (with a slightly different version appearing at Sadly, No!). It's the Meme of Four!

So now I'm supposed to pass this on to four people... okay, fine... Heather, Russ, Daryl, and Ben, you're up!

posted by Steve  # 11:22 AM

I like that.

Of course, I will actually have to go back and do one for every date I posted in 2005 as well... but really, doing a whole year might take an hour... maybe, probably less... and I will sooo have time next week.

It looks so... pro and whatnot. Love it.

posted by Steve  # 1:05 PM

So I got the idea of making images for the date of posts rather than the usual bland line of text... I'm still tweaking it, obviously, but I think it will be an interesting idea if I can do it... though it will mean making 365 images to cover 2006...

posted by Steve  # 12:48 PM

I wanted to make a quick plug for a radio station I've been enjoying since returning from Disney World.

See, I need a little time off from the Disney Theme Park/Attraction Audio of Subsonic Radio, so I went to Live365.com where I discovered Radio One ( webpage | Live365 channel ). Touting itself as playing "Indie and Alternative," I have found it to be just that.

Kind of reminds me of the stuff I used to play on my KCSC radio show back in college.

Recently-played artists include: Radiohead, Beck, Coldplay, The Lovemakers, Bloc Party, Kasabian, The Go! Team, The Shins, Keane, Wheat, The Postal Service, Death Cab For Cutie, and Modest Mouse. Plus tons others. Very cool, give a listen.

posted by Steve  # 3:58 PM

So really, I wanted to blog the whole trip, a big day-by-day report, but I just don't think I have it in me.

I can tell you that the flight over... a non-stop red-eye that left SFO at about 11pm pacific... was nerve-wracking as all hell. The flight attendant wouldn't let me put my bag in front of my feet (where there was no seat, we were in an exit row), and so took my bag and put it in one of the above compartments, across from us. My bag. Which not only contained thousands of dollars in assorted camera equipment, but a freakin' diamond ring. Let's just say I didn't sleep a wink and leave it at that. Luckily Song has little TVs. I watched ESPN Classic and listened to their MP3 playlist.

So we get in, and Disney's Magical Express whisks us away to the Port Orleans French Quarter resort, where, as it is about 7:30am EST, our room is not ready (check-in time isn't until 3pm).

So, we get our theme park tickets, check our carry-ons (Magical Express handled the checked luggage) at the Luggage Services desk (I transferred the ring box to my park-touring, Disney-pin-studded shoulder bag) and got on a bus... the first of what felt like thousands of buses for the week... and headed to Epcot.

Why Epcot? Well, it's my favorite. There are wide walkways and a ton of benches and I figured it would be a good place to start while we waited for our room to get all readyfied. So we're there at Epcot, and I figure it would be a good thing to ride one of my favorite edutainment-type rides there... Spaceship Earth. It's the big golfball.

At any rate the ride is slow and dark and narrated by Jeremy Irons... and Heather falls asleep (for just a little bit). But this ring is burning a hole in my pocket... or rather, in my shoulder bag... and I just can't imagine carrying it around for another day while hiding it from her and not freakin' worrying about it. Heather has to go use the, erm, facilities, which is good because it gives me a few seconds... a few exhausted, jet-lagged, haven't-slept-in-30-something-hours seconds... to think about what to do.

I notice the huge fountain that acts as kind of a centerpience for Epcot's Future World section. It's big, it's pretty... it's perfect, I think. So I get the ring box out of my bag and stick it in my jacket pocket, Heather returns and I tell her it's time for her surprise.

She's a little curious as to why the surprise has to be now, but I just tell her it does, and that's "over there," and we start walking towards the fountain.

She asks if the surprise is penguins... I tell her no.

She asks if the surprise is flamingos... I tell her no.

She asks if the surprise is llamas... I tell her no.

By this time we're walking up to the fountain and I notice this huge, ugly stage structure I hadn't noticed before... now the stage isn't nearly as pretty as I'd thought, and certainly, isn't perfect. But lo, what doth mine eyes behold just over yon?

The Epcot Christmas Tree. Perfect.

So we walk up to the tree, and I can tell she's wondering what's up, she asks how much farther it is. When we get in front of the tree, I stand behind her and tell her to close her eyes, and not to open them until I say so.

So she does so, and I take a step back, drop to one knee, get the ring box out, open it, and say, "Okay, open your eyes and turn around."

Then she hits me.

Not like a punch or anything, but she slaps my shoulder because I'm so damn sneaky. She says yes, we hug, some passersby applaud, and I put the ring on her finger, my hands still shaking from the whole episode.

Then, we spent eight whole days in Walt Disney World. I guess that will be a post for another time, if ever.

posted by Steve  # 10:01 AM

...but Russ did it first, and he's practically a Marxist!

So, umm, yeah. Google ads underneath the PhoBlog module and above the Archives, just to the left of the main post body. Click if you see something you like, random clicking won't make me money or anything... we'll just see how this goes, I guess.

posted by Steve  # 4:59 PM

The photoset from our WDW vacation is now up on Flickr!

CLICK ME!

UPDATE: I just realized the stupid Flickr Uploadr resized all my images to 800x600... fucking retarded. I will have to re-do them, but I will upload the new ones before deleting the old ones, when I get around to it.

posted by Steve  # 10:57 AM

... a complete update of the grand Walt Disney World trip. I'm also processing the 675 pictures we took while there, here are a couple samples:

posted by Steve  # 7:35 AM

Okay so I'm not on a good schedule as it is now day 4. Day 3, monday, was my birthday, and we had a great time. In the morning was Animal Kingdom where we saw the incredible Lion King stage show, as well as the safari ride (pictures aplenty). When we returned to the room, Heather had had a bottle of wine and glasses sent to the room, awesome, I know. More to come in part two...

posted by Steve  # 12:12 PM

I know, it's already Day 3, but yesterday was awesome. In the morning we went to Studios and had lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, which was great. Then in the evening it was Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! So much fun! We got our portrait taken, all 3 of us, me, Heather and the ring! More later...

posted by Steve  # 8:32 AM

I meant to do this last night, but, well, I'm sick. I know, shitty, right? Anyway, Day One of the big Disney World Vacation is behind us, and it rocked. After a long, long flight, we spent some time at Epcot and at the Studios, did some of my favorite rides (yay Maelstrom!) and I got that turkey sandwich with arugula and red pepper I like so much... Oh yeah... and we got engaged. More to come.

posted by Steve  # 6:38 AM

Looking pretty good... temperature-wise. More potential showers than I'd like...

Sat 12/10: Intervals of clouds and sun, 72/53
Sun 12/11: Mostly cloudy, showers around, 68/45
Mon 12/12: Cool with sunshine, 65/44
Tue 12/13: Partly sunny, 69/49
Wed 12/14: An afternoon shower possible, 74/58
Thu 12/15: A shower possible, 74/56
Fri 12/16: Chance of a shower, 75/53
Sat 12/17: Rain, 71/51

We leave in 11 hours, 18 minutes and change. Rawk.

posted by Steve  # 11:22 AM

I might be done tweaking shit. Altered some link and headline colors and added an extra 25% line spacing and a 2px space between letters in paragraphs to make it easier to read. I think I may be done with this layout, though I can never be sure.

31 hours, 5 minutes, 40 seconds

posted by Steve  # 3:37 PM

To the left, above the monthly archive index, is the latest post to my phoblog, dead men blog no photos... Its existence as part of this site is thanks solely to the good folks at Feed2JS. Rock on.

Oh yeah, before I forget... 53 hours until Walt Disney World.

And yes, the moblogging/phoblogging will be occurring as often as I think to whilst we are gone. So keep a weather eye open, mates...

There be squalls ahead... and Davey Jones waitin' for them what don't obey...

posted by Steve  # 4:53 PM

And I'm finally getting photos up. Enjoy.

The whole (small) set

posted by Steve  # 12:12 AM

AAA finally sent Heather and I the paperwork for our trip, which is, y'know, 78 hours away. At any rate, there's some neat stuff in there, like the "AAA Diamond Card" or something, that gives us discounts on food and shopping at Downtown Disney (including 20% off non-alky stuff at House of Blues... too cool!)... plus our Magical Express luggage tags that will tell the Disneyites to pick up our bags at the airport and send'em on down to the French Quarter.

There was other stuff too, like a voucher for the hotel stay (I guess since a travel agent booked it, it helps identify us? not sure)... at any rate, I'm glad it all came, but they were cutting it pretty close, in my opinion. We saved a buttload of money going through AAA, but if that weren't the case, I may never use a travel agent again...

posted by Steve  # 3:45 PM

Reggie, that is. Not George W. I don't think George's stats are up to snuff. Not this season.

posted by Steve  # 2:59 PM

Day, Date: Outlook, High Temp/Low Temp

Sat, 12/10: Sunshine, 68/46
Sun, 12/11: Mostly Cloudy, 66/45
Mon, 12/12: Clouds giving way to some sun, 64/43
Tue, 12/13: Sunny, 64/44
Wed, 12/14: Sunny, 65/45
Thu, 12/15: Brilliant sunshine, 66/47
Fri, 12/16: A good deal of sun, 68/49

Courtesy AccuWeather.com. I will probably do this again next Thursday or Friday, right before we leave.

posted by Steve  # 4:08 PM

Courtesy of Something Awful, it's a Llama-Kitty!

posted by Steve  # 10:13 AM

1. Fix the colors on this blog... the gray links don't show up well. Needs a little more variety, maybe use of some orange/red... not sure. Subtle.
2. Look more into evolving StatNorm into a web-based entity.
3. Tell Heather I love her. Lots.
4. Pee myself over the fact that we're off to Walt Disney World in just 7 short days
5. Try to remember, if I post any images to the blog, they should be under 400 pixels wide, so that they stay within the main column at 1024x768... closer to 300 is better.
6. Oh yeah... probably have actual work to do, too...

posted by Steve  # 8:59 AM

Love the four-column layout.

Love the hip, old school, pixellated header.

Love the background image intentionally saved at JPEG 10% quality.

Love it.

Still can't figure out how to get Blogger to play nice with XHMTL 1.1, but whatever. I like this layout a lot, right now... though I will probably mess with colors some more. Also... first time my blog has been tableless! Woohoo! Yay for semantic markup and CSS layout!

posted by Steve  # 4:46 PM