PhoneBoy Says

At the end of May, I finally got off my duff and recorded a couple of podcasts. I have submitted them to T.W.A.T. Radio,which is best described as a community-host daily hardcore techpodcast. This podcast has covered a lot of different topics, fromhacking payphones to using obscure software on Windows or Linux. Thisis people sharing their tech passions with others.

The firstone I recorded was on Garage Band, which is a Macintosh audio editingprogram. I used it to show off my rather pathetic ability to make musicusing the program. The other was a process using Gabcast and your telephone in order to record your own episode of T.W.A.T. Radio.

I don't know what happened, but after I sent the stuff from them, and confirmed they got it, my stuff never got played. I think I pinged them a couple of times without a response. Between that and their irregular production schedule, I decided I didn't care enough to pursue it.

Meanwhile, for posterity sake, I present both podcasts. I had the source files for the GarageBand demonstration and ended up redoing the ends to take out the references to T.W.A.T. Radio. I found the Gabcast podcast in my gmail account and uploaded it this evening without any editing.

So without futher ado…

Gabcast Podcast

PhoneBoy

Garage Band Demo Podcast

How much more evidence do we need that marijuana as bad for you as a lot of people think?

Readers of my blog will know that there's a road going in outside my house, which necessitates a fence for our backyard. The primary reason: keeping my kids from bolting to the street. The covenants for the property pretty much restrict us from putting up our own fence without getting approval from a certain committee. We've been going back and forth on this.

Today, we get word from the powers that be that they will be providing a kind of fence between our backyard and the road that will run most of the length of our property. The fence will take the form of "privacy panels" (not sure exactly what that means) every few feet with plants and shrubs between them. The effect will be a fence, but it will look nicer.

Of course, this does nothing to prevent the kids from running around the sides of the fence. We will probably have to change our request to instead ask for "privacy screens" on either side of it to keep the kids contained in the yard. It won't prevent them from running all the way around the house to get to the road, but it will be good enough to prevent any accidents.

This morning I was awoken to the lovely sounds of smoke detectors "chirping." Or was it my wife waking me up telling me they were chirping? Either way, it sucks to have to walk around the house to try and figure out which one(s) were going off, but at least it was about 7am instead of the usual 4am. :) Usually the chirping means they are in need of batteries. After we both walked around the house to try and find the offending units, she got the bright idea to proactively replace the batteries. Problem is, we didn't have enough batteries to do it.

We were able to find the offending units (it was more than one of course). The battery in our bedroom was originally installed by the builder, it looks like. Oops!

Oh well, once I go to Costco again, we'll be swimming in 9 volt batteries (and lots of other crap) and I'll go around and finish replacing all the batteries.

Possible violations of Major League Baseball rights here. Yeah right, like you can barely see anything in these pictures.

Otherwise known as "Safeco Field" where the Seattle Mariners play. Jaden and his friend were going to tonight's Mariners game. I decided it go along (don't worry, his friend's parent was originally going to take him). Not really a baseball fan, but it's nice to hang out at the ball bark, talk, drink beer, and so on. One of those father-son bonding moments.

How many pets have you owned in your lifetime? Tell us about them.
Submitted by jennajellopy.vox.com">class="enclosure-inline-user">jennajellopy.vox.com.

Over the years, mostly cats. We currently have two cats: Toby and Zoe. My wife had the cats before she had me. :) I had several cats growing up at different times of my life. But only one dog--Steemer.

I seem to recall a second dog, but I don't remember much about him. Steemer was a dalmatian that my dad had for a few years before he had to give him to Auntie May to take care of because the living situation just wasn't conducive to dogs. But when we had him, he was the most loyal dog. He wouldn't fetch, but he was always there and almost always nearby, watching over me. It's more than I could say for my dad, who frequently was off working when I got home from school.

I'm sure Steemer's long since dead. It's been far too long. I hope he had a good life.

Maybe I should submit this as a Question of the Day: Pick a random song lyric from the next 10 non-instrumental songs in your musical playlist.

1. "Why must we grow up so fast?" -- The Eagles, "Pretty Maids All In A Row"
2. "I don't want to walk around with you." -- The Ramones
3. "I've got a mouse and he hasn't got a house, I don't know why I call him Gerill" -- Pink Floyd, "Bike"
4. "Sometimes it seems like magic when two people come together." -- Pablo Cruise, "Don't Want to Live Without It"
5. "This is a warning. Step away from the car. This car is protected by Viper." -- They Might Be Giants, "I Can Hear You"
6. "This is a song that Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. We're stealing it back." -- U2, Helter Skelter
7. "You'd better make your face up in your favorite disguise." -- Pink Floyd, "Run Like Hell"
8. "She needed so much more than I could give." -- Journey, "Send Her My Love"
9. "Mile after mile, stone after stone, you turn to speak, but you're alone. A million miles from home, you're on your own." -- Pink Floyd, "Wot's…Uh The Deal"
10. "I only like dreaming all the day long." -- Men At Work, "Be Good Johnny"

What TV show(s) will you be watching this season? Why?
Submitted by ducnly.vox.com">class="enclosure-inline-user">ducnly.vox.com.

Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. They are both well-writen comedy/dramas that, at least for the moment, haven't gotten old. I'm tired of every iteration of Law and Order, CSI, Survivor, etc. I might watch Invasion if it shows up on the air again. But that's about it, folks. I basically don't have the time to invest in watching TV. Most of it is crap. And I have to schedule my life around it. No thanks.

But riddle me this. How come bittorrents of both Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives appear online between the East Coast and West Coast airings of both shows on ABC, yet I have to wait a day for the "official" version to appear either on the iTunes Store or streaming on abc.com?

This evening I am taking a red-eye to the Washington DC area. I'm only going to be there a day or so, which is good. I can get by with a single carry-on. However, because it's a long flight, I have a lot of videos to catch up on, and my MacBook won't last the entire flight, I am bringing my freshly-reimaged work PC running Windows XP. At least I have an airplane adapater for it, in case I get lucky. I also have a second battery for it, so it should last longer.

Meanwhile, for the flight there this evening, I am not going to use my laptop. I am going to try and sleep. However, I will want some music to listen to. I spent way too long going through my music collection in iTunes to copy over onto an MMC for my Nokia 9500. I could have copied it to the MiniSD for my Nokia E70 instead, but I think the 9500 will be a better companion in terms of battery life. Hopefully, it will last the whole trip playing the roughly 150 songs I copied over to the 1gb MMC.

For the non-electronic parts of my trip, preparing is pretty straightforward. I have a travel bag that is already pre-stocked with the things I will need away from home (toiletries, etc). I have removed all liquids from this bag, so I can carry it on. That means leaving hair styling products at home. Toothpaste, assuming I can't get it at the hotel, is accomodated by the bar of Dr. Bronner's soap I have added to my bag. Yes, it seems weird to brush your teeth with soap, but some people swear by it. It does leave your teeth clean, though the taste is a little funny. And Dr. Bronner's soap rocks for getting the rest of you clean, too. :)

Anyway, time to spend the last couple of hours with my kids before I take off…