Music

Here is a list of 7 new bands/songs that I’ve been into recently. They are not necessarily new in regards to their release date, but rather they are new to me (mostly thanks to my co-worker Kyle). This list is in no particular order (well, except maybe the first three). Enjoy!

1. Coheed & Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth
2. The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)
3. The Appleseed Cast – Woodland Hunter (Part 1)
4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
5. Ladytron – The Way That I Found You
6. The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist
7. Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek

If anyone has any recommendations, leave a comment with a band/song that I should check out.

Dev House 13

This past weekend I experienced my first Super Happy Dev-House convention/get together. I must say that never before have I met so many people that put me to shame. With this said however, I have learned more about online technologies from this than I have from any online tutorial or book. One of the biggest eye-openers for me was that I felt I was investing too much of my time learning PHP when instead I should be concentrating on learning Javascript-based technologies (most notably AJAX) and maybe Ruby/Ruby on Rails. Being around so many developers at once opened my eyes as to what is possible and how to get there.

With everyone working on their projects, it gave me the opportunity to begin filling in the gaps of my knowledge. I began researching new (to me at least) concepts, ideas, etc. Some examples are microformats, JQuery, and JSON. On top of that, I began going through AJAX tutorials, something I should’ve started a long time ago.

One of the unique things about being around this many people with similar interests are the conversations had throughout the night. Most of my conversations focused on web technologies: something I never have the opportunity to talk about at home. Topics included Ruby on Rails, the manageability of PHP in large projects, peoples’ current projects (including personal and business related). Most of all, I was able to network with people in the industry. There were a variety of people including CTOs, bloggers, and even someone from google. Hollywood has celebrities, but the bay area has eCelebrities.

This event has inspired me to form this sort of community back at home, but will it really be worth it? If I plan on moving in January (oh please make it happen), my efforts will be wasted in San Luis Obispo. I feel I should instead wait till I move to Camarillo for this sort of thing.

Anyways, can’t wait for Dev House 14!

Yakety Sax Mash-Up

Yakety Sax, better known as the Benny Hill theme, can make anything funny. I was sent a youtube link of a turtle trying to “rape” another turtle. Not finding any humor in the video, I thought of a way spice it up: use the Benny Hill Theme! Watch it once and you’ll see a sexually frustrated turtle in a society gone horribly wrong trying to satisfy its own needs without considering the thoughts of others. Pretty fucked up, huh? Watch it again with Yakety Sax playing in the background and you get pure hilarity! I used this website for the music because I was at work and couldn’t download an mp3. If you’re using firefox, open it in a new tab. If you’re using internet explorer, open a new window. In your other tab/window open up your video of choice and enjoy what your comic genius of a mind has created.

Other videos to try out include the following:
The sinking of the titanic
Casino Ending (I think I crossed a line with this one)
Man slapping his wife at a dance (co-workers choice)
Anyways you get the point. You may have to start the music a few seconds into the video to get the full effect.

Enjoy!