Ultranormal

Author: Kevin Lawver

  • Unleashed Soundtrack = Danny The Dog Soundtrack

    Just to save you some cash, if you bought the Danny The Dog soundtrack by Massive Attack, it’s the same thing as the Unleashed soundtrack. Unleashed has two bonus tracks, one by RZA, but that’s the only difference. Don’t be dumb… like me.

  • Ranchero Software: NetNewsWire

    NetNewsWire 2.0 is golden! Go get it right now. It’s the best feed reader on any platform (although it’s only for OS X), and I’ve been using 2.0 since the earliest betas, and it’s awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome.

  • Who’s Number One?

    Me! Well, I’m number one for everything dumb. What about me is number one for that? It’s this super dumbness. Dumb, huh?

  • I’m Out and Proud (Sorta)

    We are now the proud owners of a minivan. Proud probably isn’t the right word exactly. I’m happy that we got the model we wanted, at the price we wanted (I even haggled them down two grand), with the features we wanted and without the ones we didn’t (automatic doors are the dumbest things ever – they’re slower than elevator doors and you can’t “unlock” them to make them fly free).\
    And we got it just in time for Jen’s parents to come out. Now we’ve got room for everyone, and I do mean everyone. Y’all wanna go for a minivan ride?\
    This car confirms our predilection towards white cars. This was a complete accident. I found one vehicle that met our criteria, and it just happens to be white… just like the last two cars we bought. They were coincidences as well. Or were they? You decide!

  • AIM Blogs

    John Panzer announces AIM Blogs. So, go get yourself a blog. All you need is an AIM screenname (and who doesn’t have one of them?).

  • Mike Doughty – Haughty Melodic

    Don’t do anything else. Go out and get this album right now. It’s amazing. It’s gorgeous. It’s better than anything he’s ever done before. It’s better than any Soul Coughing album (although individual Coughing songs are stellar, their albums were wholly uneven affairs). Every song on this album cooks with an intensity that was missing from most of Skittish and Rockity Roll. This album has some songs that match and exceed those stellar Coughing gems, and some that will stick in your head forever.\
    Busting Up A Starbucks is angry, raw, bluesy and powerful. Mike reaches deep, and drops his voice to a growl. The driving drums propels each verse to the hypnotic and kick-ass chorus, where the Morphine-esque sax kicks in and whirls your head around.\
    Tremendous Brunettes is a ton of fun. A beautiful piano line driving the song forward, with an unexpected, but perfect, guest appearance by Dave Mathews rounds out the fun. Yes, the song is as funny as the title would lead you to believe. It’s great fun. It sounds almost like a sea shanty, is as much fun, and will keep you singing along at the top of your lungs on the way home.\
    His Truth Is Marching On is a better anthem than Move On (and I friggin’ love that song). This one is larger, a personal plea to a higher power for that connection that’s missing. The lyrics are rock solid, punching and will take you in. It’s good stuff.\
    Thanks to Jodi Chromey for letting me know the album was out. Go get it. Go. Now. I mean it.

  • TNT + NBA = Whore!

    Is anyone else annoyed at the combo movie/basketball ads showing on TNT during playoff games? Not only are they lame tie-ins for the movies, they’re super lame promos for playoff basketball, which really doesn’t need a whole lot of help.\
    And as an added bonus, they’re some of the most forced, weak and painful stretched metaphors for the playoffs I’ve ever seen. They’re so bad they make Bill Walton’s frequent hyperbole and crap pontificating seem almost palatable.\
    TNT, come on. Charles Barkley + Jeremy Irons + Crusades + Detroit != Compelling Advertising. Get a clue.

  • The Horrors of Beta Software

    I love Instiki, as I’ve said before. I’ve been running 0.9.2 on my Powerbook for a while (ran 0.9.1 before that), and love it. I was running it on my linux box. Notice the was in the previous sentence.\
    What happened? That box was running RedHat 8. I decided it was time to upgrade to Fedora Core 3, and did so. Then, I went to fire up 0.9.2 again, and it didn’t work. It keeps complaining about something in Madeleine (the database). Not being familiar enough with Ruby or its various parts to figure out (something with YAML), I figured it might be because I’d upgraded from Ruby 1.8.1 to 1.8.2. So, hey, let’s try the new version of Instiki! It started up fine, and then barfed on the homepages of my three wiki webs. It was something with formatting, so I went right to the edit_web url, and switched it back to Textile. That worked for two of the three webs.\
    On the third web, there’s a gigantic unordered list. Something in that list is causing Instiki to churn like mad. It locks up the machine, and I have to desperately try to kill it before the machine runs out of memory and thrashes itself to death. It’s funny that text can do that, but apparently, it can.\
    I’m not sure what’s up, but for now, I’ve had to move everything over to my G5 and run it there (where everything still works, thanks OS X!).\
    A few lessons I’ve taken from this:

    • use beta software at your own risk
    • don’t use beta software for “critical” data
    • backup everything regularly
    • beware systems that don’t allow easy import/export of data (Instiki has good export, non-existent import).
    • don’t use a development environment as a shared resource for important data.

  • A Texas-Sized Welcome

    I’m pleased as punch to announce that Katie Sunstrom has joined Bill and me over at I Buy Local! She’s even posted her first restaurant review and her author profile!\
    Welcome, Katie! And, if you’re interested in sharing your local ideas and reviews, e-mail kevin at this here domain (you know, lawver.net).

  • Ben Folds – Songs for Silverman

    I’m not one to rush out and buy an album the day it comes out. There are a few folks I make exceptions for, and Ben Folds is one of them. His new album came out 4/26, and here I am on 4/27 reviewing it.\
    It’s very good, better than The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner and not quite as good as Rockin’ The Suburbs. It doesn’t have the one kick-ass rocker on it like Suburbs does, but the songs are all good, with three or four great ones.\
    Landed is my favorite song of the moment. It has the poignancy of Brick, but rocks a little bit harder in the chorus and bridges. It’s an amazing piece of work. It’ll rip your heart out while you’re tapping your foot.\
    Give Judy My Notice is an homage to 70’s ballad rock that hits its target square in the face. This being Ben Folds, it’s better than any of its source material, and gets is some good lines even though it’s a breakup song that sounds oddly like a sitcom theme.\
    Go out right now and get it. You won’t be sorry.