• @anntorrence It’s not a good idea to force things. You’d do better to play at the park or take a walk than try to force writing. #

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It seems unlikely that anyone has NOT heard about the psychological experiment in the sixties called the Milgram Experiment, but if you haven’t, here’s the Wikipedia entry:

• Milgram experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you were asked to shock another human being and could hear him screaming at each shock, would you continue to shock him? What if the shocks were increased to a dangerous level and the other person said he had a bad heart? What if you were ordered to? We like to think that we wouldn’t do it, but in the experiments, 85% believed they gave shocks strong enough to kill.

I saw the footage of this experiment in a psychology show and I’ll never forget the subject who kept shocking, even when the “learner” had stopped responding and was considered dead. But what about that 15% that refused? Here is a personal account from one of them:

• Jewish Currents: Resisting Authority: A Personal Account of the Milgram Obedience Experiments

Still, the results of the Milgram experiment demonstrates how rare and heroic is the “Courage to Refuse” (as one of their organizations is named). These are people who deserve to be honored.

It seems his distrust of authority was the one thing that saved his “learner” from suffering. What I attribute to paranoia could actually save someone’s life. It’s funny how fine the line between sanity and madness is.

Via: Mind Hacks: The man who defied Milgram’s conformity experiment

• I am going crazy right now. I wish I could control when the crazy comes. :( #
• Reconstructing iTunes playlists that were lost in the drive crash. Resyncing iPhone. Hope it works… #

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This postcard from PostSecret showed up last Sunday:

It was 2003 and it’s a 840 square foot house, but other than that, ditto…

PostSecret’s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

• Watching the blu-ray demo disk at Circuit City. Want a big TV to play MarioKart Wii. #
• @libel_vox Probably best to find a used Acer and swap out the drive. #
• @rolandksmith I had a really good dentist visit yesterday. Sending my dental karma your way. Do you feel it? #

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• I would just like to brag that I’m awake at 5:30am, in my gym clothes and ready to hit the treadmill. Birds are singing outside! #
• Run and weight training done. Eating breakfast and hopping in the shower. Dentist today. I’ve been avoiding this for too long. :( #
• In the dentist chair. #
• Out of the dentist. God, I love Dr. Tarbet. No numb tongue or lips, just perfect fillings! #
• Geek lunch noon at Mi Ranchito 9550 S & State. Who’s going? #
• @JesseStay Geek Lunch this Friday at 12:30pm at Citrus Grill. WHICH Citrus Grill? #
• Geek Lunch THIS Friday 05-09-08 12:30pm at Citrus Grill on 123rd. Details and RSVP at Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/585081/ #

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• @charlieoliver You’re missing out on the fun! Get here to the Fedora Release Party! #
• It’s so freakin’ beautiful outside that I’m going to walk to Liberty Park instead of hitting the treadmill. #

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• Getting in line for Ironman. Yippee! #
• Getting ready for CodeAway today. Some of the stuff is packed, but I need to unplug my computer and put it in its backpack. #
• @herlo We’ll tell everyone at CodeAway to come right over to the Fedora 9 release afterward! #
• God, it’s beautiful out today! #
• Just finished setting up for CodeAway. No one is here yet. :( #
• Lamont Peterson at CodeAway now! yeah! #
• CodeAway is AWESOME is time. @robertmerrill There’s plenty of room for you! #
• Utah Geeks: Come to the Fedora 9 Release Party tonight at 6pm: http://tinyurl.com/yoeqzc #

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I know the iPhone technically has a better camera than my old Treo
did, but I have yet to warm up to it. I recently got a shiny case for
my phone that makes taking self portraits easier because I can see my
reflection in the plastic on the back, but it still took me fifteen
tries to get this one half-way right.

The iPhone is the best convergent device on the market, but it still
leaves a lot to be desired. I hope they improve the camera in the 3G
model. I also hope they improve the memory, the cut/paste dilemma, and
a bunch of other stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my iPhone. I tried for so long to get my
Treo to do what it said it could do that I am grateful for the simple
act of playing music and answering phone calls. It’s so close to
perfect that I just want a couple more items to make me completely
happy.

They had a guy dressed up as Ironman at the movie theater last night. We couldn’t quite tell if he worked there or not. He seemed pretty embarrassed that I wanted to have my picture taken with him. I don’t care. His costume was awesome! He made it out of Solo cups.

The movie, by the way, was spectacular. I haven’t seen an action flick this good since the last Batman movie. EVERY actor was excellent. There wasn’t one cringe-worthy moment (I allow several per comic book movie). I want to see it again, soon… That’s how good of a movie it was.

Special kudos go out to Robert Downey, Jr. for getting his act together, surviving his addiction, and coming back better than ever. He’s truly an inspiration to me. If he can quit drugs, then maybe I’ll be able to quit overeating. Keep up the good work, man, and if they offer you the sequel, TAKE IT!

• UT Geeks: Play MarioKart Wii at CodeAway TOMORROW 12pm-5pm at Rocky Mtn Pizza: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/490648/ #

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• UT Geeks: Any Java programmers looking to work for a startup, DM me your email address. #

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The Dark Knight is my most anticipated movie of the summer… or at least it was until I saw this mashup of The Dark Knight (2008) and Batman (1989) trailers:

I think I’ll get the 1989 Batman movie and watch it the night before we go see Dark Knight for a good comparison. Can this new one really compete with THE Tim Burton? I KNOW Christian Bale kicks Michael Keaton’s hiney, but sometimes it’s all about the director. What do you think?

Via: Discopop Directory

Here is an awesome parody of Fergie’s song, Fergalicious. It’s called Mathmaticious.

Serious props go out to Drew D’Amelia, who wrote, directed, sang and edited the whole video. I haven’t laughed this hard since White and Nerdy!

Via: Littlest, Yellowest, Differentest

• My plan for today was to sleep. I’m up and working. It’s like I do the OPPOSITE of what I WANT to do! What is the matter with me? #

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Thanks for doing all that work so I don’t have to.

Suffragettes with flag by The Library of Congress from Flickr

A couple of years ago, a Japanese animated movie for Animal Crossing was released. I talked about it here.

• Pick Me! » Animal Crossing: The Animated Movie

It still hasn’t been released in the states, but here is a translated version of the movie on YouTube:

This is the whole movie and it automatically plays Part 1 through Part 7.

I’m surprised at the differences in the names. Some of them are the same, such as Apollo, Cesar and Cyrano, but Alfonso’s name changes to Halberd, Whitney’s name changes to Bianca, Rosie’s name changes to Bouquet and Margie’s name is Sally. I have to admit that the movie captures the feeling of a year’s worth of playing Animal Crossing in just an hour or so. Right down to the blue roses, allusions to the acorn festival and the grief for an animal friend that moves without telling you ahead of time.

The beauty of this movie is that, just like the game, you could make many more with other plots. Ali could meet Dr. Shrunk, Lyle, and the other town visitors that were only alluded to in the movie. It’s a shame this movie didn’t make it to the United States. I’m so grateful to taellie for uploading it to YouTube for us to enjoy!

Via: The Bell Tree

• @ThomAllen Wishing Gina the best of luck! #

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Andy Baio really outdid himself the other day. He converted an old BBC program that he had sitting around on a VHS tape and uploaded the hour-long show to Google Video for all of us to see:

He also did research on everyone who was in the video telling us where they are now:

• BBC Two’s Horizon on “The Electronic Frontier” in 1993 - Waxy.org

In 1993, I had just graduated from college and was working at a biomedical testing lab. I used a Mac to work every day. By 1994, we went to our first Comdex, so seeing this video is like a walk through memory lane for me.

More importantly, I’m surprised at how spot on the predictions of some of the people interviewed were. When Denise Caruso is talking about the two-edged sword of the “Information Wants To Be Free” debate, I was sincerely awed by how forward-looking she was. We are still in a conundrum concerning copyright laws and online privacy. She predicted it fifteen years earlier.

There is an interview with Howard Rheingold where he mentions the loneliness he encounters writing in his room every day and how he combats it with a UseNet addiction. Today, building community online AND offline is still a major focus. He was social networking before social networking was cool.

Thanks for posting this video, Andy! You can’t imagine how much I enjoyed watching this!

• @herlo Geek dinner was AWESOME this time. Missed you. #
• Check out this awesome video from 1993: http://tinyurl.com/5hv48f #
• Praying Mantid Babies: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilwheaton/2436912921/ #

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I noticed that someone had linked to one of my photos online. She was asking for help:

• HAIRR! helpp? - Yahoo! Answers

HAIRR! helpp?

ok how do u get hair like this: Image - TinyPic - Share the Experience!™
& this:
Image - TinyPic - Share the Experience!™
& this!
Image - TinyPic - Share the Experience!™
to look like this: Pick Me! » Self Portrait Tuesday: Straight Hair
or this:
110907-beautiful-hair.gif (GIF Image, 447×332 pixels)

Here is my answer:

Since you used one of my pictures as an example (Straight Hair), I thought I would answer it. Thanks for using my picture, by the way. My hair usually looks like this (Curly Hair), so getting it straight is a 45 minute chore.

I wash my hair with the cheapest shampoo I can buy (Suave or Kirkland brand from Costco). I use a similarly chosen conditioner either the free stuff that came with the shampoo or something from Aussie Naturals.

I blow dry my hair holding my head upside down with no product. I continually brush while blowing it dry. When I’m finished blowing my hair dry, it looks just like your before photos: frizzy and BIG.

After the hair dryer, I put about a grape-sized amount of Bio-Silk on my hair (I have long hair, so use less for shorter hair). Then I partition my hair and use a hair straightener on each and every strand.

The reason my hair looks so healthy and shiny (despite the grueling hair blower and straightener) is because I only straighten my hair once or twice a year. The rest of the year, I just put some Three-Minute Miracle and hairspray on my wet hair and let it air dry.

It took me ten years to learn how to straighten my curly, frizzy hair. Now that I know the secret, I rarely bother with it. The moment I decided that I wasn’t going to bother with my hair anymore, my life became simpler and happier, but I distinctly remember all those years wishing I could have sleek and shiny hair. When I finally got it, however, I found out I was the same person I always was.

Now, I only go straight for special occasions. Maybe I’ll straighten my hair today just for the fun of it. Nah… I have better things to do with that 45 minutes.

This video for Likke Li is the best creepy music video since Charlotte Sometimes by the Cure:

Just in case you missed it back in 1981:

Via: Discopop Directory - They Have Filmed My Nightmares

• Saw the Egyptian exhibit at The Museum of Idaho. On loan from Boston. Pretty good. #
• @muscleboundgeek The Museum of Idaho is in Idaho Falls. It was on the way home from Yellowstone. #
• Early bed tonight. Twitter off. #
• @libel_vox Did you put the b4b on Upcoming? #
• @rolandksmith Sorry we’ll miss you tonight at the Geek Dinner. :( #
• Utah Blogger/Geek Dinner TONIGHT 6pm at Thai Delight http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/471787/ #
• Man! The snow followed me home from Yellowstone!!! #

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I received this email the other day:

While researching the “Rock Concert Movements” for a video of mine, I found your post. (Nice list, by the way…!)

You might or might not enjoy this, but I created my own video for “Time to Start” using the popular online game CITY OF HEROES. You can find it on my website at Samuraiko Productions (it’s the video called “Time to Start”). Alternately, you can find it on my YouTube profile.

Cheers,
Michelle Travis
aka
Samuraiko

You can see Michelle’s video here:

I was wondering how she was going to do Rock Concert Movement #4. You’ll have to see for yourself!

• Last night in West Yellowstone. Blazzin Saddle Pizza and a quiet night in the snow laden hotel. #
• I forgot how perfectly soothing Carmex can be. Enjoy the menthal goodness! #
• Heading back to SLC today. Hope we beat the storm. #
• Out of the snow. Gassing up in Rexburg and heading to the Idaho Falls Museum. #

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• Awake to clear skies. Maybe we’ll be able to go into Yellowstone today. I feel the need to document the huge drifts of snow. #
• @justsomeguy Loved your photos from Florence. This is my fav: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jalderman/2426525427/ #
• It’s Tuesday morning. Are all my Twitter friends asleep? Busy at work? At the Web 2.0 Expo? Hello? #
• @ThomAllen It was 17 degress yesterday. Today it’s sunnier. It might break 30 degrees! #
• @anntorrence We saw 3 bison babies. Let me see if any of the photos turned out. #
• @tomjohnson1492 Yes, YELLING will make the child stop crying. I never understood that logic. #
• @anntorrence Baby buffalo in the snow. We saw a total of four! http://tinyurl.com/6lzjez #
• @WhatAboutMom Central Book Exchange on 1100 E & 2100 S #

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• Still snowing in West Yellowstone. We braved the icy roads and snow to see the park yesterday, but today, we’ll probably just stay in town. #
• @NewspaperGrl I think that plugin might be a little depressing. "I make HOW much an hour?!" #
• Snow let up a little. Wandering West Yellowstone. It’s so quiet here. #
• Whether we like it or not EVERYTHING we do reflects on our personal "brand." #
• @rolandksmith Wait a month. Snow still piled six feet deep. #
• Congrats to @NakedJen for making front page of New York Times! #
• Back to the hotel. Snow is flying sideways, so we are hiding from it. Why didn’t we go to Hawaii? #

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• Hangin’ in the hotel room. Expecting snow tomorrow in West Yellowstone. Good thing I like the room. #

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Note to Self: Embed Bobka’s eggs in resin.

• Ric-Rac: Extreme crafting - resin jewellery

Then they’ll last forever and won’t smell like rotten eggs.

I’ll have to practice on non-Bobka eggs first so I don’t screw hers up.

Via: Craftzine.com blog: Adventures in Casting Resin

• April Geek Lunch TODAY 1pm at RODIZIO GRILL in SLC http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/470822/ #
• I haven’t been followed on Twitter by a REAL person in months. It’s all spammers that are following thousands. #
• Heading to the Geek Lunch at Rodizio! #

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It’s rare when I REALLY laugh out loud and not just chuckle to myself and say that I LOL. This video was one of those REAL LOLs!

My favorite part was the corporeal cuddling for punishment (it works) and cat yodeling!

Via: Cute Overload! :) An Engineer’s Guide to Kittehs [eye roll]

• April Geek Lunch TOMORROW 04-18-08 1pm at Tucanos in SLC http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/470822/ #

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Lola Jo Lipe by Laura Moncur from Flickr

This is a photo of my grandmother as a young girl during the tail end of the Great Depression. If she could live through that, then so could I, but articles like this make me paranoid:

• Economic Survivalism: 12 Ways To Prepare For The Next Great Depression

Here are some great ideas to survive a economic downturn:

• Avoid debt at all costs.
• Get out of your mortgage before the housing market collapses any further.
• Buy some cheap land in a rural area.
• Go off the grid. Get your own power generator or some wind turbines.
• Cultivate some skills that will always be in demand.
• Offshore yourself.
• Invest in the ultimate counter-cyclicals.
• Invest in some Euros, or some other currency that’s not the dollar.
• Have some liquid funds on hand.
• Plant a garden or take part in a community garden in your neighborhood.
• Learn to hunt.
• Stockpile medications.

I was raised by 1970’s Jehovah Witnesses. Armageddon was always around the corner back then. Now, I don’t fear God’s wrath. We humans can make each other far more miserable. I guess I better find some land in the middle of nowhere and a wind turbine…

I am speaking at Valley High School today. Their teacher asked me to answer this question:

As the time grows near for me to leave home, what is the most important message or belief that you hope I will take with me and remember throughout my entire life?

The biggest thing that bugs me about motivational speeches is the idea, “Believe in yourself.”

I think that’s a load of baloney.

Every stupid movie you see nowadays keeps repeating the mantra, “Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself,” over and over, but I’m here to tell you that it’s wrong and it will steer you wrong more often that not.

I had a teacher when I was in ninth grade who taught us to “Question Everything.” That is a much more livable philosophy in my mind. Question everything, including yourself, and keep questioning until you get the answer that works.

My husband and I run the oldest quotations site on the Internet. We have over one million unique visitors to our site every month. If you type the word “quote” into Google, we’re number one. We started the site in 1994 when the Internet was young. We’re actually OLDER than Google. We have an email from Jerry Yang himself saying that he was adding our site to his web directory called Yahoo!

Did we get where we are by “believing in ourselves?” Nope.

We started the Quotations Page because quotes were something that we liked. By the time 1998 rolled around, we were paying a TON of money for bandwidth to keep the site running. At that point, we had a choice: figure out how to make the site profitable or shut it down.

Neither one of us thought that we could ever make the Quotations Page profitable. We just kept asking the question, “How can we keep the site running without going broke?” The answers came from all over. We joined a few of the ad networks, dealt with the angry visitors who didn’t think we should have advertising and kept it up and running.

Since both of us suffer from low self-esteem, we never in our wildest dreams believed that the Quotations Page would eventually make us enough money to live on. We never thought that it would be our one saving grace during the Dot Bomb. We never had that stubborn “believe in yourself” attitude that all the heroes in the movies had. The only thing that saved us is that we were willing to question everything and keep questioning until it worked for us.

I’ve seen too many people butt their heads against a wall because they “believe in themselves” instead of asking the right questions to become successful. You don’t need confidence. You don’t need high self-esteem. You don’t need to believe in yourself. All you need to do is question EVERYTHING, and keep questioning until you get an answer that works.

Note to self: Make a business card cube like this one:

• Ned Batchelder: How to make business card cubes

Via: 12 Unique Business Card Advertising Displays

The Joy of Tech comic: Blogging Warnings

I got this warning sticker from the Joy of Tech this morning. Sometimes I need to remember this advice.

Is it wrong for me to feel like this postcard from PostSecret is a personal birthday message for me?

I like to imagine that all those great people out there who influenced me over the years are thinking that I turned out alright and they had something to do with it. It’s true, you know…

PostSecret’s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

I woke up and turned on my Nintendo DS to play a little Animal Crossing before Mike woke up. My friends greeted me with a birthday cake!

My mailbox was filled with letters and presents from my friends and my “mom.”

I love this one! I’m “almost an adult.” I guess I won’t graduate to full-blown adult until I STOP playing Animal Crossing!

It’s turning out to be a most excellent birthday. Who says that having imaginary friends is a bad thing?

Discarded Honor by Laura Moncur from Flickr

I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a valedictorian medal at Thrift Town. Jessica L. Eriksson graduated valedictorian from Viewmont High School in 2005 and just gave her medal away to a thrift shop. It made my heart ache to see it there.

When I think of how hard I worked to get as far as I did, it makes me sick to see it. Our school was so competitive that a 3.96 GPA wasn’t good enough. Neither was a 4.0. You had to take all the AP courses that were weighted and still we had two people with a GPA over 4.1. Suzanne Clark and Aracelli Rojas were our valedictorians at Kearns High in 1987. I wonder if they got a nice medal this shiny and clean with their names engraved on the back?

Two bucks. That’s what it cost me to buy a valedictorian medal. Is it just easier now? Did Jessica not care about it? Did it somehow get lost with the old clothes and end up at Thrift Town on accident? If it had been me, there would have been no mistakes. That thing would have been framed and mounted on the wall. There would have been no way for me to lose that accolade.

Jessica, I see you won fourth place in the State Finals for the FBLA in Accounting in 2005:

• FBLA STATE CONFERENCE WINNERS 2005: Who’s Who in FBLA

I also noticed you ran the 5K in 27 minutes and 38 seconds in October of 2004.

• 5A JV Girls 5K Results

You finished in 64th place. Is that good? Is that bad? You beat my best 5K time by three minutes. Three minutes and 0.3 GPA points. That’s the difference between a winner and a loser in these little races of human competition, but how fast do I need to run in the race of life?

Jessica, if you want your valedictorian medal back, you can’t have it. I’m pretending it’s mine now.

• WordCamp First Draft Meetup TONIGHT 6:30pm at Draper Applebees http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/468661/ #

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