Several months ago, my buddy Ryan told me about an online service called Remember The Milk.

“Nice name,” I said, “and by nice, I mean retarded. What am I going to do with an online list-making reminder service?”

So I ignored it. Until today. See, a month or two ago, I realized that my productivity had dwindled to approximately zero and that, if I wanted to keep my sanity (and my job) I was going to have to change something. And I started making lists. Every night before I went to bed, I’d make a list of all the junk I needed to get done the next day. And it turns out that it works pretty well for me.

Fast forward to today. I got into work and had a little bit of time to kill before the rush of the day hit me. And suddenly I remembered Remember The Milk.

Less than one hour later, I had put my entire to-do list into RTM, organized it by work and personal to-dos, tagged everything, and integrated it into GMail, iCal, and email. And then I actually used it. So anyways, Ryan, this post is for you. You were right, ok?

And for the rest of you, if you don’t hear anything further, it’s because I’m happily Remembering The Milk.

I read a lot of stuff online, and most of it is pretty good, but not incredible. But every now and then I come across a blogger who is so eloquent, so engaging, so entertaining, that I have to keep reading. I can’t hit the “next” link fast enough, it seems. The last blogger I ran into that engaged me that fully was Dooce. Until today.

I Stumbled upon WaiterRant.net, and after reading this post, I was hooked. By way of warning, the language (and occasionally the content) isn’t always family-friendly, but the writing is lively, the posts are often wryly humorous, and occasionally the waiter-writer drops a gem of a post that gives you some serious food for thought. Personality blogging at its best. So bon apetit.

Tags: waiterrant, blog, amazing

For the past few years, I’ve been doing all my personal computing on an old Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300. It was a pretty bad machine (as in good bad) in its day, the only problem was that its day was about 5 years ago. Needless to say, my little Toshiba was really outdated and underpowered for today’s applications, particularly as I have begun to experiment with web design (expect a redesign of TI soon!). My frustration finally came to a head and I decided to buy a new laptop that was a little more powerful. On the recommendation of several people, I bought a 2 GHz MacBook Pro, and needless to say, I’m pretty pleased.
My initial impressions upon pulling it out of the box: sexy. The slim, silver anodized aluminum case looks really sharp, hinting at the power that lies within its sleek trappings. It’s really slim, and weighs about 5 lbs. I love this because up to this point, I’ve been lugging around a 13″ laptop that’s three times as thick and weighs about the same, if not more.
Next impression? The screen is stunning. Ultra-high-res goodness. And the graphics are smoothly rendered and sharply detailed. I had to wipe drool off of my lip as the startup screen loaded.
Now, those who know me know that up to this point, I’ve been a PC man. I come from a long and storied line of PC men. My uncles and father and grandfather are PC men. In fact, I am probably the first person in both my immediate and extended family to own a Mac. This kind of ingrained training doesn’t die easily. And I will admit that once I started using OSX, I was a little disoriented. Gone was my familiar ‘Start’ bar. Gone was ‘My Computer.’ gone was my right mouse button! However, after using the OS for the past couple of days, I have to admit that the interface has been really intuitive and extremely user friendly. I still haven’t figured out how to fully leverage the power of OSX, but I’m sure I’ll get there.
Other things I like: the Front Row media interface is really awesome. It’s visually attractive and simple to use with the included infrared remote. It’s perfect for using the MacBook as a media player, which is convenient because…
The MacBook Pro comes with TV-compatible DVI out. So I can plug my laptop into my high-def bigscreen and enjoy HD goodness until my brain melts. You better believe that I plan on trying that out.
Everything is just so snappy. I guess this if born of using a craptastic laptop for a while, but I still appreciate how quickly this computer runs.
So, all in all, I’m fairly pleased with my purchase. I think I’ll like it even more once I get some of my favorite software up and running on it so I can start to use it for what it was intended. Hopefully it will pay for itself.

So tonight I attended the “Radio From Heck Friends of the Program Utah County Outreach Ice Cream Social” (RFHFOPUCOICS) or something like that. Basically, it was all you can eat ice cream courtesy of Meadow Gold Dairy. Let me first say that Meadow Gold is no slouch at making ice cream. And, by direct association, at making me sick as well. As a hint to my loyal readers, Taco Smell and ice cream are NOT a good combo. Take my word for it. In addition, at said social, I met Miss Utah, won some free tickets to the Dinosaur Museum and Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, and chilled with the kids from the Radio From Hell morning show. All told, not a bad evening. In conclusion, x96 mixers: two thumbs up.

Short note about my encounter with Miss Utah: So she offered her autograph to us, as we were sitting at her table, which I thought was quite sporting of her. Yet, somehow, even though she could come up with something for the rest of my friends there, when she got to me she drew a blank. (Should I be concerned? Or flattered?) Anyway, I digress. Her friends told her to write something yearbook style, and she confided that she had never signed yearbooks. (What!?! How do you get to be Miss Utah without signing a few yearbooks on your way up?) Anyway, I told her to write “Have a great summer! Call me!” Much to my surprise, I am now the proud owner of a photo of Miss Utah, autographed with “Have a great summer! Call me!” Sweet. Yet, somehow, she forgot to write her number down on the picture. Hmmm…

So I picked up the Incredibles Soundtrack this evening. First of all, it’s not quite as good as I thought it would be. Fortunately there are a couple of songs that make the album worth the money (Off To Work and Life’s Incredible Again, most notably). But that’s beside the point. Over the past few months I have become increasingly more concerned about the music industry’s apparent lack of concern for their customers. First there was the Sony/BMG rootkit debacle, where Sony/BMG put malicious hidden software on a Van Zant (who?) CD, along with 19 other CDs. Add in the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)’s dogged determination to threaten and sue anyone who might be infringing on their intellectual property (including those who really aren’t, like LyricFind.com. Turns out that the RIAA was forced to back off and issue a formal apology, but not before the site was shut down.) and you have what seems to me to be a rather anti-consumer attitude.

This brings me to my point. Today I realized that none of this should have been a surprise. Anybody who has ever purchased a CD will be able to relate. Now, I have a feeling that the guys who design retail CD packaging are the designers of the Great Wall of China reencarnate. Is there any retailing packaging that is more difficult to get off of the product? First you have that outer cellophane wrap, which seems to be impervious to any method employed to tear, slit, or unfold it from the CD case. Then, if/when you get that off, you;re confronted with the additional challenge of pulling that little adhesive strip off of the top of the case. Here, I think the designers got a new idea. Unlike the outer packaging, the adhesive strip disintegrates with very little effort. Meaning that you end up pulling off a million little pieces of sticker instead of being able to pull it off in one piece. Very clever. You would think that a multibillion dollar industry would be able to figure out a slightly more consumer-friendly approach. For example, how about some of those little red pully tabs like they put on chewing gum packs? I mean, are you going to let Wrigley’s beat you out like that? Perhaps the motivation is to create such a sense of desperation in the attempt to unwrap the CD that when/if you finally get it open, you appreciate the music that much more. Who can say for sure? What I can say is this: that next time I want to buy an album, I’m looking on iTunes first.

Check out “The Hire” at BMWFilms.com. Now, whevever anybody mentions “made for internet movies,” I’m automatically skeptical. In my experience, made for internet films are poorly directed, underfunded, lacking in acting talent, and dramatically inferior. Thererfore, when my roommate told me about this website, explaining that it was a series of short films in which the main character drives a BMW, I was less than enthusiastic. I had images of goofy-looking guys joyriding in a used Beemer and trying to pass it off as cinema running through my head. However, I relented and watched one of these shorts on my roommate’s computer. A couple of hours later, I had downloaded all eight available short films and a couple of additional features. They were that good.

First, the executive producer knows a few of the right people within Hollywood. These shorts are directed by some of the top people in the business, such as Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels), and John Woo (Broken Arrow, Windtalkers). In addition, these films have considerable star power, with appearances by Madonna, Don Cheadle, and James Brown, among others. And then there are the cars. Each film features “The Hire,” played by Clive Owen, driving a brand-spanking-new BMW, which inevitably gets shot up, jumped, crunched, and driven to its limits. What more could you ask for?

In summary, if you like cinematics, you’ll love these films for their artistry and storytelling. If you like BMW’s, you’ll love these films for their portrayal of the attributes that make Beemers great. And if you just like entertainment, sit back and enjoy the show. It’ll be a sweet ride. BMW sweet.

311 with special guests Unwritten Law and Papa Roach were in town last night, and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend, courtesy of my friend Kat. Unwritten Law opened the concert with some songs from their new album Here’s to the Mourning along with a smattering of tracks from their previous albums. Although it was fun to hear some of my favorite Unwritten Law songs (”Seeing Red”, “Save Me”) the band was actually pretty disappointing. I got the feeling that they wanted to be off the stage as quickly as the concertgoers wanted them off. It didn’t help that the setting sun was shining straight into their eyes while they played. In any case, I was sorry that they didn’t play better. They were followed by Papa Roach, and although I don’t generally care for his music, he put on a great show. He had a lot of energy, and the previously lethargic crowd started to get excited. Ultimately, however, the crowd was there to see 311, which became obvious as soon as the band hit the stage. It was such a change that I wondered where all the people had suddenly come from. They played to an electrified crowd, and by the end of it all, we were nearly breathless. It was easy to see why the fans had come for 311 and 311 alone: There was a creativity and an energy to their music that was lacking in the other bands, to say nothing for the impressive showmanship they exhibited. They played several songs from their new upcoming album Don’t Tread on Me due out on the 16th of this month, including at least one world premier performance. They also put in a nice mix of previous hits, like “Down”, “Amber”, “Beautiful Disaster”, and “Come Original.” In the end, it was 311’s show, and to quote Kat, “If you weren’t a fan before, you will be now.”

Visit 311’s website to hear tracks of the new album here.