Wow, what an ingenious way to repurpose a toy into something amazingly musical. As a guitarist myself, this is pretty interesting

Holy cow. Stanley Kubrick. I just got finished reading an incredibly interesting article about a man in England who was tasked the the gargantuan task of going through Stanley Kubrick’s collection of … information he collected through his career. (I am sorry for the wonky sentence, but the amount of stuff that Kubrick collected defies explanation, heck even sentence structure.)

I am sure most of you know who Stanley Kubrick is, but for those of you still in the dark, he is the director who brought us 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, The Shining (not the made for TV version, the first one with Jack Nicholson), A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, and a bunch of other strange, dark, yet masterful works.

The thing that really caught my attention was his love affair with typefaces, in fact one typeface in particular…Futura. Apparently, he used it for the titling in a number of his movies.

I take a break from the boxes to wander over to Tony’s office. As I walk in, I notice something pinned to his letterbox. “POSTMAN,” it reads. “Please put all mail in the white box under the colonnade across the courtyard to your right.”

It is not a remarkable note except for one thing. The typeface Tony used to print it is exactly the same typeface Kubrick used for the posters and title sequences of Eyes Wide Shut and 2001. “It’s Futura Extra Bold,” explains Tony. “It was Stanley’s favourite typeface. It’s sans serif. He liked Helvetica and Univers, too. Clean and elegant.”

“Is this the kind of thing you and Kubrick used to discuss?” I ask.

“God, yes,” says Tony. “Sometimes late into the night. I was always trying to persuade him to turn away from them. But he was wedded to his sans serifs.”

You need to read this article. It is a portrait of a man who either slowly went crazy, or finally had enough money that there was no one left to say “Stanley…seriously, this is ridiculous”.

I am addicted to a newish Web 2.0 genealogy site www.geni.com.  I have never been all that interested in genealogy, but this site takes all the best things about facebook and carries it over to my family.  I started a family tree and invited some of my family members to help out and now I have like over 240 family members in my tree.  It is sooo cool.

Lately though I have had a very chilling thought.  Does the fact that I currently like Geni more than Facebook, does that mean that I am officially old.  I am more interested in my family than my friends… It must be over for me.

I am excited about Geni because 1) it will help me remember all my wife’s cousins, cousin’s spouses and offspring, and 2) it is a great resource to teach my kiddos about their family.

I think everyone has great aunts and uncles and 2nd cousins and so on that they are confused as to how exactly they are related.  Now there is Geni.  It gives you a great, super easy to use interface to enter in everyone you are related to.  When you put those relatives in, you can enter their email which invites them to be a part of the fun.  Those relatives then put in all their relatives, and then those relatives put in all their relatives and before you know it, you have an extremely enormous family tree.  It is so cool.

I am on it constantly waiting to see the newest additions to the tree, and updates to the profiles.  I love it!!!

You really ought to start your family tree.  You will be amazed at how fast it grows and you will feel connected to your family.

A noontime rest for a full-fledged assembly worker at the Long Beach, Calif., plant of Douglas Aircraft Company (LOC)

Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has uploaded a ton of beautiful pictures from the 1940s. Take some time and check them out. They are high-res, extremely beautiful, and free to use after all, we paid for them with our taxes.

I downloaded the latest firmware for my iPod Classic 80 GB and as soon as it was installed on my iPod, it no longer turned on. Ouch. I was excited about the new movie rental option and now my iPod is broken.

I wonder if this firmware was rushed out in order to make it available in time for the Steve Jobs keynote.

The good news is the iPod is still under warranty. The bad news is that I am going to be without an iPod for the next week.

I am a HEAVY iPod user. I use it everyday, and it is going to be missed. With the writer’s strike going on in Hollywood it is where I get all my entertainment.

Am I the only one who is having these problems or is it more widespread?

Tonight I just bought a brand new Hyundai Sonata Platinum Edition.  It was a 2007 which meant it was last years model, but it was still brand new.  That meant that I got an automatic rebate which meant that I was able to upgrade the equipment for a little less.

I decided to get a Hyundai because it seemed to have a lot of good will from others who have bought them.  It was rated very high on www.edmunds.com.  Also, my mom had a Sonata for a while and really liked it.

The lower price meant that I was able to get a nice car with all the amenities for a heck of a lot less than comparable versions of Toyotas, Hondas, or Nissans.

I am reserving judgment on what I really feel about the car until I have driven it for a while.  But, needless to say, I am very excited about it.

I have leather seats, power everything, and a great radio.  My one gripe is that the radio doesn’t have Sirius (it has XM) and it doesn’t have any way to attach my iPod (no auxiliary or docking cable).  I can’t believe that any car built in the last three years wouldn’t have an auxiliary input.  I am going to replace it with the radio that I bought for my deceased Dodge Ram. And so continues my long history of replacing the included radio with an aftermarket unit.

My beloved Dodge Ram suffered a massive coronary and has passed away…a moment of silence…My heart is broken.  A couple of weeks ago, I was driving on the Interstate when all of a sudden, I had the luxurious choice between seven different neutrals.  If I put the truck into drive, neutral.  If I put the truck into reverse, neutral.  Anywhere on the shifter, neutral. DANG ITTTTT!!!!!!

That leaves me in a position I hate to be in.  I now have to go car shopping, but more on that in a moment.  You are probably saying to yourself, why aren’t you just getting the truck fixed?  I mean, there are places that repair transmissions… Well, it turns out that it will cost the same amount to fix the tranny as the truck is worth.  Which if you haven’t caught on yet means that the truck it totaled.

So, here I am.  I need a car.  I have to go and buy a car!  I am not a car guy.  I mean, I won’t drive just anything, but when I have a car that runs I don’t think about it much.  I have no idea what cars are out there.  When I have a car that is running, that is a problem in my life that is sorted.  Problem solved, I can get from here to there. Really, I don’t think about it.

Which means about once every ten years, I am thrust into this world of not having a vehicle and being forced to go and buy one.   I HATE IT!!!  It costs so much and I hate it soooo much.  There are so many other things I would rather spend my money on rather than a car.

I know this puts my man card in serious jeopardy.  Men are supposed to love cars, and everyone seems to have a triumphant story of how they took the dealership to the cleaners on their last purchase. "Yeah, by the time I was finished with them, they were LITERALLY throwing $100 bills at me and begging me to simply take the car…"

I feel like I am a hair’s breadth from being screwed at all times.  I feel like the world’s biggest idiot when I am talking to a salesman.  I feel like a skin diver who has surfaced only to see a pack of sharks circling and ready to feast.

Alright, enough with the belly-aching.  It is time to cowboy up and be a man.  There are salesmen that need slaying and if the first few years of my marriage serve as any kind of model, I should never…NEVER have any disposable income.  It all should be spoken for immediately if not sooner.

We just got finished paying off Megan’s truck, and now we are diving again into the glamorous world of debt.  GERONIMOOOOOOOoooooooo…….!

Holy Bajolies!!! I have been watching all the coverage from CES that I can between all the stuff I am doing at work and this is by far one of the most amazing picture I have seen yet.  It is the back of a component from Denon.  Apparently, this is the mothership…it has landed…take cover!

If you look closely, there are 6, yes 6, HDMI inputs and 2 HDMI outputs.  And sucker, you had better know your stuff, because if you call me and I have to help you set this up, you might come out with a fat lip.

I mean really, who needs this?

Thanks Engadget