A few places, like Kottke and Airbag, have done this, so I thought why not.
Atlanta, GA. (home, natch!)
Marietta, GA.
Huntersville, NC.*
Milledgeville, GA.*
Grangemouth, Scotland*
London, England
Drumnadrochit, Scotland
Glasgow, Scotland
Lake Buena Vista, FL
Bynum, NC.
One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.
Not as many places as I would have hoped for, but there is always next year.
I’m watching CNN and they are reporting it’s already done, hung at dawn…
Still awaiting confirmation though.
100 things we didn’t know this time last year. “74. Britain is still paying off debts that predate the Napoleonic wars because it’s cheaper to do so than buy back the bonds on which they are based.”
So now the Christmas hullabaloo has died down, I can finally kick back and relax, no more driving to North Carolina (well, hopefully we will if you know what I mean), no more fretting over gifts, none of that.
Yes, we drove to North Carolina for the second time in 2 weeks, we must be mad, especially as we drove on Friday, the full 6 hour, 370 miles to Bynum (where Marchellina (my mum’s cousin) and her family stay) in non-stop pouring rain. Which got scary once we got off I-85, dark country roads ain’t where you want to be in that kind of weather. Thankfully we made it there in one piece and only saw traffic around the Charlotte/Concord area as last minute shoppers headed to Concord Mills so we arrived just in time for dinner. We crashed in bed shortly thereafter.
The next morning we were taken for a walk around Bynum, which is an old mill village on the banks of the Haw River, which is full of cool houses, all different shapes and sizes, and an old general store. The old textile mill is closed down, now a shell of the building remains, there is also a famous folk artist residing in Bynum by the name of Clyde Jones, he makes critters, lots and lots of critters. It’s a really quiet place, I think we saw a grand total one one single car driving by during our time there. After lunch we said our goodbys and headed off for the 130 mile drive to Jill and Ryan’s house in Huntersville.
Again we saw traffic in the Charlotte/Concord area, and again we arrived just in time for dinner, after dinner we walked around the little village community where Jill and Ryan live, as some people had to do some last minute shopping also, Robyn and I found our way to a GameStop where she played Zelda Fishing on the Nintendo Wii, she now wants one bad, so I guess when our local Best Buy gets them in stock, we’ll be first in line.
The following morning, Robyn’s mom busted out a racing set for everyone and anyone to play with, Jill and Ryan’s cat Leo played with it more than anyone as he was chasing the cars around. Later that afternoon I took a walk around the community, potentially spying future homes for us, but really, the whole place is really nice, I’m especially fond of the “easter egg houses” even though we have seen a larger place available.
We had Christmas Dinner that night as most of use would be leaving the following day for the long drives back to Georgia, we also did a “Secret Santa/White Elephant” gift exchange, the pets were included, an apparent annual tradition in this family. To round off the night we all played a couple of games of Pop Culture Cranium, lefties against righties (50% of us are left handed, that’s Jill, Ruth and me), needless to say the lefties layed the smackdown on the righties in the first game, the second one was much closer, decide by a single point in favour of the righties.
The gift opening was delayed til 10am as we were all a bit late in waking up and getting ready, I won’t bore you with the details but I think everyone was happy, I know Robyn was, thanks to my family and the excellent exchange rate she walked away with a Scooba to compliment our Roomba. Also thanks to my family I walked away with a 19″ widescreen monitor for my computer (mainly to watch TV via Media Center in bed, honest, seriously, who needs a 1440×900 resolution for everyday use?) and enough in Best Buy gift cards to buy a Wii when it becomes available.
Originally uploaded by FLC.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Teaser Trailer. Maybe this is the movie Fantastic Four should have been?
List time! Now in it’s 5th year, it’s time to hand out props to my favourites… So who will follow the likes of Radiohead, The Strokes, Doves, Modest Mouse and Sufjan Stevens as my hot picks for best CD? Well you need wait no more.
Favourite CD’s of 2006
1. The Wreckers – Stand Still, Look Pretty
Who? Ahhh, therein lies the beauty of this hidden gem. Michelle Branch does country with the help of Jessica Harp and it’s hard not to fall in love with this surprising release. Seriously, listen to songs like “Tennessee”, “Cigarettes” and “Lay Me Down” and then say this isn’t one of the best things you’ve heard all year.
Sweet, soulful, funny and just downright rocking, what more could you possibly want?
2. The Knife – Silent Shout
Another who? The Knife are a Swedish electronic/synth pop duo who should really get more exposure then they do. Recently they had a song available for free on iTunes so thats a good start. This is a darker album than their previous releases, good music to put your headphones and just drift off with, especially the opening track “Silent Shout.”
It might take a few listens to get into it, but it’s well worth it.
3. Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat
Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis goes it alone with the help of The Watson Twins (and the alt/indie superstars Ben Gibbard, Conor Oberst and Matt Ward on a fantastic cover of The Traveling Wilburys “Handle With Care”) and comes out with a really endearing album.
Impossibly not to like, listen to “You Are What You Love” and try not to bob your head along with the beat. Simple but simply brilliant.
4. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
Hyped up to the rafters by all and sundry, but was it worth it? I’d say yes, even if they do sound like a glorified pub band in places, though for me that’s part of the charm, and not to mention it’s sung in a broad south Yorkshire accent, something most people in the UK find undeciferable at the best of times, a truely unlikely band to conquer America, but time will tell. I’m also a sucker for a song with a catchy bassline, and this has plenty of that.
Too many songs to list that I like, this is the perfect type of CD, 45 minutes that breezes past and before you know it you’re looking to play it again.
5. Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
After just 4 beats of the into to Crazy, you knew this would be the sound of the summer, “Crazy” is probably my pick for song of the year, it’s just a shame that this album lacks in places. Sure, outside of “Crazy” there is plenty to be had, but in he end I can’t help but think that maybe if a couple of songs were trimmed off it would be a tighter cd.
Still, a stunningly original album and like I said, it was hard to go anywhere and not hear the beat of “Crazy” blasting at you.
Bubbling Under: The Beatles – Love, Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium, Muse – Black Holes & Revelations, Snow Patrol – Eyes Open, The Raconteurs – Broken Boy Soldiers
Favourite Movies of 2005
1. Little Miss Sunshine
Where was I? Oh yeah, Little Miss Sunshine, this can be wrapped up in seven words “dysfunctional family go on a road trip†but really, it’s so much more than that. As I said, it’s the tale of a dysfunctional family who drive from New Mexico to California so the young daughter can take part in the “Little Miss Sunshine†beauty pageant, along the way they fight and argue and eventually come together when needed. The characters are very engaging, from the loud, abrasive, heroin snorting grand father (yes, you read that right) to the silent, angst-ridden, Nietzsche reading teenage son, they are all very well written and portrayed on screen.
2. Capote
What we got from the adaptation of these events was that Capote was basically manipulating one of the killers, Perry Smith, into telling his events of the night of the crime, aiding and assisting him with the help of lawyers to get stays of excecutions, but as the years (about 5 or so) went by it became clear he couldn’t finish this great american novel while the killers remained alive which drove him to a mental breakdown, or near enough. The classic case of his ultimate triumph being his eventual downfall…
3. V For Vendetta
Now, some people aren’t happy about the useage of a terrorist/freedom fighter/anarchist as a hero (more like anti-hero if anything) and that’s all fair and good, but c’mon now, it’s just a freaking action movie… An action movie I really enjoyed… Though I have to admit I felt somewhat indifferent when the Houses of Parliament were blown up at the end, most people around me thought that was a cool bit, but I guess it’s comparable to them seeing the White House blown up in Independence Day, it was kinda cool, but a bit scary at the same time…
4. Superman Returns
I really liked this, and the 3D bits were worth the hike in ticket price alone. From the opening credits which was a nice homage to the original 1978 movie ones to an appearance by Marlon Brando from beyond the grave, it was perfect in every way. Brandan Routh is a very believeable Superman, Kevin Spacey is damn near perfect as Lex Luthor, a nice preogression from Gene Hackman’s Luthor, Kate Bosworth is so-so as Lois, a bit on the young side but OK… The most underrated performace was probably by Parker Posey as Kitty (this movie Miss Teschmacher for all extents and purposes).
5. Clerks II
But be warned, if your easily offened then this might not be for you, it’s rated r for a good reason, put it this way, Joel Siegel walked out due to Randal talking about a donkey show, had he stayed to the end he probably would have had a stroke. Yes, there is an actual donkey show scene… But it’s not all offensive, it’s actually very funny too, espesially if you like previous Kevin Smith films…
Bubbling Under: Snakes on a Plane, Mission Impossible III, The Da Vinci Code, The Chronicles of Narnia
Feel free to talk amongst yourselves…
2007 marks 10 years since I first got online, and I’ve been doing webby work for the last 8, of course back in 1999/2000 I never thought I’d actually be earning a living doing that kind of work.
Which recently got me thinking about how much the web landscape has changed over the years, back in 1999/2000 all you really needed was a knowledge of HTML and CSS and you were good to go. Even a few years ago all you needed was the same plus either ASP, PHP, .NET, Perl or ColdFusion combined with SQL but now I’m going to job interviews and people are expecting candidates to have so many hats on, it’s almost ridiculous.
Here’s a recent example:
Minimum Job Qualifications
- Perl, XML/XSLT, JSON, REST, SOAP, AJAX, SQL, MySQL
- Unix Shell programming experience including bash, regex, sed, awk, grep, cron, etc.
- Experince writing C++ PHP Extensions and utilizing GNU tools
- Major Browser, ActiveX, Mozilla Plugin, Windows registry and software installation
related experience
- Knowledge of object-oriented design patterns and data management systems,
relational and object-oriented
- Graphics and UI design skills
And that’s just for a “web designer” position, I’ll honestly say I don’t know what half that stuff even means, but at what point did the lines between web designer and web developer blur? My major downfall is I know little bits of this and that, I know enough PHP to get by, same with ASP, ColdFusion, so of course I put that in my resume. This inevitably leads to call from staffing agencies asking if I think I’d be suitable for a ColdFusion (or anything else for that matter) developer position.
Maybe no one wants designers anymore, we’re a dime a dozen really, why pay some guy $55k a year when you can get a kid with FrontPage Express to do “as good a job” for much less? It’s all about developers now (insert your own “developers! developers! developers!” joke here), maybe Biggie Smalls was right all along, things done changed, either you’re slingin’ crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow. Author JK Rowling has revealed the title of the seventh and final Harry Potter book.
Transformers Trailer. Finally we get to see big robots and stuff, and even though I’m still not convinced and feel this is ruining my childhood memories, I’ll still be there, first in line on opening day.
“You” have been named as Time magazine’s Person of the Year for the growth and influence of user-generated content on the internet. Well done! Go ahead and put it in your CV/Resume!
Interview? Nailed it! I think… Usually I get great vibes from interviews but end up getting rejected/passed over/let down gently, this time the vibes were kinda neutral. I’m taking this as a good sign, But first I’ll back up…
After me getting an interview, Robyn also got an interview in the Metrolina area on Friday for an unnamed home improvement company NOT headquartered in Atlanta… The planets were truly in alignment, but first we would have to overcome Thursday, a Thursday that started at 6am as Robyn had to shuffle down to Emory for an early doctors appointment, I was able to leave work early but even still, we had to pack, set the kitties up in our absence, pick up my suit from the dry cleaners etc. We hit the road after 7pm, and after a rocking (we needed a rocking soundtrack to keep us awake) ride up, we rolled into Charlotte at around 11:30 only to be woken up at 6am again to get our collective asses ready. Robyn’s interview was at 8:30, mine was at 10. Robyn thinks hers went really well, she wasn’t nervous about it at all despite having less than 24 hours notice.
Mine went well enough, afterwards I explored around the area in which I might potentially be working, which is Concord as I’d have a lot of time to kill before Robyn was finished. Once I met back up with her we were all excited since the deal we made was if one of us was offered the respective job, we’d move to Charlotte, she was told she would find out at some point next week, I, on the other hand, would find out in early January. Since we had agreed to move if one of us got the job then we started to look at houses for rent and apartments in the little community Jill and Ryan live in. 3 bedrooms, 2 and ½ bathrooms, $1,000 a month, not too shabby if I do say so myself…
Now we wait and see…
Ten players, including NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony, were ejected for fighting during a wild brawl near the end of Saturday night’s game between the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks. Players ended up flying into the stands in the NBA’s ugliest scene since the brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans in 2004. See the ugly incident here…
I’m flicking through the various New Years Eve shows on TV and Cat Deeley is hosting the FOX show…
What the hell? Can’t I escape talentless UK people over here? First Sacha Baron Cohen, then Eamonn Holmes now Cat Deeley, who’s next? Ant and Dec?
Anyways, 10 minutes to go, so I’ll wish you a happy new year now, we’re not doing anything since Robyn has bronchitis, plus after 2 weekends in North Carolina, it’s best to take things easy.