shredder

Well, if you've ever met my mother, you'll know that her paper shredder is one of her most prized possessions. She continually harps on me for not having one.

But now there's a product to solve this problem! http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/5/prweb529086.htm

Pay-per-use heavy duty shredding. Brilliant.

Now, of course, the refuse remains in the bin and therefore the security risk is about the same (at least if you're as paranoid as my mother). :)

show at hob

MxPx is playing at House of Blues on Tuesday here in Chicago. Tickets are $16.50. Let me know if you want to go - they always put on a good show.

Another slow news day, really.

slow news day

or, more accurately, busy day at work.

Somewhat sadly, CBS has purchased Last.fm for $280M. They've promised not to "mess it up" but we'll see how much junk gets pumped in. So far, they've done a good job of partnering with labels and artists to spread music and, maybe best of all, keep track of your listening habits and make recommendations based on your history.

If you aren't already a member, hop over to www.last.fm and be my friend!

burst culture

Here's an interesting piece on the idea of the internet as a medium by journalist and screenwriting Warren Ellis.

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=4374


This is particularly interesting in the context of the non-profit whose board I now represent.

aquabats!

So kids, it looks like the Aquabats are touring this summer! They've announced a few dates and a few shows, but not enough for my taste. They'll be in NYC August 22nd and 23rd for Coney Island and BB King's and they've got dates in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona so if you're going to be in any of those places you should definitely check them out.

This is the band that dresses up like superheroes and dances on stage in blue spandex. Not something you want to miss.

thought you had trouble staying awake?

Some brilliant Cornish man tried to break the world record by staying awake for 11 days. In case this didn't already sound like one of the stupidest ideas ever, Guinness actually retracted the category because of health concerns.

So alright, let's review. He stayed in a bad, one-room bar for 11 days, ate only raw foods, and blogged so that he wouldn't get a world record.

The news pictures are also great because he really looks like he came back from some horrible, long journey stranded on a desert island or something.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6689999.stm

speaking of girlfriends....

Short story. Cute. Read.

http://www.deannamolinaro.com/Stuff_That_I_Made/Books/SeaMon/sm_1.html

migration

Two things you should check out:

1. Google Reader. It's a great RSS aggregator that's really intuitive to use. Wish you could get all your favorite things in one place and know when they are updated? Here's a really simple way. It also keeps track of trends - like what things you read, etc. You can add your friends' blogs, news sites, pretty much anything updateable and see in the left panel when it actually updates. And you can use your google account! Help them take over the world! www.google.com/reader

2. XKCD. This is one of my favorite mathy, geeky comics. Updates 3 times a week, so it's not too intense either. It's always something a little different, and often absolutely hilarious. Be sure to read some of the archives, www.xkcd.com.

Essentially, my computer always looks like this now: Outlook calender, Firefox (tab gmail, tab googlereader), Office Communicator, work files. If you want to find me, I'm always on gmail and reader, scanning for interesting things. My plan is to make this my third "always on" Firefox tab. We'll see if it happens :)