Nightcrawler

Although I've had plenty of experience with fat, juicy nightcrawler worms, the title of the post actually refers to Pete Yorn's latest album of the same name.

This one has been on my download list for a few months, and I just got around to it today. It's delightful. That's the first word that came to mind, and though it may be cheesy, it's entirely accurate. Nothing groundbreaking or world-rocking, but it's an album that coasts along -- planting itself firmly in my current heavy rotation.

I am now a self-professed "Modern, Cool Nerd"

Continuing the meme from Jodi...

I've taken several Nerd vs. Geek quizzes, but I like the focus of this one. Straightforward criteria, and straightforward questions. Here's me:

Modern, Cool Nerd
73% Nerd, 73% Geek, 34% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

Pandora goes public

no, not really public like NASDAQ... but they did recently sign a deal with MSN to provide MSN Radio. looks like someone at microsoft actually has a brain in their head.

Pandora plays streaming music via a flash player in your browser and is powered by the Music Genome Project. honestly, the MGP is one of those ideas that you slap yourself in the head and think, "i've always thought about that, why couldn't i think of a way to do this?!?"

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Pandora and the MGP are an exciting piece of the social music revolution that's happening thanks to digital/online music. i can discover music based on criteria i already know i enjoy; share playlists, artists, etc.; track it all with last.fm (see the awesome pandora/last.fm mashup, PandoraFM); then head to eMusic and download my favorites. if you don't have an eMusic account, you're missing out on one of the best online music sites, IMHO. they don't have the catalog of iTunes or Rhapsody, but if you're a music fan with eclectic taste, you won't be disappointed.

read more about Pandora at TechCrunch. if it's good enough for mike arrington, it's good enough for me. ;)

web nerd, meet sports fan

i really only visit yahoo! sports pages during one season of the year -- ncaa hoops season. those of you who know me as more than just a nerdy web gal probably know that my family members are rabid kansas jayhawk fans. ROCK CHALK!

today, thanks to a buddy's 30 boxes calendar, i discovered that yahoo has every ncaa team's schedule in iCal format! find your favorite team's home page (here's mine) and then click the "Scores & Schedules" menu link. that page has several links to "Add Schedule" -- you can add it to your yahoo calendar, get mobile SMS alerts, add the iCal file to online calendars like 30 Boxes or Google Calendar, or import the ICS file into Outlook or your favorite scheduling software. whew!

i love it when i get to be nerdy about not-so-nerdy things.

update: yahoo updates the iCal feed after the game is over by putting the score in the "notes" section. very cool, but so sad to revisit the oral roberts and depaul disasters. what's up with the 7-point losing margins??

ego surfing & 30 boxes

i was just lurking around del.icio.us, looking through the "30boxes" tag, when lo and behold i find a couple of my URLs in the list. it's fun to see 3 to 5 (my professional alter ego) listed, along with static{fade}.

a friend recently sent an email with a subject line along the lines of, "fame!" she included a link to the wikipedia entry on 30 Boxes, where i'm mentioned by name. hat tip to the folks at 30b for including me. (update: seems that page has been changed. ahhh, my fleeting 15 minutes!)

30 Boxes is the first web 2.0 software that i still use daily, many months after activating my account. i tried mypimp (hipcal), kiko, and oh-so-many others. sure, i still log into remember the milk, backpack and basecamp, but not nearly as frequently as i open my 30b calendar. and with the addition of the webtop (their take on a web-based home page or virtual desktop), i can task manage at remember the milk and backpack without ever having to leave.

the 30b team (which is only three people!!) is very active in the forums and is very interested in and responsive to suggestions from their users. it has been fun to be an active participant in helping this snappy little web app mature throughout the year. the payoff has been some recognition by the 30b team (they've recently included two of my custom themes in their main menu), and i'm grateful and honored.

go try it! if you keep a calendar or a todo list, you'll be instantly hooked. be sure to check out the RSS and iCal integration -- if you use any other social networking-type sites (flickr, upcoming.org, myspace, etc.), or if you keep a blog, you can have all your entries instantly viewable on your calendar. once you've got some info in there, check out 30b on your phone!

Nuckin' Futs

Nuckin' Futs - The JibJab Year in Review
Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

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