A Couple Awesome Things

First off, anyone who can find a funny way to raise money for a charity, especially one dealing with hairblz, is awesome. The Great Mustache Contest is awesome. Not only do they have a killer tag line: “Because it takes balls to grow a mustache”, they’re raising money for testicular cancer research – by getting guys to grow mustaches!\
I’m still thinking about it… the only thing holding me back is that I may be speaking at a conference smack in the middle of the contest, and I’m not sure I want to go speak, representing AOL, sporting a Cletus. But, I may go ahead and do it anyway (update: I went ahead and signed up – the donate button will appear on the site shortly).

Pirate Kitteh!

Pirate Kitteh!

Secondly, the awesome Scott Andrew is self-producing his new album. I accidentally discovered Scott a long time ago and loved his work with The Walkingbirds. I met him at SxSW, and he’s a really good guy. He’s accepting donations to try to finish up the album, and I think that’s great. It takes balls (there they are again!) to go it alone and try to do it all yourself, and I think that should not only be applauded, but supported. The more artists are able to really go it alone without having to sell their souls to corporate record labels, and make it work, that can only mean good things for music fans. It means more music for us, and gets us closer to the artists we like. Go, Scott, go!\
I’m slowly working on the Rails app that will power The International Day of Awesomeness blog and an extra special something that my pal Kedar suggested. Slowly because by the time I do 9-10 hours of “real” work, and spend a couple hours playing with the boys, I’m pretty much shot. I’ve got things started, but nowhere near ready to launch – but keep your eyes peeled. I’m hoping to launch it in the next month or so…

The National Day of Awesomeness

These things always start as a joke. Fortunately, I am someone who always takes the joke too far. So, here we are, with The National Day of Awesomeness. You’ll have to go to the site to read up on the holiday, what it is, when, and why you should join the probably three or four other people who will celebrate this special day (for which I’m sure someone will produce greeting cards in the very near future) early next year.\
This is no longer a joke. This is serious. Well, as serious as a day dedicated to being awesome can be, that happens to occur on Chuck Norris’ birthday, and organized by a complete idiot… Yeah, it’s that serious.

DC Roller Girls

Jen and I went to see the DC Roller Girls roller derby tonight! I wouldn’t call us roller derby people, but we had a lot of fun. I’m thinking of taking Max to the July 21st double-header!\
My favorite thing about the roller derby was the diversity of the crowd. There were, as Jen put them, “hot chicks” in small groups. There were several families with 6-12 year olds. There were older couples, lots of roller girl parents (with some great t-shirts declaring their maternity or paternity of their particular girl), a whole biker gang in full leather, several lesbian couples, some with kids, lots of nerdy couples, and even a couple goths. It was great! I think roller derby could bring world peace… bringing the world together for good clean fun and bruises.\
My second favorite thing? The names!! Here are a couple of my faves:

  • Speedy Gone-bra-less
  • Inconvenient Ruth
  • O-Face
  • Madelaine Allfight
  • Helena Handbag (her mom sat in front of us and politely cheered for her girl with the broken tailbone)
  • X-abitchenest (like several of them, recovering from a broken ankle)
  • Mason Vixen (my personal favorite – she was tiny, but in there kicking ass, blocking out ladies twice her size)
  • Blondie Danger Slut\
    So… wanna go next time? July 21st at Dulles Sportsplex in Sterling. I’ll be there – either with Max or Jen. Come on, you know you wanna.
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Things to Make You Giggle

Because so much in the world sucks and isn’t funny at all, here are some Tuesday morning links to make you crack a smile:

  • LOL Presidents – Be prepared to spend at least half an hour laughing. Good good stuff. See also: LOLPresident
  • Flight of the Conchords – You can watch the first episode of their new HBO series online fo’ free! They’re insanely funny, and I can’t wait for the show to start.
  • I Can Has Cheezeburger? – No explanation, just go check it out. Look out for the walrus/bucket series.
  • LOLGeeks – More of the same, only geeks!\
    Now, get to work! The weekend’s over, hippy!
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Geeks Love *

Geeks love *

It’s scary how easily these things get started. All it took was one little verbal slip in a meeting, and now we have t-shirts. I got mine today when I made a little trip to the office to show off a prototype. They turned out way better than I expected (because Cindy never sleeps, apparently).\
I love having talented friends who like the stupid stuff as much as I do. Work would be really boring without them.

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Unexpected Truths

I was in an interview today (update: not for a job for me, I was interviewing them to do a job for AOL), talking to a design and development shop (who will remain nameless) about their work and other assorted web-nerdery (flash vs. html, accessibility, localization, etc) when I asked them about the different DOCTYPES they use and why they didn’t just pick one and stick with it. Here’s how the conversation went.

  • Creative Director: Yeah, we pick based on client needs and stuff… We’re pretty anal about standards and stuff. We’re geeks, and you know, geeks love anal.
  • Me: That’s going on a t-shirt.

He didn’t get it right away, which is probably a good thing. I wish every interview went that well.

Channel Frederator Is The Bestest

You absolutely have to download this week’s Channel Frederator. Why? The first short is unreal, and the main character looks like the internet’s own Jon Morris!\
Channel Frederator is the show that turned me on to video podcasts. It’s chock-full of indy animation (uneven at times, but there are usually at least two gems per show) and it’s funny. You know how I love funny…

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