I can’t remember how I stumbled upon these videos, but aparently I put them online August 17th, 2007.  These videos were made in 2001? 2002? I can’t remember. There are two videos here back to back and a trailer for the first video at the end of both. They star my buddy Daniel Dee of Post Modern Side Show fame. It wasn’t for any video class, although I took some later on. I think it was just for shits / giggles. I think mostly it was an excuse to have him clean out the apartment, while I sat back and held a camera. Anyway, enjoy a look back into the pre Mayor Awesome / Post Modern Side Show days.

The first video is a music video (Song titled “Bionic Jam” by the Baldwin Brothers), the second one is a little more “artsy” to say the least. I can’t remeber where I got the audio for it. I think off a Beck album. The third is a trailer for the music video.

Shepard Fairey is the fella who made the (most famous) Barack Obama poster. He’s currently in a little bit of hot water about the image he used as inspiration for his poster (one of which is hanging up in the Smithsonian, so suck on that AP news).  I, of course, totally ripped the dude off making my own poster (Fair use! Fair use!). There are web sites out there that will let you upload your own photo and make it into a fake Obama poster, but they pretty much all turn out like crap. I made mine in Illustrator with my own two hands (while walking barefoot, in the snow, over broken glass, while listening to Celine Dion). There’s been a million parodies about this iconic image.  Here’s a little video glossing over some of that and showing off some of his work. 

And, oh golly, what’s this? Is this a link to my store where you can buy Mayor Awesome themed stuff? Why yes, I believe it is. [Link]

Geez this reminds me of middle school so much. It’s almost painful to watch. 

Turn it up to 11! We’re killin Rebelz boooyyyee!

[Link, via]

[UPDATE]: The Full Ginsberg tweets: “I want to drop it like it’s Hoth.” Well played gentlemen.

I’ve just submitted my first (of hopefully many) shirts to woot.com. If you have an account, and you fine my work pleasing please go and vote for my shirt.

It’s a combination of previous comics, so that makes it self referential, which is one of the critical design elements, right?

Being an owner of both a mustache and a beard, I have a special place in my heart for women who… um, have a special place in their heart for facial hair. Here are two of my favorite songs about face fungus:

Zoe: “Optional Accessory”  

Sophie Madeleine : “The Beard Song” 

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Now, I’m the sort of girl who is equally happy sitting down with her knitting to watch Masterpiece Theatre on a lazy afternoon as I am to go out with the boys to watch My Bloody Valentine 3D. Sure, sometimes I mix things up a bit – y’know, maybe I’ll work on a little embroidery while I watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or I’ll play with Legos while I listen to the Wuthering Heights audiobook – but rarely do I see such an incredible melding of these two worlds as this new book by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

From the Chronicle Books website: “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead.”

The only disappointment is that I have to wait until April 15 to read it.

I’m so jealous of these kids. They get to play around with a giant ass screen (actually a bunch of screens networked together). A fellow named Daniel Shiffman teaches a class and writes books about a programming language called Processing. I’m slowly learning the language in my spare time following along with this book (Which is excellent btw). Here are some videos of his giant screen:

Big Screens Class @ IAC, Session 2 from shiffman on Vimeo.

Big Screens – Caves of Wonder by Matt Parker from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

[Link]

Freedom of Choice, Catholic edition

I was recently in the bathroom at an all-girl Catholic school (don’t ask) and I saw this vending machine. My first thought was “Holy Cow! They’re selling condoms at a Catholic school?!?!” Then I realized that the only choice these girls get to make is pads vs. tampons. Go girl! You got a choice! We’re pro-choice up in here! What’s that? You don’t need any tampons or pads? You haven’t needed them for a few months? Aww, heck. Choice? Well…uh…yeah about that. You had a choice, but now that you actually need to make one, there isn’t one, really. But hey, good luck with that baby!

This guy is my hero. I was once spotted on a Jumbotron. I was at a White Sox game one cold autumn day with my buddy Commissioner Cool. They started up the fan cam and I told Comm. Cool that if we got on it we had to start picking our noses. Not 20 seconds later, there we were, on the big ass screen in center field. “Pick your nose! Pick your nose!” I screamed. A collective “Ugggh!” could be heard from the crowd. Picking my nose in front of 30,000 people on a giant television remains, to this day, one of my greatest accomplishments.

The Space Game is a space-based RTS involving building up a mining base while holding back enemies.

Earlier levels see mining asteroids being the main priority, while later on surviving wave after wave of incoming attackers in the number one concern. It’s simple but very polished, with a number of different modes to choose from and a variety of baddies heading your way. I seriously played this so-called “causal” game for about 5 hours in one sitting. It’s pretty close to perfect. 

Play it at the Casual Collective

[via Indy Games]

I just got done watching the Ween Live At The Cat’s Cradle DVD [$16, cheap]. It’s pretty amazing.

The DVD captures the lo-fi beginnings of the duo circa 1991. Each video is either them performing live in a small  basement, pre-recorded in a basement video session, or during the recording sessions of pure guava.

Watching them at their youngest I realize that the band was genius from the get-go, go. man. The amount of talent is by far, out matched by their passion. I haven’t ever seen someone in their early twenties look so closed to zit-faced adolescent and so confident in their shitty glam rock cover of hard metal wannabe, backed by a rigid drum track.

The casual banter and back and forth is present in their early incarnate. I can only believe that by looking at the past, we can predict more creative plateaus from the pair.

Mandatory for ween fans, highly recommended for music aficionados, discouraged for the non-adventurous.

• Fair warning to all of my Twitter peeps: I’m doing a mass update of my blog, and I’ve got my blog set to update twitter with each post. #
• Just put up a store to sell junk… er HQ Stuff: http://www.cafepress.com/MayorAwesome. Huzza for capitalism! Suck on that commies. #
• Hey everybody, Conan’s last night in NY is tonight: http://tinyurl.com/cnm8zp Be sure to tune in and watch it. #
• @smoothlou Get your ass on stage! You’ve got tickets to sell! in reply to smoothlou #
• I have determined that this graph also applies to blogging: http://xkcd.com/323/ although I do agree that it works with programming too. #
• @TheFullGinsburg that’s what she said. Sorry, low hanging fruit. Ooh! That’s ALSO what she said. Damn I’m on fire! in reply to TheFullGinsburg #
• Will Ferrel on Conan’s last show: http://twitpic.com/1lpvw #
• @smoothlou I was thinking about it, but I’ve got a birthday at Fogo De Chizow tomorrow. Email me details, I’ll blag about it anyway. in reply to smoothlou #

From a space.com article about the size of the observable universe:

“All the pieces add up to 78 billion-light-years. The light has not traveled
that far, but “the starting point of a photon reaching us today after
travelling for 13.7 billion years is now 78 billion light-years away,”
Cornish said. That would be the radius of the universe, and twice that
– 156 billion light-years — is the diameter. That’s based on a view
going 90 percent of the way back in time, so it might be slightly
larger.“

What’s also amazing, is that if you wrote the number googolplex, (1^googlol = 1^1^100) in one point font, it wouldn’t fit _in_ the observable universe.

That’s pretty badass.

Image [cc] selected at coincidence from [flickr]

Thank you wikimedia for allowing people of all stripes to create their own themed wikis.

The next entry in the march of humorous wikis is Dickipedia.

It’s a collection of people who are lumped into the intersection of douchebags and mean.

Some of the writing is entertaining:

From Reagan: “Reagan was credited with saving 77 lives, only 66,923 less than were murdered in El Salvador and Honduras by death squads he supported during his Presidency. Granted, some of those people were probably also dicks who had it coming.”

Also from Reagan:”In 1948, Ronald Reagan divorced his Oscar-winning wife Jane Wyman, and
replaced her with the less talented, but more pregnant Nancy Davis.”

Strangely absent from the list is superman. Via [superdickery.com]

Get ‘em while they’re hot. I just downloaded a copy of GTA II, a game I played for hours upon hours as a kid. Also check out Scorched 3D. Welp, there goes my productivity.
[Link]

Kill Vampire Lincoln. A movie, about killing Vampire Lincoln. ‘Nuff Said:

[link] Via Thinkin’ Lincoln

Hey guys, I just wanted to share with you my friend’s (brand new) blog: Aaron Brouwer Photography. He’s my personal rock climbing hero, all around nice guy, and a REAL MAN.  Here’s a link to his professional web site. He works for my friend Tina (blog) who is a bad ass photographer who’s pictures were just in People Magazine. Tina also took the header image you see at the top of this page. Here’s a few pictures he took while we were on a rock climbing trip to Joshua Tree, California:

Here’s me on a route called  Sail Away:

My friend Bonnie on top of Sail Away:

My good buddy Kadilie climbing Sail Away:

Some light grafiti we shot:

And here’s a picture of the man himself in Colorado:

From the Huffington Post:

After 16 years and 2,725 shows, Conan O’Brien’s final episode as host of NBC’s “Late Night” airs tonight. Jimmy Fallon takes over the “Late Night” gig on March 2, and Conan inherits the “Tonight Show” from Jay Leno in June.
“I’ll probably cry like a baby on Friday night,” hetold the New York Times‘ Bill Carter.
The week has been filled with Conan farewells — from Will Arnett to Stephen Colbert to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — but in honor of Conan’s last show (for a few months), check out these classic Conan highlights from over the years. Check back later for video of his final episode.

I was just in New York with my buddy Comissioner Cool to see Conan. It was an awesome experience and I’m glad I got it in before he went of to greener pastures. I’ll miss him on Late Night, but I look forward to seeing him again in June.

Here are some pictures of myself, Commissioner Cool, and our good friend Larry David from my New York trip (click to enlarge):

Watch more Conan highlights at NBC.com.

Well here’s something new. The Simpsons updated their intro. Looks like its formatted for HD televisions too. Neet!

[via The Retroist]

Wewt!

Boing Boing Gadgeteer John Brownlee asked his reader to submit pictures of their duded up laptops. I sent a pic of my little MSI Wind in and he posted it. Weee! Some of the other laptops are pretty cool too. But, objectively speaking, mine’s the awesomest.

[Link]

NSFW language, so Mom, while I know you love Cookie Monster, I’d suggest you take a pass on this one.

Architecture in Helsinki - That Beep from helsinkids on Vimeo.

More information at their website.

Via Polyvinyl.

A racist political cartoon (pictured) published by the New York Post is being denied to be thus. The editorial board of the NYP are either idiots (for not seeing it) or idiots (for thinking we wouldn’t see the image for what it is). Why not just stand for what it is, a publicity stunt?

Via Guardian UK, originally heard on NPR

I’ve just been invited to The World’s Largest Pie Fight. I’m pretty sure it’s invitational, so if you’re itching to go, you’ll have to go to the organizer’s website.

Weezer holds the record with 120 people. What’s better to stimulate the economy than wasting pastries.

Here’s some video from a San Francisco Roller Disco Pie Fight (not really roller disco related):

According to Snopes.com, swiffer products are _not_ dangerous to your pets. I had been guilty of perpetrating this myth. Someone smart told it to me, so I believed it.

That is, of course, unless you clean your floors with gasoline.

I’ve been a programmer for about 15 years. I’ve rubbed shoulders with some pretty smart people. I’ve also had the pleasure to work with people who can’t quite grasp complex programming tasks or methods.

I _used_ to be a little pendantic. Granted, there is the occasional dope who is completely worthless and drags the team down. More realistically, though there are people who are more skilled in other areas, but can’t seem to formulate a consistent programming model in their head. They can do basic functional programming, but anything as complex as a void pointer is beyond them.

I completely respect this. Depending on the situation, it makes sense to have a core of competent programmers who understand the most bizzare software. They hack together a complex system, erect an API your mother would love, and then protect the users from the monstrous insides.

I’ve gotten flak from this from software people before, but let me explain my situation: I work with people who can design analog electronics where the lsb is in nano-amps. Nano-Amps. The same hardware can scale to hundreds of volts or amps, depending on the mode. This person is excused from knowing more than basic functional programming. These engineers are fully capable of figuring out complex loading, oscillating, timing, and noise problems. I can live with some API restrictions.

I’ve violated every rule or good idea I’ll put forth on this website, but here are some rules I can live with (C++ centric):

• Replace anything with an index with an STL class or equivalent. std::Strings instead of char[] arrays, vectors instead of int[] arrays, and any number of multidimensional classes.
• Replace for loops with for each loops. I know, it sounds trivial, but I’ve seen people fiddle with the conditional term on a for loop trying to get it right. Guessing to get it right. If they use a for each loop, they can skip iterators, and focus on getting simple tasks done.
• Don’t use variable length function signatures, unless you are creating a wrapper for an existing function such as printf, or the like.
• Opening a file, printing to a file,  and printing to the screen is hard for some people. Build them some tools that do both. Make sure they never have to see a pointer.
• Don’t ever put preprocessor #ifdef statements in between { } brackets. 
• Keep your functions below 20 lines. This isn’t even close to achievable, but it’s a good design goal. Once a function starts getting too long, it gets hard to understand. 

Some of you may be reading this and thinking that this is obvious. The rest will be thinking that I’m overly dumbing down the richness for the few. The thing that I’ve seen cost the most is code maintainence. 

I can build really awesome code, but when I move on because I’m bored and a hardware engineer has to decypher my code, I feel nothing but pain for them.

I’d rather leave my coding ego at the door and leave some code that is easy to change.