Hooray for Hollywood

Hollywood, Florida that is.

Florida is a quite different from Minnesota. I feel like there is more interest in music and the arts in MN, and I miss that. Suprisingly, I have to say that I feel that the twin cities feel much more "urban". It's somewhat intangible to describe, but most of what I've seen of Florida just feels like one giant suburb to me, even Miami. I also miss knowing everyone in town. That was always really nice. But I also love meeting new people, and I am in a great position for that, since I don't really know anyone here at all (except for my friend Shannon who moved here from MN about 9 months ago. We hung out the other day and had a great time.), and my job is to go around and meet new people all day and have interesting conversations with them. Right up my alley, and I love it. My co-workers are nice, and I am enjoying getting to know them. When you spend 12 hours a day in a car with someone, you can start to feel close pretty fast.

The beaches are a great thing to have around too. Only made it out a couple times so far, but it's a nice luxury. Going over in a little bit, actually, to go see the fire works.

I'll leave you with this quote to ponder, and hopefully act on, if you will:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

— excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Free Audiobooks!

clipped from librivox.org

LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. We are a totally volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project.

Light goes faster than itself

OK, 2 questions:

1. How can light go faster than the speed of light?

2. How can anything exit a chamber without entering it?

clipped from www.cbc.ca

Scientists have finally exceeded the speed of light, causing a light pulse to travel hundreds of times faster than normal.

It raced so fast the pulse exited a specially-prepared chamber before it even finished entering it.

things change.

In regards to my previous post about working with Station 4: That's not happening anymore.

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Browsing the web frequently inspires people to write something to their blogs

Dentist and Taxes

That's what I did today. Sounds awful, right? Nope!

OK, well, it's never fun to have pointy metal tools poking around at your teeth, but I don't have any cavities or anything, so kudos to me for my adequate dental care. Plus my friend Nancy Cashman was my dentist. She works at Silver Lake Dental. I met her when she was in dental school, but this was my first time seeing her "dentally" (she's been done with school for a little while now). She did good. I recommend her to anyone looking for a cool, skillful dentist with tattoos that they can talk about bands with.

Next stop was Fox Tax at their brand spankin' new office in Northeast Minneapolis. I usually just do my taxes myself (and my dentistry--jk), but my friend Alyssa Fox had so convinced me of her awesome tax skills, that I gave her a try. Wow! Biggest rebate ever! Give these guys your taxes, it's worth it. They specialize in helping musicians and artists get the biggest refund possible.

So, basically, what could have been a terrible day turned out to be pretty awesome thanks to some nice friends with awesome skillz. Let's hope the awesomeness continues when I go to work this evening...

And don't forget to pass on your awesome skillz to your friends, you just might help them turn what could be a terrible day into an awesome day, and they just might return the favor sometime.

More Chunks of Web

One more reason to avoid casinos.

One more reason to avoid doctors.

The top 20 websites.

If you really want to rock the vote, check this out!

Sagging your pants is just one more way of giving in to the Man.

Young student's documentary leaving audiences stunned.

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Chunks of Web + RSS made easy

Feel like being financially responsible for once in your life? Don't have a retirement plan yet? Losing control of your budget? You can get free advice from a professional financial planner today only. These guys normally charge $100-$250 per hour, so this is a rare opportunity.

Some things are just easier when you're brain damaged.

65 year old woman fights off mountain lion with a ballpoint pen! What?!

I already knew Keith Ellison was pretty awesome, but will he be so awesome that he will impeach the president? That might be the only thing that could restore my faith in this government...aside from maybe...oh wait...it's illegal to say that...

Hmmm...a 5 cent penny? My mind is blown.

Don't let this kind of stuff scare you. Not only do they never win these cases, but even though the media makes it seem like a lot of people are getting sued for file-sharing, the fact is that only a teeny tiny thimbleful of people out of millions and millions actually have to deal with this. you are probably more likely to die in a plane crash or get struck by lightning.

OK, pregnant ladies, not to put any pressure on you or anything, but if you don't chill out, your baby will be stupid. So stop stressing!

******************************

I know what you are thinking. "How is it that Oren seems to spend his whole day on the internet looking for all these websites?" The answer is, "I have a lot of freetime." But there's more to it than that--or rather, less to it than that. I use RSS. A lot of you might know what that is, but if you're asking yourself "What the hell is RSS?" I'm going to keep it really simple, because it's too easy to get wrapped up in the technicalities and lose interest.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It's just a way to view info from all the sites you find interesting, all in one place, so instead of going from website to website searching for info, it all comes to you. You can track news from a particular source, or about a particular subject, you can keep up to date on your buddy's blog, or pretty much anything else you can think of. The possibilities are endless for what you choose to subscribe to.

There are also a ton of possible ways to gather all this info, but in the interest of not confusing you, I'm going to send you to only one place. I'm not necessarily endorsing this as "the best," but it's the one I use and it's incredibly easy and versatile. You can even access it from pretty much any mobile phone, plus if you already have any kind of google account (like gmail, for instance), you are already setup and ready to go.

Just click on this link:
http://reader.google.com

Once you've setup your account, start looking for that little orange symbol in the far right side of the address bar of your web browser. When you are at a site you want to stay informed about, click on the little orange symbol, or look for a link labeled "RSS" and you are all done! Now you will get updates right in your google reader account, so you don't have to check in on all those different websites anymore, they come to you!

St. Paul is getting a little weird.

When in Midway, watch out for attacking flagpoles!

Remember to warn your cute little puppies to be very careful about accepting treats from strangers.

Around the web

How to use email, even if you think you already know how to.

18th Century Robot with memory and writing skills (Seriously. This is crazy.).

Bands: easy way to get your gigs online.

Fans: easy way to track where your favorite bands are playing.

The Hype Machine keeps track of songs and discussion posted on many popular music blogs.

Why Minneapolis Street signs are different colors.

For all you book nerds out there. Do people still read those things?

More for music junkies.

Keep your brain sharp with Folic Acid.

Chalk another one up for dumb criminals. It doesn't get much dumber than stealing GPS units.

When you get your taxes done, say no to the instant tax refund loan.