It looks like Netflix has curtailed their need to add old TV shows this round, but that doesn’t mean they’ve upped their standards any. I counted eleven fishing/boating instructional videos and five teen after-school specials in this round, so if you’re into teens and seamen, this update was made for you.

For the rest of us, it was the usual slew of bad movies and concert videos. Any cool points that I could’ve awarded Netflix for adding Fishbone, Iggy Pop, and Obituary videos were retracted due to the addition of a second Europe concert video. Did we ever need one? Who is asking for Europe concert videos these days? If it’s you, I’m begging you to put down the aqua net, get rid of strip out of your acid washed jeans, and stop requesting that the 80′s come back. I’m looking right at you there, Chi-town.

DOOdaLOOO doooo… Doodaloo doo doo…

To make matters worse, JC In the Hood was added. What? You never heard about the miraculous story of Jebus and the Satan fighting for control of the ‘hood? I tried to resist its power, but I couldn’t help myself. I only made it through fifteen minutes of really bad acting and accidental camera glances, but I’m telling you that there is a good reason why Zombies vs. Satan: Meat for Satan’s Icebox (check the list. It’s there.) got a higher rating with a mere 1.9 stars. I wish that the worst of it, but a Pat Morita Movie called Hammerlock was added despite having no more than a 1 star rating anywhere in the known universe. Shouldn’t any movie that is worse than JC In the Hood be stopped from wasting gigs of disk space and internet bandwidth? Are there no standards?

In the “So Bad, They’re Good” category, Netflix added New Jack City and a couple of bad kung fu movies. New Jack is so horribly 90′s that I kept expecting Bobby Brown to show up with his tenderoni, and the kung fu movies are, well, bad kung fu movies. Within a minute of the opening credits of Ninja Vs. Mafia, a guy gets attacked on the street for no reason and calmly asks his attacker, “My friend, what are you doing?” The reply? “You want to know? I’m going to kill you, BASTARD!” Then, a fight breaks out. That’s pretty much how it goes for 80 minutes. The other movie, Crash Masters Collection: 2 Great Cavaliers, is much of the same, which is only bad if you’re not a kung fu fan.

Despite the tremendous amount of bad, there was a bit of good in this round. Eight seasons of Red Dwarf were re-added, which I’m happy about because I never got through season 1 before they deleted it last time. If you like British comedy and sci-fi, the series is a good bet.

If I had to recommend only one movie for everyone from this batch, I’d tell you to check out Cashback. It had volumes of tasteful nudity for the men, sci fi for the geeks, and a love story for the ladies. I liked it so much that I watched all the features on the DVD and gave it 4/5 stars.

All of the recommendations, additions, and deletions are listed below, but if I missed something good (or included something bad), be sure to let me know in the comments.

So, the Rap Industry Standard Poll is officially closed, and the results are in.

When given the choice between “Douche Daddy”, the smooth pimp rapper, or “MC Douchy McDouche”, the rapper hardened on the mean streets of suburbia, you decided that the straight brim of MC Douchy McDouche didn’t have enough pimp juice to take the official spot. I was pulling for the Vanilla Everlast looks of version #2, and #1GF! voted for the smoother #5, but not even my four executive votes could slow the roll of Version #3, the douchiest version of them all.

The Results: (% of votes)

• Three: 35%
• Two: 21%
• Five: 19%
• One: 12%
• Six: 9%
• Four: 3%

I was going to go against your will and post whatever picture I damn well pleased, but then I figured that I could guilt you all into buying me lunch when no one will hire the king of all douches. Get your sandwich money ready, suckas, because your votes put #3 on the beard quest page as the official rap industry standard pic.

Thanks for your input (yeaheahea… that’s what she said).

Holy shit. First, the bloggers found me, then an internet radio station, then a regular radio station, then half of Sweden stopped by, and now I’ve somehow made the jump to internet television. I know. I’m as shocked as you are. I better go put on some pants…

The Life of Riley is a weekly post that details my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 406): As Impaled As I Wanna Be

I caught a mouse in the morning and had to dispose of it because that’s not a woman’s job in my house. Once I got back, we went to beach and I almost got impaled. It was a windy day, and thanks to the ninja like reflexes of a city kid, just before I got nailed by a beach umbrella flying through the air toward my chair like an out of control rainbow javelin, I moved at the last second and let it fly over my head. It was followed by a woman running full bore who eventually caught up with it before it blew into the water. I can’t remember a lot about the woman except that she ran really fast and was wearing such a small thong that 2 Live Crew would’ve blushed.

Once we got off the beach, we picked up my weed whacker from my parents and went over to the house to weed whack a little. To relax after the fifteen minutes of real work, we went to a local restaurant and then to Fascination (mentioned before in LOR Day 216). I told #1GF! that I needed to get a job because I need a major distraction from the money pit, and she told me to write a book. I just want it noted that she once again tried to keep me from getting a job.

Monday (Day 407): DVR Over Food

The DVR wouldn’t recognize any keyboard, so I worked on it until 2PM because the DVR is the only computer in the whole world that #1GF! actually likes. I ended up fixing the issue, only to have to uninstall Zone Alarm (and move to the McAfee firewall) because it suddenly refused to allow exceptions. From there, I wrote the Life of Riley until 7PM, leaving nothing available for dinner because I didn’t go food shopping. #1GF! didn’t seem to care because her DVR was working.

I’ve mentioned Brad Sucks before, and over the last few days, I’ve somehow gotten really interested in remixing stuff with free audio tools. I remixed a Brad Sucks track called “Making Me Nervous” and made a video for it just to prove to myself that I could do it with nothing but free tools. It’s not the greatest thing in the world, but hey, it’s done.

The only tools used for this were:

• Audacity
• Mixmeister BPM analyzer
• Hydrogen Advanced Drum Machine

Thanks to the free download of the “Making Me Nervous” source files, the job was mostly cutting, pasting, and arranging. The only thing that I actually had to create was the drum track, which contains a healthy dose of cowbell. The video is just a couple of minutes of video shot out of the sunroof with a cell phone, so the quality is on the low side, but you do the best you can with what you’ve got.

My “Making Me Nervous” Remix Video

If you want to hear the original version of “Making Me Nervous”, you can download it for free over at BradSucks.net. Brad encourages remixing of his stuff, and with so many free and relatively easy to use tools available, why not take a shot at a remix of your own?

Crate Escape: You’re a tiny disco workman, and you’re only job is to use the left and right arrow keys to push crates off the edge of your platform before they crush you.

You’d think that this would be the easiest game on the web, but the best that I could do was 20, and it took me quite a few tries to even get that.

If you do better, I’d like to hear your strategy in the comments because this game makes me feel like I have no skill at all.

Good Luck!

The Hydrogen Advanced Drum Machine is a really great (and really free) drum sequencer that was made for Linux and ported to Windows. It’s easy to get used to and comes pre-loaded with a couple of drum kits (including the Roland TR-808 for all you b-boys and b-girls), but you’ll eventually want to add more kits to support your beat making needs.

And that’s where the fun ends. Nearly every time I tried to add a new drum kit, Hydrogen would crash with the following error:

Microsoft visual C++ Runtime Library

Assertion Failed
Program: hydrogen.exe
File: instrument.cpp
Line 122
Expression pDrumkitInfo

This is week 58 of The Life of Riley, a weekly post detailing my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 399): The Gonorrhea Mall

I woke up with a headache that lasted all day and we went to what #1GF!’s brother refers to as the Gonorrhea Mall. I’m not sure what the mall is actually called, but it begins with G and isn’t close to enough to our house that I’ll ever need to know its real name. While waiting for #1GF! outside a store, I noticed that there were two guys near me on cell phones, and for some reason, I started getting paranoid and thinking that they were talking to each other and I was about to get mugged. Nothing happened, but it’s one of those “you can take the kid out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the kid” mindsets that I’ll probably always be stuck with.

We walked into a dollar store, and I encouraged #1GF! to buy a sudoku book because she loves those puzzles. When the book rang up at two dollars and change, I realized that even though the name of the store was “One Dollar Market”, it wasn’t really a dollar store. It was somehow a “dollar, unless noted otherwise store”, which seems like a cheat on the whole dollar store gimmick to me. If I have to ask the price, you’re not a dollar store.

As I expressed my views on the way out of the misnamed store, #1GF! asked me where the thick townie accent was coming from. I was surprised that she thought it sounded strange, because I often find myself slipping into the heavily accented way kids talked when I was growing up. “Fuck” ends up sounding like “Fahk”, and it’s nearly always drawn out and nasal sounding. We started talking about the word “half”, which she says like “calf”, and I say like “barn”. Or bahn. Oah whatevah, dood. At least we both say “Honder Accohd”, which seems to be the universal pronunciation of the common Japanese sedan in this state.

On the way home, I took a movie with my cell phone out of the sun roof. I took it straight up, which was a little weird, and then of the road, which was a little weirder. They held my interest for about ten minutes after we got home.

It’s summertime, and all the surfers and hodads are once again sharing that sandy divide between land and sea. No matter which side of the divide you’re on, there’s nothing like some reverb soaked surf-strumentals to make that grey cubicle feel more like a day at the beach.

You won’t find any Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, or beach blanket nonsense here, because if it isn’t instrumental and filtered through a reverb tank, then it really isn’t surf. I know that there are people out there who like the Beach Boys, but if you’re going to call them surf, then you might as well call Jimmy Buffet surf. And call Winger thrash. And maybe wear a tin foil crown and call yourself “Lord Behemoth Roboto”, because if you’re going to live in a giant delusion, you might as well be the undisputed ruler of all that you survey.

Whether you’re into surf or just a hodad looking for something more than the nightly weenie roast, you can unleash the tidal wave of surf instrumental goodness by clicking on the green button below. Ten points goes to anyone who can name all the surf artists listed on my fake Surf! album cover…

Enjoy!

It looks like Netflix has added over 150 movies to the Watch Instantly service in the last couple of weeks, putting the total number of titles at a little over 5100. There were 33 deletions this round, including The Disorderly Orderly (with Jerry Lewis) and the cult classic, Beyond The Valley of the Dolls, so if you were snoozin’, you were losin’.

Even though I dug out a few movies that are worth a watch, I don’t feel great about the recommendations. Most of them are classics, only one was made in this decade, and I’m fully ashamed to admit that the only reason that Career Opportunities made the list was because it included a scene with a young Jennifer Connelly riding a mechanical horse that was practically filthy.

All of the additions and deletions are listed below, but if I missed something good, be sure to let me know in the comments.

Recommended Netflix Watch Instantly New Additions (12)

When I started researching skin cancer, it was merely to provide a few interesting facts to surround an interesting skin cancer video that I had seen on Current TV. Unfortunately, the more I looked into it, the less clear cut the information from the National Cancer Institute and World Health Organization became.

Both organizations know that skin cancer comes from the sun, but they refute a lot of what I thought was common knowledge. It seems that the only way to avoid skin cancer is to stay out of the sun, but in the summertime, this can be almost impossible if you aren’t a blogging hermit (such as yours truly). Considering that skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States and accounts for a third of all cancer diagnosis worldwide, I’m amazed at how inconclusive the prevention information is.

What I Thought About Skin Cancer

• Wearing sunscreen will protect me like an anti-cancer shield.
• Skin cancer is easily treatable like chopping off a mole.
• Tanning salons will greatly increase the risk of skin cancer.

What I Found Out About Skin Cancer

• It is not known if avoiding sunburns or using sunscreen lowers the risk, but studies have suggested that unprotected exposure to UV rays from tanning beds and sunlight and can increase the risk of skin cancer.
• Vitamin D, which is naturally produced by exposure to the sun, has been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer.
• It is unknown whether the incidence of skin cancer is higher for tanning beds than exposure to natural sunlight, but women who use tanning beds more than once a month are 55% more likely to develop malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.
• According to the ADA, the amount of UV emitted from a tanning booth can be fifteen times higher than outdoor levels.
• The World Health Organization does not recommend the use of UV tanning devices for cosmetic purposes.

The Life of Riley is a weekly post that details my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 392): Blue Tape Universe

We started the day off by going over to the house because I wanted to throw away an old toilet and sink that the contractor has been forgetting to get rid of for months now. I got tired of waiting. I also threw away a roll of chain link by climbing into the dumpster and pulling it up one foot at a time. Then, thinking I was Hercules, I decided to try to throw away eight fence posts and a bunch of metal that has been in my yard for months. The fence posts were coated in concrete so they were heavy enough that I wasn’t going to be able to press them over my head to get them in the dumpster. This is where I got proud of myself: I jammed another post into each one of them and pole vaulted them into the dumpster. I was using physics like an ancient guy who had to get rid of ye olde refuse because he got tired of asking his castle craftsman about it.

#1GF! was in the house marking off all the problems with the paint because they wanted a punch list by Monday or Tuesday. By the time I was done, she had stickers nearly everywhere. The place really is a giant fucking mess. I went in to help, but I was covered in dirt from being in the dumpster, so we went home so that I could get cleaned up. I made some chicken salad out of some leftover chicken and then tried to calculate what sized radiators I’d need for different rooms because I wasn’t sure if the old radiators would be too big now that we’ve insulated. It also looked like a four foot tall radiator was going to be placed in front of a window, so I wanted to see if the one short but giant radiator could be shortened to fit. Unfortunately, the plumber won’t take it apart for fear of owning a giant mass of useless iron. I wasn’t really surprised.

Matt Harding quit his job a few years back, and wandered around Asia until the money that he had saved ran out. At a friend’s suggestion, he filmed himself showing off his unique style of dancing in various places during the trip. In 2006, his video caught the attention of Stride Gum, who sponsored a six month trip to 39 countries for another round of dancing. In 2007, Matt got Stride to sponsor a second trip around the world so that he could film other people doing his dance with him. That idea transformed his video from a neat oddity into something that you can’t help but smile at.

Matt’s latest video is four and a half minutes of people from 42 countries sharing a brief moment of silliness, which is something that we all can use to remind ourselves that there is a big, fun world out there beyond bosses, bills, and baggage. It also should serve as a reminder that if your cubicle is sucking the life out of you, you’ll never know what strange adventures are in store for you until you turn in your ID badge and leave it behind.

Matt, if the unlikely event that you ever happen upon this page, thanks for making my day a few times over. This is awesome.

(found via Boingboing)

More information on where the hell Matt is now can be found at his website, wherethehellismatt.com

The Last Canopy: If I had read that this was a game about fairies trying to get a bird back into its nest on the last tree on earth, I don’t think I would have ever given it a chance. The game does have a pink butterfly, but it has frickin’ lasers strapped to its head and is being followed around by these angry little lights who are looking to kick the mechanical ass of every robot that they can find.

The game is like Galaxian on crack, but the twist that makes it replayable is the weapon absorption. By holding down the X key, you can absorb the powers of robots who are near you. The robots get better and better weapons as the game progresses, so you end up having to decide whether to kill a robot on sight, or risk being killed in the melee while you attempt to absorb its powers.

It’s all robots, lasers, and a kick ass butterfly, and I didn’t a single baby bird, tree, or anyone in a cape the whole time I was playing.

My best score was a little over 13,000, but I’m sure you can do better. Post your high scores in the comments.

Enjoy!

When you want to include a photo retouch on your web site, displaying the before and after photos side by side makes it difficult for people to see the differences between the original and your work. A better way to showcase your fixes is to use a mouseover to display the original photo in place of the retouched version when someone hovers their mouse over it.

There are a lot of ways to do mouseovers, but I use a javascript one liner because its simple and portable between different blogging systems. I can’t really take credit for writing this code because similar ideas have been floating around the web for over a decade.

All you have to do is paste the following code into your web page, taking care to replace the one instance of original.png and two instances of retouch.png with the locations of your own photos. If you want the mouseover to link somewhere, be sure to replace the # with a valid link.

Simple Code For A Javascript Mouseover

<a href="#" onMouseOver="document.the_image.src='original.png';" onMouseOut="document.the_image.src='retouch.png';"> <img src="retouch.png" name="the_image" /></a>

The code above uses the_image as the image name, which works fine for a single image, but if you want to use show multiple mouseovers on the same page, copying and pasting the code above several times won’t work without a quick modification. Because each image needs to be named independently, you would need to change the three instances of the_image in the second copy of the code to something like the_image2. The third would have to be changed to the_image3, and so on.

Multiple Javascript Mouseovers On A Sigle Page

<a href="#" onMouseOver="document.the_image.src=original1.png';" onMouseOut="document.the_image.src='retouch1.png';"> <img src="retouch1.png" name="the_image" /></a>

<a href="#" onMouseOver="document.the_image2.src='original2.png';" onMouseOut="document.the_image2.src='retouch2.png';"> <img src="retouch2.png" name="the_image2" /></a>

Javascript Mouseover In Action

Hold your mouse over the “Geekantium” image to change it.

The Life of Riley is a weekly post that details my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 385): Flying Monkeys, Indeed

Watched Weeds: Season 3 in the morning, and then took a walk to the house at #1GF!’s suggestion. Can someone please tell me what’s up with girls and going for walks? Maybe it’s a gal thing, because I don’t know of any guy who just goes out for a walk unless they’re too fat too run or trying to stop themselves from throwing things inside their houses. Maybe I liked walking at one time, but once I turned three and discovered jumping, walking hasn’t really been a source of fun for me.

Because I had nothing to do, I ended up going on the walk with #1GF!, but as a man, I don’t believe that I’m allowed to gain any health benefits from any activity where there isn’t enough pain to justify a “BOOYAH!”. I made sure to undo any health benefits that may have accrued by making sure that we walked all the way to the grocery store so that I could buy cookies. #1GF! didn’t seem to mind because, well, like I said: girls like walks.

As we were walking on what I will now refer to as our “cookie quest”, a pre-teen walked by and yelled out “flying monkeys!”, thinking that she would freak us out with her random behavior. All she ended up doing was making me think, “Shit. I’ve finally reached the age where kids think that random, non-threatening words will freak me out. Aaaand I’m taking a walk. Maybe I should stop into the hardware store and get some tennis balls for my walker.” It was not a proud, youthful moment to say the least.

We walked home and I sat on the couch eating cookies and waiting for either Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, or a Power Chair commercial to come on so that I could feel like people my age can still lead active and fulfilling lives.

Doo Wop was a specific sub-genre of R&B that was born on the street corners of the 1950′s when city kids went beyond simple harmonies of the 1940′s and began vocalizing sounds that were traditionally created by instruments. They inadvertently created an entirely new style called Doo Wop that would become a major force in popular music for over a decade. The genre had peaked in popularity by the early 1960′s, but its influence extended into the electric style of the early Motown sound through groups like the Four Tops, Temptations, Isley Brothers, and others.

I spent a couple of days researching Doo Wop bands for this list, and even though I eliminated a lot of borderline acts with a fairly strict interpretation of what Doo Wop is, I still ended up with over 130 tracks. There should be a good balance between classics and rarities, but I didn’t grow up in the 50′s, so if you notice any glaring omissions, be sure to drop me a comment.

You won’t find Little Jon & The Teen Tones in the mix (I faked the picture from an old Atlantic 45), but you can listen to the Doo Wop playlist by scrolling all the way to the left in the player below.

Enjoy!

It looks like Netflix has added around 226 movies to the Watch Instantly service in the last couple of weeks, putting the total number of titles at a little over 5,000 on-demand movies.

Netflix must’ve made some sort of deal with Troma Studios this round because there were a ton of B-rated Troma films added to the Watch Instantly service. When you look at additions like The Toxic Avenger (1, 2, & 4, but not 3), Class of Nuke ‘Em High (2 & 3), Zombie Rednecks, Sugar Cookies, Tromeo And Juliet, Vegas In Space and other non-Troma, but B-rated films like Decampitated, G.I. Executioner, Dr. Hackinstein, and Microwave Massacre, it’s hard to see how this update wasn’t railroaded by a B-movie fanatic in the Netflix back office.

In addition to the B-movies, there were a few concert videos that were recorded in each band’s prime including G.G. Allin, Iggy & The Stooges, Dwarves, and Europe. If G. G. or Dwarves doesn’t end up making you want throw up, I’m sure that Europe performing “Carrie” and the “Final Countdown” in 1986 surely will.

The 226 additions and 11 deletions are listed below. If you see anything I might’ve forgotten to recommend (such as Advanced Krumping Techniques), be sure to drop them in the comments.

Recommended Netflix Watch Instantly New Additions (6)

I put together Better Blogroll to give WordPress users a lot more control over the way that WordPress handles and displays their blogrolls.

Version 2.8 was written in response to a user request for the inclusion of XFN data in the blogroll links. XFN stands for “XHTML Friends Network”, and it’s a way site owners can specify what type of relationship they have (such as friend, co-worker, neighbor) with the people they’re linking to. The format is built into the WordPress link manager, but I never included it in Better Blogroll because I didn’t think people used it.

If you specify XFN data in the WordPress links manager, Better Blogroll will now display it. If you don’t use XFN, your links will look the same as they did before. Because “nofollow” and XFN both use the rel tag, setting links to “nofollow” in the plugin will override XFN data.

If you’d like to know more about XFN in WordPress, check out the WordPress XFN page. For more information about Better Blogroll, head on over to my Better Blogroll Widget for WordPress Page.

Mom: You should’ve seen this cute Chinaman that I saw the other day.

Daughter: Ma, you can’t say Chinaman. No one says that anymore.

Mom: What? Well, what am I supposed to say?

Daughter: I dunno. Asian.

Mom: GEISHAN? Oh, come on now.

Daughter: Aaaaasian.

Mom: Well, what’s wrong with Chinaman?

Daughter: It’s like Negro. No one says that anymore.

Mom: Since when don’t people say Negro?

Daughter: Oh, a long time, Ma.

Mom: Well, what am I supposed to call them, then?

Daughter: Black or African American, I think.

Mom: African American? They get TWO names?

Daughter: Yes, Ma.

Mom: Two names. What Am I then?

Daughter: You’re still white, Ma.

[Indian waiter delivers food and walks off]

Mom: Is he a Geishan? Because he looks black to me.

Daughter: Oh, dear lord.

The Life of Riley is a weekly post that details my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 378): Father’s Day

#1GF! and I went to breakfast with my parents, and then a furniture store, Wal-Mart and the cemetery. It was Father’s day, and I noticed a young mom and her two young children standing over a newly dug military grave. The kids were only about two and five, so I hoped that this wasn’t the only way that their family could be together on Father’s Day.

When we got home, we were tired from running around, so I made some iced tea with three tea bags, some hot water, and some ice. It made me think that about the powdered iced tea mix that people buy. It seemed like the perfect example of how America constantly looks for ways to simplify already simple things and ends up making them more complicated. Iced tea mix takes about ten minutes to make, and we’ve demanded that it be reduced to ten seconds, no matter how many chemicals we have to ingest to get there. The only plausible reason why instant iced tea exists is so that someone can sell you something you didn’t know you needed.

Speaking of things we don’t need, I uninstalled Comodo Firewall and went back to Zone Alarm because the Comodo refused to take my exclusions and it was interfering with #1GF!’s DVR. One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t mess with a lady’s DVR. Once everything was back up and running, we ended up sitting on the couch and watching taped shows until bed.

I mentioned a couple of years ago that there was a crazy bird in the area that imitated the sound of a car alarm. Well, it seems that the bird is back because #1GF! found this gem in our small town police log:

Sunday: 12:23 a.m. caller reports a car alarm sounding and this is an ongoing problem. Officers detailed report only sounds are chirping birds. Female called again and states this is an electronic alarm that sounds like birds and requests that the officers check again. Officer advised and reports this is a bird in a tree.

Have you ever heard birds imitate car alarms in your area?

After some close trimming, beard #25 from my beard page, the Rap Industry Standard is finally complete. The only problem is that #1GF! and I have different opinions on which picture should be added to the beard page.

Even though I told #1GF! that you people are really out of your minds, she still suggested that the tie be broken by the readers. Should “Douche Daddy”, the smooth pimp rapper, or “MC Douchy McDouche”, the rapper hardened on the mean streets of suburbia be added as the official Rap Industry Standard photo?

Cast your vote, and let everyone know which choice sucks the least in the comments. Ya heard?

Which photo should be added as the official Rap Industry Standard?

• Three: 35%
• Two: 21%
• Five: 19%
• One: 12%
• Six: 9%
• Four: 3%

Total Votes: 492
Started: Tuesday, 17 June 2008
Closed: Tuesday, 22 July 2008

The Life of Riley is a weekly post that details my activities since I ended a thirteen year career as a corporate drone. These posts are usually long, personal, and geared more for my own memory than the reader’s entertainment.

Sunday (Day 371): Virtual Vs Actual Priorities

After eating breakfast and watching MadTV, I spent the entire day writing Life Of Riley Week 53 while #1GF! cleaned out her closet. I think that my priorities might be really messed up.

Monday (Day 372): Umbrellas And Boxes

#1GF! and I started the day by going over to the house and having a 90 minute talk with the contractor about all the issues that we have with the way things are going. It was 90 degrees and humid, which should’ve added to the frustration, but everything went really well. I only dropped four f bombs and didn’t use them directed at anyone. The contractor seemed to understand where we were coming from and said that he’d take steps to get things moving faster and in the right direction.

#1GF! headed off to work to save corporate America, and I drove up to the barber shop to get a help solve the world’s problems. I think we had the gas problem solved by the time my haircut was done, but no one wrote down the solution, leaving the world to continue to suffer at the pump.

Brad Sucks – I Don’t Know What I’m Doing (indie): I do my best to thank people who link to me, so while tracking down the person who posted my beard quest to In4mador, I found that the poster had a website featuring his band, “Brad Sucks”. Because there is an armada of unknown bands that use the internet as a deep water dumping ground for cheaply produced musical trash, I can tell you that I wasn’t very excited about the possibility of wading into the auditory garbage pile that day. The guy did link to me, so even though I sort of sighed like “here we go again” when I thought about pushing play, I found it impossible to pass over an artist with such a self-deprecating, smirk inducing name, without at least giving his album a courtesy listen.

After I got through once, I found that it had the same appeal the second and third time through. My hair is too short and my pants are too high for me to consider myself to be an indie fan, but the way I Don’t Know What I’m Doing floats around an indie pop core instead of cutting through the center makes this an indie album for people who aren’t into indie. Some of the album has an acoustic singer/songwriter or even pop-rock feel, while tracks like “Making me nervous” and “Overreacting” have a definitely electronic base. It’s so varied that you never feel like you’re being sucked into another indie trap that will end up at the bottom of that pile of CD’s that you’ve been meaning to sell.

Every other Thursday or so, I comb through the additions to the Netflix Watch Instantly service and throw out a few recommendations on what I think might be interesting to watch. Last quarter, I estimated that there were about 3500 movies available for instant viewing.

Netflix must be hard at work, because it looks as if there are now approximately 4800 movies available on the service, which is a whopping 30% increase in three months. I’m almost positive that there are few movies missing, but this is the closest that I could get without insider access to the Netflix database.

Enjoy!

#

‘Til the River Runs Clear
…And Justice for All
1 Giant Leap
10 Minute Solution: Carb Burner
10 Minute Solution: Fat Blasting Dance Mix
10 Minute Solution: Kickbox Bootcamp
10 Minute Solution: Rapid Results Pilates

When you use Firefox’s built in search bar, the default behavior is for the search results to be returned in your current tab. This is fine for most people, but for bloggers, it can mean that the search results overwrite something long and unsaved that the back button can’t salvage.

If you have this issue, you can eliminate it by forcing search results to open in a new tab. It’s like a built in safety mechanism for absent-minded bloggers, and it’s really easy to implement through a simple change to the Firefox configuration page.

1. Open a new tab and type about:config into your browser’s address bar as if you were trying to go to a web page. If you’ve never seen the configuration page before, this is where you can make all the custom tweaks that can make Firefox into your own personal browsing machine.
2. There are a lot of properties, so type browser.search.openintab into the filter box to filter out everything except the property that we’re going to modify.
3. Double click anywhere on the line that shows up, and the line will became bold and the value will be set to true.

That’s it. Modifications to about:config are instantaneous, so you will no longer have to worry about losing whatever you’re working on to search results. If you ever give up blogging and want search results to show up in the current tab, just find and double click the property again to set it back to false.