Monday, February 27, 2006

Funny Web Comix More

tear jerker extrodinaire

Check this news reel out!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBYPaNc57Ik&search=autistic%20basketball%20player

Super awesome.

calling all suckers...

Hey Ya'll,

since my living arrangments are temporarily "altered"
I am having my usual difficulties finding peoples phone numbers, actually I am having the same difficulty finding phone numbers I just have a new excuse.

point being, don't be mad if I haven't called you back (killy) I am just lost.

Post your numbers and we'll chat.

LOL
KIT
BFF

La Revancha

I woke up on Sunday morning with a jolt of fear banging around my bones: What if my soccer game is cancelled? It had rained pretty much all day on Saturday, and the Travis County Park Authority is notorious for shutting down the fields if only a millimeter of drizzle falls on the fields, so my terrible fear was not fantasty. I called the rain-out number, and a sleepy bear recording read “It is Sunday February 26th….the Travis County Parks…..are…...o….pen…for play”. Hallelujah!

This was an important game for the team. We were facing our arch-rivals Babaganoutch. They beat us just a couple of games ago 2-nil on our own turf. We had not won a match in weeks. Confidence was low. We simply had to win.

The weather helped. The sun was bright in the big blue sky and everyone felt that it was a perfect day for soccer. And it was, and so the game began with everyone in high-spirits. We had made some changes to the lineup in an attempt to get more offense. Instead of putting Scott ( an all around-strong player) in center defense, we put him in striker (his natural position and moved me into center-d instead. I was kind of nervous about playing center-d as I had not played there in a while, and I was afraid that I would go ball crazy and make too many runs upfield leaving the back-line stranded. Plus, moving me to center-d meant we were going to have vulnerable right-back. I vowed not to stray too far afield. I broke my promise almost immediately…

The game was tough. Babaganoutch worked the ball really well and they fought hard for posession. Most of the first half was pretty even- we did a pretty good job of moving the ball up the wings and crossing it in. But as usual we failed to get off any threatening shots. Babaganoutch tested out our keeper a couple of times though, our goalie however, was equal to the job.

Then something weird happened. Baba’s best player, Fernando (a great striker from somwhere, maybe Mexico) committed a light foul. The ref called the foul, Fernando disagreed with the ref, words were exchanged, Fernando walked away, the ref called him back, Fernando refused, more words were exchanged, voices were raised, the ref pulled out a yellow card, then another and like that Fernando was expelled from the game. Babagaoutch went beserk, feeling that the ref had hastily expelled their best player, without talking to the captains or anything. People were yelling at the ref, but he was adamant about the call and play continued.

At half-time the ref called the captains together and said they he felt ‘threatened’ and that he would cancel the game if people kept hurling insults. Everyone agreed to shut-up, but no-one did shut-up and so the referee grabbed his bag, said he was going to the bathroom and never returned…

It was ridiculous. Folks just would not shut up and the skittish referee had walked off the pitch.

We decided to keep playing anyway. We convinced the 16 year old line-judge to ref the game, and we let the expelled Fernando back on the pitch.

Our side dominated and we managed to put in two sweet goals. I even got a couple of really, really, really weak shots off. The end result was a satisfying 2-nil victory for PFC Quackenbush.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Persepolis

My obsession with Iran is reaching new heights; especially now that I have finished reading the charming, funny, and sad Persepolis. This memoir tells the story of a well-to-do young girl growing up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. The story is told equally well with words and images.

san antonio

so, here i am in San Antonio. Whee.

my little sister and her husband Richard finalized the adoption of their son Kaenen yesterday in a very short court hearing yesterday. The presiding judge was a very nice fellow who was rather excited to help a new family start out. i suppose that as a family law judge he sees all manner of ugliness of a very special kind, so adoptions are probably a nice change of pace.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

I am a slo learner

Dang, I just discovered the Yeah, Yeah Yeahs . The only album I have heard is A Fever To Tell. Do their other albums kick equal or greater ass?

Houston 1836

It looks like the Houston 1836 (Houston’s Major League Soccer team) may already be in for a name change

I am glad. I think “Houston 1836” was a lame name. Other folks found it to be offensive:

Although 1836 was meant to symbolize the year Houston was founded, it also has links to other significant events some Mexican-Americans might find offensive. Those include Texas’ independence from Mexico, the Battle of the Alamo and the defeat of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s Mexican army at the hands of Gen. Sam Houston in the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution.

I did not find it offensive. I just thought it was lame. I think a better name would be The Houston Sprawl.

Regardless of the name they choose, this Saturday I will heading up to ?Roundrock? to see the Houston squad take on Real Salt Lake in the MLS Austin Cup

Monday, February 20, 2006

What Would The Beverly Hillbillies Call . . .

I'm tossing out a beer bottle and open the back door and Chloe, ever alert for kitchen noise, comes skittering out from the couch up front and I explain to her that I'm just throwing out a beer bottle and I think the exact words I used included the word trash, which is totally the wrong word but not totally inaccurate, leading me to think, "What would the Beverly Hillbillies call recycling?"

A pool is a concrete pond, so recycling would maybe be reusable trash?

Battlestar Galactica

Ok, the writers of the show are entirely unlike the Cylons:
  • The writers have not evolved, they have devolved
  • The writers have not rebelled, they have conformed
  • The writers, clearly, have no frackin’ plan…

Freescale Marathon

Congratulations to my buddy Paul Pugh who ran a ‘personal best’ time at the Freescale Marathon on sunday!

Bitter, bitter cold...

It was so cold this weekend! On sunday a buddy of mine picked me up around 7 am and we drove up to Dallas to see the US National Team play Guatemala. The roads were treacherous. On I-35 every over-pass was covered with ice, so you had to traverse them at < 40 MPH. We counted 8 spun-out wrecks. Strangely, ALL OF THEM involved a white pick-up truck or SUV. It was uncanny…

Anyhow, we got to Dallas eventually and made our way to Pizza Hut Park, a beautiful ‘soccer-only’ stadium in Frisco, Texas. Frisco is an exurban wasteland, but man does it have nice soccer facilities. I mean, the stadium is sweet: small and intimate, it is a ‘sunken bowl’, and every seat is a good one. Surrounding the stadium is a complex of soccer fields with beautiful turf. I would love to play on such fields…

So it was still sub-zero by 1:00 when the game started, but I was well prepared for the cold so I didn’t mind it too much. The game was pretty swell. I am used to seeing the U.S. team struggle against better opponents, so it was nice to seem them stomp Guatemala 4-nil.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

*AHEM*

If you want nobody to post about He-man, just say so...
Shootz.

Some things I don't get.

Upon drinking two cups of coffee, here are my gripes for the day:

1. Hiring people to do your lawn. If you don't have a mansion and you're not disabled, do it yourself! And leafblowers. My God, people, use a broom!

Note: I know someone here is a professional gardener and that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about getting out the lawn mower and cutting your grass. Landscaping and growing things often requires some assistance.

2. Love of Macs. I've been dealing with my Mac for a good deal of time now and I don't see the advantages of it over a PC. Not that I hate my Mac, I'm just not feeling particularly wowed by it.

3. Pulp Fiction. Though this is an outdated gripe, I still think this is a really shitty movie and everyone else thinks it changed the cinematic landscape.

4. Dr. Neil Frank's hatred of cold weather. Every time he complains when the temperature drops below 70 degrees, I want to throw something at the TV.

5. El Tiempo Cantina. Severely overpriced ($18 for two tacos and all sides are extra?!), but everyone still loves it.

6. The O.C. It's not just for teenyboppers anymore; hipsters and indie kids watch this show and I'm not getting on that bandwagon.

7. Ironic mullets. Why isn't it ok to laugh and point at the indie kid sporting a mullet? Is this a thing in Austin or is this only a thing in Houston?

8. Letting kids do things that they have no business doing. If you relate to the episode of Sex and the City where Miranda gets into an elevator at the gym and goes to push the floor button but the guy asks her not to because his son wants to do it, you know what I'm talking about. Yesterday at Whole Foods I was stuck behind a mother who was letting her toddler son push the cart, but of course he couldn't steer the thing and was traveling at a rate of about 1 foot/minute. Come on, parents, let's stop the madness.

9. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I just really, really, really don't care.

And finally,

10. Sigur Ros. Devendra Banhart. Broken Social Scene. Ooh, ooh, and Belle and Sebastian. I HATE Belle and Sebastian!

Thank you. And please feel free to share what you don't get. It feels so good to get it off your chest.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Look Now, Pay Later

Just got back from seeing Good night, And good luck. I really enjoyed the film. I also liked the sound of David Strathairn’s voice. I think he gives a great performance…

Friday, February 17, 2006

i have great friends

i would just like to let everybody know that i have the best friends ever. and it is important to remind them every once in a while.

so, yesterday morning i woke up bright and early, poured a cup of coffee, turned on my computer and wandered off to do something while it started up.

when i wandered back my monitor was dark. odd i thought and pushed the power button again. odder i thought as the power button failed to light up. crap i thought as my sleepy mind figured out what that meant.

after some headless chicken style running about i tracked down and visited Computize (an authorized apple fixer here in town) to no avail. similar results were had at the Apple store. and as i sat on the very horns of a dilema repair or replace? i decided to call killy.

“Why don’t you just use my laptop until you get yours fixed?” says killy. and a short car trip, train ride, lunch at chipotle with killy, another train ride, and trip to microcenter for the last 9 – 6 pin firewire cable later i was off to the races.

thanks killy.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

subleasr

One of the great things about working as a freelancer is that you can office out of your home, and work all day in your pajamas. Compared to the rigors of office life the experience can be positively dreamy. For some, the dream never gets old. For others. the dream quickly becomes a nightmare.

In my experience I found that after several months of officing at home and at the coffee-shop I began to relate all-too-well to the shinning

Is there any hope for those poor souls who, for one reason or another, cannot work from home, yet lack the dinero to rent an entire office?

Yes! There is hope! Check out this deal!

We would really rather sublease the space to a friend, or a friend of a friend so please pass this offer around to anyone you know who is looking for some office-space!

3jam: reply-to-all for sms

I acquired my latest phone specifically so that I could text-message. Why? Because I like the asynchronous, reply-if-you-want-to, i’m-just-putting-this-out-there, type of communication. Plus, I detest leaving voice-mail.

SMS is great for this kind of stuff- but it only works well for person-to-person communication. SMS becomes a hassle when trying to handle people-to-people communication. If I send a message to Todd, Adolph and Killy, they will all get the message, but each of them will not know that the others were included on the message. And their replies will only go to me. Basically, there is no “reply-to-all” function with SMS.

Enter 3jam

3jam is a free service that enables multi-person SMS conversations.

Its simple to use:

- You sms the 3jam number with a signup message:

signup pablo mercado

- 3jam responds with a “you are signed up!” message. You can now enter contacts with a message like:

add adolph trudeau 8324441122

- Add a bunch more addresses:

add todd slurpa 7342232222

- Once you got a bunch of contacts added you can start up a group chat:

chat todd adolph

- 3jam will respond with a “your chat has started” message. Replies to this message will be broadcast to both todd and adolph. They will see that the participants of the chat are pablo,todd and adolph. When one of them responds to the message, all of the participants will see it!

Pretty slick eh?

Check out the 3jam blog for more details on the how and the why…

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Now that's some playing

Disregaurd the dumb dialogue

just watch for the amazing footwork in this commercial.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9090999884370191937&q=joga+bonito

The Goal By Thierry Henry, amazing.

to the love of my life

Monday, February 13, 2006

Adolph And Pablo Review the Boomerang's website....

AIM IM with Trudeau Adolph
  • 5:29 PM
  • 5:30 PM
    • Trudeau Adolph: fast-casual experience with a unique product
    • Trudeau Adolph: Are they open?
    • Mercado Pablo: i think so
    • Mercado Pablo: i like pies
    • Trudeau Adolph: Joomla?
    • Mercado Pablo: joomla?
    • Trudeau Adolph: After a couple of clicks on the site I thought, “what kind of wacky cms are they using?
    • Trudeau Adolph: And at the bottom of the page there is this reference to Joomia! and that it is free software
    • Mercado Pablo: hopefully that means the pies are cheaper
    • Trudeau Adolph: Why would a customer want to log into a restaurant’s website?
    • Mercado Pablo: i just want to log into some pie
    • Trudeau Adolph: They cannot display the menu at this time
    • Trudeau Adolph: IIS error message
    • Mercado Pablo: i hope their food has less bugs
    • Trudeau Adolph: 403—too many users?!
    • Trudeau Adolph: Ha!

The good news is...

my plans for world-domination are on track. Set-backs that occurred in December were more than made up by better-than-expected progress in January.

The bad news is, my soccer team lost 2-nil to our arch-rivals Babaganoush. It was a fun game though. I finally got over my fear of headers and managed to keep my eyes open and on the ball all the way through contact, thus avoiding the usual ball-hits-pablo-in-the-nose scenario. Also, I almost, almost scored. Which is a step closer than the usual, almost, almost, almost. I think that I have figured out what I have been doing wrong. It seems that every time I enter the penalty-box I immediately fall on my face. If I can somehow manage to avoid falling on my face in the penalty box I am sure that my chances of scoring will improve.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

A little help here.

I have the week off and will be in Austin for a couple of days. I'm thinking of also visiting Lost Maples and/or Garner State Park because they are both places I've heard a lot about and have seen photos of and think I'd like to go. I have a couple of questions for anyone who might know the answers:

1. Is there a point to going to both? I know Lost Maples is more of a fall thing, is there anything to see after the leaves are gone?

2. Can I do both in one day? I'm a nature walk kind of girl, but I usually can't stay anywhere pretty for longer than two hours without a purpose.

3. Is there some other place I should go instead? I'm just looking for some new terrain to explore.

Thanks!

iTunes

At the coffee buying place I tried to connect to several different iTunes Libraries that were shared on the network. Some of them displayed this message. I had no idea that there was a limit to the number of different computers that could connect to a shared library per day. Is this a new thing?

Saturday, February 11, 2006

The Real Thing


The Real Thing
Originally uploaded by TaggartCojanSorensen.
I LOVE Mexican Coke.

Friday, February 10, 2006

When I am mayor of the universe...

I shall name a galaxy after Rudolf Boysen,George Darrow and Walter Knott. Why? Well, if it were not for their efforts I might never have been able to enjoy the tasty goodness that is the Boysenberry.

The Valentine's Day List

Okay, so how many of you were aware that Valentine's Day is Tuesday? WHAT????!! That's exactly what my honey said to me when I gently reminded him of that fact yesterday.

So, in an effort to save any romances already on the perilous brink of destruction from past forgotten V-Day's, I've decided to offer my list of the best Valentine's Day gifts to inspire all of you wayward cupids. Oh, yeah, and please feel free to add your own favorites to the list:

1 - Spa packages are my all-time favorite, especially body wraps using aromatherapy oils followed by a light massage. Prices range from $50-100 usually.

2 - Honeysuckle scented perfume (all by Demeter: try search on Google: $20), honeysuckle scented bar soap $10, honeysuckle scented bath oil $10. Demeter has other amazing nature-inspired fragrances as well, including Dirt, Cafe au Lait, Tomato, and more traditional fare like Jasmine, Gardenia, Sandalwood, etc.

3 - Aveda rosemary mint shampoo $15, conditioner $15, and body lotion $15 (try doing a search for local beauty salons that carry aveda products)

4 - Yankee candles at Bed, Bath, & Beyond have the most incredible scents: honeysuckle and mcintosh are my favorites ($10-20), also Maison makes a nice citrus scent called Citron $15

5 - Box of Godiva chocolates, but make sure they're dark chocolate -- it's best to go in yourself and hand-pick the chocolates to create your own box, rather than leaving it up to them $20-30

6 - Phalaenopsis orchids (aka moth orchids) with spots or stripes on the petals --- much more interesting looking than solid color orchids -- buy from local florist's shop or plant nursery $20-50

7 - Plants with black foliage -- try calling your local plant nursery and asking for black sweet potato vine, black mondo grass, or purple rose tree (darkest black-purple foliage) $2-20

8 - Copper planters from Smith & Hawken $75-150

9 - Citrus-scented body soap, Neutrogena $10 (avail at Wal-Mart)

10 - Best cut flowers to buy from a florist for V-day: peonies, freesia, ginger, bird of paradise, anthurium. Worst cut flower cliches: roses, mums, gerber daisies. Avg price for a bouquet: $15-50

p.s. I have no idea what to get Anthony -- what do guys like for V-Day? Anything??

Thursday, February 9, 2006

Spamagraphy

I'm watching The Sum of All Fears (2002) this evening and all the bad guys are emailing each other. "The day has arrived. Thank you." I think the real bad guys will be smarter than that and will message within spam. The doomsday message will be something like:
iBr ands like R0 lex, Bre itling, Ca rtier, Ta g He ur and more.

0r der now for oChr istmas!

Back in business

I took my ibook to Mac Alliance . For 275 of the dollars they installed an 80GB 5400 RPM Seagate drive that comes with a 5 year warranty. I brought the book in around lunchtime on Wednesday, and it was done by Thursday afternoon…

I requested that the hard-drive be left blank rather than have 10.4 installed on it. I booted into the SuperDuper! backup on my firewire drive and used DiskUtility to ‘restore’ the backup to the blank hard-drive. This process took about 40 minutes and finished with a glitch.

So far everything seems a-ok.

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

My iBook Hard-drive is Toast...

Ok well this ibook lasted about 1 year and 3 months. Thanks to Adolph and his SuperDuper tip I have a fully bootable backup on a firewire drive…

Did the hard-drive fail because I use my computer so much, carrying it to-and-from work and to-and-from the coffee-shop? Or did the Laptop Gnomes, knowing that I had just blown my budget on plane tickets to Argentina and that my income would probably be severely reduced for next couple of months, decide that now was the most inconvenient and troublesome time to put biscuit batter in the hard-drive?

macservice.com says that they will put a new 40GB 5400 RPM hard-drive in for 195 of the dollars.. Is it worth it? Should I have gotten AppleCare? Does one wait for the new computers from Apple to come out, and by purchasing one take the risk of getting a 1st generation lemon?

Ay, ay ay, not something I wanted to be dealing with right now…

Monday, February 6, 2006

Dinner Time


Dinner Time
Originally uploaded by TaggartCojanSorensen.
I know this photo isnt up to killy's standards but I like it.

Living Canvas

i always wanted to somehow combine horticulture with art, and recently i got a client who thinks the same way. he asked me to create this 30' tall by 11' wide living wall for his residence in downtown nyc. and next year i'll start to work creating another larger one for his hotel. this, i think, may be the future of gardening in cities, where the only place to go is up:

Hacienda Santa Rosa


Hacienda Santa Rosa
Originally uploaded by TaggartCojanSorensen.
Day Two. Woke up drank some cafe', and MIssed my wife. If anybody see's her..........give her a hug for me.

Bad ass bicycle

Now Portland is a bicycle town.

And my bicycle has recently been stolen.

I wish I would have told my insurance comkpany it was one of these

http://www.vanillabicycles.com/

so I could have got some money as a down payment.

They are as sweet as it gets.

movie to see

See thg movie

My architect.

Damn good.

Fo' Grizzle

I watched Grizzly Man last night. I found it to be fascinating.

I had never seen anything directed by Werner Herzog, mostly because I have always been scared by the image on the dvd jacket of Aguirre, Wrath Of God

But I liked Grizzly Man so much, and Herzog’s voice so much, that I may watch some of his other movies and eventually work my way up to Aguirre…

Last 2 Minutes, 2 Goals, 2-2 Tie

Ay! I thought Sunday was going to be my glory day. In the first half I pulled off a classic Roberto Carlos style run from the right fullback-position: I received the ball at the half-line, pushed wide and level with the box and hit a cross right on target to our left wing striker Kurtis, who, running at full stride, one-touched the ball in to put us up 1-nil. What a fantastic feeling…

The high continued into the 2nd half as Arturo, who has clearly developed a taste for the goal, put in his third for the season with rocket-shot off the bar, followed up with a solid finish.

We were up 2-nil and the other team was exhausted.

And then, in the 88th minute a fluke kick wafted over our keeper’s outstretched hands, deflected down off the top-bar and across the goal line. Suddenly the other squad was back in the game. And then, in the last play of the game, the ref awarded a ridiculous free-kick to other squad, they packed the goal, kicked it well and in the scramble the ball squirted in to make it 2-2. The whistle blew and instead of a glorious victory we were saddled with a miserable tie.

Props to the other team for sticking it through to the end.

E-Mail Compatibility Issues

Okay, so we have a Mac and half the people on our e-mail list have PCs, so they can never seem to open the jpegs of Antonio that we send out. Should I be saving the files as something other than jpegs? Should I be using a mail program other than Outlook? Help!

Sunday, February 5, 2006

Mexico-Day ONE


GovernorsPalace
Originally uploaded by TaggartCojanSorensen.
Okay, day one is over, I have found new perspective.
Hopefully it will last over the next 2 weeks.

Happy Days

Superbowl

Last time I checked Vegas had Pittsburgh favored by 3.5 points. If I were a betting man my money would be on Seattle to cover.

Saturday, February 4, 2006

Transparent Screens


transparent screen
Originally uploaded by Serena Marie.
It is amazing that people are still making these. Now that I have my own tripod, I should start making some more.

Friday, February 3, 2006



Ok
this is supposed to be an hourly comic challenge that i wanted to enter
but since my job exists for the purpose of killing MY SOUL
i have had hell trying to get this up
i have to work work work
i hate my job more than ever now
AND
i never got to publish it on time
GAWD

so anyway

the idea is to draw a comic of something that happens to you every hour of the day
it could be anything
but at the end of the day
you should have a comic for every hour you were awake
i failed horribly at this
as wake up time does not allow for this to take place
and home time much less

killy helped me get the things scanned
it was fun
i am actually working on my computer at home right now
it's also 1:25 if the morning

but i did the best i could
and enjoyed it
hope you do too

A few news items.

First, Cactus is closing and that just sucks.

Second, for anyone who ever saw me with braces, they are now off and my teeth are in shock. Like my nerves are hurting kind of shock. I'm also wearing retainers on my top and bottom teeth. They're clear, like Invisalign, but they make me talk like I'm rather, ahem, special.

Third, if you know my boyfriend and read the previous thing about my boyfriend's job, you'll now want to read this. And, yeah, it hasn't been a pretty couple of days.

Fourth, if you're in Houston, you're invited to my housewarming Saturday night. Need directions? Ask Amber or Adolph. Don't bug me, I'm still cleaning.

Fifth, we have a Roomba as of a couple of nights ago. It's like having a stupid child that picks up crap and bumps into walls.

Group Activity....Groove Lube


Okay y’all, JP needs a little help.
I’m trying to put together the, most smoove-groovenest, sexhilarating, audiorgasmic music compilation of all FRICKEN time!
Music to get nekkid to…and stay nekkid to.

When this compilation hits the eardrum, all undergarments shall hit the floor with a resounding splat.
That’s right…it’s a weapon.

So far I’ve got:
"No one will" – Cody Chestnut
"If I was your girlfriend" – Prince
"Sexual Healin" – As Sung by Ben Harper

I’m curious to see what people find harmonically arousing.
You are encouraged to post, but I’d appreciate you avoiding things like Boxcar Willie or Juice Newton…you get it.

PS. For some strange reason, I like the “Oops” song by Tweet…I know it’s lame but the heart wants what it wants, so don’t feel like you’re gonna get judged.

Thursday, February 2, 2006

The Little Truck That Does

I'd call it the little truck that could, except that it works great so it does. The announcement is one of those rare moments when all-caps works in a marketing piece: ~stevenf: Transmit 3.5 is out
[T]here's never been a better time to upgrade with our low, low upgrade price of $17.95. That's, like, barely the price of one of those fancy pizzas with, like, artichoke hearts and crap on it. TRANSMIT IS BETTER THAN ARTICHOKE HEARTS, HANDS DOWN.

Shoji

I’m interested in shoji screens. Have any of y’all purchased or otherwise acquired one?

Wednesday, February 1, 2006

Things to Remember: Use Export Certificate

Use "Copy or Move the current certificate to a remote server site" in the IIS Certificate Wizard to share CA between load-balanced servers!

How to implement SSL in IIS

I need a way to keep this in my brain-hole for next year in case the move to an ASP doesn't happen.

The Simpson's Voice-Actors....