We did this...
and went here...
and did this...
and saw this...
.jpg)
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...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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...
.jpg)
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...
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...
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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.
Monday, May 05, 2008
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. :)
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. :)
Friday, May 02, 2008
Thursday, May 01, 2008
"Boomerangs In Space!"
So how does a boomerang work? Should this be confusing?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The Lord's Prayer Redux : Leet Speak
[source link]
0ǔr $¥$@dM!n, \/\/|-|0 ©|-|!££$ !n |-|34\/3|\|
ph34r3d β3 7|-|¥ |\|@m3
†|-|ÿ p\/\/n@g3 ©0|\/|3, †|-|ÿ $©r!p7$ b3 d0|\|3 !n /earth @$ i7 !$ i|\| /heaven.
$33|) u$ 7h!5 |)@ÿ oǔR d@!£ÿ R0|\/|$.
f0rG!\/3 u$ 0ǔr n00b 3xP£017$ @$ \/\/3 f0rG!\/3 $©r!P7 |R3\/34£ t0 u$ |\|07 Ζ3R0 |)@ÿ \/u£|\|$, βu7 $A\/3 u$ fR0|\/| t3h RIAA.
f0r 7|-|!|\|3 i$ t3h |\|37\/\/0R|<, @|\|d t3h rm -rf*, @|\|d @££ 0ǔR β@$3 @r3 β3£0|\|G t0 j00, f0R3\/3R @|\|d 3\/3R.
4|\/|3|\|.
I didn't know what 'leet' was before reading this, or at least I didn't know the specific term for typing with symbols instead of standard alphanumerics... but I found portions of this |-|!££@R!0$.
0ǔr $¥$@dM!n, \/\/|-|0 ©|-|!££$ !n |-|34\/3|\|
ph34r3d β3 7|-|¥ |\|@m3
†|-|ÿ p\/\/n@g3 ©0|\/|3, †|-|ÿ $©r!p7$ b3 d0|\|3 !n /earth @$ i7 !$ i|\| /heaven.
$33|) u$ 7h!5 |)@ÿ oǔR d@!£ÿ R0|\/|$.
f0rG!\/3 u$ 0ǔr n00b 3xP£017$ @$ \/\/3 f0rG!\/3 $©r!P7 |R3\/34£ t0 u$ |\|07 Ζ3R0 |)@ÿ \/u£|\|$, βu7 $A\/3 u$ fR0|\/| t3h RIAA.
f0r 7|-|!|\|3 i$ t3h |\|37\/\/0R|<, @|\|d t3h rm -rf*, @|\|d @££ 0ǔR β@$3 @r3 β3£0|\|G t0 j00, f0R3\/3R @|\|d 3\/3R.
4|\/|3|\|.
I didn't know what 'leet' was before reading this, or at least I didn't know the specific term for typing with symbols instead of standard alphanumerics... but I found portions of this |-|!££@R!0$.
Monday, April 21, 2008
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.
--
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.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
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...)
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...)
Monday, February 11, 2008
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.)
Just kidding. Here is a picture of me though... trying not to fall over from what it looks like.
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.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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?
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?
Friday, January 18, 2008
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:
(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 originalFriday, January 11, 2008
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
http://www.flickr.com/gp/8797776@N08/1FUs71
Enjoy!
-Bjorn
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
"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!
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.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
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.) :)
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Photoshoped?
Part one.
I've been reading a kind of a lot about news photography/photo journalism/faked photos lately, mostly in regards to good/cool/editorial Photoshop chops, and then today I came across this photo and I thought, "No way is this real..." But I haven't read anything that purports it as a fake. It which case, it's quite the picture. Or wait, does that matter?
Part two.
Does it matter if a photo is "real" or not? Do we still believe by seeing? And isn't the term "Photoshop Fake" redundant? :)
In terms of judging imagery for its visual appeal, I don't think that these things matter all that much really. I like to look at pretty things, and most of the time I just don't care how the image came to be. Other times I'm excited by images that show the mastery that a person can have over their images, equipment and software. It's when these images are purported as News that things can get confusing.
How about this: What's the difference between a photographer dodging and burning his photograph and increasing the contrast to bring out the smoke of a burning building (all very old-school) and a (new school) photographer using Photoshop tools and brushes to make that same smoke look more menacing?
Or what if the above photo is chopped/faked, but based on factual information? (The gator was seen holding the zookeeper's arm in its jaws, knuckles curled and severed 3/4ths of the way between the wrist and the elbow - with 3" of tattered bloody flesh trailing out the severed end...) Gruesome, right? But why not make that picture to get people's attention? I think some gory headline would be just as sensational as a "fake" photo.
Thoughts?
(...all of that just so I can show a crazy picture that I saw today...)
I've been reading a kind of a lot about news photography/photo journalism/faked photos lately, mostly in regards to good/cool/editorial Photoshop chops, and then today I came across this photo and I thought, "No way is this real..." But I haven't read anything that purports it as a fake. It which case, it's quite the picture. Or wait, does that matter?
Part two.Does it matter if a photo is "real" or not? Do we still believe by seeing? And isn't the term "Photoshop Fake" redundant? :)
In terms of judging imagery for its visual appeal, I don't think that these things matter all that much really. I like to look at pretty things, and most of the time I just don't care how the image came to be. Other times I'm excited by images that show the mastery that a person can have over their images, equipment and software. It's when these images are purported as News that things can get confusing.
How about this: What's the difference between a photographer dodging and burning his photograph and increasing the contrast to bring out the smoke of a burning building (all very old-school) and a (new school) photographer using Photoshop tools and brushes to make that same smoke look more menacing?
Or what if the above photo is chopped/faked, but based on factual information? (The gator was seen holding the zookeeper's arm in its jaws, knuckles curled and severed 3/4ths of the way between the wrist and the elbow - with 3" of tattered bloody flesh trailing out the severed end...) Gruesome, right? But why not make that picture to get people's attention? I think some gory headline would be just as sensational as a "fake" photo.
Thoughts?
(...all of that just so I can show a crazy picture that I saw today...)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)