(13:57:25) jacksoncooper: hey

(14:15:31) benATthelocust: hey there

(14:15:47) jacksoncooper: so, WoW, huh?

(14:15:55) benATthelocust: (btw – there is nothing like using a restroom and thinking that a man might fall through the ceiling onto you)

(14:15:59) benATthelocust: yeah

(14:16:01) benATthelocust: WoW

(14:16:16) jacksoncooper: heh

(14:16:47) jacksoncooper: hey, that new laptop is kicking ass.

(14:17:30) benATthelocust: HOLY SHIT

(14:17:31) benATthelocust: dude

(14:17:33) benATthelocust: dude

(14:17:43) benATthelocust: as soon as i typed that thing about the ceiling

(14:17:48) benATthelocust: IT ACTUALLY FUCKING HAPPENED

(14:17:55) benATthelocust: THIS IS THE TRUTH

(14:18:02) jacksoncooper: what the hell?

(14:18:09) benATthelocust: I heard a mad clatter in the john and ran in there and there is a dude in the fucking ceiling

(14:18:18) benATthelocust: tiles and all sorts of shit where i was just sitting

(14:18:42) jacksoncooper: damn

Excuse the cursing, but I had just recently foreseen and forestalled my own peril. At that moment, cursing was and is necessary.

Update: I will have a photo later.

Man – been a busy time as of late with ol’ Ben! Let’s get down to business…

First off, I’ve been embroiled in a huge project here at work to launch 6 (count them one two three four five six) websites for a company called Heatcraft in less than a month. It couldn’t have been possible without the help of Yukon Charnelius and the venerable m@.

Secondly, yes, it’s true: I have been playing World of Warcraft, and yes, it is everything that they say it is. Deep, engulfing, wide, full of content and as addictive as crack. Me? I’m a 15th-level Dwarven Paladin name of Cramfist on server Akama.

Nextly, or perhaps thirdly, ol’ Cholly and I have regularly been playing chess. Currently, the record stands at 5-4-1 with me holding a tenuous lead. Ideas are underway to create a Web 2.0 site for chess. We’ll see if it takes off…

Lastly, on the soaring front… You may remember that last year I built a sailplane over the winter. This year is much the same, but improved! I’m building a bigger version of the one I did last year with help from a new friendship with Denny @ Polecat Aeroplane Works (I did his site for him, too).

TO ALL OUTLETS, BUT SPECIFICALLY THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL

I would like Mythbusters to attempt to bust something i like to call “the Stevie Wonder effect“. That is, of course, the uncontrollable urge to do the “Stevie Wonder groove-sway-thing” when listening to a Stevie Wonder song.

This would of course entail a “blind” study of humans in a private and yet comfortable atmosphere. Having friends in the book- and music-selling industries, I’d have to suggest listening stations equipped with Stevie Wonder. A “control” sample would most likely involve Streisand.

Of course, now that you, gentle reader, know of this effect, such as it is, you cannot participate in the study. Go and acquire some Wonder and attempt to influence your friends, family and co-workers. Get back to me with results.

That is all.

NOTE: This is not to be confused with the Ray effect, which is entirely un-related as it causes movies that had been shelved to miraculously come back to life after an actor wins a major award. See: Stealth.

Focused readers of this site know that I enjoy “do-it-yourself” stuff, from my own software projects, to all that soaring stuff and I’ve even made my own beer (not to mention the picnic table)

In a world where most every thing we could want is ready-made and cheaply available from Wal-Mart or Target, there is a certain romantic and satisfying (to some) ideal in making your own whatever, be it a scarf, or a hat, or even a microprocessor-controlled lost-model-alarm.

Last year, I was alerted that the venerable O’Reilly publishing company was going to publish a magazine for DIYers called (aptly) MAKE. It’s a great compilation of geeky and not-so-geeky DIY projects from Kite Aerial Photography to Making Your Own Biodiesel to learning to weld! And, on a not-so-side note, for a day-to-day DIY fix, make sure to check out the MAKE:blog.

Finally, what really fueled this post was Talk of the Nation‘s interview with the editors of both MAKE and ReadyMade magazines back on December 28th, called Inside the World of “Do-It-Yourself”. Give it a listen.

Each year I think “I’m going to post my top ten albums of the year before Pitchfork posts theirs,” and each year I’m too late. And then I read their list, thereby skewing my own perspectives, right? Right. Well – truth be told I am constantly re-shuffling my own list inside of my head, and I’ll be damned if my top two albums of the year didn’t match theirs. But hey, at least I know what I enjoy. So, without further ado, my list for 2005 (in ascending order):

Sleater Kinney – The Woods

I’ve made mention of The Woods previously and even previously-er, and in the intervening 6 months, my love of that album has yet to wane. Sleater-Kinney have always been on the cusp of something – always consistently at the top of the indie heap, but they never seem to be able to escape the orbit of the underground. Perhaps that is what spurred their self-imposed exodus from their native Washington State to the East Coast to record this album in the woods, quite literally. What came out was an album heavy with conviction and the best album of their 10 year career.

The Heartless Bastards – Stairs and Elevators

I first heard from these guys on a great album called Sunday Nights – The Songs of Junior Kimbrough, doing his “I Done Got Old”, and it blew my mind. Like a two-ton Janis Joplin — frontlady Erika Wennerstrom just stomped my brainpan with equal parts rock and blues. Between these guys and The Black Keys, is there anything that Akron, Ohio can’t do? Is there? Keep an eye on their website for tour dates and go and see them up-close before they are playing bigger venues. (ealier mention: the listening hour – fall 2005)

Blind Willie McTell and Buell Kazee

Death from Above 1979 – You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine

Explosions in the Sky / …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

Sufjan Stevens – Illinois

Kanye West – Late Registration

Honorable Mention

Franz Ferdinand – You Could Have It So Much Better With…

Bloc Party – Silent Alarm

Wilco – Kicking Television (Live in Chicago)

The Decemberists – Picaresque

M. Ward – Transistor Radio

Think Differently Music Presents: Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture

A few years ago, Kelly and I started donating to Goodwill on a regular basis. For a while, we didn’t keep records of what we gave, but then we decided to start claiming that stuff on our taxes (especially when we were going to owe!). We just keep tick marks of each piece that we donate, and then use a donation valuation guide to tally it all up at year-end. A note on the valuation guides: Goodwill nor the Salvation Army have an “official” guide, so use discretion. Imagine explaining claiming $6 for a ripped Def Leppard t-shirt to an IRS auditor. Each few months, we end up donating a couple of trashbags full of ill-fitting clothing and stuff that we never use. In the end, we cut our tax bill down considerably, and the Goodwill benefitted.

Kelly’s family also adopts Angel Tree children instead of exchanging gifts. Again, tax-deductible and much better than having to hem and haw over what horrifying sweater to get your gram! I helped out one year, and was given charge of a 13 year old kid and proceeded to kick out the Christmas present JAMS (literally!) It was a lot of fun.

Finally, the venerable Hunter Dixon for the last few years has been flexing his B&N muscle and buying a bunch of books for children with donations from friends. With the employee discount, he can purchase just tons of books for kids. It’s great! And to top it all off — he donated his poker winnings for December to the cause, thereby making this year the most bookalicious for needy kids. In the end this year, the official final tally was $360, allowing us to purchase 103 books. Dang. That’s awesome.

Hoo-ray for charity!

The weather sages around town say that snow en-quantite’ is incoming to Louisville tomorrow, so in reaction I’ve updated my silly little exploding snowflake javascript thing called snow2. Originally written way back in 2002 (also here), it has been updated to work in today’s modern browsers. Enjoy!

Kelly and I got married waaaay back on April 26th, 2002, and the next day we set off on our “Out West Road Trip” of a honeymoon. I made travelogues each day and uploaded photos at night from our hotel rooms, but had never entered them into the ‘blog until just now.

So, without further ado:

Honeymoon Day #1: Giant Ketchup and St. Louis, Gateway to the
West

Honeymoon Day #2: Beneath the arch, above the city

Honeymoon Day #3: Albino Squirreltown #1, OKC

Honeymoon Day #4: OKC to Albuquerque, NM via Amarillo, TX

Honeymoon Day #5: Wrong turns in Albuquerque, Navajo Radio, Meteor Crater and White Buffalo

Honeymoon Day #6: Grand Canyon, Tuba City, Navajo Country, Squeaking through Wolf Creek Pass

Honeymoon Day #7: The Genoa Wonder Tower Oddyssey, Kansas, Spiderman

Honeymoon Day #8: Hays, KS to St. Louis, MO

Honeymoon Day #9: Busch Stadium, Squirrelville #2, and home.

I suggest you start at the beginning and use the new, handy “Back to previous entry” and “Onward to next entry” links to get to the next day! And for more travel excitement, you can also now browse the blog by topics.

For the visual lot, there is also the Honeymoon Gallery with pictures from the entire trip (but that has been there all along).

Enjoy!

…but that”s what happened to me yesterday.

Kelly and I were at Oxmoor and stopped inside Sharper Image. You know
– the kind of place where you can get a robotic calf massager, a
robotic vacuum cleaner, even a robotic… robot. In the middle of
store, prominently displayed (but outside the reach of small children)
were the Master Replicas Star Wars lightsabers!

I said “OOOH! SHINY!” and immediately went over and picked it up off of
it”s display case. I believe it was the “Darth Vader” model. There was
also a nice family of a father and like three kids “playing” with the
“Anakin” model. I hear the Dad say “uh, now kids, this ain”t for
swinging now — these are $125 a piece!” I chuckle and lapse back into
my daydream of standing on the bank of a lava-flow yelling “YOU WERE THE
CHOSEN ONE!”, with Matt Rasnake”s brother Javan standing down below w/o
3 of his appendages. Now me, I”m standing there with a goatee, sandy
blonde hair parted a little to the left gripping this thing with two
hands, just thinking one word over and over in my mind — “AWESOME
AWESOME AWESOME”. The dad then snaps my concentration and says “Hey
man — my kids think you look like Obi-Wan, you know, but like Young
Obi-Wan”. Now, this dude was black, so I was automatically thinking
“Mace! You old cock! How are you?!” but declined to say such a thing.

Nonetheless, I thanked him and his apparently awe-struck children
(judging by the looks on their faces) and went on our way. Upon
reflection I should have whipped out some great Obi-Wan scenes like
walking over to the people looking at the Roomba robo-vacuums and waving
my hand saying “these aren”t the droids you are looking for”.

So yeah, that was pretty awesome. Next time you are dragged into that
mall, I suggest you check them out.

What’s shakin’, mother bacon?! Been a lot of stuff goin’ on ’round here lately — but I haven’t had the time to come back and rap with you, so here goes:

So, as you know, I like playing with RC sailplanes, and specifically ones that you throw into the sky with your hand (aka handlaunch). Well, the last handlaunch contest of the temperate season this side of the Mississippi was held last weekend in Wilson, North Carolina. You might remember that about this time last year I made a similar voyage to Wilson to compete in the 2004 East Coast Handlaunch Glider Festival, and this year was no different.

No, wait, it was different! Firstly, Kelly was going to travel down there with me because I went with her to her big contest — the Chicago Marathon a few weeks back. I was to be the only LASS member to make it, so she was a welcome companion. I certainly recognize her sacrifice of a perfectly good weekend to sit in a field with me! Secondly, I had managed to do pretty well at the 2005 NATS handlaunch event back in July, so I had to prove to myself that that wasn’t just a fluke.

Long, boring story short, we had a good trip and I managed to get 6th out of 22 against some of the best handlaunch pilots out there and most importantly had a lot of fun. It was nice having Kelly around, too — she’s never seen me “in action”, and it was nice to have a lady around to hug on.

Want some photos? Check them out here: 2005.10.22 – ECHLGF @ LouisvilleSoaring.org. Further coverage you can find here at RCGroups: East Coast HLG Festival ’05.