This just in:
hurry harry!
by Kelshurry harry hurry harry don’t be late.
Harry’s coming over and I can’t wait!
hurry harry hurry harry hurry harry wait,
I’m still having breakfast and I haven’t cleaned my plate!
Stop harry stop harry whoops, oh no!
harry’s already here and I’m not ready to go!
Amity Island police chief Martin Brody in Jaws, LAPD helicopter pilot Frank Murphy in Blue Thunder, Dr. Heywood Floyd in 2010, Captain Nathan Hale Bridger in seaQuest DSV.
Roy Scheider died yesterday at age 75. He was one of my favorite actors.
Kels on the Ion Audio iED01 drum kit, 26 January 2008.
A couple of weekends ago, we dropped off a bunch of stuff at the local Goodwill. I decided to go in and look around, never having been in a Goodwill myself. I resisted a hell of a lot of temptation in the book section, but did walk out with a hardcover copy of Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg for $1.49.
On the way out, I noticed a largish box among some more-expensive items by the front counter: an Ion Audio iED01 electronic drum kit. Five velocity-sensitive pads, two pedals, a sound/
For years, I’ve wanted to get Kels (and the rest of us, but especially Kels) an electronic drum kit he can use with headphones, since he tends to drum on anything he can. No, real drums are not an option. Shut up. Brilliantly, the slogan on the iED01 is “Practice Quietly, Play Loud.”
Well, I couldn’t put it out of my mind a little while later at Target, so I made a few calls and found someone with a web browser. (Thanks, Jayme! And curse Verizon for not being Apple’s partner, or I’d have been able to do all this myself at Goodwill with an iPhone.) The Amazon reviews suggested that it’s a decent practice drum kit for its usual street price of about $250. Professionals complain about its inadequacy for keeping up with serious practice with polyrhythms and such, and thus its questionable value for the price…but (a) you can’t get a pro-quality drum kit of any kind for less than $300, (b) this is, at least for now, just to have something to bang on, and (c) most compellingly, it’s $75.
So I went back to Goodwill and asked if I could open up the box, which was pretty much held together with tape, and check that everything was included. Although there was no styrofoam or any other packing material, all the major parts were there, as far as I could tell without completely assembling it in the store. The manuals were included. It worked when I hooked up a pad to the sound module and plugged it in. A cashier came over and mentioned that they’d just gotten it from Target; it seems to have been a Christmas present, returned in unrestockable condition but pretty much unused. I paid for it, brought it home, and set it up. It works.
It ain’t a pro drum kit, but it’s a hell of bargain. If I decide to add a couple of pads—and I might, since five pads only amount to a snare, a hi-hat, two toms, and a cymbal, whereas it would be a lot fuller with a second cymbal and one more tom—it’ll cost me less than $50 for a pair of new pads. And, surprisingly for an inexpensive consumer set, it has a MIDI output jack, which means I can hook it up to my computer if I want. My complete home studio is one step closer.
And Kels, you might have noticed, kind of likes it.
Yes, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” the smooth-rocking ’70s classic by Looking Glass. Elliot Lurie’s lead vocal reminds me of a baritone saxophone.
Caution: Do not unwarily play the version of this tune from the Charlie’s Angels soundtrack, which prefaces the song with the howlings of Drew Barrymore and Tom Green. Bad.
Holy crow! Looking Glass was a Rutgers band! Rock on!
I’ve been subtly refining the blog layout and graphics lately. Has anyone noticed?
If not, then I suppose I’ve been doing it right.
I’ll be reading these…
…when I get back from the dentist. Of all the days to have scheduled a cleaning at noon…
Update: I changed the Macworld description above to reflect their new format, and I’ve gotta say, having come back to my computer about an hour and 20 minutes into the keynote, I actually found Macworld’s new-stuff-at-the-bottom format—which is how Engadget used to do it—much easier to read than Engadget’s. And Macworld’s photos are in a separate column. Really good job.
So. Four key announcements:
Time Capsule, an Airport Extreme base station with a 500GB or 1TB hard drive built in. Wireless network backup storage, made ridiculously easy and automatic via Mac OS 10.5 Panther’s Time Machine feature. It’s about time Apple made this—overdue, really.
Various iPhone software improvements: Google Maps now knows where you are by triangulating cell towers, you can save a view of a specific part of any web page with Webclips (a feature copied from the Mac), you can customize the home screen, text messaging handles multiple people at once, the video player now has chapters and subtitles and languages, and the music player supports lyrics. But even more interesting and useful, as I see it: The iPod touch now can run Mail, Maps, Notes, Weather, and Stocks. This really does make it an iPhone without the phone. Very cool. $20 upgrade for current owners.
iTunes Movie Rentals and the revised AppleTV. Download high-def movies with 5.1 surround sound; you must start watching within 30 days of renting, and then you have 24 hours before the rental expires. Move movies from your computer to your AppleTV, iPod, or iPhone, even after you’ve started watching. You can download movies directly with the AppleTV, so you don’t have to be at your computer to make a rental. All major studios (and some smaller ones) are offering rentals, usually a month after the DVD release.
MacBook Air. Wicked-thin three-pound 13"-screen notebook computer. iPhone-style multi-touch gestures on the trackpad. It can fit in a manila envelope. No DVD/CD drive, but software lets you use a desktop computer as its optical drive. Pricey and gorgeous.
AT&T’s wireless data network will be brought to its knees when millions of iPhone users suddenly begin constantly reloading live-coverage web pages.
Jen wanted a bell for his bike, so he and I went out today and got one.
There’s a surprising number of wrong-looking bells these days. Like, half the width of your classic “jing-jing!” bell, with a sort of thumb-stud that you pull out and then let go so that it snaps back and strikes the bell. Once. “Ting!” A pure, solitary tone. That’s not a fricking bicycle bell. Ring that and people will look around for a manual typewriter by the roadside, and you’ll get run over.
A real bicycle bell goes “jing-jing!” and then you say “Speedy Delivery!” and give Mr. Rogers a videotape and you watch how something is made on Picture Picture (and it’s far better than How It’s Made, because you’ve got a live jazz band providing both the music and the sound effects) and you’re just the best damn grandfatherly character the world has ever seen. That’s a bicycle bell.
The “ting!” bells cost between $11 and $15 at a bike shop. A simple, classic Schwinn “jing-jing!” bicycle bell costs $4 at Target.
I did not attempt to influence Jen’s decision; in fact, I encouraged him to look at as many bells as possible. We went to four different stores (bike shop, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Toys ‘R’ Us)—and he picked out the classic Schwinn. In red. And I’ve gotta say I’m proud.
First class in their new gi. We’ve been attending for a couple of months now.
2 January 2008. Left to right: Mike Sensei, Kels, Jen, Daniel Sempai.
Have I mentioned The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs before?
I just want to run outside and drive around in my car yelling “You’re welcome,” to everyone I see.
It’s part of my daily routine.
…The blog, not driving around yelling “You’re welcome.”