So I was having a rough day to day to say the least. That is, until I got a little email at about 5pm. And that email? It was this:

Yes, that’s right - I finally got beta access to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. (Read about it on Wikipedia) I’ve been nothing but smiles and in the absolute best mood ever since! Why? I applied to be in the beta almost 2 years ago.

To give you a sense of scale, since I applied to the beta, I’ve:

• Lived in 2 cities
• Met, then proposed to, my Mishka
• Had 4 different jobs in 3 cities
• Been published in 4 magazines and 2 newspapers

So yeah, you can say I’ve been waiting.

And sadly, I’ll need to wait a little longer, too:

Only 25% done downloading after 3 hours.

But that’s A-OK with me because I FINALLY HAVE BETA ACCESS! HOT DAMN!

I mean, look what I’ll be playing soon, so very soon.

And I’d love for you to join me too - if you pre-order the collectors edition (I’ve ordered 3) then you get an automatic invite into the open beta which will be coming up in a few months - AND you’ll be able to play with ME! So do it!

Pre-Order Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector’s Edition

Oi, time flies when you’re having fun, right? I tried to have the Friday Link-O-Rama, but some days are busier then others and, well, it doesn’t get done. I wish I could maintain the same butter like consistency JACC has with his Friday Random Ten. Some day, Jeremy. Some day.

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I was supposed to be shooting BarCamp Minnesota tomorrow, but alas it seems like it won’t happen - I was informed of a prior engagement. And I tried to setup Joomla on my tech site, but that failed me too.

Anyway, I’ll be writing up a little something for you crazy cats tomorrow or later this evening, depends on when I get some work related things out of the way. And I have something that I hope ends up kind of cool, another time-lapse attempt, but this time with more cowbell.

But have a few drinks for me, k?

There’s a lot of neat things going down in the TC this weekend, and here are some choice ones to check out!

The Bent Festival - Happening yesterday until Saturday, the 5th annual Bent Festival makes it’s last leg stop here in Minneapolis. Check them out at Intermedia Arts, on 28th and Lyndale. You’ll meet & greet and listen to some of the most interesting music in the world of DIY circuit bending. From soft soothing melodies to a brash jarring cacophony of sounds - you can find it there. At $10 per concert, it’s your best choice for 6 solid hours of music, and on Saturday there is a wealth of workshops to show you how to do it yourself and a barbecue to help you keep going! Please Note: They don’t like credit cards, so bring cash. And some of the workshops have a fee, so keep that in mind.

Studio Bricolage’s First Friday - A lot of people know about Leonardo’s Basement, an organization that helps boys and girls from 6 - 16 expand their minds with the help of music, art, robotics and more. But did you also know they hold an event every First Friday of the month at Studio Bricolage? Studio Bricolage is the adult oriented version of Leonardo’s Basement. For only $10, this month’s session will teach you how to melt plastic toys into bowls, crochet plastic bags together, create your own inflatables and a whole lot more. We’ve been here a few times, and it’s always a great time¹

Black Dog Exhibit Opener - If you’re not doing anything at all tonight and you’re in the St. Paul area, check out the Black Dog Coffee & Wine Bar for the opening night of their “Limitless Energy” exhibit - showing the energy that resides within the artist. Cost is free, and you can see some of my stuff! And maybe, even, buy it!² And remember, my art comes JACC approved, for that extra goodness!

And now for a few shots from last night’s Bent concert

1. Really looking forward to their Arduino workshops in June! [↩]
2. Yes, I’m a shameless whore. I’m learning that’s just the artist’s way [↩]

Greetings! It’s time again for the semi-regular Friday link-o-rama - Adderall edition! Lets see what I’ve read this week, shall we!

How to catch a Netflix thief - Filing a few to many lost DVD forms over at Netflix, making you a tad suspicious? Brian Krische did, and he caught the portly thief red (envelope) handed!

Greatest use of an LED, ever - This slightly-NSFW (Bikini models) YouTube video shows us what decades of technological improvements have brought us - behold it’s blinking wonder!

Not that kind of party - On the local front, it seems like local internet hottie and bacon aficionado Alie has a problem with being green during the ride tide. It’s good for the environment, damn it!

Remember your computer roots - Sure, you might look suave with that ultra hip, ultra-slim Mac Air under you’re arm, but this 1983 photo of an Atari users desk reminds us of what it used to be like.

The next logical step? - Introducing Clitter, a service for clits to communicate and keep in touch. It’s about time, eh ladies?

How background people ruin your photos (NSFW) - A decidedly NSFW PSA for looking at the whole scene before you press the shutter button - you might be surprised what ends up in the shot!

Map #1 - The first map I’d like to show you is an interactive one. It’s from the Federal Reserve and shows the current sub prime loan conditions across the US. We’re not doing so bad.

Map #2 - The second map I’m sending you to is a singles map, showing you the number of available singles in US. MN looks like it’s ladies choice.

Is it a lipstick, or is it a vibrator? - Can you tell if the following items are sex toys or household objects? You might be surprised.

and finally….

Always clear your download history - While I thought it was common knowledge, apparently I was wrong. Folks, if you’re going to be interviewed on TV, please try to remember to delete your download history lest your perversions become known to the world!

And that’s it for this week folks! This weekend is supposed to be cloudy, but the temperatures will be spot-on, so dust off those grills and go outside! I’ll man the fort back here - it’s my sacrifice to you, gentle reader.

So it’s Good Friday, Jesus died today, and in a few days he’ll be back doing Jager Bombs with Keith Richards. In the meantime, here’s some links he may or may not have visited.

Awesome Angle - Here’s a reason why I love photography, so I can hang with my fellow (wo)man and.. ahem.. check out their shooting styles.

Tetris Mirror - If you miss your old Game Boy, here’s a little something you can get to pay homage to the greatest game for it.

You weren’t meant to have a boss - Paul Graham, noted programmer, makes a strong argument on working for yourself vs working for someone else.

A synth for your DS - If you love your Nintendo DS as much as I do, and happen to dig synths, then you’ll love this. The Korg DS-10 is coming to the US!

Everybody kills Hitler on their first trip - Do I seriously need to add any more flavor text then this?

Tune Up That Bike (A guide for beginners) - Well now, spring has sprung and if you aren’t crazy like JACC¹, it’s about time to make sure that bike is still in tip top shape. DIY Life gives us the run down.

I hope I never see this - I’m marrying another geek, so I think I’m pretty safe, but I still fear seeing this some day²

and finally…

Insomnia and Productivity - Coder Chad Perrin talks about how hackers who stay up until the wee hours of the morning are a lot more productive then their “early to bed, early to rise” brethren and from experience I’d have to say I agree. There is something almost magical about hitting that zen-like state called “Hack Mode“. It’s been awhile for me, maybe I won’t take the sleep meds tonight and get some serious code pounding done.

1. JACC rides his bike all year. I know [↩]
2. I have a really nice keyboard and would hate to have to replace it [↩]

Hello kiddies, here’s some links I’ve come across this week and thought you might like:

How Porn Ruined Sex (Semi NSFW) - The second half of the title is “How about you don’t ask to come on my face on the first date”. It’s a little diatribe on how the younger guys these days (25 and under I’m assuming) were raised on internet porn, watching it since they were 9. And as such, they don’t think of regular sex as being ‘fun’ sex. Suckers.

Scrabble Tile Coasters - Now this is definitely cool! Take the letter tiles from scrabble, arrange them to coaster size, apply a cork backing and BAM, your tables are safe once more! Then I started looking around, and Hasbro will be more then happy to sell you spare parts - 100 letter tiles, 4 racks and a tile bag will set you back $6.50, shipping and handling included. I’m fighting the very very strong urge to buy 12 sets.¹ What would I do with 1200 scrabble letter tiles? I don’t know, and that’s the greatest thing about it.

A new position - Didn’t get the chance to get your rocks off yesterday? Wanna give it a go tonight? Bring your laptop to bed with you and let Style.Com’s Hotlist of sexual positions teach you something new. Complete with reader ratings²³ and wooden doll examples, it’s SFW!

Extreme Plastic Surgeries - In the 21st century, we have the luxury of making many of our dreams come true - at least ones that involve plastic surgery. Whether your dream is to be a cat, a lizard, Barbie, Ken, Klingon or have super large tits, it’s all possible.

Got Cats? FURminator is for you - Cool Tools reviews a cat brush that has a tag line of “Intense Feline Grooming”, so you know it has to be good.  Available from Amazon⁴ for $28, Debbie says “The FURminator is the only really functional cat-grooming tool I’ve ever found.” and “It does a tremendous job of removing loose fur.”. I’m sold.

How We Spend Our Money - The New York Times shows us how we spend our money, in all it’s charted goodness. I <3 charts. Spoiler: Upper class spend more then middle class, middle class spends more then lower class. Lower class does better then homeless - but only marginally.

Cheap Ways To Say I Love You⁵ -  Get Rich Slowly has an article on more frugal ways to show your love. Although written for Valentine’s Day, these tips work the rest of the year as well - with the bonus of not being expected, it will be even more meaningful. Trent over at The Simple Dollar has 9 more ways for love on the cheap, while the folks at Zen Habits raise the bar and show you 50 ways to be romantic.

My Kind of Savior -  Ajinbayo Akinsiku writes manga novels. He’s also a Christian and aspires to become an Anglican priest. He also wrote “The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation”. Mr. Akinsiku says his Son of God is “a samurai stranger who’s come to town, in silhouette,” here to shake things up in a new, much-abridged version of the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels. Like how that sounds? You can buy it from Amazon for a shade over $10. Now that’s a good price for salvation!

That’s it for this week, my friends. There’s plenty more I’d love to share, but there’s only so much commentary I can make about it. If you’d like, feel free to bookmark my public Google Reader page, or even subscribe to the RSS feed.

Tonight I’ll be at Hennepin Stages to see the musical “Don’t Hug Me” with some friends, and this weekend is quite hectic as well. If I don’t see you all, have a great weekend and happy holiday⁶!

1. I’m seriously fighting the urge. But the wedding, she will be pricey, so I must conserve [↩]
2. The winner: Doggy style - and by a long shot.  Though cowgirl is second. [↩]
3. Reverse cowgirl is better imho [↩]
4. Amazon.Com link uses the referrer tag from CoolTools, I don’t want credit for someone else’s work [↩]
5. From the Better-late-then-never department [↩]
6. If you get President’s Day off, like I do. Yay for banker’s hours [↩]

So I’ll have some links and such, but it’s a Friday free for all this week.

First up, it’s Cody bashing - from me, and others. First, I get up this morning to find this JUST PUBLISHED piece on MPR entitled “How old is to young to see Juno” - holy Christ! The movie came out 2 months ago, and NOW you decide to write up some fluff? And the parents in the article - could they be more dense? Yes, you really should wait for a movie to ‘break the ice’ about your teen slutting it up. Because personal responsibility is unacceptable. It’s never your fault.
Then, from the sexy folks over at MNSpeak, I learn about a leaked Diablo Cody screenplay for the movie “Quotey”, which is a “dramedy about a brilliant-yet-spunky screenwriter who says what we all think but still faces persecution for her quirky ways“.
Finally, the people over at CC2K take a look at the dialog in the next Cody screenplay and wonder just what the fuck is she saying. I will say, I agree with all their points.

So how was your Valentine’s Day? Mine was great, lovely dinner under the a canopy of sharks. And I found out the singers I had hired to sing to Mishka were not only liked, they were loved. She cried, they made a big scene - she was supervising the front gate so everyone waiting in line got to see it too. She said “I saw 4 men come down the escalator in Tuxedos and I thought to myself ‘That wonderful crazy bastard didnt!’” - but I did baby, but I did.

It’s been a few days now with Vista on the new Dell laptop and I have to say, I don’t think Vista deserves all the crap it’s gotten. The only problem I’ve had is the thing where it won’t properly sleep or wake up all the time - other then that, it’s been great. Then again, with 4 gigs of ram and a 2.2GHZ Core 2 Duo proc, maybe it’s beefy enough to handle any inconsistencies - either way Service Pack 1 comes out in a few weeks (Or I could DL it now from MSDN, which I may do) and from what I’ve been hearing it has a lot of nice improvements.

I finally have all of the episodes of “The IT Crowd“, a deliciously wonderful UK sitcom about Roy and Moss, the IT department of a large company. They are banished to the basement and are lead by a woman who doesn’t have the faintest idea on how to even turn a computer on. It’s one of the few TV shows that I not only love, but I identify with - especially the BofH attitudes of the staff “Did you try turning it off and then back on?”. You can’t buy it in the US, but The Pirate Bay has it for download - though as soon as an NTSC version hits it’s mine!

Seriously, how can you not love this:

Upcoming photo gigs: I’ll be shooting for the F1 Overnight Website challenge, the city of Minneapolis’ Bike Walk Week and MPR’s next Story Slam. See me there.

The links? They’ll show up later. I’m a busy guy today, damn it!

Until then, here’s JACC on the kazoo singing his rendition of “All you need (is love)” - thanks again, JACC!

A smattering of links for you, the people who mean the world to me!

Wait until you see the closet! - Real estate agent shows a home to a prospective buyer, only to find the current owner dead in the walk-in closet. Hung himself with his belt, Tim Gunn must have been pretty hard on him.

Mario ’staches - The many mustaches of Mario

Playable Paper Super Mario - No, not super paper mario, Super Mario made of paper. You’ll love it.

Time travel, Russia has it - YouTube link of a Russia Today piece, two Russian scientists are about to re-create the Big Bang on a slightly smaller scale - may lead the way to real time travel. No plutonium required, but a 27km long atom smasher is.

Pavleck.NET - I finally opened up Pavleck.net. You don’t really care, cause you can’t see anything.

Ordering a Pizza in 2020 - The ACLU shows you just how it might end up looking when you order a pizza 12 years from now if our privacy laws keep getting decimated. Not so much devastating as funny.

Send $5.01 to Obama - February 12th is Lincoln’s birthday, celebrate by sending Barack Obama $5.01¹

You never know! - Tom Jones has insured his chest hair with Lloyds of London for 7 million dollars.

That’s it for now, because I doubt I can top Tom Jones!

1. Lincoln is featured both on the $5 bill and the penny [↩]

HDR How To - HDR stands for “High Dynamic Range” and is the process of combining multiple photos of the same image, but with different exposure settings, to create a final result that more accurately resembles what we see with the eye. $8 for the PDF, and well worth it.

PointUI - If you have a Windows smart phone, you need to check this out¹. It’s an entirely new interface, and makes your phone very fluid and iphone-like. Toss that stylus, as this gorgeous UI is setup for your fat fingers! I’ve been using it for a couple days now and once I figure it all out I’m sure I’ll love it.

Another cheap light tent - A friend asked for a few hints on capturing shots without all the glare, and I found this link to send to him. It’s an inexpensive light tent - made with some paper and a cardboard box.

Cop Tasers Himself - I’d include a link, but embedding the actual video is better:

How To Wake Up Early - Tired of hitting that snooze alarm? Here’s a site full of tips and tricks to help you get your ass out of bed early. Try it and let me know what you think, I still have 9 more minutes of sleep².

Zen and the Art of Item Replacement - The Simple Dollar tackles the old problem of when to upgrade. Needing it vs wanting it. As usual, another excellent post of tips for us trying to save up cash³

7 Habits of Bad Digital Photographers⁴- This is turning into a photography link-o-rama, but people take more photos around the holidays, so I end up with a lot more links about it. Regardless, here’s a short list of helpful things to keep in mind the next time you dust off that dSLR.⁵

And I end this Friday’s link-o-rama with a comic from the greatest stick-figure webcomic ever, Randal Munroe’s XKCD.

1. View a YouTube vid of it in operation here. [↩]
2. Speaking of 9 minutes, here’s why all clocks are like that - now you know. [↩]
3. Even though we just bought a 46″ LCD HDTV. But c’mon, have you ever tried to play the XBOX or Wii on a small TV? It’s hell. [↩]
4. I hate the ‘Photographer’ vs ‘Digital Photographer’ - the end is the same. It’s just ‘photographer’, damn it! [↩]
5. I’m guilty of them all. [↩]

Go to Google maps, enter in the address “1272 17th Avenue North Minneapolis, MN” click on “Street View” and look around and you’ll see the following - a Mercedes E-class that met a tree. Or just click this link. Via Jalopnik.