VP Debate '08

The Riverview Theater aired the debate on the big-screen last night, which made for quite an event. Obama/Biden stickers and shirts were everywhere, people were dressed like birds - Oh, WAIT! They were roosters. Holding signs that said WAKE UP AMERICA. ...just put that together. Anyway, while the VP debate may not end up deciding very much this election, there sure was a lot of excitement in the air - some of which has lingered on into today, at least. The following is an email response that I wrote to a friend that was supposed to meet us at the theater, but couldn't get in!

Yeah, the debate is definitely the topic of conversation here at work today... surprised (or maybe not really) how much support she still has amongst the conservatives, in my office and across the nation. I hate that it casts me and other liberals I know as elitists when I/we say that Palin is dumbing down politics to appeal to the masses. On purpose. But that's exactly what I think. I don't know how to not be a jerk, but still ask for the credit and respect that I deserve as an (at least somewhat) informed member of society... again I'm already implying that I'm better than others.

What to do? Anyway, the theater was definitely a great venue to watch, however biased. I am always most interested in knowing what people on the other side of the spectrum think during these nationally televised political events. But it's fun to get carried away too. (Carried towards the left.) :)

You're right that the Truth was hard to find though. Both candidates dodged questions. Biden was just a bit slicker about it. Palin was straightforward with her evasion. So Biden looked more like old Washington in some ways. A distant intellectual politician. (Gore? Kerry?) Palin was like W., without the jittery fear. (Although she did look more nervous than usual.) In any case, The People will take away from it what they're inclined to.

Fortunately Obama has been gaining ground, and Biden did nothing to hurt that, and the little that Palin helped McCain (by showing up, not falling on her face) won't add much to the equation. That's all that really matters.

Lastly, what was with all of the winking? It's like she's hitting on the country. Seriously. Stop winking at me Sarah.

What did you think?

Oh, is THAT who we're voting for?

Are we really that confused in this country? This ad popped up next to my email today, begging the question.

Veep of the Hill

I didn't make this connection, but I thought it apt/funny.

The McCain Veep mission: find the real life Peggy Hill. Slam dunk.

Geekin' out about Dropbox.

Finally! DropBox, an online backup and synchronization application, went public today, so I got my copy after months of waiting for a beta invitation. I don't see any reason why a person wouldn't sign up for their free service, where you get 2 GBs of storage that you can access from any computer that you have activated with the service. That means not only instant backups, but universal access to your files.

Other services have a similar feature-set (Mozy, which I currently use), but Dropbox's more complete service features and tasty UI puts it way ahead in my book.

The way Dropbox works, is that it makes a folder that acts the same as any other folder on your computer, but now when you add a file to the designated folder, you'll be able to open it on from the Dropbox folders you have on any other machines. Like magic :), Dropbox copies the files first to the web, and then down to you other machines so they're local always & everywhere. Crazy.

So I'm really excited about Dropbox.

Drivin' to CA

In 10 days Änna and I get to take a little vacation and drive Jeff's car out to sunny Palo Alto, CA! For those that don't already know, Jeff is Änna's dad, and he's starting as the VP of Development (or something like that) at a solar energy company called Ausra this month, which we're all very excited about.

We're planning our route right now, so if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them.


View Larger Map

The Great Wall : Summer '08

DSC00079
Originally uploaded by hagstrbh

Not THAT Great Wall. But still a great wall.

Regrettably, I never took any pics of our construction of the Hagstrom-Great-Wall-in-St.Paul last year. Hopefully these pics of the 2nd installment will serve as enough of a reminder... to never do this again?

No, it was fun really. And hopefully Änna likes what I've done when she returns home tomorrow. :) Photos on flickr (username: hagstrbh).

Threadless Shirt

So I thought I'd try to submit a shirt to Threadless.com to see how that all worked. Turns out, if enough users vote that they like a shirt, and Threadless prints it, I can get paid. So vote early, and often. Even if you think my shirt is dumb. Image below should link to my shirt, titled "Kevin" bacon.

Tune Up Media

I was just using this awesome piece of software from Tune Up Media that helps clean up your iTunes music library, and I guess that I was impressed enough to recommend it to you here. (At least the Free Version that I'm demoing tonight.) Super easy, drag-and-drop interface, with something like 90% accuracy (they claim) in renaming/cleaning files. If your music folder was as messy as mine, from the old days of college file sharing, I'm sure you'll find this helpful. If I were still using Limewire, Bittorent, etc, I would definitely be buying the lifetime subsription for TuneUp, but for now I'll see how far I can stretch the 500 free cleans.

Leopard vs. Crocodile

Leopard wins.

Hamburglar?

No. Regular burglar.

Some of you may have heard, but our garage was broken into the other week. Which blows. Both our bikes, my drums, the power saw, the cordless drill, a Bucket Boss FULL of tools, all gone. Plus they screwed up our garage door in the process. Insurance will pay for some, but we have to spend quite a bit to make paying the deductible worthwhile.

Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy, but advice. I'm thinking of getting an electronic drum set to replace the old, "traditional" one. Mostly for the quiet factor, but also to save space. And I've always thought them pretty rad. Does anyone out there have experience with these sets? Unfounded opinions? Either will do, really.

I'm off, probably to buy some new tools.

More Reverse Graffiti

http://www.reversegraffitiproject.com/

Kickin' Off Summer Right.

The Hagstroms are kickin' off summer right. Seems like we've packed in a whole season's worth of fun in to the last two weekends...

We did this...

and went here...

and did this...

and saw this...

and went to this...

and did lots of this...

and even started one of these...

Thank goodness the work week is here so we can relax...

Wife Chart

How does your wife rank?

This is the first page of a 1930s chart used to give couples "feedback" on their marriages. I wish they had the whole list up... but I'm sure my wife would rank as "Very Superior" regardless. [full story]

Another blog that's just way way way better than mine.

manbabies.com

Just photos of dads with their babies -- with their heads swapped.

GET MORE AT ManBabies.com!

Simply genius.

Give a Man a Fish.

Something a commenter posted on the Freakonomics blog the other day struck a chord... He referenced the popular saying:
Give a man a fish, he'll live for a day.
Teach a man to fish, he'll live forever.

The post got me thinking more about the analogy as it could be applied during all this Recession talk, and prompted me to try a Haiku Redux of that same saying...
Give a man a fish...
because he was just laid off.
Was a fisherman.

Maybe one of you more skilled in the ways of Haikus, limericks, etc., will come up with something better. :)

Boomerangs to Babies.

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=81490

But how would the babies drop, in space!?

"Boomerangs In Space!"

So how does a boomerang work? Should this be confusing? An airfoil can produce lift without air? (Bjorn feels like an idiot as Lou points out that the dude is INSIDE the spaceship, so there IS air... Bjorn finds spaceman's boomeranging skills impressive nonetheless.) Discuss.

The Lord's Prayer Redux : Leet Speak

[source link]

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4|\/|3|\|.

I didn't know what 'leet' was before reading this, or at least I didn't know the specific term for typing with symbols instead of standard alphanumerics... but I found portions of this |-|!££@R!0$.

Amazing Clock Design

http://www.christiaanpostma.nl/
--
Simply one of the coolest clock designs I've ever seen... as long as you're ok with only having a general idea of what time it is. (I am.) :)

On the clock page, link "3" shows a fast-forward illustration of what the clock looks like in action.

$1000 from Shirt.Woot.com

Shirt.Woot is paying designers $1000 for first run shirt designs!

Long Overdue -- The Best Films of 2007 v3

***Or, from best to worst, the films that I saw in 2007. I was waiting to make this list until I saw Gone Baby Gone and The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford, but I still have not seen I'm Not There, Rescue Dawn, Planet Terror, La Vie en Rose, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly... Balls of Fury...***

1. No Country for Old Men. No surprises here. I loved it. So did most everybody. (Because it was that good!)
2. There Will Be Blood. This was the hardest spot to pick. There are a number of movies I feel like I need to, or really want to, see again. This is at the top of that list... so it gets #2 in my list.
3. Juno. I'm going to cut down on the comments here... But Juno was good too. :)
4. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I loved watching this movie. About the most fun I had in a theater all last year.
5. Once.
6. Atonement.
7. Michael Clayton.
8. The Darjeeling Limited.
9. Into the Wild.
10. Zodiac.
11. Across the Universe.
12. Gone Baby Gone.
13. Death Proof.
14. The Namesake
15. Ratatouille.
16. Sunshine.
17. Knocked Up.
18. 300.
19. Sicko.
20. The Bourne Ultimatum.
21. 3:10 to Yuma.
22. Charlie Wilson's War.
23. Disturbia.
24. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
25. Waitress.
26. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
27. 28 Weeks Later.
28. The Mist.
29. Super Bad.
30. Dan in Real Life.
31. Eastern Promises.
32. Breach.
33. American Gangster.
34. Live Free or Die Hard.
35. The Lookout.
36. The Simpsons Movie.
37. Shooter.
38. Fracture.
39. Oceans Thirteen.
40. Transformers.
41. Blades of Glory.
42. The Number 23.

(Now to see how many times I change my mind now that I have it all down on paper...)

Vasaloppet. You betcha.

What was to be the culmination of my winter training took place yesterday out in the frigid plains north of Mora, Minnesota... It was to be the final test of how far back into this sport of cross-country skiing I could come in one season of moderate training, with a renewed attention to form and also a growing desire to once again broaden my enthusiasm for athletics.

I signed up for the 35k division of the Mora Vasaloppet, an annual ski event of international proportion, last November. For the past 8+ years, entering these big races (with their big, non-refundable entrance fees) has been a pretty risky proposition considering the strangely-snow-shy part of the world we've been living in. This season seemed a cinch though, and as my dad convinced me, registering for this race would give me the motivation I would need early in the season when I was starting to train. Thankfully the snow has stuck around, for the most part, and I've gotten in a lot of quality skiing: at Como (many times around that 5k loop this season), the excellently maintained Theodore Wirth (lengthening and broadening my training later in the season), a long weekend trip to ski the exquisite trail system at Giant's Ridge in Biwabik, MN, and a warm-up competition in the 25k Marine Obrien Race in late January. Pretty good, all and all.

Unfortunately, little can prepare a person for skiing in fifteen-below-zero weather (w/forty below wind chills) -- and more than that, this person does not WANT to be prepared to ski in that kind of weather! On any other day like with weather like that, you'd have to pay to get me outside. But as it was, I'd already spent enough in money - and mostly time, not to go out and give it whatever I had.

And I'm glad that I did.

It was cold. (Duh.) But I did it. And so did hundreds of other people. So I think that I would have totally felt like a tool if I'd stayed at home. I am, however, considering some of the other late-season races now, not because I did poorly at the Vasa, but I still never got to ski that out-of-my-mind-fast kind of race that I'd been hoping for. Maybe I won't even be able to do that this season, but I'm tempted to try again.

Anyway, here is acool series of shots of the lead pack somewhere in the middle of the race. (It's an animated GIF, so hopefully that works in all y'all's browsers. If not right away, click to view it by itself.)

And here's a shot of me, some odd 125 people behind them.

Just kidding. Here is a picture of me though... trying not to fall over from what it looks like.

Obama @ the Target Center

Hello folks,

Barack Obama is going to be speaking this Saturday at 1:30pm in the Target Center! Whether or not you like the man's politics, he's still one of the better speakers of our time, and could possibly be our next President! If you're interested in going, you have to fill out a form (here) to get an E-ticket sent to you. (They say tickets are required. It was easy though, and I just got mine.) Otherwise you can go to one of the locations listed on the bottom of that page to get a ticket in advance.

Let me know if you'll be out there, or if you want to meet on the way out.

Oscars '08

Woot! The nominations are out, and for the most part, look great.

http://a.oscar.abc.com/media/2008/html/printer.html

I AM GOING TO SEE THERE WILL BE BLOOD BEFORE THE OSCARS. That's my mantra for the time being. :) Otherwise I've done better than usual at seeing all of this year's top films.

What was your favorite film of '08?

Presidential Milkshakes?

A list I came across today.
(List under: I have no idea what this guy is talking about, but know exactly what he is saying...?)

Presidential Milkshakes:

I drink your milkshake! -Daniel Plainview

I drink your milkshake, even though I opposed drinking your milkshake four years ago. -Mitt Romney

I drink your milkshake, but only if the Bible says it's allowed. -Mike Huckabee

I may drink your milkshake for another 100 years, if that's what it takes. -John McCain

I drank a milkshake on 9/11. -Rudy Giuliani

I'll drink your milkshake a few months after everyone else does. -Fred Thompson

I drink your milkshake, but I'm paying for it with gold. -Ron Paul

America deserves a new milkshake. -Barack Obama

I will fight the corporations so that you can drink your own milkshake. -John Edwards

I have 35 years of milkshake-drinking experience. *sob* -Hillary Clinton

I peacefully drink your milkshake. -Dennis Kucinich

It depends on what your definition of "milkshake" is. -Bill Clinton

I voted for drinking your milkshake before I voted against it. -John Kerry

Global warming is melting your milkshake. -Al Gore

We're making good progress in the war on milkshakes, and make no mistake: we will prevail. -George W. Bush

link to original

Old Photos, New Link

I put up our wedding photos on a easy to use Flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/gp/8797776@N08/1FUs71
Enjoy!

-Bjorn

"I am a Golden God!"

In this last year I've been collecting and assembling the various supplies and equipment necessary to start my own little screen printing shop. In the beginning I had a screen made at work and bought the inks and squeegee and that was that. I printed a shirt. And it wasn't pretty. Or easy. Or economical.

Tonight though, I've taken a big step forward. I just got done washing out a screen that I coated and exposed myself, with equipment that I researched and built myself. Even better, I've seen workable results on this first time through, which is awesome, and I'm excited now to sharpen my skills. Watching that emulsion wash out for the first time was a really really nice feeling. Like all of the time and money that I've invested in this junk is maybe going to work out!
(If you don't know anything about screen printing, there's a lot of PROCESS between IDEA>>>and>>>IDEA PRINTED ON A SHIRT... and I was going to try to explain it, but maybe another time... for now, maybe you'll get an idea of what it's all about with these pictures.)


"Safelight"

"Exposure Unit" Usually cost $1000s, I built mine for under $200...

...including this darkroom timer to control my exposures.

Screen after un-exposed region (blocked by the film pos.) is washed-out. (Sorry it's sideways. I'm being lazy now.)

Some edges are burning in, so I'm actually over-exposed after a 5-min. exposure window. It'll be faster next time! (Many home-built units can take from 30-60 mins. to expose a screen, so I'm pumped!)

Otherwise we're relatively sharp.



Pre-exposure-unit: Another, less efficient, way to work. Painting Screen Drawing Fluid onto a screen. Still fun though!


A shirt I printed for some of the luckier Hagstroms this Christmas - the screen I had made at Northwest Graphic Supply. (Hagstrom is a real guitar company, and the Super Swede is a real guitar...) A nice fit for the fam. But now, I can make the screen myself!

"Clock of Nines"

http://www.walyou.com/blog/2008/01/06/the-math-clock-for-geeks/

The arguments going on in the comments on the Waylou page are pretty funny. I thought Lou, at least, would have an opinion.

Nice Flight!

Paper Airplane Madness.

SLEEPTRACKER®

I got the SLEEPTRACKER® watch for my birthday (Thank you, Änna!), which if you haven't heard about it, tracks your sleep patterns, marking your 'wakeful moments' with the help of an accelerometer to determine when the best time to wake you is on a given morning.


I'm really excited to test this thing out. If it works as promised, it will only wake me when I'm most ready to get up, and not when I'm in the middle of a deep sleep.

So far I've only worn the watch on a holiday, so I let myself wake up naturally. Seeing the sleep data was cool for sure, but the first real test will be getting up for work tomorrow and seeing how refreshed I really feel.

You can go to the SLEEPTRACKER® site to learn more about how the watch works, or just wait to hear more about it from me. (Sorry, I sound like a product rep.) :)