Where in the hell is Matt? pt.2

Over a year ago I wrote about Matt who has traveled the world dancing poorly and loving every minute of it.  Well, he has put out a third video, so I wanted to make sure that my couple readers were aware.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Also, turns out many people have started spoofing his idea, and I was shocked to even see that someone has done it in World of Warcraft too… amazing.

A new idea in polling…

I just ran across quibblo.com and was curious to test it out (thus it ends up here).

Beheading a champagne bottle

While cleaning out the fridge tonight, I ran across an aging unopened bottle of champagne. Instead of just throwing it out, my roommate and I decided to apply some of the valuable knowledge we have learned from Zane Lamprey of Three Sheets, and we “saber”ed it (used a machete and cut the top off or “beheaded” the bottle). Zane does this in the NYC episode (the one not on hulu) but I found this video of someone else doing it. Enjoy!

If you do it right, the pressure of the champagne takes the top cleanly off and it shot about 20 feet across my backyard into my neighbor’s yard. If we can find the top, I’ll post a photo of that as well.

Spagnostics follow the FSM on Twitter

This week I did some research about twitter to see how different entities (companies, organizations, etc) are using Twitter, and stumbled across something interesting. Everyone can now follow the FSM on Twitter. Yes, your very own ‘deity’ now twitters like the rest of us, only I guess it uses a ‘noodly appendage’ instead of fingers…

Seeing as Google has deemed me an expert on Spagnostics and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), I figured I could let all of you who keep finding this blog via searches about this ‘religion’ know about this new development.

My thoughts on this:
I think the ‘church’ of the FSM is sad and makes me very disappointed that it has gained such a cult following. My hope and prayer is that by discussing and thinking about things of faith (even if it starts in a mocking tone) one day, maybe years later, these people may be open to the ideas of a real faith.

Operating hours for an ONLINE self-service?!!! Come on Anthem.com…

So I just activated a new anthem account and once my registration/activation was complete, I was asked to log in to start using the account. I click the “log in” button and am presented with:

Site Unavailable
The online self-service feature you have requested is unavailable at this time. Our regular system operating hours are Monday through Friday from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Saturday from 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Now this is a pet peeve of mine, why do “online self-service” sites have operating hours?  The whole point is so I can do it at 2am Saturday if I so choose.  There doesn’t need to be someone at the other end of the line, if you are putting a system online, it should only not be available during server maintenance times… having standard hours of operation for a website is just backwards.  [rant complete]

Another April Fool’s Day, Google announces Virgle and Custom Time

Google has gained a bit of a cult following amongst us geeks for their “pranks” on the virtual world.  This year, it looks like there are two “releases” today, Virgle and Custom Time.  Custom Time looks legit enough, but not sure (reminds me of the year they “released” gmail but no one believed them.

Who knows.  Keep up the good work…

Upgraded to WordPress 2.5

Happy Cog helped redesign WordPress for the new 2.5 release.  I just upgraded to it, and so far, I think it is nice.  Nothing overwhelming yet, but the UI is far more pleasing.  Looks like they finally have a different way to add videos to, hope that works better than before… I’m going to play around with some things, so the blog may act strange over the next couple days.

So far, I give it a plus for the new colors and cleaned up UI, and I give it a minus for moving the categories checklist from the sidebar to the bottom.  That change doesn’t make any sense at all to me right now…

surplus-sites.com - SEO experiment

I’m trying out a real world SEO experiment with a freelance client right now.  Surplus Sites - http://www.surplus-sites.com  hired me to build a quick brochure site for them.  As a matter of curiousity now, I am curious what SEO techniques may be able to help them increase their rankings…

So far I have tried posting an ad in bowling green kentucky on craigslist, twittering about posting on craigslist, and now blogging about all of them (which should end up on technorati thanks to wordpress, etc)…

Turns out it is pretty easy to manufacture a “quick and dirty” web of links - if the property in Bowling Green, KY gets some increased traffic (thanks google analytics for making this easy), I’ll consider this a victory.   If it leases, I’ll consider it a huge victory, and if nothing happens, I’ll consider it a little bit of lost time while learning about search engine optimization…

SNL skit - 3am phone call with Hillary and Barak

Hysterical! Looks like the writer’s strike was good for letting the SNL peeps recharge and come up with some good ideas… hulu.com looks like it could be a glorious waste of time!

Underwater car?!

Ripped from a James Bond film “The Spy who Loved Me” this modified Lotus Elise goes underwater for 2+ hours worth of a scuba like experience. The one of a kind car, appropriately named “sQuba” is a concept car and likely will never be produced or available to the public. Too bad, I’m sure there are tons of people willing to shell out $2million for a 2 seater…

Tweet, tweet

Dear handful of marginally loyal readers -

In case any of you ever wondered aloud, ‘Chris is cool and all, I just wish he updated more,’ all I have to say is “Tweet, tweet“…

SEO, Tim Cahill, and Spagnostics

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a curious exercise. In layman’s terms, SEO is the set of best practices that you should follow to get information to register (and rank higher) with search engines, most importantly, with Google. I applied some of my learnings on SEO for the November 11th post Tim Cahill’s World-Class Goal (Everton at Chelsea) and the results have been a little surprising…

According to Google Analytics, over the last 4 weeks, nearly 60% of the traffic to this site came from people searching for tim cahill’s goal chelsea (ranked #1 in google), or tim cahill everton goal chelsea (ranked #3) or some other variation of those words. Kind of cool, I hope everyone finding this site looking for that post finds the post helpful and chooses to stick around. I’m happy just to have you peeking in…

And on a very strange note, Google also seems to think that I am an expert on “spagnostics” as I am the #1 ranked item for that search term as well… I’m not really sure what to make of that fact though.

Interesting Twist on Crossword Puzzles

I’m not a huge crossword fan.  Spelling and vocabulary have never been strengths of mine and I tend to not catch all the pop culture references the author throws out as “hints”.  Well I just ran across this crossword puzzle from gamedesign.jp and found it fascinating.  It is more of a logic problem (hinting of Sudoku) than a “true” crossword.  Look for the patterns and do a little guess and check.  The expert one is really tough, but it was a fun little exercise.  The levels go beginner, easy, normal, hard, and expert. Take a few minutes and see if you can’t knock them all out…

Handbell Hero

Man I wish I had seen Handbell Hero before Christmas!  For those of you wishing you could get into the phenomenon that is “Guitar Hero“, try this little flash game with some popular holiday tunes.  Great idea…

Amazon Kindle

Count me curious. People have been predicting this sort of “e-book” for years now (I remember discussing it in a class in college a decade ago), but Amazon’s Kindle seems to be the first one with any potential to get off the ground.

Looks to me that Amazon is hoping Kindle will be to books what the iPod/iTunes is for music. This seems like a good step into the arena, and one that was necessary. Now that iTunes is carrying so many “books on tape mp3,” even avid readers had started shifting away from traditional books…

I’ll have to reserve judgment on this until I can actually hold one (there is something wonderful about the tactile sensation of holding a book that I predict this will lack), but I think this could be worth keeping an eye on.

Sadly at $400 it is more expensive than any book I ever thought of buying (and you still have to buy the books - though they are offered at a discount).

So I’m a lush?

Well according to this internet quiz, yup, I’m a ‘lush.’ For those of you who know me, you will probably find this as amusing as I did (and for those of you who don’t, I almost never drink)… Oh well. Apply a little logic and this quiz isn’t too difficult.

82%LUSH

“Portal” by Valve

Last night I had the priviledge of playing Valve software’s minigame “Portal”, and I must say I had a blast. The premise behind it is that the player can create “portals” (go in portal #1, you come out portal #2). Portal is a throw-back to problem solving games. Each level presents you with a problem (or collection of problems) and you need to really think (quite literally, look at it from a different angle) to solve it and move on. The tinny mechanical voice of the announcer as well as her sense of humor adds a nice touch to the game as well.

To understand it better, check out this clip:

Trying out a new look

I was getting bored with the old style so I’ve spent some time tonight customizing a new template.  Still not happy with this, but it is satisfying my desire for a little change over here.

Welcome Iranian web surfers!

Google Analytics is a very useful (and free) tool that tells me how many hits this site is getting, as well as what people are reading, how long they stay, what search terms they used (if they came from a search engine), and what countries they come from…  While this little blog doesn’t get much traffic at all, it is fun to check every once and a while.  Obviously the VAST majority of hits are coming from the USA.  Not surprisingly, Canada and Australia (culturally similar and English speaking) and England (EPL/Everton/soccer posts) show up with some frequency.

What I can’t figure out is my recent “bump” of traffic from Iran of all countries? If you happen to be one of my Iranian visitors, welcome to chriswho, and please let me know what you would like to hear about (or how you found me).  Oh, and I’d love to hear your opinion of President Ahmadinejad…

New Job Buddy - Delivery Driver

Yes, another installment of one of the more fun recurring tasks I get at work: Job Buddies. I reworked the other graphics as well trying to make the shadows look more like shadows and less like beards.

Viral Video All-Stars

For anyone who has spent any amount of time online or on youtube over the last couple years, a number of these should look really familiar. (Give it a second to get past techno viking, and then things pick up…)

xkcd

For those of you who haven’t seen the web comic xkcd.com, you are missing out. Very clever and creative.  Who would have guessed that humor based on math, philosphy, programming, and anything else nerdy would be so great.  For a small sampling, check out these…

If you were looking to hire a designer…

If you were looking to hire a designer, don’t tell me you wouldn’t at least give this guy an interview. Imagine being an HR person sifting through a stack of resumes and then that gets plopped on your desk. Memorable, purpose driven, humorous, well designed, very well executed (”I HELPED STEPHEN” stickers, coaster, badge, interview postcards) … ingenious.

I also appreciated his design police work. Cute concept for the design snob in each of us with some excellent advice like, “Comic Sans is illegal”, “Turn Hyphenation Off”, and “WARNING: low resolution image.”

Apple’s Growing Arrogance

A very interesting read on Apple’s attention being taken away from “computers” and onto other ventures.  Worth a read.  (I’m still thinking about getting a MacBook Pro though…)

XHTML2 vs X/HTML5

Interesting debate gaining steam as these two specs are vying for buy in from those of us who will be developing in these “next generation” markup languages. Here is an interesting even handed opinion of both for those of you who are interested. I love the idea of having an “<nl>” tag.

GOOG-411 and the google phone

Who doesn’t love google? This 411 (information) service they now offer is pretty darn cool. I’m sure the phone companies love this. This will pair nicely with the google phone (aka “Google Switch”) rumors that abound.

Geeks, Heroes, and Alcohol

Every Monday night some friends and I get together - hanging out, watching tv, talking, etc.  We were excited about a new season and new shows, so we kicked it off at 8 with the season premier of “How I met your mother” (aka HIMYM) which is a terrible title for a sitcom, but the show is great.  HIMYM is a show about 5 friends in their late 20’s/early thirties living in NY. While the basic premise sounds an awful lot like “Friends” but it is very good and surprisingly fresh.

Also starting at 8 was “Chuck” a new show (highly touted by my friend Anthony).  Chuck is a nerd who is paired up with a beautiful CIA operative and thrown into the life of national security espionage.  During commercial breaks of HIMYM we’d flip over to Chuck - it had its moments, but I wasn’t overly impressed. Seemed a bit like “Alias” meets “40 year old virgin”.

Interestingly enough, the other “nerd meets attractive blonde” new comedy “Big Bang Theory” on at the same time was just fun.  The nerdiness in this is so over-the-top that it is hysterical (the nerds appear to be young CalTech professors, and the blonde is a waitress at the cheesecake factory).  I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing that one again.

And Heroes - not as great as I was hoping - but I’ll keep watching.  I’m not sure how I feel about Hiro being in the 1600’s, but I guess he becomes the real “Kenesi” (I thought his father was the real one).   We met a couple new characters, Maya (somehow managed to kill everyone making them bleed from their eyes), Alejandro (Maya’s protective brother), the guy recruiting Mohinder (who turns the spoon to gold), and Claire’s new male friend (another flier).

I’m a disappointed that they are already repeating powers (Nathan already flies) but I assume they are going somewhere with it (Sylar and Peter’s powers while very similar were in fact very different - making them great foils).  Creative new powers like Issac being able to paint the future made season 1 not just seem like a retelling of the X-Men comics.  Hopefully we will see other new powers, and not just pairing existing powers with a new personality.

10pm on Mondays, the best show that no one has ever seen comes on - “Three Sheets” on MOJO.  This fantastic show chronicles Zane Lamprey as he does a pub crawl across the world.  If you get MOJO, do yourself a favor and check out this show (and if you don’t, you can watch a full episode on their website).  Very high production value (the high quality HD is lost online) and you learn something every show - it is just entertaining…

JobBuddies

Sorry everyone, I forgot to announce this yesterday, but the JobBuddies have gone live.  I still think these guys are cute.  Should be a fun recurring project for me to keep designing new buddies as we continue to add more…

Talk like a pirate day

In case you didn’t know, today is a special day - International Talk like a pirate day.  While I don’t much care for silly holidays like this, I figured I’d let you know in case you run into people who take this “seriously” or stumble across things like flickr online…

Flickr (to be known today as “Flick-Arrr”) has decided to celebrate by altering their logo to have a pirate’s flag over the “r”. Well done friends. (I’m a little surprised that Google is not taking advantage of this opportunity as they pioneered the concept of altering your logo to celebrate certain days.

Wiki craziness

After reading this repository of insanity, you are ready for any sort of trivia challenge - be it from your local pub or Alex Trebek …

Shopping from home in the year 1999AD

Check out this shockingly accurate (considering it was made back in 1967) clip from the video 1999 A.D.  This film’s creator predicted computer networks, video surveillance, online shopping, personal printers, online bill-pay, even email before their invention (and years or decades before their adoption by society).

“Heroes” and Netflix

Heroes, one of NBC’s hits from this last season intrigued me.  Lots of my friends talked about it, but for various reasons, I never watched - until now.  My roommate and I are running through the first season of Heroes right now and loving it.  Netflix has already sent me the next few discs, so we are good to go and should be done soon (a season’s worth of tv in a couple weeks).

If you have never watched a TV series on DVD, you are missing out.  A plot driven series like Heroes, 24, LOST, or Soprano’s  is best experienced when you can watch it in order, without missing an episode (not unlike a soap opera).    A series like this is perfectly suited for DVD viewing - you get the linear/sequential viewing, as well as not having to wait a week to figure out “what happens next”.  In contrast, character driven sitcoms (Seinfeld, Friends, Simpsons, etc) are kings of syndication because once you know the players, each episode contains its own plot, so the order doesn’t make a difference.

Another benefit of the DVD?  It has been interesting to pause and rewind to see what sort of hidden gems we can find (like Issac Mendes’ paintings, etc.)  Oh yeah, one other thing - NO COMMERCIALS (easily saves 15 minutes per episode).

So give it a try.  Once Heroes is over, I’ve got my eye on Always Sunny In Philadelphia which just came out this week too…

Creative .net errors

I am not a .net programmer, but I work with lots of ‘em, and every once and a while they make a mistake do something that takes our development site down for a while. The other web designer and I love looking at these messages for their unintentional and very geeky humor. For example, here is this morning’s error:

I’m not sure how computers/servers do things “lazily”. I also got this today:

“Actively refused” huh… this is the one I see quite often. Good times. I love .net today.  If ever a post deserved the tag of “geeky”, this one is it.

Photography resources online

As many of you know, I’ve been getting interested in photography lately and am entertaining the idea of getting another camera.  If I do, I’d be looking for an upgrade from my trusty PowerShot A610 - minimum of 8 megapixels, a little more zoom (or an SLR that would let me grow it as much as my wallet will allow).  Maybe something like the EOS 40D, Digital Rebel XTi, or even something like the PowerShot G9 that could give me the simplicity of a point and shoot, with the expanability of an SLR … I honestly don’t know right now.

Does anyone have any suggestions or know of any good camera/photography resources? I’d like to do my homework and make an educated decision. I’m familiar with retailers like B&H and Adorama, but if anyone has any other suggestions, I’d love to hear it. I’m accumulating info right now, no purchase is imminent.

So I submit this to the collective knowledge of teh internets. If anyone knows any other good online resources, or has good first hand knowledge of any products (for or against), I love to to hear your stories. I know many of you have a camera or two, what do you like and dislike, etc…

Sports overload?

Wow, I didn’t realize I had 3 soccer (football for the europeans) related posts in a row.  I’ll try to be a little more balanced in the future.  Its just that time of the year and I’m a bit excited about all that is going on, especially in the Premier League (EPL) right now.

“Ask Dan” returns

Dan (aka “Ploafmaster General”) has resurrected this semi regular column called “Ask Dan”.  Its free, no obligations, just ask and cross your fingers that he chooses yours!  He is able to discuss at lengths subjects that he has some or no knowledge about, so why not give it a whirl and fire one off to him (just leave a comment in his most recent Ask Dan)?

Google SketchUp

“Google SketchUp 6 is a 3D modeling software tool that’s easy to learn, simple to use, and lets you place your models in Google Earth. Are you remodeling a kitchen, landscaping your back yard or adding a deck to your home? Google SketchUp makes it faster, easier and a lot more fun. From simple to complex, from conceptual to realistic, Google SketchUp helps you see your vision before you build it.”

I’m admittedly intrigued. May have to spend some time playing with this over the weekend. Also interesting to note that they offer a “SketchUp Pro” for $495. I’m curious if this compares to professional level modelling programs (at a fraction of the price). If so, this may justify Adobe’s concern over Google buying Picassa. Maybe there is a Picassa Pro coming soon that will be every bit as robust as photoshop at a fraction of the price…

I can dream can’t I?

Google Analytics and AdSense

With a little time on my hands, I set up two Google products to work with chriswho.com, Google Analytics and AdSense.

The change you can see is AdSense - it displays those contextually appropriate ads at the top of the page. My traffic numbers are currently low enough I don’t expect to make any actual cash, but I thought it would be a fun experiment to do it, and I’m looking forward to seeing what ads google chooses to serve up based off of my blog post content. So far, it looks like PETA’s protest ads regarding Michael Vick are winning, but on other pages you can get some others… fun stuff (in an ultra geeky way).

None of you will ever see Analytics, but it is very cool. It is another free tool from google that gives me some impressive reporting on the site’s traffic. Once again, very geeky, but this is my profession, so I should be aware of as many of the tools of the trade as I can.

So far, I’m impressed with the quality and ease of installation/use of both tools. I’m trying to learn more about SEO and monetizing web properties, so I think this is a good way for me to “dip my toe in the water” so to speak. So far, I like what I see.

The Dark Knight photos

In case anyone is curous about “The Dark Knight” (the next installment of the new and improved Batman saga), some photos have appeared on flickr.  No spoilers (that I am aware of) but it looks like the Tumbler is back, and this time it has a friend.  Also, Heath Ledger as the Joker looks like it could be a stroke of genius.

Serving my alma mater

The Richmond chapter of James Madison Univerity’s alumni association has a new webmaster for the website - richmonddukes.com.  Yup, Matt and I are taking it over and hope to do something fun with it.  Sadly, we just found out it runs on a pretty rigid custom CMS system (likely some computer science student’s final project).  I look forward to the challenge of figuring out what things I can and can’t get around on this system.  I’ll post again when there is something worth looking at over there.

Something tells me, if nothing else, this could be a fun experiment for showing, hiding, and repositioning content with CSS … Wish me luck!

The future is in the past…

Thanks Giselle for sending me this wonderful mockumentary about the developers of MS Paint. Brilliant. This reminds me, I should write Adobe a “thank you” note for creating Photoshop (then again, the outrageous price of their software reminds me that I hate them too).

Subject to change

SAJ (aka my day job) has recently started a blog (when we are ready for traffic, I’ll post on here again).  So I don’t screw with the production site, I may be testing out things over here, so if you show up one day and it has completely changed, don’t worry, I’m just screwin’ around.

Jeremy Cowart’s new site

While Jeremy Cowart is far from a household name, chances are really good if you listen to music or watch tv, you have seen some of his photography. Jeremy just released a new version of his site, which I find quite inspiring (both the site design AND the photography).

Thanks to Joshua Blankenship for pointing this out. Side note, how cool is it that Jeremy actually photographed the recent Blankenship wedding?

Along with Jeremy, Paul Armstrong (flickr) is one of my other favorites. Check these guys out, so good.

So creative…

This happy new year message from mono is very cool. (hint, click on the facial features to see others)

Fujiya Miyagi

Um, holy cow. This music video is amazing. An animated value study built using colored dice to create a really nice pixelated effect.

“Lifted” by PIXAR

While I’m not exactly a fan of Steve Jobs, I can’t deny that he has been an influential part of two companies that put out some good products - Apple and PIXAR. Lifted is another “short” from PIXAR that has won some awards, I thought it was really cute.

* sidenote - never heard of this “jumpcut.com” site before, but it seems to be yahoo’s competitor to youtube. It is certainly prettier than YouTube (and less cluttered with ads) - but as history tells us, the best product is not necessarily going to win the battle (Virb > MySpace, BetaMax > VHS, OS X > Vista, etc…)

Bear, say it ain’t so

Sadly, Man vs. Wild (aka “one of the greatest shows on tv”) is hasn’t been entirely honest with us.  Bear Grylls (the host) is still one awesome dude (while some of this may be overly dramatic, you can’t fake a lot of the stuff he did).  Even knowing that his crew would leave him for the night and go to a motel isn’t a big deal… but hearing that on two occassions he may have enjoyed the luxury of a motel bed saddened me.  Honestly, if you can’t trust tv, who can you trust?

Adding to my shame, my parents called shenanigans on this show well before I was willing to believe it.

Number 5 is Alive

The classic 80’s movie Short Circuit superstar robot “Johnny 5″ is going to be auctioned off for a mere 6 figures in August… Just don’t try to “disassemble.”

Soccer in the US

In case you haven’t heard, David Beckham had his debut with the LA Galaxy last night in an exhibition game against Chelsea of the EPL. For the first time in a long time, a US soccer story led Sportscenter … pretty cool.

Of more interest to me however was another EPL vs. MLS game last night played under a lot less fanfare - Everton vs. Real Salt Lake. Everton is my favorite EPL team, so I was very curious how they did.

Knowing that Sportscenter wouldn’t cover it, I went straight to ESPN.com. And I found a match report. Yeah, a match report of Real Salt Lake vs. “Chelsea”. Unreal… why report on a game if you can’t even get something as basic as the teams right.

On a side note, looks like Everton didn’t do too hot, so I am glad I didn’t see it.

Borat sighting

A guy dressed as Borat crashed the tour de france… High Five!

cnn.com redesign

Andy Rutledge has done a great job verbalizing many of my thoughts about CNN’s redesign.  I can definitely get behind his term “Quiet Structure.”

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

- Apple Computer

iSmoke

This just about made me cry. Our friends over at “Will it blend” have taken on the latest pop culture icon, the iPhone.

INFJ

Introverted INtuitive Feeling Judging - yeah, I can see how I would be pegged as such:

• Rarest personality type; estimated 2% of population
• private
• sensitive
• quiet leaders
• great depth of personality - intricately and deeply woven, mysterious, and highly complex, sometimes puzzling even themselves
• introverted
• sometimes seen by others as cold and hard on the outside
• may find it easier to express their deepest feelings and sentiments non-verbally or in writing
• abhor evil or injustice, especially that directed towards the innocent or helpless
• are sometimes looked upon by others as naive, mostly due to our idealism
• aren’t terribly career-minded
• love quotes/quotations and are often “philosophers” or “theologists”
• give advice, though usually more subtly than most other Directors.
• “Mute withdrawal is a major INFJ defense.”
• abstract in communicating
• live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities - part of an unusually rich inner life
• artistic (and natural affinity for art), creative, and easily inspired
• very independent
• orderly view towards the world but within themself arranged in a chaotic, complex way only they could understand

INFJs value their integrity a great deal. They have high expectations of themselves and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. They do this through total trust of their intuition.

INFJs are proud of their authenticity, respectful of their benevolence, confident of their empathy.

They are activists there for the cause, not for the power, fantasize about getting revenge on those who victimize the defenseless, and put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done.

An INFJ is often hard to get to know. They are selective about their friends, but such a friendship is a symbiotic bond that transcends mere words… They hunger for deep and meaningful relationships, provide spiritual intimacy for their mates, and can only be emotionally intimate and fulfilled with a chosen few from among their long-term friends, family, or obvious “soul mates.” In such relationships, they strive for mutuality, don’t believe in compromising their ideals, and can understand and deal with complex issues and people.

It can be difficult for an INFJ to articulate their deepest and most convoluted feelings to others. They tend to be secretive by holding back and protecting part of themselves, thus creating hidden sides to their personality. They are choosy of what and when to share things and tend to only truly do so with those they trust.

Strong empathic abilities, an unusually strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others while pointing out human potentials

They are often leaders who go unnoticed, quietly exerting their influence behind the scenes. When working with others, they are very sensitive to conflict and cannot tolerate it very well. They will prevent/avoid it at all costs.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Thanks INFJ.org for the info…

So for those of you who know me, think it fits? 

Interesting side note - other INFJs: Dostoevsky, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Oprah, Jimmy Carter and Billy Crystal.

extreme instability

One of the things I would like to do before I die is see a tornado (and hopefully even get a good shot or two of it).  I have always loved weather, especially thunderstorms.  The power and beauty are both so amazing in a good storm.

Mike, the guy behind extremeinstability.com (his flickr page) lives on the edge, but I think I would really enjoy that for a couple weeks …

some new photos

For those of you who are interested, I have thrown a plethora of new photos up on my flickr page…

Tattooing your laptop

Here are some interesting photos of macbook pro’s (or powerbooks) that have been laser engraved. I think the homage to Magritte is my favorite.