Archive for February, 2009
The Amazing Clock Batteries
Feb 26th
I was Bar Mitzvahed on December 3, 1988. That day, I received a slew of gifts, as any young Jewish man becoming a Bar Mitzvah does. One of the gifts I received was a Seiko “World Clock” from the Webber family. I remember using it almost immediately, so either December 4 or December 5 of 1988 is when I gave the clock its first breath of life.
The clock came with generic batteries. They were a brand called “National Hi-Top.” I can’t say I’d ever heard of them — before or since — however, I used them anyway. This clock became my “main” clock right away. I used it beginning at age 13 for school. Its distinctive alarm chime – “Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep! New York: six forty-eight, AM!” would repeat ad nauseum until I dragged myself out of bed to turn it off.
Nonetheless, the World Clock worked for me through the remainder of junior high, all of high school, and all of college without flinching. Sometime around the end of college I started to realize that the batteries in the clock had lasted a pretty long time. In fact, the were about to mark a decade of action despite being in use 24 hours a day for 10 straight years and housing an alarm deployed over 200 days a year.
December 4, 1998, I called my parents to let them know that the National Hi-Tops were still kicking.
I noted sometime in December of 2003 that the clock was still plugging away, marking 15 years of action. Pretty impressive for a clock, but much more impressive for generic batteries. If you go to your local CVS, Walgreens, or where ever you buy your batteries, you’ll note that batteries generally have an “expiration date” about 10 years hence. This is because, in time, the liquid inside a battery can dry. The lifespan of a shelved battery is about a decade.
So imagine my surprise come December 2008, when my little clock celebrated its twentieth year of service. I’m not entirely sure that this is common today in either batteries or electronics, to have a solid build like this. My clock has journeyed from the confines of Simsbury, CT, to Harrisonburg, VA and back many times. It moved with me through Virginia from Vienna to Fairfax to Arlington to Fairlington, then to Florida from to Orlando, Deltona, and Altamonte… twice. This clock has actually been with me, on the same batteries, for more of my life than it hasn’t. Pretty crazy.
Sometime in the last year or two, I moved on to a different clock for day to day use largely because there is no snooze button on the world clock. However, it still sits here in our house running. When I played with it last week, upon tapping the time zone keys, I noticed the electric, but very British lady’s voice began to warble a little. The ol’ girl has since gotten back on track, but it was the first sign she has ever shown of aging.
I love my world clock, but mostly I love that she just keeps hanging in there. It’s gone from a hope that the clock survives to a simple interest in seeing how long the batteries will live. It’s impossible to predict how long AA batteries should last, as that fact is governed entirely by the device they are powering and much much power it draws. However, I think it’s safe to conclude that these are fairly extraordinary.
Check This Out: Sense Field’s Building
Feb 22nd
The word “Emo” has been overused for many years now, and , in fact, in many circles, has become a pejorative term for a goth-lite teenager with eyeliner, or some equally unattractive image. Long ago, in the mid 1990s, it emerged as shorthand for “emotional hardcore.” When the term “emo” was first coined, this type music was much less mainstream, the bands were not universally accepted or treated as commercially viable yet, and the listeners were a small, more tight-knit group. The bands were generally referred to as “pop punk” or “punk hardcore,” delivering a slight edge over standard punk, and in most cases, a dose of melody through the distortion.
From this scene, many bands grew, most notably in my mind: Gorilla Biscuits, Fugazi, Quicksand, Sunny Day Real Estate, and many others. Also a defining moment in emo history was the release of the commercial flop “Pinkerton,” Weezer’s 1995 masterpiece, which is now often considered the band’s best release. Although once very popular in this scene, one band that is largely forgotten is “Sense Field.” From California, former members of Reason to Believe got together and created several demos before releasing the eponymous Sense Field. 1994 welcomed the beautiful Killed for Less, which is a great album: fantastic music, but in contrast, still maturing lyrically. Then, shortly thereafter, Sense Field delivered Building. Building is an amazing album, full of energy, fun, kicking beat, and melody. The unique voice of lead singer Jon Bunch (who later fronted Further Seems Forever) is especially well suited for this type of music, which captures the 90s Gen-X angst that had yet to become whiny and obnoxious Gen-Y posing.
The first track of Building, called Overstand, is a short but sweet song that will hook you. If you like this style of music, you’ll be ready to delve in further right away. Side 1 will just keep kicking your butt. This generally continues through Different Times, Will, and Leia, and lasts all the way through the final track, Sight Unseen, which is also in the run for my favorite. In fact, there’s only one song on this CD that I’m not crazy about, but lest I spoil you, I’ll keep it a mystery. The fact remains that Sense Field delivered and then some with Building.
Sense Field went on to record three more albums including an EP, however, the final two albums never really had the magic spark, which singer Jon Bunch attributed to several factors, including the label pressures and bad financial decisions, but moreso to the fact that the scene had changed and the guys had just lost their passion for that band at that time. I was able to see Sense Field on the east coast twice on two different tours, and the final time, I was able not only to meet them all, but also chat with them. It was sad that so few people appeared to know their songs and their history. Unfortunately, Sense Field is likely to be most remembered for their one radio hit, “Save Yourself,” about abstinence, which may have ironically led to their downfall. Not only did the song get them labeled a “Christian band” (“not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we’re not a Christian band,” says Bunch) , but it also gave people a taste of Sense Field that really wasn’t who they were, leading people to check them out and then potentially be disappointed.
Nothing will change the fact that Building was and remains and incredible album, strangely as strong today as it was then. Check out Sense Field’s Building on Amazon.com.
A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
Feb 20th
Suddenly, I find myself kind of addicted to Twitter. Unlike a website, RSS, or even Facebook, it really caters to the ADD side of me in an amazing way. However, Twitter can be a little confusing at first, so this is a very basic primer for the uninitiated. Read on for much more.
Posting Your Latest Tweet in Wordpress
Feb 19th
Although I posted yesterday how to add your latest tweet to Wordpress without a plugin, I made several changes to the script before I posted it to make it more “generic” and re-usable. Since I’ve changed it quite a bit, I decided to repost it. This new script also autolinks @usernames and #hash tags.
Directions are this easy: set the path of $tw_File with a static, writable file. Set $tw_userid to your Twitter user id. Done.
How to Add Latest Tweet to Wordpress (Without a Plugin)
Feb 18th
I decided to add my latest “tweet” from Twitter to the sidebar of my Wordpress blog. Rather than use yet another plugin that adds yet another hook – and there are many that do this with lots of code, I decided to use a homegrown solution, dependant only on PHP4+ and cURL (most webhosts already have cURL compiled in, if not, you should request it). Adding the following to any of the files in your Wordpress theme will print out your current Twitter status and cache the results so you don’t hammer their system.
First, snag your Twitter user id. Then, open up your theme file. I put mine in sidebar.php found in /wp-content/themes/<THEMENAME>/. Use the below code. If you want the output wrapped in a list, you would need to put <ul> and <li> tags around this code.
Carefully set your variables. The cache file should be writable. Note that you can use a decimal value for $tw_BlankAfter and $tw_Minutes if necessary. That’s it.
Due to what must be a bug in Wordpress, please ignore the closing “</text></created_at>” at the end of this post. It’s trying be smart and “fix” broken tags, but the code is right.
NOTE (2/20/09): I have updated the below code. The new version can be found at “Posting Your Latest Tweet in Wordpress“.
/* ~~~~ Custom Twitter Bit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ */ /* ~~~~ Adam S, firsttube.com, twitter @sethadam1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ */ $tw_File = '/path/to/a/static/writable/file/twitter.html'; $tw_Userid='XXXXXXX'; //set to your Twitter user id $tw_BlankAfter = 30; //blank out status if it's older than this many days $tw_Minutes = 10; //minutes between reloads $tw_Offset = FALSE; //leave as is // uncomment below time if you want to allow a manual reset via ?twitter-reset // if($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']=='twitter-reset') { $tw_Offset=0; } /* Do not edit below this line */ if(filemtime($tw_File)>time()-floatval($tw_Offset)) { include $tw_File; } else { if(is_writable($tw_File)) { $tw_iswritable=1; } $tw_time = (86400*floatval($tw_BlankAfter)); if($tw_Offset) { $tw_time=$tw_Offset; } $tw_hyperlinks = true; $tw_c = curl_init(); curl_setopt($tw_c, CURLOPT_URL, "http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/" .intval($tw_Userid).".xml"); curl_setopt($tw_c, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); $tw_src = curl_exec($tw_c); curl_close($tw_c); preg_match('/(.*)< \/created_at>/', $tw_src, $tw_d); if(strtotime($tw_d[1]) > time()-$tw_time) { preg_match('/(.*)< \/text>/', $tw_src, $tw_m); $tw_status = htmlentities(str_replace("&","&",$tw_m[1])); if( $tw_hyperlinks ) { $tw_status = ereg_replace( "[[:alpha:]]+://[^<>[:space:]]+[[:alnum:]/]", "<a href="\">\\0</a>", $tw_status); } $tw_output = $tw_status; } else { if($tw_iswritable==1) {file_put_contents($tw_File,''); } } if($tw_iswritable==1) { file_put_contents($tw_File,$tw_output); } echo $tw_output; } /* ~~~ /Custom Twitter Bit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ */
Please note that portions of this code come from the twtter_status() function that was not written by me, but is available from various sources online.
Update: Removed function and put code inline.
Re-Twittering
Feb 17th
I’ve decided to give Twitter a go again. It seems to move pretty quickly and satiate my ADD by filling in the gaps in my Facebook live feed. If you and I know each other, give me a shout @sethadam1.
Shows That Should Be Canceled
Feb 13th
I watch a few TV shows that are in desperate need of a kick in the ass. Let’s review:
Heroes has, for some time now, sucked. Long ago, the writers decided to give up on character consistency, and they decided that they would have the characters stop on a dime and act completely contrary to their previous actions. Case in point: Nathan, who quickly turned on his fellow mutants and now wants Peter dead, apparently. I can’t even get into Heroes other than to say it’s such a mess it really should be canceled altogether.
Kyle XY is a show I started watching when I was a sick a few years ago, and I kept on for the mystery. The problem is: the writers revealed too much too soon, and when the basic mysteries were solved, the second season introduced a worthless character, Jesse XX, as a plot device. Then the plot become bigger as they introduced “Adam Baylin”, and explained a backstory to Zzyzx. When that concluded, we learned that Madacorp was behind it all. When that was done, we learned that it was actually “Latnok” was behind it all. In other words, the lazy writers just keep making up more complex backstory as they go. I hate to be a broken record, but compare this to LOST, where a clear vision in the first place prevented sloppy cut-and-go storytelling that leaves everyone confused. The good news is, this show was canceled, so hopefully they can conclude it nicely and wrap everything up cleanly.
Grey’s Anatomy, an interesting show in season 1, has gotten worse with age. Each season has been less intriguing and more annoying. Every single character sounds like Shonda Rhymes now, they all have the same affectational pitter-patter sing-song intonation. I hate Izzie, who was once interesting. I hate George, who has become an extra. I hate Bailey, who vascillates between a professional and over-attached. I hate Meredith, who is whiny. I hate Cristina, who is a cold bitch. I hate Callie, who whines and made the fastest jump to Lesbianism ever. I hate the Chief, who is a total pushover. Actually, I like little Grey, Shephard, and Sloan, and I’m learning to like Dr Arizona, but mostly because she’s kinda hot. Either way, this show jumped the shark long ago, and I wish they’d put it to sleep.
Prison Break has introduced more plot twists than any show ever in history, but once you get used to it, it’s kinda fun. However, it’s carried on for 4 seasons now, far longer than the concept of a “prison break” should have permitted. I am glad they pulled the plug on this, not because it’s not fun, but because some premises simply can’t sustain forever.
On a lighter note, I originally had called “Fringe” a disappointment, but I must say, I’m feeling good about it lately. It’s interesting, the characters are getting to be consistent and interesting, and the overall storyline is shaping up like the X Files: small mystery solved each week, large mystery gets more complex. I hope this show gets even more time to bloom.
Old Stickers
Feb 17th
Posted by Adam S in Thoughts
Comments
Why do people still have their McCain/Palin stickers on their cars? Is it to protest Obama? Is it to assure us that they are proud republicans? Is it in protest to this administration, which has barely had 30 days in power? I don’t get it. All it reminds us of, in my humble opinion, is that you supported the loser that most people didn’t want in power. In other words, most people think you’re wrong.
Incidentally, I would be saying the same thing if things went the other way.