I hereby decree

 

Look what I made! An Ask A Ninja Widget! I made this cause I am a fan of Ask A Ninja and I like widgets.

Some of you are probably asking, what is all this? Well, this is a widget (a compact web application/utility/thing) that plays the latest video from Ask A Ninja! Sweet! This is essentially the kind of thing I will be doing for Widgetbox just for money and not for free, like I do all the time now.

 

 

Sweeeet!

 

 

I hereby decree that everyone should read Why Being "Indie" is a Bunch of Bunk. It does a wonderful job of putting to words what has been a feeling of mine for a while. I do not think that being "Indie" is bad, but I agree with the articles main sentiment, that instead of buying your identity one should live it. From the article:

"Free yourself from being defined by what you buy or do not buy. Define yourself by the things you cannot purchase: values, ethics, and what you actually do. Let your actions speak louder than your ironic message tee. Want to be truly independent from mainstream society?

• Use your free time to serve people, not numb you[r] mind with entertainment.


• Be virtuous


• Be courteous


• Stop "finding yourself" and embrace commitment and responsibility


• Don't wear outdoorsy apparel, go camping


• Don't spend big bucks to look like you shop at a thrift store, actually shop at one


• Don't be ironic and sarcastic, be sincerely passionate


• Don't just buy clothes and cell phones that support a charity, become charitable


• Don't just buy a political bumper sticker, get involved in politics


• Stop being a boy and man up"

So, this is from the Art of Manliness blog and is therefor directed at men, but I think it has a more general application as well.

 

 

I am excited to say that soon I will be joining Team Widgetbox. Over the past year or so I have had the opportunity to work closely (well, as close as one can over the Internet) with a handful of people at Widgetbox and I can say that they are wonderful people to work with. They have always been on top of things and extremely helpful. I can only hope that when I join them that I will be able to offer the same type of top-notched service.

Obviously, I have experience with the Widgetbox team. That said, before I went to their office to interview for the position I made sure to do some extra research. In doing so I came across an older blog post on the Widgetbox blog entitled "The Values of Widgetbox." Having had the aforementioned opportunity to work with them, as well as the awesome opportunity to meet quite a few of the people there in person, I can say that, at least from my perspective, they live up to their values. Lets take a look at them, one by one:

Treat others as we want to be treated
Ah, the golden rule. In my dealing with team Widgetbox, they have always been respectful, on time, and very helpful. There have been times when I had questions that, in retrospect, I probably could have figured out myself with a little more attention to the provided documentation, but they were fast to respond and seemed happy to help.

Open up new opportunities and frontiers
When we started WidgetNest we had a handful of clients and some previous work, and so we set out to try and make some money making custom widgets. We did okay. We kept getting new clients and lots of projects, but it was starting to take its toll. We were working harder than we should have been for not very much income. After a few moths of this, we were contacted by Widgetbox to become a part of their developer program. We agreed to use them as our main channel of distribution (an easy choice, since we were already doing so) and they agreed to pass us clients from time to time at, what we couldn't believe at the time, a very favorable rate. That "partnership" showed us that maybe we should value what we were doing more than we had been previously. From that time forward we upped our standards and consequently got better clients, more money, and had more fun along the way. Who would have thought that custom widget making would become a legitimate business.

Help outsiders and underdogs win
This one is very related to the last. The fact that they were willing to hire some relatively unknown kid from out of state to be a member of their team (I'm talking about me here) is definitely a testament to this.

Succeed when our community succeeds
The people at Widgetbox take care of their community. From things as simple as commenting on widgets they like to things like developer "webinars," they take time to connect with their users.

Enable fun through discovery
When I was in town for the interview, afterward I had a short walk to my hotel, but I was so mentally distracted by the whole experience that I missed my turn and got lost. Do not worry, I just missed it by a couple blocks. Anyway, I got to discover more of the city and had fun along the way! Also, the fish and chips were awesome. - Okay, so this isn't as related to Widgetbox as the other examples have been, but I felt like I was repeating myself and besides, I have so much fun doing this stuff that I would enjoy it with or without Widgetbox. (Unless any of them are reading this, in which case I would have SO MUCH MORE FUN with Widgetbox.)

Awesome. I repeat: I am excited to join their team.

 

 

If Twitter is to be believed, I can see tweets before they actually happen. See the screen shot? (Tweets are presented in a bottom-up format, the most recent being on the top, much like blog entries) I answered his question before he asked it.

Now skeptics might say that maybe there are just inconsistencies on twitters servers or that maybe jayman16 double-posted/re-posted and that what we are seeing is the second version, the first having been deleted.

I laugh at these theories. I laugh long and hard. Clearly Twitter does not lie and they have never had a problem like this before, ever. I will be taking a few weeks off to hike the Tetons and meditate and try and develop this newly discovered skill of mine. Of course I will need to stay in ares where WiFi is readily available, as my premonitions seem to only happen on Twitter.

Wish me luck.

 

 

I hereby decree that I am getting one of these Band Geek Hero T-Shirts. Some of my favs include Trombone, Kazoo, Sousaphone, Recorder, and Synth.

I would also buy this game, and accessories, if it were real.

 

 

Excellent. Dr. Horrible is now available on Hulu.com. WATCH IT!

 

 

I hereby decree that this site is now cookie enabled. Don't worry, only on the administrative side. You, normal user, won't have them (except from maybe Google Analytics).

Anyway, secret adventure ahead. I will tell you more later if I can.

 

 

DISCLAIMER: The following is just an idea. I make no claim to be an expert in the fields of finance or new media. That said, I do have some experience with new media and the Internet. I put my ideas here in public view not as fact, but more as a question. I welcome any and all feedback.

-----

New Media and Old Media are starting to converge. As New Media matures it increasingly resembles Old Media. As Old Media struggles to adapt, it turns more and more toward New Media. (Maybe, soon, we will have just Media or "Mid-life Crisis Media") Everyone is trying to figure out how to grow, adapt, and make money in their craft.

Unfortunately, it would seem that while much is happening in both realms, each has come to a limit. Old Media won't let go of their tried and true money making schemes. This stubbornness leads to things like DRM and consumer "licensing." New Media, on the other hand, continues to give its hard work away, hoping that a business model will emerge. Something needs to happen to shake things up and an economic recession could be just what we need.

Think of it (coincidentally, "Think of Me" from The Phantom of the Opera is playing), economic hardship will force Old Media to change or fail. Given their track record and their current trajectory, failure is almost certain. Maybe not in the "completely destroyed" sense of the term, but they will definitely have an unbearably hard time. On the flip side, past economic hardship has actually proven productive for up and coming media. Walt Disney continued to make cartoons and hire workers all through the depression. Hard times will mean that new media companies will be able to find hard-working workers who will be willing to adapt and change. The workers might also work for cheaper, but I don't want to focus on that. Suffice it to say that in extreme circumstances people are humbled and more willing to except change in their lives.

Now the argument could be made that, since New Media is so tied to the Internet that hard financial times will hurt because fewer people will pay for Internet access. In this day and age, however, I think that it will be the cable and newspaper subscriptions that will go first. The Internet can be both entertainment and news. Why pay double for those things when they are all available in one place? People will increasingly turn to the internet to provide them with information.

So, if the Internet is not going away, and Old Media companies will collapse under their own weight, who is left to entertain and inform the masses? New Media. With a newly charged workforce that is willing to work hard, adapt, and learn and with a low barrier to entry, New Media will rise in an economic recession and will, to an extent, help us through the hard times. Just as "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" became a rally cry against the Great Depression, the success of New Media may, in fact, give us hope and rekindle the American Imagination.

 

 

My friends over at Frameplay have come up with a cool new recipe sharing service called Recipe Snap. Recipe Snap lets you easily add recipes and then share them with friends. The site is very new and is being constantly worked upon by the creators, but for a first version it is pretty slick.

Here is a Salsa recipe (perfected over many, many months) that I put in to Recipe Snap:

I recommend trying the site out. Its slick.

 

 

I got some new ties today. Which do you think looks best with this shirt? If you are wondering why pink on blue, I will tell you. It is hip!

 

 

The Girl Effect - (video)

You should all like this, if for nothing else other than the typography is well done. As the father of a girl, I can totally get behind this.

 

 

I hereby decree that if you missed Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on the web, then I am sorry for you. You can, however, still check it out on iTunes [iTunes Link]. Worth it, I assure you.

 

 

Found these beauties in Yellowstone last Saturday. (Did I mention that we went to Yellowstone National Park?) The posters were expensive so I just got the postcard versions.

From the postcard:
Between 1935 and 1943 the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public's imagination for education, theater, health, safety, and travel. Due to their fragile nature only two thousand posters have survived. The National Park image shown here is also available in the original poster format from many National Park Bookstores.

I am not the best designer in the world, nor do I have the best design eye. I do, however, like these. I think they are beautiful. We need more of this kind of stuff today.

 

 

In some spy movies, the secret agent calls a secret phone number and codes in a secret code then gets access to a secret resource. I have been thinking about this and there are a few things that, in the real world, probably don't exist. Think about it, if we are to believe that systems like ECHELON are real, why would a secret agent need a secret phone number? They could just pick up the phone, dial any random number, say a code phrase and then the ECHELON computer system takes over the call. Ya, esta!

Look, you call up some random person and the call goes like this:
"Hello."
"Alpha Bravo Department Store Mayhem Serpentine."
"What?"
CLICK
"Hello? Hello? Anyone there? ... Weird."

It would be awesome. I guess if you ever get a random call from someone and they say random stuff try and remember what they said. There are all sorts of ways that wouldn't work, however. They could have a multistage system. The words you hear could only be a part of a three part combination.

I am so going to be a spy. Of all the places to potentially work/live, Virginia (which is a possible location, interviewing there) is definitely gaining some cred.

 

 

Ha ha ha. Instead of Pomp and Circumstance it is Entry of the Gladiators. I crack myself up. Anyway, this is kind of cool, though I am disappointed in how short it is. I added at least 10 more pictures too. Oh well. Check out Animoto.

For more graduation photos check out my Flickr Profile: LeMieuxster

 

 

When I was in grade school I got school lunch (hot lunch, as it were). After I picked up my meal I would alway head over to the milk fridges and pick up some chocolate milk. Every once in a while, though, instead of chocolate milk there was rootbeer milk. Yes, rootbeer flavored milk. It was weird and not extremely enjoyable. Unfortunately the packaging was enough like the chocolate milk that I never realized until I got to my table what I had done.

Years later I was telling this story to my wife and some other friends and they all looked at me like I was crazy. Rootbeer milk? Such a thing must surely be a figment of my imagination. Since it happened so long ago and only every once and while and not on a regular schedule I began to doubt my memories. Had I really had rootbeer milk? Did it exist?

Recently a new dairy store opened up here in Rexburg. They have delicious ice cream that is also very cheap. They also sell milk and cheese. The other day we were there to get some ice cream (we walked, it is like five block from our house) and while I was looking through their milk fridge I saw it. Rootbeer milk. I immediately had to try some/buy it. So I did. Still has that same not-quite-good taste from my childhood. My memories were confirmed. I really did have rootbeer milk in elementary school. I now have another arrow in my quiver of times-I-was-right-and-no-one-else-believed-me-so-that-makes-me-more-trustworthy.

Rootbeer milk still tastes funny. Try it once, but don't expect to fall in love.

 

 

Observe, Interaction Designer Chris Hall is also the lead singer from the band Cake.

 

 

I hereby decree that, except for a few changes I may make to my paper and one more class period I have to attend, I am done with my undergraduate studies.

Weird.

Now I am off to go get myself a copy of the book I Just Finished My Undergraduate Studies, Now What?

 

 

Overland Trail Presentation - Upload a Document to Scribd Read this document on Scribd: Overland Trail Presentation

Presentation I made for HIST 300 about my paper. We had to talk about our paper's question, answer, and the sources used.

 

 

Mormon Overland Trail Paper - Upload a Document to Scribd Read this document on Scribd: Mormon Overland Trail Paper

Here is my research paper for HIST 300 that I have been working on almost all semester. I may still make some changes before turning in the final copy, but this is more or less what it will be. Neat huh?

 

 

Forgive me for being an agregator for a moment and check this out:

12 Websites To Help You Learn Flash/ActionScript

Pretty nice list.

 

 

I hereby decree that I am sorry. I made a slight change to the RSS feed an now feed readers are marking everything as new. Sorry, shouldn't happen again.

 

 

I hope Daniel and Chelsea continue to grow their love for one another. They certainly need it. Child-like wonder indeed.

For more info on this series check My Brother's Wedding Invitation - Part 1

 

 

I hereby decree that my web host is great, but lately (last 4 months of so) they are starting to fail me. Interestingly enough, they are only starting to fail my personal account. My more expensive "pro" account never goes down. Priorities, I guess, and I suppose for that I am thankful.

Anyway, I would like to take a moment to thank the public service utilities in my area for being far more reliable than the internet will ever be. Four years and only one minor power outage, water has never shut off, and the telephone has always worked. Thank you public works, thank you.

 

 

In honor of the national holiday, I present a very patriotic wedding invitation. Daniel and Chelsea are both honorable American citizens who love this great nation. Waving flags, bald eagles, fireworks, and patriotic tears will all be a part of their wedding.

For more info on this series check My Brother's Wedding Invitation - Part 1

 

 

Independence Day
Declaration of Independence

 

 

This is to inform you that I'll never make a payment.

 

 

I hereby decree that the Sprint Instinct phone site needs better copy editing. In their intro they introduce you to the main star of their "movies" by telling you that the greatest product placement movie star of all time "is just phone." I am fairly sure they mean "is just a phone" or "is only a phone."

Whoever made that intro should feel embarrassed. The Internet has already done its fair share of helping us to be less literate. The Sprint Instinct site doesn't need to add to the problem.

Next time, Sprint, make sure to copy edit your stuff, or hire someone else. The credibility of an otherwise creative site is completely lost because of that one error. Or, in other words, "it just plain bad."

 

 

So, this one is inspired by the beloved Animutation!!! A favorite of mine back in the earlier days of the internet. Bad Flash animation mixed with weird songs = best ever.

For more info on this series check My Brother's Wedding Invitation - Part 1