Category: General

Obama Wordle

obama_wordle_small
click to view large

Using Wordle I created this. 

It’s President Obama’s Inauguration speech, with the words that he used more frequently appearing larger.  Initially, I used a rough palette based upon this poster.

I then exported it as a pdf from Wordle.

Then I looked for a palette that was a bit closer to the original poster.  I found this one on kuler and munged it a bit in Illustrator.  If you click the image above I have a nice desktop background ready size available for your use.

While I’m not normally a politics nerd I watched the whole ceremony today and felt two distinct emotions.

Relief and hope.

Top 10 for 2008

According to iTunes these are the top 10 songs added to my library in the last year. This doesn’t count all the tracks I’ve played on my antique CD player.  Which would greatly skew these results if added.

  1. Electric Feel – MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
  2. Dashboard – Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
  3. A-Punk – Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
  4. You Don’t Know Me – Ben Flolds – Way to Normal
  5. Don’t You Evah – Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Damn Robots Fault)
  6. How Deep is Your Love – The Bird and the Bee – Please Clap Your Hands – EP
  7. Time To Pretend – MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
  8. Oxford Comma – Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
  9. Supermassive Black Hole – Muse – Black Holes & Revelations (Thank you Allison!)
  10. Oh What A World – Rufus Wainwright – Want One

So some of these songs came out earlier than 2008 which doesn’t make this list entirely accurate in calling it the best of 2008, so with another smart playlist I have the top 10 songs from 2008 according to iTunes.

  1. You Don’t Know Me – Ben Folds
  2. Something Good (Van She 08 Radio Edit) – Utah Saints
  3. Pork and Beans –  Weezer
  4. Electric Feel (Justice Remix) – MGMT
  5. Soviet Connection – Michael Hunter
  6. Loose Lips – Kimya Dawson
  7. Lost – Coldplay
  8. No Sex For Ben – The Rapture
  9. Viva La Vida – Coldplay
  10. Here’s The Thing – Girl Talk 

Best Christmas Present Ever

I am very grateful for the company of my friends and family this holiday season. Their companionship and generosity are something I am truly luckily to have. Gifts do not equal love. I want to stress that I’m not a total capitalist, but I do have one gift that stands out above all the rest that I can’t help mentioning.

Awesome Pen

This pen.
This isn’t just any pen. In fact it’s THREE pens in one. Not just blue or black, but 3 different colors! It’s an awesome translucent neon orange that houses THREE PENS and A HIGHLIGHTER. Now, the manufacturer could have stopped there, but they made it COCONUT scented. It’s like writing while sitting on a beach enjoying a… coconut.

To make it even better it has my familial designation in bold type across it’s side. Like the name of a sailing vessel it boldy claims it’s unique name. UNCLE. This is not a normal pen. It is a pen for UNCLES.

I was given this AWESOME PEN by my neice, Audrey. The story goes that she was good in school and as a reward was able to ‘purchase’ a gift for a family member. Not only am I lucky to have my very own AWESOME ORANGE 3 COLOR UNCLE PEN WITH A COCONUT SCENTED HIGHLIGHTER, but I was chosen to be the recipient of her gift.

Thank you Audrey. I love you and can not express how much I love this pen.

The Koerners in HD

So for our family xmas present this year we picked up a Flip Mino HD.  So far I’m really enjoying it.  It’s super small, shoots great video and is fun to have around for all the funny moments with Kari.

I wasn’t about to carry around 2 full-size devices (we already have a nice DSLR) and I’d rather have really good photographs over really good video.

Without further ado, Jackie, Kari and I putting up the Christmas Tree.